I Heart Writers, NASA, And . . . OMG

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Tucson Weather Today

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At The Writer's Almanac, Fanny Crosby was yesterday wished a Happy Birthday and it goes on to state: "It's the birthday of a great writer of hymns, Fanny Crosby born in Southeast, New York (1820). When she was an infant, she got sick and the family accidentally hired a quack doctor who prescribed mustard plasters on her eyes, and she went blind."

And I thought, Now that could be a compelling motive for a short story character to excel... It seems that all things I encounter become subjects for future story writing.

At least, it seems so to me.

History's Women Home Page


Also, at yesterday's The Writer's Almanac I read the following regarding Tennessee Williams and his play, Cat On A Hot Tin Roof:

After he wrote it, he fell into a bout of depression. He said: "Up to 1955 I found it much easier to work, and after 1955 I was conscious of a certain fatigue, and now, well, when I get up in the morning ... let me give you a few little clues -- I have anemia, which is rather a problem. I don't know how severe it is, or if anemia is the right word for it, but it is the word that is used; and I have to get up in the morning and give myself an injection, which peps me up sufficiently to get to the goddamn desk.

And combined with the shot, there's also the two strong cups of coffee; and then I always have one of these martinis on my writing table; I don't take more than one. But I found after 1955, specifically after Cat on a Hot Tin Roof -- that I needed these things to give me the physical energy to work; and the intelligent thing might have been to stop working, to rest. But I am a compulsive writer. I have tried to stop working and I am bored to death."

I would think that revelation should give each unpublished writer some insight into the problems and the mind of even accomplished writers.

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News From NASA . . .

Suzaku Shows Clearest Picture Yet of Perseus Galaxy Cluster -- X-ray observations made by the Suzaku observatory provide the clearest picture to date of the size, mass and chemical content of a nearby cluster of galaxies. The study also provides the first direct evidence that million-degree gas clouds are tightly gathered in the cluster's outskirts.


Suzaku explored faint X-ray emission of hot gas across two swaths of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. The images, which record X-rays with energies between 700 and 7,000 electron volts in a combined exposure of three days, are shown in two false-color strips. Bluer colors indicate less intense X-ray emission. The dashed circle is 11.6 million light-years across and marks the so-called virial radius, where cold gas is now entering the cluster. Red circles indicate X-ray sources not associated with the cluster. Inset: An image of the cluster's bright central region taken by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is shown to scale. (Credits: NASA/ISAS/DSS/A. Simionescu et al.; inset: NASA/CXC/A. Fabian et al.)

Hubble Space Telescope Image of NGC 1275

Hubble Space Telescope image showing NGC 1275

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 1275, the galaxy located in the center of the Perseus Galaxy Cluster.


This is amazing stuff . . . and I am so glad to still be alive to learn of it.

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A piece on writers who work for no pay by contributing to The Huffington Post (for the tremendous exposure) brings up some valid points, and there were many comments regarding it.

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OMG!

Check this out . . .

Mail Online reported: OMG! Oxford English Dictionary grows a heart: Graphic symbol for love (and that exclamation) are added as WORDS.

OMG!

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. . . Check out . . .

City Lights Books

As Always, "Caveat Lector"

In Monday's edition of The Writer's Almanack I read the following:

In 1989, a big Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. It's the one you're most likely to find in a library today. Its 21,730 pages fill up 20 volumes, and it weighs nearly 140 pounds. There are more than 615,000 definitions for words in this edition, which also contains 2,436,600 quotations.

The longest entry in the 1989 edition is the word "set" in its verb form: There are more than 430 listed ways the verb "set" is used. The entry for the verb "set" is 60,000 words long, the equivalent of a modestly sized novel. The Bible is quoted more than any other work in the Oxford English Dictionary, and Shakespeare is quoted more than any other single author. Of Shakespeare's works, Hamlet is quoted the most. There are about 1,600 quotations from Hamlet alone in the OED.

I must look up its definition for "overkill".

Once again I read this phrase: "FUBAR means F**ked Up Beyond All Recognition".

So ridiculous. If one must clean up common language there is little sense in coding it so that the reader will understand that you are describing a term that means F-word Up Beyond All Recognition while pompously refraining from mouthing the actual "F-word."

If the word is too course, too vulgar, or so distasteful as to soil one's pristine lips (or pen or keyboard) then why not go all the way and replace that "F-word" with another "F-word" such as "fouled".

The delicate 'Pastor' or 'Preacher' or 'Reverend' could then define FUBAR as meaning, "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition."

We all know, for Christ's sake, that F**ked Up means Fucked Up.

One phrases I will never say or write is

"Suffice it to say that..."

There is neither an "up" nor a "down" to an object in free-fall.

If we can re-member the past. . .

can we then member the future?

My thoughts today are somewhat disjointed and incomplete. As if I had not sufficient sleep. It appears that this is not a day for writing a blog.

Hopefully, "this too shall pass."