"I say, Uncle Peter, need I give him my book? I don't think he's a very nice man. I hate people who ask you to decline nouns for them."

"The Learned Adventure of the Dragon's Head," Dorothy Sayers

My new copy of the Oxford Latin Dictionary just arrived in a box vehemently marked KEEP REFRIGERATED.

I rather wonder if I have been mistreating my many dictionaries these long years.

"You have come to Oxford," [the Warden] concluded, "some of you to hunt foxes, some of you to wear very large and unusual overcoats, some of you to row for your college, and a few of you to work. But all of you have come to Oxford to remain English gentlemen. In after life when you are ambassadors or proconsuls and members of Parliament you will ( Read more... )

"Michael read unceasingly at home, preferably books that encouraged the private schoolboy's instinct to take sides. Michael was for the Trojans against the Greeks, partly on account of the Greek verbs."

Sinister Street, Compton Mackenzie

I'm not sure that that's the correct conclusion ( Read more... )

I seem to have packed my copy of Gaudy Night and shipped it back to America.

If anyone happens to have a copy to hand and a few minutes of free time, I would be grateful if he or she might post or e-mail to me the exchange where Wimsey explains the popping sound that arises from wearing off-the-peg dress shirts.

1) Catoptromancy is a form of divination using mirrors.

2) If one were interested in Pilate's inkpot in the ceremonial of the Byzantine emperor he could see O. Treitinger's Die oströmische Kaiser- und Reichsidee nach ihrer Gestaltung im höfischen Zeremoniell (Jena, 1938). At least, that is, if he read German.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/books/17knox.html?hpw

Not much of a change--my New York visit hardly included any cocktail bars at all, and my nights in New Orleans were more often occupied with parties than bars:

Updated to 21 out of 72 (nearly 30%) after this last trip, during which I marked off Pegu Club, The Carousel Bar, and the Old Absinthe House, as well as M&H NYC:

Bars to Visit Before Your ( Read more... )

The churchwardens are very pleased to announce that the Revd David Cherry is to become the next Vicar of St Mary’s, Bourne Street and St Barnabas, Pimlico. Fr Cherry, who was brought up in South Africa, was educated at Cape Town University (B.Mus. 1986), Leeds University (B.A. 1991) and the College of the Resurrection, Mirfield. Ordained in 1992 ( Read more... )