Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Jane Arnold seeks a short story, possibly from the 1960s, about a judge known for mercilessness who goes fishing on his day off without his toupee, teeth, or ID, and is picked up for vagrancy. His cellmate tells him about the horrible judge they’ll face the next day (himself, of course), and they break out of jail. The next time he is faced with a case, he tempers the law with mercy. Star asters are important in the story, and may appear in the title.

“Menasseh ben Israel” (November-December 2018). On clothing made from stone in China, Vincent Daly wrote that Marco Polodescribes an asbestos mine in “Ghinghin talas” province “from which the cloth which we call of salamander, which cannot be burnt if it is thrown into the fire, is made…” (A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, Marco Polo: The Description of the World, 1938, page 156). On swollen thighs in Cochin, India, Bernard Witlieb wrote that elephantiasis was widely prevalent there and often referred to as “Cochin leg.”

Send inquiries and answers to Chapter and Verse, Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138, or via email to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

You might also like

America’s Past, Opera's Future: 11 New Books from Harvard Authors

These newly released novels, histories, and memoirs grapple with identity in all its forms.

The Year a Beat Poet Squatted at Harvard

In 1954, Gregory Corso moved into Eliot House. How he stayed there is a literary legend.

How Adam Ehrlich Sachs Writes Absurd and Beautiful Fiction

The Gretel and the Great War author on how the Lampoon derailed his science career—and set him on a literary path.

Most popular

New Names Proposed for Harvard Extension School Degrees

Long pushed for, the changes would be part of a broader rebranding for the Division of Continuing Education.

Harvard Academic Workers Begin Strike

A second union joined graduate students on the picket line, emptying labs and classrooms.

Remembering Judge Richard A. Posner

Contributing editor Lincoln Caplan’s 2015 feature of the prolific judge

Explore More From Current Issue

Illuminated hanging sculptures resembling organic forms, casting warm light in a dim space.

Artists Enzo Camacho and Ami Lien turn a colonial symbol from Cambodia inside out.

Black and white portrait of a woman with medium-length hair, smiling softly.

The outgoing executive director and Harvard Business School graduate went from dancing The Nutcracker to growing a ballet company.

Ancient Egyptian painted sarcophagus with detailed hieroglyphs and a woman's face.

A rare Egyptian mummy case is on display at the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.