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Fyne olde insults

A mad US website which spews random Shakespearian insults at you. You’ll find this a pleasant five-minute diversion, guaranteed to enrich your vocabulary. Also you can vent your spleen at myriad poltroons of everyday life without them having the faintest idea of how rude you've just been to them. “You starvelling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, you bull's-pizzle, you stock-fish…“ ad infinitum. Visit http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html for some verbal ammunition.

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‘Married to Genius’ by Jeffrey Meyers (Southbank, £9.99 list,
£6.99 Amazon

Do you have to be a complete bastard to be a good writer? Jeffrey Myers tests out this theory by digging into the relationships of nine eminent 19th and 20th century writers, from Tolstoy to Hemingway, DH Lawrence to Virginia Woolf. And by and large, it appears, you do.

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‘Shop Horror – The Best Of The Worst In British Shop Names‘ by Guy Swillingham (4th Estate, £7 on Amazon)

In the age of the identikit High Street, let’s hear it for the quirky bastions of independent retailing. Pun-loving shop-fronts from up and down the country vie for the biggest groan in this must-have collection. There’s lingerie from Brief Moments, fish and chips from Battersea Cod’s Home, haircuts at Cliptomania. For a taster, visit shophorror.

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Taschen 25th Anniversary Series (£6.99 – £14.99)
With its roots in a small comic book store in Cologne, Taschen has grown to become one of the most recognised art and design publishing houses around. Edgy, contemporary and affordable, its eclectic list covers everything from Art Nouveau to erotic cinema, Renzo Piano to cartography. To celebrate 25 years in business, Taschen has re-released some of its best-sellers at knock-down prices. See Taschen for details.

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Where words
Did you sample a balti before 1984 or sport a mullet before 1994? And do you know how they got their names? A forthcoming BBC 2 series invites people to hunt for words and help rewrite the Oxford English Dictionary. The 50 words or phrases on the list all have a date next to them, corresponding to the earliest evidence the OED could find. Can you trump it? Entries include: bog-standard (1983); bomber jacket (1973); chattering classes (1985); codswallop (1963); cyberspace (1982); handbags at dawn (1987); and, of course, minger (1995). Visit wordhunt for more.

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Howies Summer 2005 Catalogue
A modest, interim effort from ‘Cardigan Bay’s third largest clothing company’. But it’s mix of eco-attitude, understated design and excellent writing are on the button as usual. Look out for a chilling essay on Moab Valley in Utah, a beauty spot on the surface, but an ecological disaster waiting to happen. Oh and some great T-shirts too. Visit Howies to order a catalogue

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July’s Word magazine

I know, I know, we seem to recommend Word magazine every month. But they keep coming up with such darned good feature ideas. And they’re not all about music either. This month there’s a piece on how popular phrases enter the language via TV, movies, novels and advertising. Examples include ‘If you’ve got it, flaunt it’ (Braniff Air ad), ‘Keeping up with the Jones’ (a comic strip in the New York Globe) and ‘She who must be obeyed’ (from a Rider Haggard novel). And of course we all know where ‘Doh!’ comes from.

posted by David @ 12:03 PM