Heather Cox Richardson again
More helpful than hours of “analysis” on cable news.
Orange Crate Art
Exclamations
It would be wonderful to live in the Peppa Pig world, even if only for one five-minute episode.
About Afghanistan
Heather Cox Richardson’s August 15 installment of Letters from an American is well worth reading.
Mystery actor
Warning: This one’s tricky.
Pat Hitchcock O’Connell (1928–2021)
Alfred and Alma’s daughter.
New England Mobile Book Fair
A belated goodbye: I learned by chance yesterday that the New England Mobile Book Fair closed last August.
Pedro Almodóvar in my local paper
I wonder what algorithm chose this headline as one of the three top stories in the online edition of my local paper: “Pedro Almodóvar warns against algorithms in Instagram row.”
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Drop-box legend.”
Snopes and plagiarism
If you’re “rewording,” as students say, you’re plagiarizing.
Poverty and dignity
“I think if there’s one thing I’ve learned in thirty-five years, it’s the opposite of poverty isn’t wealth. The opposite of poverty is dignity”: Jacqueline Novogratz.
Alan and Perlman
Alan Alda talking with his friend Itzhak Perlman, at the 92nd Street Y and in Perlman’s kitchen.
Alan Alda as Young Poet
if you’ve never seen the Naked City episode “Hold for Gloria Christmas,” it’s at YouTube. Alan Alda appears as Young Poet, no name, in an episode devoted to Beat culture and Greenwich Village.
Alan Alda now and then
Alan Alda is now eighty-five. How did that happen? He was the speaker at my college commencement, Fordham College, 1978, forty-three years ago.
Block that chyron
A CNN chyron just now: “respitory therapist.”
Jeopardy and Neuriva
It’s dispiriting to see a spokesperson for a dubious brain supplement chosen as one of the new hosts of Jeopardy.
Far Side cave formations
“Oo! Grog run into a . . . a . . dang! Now which kind stick up and which kind hang down?”
Misheard
“The governor was working a grope line”: oh, “rope line.” But when Rita Glavin, Andrew Cuomo’s attorney, just said it, it sounded like “grope line.”
Rename X
It is possible to rename a group of files — say, photos — in macOS. But doing so is tedious, and the options are limited. For 99¢, Rename X does a much better job.
Blanket trick
From Confidential Agent (dir. Herbert Shumlin, 1945). Cinematography by James Wong Howe.
Three series, nine movies
Mare of Easttown and others.
Mystery actor
That cabdriver — you know her?
“Back to square one”
Pam Keith on current events: “They desperately wanted to foil Biden’s recovery, and they succeeded.”
Orange Crate Art: Schoolboyish
Stefan Zweig and Joseph Roth, Antibes, 1931, indulging in stationery.
“Florsheim cap toes!”
Griffy and shoes.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Domestic comedy
Name your Price.
Dad, i.m.
Six years.
Chris Miller again
The man who purportedly represents me in the Illinois House of Representatives, Chris Miller (R-110), is in the news again for telling the Big Lie.
Absorbine Juniors
In search of an entertaining advertisement for Absorbine Jr., I discovered that there were two Jrs.
Casualties
Dear Ana Cabrera: Barack Obama’s birthday party is not a “casualty” of COVID-19. The casualties of COVID-19 are those whose lives have been ended or upended by the spread of a contagious disease.