A mind at work
it’s clear that we’re watching a failing mind at work.
Orange Crate Art
Adage
“The sardine has to want to change.”
“A dangling, untied ribbon”
A passage from Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet. Sometimes Bernardo Soares in translation sounds to me like Frank O’Hara. And sometimes, like John Ashbery.
Venting
The question has haunted me: Why the vents in cabinets under kitchen sinks? I found three likely answers.
Walking protocol
Wave to everyone. Wave even to those who never wave back.
A daily walk
“One of the few options for escaping the drumbeat of bad news”: New York Times readers on the benefits of a daily walk.
Woodruff’s Morison
That book on Judy Woodruff’s right, the one with the blue-gray cover, its spine often partly hidden behind the NewsHour logo — I’ve been wondering what it is.
Zweig’s Yesterday tomorrow
Stefan Zweig’s The World of Yesterday, translated by Anthea Bell, will be on sale tomorrow, as a Kindle e-book from Amazon, for 99P ($1.23), available only through Amazon.co.uk.
Desk organizers
You can see, right away, the difference the organizer makes, even if it’s difficult to spot the organizer.
Jackie Wilson, twice
Jackie Wilson — Mr. Excitement — performed in five Shindig! episodes and closed two.
A name for the taking
A name for the taking that might be useful to anyone writing family fiction: Sonny LaMattina. “Sonny” LaMattina. Big Sonny. Ding dang dong. Ding dang dong.
Out and about
In my waking life, I have all of Willa Cather’s fiction.
Recently updated
Perry Mason and John Keats: A reader writes to point out the “burrs” in Keats’s poem.
“Like a phonograph before its time”
A passage from Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet.
Recently updated
“By the Book” for the rest of us, now with more books.
Orange Crate Art returns
Coming June 26, from Omnivore Recordings, a remastered reissue of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’s 1995 album Orange Crate Art, with instrumental tracks and three unreleased songs, including an affecting Wilson-Parks interpretation of “What a Wonderful World.”
“Nostalgia for scenes”
A passage from Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet.
USPS (b. 1775)
At The New Yorker, Casey Cep writes about the United States Postal Service, its origin, history, current woes, possible futures, and cultural value.
Rats in your engine
From The New York Times: “Time to Check Your Pandemic-Abandoned Car for Rats.” No joke.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“100+ products at shopdisney.com.”
Missing from MOOCs
What do you remember that you can’t get from a MOOC?
Great performances and interactions
David Autor presents such a diminished idea of education — as one-way communication, with spectators watching a star at work. That’s the model, of course, for the MOOC (massive online open course), which I daresay is far inferior to many a local starless effort in building human abilities and relationships.
Empires and fields
A passage from Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet.
Madeline Kripke (1943–2020)
Keeper of one of the largest private collections of dictionaries.
Flow, a Mac app
A free app for Mac, a Pomodoro-style timer.
Made to order
It was mid-afternoon, and King Lear was raging on the heath. All at once, the Bronx sky darkened.
On Duke Ellington’s birthday
Piano alone, a recital for television broadcast, taped in Paris, July 2, 1970. Ellington is in rare form.
Some rocks, prehistoric
A science project, in today’s Far Side reruns.
“Or a college of any kind”
Responding to a question about his contact with families of coronavirus patients, Donald Trump* yesterday went off in all directions. The slap came at the end.
Homemade music
An imperfect gesture toward better days: “Nuages” (Django Reinhardt) and “Georgia on My Mind” (Hoagy Carmichael–Stuart Gorrell).