Zippy collars
Today’s Zippy, about how to draw shirt collars, is just one more bit of evidence attesting to Bill Griffith’s draftsmanship. See also fedoras and sleeves.
Orange Crate Art
“I accept”
“On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination for President of the United States”: Kamala Harris, a few minutes ago at the DNC.
Country first
“Tonight, as a Republican speaking before you, I’m putting our country first”: Adam Kinzinger, a few minutes ago at the DNC.
Items in a series
“Why wouldn’t we choose the leader who‘s tough, tested, and a total badass?” Gretchen Whitmer, a few minutes ago at the DNC.
Reappropriation
The reappropriation of “Born in the U.S.A.” at tonight’s DNC — a song first appropriated by Ronald Reagan so many years ago — makes my head hurt.
Doones
The Nabisco man hands us Lorna Doones.
An EXchange name sighting
Milchester is a place name in the Miss Marple world. MIlchester is therefore a real exchange name in a fictional world.
Never underestimate
“So there I was, a forty-something high-school teacher, with little kids, zero political experience, and no money, running in a deep red district. But you know what? Never underestimate a public-school teacher. Never”: Tim Walz, just now.
Brooklyn in the house
“Bro, we broke up with you for a reason”: Hakeem Jeffries, just now, speaking to Donald Trump.
NYT fact-check
Trump: rich in stupidity? “This lacks evidence.”
John Gruber nails it (Peter Baker)
John Gruber: “The Times can give Peter Baker as much ink as they want as a columnist. But they should stop calling him a “reporter”. He’s nothing of the sort, and hasn’t been for a long time.”
A telegram, an actual telegram
To the artist and writer Joe Brainard.
“Letters! Actual Letters!”
The latest episode of This American Life is all about real mail: “Letters! Actual Letters!” With enough human interest to fill a relay box.
Feeling seen
Jonathan Capehart, talking about Michelle Obama’s DNC speech.
Oof!
Michelle Obama, just now: “Who’s gonna tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those Black jobs?”
Psst, David Brooks
I noticed ebullient twice in Brooks’s comments during PBS’s coverage of the DNC last night, each time pronounced /EB-yə-lənt/. As Garner’s Modern English Usage notes, that’s a common mispronunciation. Has David Brooks latched onto this word for use in talking and writing about Kamala Harris? If so, I hope he gets it right.
Firing the librarians
Western Illinois University fires its librarians.
Calendaring and efforting
Eff that!
Jackie’s in the house
“Higher and Higher,” playing at the DNC.
Extra strength
A Duchamp present followed by a found Tarot card.
Hold the hold music
From Letters of Note, a plea to CVS: “Please change your hold music.”
A New Utrecht address
I wonder if anyone who isn’t reading this post knows of the tragedy that visited this address just over a century ago.
An elliptical FLOTUS?
It’s speech or writing that might be elliptical, not a person. I think the word the Times needed here is “enigmatic.”
Seeming and appearing
Peter Baker of The New York Times on MSNBC just now, when asked about Donald Trump’s assertion that the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a civilian honor, is “much better” than the the military Medal of Honor, whose recipients are often wounded or dead: “Yeah, I mean, look, you know, he has continually and repeatedly said things that seem to denigrate military service.” Seem?
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“They often follow speeches.”
Freedom and Honor
“Former President Donald J. Trump on Thursday described the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, as being “much better” than the Medal of Honor, because service members who receive the nation’s highest military honor are often severely wounded or dead.” There are no words.
How to send a telegram
A Chicago-to-Los Angeles train pulls up to a station for a brief stop. Sandwiches, coffee, and telegrams await. From The Narrow Margin (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1952).
Old Bay
“I admit there’s nothing I’d like more than for Old Bay to take over the world”: in The New Yorker, Casey Cep writes about what she calls “the greatest condiment in America.”
How to improve writing (no. 125)
“He typically mentions the fictional serial killer in the context of immigration, claiming without evidence that migrants are coming in from insane asylums and mental institutions and often using dehumanizing language.”
How to improve writing (no. 124)
“What she did not say is that you can’t make friends of 50 years when you are in your ninth decade, the kind who knew you way back when.”