2010: the year of Van Dyke Parks?

Suddenly — as my son Ben would’ve put it, telling a story at the age of five or six — suddenly, Van Dyke Parks seems to be everywhere, taking to the road. From an article in yesterday’s newspaper:

“My motto is, ‘I’ve suffered like hell for my music. Now it’s your turn.’”

May 2010 suddenly be the year of Van Dyke Parks. Read more:

Van Dyke Parks: Reasons To “Smile” (Palo Alto Mercury News)

Stopette

[Life, July 10, 1950. Via Google Books.]

Everything you need to know about Stopette. And a clip from What’s My Line? with Stopette’s inventor, Dr. Jules Montenier. And a television commercial. And that is all. Poof.

Stopette is an item in this J.D. Salinger catalogue. Other items in the catalogue: Argyrol, Musterole, Sal Hepatica.

Sal Hepatica

[Life, August 16, 1948. Via Google Books.]

“Now everything’s clicking.” Time for a new roll. Of film, I mean. Yipes.

Nostrums and Quackery (Chicago: American Medical Association, 1912) reports that Sal Hepatica was sold as a “uric-acid eliminant, hepatic stimulant, a specific for gout, rheumatism, cirrhosis of the liver, Bright’s disease, gravel, tuberculosis, struma, marasmus, dyspepsia, infantile fluxes, etc.” Like Duz, it did everything. But it lost its magical powers and ended up a laxative. Poor Sal.

Sal Hepatica is an item in this J.D. Salinger catalogue. Other items in the catalogue: Argyrol, Musterole, Stopette.

Caroline’s Crayons’ telegram story

It’s a story in pictures: Telegram.

A related post
How to send telegrams

Musterole

[Ebony, December 1959. Via Google Books.]

The 1917 Year Book of the American Pharmaceutical Association (Chicago: American Pharmaceutical Association, 1919) describes Musterole as “composed essentially of lard or some similar material, oil of mustard, menthol and camphor.” Ads older than the one above offer grisly reassurance:


[Popular Mechanics, April 1921. Via Google Books.]

Our ancestors were made of strong stuff, stronger than mustard even.

Musterole is an item in this J.D. Salinger catalogue. Also in the catalogue: Argyrol, Sal Hepatica, Stopette.

Argyrol

[New and Nonofficial Remedies, 1921 (Chicago: American Medical Association, 1921). Via Google Books.]

Argyrol is an item in this J.D. Salinger catalogue. Also in the catalogue: Musterole, Sal Hepatica, Stopette.

Fortune cookie

[Photograph by Michael Leddy.]

Generous portions. Failed prophecy.

BOILINGWATER

Tea drinkers may wince at 27-Across in today’s New York Times crossword: “What you drop uncooked spaghetti or a tea bag into.” Yes, that’s the answer above.

All sorts of things might be dropped into boiling water, but a tea bag shouldn’t be one of them. The Tazo website tells us what to do when our water boils: “Pour over tea.” Tetley: “Bring water to a rolling boil and immediately pour over your tea bag.” And Twinings: “Bring water to a boil, and pour over the tea as soon as it reaches boiling.”

One can find similar guidance at websites for tea companies whose names begin with other letters of the alphabet.

Recently updated

I like the way Jason Kottke manages updates of his posts, so I’m adopting his practice here. I just updated two recent posts:

Poulenc in 9 Chickweed Lane (now with my translation of Louis Aragon’s poem “C”)

Van Dyke Parks and Ringo Starr (now with background on the Starr–Parks song “Walk With Me”)

And one older post:

“[A] process and an unfolding” (now with a corrected quotation from George Eliot’s Middlemarch)

Super Bowl thoughts

On “the tenuous and ephemeral concept of victory”: deep Super Bowl thoughts.

(Thanks, Ben!)