(Roughly) Daily

In honor of National Poetry Month, a visit to Times Haiku…

… This is a Tumblr blog of haikus found within The New York Times. Most of us first encountered haikus in a grade school, when we were taught that they are three-line poems with five syllables on the first line, seven on the second and five on the third. According to the Haiku Society of America, that is not an ironclad rule. A proper haiku should also contain a word that indicates the season, or “kigo,” as well as a juxtaposition of verbal imagery, known as “kireji.” That’s a lot harder to teach an algorithm, though, so we just count syllables like most amateur haiku aficionados do.

How does our algorithm work? It periodically checks the New York Times home page for newly published articles. Then it scans each sentence looking for potential haikus by using an electronic dictionary containing syllable counts. We started with a basic rhyming lexicon, but over time we’ve added syllable counts for words like “Rihanna” or “terroir” to keep pace with the broad vocabulary of The Times.

Not every haiku our computer finds is a good one. The algorithm discards some potential poems if they are awkwardly constructed and it does not scan articles covering sensitive topics. Furthermore, the machine has no aesthetic sense. It can’t distinguish between an elegant verse and a plodding one. But, when it does stumble across something beautiful or funny or just a gem of a haiku, human journalists select it and post it on this blog…

Find the wisdom of stillness at Times Haiku.

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As we read the paper with a new kind of attention, we might recall that it was on this date in 1953 that House of Wax premiered in New York.  The first 3-D color feature from a major American studio, it was Warner Bros.’  answer to the indie 3-D hit Bwana Devil, which had been released the previous November… and a very effective answer it was:  House of Wax was a huge hit, grossing an estimated $5.5 million in North America (before a 1980 re-release).  It is widely considered one of the greatest horror film of the 50s, and boosted the careers of it’s featured players:  Vincent Price (who went on to The Tingler, House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, and the epic The Abominable Dr. Phibes), Charles Bronson (Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, Rider on the Rain, The Mechanic, and the Death Wish series), Carolyn Jones (Morticia on TV’s The Addams Family), and Phyllis Kirk (co-star, with Peter Lawford, of the television series version of The Thin Man).

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