Greta Gerwig’s luxury item(s)
From Desert Island Discs.
Orange Crate Art
An EXchange name sighting
SYcamore: from Backfire (dir. Vincent Sherman, 1950).
“Flatteringly, like the dentist”
Sonie Marburg — who’s never, so far as we know, read Proust — drops into the Proustian “we.”
“White Rabbit” in Wal-Mart
Singing in the store.
Weather drama
“... 36° under the cover of darkness tonight ...”
Twelve movies
The Barefoot Contessa and others.
“The Making of Song Cycle”
From the podcast Life of the Record : Van Dyke Parks and Richard Henderson on “The Making of Song Cycle.”
No Remington, Ticonderoga
From Jean Stafford’s Boston Adventure.
A slogan with legs
I don’t always wear pants, but when I do I prefer Carhartts.
Oxford comma wars
From Jack Shepherd’s On Words and Up Words : “Taking Stock of the Oxford Comma Wars.” Included: the real-life source for the Oxford-less formulation “my parents, Ayn Rand and God.”
Rosie’s on the move
Rosie’s Diner (from the Bounty commercials) is moving to Missouri.
John Lamb, ninety
A short profile of the bassist.
Squirrel Appreciation Day
The squirrels in our weather are staying in their nests and watching KNUT’s winter lineup.
Upper Manhattan, with clam broth
A bar and grill, a clam broth house, a tire store.
Today’s Mutts
Sliding on ice.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Present-day presence.”
“Oh, piffle, you dumb-bells”
From Boston Adventure.
Shovel-ready (Hi and Lois watch)
A shovel in the living room, a moving sofa.
Pay-phone noir
From Naked Alibi (dir. Jerry Hopper, 1954). The cinematography is by Russell Metty.
Siri talks back
“Don’t worry, it’s okay.”
The Last Repair Shop
From the Los Angeles Times, a short documentary, The Last Repair Shop, directed by Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot. The instrument repair shop for the Los Angeles Unified School District is the last shop in the United States taking care of student instruments.
Overheard
“What did it knock over?” “Just the snow globes.”
An alternative to Barbenheimer
Our household’s Friday and Saturday night movies: The Killers (dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946) and Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2023). The Killerbies.
“The odors”
The first moment of involuntary memory in Boston Adventure.
MSNBC, sheesh
“... trying to put some distance between he and her ...”
MLK: diversity
MLK using the word in 1967, more than. year before the OED’s earliest citation.
MLK
A posthumous poster: “Honor King: End Racism!”
Joyce Randolph (1924–2024)
The last Honeymooner.
And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street and Hester Street
An address that was once the home of Umbertos Clam House.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Peak performance establishment.”