Wednesday, June 25, 2008


In Tibet:

"Yak-hair tents provide shelter and food; yak hair clothes the poor; yak-hair ropes tie yak-hair bags onto yaks; yak bones make glue; yak shoulder blades are used as surfaces on which to write prayers; yak horns make snuff boxes or whisky flasks; yak skin is used to make thongs, thimbles, snow goggles, sacks and slings; yak tails decorate horses; a yak's glands are used to cure many different kinds of ailment. Boiled and roasted yak steaks are usually washed down with yak butter tea; hardered yak cheese and dried yak provided sustenance on the road."

from Himmler's Crusade by Christopher Yale

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Reading Cormac McCarthy's The Road, I came across an obscure autoantonym: "hydropic", which according to Chambers means both "thirsty" and "charged or swollen with water".