“I’ll bet there are lots of people who would try—and enjoy—squirrel brains if they thought nobody would find out.” I’ll take that bet.

Philip Larkin on form and the poet.

Ever wonder why “Arkansas” isn’t pronounced like “Kansas”? You’re welcome.

Professor Larry Cebula and his students at EWU continue to do interesting and important public history work in the Spokane area. Like this, for instance.

Caught in the act: Death Valley’s mysterious moving rocks.

It’s a helluva line: “Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.” Good thing Nixon never had to utter it.

Well done, Toronto.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Nils Petter Molvær has been one of my favorite musicians for a while now, and Lucid Dream—a “one-of-a-kind new audiovisual installation” in the forest of Schloss Benrath—shows why. Check it out.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

“Since music is a language with some meaning, at least for the immense majority of mankind, although only a tiny minority of people are capable of formulating a meaning in it, and since it is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man, a mystery that all the various disciplines come up against and which holds the key to their progress.”

Claude Lévi-Strauss, The Raw and the Cooked (1969 translation by John and Doreen Weightman)

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

I think this image is a much better way to describe the importance of commas. (artist unknown.)

(from OxfordDictionaries.com)

What is the ‘Oxford comma’?

The ‘Oxford comma’ is an optional comma before the word ‘and’ at the end of a list:

We sell books, videos, and magazines.

It’s known as the Oxford comma because it was traditionally used by printers, readers, and editors at Oxford University Press. Not all writers and publishers use it, but it can clarify the meaning of a sentence when the items in a list are not single words:

These items are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and green.

The Oxford comma is also known as the ‘serial comma’.

Aaron will never go on vacation again.

posted by: Shirlee Roberts-Downey  |  category: staff the writing life  |  make a comment

The Egg, Or The Memoirs Of Gregory Giddy, Esq: With The Lucubrations Of Messrs. Francis Flimsy, Frederick Florid, And Ben Bombast. To Which Are Added, The Private Opinions Of Patty Pout, Lucy Luscious, And Priscilla Positive. Also The Memoirs Of A Right Honourable Puppy. Conceived By A Celebrated Hen, And Laid Before The Public By A Famous Cock-Feeder.

That’s the real title of an 18th-century novel, according to this. My favorites from the list of 100 (!):

The Charms Of Dandyism; Or Living In Style. By Olivia Moreland, Chief Of The Female Dandies. 

The Book!! Or, Procrastinated Memoirs.

The Observant Pedestrian Mounted.

Fashionable Infidelity.

The Polish Bandit; Or, Who Is My Bride?

But if I had to choose just one to actually, you know…read, it would of course have to be Prodigious!!!

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment

Photographer Thom Atkinson has documented British soldiers’ kit over the last millennium, from the Battle of Hastings (1066) to Helmland Province today. There are thirteen photos over at the Telegraph‘s website, along with detailed lists of the items shown. Mr. Atkinson somehow manages to capture both the horror and tedium of war in these remarkable images, proving that, yes, it is possible to communicate complex ideas without uttering a single word.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Steven Wilson’s The Raven that Refused to Sing is number 9 in Prog magazine’s list of the 100 greatest prog albums of all time. I bring that up for two reasons: because Mr. Wilson’s work frequently occupies one of the coveted spots on my annual best-of lists (see here, here, and here), and as an excuse to share the amazing video for “Drive Home” from Raven. Even if music videos aren’t your thing, stick around for Guthrie Govan’s guitar solo at the 5:07 mark.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

On page 147 of my copy of Stephen King’s On Writing are the most important words ever written on the subject: “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

I thought about Mr. King’s apothegm when I read yesterday’s entry at the Common Errors in English Usage blog:

“One of the clearest indications that a person reads little and doesn’t hear much formal English is a failure to use the standard preposition in a common expression. You aren’t ignorant to a fact; you’re ignorant of it. Things don’t happen on accident, but by accident (though they do happen ‘on purpose’). There are no simple rules governing preposition usage: you just have to immerse yourself in standard English in order to write it naturally.”

Immerse yourself in standard English. Good advice. Or, as a certain bestselling author might say, “Simple as that.”

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  make a comment