Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Ersatz ice pack.”
Orange Crate Art
“What a sick —”
Joe Biden, this afternoon, speaking of Donald Trump.
A Mongol sighting
From I Wouldn’t Be in Your Shoes (1948).
“Almost, at times, the Fool”
Synchronicity across the comics.
Twelve movies
Holiday noirs and others.
A joke in the traditional manner
What did the one snowman say to the other?
How to pronounce Leuchtturm
As I await the arrival of a Leuchtturm1917 planner, I have learned that Leuchtturm is not only a name but a word, meaning “lighthouse.” And I’ve learned its pronunciation
Efforting, or effort as a verb
How to make it clear that someone is trying hard or that someone is trying too hard? By avoiding the use of effort as a verb. I hereby pronounce the verb effort a skunked term.
Claudine Gay has resigned
When the charges of plagiarism against Gay became news, I recalled my theory of plagiarism: “plagiarism seems to be governed by a sliding scale, with consequences lessening as the wrongdoer’s status rises.” I thought she’d make it through. But no.
Helen Keller on tolerance
“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
Recently updated
A reprise of the 1958 A Great Day in Harlem photograph.
How many retired English professors does it take to change a lightbulb?
The problem: the dome/globe hiding the dead bulb would not budge. The solution: tap the dome with a shoe, many, many times.
Missing Moleskine pages
Sixteen days missing from a daily planner. The only calendar I think I should proofread is the one I make myself every year. But perhaps proofreading a Moleskine well in advance of the new year is a wise policy.
Public Domain Day
Among the items falling out of copyright today: the Carl Theodor Dreyer film The Passion of Joan of Arc, the Wanda Gág book Millions of Cats, the Cole Porter song “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love),” and the Bessie Smith recording “Down Hearted Blues.”
New Year’s Eve 1923
People drinking at home or in private dining rooms in hotels.
Not yet a Great Day
The brownstone where the 19478 photograph A Great Day in Harlem was taken.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Hold nothing back, these days.”
Joe and me and I
Who writes this stuff? And who approves it?
Horizons
Helen Keller on horizons.
Forecast, *forecasted
From Apple’s Weather widget: “Light rain forecasted,” not “forecast.”
Bravery!
O drama!
Another meaning of “snail mail”
My one submission to the OED.
The Dictionary People
Knowing a bit about rabbit holes, I know the importance of knowing when to stop. But I understand the impulse to keep going, for it’s unlikely that there will be another book about the OED’s Readers.
“Writer-y”
From Zits.
“The Loop”
Overhalls with a loop — the sign of a master.
Helen Keller on lines
Helen Keller writes that what she calls beauty is “largely derived from the flow of curved and straight lines which is over all things.”
A free 2024 calendar
Highly readable across a crowded room or a smoke-filled film-noir soundstage.
Ringo as broccoli
“I’m 99 percent broccoli,” Ringo Starr tells AARP.
Bookstores, reading, data
from the Department of Data at The Washington Post, bad news and some good news about bookstores and reading.
Christmas 1923
I think it must have been a confusing Christmas at St. Mark’s-in-the-Bouwerie in 1923.