Overheard

A child, maybe five or six:

“Is this a restaurant?”

And another, younger still:

“Does this have waisins?”

I have been assured, by someone who should know, that I would never make it as a kindergarten teacher, because I’d be writing everything down. Too cute.

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

[Yes, it was a restaurant, of the fast-casual kind. I didn’t overhear the answer about the waisins.]

Congressman compares gubernatorial candidate to Mussolini, favorably

[From a local newspaper.]

That’s Congressman John Shimkus (R, Illinois-15), speaking of the Republican candidate for Illinois governor, Bruce Rauner. Whether Shimkus knows it or not, he’s comparing Rauner to Benito Mussolini — and favorably.

The comparison fails in three ways: 1. Mussolini wasn’t responsible for making trains run on time. 2. The claim that he did make trains run on time is typically advanced as a grim joke: “Yes, but he made the trains run on time.” 3. It is inadvisable to laud an American political candidate by likening that candidate to a fascist dictator.

You may remember Congressman Shimkus making the news in 2009 for his observation that we need not worry about rising sea levels because God promised not to destroy the world by flood.

For more on Mussolini and trains, see snopes.com.

From Invisible Man

[Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952).]

Some context for this passage: Tod Clifton, the unnamed narrator’s former comrade in the Brotherhood (an organization modeled on the American Communist Party) is now working as a street vendor selling dancing paper dolls, Sambo dolls, on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. Clifton sees a policeman, packs up his box of merchandise, and gets going. The policeman starts walking behind him. On Forty-Second Street, outside Bryant Park, the two men meet, and Tod Clifton’s life comes to an end.

There may be no exact parallel between what happens in Ellison’s novel and what happened in Ferguson, Missouri. But across sixty-two years, the general resemblance is clear and appalling.

Related reading
More Ralph Ellison posts (Pinboard)

[The paper dolls mark one more instance in the novel of black bodies made to move: the Battle Royal, the electrified rug, the narrator’s electroshock treatment (“Look, he’s dancing”), the string-pulling machinations of the Brotherhood. “[H]is hands high, waiting“: is Clifton waiting to fight, or to be arrested? There’s a deliberate ambiguity. But as the novel makes clear, he is unarmed.]

Former Salinger house for sale

J. D. Salinger’s first New Hampshire house is for sale: four bedrooms, two bathrooms, twelve acres, $679,000. Here’s an article with some background. And here is the real-estate agency’s listing — with thirty-six photographs. My favorite detail: “Land on both sides of the road ensures privacy.”

Sad to think of the conversations — and non-conversations — that must have taken place in this house.

Related reading
All OCA Salinger posts (Pinboard)

Many, many rocks

[Nancy, January 1, 1961. Click for a larger, rockier view.]

“!” indeed. It is both dismaying and inspiring to know that it wasn’t always three rocks. It was sometimes one rock, sometimes a pair, sometimes four or more. The variations are dismaying for the obvious reason: because they’re not “some rocks.” And yet they reveal an artist willing to experiment, to explore, to grapple with his materials, to challenge conventional expectations. Yes, inspiring.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

[The panel above comes from Brian Walker’s The Best of Ernie Bushmiller’s “Nancy” (1988), now out of print. Thanks to Gunther for recommending the book. Thanks to interlibrary loan for getting it. If the name Brian Walker rings a bell: he’s from the Beetle Bailey / Hi and Lois universe.]

A value-added post

Rogeting A commenter has left a stunning account of one student’s Rogeting and the work needed to track it down. You have to read peruse it to believe trust it.

Internets broken yesterday

The customer-service rep was telling me the truth when I called yesterday: the Internets were broken, at least for many users. Why this news hasn’t been more widely reported, I don’t know. But I’m doing my bit.

Stephen Sondheim on education

Stephen Sondheim, in the HBO documentary Six by Sondheim (dir. James Lapine, 2013): “All education is just about making people curious. That’s all it’s about.”

Two related posts
Stephen Sondheim on pencils, paper
Stephen Sondheim’s writing habits

Lauren Bacall (1924–2014)

Lauren Bacall, quoted in The Daily Telegraph, March 2, 1988:

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

The New York Times has an obituary.

[Not an apocryphal quotation: it appears in the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (2011).]

Tim Parks on “reading upward”

The novelist and writer Tim Parks writes about what he calls “reading upward,” a belief about reading habits that is dear to many people who teach literature. Parks represents this belief like so: “‘Frankly, I don’t mind what they’re reading, Twilight, Harry Potter, whatever. So long as they are reading something there’s at least a chance that one day they’ll move on to something better.’”

In the teaching world, the idea of reading upward often leads to a preoccupation with gateway books. The way to get “them” interested in, say, Charles Dickens, is to start with, say, J. K. Rowling. Uh, no. There are such things as gateway books, books that open up new territory: I’ve described my first acquaintance with Charles Bukowski’s poetry in just that way. But the way to get interested in, say, Dickens is by reading Dickens. There is no other first step needed.

[When speaking of students, many teachers use the pronouns they and them without an antecedent: “I put them into small groups.” (Put who into small groups?) I prefer to say “my students.” And I prefer to think of the class itself as a small group.]