A Random Assortment, Valentine's Edition

~ Poet Marianne Moore was asked to help name a Ford back in the day. Here is a list of the names that she suggested. The car ended up being named "Edsel" (not a name that Moore suggested) and flopped. I wonder why. Here are my favorites from the list (but they're all awesome):

Hurricane Accipter (hawk)
The Impeccable
Symmechromatic
Thunderblender
The Resilient Bullet
Intelligent Bullet
The Intelligent Whale
Mongoose Civique
Anticipator
Magigravure
Pastelogram
Taper Racer
Utopian Turtletop

My favorites are the Thunderblender (which is almost as awesome as Moneypenny--my favorite name ever) and Utopian Turtletop (because of its obvious political resonances). 

~ Dating advice at CPAC. This is really too good to be true. (I don't think "good" is really the word I mean right there.) Take her shooting?! So that you can show her what to do?! No wonder these guys need dating advice.

~ Oh my goodness. I love working in bed, too. Unlike Charles Simic, I don't keep it a secret. I've never really liked desks and I don't think that they're good for your back. My favorite working spot, though, is a couch, and they really are terrible for your back. Great line: "In New Hampshire, where I live, with five months of snow and foul weather, one has a choice of dying of boredom, watching television, or becoming a writer." What do you think, Percy? Are those the choices?

~ Elizabeth Bishop's brownie recipe! Best part: "Spread about <——————> this thick in square pan."

~ Baylor and Wellesley coordinated a Valentine's Day release of the letters between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese are one of my favorite things.) When I lived in Waco, I often visited the Armstrong-Browning library, which is almost certainly the prettiest building in Waco. I can't quite remember, but I'm pretty sure I spent an afternoon looking at the letters. But I might have made that up--my memory is just not so good.