BITS & PIECES OF A MISPLACED LIFE:WORDS,WORDS,WORDS

PAGE FROM THE NEW CENTURY DICTIONARY (1944)
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DEFINITION OF A LIBERAL (circa 1960’s)

“What is a liberal? A liberal finds it in his heart 
to forgive Jane Fonda for being in Hanoi, but not 
for being in Barbarella.”
                          David Frost

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CONFUCIUS ON LANGUAGE & JUSTICE GOING ASTRAY

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not 
what is meant; if what is said is not meant, then what 
ought to be done remains undone; if this remains undone,
 morals and art will deteriorate; if morals and art 
deteriorate, justice will go astray; if justice goes
 astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence, there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”
                         Confucius

“One should not aim at being possible to understand, 
but aim at being impossible to misunderstand.”
                                          Quintillian

See “Who is behind the assault in English” 
by Lincoln Arnett in Horizon, volume V (July, 1963)
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ON PUTTING OUT A FIRE

“ BRITISH INTELLIGENCE: In Newstead Abbey, once the home 
of Lord Byron, a sign near s fire hose reads, ‘In case 
of fire, press starter switch, take down hose, and proceed 
to subdue the outbreak.'"
Cited in The New Yorker (March 12, 1984)
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SUBCONSCIOUS – What Admiral Rickover was

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ON BEING A BEAR LEADER OR A FRUMP

A bear-leader is “One who undertakes the charge of 
a young man of rank on his travels. It was customary 
to lead muzzled bears about the streets, and to make 
them show off in order to attract notice and gain money.
 Under favor, young gentleman, I am the bear-leader, 
being appointed your tutor. – G. Colman, Heir-at-Law

Frump –“The modern dictinaries define this as a cross-tempered, old fashioned woman. This is just the reverse of its original signification which, according to Bailey, was ‘plump, fat, jolly’”

Fact, Fancy, and Fable. 1889


   NRACOTIC—The biggest drug in the United States.
            Renders the Senate and House of 
            Representatives completely numb

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"In a time when the word 'Peace-Keeper" has been 
mongrolized to the point where it is the name of 
an offense missile."

"The Talk of the Town" in The New Yorker March 12, 1984)
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cucking-stool (n.)
The Cucking-stool was a means adopted for the punishment of scolds and incorrigible women by ducking them in the water, after having secured them in a chair or stool, fixed at the end of a long pole, serving as a lever by which they were immersed in some muddy or stinking pond. [Willis's Current Notes, February 1851]
early 13c., from verbal noun from cuck "to void excrement," 
from Old Norse kuka "feces," from PIE root *kakka- "to defecate." So called because they sometimes resembled 
the old close stool of the pre-plumbing days, a portable 
indoor toilet that looked like a chair with a box under 
the seat. Old folk etymology made the first element a 
corruption of cotquean. For second element, see stool.
 Also known as trebucket and castigatory, it was used
 on fraudulent tradesmen, in addition to disorderly 
women, either for public exposure to ridicule or for
ducking."

On-Line Etymological Dictionary
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“The grossest thing in our gross national product today is our language. It is suffering from inflation.”
                                                                 James Reston
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VICTOR BORGE ON "INFLATION & THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE"

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MAIL BAGS FOR THE OLD PONY EXPRESS

"Mochila" means "knapsack" in Spanish, and it’s the name given to the mailbags used on the Pony Express. They were leather with four pockets and hung over the saddle. The pockets were always kept locked; three of them contained mail and could only be opened at military posts, and the fourth contained a timecard.

Source: National Postal Museum
History Quiz website (January 12, 2023)
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from CELEBRATIONS & BEWILDERMENTS
(poems based upon passages from Alice in Wonderland)

  "They were learning to draw," the Dormouse went on,
yawning and rubbing its eyes for it was getting very
sleepy: "and they drew all manner of things -- everything
that begins with an M..."
   "Why with an M?" said Alice.
   "Why not?" said the March Hare.

        My muse makes merry,
        Much music
        Made mirthful,
        Moon-mad.
        More,more,more.
        More mischief.
        My mien
        Mirrors 
        My moods,
        My Mind,
        My manners,
        Metered motion,
        My muse makes melody.

        Metaphor mends me,
        My mad medley,
        Man-matrixed.
        Matter mold me,
        Mouth mysteries,
        Mute miracles.
        Mountebank, mourn me,
        My measured masque.
        My muse moves me.
        My metaphor mends me.

              Louis Phillips

Celebrations & Bewilderments was originally published
in FRAGMENTS 7, with graphics by Neil Greenberg.
Republished by World Audience Publishers in 2018.