Frank would not approve

I did it my way.

I had my way.

I have never had a way.

No way.

No way.

[More fun with Translation Party.]

Rob Zseleczky on clutter and stuff

My friend Rob Zseleczky shares an insight:

I need less crap, even if it’s great crap.

I know what he means: I pass up books that I would’ve bought without hesitation in years past. Can get from library, says my interior monologue. I too need less crap, even if it’s great crap.

You?

Related posts
Good advice from Rob Zseleczky
“Wanting is big, having is small”

Lawrence Lucie (1907–2009)

“In show business it doesn’t always pay to tell your real age.”

Lawrence Lucie, Guitarist With Jelly Roll Morton, Dies at 102 (New York Times)

I am a California girl.

I wish they all could be California girls.

I’m a girl I’m jealous of all of California.

I have my daughter I California.

I’m a California girl.

I am a California girl.

I am a California girl.

[Fun with Translation Party.]

I have to be Proust.

I’d take Proust.

I do not have to Proust.

I need to Proust.

I have to be Proust.

I have to be Proust.

Watch words travel from English to Japanese back to English at Translation Party. I began with the last three words of a wonderful remark by 1950s quarterback Ronnie Knox: “If I had to make the choice between a month of playing football and a month of reading Marcel Proust, I’d take Proust.”

(via Boing Boing)

“Exercise boosts brain power”

The next time I’m tempted to skip exercising (because it’s too early, too late, too cold, too hot), I’m going to remember the above chart, from the website that supplements John Medina’s Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Seattle: Pear Press, 2008). Medina’s conclusion:

Active people have half the risk of Alzheimer’s of sedentary people. It’s even less for general dementia.

My conclusion: To sit and read and write, one must keep moving.

“Exercise boosts brain power” is the first rule of Brain Rules, and for me it’s the most valuable lesson in the book. Thanks, Professor Medina.

702–554–1465

[Updated July 8, 2010: see below.]

Lately, we’ve been getting mysterious telephone calls from “CNG” at 702–554–1465. These calls have given us useful practice speaking into a void, repeatedly. Who is CNG?

Google 702–554–1465 and you might wonder for a moment if you've met up with the telephonic equivalent of a numbers station. Other people report odd calls from this number, with no one on the other end and a constant busy signal when they try to return the calls. The number can be tracked to Searchlight, Nevada. How’s that for a cornily mysterious location?

But tonight, CNG spoke to us at last, asking if we wanted to subscribe to a nearby city’s paper. So CNG would be a call center (and my guess is that N is for Newspaper). Now the question becomes how to get off the list.

[Update, August 22, 2009: 702–554–1465 is serviced by Pac-West Telecomm, Inc. Pac-West’s number is 1–800–511–9048. When I called, I was told that Pac-West would send CNG an e-mail asking that my number be removed.

After getting yet another call, I called the paper and spoke to someone who knew nothing about Searchlight, Nevada, but who promised to look into these calls. Today I received a call from “Mobility Services” in Elkhart, Indiana. I was told that the calls are part of an eight-week promotion for 185 newspapers. I asked that my number be removed from the list. My best advice: call your local or nearly local paper(s), describe what’s happening, and ask that your number be removed.

Update, August 29, 2009: No more calls from CNG.]

[Update, July 8, 2010: A reader has passed on a name, telephone number, and e-mail address to which complaints should be directed. I’m uneasy about putting anyone’s name and e-mail address online. But here are the companies in this telemarketing venture:

Crossfire Newspaper Group: 888–852–7923
Jones Boys of Las Vegas: 702–732–4212

Thanks, reader.]

THE MAIN TITLE

[“Experimental layout by Jan Tschichold, 1948 (assisted by Erik Ellegaard Frederiksen).” From Phil Baines, The Penguin Book: A Cover Story, 1935–2005 (London: Allen Lane, 2005), 56.]

Seeing it out of context, I’d guess “Andy Warhol.”

Related reading
Richard Doubleday, Jan Tschichold at Penguin Books

Oregon

You might have been there too:

History of 19th-Century Oregon (xkcd)

(If this comic has you stumped: an explanation.)

Rashied Ali (1935–2009)

From the New York Times’ ArtsBeat Blog:

Rashied Ali, whose expressionistic, free-jazz drumming helped define the experimental style of John Coltrane’s final years, died Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 76.

When I was a teenager, I listened to Coltrane and Ali’s Interstellar Space (recorded in 1967, not released until 1974), again and again and again and again. Here’s a sample, via YouTube.