Post-Vacation Processing

Naturally, when I get back from vacation, I start Photoshopping the photos.

A Duotone of the Santa Fe Opera House.

The Valles Caldera modified.

Dad's house.

Doggone!

There were a zillion prairie dogs in the Valles Caldera, but I couldn't get a good shot of any of them.  The closest I got was one of a prairie dog butt as it dived into its hole.  I had to borrow pictures from Chuck.  Here they are, after the usual Photoshopping.

The Missing Word

I am indebted to Chuck for recovering the word retronym (of which there are many examples).  I had learned it long ago, then forgot the word while remembering the definition.  Why does my brain do this?

retronym, n.

Pronunciation:  Brit. /ˈrɛtrə(ʊ)nɪm/ , U.S. /ˈrɛtroʊˌnɪm/

Etymology:  < retro- prefix + -onym comb. form.

orig. U.S.

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  A neologism created for an existing object or concept because the exact meaning of the original term used for it has become ambiguous (usually as a result of a new development, technological advance, etc.).A retronym typically consists of the original term combined with a modifying word.

1980   W. Safire in N.Y. Times Mag. 27 July 8/1   Frank Mankiewicz, president of National Public Radio, collects these terms and calls them ‘retronyms’—nouns that have taken an adjective to stay up-to-date and to fend off newer terms. Other retronyms include ‘hard-cover book’.

1988   Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 6 Nov. g1   True art lay elsewhere, probably in what we now, in a classic retronym, call ‘live drama’.

1995   I. L. Allen City in Slang ix. 229   The name East Village was given..to borrow prestige from the name of Greenwich Village or just The Village, which then became known..by the retronym West Village.

2003   Edmonton (Alberta) Jrnl. (Nexis) 22 Nov. a13   Older folks, who actually grew up when all clocks had moving hands, phones had dials and wires, and milk was just plain old milk, are usually familiar with both the item and its retronym (analogue clock, rotary and land-line phones and whole milk).

retronym, n.
Third edition, March 2010; online version June 2012. <http://www.oed.com.ezp-prod1.hul.harvard.edu/view/Entry/266828>; accessed 23 August 2012.

Back From NM

I spent a week in New Mexico.  I saw five operas and one concert, hiked in Bandelier and the Valles Caldera, went to Santa Fe and Tesuque.  Here are a few photos.

 

For more these and more photos in a variety of sizes go to: https://picasaweb.google.com/113500384056871252807/NM82012

My Favorite Bookplate

Many zillions of years ago I checked out a book with the infamous Widener bookplate.  (It wasn't the following book; I'm just using it as an example.)

Read the second bookplate.

[from Twenty-Six Historic Ships]

I was rather shocked, because I didn't know the story behind the infamous bookplate:

"In 1931 Joel C. Williams, A.M. '09, Ed.M. '29, a former instructor at Groton and a former high-school principal, was caught with 2,504 stolen Widener books at his home in Dedham, Massachusetts. He said he was preparing himself for a college professorship. His thieving had begun eight or 10 years before, but had stopped a year and a half before he was caught when, according to a newspaper account, "extraordinary steps were taken by the Harvard authorities to prevent students 'sneaking' books out of the library without permission. A turnstile was erected at that time and suspicious bundles were ordered examined." An editorial writer in the Boston Post said that the case "suggests impaired mentality." When the books came back to Widener, librarians had an acerbic bookplate printed and affixed to each volume. It reads, "This book was stolen from Harvard College Library. It was later recovered. The thief was sentenced to two years at hard labor. 1932." A security measure of sorts."  From Harvard Magazine.  The Crimson article.

Note that, though literally true, the text of that bookplate is misleading.

Despite the security measures, the thieving continued.

[from A Source Book in American History to 1787]

A Hot Weekend

Juliet relaxes on the patio.

 

The trees outside my patio help keep my electric bill down.

But even in July, Romeo is making lots of fur.  I could stuff a mattress with what he sheds!

Victoriana, etc.

I'm reading The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime by Judith Flanders.  I picked it up because I loved Judith Flanders's earlier book Inside the Victorian Home: A Portrait of Domestic Life in Victorian England.  JF writes intelligent, funny, fascinating social history.  One of the more fascinating facts from TIM is that well-off Victorians collected Staffordshire figures of murderers and victims.

Potash Farm, the home of murderer James Blomfield Rush

.
The barn where William Corder (at the door) murdered Maria Marten (at the left).

The Victorians united the charmingness of porcelain with the grisliness of murder!

From Planet to Galaxy

Last Friday some buddies and I ate at the newish Veggie Galaxy.  It is certainly fancier than Veggie Planet, of which this is an offshoot.

Julie was relaxed and out of focus.

 Dave was a bit sharper.  In the background, a woman signals.

 Dave's view of me is slanted.

 Laureen approves!

Next time I'm going to have the Eggs Benedict, which Julie says is very good.  My black-bean hamburger was just OK.  The chocolate cream pie, however, was fantastic.

Off to a Better Place

Today was Vida and Ranald's last day (before retirement).  So we sent them off properly with a party.

We had pizza from Otto and cake from Finale.  Naturally, since many of us have been around for longer than we care to think about, a flood of reminiscences spewed forth.  Then Charles dropped in, and the reminiscing got really serious, since he knows the history of everybody.  He recalled many scandals and was able to satisfy my curiosity about one old one.  I had heard that a German bibliographer had gotten money from Harvard to go to the Frankfurt Book Fair and get Widener some books, but he didn't actually go, and so he got canned.  But then Jon said that wasn't true.  I wanted to know what was true.  Charles said that the bibliographer had made appointments to see all sorts of book dealers in Frankfurt; but he didn't show up for any of the appointments.  So the dealers e-mailed Harvard asking "Did this guy die or what?"  This question led to the discovery that the bibliographer had used the Frankfurt-Book-Fair money to take his family to Switzerland for a ski vacation.  He got canned.  However, this goofy behavior had not prevented him from getting high-paid library jobs elsewhere.

This is a sobering story to hear at the end of one's working life!

Better Late Than Never

As one of our office mates prepares to retire, he is clearing up various problems before he leaves.  Here's a truck of books he's had by his desk as long as I've known him.

This old book is slated for repair.

Note the date on the slip.

Olde Tyme Harpers Hooked its Readers

Steve discovered this clever advertising ploy from Harpers of the 20s and 30s.  While he was trolling the Hathi Trust site for an old cookbook, he found an example of a Harpers Sealed Mystery.  These books had a seal enclosing a portion of the last pages (said portion determined by the author).  Harper promised to refund the purchase price of any HSM that was returned with the seal intact.  I'll bet this helped loosen the purse strings of many a mystery fan.  Very few books were actually returned.

I checked the catalog and found a few titles from the series in Widener.  These 2 still have the front part of the seal.   (Larger versions of these pictures available here.)

HOLLIS record

HOLLIS Record

Mt. Auburn Animals

Last Thursday Laureen and I took a walk in Mount Auburn Cemetery.  I was especially keen to see critters.  I'd once seen a Great Blue Heron there.

Here's a baby bunny nibbling grass near a pond.

Here's a handsome hawk strutting among the tombstones.

Here's a busy mother turkey.  We met an elderly man who spent a lot of time there.  He told us that coyotes came out near evening, and he showed us a picture on his camera.  It looked something like the following:

More photos here.:https://picasaweb.google.com/113500384056871252807/MountAuburnCemetery

Happy Birthday Chuck

For more fun stuff see: https://picasaweb.google.com/113500384056871252807/ClipartAnimals

Damp Lunch

Steve, Sue, and I went to the Cellar for lunch.  Steve got me lunch as payment for my sewing up his kitchen curtains.  He also gave me some  Thymes mandarin coriander soap and hand lotion.  They smell wonderful!  It rained heavily as we walked back to work.  Sue's shoes got soaked.

Seven for Drinks Only

Last night seven of us went out to toast JB's 58th birthday.
First we went to First Printer.  Since we didn't want dinner, they said we could only sit at the bar.  We wanted a table, so we could all face each other.
Next we went to the Russell House Tavern.  Since we didn't want dinner, they said we could only sit at the bar.  We wanted a table, so we could all face each other.
Diane suggested that this was a "dry crawl" rather than a "pub crawl."
We didn't have all night: JB had said he needed to go home at 6 and clean the house and get groceries.
Steve suggested OM, which most of us had never been to.  At last we had a place to sit down.  We got an alcove of comfy benches and coffee tables hidden behind a bead curtain, just like in the movies!  We had 2 bottles of wine, and JB had a martini.  The vegetable dumplings we got were not enough to prevent inebriation.  We convinced JB that he didn't have to go home at 6.

Afterwards Julie and I went to Sue's house to wait for Dave and drink water.  Then when Dave came, he asked us how we spelled "dilemma."  I've always spelled it DILEMMA, but everybody else remembers spelling it DILEMNA.  Interesting.

SOS Sunday

Today Rosemary and I decided to check out Somerville Open Studios.  We took the T to Davis Square* for starters.

Consuelo Perez makes art out of recycled stuff.  Since these 2 pieces were outside, I thought it would be OK to photograph them.

The Museum of Modern Renaissance was easy to spot.

The Davis Square neighborhood is full of huge old houses with character.

 This is an especially nice bird house along the bike path.

It says "BRYANT CHAMBERS" in stone.  You'll just have to trust me.

*When I moved up east, I was surprised to find out that a "Square"  was an intersection and an undefined area around it.  I expected a Square to be square, like a Plaza.