bookkeeping

emperor: 770 words to start Chapter 6. Right at the moment I've got more stuff to have happen than I can conveniently keep track of, which feels like a damn good sign.

Must eat lunch.

LJ policy meme thingy

So, apparently, a thing's started going around with people explaining their policies and philosophies on "Friends" lists. heres_luck says it all beautifully and better than I could. Reading her didaction has made several things I knew but could not articulate come clear for me, and I am profoundly grateful. Thanks, HL!

( longish explanation of truepennyish philosophy about, and use of, LJ )

If you want to link to a post of mine, do. If you want to add me to your reading list, do. If you want to take me off your reading list, do. If you want to comment on an entry of mine, please do. I love the conversations that start and go in odd directions and make me think about things I haven't before. I may not comment back myself--I try not to reply to comments unless I actually have something to say--but that's not a marker of anything except, gosh, nothing to say.

You don't have to ask permission to add me, and you certainly don't need to apologize for taking me off. (I've succumbed to the apology impulse a couple of times, and it never ends well.) I would be grateful, if you choose to link to a post of mine, that you leave a comment to tell me so, but that's for my own curiosity.

Mirrorthaw and I caught about half of Pump Up The Volume the other night, and it made me think about how the movie's dominant trope of radio has become replaced by blogs and blogging communities.

So, as Mark says, talk hard.

I have to inflict this on the rest of y'all.

I apologize in advance.

So I'm cruising the OED Online, trying to find out when girlfriend in the sense of "romantic involvement" came into use (long story short: page proofs), and they offer this example of the use of girl-friend from the report of a wedding in 1896:

The "Wedding March" was whistled by twelve girl-friends of the bride.

Now I have been to some appalling weddings in my time, but never anything to match that.

The mind positively boggles.

Also, the "sweet girl-graduates" crack that annoys Harriet in Gaudy Night is a quote from Tennyson: "Sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair." Which figures.

And, hey, matociquala, you'll like this one. Examples for the compound girl-boy include this quote from Drayton's Heroical Epistles (1598):

And in my place vpon this regal throne,
To set that girle-boy wanton Gaueston

There's an example of girle-boyes from 1589, too.

disgruntlement

By sheer brute force of will, I have read through Thomas Heywood's "An Apology for Actors" (1612) and found the anecdote I need to stick in my introduction as part of the discussion of actual vs. narrative audiences. Have furthermore stuck the anecdote in the introduction and given it some nice analytical text to lie on. Introduction is now nearly 50 pages long and is beginning to frighten me more than a little.

Where am I wrt my list? (you ask, your little hearts palpitating with excitement and trepidation).

The first two items can be crossed off, as can the sixth and roughly 5/7ths of the eighth. An afternoon in the library on Thursday will take care of No. Seven (five articles--like I said, there ain't much out there), and Thursday evening can probably take care of the quotes on that front.

Which leaves me with The Revengers Tragedy and the conclusion. Wah!

But none of that is happening tonight. I have a story to get back to.

frog quiz

found via redbird

( I'm not sure whether to be delighted or appalled. )