a glottal stop
Yes, you are correct. That mark, from the International Phonetic Alphabet, represents a glottal stop. Spotted at Carl Zimmer’s Science Tattoo Emporium. (Thank you, Bruce!)
if it be as Philosophers hold
“The Sun is more Dry, Hot, Active, and Powerfull every way than the Moon . . . for we find she is Pale and Wan, Cold, Moist, and Slow in all her Operations; and if it be as Philosophers hold, that the Moon hath no Light but what it borrows from the Sun, so Women have no strength nor light of Understanding, but what is given them from Men.”
—Margaret Cavendish, The World’s Olio, 1655; quoted in The Color of Angels: Cosmology, Gender and the Aesthetic Imagination, by Constance Classen. 1998.
When the moon is full, our brain is also full
“When the moon is full, our brain is also full. We are then in full possession of our senses. But when the moon is new, our brain becomes emptier so that our sensory powers are injured.”
—Hildegard of Bingen, Divine Works; quoted in The Color of Angels: Cosmology, Gender and the Aesthetic Imagination, by Constance Classen. 1998.
‘the harder the tonality of the name the more efficacious the product in the mind of the physician and the end user’
“Prozac, the scientific name of which is fluoxetine, was the first drug whose public name was specifically created to evoke saleable images and ideas: in this case, the ‘pro’ connoting positivity, and the ‘zac’ the reassurance and exactitude of science. Since Prozac’s smashing success, it has become all but de rigueur that new blockbuster drugs have brand names that simultaneously soothe, invigorate, and inspire—the names of Viagra, Celebrex, Claritin, and others have all followed Prozac’s lead. . . . The stakes are so high that drug companies now work with branding agencies to select just the right name . . . a name like Zoloft, uplifting and scientific all at the same time. The hard decisive sounds of the letters X, Z, C, and D are attractive to drug namers. According to James L. Detorre, the president of the Institute (which came up with the names for Lipitor, Clarinex, and Allegra), ‘the harder the tonality of the name the more efficacious the product in the mind of the physician and the end user.’ The cost of developing a trade name for a drug is an estimated $500,000 to $2.5 million. Names are registered even before the drug exists. . . . The name Zoloft was invented by Frank Delano, a legendary marketing guru, who also created the names of Nissan’s Pathfinder and Quest minivans, GMC’s Yukon, and Primerica Financial Services.”
—Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation, 2008.
‘Clumsy and naked’
“I said, ‘I need an adjective that—’ and before I could further define my need, Roger said, ‘Clumsy and naked.’ I laughed out loud.”
—Leonard Stern, on the invention of Mad Libs, the word game, which is 50 years old, as of, approximately, now.
The ‘bed’
“[. . .] he now saw his apartment through his loved one’s eyes. ‘This was no ‘apartment’! This was a slot!—one of four created by cutting an ordinary front bedroom and rear bedroom in two. [. . .] The ‘kitchen’ consisted of the smallest ‘stove,’ ‘sink,’ and ‘refrigerator’ ever made squeezed into what had been a closet in a former, better life. The quotation marks spread like dermatitis in Adam’s brain as he thought of what must be going through the mind of the girl of his dreams. The ‘bed’ was a mattress on a cheap, unfinished flush door from a lumberyard, supported at the corners by cinder blocks.”
—Tom Wolfe, I am Charlotte Simmons, 2004. The bracketed ellipses are mine.
The Rather Difficult Font Game
If you think you know fonts, you might want to play The Rather Difficult Font Game.
Thirty Tables of Contents
orangey slices of postadolescent flesh
“It being Monday night, Hoyt and eight or nine other Saint Rays had gravitated to the library couches and easy chairs, cracked leather upholstery and all, to chill, i.e., drift through the evening in as aimless and effortless a manner as possible, bolstered by the presence of others like themselves. Naturally ESPN SportsCenter was on the big plasma TV screen. Hot colors and orangey slices of postadolescent flesh flared in a Gatorade commercial . . . and now four poorly postured middle-aged white sportswriters sat slouched in little low-backed, smack-red fiberglass swivel chairs panel-discussing the ‘sensitive’ matter of the way black players dominated basketball.”
—Tom Wolfe, I am Charlotte Simmons, 2004.
The orange core of the world
“Dashorn faked a pass to André and, without looking, threw the ball inside to Jojo. The orange core of the world—Jojo had it in his hands in the ::::::::::STATIC:::::::::: of fourteen thousand cheering souls.”
—Tom Wolfe, I am Charlotte Simmons, 2004.