Hugh MacDiarmid

Christopher Murray Grieve (11 August 1892 – 9 September 1978), known by his pen name Hugh MacDiarmid, was a Scottish poet, journalist, essayist and political figure. He is best known for his works written in 'synthetic Scots', or Lallans, a literary version of the Scots language that MacDiarmid himself developed.

The son of a postman, MacDiarmid was born in the town of Langholm, Dumfriesshire. He was educated at Langholm Academy before becoming a teacher for a brief time at Broughton Higher Grade School in Edinburgh. He began his writing career as a journalist in Wales, contributing to the socialist newspaper The Merthyr Pioneer run by Labour party founder Keir Hardie before joining the Royal Army Medical Corps on the outbreak of the First World War. He served in Salonica, Greece and France before developing cerebral malaria and subsequently returning to Scotland in 1918. MacDiarmid's time in the army was influential in his political and artistic development.

After the war he continued to work as a journalist, living in Montrose where he became editor and reporter of the Montrose Review as well as a Justice of the Peace and a member of the county council. In 1923 his first book, Annals of the Five Senses, was published at his own expense, followed by 'Sangschaw' in 1925 and 'Penny Wheep' and 'A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle' in 1926. A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle, is generally regarded as MacDiarmid's most famous and influential work.

Cốm

Cốm, or green rice, is a dish in Vietnamese cuisine. It is not dyed green, as can be done with pandan, but is immature rice kernels roasted over very low heat then pounded in a mortar and pestle until flattened. Cốm is seasonal dish associated with autumn. It can be eaten plain or with coconut. The taste is slightly sweet with a nutty flavor.

A traditional pastry, bánh cốm (green rice cake) is made using cốm with mung bean filling. Cốm is often offered to worship the ancestors in the Mid Autumn Festival. The green rice can also be used in sweet soup, chè cốm. Cốm is similar to flat green rice of the Khmer people.

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CM

CM or its variants may refer to:

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Guqin

The guqin (simplified/traditional: 古琴; pinyin: gǔqín; Wade–Giles ku-ch'in; pronounced [kùtɕʰǐn]; literally "ancient stringed instrument") is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted by the quote "a gentleman does not part with his qin or se without good reason," as well as being associated with the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. It is sometimes referred to by the Chinese as "the father of Chinese music" or "the instrument of the sages". The guqin is not to be confused with the guzheng, another Chinese long zither also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string.

Traditionally, the instrument was simply referred to as qin (Wade–Giles ch'in) but by the twentieth century the term had come to be applied to many other musical instruments as well: the yangqin hammered dulcimer, the huqin family of bowed string instruments, and the Western piano are examples of this usage. The prefix "gu-" (meaning "ancient") was later added for clarification. Thus, the instrument is called "guqin" today. It can also be called qixianqin (lit. "seven-stringed instrument"). Because Robert Hans van Gulik's famous book about the qin is called The Lore of the Chinese Lute, the guqin is sometimes inaccurately called a lute. Other incorrect classifications, mainly from music compact discs, include "harp" or "table-harp".