brtom

Comments by brtom

• brtom commented on the user john

  Hi, John! Thanks for noticing. I've been living. Will always have a soft spot in my heart (if not my head) for Wordie/Wordnik. It was there when I needed it ... and I still may. All the best to you!

  Mar 25, 2010

• brtom commented on the word merditation

  Pondering that which may not be worth pondering? Or ...

  Mar 25, 2010

• brtom commented on the word rantipole

  This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that she did not altogether discourage his hopes. Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"

  Oct 30, 2009

• brtom commented on the word delate

  In other words are there certain regular sorts of flourishing which we can see in this sphere which point to more than themselves, which delate, give away, point up, something about God? James Alison

  Oct 10, 2009

• brtom commented on the word frore

  "God, how I hate the names / of the body's chemicals and anatomy, / the frore and glum department / of its parts ..." Wendell Berry, "Sabbaths 2005, XIV" in Leavings

  Oct 3, 2009

• brtom commented on the word snath

  "I could see that the snath had a delightful patina that came with age and good care." Brian Lowry

  Mar 13, 2009

• brtom commented on the word borborygmi

  "I looked forward to the librarian moms returning home to the borborygmic giants who would roll over on them in their sleep."
  
  http://www.splicetoday.com/writing/the-devil-s-playground

  Feb 17, 2009

• brtom commented on the word plow

  The humus stood dark and heavy over them once; the plow was its doom. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word humus

  The humus stood dark and heavy over them once; the plow was its doom. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word mule

  ...how they would harness their mule teams in the early mornings in my grandfather's big barn and come to the woods-rimmed tobacco patches, the mules' feet wet with the dew. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word crop

  Where that thicket stands there was crop ground, maybe as late as my own time. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word outbuildings

  There are the domestic paths from house to barns and outbuildings and gardens, farm roads threading the pasture gates. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word palimpsest

  I think of the country as a kind of palimpsest scrawled over with the comings and goings of people, the erasure of time already in process even as the marks of passage are put down. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word path

  A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word economy

  The idea was that when faced with abundance one should consume abundantly—an idea that has survived to become the basis of our present economy. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word ignorant

  But one immediately reflects that the American Indian, who was ignorant by the same standards, nevertheless knew how to live in the country without making violence the invariable mode of his relation to it ... Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word clearing

  The work of clearing the road was itself violent. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 19, 2008

• brtom commented on the word peacefulness

  I am forced, against all my hopes and inclinations, to regard the history of my people here as the progress of the doom of what I value most in the world: the life and health of the earth, the peacefulness of human communities and households. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word doom

  I am forced, against all my hopes and inclinations, to regard the history of my people here as the progress of the doom of what I value most in the world: the life and health of the earth, the peacefulness of human communities and households. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word native

  I came to see myself as growing out of the earth like the other native animals and plants. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word root

  My language increased and strengthened, and sent my mind into the place like a live root system. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word neighbor

  I listened to the talk of my kinsmen and neighbors as I never had done, alert to their knowledge of the place, and to the qualities and energies of their speech. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word kinsmen

  I listened to the talk of my kinsmen and neighbors as I never had done, alert to their knowledge of the place, and to the qualities and energies of their speech. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word countryside

  Home—the place, the countryside—was still there, still pretty much as I had left it, and there was no reason I could not go back to it if I wanted to. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word home

  Home—the place, the countryside—was still there, still pretty much as I had left it, and there was no reason I could not go back to it if I wanted to. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word welfare

  When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place before me ... Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word place

  When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place before me ... Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word health

  When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place before me ... Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word earth

  When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place before me ... Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word deliberateness

  In my acceptance of twentieth-century realities there has had to be a certain deliberateness, whereas most of my contemporaries had them simply by being born to them. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word aptitude

  I seem to have been born with an aptitude for a way of life that was doomed, although I did not understand that at the time. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word hitch

  ... I learned to harness and hitch and work a team. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word harness

  ... I learned to harness and hitch and work a team. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word team

  ... I learned to harness and hitch and work a team. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word teamster

  The Depression and World War II delayed the mechanization of the farms here, and one of the first disciplines imposed on me was that of a teamster. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word discipline

  The Depression and World War II delayed the mechanization of the farms here, and one of the first disciplines imposed on me was that of a teamster. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word mechanization

  The Depression and World War II delayed the mechanization of the farms here, and one of the first disciplines imposed on me was that of a teamster. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word place

  All that any of us may know of ourselves is to be known in relation to this place. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word river

  My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word town

  My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word hill

  My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word house

  My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill"

  Jul 18, 2008

• brtom commented on the word whist

  Ah ... me, too. I'd guess that - if a U.S. citizen knows the term - it's 10 to 1 that he/she got it from Around the World in Eighty Days. But when I found it in Howard's poem it just didn't add up.

  Feb 14, 2008

• brtom commented on the word whist

  Yes, a card game ... but in British dialect it means "to become silent" as in this from Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547):
  
  It was then night: the sound and quiet sleep
  Had through the earth the wearied bodies caught;
  The woods, the raging seas were fallen to rest;
  When that the stars had half their course declined
  The fields whist ...

  Feb 13, 2008

• brtom commented on the word aquamanile

  from Wikipedia:
  In Christian liturgical usage, an aquamanile (plural aquamanilia or simply aquamaniles) is a special ewer for the ritual washing of hands (aqua + manos) over a basin, in the ritual of the lavabo, in which the officiating priest washes his hands before vesting, again before the consecration of the Eucharist and after mass.

  Jan 24, 2008

• brtom commented on the word accrue

  Carrying what has accrued to it (the body) from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
  Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok"
  
  

  Jan 9, 2008

• brtom commented on the word effuse

  I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the
  bard of personality
  Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok"

  Jan 9, 2008

• brtom commented on the word average

  O such themes - equalities! O divine average!
  Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok"

  Jan 9, 2008

• brtom commented on the word melange

  Melange mine own, the unseen and the seen,
  Mysterious ocean where the streams empty
  Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok"

  Jan 9, 2008

• brtom commented on the word camerado

  What do you need camerado?
  Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok"

  Jan 9, 2008