A Plain Text Primer

At A Better Mess, Michael Schechter is writing about the benefits of working with plain text files. Two installments so far: A Plain Text Primer and Plain Text Primer: nvALT 101.

In a December 2011 post, I listed my favorite writing tools: index cards, pocket notebooks, legal pads, and the Mac apps TextWrangler and WriteRoom. I can now add nvALT: with Markdown, it’s perfect for creating blog posts. I continue to consider a word-processing window a hostile work environment. Writing is not word-processing.

“I Won’t Talk”

Yesterday, in Iowa, Ann Romney declined to answer a journalist’s questions about contraception and equal marriage. “This election,” Mrs. Romney explained, “is going to be about the economy and jobs.”

Elaine Fine has responded with some help from Jerome Kern and company.

Recently updated

Stuyvesant principal resigns retires The new principal has suggested that the school create an honor code.

Also in the news: Studies Find More Students Cheating, With High Achievers No Exception (New York Times).

Jennifer Granholm at the DNC

If you weren’t watching C-SPAN last night, you most likely missed it: former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm speaking to the Democratic National Convention. This woman was on fire.

My favorite line: “In Romney’s world, the cars get the elevator, and the workers get the shaft.” Yes, an elevator for cars.

[I want to point to a noteworthy speech, not argue politics.]

It’s called lifelong learning

Hay ≠ straw. When you go into the farm-and-home store to buy stuff to cover the grass seed you’ve strewn across the lifeless stretches of your so-called lawn, you should ask for “straw,” not “hay.” Hay is grass. Straw is stalks.



[From the New Oxford American Dictionary.]

I think that most hayrides are in fact strawrides.

A related post
The dowdy world goes to a party (includes a hayride)

[I sure hope the grass grows.]

Perry Mason’s office

“The aim of this project was to make a floor plan drawing of Perry’s office suite based upon a careful analysis of what can be seen in the show.” Perry’s Office Suite: A Discussion of a Magical Workspace.

Other Perry Mason posts
Perry Mason and Gilbert and Sullivan
Perry Mason and John Keats
Streetside gum machines

Recently updated

Larry David’s notebook Stephen Windham has found a source for the little brown book.

Streetside gum machines

[Perry Mason, “The Case of the Ominous Outcast,” May 21, 1960.]

I know that Perry Mason isn’t reality, but the above image suggests that wall-mounted gum machines were indeed found on mid-twentieth-century American streets.

Why these machines caught my eye: one, two, three installments of the comic strip Henry.

Pepperidge Farm Cookies

“What kind of person am I, and how am I different from people who prefer, say, Veronas or Genevas?” Leon Neyfakh tried every variety of Pepperidge Farm Cookie.

Thanks, Elaine.

[My favorites: Bordeaux and Shortbread.]

Pencil holder

[Photograph by Michael Leddy.]

I had a birthday a few days ago. Elaine gave me the ebony object above. We don’t know if it began its life holding pencils (perhaps dip pens?), but it’s holding pencils now. This pencil is a mid-century Eagle Turquoise, from an Eagle display case. Mid-century, c’est moi.

Thank you, Elaine.