“Is country music right for you?”

A quiz by Charlie Hopper:

Is country music right for you? (via Coudal)

I scored 118. Time to redo my record collection.

PowerPoint and the military

Brigadier General H. R. McMaster, quoted in an article on PowerPoint and the United States military: “It’s dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control. Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.” Read more:

We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint (New York Times)

A related post
PowerPoint and the war

New York, 1964: Schrafft’s

From Harold H. Hart’s Hart’s Guide to New York City (New York: Hart Publishing, 1964).

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery has had a Schrafft’s luncheon menu from 1959 — close enough. Liverwurst? Pineapple fritters? Anyone? You can still find the menu here.

The photograph below predates Hart’s Guide by many years, though it does show a “feminine contingent.” Note too the dumbwaiter at the far left and the knickknacks topping the display cases:



[“Schrafft’s.” Photograph by Cornell Capa, 1948. Via the Life photo archive, where there’s a larger view.]

That empty chair awaits the plucky time-traveler.

[This post is for my mom and dad, who sometimes met for lunch at Schrafft’s. They once had a star as their waiter.]

Also from Harold Hart’s Guide
Chock full o’Nuts
Greenwich Village and coffee house
Mayflower Coffee Shop(pe)
Minetta Tavern, Monkey Bar
Record stores

New York, 1964: Chock full o’Nuts

To every food, its adjective(s). From Harold H. Hart’s Hart’s Guide to New York City (New York: Hart Publishing, 1964).

Related posts
Chock full o’Nuts lunch hour
Chock full o’Nuts

Also from Harold Hart’s Guide
Greenwich Village and coffee house
Mayflower Coffee Shop(pe)
Minetta Tavern, Monkey Bar
Record stores
Schrafft’s

War, soldiers, trauma

From a New York Times report on transition units “for soldiers with physical wounds and severe psychological trauma”:

For many soldiers, they have become warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers. Because of their wounds, soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are particularly vulnerable to depression and addiction, but many soldiers from Fort Carson’s unit say their treatment there has made their suffering worse.

Some soldiers in the unit, and their families, described long hours alone in their rooms, or in homes off the base, aimlessly drinking or playing video games.

“In combat, you rely on people and you come out of it feeling good about everything,” said a specialist in the unit. “Here, you’re just floating. You’re not doing much. You feel worthless.”

Read more:

In Army’s Trauma Care Units, Feeling Warehoused (New York Times)

And consider what Sophocles can teach us:

Theater of War (“a project that presents readings of ancient Greek plays to service members, veterans, caregivers and families as a catalyst for town hall discussions about the challenges faced by combat veterans today”)

Happy Anniversary

As my dad said on the phone yesterday, “Fifty-six years of close combat.”

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad.

(Yes, he was joking.)

Baby alert

Walking home from “school” the other day (a perk of being a college prof, still getting to walk home from “school”), I saw the pre-schoolers from a daycare walking two by two to a grassy spot. One boy cried out: “The babies are here!” As indeed they were. A young woman from the baby daycare unit was waiting on the grass with a fully stocked quad-stroller. A mannerly miniature petting zoo then began to take shape.

Government-pen success

If you too wish to write with government ink, I can recommend buying from One Source Office Products, which sells government-issue ballpoints for 44¢ (medium) and 48¢ (fine). Shipping, via UPS, is free. Three cheers for One Source Office Products.

As for the pen, it’s one dowdy-looking ballpoint. It’s like something from 1965. I am happy.

As seen on TV

“[T]he parts where they show us what we’re doing wrong and why we need the product”: As seen on TV.

(Thanks, Ben!)

Chock full o’Nuts lunch hour

“Lunchtime shoppers and department-store workers jam the Herald Square Chock Full O’ Nuts [sic]. The rush-hour eater waits five minutes, often eats in 10.”

A rough count suggests at least 120 people in this photograph.

[Photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt, from “The U.S. Goes Out to Lunch,” Life, January 3, 1955. Via the Life photo archive. Don’t miss the large version.]

Related posts
Angela Lansbury and Basil Rathbone (Out to lunch)
Chock full o’Nuts
New York, 1964: Chock full o’Nuts