Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Quarterdeck

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Quarterdeck: noun - originally, this was a small deck located above the half-deck and covering about a quarter of a vessel. These days, however, it's used for that part of a ship's upper deck near the stern, and usually reserved for officers or privileged passengers; the officers of a ship or the navy.

'Shirley winked with little subtlety at the steward who brought her glass of champagne, and invited him to join her on the quarterdeck a little after midnight, where, she assured him, she would make it worth his while.'

In the UK, today is generally considered the shortest day of the year and a cause of much joy that improvements are now on their way. Though, sometimes it is the 22nd that's considered so. The night between 21st and 22nd December is the longest. Certainly, following this day, the hours of daylight increase until the mid-summer point, when the whole thing begins its decline again.

The Christian world, borrowing the wisdom of the preceding pagans, placed Christmas at this time of year to capitalise on the potential of associating the birth of their prophet with the ending of the declining season and the hope of better things to come. A wise decision for those early leaders wishing to increase their following in a very uncertain world.

1835 - HMS Beagle sailed into the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, on Darwin's historic voyage of discovery.

1914 - The first feature-length silent film comedy, "Tillie's Punctured Romance" was released, featuring Marie Dressler, Mabel Normand & Charles Chaplin. Chaplin, of course, went on to become one of the cinema's icons over the following years.

Stuart's Daily Word Spot (Antonyms): Habitual/Unusual

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Habitual/Unusual

Habitual: adjective - of the nature of a habit; fixed by habit; constantly repeated or continued; customary, constant, usual, continual.

Unusual: adjective - not usual; different from or contrary to what is expected or usual; exceptional, uncommon, unconventional.

'Henry shuffled across the floor in pursuit of Adrienne, his habitual expression of hunger and need writ large on his eager face in a way guaranteed to ensure his failure as soon as she turned to face him.'

'Sheila, noted for her conformity and generally nondescript manner of dress, had taken the unusual step of attending the gathering dressed as a Bunny Girl, which was all the more noticeable since the rest of the guests had decided on more formal wear for the funeral.'

1884 - 1st cricket Test Match was played at the Adelaide Oval

1901 - Marconi received the first transatlantic radio signal from England to the US

Stuart's Daily Word Spot: Sobriquet

Sobriquet: noun – an epithet,  nickname.

Sobriquets are nicknames that most people know when they come across them; common examples are:

‘The Big Apple’ for New York City.

‘The Iron Lady’ for the disastrous former British Prime Minister, Margaret thatcher.

‘Auntie/Aunty’ for the British Broadcasting Corporation or the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

‘The Bard’ for William Shakespeare, possibly the world’s greatest playwright.

‘The Big Yin’ for Billy Connolly, a very funny Scottish comedian.

‘The Boss’ for Bruce Springsteen, a great US musician

‘The City’ for the City of London, which is the central business district of London or for San Francisco, California

‘The Dark Continent’ for the much neglected and exploited continent of Africa

‘The Fab Four’ for The Beatles, possibly the most famous pop band ever.

‘The Golden Bear’ for Jack Nicklaus, the American golfing hero

‘The Great White North’ for Canada; no surprises here, especially for those who live there.

‘The Holy Land’ for Israel / Palestine; possibly the least appropriate sobriquet, given the determination of its inhabitants to continue an unholy fight that could have ended decades ago with the application of tolerance and common sense.

‘Joltin’ Joe’ for Joe DiMaggio, USA Baseball player and former husband of Marilyn Monroe

‘The King’ for Elvis Presley, a very popular rock artist from the States.

‘The Land of the Long White Cloud’ for New Zealand; a meteorological reference to possibly the world’s most picturesque collection of islands.

‘Madge’ for Madonna; a singularly terse name for one of popular music’s most enduring and creative artists

‘Old Nick’ for Christianity’s Devil; a mythical creation developed to frighten the gullible by those who wish to have power over them.

‘Pommy’, ‘Pom’ for an English person; Australian name, vaguely affectionate except when preceded by ‘whingeing’ or succeeded by ‘bastard’

‘The Red Planet’ for Mars; a result of the planet’s appearance when viewed through a telescope

‘Satchmo’ for Louis Armstrong; possibly the greatest jazz musician to come out of the USA

‘The Smoke’ for London; and no longer appropriate, since the pollution has largely disappeared

‘The Sultan of Swat’ for Babe Ruth, a Major league Baseball player from USA

‘Tinseltown’ for Hollywood, California, USA, where triviality and superficiality reign supreme

‘Tricky Dicky’ for Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, after his involvement in the Watergate scandal

‘Westminster’ for the British Parliament, because of the location of the Houses of Parliament.

‘Yankee’ for an American of European ancestry unsympathetic to the South, originally only from those states that fought the Confederacy in the Civil War but now from any non-Southern state. Used outside the USA for any American, along with ‘Yank’ and often derogatory.

2 August 1911 Einstein urged all scientists to refuse to do military work.

Pic: A track just outside North Dalton, East Riding of Yorkshire.

Stuart’s Daily Word Spot: Fabric

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Fabric: noun - construction or design of a building, an animal's body, a vehicle, etc.; a building in which work or manufacture is carried on, a factory; a frame, basic structure of a building; type of construction or formation, texture; manufactured textile, woven, knitted, or felted material; a material made of chemically bonded fibres; the structural material of something, woven tissue or fibre of a textile.

‘The earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand, damaged the fabric of the cathedral to such an extent that part or all of the building would have to be rebuilt.’

‘Whilst Jenny was happy to use man made fabric for her dress, she always wanted natural fabric, like cotton, for underwear in touch with her skin.’ 

Review of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

First published in 1956, the Corgi edition I read was published in 1971, when it cost £0.25p in the UK and 80 cents in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

I generally don’t précis a book when I review it. I am interested in the language, structure and the way the writer has allowed his characters to drive the story. But, if you’re unfamiliar with this particular tale, let me explain that it is the story of the last ‘normal’ human male alive following a catastrophe resulting in part from a nuclear war. Matheson’s take on this situation is entirely different from any other I have come across, blending the fabled powers of vampires and the undead with a good deal of psychology and medicine as he tries to explain how and why the world’s population has been reduced to a particularly brutal version of cannibalistic vampirism.

His hero, Robert Neville, almost the only substantial character in the story, fights an unending battle against the infected souls who want his blood. The purists will undoubtedly rail at the large amount of ‘tell’ that describes the man, his world and his attempts to deal with it. And I admit I would have liked a little more ‘show’. There are times when the author forgets that he is writing from the point of view of his character and describes elements that the character would not know about. But the story develops, so that what begins as a tale of survival and unrelenting fighting for existence, becomes an examination of a man embroiled in a war against his own fears and memories.

Matheson has done a deal of research into matters to do with blood, so that his explanations of the reasons for the bacterial infection and its peculiar manifestations are made at least credible.

But, science and myth apart, this is really a tale about a man discovering himself through adversity. It is very andocentric and the only female characters are not well drawn, nor given the sort of status they truly deserve; the American male of the 1950s showing through in the superficial and patronising portrayal of two women who could have been truly heroic.

In the end, in spite of its failures and faults, this is a good read; compelling and thought provoking, especially for its time.

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