The Idler

[wabmester]

I just discovered a magazine dedicated to, erhm, doing nothing.

The Idler

It's been around for over 10 years, so this might be old news to you. 

Anyway, the latest issue contains a nice interview of Michael Palin, who discusses various topics near and dear to early retirees, including creating your own luck, avoiding stuff, and the simple pleasures of urban life.

 

[youbet]

Thanks wab! It's new news to me. This looks like terrific reading.

 

[sgeeeee]

I'm skeptical. I know how much work it is to put out a magazine -- working to a deadline, etc. How could these guys really know anything about loafing?

 

[Danny]

I'm skeptical. I know how much work it is to put out a magazine -- working to a deadline, etc. How could these guys really know anything about loafing?

Maybe its semi-monthly or whenever they manage to get it out....

Edit:
Actually, it's 4 issues for £60.00!

Thanks wab

 

[sgeeeee]

Maybe its semi-monthly or whenever they manage to get it out....

. . .

I like that idea. They should advertise themselves as a magazine for loafers that comes out occasionally, and promise that they will probably get out 4 issues a year if nothing better comes along.

 

[donheff]

The original "Idler" was a sudonym, and a series of articles, by Samuel Johnson in the mid 18th century from whence comes my new sig - "Every man is, or hopes to be, an Idler." It is discussed in the book "Doing Nothing" that I ordered from the library after reading about it here. The book is a somewhat academic look at loafing by a guy who feels a little uncomfortable with his inner slacker. It is interesting but not a great read.

 

[astromeria]

do you mean "pseudonym"--false (fictitious) name? Interesting info on types of pseudonyms:
http://www.answers.com/topic/pseudonymity

not sure how Idler is a pseudonym, though. Did you mean metonymy, a rhetorical device--where "idler" is a single characteristic used to represent the whole, as "the crown" can be used to represent the British monarchy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

synecdoche is similar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche

Sorry...former editor here...not that I made use of such rhetorical effects in my tech writing/editing--that was the specialty of the marketing department

 

[donheff]

do you mean "pseudonym"--false (fictitious) name? Interesting info on types of pseudonyms:
http://www.answers.com/topic/pseudonymity

not sure how Idler is a pseudonym, though...

Sorry...former editor here...not that I made use of such rhetorical effects in my tech writing/editing--that was the specialty of the marketing department

- that's the embarrassed smiley. The trouble with blogs and email is I never bother paying attention to my spelling, but that one was way dumb. The book makes it sound like Johnson used the "Idler" as both the title of the series and the identity under which he wrote the articles. Would that make "Idler" a pseudonym or does the term not apply when the false name clearly can't be real?

 

[LakeRat]

Thanks for this site. I may keep me from lurking around here so much. Not to say that lurking is bad, it isn't is it?

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

do you mean "pseudonym"--false (fictitious) name? Interesting info on types of pseudonyms:
http://www.answers.com/topic/pseudonymity

not sure how Idler is a pseudonym, though. Did you mean metonymy, a rhetorical device--where "idler" is a single characteristic used to represent the whole, as "the crown" can be used to represent the British monarchy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

synecdoche is similar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche

Sorry...former editor here...not that I made use of such rhetorical effects in my tech writing/editing--that was the specialty of the marketing department

Methinks Astro has too much idle time on her hands.

 

[Nords]

...not that I made use of such rhetorical effects in my tech writing/editing--that was the specialty of the marketing department 

I thought the term for that was "hyperbole"...

 

[astromeria]

synecdoche, metonymy, and hyperbole are just a few of the different types of rhetorical devices--but hyperbole is much more popular than the others...or is that hyperbole Other familiar types are metaphor, simile, alliteration, and irony. Here's as complete a list as I can find easily, with examples--were those ancient Greeks & Romans cool or what! Note Barry Goldwater's famously excellent use of antithesis:
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html

Hey, some people fly-fish or go bird-watching, some get into spreaadsheeting or martial arts or sudoku. I read about random areas of study, wherever my whimsy takes me. Retorical devices were vaguely work-related for me at one time. Anyway, it's good to be familiar with these devices, if not by name. They are used by speechwriters--and other writers--to manipulate us.

 

[Nords]

synecdoche, metonymy, and hyperbole are just a few of the different types of rhetorical devices--but hyperbole is much more popular than the others...or is that hyperbole  Other familiar types are metaphor, simile, alliteration, and irony. Here's as complete a list as I can find easily, with examples--were those ancient Greeks & Romans cool or what! Note Barry Goldwater's famously excellent use of antithesis:
http://www.uky.edu/AS/Classics/rhetoric.html
Hey, some people fly-fish or go bird-watching, some get into spreaadsheeting or martial arts or sudoku. I read about random areas of study, wherever my whimsy takes me. Retorical devices were vaguely work-related for me at one time. Anyway, it's good to be familiar with these devices, if not by name. They are used by speechwriters--and other writers--to manipulate us.

I'm curious, Astro-- when you go to parties do they try to throw a few frosty beverages down your throat and get you to do a few minutes' stand-up on apostrophes? That happens to me all the time...

 

[astromeria]

They'd be smarter to keep me far from the intoxicants--I talk more under the influence! But who wouldn't rather talk about alliteration than Somebody Loves Edmund er Reebok er Raybans, NASCAM, or American Idyll

Be nice Nords, it's my birthday. And I'm having a dinner party coz I forgot what day it was a few weeks ago when I planned it : I should prolly start the horse doovers (hors d'ouevres for you word pedestrians ).

 

[sgeeeee]

. . . it's my birthday. And I'm having a dinner party coz I forgot what day it was a few weeks ago when I planned it  : I should prolly start the horse doovers (hors d'ouevres for you word pedestrians  ).

Happy Birthday, astromeria. Hope you have a good one and that the horse doovers turn out great.

 

[laurence]

They'd be smarter to keep me far from the intoxicants--I talk more under the influence! But who wouldn't rather talk about alliteration than Somebody Loves Edmund er Reebok er Raybans, NASCAM, or American Idyll 

Be nice Nords, it's my birthday. And I'm having a dinner party coz I forgot what day it was a few weeks ago when I planned it  : I should prolly start the horse doovers (hors d'ouevres for you word pedestrians  ).

Hey, mines the 18th! Go Leos!

 

[SecondCor521]

They'd be smarter to keep me far from the intoxicants--I talk more under the influence! But who wouldn't rather talk about alliteration than Somebody Loves Edmund er Reebok er Raybans, NASCAM, or American Idyll

Be nice Nords, it's my birthday. And I'm having a dinner party coz I forgot what day it was a few weeks ago when I planned it : I should prolly start the horse doovers (hors d'ouevres for you word pedestrians ).

Ditto on the Happy Birthday.

I chucked because that's what my parent's call 'em -- horse doovers.

2Cor521

 

[HFWR]

I always thought they were "whore's doovers"..................... :

 

[greg]

I always thought they were "whore's doovers"..................... :

Please, could we just talk about food, instead .

Happy belated Birthday astromeria. May all your future birthdays include chocolate, except your 100th, unless it's chocolate Metamusil.

 

[haha]

do you mean "pseudonym"--false (fictitious) name? Interesting info on types of pseudonyms:
http://www.answers.com/topic/pseudonymity

not sure how Idler is a pseudonym, though. Did you mean metonymy, a rhetorical device--where "idler" is a single characteristic used to represent the whole, as "the crown" can be used to represent the British monarchy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy

synecdoche is similar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche

Sorry...former editor here...not that I made use of such rhetorical effects in my tech writing/editing--that was the specialty of the marketing department 

This is excellent! Now I understand where our very own monitor, Cutthroat, gets his name:

Synecdoche (Example) The species is used for the genus
"cutthroat" for assassin, "...

And all this time I have been worrying about a former pot grower. 

Ha

 

[haha]

This is excellent! Now I understand where our very own monitor, Cutthroat, gets his name...

Oops! On further reading, I realize that I have unwittingly employed a dysphemism.

"Dysphemism and its antonym, euphemism, are often two sides of the same coin.
A guerrilla in neutral language might be called freedom-fighter by some
while a terrorist by others. Novelist and story-writer Nathaniel Hawthorne
summed it well when he wrote, "Words - so innocent and powerless as they are,
as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the
hands of one who knows how to combine them."
http://wordsmith.org/awad/archives/0103

This can get very intense. I think I may have a fatal attraction for dysphemistic discourse.

Ha

 

[Martha]

Maybe so Ha, but at least you aren't a snoot. 

Hey, I just figured out that HaHa is Mikey's Nom de Guerre.

 

[deserat]

Happy belated birthday Astromeria and a BIG thanks for that web site - oh wow - very interesting - I love the examples - umm, sometimes I'll sit down with a dictionary and roam - start with a word, look at its synonym/homonym/antonym and see its meaning - see the different nuances, etc. Sting is one of my favorite singers/songwriters and one of his early songs had a line: "Poets, Priests and Politicians use words that ask for you submission...." How one uses words is very important and can be very powerful.

Language is very interesting - and the different languages around the world are very interesting as well. When one thinks how ideas are formed from the aggregation of words and the choices one has for words - how ones' language allows one to form ones' ideas changes how they perceive the world because the brain is 'plastic' and is affected by both its input and output.....I could go on and on....and am probably going too far here! In any case, thanks!

Bridget

 

[astromeria]

Thanks for the well-wishes--I'm having a great birthday week. My daughter took us both out for pedicures--I am now the proud? owner of pearly orange toenails that almost match the luscious leather purse I bought in Italy. As for DH--I got dibs on several DVDs to be named later (I'm currently thinking King Solomon's Mines and Mogambo, and maybe some Cadfael).

Consider the rhetorical link a gift to my fellow word-geeks on the forum