Art Imitates Music

I just saw this fascinating article in New Scientist:

Boléro: 'Beautiful symptom of a terrible disease'

The painting above, called Unravelling Boléro, is a measure-by-measure visual representation of Ravel's Boléro. The scientist-turned-artist who painted it, Anne Adams, was suffering from the early stages of a rare neurological disease called primary progressive aphasia. The parts of her brain responsible for speech were slowly degenerating, leaving her eventually unable to speak at all. In its early stages this disease sometimes causes a blurring of the distinctions between the different senses. Victims can also develop repetitive behaviors. Accordingly the painting, like the music, slowly builds to its climax through many variations of the theme. Remarkably, some scientists think that Ravel may also have been a victim of primary progressive aphasia. This could explain the structure of the piece that so captivated Adams. Tragically, the disease eventually cost Anne Adams her life.

Word of the Day - Crapulous

My dumpster diving into Dictionary.com turned up another gem:

crapulous - suffering the effects of gross intemperance, especially in drinking

I wouldn't call this one useless because even if your audience doesn't know what it means they'll be able to guess! They'll guess wrong, of course, but they'll still get the gist of what you're saying. Notice, too, that it's another one of those dictionary-in-hand ad hominem attack words I was talking about yesterday. Those guys really know how to tell each other off, don't they?

Useless words

There are really quite a few useless words in the English language. I saw one the other day in an online post:

tintinnabulation - the sound of ringing bells

This word is a waste of breath. Why not just say "ringing"? But it did me one favor: it sent me running to the dictionary. Do you ever spend time just flipping through the dictionary looking for words you never heard of? I do. Of course these days you can do it online. You can do everything online these days. (Well, almost everything). So I found a few more useless words I'd like to share with you:

eleemosynary - of or for charity; charitable
flagitious - disgracefully or shamefully criminal
rodomontade - vain boasting; empty bluster
scaturient - gushing forth, as a fountain

These words are useless because so few people know them that if you ever used them no one would understand you. Unless you're writing for The New Yorker.

Can you come up with some more? I have two rules. You must be able to look up the word at dictionary.reference.com. And it can't be a jargon word (medical, scientific, etc.)

Caffeine and me

Two recent studies have put my beverage habits on the high ground. First we had the news that daily caffeine intake reduces the risk of Alzheimer's. Then the word comes that the rule about drinking eight glasses of water a day is pure bunk.

If caffeine helps you stay mentally sharp, I think I drink enough coffee to add about 10 IQ points. And when I'm not drinking coffee I'm usually drinking iced tea. Water is fine in a pinch or if you're really thirsty, but I had despaired of ever drinking eight glasses a day.

Starbucks, anyone?

Guy Colors

Everybody knows that women have a lot more colors than guys do. I mean, how many guys know the difference between kelly green and forest green? And who can even spell chartreuse, let alone remember what color it is? But today I realized that guys have their own colors, too. I was talking to my office mate about the pollen that has lately been covering my car every morning when I leave for work. I told him it was "snot yellow" and he knew immediately what color I was talking about. That's a guy color, of course. I have no idea what a woman would call it, but I'm pretty sure she wouldn't call it snot yellow.

There are other guy colors. How about grass stain green? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about! Think baseball uniform after a diving catch in right field. Then there's John Deere green and gun metal blue. (Sorry, city folks.) But every guy understands blood red. And candy apple red, because we all remember that Mustang we wanted as a kid.

See, we're not as clueless about color as people think. You just need to relate it to something in our experience. And I can assure you that "mauve" is not in my experience. Whatever mauve is.