Vocabulary Installation #8

Under-belly: a pouch or bag under the belly of an animal. The belly or underside of an animal. Also fig., a vulnerable part. The underside or inferior part of something, which is often unnoticed or concealed. Used esp. w/ref to motor vehicles (see also "underbody").
1963 Listener 10 Jan. 65/2, I creep along on my cat's underbelly Nursing the floor for smells.
1976 J. CROSBY Snake (1977) x. 45 She was..sticking her knife into the disgusting underbelly of male chauvinism, and..into the soft underbelly of capitalism.

Under-body: the lower part of a woman's dress (obs).
1621 R. BRATHWAIT Times Cvrtaine Drawne D4, About the May pole while she tripps, Downe fell her vnder-bodie from her hipps

Which of the following uses "under-belly" correctly?
(a) Don't worry, Phyllis. The underbelly spreads like butter.
(b) When you wash Serpentina, make sure to scrub the underbelly.
(c) Slip the dollar bill into the underbelly, won't you?
(d) Underbelly, shumderbelly. At least my socks are dry.

The Dickinsonian oracle endorses under-bellies, hence:

Fron Blank to Blank -
A Threadless Way
I pushed Mechanic feet -
To stop - or perish - or advance -
Alike indifferent -

If end I gained
It ends beyond
Indefinite disclosed -
I shut my eyes - and groped as well
'Twas lighter - to be Blind
(E. Dickinson, 484)

Campus Meta-Four

Overheard (more or less):

everyone wants a boyfriend
he says not true
she says I'm waiting
for the right person
geesh even I want
a boyfriend he says

The Dickinsonian oracle mumbles:

"We talked as Girls do -
Fond, and late -
We speculated fair, on every subject, but the Grave -
Of our's, none affair -"
(E. Dickinson, from 392)

Bid on Rain Taxi

This in from Eric Lorberer, editor of the fabulous metropolis-born Rain Taxi Review of Books. Time is running out, so bid, bid, bid, biddle-heads!

RAIN TAXI'S TENTH ANNIVERSARY AUCTION
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!

From December 5th-11th, RAIN TAXI is holding an eBay charity auction featuring signed books, rare first editions, broadsides, chapbooks, and other exciting works by authors beloved by RAIN TAXI and its readers--over 100 items in all! Check in at Rain Taxi for full information and links to the auction site. And PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD about this auction to your friends, list-servs, blogs, etc. -- all proceeds from the auction will give RAIN TAXI, a nonprofit organization, a much-needed push into another decade of service to the literary community.

Of Rain Taxi, the Dickinsonian Oracle ruminates:

You constituted Time -
I deemed Eternity
A Revelation of Yourself -
'Twas therefore Deity
(E. Dickinson, from 488)