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Category: Notes from Stonehaven

  • Stonehaven’s new edition of The Challenge of Baha’u’llah

    Stonehaven’s new edition of The Challenge of Baha’u’llah

    My book The Challenge of Baha’u’llah, first published 25 years ago, is now available from Stonehaven Press in a stunning commemorative edition! The new version is revised, expanded, updated, and redesigned. It sports an exquisite fresh cover and easy-on-the-eyes typography. A thorough reformatting provides easier readability and even better ease of reference. You’ll find it at…

  • Very Stable Anagrams

    Very Stable Anagrams

    Break out your old box of Scrabble blocks. Pick out the exact letter-tiles you’ll need to spell: ✦ “a very stable genius” Just don’t arrange them that way. Instead, lay them down in the following sequence: ✦ “. . . but – senile savagery!” Yes! You can do this. Because that is what the letters in “a…

  • My Prayer for 2018

    My Prayer for 2018

    May each one of us be happy, healthy, and fully engaged with others (especially those whose views and experience may differ from our own). May our country stand as a beacon for racial healing and harmony, for interfaith understanding, for economic justice, for gender equality, for commitment to science, and for borders open to all…

  • May Your Nights Be Merry and Bright!

    May Your Nights Be Merry and Bright!

    Merry Christmas, dear friends. Plus the happiest of whatever other holidays you may be celebrating this time of year, or any other time. This is a photo I took a couple of days ago of a house just down the street from the East Knoxville home Cheri and I inhabit. A fitting tribute to the…

  • Alternative Facts? No — Alternative Anagrams!

    Alternative Facts? No — Alternative Anagrams!

    It’s official: “Alternative facts” tops the list of “notable quotes” from 2017. That’s according to Fred Shapiro, associate director of the Yale Law School Library. He publishes this annual list, which also includes a bunch of runner-up doozies. Shortly after last January, when Kellyanne Conway left this devil-spawn baby on our lexical doorstep, I jotted…

  • Two Words: Of

    Not literally two words. Just the one word — “of” — used in two different senses. Both jangling. At least to me! Recently I’ve been hearing statements like “I missed that bullseye ‘cause I’m not that good of a sharpshooter.” And there was the case of a minor soap star confessing, “I’m not that good…

  • Two Words: Crevice/Crevasse

    Two Words: Crevice/Crevasse

    These look like alternate spellings of the same word. But they aren’t. To be sure, they have similar meanings and similar pronunciations. I’ve always assumed they meant the same. I was mistaken. Here’s the scoop: The other night, at maybe 3 am, I was proofreading the all-new digital version of my 1998 book, The Metropolis…

  • One Southern Word: Ratback

    A few years ago, there was an upsurge of interest in “how to talk Southern”. You could buy books on the language, maybe listen to podcasts. They’d teach you things like the Southern definition of “ah”. In case you’ve forgotten, “ah” (in Southern-speak) has two meanings. In one sense, it refers to yourself as a…

  • Knoxville in Bloom

    Here’s hoping you’re enjoying spring as much as we are. As Knoxville gears up for its annual Dogwood Arts Festival, all our flowering trees, of whatever species, are getting into the spirit. Here are a couple of photos from our eastside Chilhowee Park neighborhood. This first one is the home of our friends, Pete and…

  • Three Words: Another Think Coming (or is it “Thing”?)

    Three Words: Another Think Coming (or is it “Thing”?)

    Can common usage of a common word like “thing” be wrong — even when it’s grammatically correct? This question pesters people like me, worrying as we do about whether grammar “rules” should be prescriptive or descriptive. For some time lately, I’ve been hearing the expression “another thing coming”. As in: “If Hawkeye thinks it’ll be…

  • What Our Jonquils Know About Climate Change

    Earlier this month (February 2017) the outdoor temperature was 77 degrees F. Even in the previous month, January, the mercury often registered above 60 degrees — and rarely fell below high 40s to mid 50s. This in East Tennessee! When I moved here in 1977, sub-zero temperatures were commonplace for January and even mid-February. (I…

  • Valentine Anagrams — 2017 Edition!

    Valentine Anagrams — 2017 Edition!

    Happy Valentine’s Day 2017! To all our long-time readers, and to a host of new subscribers: We love you all! Today you’ll see plenty of heart-themed features in the mainstream media. They’ll tell you the history of Valentine’s Day. They’ll tell you funny jokes and sentimental love stories. What they won’t tell you (but I…

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