Today’s Saturday Stumper
“They’re not serious.”
Orange Crate Art
Peanuts in French
A crossword clue — three letters, “Parisian’s ‘Rats!’” — made me wonder what Charlie Brown says in French. And now I know.
It’s the most wonderful time
From Robertson Davies’s The Lyre of Orpheus.
SASE, PetSmart
Yes, it’s called life-long learning.
Byronic
From Robertson Davies’s The Lyre of Orpheus.
Recently updated
Words of the year, now with “pandemic.”
“As a gifted cook makes soup”
From Robertson Davies’s The Lyre of Orpheus.
“Lola” at fifty
Ray Davies on “Lola” at fifty: “I didn’t think the song would be so ahead of its time.”
Recently updated
A Bowery establishment makes yet another appearance in Naked City.
$69.95
I was teaching a novel, an enormous novel, at least four inches thick, by a Latin-American writer whose name I had picked up from reading Jorge Luis Borges. Do you like this novel? I asked my students. Oh yes, everyone really liked it.
Here’s where I live
“WE RECOMMEND YOU TO HAVE A MASK WITH YOU FOR SAFETY BUT NOT REQUIRED. HOPE TO SEE EVERYONE OUT ABOUT THIS WEEKEND AND LETS HAVE SOME FUN.” No, let’s not.
Recently updated
Words of the year, now with “pandemic.”
¿Quién es más confiable?
¿Joe Namath, o Tom Selleck?
Mystery actor
She’s best known as the co-owner of a Santa Monica aoartment complex.
Recently updated
Words of the year, now with “doomscrolling.”
Hi and Lois watch
it’s weird and wonderful to see resonator guitars in today’s Hi and Lois.
Garry Trudeau Mongols
If you look closely at the photograph, you’ll see that in 1972 Trudeau was using Mongol pencils.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Growth profession.”
Domestic comedy
The people on the news, it’s like we know them now.
“The ethical is not halfway”
From an essay by Rebecca Solnit.
On a helical staircase
I like this passage on purism in language use, from Follett’s Modern American Usage (1966).
Thanksgiving 1920
“Thanksgiving Spirit Cheers Thousands: Turkey and ‘All the Fixings’ Served in Homes, Hospitals and Prisons”: from The New York Times.
Heroes and villains
“Heroes don’t lie to the FBI about contacts they had with hostile foreign powers.”
A message from NYC Health
Stay safe, stay home!
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From the Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year.
Mystery actor
He may be best known for dancing in a Brooklyn apartment.
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“Is it right to speak of a ‘pair of twins ’?”
“Look it up”
Cultural references in Gilmore Girls.
Meet H. Neil Matkin
Something to be thankful for: that you’re not teaching at Collin College, with H. Neil Matkin as your president.
Recently updated
From Oxford Languages, many words of the year.