How to improve writing (no. 136)

A reader (and writer) passed on a headline from the Writers Guild of America:

It’s Time to Take on Free Work

The Guild meant, of course, that writers should challenge the idea of free work, not that they should work for free. So let’s have the headline say so:

It’s Time to Say No to Free Work

Thanks, reader (and writer).

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All OCA How to improve writing posts (Pinboard)

[This post is no. 136 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of professional public prose. And to be a little persnickety: on is better capitalized. The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition (8.160), on titles: “Lowercase prepositions of fewer than five letters, except when they are used adverbially or adjectivally (up in Look Up, down in Turn Down, on in The On Button, to in Come To, etc.) or when they compose part of a Latin expression used adjectivally or adverbially (De Facto, In Vitro, etc.).” Do I have qualms about giving my writing away here? Not at all. I’m working only for myself and whoever reads.]

Strawberries, again

A reminder: just as the current occupant insists that vandals destroyed the surface of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool with sharp knives, Captain Queeg insisted that the strawberries were stolen with a duplicate key to the icebox.

But as I wrote in a 2020 post, Queeg had the self-awareness to stop himself mid-rant.

FOR SALE

[169 Lombardy Street, East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

This is the fourth WPA tax photograph I’ve posted from East Williamsburg. Next Sunday I’m going to get back to tax photographs with genuine sidewalks. Click for the much larger view and you might be surprised to see what was for sale in industrial Brooklyn. Today the address is occupied by Rich’s Skylights & Roof Hatches.

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More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

[“Well rotted,” the ads said.]

On James Baldwin’s birthday

Heber Taylor reminds his readers that today is James Baldwin’s birthday. It must be no coincidence that the Criterion Channel’s August offerings include James Baldwin On-Screen, five films about him. Missing: the 1965 Cambridge University debate between Baldwin and William F. Buckley, readily available at YouTube.

Last night we watched I Heard It Through the Grapevine (dir. Dick Fontaine and Pat Hartley, 1982), a documentary in which Baldwin revisits the American south (with a sidetrip to Newark, New Jersey) and talks with veterans of the fight for human rights. The sad conclusion: everything had changed, and nothing had changed. Baldwin: “Twenty years later, and the same old piano playing the blues.”

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All OCA James Baldwin posts (Pinboard)

The emperor’s new pool

In the most recent installment of Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson writes about the travesty of the botched effort to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool and the current occupant’s insistence, nonetheless, that vandals were to blame for the damage.

The utter absurdity of this story would make it a fitting representation of the lunacy of this regime, save that the human costs are fairly negligible. Cutting off foreign aid, promulgating medical quackery, killing protestors and boat crews, demonizing those who are not white and those who are transgender, seizing and imprisoning and deporting people without due process, beginning an ill-considered war of choice: there the human costs are much higher.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, composing as Anna Stiga (Stan Again). It’s a tough one. There is sports trivia: 43-A, six letters, “First State school mascot, appropriately.” There is sports trivia that I do not understand: 25-D, seven letters, “Three NFL nicknames.” There are non-sports answers I do not understand: 15-A, nine letters, “Verbal matter of fact.” There is obscurity: 2-D, eight letters, “About 27,000 gallons on the farm.” There is at least one answer that doesn’t ring true (or ring at all): 40-D, eight letters, “Fashion rebel.” But there are still moments of 44-D, six letters, “Flash.”

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

21-A, three letters, “Quick lunch.” Short and snappy.

27-D, seven letters, “Having bills.” In debt? Or flush with cash?

37-A, fifteen letters, “Discussion agreement.” Given the effort it took me to solve this puzzle, I’m happy to accept this plain-ish spanner.

50-A, four letters, “Gobi Desert’s day.” Nice.

59-A, five letters, “Toon swimmer saying ‘If I become human....’” It helps to have grandchildren.

65-A, letters, “Didn’t write off too quickly.” I like the weirdness of the word that is the answer.

My favorite in this puzzle: 52-D, five letters, “Irish first name.” Because even after I got it, it took me a while to get it.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Dusty Baker digs Hooker ’n Heat

From an interview: Dusty Baker digs Hooker ’n Heat .

That 1970 collaboration between John Lee Hooker and Canned Heat, is, still, one of my favorite recordings. I think it’s the best album Hooker ever made, and with the possible exception of Future Blues, the best album Canned Heat ever made. I wrote a long post about Hooker ’n Heat in 2011 to mark the double-album’s fortieth anniversary.

Dusty Baker also talks about his memories of Monterey Pop, where he would have heard Canned Heat. And there’s also stuff about baseball.

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Emily Wilson slams adaptation

In the news:

In a 4,500-word essay published in Harper’s Magazine, Emily Wilson, known for her popular translation of the Minions epic poem, blasted the latest film Thursday as a “sexless, bloodless” adaptation. “The first line of my translation is ‘Tell me about a kooky Minion,’ but the Minions in director Pierre Coffin’s film — who has said in at least one interview he was directly inspired by my work — aren’t kooky at all,” said the University of Pennsylvania classic scholar, who published a popular and highly praised translation of the 2,700-year-old Minions And Monsters poem in 2017.

[Context: Wilson’s review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.]

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, July 31, 2026.]

I would have added “Click for a larger view,” but the Flagstons appear to be living in a field that’s large enough already. Poor Chip.

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All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)

Notebook carousel

At Oscar’s Portrait, Geo-B (or someone suspiciously like him) buys yet another notebook. I can identify.