hamlet

From Middle English hamlet, hamelet, a borrowing from Old French hamelet, diminutive of Old French hamel, in turn diminutive of Old French ham, of Germanic origin, from Frankish *haim, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haimaz (whence English home).  Equivalent to Middle English ham (“home, village”) +‎ -let (“small”).  https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hamlet   

Hamlet quotes

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” 

“This above all:  to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day . . . ”

“To be, or not to be:  that is the question: 
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles . . . ”

 “To be, or not to be:  that is the question: 
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles . . .  ”

“Brevity is the soul of wit.”

“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”  https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1885548-hamlet-prince-of-denmark   

Hamlet - Entire Play  https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/hamlet/read/   

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library is an American estate and museum in Winterthur, Delaware.  Winterthur houses one of the richest collections of Americana in the United States.  The museum and estate were the home of Henry Francis du Pont (1880–1969), Winterthur's founder and a prominent antiques collector and horticulturist.  Part of the natural area is old-growth forest and recognized by the Old-Growth Forest Network.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winterthur_Museum,_Garden_and_Library    

chock(n.)

1670s, "piece of wood, block" (especially one used to prevent movement), possibly from Old North French choque "a block" (Old French çoche "log," 12c.; Modern French souche "stump, stock, block"), from Gaulish *tsukka "a tree trunk, stump."

also from 1670s

chock(adv.)

"tightly, close up against," 1799, back formation from chock-full. 

also from 1799

https://www.washingtonpost.com/ 

Thank you, reader.    

Books connect us to the past and teach us how to map our future.  The Burning Library by Gilly Macmillan (2025)    

To erect a tower 1,000 feet (300 m) high, Gustave Eiffel and his engineers had only one material at their disposal: iron.  Wood was hardly a realistic option.  A stone tower would have collapsed under its own weight.  And reinforced concrete was still in its infancy.  But iron was a material that had been perfectly mastered both in its production and in its implementation.  It had been known since the 2nd century BC, but it wasn’t until the 1850s that its use became widespread in construction thanks to its industrial availability.  https://www.toureiffel.paris/en/news/130-years/what-eiffel-tower-made  Thank you, reader.    

April 29, 2026