You Know about Diphthongs...But What About Triphthongs?

by Elizabeth Osbourne

So, I was flipping through my dictionary, and I came across the word “triphthong.” I knew about diphthongs, two vowels blended together like in the word “boil,” oi-uh.

But a triphthong is THREE of these—it took me a second to understand, but take the word “wow”—you actually say three vowels when you say it: ooh-ah-ooh! Or if you say “way,” you’re actually saying “ooh-ay-ee.”

Isn’t that cool? (By the way, make sure you spell triphthong” with that first “h” if you put it in Google — if you look up “tripthong,” you get something very different…)

Round V, Part II

Cast your votes now!



To Kill a Mockingbird vs. Lord of the Flies

Meet Prestwick House Cover Artist, Jen Mendoza

So it may be a bit past the Ides of March, but this cover shoot for the Literary Touchstone Classic edition of Julius Caesar was just too much fun to pass up. Our talented Senior Graphic Designer, Maria Mendoza, aka Jen Mendoza, created this cover using some fabulous shots of model J.P. Lutz outside of the art museum in Philadelphia, PA.

What was your inspiration for this cover?

We set the bar pretty high with other Touchstone titles that we’ve designed since I started working here 2 years ago. We have steered away from using stock photography and compose our own photo shoots. So, aside from being inspired by the rest of PWH’s Touchstone line, I used the graphic novel-style of the movie 300 used a “crush” technique to up the contrast and make the image look eerie. I felt that style would work really well for Julius Caesar.

How did you choose your model?

In the past, and in a pinch, I have run down the list of people that I know and cross-referenced that list with the persona I am trying to capture. Considering that we have only about a 6” x 6” area for the art, the focus would be directly on the subjects head and upper torso. So, I needed someone with strong facial features and broad shoulders. I knew the model, JP, would be perfect for the cover. He has the furled brow thing going for him. Photoshop and the costume would take care of the rest.

How did you decide on a location?

First and foremost, Columns. Like I said, we don’t have a whole lot of space to work with on the cover and what better way to depict a roman setting than columns—big, massive columns. So, The Philadelphia Museum of Art worked both in logistics and setting. I didn’t really investigate other locations because I found the Museum of Art to be the perfect spot after taking an initial round of photos sans the model. Plus, I had done another cover there, Great Stories of Horror and Suspense, so I was familiar with the location.

How about the costuming? Where did that come from? Did you try different things? We generally use Actor’s Attic, in Dover, DE, for the costuming on our covers. Their costumes are very authentic-looking and shoot well in photos. Caesar and the conspirators were all in togas when he was assassinated so I knew what we needed.

What was involved in your process?

The covers all pretty much follow a similar process. We compose rough concepts of a cover based on research, photos, and a single moment or characteristic of the story that will form and immediate familiarity with the reader to the story. The rest is top-secret.

What kind of camera did you use?

We mostly use a Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xti. It rocks.

Round V, Part I

We've finally reached the semi-finals. Cast your votes now



The Scarlet Letter vs. Hamlet

Trivia Tuesday

1. Author Eric Blair wrote under what pen name?
2. Which Aldous Huxley work was the inspiration behind Jim Morrison naming his band The Doors?
3. Which classic novel was written based on a bet between several authors vacationing together in 1818?
4. Which piece of American literature containing over 50,000 words does not once use the letter “e”?
5. Which word in the English language has the most definitions?

Last Week's Answers

What is the best selling book of all time?

The Bible is the best selling book of all time with approximately six billion books sold. The second-best selling book is Quotations from the Works of Mao Tse-Tung with about 800 million sales.

The average person uses a vocabulary of approximately 8,000 words. How many did Shakespeare use?

Shakespeare used a vocabulary of 29,066 different words.

As far as number of lines is concerned, which is the most demanding of Shakespeare’s roles?

Hamlet is the most demanding of Shakespeare’s roles with 1,422 lines or roughly 36% of the total number of spoken lines in the play. Hamlet’s role is made up of 11,610 words. The character Falstaff has the most lines of any character in all of Shakespeare’s plays combined with 1,614 spoken lines in three different plays: Henry IV, Part I; Henry IV, Part II; and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Which English author, poet, essayist, literary critic, and playwright enjoyed taking off his clothes and climbing mulberry trees?

D. H. Lawrence enjoyed taking off his clothes and climbing mulberry trees.

All of the proceeds from which book were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London?

The Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children was the recipient of the rights to Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, given to the hospital by author J. M. Barrie, which has provided the hospital with substantial financial support since 1929. When the copyright originally expired in 1987, 50 years after Barrie's death, the UK government granted the hospital a perpetual right to collect royalties on the work.

**Missed out on past weeks' trivia? View them all here!

Round IV, Part II

Cast your votes in the comments section below!



Antigone vs. To Kill a Mockingbird





Lord of the Flies vs. Julius Caesar

National Poetry Month: Prestwick House Recommends...

The Guy in the Glass
DALE WIMBROW

When you get what you want in your struggle for pelf,
And the world makes you King for a day,
Then go to the mirror and look at yourself,
And see what that guy has to say.

For it isn't your Father, or Mother, or Wife,
Who judgement upon you must pass.
The feller whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the guy staring back from the glass.

He's the feller to please, never mind all the rest,
For he's with you clear up to the end,
And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may be like Jack Horner and "chisel" a plum,
And think you're a wonderful guy,
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.

You can fool the whole world down the pathway of years,
And get pats on the back as you pass,
But your final reward will be heartaches and tears
If you've cheated the guy in the glass.

Above is a copy of my favorite poem, entitled “The Guy in the Glass.” My mother hand-copied it and included it in a card that she gave me on my 16th birthday. Since then, I have had the torn and tattered paper framed, and it now hangs on my bathroom wall. I read it each morning, reflect back on what a wonderful person my mother was, and try to emulate her example of how to live life.

As individuals, we are certain to reap the rewards of the good we do, as well as suffer the consequences of not living our lives morally and to the fullest. There are many goals that folks strive for in their life time--spiritual, financial, physical, and emotional . Progress toward self-improvement can only come from within, and it is up to each and every one of us to present ourselves with dignity and earn our own success.

As this poem so accurately depicts, we may be able to deceive those around us, but, in the end, none of that will be ample if we can not persuade ourselves.

-- Teri Mannering, Financial Operations Manager

Round IV, Part I

Cast your votes now!



Oedipus Rex vs. The Scarlet Letter






The Great Gatsby vs. Hamlet

Round III, Part IV

Vote for your favorites in the comments section below...

Julius Caesar	VS.	Catcher in the Rye
Lord of the Flies	VS.	1984

National Poetry Month: Prestwick House Recommends...

"somewhere i have never travelled"
E. E. CUMMINGS

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands


The ee cummings poem above is very widely read and it appeared in a popular 80’s movie. In spite of all that, it is one of my favorite poems ever. On the surface it is a pretty sappy love poem. In fact, even under the surface it is a pretty sappy love poem…and yet, the word play speaks to the human condition.

your slightest look easily will unclose me

Unclosed is similar, but not the same thing as being opened. Like all great poems, there is a lot of art and humanity in the organization of this collection of familiar words.

-- Jason Scott, CEO