Words from Theodore Roosevelt, sort of

On the September 28 page of my New Yorker cartoon calendar, words attributed to Theodore Roosevelt: “Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Every day, man, every day. But the words aren’t Roosevelt’s, though something close to them appears in his 1913 autobiography:


[“Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are.”]

I like the informality of the contraction even better. This advice makes me think of Harvey Pekar’s “Keep on pushin’,” also good advice.

Here’s a page with the results of an effort to track down Squire Bill Widener.

A tip for debate-watching

I will quote advice that I offered on October 2, 2008:

The best choice for watching a presidential or vice-presidential debate is C-SPAN. Why? C-SPAN’s continuous split-screen lets you see both participants at all times, allowing for all sorts of observations about body language and facial expression.

I hope this advice still holds.

Some expect very little from Mitt Romney tonight. Not me. I expect both body language and facial expressions, visible at all times on a split-screen. And I expect that Governor Romney will deliver his “zingers” in a way that makes clear the month-plus of rehearsal he has put into them.

[From the New York Times: “Mr. Romney’s team has concluded that debates are about creating moments and has equipped him with a series of zingers that he has memorized and has been practicing on aides since August.”]

A non-restrictive clause in Mark Trail

[Mark Trail, October 3, 2012.]

Dialogue in Mark Trail is often stilted: contractions are few; every guy, even a bad guy, is a “fellow.” Today’s strip includes a stilted non-restrictive clause. If I were Cherry Trail, I think I’d say something like this: “Call the sheriff, Dad . . . these guys fellows are poachers, thieves, and kidnappers!”

If I were Cherry Trail, I would also be wondering where my husband is. He’s been missing from the strip for weeks now. Preparing, perhaps, for a debate.

Related reading
All Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

Domestic comedy

“How did you know to get the grass seed in right before it rained?”

“I am connected to the earth.”

Related reading
All domestic comedy posts

[Used with permission.]

Yes, we can

UNKNOWN CALLER called last night with a recorded message from a group looking “to defeat Barack Obama.” Sorry, wrong number. But I listened out of morbid curiosity, and when the invitation came to speak to a person about donating, I pressed “1.” The reading-from-a-script began immediately: “Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan,” &c. I jumped in: “Could you please remove me from your lists and not call again?” The reply: “Yes, we can.”

The reply was most likely automatic. But if I were working in telemarketing and had to field calls for Romney and Ryan, that’s exactly the secret message I’d give a fellow Obama supporter.

Related posts
New directions in nuisance calls
Three words (Yes, we can.)

[UNKNOWN CALLER’s number is listed as belonging to a Washington, D. C. architectural firm. But the number has been disconnected. Caller-ID spoofing, I suppose.]

Mike Love gets served

Mike Love has explained that he and Bruce Johnston will continue to tour as the Beach Boys, without Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, and David Marks, so as “not to get overexposed.” He has drawn an unflattering comparison to the Eagles, who “found out the hard way when they went out for a second year and wound up selling tickets for $5.” Love just got served:

“Since 1994 when the Eagles reunited, they have performed more than 600 shows worldwide,” the letter continued. “Neither the band nor its reps are aware of any promoter accusing them of being ‘overexposed.’ Regarding Mr. Love’s statement about Eagles tickets being sold for $5, according to our records that did happen on June 21, 1975, when the band performed at Wembley Stadium with the Beach Boys.”

I am happy to have missed the Beach Boys’ (so-called) reunion, a gathering of five musicians who had never before played as a group. Given the Boys’ history, an ugly end may have been fated.

The Financial Times has a review of the next-to-last show, which featured Love making fun of Darian Sahanaja’s name. Stay classy, Mike Love.

*

1:02 p.m.: In the comments, Andrew Hickey suggests that Love wasn’t making fun of DS’s name. Having listened, I agree with him. I think though that my final sentence still applies.

8:19 p.m.: Andrew Hickey has written a detailed review of the tour’s last show.

[Careful “not to get overexposed”? Every time I step into my friendly neighborhood multinational retailer, the Beach Boys are playing.]

Five prepositions

One more from E. B. White to Jack Case, March 30, 1962:

The next grammar book I want to bring out I want to tell how to end a sentence with five prepositions. A father of a little boy goes upstairs after supper to read to his son, but he brings the wrong book. The boys says, “What did you bring that book that I don’t want to be read to out of up for?”

And how are YOU?

Letters of E. B. White, ed. Dorothy Lobrano Guth (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).

Related reading
All Elements of Style posts (Pinboard)

An Elements error

Nobody’s perfect. In his neverending battle against The Elements of Style, Geoffrey Pullum has overlooked one genuine mistake in the book, or at least in the book’s 1959 edition. E. B. White writes about it in a July 13, 1962 letter to the book’s editor, Jack Case:

You chose a real whiz (“Whizzer White,” they call me) when you picked me for your grammarian. A man named Betz, in Riverside, Connecticut, has turned up the best boo boo yet. Look on P. 52, first paragraph. “There is no . . .”

There is no inflexible rules, all righty!

Someday I shall make a trip to the attic, examine the original manuscript, and find out whether I really wrote that. Meantime, I plan to burn my typewriter and scatter the ashes over Lower Fifth Avenue.

Letters of E. B. White, ed. Dorothy Lobrano Guth (New York: Harper & Row, 1976).

Here is the problem sentence:



Changing is to are would not help here: the only way out is to recast the sentence. From the second edition (1972):



I snagged a hardcover copy of the second edition of The Elements of Style for a modest price in a used-book store this past weekend. The cover alone (blue and green) made the book worth buying.

Related reading
E. B. White on another Elements error
All Elements of Style posts (Pinboard)

Happy anniversary

[Photographer long forgotten.]

Marriage is, I think, the best of all adventure stories. Or at least it can be. As André Gregory says in My Dinner with André (dir. Louis Malle, 1981),

Have a real relationship with a person that goes on for years: that’s completely unpredictable. Then you’ve cut off all your ties to the land and you’re sailing into the unknown, into uncharted seas.

Elaine and I were married twenty-eight years ago on this day. We are still sailing. Happy anniversary, Elaine.

[May marriage soon be for all partners.]

National Coffee Day

[“Diner.” Photograph by John Loengard. 1962. From the Life Photo Archive. Click for a larger view.]

Here in the United States, it is National Coffee Day. The Wilbur Curtis decanter is as recognizable as ever.