My first two definitions are up at the Urban Dictionary. I’m not going to post the words (because embarrassment) but I had the most fun adding the tags anyway

He also says “Nothing new about AI and academia—it was just implemented in wetware”

“The number of good ideas in this world is small, finite and invariant of time. The rest is imitation and better left for AI bots” sez my husband who worked with John McCarthy, who originated the term AI

OMFG. There actually is a Mineola Prep. www.facebook.com/profile.php?...

Edwin Denby redux

Edwin Denby (again)

I was about seven when a teacher informed me that I mustn’t start sentences with “and.” I just smiled and said to myself “That’s what you think.” I didn’t start sentences with “and” in her class because I pitied her too much.

@John Latta, you went to Cornell, yes? My older brother did too. Somehow I became acquainted and enamored with the work of Stuart Peterfreund (Cornell lit mags?). He was older than you but I wonder whether that name rings a bell?

My third great-grandmother was Hephzibah Perry and her mother was Hephzibah Locke. Just saying.

Nipa walks in saying Hella rain. Weather says atmospheric river.

I--rather annoyed by a bad throat-- felt glad when the whole lot vanished. It is a strange thing that one cannot well live altogether without company, and that when you get it, you try hard to rid yourself of itself. (6 of 6)

to him so that mother and Tussy are signalling to each other all through supper. Finally Mr. Maitland arrived as well, fairly sober, and also had a wordy duel with his instructive table companion--Hyndman--about Gladstone, in whom the spiritualist Maitland believes. (5/of 6, actually)

He looks well, a cross between Irving and the late Lassalle, though he has nothing in common with the cynically oily, obtrusive, ducal manners of the latter) an intelligent and somewhat promising boy. Well this is the point of the story--Dolly Maitland pays fearful court (4/5)

(it was nearly 10.30 p.m.) that she withdrew But she was amused by some byplay. For Tussy has discovered a new Wunderkind among the Dogberries, a certain Radford; this youth is already a barrister at law, but despises the jus [law] and is working in the same line as Waldhorn. (3/5)

who both have too much staying power. I don't dislike the wife, for she has a brusque, unconventional and decided way of thinking and speaking, but it is funny to see how admiringly her eyes fasten upon the lips of her self-satisfied garrulous husband. Mother was so tired (2/5)

Letter from Marx to daughter Jenny in London The day before yesterday the Dogberry Club [apparently a Shakespeare reading group] was here; yesterday, in addition to the two Maitland girls--and for a moment Lankester and Dr. Donkin--an invasion from Hyndman and spouse, (1/5)

Dear Herr Doctor: You are already ten months behind time with the manuscript of Das Kapital, which you have agreed to write for us. If we do not receive the manuscript within six months, we shall be obliged to commission another author to do this work. (2/2)

Found this just now in Marx-Engels correspondence. A letter to Marx from his publisher: 1/2)

Ghosted 👻

… the White House of future poems, and of dreams and dramas, there in the soft and copious moon—the gorgeous front, in the trees, under the lustrous flooding moon, full of realty, full of illusion—under the stars and sky—the White House of the land, and of beauty and night— (WW)

the walls also—the tender and soft moonlight, flooding the pale marble, and making peculiar faint languishing shades, not shadows—everywhere a soft transparent hazy, thin, blue moon-lace, hanging in the air (WW)

Walt: THE WHITE HOUSE BY MOONLIGHT February 24th.—A spell of fine soft weather. I wander about a good deal, sometimes at night under the moon. Tonight took a long look at the President's house. The white portico—the palace-like, tall, round columns, spotless as snow—

Can we dance?

When it didn’t recover we buried it underneath our pomegranate tree, the green sheen fading but a characteristic purple neck band now more visible.

This shiny black hummingbird with a green back flew into my husband’s shop and tried to make its way out through the skylight. We left the door open, hoping it would find its way out but later found it on the floor, stunned or dead.

And then there’s Wallace Stevens who said (and would say) that “money is a kind of poetry.”

“I hate writing, I love having written," (attributed to Dorothy Parker). But I like writing even more than having written because “having written” means dreaming about publishing, about “markets,” and that drops me down rabbit holes of despair.

My dad, the imaginary consigliere, looking like he just stepped off a Sopranos set.

This is the Hour of Lead – Remembered, if outlived, As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

I was away in hospital and rehab for the last few weeks after falling in the shower. I don’t recommend the falling but if you should end up in the back of ambulance, and all of us will, you will be changed, changed utterly.

Today's anthem for no reason: some perceived need recklessly to throw my arms around and shout.

Strawberries in December are better than no strawberries.

When you’re in the zone and it’s happening, it’s addictive. It’s a union of mental and physical joy. Your body is singing.

“I hate writing, I love having written," (attributed to Dorothy Parker). But I like writing even more than having written.

Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate!

“After all, people need rhyme,” Mr. Roubaud told an interviewer on the radio station France Inter in 2013. “This need for rhyme, this can be felt,” he said. “So I said I would answer this need.” —NYTimes

My great grandfather is the white haired man with the cane. He was acquainted with Lincoln as a boy in Springfield.

For mysterious reasons, I have an ear worm of the Beatles' “Komm, gib mir deine Hand” (German version of the group singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand”). Help! #random notes #Beatles #Hamburg #Germany #ear worms #the brain

It’s not easy being sewn. Stitch, another stitch, another. . . Q: Are we having fun yet? A: I’m in stitches. #random #thoughts #minor #surgery