Poets who moonlight
Some of our most revered poets also moonlighted their other skills. Who says poets aren’t exceptional?
William Carlos Williams: A Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and contemporary of T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, Williams was also a pediatrician. He is said to have delivered more than 2,000 babies.
Wallace Stevens: The pioneering American Modernist poet, another Pulitzer winner, was also an insurance executive who worked for years as vice president of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co.
Geoffrey Chaucer: The author of “The Canterbury Tales,” one of the cornerstones of English lit, pushed paper as well as wrote on it. He served as a customs officer and accountant in 14th-century London.
Lord Byron: Among many other pursuits, Byron – a famous maverick and renaissance man – helped the Greeks mount a war of independence from the Ottoman Empire, until he fell ill and died. (Bonus points: His daughter, Ada, helped conceive the design for the first computer.)
The “goodness” cliche
John Zeratsky asks:
When discussing the use of Ajax in web applications, why must bloggers always call it “Ajax goodness”?
The simple reason is that it is an advertising cliche of the form nouny-adjective + goodness, i.e. “chocolately goodness.” It’s been popularized in american cinema.