Esmeraldas Woodstar

More, but not much more, information here.

September is Etymology Month (30)

ПОДКУЗЬМИТЬ [podkuz'mit'] 'to do someone a bad turn'. From the festival of Sts. Kuz'ma and Dem'jan (17th October, OS), at which deals were concluded and accounts settled between employer and employee, originally 'to dispel hopes connected with St. Kuz'ma's Day'. Cf. объегорить 'to cheat', originally referring to the practice of reneging on similar deals struck before St. George's Day (Егор(ий) from Георгий, patron saint of agriculture), 26 November NS.

September is Etymology Month (18)

ЯЩИК [jáščik] 'box, drawer'. 14th-/15th centuries аскъ, then яскъ 'basket', possibly of Gmc. origin, cf. OIcel. askr 'ash-tree, wooden vessel' (the ash was much prized in wood carving), cf. OHG asc 'dish', earlier 'boat', probably of ash-wood.

September is Etymology Month (6)

РОМАШКА [romaška] 'camomile'. 1st half of 18th century, lit. 'Roman flower', based on Anthemis romana, Chamaemelum romanum (late Lat. c(h)amomilla) from Gk. chamaímelon, lit. 'earth apple' (chamaí 'on the ground', melon 'apple, any tree fruit' - from the apple-like scent of the plant). For -шка, cf.  роман (also романова трава), found in pre-18th century herbaria, and ромашка 'camomile' and analogous Иван 'Ivan', dim. Ивашка. Seemingly directly via Pol. rumianek 'camomile' (from the pink tinge of the petals, cf. Pol. rumiany 'ruddy'), rather than from Fr. camomille romaine (Anthemis nobilis), a plant whose leaves and flowerheads are used for medicinal purposes.

Alfonso Ponce de León (1906-1936)

Autoretrato (Accidente) (1936). More information here.

Àngels Santos Toroella (1911- )

Un mundo (1929). More information here.

Rosario de Velasco Belausteguigoitia (1904-1991)

Adán y Eva (1932). More information (in Catalan) here.

Hermenegildo Anglada Camarasa (1871-1959)

La gata rosa (1908)

More information here.

Valery Slavuk (1947- )

More information (in Russian) here.

Keelung City, Taiwan

More information here.

Current Favourite Sentence

When I was at last in a sitting position I noticed that she was not altogether naked, for round her hips she wore a string of doum palm nuts fastened at the crucial point by a metal disc on which was written in clear print: 'CORNERI & BOGLIASCO, CREMONA - YELLOW PEACH JAM OF THE FINEST QUALITY'.

Smilax

'[...] she had always considered smilax middle-class and vulgar, especially in hanging baskets, because she had been told that the only way to keep them flourishing was to give them diluted human urine. This haunted her, perhaps with some titillation, for I remember her pointing out especially beautiful fountains of smilax on other people's porches and then laughing scornfully.'

Ernst Ferdinand Oehme (1797-1855)

Burg Schlaffenberg bei Nacht (1827). More information (in German) here.

Carl Blechen (1798-1840)

Einfache Häuser an der Landstraße (Das Quartier der Soldaten in Pompeji) (1829). More information here.

Franz Theobald Horny (1798-1924)

Frauen am Brunnen von Olevano (c. 1822). More information (in German) here.

Christmas in Cádiz

It was not the most Dickensian of Christmases, but it was extremely enjoyable nonetheless (my tolerance for prawns, shrimp, lobsters and all other kinds of dendrobranchiata is high, and my appreciation of sun and palm trees is lavish). This is the first photo I took with our new camera, passed on by my father. Wife and Elephant's Child under the tree.

Great Supervillains of Times Gone By

Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man. No, seriously... More information here. I particularly like the detail that he gained his powers after 'falling into a vat of amino acids'.

Bookplate

From a selected Coleridge I bought the last time I was in London. Who knows if it's the M.R., but it's nice to dream.

The Classic Toscano Cigar

Disconcerting Fictional Encounter of the Day

We neared our destination, The Trade Towers. Smoke still drifted near the base of the south tower, where the latest blast had occurred. Our operations were located in the north tower, as was Mister Dryden's downtown apartment. To the right of the towers, near the river's edge, stood the beginnings of the floodwall. When the possibility of the Green first showed itself, years ago, the city borrowed funds from the Old Man toward the construction of a fifty-foot wall intended to surround Manhattan. The funds were no less liquid than the waters to be fought and were mostly diverted to other campaigns. The floodwall ran only from the towers south to the Battery. Traditional American handicraft was employed in the wall's construction, and so most of it had collapsed.
Jack Womack, Ambient (1988)