this week’s Thought (singular)
told myself to drink more water by doubling down on the fact that it tastes good, but the plan backfired because i realised that the longer you don’t drink water, the better it tastes when you finally do
hi
here are a few words that i’ve recently come across that i absolutely adore and one hundred percent will not remember to use in regular conversation -
palimpsest (noun) - something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form
‘You could reinvent your habits, your friendships, and your opinions, but your personality will always be a palimpsest of what it was in high school.’
sesquipedalian (adjective) - long-winded
‘This newsletter tries, but doesn’t do a very good job of being succinct and to-the-point. To be sesquipedalian and rambling is more its brand.’
perspicacity (noun) - the quality of having a ready insight into things; shrewdness
‘She might be morally bankrupt, but because of her business acumen and perspicacity, she will still be successful in her field.’
denouement (noun) - the final part of a play, film, or narrative in which the strands of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved
(thoroughly attached to this definition and everything it entails)
‘My favourite mystery novels are those that have satisfying yet interesting denouements.’
that’s all i’ve really got for you today. here’s to hoping you’re more successful than i am at remembering these on the spot.
English Recitation Competition
Answer July, Emily Dickinson
Answer July— Where is the Bee— Where is the Blush— Where is the Hay? Ah, said July— Where is the Seed— Where is the Bud— Where is the May— Answer Thee—Me— Nay—said the May— Show me the Snow— Show me the Bells— Show me the Jay! Quibbled the Jay— Where be the Maize— Where be the Haze— Where be the Bur? Here—said the Year—
How could I have known I would need to remember your laughter, Lauren K. Alleyne
the way it ricocheted—a boomerang flung from your throat, stilling the breathless air. How you were luminous in it. Your smile. Your hair tossed back, flaming. Everyone around you aglow. How I wanted to live in it those times it ignited us into giggles, doubling us over aching and unmoored for precious minutes from our twin scars— the thorned secrets our tongues learned too well to carry. It is impossible to imagine you gone, dear one, your laugh lost to some silence I can’t breach, from which you will not return.
My Mother is a Fish, Peter Balakian
My mother is a fish and flutters in my bucket. The sky is a fleck of stones on the night water. Turns my arms silver. The wind calls my father out to where bigger birds call and caw and spin, where my father goes and leaves me with the mud and gulls on the patchy water.
A Poll!
Middle School Book Review
Girls at the Edge of the World by Laura Brooke Robson
very nice fantasy and very creative world-building. fiercely human characters, messy relationships, and nuanced interactions that are absolute delights to read.
A Picture!
The Good Side of the Internet
How a 50s Food Writer Championed Kerala's Cuisine, One Column at a Time
Mrs KM Mathew captured a collective culinary memory with food that had remained confined to Kerala’s regionally distinct kitchens: sticky, sweet jackfruit ada, prawn pappas, beef pattichu varathathu. Nikhita Venugopal studies the story of her columns, while exploring the parallel history of how women’s magazines and periodicals changed the way that Indian recipes and culinary traditions were passed on.
a quick note, but still a love note:
practice is holy.
The Rise and Fall of the Pop Star Purity Ring
The mainstream sentiment that the sexual choices for teenagers are either “pure virgin” or “slut,” seems absolutely ancient in 2018, when words like “slut-shaming” and “girl hate” have infiltrated the common vernacular. But if you were a teen in the 2000s, chances are you were inundated with specifically Evangelical Christian messages about how important it was to wait for sex and preserve your virginity. And you didn’t need to go to church to come into contact with these messages. Just paying attention to a VMAs red carpet was enough.
Jesse Galganov disappeared while backpacking in Peru nearly five years ago. When a friend goes missing, writes Ben Libman, there’s both everything and nothing to do about it.
this week’s Song
Naina Morey - Redefined by Umashankar Kathak
thank you for reading, and see you next week <3
agree? disagree? feel pretty ambivalent about the whole thing? let me know!