Hi and Lois watch
It’s the end of summer, and all the toys must be put away. Even the lethal ones.
Orange Crate Art
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Child's blanket.”
Idiom of the day: seat-of-the-pants
The origin is surprising to me.
“Up in smoke”
From Julio Ramón Ribeyro’s account of his life with cigarettes.
Clear images in the new Blogger
Change some details in the HTML to make images sharp.
“None of this surprises me”
From a story by Julio Ramón Ribeyro.
Domestic comedy
“And then I could talk about it at my rallies!”
Orange Crate Art: Whither the rumpus room?
You don’t hear much about rumpus rooms these days.
Misheard
“Don’t spend another sleepless night worrying about death.”
Dental jazz in translation
Duke Ellington. Thelonious Monk. Charles Mingus.
Dental jazz
I wanted to say, “Ooh EH-ee-uh! Uh-OH-ee-uh UH! Arh IHN-uh!” But I couldn’t say a word.
Stalling vs. declining to act
Curious phrasing in the Illinois news segment dropped into NPR’s Morning Edition this morning: Senate Democrats are seeking to stall any nomination to the Supreme Court. But: In 2016, Senate Republicans declined to act on Barack Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland. The verbs caught my ear.
$50, yes
One of the best uses for my money I can think of today: Jaime Harrison for U.S. Senate. Goodbye, Lindsey Graham.
“All hotels”
From William Lindsay Greshman’s Nightmare Alley.
NYC in color (1937)
My greatest delight: the benches, concrete and thick wooden slats, same when I was a kid. Speak, memory!
“Nov shmoz ka pop?” redux
Today’s Mutts has a guest star: The Little HItchhiker, a character in Gene Ahern’s comic strip The Squirrel Cage.
RBG on writing
The Mailman
From 1946, an educational film.
The fix we’re in
We’re in a terrible fix when so many possibilities of preserving or achieving freedoms and justice depended, at least largely, upon one eighty-seven-year-old’s not dying.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Kingston trios, often.”
Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933–2020)
This year of nightmares just got much worse.
Love thy neighbor?
What might it take to persuade some people to take COVID-19 seriously and act accordingly? I’ve wondered if this message might work.
A pocket notebook sighting
From Now, Voyager.
“Made to Be Broken”
One of the best episodes of This American Life I’ve heard: “Made to Be Broken.”
Stanley Crouch (1945–2020)
The Crouch model of criticism as combat is one I have little use for. Nor am I a fan of the Crouch–Wynton Marsalis neo-conservative aesthetic that shaped Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Ken Burns PBS series Jazz. But there was no doubting Crouch’s love of and devotion to the music.
Today’s pollen and mold
One website, three free mobile apps, each with a different forecast.
Fliqlo
Yuji Adachi’s Fliqlo screensaver turns a Mac or Windows computer into a flip clock.
How to improve writing (no. 88)
Rewriting the sentences on a box of Tetley tea.
“Herd mentality”
Aaron Rupar has choice moments from last night’s ABC News Q & A with Donald Trump*.
A Scientific American endorsement
“The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people — because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September. He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges. That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment. These and other proposals he has put forth can set the country back on course for a safer, more prosperous and more equitable future.”