The Continental Op

January 30, 2012

Alan Jacobs linked to this piece by Brian Phillips about a freed American slave who fought what amounted to England’s unofficial boxing champion in 1810.

Not only is the tale supremely interesting (and, as Jacobs mentioned, powerful), but its glances into how we view sports and players (not to mention the importance of good and thorough sportswriting, although I suppose that goes for all journalism) are definitely worth a closer look. It’s also just a wonderfully well-written and entertaining story.

(via Instapaper)

2:03am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFcYtZs

January 28, 2012

I mean, you either get it or you don’t.

(via A Challenge Cartoon | Savage Chickens)

4:45am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFVClzt

(Notes: 7)

Filed under: humor cartoons Wales language

January 28, 2012

I want no women in my life.

[…]

I could have conquered Europe—all of it—but I had women in my life.

— Henry II in The Lion in Winter [by James Goldman]

1:40am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFU-Dqj

Filed under: women love power

January 27, 2012

merlin:

Mighty Mike - “Imagine a Jump” (John Lennon vs. Van Halen)

I…just…but…wow.

[via]

I’ve already passed this link around a lot to my friends, but that hasn’t diminished its awesomeness.

So there you go.

(Source: twentytwowords.com)

2:51am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFRfN2b

(Notes: 56)

Filed under: John Lennon Van Halen Jump Imagine rock mash up

January 25, 2012

"Better sleep with a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian."

— Ishmael, Moby-Dick

3:12am | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFK-NTX

(Notes: 1)

Filed under: literature Moby-Dick American literature sensibility

January 24, 2012

draggedfightingfromhistomb:

it’s not so much that expectation always leads to disappointment. it’s just that things don’t ever go the way we plan them, and our expectations make us miss all the accidental gold.

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp,
Or what’s a heaven for?”

– Robert Browning, Andrea del Santo

11:24pm | URL: http://tmblr.co/ZW7NbyFKfJVt

(Notes: 1)

January 24, 2012

Power *Moby-Dick*: The Online Annotation

I have finally decided to read Moby-Dick, that masterpiece of American literature, but my attempts to find my Modern Library copy of the novel have resulted in me living the plot, only my copy of Moby-Dick is my Moby-Dick, as it were.

Thanks to NPR’s pop culture blog Monkey See, however, I’m able to read the whole thing online, meaning that I can read it wherever I am and have my phone or computer with me and don’t have to buy another copy, either physical or electronic, with annotations and all. That’s because Monkey See (and its wonderful, wonderful primary author, Linda Holmes) pointed Power Moby-Dick out when they first made the novel a selection of their “I Will If You Will” book club about a year ago, and theirs, as a matter of fact, is the schedule I’m attempting to follow.

So in case I need Moby-Dick at a moment’s notice, I have a wonderful annotated version on hand whenever I need it. Oh, NPR and American literature, I love you so, but now a-whaling I must go.

(That rhyme was an accident. I’m so, so sorry.)

7:52pm | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFJwCmR

Filed under: literature American literature NPR Moby-Dick Herman Melville Monkey See

January 24, 2012

"But no more of this blubbering now, we are going a-whaling, and there is plenty of that yet to come."

— Ishmael, Moby-Dick

7:24pm | URL: http://tumblr.com/ZW7NbyFJl8pQ

(Notes: 2)

Filed under: literature Moby-Dick stories foreshadowing

January 18, 2012

"graupel" | Merriam-Webster Online

This is a word? Unbelievable! When would anyone ever need a synonym for “granular snow”?