To refer to legs as gams has always been slang, and is now distinctly dated slang at that.  But as usual, there’s more going on wit...

        The rat has a bad reputation, understandably enough, and it seems that no one makes block prints celebrating rats, except those w...

        Here is another poem (from 1929) by Robert Graves.  This has no rhyme or rhythm, being written purely in the form of a conversatio...

        The work of Paul Peter Piech seems appropriate as a follow-up to Martin Luther King Jr Day.  Piech (USA/Wales, 1920 - 1996) was a...

        Here is a magnificent wood engraving by Fritz Eichenberg , illustrating assorted tales of Edgar Allan Poe .  It looks like this i...

        This is my 1000th blog post.  (Do posts work like paper cranes, granting me a wish for peace now that I’ve reached 1000?  Well, ...

        I have just discovered the existence of the Literatura de Cordel, “string literature,” of the northeastern regions of Brazil.  It...

        On Thursday I will be giving a presentation on “The Fantastic Bestiary,” which is my not-particularly-subtle pun with two meaning...

        As we enter a new year and a new decade, gates and doorways seem like an appropriate metaphor, so I have three block prints of po...