Posts tagged as:

New York Times

ELEGIAC [el-i-JAHY-uhk] : pertaining to an elegy; expressing sorrow or lament

August 23, 2012

Who escaped high school English classes without having to study, memorize, or recite such elegies as “O Captain, my Captain” by Walt Whitman or Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray? At the time the themes seemed morbid and funereal to a teenager, but it was an important piece of literary inquiry which [...]

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ABRAHAMIC TRADITION: belonging to a community which traces its history to Abraham

June 13, 2012

In a very interesting op-ed piece in Wednesday’s New York Times, David  V. Mason, an associate professor of theater at Rhodes College, explains his unique understanding that as a Mormon he does not see himself as a Christian.   This flies in the face of numerous positions that have been stated over the past couple of [...]

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COPROPHILIA: a sensitive concept; caution advised before reading

November 25, 2011

I’m serious about the comment in the title.  This is a “dirty” definition. I stumbled across the term coprophilia in an article in Sunday’s New York Times in the Book Review section, of all places.  It was imbedded in an article by Dorothy Gallagher, an author, who was reviewing a new book, Eva Braun by [...]

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DETERMINISM: the principle that all events are planned and unavoidable

March 23, 2011

In the realm of philosophy there are two opposing principles which pop up in our lives on a regular basis:  determinism and free will. Just yesterday a very fine article by John Tierney, entitled “Do You Have Free Will? Yes, It’s the Only Choice” appeared in the Science Times section of the NYT. Tierney traces [...]

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PISSANT: despicable (This posting is rated “R.”)

March 12, 2011

You may have noticed that there is no graphic attached to this posting.   I made the decision to avoid attaching one after discovering that those available were either too gross to be displayed or so vague in their connection to the word pissant as to be useless.  So I’ll just let you add your own [...]

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LOCOMATED: transported by a locomotive to a fairy-tale setting.

September 26, 2010

My wife and I needed a mindless day on which we could sit back, drink in our surroundings, and not be bothered by things like medical issues, work problems, or household chores.   I acted impulsively, therefore, when I read an article in the Travel section of The New York Times on Friday. (see p. C33)   [...]

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AVATAR: the descent of a deity to the earth in an incarnate form or some manifest shape; the incarnation of a god.

June 1, 2010

Before you write to tell me that I’ve already talked about the movie, Avatar, let me explain.  This post is not about the movie, Avatar; it is about the word, avatar. I was not aware of the fact that the word was a noun in existence prior to the movie.  It turns out that it [...]

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