Tips for reading The Power Broker
Five suggestions.
Orange Crate Art
Veterans Day
On the radio, 1924.
Chamois chop suey
It’s like something from the world of Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer.
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Shoe that sounds like an apartment number.”
Flip
The pancake cook of Squirrel Forest, amid colored-pencil marks.
A happy warrior in Illinois
“To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom, and opportunity, and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior. You come for my people, you come through me.”
Recently updated
I’ve added Adam Kinzinger.
Beautiful afternoon, ugly moment
“Would you leave your pretty granddaughter in a room alone with him?”
Eyes
From Guy de Maupassant’s Alien Hearts.
Other thoughts on the election
From Noah Berlatsky, Mona Charen, Mark Hurst, Bess Kalb, Adam Kinzinger, Robert Reich, Heather Cox Richardson, Margaret Sullivan.
A message
I was in a committee meeting with co-workers, all of us sitting at a conference table in a large otherwise vacant room. The subject under discussion was a letter from the FCC about the aroma of our new movie, which had been deemed unsatisfactory. We were looking at clips from older black-and-white movies to figure out an appropriate aroma.
What now?
American voters have chosen an aspiring autocrat who has promised to weak our alliances, the prosecute his political enemies, to end any effort to reverse climate change, to end of the Affordable Care Act, to end women’s reproductive rights, to hand healthcare policies over to a nutcase, and build concentration camps as the prelude to mass deporations. I could go on. If your only concern is the price of a loaf of bread (on PBS last night, David Brooks helpfully told us that it’s $1.93), you’ll vote for the strongman. The cost of groceries is a legitimate concern. But so is the cost of healthcare. And so is everything else. A vote based on the cost of a loaf of bread might come at a much greater cost.
Who?
Jonathan Capehart on PBS just now: “I’m mystified.” And: “Who are we as a country?”
“Probabilistic Uncertainty”
xkcd.
Final hours
Today would be a good day to read Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American.
HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME
A public service from The Washington Post : “Can I still register to vote?”
Words of the year
From the Collins Dictionary, brat : inspired by Charli XCX and “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”
One swing voter
Fascinating stuff: inside the mind of a swing voter.
FORWARD
I don’t want to look like The Washington Post in not endorsing a candidate. So here’s an official endorsement: the Orange Crate Art editorial board — and owner — urge readers to vote for Kamala Harris for president.
Twelve movies
Preston Sturges and others.
“The time”
I resist the yearly switches between ST and DST. Last night I began adding air quotes to the time when speaking.
Orange Crate Art: MSNBC, sheesh
A reporter, this afternoon: “They’ve already casted ballots....”
Needle & Thread Grill
With spindles, a spinning wheel, and a loom (?) in the window.
Block that analogy
“It is like an SAT question: North Carolina is to Democrats as Lucy is to Charlie Brown’s football. But is a strategy by the Harris campaign going to change all of that?”
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“‘Your library is your ’: Erasmus.”
No, John McWhorter, he’s dementing
I disagree with John McWhorter about all sorts of things — apostrophes and object pronouns, for instance. And I disagree with him about Donald Trump’s state of mind: McWhorter sees in Trump’s recent performances not dementia and disinhibition but boredom.
The blue dot and us
On the PBS News Hour tonight, “How Nebraska’s ‘blue dot’ could be the deciding factor on Election Day.”
Adventures in dining
“A local restaurant is hoping to reopen soon after closing last week due to numerous health department violations, including using mortar mixers and power drills to ‘mix up batter and beat eggs.’”
Is it dementia yet?
Re: Trump: disinhibition is one of the many markers of dementia.
Hi and Lois watch
The small size of comic strips sometimes creates problems with legibility. Ditto’s pirate eyepatch would be easier to recognize as an eyepatch if it were covering his eye.