Blogger Profile blurry-picture fix

[For Bloggers only.]

The Blogger Profile photograph in my sidebar was suddenly blurry this morning. It turns out that Blogger has begun using 80 × 80 images for Profile photographs. If a photograph is set to appear in a larger size, Blogger stretches the small version: thus a horribly pixelated image. Making that change and giving the user no notification: it’s just one more eff yew from Google to its “users.” (Who’s using whom?)

Prayag Verma has put together a script that solves the problem. I added it to my sidebar as an HTML/JavaScript gadget. Not wanting an extra line to mark the invisible gadget, I then added the text of the Camel-cigarettes-derived joke that sits at the bottom of the sidebar. (Sneaky, eh?) The script seems to work only when it appears before the text of the joke. It’s also possible to add the script as a gadget at the bottom of the Blogger template, but doing so creates a longer moment of blur before the picture snaps into focus. So sidebar it is.

Thank you, Prayag!

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April 21: I moved the script higher in the sidebar, into the search gadget below the profile. No blur at all.

A joke in the traditional manner

Here is the punchline: Elementary school.

No spoilers. The setup is in the comments.

More jokes in the traditional manner
The Autobahn
A Golden Retriever
How did Bela Lugosi know what to expect?
How did Samuel Clemens do all his long-distance traveling?
What did the plumber do when embarrassed?
Which member of the orchestra was best at handling money?
Why did the doctor spend his time helping injured squirrels?
Why did Oliver Hardy attempt a solo career in movies?
Why was Santa Claus wandering the East Side of Manhattan?

[“In the traditional manner”: by or à la my dad. He must take credit for all but the doctor and Santa Claus.]

Plain old Moleskines

The New York Times has an article today about Moleskine SpA’s efforts to partner with purveryors of digital technology. A photograph shows Moleskine co-founder Maria Sebregondi with the slogan “my Analog Cloud” floating on a nearby wall.

What I found most interesting in the article though is this passage:

The number of Moleskine paper products, including variations on the notebooks, has ballooned to about 500. But the top sellers are still the blank black notebooks in the original pocket size and a larger version.

Related reading
All OCA Moleskine posts (Pinboard)
All OCA notebook posts (Pinboard)

A portrait of the artist as a young dog

[Mutts, April 19, 2015. Click for a larger view.]

Patrick McDonnell’s Earl is today a canine version of James Joyce’s Stephen Dedalus, who, writing on the flyleaf of a geography book, worked out his place in the order of things. From A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916):

Stephen Dedalus
Class of Elements
Clongowes Wood College
Sallins
County Kildare
Ireland
Europe
The World
The Universe

Earth Day is April 22.

[Dig the purple mountain majesties.]

Hi and Lois watch

Today’s strip needs updating:


[Hi and Lois, April 18, 2015.]



[Hi and Lois modified, April 18, 2015. Click either image for a larger view. The original has been modified with artisanal care.]

Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)
Artisan, no

[One order of fries, two sodas. What an Unhappy Meal.]

Artisan, no

I saw the insert in today’s paper: “Seasoned. Seared. Served. New Artisan Grilled Chicken.” From McDonald’s!

The word artisan denotes “a worker in a skilled trade, a craftsperson; (in later use) esp. one utilizing traditional or non-mechanized methods”. The word artisanal first applied to workers and ways of working: “of, relating to, or characteristic of an artisan or skilled craftsperson; involving or utilizing traditional, small-scale, or non-mechanized methods or techniques.” The word later came to describe things: “of a product: handmade (esp. with care and skill) using traditional techniques; having qualities associated with small-scale, pre-industrial production.” From The New York Times (October 9, 1983): “Raymond Séguy’s earthy, artisanal, sourdough baguette, made according to old-fashioned rules and standards, takes seven hours to prepare.”

Nothing about the name McDonald’s suggests non-mechanized, small-scale, or pre-industrial food preparation. The only traditional methods in play here are those of fast food. Did McDonald’s choose artisan thinking that artisanal would be too risky, leaving the company open to accusations of false advertising? Because what does Artisan Grilled Chicken mean anyway? Perhaps the sandwich is designed to satisfy hungry artisans breaking for lunch.

One sure thing: indiscriminate and cynical use has made artisan and artisanal into worsened words.

[Definitions and citation from the Oxford English Dictionary.]

Subdivisions of the imagination

Geese Rock, Heron Breakers, The Dale at Smiling Dale: it’s the Real Estate Subdivision Name Generator.

Income disparity in the news

Dan Price’s decision to raise his employees’ salaries and reduce his own is a noble one. I hope it proves influential.

It would be a wonderful surprise to see, say, a college football coach take a salary cut and ask that adjunct instructors receive decent pay.

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August 19, 2022: This story is ending badly: “Social Media Was a C.E.O.’s Bullhorn, and How He Lured Women” (The New York Times ).

A related post
Income disparity in higher education

Henry Threadgill and Dewar’s

[New York, June 20, 1988. Click for a larger view.]

I happened to think of this Dewar’s advertisement yesterday. It’s from a series that began in 1969. I was delighted when I first saw it: Henry Threadgill! In 1988, I knew his music from his Sextet and Sextett and the trio Air. Seeing Threadgill, an AACM musician, in a Dewar’s ad was beyond my imagining. I’m not sure what might be comparable: Ted Berrigan in an advertisement for Pepsi?

But then Ted Berrigan really liked Pepsi. It doesn’t surprise me to learn that Threadgill was not particularly devoted to Scotch. As he told the Los Angeles Times in 1989, “People often come up to me in bars and want to buy me a shot of Dewar’s. Frankly, I’m partial to a cup of coffee or some seltzer or some beer.”

Looking at this advertisement in 2015, I have noticed, maybe for the first time, the pencil in the scene. It’s a Mongol, with the identifying words removed. By their ferrules ye shall know them: that’s the Mongol’s distinctive ferrule on display.



Here is one of my favorite Threadgill recordings, “When Was That?,” the title track from a 1982 About Time LP. It appears that this recording never made it to CD. I’m being very careful with my LP.

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Two years after posting this advertisement, I turned it into one for Mongol pencils.

A related post
Jack DeJohnette in Chicago (With Henry Threadgill)

[The musicians: Henry Threadgill, alto; Craig Harris, trombone; Olu Dara, cornet; Fred Hopkins, bass; Brian Smith, piccolo bass; Pheeroan Aklaff, drums; John Betsch, drums.]

Somme notebook

“Wounded by shrapnel at Trones Wood July 30th 1916”: from a six-by-three notebook kept by William Chamberlain, who lost a leg fighting in the Battle of the Somme. Ninety-nine years later, his granddaughter has found the notebook in a drawer.

A related post
Somme diary (A 2007 auction)