From A.H. Sidgwick
On the clothes and gear of a several-days walk.
Orange Crate Art
“Fountain pen nostalgia”
“What did people click before th’ Bic?” Zippy wants to know. And Griffy begins to explain fountain pens.
Nancy Valiant
Olivia Jaimes channels Price Valiant.
Labor Day
A laboratory assistant and a locomotive lubrication chart. Photograph by Jack Delano.
“What next?”
Adalbert Stifter’s The Bachelors is a Bildungsroman, a celebration of sublime nature, a story full of sentimentality and eerie melodrama. I can honestly say that I’ve never read anything like it.
The war on spelling
Bryan Garner and others offer their thoughts about the war on spelling.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Man’s first name?” Man, that’s rough.
Valerie Harper (1939-2019)
I like what Harper is quoted as saying about Rhoda: “Rhoda, like most of us, was a victorious loser.”
Shimkus
My representative in Congress, John Shimkus (R, Illinois-15), has announced that he will not seek reelection. Good riddance.
“Who takes what anyone says seriously anyway?”
This dark passage is the last excerpt from The Man Without Qualities I’m posting.
“What’s an ethos?”
General Stumm von Bordwehr, still struggling.
Will
General Stumm von Bordwehr, still struggling with great ideas.
Zippy Meadows
Audrey Meadows appears in today’s Zippy.
Ben Leddy hosts The Rewind
The latest episode of WGBH’s The Rewind, “Turn In, Burn In.”
“Apparition in Agathe’s head!”
From The Man Without Qualities. The mere ten pages of Proust that Musil professed to have read must have included the madeleine moment of Swann’s Way.
Found in an old pocket notebook
Two details from a talk by Eva Kor.
A compliment
“I see the two of you walking all the time. You both slimmed up tremendous.”
“Quantities of genius”
Retail density in The Man Without Qualities.
A guide to the cigarettes of Out of the Past
Thirty-eight cigarettes and thirty-nine acts of cigarette smoking (via the shared cigarette) in the film’s ninety-seven minutes, or roughly one cigarette every two-and-a-half minutes.
An EXchange name sighting
TUxedo 1234, from Out of the Past.
Eva Brann on teaching
Reading this book reminds me, too often, of the unpleasant experience of listening to someone given to making pronouncements, cheerfully, endlessly. But I’m glad that I stuck around for Brann’s thoughts on education.
“An infinitely interwoven surface”
Not an “orderly sequence of facts” but “an infinitely interwoven surface.”
Today’s Nancy
A delight, from the title panel(s) to Aunt Fritzi’s frown.
Recently updated
Alternative clues for a Saturday Stumper.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Upper-level arrangement.” “How some ice cream is made.” “Heavy lifting?” “Roast beef.” “V sign in a selection process.”
Why go?
Here’s the thing: if you’re looking for a career outside academia, devoting five or six or more years to the pursuit of a doctoral degree in English is neither necessary nor wise.
Ordering
The vice president and Cabinet are hereby ordered to invoke the 25th Amendment.
Mystery actor
I knew her voice right away, but couldn’t match it to a person. Who is she?
Ben Leddy hosts The Rewind
The lastest episode of WGBH’s The Rewind, “I Met Susan B. Anthony.”
Recently updated
A date of manufacture for the Dark Passage streetcar.