Dr. Metablog

Dr. Metablog is the nom de blague of Vivian de St. Vrain, the pen name of a resident of the mountain west who writes about language, books, politics, or whatever else comes to mind. Under the name Otto Onions (Oh NIGH uns), Vivian de St. Vrain is the author of “The Big Book of False Etymologies” (Oxford, 1978) and, writing as Amber Feldhammer, is editor of the classic anthology of confessional poetry, “My Underwear” (Virago, 1997).

May 2013

  • Amnesia movies continue to thrive. This latest, The Vow, made a bunch of money but was widely panned.  And should have been. It's a sad sad day when the amnesia is more credible than the male lead. The Vow purports to be based on the story of Krickitt (sic) Pappas, who lost the memory of…

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  • Shakuntala Devi, who died in India a week or so ago, was an incredible arithmetician. She once "accurately multiplied two random 13-digit numbers in a few seconds." "On a visit to this country, an American psychologist set her two problems: the cube root of 61,629,875, and the seventh root of 170,859,375. Shakuntala Devi gave the…

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