Mishmash

And old word that should be brought back into common usage: Stultiloquy. It means foolish babbling as in "The politician gave an excellent stultiloquy. "Stultiloquence" might also be useful. Both words are from the Latin "stultiloquus", speaking foolishly, which is derived from "stultus", foolish, plus "loquus", that speaks. This pithy is word is gleaned from World Wide Words. In case you have not heard, M.H. Abrams is retiring from his post as editor of the Norton Anthology of English Literature, the cornerstone of college English Lit survey classes. Taking over is Stephen Greenblatt who has been deputy editor since the 90s. I still have my edition from college. It's a fat and impressive book to have on the shelf. Plus, it comes in handy for reference. I spent some time with Clarissa last night. She's gone from trying not to marry Mr. Solmes to trying not to marry Mr. Lovelace. Between Clarissa's friend Anna Howe encouraging her to marry Lovelace as soon as possible and Lovelace proposing to Clarissa as frequently as propriety permits, Clarissa is doomed. I wouldn't think she could hold out for long, but she's already proven to be a stubborn girl and there's no telling how many pages of her letters of woe I'll have to get through before she gives in. I also spent some time with Brian Greene. For the most part I've gotten over my fear of the earth's oxygen having a quantum moment and reappearing on the dark side of the moon. We've moved on to something even weirder. That is the universe is nonlocal. What that means is that particles have pairs and what you do to one particle over here also affects its partner particle over there, even if the particles are miles and miles apart, even if the particles are a universe apart. Imagine the implications. Go ahead. Go imagine. And have a nice Sunday while you're at it.