Fun with Wikipedia

From a Wikipedia article: “The Four Square Writing Method is a simplified graphic organizer for teaching writing to children in school. While primarily used to teach persuasive writing, it has also been used to help teach deconstruction.”

Someone is having fun with Wikipedia. I think.

Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail revised, April 26, 2014.]

It’s now three days straight. But I’m not planning to make a habit of it. Not. I can stop at any time.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[Context here.]

VDP on American Routes

Nick Spitzer’s radio program American Routes has two hours of and with Van Dyke Parks and Tom McDermott. Listen here: Creole Eyes and Classical Ears: Van Dyke Parks and Tom McDermott.

A Parks thought:

“I would prefer to have recognition in my lifetime. The hell with immortality. Who needs it? I don’t. I would love to have the riches that come or the sustenance that comes from an easy life in the arts. But that is not to be. And at the age of seventy-one, all I can say is, I’ve had enough, and I’m grateful, because enough to me is plenty to go on.”

Related reading
All OCA Van Dyke Parks posts (Pinboard)

[I always thought it was roots. Heard, not seen.]

“No Figures of Speech”

A student pointed out the words left behind on the blackboard: “No Figures of Speech.”

“Bullshit,” said I.

Mark Trail revised

[Mark Trail revised, April 25, 2014.]

I don’t plan to make a habit of revising Mark Trail strips, but then no one plans to acquire a habit.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[Context, if it’s not obvious, here.]

Mark Trail revised

Rushed by an bear, Mark Trail picks up a large branch and stuns the enraged creature. “It worked,” Mark tells himself. “The bear is stunned!” I couldn’t resist revising the aftermath.


[Mark Trail, April 24, 2014.]


[Mark Trail revised, April 24, 2014.]

Even Mark Trail deserves a break once in a while.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[Those shoes.]

Happy Anniversary

[Louise and Jim Leddy, 1954.]

My parents are celebrating the sixtieth wedding anniversary today. What a great-looking couple, then and now.

I am now ten years older than my parents’ combined ages when they married. Younger readers, take caution: these things become inexpressibly strange to think about as you get older. Or at least they do for me.

Teachers and policemen

From the Naked City episode “A Horse Has a Big Head — Let Him Worry!” (November 21, 1962). Lieutenant Mike Parker (Horace McMahon) is speaking:

“Teachers and policemen — you don’t have much money, but on the other hand, you don’t have much fun.”

This episode must rank among the greatest Naked City episodes. Diahann Carroll’s performance as teacher Ruby Jay won her an Emmy. There’s an interview with her at the Archive of American Television’s Naked City page. Also in this episode: John Megna, who would soon appear as Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird. Two great actors.

Related reading
All OCA Naked City posts (Pinboard)

Literally

Literally is a Chrome browser extension that replaces literally with figuratively. Funny, yes. But a better choice when writing is to replace literally with nothing, nothing at all:

That meeting had me literally climbing the walls.
That meeting had me figuratively climbing the walls.
That meeting had me climbing the walls.

My friend Aldo Carrasco used literally with impunity. He must have gotten special permission. “Literally unbelievable” was a signature Aldo phrase.

[As you might imagine, the extension would turn this post into nonsense.]

Musicians and vocalists

From the introduction to a 60 Minutes segment on the Kinshasa Symphony: “We were surprised to find two hundred musicians and vocalists.” I know what that means: “We were surprised to find two hundred instrumentalists and singers.”

Musician can be a tricky word. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meanings “a person talented in the art of music” and “a person who performs music, esp. on a musical instrument; a professional performer of music.” So the word does tilt in the direction of those who play instruments. But ask someone in music the innocent question “What do you play?” and a someone who sings may be slightly offended. “My voice is my instrument” might be the chilly response.

Vocalist makes me think of a guy or gal sitting on a bandstand circa 1940. That guy or gal was a singer, probably a fine musician. Vocalist seems especially odd when applied to classical music. Elly Ameling, Janet Baker, Beniamino Gigli: vocalists? No, singers. Or a soprano, a mezzo-soprano, and a tenor.

Applying the word musician to both instrumentalists and singers can be awkward: am I comfortable calling, say, Britney Spears, a musician? Yipes. But that’s where the word’s earlier meaning kicks in: “a person talented in the art of music.”

[The Kinshasa Symphony is the subject of a 2010 documentary. Its Netflix availability: “unknown.” About the “chilly response”: don’t ask me how I know that.]