The English language is ever-evolving, and in our current era of instant communication, Twitter, and text-message shorthand, it just might be evolving more quickly than ever. We’ve always been fascinated by the way words are invented and take on meaning, and the way an obscure reference can become ubiquitous in an extremely short period of time — particularly those obscure references that come from our favorite manipulators of language, books. In the interest of pursuing that idea, we decided to take a look at a few everyday words that originated in literature, from plays to poems to novels to children’s books. Click through to see our a few of our favorite literary neologisms, and if you feel the urge, add to our highly incomplete list with your own favorites.
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As you may have heard, Sony Pictures has replaced Community creator Dan Harmon as showrunner, hiring David Guarascio and Moses Port to take the show’s helm for its fourth season. Harmon’s place in Community‘s future had been uncertain since the show was renewed last week — his public feud with Chevy Chase probably didn’t help – but now it’s pretty much clear: he’s been fired. Earlier today, he responded to the events on his Tumblr, writing:
“Why’d Sony want me gone? I can’t answer that because I’ve been in as much contact with them as you have. They literally haven’t called me since the season four pickup, so their reasons for replacing me are clearly none of my business. Community is their property, I only own ten percent of it, and I kind of don’t want to hear what their complaints are because I’m sure it would hurt my feelings even more now that I’d be listening for free… So do not believe anyone that tells you on Monday that I quit or diminished my role so I could spend more time with my loved ones, or that I negotiated and we couldn’t come to an agreement, etc. It couldn’t be less true because, just to make this clear, literally nobody called me.”
He ends the post by writing, “Mom, Happy Mother’s Day. I got fired. Yes, Mom. AGAIN.” Well, at least he has a sense of humor about it. We’re confident Harmon will go on to create a million more things, and hopefully some of them will be as amazing as Community. Readers, what do you think of this turn of events? Photo courtesy Gage Skidmore.
We know it’s not officially summer quite yet, but the way we see it, we’re square in the center of prime bike riding season — it’s nice enough to bike around the city, but not so hot that the extra effort plasters all your hair to your face and soaks your t-shirt. But where to put your bike when you’ve reached your destination? If you’re lucky, you can cozy it up to one of these wild and colorful bike racks, which nearly all double as public art in their respective cities. After all, why chain your ride to a boring old metal pole when you can wrap it around the spindly legs of a giant red horse or entangle it in the tentacles of a silver squid? We don’t know either. Click through to check out some spectacular and artistic bike racks from around the country (and a few from around the world) and let us know if we’ve missed your neighborhood favorite in the comments.
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This week, prolific science fiction and fantasy writer Neil Gaiman — quick to admit that he himself never went to college — gave a pitch perfect, funny, and inspirational commencement address at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts. We think it’s applicable way beyond the confines of university however: as Gaiman wrote on his blog, the speech covered “everything I could think of that someone starting out on a career in the arts right now might need to know.” Which, to be honest, is mostly this: ”Make good art.” Even when your cat’s just exploded — no, especially then. Click through to watch the video of Gaiman’s speech, and then get out there and start creating.
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In 1936, a sixth grade girl named Phyllis wrote to esteemed scientist Albert Einstein on behalf of her Sunday school class to ask him whether or not scientists pray. This seems like a rather advanced question for a sixth grade class to be asking, perhaps, but maybe it’s just a universal one: the true question — whether it’s possible to be religious and also fully believe in science — is still relevant to many people today. Einstein responds “as simply” as he can, which is to say, not particularly simply at all, though since these sixth graders are already established as somewhat precocious, maybe they took it in with no trouble. We admit that we had to read it twice. We’re not quite sure if he answered her original query, though. That Einstein, always dodging the hard questions.
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We don’t know about you, but here at Flavorpill, we were pretty weird kids — and now that the truth has come out, and we know that you really are what you read, we’re starting to wonder whether that wasn’t because of the books we were reading. Not that we’re sorry, or anything. Weird people are the best. One of the authors influencing our childhood strangeness was prolific children’s book and YA author Bruce Coville, who turned 62 this week, so to celebrate his birthday, we’ve put together a list of the all-time weirdest authors of children’s and YA fiction — in our own estimation, of course. Click through to read who we picked, and let us know if we missed your super-strange favorite in the comments — we’re always looking for new ways to get weirder.
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Have you ever thought that history’s most notorious figures could be improved if they were a little more, well, fabulous? In Scott Sheidly’s Portraits: a series of “fabulous” depictions of tyrants, dictators and popes, which is on view through May 20th at the ArtPadSF fine art fair in San Francisco, presented by the Spoke Art Gallery, he tarts up Stalin, Kim Jong-il, Hitler, and the Pope with hot pink accessories, flashy purple leopard print, and of course, unicorn bling. Because there’s a flashy teenage girl in all of us, and especially in these guys. Click through to see what Hitler looks like in a pink cape, and then be sure to head over to Sheidly’s website to check out even more of his work.
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Today is the 73rd birthday of YA staple Gary Paulsen, the author of over 200 novels, including Brian’s Saga (read: Hatchet and its ensuing sequels). Hatchet is one of those books it seems like just about everyone we know has read, and just about everyone we know (ahem, including us) was at least a little bit scarred by it — or at the very least, picked up some important survival skills. So as a tribute to the author of this ubiquitous novel, and for a fun trip down memory lane, we’ve compiled a list of YA books that gave us some serious emotional wounds that we may or may not still be nursing a little bit. Click through to check out our list of YA books that totally scarred us for life, and let us know which ones still keep you up at night in the comments.
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In case you haven’t noticed, here at Flavorpill we have kind of a thing for innovative and interesting bookshelves, not to mention collage. James Hopkins, whose cool sculptures we spotted over at Laughing Squid, combines the two in these skull-ptures (sorry) crafted out of books, bookshelves, and other household items. We especially like the deconstructed look of his pieces Prosperity & Decay and Consumption & Consequence, which seem to make a comment on the way our materialistic lifestyles are destined to do us in. But also they’re cool to look at. Click through to check out Hopkins’ skull-shaped bookshelf sculpture series, and then be sure to head on over to his website to check out even more of his work.
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When we think of feminist poetry, we think of Adrienne Rich, one of the most influential poets of the past century, not to mention one of the most important feminist poets. Had she not passed away earlier this year, today would have been Rich’s 83rd birthday, so to celebrate her life, we’ve put together a list of feminist poets still living and continuing her legacy. Because Feminist Ryan Gosling only goes so far. Click through to see a few feminist poets you should probably know about, and since there are of course many more than we can list here, let us know if we missed your favorite in the comments.
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