"A peculiar anthologic maze, an amusing literary chaos, a farrago of quotations, a mere olla podrida of quaintness, a pot pourri of pleasant delites, a florilegium of elegant extracts, a tangled fardel of old-world flowers of thought, a faggot of odd fancies, quips, facetiae, loosely tied" (Holbrook Jackson, Anatomy of Bibliomania) by a "laudator temporis acti," a "praiser of time past" (Horace, Ars Poetica 173).
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Friday, January 25, 2008
Birthdays
Today is the birthday of Robert Burns, and the OED Online Word of the Day is a fitting one, haggis. The Nanny States of America forbids the importation of this delicacy.
Today is also the birthday of the Russian landscape painter Ivan Shishkin (1832-1898). I especially love his paintings of trees, with their intricate detail. There is a good selection for viewing at Olga's Gallery. Here is Shishkin's Winter: