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Cover to Joan Aiken’s “The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase,” artwork by Corinne Reid, 2025

Penguin Random House (United Kingdom Branch).



“Thanks to the human heart by which we live …”

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.

— closing lines, William Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood”


Photo credit: Christine Hasman / Dove Cottage.  “Dove Cottage. This tiny cottage is a magnet for tourists from all over the world, as it was once the home of the poet William Wordsworth and is now a museum. It is actually situated slightly outside the village of Grasmere, on the White Moss road at Town End.”

A salami omelette is called a salamelette.

And that is today’s portmanteau, ladies and gentlemen.

Hey, I’ll go you one better.  A hard salami omelette is called a halamelette.  That’s even more enticing.  It sounds Kosher.   (And “harlamelette” sounds too reminiscent of “harlot omelette;” I’m not sure what that would even be made of, but I can’t imagine it’s good.)

Please, no pedanticism about the correct spelling of “omelette,” because it’s too goddam confusing.

I suppose it is obvious that I have strayed from my avowed heart-healthy diet.  I need to get back on that horse.  (Back on the wagon?  Getting to horse hitched to the wagon or something?)

I’m rambling again.



Illustration of a pea plant by G. Hamman

Pencil.

V0043454 A pea plant (Pisum species): twining stem. Pencil drawing.
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images
images@wellcome.ac.uk
http://wellcomeimages.org
A pea plant (Pisum species): twining stem. Pencil drawing.
Published: –
Copyrighted work available under Creative Commons Attribution only licence CC BY 4.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

“Once in a while, the moon turns blue.”

Cover to “Action Comics” #1050, Alex Ross, 2022

DC Comics.