The Ambrose Bierce Word of the Day

Excellent! Bierce rocks!

January 30, 2003



POLITICIAN, n. An eel in the fundamental mud upon which the superstructure of organized society is reared. When he wriggles he mistakes the agitation of his tail for the trembling of the edifice. As compared with the statesman, he suffers the disadvantage of being alive.

These are wonderful and refreshing LarryBS.

It makes me think of a statement that Thoreau made when he heard the Massachusetts Legislature was letting out.

"I must hurry home and lock my back door".

seaglass

Thanks, some things never change!

You can be sure a politician is telling the truth when he calls another politician a liar. - - - American Proverb

January 31, 2003

OPTIMISM, n. The doctrine, or belief, that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly, everything good, especially the bad, and everything right that is wrong. It is held with greatest tenacity by those most accustomed to the mischance of falling into adversity, and is most acceptably expounded with the grin that apes a smile. Being a blind faith, it is inaccessible to the light of disproof -- an intellectual disorder, yielding to no treatment but death. It is hereditary, but fortunately not contagious.

February 1, 2003


PHILANTHROPIST, n. A rich (and usually bald) old gentleman who has trained himself to grin while his conscience is picking his pocket.

February 2, 2003


ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A total abstainer is one who abstains from everything but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.

These are great, Larry, thanks!

There are a lot to choose from, but many are dated or HIGHLY un-PC.

Interesting man, Bierce, his end still mysterious. Surprised no one has ever made a movie of his life - or maybe they have.

Bartleby.com, Columbia Encyclopedia entry:

"Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett 1842-1914?, American satirist, journalist, and short-story writer, b. Meigs co., Ohio. After distinguished Civil War service, he turned to journalism. In San Francisco he wrote for the News-Letter, becoming its editor in 1868. He soon established a reputation as a satirical wit, and his waspish squibs and epigrams were much quoted. In London (1872-75), he wrote for the magazine Fun and finished three books, including Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874). After his return to San Francisco, he wrote for the Argonaut, edited the Wasp (1881-86), and was a columnist for Hearst's Sunday Examiner (1887-96); his writings in the Examiner made him the literary arbiter of the West Coast. Later he was Washington correspondent for the American and a contributor to Cosmopolitan.

"Bierce's collection of sardonic definitions, The Cynic's Word Book (1906), was retitled The Devil's Dictionary in 1911. Often dark in tone, grisly or macabre in subject matter, and masterful in their spare language, his short stories were collected in such volumes as Tales of Soldiers and Civilians (1891) and Can Such Things Be? (1893). He was also highly praised for The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter (1892), which he adapted from a translation of a German story. Bierce's distinction lies in his distilled satire, in the crisp precision of his language, and in his realistically developed horror stories. Disillusionment and sadness pervaded the latter part of his life. In 1913 he went to Mexico, where all trace of him was lost."

Larry- This is GREAT. I never knew much about Bierce, but I do believe that is going to change!

Whatever you do, don't miss his short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, which I suspect you may have already heard of or read. If you haven't, don't read anything about it, just find it and read it. Its not that long. What a great story.

Larry- Up until now, "An Occurrence..." was about ALL I knew about Bierce. Studied it in either HS or college!

I just found it online, its much shorter than I thought. Also, a nice Bierce site.

The Ambrose Bierce Site

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge online

And an interesting addition on this page with lots of Bierce Links as well:

"Downloadable version of "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." Twenty-eight minute 1962 film version directed by Robert Enrico. Needs RealPlayer 8."

Other Bierce Sites

Thank you for the information about Bierce and the link to An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. I just read it and as I finished, a chill went up my spine. What a wonderful writer! I will certainly be reading more of his works.

Highly un-PC does that mean X-rated?

February 3, 2003

SENATE, n. A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.

I am afraid you can't rock Bierce's caustic wit and sense of realistic horror, unless you have made The Angel's Dictionary.
P.S. (1)I don't mean to pick on the poem.
(2) Just kidding.


P.P.S.
This brief (from Britannica) about Bierce is also cool, so I copy and paste it below:

Bierce, Ambrose (Gwinnett)

(b. June 24, 1842, Meigs county, Ohio, U.S.--d. 1914, Mexico?), American
newspaperman, wit, satirist, and author of sardonic short stories based on themes of
death and horror, whose life ended in an unsolved mystery.

Reared in Kosciusko county, Ind., Bierce became printer's devil on a Warsaw, Ind.,
paper after about a year in high school. In 1861 he enlisted in the 9th Indiana
Volunteers and fought in a number of American Civil War battles, including Shiloh and
Chickamauga. Seriously wounded on Kenesaw Mountain in 1864, he served until
January 1865; he received a merit promotion to major in 1867.

In San Francisco, which was experiencing an artistic renaissance, he began
contributing to periodicals, particularly the News Letter, of which he became editor in
1868. Bierce was soon the literary arbiter of the West Coast. "The Haunted Valley"
(1871) was his first story. In December 1871 he married Mary Ellen Day, and from
1872 to 1875 the Bierces lived in England, where he wrote for the London magazines
Fun and Figaro, edited the Lantern for the exiled French empress Eugénie, and
published three books, The Fiend's Delight and Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in
California (both 1872) and Cobwebs from an Empty Skull (1874).

In 1877 he became associate editor of the San Francisco Argonaut but left it in
1879-80 for an unsuccessful try at placer mining in Rockerville in the Dakota
Territory. Thereafter he was editor of the San Francisco Wasp for five years. In 1887
he joined the staff of William Randolph Hearst's San Francisco Examiner, for which
he wrote the "Prattler" column. In 1896 Bierce moved to Washington, D.C., where he
continued newspaper and magazine writing. In 1913, tired of American life, he went to
Mexico, then in the middle of a revolution led by Pancho Villa. His end is a mystery,
but a reasonable conjecture is that he was killed in the siege of Ojinaga in January
1914.

Bierce separated from his wife, lost his two sons, and broke many friendships. As a
newspaper columnist, he specialized in critical attacks on amateur poets, clergymen,
bores, dishonest politicians, money grabbers, pretenders, and frauds of all sorts. His
principal books are In the Midst of Life (1891), which included some of his finest
stories, such as "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," "A Horseman in the Sky," "The
Eyes of the Panther," and "The Boarded Window"; Can Such Things Be? (1893),
which included "The Damned Thing" and "Moxon's Master"; and The Devil's
Dictionary (1906), a volume of ironic definitions, which has been often reprinted. His
Collected Works was published in 12 volumes, 1909-12. The Enlarged Devil's
Dictionary, edited by E.J. Hopkins, appeared in 1967.