MSNBC, sheesh
A few minutes ago the chyron announced “humanity’s return to the moon.” Who else would be in a position to go back?
Orange Crate Art
Encore?
From The Washington Post: “Has the encore left the building?” With encores from Tom Waits and Richard Goode.
Prime collaborations
Pure joy, tangentially related to prime numbers: the Supremes and the Temptations singing each other’s hits on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Cicadas in their primes
Why do cicadas emerge and thirteen- and seventeen-year intervals?
A last 2¢ about phonics
Imagine trying to learn a new language — Greek, say, in any of its varieties. It would be impossible to figure out words and their pronunciation without knowing the sounds that the letters make. Now imagine being four or five or six and learning to read in your own first language. It would be impossible to figure out words and their pronunciation without knowing the sounds that the letters make. I think that’s the clearest case that can be made for the importance of phonics.
A last 2¢ about the elections
I don’t think the results mean that younger voters think of themselves as “Democrats,” as aligned with a party. Rather, I think the results mean that younger voters oppose autocracy, fascism, inequality, racism, xenophobia, voter suppression, and state control of bodies and futures. And if they do, voting for Deomcratic candidates becomes the only game in town.
Word of the day: fanboy
Many a teacher will know fanboys as a mnemonic to help students remember the seven coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.
The Automat on TCM
Lisa Hurwitz’s documentary The Automat (2021) airs on TCM, November 22, in the company of several movies with Automat scenes.
Chock full o’Nuts on sale
Only a zealot would think this news worthy of a blog post. I am a zealot.
Katie Hobbs wins
For Kari Lake, it’s all a blur.
Nancy and wrapping paper
The grocer has a huge roll of it.
Dustin, blogger
Dustin Kudlick is starting a blog. His sister Meg is helping him add a counter.
Culver × 8
Last Sunday the Ghost of Brooklyn Past visited the Culver Paper Co. in Boro Park. This Sunday the Ghost walks the environs of the Culver Line in Boro Park.
Nancy breaks a wall
In today’s Nancy, our protagonist has broken the fourth wall. Or the right edge. Or from her perspective, the left edge. And that must be how she got into today’s Zippy.
Looking for trouble
“I don’t go looking for trouble. It finds me.” How far back does this kind of phrasing go?
Today’s Saturday Stumper
“Time best forgotten.”
NPR, sheesh
“As him and his aides think about this.”
To: Calkins, Fountas, and Pinnell
An e-mail to three prime movers behind the mistaken forms of reading instruction examined in the podcast Sold a Story.
Veterans Day
A plea for piece, from 1922.
Twelve movies
The Deep Blue Sea and others.
WWDFWS
What would DFW say about this?
Mystery actor
Who?
Today’s Nancy
In today’s Nancy, repurposed Halloween decorations.
About last night
In Illinois: we have a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, &c. Voters approved a constitutional amendment guaranteeing workers the right to organize and bargain collectively.
Carrying a torch
From the latest installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American, posted thirty-three minutes ago: “If there is an obvious story from today with results still unknown, it is this: a new generation is picking up the torch of our democracy.”
Dialogue and the comma
At CMOS Shop Talk, Carol Sallers asked, “Is a Comma Needed to Introduce Dialogue?” And she answered, “Yes, at least sometimes.”
A new Swann in Love
Comparing translations.
No FOXES
The New York Times now as a Wordle editor, Tracy Bennett. And the game will have a Times-made word list and a new rule: no -es or -s plural forms of three- or four-letter words.
QAnon conjecture
Elaine noted that we don’t see as many tabloid psychics as we once did. Where have all the psychics gone? It occurred to me that they’ve been replaced by QAnon, which allows everyone to tell the future.
California fail
As the Mike Love–John McLaughlin–Charles Lloyd version ran through my head yesterday, I realized that I’ve always misunderstood “California Girls.”