pleach (pleech, playch)
To interlace branches or vines to make a hedge, decorative shape, arbor, etc.
From Old French plechier, from Latin plectere (to plait). Ultimately from the Indo-European root plek- (to plait) that is also the source of plait, pleat, pliant, ply, apply, deploy, display, exploit, replicate, and perplex A.Word.A.Day

Online library of literature
On this site you will find the full and unabridged texts of classic works of English literature. Fiction from authors like Lewis Carroll, the Bronte sisters (Anne, Charlotte and Emily), Jack London, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and many others, and classic scientific works from Charles Darwin and Rene Descartes. More books will be added soon, however as this site is maintained by enthusiasts rather than professional librarians this may be a very slow process. Our sponsor, the people behind the knowledge.com™ directory, is currently working on new technology that will make this updating easier and quicker in the near future. Please let us know what you think, and what new books you want added. For those who may not be familiar with Copyright law, we are unable to make works available that are not in the public domain. This means, basically, nothing where the author has not been dead for at least 75 to 90 years.
Authors Index Frequently Asked Questions http://www.literature.org/

The traditional five senses are sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste: a classification attributed to Aristotle. Humans also have at least six additional senses (a total of eleven including interoceptive senses) that include: nociception (pain), equilibrioception (balance), proprioception & kinesthesia (joint motion and acceleration), sense of time, thermoception (temperature differences), and in some a weak magnetoception (direction). Depictions of the five senses was a popular subject for seventeenth-century artists. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sense

The man who coined the term “sci-fi” Forrest James Ackerman (he used his middle initial, but without the period) was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 1916. He saw his first science-fiction film in 1922: “One Glorious Day,” the story of a disembodied spirit that takes over the soul of a tired professor, played by Will Rogers. Four years later he discovered science-fiction magazines, starting with Amazing Stories, and began collecting them and science-fiction memorabilia. His collection eventually included more than 40,000 books and 100,000 film stills. His wife, Wendayne, a teacher who translated many science-fiction novels from French and German into English, put up with the collection but restricted it to the lower floors of the house, which in the science-fiction world was known as the Ackermansion, in Horrorwood, Karloffornia. (After her death in 1990, the collection began creeping up the stairs.)
After serving in the Army during World War II, he started a literary agency that eventually represented, by his count, 200 writers, including, at different times, Ray Bradbury, H. P. Lovecraft and L. Ron Hubbard, who later founded Scientology.
Mr. Ackerman said he came up with “sci-fi” in 1954. He was driving in a car with his wife when he heard a radio announcer say “hi-fi.” The term sci-fi just came reflexively and unbidden out of his mouth, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/movies/06ackerman.html?ref=obituaries

Locus (magazine of science fiction and fantasy) index to science fiction is under Resources at: http://www.locusmag.com/ See also interviews and reviews.

Q. What do Helma Zukas, Sherlock Holmes, and Nicki Styx have in common?
A. They are fictional characters in series.

Famous poets, their poems, books, biographies and quotes, poet of the month
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/

Shanghai is sinking
Shanghai, China's most populous city and an aspiring global financial center, is also one of the world's urban areas most vulnerable to a rise in sea levels as global warming melts polar ice. Its location on a low-lying alluvial plain near the mouth of Asia's longest river, the Yangtze, already leaves it prone, and researchers further warn that the forests of skyscrapers sprouting across the metropolis could compound the threat by causing its marshy ground to sink. There are about 10,000 buildings with more than 10 floors in Shanghai, of which 80 percent have been built in the past 10 years, according to Emporis, one of the world's leading providers of building information. http://chinadaily.cn/bw/2008-10/20/content_7119408.htm
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/10/07/shanghai_is_sinking.php

December 16 is the birthday of Jane Austen, (books by this author) born in Hampshire, England (1775). Jane Austen published her books anonymously; the byline stated that the book was by "a Lady." Not many people read her books while she was alive, though she had a small, devoted readership. She died in 1817. Five decades later, her nephew published A Memoir of Jane Austen (1869), which generated widespread interest in his aunt and led to the reprinting of her novels. It touched off a sort of mania for Jane Austen in the 1880s, known as "Austenolatry." Today there are numerous groups devoted to her work, and thousands of self-proclaimed "Janeites." The Janeites in the U.S. are likely members of JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, "dedicated to the enjoyment and appreciation of Jane Austen and her writing." The Jane Austen Society of North America has more than 4,000 members and 60 regional groups. JASNA organizes tours to England to visit Austen-themed sites. It publishes an annual online journal, Persuasions On-Line. And it holds an annual fall meeting in a North American city, and over the course of three days, there are lectures by Austen scholars, English country dancing, and picnics like the one described at Box Hill in Emma, where each picnicker brings a dish to share and carries it in a wicker basket. There's also an annual Jane Austen essay contest. The Writer’s Almanac