A Day of Truly Miniscule Personal Triumphs

[tesla]

I'm done with Tax! Well, the analysis anyway. (It's a work thing. Don't worry, I'm not planning to defraud the government. I did recently convince the IRS to give me back a wad of money that they owed me, which I'm told is no small feat, but it was wholly legitimate.)

When I got home my poor darling kittens were so hot that they began panting. I lugged the air conditioner down from the attic and got my bedroom set up as kitten haven. We are all comfortable on the bed now. I'm going to leave it this way tomorrow; I suppose they won't be crazy about the limited space, but it beats letting the poor beasties overheat. (They were actually hot to the touch when I got here. They had barely eaten for the past two days, but within 20 minutes of getting into the cool room they downed a whole bowl of food.)

Update - they're now running around like madkittens. They must be adequately cool.

The beasties have grown. Here are their photos as of Sunday:


Dylan


Shadow

When I got up this morning, I was hot, so I put my hair up in a ponytail. When I came home this evening, I was Really Damned Hot(TM), so I clipped the ponytail up off my neck. The result was a pleasingly, if accidentally, neo-Victorian updo:



Also, for the first time in literally twenty years, I don't have a single pimple on my face. (The one on my scalp doesn't count; it's above the hairline.) I don't expect this to last long, so shall celebrate it while I can. Acne is what causes me to grok the phrase "(to) plague one's life out."

Finally, a request: recommendations for English (the country, not just the language) books written between 1820 and 1890. Sometime in there the word "nice" went from meaning "excessively particular" to meaning roughly what it does today, and I'm interested in reading the nuances of the change, if such a thing can be done.

Thank you, and good night!

Comments

[90-percent-sure.livejournal.com]

I turned my central air on for the first time yesterday as well. Not a fan of the heat at all, but am a fan of lower electric bills and less draw of power and a fan of, well, fans.

But then I realized I was being hot and stupid and the good lord intended for us to cool our air, so mote it be.

Pretty hair!

[vacivus.livejournal.com]

multiple cute fur-balls :)

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

English literature between 1820 and 1890: Most of Dickens. Also Edgar Allan Poe, and Alice in Wonderland. I think that's too early for Frankenstein and Ivanhoe and Byron. Louisa May Alcott? At least some of Twain, as well. I guess Alcott, Twain and Poe are all Americans. Hm.

Alice in Wonderland L. Carroll,
Oliver Twist C. Dickens,
A Christmas Carol, C. Dickens (really, it's worth actually reading it if you haven't,)
A Study in Scarlet A. Doyle,
Wuthering Heights C. Brontë (IMO much more readable than Jane Eyre,)
Doctor Jekyl and Mr. Hyde R. Stevenson
Treasure Island R. Stevenson


Cute pic!

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

ooh, I believe Black Beauty falls into that category too -- totally worth reading. Written by Anna Sewell. And, isn't that about when Burton translated 1001 Arabian Nights?

[zinzinzinnia.livejournal.com]

Austen? (1830s)

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

Died in 1817.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

but, I like Jane Austen a lot too.
are you a fan?

[zinzinzinnia.livejournal.com]

Well, an English teacher, but yes, I do like Austen.

I'll have to chalk up the mistake about the era to the late night and forgetting that all the military details usually referred to Napoleonic conflicts. :)

You could probably still use her works to trace the semantic evolution of the word "nice," though.

[zinzinzinnia.livejournal.com]

and chalk up the mistake about the era to...

momentarily confusing Austen with the Brontes. Yikes!

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

Well, having gone and looked up Miss Emily, evidently she was very little known until her nephew's biography about her in the 1870s. Maybe I should read that sometime.

[alisgray.livejournal.com]

That's pretty cool. The world needs good English teachers! I'm sure you're right about "nice."

I think it's kind of (annoyingly) funny, this current fashion for Empire-waisted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_silhouette) women's clothing.

Huh. I wonder whether this current era would be considered a sort of era of Neo-Romantic? what with the emotional governance and the imperialism of the US? (I liked this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Romantic) New Romantic era better.)

[skzbrust.livejournal.com]

I like that look!

[miep.livejournal.com]

ur so pretty.

we have had to run the a/c all summer, as the house becomes unbearably stuffy due to having NO SHADE TREES anywhere near the actual house. our kitties take to lying on the tile when the a/c isn't on and giving us scathing looks.

[goblingirl.livejournal.com]

The kittens are adorable and I like your hair like that. It's very nice. It not nice that the weather is so hot and is baking the poor kitties to death.

[skylarker.livejournal.com]

That's a nice look for your hair. And sometimes I still do say, and hear people speak of making 'a nice distintion.'

[mrsmodew.livejournal.com]

I hate you that your hair will just accidentally do that. ;) It is absolutely beautiful.

Awesome kitteh pics.

The heat has sucked what little brains I have out of my scalp on sweat tendrils. I am so thankful that I at least have an a/c unit in the bedroom. Otherwise I would probably be dead.

And last but not least, congrats on the being pimple free! I totally understand the excitement.

[guppiecat]

"The precise development of the very divergent senses which this word has acquired in English is not altogether clear. In many examples from the 16th and 17th centuries it is difficult to say in what particular sense the writer intended it to be taken."

To answer your question, forms 5 and 7.e of "nice" (meaning "Coy, shy, (affectedly) modest, reserved" and "refined, cultured" respectively) seem to be the closest to our modern usage. Referenced works include:

* 1592 - KVD Sol. & Pers.. I. ii "Then be not nice, Perseda as women woont To hasty louers."
* 1603 - Daniel Def. Rhime. H a b ""Eloquence and gay wordes are . . but the garnish of a nice time, the Ornaments that doe but decke the house of a State"
* 1634 - Milton Comus. 139 "Ere . . The nice Morn on th' Indian steep from her cabin'd loop hole peep"
* 1792 - Burns Yon Wild Mossy Mountains. iv "Of nice education but sma' is her share."
* 1794 - Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho i "As conversation awakened the nicer emotions of her mind, that threw such a captivating grace around her."
* 1818 - Shelley Julian 536 "As we could guess From his nice habits and his gentleness."

By the way, my new magnifying lamp makes it much easier to read the compact OED. :)