Midweek: slight progress + reading

On the domestic front:  every so often a puddle appeared in the basement bathroom (adjacent to the family room, AKA my studio).  The plumber checked the toilet and the seal/collar are good.  This week I saw the puddle again--and heard drip-drip-drip. Turns out it came from the dishwasher (right above the closet that is next to the basement bathroom).  The plumber popped the panel off the dishwasher and said the pipes are fine, the problem is the spray arm/drain assembly.  I called the appliance store (we are so fortunate to have a real appliance store in our town).  The dishwasher is out of warranty and the repair would be $200 .... so I'm giving myself a new dishwasher for Christmas. I'll be gone next week so the installation is scheduled for December 29.  

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Sewing is more fun than plumbing, even when it's a slow project. 

Necktie patchwork isn't hard but it is very fiddly.   I diassemble new acquisitions promptly, hand-wash them (dish detergent works fine), hang them to dry, and iron them.  After that they go into the bin.  It is impossible to keep the slippery silk in tidy rolls.  A full color-sort would require a whole 'nother set of storage containers that I don't want to invest in.   I had one bin of ties with interfacing ironed on -- I found out this week that the interfacing doesn't stay firmly adhered.  (It's interfacing, not fusible web. There is a difference!)   

Here's the design wall at the end of last evening's sewing. (I'm up to season 2, episode 5 of West Wing.)  

Bow ties are 6-1/2" unfinished. 

I like to make half-rects units.  I perused issues of Simply Moderne and found a bed-sized quilt that uses several sizes of these, set horizontally.  

My project is a mini, 24" square. 

Much more to come!

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Stefan Fatsis clearly recalls the copy of Webster's New World Dictionary he had when he was 11. That took me back to my childhood because the New World was our go-to ("let's look it up") dictionary in the 1960's. Like Fatsis, I'm interested in words: definitions, uses, and etymology. It turns out that we have a lot of company.

"We are in a golden age for the study and appreciation of words," writes Fatsis in the introduction to his account of present-day lexicography. He spent time embedded at the Merriam headquarters in Springfield, Mass., drafting ninety definitions, some fifteen of which made it into the online Merriam. He attended a scholarly dictionary convention and participated in the Word of the Year judging. He recounts the history of the American dictionary from Noah Webster to the Merriams to Random House and American Heritage. He writes about challenges: prescriptive vs. descriptive; the uproar about "ain't" in the Third (Webster's Third International--the huge dictionary that my husband brought into our marriage); the F-word and most controversially the N-word.

The paper database still exists in the form of millions of cits (citations, pronounced "cites") still at Merriam HQ. Digital versions began early but a sustainable business model with commercial viability is a constant challenge.

"To lexicographers, words are like abstract expressionist paintings, complicated and demanding of quiet contemplation and analysis. Their power lies in their existence, not their deployment. To others, though, words are armaments in an endless war, the the dictionary is the manufacturer. Two hundred years of marketing have pushed that idea--the American dictionary as influencer, authority, power." (218)

"Studying and talking about words {is] endlessly, enormously, incredibly fun," he says (269). I agree!

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