Sunday Sundries, 186

1. AOTW: Okay this one's a little complicated. Last night ... We're on I-77 N (coming home from West Akron); we are in the right lane, approaching the exit ramp to I-271 N; we have just passed an entrance ramp, and the AOTW, who is coming onto the freeway, is roaring up on my right, ignoring my right turn signal, determined to pass me on the right although there is virtually no room to do so. I stomp the accelerator on the Prius (!!!) and barely make it onto our ramp before he roars by, entirely lost, it seems, in his AOTW-ness.

2. This week I finished Meg Wolitzer's 2018 novel The Female Persuasion, a book I enjoyed and admired.

Wolitzer shifts the point-of-view among several characters: Greer (a young woman--a recent college graduate--looking to begin her career), Faith (an iconic older feminist leader), Zee (Greer's longtime best friend--she's gay), Cory (Greer's longtime BF).

Through the intersecting lives and experiences of these characters we see the emergence of some moral/ethical questions that interest Wolitzer:

• Are there limits to friendship? What if a friend betrays you?
• Is it moral/ethical to accept support from a foundation that supports good causes (like the feminist movement) but also plays fast-and-loose with the truth?
• What happens when you find out a hero of yours has feet of clay?
• Can you reboot a romance?
• How do we ever deal with unthinkable loss?

There is more on Wolitzer's menu, but this ought to whet your appetite?

3. Joyce and I have been watching--via Netflix DVD--the 1971 film The Last Picture Show, a film based on an early novel by Larry McMurtry, a film I don't think I've seen since 1971. We're enjoying it, too. Peter Bogdanovich (director) really captures the life in a fading small Texas town--and the performances are great. How weird so see such a young Jeff Bridges! (He plays a high school kid!) And Timothy Bottoms? What's happened to him? (I just looked at his profile on IMDB: He's really sort of playing at the edges these days--no recent big breaks?)

We're not finished yet with the film--but I see, again, why it snapped up some Oscars and other film awards.

4. We're enjoying streaming the new Netflix comedy stand-up special by John Mulaney (who used to write for SNL and recently hosted one of the shows). We don't like it as much as his earlier two specials (also available for streaming), but it's still pretty good--especially later on--the last half hour. (We're not quite finished.)

5. We've finished streaming the fourth season of Line of Duty--what an intense series! I'm such a wuss now that I could watch only about 10 min/episode before I wimped out and hopped over to something a bit lighter and brighter ...

6. Last word--a word I liked recently from my various online word-of-the-day suppliers.

     - from the Oxford English Dictionary

Jack-o'-lantern, n.

,

Origin: Formed within English, by compounding. Etymons: JACK n.2, OF prep., LANTERN n.

Etymology: In α. forms < JACK n.2 + IN prep.1 + A adj. or THE adj. + LANTERN n.

 1. a. A will-o'-the-wisp, an ignis fatuus. Later also: a corposant, St Elmo's fire. Cf. JACK-A-LENT n. 3.Sometimes imagined or regarded as a person, creature, or spirit.

1658   tr. S. de Cyrano de Bergerac Satyrical Characters xii. 45   I send St. Hermes fire (Jack in a lanthorn) to the marches.

1673   J. RAY Observ. Journey Low-countries 410   Those reputed Meteors..known in England by the conceited names of Jack with a Lanthorn, and Will with a Wisp.

1749   H. FIELDING Tom Jones IV. XII. xii. 278   Partridge..firmly believed..that this Light was a Jack with a Lanthorn, or somewhat more mischievous.

1750   S. HALES Some Considerations Causes Earthquakes 10   Plenty of inflammable sulphureous Matter in the Air, such as Ignes fatui, or Jack-a-Lanterns.

1830   Niles' Weekly Reg. 6 Nov. 173/2   A Jack-a-lantern was seen on the main-top-gallant mast head, and an intelligent person was sent up to examine it.

1885   W. C. RUSSELL Strange Voy. II. x. 186   You have too much spirit to be alarmed by a marine jack-o'-lantern.

1905   Summary (Elmira, N.Y.) 2 Sept. 3/1   The corposant is also known as ‘St. Elmo's fire’, and ‘Jack o' Lantern’.

1931   R. A. FIROR Folkways in T. Hardy iii. 56   The jack-o'-lantern is..a sportive creature whose innate love of mischief causes him to lead travelers astray.

2001   N. GRIFFITHS Sheepshagger 26   Almost as proof, jack-o'-lantern shows himself in the middle of the mire, rises slowly from the sizzling marsh.

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 b. fig. and in figurative contexts. Something that lures a person into a dangerous, difficult, or unfamiliar situation or circumstance. Later also more generally: a misleading or elusive person or thing; spec. a person who is continually on the move and rarely settles in one place for long.

1775   R. B. SHERIDAN Rivals III. iv   I have followed Cupid's Jack-a-lantern, and find myself in a quagmire.

1839   Extra Globe 31 July 203/3   They have brought it upon themselves, by following the jack-a-lantern of the credit system.

1870   J. R. LOWELL My Study Windows 5   Supplying so many more jack-o'-lanterns to the future historian.

1886   L. M. ALCOTT Jo's Boys (1891) iv. 67   Who would marry a jack-o'-lantern like me? Women like a steady-going man.

1904   Reporter-Argus (Oak Park, Illinois) 27 Feb. 4/1   One of those untraceable, unlandable, unpickupable jack o' lanterns, called a rumor.

1950   Canad. Mining Jrnl. Aug. 40/2   Somewhere along the road we have turned toward the Jack-a-lanterns of social security, and the reedy piping of economic equality.

1995   J. M. SIMS-KIMBREY Wodds & Doggerybaw: Lincs. Dial. Dict. 157/2   E's a reight Jack o' Lantern 'e is. Yer'll be lucky if yer c'n catch 'im afoãre 'e's gone agen yer will.

 c. A bright spot or patch of reflected light. Cf. JACK-A-LENT n. 3. Now rare.Cf. earlier related use of jack-o'-lantern light in quot. 1817 at Compounds 1.

1872   Jrnl. Royal Soc. Arts 27 Dec. 100/2   I allow a beam from my electric lamp to fall upon this mirror, and, as you see, the light darts off into another part of the room. That is the old Jack o'Lantern.

1901   R. O. HESLOP in Eng. Dial. Dict. (1902) III. 340/2   [Northumberland] Let's myek a jack o' lattin, lads!

1940   E. G. RICHARDSON Physical Sci. in Art & Industry xiv. 276   The sun shining on a cup of water produces a definite bright spot, the jack o' lantern, on the wall or ceiling of a room.

†2. A man with a lantern; a nightwatchman. Obs.

1663   R. STAPLETON Slighted Maid III. 48   I am an Evening dark as Night, Jack-with-the-Lantern, bring a Light.

1698   E. WARD London Spy I. II. 9   Each Parochial Jack of Lanthorn, was croaking about Streets the hour of Eleven.

a1704   T. BROWN Lett. from Dead (new ed.) in Wks. (1707) II. ii. 88   Who should come by before I could get up again, but the Constable going his Rounds, who quickly made me centre of a Circle of Jack of Lanthorns.

 3. orig. N. Amer. Esp. at Halloween: a lantern made by hollowing out a pumpkin (or occasionally swede, etc.) and cutting a design into the rind, often one representing the facial features. Also: a representation of such a lantern. Cf. pumpkin lantern n. at PUMPKIN n. Compounds 2.Now the usual sense.

1837   N. HAWTHORNE Twice-told Tales 222   Hide it [sc. the great carbuncle] under thy cloak, say'st thou? Why, it will gleam through the holes, and make thee look like a jack-o'lantern!

1875   Frank Leslie's Illustr. Newspaper 11 Dec. 226/2   A party of mischievous boys who placed a ‘jack-o'-lantern’, made from a big pumpkin, scraped very thin and furnished with a hideous physiognomy, on the fence.

1920   Boys' Life May 14/1   Ain't no sort o' Hallowe'en lest we got a jack-o'-lantern.

1959   I. OPIE & P. OPIE Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren xii. 269   As soon as it is dark on Hallowe'en they take the lighted ‘Jack-o-lanterns’ and put them on their gateposts.

1968   B. CLEARY Ramona Pest vi. 128   The morning kindergarten cut jack-o'-lanterns from orange paper.

2013   FT Weekend 28 Sept. (Mag.) 46/2   The only pumpkins we knew were jack 'o' lanterns.

C1. attrib. and appositive (in sense 1), as jack-o'-lantern devil, jack-o'-lantern deception, jack-o'-lantern nature, etc. Now rare.

1751   Student 2 352   It..is..of a mere Jack-lanthorn nature, neither here nor there.

1817   S. T. COLERIDGE Biogr. Lit. 293   The characters in this act frisk about, here, there, and everywhere, as teasingly as the Jack o'Lantern lights which mischievous boys..throw with a looking-glass on the faces of their opposite neighbours.

1835   J. P. KENNEDY Horse-Shoe Robinson III. l. 207   We have some skulking bush-fighters left—some jack-o'-lantern devils, that live in the swamps and feed on frogs and water-snakes.

1908   Relig. Telescope 23 Sept. 3/2   The jack-'o-lantern deception of vain glory.

1949   New Republic 29 Sept. 29/3   As a philosopher he [sc. Walt Whitman] lights our way, sometimes in lightning flashes, sometimes with an intermittent, shifting, jack-o'-lantern glow that might lead us into a swamp.

1951   Landfall (N.Z.) June 103   Then by the Jack-o'-lantern flare Beguiled, that haunts diminished days, Perverse I conjure from the air A partner in the narrow maze.

 C2.

 a. attrib., appositive, and objective (in sense 3), as jack-o'-lantern carving, jack-o'-lantern display, jack-o'-lantern pumpkin, etc.

1874   ‘S. MAY’ Miss Thistledown xv. 201   I wore it at your party, ever so many years ago, that time Johnny Eastman frightened me so with a jack-o'-lantern pumpkin.

1913   Hereford (Texas) Brand 7 Nov. 8/4   During the entertainment the room was darkened and a jack-o-lantern display was given.

1961   A. MAUND International i. 6   Darnel's smile opened to jack-o'-lantern size.

1989   St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 31 Oct. 4 D   When the Irish immigrants came to this country in the 1800s, they brought the jack-o'-lantern custom with them.

1990   St. Petersburg (Florida) Times (Nexis) 26 Oct. (City ed.) 1 D   The best jack-o'-lantern pumpkins weigh 15 to 20 pounds.

2017   Northumberland News (Nexis) 12 Oct. (Final ed.) 1   The event includes live music, free pumpkins for jack-o-lantern carving, and participants are encouraged to come dressed in costumes.

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 b.   jack-o'-lantern grin  n. a grin resembling the kind of expression typically carved into a Halloween jack-o'-lantern, esp. in being broad, toothy, sinister, or menacing; cf. jack-o'-lantern smile n.

1899   S. CRANE Active Service xxviii. 319   Upon that young man's face was a broad jack-o'-lantern grin.

1948   New Castle (Pa.) News 12 May 11/1   How the heck can you take Bob's smooches seriously when he comes at you with that Jack-O-Lantern grin of his?

2015   Guelph (Ont.) Mercury (Nexis) 17 Jan. D1   A demonic gleam in his eye and a jack-o-lantern grin lighting up his face.

  jack-o'-lantern smile  n. a smile resembling the kind of expression typically carved into a Halloween jack-o'-lantern, esp. in being broad, toothy, sinister, or menacing; cf. jack-o'-lantern grin n.

1956   Washington Post 25 May 42/6   Two ladies at the brassiere counter were startled to look up and encounter Kefauver's familiar Jack O'Lantern smile and his outstretched hand.

1986   F. POHL Terror xxv. 194   He smiled that great jack-o'-lantern smile and began to lecture.

2014   Deseret (Salt Lake City) Morning News (Nexis) 23 Feb.   The Marriott Center crowd rose to its feet and cheered the Cougar guard, who wore a jack-o'-lantern smile.