FAT. The last landed, inned, or stowed, of any sort of merchandise: so called by the water-side porters, carmen, &c. All the fat is in the fire; that is, it is all over with us: a saying used in case of any miscarriage or disappointment in an undertaking.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
TONIGHT!
Reading Scotland with James Robertson
Does the Land Lie Still? People & Sense of Place in My Fiction
11 June, free online
James Robertson will look at the geographical, historical, & cultural background to his novels, & discuss the significance of Scotland’s landscape in his work. He will talk about historical & contemporary Scotland, & how her represent the relationship between urban & rural in his fiction
LAND. How lies the land? How stands the reckoning? Who has any land in Appleby? a question asked the man at whose door the glass stands long, or who does not circulate it in due time.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
BATTLE-ROYAL. A battle or bout at cudgels or fisty-cuffs, wherein more than two persons are engaged: perhaps from its resemblance, in that particular, to more serious engagements fought to settle royal disputes.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
KIDNEY. Disposition, principles, humour. Of a strange kidney; of an odd or unaccountable humour. A man of a different kidney; a man of different principles.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
@bookstodon #TheSilenceOfTheGirls sounds (well, you know what I mean) like a very interesting book. Saw the Swedish edition, as well as the second in the series (in English) in the shop today. I have a mile high TBR pile, so I never brought them home.
“[Milne’s] cryogenics story, ‘Ten Thousand Years in Ice’, in which a survivor from an ancient advanced civilisation is revived in the present, unintentionally became one of science fiction’s great literary hoaxes”
Robert Duncan Milne (1844–1899) was born #OTD, 7 June, in Cupar, Fife. He emigrated to the USA & became America’s first full-time writer of #sciencefiction
Robert Duncan Milne’s #sciencefiction pioneered themes such as climate catastrophe, cryogenics, biological engineering, personality transfer, scientific terrorism, drone warfare, & more. This 2021 talk by Dundee University’s Centre for Scottish Culture introduces Milne’s life & work
Originally published in THE ARGONAUT in 1883, Milne’s “A New Palingenesis” is, like #Frankenstein, a secular version of the resurrection myth. Adapted in 2022 in comic-book form, it’s available to download for free from Dundee University
Robert Duncan Milne’s short story “Ten Thousand Years in Ice” – published in ARGONAUT STORIES (San Francisco: Payot, Upham & Co., 1906) – is online via @gutenberg_org
If that’s whetted your appetite, a new critical edition of Robert Duncan Milne’s work, edited by Keith Williams & Ari Brin & with a foreword by Ken MacLeod, is due to be published in January 2025 by Bloomsbury
COXCOMB. Anciently, a fool. Fools, in great families, wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. At present, coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
WEDDING. The emptying of a necessary-house, particularly in London. You have been at an Irish wedding, where black eyes are given instead of favours; saying to one who has a black eye.
A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)