Monthly Archives: 12月 2012

journeyman

“I may not be a prentice anymore,” said Alvin, “but that don’t mean I’m a master. I’m just a journeyman.”

“Then hire on somewhere,” said Taleswapper. “You’ve still got things to learn.”

[…]

Go or stay, that’s up to you. But I can tell you this. Either you will go now, of your own free will, or you will go soon anyway, but not freely. You’re a journeyman smith ー you will have your journey.

[…]

“What’s your brother’s name?” asked Verily.

“Does that matter?” asked Calvin, a faint sneer in his voice. “Planning a visit to the backwoods soon?”

“Is that where you’re from? The backwoods?” asked Verily.

Calvin immediately backtracked. “Actually, no, I was exaggerating. My father was a miller.”

“How did the poor man die?” asked Verily.

“He’s not dead,” said Calvin.

“But you spoke of him in the past tense. As if he were no longer a miller.”

“He still runs a mill,” said Calvin.

“You still haven’t told me your brother’s name.”

“Same as my father’s. Alvin.”

“Alvin Miller?” asked Verily.

“Used to be. But in America we still change our names with our professions. He’s a journeyman smith now. Alvin Smith.”

“And you remain Calvin Miller because…”

“Because I haven’t chosen my life’s work yet.”

Orson Scott Card, The Tales of Alvin Maker IV : Alvin Journeyman, 1995.

journeyman n
old-fashioned
[Date: 1400-1500; Origin: journey ‘day’s work’ (13-19 centuries) + man]
1) a trained worker who works for someone else
2) an experienced worker whose work is acceptable but not excellent [LDCE]

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alumnus

alumnus n pl. alumni
A male graduate or former student of a school, college, or university.
Usage Note: Alumnus and alumna both come from Latin and preserve Latin plurals. Alumnus is a masculine noun whose plural is alumni, and alumna is a feminine noun whose plural is alumnae. Coeducational institutions usually use alumni for graduates of both sexes. But those who object to masculine forms in such cases may prefer the phrase alumni and alumnae or the form alumnae/i, which is the choice of many women’s colleges that have begun to admit men. (AHD4)

alum n AMERICAN INFORMAL
someone who was a student at a particular high school, university, or college:
alum of: She and I are alums of the same university. (MEDA)

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money can buy

“They cost money.”

“I’ll pay for it, Carl Lee! Listen to me! I’ll pay for it all. You’ll have the best lawyer and doctors money can buy, and your old pal Cat will pay the tab. Don’t worry ‘bout money!”

John Grisham, A Time to Kill, 1989

In my catalogue notes I wrote: “The marriage of reason and nightmare which dominates the 1960s has given birth to an ever more ambiguous world. Across the communications landscape stride the spectres of sinister technologies and the dreams that money can buy. Thermonuclear weapons systems and soft-drink commercials coexist in an uneasy realm ruled by advertising and pseudo-events, science and pornography.

J.G. Ballard, The Kindness of Women, 1991

Maybe he really did have a “magic touch,” but he also had a talent for finding capable people to work for him. He paid them high salaries and treated them well, and they in turn worked hard for him. “When I know I’ve got the right guy, I put a wad of bills in his hand and let him do his thing,” he once told me. “You’ve got to spend your money for the things that money can buy, not worry about profit or loss. Save your energy for the things that money can’t buy.”

Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, trans. Jay Rubin, 1998

blue-sky

You must understand that the general public did not know, at that time, that time-travel was being investigated. It was not an expensive project as long as it was a matter of working on theory, but experimental work had punished the budget and was bound to punish it still more. This was most uncomfortable for scientists engaged in an endeavor that seemed totally “blue-sky.”

William F. Wu, Isaac Asimov’s Robots in Time 1: Predator, 1993

This Sunday supplement article, now nearly six weeks old and smelling pungently of shed and woodbox, quoted two local psychiatrists who had been perfectly happy to blue-sky the situation as long as their names weren’t printed. One of them mentioned a particular sexual aberration – the urge to commit some violent act at the moment of orgasm. Nice, Johnny thought, grimacing. He strangled them to death as he came. His headache was getting worse all the time.

Stephen King, The Dead Zone, 1979

“You’re right, of course,” Glen muttered, and ran a hand over his sandpapery cheek. “Harold, I apologize. I’m very upset. I knew this sort of thing could happen ー pardon me, would happen ー but I guess I only knew it in an academic way. This is a lot different than sitting in the old study, blue-skying things.”

Stephen King, The Stand, 1978

This is why some of the world’s biggest and most tough-minded corporations, once the living embodiment of presentism, today hire intuitive futurists, science fiction writers and visionaries as consultants. A gigantic European chemical company employs a futurist who combines a scientific background with training as a theologian. An American communications empire engages a future-minded social critic. A glass manufacturer searches for a science fiction writer to imagine the possible corporate forms of the future. Companies turn to these “blue-skyers” and “wild birds” not for scientific forecasts of probabilities, but for mind-stretching speculation about possibilities.

Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, 1970

turtle

A rented motorboat had turtled and its sole occupant was clinging to the hull while two lifeguards struggled to get her into the rescue boat.

Joseph Wambaugh, Floaters, 1996

Mock Turtle

‘When we were little,’ the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, ‘we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle — we used to call him Tortoise —’

‘Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn’t one?’ Alice asked.

‘We called him Tortoise because he taught us,’ said the Mock Turtle angrily: ‘really you are very dull!’

Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865

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