Word of the Day for Friday August 11, 2000:
This was used but not defined by tsuwm,Bobyoungbalt, and Jazzo:
lucubration \loo-kyoo-BRAY-shun; loo-kuh-\, noun:
1. The act of studying by candlelight; nocturnal study; meditation.
2. That which is composed by night; that which is produced by meditation in retirement; hence
(loosely) any literary composition.

A point of information for those with time on their hands: if you were to read 135
books a day, every day, for a year, you wouldn't finish all the books published
annually in the United States. Now add to this figure, which is upward of 50,000,
the 100 or so literary magazines; the scholarly, political and scientific journals
(there are 142 devoted to sociology alone), as well as the glossy magazines, of
which bigger and shinier versions are now spawning, and you'll appreciate the
amount of lucubration that finds its way into print.
--Arthur Krystal, "On Writing: Let There Be Less," New York Times, March 26,
1989