Two useful bookmarklets

What is a bookmarklet, exactly? It's "an applet, a small computer application, stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page." Thanks, Wikipedia. Here are two useful bookmarklets:

quietube removes the clutter from web videos.

Readability removes clutter from web pages. Also good for making clean PDFs or print versions of online materials. Readability seems to work best with pages displaying a single article or post.

These bookmarklets seem to me especially helpful in classroom settings, where one might want to look at a news item or film clip without the distractions of ads or viewer comments.

If you dislike displaying a bookmarks toolbar in your browser, you can save these bookmarklets as plain bookmarks. Call them up quickly when you're browsing by assigning keywords — for instance, qtube, read.

(found via Daring Fireball and 43 Folders Clips)

Dennison's Gummed Labels No. 27

What is the end
to insects
that suck gummed
labels?

William Carlos Williams, from XII (later titled "Composition"), Spring and All (1923)

The glue on the above labels is untouched by insects, untouched by human tongues. These labels are from a box of forty-five Dennison's Gummed Labels No. 27. I like the clear design, the white bands (shades of Pall Mall Famous Cigarettes), and the lower-case th. I wish I knew the typeface. I found these labels some years ago in a now-defunct stationery store.

[This post is the fourth in an occasional series, "From the Museum of Supplies." The museum is imaginary. The supplies are real. Supplies is my word, and has become my family's word, for all manner of stationery items.]

Also from the Museum of Supplies
Mongol No. 2 3/8
Real Thin Leads
Rite-Rite Long Leads

"[S]ought for smell for dust for lace"

T's comment about the smell of books made me remember this poem by Gregory Corso:



Corso, like Percy Bysshe Shelley, is a poet of exclamatory, lofty energy. As you might already know, Corso's ashes are buried next to Shelley's in the Cimitero acattolico di Roma, the Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome.

If you're wondering what a "cypressean skein" is, I am too. Corso's poem "Bomb" mentions "cypressean torches." But a skein? Corso, like Malcolm X, was a dictionary reader in prison.

I do know that I love the adjective steep (high, lofty) modifying book. O book!

A related post
Gregory Corso and words

Hi and Lois and hair

Now I understand Chip's strange appearance earlier this week: there must be a new stylist at work at Hi and Lois, so dedicated, so passionate, that he or she is working even in the interstice, as in today's strip, cutting, parting, shaping, volumizing. New looks! And new colors. Thirsty has always — always — had "blond" hair — that is, yellow.

Related reading
All Hi and Lois posts

Smell of Books™

Too late for April 1, but still timely for nostalgists: Smell of Books™, "a revolutionary new aerosol e-book enhancer."

When I've asked my students, digital natives all, what they think about the idea of reading on a Kindle, several have said that they would miss the smell of books. "What!" said I. "Are you from the nineteenth century or something?" They weren't joking, and they wouldn't budge.

Related posts
From the Doyle edition
No Kindle for me

(via The Daily Dish)

A Winston Churchill breakfast

From 1954:

1st Tray. Poached egg, Toast, Jam, Butter, Coffee and milk, Jug of cold milk, Cold Chicken or Meat.

2nd Tray. Grapefruit, Sugar Bowl, Glass orange squash (ice), Whisky soda.

Wash hands, cigar.

Churchill's hand-written breakfast menu revealed (Daily Mail)

Daily Routines has an account of Churchill's, uhh, daily routine. And if you're wondering about orange squash, it's a beverage.

Libraries in hard times

From yesterday's New York Times:

As the national economic crisis has deepened and social services have become casualties of budget cuts, libraries have come to fill a void for more people, particularly job-seekers and those who have fallen on hard times. Libraries across the country are seeing double-digit increases in patronage, often from 10 percent to 30 percent, over previous years.

But in some cities, this new popularity — some would call it overtaxing — is pushing libraries in directions not seen before, with librarians dealing with stresses that go far beyond overdue fines and misshelved books. Many say they feel ill-equipped for the newfound demands of the job, the result of working with anxious and often depressed patrons who say they have nowhere else to go. . . .

"I guess I’m not really used to people with tears in their eyes," said Rosalie Bork, a reference librarian in Arlington Heights, a well-to-do suburb of Chicago. "It has been unexpectedly stressful. We feel so anxious to help these people, and it’s been so emotional for them."

Downturn Puts New Stresses on Libraries (New York Times)

Today's Hi and Lois

If you can account for Chip's hair in the middle panel of today's Hi and Lois, I'll triple your allowance.

Bangs aside, I like the way Chip's Trixie-like tuft resembles a misaligned goatee.

Related reading
All Hi and Lois posts

Swiss spaghetti harvest

From 1957: Swiss spaghetti harvest (YouTube).

(Thanks, Elaine!)

Gmail innovates again

As more and more everyday communication takes place over e-mail, lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.

It's Gmail to the rescue, with Gmail Autopilot™ by CADIE.

A related post
Google introduces gDay™ technology