Found Poetry: Special Needs Lizard

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I'm preparing for a move into a new and smaller apartment, which means that I have to destash EVERYTHING! I'm making huge piles of stuff to donate, stuff to sell, and stuff to throw away. As I was cleaning, I came across this notecard that features a poem that I wrote at some point, who knows when. I rarely write poems, but I usually like the ones I do write. I'm pretty sure it was inspired by Kat, who always liked to bring home animals to the apartment she shared with Mel. I figured I'd share it here then I can throw the notecard into my recycling bin. So here goes:

Special Needs Lizard
by Moira

Unloved by the child whose Christmas was gay,
Missing an eye, part of an ear and its leg,
Hot sand rehabilitation on a Saturday night.

When the lizard ceases,
as it surely will,
there will be another in a short line of scaly others,
each homelier than the last,
needing religious devotion,
and plenty of fresh flies culled by hand,
from the sweaty desert heat.

The flies circle her skirts,
pulsing purple, turquoise on fire,
& the bells of a million stars,
twinkling at her heels.

Swirling, she clucks and coos in psuedo-lizard tongue,
and, loves, without question,
the beast.

Random Musings: World's Smallest Book

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Tiny books, coptic-stitch, made by me

I wasn't so foolhardy as to believe that the tiny coptic-stitch books I made last year after taking a bookbinding class with Joann of Paper Girls Studio were tiny enough to be considered for the title of World's Smallest Books, but compared to the book that actually has that title, my books are positively gargantuan!

Second book - 2.5 inches x 2 inches

When I came home from my bookbinding lesson, I decided to try my hand at making a smaller book that my original (7 inches x 4 inches). My second book measures 2.5 inches tall by 2 inches wide. But that still wasn't small enough!

Third book - 2 x 1.25 inches

My third book is even smaller at 2 inches by 1.25 inches. Could I go smaller? I sure could!

Fourth book - 1.25 inches x 1 inch

The smallest book measures 1.25 inches by 1 inch. I did the stitching a little too tight; I suspect I was getting tired by that point. The book won't stay closed flat. I meant to add a tie to it, like the other two miniature books, but never did get around to it. I made the signature using scraps of watercolor paper and  pages from a copy of Alice in Wonderland, which just seemed appropriate.

Coptic-stitch bound

Still, despite being very small, this book is giant compared to the tiny book owned by Mark Palkovic. His tiny volume .9 x .9 millimeters. You read that right. Millimeters. Not centimeters. Millimeters. Go, right now, look at a ruler to get a sense of just how small that is. How would you even look at it? Apparently, only 100 copies of the book were made, and I just bet that over half of them were lost or accidentally inhaled! In fact, the book is so small, that Palkovic keeps a larger copy of the book around to show people:

Guinness World Records has confirmed that Palkovic is the owner of the smallest book in the world. Palkovic's book, Chekhov's Chameleon, measures just .9 by .9 millimeters, not much larger than a grain of salt. Amazingly, this miniscule book has 30 pages and three color illustrations. The print cannot be read by the naked eye, but Palkovic keeps another larger copy of the book, still measuring just a tiny 2 by 1.8 centimeters, nearby.

The "larger" copy is still about 1/3 the size of my smaller book. Wow.

Here's my favorite part of the article:

As for the tiniest book in the world, Palkovic does not just let it sit in its decorative collector's box. Even though it's as small as a little grain of salt, he has to take it out and look at the book, bound in gold and silk. "If you ever get a miniature book, you will never lose it," he says. "You may not be able to find it for awhile, but you'll come across it again. You just tend to put it somewhere safe because it's a treasured little thing."

So, what are your thoughts about tiny books? Ever made one? Own one?

Random Musings: World's Largest Book

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For some reason, last night as I was falling asleep, I started wondering about the world's largest book. I have this huge board, 4 foot by 8 foot, in my studio and I was imagining how I would make it into a coptic-stitch bound book using rope. (Books were on my mind, I think, because I made two finished journals and two almost finished ones yesterday.) I asked Nick how big he thought the world's biggest book would be, and he, half asleep, muttered a number that seemed way too small. No, I said, I bet it's huge. Well, he said, I'm sorry, but I'm too tired to look. I wasn't going to get up to research it either, and figured I'd probably forget all about it by morning. And I did. But Nick didn't.

So what do you think? How big is the world's biggest book? According to Nick's research, this is it:

Source: http://www.luxuo.com/events/worlds-biggest-atlas-book-fair-frankfurt.html

The 128-page page atlas measures 6 x 9 feet and debuted at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2010. It's part of a limited edition run of 31 and has 128 pages. The article states that the book took three hours to get into position for the book fair and requires a man's full strength to turn the pages. I think it would be so cool to see this book in person. Maybe the RISD museum will buy one?

Second in line to the atlas is Bhutan, a book published by Michael Hawley of the MIT Media Lab in 2003.

Source: http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcoll/exhibits/bhutan/book1.jpg

"Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Last Himalayan Kingdom" weighs in at more than 130 pounds and stands at five by seven feet, nearly as big as a Ping-Pong table. The book features more than 100 pages of spectacular images of a country often referred to as "the last Shangri-la," and showcases a variety of new digital, photographic and printing techniques.

The rest of the MIT press release details the making of the book and is definitely worth a read.

The third largest book, 2nd largest atlas, is the Klencke Atlas, which was presented to Charles II of England on his restoration.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/26/klencke-atlas-british-library-exhibition

The book, owned by the British Library, is 350 years old and measures 5ft 10in by 3ft 5 in. It's 4 inches thick.

Here's an interesting entry on Wikipedia about the world's largest stone book, which stands upright and resides in the Kuthodaw Pagoda in Myanmar. It's not the type of book I was thinking about when I thought about giant books, but it's still worth a read! (The entry I mean, not sure about the book!)

Stop back tomorrow and we'll talk about books at the opposite end of the spectrum! How small do you think a book can be?

Turn of Phrase: I Call Shenanigans

1966 board game available here

Last week, we looked at a phrase with Irish origins: "life of reilly." So, this week, I thought we'd examine a word that sure seems Irish in origins, "shenanigans," as in: "O'Reilly's up to his shenanigans again!" Dictionary.com defines shenanigans as mischief; prankishness or deceit; trickery. [I suppose if you are the one initiating the shenanigans, you'd claim the former; while if you were the object of such shenanigans, you'd claim the latter, eh?] The word is almost always used as a plural; apparently a single "shenanigan" just isn't possible. Some people use the phrase "I call shenanigans" to call out a prankster or, perhaps, an automobile dealer of ill-repute. 


Here's a pop culture example from the movie Super Troopers (2001):

Captain O'Hagan: I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says, " Shenanigans." 

Mac: Hey Farva what's the name of that restaurant you like with all the goofy shit on the walls and the mozzarella sticks? 

Farva: You mean Shenanigans? 

Mac: OOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 

Thorny: OOOOOOOOOOOOOO. 

[as they hand the Captain their pistols] 

Like shenanigans themselves, the origins of the word "shenanigans" is quite mysterious and tricky. Some sources say that the word is an Americanism through and through, since the first recorded use of the word was in 1855 in a San Francisco newspaper. Since there were plenty of Irishman working in California during the time of the gold rush, it's not such a stretch to attach Irish roots to the word, but no one can seem to agree on the origins. I've seen the word said to be Irish, Spanish, German, or even French in origin, though the people at English Forums beg to disagree with some of those suggestions.


This question and answer comes from the archives at the Take Our Word For It word origin webzine:

Is shenanigans from Irish shee nanna gasne or from French for `I dunno'?

One source doesn't even mention a possible Irish origin, but instead, it indicates that Spanish chanada (a short form of charranada `trick, deceit') is a likely origin. William and Mary Morris note that shenanigans could comes from Irish sionnachuighim `I play the fox.' But both the sources mention German dialectic schinageln `to work at hard labor' as a possible origin forshenanigans. Apparently, the implication is `using trickery to avoid hard labor.'

A French connection is unlikely. 

Carly, of Carly Googles, begs to differ:

In looking through an extremely long entry on the roots ..., I stumbled upon the form sikanadenn, a Breton word for “a kind of whip or rod” (Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany, France). It was borrowed from French. “Whip” comes from “a crack (of a whip).” Even if French chicaner does not refer to smallness, we are confronted by several homonymous sound imitative roots.

The Breton word resembles shenanigan, which surfaced in American English in the middle of the 19th century. The resemblance is not striking but sufficient to whet a stranded etymologist’s curiosity. (When in trouble, even the Devil eats flies, as they say in German.)

A hundred years ago, dictionaries cited only the singular (shenanigan, not shenanigans). I wonder whether it is possible that some word like Breton sikanadenn, Celtic or not, an alteration of chicane, turned into shenanigan. Chicanery was first defined as “nonsense; humbug,” rather than “the use of trickery.” Today shenanigans means “dishonest maneuvering; mischief.” The two words are near synonyms.

 Here's what Michael Quinion, of World Wide Words, has to say about it:

Where [the word "shenanigans"] comes from is still a matter of substantial dispute; the first five dictionaries I consulted gave four different origins (Oxford Dictionaries — as so often — opting for the ultra-cautious “origin unknown”). The word looks Irish, and there was no shortage of Irishmen in the California diggings, so it’s plausible to suggest the Irish word sionnachuighm as the source, meaning ‘I play tricks’, which is pronounced roughly as ‘shinnuckeem’. Others argue it comes from an East Anglian dialect word nannicking for playing the fool. Yet others guess at a link with the Spanish word chanada for a trick or deceit, which is another half-way plausible source, considering California’s history. Yet another theory was put forward in 1948 in American Speech for an origin in Germanschinnagel for a nail that holds the rim to the wheel, which produced the German slang terms schinageln, to work, and Schenigelei, a trick. As the man behind the market stall said, you pays your money and you takes your choice ...

 No more shenanigians here for today... what do you think is the most plausible origin of the word shenanigans? Also, have you ever tried to type "shenanigans" a bunch of times in a blog entry? It's not so easy, let me tell ya!


If you liked reading this, join me next Friday as I research another phrase and share my results with you. Want to know where your favorite word or phrase came from? Leave me a comment and you might see your word/phrase in a future Turn of Phrase feature. 

Etsy Treasury: Black and Write and Read All Over

'Black and Write and Read All Over' by LiteraryTease

This treasury celebrates writers everywhere with a collection in black, white, and red, just like the old newspaper joke. Enjoy... and write on!

5 Shakespeare Journals ... immortallongin... $150.00	H. P. Lovecraft Cthulhu... FableAndFury $26.00	vintage typewriter - 8x... MarianneLoMona... $27.00	Typewriter- earrings st... jillianguarco $10.00
Vintage Typewriter SECR... czechpub $38.00	45 Vinyl Record Journal... nerdnest $15.00	Love - Red black and Wh... artstudio54 $25.00	White and Red Inkwell N... BookishCharm $10.50
the guest. vintage blac... sixthandmain $26.00	Anais Nin and Henry Mil... PersephonePlus $20.00	Red Owl Heart Notebook ... MadeByRori $8.00	Great Writers Series: V... TheDiggingestG... $25.00
necklace - GONE WILDE -... sillycut $42.00	Love Romantic Art Origi... LaBerge $59.00	DIY- How to make a Book... spoonfulofchoc... $13.99	Floret - Leather Journa... Kreativlink $48.00

Treasury tool is sponsored by Lazzia.com A/B image testing.

Turn of Phrase: Life of Reilly

The Reilly Coat of Arms by Cameron Reilly

When I asked for suggestions about what phrase I should research for this week's Turn of Phrase, my boyfriend, Nick, suggested "life of reilly." I'd never heard the phrase, so I had to ask to him to explain what it meant. Dictionary.com defines "life of reilly" as "a carefree, comfortable, and thoroughly enjoyable way of living." Sounds good to me! When I googled the phrase"life of reilly", I found a pub in Baltimore, an article in ESPN, a movie, and a blogger-author of The Life of Reilly, "in-depth analysis of the Spider-Man Clone Saga," all on the first page of listings. What I want to know is: Who's Reilly?


The general consensus is that the phrase "life of reilly" originated from an 1880's song by Pat Rooney. The Phrase Finder says:

For example, there's the 1883 song, popularised by the Irish/American singer Pat Rooney - Is That Mr. Reilly? It included in the chorus "Is that Mr. Reilly, of whom they speak so highly?". Like most other Irish songs of the era, it played to the Irish audience - this one with a dash of anti-Chinese racism thrown in for luck (the Chinese were 'Reilly's' principal competitors for manual work in the USA at the time). 

This presumes that "Reilly" is a generic term referring to an Irish man, sort of a "John Doe" name, if you will.


Michael Quinion presents another theory: "H L Mencken suggested as an alternative possible source The Best in the House is None Too Good for Reilly, which was written by Lawlor and Black at about the same period as Pat Rooney’s song."


According to The Phrase Finder,

The phrase originated in the Irish/American community of the USA, in the early part of the 20th century. The first printed citation of it that I have found is from the Connecticut newspaper The Hartford Courant, December 1911 - in a piece headed 'Bullet Ends Life of Famous Wild Cow':

The famous wild cow of Cromwell is no more. After "living the life of Riley" for over a year, successfully evading the pitchforks and the bullets of the farmers, whose fields she ravaged in all four seasons.

The Phrase Finder says that the quotations indication the coining of a phrase unfamiliar to the general readership. The writer suggests that the phrase was coined by Irish-American immigrants, but that explanation doesn't make sense to me. There still has to have been a Reilly on whom the original phrase was based, right?


Perhaps there was.


A post by Dave Reilly on The Phrase Finder recounts a family story he says has been passed down through many generations:

The Riley bros were told by their da that the one who touched Irish land first got their choice of the countryside. So in rowing to shore -- as some sort of boat race was involved -- one of the lads saw that he was slipping behind his sibling(s). Rather than miss out on the chance of a lifetime, junior hacked off his own hand and threw it ahead onto the beach. And the winner, by a bloodied fist is... So the Rileys grasped County Cavan in the open palm of a severed hand thereby learning a lesson or two about sibling rivalry. I live on to tell the story at some time and distance from its occurrence.

....

After the incident with the hand the Rileys consolidated their "hold" (sic) on County Cavan. As befits such clannishness they minted their own money. This money was widely recognised for its value, even in England it was accepted as Legal Tender. The coins became known as "O'Reillys, or Reilly's", and as such, became synonymous with a monied person. A gentleman freely spending his cash was said to be "Living on his Reillys" or "Living the life of Reilly". 

 This beginning of this story is actually a variation of the Myth of the Hand of Ulster. There are several variations of the myth, but the general theme is that there is a contest between two or more men, either for land or, more commonly, the hand of a beautiful maiden (which, thinking on it, probably included some land, too). There is always race. In Dave Reilly's story the men are traveling by boat, but, generally, it is a swimming race. When one man realizes he is about to lose, he severs his hand and tosses it ashore, thereby winning the race. (There's a slightly different version of the Reilly story here.)


Do I believe that a brother Reilly lopped off his hand during a race in order to win some land? No, since it seems logistically, if not physically, impossible. More plausible, however, is the second half of Dave Reilly's story about the legal tender of the Reilly family. So, whether or not the hand story is true, the idea of a powerful family in Ireland with their own source of currency seems a far more likely origin for the phrase "life of reilly."


In fact, buried in a forum at wordorigins.org, I found a reference to an 1856 document that seems to lend credence to this part of the story. The book, digitized by google, is Willy Reilly and his dear Coleen Bawn: A Tale, Founded upon Fact by William Carleton. The story is about a handsome, young Catholic Irishman who falls for a Protestant heiress. 


The story is based on two historical figures in Irish history and led to the creation of many a bawdy ballad in Ireland during the time period that the story was popular. Many of the results of that oral tradition have been lost to the ages, but Carleton one such song in the preface: "Willy Reilly." The gist of the song is that Willy Reilly is imprisoned for being in the possession of  diamonds belonging to Colleen after the pair run away together. 


The girl's father says:


Good my Lord, he stole from her her diamonds and her rings,
Gold watch and silver buckles, and many precious things, 
Which cost me in bright guineas more than five hundred pounds. 
I will have the life of Reilly should I lose ten thousand pounds.


Colleen protests, saying she gave the jewelry to Reilly as a token of her affections, and the prisoner is released upon her word. The two move overseas, marry, and have children. I'd say that a man with a rich and beautiful wife is surely living a pretty good life, so it's possible that the phrase "life of reilly" gained popularity based on the life of this couple. 


Certainly Irishmen (and women!) who heard these songs where they were younger could have shared the ballads with their children, which could explain how the phrase crossed the Atlantic and ended up in the Hartford Courant. If anyone ever asks you about the origins of the phrase, "life of reilly," you now have a pretty good answer. Sure, it's an outdated phrase now, one you are unlikely to hear in everyday vernacular, I'd suspect, but it's a pretty interesting story anyway, right?


If you liked reading this, join me next Friday as I research another phrase and share my results with you. Want to know where your favorite word or phrase came from? Leave me a comment and you might see your word/phrase in a future Turn of Phrase feature.