Proust: Wednesdays

Mme Verdurn is no everyday salonnière:

Mme Verdurin did not give "dinners," but she had "Wednesdays." Her Wednesdays were a work of art. While knowing that there was nothing to equal them elsewhere, Mme Verdurin introduced fine distinctions between them. "This last Wednesday wasn't up to the one before," she would say. "But I think the next'll be one the most successful I've ever given." She sometimes went so far as to confess: "This Wednesday wasn't worthy of the others. In return, I've got a big surprise for you for the one after that." In the final weeks of the season in Paris, before leaving for the country, the Patronne would announce that the Wednesdays were ending. It was an opportunity to spur on the faithful: "There are only three Wednesdays left, there are only two more," she would say, in the same tone of voice as if the world were about to end. "You're not going to let me down next Wednesday for the closure." But this closure was a sham, for she would warn them: "Now, officially, there are no more Wednesdays. That was the last for this year. But I shall be here all the same on Wednesdays. We'll have Wednesday among ourselves. Who knows? These little intimate Wednesdays will perhaps be the pleasantest. At La Raspalière, the Wednesdays were necessarily restricted, and since, according as some friend had been met with when passing through and had been invited for one evening or another, almost every day was a Wednesday.

Marcel Proust, Sodom and Gomorrah, translated by John Sturrock (New York: Penguin, 2002), 251

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Phil Rizzuto (1917-2007)

"Rizzuto's cultural status was further elevated in 1993 when editors Tom Peyer and Hart Seely published O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto, a collection of Rizzuto's on-air monologues and ramblings, transcribed and reformatted as found poetry. Rizzuto donated his royalties from the book to a variety of children's charities." (Wikipedia)

Apodosis

Fly ball right field
It's gonna drop in.
No it's not gonna drop in.
Happy 46th wedding anniversary
Thomas and Mary Anne Clearwater.
That's it.
The last three, six, nine, twelve Yankees
Went down in order.
So that's it.
The game is over.

                         [June 4, 1991
                         Toronto at New York
                         Tom Henke pitching to Pat Kelly
                         Ninth inning, two outs, bases empty
                         Blue Jays win 5-3]

From O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto (NY: Ecco, 1993)

Phil Rizzuto, Yankees Shortstop, Dies at 89 (New York Times
Phil Rizzuto (Wikipedia)
Apodosis (Wikipedia)

Oikos

Spotted last week in a New Jersey supermarket:

[Photograph by Rachel Leddy.]

Oikos (οίκος) is one of my favorite ancient Greek words. Its meanings include house, dwelling, household, and family (as in "the house of Atreus"). Oikos is the source of ec- and eco-, as in ecology and economics. It's a key word in Homer's Odyssey, which is about finding one's way back home.

The cover of Stanley Lombardo's translation of the Odyssey makes this point beautifully, with a cropped version of "Earthrise," an Apollo 8 photograph of our one oikos, taken as the astronauts orbited the moon. When the Odyssey begins, Odysseus may as well be on the moon: stuck on Calypso's island, he has been removed from all possibilities of human culture.

Earthrise (NASA)
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(Thanks, Rachel!)

Pump

A suggestion for improving the quality of life: add air to your car's tires by using a pump.

Consider the advantages: No waiting for the gas station's air hose. No arduous maneuvering to get close enough to the air hose. No quarters. No racing from tire to tire as time runs out. No driving off with grimy hands. And a modest addition to the day's physical activity.

Of course, you need a good pump, something better than what's found in big-box stores. I use the Goldenrod pump, purchased from a local "farm and home" store. The Goldenrod is not cheap. It's also not semi-disposable. Manufacturer Dutton-Lainson gives a detailed description of the Goldenrod's features:

All steel joint intake valve.

Produces 200 pounds of pressure.

Intake valve designed to permit cylinder to fill with air on upward stroke with no back pressure.

30" hose with storage clip.

Hose features easy thumb lock connector.

Zinc die cast top and bottom caps.

1 3/8" x 20 3/8" heavy gauge steel cylinder, with copper bronze finish.

Overall length is 24 1/2".

Large, comfortable solid wood handle.

Replacement hose complete with thumb lock connector and hose clamp available.

The Goldenrod pump is made in the States. It lists for $56.99 ($37.99 from Amazon).

Dutton-Lainson Company (Since 1886!)
The Goldenrod Pump (Dutton-Lainson)
Goldenrod pump (Amazon)

[Update, 2.7.08: As Rich Stewart notes in a comment, this pump is no more. I called Dutton-Lainson to confirm that it's no longer manufactured. The reason: the company couldn't compete with imports on price.]

Mister Rogers and self-esteem

Family Communications, the organization that brings us Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, has a succinct and convincing reply to the assertion in a recent Wall Street Journal article that Fred Rogers is to blame for runaway self-esteem among young adults.

It's All Mister Rogers' Fault? (Family Communications)

Related post
Blaming Mister Rogers

The real Mr. T

How exciting (to me, anyway) to discover that a pencil manufacturer employed a cartoon spokescharacter. Meet Mr. T, who represented Dixon Ticonderoga pencils.

I found this image (from a 1957 magazine ad) in Warren Dotz and Masud Husain's Meet Mr. Product (San Francisco: Chronicle, 2003).

To corpse

"The difference on this program is that everybody corpses, and there's no one worse than Ricky."

Shaun Williamson (aka "Barry from EastEnders"), commenting on the BBC series Extras

Watching the extras on an Extras DVD (second season), I learned a bit of acting slang. The Oxford English Dictionary traces its history:

corpse, v. Actors' slang. To confuse or 'put out' (an actor) in the performance of his part; to spoil (a scene or piece of acting) by some blunder.

1873 Slang Dict., Corpse, to stick fast in the dialogue; to confuse or put out the actors by making a mistake.

In 1993, the OED expanded the definition:

[2.] b. intr. Of an actor: to forget one's lines; = DRY v. 2 d; to spoil one's performance by being confused or made to laugh by one's colleagues.

1874 HOTTEN Slang Dict., Corpse, to stick fast in the dialogue. 1958 News Chron. 23 May 4/7 There's a new word, too, from drama school. When anyone forgot their lines in the past they had dried. Today, they have 'corpsed'. 1972 A. BENNETT Getting On I. 32 Mrs Brodribb: When Max —. Geoff: Max (He corpses). Mrs Brodribb: (silencing him with a look) — pauses by your doorstep he is not just relieving himself. He is leaving a message. 1987 Observer 8 Feb. 11/2 Gambon said his dying line ('Oh, I am slain') in the mode of a different theatrical grandee every night — a display of 'suicidal nerve', all to get his co-actor to corpse in the dark.

It's the most recent meaning of the word that's relevant to Extras, though here it's the corpsing performer him- or herself who takes the blame for failing to keep a straight face. The short feature The Art of Corpsing features Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant and company corpsing — in take after take after take — and talking about corpsing. One realizes, watching these efforts, how much dedicated work goes into what appears to be the most casual, low-key kind of comedic acting.

A Proust tour

Odette has alerted her readers to a Proust tour to Paris, Illiers-Combray and Cabourg (the novel's Balbec). It's too late for this year's trip, which took place in June. Interested parties might begin saving for next summer ($3,675).

Had I but cash enough and time, I'd like to make such a trip. I'd especially like seeing Proust's notebooks at the Bibliothèque nationale. I'm not sure though that I believe in the likelihood of the "magic moments" that the tourgivers promise:

Reading the madeleine excerpt from Swann's Way while you sip tea and take a bite of your madeleine in Illiers-Combray. Standing in the lobby of the Grand Hotel in Cabourg (Balbec) with a view of the beach. Unforgettable experiences that bring Proust's prose to life.

Well, maybe. What brings Proust's prose to life for me is recognizing the Proustian workings of memory and perception in my own life. Eating a madeleine would bring me no closer to Proust than eating red beans and rice would to Louis Armstrong.¹ But drinking a glass of water and being reminded of my grandparents' kitchen — that, for me, is a genuinely Proustian moment.

There's a wonderful anecdote about Joseph Cornell that helps me to understand my uneasiness about this promise of "magic moments." David Saunders, a high-school student and fan of Cornell's work, once brought the artist a box of items from childhood:

There were glass shards, chandelier crystals, a sheriff's badge, old coins, wind-up metal toys from early in the century. Knowing how much Cornell loved such objects, Saunders plunked down the box on the kitchen table, removed its contents, and generously said, "You can have everything!" Cornell appeared astounded. "Oh no, Mr. Saunders," he protested, "I couldn't take these. This is your marvelous collection."

[Deborah Solomon, Utopia Parkway: The Life and Work of Joseph Cornell (NY: Noonday, 1997) 356-57]

So too it's Proust's marvelous madeleine, the trigger for his involuntary memories. Yours, or mine, might be found closer to home.

¹ Red beans and rice was a signature Armstrong dish. He often signed letters "Red beans and ricely yours."

Proust in Paris, Illiers-Combray and Cabourg (Balbec) (Travel-by-the-Book)

Related posts
Joseph Cornell on collecting
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American highway signage

American highway signage is changing:

Highway Gothic conjures the awe of Interstate travel and the promise of midcentury futurism; Clearview's aesthetic is decidedly more subdued. "It's like being a good umpire," [highway engineer Martin] Pietrucha says, suggesting that one of Clearview's largest triumphs will be how quietly it replaces Highway Gothic sign by sign in the coming years. "It will completely change the look of the American highway, but not so much that anyone will notice."

Driving east in Pennsylvania last week, I noticed the Trebuchet-like curl in the lower-case l (i.e., el), but I didn't realize that the change was more than local.

Read all about it:

The Road to Clarity (New York Times)

Vegan Restaurants Master List

Erin at Vegan Restaurants Master List is contacting the corporate headquarters of restaurant chains to ask "What's vegan?"

Erin's blog is a great resource for anyone who's vegan (or aspires to be). But it's good reading too for anyone with an interest in seeing how corporations respond to friendly questions from customers and potential customers. The responses range from helpful and well-informed (Chili's) to highly evasive (Jimmy John's).

It's remarkable how little the people who run restaurants sometimes know about what they're serving. A few days ago, when I asked the manager of a Taco Bell if the rice was vegan, she laughed and said she had "no idea."

A related post
Is Jimmy John's bread vegan?