This book was simultaneously one of the more interesting and the most difficult book to understand. And that’s fitting.

After returning from my honeymoon in Indochina, where we visited more Buddhist temples than I can count, I wanted to learn more about Buddhism. Asking a friend’s Buddhist brother, I was recommended this book. It turned out to be the perfect book for my purposes. The author is an American Buddhist and the book is written pretty much precisely for people like me: westerners with an interest in Buddhism.

The book is organized as the life of Shakyamuni Buddha (aka Siddhartha, the Buddha) can be organized. We learn about the Buddhist conception of the world and the mind. We learn what nirvana, Dharma, samsara, Bodhisattvas, mean and are. It discusses the (many) different lineages of Buddhism, from Therevada and Mahayana to the sub-lineages thereof. Some of which I’d heard of like Tantric and Zen.

But most of all, and the hardest part to understand is the idea of the Buddha. Some lineages see buddha as something that is inextricably part of every person which is both the same and not the same as us. This is where it gets hard to understand. We just have to understand that we cannot understand. Nirvana has a similarly confounding description: it can’t be described because we can’t understand it, but it’s attainable. And furthermore, it won’t be disappointing. It’s illustrated with a little story that helps it make sense.

Tadpoles are swimming around in a pond. Eventually one grows into a frog and leaves the pond for dry land. He comes back to report to the rest of the tadpoles about what’s out there. He says, “There is air out there.” “What’s it like,” they ask. “Well, it’s like water but it’s not wet.” “How can water not be wet?” “Well, it’s all around you but you don’t swim in it and you walk on the dry ground.” “How can you not swim in water, and how can it not be wet?” These are concepts that the tadpoles have no capacity for understanding, since they only know “in” the pond and cannot conceive what “out” of the pond could be like.

This is like life for us. We live in samsara and can’t conceive what nirvana is like. And those who have attained it cannot explain it in terms that we can understand. But it’s there.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn about Buddhism as a philosophy and religion.

View all my reviews

When seeing this letter, the recipient is to be compelled to open this immediately. But it can wait. It has to do with a magazine subscription, probably. It’s not that important. If the recipient cares a lot about their magazine subscriptions, they will open the letter in due time. But this is presented as very important correspondence. Here are some examples of actually important correspondence: Tax-related documents; letters containing checks, credit cards, or other money; a social security card; wedding certificate. Magazine subscription notices are not as important.

Why do I care about this? Well, if the ante keeps getting upped, how will we know what’s actually important? Will the IRS have to send letters with blinking LEDs attached to get our attention? If Condé-Nast recognized it’s place on the importance scale, they would just send a letter with a to: address and a return address. Simple. I’ll get to it, eventually. It’s just that I feel like we’re living in a world where companies are interested our attention so much that they are all competing to get it, no matter what it takes. I get sick of all the ads in my face all the time and this feels like the same kind of attention-invasion. Maybe I shouldn’t worry about it. But then, again, maybe Condé-Nast will send their next letter in a hot-pink envelope with stinging nettles on it, so I really take notice, and “ow!”-activated glue on the outside, so I can’t put it down. Then it will automatically open and a picture of a naked lady will emerge, singing a jolly jingle about the benefits of some kind of magazine arriving at my mailbox on a monthly basis.

Customers Also Bought... Really? I don't think so.

So, are people who are about to travel to Scotland all really into FOX News and right-wing politics? Somehow I don’t think this is right. Either there is some interesting book buying activity that I’m now aware of, the B&N algorithm has gone haywire, or something fishy is going on.

This wasn’t a fluke. I’d snapped this screen shot last week but I went back just now and the results are the same. Looking at another Scotland travel book I see results more like I would expect.

I report, you decide.

If this is not news to you, fine. But it’s news to me. I even have the LP at home.

and another one:

I came back home on Sunday night to discover that the window had been opened by the fire escape and that all of our things had been rifled through.  I rushed immediately to the hiding place where her engagement ring was hidden (she didn’t take it out of town with her) and was relived to find it where I left it. What was missing was what, apparently, one person could carry out. The burglar took a canvas tote bag of mine that had my iPod in it and packed into it the rest of the goods that were stolen: a Playstation 3, a Wii, their controllers, and my fiancee’s Mac PowerBook laptop.

They are just things, things that can be replaced. However, on the computer are things that cannot be replaced with any amount of money. These are the things we want back more than anything else. It could have been a lot worse. There were a lot of our belongings that could have been taken that weren’t. Cameras, a TV, stereo, etc. I count us fairly lucky all in all, but we should not take this lying down.

Why should you want to help? I’m not sure. Maybe you want to help us out of the goodness of your heart. Maybe you want to see if this social experiment can work. Maybe you want a reward. Maybe we stop this from happening to our neighborhood.  For whatever reason, I hope you can help.

Let’s get this message in front of anyone you know who lives in Brooklyn or the surrounding areas. The computer could have made its way to Queens or Manhattan, so let’s just get people to see this.

Here’s what we’re looking for: Apple Macintosh PowerBook G4 Aluminium with a 15″ screen and a 1.25GHz PowerPC G4 processor. The serial number is V73394FSNRZ It’s the September 16, 2003 version. It’s got some cosmetic damage on the outside corners, small dents and scratches. The screen has some lighter-colored splotchyness to it. There are probably around 10-15 light splotches on the screen. The power adapter was not taken but if there is one with it it probably has to be jiggled and finessed to keep the green charging light activated. The battery life is abysmal. It may be being carried in a canvas tote bag with WNYC printed on it in red. If it is on, the desktop background will have a comical picture of a woman wearing a head-scarf with various funny things floating in the sky behind her tiled on the screen.

There are so many people online that I think we have a good chance of getting this message in front of someone who has the chance of coming into contact with this computer. I believe that the thief intends to sell the computer to the first person that can be found who wants to buy it at a cut-rate. Perhaps it’s already been sold. Perhaps someone on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or some other network already has the computer in their possession. Perhaps someone online will see the computer for sale on some street corner. We have a lot of eyes and ears and typing fingers. Maybe we can retrieve this special information. If it can return a camera to its owner, maybe it can return information and photos to their owner as well.

If you have this computer and have come into ownership by any means whatsoever, I will be happy to arrange to meet you and get it back, no questions asked. Please, let your conscience get the better of you.

Please email me at hewins@gmail.com if you have any information leading to the recovery of the data on this computer or the computer itself.

Thanks, and let’s see if we can do this!

this is a screenshot from an account I created with the email address support@twitter.com

I have a few email addresses. I hacve some that I use for my everyday life, one for work, and others for things like signing up on email lists and entering contests.

One of the email addresses I use to subscribe to Jim Bramlett’s “inJesus” evangelical email list got a strange email the other day from Twitter. The subject was, “Welcoming you to Twitter!” and it began, “Hello, new Twitter-er!” This, I thought was very strange because I didn’t sign up for a Twitter account with that email address, and I looked into it. It turns out that someone had created my account and called it “PastorFurtick” with the name Steven Furtick. I immediately changed the password on the account so that nobody could access it anymore (I wish I hadn’t, more on that later). Then, naturally, I googled Steven Furtick and came up with this site. I looked for a way to contact his church and found a phone number, called it, and didn’t reach anyone. I didn’t leave a message either. I was going to ask about the twitter account while knowing that it wa not necessarily Steven who had created it.

As I was discussing this with my coworkers today, I decided to try it myself. I realized that I could complete the sign-up process and start tweeting without even verifying the email address that I used to create the account. I made an account called “securityproblem” with the email address support@twitter.com. (In the meantime, my coworker created one with my work email address.) It seemed that someone else had dome something like that becuase when I saw the home page, my new account was already following and followed by “llk4235 / Lupe King“.

So I tweeted. I tweeted more and tweeted @biz, the founder (nothing in reply yet). A screenshot of the first few tweets is what is above. Check out the twitter account page here. I have tested logging out and back in to this account, and that works, no problem.

Looking around for other people talking about it, google turned up the Twitter support page on “My account is compromised…” but it doesn’t really address the issue at hand. This is more about something strange happening to an existing account. I need to know about creating new accounts. I didn’t really find anything useful after googling “sign up for twitter with someone else’s email address”. Mostly, people were concerned with Twitter “impoersonators” but this was not related to the email address issue.

If you know anything about this issue, please comment here or tweet @hewins.

I popped the disc I found into my iMac at home. It’s an anti-Scientology DVD. I haven’t watched much of it yet though, but that’s the fact, jack.

This is a photo of the back of the DVD.

“He descended into a gryke in the stone…” (p11)

It’s an obscure geological term.

Found through google: reverso

gryke: n  a variant spelling of  →  grike

grike: n a solution fissure, a vertical crack about 0.5 m wide formed by the dissolving of limestone by water, that divides an exposed limestone surface into sections or clints

“Her nipples pipeclayed and her rib bones painted white.” (p18)

 This one is pretty darn obscure, as well.

definr:

pipeclay (http://definr.com/pipeclay)

n : fine white clay used in making tobacco pipes and pottery and
in whitening leather [syn: terra alba]

dictionary.com:

Pipeclay
Pipe”clay`\, v. t. 1. To whiten or clean with pipe clay, as a soldier’s accouterments.

2. To clear off; as, to pipeclay accounts. [Slang, Eng.]

“China in a breakfront, cups hanging from their hooks.” (p21)

Apparently this really is a piece of furniture.

dictionary.com:

break⋅front
–adjective
1.     (of a cabinet, bookcase, etc.) having a central section extending forward from those at either side.
–noun
2.     a cabinet or the like having such a front.
Origin:
1925–30; break + front

“…squatted and laved up the dark water.” (p38 plus p122, p147)

So, McCarthy decided to use the “obsolete” use of this word a bunch of times:

dictionary.com:

lave
verb, laved, lav⋅ing.
–verb (used with object)
1.     to wash; bathe.
2.     (of a river, sea, etc.) to flow along, against, or past; wash.
3.     Obsolete. to ladle; pour or dip with a ladle.
–verb (used without object)
4.     Archaic. to bathe.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME laven, partly < OF laver < L lavāre to wash; partly repr. OE lafian to pour water on, wash, itself perh. < L lavāre

wikipedia returned the entry for “washing” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laved)

“…the river was choked with great windrows of black limbs…”; “Piled in a windrow in one corner of the roomwas a great heap of clothing.” (p44, p107)

I guess this one works. It’s a stretch but that doesnt bother me. It’s called poetic license, isnt it?

dictionary.com:

wind⋅row
–noun
1.     a row or line of hay raked together to dry before being raked into heaps.
2.     any similar row, as of sheaves of grain, made for the purpose of drying.
3.     a row of dry leaves, dust, etc., swept together by the wind.
–verb (used with object)
4.     to arrange in a windrow.
Origin:
1515–25; wind 1 + row 1

click “read more” to read more.

“Sited there in the darkness the frail blue shape of it looked…” (p48)

This is obviously the verb form.

dictionary.com:

site
noun, verb, sit⋅ed, sit⋅ing.
–noun
1.     the position or location of a town, building, etc., esp. as to its environment: the site of our summer cabin.
2.     the area or exact plot of ground on which anything is, has been, or is to be located: the site of ancient Troy.
3.     Computers. Web site.
–verb (used with object)
4.     to place in or provide with a site; locate.
5.     to put in position for operation, as artillery: to site a cannon.

“…where he was used to stropping the blade of his knife.” (p63)

dictionary.com:

strop
noun, verb, stropped, strop⋅ping.
–noun
1.     any of several devices for sharpening razors, esp. a strip of leather or other flexible material.
2.     Also, strap. Nautical, Machinery.
a.     a rope or a band of metal surrounding and supporting a block, deadeye, etc.
b.     a metal band surrounding the pulley of a block to transmit the load on the pulley to its hook or shackle.
c.     a rope sling, as for handling cargo.
d.     a ring or grommet of rope.
–verb (used with object)
3.     to sharpen on or as if on a strop.

“He was lean, wiry, rachitic” (p63)

definr:

rachitic (http://definr.com/rachitic)
adj : of or relating to or resulting from rickets

dictionary.com:

rachitic
adjective
affected with, suffering from, or characteristic of rickets; “rickety limbs and joints”; “a rachitic patient” [syn: rickety]

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.

 wikipedia turned up Osteomalacia

“…and cut a perimeter around their siwash camp…”  (p68)

This one seems to have some controversy to it. It can be a derogatory term for ‘natives.’

dictionary.com:

si⋅wash
Pacific Northwest, Northwest Canada, and Alaska.
–noun
1.     (sometimes initial capital letter) Disparaging and Offensive. a North American Indian.
–verb (used without object)
2.     to camp out without a tent or supplies.
Origin:
1830–40; < Chinook Jargon < North American F sauvage Indian, F: wild, savage

in wikipedia: Chinook Jargon use by English-language speakers

“The new snow lay in skifts all through the woods…” (p76)

I couldnt find a definition for this one.  Score one for me!

“The sacred idiom shorn of its referents and so of its reality.” (p89)

dictionary.com:

ref·er·ent      (rěf’ər-ənt, rĭ-fûr’ənt)
n.   A person or thing to which a linguistic expression refers.

“…the crude tattoos etched in some homebrewed woad faded in the beggared sunlight.” (p90)

definr:

woad (http://definr.com/woad)
n 1: a blue dyestuff obtained from the woad plant
2: any of several herbs of the genus Isatis

 dictionary.com:

woad   /woʊd/
–noun
1.     a European plant, Isatis tinctoria, of the mustard family, formerly cultivated for a blue dye extracted from its leaves.
2.     the dye extracted from this plant.
Origin:
bef. 1000; ME wode, OE wād (c. G Waid); akin to F guède, ML waizda < Gmc

wikipedia returned Isatis tinctoria

“…the crude tattoos etched in some homebrewed woad faded in the beggared sunlight.” (p90)

I’m not sure this one works for the definition I found. What do you think?

dictionary.com:

beg·gar      (běg’ər)
tr.v.   beg·gared, beg·gar·ing, beg·gars
1. To make a beggar of; impoverish.
2. To exceed the limits, resources, or capabilities of: beauty that beggars description.

And there are some that I didn’t know but I suspected they were real words, just that I didn’t know them:

“She sat there smoking a slender length of dried grapevine as if it were some rare cheroot.” (p56)

dictionary.com:

che⋅root  /ʃəˈrut/ [shuh-root]
–noun
a cigar having open, untapered ends.
Also, sheroot.
Origin:
1660–70; < Tamil curuṭṭu roll (of tobacco)

 wikipedia sez: cheroot is also a stogie

“He walked…through a stile and out to where the boy was waiting.” (p91)

This makes sense to me. Maybe it’s a turnstile that doesn’t turn.

dictionary.com:

 stile  /staɪl/ [stahyl]
–noun
1.     a series of steps or rungs by means of which a person may pass over a wall or fence that remains a barrier to sheep or cattle.
2.     a turnstile.
Origin:
bef. 900; ME; OE stigel, deriv. of stīgan to climb, c. G steigen

 Actually, wikipedia’s is best because there are pictures: Stile

“…and lastly a supplimentary consort of catamites illclothed against the cold and fitted in dogcollars and yoked each to each.” (p92)

This one is not pleasant, but there aren’t too many things in The Road that are. Again, wikipedia comes through with the best one for description and because it mentions The Road:

A catamite is the younger partner in a pederastic relationship between two males, which was a popular arrangement in many areas of the ancient world.

Kings and Emperors in the ancient world (depending on their sexual orientation) had not only concubines but also catamites (male concubines), in addition to their many wives.

The word is also used to describe the practice in early Japan, where monks would have sexual relationships with younger monks; samurai with pages; and noblemen with younger members of the aristocracy.

The word catamite is derived from the Latin catamitus, itself borrowed from the Etruscan catmite, a corruption of the Greek Ganymedes, the boy who was seduced by Zeus and became his beloved and cup-bearer in Greek mythology.

“The plaster ceiling was bellied in gread swags and the yellowed dentil molding was bowed and sprung…” (p107)

Okay, wikipedia is turning out to be the best source becuase it has pictures that help. Dentil

“…a small tooth-shaped block used as a repeating ornament…”

“…set the jars carefully in the duff and picked up the pistol…” (p124)

This one on dictionary.com seems to be the one McCarthy was intending:

duff /dʌf/ [duhf]
–noun
1.     organic matter in various stages of decomposition on the floor of the forest.
2.     fine, dry coal, esp. anthracite.

“…through the paint could be seen a pale palimpsest of advertisements…” (p129)

Man, these are good words. dictionary.com:

pal·imp·sest      (pāl’ĭmp-sěst’)
n.
1. A manuscript, typically of papyrus or parchment, that has been written on more than once, with the earlier writing incompletely erased and often legible.
2. An object, place, or area that reflects its history: “Spaniards in the sixteenth century . . . saw an ocean moving south . . . through a palimpsest of bayous and distributary streams in forested paludal basins” (John McPhee).

And wikipedia has pictures: Palimpsest

“The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth.” (p130)

I like this particular usage!

dictionary.com:

in⋅tes⋅tate   /ɪnˈtɛsteɪt, -tɪt/ [in-tes-teyt, -tit]
–adjective
1.     (of a person) not having made a will: to die intestate.
2.     (of things) not disposed of by will: Her property remains intestate.
–noun
3.     a person who dies intestate.
Origin:
1350–1400; ME < L intestātus, equiv. to in- in- 3 + testātus testate

“…he found a double handful of gold krugerrands in a cloth sack.” (p142)

This is an interesting choice for McCarthy to have used.

dictionary.com:

Kru·ger·rand      (krōō’gə-rānd’, -ränd’)
n.   A one-ounce gold coin of the Republic of South Africa.
[Afrikaans : after Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger + rand, rand; see rand.] 

(photo from wikipedia)

And then ones that I know are word, just that I didn’t know the definition:

macadam (all over the place)

Wikiawesome tells us about macadam:

Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam in around 1820. The method simplified what had been considered state-of-the-art at that point.

piedmont (I forgot to mark the page)

dictionary.com:

Pied⋅mont /ˈpidmɒnt/ [peed-mont]
–noun
1.     a plateau between the coastal plain and the Appalachian Mountains, including parts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama.
2.     Italian, Piemonte. a region in NW Italy. 4,540,822; 11,335 sq. mi. (29,360 sq. km).
3.     a city in W California, near Oakland. 10,498.
4.     (lowercase) a district lying along or near the foot of a mountain range.
–adjective
5.     (lowercase) lying along or near the foot of a mountain range.
Origin:
< It Piemonte lit., foothill

“Darkness implacable.” (p130)

dictionary.com:

im⋅plac⋅a⋅ble  /ɪmˈplækəbəl, -ˈpleɪkə-/ [im-plak-uh-buhl, -pley-kuh-]
–adjective
not to be appeased, mollified, or pacified; inexorable: an implacable enemy.

I did this on my second reading of the book but I haven’t finished yet, so, more to come.

As it turns out, there is only one word that I couldn’t find the definition for, “skifts.” I suspect is has some real meaning though. It may just be more obscure.

Other interesting things that McCarthy does in the book is to create a lot a new (to me) compound words. It is one of the English Language’s idiosyncrasies that some compound words exist like fireplace and foothills but these, that McCarthy uses are not (yet?) compound words:

• diningroom (p26)
• foldingtable (p26)
• coalgrate (p26)
• firebrick (p26)
• cornershaped (p51)

And this gem: “Shriveled and drawn like latterday bogfolk…” (p24)

Moreover, who could miss the “selective contractions” in this novel? Seemingly, all the contractions involving “not” (the n’t ones) are written without the use of the apostrophe but the ones involving “would,” “will,” and “are” (the ‘d, ‘ll, and ‘re ones) and “is” (the ‘s ones) do use the apostrophe.

Didnt, wont, cant, couldnt. And it looks like aint makes it into the “not” crowd.

They’ll, they’d, he’d, it’d,  I’ll, that’s, we’re.

And apparently let us, let’s gets the apostrophe treatment.

This is the first McCarthy book I’ve read. I’ll probably read the others now.

 http://fontpark.morisawa.co.jp/permalink?id=ob2xjqhzm9g9sjd