David’s short video Alien Whisperer was screened at the Gulf Coast Film Festival in Clear Lake, Texas, last weekend.
David doesn’t like to do BSP–Blatant Self-Promotion–so I help him out. I guess that makes it Blatant Spouse Promotion.
Alien Whisperer isn’t on David’s YouTube channel yet, but here’s a link to Invisible Men Invade Earth, my favorite of his videos. It was named What the Fest Judges’ Pick at Dallas’ Pocket Sandwich Theater in 2017.
Judges liked Invisible Men because it has a “purity”–which is a departure from the usual description of his videos as “weird”–but I like it because it features our William and Ernest. Asked how he got William and Ernest to follow direction, he said that he figured “if you set up a camera on a tripod, cats will do something.”
To see more of David’s videos, go to Youtube.com and search for @daviddavisvideo.
When defense attorney Byron Douglas must flee New York City before a mob hitman takes him out—and the Feds decline to help—he designs an unofficial witness protection program, fakes his own death, and disappears.
And the reader assumes he’ll spend the rest of the book living on the fringes of society, making no friends, keeping a low profile.
Wrong. Here’s where the author throws in a twist. Byron takes the opportunity to practice criminal defense law under a new identity, and suddenly he’s in the spotlight—the courtroom, the headlines—and lying not only to casual acquaintances, but to police, to judges, to everyone. He’s trapped in a web of lies. And thanks to his high-profile job, he’s looking over his shoulder double time.
From now on, it’s twist after twist: hitmen surface, a dead man returns, another dead man views his own body at the morgue. And finally a murderer is exposed.
Reading DEAD BY PROXY is like playing a game of literary Twister. Kudos to Manning Wolfe for serving up a suspenseful—and fun—book.
***
FTC Disclaimer: I received an Advance Review Copy of Dead by Proxy and then purchased a copy for my Kindle. I paid for the ebook with my very own money. Nobody paid me to write this review. Nobody threatened me to get me to write it. Nobody said I’d better like the book or else. The words are all mine, and so are the ideas.
[I don’t know why several paragraphs are jammed together. I double-spaced. I triple-spaced. But the paragraphs insist on bunching up in an unattractive and almost unreadable lump. My apologies.
I tried.]
Today I answer the question—Exactly what is a runcible spoon?
You no doubt remember that Edward Lear’s Owl and Pussy-Cat use one at their wedding breakfast:
“They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;” . . .
Since the term isn’t in general usage, many readers don’t understand it but accept it as a Lear-ism and ask no further.
Those who do go further and consult Merriam-Webster find it is “a sharp-edged fork with three broad curved prongs,”—but MW cites no sources, a no-no in scholarly circles. Some sources claim it’s a spork.
Wikipedia goes on and on about runcible spoons but offers no definitive answer. It includes a long list of authors, screenwriters, composers, and others who’ve used the word runcible. These two jump out at me:
Paul McCartney‘s 2001 album Driving Rain includes the track “Heather” which features the lyrics: “And I will dance to a runcible tune / With the queen of my heart”. McCartney has explained the connection to “The Owl and the Pussycat” in various interviews since its release.
A Latin word runcare means to weed out. This word could explain the Dolumphious Duck’s fishing process with a runcible spoon. The duck is really weeding out the frogs from the water.
That should settle the question. But it doesn’t.
For one thing, it seems to me that eating mince and slices of quince with a runcible spoon would be difficult if not downright messy.
And Christensen notes that Lear also applies the adjective to a goose, a hat, and a wall. Wikipedia points to a runcible cat and a Rural Runcible Raven. None of the aforementioned, at least as we understand them, resembles a ladle.
“Despite the nebulous meaning of the words runcible spoon,” she says, “they trip off the tongue with delight and account for their many uses by other authors.”
So—what is a runcible spoon? It’s nonsense.
What else would it be? It comes from the brain of Edward Lear.
###
Except, to muddy the water:
Wikipedia dates publication of “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” at 1870.
Here’s a photo of a George III Sterling runcible spoon by Eley & Fearn, L0ndon, 1817
She’s only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she’s happy and free from care,
She’s not, though she seems to be,
‘Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold, for an old man’s gold,
She’s a bird in a gilded cage.
*
This song was playing in my brain when I woke yesterday morning.
I thought that if I posted it, I might stop singing it.
M. K. Waller 