“Sound-testing a MONGOL”

[Life, May 6, 1940.]

Some may believe this advertisement to be mere gimmickry, but I believe every word. My Mongols purr-r as the ad promises. They even speak the occasional Mkgnao!, like Leopold and Molly Bloom’s cat in Ulysses. Cheap, nondescript pencils? They just cough and sputter everywhere. It’s a mess.

See the Brooklyn address? Forgotten NY reports that Eberhard Faber was in Greenpoint (“Greenpernt”) from 1872 to 1956. FNY has photographs of Eberhard Faber buildings on Greenpoint Avenue and Franklin Street (scroll about a quarter of the way down the page). Mongol fans: note the Diamond Star in the second photograph.

A related post
Mongol No. 2 3/8

Strawberry stream of dialogue

“The best fruit in England — every body's favourite — always wholesome. — These the finest beds and finest sorts. — Delightful to gather for one’s self — the only way of really enjoying them. — Morning decidedly the best time — never tired — every sort good — hautboy infinitely superior — no comparison — the others hardly eatable — hautboys very scarce — Chili preferred — white wood finest flavour of all — price of strawberries in London — abundance about Bristol — Maple Grove — cultivation — beds when to be renewed — gardeners thinking exactly different — no general rule — gardeners never to be put out of their way — delicious fruit — only too rich to be eaten much of — inferior to cherries — currants more refreshing — only objection to gathering strawberries the stooping — glaring sun— tired to death—could bear it no longer — must go and sit in the shade.”

From Jane Austen’s Emma (1816), a blur of conversation from a strawberry-picking expedition, sounding like the stream of consciousness of Mr Leopold Bloom: “Like a few olives too if they had them. Italian I prefer.”

[That bit of Bloom is from the Laestrygonians episode of James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922).]

The Staffordshire Hoard

Introducing the Staffordshire Hoard, 1500+ items, found in July 2009: “This hoard is perhaps the most important collection of Anglo-Saxon objects found in England.”

(Thanks, George!)

How to use furoshiki

[Click for a larger view.]

Wikipedia explains:

風呂敷, furoshiki, a type of traditional Japanese wrapping cloth . . . frequently used to transport clothes, gifts, or other goods.

In 2006, Yuriko Koike, then Japan’s Minister of the Environment, devised a contemporary version of furoshiki:

I’ve created what you might call a “mottainai furoshiki.” The Japanese word mottainai means it’s a shame for something to go to waste without having made use of its potential in full. The furoshiki is made of a fiber manufactured from recycled PET bottles, and has a birds-and-flowers motif drawn by Itoh Jakuchu, a painter of the mid-Edo era.

The above chart comes from Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. Note the tag in the lower-right corner.

(Thanks, Rachel!)

Further reading
Furoshiki (Wikipedia)
How to use furoshiki (Ministry of the Environment)
“Mottainai furoshiki” (Ministry of the Environment)

National Punctuation Day

Once again, it’s — not its — National Punctuation Day.

Related posts
How to punctuate a sentence
How to punctuate more sentences

A new Glenn Gould documentary

There’s a new documentary about Glenn Gould, Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould, directed by Michèle Hozer and Peter Raymont.

Peter Rainer, writing in the Christian Science Monitor:

Considering how reclusive Gould was, it’s remarkable how much footage of him exists, including home movies here of him cavorting in the Bahamas with island girls. Who knew?

There’s a trailer, minus cavorting:

Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould (YouTube)

A related post
Glenn Gould’s chair

Domestic comedy

“Boy, that Katherine Mansfield, she sure can write.”

Related reading
All “domestic comedy” posts

[With apologies to Marty’s friend Leo and Mickey Spillane.]

The wrong line

A new voter-registration card came in the mail today, and like they say, it’s broken.

(“This” line is the one above the words. On the way to making a crease, I realized that I was on the wrong line and switched. The space between these lines: about 2mm, making it difficult to pick the right one by eye.)

A teachable moment

It happened during a class on the Odyssey yesterday, when a student pointed out that there was a large bug right next to me.

“I don’t care. I’m not afraid of some bug,” I replied.

(Yes: teaching is a performance.)

Then someone pointed out that I had just stepped on said bug. I looked down and saw a large fly, nearly dead. And a teachable moment.

“That bug is to me as Odysseus is to the Cyclops Polyphemus,” I said. “No, wait — that means he’s going to defeat me."

Then I bent down as if to look more closely.

“She.”

The Burt Britton Collection

[Eudora Welty. Ink on paper. 10 7/8 x 8 1/4 inches.]

Eudora Welty’s self-portrait is one several hundred self-portraits by actors, artists, athletes, booksellers, musicians, photographers, publishers, and writers, all to be auctioned on September 24, 2009. They are from the collection of Burt Britton, a co-founder of the New York bookstore Books & Co. The starting bid on Welty’s self-portrait: $1000.

The Burt Britton Collection is being auctioned by Bloomsbury Auctions. The catalogue is available as a free PDF download. (Thanks, Bloomsbury!)