Sunday Sundries, 256

1. AOTW--I have three stellar candidates this week: two guys who roared by me on my right in a lane that was closing ahead of them, another guy who passed me on a double-yellow line because of my offensive driving (I was going 40 in a 35). But, instead, I think I'll give the HBOTW of the week to my son (Steve), my daughter-in-law (Melissa), our grandsons (Logan and Carson) for the wonderful dinner for us they hosted on December 20, our 50th wedding anniversary. A great meal at a local restaurant here in Hudson (Downtown 140). An evening of kindness and generosity--an evening to remember.

2. Last night, Joyce and I drove over to the Cinemark in Cuyahoga Falls to see Queen & Slim, a very troubling film about a young couple--on their first date--stopped by a policeman. A shooting ensues, and our couple is off on a kind of Bonnie-and-Clyde (they're mentioned in the film)/Thelma and Louse escape, a huge pursuit. The young man and woman are black; the policeman is white.

The chase takes us into their lives--and into the lives of some strangers along the way.

I won't tell you if they escape or not--but I will tell you that it's one of the most disturbing films I've seen in a long, long, long time.

(Link to film trailer.)

Joyce and I were both surprised during the final credits to see that James Frey was involved (he came up with the story idea, apparently)--the same James Frey who was assailed for faking material for his memoir A Million Little Pieces (2003), a book Oprah had selected for her book club before she discovered he'd fabricated some events for it. Then she invited him back on her show and eviscerated him.

Wonderful performances by the varied cast.

3. I finished one book this week--Ian McEwan's 2005 novel, Solar. (I'm trying to catch up some McEwan I've not gotten around to reading.)

The novel focuses on the life of Michael Beard, a physicist who's won the Nobel Prize but whose career has slumped and whose personal life is beyond a mess. He's been married multiple times; he's had multiple affairs; he's losing control of his weight (understatement); he commits a couple of egregious acts--one civil, one professional.

And just as things are apparently looking up for him (he's deeply involved in the climate-change movements and seems to have make a major breakthrough in a remedy), things, as Yeats said, fall apart.

McEwan is a master of getting us to care about a scumbag. He writes this in the third person--but intimately so. We are inside Beard's head much of the time. (I won't say we're inside his heart because he doesn't seem to have come equipped with one that functions all that humanely.)

And even at the end--when all his past is catching up with him--we kind of pity the fool.

As, of course, we pity ourselves. McEwan knows perfectly well that most of us are flawed--sometimes quite flawed--and that all of us slip into sleep with Rue and Shame competing for attention in our memories. And so ... we can relate to Prof. Beard, even as we despise what he's done, what he's doing.

4. As I've written here before, we're streaming season 2 of Fleabag on Amazon Prime, and this one is sometimes (often) difficult to watch. Our young "heroine," played expertly by the writer of the series, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, cannot control herself. She lies, steals, has sex with a wild promiscuity, betrays, etc.

Yet ... we like her. She often turns to the camera and makes a face--or says something witty--asides that only one character, so far, has even noticed--though he can't seem to figure out what she's doing.

Anyway, in season 2 our Fleabag is in a "relationship" with a priest ... and where will that go? Hmmmmm.

She has a sister, by the way, who's as disturbed as Fleabag--though in much different ways. The sisters' relationship, for me, is one of the highlights of the series.

5. Final Word: a word I liked this week from one of my online word-of-the-day providers ...

     - an odd coincidence this week: two word-a-day services had the same word yesterday--halycon--on the same day--but they dealt with different meanings of the word ...

          - from dictionary.com (which emphasized the common meaning of the word)

halcyon[ hal-see-uhn ]

adjective Also hal·cy·o·ni·an  [hal-see-oh-nee-uhn] , hal·cy·on·ic  [hal-see-on-ik] .

calm; peaceful; tranquil:

halcyon weather.

rich; wealthy; prosperous:

halcyon times of peace.

happy; joyful; carefree:

halcyon days of youth.

of or relating to the halcyon or kingfisher.

noun

a mythical bird, usually identified with the kingfisher, said to breed about the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, and to have the power of charming winds and waves into calmness.

any of various kingfishers, especially of the genus Halcyon.

(initial capital letter) Classical Mythology. Alcyone(def 2).

ORIGIN OF HALCYON: 1350–1400; < Latin < Greek halkyṓn, pseudo-etymological variant of alkyṓn kingfisher; replacing Middle English alceon, alicion < Latin alcyōn < Greek

        - from Oxford English Dictionary (which emphasized a less familiar meaning)

halcyon, n. and adj.

[‘In classical mythology: a bird, usually identified as a kingfisher, which brooded around the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, charming the wind and waves into calm. In later use also (chiefly poetic): a kingfisher, esp. the common kingfisher, Alcedo atthis.’]

Etymology: <  classical Latin alcyōn (also halcyōn: see note) a mythical bird identified by the ancients with the kingfisher, believed to nest on the sea <  ancient Greek ἀλκυών, in the same sense, of unknown origin; perhaps a Mediterranean loanword.

Compare Middle French, French alcyon, denoting the mythical bird (2nd half of the 13th cent. in Old French as alcion; in Middle French also as alcione, alchione, halcion, halcyon).

In manuscripts of Pliny the spelling varies between halcyōn and alcyōn; elsewhere the word is generally written alcyōn. The spelling of the Greek word with ἁλ- (hal-) probably arose from a folk etymological derivation <  ancient Greek ἅλς sea (see halo- comb. form1) + κύων conceiving (present participle of κύειν to be pregnant: see cyesiology n.), connected with the fable that the halcyon broods upon her nest floating on the calm sea in the ‘halcyon days’.

Adopted in scientific Latin as the specific name alcyon (Linnaeus Systema Naturae  (ed. 10, 1758)  I. 282), in the genus Alcedo, and later as the genus Halcyon, replacing Alcedo (see quot. 1820-1 at sense A. 1c).

N.E.D.  (1898) also gives the pronunciation (hæ·lʃiən) /ˈhælʃɪən/; this is the usual pronunciation in dictionaries from the late 18th and early 19th century.

 A. n.

 1.

 a. In classical mythology: a bird, usually identified as a kingfisher, which brooded around the time of the winter solstice in a nest floating on the sea, charming the wind and waves into calm. In later use also (chiefly poetic): a kingfisher, esp. the common kingfisher, Alcedo atthis.

a1393  J. Gower Confessio Amantis(Fairf.) iv. l. 3123 Hire briddes yit..Of Alceoun the name bere.

1545  G. Joye Expos. Daniel  Ep. Ded. f. 2 Thei saye that in the..coldest tyme of the yere, these halcions making their nestis in the sea rockis or sandis, wil sitte their egges and hatcheforth their chikens.

1585  J. Higgins tr. Junius Nomenclator  55/2 Alcedo, alcyon,..a winter birde commonly called the kings fisher.

c1592  C. Marlowe Jew of Malta  i. i How stands the wind? Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill?

1616  W. Browne Britannia's Pastorals  II. i. 17 About his sides a thousand Seaguls bred, The Meuy, and the Halcyon.

a1649  W. Drummond Poems(1656) 161 Makes Scotlands name to fly On Halcyons wings..Beyond the Ocean to Columbus shores.

c1750  W. Shenstone Elegies  v. 22 So smiles the surface of the treach'rous main As o'er its waves the peaceful halcyons play.

1769  J. Wallis Nat. Hist. Northumberland  I. 321 The Alcyon, or King's-fisher..is not unfrequent on the shady banks of our larger rivers, and deserves notice for its beauty.

1819  J. H. Wiffen Aonian Hours(1820) 104 The brilliant halcyons..fluttering upon azure wings, appear Loveliest above secluded waters.

1878  E. De Amicis tr. C. Tilton Constantinople(ed. 4) 98 Halcyons come and go in long files between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmora; and storks sit upon the cupolas of the mausoleums.

1880  G. Smith in Atlantic Monthly  Feb. 200 The halcyons of literature, art, and science were floating on the calm and sunlit sea.

1982  W. Golding Moving Target(1984) 176 Would I were a halcyon flying over the flowers of foam.

2001 Classical Q.  New Ser. 51 522 Likewise the Alcyones. In this myth Ceyx and Alcyone are changed into halcyons.

 b. North American. The belted kingfisher, Megaceryle alcyon. Now rare.

1790 Coll. Voy. round World  V. xi. 1805 We found the halcyon, or great king-fisher, having fine bright colours.

1802 R. Brooke's Gazetteer(ed. 12) at P. William's Sound The birds found here were the halcyon, or great kingfisher [etc.].

1907  ‘N. Blanchan’ Birds Every Child should Know  xiv. 208 (heading)  Belted Kingfisher. Called also: The Halcyon.

1916 Condor  18 4 At Prince William's Sound were seen the White-headed Eagle, the Alcyon or great Kingfisher, the Hummingbird, and a small land bird evidently the Golden-crowned Sparrow.

 c. Any kingfisher of (or formerly of) the genus Halcyon or subfamily Halcyoninae, native to parts of Asia, Australasia, and Africa; also (in form Halcyon) the genus itself.

1820–1  W. Swainson Zool. Illustr.  I. text to Pl. 27 The species now formed into the genus Halcyon appear entirely excluded from the American continent.

1829  E. Griffith et al.  Cuvier's Animal Kingdom  VIII. 690 The primary distinction in the external structure of Halcyon and Dacelo rests in the form of the upper mandible of the bill.

1901  A. J. Campbell Nests & Eggs Austral. Birds  559 The New Zealand Halcyon..is allied to our Halcyons.

1995  M. L. Rosenzweig Species Diversity in Space & Time  vii. 185 New Guinea..boasts five other species of Halcyon.

2006 Auk  123 487 The phylogeny supports splitting Todiramphus from Halcyon.

 2. A period of calm, happiness, or prosperity; (as a mass noun) calm, tranquillity. Also: a period of calm or pleasant weather; spec. = halcyon days n. 1. Usually in plural.

1567  W. Salesbury in  tr. Testament Newydd  Ep. Ded. sig. aijv I beseeche almyghtye God,..that we..may toward God..demeane our selfes in such wyse that his iustice abrydge not these Halcyons and quiet dayes.

1647  J. Trapp Comm. Evangelists & Acts  (Matt. ix. 15) Our halcyons here are but as marriage-feasts, for continuance.

1654  J. Trapp Comm. Psalms  ii. 4 By this means the Church had an happy Halcyon.

1747  S. Richardson Clarissa  II. i. 4 Tis well one of us does [want courting]; else the man would have nothing but halcyon.

1844  R. W. Emerson Ess.  2nd Ser. vi. 113 These halcyons may be looked for..in that pure October weather, which we distinguish by the name of the Indian Summer.

1915 Mixer & Server  15 Oct. 58/1 If ever the world is enwrapped in a haze that mellows with its softness the harsh edges of earthly existence, it is in the month [sc. October] whose halcyons never fail.

2013  M. Leibovich This Town  xii. 311 He partook of a beer-soaked bus tour of Iowa that harked back to his cornfield halcyons of '08.

 B. adj.

 1. Of a period of time: characterized by peace, happiness, prosperity, or success; (of a situation, condition, state, etc.) calm, tranquil; carefree.

Now often with overtones of nostalgia.

Recorded earliest in halcyon days n. 2. For the semantic motivation of this sense, see halcyon days n. 1.

1570 Prayer  in  J. Foxe Serm. Christ Crucified  sig. T.ij It hath pleased thy grace to geue vs these Alcion dayes, which yet we enioy.

1596  C. Fitzgeffry Sir Francis Drake  sig. B6  Pure Halcion houres, Saturnus golden dayes.

c1660  J. Evelyn Diary  anno 1638 (1955) II. 21 Fortifications (a greate rarity in that blessed Halcyon tyme in England).

1705  M. Pix Conquest of Spain  v. 71 No darkning Cloud threatned our Halcyon State.

1797  A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl  VI. i. 51 All, therefore, was halcyon with Mrs. Woudbe.

1841  I. D'Israeli Amenities Lit.  II. 27 Peace and policy had diffused a halcyon calmness over the land.

1890  E. Phillips Lost in Adirondacks!  ii. 44 Her tender mind roamed back in silent memory to her halcyon childhood in the sunny South.

1943 Mansfield (Ohio) News-Jrnl.  22 July 5/1 It was a halcyon summer scene and its peace and beauty lifted the heart.

2000 Independent on Sunday  6 Aug. (Culture section) 3/1 The halcyon heyday of the nouvelle vague, when new works by Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol and the like benefited from the ultimately short-lived xenophilia of British distributors.

 2. Of or relating to the halcyon or kingfisher. Now chiefly literary.

In earlier use chiefly in figurative contexts, esp. with reference to peace and tranquillity (cf. sense B. 1). With quot. 1608, cf. the superstition that a dried specimen hung up would by its position indicate the direction in which the wind was blowing.

1608  W. Shakespeare King Lear  ii. 76 Bring oyle to stir, snow to their colder-moods..and turne their halcion beakes With euery gale and varie of their maisters.

1693 Reply to Reflector(new ed.) i. 16 We will bear the Reproach, of having a particular Devotion for the Church of England, whose Halcyon Wings have never yet bin dipt in Blood.

1781  H. Downman Poems to Thespia  xxii. 85 With thee Peace builds her Halcyon nest.

1864 Temple Bar  July 482 Glasgow and Preston have turned out rich stuffs and fairy-like fabrics, glowing with halcyon hues.

1951 Hudson Rev.  4 10 Pliny recommended dried and pulverized halcyon nests as a ‘wonderful cure’ for leprosy.

2010  W. L. Idema in  tr. Butterfly Lovers  31 Hairpins were often decorated with pearls and halcyon feathers.

Compounds

 halcyon blue n. and adj. (a)n. a brilliant blue colour resembling that of the plumage of a halcyon or common kingfisher; (b)adj. of this shade of blue; = kingfisher blue n. and adj. at kingfisher n. and adj. Compounds.

1787  J. Whitehouse Poems  88 Those eyes of halcyon blue.

1922  E. Blunden Bonaventure  xxvi. 164 The air was cold and lucent; the water halcyon blue.

1975 Financial Times  17 Nov. 3/2 A pretty backdrop of halcyon-blue Aegean.

2007 Daily Record(Nexis) 2 Mar. 39 Available in four metallic colours—black, aluminium, grey or halcyon blue—the car also sports half-leather upholstery.