Two words

A crepuscular rower

Dictionary.com's Word of the Day offered up a couple of pearlers in the past few days.

Crepuscular - which means of, or pertaining to, or resembling twilight, dim. In zoology, it refers to animals that come out at dusk. To me it sounds like a word to describe a weepy or crusty sore, especially as the emphasis is on "pus". Ugly word for something pleasant.

There is a much more poetic word for it, which is a recent addition to my list of favourite words - vespertine. In fact, the dictionary.com entry for vespertine includes crepuscular in the definitition.

Quiddity - which means the essence, nature, or distinctive peculiarity of a thing; a hairsplitting distinction; a trifling point; a quibble; an eccentricity or an odd feature. I like that there is a distinctively peculiar word for a distinctive peculiarity.

I bought it

I ended up buying myself a copy of the 40th anniversary edition of Cookery the Australian Way, which I blogged about recently. It was quite expensive, but it's such a simple guide to all-round cooking that I am sure I will keep it forever.

I haven't had a good look through it yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the seventh edition compares with my third edition from 1980, which was my high school text book. I have noticed that the recipe for golden syrup dumplings remains after being dropped in the fourth edition and reinstated in the next one. Must have been a public outcry. Quite rightly.

There's some anecdotes in the front from a few people, including some notable chefs, reminiscing about their CAW experiences. I had no idea it was viewed with such fondness by other people.