1. A double quantity; twice as much or many; a number or magnitude multiplied by two.

1393    J. Gower Confessio I. 170   He saith that other have shall The double of that his felawe axeth.

a1400  (1325)    Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 7644   Dauid him þe doubil broght.

c1430    Art Nombryng (1922) 7   If thow truly double the halfis and truly half the doubles.

c1500    Three Kings’ Sons (E.E.T.S.) 76   There were moo slayn of them by double than they were that assailed them.

1611    Bible (A.V.) Isa. lxi. 7   In their land they shal possesse the double.

1715    tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. ii. §59. 350   The arcs GL, LH‥respectively the doubles of AE, EB.

1875    B. Jowett tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) I. 485   Ten, which is the double of five.

 2. A thing that is an exact repetition of another.

 †a. A duplicate, copy, transcript (of a writing). Obs. (chiefly Sc.)

1543    Sc. Acts Mary (1814) 436 (Jam.)   The auctentik dowble of thir our souerain ladeis lettrez of summondis.

1628    R. Boyle Diary in Lismore Papers (1886) II. 259   My laste will and testament, with a dowble therof, both signed.

1752    J. Louthian Form of Process (ed. 2) 60   Of which Warrant, the Messenger‥is‥ordained to give a just Double‥to the Prisoner himself.

 b. A counterpart; an image, or exact copy (of a thing or person).

 c. spec. The apparition of a living person; a wraith, fetch.

1798    Geraldina II. 189   Lady Withers, who is this Lady’s double, and attends her constantly.

1818    H. J. Todd Johnson’s Dict. Eng. Lang.,   Double‥4. In modern times, used for resemblance; as, his or her double, meaning another person extremely like the party.

1826    B. Disraeli Vivian Grey II. iii. v. 50,   I fancy, that in this mysterious‥woman, I have met a kind of double of myself.

1826    W. Hone Every-day Bk. (1827) II. 1012   The ‘fetch’ or double of the Gottingen student.

1871    R. A. Proctor Light Sci. 294   The appearance of a double or ‘fetch’ has ever been held‥to signify approaching death.

 †d. pl. Two of the same kind; twins. Obs.

1413    Pilgr. Sowle (1483) v. x. 100   Gemini that ben cleped twynnes or doubles.

Each sentence should make a clear statement. It should add to the statement that went before. A good paragraph is a series of clear, linked statements.

– V.S. Naipaul

The Glass of Water

That the glass would melt in heat,
That the water would freeze in cold,
Shows that this object is merely a state,
One of many, between two poles. So,
In the metaphysical, there are these poles.

Here in the centre stands the glass. Light
Is the lion that comes down to drink. There
And in that state, the glass is a pool.
Ruddy are his eyes and ruddy are his claws
When light comes down to wet his frothy jaws

And in the water winding weeds move round.
And there and in another state—the refractions,
The metaphysica, the plastic parts of poems
Crash in the mind—But, fat Jocundus, worrying
About what stands here in the centre, not the glass,

But in the centre of our lives, this time, this day,
It is a state, this spring among the politicians
Playing cards. In a village of the indigenes,
One would have still to discover. Among the dogs and dung,
One would continue to contend with one’s ideas.

Wallace Stevens, Collected Poetry and Prose

Do no dishonor to the earth lest you dishonor the spirit of man. Hold your hands out over the earth as over a flame. To all who love her, who open to her the doors of their veins, she gives of her strength, sustaining them with her own measureless tremor of dark life. Touch the earth, love the earth, honor the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak.

Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod

In the 6 weeks ending 4/15, the rate of increase of retail gasoline prices (national avg) effectively DOUBLED that of the price of spot oil prices, oil futures, or gas futures. The whole idea of demonizing “speculators” over prices at the pump is just shameful nonsense.

Ultimately, it’s easier for all beneficiaries involved to make people believe they are nothing but confused victims of mysterious forces, rather than to draw attention to any actual responsibility for the situation, or any meaningful ability to change it.

Pricing decisions are made by the seller, end of story. Look at it rationally. Input costs are only about 50% of the actual cost at the pump. If the price of oil goes up 7%, a $3.50 gallon of gas would realistically go up to $3.62, if profit per gallon were kept level, because the refining costs, distribution costs, and taxes would remain stable. Unless, of course, the seller chooses to take advantage of the situation to increase profits along with revenue.

The U.S. Congress and President are helping oil companies create a smoke screen. And most of the media, on both sides of the political divide, would rather engage in fear-mongering and rabble-rousing than make the effort to do any reporting or even pull out a calculator before disseminating this nonsense. 

Data sourced from US Energy Information Administration, 23 April 2011

Tenebrae, Geoffrey Hill

He was so tired that he was scarcely able to hear a note of the songs: he felt imprisoned in a cold region where his brain was numb and his spirit was isolated.

1

Requite this angel whose   
flushed and thirsting face   
stoops to the sacrifice   
out of which it arose.   
This is the lord Eros
of grief who pities
no one; it is
Lazarus with his sores.

2

And you, who with your soft but searching voice   
drew me out of the sleep where I was lost,   
who held me near your heart that I might rest   
confiding in the darkness of your choice:   
possessed by you I chose to have no choice,   
fulfilled in you I sought no further quest.   
You keep me, now, in dread that quenches trust,   
in desolation where my sins rejoice.   
As I am passionate so you with pain   
turn my desire; as you seem passionless   
so I recoil from all that I would gain,   
wounding myself upon forgetfulness,   
false ecstasies, which you in truth sustain   
as you sustain each item of your cross.

3

Veni Redemptor, but not in our time.   
Christus Resurgens, quite out of this world.   
‘Ave’ we cry; the echoes are returned.   
Amor Carnalis is our dwelling-place.

4

O light of light, supreme delight;   
grace on our lips to our disgrace.   
Time roosts on all such golden wrists;   
our leanness is our luxury.
Our love is what we love to have;   
our faith is in our festivals.

5

Stupefying images of grief-in-dream,   
succubae to my natural grief of heart,   
cling to me, then; you who will not desert   
your love nor lose him in some blank of time.   
You come with all the licence of her name   
to tell me you are mine. But you are not   
and she is not. Can my own breath be hurt
by breathless shadows groaning in their game?   
It can. The best societies of hell
acknowledge this, aroused by what they know:   
consummate rage recaptured there in full   
as faithfulness demands it, blow for blow,   
and rectitude that mimics its own fall   
reeling with sensual abstinence and woe.

6

This is the ash-pit of the lily-fire,
this is the questioning at the long tables,   
this is true marriage of the self-in-self,   
this is a raging solitude of desire,   
this is the chorus of obscene consent,   
this is a single voice of purest praise.

7

He wounds with ecstasy. All
the wounds are his own.
He wears the martyr’s crown.
He is the Lord of Misrule.
He is the Master of the Leaping Figures,   
the motley factions.
Revelling in auguries
he is the Weeper of the Valedictions.

8

Music survives, composing her own sphere,   
Angel of Tones, Medusa, Queen of the Air,   
and when we would accost her with real cries   
silver on silver thrills itself to ice.

Geoffrey Hill’s New and Collected Poems: 1952-1992

Tristan Tzara: Proclamation without Pretension

Art is going to sleep for a new world to be born
“ART”-parrot word-replaced by DADA,
PLESIOSAURUS, or handkerchief

The talent THAT CAN BE LEARNED makes the
poet a druggist TODAY the criticism
of balances no longer challenges with resemblances

Hypertrophic painters hyperaes-
theticized and hypnotized by the hyacinths
of the hypocritical-looking muezzins

CONSOLIDATE THE HARVEST OF EX-
ACT CALCULATIONS

Hypodrome of immortal guarantees: there is
no such thing as importance there is no transparence
or appearance

MUSICIANS SMASH YOUR INSTRUMENTS
BLIND MEN take the stage

THE SYRINGE is only for my understanding. I write because it is
natural exactly the way I piss the way I’m sick

ART NEEDS AN OPERATION

Art is a PRETENSION warmed by the
TIMIDITY of the urinary basin, the hysteria born
in THE STUDIO

We are in search of
the force that is direct pure sober
UNIQUE we are in search of NOTHING
we affirm the VITALITY of every IN-
STANT

the anti-philosophy of spontaneous acrobatics

At this moment I hate the man who whispers
before the intermission-eau de cologne-
sour theatre. THE JOYOUS WIND

If each man says the opposite it is because he is
right

Get ready for the action of the geyser of our blood
-submarine formation of transchromatic aero-
planes, cellular metals numbered in
the flight of images

above the rules of the
and its control

BEAUTIFUL

It is not for the sawed-off imps
who still worship their navel

Via i12bent

Imagine a family that is spending $38,200 per year. The family’s income is $21,700 per year. The family adds $16,500 in credit card debt every year in order to pay its bills. After a long and difficult debate among family members, keeping in mind that it was not going to be possible to borrow $16,500 every year forever, the parents and children agreed that a $380/year premium cable subscription could be terminated. So now the family will have to borrow only $16,120 per year.