The return of Century 21
Century 21 Stores went out of business last year. And now they plan to return.
Orange Crate Art
The Seventy-Five Pages
In The Guardian, news of long-lost pages from Proust.
Nancy’s charlotte russe
That treat that looks sort of like a cupcake? Not a cupcake. That’s a charlotte russe. It’s a New York thing.
Movie method
Matt Thomas wondered how I get movies for our household. Here’s a detailed answer.
Twelve movies
A Life of Her Own and others.
“Too tired to cook”
From The New York Times : “What Our Food Reporters and Editors Make When They’re Too Tired to Cook.”
“Once in a Lifetime”
An especially good episode of BBC Radio 4’s Soul Music .
Today’s Atlantic crossword
The Atlantic crossword, small on weekdays, non-existent on Saturday, 15 × 15 on Sunday, far surpasses the Los Angeles Times and New York Times mini-puzzles for inventiveness. Highly recommended.
HOTEL PEEKSKILL
From The Unsuspected (dir. Michael Curtiz, 1947.)
Small pleasures
Seeing what I’ve decided to call post tracks: the tracks that go through the snow from house to house in straight or nearly straight lines.
Today’s Newsday Saturday
“Shortening in semi-sweet chocolate.”
And speaking of AOC
She’s leading an effort (one of many, of course) to raise money for Texans in need.
Mary Miller vs. AOC
Miller got, as they say, ratioed.
Snowboots
A sentence from The Guermantes Way.
Hi and Lois watch
Today’s Hi and Lois marks, to my knowledge, the second time a resonator guitar has appeared in the strip.
A twenty-four-hour Cruz
Every time I see Ted Cruz, I am glad that I am someone with more scruples. And a better beard.
The Duc and art
A sentence from Sodom and Gomorrah.
What’s happening in Texas
Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from an American for February 16 has a helpful explanation of what’s happening in Texas. Here’s the rejoinder to the claims that wind turbines and a Green New Deal will destroy life as we know it.
“Wall lichen and cat fur”
A sentence from The Guermantes Way.
H. Neil Matkin again
It’s still a good day not to be teaching at a campus that has H. Neil Matkin as its president. L.D. Burnett explains why.
William Parker in the NYT
“He’s the kind of figure it might be tempting to label a giant if such shorthand weren’t sure to strike him as distastefully hierarchical.”
Milford Graves (1941–2021)
“Percussionist, acupuncturist, herbalist, martial artist, programmer, and professor.”
The Beach Boys at the zoo
Long-lost footage of the Beach Boys in 1966 at the San Diego Zoo. That’s where George Jerman shot the cover photograph for Pet Sounds.
Digable
I was teaching something by Digable Planets — no doubt “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” — but I couldn’t find the tune on the cassette.
2-D, 9-A
A deeply transgressive puzzle, with uncrossed letters, a two-letter answer (US), and red squares instead of black.
Play, do
What verb goes with a crossword?
A Grape-Nuts shortage
The panic is on.
“Weeks of inward winter”
At Dreamers Rise, a passage from Charlotte Brontë’s Villette that seems made for these times.
Bushmiller under the El
Today’s Zippy has one Ernie Bushmiller, one Nancy Ritz, and two beautiful black-and-white panels of life under the El.
Valentine’s Day
A heart amulet.