Showing posts with label Caine Mutiny. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caine Mutiny. Show all posts

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Youngblood Hawke is a Band?

Maybe you are familiar with Herman Wouk, the author.  Maybe you think you aren't, but you are, a little bit.  Herman Wouk has written many, many things in his career. 

The Caine Mutiny.
Bogart and Fred MacMurray.  Huh?


Winds of  War.

War and Remembrance.

Youngblood Hawke.

Herman Wouk wrote those, and more.   There's more, and more to the ones listed above.  The Caine Mutiny and Youngblood Hawke were very successful movies.  Winds of War and War and Remembrance were mega blockbuster TV miniseries.

There's another book Wouk published in 2015.  It is titled Sailor and Fiddler : Reflection of a 100-Year Old Author.

Herman Wouk, born 1915, is still writing.  Amazing.  Sailor and Fiddler is a breezy autobiography.  If you've followed his books a bit, you may find it entertaining.  If you haven't, it's probably not going to get you too excited.  The fact that Wouk pumped out a pretty good book at 100 years of age, that is simply remarkable. 

He tells of meetings and conversations with characters who were huge celebrities in their day, and occasionally discloses that he's a little fuzzy on the details, dismissing the gaffe in one instance with the comment "...forgive me, the conversation took place 62 years ago..." 

The reason that I've shared this bit of mildly entertaining information with you today is words.   Herman Wouk is arguably the greatest American novelist ever.   Herman Wouk knows lotsa words.  Lotta lotta words.  I know lotsa words.  Herman knows more. In the first 2/3 of the book, I have jotted down 21 words that he dropped in here and  there that I had to go look up.  Some were vaguely familiar, most could be inferred from context ( you know how we sort of go with it by assuming from the surrounding thought that we know the word and maybe yes and maybe no but it's too much effort to look it up so we plow on through). 

Here they are.  There are  21 of them.  How many did you know before today?

Colliery                                                     a coal mining facility

Precis                                                        a summary of a speech or text

Piquant                                                     spicy, tangy (this one I knew, sort of)

Freebooter                                                pirate (yar! I love saying yar!)

Cormorant (adj.)                                      not the bird, as adj it means greedy

Dactyl                                                      not terra, it is an accented syllable followed by two
                                                                 unaccented, eg "flattery"

Persiflage                                                 good natured banter

Badinage                                                  the same as persiflage.  Howbowdah?

Ephemera                                                something short lived, like your enjoyment of this

Pastiche                                                   this is cool : a dramatic opening in music or literature
                                                                that mimics other works

Evanesce                                                 disappear like vapor.  whoosh!

Anodyne                                                 a pain reliever

Encomium                                                a tribute or testimonial

Limn                                                        to describe or portray

Cerberus                                                  Best One!!! this is the multi-headed monster dog that
                                                                 guards the gates of hell -- to prevent escape!!!

Vagary                                                    unexpected change

Jejeune                                                    Frasier always used this one.  It's naïve or simplistic

Litvak                                                      a Lithuanian Jew

Adduce                                                   cite as evidence

Insouciance                                             indifference

Jocose                                                     playful, humorous

So, how many did you know?