Visiting balloons

I discovered these balloons in the backyard this morning. Was someone trying to brighten our empty nest? No.

I discovered these balloons in the backyard this morning. Was someone trying to brighten our empty nest? No.

The card attached was addressed to the "Bus Garage Office": "Thanks for another smooth start." As I learned when I called the flowershop, these balloons were delivered yesterday.

The schoolbus company has its office on the outskirts of town. These balloons must have traveled about four miles to show up in our backyard.

Nest to let

Elaine has posted a photograph.

I remembered yesterday an exchange that took place nineteen summers ago. I was at a gathering for participants in an NEH seminar and their families. As my daughter Rachel, then one-and-a-half, toddled around, a fellow seminar member said to me, "They're such a nuisance, aren't they?"

No, they aren't.

Question Garners Local Man Coupons

[That's how the local newspaper might put it.]

The so-called lemonade that I wrote about about last week has continued to occupy my thought process. So I e-mailed Supervalu to ask (politely) how the words "old-fashioned recipe" apply to the product in question, a blend of water, chemicals, and dye. Days went by without a reply, so I tried again and was told that my comments had been forwarded to the manufacturer and that I could expect a reply soon. In today's mail, a polite non-answer ("Your comments are being forwarded to Our Own Brands Product Developers for their consideration"), along with $4 in coupons.

These coupons may be applied to products from an extended family of store brands: Flavorite, Foodland, Shoppers Value, Super Chill, Yotastic (there's a snappy name for yogurt), and many more. Super Chill Cola, a decent cola in three-liter bottles, and a sentimental family favorite, seems to promise the most bang for the buck. (Or four bucks.)

Related post
Lemonade and lies

On the radio

"The staff at Owens Funeral Home invites you to join them . . ."

Yipes!

". . . in supporting public radio."

Whew.

Sensosketch challenge

My son Ben asked for a family game of Cranium before heading off to college. The picture to the left comes from that game, from a Sensosketch challenge, requiring the player to draw with eyes closed.

Ben drew, no peeking allowed. His sister Rachel had the answer at once. Ben embellished the picture a bit in the post-game hubbub.

The score of the game: Kids: 1, Parents: 0. (Humph.)

What answer was Ben's picture meant to elicit?

Fifty — no, make that one-hundred bonus points and a free extra turn for the first commenter to get it.

The hint accompanying this Cranium challenge: band.

Max Roach (1924-2007)

Max Roach, a founder of modern jazz who rewrote the rules of drumming in the 1940's and spent the rest of his career breaking musical barriers and defying listeners' expectations, died early today in Manhattan. He was 83. . . .

Over the years he challenged both his audiences and himself by working not just with standard jazz instrumentation, and not just in traditional jazz venues, but in a wide variety of contexts, some of them well beyond the confines of jazz as that word is generally understood. . . .

Mr. Roach explained his philosophy to The New York Times in 1990: "You can't write the same book twice. Though I've been in historic musical situations, I can't go back and do that again. And though I run into artistic crises, they keep my life interesting."

Max Roach, a Founder of Modern Jazz, Dies at 83 (New York Times)

If you've never heard Max Roach, try Money Jungle, with Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus.

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

All Proust posts (via Pinboard)

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)
All Homer posts (via Pinboard)

(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.]