Headlines of the Week (Or Whatever)

The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain.

Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice. Examples of automaticity are common activities such as walking, speaking, bicycle-riding, assembly-line work, and driving a car (see Highway hypnosis). After an activity is sufficiently practiced, it is possible to focus the mind on other activities or thoughts while undertaking an automatized activity (for example, holding a conversation or planning a speech while driving a car).

A demonym is a term for the residents of a locality. It is usually but not always derived from the name of a locality. For example, the demonym for the people of Canada is Canadian; the demonym for the people of Sweden is Swede. Some locations have double forms; for example, the demonym for the people of Britain can be either British or Briton. Here is a list of demonyms for U.S. states, including derogatory demonyms such as "Massholes" for people from Massachusetts.

Bukowski, any day.

what matters most is
how well you 
walk through the
fire.

Headlines of the Week (Or Whatever)

So a friend was asking me about haikus and I was explaining that it isn't just about sallables, but has to have a thematic structure, nature references, etc. This led me to Google, as everything does, and I ended up reading all about constrained writing and then on into morning! I mean, all kinds of places, including:

"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is an example of a sentence that is grammatically correct, but semantically nonsensical.

Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den is a 92-character modern poem written in Classical Chinese, in which every syllable has the sound shi (in different tones) when read in modern Mandarin Chinese.

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically correct sentence. Yes, really.

And you can use constrained writing to send a secret message.

And of course, the xkcd comic in which Munroe describes a spacecraft using only the most common words.