Give us another Schott!

Schott's Vocab Blog from the NYTimes is one man's attempt to catalog new words that have been brought up in current news and culture. Ben Schott is the author of Schott's Miscellany and Almanac, that represent a year's news as I had never previously seen it before. He arranges knowledge in a categorical manner that appeals to the OCD in me.

His vocab blog is the daily version of his genius. Thanks to him, I learn something every day.

These are some of recent vocabs of note from Schott's Blog:


If you like tidbits of information arranged in a quick and interesting manner, you should definitely look into Ben Schott's blog and books!

Here's another sample from his Miscellany.

So what's the point of me posting all these images and samples? Schott has brought hilarious quotes and meaning into my life. His ability to sort through information on a daily basis makes me laugh. Forever, these quotes* dominated my facebook:

"My god is a god who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling!" - Mary J. Blige (in US Weekly)

Mary J. Blige's god is awesome! This is the god I worship.

"In some ways, people are a lot like animals. We all hunger for the same things. Love, lust, danger, warmth and adventure. Like people, animals all have their own rhythm to life. I'm mesmerized by tigers." - Britney Spears (blog)

I confess, I was mesmerized by tigers as well, Britney. Until I conducted a behavioral survey of them when I was 12 at Zoo Atlanta. For 6 weeks, I went to the zoo and watched the tigers and cataloged their movements. I expected them to run around, rip their meat to shreds, and do other mesmerizing things. Instead, they laid around for 2 hours at a time and I checked the same behavior every 6 mins, 20x in a row. I haven't been to Zoo Atlanta since.

"I find myself pretty darn intelligent." - Lindsay Lohan (to British GQ)

Lindsey Lohan, Lindsey Lohan?!

These are - beyond words.

I'm sure they're taken out of context, but how fitting and awesome. Schott, I love you.

*Schott, Ben. Schott's Almanac 2007 (New York: Bloomsbury USA, 2006), 122-123.

The Billionaire's Vinegar

Other than romance novels, I do read a bit of non-fiction that can be found in my public library. Nothing too deep, but I like to learn things.

This book first began with an article in the New Yorker, called the Jefferson Bottles. A page turner, this article alone tests the boundaries of my magazine/internet reading ability. Ten pages of continuous clicking, I was hooked and couldn't stop. Imagine my surprise when I discovered at the end of this article that it was actually detailed even more so in a book! I happily looked it up online and yes, it was available at my public library.
The Billionaire's Vinegar: The Mystery of the World's Most Expensive Bottle of Wine, tells the story of how one man was able to swindle most all of the avid wine collectors of the world. The premise of the book begins with a 1985 auction at Christie's where a 1787 Château Lafite Bordeaux was up for auction as having been a part of Thomas Jefferson's illustrious collection of wines. Handled by a mysterious German dealer, Hardy Rodenstock, the bottles were vouched for by Christie's. Previously a pop star manager, Rodenstock had a history of finding impossibly rare bottles to the pleasure of the wine world. No one contested his providences as wines so old rarely tasted like anything beyond vinegar anyway. He essentially messes up when he sells a bottle to a Florida billionaire who decides to begin an investigation into the possibility of these bottles being counterfeit. Wallace leads the reader through decades of deceit and indulgences on his discovery of the legitimacy of the 1787 Lafite. He seemingly has developed relationships with every player in his unraveling of the history of Jefferson, Lafite, and Rodenstock. He summarily is able to soundly describe each person's reasoning and actions.... You sound probably read this book.