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Katexic Clippings (ARCHIVE)

from 300 Arguments (Sarah Manguso)

There were people I wanted so much before I had them that the entire experience of having them was grief for my old hunger.

—Sarah Manguso
—from 300 Arguments

crash blossoms

crash blossom. noun. An ambiguous headline, particularly one that yields comedic interpretations. Coined in 2009 by Danny Bloom based on the headline “Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms” in Japan Today, crash blossoms tend to occur in headlines because of space constraints. These linguistic gems are a kind of garden path sentence, in which one must backtrack to resolve an ambiguity, most often due to words that can be nouns or verbs, as in the classic example: “The old man the boat.”
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Links: October 15, 2017

  1. 10 Books About Words For Logophilic Readers Interested In The Wonders Of Language (I’ve read five of them and all were good).

  2. Inside Racists Anonymous.

  3. About “Zone Rouge,” areas in France still cordoned off due to human remains and unexploded munitions from World War I.

  4. The Washington Post’s robot reporter has published 850 articles in the past year.

  5. An awesome collection of 70s Movie Poster Typography.

  6. President Trump’s Lawsuit Against Estate Of Johannes Gutenberg. While we’re linking to The Onion, how about this one: Historians Discover Meditation Spread From Ancient China By Annoying Monk Who Wouldn’t Shut Up About How It Changed His Life.

  7. A quick-hit exploration of asemic writing/art, including examples from Henri Michaux and Xu Bing, author of A Book from the Sky.

  8. I find Brand New, a site that collects changes to famous (and not-so-famous) brand logos, strangely addictive.

  9. Merriam-Webster has quite a few word games on its site that Clamorites are likely to enjoy. I had fun with, and did terribly on, the Original Meanings Quiz (subtitled: a quiz for the pedantic and those annoyed by them!)

  10. Today in 1917, Margaretha Geertruida ‘Margreet’ MacLeod (née Zelle), better known as Mata Hari, (in)famous femme fatale and legendary spy (or was she?), is executed by a firing squad in Paris. A bit of trivia: what do Mata Hari, Geronimo, Beethoven, Descartes and the Marquis de Sade have in common? They all had their heads (more or less) stolen.

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