cajole

cajole - verb - to persuade by flattery or promises; wheedle; coax

sanguine

sanguine - adj - Cheerfully optimistic, hopeful, or confident; reddish; ruddy.

It may also be used as a synonym for sanguinary, but I have never seen or heard it used that way.

Tangent: I am just finishing E. L. Doctorow's novel The March, about Sherman's march through Georgia and the Carolinas, and I'm about to start Tom Wolfe's novel I Am Charlotte Simmons. I mention this because I suspect many people think I believe the novel is dead. There is some truth to that, especially when you consider the dim view I take of Stephen KIng and John Grisham, but I have read some good modern novels. A few that come to mind are The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man in Full, both by Tom Wolfe, Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurty, and The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (Rated X), by Oscar Hijuelos. I have also heard good things about J. K. Rowling's (the most photogenic of the lot, pictured here) Harry Potter novels (the last of which was selling 38,000 copies an hour at its peak!). So the novel isn't dead, but it's certainly in critical condition.

patchwork

patchwork - n. - something composed of miscellaneous or incongruous parts, hodgepodge; pieces of cloth of various colors and shapes sewn together to form a covering

adulate

adulate - verb - to show excessive admiration or devotion to; flatter or admire serviley

bodkin

bodkin - n. - a sharp slender instrument for making holes in cloth; a blunt needle with a large eye for drawing tape or ribbon through a loop or hem

recusant

recusant - n - One of the Roman Catholics in England who incurred legal and social penalties in the 16th century and afterward for refusing to attend services of the Church of England; A dissenter; A nonconformist.

Very little is known about Shakespeare's life, which has resulted in much speculation. For instance, there is the (mostly) discredited idea that he was a Catholic recusant.

A small but dedicated group believes that Shakespeare didn't write the plays attributed to him. The main candidates for the title of "real" Shakespeare are Francis Bacon and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. A couple of people I respect (Joseph Sobran and Michael Hart) believe Oxford was Shakespeare; Sobran has written a book, Alias Shakespeare, which argues the case for Oxford at some length.

My advice to both of you is, if you plan to attain historical fame, be sure to leave a large paper trail.

fulsome

fulsome - adj - offensive to the taste or sensibilities; insincere or excessively lavish; especially offensive from excess praise

satyriasis

satyriasis - n - A syndrome, occurring in males, of excessive preoccupation with sexual gratification or conquest and leading to persistently transient and sometimes exploitative relationships.

Today's word is rated PG-13! You'll notice that bit about "persistently transient and sometimes exploitative relationships," which makes satyriasis a characteristic disorder for our unhappy times. Needless to say - but I'll say it anyway - the antonym is nymphomania, which in spite of Cosmopolitan and other such magazines, is considerably less widespread.

bobbin

bobbin - n. - a cylinder or spindle on which yarn or thread is wound (as in a sewing machine), any of various small round devices on which threads are wound for working handmade lace; a cotton cord formerly used by dressmakers for piping

Bobbin and thread:

abrade

abrade - verb - to wear off or down by scraping or rubbing; to scrape off

suttee

suttee - n - A Hindu practice whereby a widow immolates herself on the funeral pyre of her husband: now abolished by law.

This wicked practice was outlawed by the English. The widow's immolation was supposed to be voluntary, but it's been much debated how great an influence social pressures played in her decision.

It's amazing the extent to which Franz Boaz's cultural relativism has become part of the collective consciousness. Allen Bloom told how his studentss could never bring themselves to condemn suttee; their most common opinion was that the English shouldn't have been there in the first place. I tried Bloom's experiment on a friend. "Were the English right to put a stop to this monstrous practice?" I asked. I'll bet you can guess his answer.

darn

darn - v. - to mend with interlacing stitches; to embroider by filling with long running or interlacing stitches

Wikipedia is a little more descriptive:

Darning is a sewing technique for repairing holes or worn areas in fabric or knitting with needle and thread alone. It is often done by hand, but it is also possible to darn with a sewing machine. Hand darning employs the darning stitch, a simple running stitch in which the thread is "woven" in rows along the grain of the fabric, with the stitcher reversing direction at the end of each row.
Darning also refers to any of several needlework techniques worked in darning stitches:

Pattern darning is a type of embroidery that uses parallel rows of straight stitches of different lengths to create a geometric design.

Net darning, also called filet lace, is a 19th century technique using stitching on a mesh foundation fabric to imitate lace.

Needle weaving is a drawn thread work embroidery technique that involves darning patterns into barelaid warp or weft threads.

This picture didn't teach me anything, so I included it for a laugh. Apparently, this is a picture of "darning." Let me know if you can figure it out.

cumber

cumber - verb - to hinder or hamper; to inconvience or trouble

shrew

shrew - n - A woman of violent temper and speech.

Guess which Shakespeare play is next on my list? I saw the movie, starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, in 1967. Burton in Elizabethan costume brought down the house. (There was a popular misconception that Elizabeth Taylor was just another pretty face. She certainly was pretty, but she was also a first-rate actress, as you can see in such movies as Raintree County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (left, with Paul Newman), Suddenly Last Summer, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)

applique

applique - n. - a cutout decoration fastened to a larger piece of material

militate

militate - verb - to have force or influence

quilt

quilt - v. - to stitch (designs) through layers of cloth; to stitch or sew in layers with padding inbetween

Someday I'm going to make my own quilt...someday.

scientism

scientism - n - The belief that the assumptions, methods of research, etc., of the physical and biological sciences are equally appropriate and essential to all other disciplines, including the humanities and the social sciences.

This plausible but bad idea is the root of many, maybe most, modern evils and is the basis of such black arts as sociology, psychology, and economics.

ontology

ontology - n - The branch of metaphysics that studies the nature of existence or being as such.

I was - and occasionally still am - deeply interested in philosophical questions. The question ontology deals with is, "What is reality?" Bishop George Berkeley (1685-1753) thought reality was no more than sensual impressions projected on our senses from God's mind, a notion that holds up surprisingly well against attempts at refutation. Ronald Knox wittily summarized Berkeley's thought in two limericks:

There was a young man who said "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there's no one about in the Quad."

"Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd;
I am always about in the Quad
And that's why this tree
Will continue to be
Since observed by Yours faithfully, God."

pleat

pleat - noun - a fold in cloth made by doubling the marterial upon itself then pressing or stitching it into place.

This is a technique of gathering a wide amount of cloth into a narrower circumference, most commonly seen in skirts or kilts.

(I think I beat Natalie to this word )