I dreamt about weyant recently. I was pointing at the internet and saying to my wife "look, it's real, it's real! They've found them" - it was aliens on Mars, large bright grublike things - and she replied "weyant, it's weyant."
Well that's cool. I always thought night crawlers were hookers or johns, being an amalgam of ladies of the night and kerb-crawlers, We had a little night crawler here tonight, snuck in just after sundown with rugged gusts.
I'm glad Koontz added the explanation. I always thought Joyce would have done better writing "Snotgreen sea, making a single adjective from an adjective and a noun".
Hello Harry. I have read Houellebecq on Lovecraft. Can't say I agree with most of what he says, but as a spectacle of literary nihilism it's just tits.
It's a mixed bag bilby. Eat no chips is still intact. Drink no soda, almost intact. Nose-picking is dscreet, I'm not adept but less inept than formerly with tools.
The spelling one was Ruzuzu I believe. The cats are as bloody lazy buggers as ever.
OK, I'll do it! I'll be getting this show on the road pronto. All interested apply within. Ideas for a trophy? I'm loth to surrender my heavily tea-stained "molotov cocktail waitress" mug, but I'm sure I could arrange for a STF mug of the winner's choosing.
I thought this started as a reference to the supposed origin of some (or all?) of the 9/11 hijackers north of the border. However it does now seem to imply more generally those crazy communistical Canajunisms you mention.
"He was a large, loose, fattish man with unintelligent brown eyes magnified by spectacles; he wore an ill-fitting frock-coat and a paper collar, and he showed me, as his great treasure and interest, a large Bible which he had grangerised with photographs of pictures."
- Wells, Tono Bungay
(I'm not sure if it ought to be "photographs or pictures" instead, but I'm going from the version at gutenberb.org)
'The spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) is one of the 21 species of beaked whales, or ziphiids. They’re enigmatic animals. It seems that they spend their time diving to exceptional depths in search of food, so few people have ever seen one.'
While we're on the subject, we got our daughter a toy deinonychus for Christmas a couple of years ago. Of course really it was just a generic pteranodon, but at her age she didn't know any better.
'...excluded by disinclination, weak sight and independent intellect from the boisterous milieu his father had meant him to enter, excluded by poverty, by Catholicism and by unclubbability from the Anglo-Irish milieu in which Yeats cut so distinguished a figure.'
'"Pete's scared of something - I think he got good and scared of himself a long time ago. That's what made him such a wiz as a crystal-reader - for a few years. He wished like all get out that he really could read the future in the ball."'
'The first season is always the best and the worst for a carny. Stan's muscles hardened and his fingers developed great surety, his voice greater volume. He put a couple of coin sleights in the act that he would never have had the nerve to try in public before.'
'From one pocket he drew a bottle, offering it to Stan, who shook his head. Pete took a pull, then another, and corked the bottle. Then he drew the cork out, finished it, and heaved it into the night. "Dead soldier."
'The rain had slackened to a drizzle. In the lights of headlamps the roughnecks were busy tearing canvas from the trucks. Stan threw his slicker over his shoulders, went around to open the rear doors of the truck. He crawled in and gently shook Pete by the ankle. "Pete, wake up. We're here. We've got to put up."'
'The downfall of Rangers and the nature of their eventual recovery matters to Scottish society. Scotland's first minister acknowledged as much when he breenged in at the start of the scandal.'
- "It's not just Rangers' fans who should mourn", The Observer, 1-7-12.
'"Pete was working a crystal act in vaudeville. God, he was handsome. In a soup and fish he looked about two feet taller than in his street clothes. He wore a little black beard and a turban."'
'Stan slipped out of the sweatbox, quietly parted the curtains, stepped into the comparatively cooler air of the main tent, and sauntered over toward the soft drink stand.'
'"Where did they go? You know, day after day I stand here - wondering just where do they go!" That's Thurston's gag. By God, I'm going to use it until I see one face - just one - in this bunch of rubes that gets the point. They never do.'
'He placed the bills in his left hand, slipping them into the vanisher. "Blow on the hand-" The vanisher, released, thudded softly against his hip under his coat. "Lo and behold! Gone!"'
'It was a job with a carny. There was a Hawaiian dance show, what they called a kooch show - two other girls and Molly. The fellow who ran it and did the talking was called Doc Abernathy. Molly didn't like him a bit and he was always trying to make the girls. Only Jeanette, one of the dancers, and Doc were steady and Jeanette was crazy-mad jealous of the other two. Doc used to devil her by horsing around with them.'
'...she started to scream and it was like laughing, only it felt horrible and she couldn't stop and then they came and stuck her arm with a hype gun and she went out again...'
'The cop said, "Your Dad's been hurt, girlie. He's hurt real bad." He wasn't like a shamus now; he was more like the sort of man who might have a daughter himself.'
'She was sixteen and all grown up when things went to smash. Some fellows from Chicago had come down and there was trouble at the place where Dad worked.'
'Only that was the year Centerboard ran out of the money and Dad had the bankroll on him to show and they had to sell everything they had to get a grubstake.'
'Also Dad said it was a shame to go to bed early and miss everything when you could sleep late the next day and catch up - unless you had to be at the track for an early workout, to hold the clock on a horse, and then it was better to stay up and go to bed later.'
'But this brunette kid, Molly, is the nuts. What a pair of bubbies! High and pointed - and that ain't no cupform either, brother; that's God.
I wish to Christ that kraut Bruno would bust a blood vessel some day, bending them horseshoes. Goddamn, that Molly kid's got legs like a racehorse. Maybe I could give her one jump and then blow the show. Jesus, it would be worth it, to get into that.'
'"That night you drag out the lecture and lay it on thick. All the while you're talking he's thinking about sobering up and getting the crawling shakes. You give him time to think it over, while you're talking. Then throw in the chicken. He'll geek."'
'"Listen, kid. Do I have to draw you a damn blueprint? You pick up a guy and he ain't a geek - he's a drunk. A bottle-a-day booze fool. So you tell him like this: 'I got a little job for you. It's a temporary job. We got to get a new geek. So until we do you'll put on the geek outfit and fake it.' You tell him, 'You don't have to do nothing. You'll have a razor blade in your hand and when you pick up the chicken you give it a nick with the blade and then make like you're drinking the blood. Same with rats. The marks don't know any different.'"'
'Against the summer night the ferris wheel lights winked with the gaiety of rhinestones, the calliope's blast sounded as if the very steam pipes were tired.'
"The geek was a thin man who wore a suit of long underwear dyed chocolate brown. The wig was black and looked like a mop, and the brown greasepaint on the emaciated face was streaked and smeared with the heat and rubbed off around the mouth."
'The beer was bitter and he began to feel a little edge from it. This was all right. Keep it at beer for a while. Get a stake, working the mitt camp. Get a good wad in the grouchbag and then try working Mexico. They say the language is a cinch to learn. And the damn country's wide open for ragheads. They advertise in all the papers down there. Give that mess with the cop time to cool and I can come back in a few years and start working California. Take a Spanish name maybe. There's a million chances.'
'The Negro's voice was softer. "Now you talking, brother. You let all that crap alone and come over here and talk. We got a long run ahead of us and ain't no use trying to crap each other up."
'"Dewey sure is a sucker for the hotfoot. This must be a thousand times somebody gives him the hotfoot. It's a dozen times, at least, that I give him the hotfoot myself."'
'The Great Stanton smiled thinly, pointing to the cards before him. "This is the Tarot of the Romany cartomancers. A set of symbols handed down from remote antiquity, preserving in their enigmatic form the ancient wisdom through the ages."'
'With a twist of triumphant glee her mind drew pictures of her two sisters as she had seen them last: Mina, spare and virginal, still proud of a Phi Beta key after all these years of beating Latin into the heads of brats. And Gretel - still looking like a wax angel off a Tannenbaum, with half a lung left to breathe with and a positive Wassermann.'
'"Money doesn't mean anything to that guy. He's willing to give anything - just to get square with his conscience. He's overboard on the spook dodge. He's letting his business run itself. He's living on Dream Street."'
"Molly was so happy she could cry. It had been a long time since they'd had anything like a holiday together. Stan had been acting so screwy she was afraid he was living on Queer Street."
'"You may have the gong - and the table, Mr. Grindle. It never before has rung by an exudation of psychic power - what we call the odylic force as it did just now. Someone must be trying to get through to you."'
"'The switch is what the gypsies call okana borra - the great trick. You have the chump tie a buck up in his hanky. He sleeps on it and in the morning he has two bucks and comes running back with all his savings out of the teapot. Then when he wakes up next time he has nothing in the hank but a stack of paper and he comes back looking for the gypsy."'
yarb commented on the word nisgul
And a particularly piercing call?
May 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word weyant
I dreamt about weyant recently. I was pointing at the internet and saying to my wife "look, it's real, it's real! They've found them" - it was aliens on Mars, large bright grublike things - and she replied "weyant, it's weyant."
May 3, 2013
yarb commented on the list fingernails-on-my-chalkboard
The heighth of ignoranth.
May 3, 2013
yarb commented on the word tyrology
The scholar in this particular mental image is wearing horn-rimmed spectacles. Should suffice against eruptions of larvae.
May 1, 2013
yarb commented on the word notch
Ha! c.f. oche then, I suppose.
Apr 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word cutting-tool
I can't decide if the CD is being cutting, or boring.
Apr 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word tyrology
Calls to mind the image of a scholar peering intently at a piece of cheese.
Apr 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word hebetude
A favourite of Conrad, along with desuetude and mansuetude.
Apr 30, 2013
yarb commented on the word bone oil
I would have listed it, if I weren't so bone-oidle.
Apr 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word Ion
The tweets are occasionally useful.
Apr 8, 2013
yarb commented on the word Ion
Wow, totally new to me.
Apr 8, 2013
yarb commented on the word night crawlers
Well that's cool. I always thought night crawlers were hookers or johns, being an amalgam of ladies of the night and kerb-crawlers, We had a little night crawler here tonight, snuck in just after sundown with rugged gusts.
Apr 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word night crawler
See comment on night crawlers.
Apr 6, 2013
yarb commented on the user AnWulf
I am really enjoying your esoteric contributions to Wordnik. Forgive my not rendering this in Anglish.
Apr 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word AGF
Did you notice that vancouverism is panvocalic?
Apr 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word pronkers anonymous
Have you pronked today, gangerh?
Apr 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word herethere
I'm glad Koontz added the explanation. I always thought Joyce would have done better writing "Snotgreen sea, making a single adjective from an adjective and a noun".
Apr 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word binged
They should have called it "Purg" instead.
Apr 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word herethere
Got the quote?
Apr 3, 2013
yarb commented on the word cheese
#cdcwtfbbq
Mar 29, 2013
yarb commented on the word baffoon
One baffled as to the spelling of buffoon.
Mar 29, 2013
yarb commented on the word rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
You don't have the house rule allowing bendy words?
Mar 29, 2013
yarb commented on the word bedraggled
I like reesetee's "bed-raggled". I can well imagine how an intense twelve-hour sleep could raggle a person, top to bottom.
Mar 26, 2013
yarb commented on the word rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
Not a valid scrabble word. Presumably because of the umlaut?
Mar 25, 2013
yarb commented on the list and-i-will-tell-the-night
Absolutely, this is the night. Good list.
Mar 25, 2013
yarb commented on the word dorp
'...his ministry was here, here in the wilderness of conscience; this sodden dorp and river midden where he preached each week from a teepee...'
- Gass, Omensetter's Luck
Mar 24, 2013
yarb commented on the word furfuraceous
'His soul scaly ... furfuraceous scalp ...'
- Gass, Omensetter's Luck
Mar 24, 2013
yarb commented on the word hispidulous
'Mat's right eye rose, his hispidulous cheeks bulged with air: puff pop, he spoke.'
- Gass, Omensetter's Luck
Mar 24, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-word-ie-nik--2013
Well after the initial rush of excitement, we have run into a doldrum. Come on, hurry up and submit words before I get busy again.
Mar 23, 2013
yarb commented on the list x-up-or-x-down
Nice job. Possibly there's something on my Yo-yo words list that you've missed, but I doubt it.
Mar 23, 2013
yarb commented on the word lego
Just stopping by to make the exact same comment I made in October 2010.
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the word competitive arousal
I'm not sure which I find more arousing: competitive arousal or foggy-windowed marathons of phony umbrage-taking.
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the word competitive arousal
I find this term arousing.
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the word poka-yoke
Derivation of this term anyone?
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the list encapsulations
Cool list (to quote marky).
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the word yarsagumbu
No tweets found. Someone really ought to tweet about yarsagumbu.
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-word-ie-nik--2013
No deadline. I'm enjoying inferring things about people based on how long they agonise over their words.
Mar 20, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-word-ie-nik--2013
No, a thinking cap is one of those caps with yellow, red, blue and green segments to it and a flower or whirligig sprouting from the top.
Mar 19, 2013
yarb commented on the word yarsagumbu
Yarsagumbu... you probably think this song is about clam stew.
Mar 19, 2013
yarb commented on the list words-lurking-in-lovecraft
Hello Harry. I have read Houellebecq on Lovecraft. Can't say I agree with most of what he says, but as a spectacle of literary nihilism it's just tits.
Mar 19, 2013
yarb commented on the list things-that-freak-me-out
How are you with hiccupping cows?
Mar 19, 2013
yarb commented on the word surd
I got into a fight after playing this word in scrabble once.
Mar 14, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
It's a mixed bag bilby. Eat no chips is still intact. Drink no soda, almost intact. Nose-picking is dscreet, I'm not adept but less inept than formerly with tools.
The spelling one was Ruzuzu I believe. The cats are as bloody lazy buggers as ever.
Mar 13, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
Please email your words to idthewordienik13 at gmail dot com!
Mar 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word necessary
That's fine for my poop, but what about my tween deck, my orlop and my gun deck?
Mar 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word snowdrop
I read a novel called "Snowdrops" recently, set in Moscow. Wasn't really my cuppa but I love the snowdrop concept.
Mar 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word jounce
Looks like normal Twitter fare to me, bilby.
Mar 13, 2013
yarb commented on the word &c.
I much prefer this to etc and use it frequently.
Mar 13, 2013
yarb commented on the list identify-the-wordienik
OK, I'll do it! I'll be getting this show on the road pronto. All interested apply within. Ideas for a trophy? I'm loth to surrender my heavily tea-stained "molotov cocktail waitress" mug, but I'm sure I could arrange for a STF mug of the winner's choosing.
Mar 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word stick a fork in it
I understand the usage, but doesn't one stick a fork in it to determine whether it is in fact done?
Jan 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word vang
Vang you, Bilby.
Jan 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word gazzettino
What a coinc-idence!
Jan 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word poppywash
Sounds like an amalgam of poppycock and hogwash.
Jan 15, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop obsessively monitoring global seismic activity
A miserable failure. This one would have been so easy, too.
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word On the Sabbath day, communicate only by means of fridge poetry
No problems so far with this one. Thinking of extending it to other days, in fact.
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Start speaking Spanish to Marcelo
Another failure.
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Pick nose more discreetly
Didn't even try to keep this one.
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Drink no soda, except as a mixer
Managing to adhere to this one. Not difficult as I don't really like fizzy drinks (except as mixers).
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Eat no chips
I've broken this once so far but with an excuse.
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop speaking Spanish to Wladimir
There was never much hope of keeping this one. Only a fool's hope.
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the word pogonion
Is that a mental protruberance in your pocket?
Jan 11, 2013
yarb commented on the list supernatural-creatures-according-to-m-a--denham
Marvellous list!
Jan 9, 2013
yarb commented on the list distinguishing-marks
Seems obvious, but watermark?
Jan 6, 2013
yarb commented on the word Canuckistan
I thought this started as a reference to the supposed origin of some (or all?) of the 9/11 hijackers north of the border. However it does now seem to imply more generally those crazy communistical Canajunisms you mention.
Jan 5, 2013
yarb commented on the word Start speaking Italian to Wladimir
Wladimir says 'quo vadis?'
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Clearly we all already know Latin. I suggest, ruzuzu, you refocus on ancient Greek.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
benigne dicis!
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
quid pro quo. ubi sunt reesetee?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
per mer per terris!
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word fircmarbles
I like it too. Sounds like a bowdlerized oath.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
in vino veritas
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
sic transit gloria mundi
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Start speaking Italian to Wladimir
This is the worst resolution I've ever heard of. There wouldn't be a recombobulation area big enough.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
Oh wait, it's here. Bilby, I knew it was you! *shakes fist*
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
Thanks for alerting me! I've added it to my newest list for safekeeping.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
ars longa, vita brevis
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word quantum spin liquid
I believe this is a setting on my new washing machine.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Shave a peach
Alternatively, peel a grape and bathe in asses milk.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word potential deathtrap
This was a catchphrase from a comedy sketch show of my youth whose name I've forgotten. It was always uttered in a Scottish accent.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Fear death by water
Tsunamis, puddles... tarns... paddy fields... potential deathtraps, all.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Introibo ad altare dei?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Tanto religio potuit suadere malorum.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Et tu, zuzu?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Errare humanum est. Alea jacta est.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Let's speak Latin then. Quo Vadis?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Study Latin
Who's your favourite Latin writer?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop dreaming about work
Me too, but I fear that resolving to stop will only reinforce this awful habit.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop riding on ice after dark
Ride faster? There must be some way you can continue to ride on ice after dark!
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word Stop riding on ice after dark
Shurely "buy studded tires and a bright light"??
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list resolutions
Got any resos of your own, zuzu?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list adoption-agency
Thanks, but I already figured i- I mean, yes, well done you passed.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word recombobulation
Now I want to visit the Milwaukee airport. Not Milwaukee, just the airport.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word yeuky
Small island kingdom in the North Atlantic.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word discombobulate
I can't imagine using it professionally, but I use it quite a lot at home.
I did use paramour today in an official report.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list adoption-agency
Happy to oblige. In return, please tell me how one creates a new list. I haven't forgotten, I'm just testing you.
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the list adoption-agency
Is that a holographic banana boat in your pocket, or are you etc?
Jan 4, 2013
yarb commented on the word grangerise
"He was a large, loose, fattish man with unintelligent brown eyes magnified by spectacles; he wore an ill-fitting frock-coat and a paper collar, and he showed me, as his great treasure and interest, a large Bible which he had grangerised with photographs of pictures."
- Wells, Tono Bungay
(I'm not sure if it ought to be "photographs or pictures" instead, but I'm going from the version at gutenberb.org)
Dec 3, 2012
yarb commented on the user toowoombachiro
Anagram of coma, writ, boo-hoo.
Hope Justin and Jason know what they're doing!
Nov 16, 2012
yarb commented on the user toowoombachiro
I was thinking name, but really either.
Nov 15, 2012
yarb commented on the user toowoombachiro
Sounds like a Star Wars character...
Nov 14, 2012
yarb commented on the word abuwtiyuw
I bet you think this song is Abuwtiyuw.
Nov 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word chorea
These are the en-ed times.
Nov 8, 2012
yarb commented on the user allamas
Quit probing my llamas!
Nov 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word cgulppl
You mean children?
Nov 6, 2012
yarb commented on the list hork-du-jour
At the end of the day, I'm probably guilty of that one myself. But I think we need to draw a line under closure.
Nov 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word ziphiid
'The spade-toothed whale (Mesoplodon traversii) is one of the 21 species of beaked whales, or ziphiids. They’re enigmatic animals. It seems that they spend their time diving to exceptional depths in search of food, so few people have ever seen one.'
- Discover Magazine, 5-11-12.
Nov 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word artisanal
Art is anal.
Nov 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word guybrarian
I do and it is. Thanks.
Nov 2, 2012
yarb commented on the word illusion
No, the other way round! Only the past is real. The present is a sensation, the future a diversion.
Oct 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word lingerie
The dictionaries differ. Is lingerie especially, or exclusively, for women? Which? Am I entitled to call my undistinguished nethergarments "lingerie"?
Oct 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word galloon
I mean that I checked my lingerie for galloons, not that there are checks but no galloons on my lingerie.
Speaking of which, does my underwear count as lingerie? I must check.
Oct 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word galloon
*checks* no galloons on my lingerie :(
Oct 5, 2012
yarb commented on the word Vufflens-le-Château
I wonder what they throw there, when they are in the mood for lobbing?
Oct 5, 2012
yarb commented on the user deinonychus
While we're on the subject, we got our daughter a toy deinonychus for Christmas a couple of years ago. Of course really it was just a generic pteranodon, but at her age she didn't know any better.
Sep 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word early
ron, that sounds more like Irish to me - was character an immigrant?
hat tip to sionnach's five year-old adverbial definition.
Sep 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word helicopter
I will never fly in one again.
Sep 26, 2012
yarb commented on the user nigelpike
wanker!
Sep 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word unclubbability
'...excluded by disinclination, weak sight and independent intellect from the boisterous milieu his father had meant him to enter, excluded by poverty, by Catholicism and by unclubbability from the Anglo-Irish milieu in which Yeats cut so distinguished a figure.'
- Hugh Kenner, Joyce's Voices
Aug 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word in all my born days
"I reckon the world is coming to an end. I never see the beat of it, in all my born days."
- Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Aug 26, 2012
yarb commented on the word crib house
'"He is a sweet man, down deep. Long as he lasts I'll stick to him. If it hadn't been for Pete I'd of probably ended up in a crib house."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word crib house
CHECK OUT THE VISUAL!
Jul 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word like all get out
Citation on crystal-reader.
Jul 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word wiz
Citation on crystal-reader.
Jul 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word crystal-reader
'"Pete's scared of something - I think he got good and scared of himself a long time ago. That's what made him such a wiz as a crystal-reader - for a few years. He wished like all get out that he really could read the future in the ball."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 8, 2012
yarb commented on the word coin sleight
'The first season is always the best and the worst for a carny. Stan's muscles hardened and his fingers developed great surety, his voice greater volume. He put a couple of coin sleights in the act that he would never have had the nerve to try in public before.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 8, 2012
yarb commented on the list nightmare-alley
Isn't it! I've made a few cock-ups which I can't correct right now due to a glitch. Still many more citations to come.
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word pound one's ear
'"Where's Molly?" he asked after a while.
"Pounding her ear. I talked the old gal that has the house into giving us the two rooms for the price of one."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word tonk
'Mist hung over the hills beyond the town, and from a slope rising from the other side of the road came the gentle tonk of a cowbell.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word blind pig
'He started off across the lot toward a shack at the edge of the village. Zeena watched him go.
"I'll bet that joint is a blind pig," she said to Stan.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word midway
'The floodlights were up and the carny boss had laid out the midway with his marking stakes.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word dead soldier
'From one pocket he drew a bottle, offering it to Stan, who shook his head. Pete took a pull, then another, and corked the bottle. Then he drew the cork out, finished it, and heaved it into the night. "Dead soldier."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word put up
Citation on roughneck.
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word roughneck
'The rain had slackened to a drizzle. In the lights of headlamps the roughnecks were busy tearing canvas from the trucks. Stan threw his slicker over his shoulders, went around to open the rear doors of the truck. He crawled in and gently shook Pete by the ankle. "Pete, wake up. We're here. We've got to put up."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jul 1, 2012
yarb commented on the word breenge
'The downfall of Rangers and the nature of their eventual recovery matters to Scottish society. Scotland's first minister acknowledged as much when he breenged in at the start of the scandal.'
- "It's not just Rangers' fans who should mourn", The Observer, 1-7-12.
Jun 30, 2012
yarb commented on the word grouchbag
See also grouch bag.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word do-re-mi
See also grouchbag.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word do-re-mi
Citation on do-re-mi.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word grouch bag
'"Any place is grand, so long as you got the old do-re-mi in the grouch bag," Zeena said.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word mitt camp
'"I do a little tea-leaf reading and one winter I worked a mitt camp in Miami. Palmistry always goes good in a town like Miami."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word mentalism
'"He began muffing the code and he always needed a few shots before going on. Booze and mentalism don't mix."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word great sheiks
'"Oh, the gamblers was the great sheiks in my day. Any gal who could knock herself off a gambling man was doing something."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word crystal act
Citation on soup and fish.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word soup and fish
'"Pete was working a crystal act in vaudeville. God, he was handsome. In a soup and fish he looked about two feet taller than in his street clothes. He wore a little black beard and a turban."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word rhubarb
Citation (in the sexual sense) on rumdum.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word rumdum
'She's a smart dame, all right. Too bad she's tied to a rumdum like Pete who can't even get his rhubarb up any more, so everybody says.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word sweatbox
'Stan slipped out of the sweatbox, quietly parted the curtains, stepped into the comparatively cooler air of the main tent, and sauntered over toward the soft drink stand.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word crick
'The old man's jaw hung open, his eyes frowning with concentration, trying not to miss a single word.
"Yes, green trees. Probably willow trees near a crick. And I see something under those trees. A - it's a wagon."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word rube
'"Where did they go? You know, day after day I stand here - wondering just where do they go!" That's Thurston's gag. By God, I'm going to use it until I see one face - just one - in this bunch of rubes that gets the point. They never do.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word vanisher
'He placed the bills in his left hand, slipping them into the vanisher. "Blow on the hand-" The vanisher, released, thudded softly against his hip under his coat. "Lo and behold! Gone!"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word souse
'...Zeena's husband slept in the tent to watch the props, he said. Really it was because he was a souse and he couldn't make love to Zeena any more.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word devil
Citation (as verb) on kooch show.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word steady
Citation on kooch show.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word make
Citaion on kooch show.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word carny
Citation on kooch show.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word kooch show
'It was a job with a carny. There was a Hawaiian dance show, what they called a kooch show - two other girls and Molly. The fellow who ran it and did the talking was called Doc Abernathy. Molly didn't like him a bit and he was always trying to make the girls. Only Jeanette, one of the dancers, and Doc were steady and Jeanette was crazy-mad jealous of the other two. Doc used to devil her by horsing around with them.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hype gun
'...she started to scream and it was like laughing, only it felt horrible and she couldn't stop and then they came and stuck her arm with a hype gun and she went out again...'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word shamus
'The cop said, "Your Dad's been hurt, girlie. He's hurt real bad." He wasn't like a shamus now; he was more like the sort of man who might have a daughter himself.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word go to smash
'She was sixteen and all grown up when things went to smash. Some fellows from Chicago had come down and there was trouble at the place where Dad worked.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word get fresh
'... some of the boys whistled and that made Dad mad because he thought they were getting fresh...'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word softshoe
'Dad could dance a lot of softshoe himself and he never had a lesson.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word grubstake
'Only that was the year Centerboard ran out of the money and Dad had the bankroll on him to show and they had to sell everything they had to get a grubstake.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hold the clock
'Also Dad said it was a shame to go to bed early and miss everything when you could sleep late the next day and catch up - unless you had to be at the track for an early workout, to hold the clock on a horse, and then it was better to stay up and go to bed later.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word get into
Citation on bubbies.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word jump
Citation on bubbies.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word cupform
Citation on bubbies.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word the nuts
Citation on bubbies.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word bubbies
'But this brunette kid, Molly, is the nuts. What a pair of bubbies! High and pointed - and that ain't no cupform either, brother; that's God.
I wish to Christ that kraut Bruno would bust a blood vessel some day, bending them horseshoes. Goddamn, that Molly kid's got legs like a racehorse. Maybe I could give her one jump and then blow the show. Jesus, it would be worth it, to get into that.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word equalizer
'Some day I'll blast 'em. I don't keep that equalizer in my trunk to play Boy Scout with.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word the crawling shakes
'"That night you drag out the lecture and lay it on thick. All the while you're talking he's thinking about sobering up and getting the crawling shakes. You give him time to think it over, while you're talking. Then throw in the chicken. He'll geek."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word the horrors
Citation on rummy.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word rummy
'"...nothing scares a real rummy like the chance of a dry spell and getting the horrors."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word booze fool
'"Listen, kid. Do I have to draw you a damn blueprint? You pick up a guy and he ain't a geek - he's a drunk. A bottle-a-day booze fool. So you tell him like this: 'I got a little job for you. It's a temporary job. We got to get a new geek. So until we do you'll put on the geek outfit and fake it.' You tell him, 'You don't have to do nothing. You'll have a razor blade in your hand and when you pick up the chicken you give it a nick with the blade and then make like you're drinking the blood. Same with rats. The marks don't know any different.'"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word as sore as a bull's ass in fly time
'When Stan came back with the cold bottles, Hoately tilted his gratfeully. "Jesus, my throat's sore as a bull's ass in fly time."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word calliope
'Against the summer night the ferris wheel lights winked with the gaiety of rhinestones, the calliope's blast sounded as if the very steam pipes were tired.'
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word rubber
"The talker waited while the crowd rubbered."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word mark
'The "marks" surged in - young fellows in straw hats with their coats over their arms, here and there a fat woman with beady eyes.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word geek
"The geek was a thin man who wore a suit of long underwear dyed chocolate brown. The wig was black and looked like a mop, and the brown greasepaint on the emaciated face was streaked and smeared with the heat and rubbed off around the mouth."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word mitt reader
'"Jus' give me chance make a demonstration. Real, old-time, A-number-one mitt reader. Take one look at the mark, read past, present-"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word cold reading
'A guy who's good at the cold reading will never starve.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word mitt camp
Citation on grouchbag.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word raghead
Citation (in the sense of a sideshow swami) on grouchbag.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word cinch
Citation on grouchbag.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word grouchbag
'The beer was bitter and he began to feel a little edge from it. This was all right. Keep it at beer for a while. Get a stake, working the mitt camp. Get a good wad in the grouchbag and then try working Mexico. They say the language is a cinch to learn. And the damn country's wide open for ragheads. They advertise in all the papers down there. Give that mess with the cop time to cool and I can come back in a few years and start working California. Take a Spanish name maybe. There's a million chances.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hard cookie
Citation on nickle-nurser.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word nickel-nurser
'"You'll make it, kid," Joe said. "McGraw's a hard cookie, but he ain't a nickle-nurser once you got him sold."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word crap up
'The Negro's voice was softer. "Now you talking, brother. You let all that crap alone and come over here and talk. We got a long run ahead of us and ain't no use trying to crap each other up."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hand in one's checks
'"You cold, mister? Or you got a fever?"
"Just shaken up. I thought I was going to hand in my checks."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word hotfoot
'"Dewey sure is a sucker for the hotfoot. This must be a thousand times somebody gives him the hotfoot. It's a dozen times, at least, that I give him the hotfoot myself."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word cartomancer
'The Great Stanton smiled thinly, pointing to the cards before him. "This is the Tarot of the Romany cartomancers. A set of symbols handed down from remote antiquity, preserving in their enigmatic form the ancient wisdom through the ages."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word Wassermann
'With a twist of triumphant glee her mind drew pictures of her two sisters as she had seen them last: Mina, spare and virginal, still proud of a Phi Beta key after all these years of beating Latin into the heads of brats. And Gretel - still looking like a wax angel off a Tannenbaum, with half a lung left to breathe with and a positive Wassermann.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word Dream Street
Citation on spook dodge.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word spook dodge
'"Money doesn't mean anything to that guy. He's willing to give anything - just to get square with his conscience. He's overboard on the spook dodge. He's letting his business run itself. He's living on Dream Street."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word screwy
Citation on Queer Street.
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word Queer Street
"Molly was so happy she could cry. It had been a long time since they'd had anything like a holiday together. Stan had been acting so screwy she was afraid he was living on Queer Street."
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word how in the jumping blue merry blazes of hell
"But how in the jumping blue merry blazes of hell did he ever turn that light on and off inside the case?"
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word odylic force
'"You may have the gong - and the table, Mr. Grindle. It never before has rung by an exudation of psychic power - what we call the odylic force as it did just now. Someone must be trying to get through to you."'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word do the Dutch
'"Say, y'know that actress, Doree Evarts - the one that did the Dutch night before last in the hotel across the way?"'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word sob sister
'In his pocket was a clipping, the work of a sob sister thirty years ago.'
- Nightmare Alley, William Lindsay Gresham
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word okana borra
"'The switch is what the gypsies call okana borra - the great trick. You have the chump tie a buck up in his hanky. He sleeps on it and in the morning he has two bucks and comes running back with all his savings out of the teapot. Then when he wakes up next time he has nothing in the hank but a stack of paper and he comes back looking for the gypsy."'
- Gresham, Nightmare Alley, 1946
Jun 29, 2012
yarb commented on the word chump
See okana borra for citation.
Jun 29, 2012