books and blogs and cuts

I figured out how to put dates into the books I've read in facebook--I'm adding the date to the tags. Of course, you know me... I'm going back through my entire list of books and trying to identify when I read them. For the older ones, the tags are elementary school, high school, univerisity1, coles, chapters and university2. But now I'm reading through my oldest blog entries for any mentions of books I was reading, so I can be more accurate with those.

And I came across this funny entry, describing the various ways to "cut" someone in the Regency period:

To renounce acquaintance with any one is to cut him. There are several species of the cut. Such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime, the cut infernal, &c. The cut direct, is to start across the street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to avoid him. The cut indirect, is to look another way, and pass without appearing to observe him. The cut sublime, is to admire the top of King’s College Chapel, or the beauty of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight. The cut infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings, for the same purpose.

Definition taken from The 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, originally by Francis Grose.