the Words Made Flesh

The Scalpel, 52 Lime Street. We've heard of "the Gherkin" and "the Cheesegrater". Now "the Scalpel" has been added to the cluster. Like the nearby "Cheesegrater", the "Scalpel" leans back to protect distant views of St. Paul' s Cathedral. The office block is almost complete. A new Spire on the London skyline! The Scalpel is a commercial skyscraper under construction in London, United Kingdom.It is located on Lime Street in the City of London financial area. Originally a nickname but subsequently designated as its official name, the term "Scalpel" was coined by the Financial Times due to the building's distinctive angular design and followed a trend of nicknaming new buildings based upon their shape, such as the nearby Leadenhall Building, also known as "The Cheesegrater". Upon completion in 2018, The Scalpel will be 190 m (620 ft) tall, with 38 storeys. It has been designed by K...

Jane Austen was a Georgian era author, best known for her social commentary in novels including 'Sense and Sensibility,' 'Pride and Prejudice,' and 'Emma.' Jane Austen was an English novelist whose books, set among the English middle and upper classes, are notable for their wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th century women. Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in the village of Steventon in Hampshire. She was one of eight children of a clergyman and grew up in a close-knit family. She began to write as a teenager. In 1801 the family moved to Bath. After the death of Jane's father in 1805 Jane, her sister Cassandra and their mother moved several times eventually settling in Chawton, near Steventon. Jane's brother Henry helped her negotiate with a publisher and her first novel, 'Sense and Sensibility', appeared in 1811. Her next novel 'Pride and Prejudice', which she described as her "own darl...

countable noun [usually singular] A perfect storm is an unusual combination of events or things that produce an unusually bad or powerful result. Investors are faced with the perfect storm of slowing economic growth, rising prices and an unstable housing market. perfect storm in British noun a combination of events which are not individually dangerous, but occurring together produce a disastrous outcome. an extremely bad situation in which many bad things happen at the same time. a very unpleasant situation in which several bad things happen at once. Thesaurus In a difficult situation Dangerous or exciting situations In a dangerous situation To be in, or to get into a difficult situation Words used to describe difficult situations Confused or confusing situations crisis (noun) an urgent, difficult, or dangerous situation battle (noun) a situation in which someone is trying very hard to deal with a difficult situation nightmare (noun) an extremely difficult or frigh...

Used with some slight variations, the optimistic idiomatic phrase could also be encountered as: Look at/ see the world through rose-colored/ rose-tinted glasses (UK also) look at/ see sth through rose-tinted spectacles: To see only the pleasant things about a situation and not notice the things that are unpleasant. View things with optimism, especially undue optimism rose- colored glasses (noun plural) To be favorably disposed, opinions-optimistic eyes: views the world through rose-colored glasses. First Known Use: 1844 e.g. She's always looked at life through rose-tinted glasses. Origins of the Phrase "Some unfortunate people never take their rose-colored glasses off, but everyone wears these spectacles occasionally. This attitude of cheerful optimism, of seeing everything in an attractive, pleasant light, has always been with us, while the expression itself goes back to at least 1861, when it is first recorded in 'Tom Brown at Oxford': 'O...

(informal) to deliberately deceive someone, to mislead someone e.g It seems as if we've been led up the garden path about the position of our hotel - it's miles from the beach! Thesaurus a numbers game, April fool, bad faith, bamboozle , bilk, blackmail ,blag ,blagger ,bluff ,casuistry , catfish, catfishing ,cheat, cheat sb out of sth ,cleaner confidence, trick, cook cook sth up ,deceive ,diddle, dirty, dirty tricks, do 1, do sb out of sth, do the dirty on sb ,double-cross , double-dealing ,dupe ,eye, fall ,fall for sth ,fall for sth hook, line, and sinker , fall into the/sb's trap, fast-talk, feint, fiddle, finesse ,fixing ,flannel, fleece, fool ,fox, funny business, gag, game-fixing ,grift, grifter ,gull ,gyp, have have an eye to/for, the main chance idiom have sb on hoax hocus-pocus honeyfuggle hoodwink hook hustle impersonate jape jiggery-pokery jockey jockey sb into sth lead 1 lead sb a (merry) dance idiom lead sb on, lead sb up the garden path, live b...

Also "this neck of the woods" : the place or area where someone lives, the area someone comes from, or the area where you are, an area, region or locality. e.g. A quiet neck of the woods, He's from my neck of the woods. How is the weather in your neck of the woods? I'm surprised to see you in this neck of the woods. Woods (American English), US, also wood: (plural noun): an area of land covered with a thick growth of trees; e.g. shaded from the sun, the woods were cool and quiet. Wooded (adj) US: The house stood on a wooded hillside. A theory about the origin of the phrase: In the country, there aren't any street addresses. So you literally use landmarks to refer to where a person lives. Up in your neck of the woods or up the holler. On the mountain. Down on the river. : "Neck of the woods," meaning a certain region or neighborhood, is one of those phrases we hear so often that we never consider how fundamentally weird they are. In the c...

Hammersmith Bridge is a suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames in west London. It allows road traffic and pedestrians to cross from the southern part of Hammersmith in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, on the north side of the river, to Barnes in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, on the south side of the river. The current bridge, which is Grade II* listed and was designed by the noted civil engineer Sir Joseph Bazalgette, is the second permanent bridge on the site, Opened 6 October 1827 (first bridge), 11 June 1887 (current bridge). Everything you need to know about the Thames' most elaborate bridge. 1. It was the first suspension bridge over the Thames The original Hammersmith bridge opened in 1827, and was designed by William Tierney Clark.It was the first suspension bridge over the River Thames: that is a bridge where the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. There were concerns about the strength of the bri...

Chancery Lane, City/Camden/Westminster A focal thoroughfare for the London legal profession, running between Fleet Street and High Holborn. Chancery Lane is a one-way street situated in the ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London. It has formed the western boundary of the City since 1994, having previously been divided between the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden. The route originated as a 'new lane' created by the Knights Templar from their original 'old Temple' on the site of the present Southampton Buildings on Holborn, in order to access to their newly acquired property to the south of Fleet Street (the present Temple) sometime before 1161.[1] Chancery Lane, numbered the B400 in the British road numbering scheme, connects Fleet Street at its southern origin with High Holborn. It gives its name to Chancery Lane Underground station which lies at the junction of Holborn and Gray's Inn Road, a short distance from Chancery Lane...

informal —used to describe what happens when violent, destructive, and confused activity suddenly begins, Said of a chaotic or disruptive situation,If all hell breaks loose, a situation suddenly becomes violent and noisy, especially with people arguing or fighting: all hell breaks loose or all hell breaks out INFORMAL COMMON If all hell breaks loose or all hell breaks out, a situation becomes uncontrolled and noisy, often with a lot of arguing or fighting. e.g I heard people shouting at each other, and suddenly all hell broke loose. I'm just walking down the street when all hell breaks loose, and drivers start beeping and screaming at each other for no apparent reason. One guy pushed another at the bar and then all hell broke loose—that's why we left! One policeman drew his gun and then suddenly all hell broke loose. Suddenly, all hell broke loose upstairs. It sounded as if someone was battering at the door with a tree trunk. Toby came home and all hell broke loos...

Sonnet 18 is perhaps the best known of all sonnets. Shakespeare wrote 154 of them but this one tends to top most popular lists, mainly due to the opening line which every romantic knows off by heart. But there is much more to this line than meets the eye. And please be aware that not every line of every Shakespeare sonnet is written in pure iambic pentameter - a mistake made by many a supposed authority. William Shakespeare's sonnets are world renowned and are said to been written for a 'fair youth' (1 - 126) and a 'dark lady' (127 - 154), but no one is 100% certain. There are no definite names and no written evidence. Shakespeare may have been well known in his lifetime but he was also very good at keeping secrets. The sonnets were first published in 1609, seven years before his death, and their remarkable quality has kept them in the public eye ever since. Their depth and range set Shakespeare apart from all other sonneteers. His sonnet 18 focuses on the ...