Continuing last fortnight's theme, Mr Slang examines the lexicography of 'specialist' book titles, and uncovers a "grim commentary on the tropes of male excitement..." This is it, I promise. The last one. But pondering the verbose titles of the 19th century pornography, I could but compare them with modernity, or nearly ... Read More...
Month: August 2014
Today marks the 133rd birthday of the once extremely popular US poet Edgar Guest... Born on this day in 1881 (in England's Second City, Birmingham, though his family soon emigrated to the Land of the Free) was Edgar Guest, whose uplifting, nationally syndicated verse became so popular in the US that ... Read More...
In the autumn Jonathan Law will be returning with a major new series on a remarkable family of eccentrics. In the meantime, here's a rerun of his take on the underexplored literary topic of 'Cake imagery in the writings of Sylvia Plath'... On a damp afternoon one May, enraged cake-obsessive ‘ianf’ ... Read More...
Mahlerman combines sublime music with the work of great female photographers... Around the middle of the 19th Century, Robert Schumann's wife Clara, a brilliant pianist and sometime composer, gave up writing music because 'no woman has been able to do it', which, broadly speaking was true, and has remained so to ... Read More...
A strange form of culture shock, or something more? The Wikiworm uncovers more odd goings on, courtesy of this week's weird Wikipedia article... Paris syndrome (French: Syndrome de Paris, Japanese: Pari shōkōgun) is a transient psychological disorder encountered by some individuals visiting or vacationing in Paris, France or elsewhere in Western Europe. It is characterized by a number ... Read More...
This week, strange happenings down by the filthy old canal... I was out sashaying along the towpath of the filthy old canal the other morning when I was accosted by an ACRONYM – an Asbo-Carrying Ruffian Of Narrow Yob Mentality. He growled something unintelligible at me in his barbaric innit-sprache, which ... Read More...
Special giveaway time today on The Dabbler - simply use the form below to like our Dabbler Facebook page and you can be in with a chance of winning one of 5 hardback copies of this fantastic new Man Booker prize nominated novel, courtesy of Chatto & Windus... Dabbler Book Club ... Read More...
Douglas Dalrymple considers American attitudes to genealogy and knowing one's place... Uncle Marv numbers his socks with permanent marker, “1” for left and “2” for right. That way he gets each one on the correct foot and his toes are happy. He’s retired now but used to work on computers for ... Read More...
Commenting on Frank Key's bedtime story about the glib hatter, Adelephant recommended the story of The Hobyahs as suitable follow-up reading matter. This remarkable folk story was collected in Joseph Jacobs' 1890 work 'English Fairy Tales'. I offer no analysis or comment - it really does speak for itself... Once there was ... Read More...
Exclusively for The Dabbler, here is a glorious extract from Jonathan Meades' new memoir An Encyclopaedia of Myself. Sign up to the free Book Club at the bottom of the piece for a chance to win a copy... Dabbler editor Brit recently described 'An Encyclopaedia of Myself' as having a 'perfect ... Read More...
