Judi > Recent Status Updates

Against Extremity

Charles Tomlinson
(January 8th; 1927 —)

."What I was advocating when this form of excess was at its height, was the need for a human balance and a suspicion of the ego which had played such a self-regarding role in the drama. ..

The Ball Poem

John Berryman
(October 25th 1914 — January 7th 1972)

John Berryman was born John Alleyn Smith Jr. His father shot himself when John was 12, and his mother hastily remarried Mr Berryman just two months later. From his early life it would seem, Berryman wa 'afflicted by a sense of L O S S' as his alter ego Henry would later claim in The Dream Songs.

January 11

'Tis the star-spangled banner;
O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free,
and the home of the brave!
Francis Scott Key, lyricist, who died today, 1814.

January 10

1839 Indian tea is auctioned for the first time in Britain.

His Pilgrimage

Sir Walter Raleigh
(c. 1552 — October er 29th 1618)

... He remained there for 12 years, during which time he wrote prodigiously and produced, amongst other works, The History of the World. The first volume reaching only as far as 130 BC, In the preface he thanked his enemy for incarcerating him: "For had it been otherwise, I should hardly have had the leisure, to have made myself a fool in print."

Requiem: The Soldier

Humbert Wolfe
(January 5th 1885 — January 5th 1940)

Humbert Wolfe was born Umberto Wolff in Italy to a German Jewish father and an Italian Jewish mother but the family moved to Bradford, England, shortly afterward. He spent the war years working in the Ministry of Munitions and the Ministry of Labour, and was respected as a courageous mediator.

January 9

This vice brings in one hundred million francs in taxes every year. I will certainly forbid it at once — as soon as you can name a virtue that brings in as much revenue,
Napoleon III, upon being asked to ban smoking. The emperor died today in exile in Kent at the age of 65 — 1873.

Xavier Zay-vee-ur ,ZaY-vyur; or Zav-ee-ur, ZAV-yur.

The Spanish pronunciation is hah-VYAIR.
Xavier should be pronounced in either three or two syllables, and the X should be pronounced like Z in Zanzibar. Beastly mispronunciation occurs when speakers attempt to pronounce the X like ex- in example or excuse, which winds up adding a fourth syllable to the word. Do no say ig-ZAY-vee-ur or ek-SAY-vee-ur; ...

DRAINAGE

The uplifting and warping of the surface of the continent that occurred during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs procured a number of structural basins; these are now either individually occupied by, or are linked up with, drainage systems. With the exception of the Chad Basin, all the major drainage basins have outlets to the sea. In addition, minor drainage basins, similar to that of Lake Chad, are ...

Climatic regions. When considered in detail, the movement of air masses and their effects provide the basis for a division of the continent into eight climatic regions. These are the hot desert, semi-arid, tropical wet-and dry, equatorial (tropical wet), Mediterranean, humid subtropical marine, warm temperate upland, and mountain regions.
The hot desert region comprised the Sahara and Kalahari, which are always...

Xanthippe zan-TIP-ee or Zan-THIP-ee.

Xanthippe was the wife of Socrates, and she is as proverbial for henpecking and browbeating the old gadfly as he is revered for dismembering his disciples with casuistry and syllogisms, since the late seventeenth century we have been using Xanthippe, spelled with a capital X, to mean an ill-tempered, shrewish woman—a termagant (TUR-muh-gant), virago (vi-RAY-goh or vi-RAH-goh).

January 8

1895 French poet Paul Verlaine dies in poverty.

La Figlia che Piange
O quad te memorem virgo ...

...
Compelled my imagination many days,
Many days and many hours:
Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers,
And I wonder how they should have been together!
I should have lost a gesture and a pose.
Sometimes this cogitations still amaze
The troubled midnight and the noon's repose.

T. S. Eliot
(September 26th 1888 — January 4th 1965)

The Confirmation

Edwin Muir
(May 15th 1887 — January 3rd 1959)

... In her memoir Belonging, Willa wrote that the poem "sent me into a passion of tears, because I knew too well that I was only a botched version of what I was meant to be." Edwin commented however, that, "My marriage was the most fortunate event in my life:".

January 7

1970 Woodstock Festival — the biggest-ever rock event, held over three days last August with an attendance of half a million — caused $35,000 damage, neighbours claimed today in a civil action against Max Yasgur, the farmer who owns the land on which the festival was held.

wont WAWNT (rhymes with gaunt); or WUHNT (rhymes with hunt; or WOHNT (like won't). Occasionally WAHNT (like want).

Wont may mean accustomed, and is used attributively, as: "That night he retired at the hour he was wont to" or it may mean custom, usual practice , as: "while visiting Europe, she ran five miles each morning, as was her wont at home."
This word dates back to the twelfth century, and for most of its...

CLIMATE
Factors influencing the African climate. Q number of factors influence the climate of the African continent.
Firstly, practically the whole of the continent—which extends from latitude 35°S to about 37°N—lies within the tropical zone. Secondly, the near bisection of the continent by the Equator results in a largely symmetrical arrangement of climatic zones on either side. This symmetry is, however, ...

PRESENT GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES AND RELIEF.
Africa represents a magnificent example of the relation of geological structure to relief. In the north, the chains of the Atlas Mountains, extending from west to east, evoke the orogenesis of the Alpine episode and are separated from the Sahara basement rock by the great interrupted line of the souther Atlas. Egypt, by contrast, exposes the magnitude of the Cretaceous ...