A sporadically promulgated annotated listing of arguably worthwhile, recently published online reading, new or revised websites of potential utility or ostensible interest, and other internet-accessible experiences that, were it not for the casually collected, cavalierly collated, & capriciously collocated components comprising these posts, could easily be overlooked - which would be, in some cases, a shame
Readings
Jeeves and W. by Christopher Buckley. New Yorker. Nov 27, 2006.
Not only is this a funny, wit-satiated take on George W. Bush’s grasp of the situation in Iraq, but it turns out that Christopher Buckley does a pretty good PG Wodehouse imitation.
Playing With Ideas by Daphne Merkin. New York Times. November 26, 2006.
It may be impossible to write a boring article about an interview with Tom Stoppard. 
In any case, this longish New York Times piece, replete with lines such as “I look at him and am struck by the aura of louche glamour he carries — like a lounge lizard who reads Flaubert — daring you to cause ripples in his carefully arranged and well-defended image,” is certainly not dull.
It is, however, one of those articles that reveals the reporter’s fascination with her own peccadilloes to be a close contender with her interest in the putative subject of the interview. (My personal scorecard shows the reporter’s self-interest eking out a win on points, neither side scoring a knockdown.) I’m willing to overlook such distractions because I’m wild for Stoppard. Of course, I would be a Stoppard fan if he had written nothing other than his play devoted to the life of A.E. Housman, “The Invention Of Love;” the less Housman-infatuated reader may wish to adjust his or her expectations accordingly.
In addition, I find it comforting and perhaps even gratifying that an author who is accorded the status of genius displays reading and writing traits, as characterized in the following excerpts, that (I can convince myself) are vaguely reminiscent of my own:
All in all, it’s a decent read.
Web Sites
Reverse Dictionary
This reverse dictionary, hosted by Onelook.com, uses statistical language processing hacks to search its indices of online dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference sites to produce a
list of words and phrases related to the concept described by a user entering a “few words, a sentence, a question, or even just a single word” into the search box.
The Reverse Dictionary falls into the category of tools that are easier to use than to describe. A few trial runs will provide far more enlightenment than any amount of preliminary reading. My advice is to try it first and, if it seems potentially helpful, then read about using the advanced operations, such as wildcards.
I find myself using this site at least a few times a day.
The Cook’s Thesaurus
This thesaurus does not offer equivalent words but instead provides equivalent recipe ingredients, which is quite a nice trick if one, say, lives in a home with two teenage sons whose culinary daring exceeds their expertise in stocking the pantry and anticipating future grocery needs. For example, if one of those hypothetical sons is frustrated by his inability to find the boldo leavescalled for in a Guatemalan recipe he has brought home from his theoretical 18 month sojourn in that country at the local Dominick’s, it’s helpful to learn from The Cook’s Thesaurus that (1) Hispanic markets sometimes carry these dried leaves in cellophane bags and (2) ordinary bay leaves can be substituted.
Ninjawords
Ninjawords is an online dictionary with the advantage of producing its results by an AJAX-like mechanism; the pragmatic result is that the web page doesn’t refresh with each definition.
That, in turn, means that results remain inline to allow easy comparisons or to create a list of words. In fact, as the site points out, “You can compare definitions by looking up many words on the same page. Type them one by one and hit enter, or type them all at once in the search box, separated by commas.”
Caution: This ain’t the OED. The definitions sometimes are not exhaustive, no etymologies are provided, etc., but for quick lists of similar words and definitions, this site is the place to go.
