Word of the Week: kakistocracy (kakə̇ˈstäkrəsē) Definition (Noun) government by the worst people In Context "Whether this partakes more of an aristocracy, or caucocracy, or rather Kakistocracy, is a problem, in the solution of which, he may find some amusement and employment of his genius." — The Weekly Aurora, (Philadelphia, PA), 31 Oct. 1815
Rock Me, Mercy BY YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA The river stones are listening because we have something to say. The trees lean closer today. The singing in the electrical woods has gone dumb. It looks like rain because it is too warm to snow. Guardian angels, wherever you're hiding, we know you can't be everywhere at once. Have you corralled all the pretty wild horses? The memory of ants asleep in daylilies, roses, holly, & larkspur. The magpies gaze at us, still waiting. River stones are listening. But all we can say now is, Mercy, please, rock me.
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted (2021) by Suleika Jaouad Critical Evaluation "At the tail end of trauma, most people would prefer to hand the sufferer a bucket of silver paint and a brush, and say go ahead, paint the lining. Jaouad tosses the supplies and hops into a Subaru. On the road, she opts for slowness, finding the courage to marinate in unanswered questions and be alone with her thoughts. She drives a jagged constellation, 15,000 miles across the nation, visiting strangers who wrote to her. In each interaction, we meet someone who has encountered a lightless [...]
On the Merits of Raisin Bread by Stephanie Whetstone At Princeton Writes, we are often called upon to help scientists, mathematicians, and writers in other highly technical fields translate their work for the general public—to take complex ideas that people have been working on in labs or on advanced computers for years and bring them into the world in context, not by watering them down, but by making them more accessible to non-specialists. After all, if you can explain your work to funders to continue your research on the human brain or generate interest in things like the impacts of climate [...]
Word of the Week: vocation (voh-KAY-shun) Definition (noun)1. a) summons or strong inclination to a particular state or course of action; especially : a divine call to the religious life. b) an entry into the priesthood or a religious order 2. a) the work in which a person is employed : occupation b) the persons engaged in a particular occupation 3. the special function of an individual or group In Context "The superpower I've always wished for is invisibility, and I chose my vocation accordingly. A novelist gets 140,000 words per one tiny author photo. That's a visibility ratio I can live with." [...]
A Memory of Us BY SAFIA ELHILLO when i think of us i think of the lakewater near longtown, what might not technically constitute a lake but i prefer that word for the open mouth of its vowel, how it called us to its throat & held us there, in the sun, the high points of our faces slick with light & its arc around our shoulders, the soft gathering of flesh around our knees, the lone chair we found near the shore where we took turns posing, jutting out an eloquent hip, cackling in the bright language of flowers for whom [...]
Word of the Week: cathexis (kuh-THEK-sis) Definition (Noun) investment of mental or emotional energy in a person, object, or idea In Context "In 2004, Bowie had a heart attack, and he was recently rumored to be in poor health. Leading up to the release of 'The Next Day,' a jittery cathexis formed. Do we judge Bowie as we always have, by his own standards? Would a new album be received reverentially, like those of the post-motorcycle-crash Bob Dylan?" — Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2013
Word of the Week: accoutrement (ə-ˈkü-trə-mənt , -ˈkü-tər-mənt) Definition (Noun) equipment or clothing that is worn or carried, but not part of your main clothing In Context The umbrella of the title refers, of course, to the Penguin’s signature prop, which we see him carrying in the opening scene while flanked by two new flunkies, signaling his continuing evolution toward his supervillain destiny. But the accoutrement also functions as a handy metaphor for both the Penguin’s unparalleled ability to shield himself from trouble and the broad shadow the little man is casting across Gotham City. Everything in Monday’s episode sprang [...]
I Dare You by Dorianne Laux It’s autumn, and we’re getting rid of books, getting ready to retire, to move some place smaller, more manageable. We’re living in reverse, age-proofing the new house, nothing on the floors to trip over, no hindrances to the slowed mechanisms of our bodies, a small table for two. Our world is shrinking, our closets mostly empty, gone the tight skirts and dancing shoes, the bells and whistles. Now, when someone comes to visit and admires our complete works of Shakespeare, the hawk feather in the open dictionary, the iron angel on a shelf, we say [...]
Book of the Month: Demon Copperhead (2022) by Barbara Kingsolver Critical Evaluation "In 'Demon Copperhead,' Barbara Kingsolver offers a close retelling of Charles Dickens’s 'David Copperfield,' which is either a baffling choice or an ingenious maneuver from a novelist who has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and selected for Oprah’s Book Club and regularly — inevitably, even — appears on the best-seller list of this newspaper, all while reaping a surprising quantity of stinging pans from critics. "Kingsolver’s resurrection of Dickens’s most sentimental (though cherished by many, including me) novel might seem a bit strange — as if Harry Styles [...]
