Waters So Deep And Distant

“One weekend Trout and Eel decided to paint their bedroom blue. The walls were the turquoise of the southern seas, the ceiling was cobalt, the floors indigo, the color of waters so deep and distant, no human had ever seen them before. Here in this room anyone could imagine the sound of waves breaking.”

—Alice Hoffman, from Indigo, 2002.

Wallace Wood’s Rules of Drawing

“1. Never draw what you can copy.

2. Never copy what you can trace.

3. Never trace what you can cut out and paste down.”

—Arthur Bloch, Wallace Wood’s Rules of Drawing, from Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong, 1980.

Photographer’s Laws

“1. The best shots happen immediately after the last frame is exposed.

2. The other best shots are generally attempted through the lens cap.

3. Any surviving best shots are ruined when someone inadvertently opens the darkroom door and all of the dark leaks out.”

—Arthur Bloch, the Photographer’s Laws, from Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong, 1980.

First Law of Laboratory Work

“Hot glass looks exactly the same as cold glass.”

—Arthur Bloch, the First Law of Laboratory Work, from Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong, 1980.

Handy Guide to Modern Science

“1. If it’s green or it wriggles, it’s biology.

2. If it stinks, it’s chemistry.

3. If it doesn’t work, it’s physics.”

—Arthur Bloch, Handy Guide to Modern Science, from Murphy’s Law Book Two: More Reasons Why Things Go Wrong, 1980.

so green, so green, so green

“O the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green;
O and then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my summer’s queen.”

—Thomas Dekker, from The Shoemaker’s Holiday, first performed at the Rose Theatre, London, in 1599. Edited by Anthony Parr, 1975.

the jolly nut-brown bowl

“Troll the bowl, the jolly nut-brown bowl,
And here, kind mate, to thee.
Let’s sing a dirge for Saint Hugh’s soul,
And down it merrily.”

—Thomas Dekker, from The Shoemaker’s Holiday, first performed at the Rose Theatre, London, in 1599. Edited by Anthony Parr, 1975. From the footnotes: Troll=pass, nut-brown i.e. the colour of the ale it contains.

glorious glittering gold!

“Did she give thee this gold? O glorious glittering gold! She’s thine own, ’tis thy wife, and she loves thee; for, I’ll stand to’t, there’s no woman will give gold to any man but she thinks better of him than she thinks of them she gives silver to.”

—Thomas Dekker, from The Shoemaker’s Holiday, first performed at the Rose Theatre, London, in 1599. Edited by Anthony Parr, 1975.

brownstone.

Soft brown sandstone. Also, buildings of this material.
—A History of Interior Design, by John Pile, 2000.

golden mean.

A ratio or proportion in which the smaller number is to the larger as the larger is to the sum of the two, or A:B=B:A+B.
—A History of Interior Design, by John Pile, 2000.