It’s lonely being a logophile. For reasons still unclear to me, any word not immediately familiar to the average 12-year-old is anathema to most folks—such that those of us who derive pleasure from words like, well…anathema are sometimes treated like Mohammet, Jugdish, Sidney, and Clayton at Omega House.
But then, who needs friends when you’ve got Robert Fulford’s explication of palimpsest?
This just in: Poetry makes you weird.
Looking for a gift for the person who has everything? We’d recommend donkey cheese—but somebody just bought the world’s entire supply. Related: pre-historic cheese. Also: Random Good Stuff’s Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide 2012.
Truth: TV is a massive rip-off. About a year ago, I dumped everything but basic cable—the $13/month variety—and bought Apple TV and a streaming Netflix account. I’m saving $100 a month and loving it.
North Korean Propaganda posters. This one says, “It is exciting to play soldiers and seizing the Americans!”
The results are in: check out the winners of the Nikon Small World 2012 Photomicrography Competition.
The best cup of coffee in Spokane? It’s not even close: Coeur Coffee on the corner of Monroe and College. They’re a little pricy, the hipster factor is almost uncomfortably high, and you’d better not be in a hurry. But man, oh man…it will change your life in ways you can’t even imagine.
My recommendation? Block out half an hour and order up a cup of the Chemex-brewed stuff. That’s all. I mean, there are pastries and such, but they’ll just get in the way. And yes, you’ll need every one of those 30 minutes: 5 for the coffee to be prepared, 20 to enjoy it, and 5 for the cigarette you’re going to need afterward.
For the four or five of you who regularly turn to the last word for keen insight and the latest in breaking news, my apologies for ignoring you this week. It’s been busy. I know, I know: excuses. So I’m going to make it up to y’all with three—that’s right, three—posts in one day. It’s never been done before. And it won’t likely be done ever again. Ready? Here’s the first…
Would you be a good network executive? Rob Long has the answer—which applies even if your question is more along the lines of whether you’d be a decent creative director, a competent graphic designer, or, well…a client.
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ma_2012-12-12-185208-6929-0-0-0.6929.mp3|titles=ma_2012-12-12-185208-6929-0-0-0.6929]Tom Gething interviews a semicolon.
Pantone’s Color of the Year for 2013? Emerald 17-5641.
This isn’t actually happening, but it’s creepy nonetheless.
Amsterdam’s oldest members of the oldest profession.
As I’ve been saying for years, whisky can bring sight to the blind.
Three hundred forty-seven zombies have so far been dispatched during the first 27 episodes of “The Walking Dead”—three of ’em via meat cleaver. And while Rick holds the top spot with 84 kills, Michonne has put up some pretty impressive numbers in a relatively short amount of time. The National Post has the full statistical analysis—with graphics!—here.
Dead of heart failure—just a day shy of his 92nd birthday. Ironic, given that timing was what he was best known for.
What more can possibly be said about the man? Let’s just listen. Here he is with his quartet (Paul Desmond, alto; Eugene Wright, bass; Joe Morello, drums) in Belgium in 1964:
UPDATE (12.06): Make that Germany, 1966. Apparently, a copyright claim took the other video down. ‘Cause, you know, it’s more important to worry about a copyright on 48-year-old black-and-white footage with bad sound than to allow us the simple enjoyment of a few moments of music from a remarkable man.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faJE92phKzI
If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be me—and really, why wouldn’t you?—this is a pretty fair approximation. (WARNING: contains some unsavory language.)
I know, I know—we already posted a photo this week. But c’mon. It’s the Ecto-1B! Spotted in the parking lot at Azar’s on Monroe.
It’s not even December, and already we’re being assaulted with “Santa Baby” and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” the latter one of the more ridiculous notions ever put to lyrics and a sure sign of the decline of civilization.
Franz Schubert’s Wintereisse (“Winter Journey”), a song cycle composed for voice and piano and based on 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller, gets regular rotation on my iPod this time of year. No, it’s not exactly Christmas music, but it sure beats this steaming pile of pomposity.
Here’s the final song, “Der Leierman,” performed by Mark Padmore, tenor, and Paul Lewis, piano (Harmonia Mundi HMU907484):
[audio:https://helveticka.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/24-Der-Leiermann.mp3|titles=24 Der Leiermann]The other day I heard someone utter “hone in on”—something we addressed here, by the way—and, for reasons still unclear to me, it got me to wondering: how many people mistakenly write shoe-in when they mean shoo-in?
It’s a common mistake, according to Professor Paul Brians, helped in no small part by sites like this. Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (18th edition) sets the record straight:
Shoo-in In American English, one who is certain to win, especially in a political election. The image, which originated in horseracing in the 1930s, is of a competitor in a rigged race who merely needs to be encouraged across the finishing line with a shout of ‘Shoo!’ in order to win. The phrase, despite the frequent misspelling ‘shoe-in’, has nothing to do with shoes.
So there you have it: a little English, a little history, and the ability to go forth and write with confidence. You’re welcome.
Taken yesterday during a brief lunchtime stroll near AMD world headquarters.
Sorry for the radio silence there, folks. I was gallivanting about the west side of our fair state, gathering intelligence for our upcoming MAC exhibit on Spokane’s Modern architecture scene. Then Thanksgiving happened, and, well…no blog posts.
The exhibit is coming along nicely, though—so much so that I can confidently predict that minds will, in fact, be blown. Want a taste? Here’s what Bauhaus founder, director of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and Alma Mahler’s husband Walter Gropius had to say about architecture: “…whereas building is merely a matter of methods and materials, architecture implies the mastery of space.”
BAM.
There’s a lot more where that came from starting March 2 in the main gallery at the Northwest Museum of Arts & Culture.
A longtime reader sent us this collection of cringe-inducing cover letter excerpts. Most fail at a fundamental level (basic misspelling, knotty syntax); some are Hail Marys by folks clearly out of their league; others are just plain wrong:
“It is through the innovational process, as well as media, that the features of an image can be highlighted and brought to the forefront for the consumer viewing.”
Sounds like it was written by a MarCom professional. Then there’s this:
“I’m looking for work because even though my company was profitable last year, this year they are expecting a large defecate.”
Can you blame the guy for shopping his résumé? I mean, nobody wants to stick around and clean up after a large defecate.
An alert reader—and proud Shaw Middle School alum—sent us this photo today. Though we’ve recently talked about cutting folks some slack when it comes to typos, it’s awfully hard to look the other way when said typo is on a school reader board.