Lint in Literature: The Silver Star by Jeannette Walls

I just started reading Jeannette Walls' latest book last night and love it! In case she doesn't ring any bells, she wrote the so-good memoir The Glass Castle. If you haven't read it, do! It's wonderful.

So, as I was reading along, the word "linthead" was used several times. Then it was explained! Here's that passage:

"Charlie was a fling, as far as she was concerned. Charlotte was pretty shaken up when that wastrel, Liz's father, decided he didn't want to be a father after all. She went through a wild-divorcee period and got involved with a number of men whom Mother and Father disapproved of. Charlie was one of them. She never considered marrying him. The way she saw it, he was just a linthead."

"What's that?" I'd heard Mom use the word, but I didn't know what it meant.

"A millworker. They come off their shifts covered in lint."

~*~

Isn't that perfect!? I think so. 

Lint in Literature: The Forest for the Trees by Betsy Lerner

I'm reading The Forest for the Trees:  An Editor's Advice to Writers by Betsy Lerner and loving it! Since it's nonfiction, I'm just dipping into it as I have a few minutes so I'm only on page 80. So far, so good!

Today I read this passage where Lerner is discussing types of writers (this chapter is about the self promoter):

I discovered that allegations of professional misconduct had attached themselves to this writer like lint.

I love that analogy. Lint does have a way of sticking where it doesn't belong.