[Henry, January 11, 2014.]
The world of Henry is the world without drawer slides. I like the cartooned version of a dovetail joint (no trapezoids), and I like the orderliness of this room: a spotless carpet, a plant on the dresser, blinds and curtains on the window. Don’t all windows have both?
Henry is looking for a pair of binoculars to take to the movie theater. The picture is The Big Race, with horses.
Related reading
All Henry posts (Pinboard)
[There are also no books on the floor in the Henry world. It is a world without 積ん読 [tsundoku].]
Saturday, January 11, 2014
A Henry drawer
By Michael Leddy at 8:41 AM comments: 0
Friday, January 10, 2014
Kurt Vonnegut on hometown jerks
Our friend Seymour Barab sent along a book of Kurt Vonnegut’s letters. How about that? Thank you (again), Seymour!
Here is a passage I especially like, from a Vonnegut letter to two old Indianapolis friends, Mary Jane “Majie” and William “Skip” Failey (June 21, 1982):
No — I will not be there for Vonnegut Week. Any American with common sense knows that if he was a jerk in high school he will be a jerk in his own hometown forever.Other Vonnegut posts
Letters, ed. Dan Wakefield (New York: Delacorte, 2012).
Advice for high-school students
“[B]eautiful and surprising and deep”
E-mail from Stefan Hagemann
Kurt Vonnegut, Manager
Kurt Vonnegut on English studies
[Seymour Barab and Kurt Vonnegut collaborated on Cosmos Cantata (1995).]
By Michael Leddy at 3:31 PM comments: 0
Libby Kingston’s advice
From the Naked City episode “Bullets Cost Too Much” (January 4, 1961), a lovely exchange between Libby Kingston (Nancy Malone) and Adam Flint (Paul Burke):
“Whenever you want to know who you are, don’t ask anybody else. Just ask yourself.”This episode stands out for sheer density: numerous plot lines and a cast that includes James (credited as Jimmy) Caan, Frank Campanella, Bruce Dern, Betty Field, Paul Hartman, Al Henderson, Barbara Lord, Johnny Seven, Jean Stapleton, and Dick York. The context for this exchange: Adam has been in the papers, slammed as a “bad cop,” then hailed as a hero.
“Except you.”
“Well, of course, except me.”
Related reading
All Naked City posts (Pinboard)
By Michael Leddy at 7:56 AM comments: 0
Coming soon from Google
[Ugh.]
If the Official Gmail Blog is to be believed, anyone using Google+ will soon be able to use Gmail to send e-mail to any other Google+ user. The sender will not need to know the sendee’s e-mail address. Notice the first choice in the drop-down list above.
I never thought that not-have-to-sign-up-for-Google+ would turn into a life goal. Hotmail looks, in retrospect, not bad at all.
[Though I’m forgetting about the years-ago debacle when Microsoft was silently deleting messages from Hotmail’s Sent folder.]
By Michael Leddy at 7:52 AM comments: 0
Thursday, January 9, 2014
Recently updated
Grammarly, WhiteSmoke There’s an open-source alternative.
By Michael Leddy at 4:45 PM comments: 0
Recently updated
How to be a student a professor will remember (for the right reasons) A reader points out what’s missing from this set of suggestions. Thanks, Steve.
By Michael Leddy at 3:56 PM comments: 0
Dr. Scat
[The 4 oz. size. Click for a larger bottle.]
I’ve had this bottle for a long time. I probably bought it at a going-out-of-business office-supply store, long after I stopped using a manual typewriter. I may have been channeling Charlie Brown: “I think it needs me.”
Dr. Scat Typewriter Platen Roll and Type Cleaner is powerful stuff. It is made of ten parts ool-ya-koo, five parts shoo-bitty-oww, and one part zot. Any more zot and the bottle would have exploded by now.
The company that produced this item is no longer known as the Dr. Scat Chemical Company. It’s now the Starkey Chemical Process Company, still in La Grange, Illinois. A page describing the company shows the Dr. Scat name on a brick wall and lists “Dr. Seat” as one of the company’s brands. Oops. Or better make that oopapada.
Other Museum of Supplies exhibits
Dennison’s Gummed Labels No. 27 : Eagle Turquoise display case : Eagle Verithin display case : Faber-Castell Type Cleaner : Fineline erasers : Illinois Central Railroad Pencil : A Mad Men sort of man, sort of : Mongol No. 2 3/8 : Moore Metalhed Tacks : National’s “Fuse-Tex” Skytint : Pedigree Pencil : Real Thin Leads : Rite-Rite Long Leads : Stanley carpenter’s rule
By Michael Leddy at 11:08 AM comments: 0
Wednesday, January 8, 2014
Recently updated
Farewell, 45 West 53rd The American Folk Art Museum will be demolished after all.
By Michael Leddy at 4:57 PM comments: 0
Harvey Pekar on record collecting
“At first, and for a long time, it was a healthy thing to do”: Harvey Pekar on record collecting (YouTube). Art by R. Crumb.
Related reading
All Harvey Pekar posts (Pinboard)
[Found via Mosaic Records.]
By Michael Leddy at 4:36 PM comments: 0
Hog Bay Software iOS apps
An e-mail from Jesse Grosjean announces that Hog Bay Software will no longer develop its iOS apps. PlainText, TaskPaper, and WriteRoom for iOS are available this week and will then disappear. PlainText has always been free. TaskPaper and WriteRoom are now free too.
I like WriteRoom for Mac, a lot. It was $24.95 when I bought it, and worth the price. Now it’s $9.99.
By Michael Leddy at 4:13 PM comments: 0