Naming Things

A peruke is a periwig. Looking at pictures of Johnson, and others of the period, I had wondered what they called it. But I wasn't looking looking for the name. I had actually gone to the dictionary to try and figure out the difference between perspicacity and perspicuity and I wasn't making much headway so I was readings some other entries. A dictionary isn't a terrible book, but the chapters are awfully short. Read that somewhere in this year of reading about dictionaries. And, it's so cool, I discovered a fast cheap solution to having a portable dictionary stand, like for motels (I travel with an unabridged) is to find an old music stand at the Goodwill. Old, I say, because they made them stronger, whenever, back then, and with a deeper bottom shelf. You can adjust the height. At home, I can keep one at the island, cut down on all that walking. I'm using The American Heritage right now, which is mediocre, but I don't feel like getting into the OED. I do make a note, and thumbtack it to the little cork board attached to the wall above where she resides. A dictionary is like a boat, and most of them are feminine. Anyway, after several hours, what I have is that 'acity is an acuteness of perception, which doesn't imply communication; and 'cuity is that quality of being lucid, which does imply communication. So the first is 'merely' understanding, the second is expressing that understanding. A fine line, but a line nontheless. I'm alone so much of the time, so there's no one there with whom to express; but I write you, and I certainly try to be lucid when I discribe any particular event I might have noticed. Nothing ventured. How honest are we? I can't get a fix, in many ways but I still don't know where I am, hiding beneath the wings of constant travel.