I'm nonplussed, too!

Meghan Daum has a wonderful column in the Los Angeles Times, headlined "I'm nonplussed, maybe":

I need to say something. And even though I'm going to refrain from typing in all caps, I urge you to pretend I did.

The word "nonplussed" does not mean unfazed, unperturbed or unconcerned. I know just about everyone uses it that way, but I really wish they'd stop.

"Nonplussed" comes from the Latin non plus, meaning "no more," which landed almost intact in English as "nonplus," meaning "a state in which no more can be said or done."

The standard definition of "nonplussed" is "bewildered, confused or perplexed." Got that?

Read the complete column here.
I couldn't agree more, and -- I will use all caps here -- I see "nonplussed" misused ALL THE TIME. I've almost (almost) given up on being upset about it. Daum interviews a linguist about how words change meaning sometimes -- they seem to "evolve" in some cases -- which is very interesting.
Daum also wrote a brainy chick-lit novel called The Quality of Life Report, about a Manhattanite who relocates to Nebraska looking for greater meaning in life and cheap rents. She also wrote a memorable essay for The New Yorker about going broke in New York (abstract here), hence her real-life move to Nebraska.)And finally here's an interesting article about how she got from Nebraska to Los Angeles.

Swimming shows of yesteryear

And now for a rare break from the world of reading. My spouse and I were watching the Olympics and marveling over half-man half-fish Michael Phelps. It got us to thinking about extraordinary swimming abilities, and, strangely, the TV shows of our youth.
I was reminded of the great and all-too-brief '70s show, "The Man from Atlantis," starring Patrick Duffy.
To wit:

My spouse, though, is a bit older than me, a gap that looms large in matters of pop culture. His childhood memories are engraved by "Sea Hunt," starring Lloyd Bridges.


Enjoy!

Even more on books and the presidential race

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote this month about whether it's possible for a presidential candidate to bring a "Team of Rivals" into the White House. (I'm sporadically reading her book of the same name right now. It's long.). She says what Abraham Lincoln did -- making his political opponents part of his presidential cabinet -- would be much more difficult today in the era of professional, partisan campaigns and the 24-hour news cycle.
But lest you think days gone by were more civil, check this out from Goodwin's essay:

In selecting (Edwin) Stanton as his secretary of war, Lincoln revealed a critical ability to put aside past grudges. He and Stanton had first met when they worked together on a trial in Cincinnati in the 1850s. At first sight of the ungainly Lincoln, with his disheveled hair and ill-fitting clothes, Stanton dubbed him a "long-armed ape" and remarked that "he does not know anything and can do you no good." For the rest of the trial, Stanton ignored Lincoln and refused even to open the brief his colleague Lincoln had painstakingly prepared. Lincoln was humiliated.

Read her essay here.

As a side note, Barack Obama said "Team of Rivals" is the one book aside from the Bible that he would bring to the White House with him. Not that I want to give that too much importance. Katie Couric asked all the presidential candidates that question back during the primaries, and the candidates were pretty clearly making fast responses to an unexpected question, not really mulling over an answer for all time. John McCain, for instance, said he'd bring Adam Smith's "Wealth of Nations." But the Washington Post recently revealed that John McCain's favorite book is For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. (Go papa!)

In the novel, (Robert) Jordan, an American volunteer on the anti-fascist side of the Spanish Civil War, finds love, then chooses death in service to a hopeless cause he believes in. In last week's interview, conducted in the leather-covered first-class seats of his campaign plane, McCain was asked if he, like Jordan, is a "romantic fatalist." McCain answered quickly and forcefully: "Yes, yes." (McCain aide Mark ) Salter described his boss's fatalistic philosophy: "Life sucks, but it's worth doing something about anyway."

Read the WaPost profile of McCain here.

The Weeding Process Update

So I totally geeked out this weekend, pulled all the books off the shelves, weeded them and re-ordered them.
All the fiction is now arranged alphabetically by author.
The nonfiction is categorized by subject. The largest subjects, in no particular order are: Ireland, Journalism, Religion/Spirituality, Self-Help, Ecology/Coastal Issues, Baseball, General Nonfiction. I also created sections for Children's Books and Graphic Novels.
By grouping them into subjects, I was able to make substantial process on weeding. For instance, in the category of Ireland, my spouse and I had about a dozen books on the history of Ireland, and another dozen books on general Irish topics (roughly 24 books). By looking at the group as a whole, we were able to determine easily which books were really useful and substantial, and which books were of lesser importance or outdated. So we probably weeded about half a dozen books to bring us to a svelte and efficient 18 books. And we felt no remorse about the discards. What a relief!
I also created a section of Books I Haven't Read Yet. This way, when I'm looking for something to read, I can easily browse for a new title. I think of it as Spoonreader's Free Bookstore Inside My Home. Sweet.