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This page lists archived tumblr posts in my puutterings project (2022, ongoing). Numbers at left are links to the archived posts. Columns are sortable (may need to click twice). Reload to re-sort.

this index has given rise to a series of derivations, at asfaltics : link

what is this.
 

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1   1912 Chicago (South Park Commissioners) nevertheless economy; efficiency
2   1916 Collins, A. Frederick not a bit of it, it’s only puttering around electricity; experiment
3   1910 McGlauflin, Idabelle Handicraft for Girls there is a difference education
4   1914 Farnum, Royal B. in one minute, and vigorous execution education
5   1860 Clifford, Nell who ever heard vanitas
6   1860 Puttering, Judith Judith obituary
7   1917 Anderson, Sherwood always The Seven Arts
8   1927 Hull, Helen R. past the need; she could spend all day in the greenhouse solitude; The Seven Arts
9   1911 Watts, Mary Stanbery the meagre remains  
10   1911 Dustin, S. T. ESS-TEE-DEE dandruf; hair
11   1917 Wyatt, Edith an abundant element of Elinore Pruitt Stewart
12   1918 Lewis, Sinclair curious puttering studies, crackling coals gray centuries
13   1922 Chen, Da (通夫) as a “monstrous” creature, puffing China; flappers
14   1922 Lockert, Lacy (on John Galsworthy) the man of broad, clear, imaginative vision, not experiment; vagaries
15   2004 Knopp, Lisa (on Frank Zyback) metal things at the hardware store center-pivot irrigators; invention
16   1827 Hedge, Mary Ann (M. A. H.) about a bit, especially to wait  
17   1843 Emerson, Ralph Waldo to use the country phrase nails
18   1841 Seneca, The New Genesee Farmer small potatoes; long manure long manure; root culture
19   1855 Stephens, Harriet Marion or, Passion and Reality Hagar; race
20   1849 Knickerbocker, The broke in with this searching remark coincidences
21   1863 Adams, Mrs. G. H. (Elba, Wis.) nothing that he would call any thing, or you either, taken separately how any one could get tired
22   1903 Wright, Joseph English Dialect Dict. to walk slowly or feebly; to halt, hobble... lexicon
23   1900 Lowe, F. T. reserves telegraphic code; social code
24   1924 Hull, Helen R. departed with his gloves puer aeternus
25   1843 Johnson, Samuel; The Knickerbocker I do not much wish well to discoveries, for discoveries
26   1839 Pierce, Daniel Thompson Oh, nothing very special — nothing of any great consequence — — Vermont
27   1860 Soule, Caroline A. my economy quilt clergymen’s wives; economy
27a 1860 Soule, Caroline A. my economy quilt transcription, ibid.
28   1865 Stoddard, Elizabeth with gum-arabic and sea-weed  
29   1921 Anderson, Sherwood about with a camera, nowhere into nothing  
30   1866 Alger, W. R. (on Madame Swetchine) of time, and no exhaling vapor  
31   1855 Fern, Fanny (Sarah Payson Willis) it would be stepping off your pedestal, you’ve got other things to do antimonial; husbands
32   1855 Fern, Fanny (Sarah Payson Willis) and, with the timely aid of a stray sunbeam good-for-nothingness
33   1897 Root, Frederick Stanley power through repose Annie Payson Call
34   1901 New Mexico, Governor of a visionary scheme, it was declared date palm; desert; present signs
35   1911 Cameron, Ruth (Persis Dwight Hannah) and they’ve rusted and most ruined the skirt class; housekeeping
36   1902 Sylvester, Sara the seams, with the comforting remark sanitarium
37   1898 Lloyd, Alfred Henry what he does or makes is wholly idle, being useless to him in the next minute action; doubt; laboratories
38   1897 Herrick, Robert She wondered what he had been so anxious to burn. papers
39   1904 Clarke, Lulu MacClure The exigencies of the case demand feminist; some peculiar reasons
40   1908 Domestic Engineering regular monkey and parrot time Master of Mechanical Details
41   1911 Automobile Topics that the electric is essentially a woman’s vehicle EV; automotive; gender
42   1903 Hardy, Arthur Sherburne But the life is so narrow, their interests so small... socio-economic class
43   1902 Clark, Edward B. And the meadows are green. the forty-thousand dollar carnation
43a 1902 Farmers’ Review lightly and disappeared negro, negroes; racism; whites
44   1900 Crockett, Montgomery A. of hemorrhage, and the avoidance of “puttering” during the operation gynecology; shock; surgery
45   1901 Marcy, Henry O. the chief cornerstone in the new edifice gynecology; instrumentalism
46   1911 Kimball, Atkinson (pseud.) green to see what happens conceptualist musing; amateurism
47   1918 Wallace, Emma Gary so much of it fragmentary clergy; philosophical pharmacy
48   1991 Waugh, Douglas M.D. not only unnecessary but also of little or no immediate importance mindless activity; recuperative
49   1918 Norris, Charles Gilman the clink of glasses. presently en passant
50   1918 Bulletin of Photography makeshift things, things that are a day of doers, of men who see
51   2021 Fitbit for a plurality of moments of interest metabolic equivalent of task (MET)
52   1922 Sies, Alice Corbin all bound up in the use of the hands Spontaneous and Supervised Play
53   1920 Clum, Woodworth ultimates and confiscation, pink variety A. W. Calhoun; W. E. Zeuch
54   1920 Cooke, Edmund Vance to train the ants to play and dance, to teach the toad to stutter verse; recuperative
55   1918 Tuttle, W. C. around, and writing letters loitering; suspicion; westerns
56   1942 Parks, Robert O. it was raining outside. the arts of war; recuperative
57   1915 Hale, Louise Closser some dull wooden station, muddy town motoring; mud; recuperative
58   1915 Universal Drafting Machine Co. enemy to accuracy, and produces bad habits of thought drawing; mental hygiene
59   1912 Austin, Mary Hunter fairly bristling with an objectionable maleness anger; offensiveness; retail
60   1864 The Country Gentleman, N. J. C. any single thing which can be enumerated agriculture; Mr. Anti-putterer
61   1878 Bell, Mrs. Lucia Chase here a little, and there a little of learning; reading; recuperative
62   1961 Caillois, Roger wan... detached and idle, certain game theory; orientalizing
63   1879 Tourgée, Albion Winegar legislators and theorizers have been puttering and quibbling upon the idea racism; reconstruction
64   1980 Tyler, Anne a tinkering, puttering, hardware sort hardware; tinkering
65   1884 Pierce, L. B. that all skilled work is puttering the cheapness of land; recuperative
66   1886 Jennings, Thomas with this burlesque as a consequence residential schools; Menominee
67   1892 Thwaites, Reuben Gold (on Lyman Draper) and as for generalization he abhorred it American border history
68   1891 Eggleston, Edward (and A. S. Winston) a readjustment of the relations between the moon and tides aërial therapeutics
69   1895 McConnell, Alice Barber and she began the “puttering” rambling over the foot-hills relief; temperance
70   1897 Powers, S.; Clute, Oscar with water and shade and perhaps, after light frost in November strawberries; casava; the ministry
71   1902 Wilson, Harry Leon absolute zero on fortune, and spending it
72   1903 Cotton, Alfred C., M.D. the man who intends breastfeeding; maleness
73   1912 Snow, Mary S. the less money, the more need for psychology comparative puttering; economy
74   1906 Kuyper, Abraham varnish and plaster... the well-known mirage of the desert anti-modernism; jeremiad
75   1913 Flandrau, Charles Macomb the reduction of puttering to a science minimalist living
76   1907 Horn, P. W. (Houston, Texas) and so long as a blind trail education; habit-formation
77   1913 Weed, Clarence Moores on my “abandoned farm” herpetology
78   1905 Whiting, Maisie B. that Sobriety was puttering around here The Pink Swan Pattern
79   1913 Johnson, C. N. an ingenuity not to be despised, a material of which we are never certain decay; dental; pyorrhea alveolaris
80   1906 Miller, Charles C. when in a good season there ought to be lively work apiary; starvation
81   1907 Indian School Journal (Chilocco) the most genuine surviving relic, their wares spread out about them residential schools; wrinklings
82   1905 Austin, Mary Hunter oners. Besides —
83   1908 Sweet, Frank H. big clump of tickle grass and flung ageism; puttering as obligation
83a 1908 Sweet, Frank H. A New Start transcription, ibid.
84   1919 Treves, André about’; and not until long after does he awake idleness; rehabilitation; war
85   1921 Perry, Ralph Barton Domestic Superstitions gender politics; domestic economy
86   1921 Collins, Harrison black threads for lines Japan; mistranslation
87   1921 — cynic stock, petty mire H. D.; The Bookman
88   1922 Black, Alexander (and Esther Brock Bird) the peering, puttering analyses of subject, the apprehensive discrimination What’s in a Place?; The Bookman
89   1921 Riess, John as he is today; and his duty toward engineering; labor; AFL
90   1996 Gornick, Vivian in a drawerful of little cardboard boxes gender; hardware; small anxieties
91   1911 Fay, Charles Norman with details. a live issue. another plain tale. so long. Chicago; “Is Democracy a Failure?”
92   1916 Stone, George E. tamping and troweling shade trees; unscrupulous workers
93   1914 Caldwell, Daniel E. that he should do this and do that Pacific Poultrycraft; rabbit-keeping
94   1915 Pattison, Harold arch enemy to highest usefulness clergy; ministry; distractions
95   1920 Corbett, Elizabeth Frances up to a certain point; that point passed painting; procrastination
96   1918 Burroughs, Edgar Rice a hopeless endeavour north; The Gods of Mars
97   1918 Adams, Edward F. (Commonwealth Club) It does not get anywhere. immigration; race; California
98   1918 Sharp, Dallas Lore in some Minnesota pasapoplectic struggle, plover though it be Birds of the Salt Marsh
99   1922 Boddy, Luther the exhaust? that noise? the Black body; racism
100   1923 Schwimmer, Rosika another puttering utpouring Cécile Tormay; Hungarian politics
101   1959 Van Gogh, Vincent silly theory, in four columns —
102   1925 Jones, Marc Edmund planing away the surface Codex Occultus; Sabian Assembly
103   1912 Wells, Kate Gannett needless ironing. domestic economy; efficiency
103a 1912 Wells, Kate Gannett Tangible Present, Thoughts of Strange Things, A Silent Appeal ibid.; context
104   1883 Champney, Lizzie W.; The Continent and, strange to say, he went over the mountain this evening woman’s work; Albion W. Tourgée
105   2010 Schulenberg, Thomas S., et al pee’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’i’ew. birdsong; ornithology; Peru
106   1875 Pollock, Frederick sparing of words, yet by a condensation William Macready; putterance
107   1782 Baker, David Erskine styled in the ride; page one of Levell’d. Wood putterance; “like will to like”
108   1915 Silas, Uncle puttering light in the leaves efficiency; poetry; stenography
109   1911 Mulford, Clarence Edward And there was that geologist; he must have slipped one noon innocent or suspicious puttering
110   1904 Bryant, Lilian True under the trees in the hay fields, with the same Latin grammar education; Nathaniel T. True
111   1881 Dall, Caroline Wells Healey a sort of angry impatience, a uniformity of change proto-influencers; California
112   1900 Lee, Jennette (Barbour Perry) afraid of being laughed at. It was his conscience. gender; woman’s work
113   2012 Summerfield, Mark with a map Go; ordered map; Philip K. Dick
114   1977 Babitz, Eve the world got slower baseball; Los Angeles; motoring
115   1994 Eigner, Larry sundry times, around Larry Eigner; Baruch Spinoza; ToC
116   1975 Ashbery, John a lot of here and there dust; method
117   1923 Kelley, Edith Summers of much commoner clay; a mere clod pestilence
118   1868 Blood, Benjamin Paul these simple imitations, as dissimilar as a horse and an intuition alphabet; poetical engines
119   1913 Jennings, Al; Irwin, Will Dick, engage this person in conversation while I look around. ineptitude; lawnessness; Oklahoma
120   1915 Lockhart, Caroline thick, and a safe distance from the work mining; Wyoming
121   1903 Jamieson, Malcolm McGregor ever so far removed from mere the most elemental, the highest art
122   1920 Chatham, Dennis and Marion; A. L. M. anything that is frankly trivial dictionaries; woodpeckers
123   1902 Chicago Dry Goods Reporter lines on a side street, circling Ray Bradbury; Oklahoma
124   1929 Wolfe, Albert Benedict both virgin wool and shoddy Foundation pennies; insignificances
125   1910 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins talking machines; alphabets of dead languages ageism; humanness
126   1912 Clark, Mary Gail (Gomez) and they turned their attention to the drama gender-fluid; nuclear; abstraction
127   1960 Nash, Jay B.; Fyodor Dostoevsky a bridge; a character of uselessness leisure; work, purposeful
128   1925 Simmons, Charles Finlay or a whe-e r r r r o o o of a more sudden low goop-goop birdsong; ornithology; Texas
129   1922 Lee, Gerald Stanley a saw and a nail, a passing word exercise; unkrinkling; walking
130   1875 Hering, Constantine Borax. Plumbum. Sepia, can scarcely. homeopathy; materia medica
131   2015 Baume, Sara Here’s my driftwood. joining the swatches. pottering
132   1913 Lagerstedt, Albert by blowing out the gas filibustering; W. K. Rogers
132a 1913 Lagerstedt, Albert a cup of cream. I belong to no church William Kissane Rogers
132b 1919 Juda, Miss Fanny California Filibusters filibustering; William Walker, et al.
133   1933 Olson, Charles; Herman Melville stranger lands, disturbed the dust would be presentiments; rovings
134   1890 Hamsun, Knut; Lyngstad, Sverre puslende pusler, pusle, pusled some strips of paper
135   1874 Perkins, Frederic Beecher the huge dark ungainly mass of order; disorder, daughters
136   1991 Adams, Alice; Norris, Charles Gilman but he was unaccustomed to it gardening; orts; Berkeley
137   1977 Handke, Peter then silence. in the end —
138   2013 various suttera puttera; ja, doch, schon putterance; and followed by a pause
139   1989 King, Florence sputtering, instead of gardening; orts
140   1909 Tracy, Virginia the gray stage, the gray grays; theatre
141   1924 Seabury, David gray-haired men, their contraptions and strange sentences bench vs desk; grays; telegraphy
142   1903 Ford, Guy Stanton utterances of, hopeless Prussia
143   1925 Levick, M. B. I guess that’s taking dictation putterment
143a — Levick, M. B. (1887-1946) writings, sorted ibid.; context
144   1878 Woodruff, George H., et al all conspired to divest the wilderness of its romance puuttering; Joliet; “Fort Nonsense”
145   1859 Ainsworth, Robert; Anthon, Charles a strawberry. a puuttering or sound puuttering; to have nothing to do
146   2011 Sutherland, John do not fall happily from the lips putterage (bricolage); method
147   1913 Thorndike, E. L. aimless in the sense all; because it is what it is
148   1957 Du Bois, W. E. B. What became of him? race
149   1952 du Bois, William Pène Not at all. interior décor
150   1950 Du Bois, Theodora planning this improvement and that Next year we’ll do so and so.
151   1972 Gorky State Pedagogical Institute graphomania; in the way, in the same way, not the most important ones putterage; разговорной речи
152   1922 Forman, Henry James Oh, there’s Boccaccio even moves to the country
153   1973 Audio-Visual Education Center, UMich a rainy Thursday; the washing machine won’t start. boredom; bricolage; French
154   1998 Clover, Carol J.; Douglas, Stan a zero point much like gardening; mud; out of synch
155   2008 Storr, Robert; Taylor, Al at this juncture ad nauseum; exhausts its utility
156   1927 Noyes, Pierrepont comparing passages, yesterday and tomorrow —
157   1902 Noyes, Charles Johnson several things, nothing much Uncle Silas; old lame darkey
158   1923 Noyes, John Humphrey little signs and omens, devil’s providences they might be called repudiations; Oneida Community
159   1938 Frontier Bees and Honey we talked about margins, the necessary rule of Alfred Noyes; apiary; fit and fill
160   1914 Young, Rose Emmet got drowned in the dishwater apophony; lumber; middle age
161   1889 Mulford, Prentice (1834-91) two hours a day apophony; “Thoughts are Things”
161a — Mulford, Prentice writings, sorted; and about his was a wanderer’s life
162   1871 Blackwell, Antoinette Brown a late sense [of] sand, and barnacles still apophony; clergy; mementos
162a 1980 Leach, William E. its discursiveness, its failure to define Antoinette Brown Blackwell
163   1886 Farmers’ Review on a northern or northwestern slope, this need but little further agriculture; apophony
164   1911 Pier, Florida (Mrs. Scott-Maxwell) easily shown up, Umm! picturesque destitution
165   1870 Harper’s Weekly kick bim and bling into ruins, re itineracy; tinkering
166   1906 Hale, Louise Closser speranza, the delicate construction of a passing hansom; cogs; motoring
167   1909 Sanders, Grace Boteler so much racket; why, and why apophony; temperance
168   1957 Lageman, John K. ; Remington, Frank L. puttering spirits, a 1½ pound wrench blimp; Coronet; sleep
169   — Pier, Florida (1883-1971) writings, sorted; and about —
169a 1909 Pier, Florida The Blessed Ambient the deepest importance to lyricism
169b 1910 Pier, Florida; Henry James Pale Adventurers old gentlemen... his real heroines
169c 1908 Pier, Florida The Passing of the New England Conscience The door is open.
169d 1911 Pier, Florida Emotions Attendant on Acquiring a Desk the understanding between you
169e 1911 Pier, Florida Happiness too elusive... to be even named
169f 1912 Pier, Florida The Mental Pendulum; Projects of the Future and by its borrowed light
170   1950 Seymour, Wilfred E. another object; still another garden cutting tool; scratches; tears
171   1910 Pier, Florida People with Gardens gardening; “gomerels”
172   2019 Skubik, Marjorie, et al; Univ of Missouri in some embodiments restlessness; surveillance
173   1941 Dunham, Ethel Collins at her easel, wandering leisure pursuits; unexceptional
174   1942 Hearst’s International just as it should be, (somewhere) a thousand miles away gardening; “lucky, lucky, lucky”
175   1996 Casanova, Ronald; Stephen Blackburn a puttering kind of old social work
176   1920 Lee, Gerald Stanley a puttering kind of store post office
177   1899 Westcott, Edward Noyes kind of an ole foozle, but... skunk bus’nis, an’ though education; putty; skunks
178   1919 Blackford, Katherine M. H., M.D. always busy but never the ‘fit,’ the ‘unfit,’ and the ‘misfit’
179   2020 Tobar, Héctor asphalt, sea lanes away asphalt; Peruvian potato patches
180   1944 Saturday Evening Post The color scheme was her idea asphalt; blue; soft blue walls
181   1997 Florida Wildlife in a her made island asphalt; this particular morning
182   1918 Eichhorn, Theodore close to the question asphalt; patching and puttering
183   1994 Huddle, David; Garrett, George I don’t too much like prose; and you really meant it
184   1937 Bledsoe, Mary puttering rocks, shadows slant North Carolina; “rural fiction”
185   1938 Benjamin, Walter for like the names of the deceased desk; desks; exercise books
186   1976 High Fidelity errant emanations, the unidentified aside But be philosophical.
187   1993 Ebmeier, Larry closeted so long AIDS; philosophical puttering
188   2006 Crease, Robert P.; Lutterbie, John each moment, a making-explicit of interpretation; technique
189   1926 Anderson, Frederick the discovery of a fact the subtle fluid; the new kind of air
190   1958 Howells, J. Harvey without drive, the hidden terror gardening; slough of cordiality
191   1968 Plasencia, Peter P.; and Stone, and Siegel one piece rather; what holds paper; scissors; mereology; conatus
192   1907 Wells, Carolyn; Herzog, Felix teleseme, spoonless; the hand flies back when your want is known Yassum, said the maid.
193   1993 Caldwell, Bruce J. thus, and not in vain philosophy and methodology
194   1968 Rodgers, Andrew Denny; Asa Gray et al studying roses considerably as he journeyed botany; Georg Engelmann
195   1880 Frank Leslie’s Pleasant Hours (anon) season after season be-still tinkered patents; blacksmithing; inventions
196   1912 The School Journal (anon) fine-spun arithmetic, sure and exact sojuring; progressive education
197   1908 Hall, G. Stanley the alternative, if, as, must telepathy
198   1909 Hughes, Rupert; Hall, G. Stanley the spirits could not séance, pocket-mirror scribes indictment; occultism; spiritualism
199   1899 Hughes, Rupert The whole problem was reversed. wrestling
200   1915 Hughes, Rupert; James M. Flagg He thought its outline was familiar. chase scene; obstacles; 641416
201   1917 Hughes, Rupert; James M. Flagg the superlative human luxury sparrows; unwarrantably defaced
202   1919 Hughes, Rupert; Raleigh, Henry Patrick a circle that cannot be quite squared marriage; quandaries
203   1926 Hughes, Rupert She had kept it alive by soothing it to silence bluffs and bottoms; hardware lit
204   1920 Hughes, Rupert; Snapp, Frank the defects of his qualities and the qualities of his defects sculpture
205   1923 Hughes, Rupert; Keller, Arthur Ignatius almost pleasant at this distance glaciers; shame; walls
206   1798 Immanuel Kant the thread between her fingers unbedeutenden gesprächen
207   1845 Douglass, Frederick; anon. every day, and every where; nothing about it slavery; race; racism
208   1909 Pier, Florida and he gave his thoughts a loose reign  
209   1910 Payne, Will speaking at random... sneaked off to the library domestic harmony; idiocity
210   1921 Payne, Will or rather, a divided mind baffling plot; detective story
211   1867 Hamilton, Gail; Hauck, Jack E. Quite a big boat, for such a relatively small pond. wool-gathering; boat, eponymous
212   1999 Donniger, Wendy (ed.) a thread of blue. Deuteronomy; Numbers
213   1924 Dakin, W. J. Respiration in fishes, and Putterism. differences of opinion
214   1957 Jernigan, Muriel Molland the thousand and one tasks a working girl neglects Katharine Carl; 慈禧太后
215   1900 Zwilgmeyer, Dikken; Holter, Clara Alice in utmost astonishment —
216   1957 Corbett, Elizabeth Frances We won’t stay a minute. Where’s the rest? a new reason to live
217   1928 Flint, Leon Nelson said it felt like spring dance; trite subjects
218   1915 Boot & Shoe Workers Union and dancing around / to the hard place dance
219   1921 Science and Invention and mussing looking wish lay upon a cushion the quiet suburbs of Los Angeles
220   1920 Science and Invention a rheostat. a condenser. a lifetime’s work, and tightening of screws. Frank R. Paul (illustrator)
221   1872 Smith, William; B. F. W.; S. C. B. invisible sometimes a place of Bible, dictionary of
222   1921 Greg, Albert Sidney; Rowland Haynes spare time, a brace and a bit, an entirely new groove Invisible University; hobbies
223   1919 American Lutheran Survey in the files, some of the invisible around visibles; a narrow limited circle
224   1914 Lyman, Olin. L; LeBlanc, Maurice specialized reading, a new line even more insoluble visibles; “Picture the situation.”
225   1926 Mortimer, Lillian (Naillil Remitrom) Dusts chair, dusts books; farming or something Anita Loos; Emma Augusta Sharkey
226   1974 Loos, Mary (Anita); Fred Pfeiffer always the lab, tending his roses. Hollywood
227   1872 The College Courant; Bronson Alcott in large innocence grave, puttering with the stars an empty and useless stare
228   1919 Black, Alexander hidden river; a heap of notes. diagramming; sidereal spark
229   1923 Titus, Harold; Stockton Mulford went too far. well after dark. the inch the story Tuesday
230   1900 Christian, F. W.; The Critic who really knows something; the same Caroline Islands; missionaries
231   1918 Repplier, Agnes; C. M. Flandrau an island in the sea, unwarranted eruption; even the delicate tracery writing
232   1890 Scientific American withouting proof, machinist he areca nut; knowing how
233   1922 Watson, Herbert on Friday’s part, then, and only a letter island; sincerity; Robinson Crusoe
234   1924 Irwin, Inez Haynes mysterious minor pursuits amateur dressmaking
235   1896 Kitchel, Cornelius Porter pasteboard and painted purple patchery; toys
236   1968 Wolfe, Bernard all the shirts returned; a few readymades personal
237   2019 Berg, Aase babbling for the sake of babbling, a kind of music garbage heap; patriarchy
238   1895 Gleanings in Bee Culture partially water, but position these entwines islands; apiary; water
239   1993 Muske-Dukes, Carol a cry here, a comment there, bits of lives outside women in science
240   1925 Safford, Victor both at rest and in motion disability; immigration; race
241   1985 Rosenthal, Stephen accumulated junk, devious permutations abstraction; glossary; paint
242   1926 P. T. A. Magazine Jack, Jane, an Old Man. Rows of books. and any pictures
243   1925 Norris, Kathleen inaccurate fingers; desire so dreary dysfunctional Irish-Catholic families
244   1917 Photo-Era; John J. Enneking and dry bones failing failures; tinware
245   2003 Augustine, Sue some semblance of order  
246   1989 Stoddard, Alexandra around me and in my mind times when Happiness Movement
247   1938 Ueland, Brenda sharp, staccato ideas; by action at last slow big ideas; Plotinus
248   1938 Hartmann, Sadakichi a good listener though Albert Pinkham Ryder
249   1990 Pilcher, Rosamunde Just that. gardening; method; style
250   1857 Graham’s Illustrated Magazine without the slightest idea; rivening, ’riv Balearic Islands; arriv; arrov
251   — Norris, Kathleen a baker’s dozen blue, sort of, to see extinguishing what fire there was
252   1939 Hauser, Heinrich puffing blubblub pfft pfft turned primitive at sea
253   1998 Norris, Kathleen (poet) a kind of daft doing the dishes housewife; quotidian mysteries
254   1844 Marryat, (Captain) Frederick when the rain came apophony; wreck of the Pacific
255   1845 Hardman, Frederick put tering eye, blue cap and pale; the ball as it fell Carlism; Spain
256   2000 Dunning, Jennifer; Vicky Shick certainly not chairs; dance; sleeves
257   1915 Davenport, Charles B. seclusive and inclined eugenics; manicule
258   1931 Capra, Frank; Robert Riskin others can never master it one’s mind must be at ease
259   1899 Garland, Hamlin; E. W. Deming to wait and mark it the other way corn; planting; prairie
260   1886 McClelland, Mary Greenway surprise and rebuke, and dodging forest taint; author of oblivion
261   — Sondheim, Stephen, et al. puttern sleeve enjambment; clutter humming
262   1923 Grey, Zane You expect pay for this ? desert; desert philosophizing
263   1923 Newton, Stanley And winging over and through this Babel Sioux; diapason of the rapids
264   1982 Seltz, David D. pencan make, certain voids in their lives make-believe social letters
265   1870 Warner, Charles Dudley holes and hills. But, after all gardening; misogyny
266   1909 Tyler, John Mason light work these evils, she never learns to play hygiene and physical education
267   1678 Sandys, George; Ovid puttering light, mythologized, snatcht Metamorphosis
268   1892 Porter, Sarah H(arvey) outside matters; consonant interruptions; vowels, hieroglyphics deaf education; forest-trained eye
269   1897 Wells, Amos Russel no indecision, a paradox, and nailing him attention; attention getting
270   1988 Stevens, R. C.; Christian Gottlob Knauss Would she be interested? instincts; the puttering instincts
271   2012 Kuberski, Philip; Stanley Kubrick with bones, the pensive Moon-watcher moves darkness; emptiness; C. G. Jung
272   2008 King, William Davies one object beside another, and then another collections of nothing; depression
273   1920 Gardiner, Almon Henry air hollow, working north, a feely morning deer hunting; brain-pictures
274   1928 King, Rufus odds and ends, various little placidly; Sweden; whodunit
275   1908 Thomson, Permelia Corey unbleached cotton, a caution to the rest indigo; and nankeen pantalettes
276   1923 Rath, E. J.; Edith Rathbone Jacobs all the valves out, something on impulse; a more engaging occupation Chauncey Brainerd; G. H. Watt
277   1917 Ostrander, Isabel idle theories or chimerical clues, and the wide world in which to forget it all intuitionism; anticipatory shades
278   1915 Hale, Louise Closser not of the theater, the heap of garments, the violet-tinted note water, anathematized
279   1919 Hurst, Fannie; Blanche Colton Williams or a chance word be the seed of an idea, but most often method; the short story
280   1925 Hurst, Fannie haggling days, liability days. asset days. stretching classes; assimilation
281   1903 McCutcheon, George Barr puff ! no matter gardening; museum pieces
282   1906 Holmes, Sherlock; Punch as it was, he was of mustard . quite method; child is father to the man
283   1906 Johnson, George or it withers ex and the ablative groove ablation; theory and verification
284   1925 Black, Alexander Hence certain prejudices. Curves. differences; logic; raiment
285   1907 Crewdson, Charles N.; Amy Richards some puttering kind of job — what became of John scattering
286   1900 Lee, Gerald Stanley or thought of having a thought, at every turn he cannot see habit; love; letting one’s self go
287   1921 Hardware World take paint for example harmonious and artistic effects
288   1921 The Christian Diadem & Family Keepsake while the land at the puttering all John Dowling; Zephaniah Paten
289   1934 Baldwin, Faith Art makes me tired. geraniums; zinnias
290   1934 Hughes, Rupert indistinguishable syllables, a kind of coma intervened musical fiction
291   1918 Coast Banker and California Banker I stooped to pick up a stone that lay on the walk. Arthur Mann. “I don’t know.”
292   1919 Hale, Susan meanwhile, a study of Rocks in Sepia prodigalities
293   1955 Hale, Nancy the entire showing and caution
294   1906 Forman, Justus Miles I drift. Sometime I shall strand somewhere, I expect. For the present, I drift. like a man in a book
294a 1906 Forman, Justus Miles Ulysses McCleod / hold that thought ibid.; context
295   1912 Markham, Edwin of sound mind, did not answer. Sophronia; of unknown origin
296   1912 Chapple, Joe; Flynn Wayne not worth uttering spring; “Tickleweed and Feathers”
297   1937 Motion Picture Review Digest right out of thin air melodrama; William McGann
298   1926 Ostenso, Martha it was no mere curiosity, however melodrama; novelist from nowhere
299   1968 Hitchcock, Alfred; Leo Braudy They could pull down their blinds, but they never do. It’s none of my business.
300   1927 Lindsay, Vachel; Ernst Hofer floating oceans the whole sentence comes out mosaic; barbering and bobbing
301   1939 La Farge, Christopher of words, in the long fields dipping down crises; distances; shooting
302   1925 Ostenso, Martha about haphazard trifles, at a standstill omnium gatherum
303   1935 Harding, Bertita among the bottles, the flowers, the tiny laboratory; this confusion of identities Some people need no stimulants
304   1911 Richards, Laura E. what she called her puttering, searching mainly for dust knots; omnium gatherum
305   1927 Breder, C. M. more or less given to wandering, in comparatively barren fields ichthyology; anuran life habits
306   1926 Greenber, A.S. and Simon Broder without any idea, an account of C. F. Schönbein; nitrocelluose
307   1986 Purdy, Al in a workshop jammed with hypotheses Antonie van Leeuwenhoek
308   1938 Nash, Jay Bryan choices, one on top of another bridges; rhythm, own; sandpile
309   1920 Durkin, Douglas on a farm? railroad construction; silence
310   1856 College Journal of Medical Science a burlesque upon chemistry, the preparation of Alnuine ! the ableist ability; eclectic medicine
311   1919 Yezierska, Anzia an empty desert of enforced idleness rags-to-riches, so-called
312   1997 Dixon, Wheeler W.; Jean-Luc Godard bent over his notebooks, the lamplight glowing softly cage; cinema; grids; method; prison
313   1904 Alzheimer, Alois; Konrad & Ulrike Maurer all manner of objects, hid; appeared not to know her way method; plight; telegram style
314   1909 Webster, Jean prostrated about the shrubs, a cheerful two-step much ado; the carriage room
315   1943 Shirley, Jean (?) weird boxes that hummed; that none could understand laboratory; why in the world
316   1919 Stewart, Alexander A.; United Typothetae unless perfectly justified and firmly held compositing; working at the case
317   1887 Saur, Prudence B., M.D. without method, without system; a very upas tree deafness; defect of vision; nursing
318   1917 Sibley, Walter “Hi” the most flagrant errors; the proper method. this foundry; chance; chills; geometry
319   1938 Lyon, Jean arguments, other ways than manners of the moment
319a — Lyon, Jean (1902-1960) writings, sorted; and about —
319b 1920 Lyon, Jean Sonnet; “Lizzie”; Mokanshan — My Birthplace cockfight; orogeny; missed calling
320   2007 Goffette, Guy; Marilyn Hacker, trans. I’ve left incomprehensible writing, kinds of
321   1915 Morrison, Roger Leroy a tub full of mud and water, a drain under a boggy place earth roads; underdrainage
322   1996 Lasswell, Steven calingssagtuq .to.no.particular.end Central Alaskan Yup’ik; mood
323   1953 de Camp, L. Sprague pois nāo? exoplanetary fashion; machine shop
324   1923 Sawyer, Ruth clay and tools and doing nothing; better than argument melodrama; useless words
325   1913 Gates, Eleanor no search of the dictionary; seven, she murmured, seven tongues; time, no great amount of
326   1919 Gates, Eleanor and blue eyes, and hunting worms, and moving-pictures yearning melodrama; fateful telegrams
327   2001 Robinson, Perry (and Earl, and Morris) the passage of time, saving everything; all junk is valuable. but. gardening; philosophy
328   1923 Street, Julian some papers on his blotting pad; just a condition. difficulties? Boreas; North Wind
329   1926 Street, Ada and Julian of cycles, streets, tides Oakland; Chicago; real estate
330   1919 Sinclair, May agaye. agaye. get away, to agaye. consciousness, “if it was even my”
331   2011 The New York Times in the order they present themselves consciousness, stream of; purpose
332   1897 Fifield, Edwin W. could not speak as good as I had at times before beards; Kawaihapai
333   2002 McCloskey, Molly In no time at all, I think, I will know something about everything. abstracts, writing of; The TLS
334   1914 Fuller, James C. (& Sally Brown) Vimedia nostrum evil and quackery
335   1877 Leigh, Edgerton as if it had paper under it state, unhealthy; Cheshire
336   1904 Sharp, Dallas Lore on up we wound; by noon I had completed a circle Hingham; meadows; walking
337   1905 Peterson, Rachel Wild as many do. so many Holiness mission; Denver
338   1912 Schauffler, Rachel Capen and lost there were lost to the world missionaries; Persia
339   1932 Survey Graphic surfeit of agendas, his fool way the way out that’s the worst
340   1919 American Lutheran Survey that never gets beyond a new order the light might show him a crevice
341   1919 McCorkle, Paul another example of a miracle expensive nuisance, to his surprise
342   1913 Thompson, Carl W. and G. P. Warber no matter how cold it is, even though abiding sense; Southern Minnesota
343   1513 Mauri de Ascha (Aschheim) reabes legenda, you will be repaid horizon; arise
344   1923 Music Trade Indicator aeolian occasionally Standard Pneumatic Action Co.
345   1923 Hunt, Richard rustle legato slur birdsong; ornithology; phonetics
346   1945 Hometown Daily Newspapers just as good as having gone, as soon. nearby. earby readership study; reading
347   1907 Noyes, Frederick Kinney; Helen Rowland and compasses, and tiddle-um things; sewer systems or what not architecture; futures; marriage
348   2007 Fairman, Huck perpetual motion... a way, he supposes, of dealing with being ever on display mixology; unstunting
349   1923 Betts, Leston W. guessing at the distant letters... entangled ageism; optometry; refractionism
350   1917 Ward, (Charles) Henshaw preliminary flourish, phlegmatic correction, puttering close thobbing; fear, of oneself
351   1923 The Maritime Farmer & Co-op Dairyman puttering dust, at any time weeds weeds; Herbert Groh
352   1926 Walrond, Eric of puttering water. he paused foetic blur; debris of an exotic kind
353   1947 Murray, Joan (Vincent); John Ashbery and puttering water sounding incompleteness; “uncollectedness”
354   1927 Jackson, Lyle Wendell Redverse puttering we booke beneath the scars avows all aspen; south and encautive
355   1937 Mack, Reba G.; W. A. McCall; J. C. Almack too-too-too-too-too-too slow reading; implied facts
356   1896 Anderson, Rasmus B.; Elling Eielsen eg bare putla saa smaat immigration, Norwegian (to U.S.)
357   1906 Burgess, Gelett pervaded with tiny dots... these preliminaries alone took me several hours... gender; fashion literature
358   1910 Jackson, Charles Tenney his charcoal pot ’at come right out of the world potboiling; filibusters; John the Fool
358a — Jackson, Charles Tenney (1874-1955) writings, sorted; and about —
359   1940 Salminen, Sally; Barrows Mussey rörde kring; But not yet; let’s drift a while first. language, uncertain
360   1940 Stevens (Inst. of Technology) Indicator dowsers, what charm, a
361   1980 Pennsylvania Game News senile rosebushes. “Where’s Art?” sunbonnet; annoyed hand
362   1911 Glaspell, Susan one of those things, adopted with a whoop bullets; “man who mends the boats”
363   1919 Bement, Catherine Plumer damned if I don’t b’lieve I’d ’a’ weakened ideal life, his own conception of it
364   1926 Glaspell, Susan; George Cram Cook up word the trees had come; new combinations. no puttering tomorrow. Delphi; desks; clutter
365   1946 Norman, Sherwood; Helen Norman and require little in the way of organization or skill. detention; shoveling snow
366   1975 Encel, Sol; N. MacKenzie and M. Tebbutt a little bit interested in bridge, and wondering middle life; experiments in
367   1932 Anderson, V. V.; Willie-Maude Kennedy in an almost constant stream only children, difficult; spruces, the
368   1880 Anderson, Rasmus B. on the point of drowning, in his flood of why the sea is salt mill, magic
369   1999 Anderson, Kim A. signal noisy, poor precision; check the nebulizer #2 and #3; O-rings; contaminants
370   1910 Dickerson, Grace; John Galsworthy different from detailists; that they have no time nothing, done gracefully
371   1939 Flexner, Abraham spectroscopy, into strange paths useless knowledge, usefulness of
372   — Calisher, Hortense Nomen mutabilia sunt; the forbidden table. not strange. names, the matter of; strangeness
373   2005 Weiss, Robert S. so nearly featureless. See freedom; puttering mode takes over lists, mislaid; nostalgia; retirement
374   1824 Blennerhassett, Margaret (“A Lady”) raindoop sound, the unreturning past errors, typographic; regrets; sighs
375   1985 Libin, Laurence or “fiddlesticks” (nonsense) string instruments; violins
376   2011 Keller, James M. staccato slurs, veerings unencumbered violin; Wolfgang Amadè Mozart
377   1922 Hecht, Ben into the loop, more of a page in the telephone book no longer enigmatic to itself
378   1943 The Investment Dealers’ Digest the less rigorous aspects place; pottering or puttering
379   1971* Stuart, Edwin H. (ed), Typo Graphic like the empty spaces, in which nothing happens hurry, none; purposes
380   1927 Ferber, Edna instead of one; then one and a half it was on its way to your kitchen
381   2003 Ellis, Barbara W. purple heart, sage pumps for; smoke trees puttering gardening quamash; quercus shade
382   1920 Granich, Irwin; Manabendra Nath Roy the huge ledgers in the Sanitary Office “Champak — A Story of India”
383   1998 Krantz, Judith reading a pile of books; nor did she ever mention jewels; mother-daughter dynamics
384   1916 Hay, Emily P. B.; William Keith puttering oblivion; promises to gouge clouds; “What is that?”
385   1908 Colburn, Andrew K., deceased which counsel style “feeble putterings” further references, epitomized
386   1935 Radnóti, Miklós; Gabor Barabas de motozásomra, as the sun barges through Alvas előtt; Before Sleep
387   1927 Hermann, Edgar Paul too many too, many undoing clocks; Personal Efficiency
388   1914 Tennyson, W. H. (of Mutual Benefit Life) anythting, magnified; but never getting done the days of “caveat emptor”
389   1939 Keliher, Alice V., Rudolf Modley, et al meanwhile, scribbling around the wreckage nothing must be touched
390   1824 Lister, Anne; Terry Castle my breathing & everything; puttering grubble pottering; Gentleman Jack
391   1927 Colby, Nathalie Sedgwick crazy, John! Crazy! laboratory; a long time to wait
392   1733 Halyburton, Thomas; Isaac Watts this Spirit * flight’ring the winter is past, the rain
393   1928 Masters, Hugo; Alvah Hunt Doty (not) but the habit of, and many others habits, weakening
394   1923 Nicholson, Meredith; Otis Notman high places, small jobs Madeleine Zabriskie Doty
395   1923 Wright, Jonathan (M.D.) in the light of. I cast about aphorisms; medicine
396   1991 Paul, Sherman; Jeffrey Walker the chore reading becomes even so rhetoric; bardic ethos; Ezra Pound
397   1911 The Chinese Recorder wasting time in China; time well spent little memo books, perforated sheets
398   1922 Parker, Dorothy he would have done it from the other end, just put it quietly aside gardening; despair
399   1929 Suckow, Ruth than the rest of us did trying to get somewhere. family history; Cora; Ruth
400   1992 Robinson, Kim Stanley doing the occasional on automatic search reading the seismograph; weather
401   1952 American Dialect Society or useless things, collecting; shooling, on the dot uncertain authorship
402   1929 Gibbs, Jeannette Phillipsof course a period in New York; relationships
403   1925 Gibbs, A. Hamiltonanother kind of attention; changes in the room never nearer than a slangy phrase
404   1912 Gibbs v. Gas Co.; Crane v. Rossthe fourth assignment of error, on a 10-acre lot up there and Sunday he went to Toledo again
405   1939 Williamson, M. C.; Annie Charnley Evelanda job-lot of flagstone, Amazing New Kind of art retirement; house-wrecker
406   1907 The Nation; The Science of Literaturethe notion that juggling disconnected words is aesthetic, to abandon literature, science of
407   1959 Mooers, Calvin N.not to lose it. If nothing else at the bench, plainly at work
408   2010 Willig, Laurenwithout branching into the hinterlands. But / that stockpiles; file cabinets
409   2008 Kennedy, JamesAn Inquiry into Idleness. Quite well known in the field. a gooey stew
410   2007 Burdet, Michèle and some already Bovis biometer; la radiesthésie
411   2005 Robinson, Tara Roddenbut not in the way you may think totipotency; genetics
412   1911 Rath, E. J.with odds and ends, and every now and then automatic writing; human equation
413   1928 Cameron, Jenksgot nowhere, was not seriously intended to get anywhere, and soon flickered out altogether
414   1911 Chambers, Robert W.a knife here, a rag there; padded depths to, and fro reluctantly used
415   1868 The Rocky Mountain Newsa repetition of the blunders of; until they are crushed and rendered harmless The Indian War.
416   1928 Peterkin, Julia Moodit works backwards as well as forwards, sometimes scratching in the earth
417   1892 Fielding, Howard (C. Witherle Hooke)chunks of justice coffins, canned clams, confectionary
418   1991 Davie, Donaldour preference for the overtly neat and tidy logic, binary; signals; original stews
419   1930 Tracy, Virginia; Hettie Gray Bakerover test-tubes and crucibles, not forgetting anything murder mystery; romance
420   1924 Cameron, Margaretspoil his hands, puttering around in the earth Santa Barbara; romance
421   1901 Merwin, Samuelall ready now capitalism; opium; politics; theater
422   1912 Preston, Willametta (1860-1941)experiment mills; fine crops of weeds; the “forgettery” patents; “called the stones by name”
423   1912 Lutes, Della Thompson (1867?-1942)I don’t know just where we are now. I’ve sort of lost interest in — Things.
424   1920 Minnigerode, Meadein connection with gardens. She descended Elms, the
425   1927 Andrews, Marietta Minnigerodein a way to make the thing exist frames; William Merritt Chase
426   1901 Mowbray, J. P. (A. C. Wheeler)it was not so with the garden handling obedient material
427   1899 Wheeler, Charles G.and the glue become cold and the operation be spoiled squared corners
428   1923 Wheeler, H. L.none of the usual; no loose; nothing lathe work; Hardware Retailer
429   1941 Price, Willardcan’t say that I am flecked the dust; Japan; nerves
430   1911 Bates, Sylvia Chatfielda place for his “tools,” and he knew little clutter; dust; prismatic banking
431   1893 Thanet, Octave (Alice French)and all the obscure places, once the focusing cloth slipped Arkansas; photography
432   1922 French, Geo. W.eight years before the plunge photography; muddy pictures
433   1955 Freydberg, Margaret Howeand as she puttered / remembered, overlong among chores, glad for; Martha’s Vineyard
434   2015 Simpson, J.; William Basinski; John Cageor washed away in undulating sine waves ambience; furniture music
435   1913 DeWeese, Truman A.with grapes with place with soil; where the nerves would find a lofty disregard bucolic tastes; tonic effect
436   1905 Hibbard, Georgeunderneath the machine willy-nilly, nolens-volens, coûte-que-coûte motoring; embarrassments
437   1939 Partridge, Ruth Louise (1898-1981)test tubes, linen closet, about twenty beds nursing; water therapy and rest
438   2017 Dickens, Pip; Michael Smitha kind of running in place, doing my lengths; petty distractions studio practice; choreography
439   1903 Fisher, Emily C. (1866-1943)Not adapted to present day conditions; worth a tumble fables; justice; literature
440   2012 Hiatt, L. G.Consider the case of the wanderer. Alzheimer’s Disease; gerontology
441   2024 Barker, Ellensome planning puttering and sulking, enough
442   1915 Bradley, Mary Hastings (1882-1976)I’d do better to let it alone a bit. Another time. Paris; war
443   2006 Schellinger, Ellen I., et alextenuating circumstances, slim to nil death; hardware store; resuscitation
444   2024 Roberts, Joseph T. (1948-2024)consummate putterer; excelled at pruning obituary; pipe, his ultimate nemesis
445   1996 Barker, Don W. (1912-2013)my first real taste of hardware; and some whimsy dust; genealogy, sui generic
446   1938 Sackett, Rose McLaughlinputtering about in an aimless fashion that was not at all gardening; nerves; something wrong
447   1952 Sevareid, Ericall puttering idleness, all hysterical confusion D. C.; Minnesota; Velva, N.D.
448   1914 Terry, T. Philip (1864-1945)mere puttering moilers after fugitive and illusory wealth Japan; belletristic travel writing
449   1913 Frederick, Christine (1883-1970)Without properly applying the modern ideas of efficiency to her own mind efficiency studies; falls to pieces
450   1910 Colegrove, Chauncey Peter (1855-1936)wool gathering, mind-wandering, mental sauntering, intellectual puttering, the opposite of; education; study
451   1914 Vandeveer, Estheralways on the lookout for odd articles “his one useful act; puttering”
451a — Vandeveer, Estherwritings, sorted; and about —
452   1918 Crescent Belt Fastener Co.interesting, up to a certain point Brick and Clay Record
453   1905 Spinden, Herbert J. (1897-1985)puttering with a trowel in a mound; no firmer base than convention summer vacations, one way to spend
454   1905 Greenbie, Sydney (1889-1960)and though it was in the main Japan; “the house I quarrel in”
455   1923 Gregory, Odin (pseud of Joseph G. Robin)If I could say you “No!” ; cinders of some angry fire, puttering with lies bank-wrecker; regret; tragedy
455a — Robin, Joseph G.; Louise G. RobinovitchRobin / Robinovitch; tired of all this fooling; writings, sorted; and about being geniuses together
455b — Robin, Joseph G. (1876-1929)some transcriptions, linked from 455a —
455c — Robinovitch, Louise G. (1869-1954)writings, patents, obituary; Journal of Mental Pathology (1901-1909) timeline
456   1928 Eiker, Mathilde (1893-1982)abandoned; puttering about estrangement; lingering regret
457   1934 Clark, Valma (1895-1953)and with puttering, intrusive ways poetry; the old skill
458   1965 Bly, Robert; Federico García Lorcabut they also have images, (“black doves puttering the putrid waters”) poetics; wrong turns
459   1919 Dargan, Olive Tilford (1869-1968)no longer difficult; how remote and absurd it seemed. where the silence was tapped
460   1930 Ex.; Saturday PressWhich do you think is most alive? prior restraint of the press; ramblin’
461   1909 Ferguson, Charles (1863-1944)that seizes the whole compass; a definite territorial space shabby ways; uplscopallan; Zionism
462   1935 Ames, Blanche Butler (1847-1939)a whole half hour to study logic in bed; will the time ever come? advantages; some element wanting
463   1959 Krim, Seymour (1922-1989)puttering around gassiest dreams in his smallish hand psychiatry
464   1959 Quick, Daniel L. (with Thomas A. Noton)well before the sun Cry from the Mountain
465   1909 Quick, Herbertmethods of the past, puttering with banks and channels engineering; rivers; transportation
466   1907 Bradford, George F.the paper box man, the label man, the prover and diverse others experimental fashion, without
467   1906 Ellerbeck, William Leon, D.D.S.operate quickly, avoid puttering, producing mental alacrity dentistry; “The Question of Speed”
468   1922 Wilkinson, Marguerite (1883-1928)up early, the arcadian dingbat, calico too aerialist; swimming sans lifeguard
469   1899 Wilkinson, Florencegrandly mouthing to himself passages from his favorite Milton “daughter of the Hurons”
469a — Wilkinson, Florencesome writings, and about (in progress) family dynamics
470   1972 Stacpoole, AlbericPuttering, John The Noble City of York
471   1911 Patterson , Joseph Medill (1879-1946)sodden minds like the puttering; words of the Church. do not miss Catholicism; Chicago
472   1940 Waters, Frank (1902-95)breezing in and out geology; mining; petroleum
473   1935 Martin, George Madden (1866-1946)tools, obeying his will, true to his patents; the self-made man
474   1930 Gregory, Tappan (1886-1961)without any definite system, with what purpose I know not mind; incident; night; in the north
475   1930 Rølvaag, Ole EdvartBut here he had good company! avarice; compensations
476   1933 Rølvaag, Ole Edvartand sky and growthless crag dislimned; with something I suppose? ache, hearts that; the sea
477   1965 McVey, Ruth T.obvious lesson(s), never brought forth Sarekat Islam; PKI; tempo doeloe
478   1913 Lee, Albert (1868-1946)perverter of truth; wanted to putter Miss Phoenix; farce; logorrhea
479   1924 Woodward, W. E. (1874-1950)with books and music somewhat Delphic in character Lottery; buttons; confidence (man)
480   1925 Schorr, Hortensedrawing pictures of everything in the world, what’s more; and his nights Koko the Clown; ink; rotoscope
481   1909 Pierce, L. B.Some Practical Suggestions / For a Late Season. pottering; strawberries; tomatoes
482   1909 F. E. F.Buat Rigla Run Right; Simple. low, and while there have been some reports pottering; clay
483   1906 Moderator-topics; H. R. PattengillWhy don’t you sing more? Learn to use the odd moments. pottering; education; music
484   1919 Alanne, Severi (1879-1960)pottering puttering touhuta turhia be busy about nothing pottering; Finnish; Suomi
485   1894 Craig, Rev. James M.A fine musical service; A faltering pottering; “Scottish frankness”
486   1938 Gág, Wanda; New York Librariesold German folk tale; its small size better pottering; “hotbed of feminists”
487   — Eckert, Penelope; et alsome later instances and adjacences, inadequate gestures, some obsolete pottering; abstraction; tunnels
488   2022 Anderson, David; et alThe two are not always observed together. gardening; the Modern Cloud
489   2012 Cooper, Frederick; Nana Akua AnyidohoBricolage must give way to technique; flailing around for anything at all infrastructure; bricolage; policy
490   2022 Tadiar, Neferti X. M.to slice through a thicket of flying as well as puttering vehicles infrastructure; metropolitan dreams
491   1922 Wilson, Harry LeonPerhaps there would be an aëroplane wreck in addition to a shipwreck. scaffold; cinema
492   2014 Goodchild, Lester F., et al.a vast infrastructure, vestigial buildings. And at least a few years infrastructure; edu end times
493   1919 Winship, Albert Edward (1845-1933)no time for puttering, spluttering, or fluttering nor hoodlum nor Bolshevist agriculture; education
494   1904 Mathews, Rev. John (1826-1907)puttering over the punctuation marks; I prepared a discourse quibbling; unseemly wrangles
495   1950 Kaplan, Harold J.What intrudes is my passion for bricolage, puttering at the multiple pretexts choice, an infinity of
495a — Kaplan, Harold J. (1918-2009)writings, sorted; and about (in progress) —
496   2006 Errett, Benjamin; Chris Erskinefrom one thing to another; it’s on my list puttering, in praise of
497   1953 Plath, Sylviaout behind the farmhouse, puttering “I Lied for Love”
498   1920 Everybody’s MagazineIt was no time for or doggerel
499   1922 Benét, Stephen Vincentour — disappearing, and all that “in an alias and old trousers”
500   1902 Stuart, W. H.; The Railroad Telegrapherplatitudes, or inventing apologetics labor; as to skill
501   1913 Appleton, Victor (Howard Garis)magnetos, potato-parers and the like; my latest hobby Panama Canal; Eradicate
502   1989 Morse, H. Newcomba pair of pliers and a screw driver psychiatry, legal
503   1948 Menninger, William C., and Munro Leafavocations, sublimations; whittling and mud compromises; psychiatry; war
504   — Miner, Valerie; Deborah Ann Luepnitzthe pen ran dry; what it said malaikat pelindung; percussion
505   1987 Miner, ValerieTide inside, other peoples’s heads women; wartime; “the home front”
506   1935 Hamner, Laura V. (1871-1968)That’s the trouble with trail life. It isolates you. Charles Goodnight; Texas
507   1989 McMurtry, LarryDuane pedaled on through town “I bought my ticket for Cairo, Egypt”
508   1903 Boone, Henry Burnham; Kenneth Brownyou fail to inspire trust negroes; horses; the New/Old South
509   1923 Brownell, Baker (1887-1965)putterings and stillness; for her work is a silent thing cadences; lives
510   1925 Hull, Helen R.in his succession of plans, in his putterings and hammerings, he escaped her completely
511   1993 Eustis, O. B.puttering, blue; getting ready month August; blue jay gangs
512   1925 Greene, Anne Bosworthwasting time, when you have n’t any; the swamps we did not touch gardening; irrational pictures
513   1774 Young, Williamthey come puttering down as soft as italics; Latin; lexicon
514   1910 Woolen, William Watson all the different operas; one of them had left ornithology; May; September
515   1916 Malm, Gustaf Nathanael a funny looking bundle on a very crooked pole “but this love affair was his own”
516   1985 Baldwin, Stanley C.; T. E. Lawrence a puttering, something-broken-in-the works existence; shadow of a machine callings, forfeiture of
517   1984 Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board light construction, minor repairs; something to stay busy, an eerie glow trauma; the “SLA Barbecue”
518   1949 Kersh, Gerald; The Saturday Evening Post his uncertain hand; if, in, and; now hot, now cold OCR misread; something, another
519   1876 Aborn, Frank (1845-1915) erasing, rubbing and puttering — something be done drawing; an indefinite amount of
520   1924 Winship, A. E.; Henry Turner Bailey a new wave puttering, some sputtering; water can never achieve such tasks education; presentiments of now
521   1980 Larson, Bob puttering about with clocks, a long association with and affinity for this art tüfteln; tinkering; Swabia
522   1938 Philipps, Alice Evelyn puttersome for a long-distance run; you’re coming, aren’t you? boating; oddments; 180,000 h.p.
523   1967 Public Record Office Putterage, Meezy Hurst, Pailcott, chains; where new hedges are to be made chains; hedges; Maps and Plans
524   1949 Brown, E. My husband calls it puttering; where’s the rest of the book? deflections, floriculture; the rest
525   1923 Parker, Robert Allerton of a puttering poetaster or of a vacillating plaything in the hands of scheming women patriarchy; Clemence Dane
526   1919 Morrow, Honoré Willsie if it weren’t for fear of starvation, you’d be puttering here for ten years puttering with the Lemon; invention
526a — Morrow, Honoré Willsie (1880-1940) non-fiction writings, and about —
527   1929 Harding, T. Swann (1890-1963) Now I am not a scientist; nor am I a professional humorist. “How Scientific Are Our Doctors?”
528   1920 Gatlin, Dana (1884-1940) and always, to the running accompaniment of her tongue, she kept her hands busied
529   1913 Muller, Arnold (1885-1959) about the house. There were haggard lines in his face, signs sleep
530   1922 The Congregationalist And so he sets forth in detail the working of his mind; a pond to be dragged A. A. Milne; mystery
531   1917 The Missouri Farmer dozing by the kitchen fire, — or puttering around in the feed lot farming; predatory banking
532   1909 Thomas, Rev. H. Arnold idle dreaming or sentimental puttering; the hour has come and now is when Christian Science Sentinel
533   2003 Turnipseed, Joel for that brings in the world. No murmuring, muttering, puttering. No reading. war; Baghdad Express
534   2005 Semken, Steven H. muttering, puttering, stuttering in.
“The reason I looked in the first place was because of the voice I heard”		 Pick Up Stick City
535   1983 Snyder, Mitch; Thomas S. Szasz “crazies,” muttering, puttering souls, laden with baggage, orating at street lights, or shouting at invisible beings Senate Hearing
536   1923 Merrill, Charles A.; Maxfield Parrish with pencil and brush; but puttering with lathes, drills and presses Iron Age
537   1927 Perkins, Anne E., M.D. [wanting] sprawl; a streak of lack; always late in the tide; the puttering stage Maine; vanishing expressions
538   1928 Imgs, Bravig (1904-46) puttering around with the workmen... “I hit a nail where it wasn’t.” academia; “American speech”
539   1887 Alcott, A. Bronson; F. B. Sanborn pung slump puttering; snore, swow, vum. Old Entick’s columns near “Wolcott Dialect”
540   1956 Wallace, Anthony F. C. puttering about aimlessly trying to sweep up twenty-three truck loads of debris “disaster syndrome;” Worcester
541   1925 Bridgman, Helen Bartlett all the time and puttering to the last Brooklyn; The Last Passion
541a 1921 Bridgman, Herbert L. in three lines; in two sticks The Brooklyn Standard Union
541b 1905 Bridgman, Helen Bartlett Does not the lesson lie deeper? [?] “The Secret of a Successful Drama”

 
putterings what

I cannot recall what initiated this malingering over the word “puttering” — was it the Sherwood Anderson appearance in The Seven Arts ? — this yet another engagement in these chronic trawlings. But this one is different.

The lexical and etymological aspects of the word, although various, are one thing; its uses and contexts another. Who uses which of its senses, to what ends. Who gets to putter. Who must not. Who is accused of puttering, and who does the accusing, or assumes entitlement to do so. Who has permission to putter, who not. Where is it the theme of reflection, and where used as shorthand, and in both wheres, for what. Where does its inclusion in alliterative chains — congeries — owe as much to sound as sense. Some extended ruminations on the word putter labor to redeem it; others condemn. So much policing.

Gender and class enter into this. Maybe race.

Concerns of this sort have not much occupied or driven my previous google books-search based trawlings. Here, they are at least part of the work. With only a few exceptions, usages don’t go back far, so while the findings were many, they are relatively finite. These tumblr posts (and this html archive) are primarily a personal aide-mémoire intended to keep me from getting buried under my own heap of findings. I only publish them, so to speak, as a way of pushing them away, keeping them at bay for the time being. And too, this project itself is only another temporizing instance of my puttering.

afterthoughts (a few months following the above) —

And then — inevitably? — there came the derivations of these derivations, second-order derivatives? : link.

These involve the putterings titles, and some of their respective notes, with occasional occlusions and reorderings. I had not anticipated these, and even resisted the idea for a while. They are limited to the available language. I do not sequence my landings/findings to a some pre-arranged idea. They fall where they fall, and thus their derivations. Their glue is more music than sense.

I’ve lingered on the work and lives of some of these writers, well beyond their respective usages of the word “puttering” — M. B. Levick (143ff), Florida Pier Scott-Maxwell (169ff), Susan Glaspell (362) and Jean Lyon (319ff), and more recently Harold J. Kaplan (and his non-puttering daughter Leslie, 495). And then there are some remarkable families, notably those of Joseph G. (and his sister Louise) Robin (455ff), and Florence Wilkinson (469).

These detours, and still less the derivations just mentioned, were not foreseen when this project got haltingly under way in January 2022.

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2 July 2025