Meet Dr. Mardy

by Harold Fox

The puzzler posed to you in the preceding number of "Calling All Verbivores" (CAV) is this, from Will Shortz,

What familiar phrase meaning “is realistic” consists of two words that are exactly the same except for their fourth letters?  The length of these two words is for you to determine.

The solution is “faces facts.”  (Number 140 in The Puzzlemaster Presents, Volume 2, Random House, 2003.)

In my recent number of CAV that dealt with One-Letter Words: a Dictionary, I wrote that that was only the second time that CAV had been devoted to a single book.  Actually, that was a misstatement.  I forgot the CAV devoted entirely to The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, the first.  The second CAV to deal with a single book was an extended review of Oxymoronica (HarperCollins, 2004), by Dr. Mardy Grothe.  That, however, was not the first time that Dr. Mardy, as he calls himself, was mentioned in CAV.  I had previously written about chiasmus, referring primarily to his website, www.chiasmus.com, but also mentioning his book, Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You (Penguin Books, 1999), the title of which is an example of chiasmus.  Dr. Mardy gently and graciously corrected a misstatement I made and asked if I would review his forthcoming book, Oxymoronica.

I thought this a good time to tell you something about what Dr. Mardy has been up to since the publication of Oxymoronica.  Let's start with an ongoing project that began before that publication date.  Dr. Mardy has a weekly newsletter, "Dr. Mardy's Quotes Of The Week" (DMQW), dealing with the literary devices that are the subjects of his books.  The sub-title for each week's number of DMQW is the following:  "A Weekly Celebration of Great Quotes in History (And the History Behind the Quotes)."  That newsletter is available by subscription by sending a blank message to drmardy-on@mail-list.com or from his website, about which you will be reading more below.  Also, Dr. Mardy has an additional book in print.  This one is Viva la Repartee (HarperCollins, 2005) in which he quotes the following definition of repartee: 

Repartee is something we think of two hours too late.
- Mark Twain 

He has also written a fourth book, I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like, due for publication in August 2008.

He begins each number of DMQW with a biographical puzzler.  Here is an example from a recent number:
On March17, 1993, this actress died of congestive heart failure at age 92.  At her death, she was described as "The First Lady of the American Theater."  In a career that lasted a full eighty years, she was the first member of her profession to win an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony, and an Oscar.  In her 1990 autobiography "My Life in Three Acts" she wrote: "If you rest, you rust."  Who is this woman?  (DMQW, March 16–22, 2008)
The answer is "Helen Hayes."

Another regular feature of DMQW is a section titled "This Week's Thoughts for Chief Philosophical Officers."  The following are two examples from a recent number (DMQW, March 2–8, 2008):

Life loves to be taken by the lapel
and told, "I am with you kid.  Let's go!"
Maya Angelou

and

Life is like a play; it's not the length
but the excellence of the acting that matters.
Seneca

Another recurring section is "This Week in History."  In this section, Dr. Mardy gives thumbnail sketches of a few notable persons connected with dates within the week in question.  For each, the sketch is followed by examples of notable remarks from the subject.  For example, in DMQW, March 16–22, 2008 one of the notables' entries is the following:
On March 21, 1905, Phyllis McGinley was born in Ontario Oregon.  In the 1920s, she began writing for "The New Yorker," the "Atlantic," and other magazines, developing a reputation for witty light verse.  In 1961, she won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry for "Times Three: Selected Verse from Three Decades."  She also wrote "Sixpence in Her Shoe," a popular book of  autobiographical essays about being a wife in the suburbs, and a series of juvenile books.  In her essays and verse she used a wide variety of literary devices to explore aspects of human existence:

A hobby a day keeps the doldrums away.

A bit of trash now and then is good for the severest reader. It provides the necessary roughage in the literary diet."

Nothing fails like success; nothing is so defeated as yesterday's triumphant Cause.

Sticks and stones are hard on bones.
Aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything,
But silence breaks the heart."

Another feature of DMQW is the "Subscriber Quote of the Week" in which Dr. Mardy presents an example of a contribution from one of DMQW's subscribers.  In DMQW, March 9–15, 2008, the offering came from a subscriber named Dan Piette, who submitted the following:

It is better to sleep in a bed and dream of the beach
than sleep on the beach and dream of a bed.

DMQW also includes "Dr. Mardy's Thought of the Week."  The number for March 9–15 has this example:

Great political oratory results when the speeches of famous figures contain famous figures of speech.

If you would like to receive a weekly dose of these sorts of quotations, send a blank message to drmardy-on@mail-list.com, as I wrote above or subscribe from Dr. Mardy's website, www.drmardy.com.  He has subsumed his earlier website on chiasmus into the new one.  In it he has sections devoted to the four main types of linguistic devices covered in his four books (including the one due for publication this August), chiasmus, oxymoronica, repartee, and metaphor.  The section for metaphor will be initiated this summer.  The home page of the site presents two "Quotations of the Day," one from Dr. Mardy and the other from a selected notable figure.  The site also includes links to radio interviews of him and a section titled "Dr. Mardy's Aphorisms."

I recommend Dr. Mardy's books, his website, and his weekly newsletter.  They provide us with a multifarious and nutritional body of material sure to stimulate, entertain, and sustain a wide variety of verbivores.

Until next time, send me your solutions (or suggestions or complaints or stumpers) at hfox@juno.com or 2005 Burroughs Drive, Dayton, Ohio 45406.