Unhelpful reporting
The New York Times reports that the COVID-19 pandemic may have originated with raccoon dogs for sale at a market in Wuhan, China. But the article never explains why raccoon dogs were being sold there.
Orange Crate Art
Saint Patrick’s Day 1913
Walking up Fifth Avenue.
Printer-buying advice
Buy a Brother.
Parts going their own way
From Steven Millhauser’s Portrait of a Romantic.
Chomsky et al. on ChatGPT
In The New York Times, Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts, and Jeffrey Watumull consider (with examples) “the false promise of ChatGPT.”
“Home Run”
A sentence-long story by Steven Millhauser.
“And behold!”
From Steven Millhauser’s Portrait of a Romantic.
“And a bottle of blueblack ink”
From Steven Millhauser’s Portrait of a Romantic.
Black inks
From Jet Pens, a guide to black fountain pen inks.
Mystery actor
Even knowing she was in the movie, I had to consult the IMDb to figure out which character she played.
“Like a sky”
From Steven Millhauser’s Portrait of a Romantic.
Giving up the whole game
Heather Cox Richardson on attacking transgender people: “Once you give up the principle of equality, you have given up the whole game.”
Tip-Top Diner
A Bronx diner. “Tip-top” goes back to 1702.
System of laundry
Folding with Lassie, storing with the English Beat.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Global perspective.”
John Alton’s Painting with Light
“In the dark there is mystery.”
One more from John Alton
A page from a telephone directory.
A delirium of shadows
I like delirium as a collective name for film-noir shadows. Here is a small delirium from The Crooked Way (dir. Robert Florey, 1949). The cinematographer is John Alton, a master of film noir.
A letter to Mary Miller
A response to her toxic talk about “the natural family” and “the traditional family, ordained by God.”
“High time” to “help”
From Steven Millhauser’s Portrait of a Romantic.
Mary Miller, going places
“My” representative in Congress, Mary Miller (R, IL-15) — and how I tire of having to type the quotation marks — is headed to Chicago — a city she has often reviled — for a fundraiser. It’s hardly coincidental that she just announced the creation of Congressional Family Caucus.
Expectations
Maya Angelou, interviewed on Desert Island Discs.
Cather cameo
A copy of My Ántonia in Dorothy Malone’s hands.
How to improve writing (no. 108)
As I’ve written in a previous post, “Every time I look at Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo, I end up rewriting one or more sentences.”
All Fall Down notebook
Teenager writes in notebook.
George?
That is George Santos in today’s Zippy, isn’t it?
Recently updated
Some history for the Loring Grill.
“Ignorance pays off”
How can a hate group make money?
Jigsaw cameos
The one unusual thing about Jigsaw (dir. Fletcher Markle, 1949), a story about investigating a hate group, is a parade of cameos by actors with progressive leanings.
Twelve movies
The Illusionist and others.