For the second time (that I'm aware of) the author of a blog that I follow (Other Men's Flowers) published a list of 20 questions. Since I do enjoy useless trivia I went through the list with reasonable success, patted myself on my back, and went back to keeping up with the Beavises and Buttheads (aka the current presidential race)
(I told dw of my trivia success. She said: "That's nice dear." ---- I'm impressed that I know hematite is a type of iron ore)
(dw wants it known that she also has a fund of trivia, including: Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield fought for the heavyweight championship in the '90s -- interesting since dw has no interest at all in boxing.)
A cautionary tale: The subject of trivia reminded me of the time, a few years ago, I was reading an encyclopedia (Encarta) and came across an error. Under the subject of stained glass, the accompanying photo of San Chapelle was misidentified as Notre Dame. That error wasn't as momentous as describing the Fibonacci sequence as a series of pasta shapes would be, but it still shows a certain carelessness. And last week I was reading "Western Words" a dictionary of the American West (by Ramon F. Adams) and came across a really appalling entry. He defines misery whip as "A logger's term for a cant hook." The aptly named misery whip is actually a large cross cut saw. I was on the blister end of one of those saws a few times when, many years ago, I was on a forest fire lookout. I'm not claiming much real experience but anyone who knows anything at all about the subject knows that a misery whip is a big human powered saw, not a cant hook, hooker, peavey, sky hook or anything but a saw.
Even if it's printed in a reference book, as Sportin' Life says: "It ain't necessarily so"
We're presently in the midst of Halloween. It's her turn so dw has door duty tonight. Me: "You've got door-duty, but that's better than do-duty." dw: "I've got enough do-duty at work. I'm an all around do-door-duty person." --- Our witty repartee for the evening.
Books: "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" (Andrei Codrescu) I am only familiar with him through his commentaries on public radio so this book was a bit of a surprise. It's sort of a retelling and sort of about, Sheherezade and the 1001 nights. With comments about the story and the stories and the translators and the present day all thrown in with lots of footnotes and author's asides to boot. It's interesting and entertaining and occasionally funny and kind of annoying. An odd mix.
And "About Rothko" (Dore Ashton) -- which, as everyone probably can guess, is about Mark Rothko. Interestingly (if I ever knew this, I'd forgotten it) he emigrated from Russia to Portland, OR as a child, and grew up in Portland. He had his first solo show in Portland at the Art Museum (after he had moved to New York).
Reading of and seeing pictures of his early work (influenced by impressionists, cubists, fauvists and just about everyone else) and following his progress (or whatever) into his later monumental paintings with their large masses of color, follows the history of 20th century art. I haven't finished reading the book, but so far I'd recommend it to anyone interested in art history. DA
(I told dw of my trivia success. She said: "That's nice dear." ---- I'm impressed that I know hematite is a type of iron ore)
(dw wants it known that she also has a fund of trivia, including: Riddick Bowe and Evander Holyfield fought for the heavyweight championship in the '90s -- interesting since dw has no interest at all in boxing.)
A cautionary tale: The subject of trivia reminded me of the time, a few years ago, I was reading an encyclopedia (Encarta) and came across an error. Under the subject of stained glass, the accompanying photo of San Chapelle was misidentified as Notre Dame. That error wasn't as momentous as describing the Fibonacci sequence as a series of pasta shapes would be, but it still shows a certain carelessness. And last week I was reading "Western Words" a dictionary of the American West (by Ramon F. Adams) and came across a really appalling entry. He defines misery whip as "A logger's term for a cant hook." The aptly named misery whip is actually a large cross cut saw. I was on the blister end of one of those saws a few times when, many years ago, I was on a forest fire lookout. I'm not claiming much real experience but anyone who knows anything at all about the subject knows that a misery whip is a big human powered saw, not a cant hook, hooker, peavey, sky hook or anything but a saw.
Even if it's printed in a reference book, as Sportin' Life says: "It ain't necessarily so"
We're presently in the midst of Halloween. It's her turn so dw has door duty tonight. Me: "You've got door-duty, but that's better than do-duty." dw: "I've got enough do-duty at work. I'm an all around do-door-duty person." --- Our witty repartee for the evening.
Books: "Whatever Gets You Through The Night" (Andrei Codrescu) I am only familiar with him through his commentaries on public radio so this book was a bit of a surprise. It's sort of a retelling and sort of about, Sheherezade and the 1001 nights. With comments about the story and the stories and the translators and the present day all thrown in with lots of footnotes and author's asides to boot. It's interesting and entertaining and occasionally funny and kind of annoying. An odd mix.
And "About Rothko" (Dore Ashton) -- which, as everyone probably can guess, is about Mark Rothko. Interestingly (if I ever knew this, I'd forgotten it) he emigrated from Russia to Portland, OR as a child, and grew up in Portland. He had his first solo show in Portland at the Art Museum (after he had moved to New York).
Reading of and seeing pictures of his early work (influenced by impressionists, cubists, fauvists and just about everyone else) and following his progress (or whatever) into his later monumental paintings with their large masses of color, follows the history of 20th century art. I haven't finished reading the book, but so far I'd recommend it to anyone interested in art history. DA
What d'you mean, "useless trivia" - "mindless drivel" is what I aim at.
ReplyDeleteAnd how many did you actually get? Grumio, the sage of Soho, usually gets about five, and Froog, the Beast of Beijing, say he got twelve on the last one.
Have decided to produce twenty at the end of each month until Christmas, then ten.