I'm going to go with nutmeg and cumin words myself.

We all have vocal and writing ticks, whether we choose to believe it or not. Listen to your friends talk, those who always say something is amazing or super--two popular words that people rely on like a crutch these days for lack of having any other way to express something is wonderful or surprising.

Famous writers throughout history have had ticks as well, words and phrases they constantly rely on, which data journalist Ben Blatt found out by examining the numbers. Blatt calls them "cinnamon words," a hat tip to Ray Bradbury who once said his favorite word to use in writing was cinnamon.

In his new book, Nabokov’s Favorite Word is Mauve: What the Numbers Reveal About the Classics, Bestsellers, and Our Own Writing, Blatt says he found the cinnamon words of many famous writers, as he tells PRI in the interview below.





Jane Austen, for example, leans on civility, fancying and imprudence consistently. Dan Brown? Grail, masonic and pyramid. Other quirks were found by Blatt, like how the word she is used only once in the entirety of The Hobbit, or that James Patterson seemingly uses 160 clichés per 100,000 words in his famed Alex Cross detective novels. (Of course, Patterson really doesn't write his books, so much as his collaborator, so I'm not sure who's to blame there.)

160 clichés, though--that's amazing. That takes a super effort.

Evanna Lynch, who portrayed Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter movies, recently visited the Hobbits' Shire.

Once Chewbacca visits Hogwarts, the circle will be complete.

Two forgotten 80-year old poems by J.R.R. Tolkien discovered.

Written in 1936 before The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, or anything else that might bring him fame, J.R.R. Tolkien published two poems in the annual of Our Lady's School in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Somehow, as things came to pass, the poems were largely forgotten.

Wayne Hammond, a Tolkien Scholar, contacted the school's headmaster recently after research told him Tolkien had published the poems eight decades earlier. The poems--titled "The Shadow Man" and "Noel," a Christmas poem--will now be the centerpiece to a Tolkien exhibition at the school.

Let's hope "Noel" is just code for "hobbit," since no one will want to read it otherwise.

'Lord of the Rings' map annotated by Tolkien found in rare book shop.

Acclaimed illustrator Pauline Baynes was working on a detailed map corresponding with a new edition of The Lord of the Rings in 1960. During her time crafting the finer points of places Hobbits like to hang out, she worked with J.R.R. Tolkien closely--and the author was a stickler for minutia.

According to The Guardian, Tolkien annotated an older version of a map included with earlier editions of his book, which included notes on where trees might exist, and telling Baynes that Hobbiton "is assumed to be approx at latitude of Oxford," where he was teaching.

Baynes folded the map up and placed it inside her copy of the book--which, over the decades since, largely remained forgotten until it ended up in a rare book store.

Now up for sale for £60,000, the map is on display at the University of Oxford until a map fiend or Lord of the Rings addict gets a second mortgage on their house and purchases it.



photo: Blackwells, via The Guardian

Vacation like a Hobbit

All those geeky dreams you've had since childhood to live like Bilbo Baggins can finally come to fruition.

Located at Deadwood in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Chateau De Soleil is a 4,100sq. ft. vacation spot available for rent. While a lovely property on its own (4 bedrooms, 3 1/2 bathrooms, 3 decks, a hot tub, etc.), the vacation rental also includes a Hobbit-inspired tree house.

The Hobbit house is 16ft off the ground, with rounded windows and doors, Elvish-language signs, a gauntlet with a gold ring, a mask worn by Sauron--and Hobbit-inspired slippers custom tailored for every guest.

The price to stay varies from $595-$675 per night, Gandalf not included.




photos: vrbo.com

Texas A&M University receives rare first edition copy of 'The Hobbit' from George R.R. Martin

Smaug looks thinner than expected.

Over the years, Texas A&M University has developed one of the finest collection of books in the world. From Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote de la Mancha, parts I and II, dating from 1617, to Walt Whitman's 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, the university has made a way of celebrating every new millionth book added to its collection.

Now, George R.R. Martin has donated a rare first edition of J.R.R Tolkien's The Hobbit, one of only 1,500 copies ever published, to celebrate A&M's five-millionth book.

In a speech commemorating the donation, Martin stressed the need for libraries and preservation. "The stories that we tell each other, the stories that we grow up on, the stories that help shape our values and shape our lives, we still love and remember," he said. "This is the stuff that should be preserved.”



There's waaaaay too many Rs going on in the names here.

Gandalf is now stopping trams in Poland.

In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf stands up to Balrog, yelling "Go back to the shadow!" to buy some time for Frodo and crew to get away.

Now, a Polish prankster skit group in Warsaw reenacted the same scene, swapping out Balrog for a tram full of commuters.

Every Lord of the Rings character should have a Polish accent. I think we can all agree on this point.

Researcher models the climate of Middle Earth from 'The Lord of the Rings'.

Good news for everyone losing sleep on what kind of weather Mordor has.

University of Bristol's Dan Lunt created a climate simulation of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, and compares that model against our modern world and the Late Cretaceous (think: dinosaurs) period. And in case you doubted Lunt's dedication, he published the paper in English, Dwarvish, and Elvish.

The results? The Shire, where the Hobbits live, average temperatures around 7°C with about 61 cm of rainfall each year. Meanwhile, Mordor's weather would be more in line with a subtropical clime of western Texas, explaining why people rarely desire to go to Mordor or western Texas.



photo: Dan Lunt

Google Maps now has Hobbit maps.

That subject line sounds a lot better for Lord of the Ring geeks than it actually is.

That's because Google's maps of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth aren't a deep, expansive view you might expect from those that brought us Street View, but instead a cross-promotion between Google and the variety of movie studios overseeing the film production--where the maps lazily examine the topography where Hobbits mingle while strangely, yet routinely, encouraging you to download Google Chrome to gain the full mapping/movie hustling experience if you dare use a different browser.

So if you're really desperate to get a satellite-like view of the Misty Mountains that looks just like the Appalachians, don't anger the Google machine.

"Hobbit Human" fossils discovered in Indonesia.

Researchers recently discovered bones belonging to Homo floresiensis--nicknamed the "Hobbit Human"--and other evidence that gives greater insight to this stubby creature's life.

Standing at a robust 3'6", the Hobbit Human was very similar to human beings, according to Caley Orr, author of the paper on the findings in the Journal of Human Evolution. (Always a hot read.)

Hobbit Humans had canine teeth (like us!), walked on two feet (like us!), used stone tools (like us!), and even used fire (like the dangerous pyromaniac in all of us!).

Critics point out that Hobbit Humans aren't human though, as they have some distinct differences. A sloping forehead, arms proportionately longer than their legs, no bony chin, and a tiny brain are just a few differences the Hobbit Human have with homo sapiens.

But the Hobbit Human's feet? As Orr told Discovery, "Remarkably, the feet were also long relative to the legs, as fantasy fans might expect of a Hobbit."

Personally, I expect hairy toes, bad hygiene, and Samwise Gamgee saying uncomfortable things to Frodo at various points--but that's just me.

Senior Editor at Time Magazine wants to know why there aren't many female characters in 'The Hobbit.'

Let's cut to Time's Senior Editor Ruth Davis Konigsberg's argument:


The problem is one of biological accuracy. Tolkien’s characters defy the basics of reproduction: dwarf fathers beget dwarf sons, hobbit uncles pass rings down to hobbit nephews. If there are any mothers or daughters, aunts or nieces, they make no appearances. Trolls and orcs especially seem to rely on asexual reproduction, breeding whole male populations, which of course come in handy when amassing an army to attack the dwarves and elves.


'Asexual reproduction' and 'biological accuracy.'

Two phrases I always think of regarding The Hobbit.

'Hobbit' film a death trap for animals, innocence.

From the Oh, Geez, This Is Depressing file comes news that a New Zealand farm used to house animals from in the upcoming Hobbit film was a sort of death camp for the four-legged family.

According to wranglers hired by the production company, three horses, six goats, six sheep, and a dozen chickens all died at the farm, largely from poor conditions.

The farm was known for its rolling hillside--a rolling hillside which included sinkholes, bluffs, and broken down fencing--none of which is good for horses frolicking at 30mph, but is entirely Orc-approved.

[Probably best to skip this next part if you don't want to know what the Eye of Sauron wrought on a bunch of innocent animals.]


One horse, named Doofus (real name), only maimed his leg in busted fencing. Another horse, Molly, met the same fate, ripping her leg open. Unlike Doofus, Molly's injuries are permanent though. Both Doofus and Molly got off easy compared to others--including a horse named Claire, who was found dead after she fell over a bluff, where her head was discovered submerged in a stream. (Really, I'm not trying to make you cry here. I promise.)

Another horse, Zeppelin, died of natural causes according to an autopsy report--but animal wrangler Johnny Smythe said he believes Zeppelin died of a digestive infection from a new type of feed. Smythe said Zeppelin's intestinal track was filled with a yellowish liquid, indicating infection. (I don't want to see you cry. I swear.)

Finally, a miniature horse named Rainbow--who was to be used in the movie as a horse for Hobbits--was euthanized. Why? According to wrangler Chris Langridge's account to the Associated Press, "When I arrived at work in the morning, the pony was still alive but his back was broken. He'd come off a bank at speed and crash-landed," Langridge said. "He was in a bad state." (Okay, you can cry now.)

And that doesn't even cover the goat and sheep deaths, or the dozen chickens who--even the production studio admits--were maimed to death by dogs that snuck on the farm and tore the birds apart.

Producers of The Hobbit claim that not all the deaths were from neglect or poor conditions. The state that some sheep only died from exposure to severely cold weather. Because a death via hypothermia is totally fair game when compared to plunging off a bluff and breaking your back.


[Okay, you can read again if you skipped the above portions.]

Producers claim they tried to improve conditions on the farm once wranglers alerted them to the poor conditions, and they refute that the total number of deaths the wranglers swear by. The movie studio also wants you to know that The Hobbit's director, Peter Jackson, bought three of the pigs that worked on the film and took them home. 

Because three pigs going home with man previously known to crack 400lbs always turns out well for Pork Chop.





Yes, the photo is of My Little Pony. Why? My Little Pony > dead horses.

Admittedly, George Orwell probably hoped to write a story more like Finding Nemo.

Nothing went better with a juice box and some Teddy Grahams in kindergarten than reading a dystopian novel with a socio-political angle.

Now, all those years of my childhood wondering when someone would get around to turning hellscape novels into family funfare are not for nothing.

Andy Serkis, the actor who portrayed Gollum in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, recently bought the rights to Animal Farm and, as he told The Hollywood Reporter, plans to create a stop-motion film aimed at "a family audience." Stalinism has never been more approachable!

It's only a matter of time before we get a Disney musical adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin.

My precious, my precious! New Zealand releases Hobbit-themed currency, continues to blur line between New Zealanders and Hobbits.

As if people weren't pretty certain Bilbo Baggins was from Aukland already...

The New Zealand Post--the country's government-owned creator of currency and stamps--has developed a line of Hobbit-themed money and stamps in advance of the release of The Hobbit in theaters. Picture the American $1 bill paying homage to Star Wars with Chewbacca smiling at you instead of George Washington.

Stamps are nothing new. Money is though. While the New Zealand Hobbit currency is a little too precious to spend for dinner and a movie ($1 coins retail for $29.90 [NZ], and $10 coins are made out of pure gold, valued at $3,695 [NZ]), they are legal tender, for all debts public and private. And while most characters get some love in stamp or monetary form, the focus is heavy on Bilbo.

Gollum? Apparently a greedy monster cuts too close to home for governmental officials. He's given a stamp, but not a coin. Nor a ring for that matter.

The Top Ten Most Educated Countries in the World...

...are kind of what you expect. Except for New Zealand. No disrespect for New Zealand or anything, but I think most Americans would've assumed France, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, Spain, etc., would round out the top ten.

After all, there's a 50/50 chance most Americans think New Zealand is inhabited by Hobbits.

Today is World Teachers' Day

I don't know when this blog became the champion of obscure holidays. We're about five minutes away from saluting Hamster Liberation Day in Lithuania (not sure if this is a holiday, but someone work on this), but are you championing the cause of little people? No. So let's not judge.

These holidays keep coming in waves during autumn. (God forbid anyone put something noteworthy in the month of August.) Today it's World Teachers' Day--a holiday largely ignored in America because we like to attack teachers for the failure of our children to aspire to our irrational dreams we're shortsighted. There's a National Teacher's Day in America that takes place in June, but students and parents are largely busy with planning summer vacations by then, and Arbor Day is right around the corner, too. And everyone knows you don't go hatin' on Arbor Day.

Massachusetts is the only state to have its own statewide Teachers' Day in September--which is also untimely, since everyone is busy getting back to school. Que sera, sera.

So we're left with the international World Teachers' Day, which is commemorated far and wide by...err...uhh...no country really. Estonia? Is that a country or something in Lord Of the Rings? Estonia recognizes it. Mauritius, Moldova, Serbia, and Qatar, too. If that isn't a block of powerhouse, worldwide governmental bodies, I don't know what it.




photo: nycisnot4sale.com    Showing you everything that was fantastic about 1980's fashion trends. Shoulder pads on par with an NFL linebacker? Tres chic!

J.R.R. Tolkien telling Nazis where to stuff it.

Continuing the recent theme of dead writers gettin' up in someone's grill, here's a letter Tolkien wrote in 1938 to a German publisher who was going to translate and publish The Hobbit for the German market, but wanted to do a quick check to make sure Tolkien was of Aryan descent first.

According to the website Letters of Note (from which the letter below is taken), Tolkien gave his own publisher two letters of reply--one that deftly sidesteps the question, and the other here, which is the most fancypants way of telling someone to go to hell.

No one knows which letter Tolkien's publisher replied with.

The letter:

25 July 1938
20 Northmoor Road, Oxford

Dear Sirs,

Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject — which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.

I trust you will find this reply satisfactory, and

remain yours faithfully,

J. R. R. Tolkien

Stieg Larsson is really living the high life.

It's the hope of every writer to become rich and famous. And if you can accomplish that while alive, even better.

This brings us to the case of Stieg Larsson.

Stieg wrote a collection of crime novels, most famous of which was all the rage with the inked-up literate set, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Now Stieg is famous. And apparently filthy rich. As in really rich. As in he should always get the check if you go out to dinner. As in make-sure-you-get-lobster-when-you-go-out-to-dinner-with-him-and-while-you're-at-it-order-a-few-desserts-too kind of rich.

Stieg is also dead.

Forbes Magazine says he's the sixth richest dead celebrity, which is akin to saying you're the sixth fastest comatose athlete. It sounds good and all, but it loses a little in translation.

Dead writers are making a killing. They make up nearly 1/3 of the thirteen on the list. This includes...

3.) J.R.R. Tolkien: Behind only Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Tolkien raked in $50 million last year. Just goes to prove that if he could dance he'd have made more money.

4.) Charles Schultz: The creator of Charlie Brown--sure, it's a stretch to say he's a writer. But someone had to write those killer ampersands of angst in those little thought balloons over Linus's head.

7.) Dr. Seuss: Horton hears a sweet retirement check being delivered in his mailbox.

John Lennon was #5 on the list. If Schultz counts as a writer, than I guess Lennon should count, too. Sure, he didn't write anything good after 1968--but, eh, whatever. We'll just consider him the songwriting version of JD Salinger. Plus, he died violently. If Stieg were alive, he'd probably make a novel out of it.

Does this mean Captain Kirk serenades Hermione Granger?

This is what happens when worlds collide.

This is a video of Leonard Nimoy (Spock, of the original Star Trek series) singing. Specifically, singing a song about Bilbo Baggins. Yes, that Bilbo Baggins. The hobbit.




I'm not sure what's going on here. We've got Spock (sans ears) rocking out while a bunch of women do their best impersonation of Beach Blanket Bingo. And the women are wearing some sort of Vulcan/Hobbit ears while they bust a move on the beach--again, to a song about Bilbo Baggins. And everyone seems to be head-butting everyone else at some point for no apparent reason. If it made any less sense we'd all be committed to a psych ward.

My best explanation? It was the '60's. That explains everything.

Really, how often are there songs about literary characters? More importantly, how long must I wait for the Uhura tribute album to the Twilight books?