DSONGS

[Late 20th century CE.]

This label fragment, bearing my daughter Rachel’s inscription, at long last fell away from the videotape it once identified as KIDSONGS. Now this fragment lives on my desk, a scrap of fambly papyrus.

More early writing
Blue crayon
RACHEL MOMMY DADDY BEN

Marianne Moore on writing

“A writer is unfair to himself when he is unable to be hard on himself”: Marianne Moore, in a 1961 Paris Review interview.

Other Marianne Moore posts
A few notes
Marianne Moore magic
Q and A

Orange manual art

[Click for a larger, oranger view.]

“This site is dedicated to serve as an archival record of a first edition NYCTA Graphics Standards Manual designed by Massimo Vignelli of Unimark International.The manual was found in a locker beneath old gym clothes”: New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual (via Coudal).

Other posts with orange
Crate art, orange : Orange art, no crate : Orange crate art : Orange crate art (Encyclopedia Brown) : Orange flag art : Orange mug art : Orange notebook art : Orange notecard art : Orange peel art : Orange pencil art : Orange soda art : Orange stem art : Orange telephone art : Orange timer art : Orange toothbrush art : Orange train art : Orange tree art : Orange Tweed art

A Mel Tormé story

Show biz:

One night, at a party at Jack Lemmon’s house, Gene Kelly walked over to me and inquired if I knew where he could get a print of Singin’ in the Rain. He wanted to run the film for one of his kids who had never seen it.

“Gene,” I said, “Films Incorporated has a rental print listed in their catalog. But I simply can’t believe you’re asking me about this. You were the king of the MGM lot. You mean to tell me you don’t have a print of every movie you ever made?”

He smiled sadly. “No, I don’t. Not one of them. You see, Mel, in those days, I would call for a projection room, invite thirty–forty people, and run anything I pleased. Seven nights a week. Any movie I wanted to see. From any studio. And you know,” he concluded, with a catch in his voice, “we thought it would never end.”

Mel Tormé, It Wasn’t All Velvet (New York: Viking, 1988).

My dad put me onto this book. He suspects that I am becoming a Tormé fan. Could be.

Recently updated

Presto change-o, Tazo Has Tazo changed its Awake tea? Now with an answer by e-mail.

How to improve writing (no. 42)

The words that began episodes of The Paper Chase, as spoken by Professor Charles W. Kingsfield Jr. (John Houseman):

“The study of law is something new and unfamiliar to most of you — unlike any other schooling that you have ever known before.”

Something new = new. New = unfamiliar. Any other schooling = any schooling. Ever known before = known. Like they say, omit needless words. Thus:

“The study of law is new to most of you — unlike any schooling you have known.”

I’m not sure whether removing the curlicues makes the statement more Kingsfieldian, or less so. What do you think? Yes, Mr. Hart?

Related reading
All How to improve writing posts (Pinboard)

[Why “most of you“? Perhaps some of the students have previously tried law school, left, and returned. This post is no. 42 in a series, “How to improve writing,” dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose.]

On PBS tonight

On Frontline: Raising Adam Lanza. See also this story from the Hartford Courant.

Proust at the Morgan Library

At the Morgan Library & Museum, a celebration of Marcel Proust’s Du côté de chez Swann, a century old this year. Here’s a New York Times review.

I wish I could go. But I’m grateful beyond words to have had this experience a few years ago.

Related reading
All Proust posts (Pinboard)

Presto change-o, Tazo

Tazo Awake was an esteemed brand in our chambers (read kitchen, living room, study). The tea was recently repackaged as Tazo Awake English Breakfast, or as the box would have it, “awake english breakfast.” The 2.0 packaging lacks the Indian design elements and dowdy typography of the old, but it’s acceptable. The problem is that what’s inside has changed. Awake English Breakfast is not Awake.

I’m offering that assertion as a fact, even after calling Tazo and hearing a friendly fellow tell me — after putting me on hold to check — that the Awake blend has remained the same. It hasn’t. The old Awake was a distinctive tea: its instantly recognizable flavor came from a blend of Assam and Ceylon leaves. Awake English Breakfast tastes like any other English Breakfast tea. It’s an adequate black tea. But there’s nothing distinctive about it, and there’s no reason to continue to pay more for it.

My tea-drinking wife Elaine also notices the difference. And we are not alone: of the thirteen reviews on this Tazo page, eleven note that the tea has changed for the worse. As for the other two reviews, one appears to be of the old Awake, and one appears to be from a tea-drinker who is unaware of the change.

Tazo, if you’re reading, please bring back the old Awake. If Coca-Cola can own up to a mistake, you can too.

*

February 20: An e-mail from Tazo says that the blend remains unchanged. But it just ain’t so.

Related reading
All tea posts (Pinboard)

“Love Is All Around”

Have you ever heard the theme from The Mary Tyler Moore Show in its entirety? Here, listen. That second verse: sheesh. So much for women’s rights.

Related posts
Hazel Fredrick
I envy Mary Richards