Although I had tried to make The Writer’s Brush: Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers as comprehensive as possible, as I acknowledged in the preface, I knew that with new writer-artists appearing every day that it would be out of date as soon as it was published.  Omissions were partially rectified with two large exhibitions…

The ongoing post-publication additions to “You’re My Dawg, Dog: A Lexicon of Dog Terms for People.” Dogs of God An art card designer in Sarasota emailed the untrue, ostensibly humorous claim that the etymology of Dominicans (as in Friars) is Domini canes or “dogs of God.” It’s untrue because the eponymous order was founded by Saint Dominic…

Looking for a bedtime sedative one night last week, I found The Switch, a streamable 2010 by-the-numbers comedy. In it, a mentoring character played by Jeff Goldblum admonishes Jason Bateman’s character to stop suppressing feelings he doesn’t want to deal with. In the muck of bad writing sparkles a gem: “Beware,” he says, “hungry dogs in…

The ongoing post-publication additions to You’re My Dawg, Dog: A Lexicon of Dog Terms for People, illustrated by J.C. Suarès, whose drawings graced the pages of The New Yorker, New York Times, Variety and dozens of books. Before it was a primitive drawing of a canine (also several book titles, manufactured treats, a website design company, and god knows what…

We’ve all had those head-thumping moments—coming up with the crushing argument when our adversary’s long gone, remembering the ingredient left out of the casserole, the part that should have been done or installed before the part just finished with. Many such omissions are fixable, even if at some cost or inconvenience. But imagine writing a…