Sunday, August 02, 2009

Virga

"the presence of his widow in my office caused my months of dogged rationalization to evaporate like virga."

- Stephen White (New York Times, Aug 1, 2009)

Okay, quick show of hands: how many of you knew that virga are wisps of precipitation that evaporate before they reach the ground?

Should I be depressed that pulpy crime thriller writers have a better vocabulary than I do?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I did not know.

As to whether you should feel depressed - it is up to you.

-P

Anonymous said...

I have been wanting to ask you something for a long time. What makes you live? And how do you find so much time to do all that you do - acads, blogging, reading, composing poetry, going to concerts and operas etc. etc. You know what I mean?

For example, I used to blog two years ago (was quite decent actually). Now I can't blog even a single post. I occasionally get some good ideas but some 15 minutes later they seem nonsense. The situation is true of many aspects of my life.

Any wisdom you would like to share, a blog post on the topic would be even better.

-P

Anonymous said...

Should we be depressed that the "erudite" Falstaff ,we all love , is reading articles by pulpy crime thriller writers and getting depressed about it ?


@P : Ah you don't want to get into that...it's a deep secret. The answers to that will shake the deep fabric of your reality consciousness. Or something.
Let me just say that there is more than that meets the eye and that is not merely because Falstaff is tall.

Shanth said...

Never underestimate a pulpy crime thriller writer with a thesaurus (or Victorian era almanacs, or google).

km said...

And such a good word too. (Though I was going to guess it meant a Russian virgin. Or something.)

clueless comrades said...

I had no idea..

hopscotch said...

Aah! A new word added to my vocabulary today (and I mis-read it as viagra first time around :)

Falstaff said...

P: Finding time is easy - you live alone, don't socialize, cook the most basic meals, sleep 5, maybe 6 hours a day and there you are. As for blogging, the key is to get the post up before those 15 minutes are up and then NEVER read it again.

Anon: Everyone should be depressed. And I suppose that's as good a reason as any.

Shanth: Wait, pulpy crime thriller writers have Victorian era almanacs? No wonder my book is getting nowhere.

km: True. I thought it was some kind of vodka cocktail. You know, like a bloody Mary without the tomato juice.

clueless: Well, now you know.

hopscotch: See, and people say you can't learn things from a newspaper.

Anonymous said...

"As for blogging, the key is to get the post up before those 15 minutes are up and then NEVER read it again."

That explains why most of your blog posts are so short :)

-P

Anonymous said...

No, it just means you don't have the vocabulary to write pulpy crime thrillers. stick to the menacing short stories about suicidal red underwear and you'll be fine.

hope this helps. i am a regular pollyanna today.

n!

M said...

Maybe those "pulpy crime thriller writers" are acads in disguise?

M

M said...

YES! Please do. anything human.