Dive in, splash around, skim and dip and spout about the latest quotations, metaphors, words and, of course, triologisms. You’ll feel better for it!
In praise of idiosyncratic spelling
Those were the days, when you spelled, or spelt, or spellt, a word as you saw fit. Then the spelling police took charge and we all fell in line....
Nonsense daubers
Folly, speaking from her light-hearted pulpit, lays into another bunch of self-serious fools, those who write books, or as she puts it, 'daub pure...
Unexpected ignorance, unexpected knowledge
Maggie Tulliver is a girl whose brightness and spirit are constantly curtailed and nearly crushed. Throughout her childhood she is...
Today’s diary entry
Always curious about the habits of journal writing and the choices people make in the materials they use, I liked the detailed...
Love bade me…
One of the most beautiful English poems, of great simplicity and generosity, by George Herbert. Much of his poetry is religious but his...
The history of books
An idea so intrinsic to reading books, particularly those you love and remember, that I had never consciously thought of it. Here,...
A quote to note
Drawing on thousands of sparkling, moving and inspiring quotations amassed during decades of attentive reading. To delight your mind and spirit and improve your presentations beyond belief.
The magic fabric of life
We forget, mostly, that we live in a time of unprecedented mass luxury and ease. Yes, we are messing up ecosystems and climate systems, but access...
A gardener to the roots
This gardener, who tends the castle grounds of the monstrous pile of Gormenghast, is driven by something more than the beauty and colour of the...
A weight of glory
Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, and if you don't, may you in any case enjoy bright stars and their weight of glory. The message of the day is...
Worth the expense
George Eliot can be pithy, here singling out someone as being unworthy of the bullet a character might like to send them. See another curious quote...
Metaphorically speaking
More marvelous metaphors on Mondays … Monday, metaphor day.
As neat and fierce as …
Something refreshing about this simile, beginning with the surprising combination of 'neat' and 'fierce' and then the even more surprising 'fairy...
Collective noun for epithets
I like this collective noun for epithets, 'artillery' suggesting a quickfire delivery of pithy comments, with the additional charm of a military...
The feeling of a cur
Mrs Glegg, as you can see from this simile, is not the most empathic or kind of characters. Here she seeks an easy target for her general...
Swimming in circles
A fine simile for a wife who after a good stretch of marriage, still presses all the wrong buttons with regards her husband; here she is likened to...
Triologisms
Bringing you pithy, evocative imagery in the form of three-legged microcosms of meaning. Updated on Tuesdays … Tuesday, triologism day! You’ll never see this day of the week in the same way again.
Spencer-like jacket
A 19th century Hungarian wearing a jacket that originated in late 18th or early 19th century England. Named after the second Earl Spencer, it was at...
Of cornelian cherries
We often read of 'cherry-red' so I found it refreshing to find cherries described as resembling the red of cornelian, a semi-precious gemstone which...
Shoe-button eyes
Banffy's trilogy of novels on the slow but certain self-destruction of the 19th century Hungarian aristocracy includes the figure of the patient,...
Tear-wringing phrases
Can you sense in this triologism that the moving eloquence of this politician is a little too practised and contrived? He seems able to turn on the...
Prune-like eyes
A clever lawyer who bides his time and slowly, quietly hoovers up the assets of dissolute aristocrats, while ever fawning over and reverencing them....
Sickle-shaped curves
We speak of 'hair-pin bends' for sharply curved roads, and I liked this place-and-time relevant equivalent. It is from a Hungarian trilogy of...
Words
Sharing words that sparkle, appeal, intrigue or otherwise grab me, including those in other languages. And adoring alliteration, new words will be added on Wednesdays… Wednesday, word day. See you back here then.
The tum-ti-tums of poetry
The best and most memorable summary of the difference between an 'iambic', a 'spondee' and a 'trochee', by the author of a marvelous biography of...
The cuckolds’ collective
An imaginative collective noun for the poor cuckold, perhaps the last person to see, or believe, what is going on. I wonder if this originally meant...
Imp
Before reading Drury's splendid biography of the poet George Herbert, I knew 'imp' only as a small being of occasional mischievousness.But it is...
A threatening of …
What would you associate with 'a threatening'? Clouds? Storms? Thugs loitering on street corners, or skulking in doorways and dark alleys?No,...
Cumbrian sheep counting
Rory Stewart came across these numerals, apparently still used to count sheep by Cumbrian farmers. They trot off the tongue like spring...
Of farsang places
A measure of distance which has an echo of 'farflung', though no direct connection. It means one day's walk or journey, or a day's...
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