Recently updated
“By the Book” for the rest of us, now with more books.
Orange Crate Art
BBC Radio 4: Great Lives
With 483 available episodes, so there’s no running out anytime soon.
“The intrepid Orph”
Dunstan Ramsay recalls Orpheus Wettenhall, lawyer and sportsman — “quite the most dedicated sportsman I have ever known.”
Paranoia and magical thinking
“Last week Trump told aides he’s afraid journalists will try to purposefully contract coronavirus to give it to him on Air Force One.”
130, 130
Driving on Illinois Route 130 yesterday, Elaine and I listened to Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 130.
Cole cuts and beer
Cole Porter liked liverwurst.
The Booksellers
A new documentary about antiquarian booksellers.
Dunning K. Trump*
“Every one of the doctors said, ‘How do you know so much about this?’ Maybe I have a natural ability.”
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Quite excited, new-style.”
McCoy Tyner (1938–2020)
One of the highlights of my dad’s life as a tile contractor: doing work in McCoy Tyner’s house. My dad loved jazz and knew exactly whom he was working for — and getting to listen to through much of the day.
“It is worth the effort”
Time as a river, from E.H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World.
Which knife?
“What’s a fish knife?”
Community spread
“A resident of Washington, D.C., has been identified as the source of the community spread of coronavirus misinformation throughout the United States.”
“You must persist”
From an e-mail Elizabeth Warren sent this morning to donors, announcing the suspension of her campaign for the presidency.
“A designer and a manufacturer”
From Robertson Davies, Fifth Business. Boy Staunton, sugar magnate, president and managing director of Alpha Corporation, praises the Reverend George Maldon Leadbeater, “a great prophet from a fashionable New York church.”
Some Beach Boys history
From Fortune: “How the Beach Boys became two separate, warring factions.”
Rosalind P. Walter (1924–2020)
A great benefactor of PBS and the first Rosie the Riveter.
Gardol
A fleeting reference in Zippy. What is it? I had to find out.
Recently updated
“By the Book,” now with a link to questions and answers from another blogger.
Coronavirus advice
Advice from James Robb, pathologist.
“By the Book” for the rest of us
What books are on your nightstand?
Jeez
“His business card is seven inches long”: Brian Williams, introducing a guest on The Eleventh Hour just now.
Bob Drylie, reader of Proust
Bob Drylie was a home-repair contractor, reader, writer, and artist.
Canteen Canteen Canteen
A mid-century vending-machine triptych.
Chris Matthews and women
In the aftermath of Chris Matthews’s absurd interview of Elizabeth Warren, Laura Bassett, journalist, writes about her encounter with Matthews. Why is this guy still working at MSNBC? Oh, wait — he’s not.
The blind king
A New Yorker cover.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“She’s repurposed heaters.”
Finding stories
In an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Word of Mouth, Clare Muireann Murphy, storyteller, tells Michael Rosen where she finds stories.
Dover Books
The story of the publisher.
Almodóvar Noris
From Pain and Glory: Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) is using a Staedtler Noris to mark a passage in a Spanish translation of Fernando Pessoa’s Livro do Desassossego [The book of disquiet].