“What was the name of Holden Caulfield’s roommate in The Catcher in the Rye (1951)? Stradlater was the rich and conceited roommate.”
Excerpted from: Corey, Melinda, and George Ochoa. Literature: The New York Public Library Book of Answers. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged fiction/literature, literary oddities
“Bretton Woods: Town in New Hampshire, USA, where representatives of 28 nations attended a financial conference called by Pres. Roosevelt in July 1944 to organize a system of international monetary cooperation in order to prevent financial crashes like those in the interwar period which triggered the 1930s depression. It was agreed that participants would establish a World Bank to provide credit for countries that required finance for major projects. An International Monetary Fund (IMF was also set up for the purpose of operating cash reserves available to members facing balance of payments deficits).”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
“Bet for Betted. The verb to bet forms its preterite regularly, as do wet, wed, knit, quit, and others that are regularly misconjugated. It seems that we clip our short words more than we do our long.”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged diction/grammar/style/usage
“Ad Hoc (ad hok) To this matter: for this specific instance or purpose; in this case; immediate; provisional.
‘Polly’s motivating force was love; she wanted a world in which everybody else whether they liked it or not, but she set this overflowing feminine cup in motion with a thoroughly masculine arsenal of charts, graphs, quorums, task forces, ad hocs, tunnel vision, and lists.’ Florence King, When Sisterhood Was in Flower”
Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.
“Tole: Items of tinware painted with decorative designs. Also called toleware, it was much practiced by amateurs and artisans in the 18th and 19th centuries.”
Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged art/architecture/design
“Essay (French essai, “attempt”): a composition, usually in prose (Pope’s Moral Essays in verse are an exception), which may only be a few hundred words (like Bacon’s Essays) or book length (like Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding) and which discusses, formally or informally, a topic or a variety of topics. It is one of the most flexible and adaptable of all literary forms….”
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1992.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
“Struggling to pacify the ‘head of protocol’ at a Paris casino, after his companion Harpo Marx had distressed the gentleman with a few good-natured antics, Aleck turned to Harpo and asked, ‘How can I explain you?… There’s no French word for boob.’”
Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.
Posted in English Language Arts, New York City, Quotes, Reference
Tagged humor, literary oddities
“bureaucracy: (deriv. Fr., office + Gk., rule) Originally a semi-ironic term analogous to democracy or aristocracy, originating in 18th-century France for officials given titles of nobility. Under Napoleon (1804-1815) the country was run by units of centralized administration known as bureau. The term now describes the rule of a body of high officials or the caste of officials itself, usually with connotations of lack of initiative and too strict an adherence to rigid rules.”
Excerpted from: Cook, Chris. Dictionary of Historical Terms. New York: Gramercy, 1998.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences
Tagged term of art, united states history
“Because for For. ‘I knew it was night, because it was dark.’ ‘He will not go, because he is ill.’”
Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. Write it Right: A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults. Mineola, NY: Dover, 2010.
Posted in English Language Arts, Quotes, Reference
Tagged diction/grammar/style/usage
“Wisdom * Bravery * Temperance * Justice
Plato considered that the ideal state should be governed by ‘the wise, brave, temperate, and just.’ These virtues—often listed as Prudence, Fortitude, Temperance, and Justice—were popularized by Christian apologists and combined with the three theological virtues (Faith, Hope, and Charity) to create a group of virtues to stand in opposition to the Seven Deadly Sins. Wisdom (or its feminine archetype, Prudence) is often depicted with a book, mirror, snake, and compass. Bravery (fortitude) may be found standing next to a Greek helmet, a spear, shield, Samson’s pillars or a Herculean club and Nemean lion skin. Temperance may be spotted holding a sheathed sword, a torch, a clock, or mixing water into wine. Justice remains a familiar modern figure with her blindfold, an upheld sword in one hand and a pair of scales in the other.”
Excerpted from: Rogerson, Barnaby. Rogerson’s Book of Numbers: The Culture of Numbers–from 1,001 Nights to the Seven Wonders of the World. New York: Picador, 2013.
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