National Grammar Day

It’s National Grammar Day. Who knew? Not me, not until about five minutes ago, although it appears that I took note of the day last year.

With history and poetry, all months are “the” month for those who care. So too with grammar and days. It’s National Grammar Day: just what should I do? Oh: make this post.

Kory Stamper’s remarks on NGD 2013 are worth reading.

Related reading
All OCA grammar posts (Pinboard)

Overheard

In a nearby city: “Evenings and weekends, I’m mostly with other species.”

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

[A veterinarian speaking, or a vet in the making.]

Word of the day: gallivant

From A.Word.A.Day, a word my mom likes, the intransitive verb gallivant, “to roam about in search of pleasure.”

A.Word.A.Day’s example of usage: “Lady Gaga, Kyle Richards, and Carlton Gebbia gallivant around the streets of Amsterdam in thigh-high boots and trench coats just past midnight” (Bradley Stern, “Jewels n’ Wives,” Time, February 12, 2014).

I am startled to discover that this post marks Lady Gaga’s fourth appearance in these pages. Kyle Richards and Carlton Gebbia? I have no idea who they are, and I’m keeping it that way.

Canned Heat and the Brady Bunch

There I was, in post-lunch early-Sunday-afternoon lotusland, when I saw it:


[“Goodbye, Alice, Hello,” The Brady Bunch, November 24, 1972. Click for a larger view. Watch the episode here.]

That’s the Canned Heat album Future Blues (released August 3, 1970). Canned Heat on The Brady Bunch !

What’s going on here: Marcia has left the record player running all night. Carol is tidying up when she hears the noise of the needle in the run-out groove. The prop people must have had a copy of Future Blues and decided to have some fun. See what they’ve done to the cover? The Best of Marching Bands. The only other explanation I can devise is that Marcia Brady was a secret Canned Heat fan, forced to hide her taste for boogie music from her hopelessly square family. You decide what’s more plausible.

Future Blues is a great Canned Heat album, rivaled only by Hooker ’n Heat, the band’s 1970 collaboration with John Lee Hooker. The inverted flag is a distress signal. Here it signals ecological catastrophe, a source of deep woe for Alan Wilson, the Heat’s resident genius.



I’ve been a Canned Heat fan forever. I got my Future Blues signed in 2010.

*

June 15, 2015: I’ve corrected the spelling of Marcia’s name.

A related post
Canned Heat in Illinois

[That’s Bob “The Bear” Hite in the orange suit. I wonder if The Bear knew that Carol Brady’s hand was all over his yas-yas-yas. That album on the chair? The Rolling Stones, Exile on Main Street. ]

Helping Harvey Mandel

On a more serious Canned Heat-related note: the guitarist Harvey Mandel is fighting cancer. His sister Rose Mandel is raising money to cover the cost of multiple surgeries: Help Harvey Mandel.

[Harvey Mandel played and recorded with Canned Heat in 1969 and 1970 and rejoined in 2009. Here’s a sample, from the Woodstock festival.]

Recently updated

Dropbox and the plain style The plain style may inspire too much trust. It’s smart to opt out of Dropbox’s arbitration procedures.

A Big Lots tip

Coming soon, perhaps, to a Big Lots near you: Staedtler Extruded Eraser Sticks, black or white, six for $3. The best part, as described on the back of the package: “Extruded Mars head runs through eraser core.” The god of war himself, at your fingertips.

Too many erasers? No. I will quote my dad on stationery matters: “It is better to be oversupplied than undersupplied.”

My dad on supplies

I told my dad about our visit this morning to Staples, where we bought more (still more) index cards — enough, I said, to last into the next century. Quoth my dad: “It is better to be oversupplied than undersupplied.”

That’s the best thinking about supplies I’ve ever heard.

Related reading
From the Museum of Supplies

[As a regular reader of Orange Crate Art probably knows, supplies is my word, and has become my family’s word, for all manner of stationery items.]

Charles Ives’s workroom

On display in Manhattan, Charles Ives’s workroom, complete with pencil sharpener and shavings.

An -itis I have known

Speaking of -itises: have you heard of rhinitis medicamentosa? I contended with that -itis this week, after using Afrin for several days. So I tried taking two Benadryl and two Sudafed before going to sleep, and I woke up feeling fine. And now I know that nasal sprays can be dangerous toys, especially when used correctly. No more nasal sprays, ever.

I am not a medical doctor, nor do I play one on the Internets. This post is a matter of anecdote not advice, with a fleeting reference to Joan Crawford.