… reading Francis Wheen:
“The economic experiment that Margaret Thatcher initiated in Britain a quarter century ago was later imposed on much of the world by her drooling epigones, and copied even by liberal and social democratic politicians.”
words
A word I just learned…
… reading P.G. Wodehouse:
“Personally, if anyone had told me that a tie like that suited me, I should have risen and struck them on the mazzard, regardless of their age and sex; but poor old Bingo simply got all flustered with gratification, and smirked in the most gruesome manner.”
Like a lot of the best words, “mazzard,” as a slang term for head, is obsolete. What a pity. Time to bring it back into circulation, I say.
A word I just learned…
… reading S.J. Perelman:
“On which grisly note, I pinch your claws, wish you all possible success in your chosen career (womanizing and refined peculation of Her Majesty’s inland taxes), and beg your return favor.”
A word I just learned…
… reading S.J. Perelman:
“Really, it’s unspeakable, and while you may feel that you’re in a wasteland, that the vitality of New York does occasionally infuse one, and that LA is sheer barbarism, don’t repine unduly.”
A word I just learned…
A word I just learned…
… reading Francis Wheen:
“The Lady Chatterley case ushered in the permissive Sixties; the Oz case looked like a last desperate attempt by mid-Victorian fogeys to stop that corybantic orgy.”
A word I just learned…
… reading Caitlin Moran:
“Ninety-three years after women got the vote, they still aren’t saying very much. Well, obviously they are saying a lot: they’re in the kitchen getting the tea ready, and shouting at Toby Young spraffing on on Today – his ability to be a total tit about any and all events so reliable, you could use it to power an atomic clock.”
A word I just learned…
… reading P.G. Wodehouse:
“Mr Riesbitter lit a cigar, and looked at us solemnly over his zareba of chins.”
A word I just learned…
… reading S.J. Perelman:
(He uses a hyphen, Merriam-Webster online doesn’t.)
“Until Sorong, the last port, we had as well on the third-class deck a bevy of twenty Balinese cows vaguely descended from carabao, the water buffalo renowned in song and story. All this olla-podrida makes for sound, smell, and lots of activity – and no gainful work whatever for your snaggle-toothed admirer, who has been dreaming away the days like crazy.”
Rannygazoo 