The fish on The Hill

On a recent trip to St. Louis, I finally scored some skinless and boneless sardines: four cans of Cento, at DiGregorio’s Italian Market. I left a lone can on the shelf. The cashier and I commiserated (well, faux-commiserated) about how food faddists are taking our sardines.

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[I can at long last appreciate bone-in sardines, but it’s gotta be skinless and boneless with pasta. The Hill is the Italian neighborhood in St. Louis.]

Boynton’s books

“There’s nothing simple-minded about kids, and nothing simple about Boynton’s books: The New York Times (gift link) profiles Sandra Boynton.

A related post
An NYT correction (One of the great corrections)

Things to come

“When his second term is over in 2029, what will Donald Trump do to keep busy? Dingburgers have a plan”: in today’s Zippy .

Pickles in the news

From The Guardian : “A leading vendor of the US delicacy that is the pickle has withdrawn from the Great American State Fair in Washington DC after North Carolina’s booth displayed a video containing a Confederate flag.”

A statement from Mt. Olive Pickle Co. says that the company “stands on values of human dignity, opportunity, and freedom.”

[“The US delicacy that is the pickle” is a phrase to conjure with. I’ve had pickles on my mind, so how could I not post this news?]

Mike’s Diner

[22-35 31st Street, Astoria, Queens, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Mike’s Diner opened in 1928. In its later non-dining-car incarnation, it closed in 2022 (QNS ). The dining car stood in the middle of a city block. So what explains that open expanse of sidewalk? This tax photograph:

[22-37 31st Street, Astoria, Queens, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

What a time: gum machines and pay telephones everywhere.

Also ”Tasty 3 Decker Sandwiches” (look closely).

Thanks, Brian.

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More diners from the NYC Municipal Archives : More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

Scam on the Fourth of July

A scam, and not even from the RNCC.

“What real America is”

Matthew Whitaker, former toilet visionary and current United States ambassador to NATO, speaks:

“People are enjoying the United States of America ’cause it’s an awesome place, and we have extraordinary things, like Buc-ees, like Chick-fil-A, you know, just some very convenient to eat in your car as you’re, you know, doing, having a phone call. It’s an amazing country, and I’m glad that people are finally, you know, kind of discovering what real America is. You know, being from Des Moines, Iowa, obviously I like it when they see places outside of New York and Los Angeles.”

Happy Independence Day.

[If David Foster Wallace were still with us, he might be out of a job. Truly, we are living in the Year of the Depend Adult Undergarment.]

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, and it’s a toughie. Take 7-D, fifteen letters, “Top global-gross film of 1996,” which seems like trivia until you realize that there’s a point. And 36-A, fifteen letters, “Timely tablet reading,” whose answer baffled me until I looked it up.

Some other clue-and-answer pairs of note:

26-A, three letters, “Jack’s edible partner.”

43-A, six letters, “Cameras, to eyes.” I think camera would make a better clue.

52-A, four letters, “Last to be viewed in 2001.” Yes, it’s one tough puzzle.

57-A, six letters, “Peroxide target.” Eww.

My favorite in this puzzle: 32-A, nine letters, “Cheese lover (and mixed-up tulip hero).” Wut?

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

“Ideals rather than origin”

From an opinion piece by Philip Bump, a former Washington Post columnist, “My family has been here since 1621. That is not what makes me American” (CT Insider ):

It is in vogue in some quarters at the moment to insist that being truly American depends to some extent on one’s background or heritage. That America isn’t simply a collection of people from around the world who share a common commitment to freedom and democracy but, instead, the terminus of a throughline that begins with the continent-crossing settlers of the 19th century and ends with the red-capped, star-spangled Americans of today.

America, Vice President JD Vance offered last year, is “not just an idea. We’re a particular place, with a particular people, and a particular set of beliefs and way of life.”

This is an important argument for Vance to make because it draws a line between Those Who Were Here and Those Who Have Arrived. His boss, President Donald Trump, is in the process of deporting as many recent (and not-so-recent) arrivals to this nation as he can; defining those people as necessarily un-American presumably reduces any lingering friction Trump’s supporters might have about the entire process.

But it is grotesque, particularly on the occasion of the nation’s 250th birthday, to suggest that this is anything other than a country centered on a commonality of ideals rather than origin. And I say that not as someone whose presence in the United States is a function of having immigrated here or having been born here to immigrant parents.

I say that as someone whose family has been in North America longer than America itself.

Overheard

“I don’t even like social media, but as an artist....”

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