Goodbye, Guitar Works

Sad news: I learned today that Guitar Works in Evanston, Illinois (estd. 1979) is closing. My Guitar Works story:

In 1994 Elaine and I were bopping around Evanston with our kids. My daughter Rachel, a tyke of seven, pointed to a store window. “Look, Daddy,” she said, “that’s the kind of guitar you like.” It was a modern-day National, a resonator guitar. She must have seen a National on a videotape of Son House or Bukka White (yes, she was brought up right). We went in, and I thought I’d just try the instrument and walk out wistfully. Instead, I sat and played for an hour and half while Elaine took Rachel and Ben for ice cream. I tried two Triolians too — not as good. And then, before I knew about it, Elaine was putting the National on our credit card. I still have my National, play it, and love it. Its only problem: after thirty-two years, the maker’s label inside (held in place with Fun-Tak) has detached. (I got it and the Fun-Tak out, carefully.)

It was so comfortable to try out guitars in Guitar Works and to just be able to play — no pressure. Now guitarists will have one less place for that to happen. Thanks, Guitar Works.

[An hour and a half: Elaine’s estimate. I lost track of time, as one does when playing an instrument.]

Zippy ink

[“It Came from India.” Zippy, September 1, 2026. Click for a larger view.]

If there’s another comic strip that regularly mentions stationery supplies, I’d like to know about it. Today’s Zippy also mentions Wite-Out pens and correction tape. Supplies are everywhere in the strip’s history. F’rinstance.

For anyone who needs to know: you should never fill a fountain pen with India ink, which is for use with brushes and dip pens. I’m partial to Pelikan pens, and I long used Pelikan 4001 Brilliant Black (not an India ink). At some point I switched to Aurora Black. Not cheap, but it’s one of the blackest black inks. And a bottle can last for years, just like a box of Ko-Rec-Type, Part No. 3.

Venn reading
All OCA ink posts : ink and Zippy posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard)

[How to get that speckled look? My dad did it with ink, a piece of screening, and a toothbrush.]

Defragmenting

Do you remember defragmenting the hard drive? The Windows 98 Disk Defrag Simulator is oddly soothing.

[When I think back on all the time in spent in Windows, &c.]

Faces

If you follow Aaron Rupar on Bluesky, you may already have seen the current occupant nodding in and out of consciousness this afternoon.

What really caught my eye though was his facial expression as he prepared to answer a question (at the eight-second mark). It may be normal to fall asleep as Howard Lutnick goes on and on. But that kind of facial expression? Not normal. It was there a few days ago as well. I think that’s the face of dementia.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? I don’t think so. What’s really irresponsible is journalists’ refusal to ask obvious questions. “Mr. President, you sometimes appear to be asleep while members of your cabinet are speaking. Could you comment on what Secretary Lutnick said earlier?”

Signage

[By me.]

I thought of it yesterday while walking and drew it when we got home.

The last subway pay phone?

From Ephemeral New York: “Is this the last public pay phone in a New York City subway station?”

A handful of pay phones
A Blue Dahlia pay phone : A Henry pay phone : A Naked Alibi pay phone : A Naked City pay phone : A Nancy pay phone : A Two O’Clock Courage pay phone : The Lonely Phone Booth : A subway pay phone, 1932 : Chicago pay phones : “If your coin was not returned” : The last pay phones in NYC?

Pure Food

On Flatbush Avenue, there was a Yankee Diner. South on Flatbush, a pizzeria and spaghetti house with a not especially interesting tax photograph. But go north, turn the corner onto Avenue U, and there’s still more food. And it’s pure. Pure Food: that really was the restaurant’s name, as the 1940 telephone directory makes clear.

[4212 Avenue U, Marine Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Also in the 1940 Brooklyn directory: Pure Carbonic Inc., Pure Coal Co., Pure Dairy Products, Pure Food Cafeteria, Pure Food Coffee Shoppe, Pure Food Store, Pure Food Stores, Pure Hand Laundry, Pure Home Made Products Co., M.M. Pure, Pure Oil Co., Pure White Laundry, Pure White Laundry Service, and Pure Wine Co.

The two men in uniform must have had some connection to Floyd Bennett Field, a now-defunct airfield then used by the United States Coast Guard and Navy. It’s not the Brooklyn Navy Yard, but still, I feel a song coming on.


Related posts
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

“Not American Enough”

From the most recent installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American :

On Thursday, August 27, Tolouse Olorunnipa reported on the attempts of Republican lawmakers to restrict the ability of naturalized and dual citizens to run for office. In several states, Republican lawmakers have introduced measures to cut those Americans out of candidacy for elected positions, while in Congress, at least five Republicans have called for prohibiting them from federal judgeships, Cabinet posts, ambassadorships, and congressional seats.

The push has come in the wake of the rise of New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and other naturalized U.S. citizens whose policy positions those like South Carolina representative Nancy Mace consider un-American. These policies are, of course, the ones voters elected people like Mamdani to put into place. In her comments to Olorunnipa, Mace said: “This isn’t personal. It’s about what standard we want for the people entrusted with enormous power over the American people.”

Her word choice was revealing. Our elected officials are entrusted with the enormous power of the American people, not over them.

Here’s a gift link to Toluse Olorunnipa’s Atlantic article: “Not American Enough.”

Arts & Letters Daily?

Has Arts & Letters Daily taken any notice of the death of Dolly Parton? No, of course not.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by David P. Williams, had me baffled at many points. I’m just going to honest here. I’m not that informed on 1-A, eight letters, “South Carolina symbol.” I ended up switching from a printed puzzle to an online version and figuring out a handful of tough spots with autocorrect flagging my mistakes.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, letters, “Old-fashioned, technically.” Nicely worded.

11-D, three letters, “Animal in a garnish etymology.” I see it there, but I can’t claim to understand why it’s there.

21-D, three letters, “Dishware arrived there in 2026.” I knew it had to be that there.

22-A, three letters, “JFK predecessor.” Kinda perverse. My first thought was DDE. My second was “What was the code for Idlewild?” I think this clue plays a bit unfairly with the meaning of predecessor.

32-D, three letters, “Thousands of Athenians.” I know what the answer means, but I have no idea what this answer means. Now I do.

33-A, six letters, “Hardly a family man.” Aw, come on.

40-A, three letters, “Yellow belly.” Isn’t it spelled with four letters — wuss ?

48-A, four letters, “Arian intro.” Fun if you know about Arianism, but I doubt that was the intent here.

60-A, eight letters, “Lack of ice?” Clever.

My favorites in this puzzle are the two answers that cross at the center: 8-D, fifteen letters, “It’s unreal” and 34-A, thirteen letters, “False response from AI.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.