1. Flogging, Peacocks, and Thicknesse

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    May 14, 2017 by libroshombre

      Teaching an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute class on Patrick O’Brian was more involved than anticipated. Having read (and listened …
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    Category: biography, books, reading, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , ,

  2. Humpty, Pied, and Krazy

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    May 9, 2017 by libroshombre

    Some words seem made to go together, and the ones that actually do become “portmanteaus.” A portmanteau’s a large, stiff-sided …
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    Category: language, reading, Uncategorized, words | Tags: , , , , ,

  3. OLLI, Yancey, and X

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    May 3, 2017 by libroshombre

      The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI), one of Fairbanks’ intellectual jewels like our public library, offers a wide array …
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    Category: etymology, interlibrary loan, language, Learning, libraries, Uncategorized, words | Tags: , , , , , , ,

  4. Abhorring Information Banning

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    April 24, 2017 by libroshombre

      A recent round of reading has left me ready to revive the seventeenth-century British political party known as “the …
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    Category: banned books, book burning, books, censorship, librarians, libraries, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

  5. T, Temple, and Lady Betty

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    April 24, 2017 by libroshombre

      It might have been learning about Richard “Waterfront” Brown during Osher Lifelong Learning’s Fairbanks history class that got me …
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    Category: biography, character, librarians, names, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , ,

  6. Vulgarity, Punctuation, and Doris Day

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    April 7, 2017 by libroshombre

    Ebenezer Cobham Brewer knew vulgarity when he encountered it, and there’s even a selection of them in the section titled …
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    Category: computers, ebooks, education, Library of Alexandria, reading, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , ,

  7. Publishers, Malarkey, and Project Gutenberg

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    March 24, 2017 by libroshombre

      “Malarky!” was one of my father’s favorite epithets for things he deemed phony or exaggerated. I heard it all …
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    Category: publishing, sayings, Uncategorized, word origins | Tags: , , ,

  8. Service Animals, Sheepskins, and Marc Antony’s Gift

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    March 23, 2017 by libroshombre

      No one at my library school ever mentioned a number of items that would later loom large. For example, …
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    Category: books, history, libraries, library history, Uncategorized, writing | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

  9. Lies, Spies, and Ultracrepidarians

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    March 10, 2017 by libroshombre

    Too many ultracrepidarians are running around these days. An “ultracrepidarian” is “someone who gives an opinion on things s/he knows …
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    Category: logic, rare book libraries, rare books, Uncategorized, words | Tags: , , , , , , ,

  10. Swearing, Smiling, and Fuzzy Q. Jones

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    March 2, 2017 by libroshombre

    Swearing connotes honesty according to a study reported in “Social Psychology and Personality Science” by researchers from the US, UK, …
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    Category: cursing, smiling, swearing, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , ,

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