Trump* tonight
“David Perdue — where’s David?”
Orange Crate Art
Twelve movies
Three by Robert Siodmak and nine more.
A pocket notebook sighting (with EXchange names)
From From Vice Squad (dir. Arnold Laven, 1953).
Bottle-nose, black goatee
A sentence from In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.
“Give me a break”
Our president playing Mafia boss as the country burns.
Dizzy fingers
Yes, I read Beetle Bailey. And now I have to read it more closely. Because the number of fingers on its characters’ hands varies, from person to person, from panel to panel.
“Yet another baseless investigation”
Heather Cox Richardson’s most recent “Letter from an American” is exceptionally good.
Small pleasures
No. 1 in what I think will be a series.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Second-string players?”
A Berger’s Deli menu
I looked through my modest folder of menus, and there it was, circa 2002. What a menu!
Sort of quixotic
Donald has one thing in common with the Don: they both tilt at windmills.
New Year’s Eve 1920
In hotels, no serving, only looking the other way. In other establishments, a different approach.
Not quixotic
An MSNBC anchor referred to Donald Trump*’s “quixotic quest” to overturn the result of the presidential election. Uh, no.
Needs rephrased
“Choose a major that will prepare you for a promising future or university transfer.”
Berger’s Deli
Here’s another instance of what I’ll call the Naked City effect, turning Manhattan into a small town of immediately recognizable locations.
“Rheumatism rather than literature”
A sentence from In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower.
Dwight D. Ritz
Nancy and the Eisenhower matrix.
“Memory’s pictures”
A sentence from Swann’s Way.
Nancy Dunning-Kruger
“That can’t be true!”
A 2021 calendar
Free to good home: a 2021 calendar, a four-page PDF, three months per page, Gill Sans, with minimal holiday markings.
Here comes Gilberte
A sentence from Swann’s Way.
Word Matters
An excellent podcast from Merriam-Webster.
Edward M. Stringham’s archives
Mary Norris writes about the extraordinary archives of a New Yorker collator.
Swann, dreaming
A sentence from Swann’s Way.
“Audiophile’s purchase”
Anthony Tommasini is not getting rid of his CDs.
Unknown, known
A sentence from Swann’s Way.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Flip one.”
Scalloped potatoes
“These movies are to Fox News what scalloped potatoes are to Pop Rocks soaked in Red Bull and PCP. A balm”: Virginia Heffernan writes in praise of Hallmark Christmas movies.
Good call, TCM
I’ve always thought of The Apartment as a Christmas movie, and I’m glad TCM does too.
Elaine’s little phrase
Elaine thinks that “the little phrase” from Venteuil’s Sonata for Piano and Violin that runs through Swann’s Way may have its model in a piece by Mendelssohn.