Eberhard Faber No. 2 3/8

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister (1947).

Eberhard Faber No. 2 3/8? That would be a Mongol.

Why that improbable fraction? Henry Petroski’s The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance (1990) explains:

To this day the names of companies are confusing, and much of that confusion can be traced back to the intense competition of the nineteenth century that led to fierce battles for distinctive trademarks, as well as to deliberate confusion. Even family-related concerns separated by an ocean could not escape the problems of protecting their identities from each other. Finer and finer distinctions between pencils and their markings began to appear, and the Mongol pencil of Eberhard Faber was among the first products in the United States to have a trademark. Questions of proprietary rights led eventually to such awkward designations of pencil hardnesses as 2 1/2, 2 4/8; and 2 5/10, not to mention the decimal 2.5, as the arithmetical inclination to simplify fractions clashed with trademark protection laws.

And yes, Nabokov cared about pencils.

Related reading
All OCA Mongol posts : Nabokov posts (Pinboard)

Blade oil FTW

I like my Remington Shortcut Pro Self-Haircut Trimmer Kit. For those of us without a lot on top, it does a fine job of keeping things short and orderly. (Short: unlike the product’s name.) But the lithium battery in the trimmer seemed to be fading: I’d charge and charge, and the blades would make only a slow wobble, not enough to cut hair.

Before giving up and buying another device, I removed the blade section and was surprised to see the spindle that moves the blades spinning with abandon. So the problem was not with the battery. I attacked the blades with compressed air and the edge of an index card to remove stuck hair. Hair came out but, still, nothing moved. I tried rinsing the blade section under water. No improvement. Then I applied three drops of the blade oil that you’re supposed to apply after each haircut. (Like, who does that?)

And everything kicked back into action. Lesson learned, hair cut.

“Where’s th’ punchline?”

[“Panel Discussion.” Zippy , June 11, 2026. Click for a larger view.]

In today’s strip, Zippy reads the comics he appeared in in the 1970s: “Okay — so where’s th’ punchline?”

In 1994, Bill Griffith and Bil Keane joined forces in Zippy and The Family Circus mashups.

Venn reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts : Hi and Lois and Zippy posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard)

[If you’re wondering about “Tip o’ th’ hat to Brian and Greg”: Brian and Greg Walker, sons of Mort Walker, are now responsible for Hi and Lois. The Family Circus is credited to Bil Keane (d. 2011) and his son Jeff Keane. That strip’s “weird zombie existence” is chronicled in a short documentary.]

Domestic comedy

[While watching a bit of The Blue Dahlia (dir. George Marshall, 1946).]

“How did they stand wearing ties and having their collars buttoned up like that all the time?”

“They were getting paid.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy (Pinboard)

Knicks (!)

I’m not a sports-minded guy. We were watching The Strange Woman (dir. Edgar G. Ulmer, 1946) last night when I remembered that there was a Knicks game happening — that is to say, an NBA Finals game. We paused the movie and got to watch the last five minutes. The curse that had fallen upon the Knicks in Monday’s game (part of which I had watched) was broken.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:

THANK YOU TO THE PEOPLE WHO BLESSED MSG TODAY TO GET THE STANK VIBES OUT YOUR SERVICE IS APPRECIATED.

Context: fans burned copal and sage outside Madison Square Garden.

My time as a dedicated Knicks fan was back in the Reed-Bradley-DeBusschere-Frazier-Barnett days. Watching last night made me remember how a game can turn in seconds.

HCR on Blanche

In the most recent installment of Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson looks at Todd Blanche and the ongoing criminality of the current regime.

One detail of Blanche’s career not mentioned (and which I’d forgotten): in May 2025, after Blanche had been confirmed as deputy attorney general, the current occupant named him librarian of Congress. That gives an idea of how much respect the occupant has for librarianship. But the title didn’t stick.

There’s a name for it

It’s auditory pareidolia (it’s normal). What I’ve been hearing: Hank Williams-like songs and funk, thought not at the same time.

Related reading
All OCA pareidolia posts (Pinboard)

A tone ball

I heard something shifting around inside my guitar. After nearly thirty-two years, the maker’s label had detached from the back of the instrument. I turned the guitar upside down, shifted it around a bit, and Elaine pulled the label out of a f-hole with tweezers. And I shook out the two little pieces of Fun-Tak that had held the label in place.

And then I discovered this tone ball. My first.

[In real life, ¾" tall.]

The term tone ball comes from an unnamed employee at Elderly Instruments. We saw their impressive display of tone balls in 2011. Thank goodness Elaine snagged a screenshot of a page from Fretboard Journal (no longer available online) about Elderly’s display.

“A muddled Elizabethan play”

In a police state, all reading is revisionary.

Vladimir Nabokov, Bend Sinister (1947).

Related reading
All OCA Nabokov posts (Pinboard)

James Blood Ulmer (1940–2026)

“The late music critic Greg Tate once described James as ‘the missing link between Jimi Hendrix and [his favorite guitarist] Wes Montgomery on one hand, and P-Funk and Mississippi Fred McDowell on the other’ ”: from an obituary for the guitarist and singer James Blood Ulmer (Clash ).

Here, from 1980, is how I first heard Ulmer, asking a question that remains timely: “Are You Glad to Be in America?”