Some votes
Which is it better to be, Bogie or Sluggo? In today’s Zippy, Zippy and Griffy try both.
Orange Crate Art
Sundays
From Gabriele Tergit’s novel Käsebier Takes Berlin. Spoofing Menschen am Sonntag?
Donald Trump*, desperado
Donald Trump* is a desperado, “one in despair or in desperate straits.” He is also a desperado, “a bold or violent criminal.” Commuting Roger Stone’s sentence is the act of a desperado.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Pawn’s purpose.”
“What happens when they don’t?”
From Paul Murphy, a third-grade teacher, the big question about guidelines (any guidelines) for re-opening schools.
Joyeux anniversaire, M. Proust
Proust describes how he felt when he came to the end of a book in childhood, secretly reading late at night in bed.
Misheard
Elaine thought that I was calling rosé “children’s red.” Which is not a bad description of rosé.
Tammy Duckworth responds
In The New York Times, Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois) responds to attacks on her patriotism from the Trump* world.
Manhattan SPA
Sparring passive-aggressively, residents take amusing action against Trader Joe’s customers who line up outside their building, hours early, talking on their cell phones.
An EXchange name sighting
From Pitfall (dir. Andre de Toth, 1948), an exchange name in a telegram.
Nancy meta
Tree rings, drawn. Nancy, drawn.
Florence Price’s “Adoration”
Augustin Hadelich at the piano, with thirty-seven other musicians, performing Florence Price’s “Adoration,” arranged for violin and piano by Elaine Fine.
“The usual thing”
From Erich Kästner, Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist.
109 is the new 79
18 days (March) + 30 (April) + 31 (May) = 79. And now 30 more (June) = 109. So I add the day’s date to 109. Today is day 117.
Trump* sardines
“One year, Mary Trump writes[,] they gave her a three-pack of underwear from Bloomingdales. Another year, they gave her an obviously re-gifted basket with crackers, sardines and a salami — with an imprint in the cellophane wrap where a tin of caviar had been.”
Creative Black Music at the Walker
From the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis): Creative Black Music, an online archive of audio, video, photographs, ephemera, and correspondence. With the Art Ensemble of Chicago and many more.
Algorithms and rhymes
An algorithm to color-code similar-sounding syllables, applied it to lyrics from Hamilton and some of its hip-hop influences. It’s a beautiful demonstration of the element of sound in poetry.
about:blank
A helpful Safari extension: about:blank, which enables the user to block individual websites. Just 99¢.
No hoax
A Fourth of July encounter southeast of Bloomington, Indiana, in which Vauhxx Booker, an African-American man, was pinned against a tree and beaten by white men who are alleged to have threatened to break his arms and hang him.
Twelve movies
UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump and others.
Domestic comedy
“You had me at mise-en-scène.”
Choose your own nightmare
The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the work of Cait S. Kirby, a doctoral student in biology who has created simulations of a day in the life of a college student and a faculty member required to be on campus in Fall 2020. The simulations are a bit like Choose Your Own Adventure, or Nightmare.
Beard maintenance
The New York Times offers advice about beard maintenance. All good, especially re: the neckline and the use of a hand mirror.
The Fourth
“America the Beautiful” (words by Katherine Lee Bates, music by Samuel A. Ward), reimagined by clarinetist Anthony McGill.
Tomorrow’s Saturday Stumper
“Screen icon since the ’80s.”
#UNFIT
Streaming now and through the weekend: #UNFIT: The Psychology of Donald Trump.
Metaphor of the day
“He is fat Elvis.”
SPA day
SPA is my newly invented acronym: Sparring Passive-Aggressively. My other new acronym: SITEEMO. Shop In The Early, Early Morning Only.
Our tube
Familiar faces in new arrangements: one of the pleasures of television.
Domestic comedy
“It looks absurd — it’s like a Love Boat toupee!”