A joke in a non-traditional manner
“Knock, knock, who’s there?” And I was at a loss for words.
Orange Crate Art
Zippy and Trixie
Zippy speaks to the ghost of Joyce Randolph.
Norman, knocking
I posted this story in April 2020 as a great moment in pedagogy. I remembered it this morning and am reposting it in memory of Norman Spencer:
Norman Spencer (1958–2024)
Our dear friend Norman Spencer died today in Oslo. Too soon, too soon.
“AWOL from Academics”
In Harvard Magazine, Aden Barton, a Harvard undergraduate, writes about what it’s like to be “AWOL from Academics.”
Domestic comedy
“I have no desire to sleep with Marcus Aurelius.” “And he has no desire to sleep with you. Or if he does, he’s praying to get rid of it.”
Twelve movies
Ministry of Fear and others.
The Internets, sometimes wonderful
A flurry of visits from the Czech Republic.
Feedback in e-mail
I’m no power user, but I always find something of interest when I listen to the Mac Power Users podcast. This morning, listening to episode 740 while out on a walk, I was happy to hear a tech person confirming the wisdom of one of the bits of advice — to reply and say thanks — in my post How to e-mail a professor.
Proust Barbie
Lucy Boynton reports that Proust Barbie was cut from Barbie because audiences didn’t get the joke: “it turns out that contemporary audiences don’t know who Proust is” (Rolling Stone).
Long-term care insurance: my 2¢
Now that my mom's long-term care insurance (hereafter, “LTCI”) has run out, I feel free to offer some observations.
Stormy Monday
It’s the first day of Donald Trump’s first criminal trial. Have a good rest of your day, sir!
A portal
I have to imagine that if anyone with children lived in this building, life must have been a constant battle: “Stay out of the tunnel!”
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Many a United team supporter.”
Siduri and Marcus
Thinking about the joylessness of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations made me recall a passage from the Old Babylonian version of the Gilgamesh story.
Bacon and Peanuts
Sally on Francis Bacon.
Hidden Bar
A fine free replacement to hide Mac menu bar items.
Marcus Aurelius, not wise
Despising music, dance,and wrestling.
Marcus Aurelius, wise
The best revenge is to not be like your enemy.
“Frost” and Frost
I was teaching a poetry class and getting ready for our first meeting after a break, when it’s always a challenge to get back to the realities of a semester. I realized that I had forgotten to bring the two poems we were going to talk about, Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” and Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” I printed out a copy of each poem in my office and went off to teach.
Arizona 1864
The historian Heather Cox Richardson looks at the 1864 Arizona criminal code.
Harts, Keen’s, WIsconsin
An EXchange name on a restaurant letterhead.
Ammonia coke
In Jean Stafford’s novel The Mountain Lion (1947), a brothel owner asks a boy to go to the drugstore and get her “a package of Luckies and an ammonia coke.” Luckies still probably need no footnote, but what’s an ammonia [C]oke?
Domestic comedy
Upon returning from a partial — partial indeed — eclipse.
Butter No Parsnips
An excellent podcast series for those who like words and rabbit holes.
Wordle STARR
A typo that ought not to count as a word.
AP
For the 2024–2026 edition of The Associated Press Stylebook, the dictionary of choice will change from Webster’s New World College Dictionary to Merriam-Webster.
“The ’Clipse” redux
You don’t have to be in the path of totality to enjoy “The ’Clipse.” It’s a piece of Timmy and Lassie fiction that I wrote in 2017, after the last solar eclipse that passed through Illinois. “The ’Clipse” is both tongue-in-cheek and genuinely reverential, if that’s possible. I think it is.
BILLI RDS
In the Garment District.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Paradoxical ‘I know.’”