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brtom has added 2493 words, 23 lists, 783 comments, and 0 tags.
brtom has made 783 comments and citations:
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Comments 1 through 100 of 783   next >
on plow, brtom said:
"The humus stood dark and heavy over them once; the plow was its doom. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on humus, brtom said:
"The humus stood dark and heavy over them once; the plow was its doom. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on mule, brtom said:
"...how they would harness their mule teams in the early mornings in my grandfather's big barn and come to the woods-rimmed tobacco patches,..." more...
on crop, brtom said:
"Where that thicket stands there was crop ground, maybe as late as my own time. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on outbuildings, brtom said:
"There are the domestic paths from house to barns and outbuildings and gardens, farm roads threading the pasture gates. Wendell Berry..." more...
on palimpsest, brtom said:
"I think of the country as a kind of palimpsest scrawled over with the comings and goings of people, the erasure of time already in process even as..." more...
on path, brtom said:
"A path is little more than a habit that comes with knowledge of a place. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on economy, brtom said:
"The idea was that when faced with abundance one should consume abundantly—an idea that has survived to become the basis of our present..." more...
on ignorant, brtom said:
"But one immediately reflects that the American Indian, who was ignorant by the same standards, nevertheless knew how to live in the country..." more...
on clearing, brtom said:
"The work of clearing the road was itself violent. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on peacefulness, brtom said:
"I am forced, against all my hopes and inclinations, to regard the history of my people here as the progress of the doom of what I value most..." more...
on doom, brtom said:
"I am forced, against all my hopes and inclinations, to regard the history of my people here as the progress of the doom of what I value most in..." more...
on native, brtom said:
"I came to see myself as growing out of the earth like the other native animals and plants. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on root, brtom said:
"My language increased and strengthened, and sent my mind into the place like a live root system. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on neighbor, brtom said:
"I listened to the talk of my kinsmen and neighbors as I never had done, alert to their knowledge of the place, and to the qualities and..." more...
on kinsmen, brtom said:
"I listened to the talk of my kinsmen and neighbors as I never had done, alert to their knowledge of the place, and to the qualities and energies..." more...
on countryside, brtom said:
"Home—the place, the countryside—was still there, still pretty much as I had left it, and there was no reason I could not go back to it if..." more...
on home, brtom said:
"Home—the place, the countryside—was still there, still pretty much as I had left it, and there was no reason I could not go back to it if..." more...
on welfare, brtom said:
"When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place..." more...
on place, brtom said:
"When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place..." more...
on health, brtom said:
"When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place..." more...
on earth, brtom said:
"When I have thought of the welfare of the earth, the problems of its health and preservation, the care of its life, I have had this place..." more...
on deliberateness, brtom said:
"In my acceptance of twentieth-century realities there has had to be a certain deliberateness, whereas most of my contemporaries had them simply by..." more...
on aptitude, brtom said:
"I seem to have been born with an aptitude for a way of life that was doomed, although I did not understand that at the time. Wendell Berry "A..." more...
on hitch, brtom said:
"... I learned to harness and hitch and work a team. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on harness, brtom said:
"... I learned to harness and hitch and work a team. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on team, brtom said:
"... I learned to harness and hitch and work a team. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on teamster, brtom said:
"The Depression and World War II delayed the mechanization of the farms here, and one of the first disciplines imposed on me was that of a..." more...
on discipline, brtom said:
"The Depression and World War II delayed the mechanization of the farms here, and one of the first disciplines imposed on me was that of a..." more...
on mechanization, brtom said:
"The Depression and World War II delayed the mechanization of the farms here, and one of the first disciplines imposed on me was that of a..." more...
on place, brtom said:
"All that any of us may know of ourselves is to be known in relation to this place. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on river, brtom said:
"My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on town, brtom said:
"My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on hill, brtom said:
"My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on house, brtom said:
"My house backs against the hill's foot where it descends from the town to the river. Wendell Berry "A Native Hill" more...
on whist, brtom said:
"Ah ... me, too. I'd guess that - if a U.S. citizen knows the term - it's 10 to 1 that he/she got it from Around the World in Eighty Days. But..." more...
on whist, brtom said:
"Yes, a card game ... but in British dialect it means "to become silent" as in this from Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (1517-1547):

It was then night:..." more...
on aquamanile, brtom said:
"from Wikipedia:
In Christian liturgical usage, an aquamanile (plural aquamanilia or simply..." more...
on accrue, brtom said:
"Carrying what has accrued to it (the body) from the moment of birth to the moment of death.
Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok" more...
on effuse, brtom said:
"I will effuse egotism and show it underlying all, and I will be the
bard of personality
Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok" more...
on average, brtom said:
"O such themes - equalities! O divine average!
Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok" more...
on melange, brtom said:
"Melange mine own, the unseen and the seen,
Mysterious ocean where the streams empty
Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok" more...
on camerado, brtom said:
"What do you need camerado?
Whitman, "Starting from Paumanok" more...
on grandeur, brtom said:
"I say that the real and permanent grandeur of these States must be their religion,
Otherwise there is just no real and permanent..." more...
on omnes, brtom said:
"Omnes! omnes! let others ignore what they may,
I make the poem of evil also, I commemorate that part also ...
Whitman, "Starting from..." more...
on philosoph, brtom said:
"Dead poets, philosophs, priests,
Martyrs, artists, inventors, governments long since,
Language-shapers on other shores ...
Whitman,..." more...
on vivify, brtom said:
"Chants of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota,
Chants going forth from the centre from Kansas, and thence
equidistant,..." more...
on debouch, brtom said:
"See, vast trackless spaces,
As in a dream they change, they swiftly fill,
Countless masses debouch upon them ...
Whitman, "Starting from..." more...
on impacted, brtom said:
"Yes, thanks, I explain that to my students. I've usually got no problem with verbing a noun ... so, I explain to them, I'll assume that's what..." more...
on aureoling, brtom said:
"A great one! How could I have missed it? Well, I did catch aureole ... but to find it used as a verb is just thrilling ... Thanks." more...
on peeve, brtom said:
"I don't like this word ... so why do I use it?" more...
on impacted, brtom said:
"A personal peeve: this word is an adjective meaning "wedged or packed in together" ... It calls to mind unpleasant business related to teeth and..." more...
on constitution, brtom said:
"Why, to be sure, a tale of scandal is as fatal to the credit of a prudent lady of her stamp as a fever is generally to those of the strongest..." more...
on prudent, brtom said:
"Why, to be sure, a tale of scandal is as fatal to the credit of a prudent lady of her stamp as a fever is generally to those of the strongest..." more...
on valetudinarian, brtom said:
"True, madam, there are valetudinarians in reputation as well as constitution ...
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on dropsy, brtom said:
"She likewise hinted that a certain widow, in the next street, had got rid of her dropsy and recovered her shape in a most surprising..." more...
on dancing-master, brtom said:
"Yet such is the ill nature of people, that they say her uncle stopped her last week, just as she was stepping into the York Mail with her..." more...
on censorious, brtom said:
"But the world is so censorious, no character escapes.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on traduce, brtom said:
"We have pride, envy, rivalship, and a thousand motives to depreciate each other; but the male slanderer must have the cowardice of a woman before..." more...
on wit, brtom said:
"For my part, I own, madam, wit loses its respect with me, when I see it in company with malice.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on malice, brtom said:
"For my part, I own, madam, wit loses its respect with me, when I see it in company with malice.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on own, brtom said:
"For my part, I own, madam, wit loses its respect with me, when I see it in company with malice.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on backbite, brtom said:
"Oh! there’s that disagreeable lover of mine, Sir Benjamin Backbite, has just called at my guardian’s, with his odious uncle,..." more...
on odious, brtom said:
"Oh! there’s that disagreeable lover of mine, Sir Benjamin Backbite, has just called at my guardian’s, with his odious uncle,..." more...
on virginistic, brtom said:
"Mercy is pure and devote and ironically ends up marrying one of Angel's brothers; while Tess has mixed views about her religion and is no longer..." more...
on egad, brtom said:
"Egad, that’s true!
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on discernment, brtom said:
"Madam, it is impossible for me to suspect a man of Mr. Snake’s sensibility and discernment.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on sensibility, brtom said:
"Madam, it is impossible for me to suspect a man of Mr. Snake’s sensibility and discernment.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on knave, brtom said:
"I know him to be artful, selfish, and malicious—in short, a sentimental knave
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on fortune, brtom said:
"Must I confess that Charles—that libertine, that extravagant, that bankrupt in fortune and reputation—that he it is for whom I am thus..." more...
on libertine, brtom said:
"Must I confess that Charles—that libertine, that extravagant, that bankrupt in fortune and reputation—that he it is for whom I am thus..." more...
on intercourse, brtom said:
"I must inform you that love has no share whatever in the intercourse between Mr. Surface and me.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on jointure, brtom said:
"Now, on the face of these circumstances, it is utterly unaccountable to me, why you, the widow of a city knight, with a good jointure, should not..." more...
on dissipated, brtom said:
"... the youngest, the most dissipated and extravagant young fellow in the kingdom, without friends or character ...
Sheridan, School for..." more...
on sneer, brtom said:
"She wants that delicacy of tint, and mellowness of sneer, which distinguish your ladyship’s scandal.
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on whence, brtom said:
"Lady Sneerwell. The paragraphs, you say, Mr. Snake, were all inserted?
Snake. They were, madam; and, as I copied them myself in a feigned..." more...
on feign, brtom said:
"Lady Sneerwell. The paragraphs, you say, Mr. Snake, were all inserted?
Snake. They were, madam; and, as I copied them myself in a feigned..." more...
on rubicund, brtom said:
"My face on niacin." more...
on trill, brtom said:
"The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun." Whitman, Song of Myself, 2" more...
on full-noon, brtom said:
"The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising from bed and meeting the sun." Whitman, Song of Myself, 2" more...
on flood-tide, brtom said:
"Flood-tide below me! I watch you face to face;" Whitman, Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, 1" more...
on fitness, brtom said:
"Knowing the perfect fitness and equanimity of things, while they discuss I am silent, and go bathe and admire myself." Whitman, Song of Myself, 3" more...
on filter, brtom said:
"You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self." Whitman, Song of Myself, 2" more...
on fathomless, brtom said:
"I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself," Whitman, Song of Myself, 7" more...
on exclamations, brtom said:
"What exclamations of women taken suddenly who hurry home and give birth to babes," Whitman, Song of Myself, 8" more...
on abscissa, brtom said:
"Four years on, my personal declaration of, and against, lexical ignorance runs from "abscissa" (Cormac McCarthy) to "zugunruhe" (William..." more...
on zugunruhe, brtom said:
"Four years on, my personal declaration of, and against, lexical ignorance runs from "abscissa" (Cormac McCarthy) to "zugunruhe" (William..." more...
on albedo, brtom said:
"I was enjoying the book until I came across the following sentence: "The albedo of Gilgit's brown, barren hills is high, and the heat from the sun..." more...
on barb, brtom said:
"She barbs with wit those darts too keen before: —"
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on timorous, brtom said:
"Ah! seest thou not an ambushed Cupid there,
Too timorous of his charge, with jealous care
Veils and unveils those beams of heavenly light..." more...
on bade, brtom said:
"And bade the gentle inmate of her breast—
Inshrinèd Modesty—supply the rest."
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on uncouth, brtom said:
"Not stiff with prudence, nor uncouthly wild ..."
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on homage, brtom said:
"Whose judgment scorns the homage flattery pays!"
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on celestial, brtom said:
"..." and while
Celestial blushes check thy conscious smile ..."
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on innuendo, brtom said:
"Attend, ye skilled to coin the precious tale,
Creating proof, where innuendos fail!"
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on coin, brtom said:
"Attend, ye skilled to coin the precious tale,
Creating proof, where innuendos fail!"
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on virulent, brtom said:
"By cunning, cautious; or by nature, cold, 15
In maiden madness, virulently bold!"
Sheridan, School for Scandal" more...
on antipathy, brtom said:
"Ye matron censors of this childish age,
Whose peering eye and wrinkled front declare
A fixed antipathy to young and fair ..."
Sheridan, School for..." more...
on calumny, brtom said:
"Daughters of calumny, I summon you!" Sheridan, School for Scandal." more...
on imbricate, brtom said:
"I learned this word when I read an essay my brother wrote years ago. I was already old and deep into words then, so I was shocked to find a word I'd..." more...
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