Gift from the sea through the mail

Monday’s mail brought an unexpected gift: a tin of sardines from reader and fellow writer Martha. To say that this gift made me happy would be understatement: it felt like an affirmation of a secret society devoted to finding delight in the most everyday things. I knew right away what I would be having for lunch on Tuesday.

I had never tried King Oscar Mediterranean Style, and now I had the chance, skin, bones, and all. Accompanying these Brisling sardines: extra virgin olive oil, black olives, soybean oil, red bell pepper, herbs of Provence, salt. I divided the sardines into two camps to try Martha’s serving suggestions (balsamic vinegar, lemon juice) and pulled out two slices of cracked wheat bread for accompaniment. The sardines were delicious, and surprisingly delicate in flavor, quite different from their meatier skinless and boneless kin. These tiny Brislings were — I can’t help saying it — a different kettle of fish. Must get more.

I’ll say it again, here: Thank you, Martha!

Also from the briny deep
All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)

[The skin and bones: non-problematic. So much squeamishness for naught. Image from King Oscar.]

Finns and Ducks

One more from Shadows in Paradise (dir. Aki Kaurismäki, 1986). Ilona (Kati Outinen) is thinking about taking a trip: “My aunt’s been to Florida. She says there’s nothing there. All she saw was some Finns and some Donald Ducks.”

Other Karuismäki posts
Ariel : The Man Without a Past : Shadows in Paradise and The Match Factory Girl  : Trashy dialogue

A little trashy dialogue

From Shadows in Paradise (dir. Aki Kaurismäki, 1986), an exchange between garbagemen. One (nameless, played by Esko Nikkari) wants to start his own company. He tries to interest Nikander (played by Matti Pellonpää) in signing on:

Co-worker: I’ve got a great slogan already: “Reliable garbage disposal since 1986.”

Nikander: But that’s now.

Co-worker: That’s why it catches the eye.

Nikander: Pretty smart.

Co-worker: Isn’t it.

Kaurismäki posts are beginning to pile up here: Ariel , The Man Without a Past , Shadows in Paradise and The Match Factory Girl . This one is for Fresca.

Proletariat Trilogy bookends

[Nikander (Matti Pellonpää), Ilona Rajamäki (Kati Outinen), and Melartin (Sakari Kuosmanen), out for a drive in Shadows in Paradise. Click for a larger view.]

Our household’s Aki Kaurismäki spree (if spree is the right word) now includes the other two thirds of the Proletariat Trilogy, the first and last films of the series, Shadows in Paradise (1986) and The Match Factory Girl (1990). Like the middle film Ariel, they take up familiar narrative possibilities in a world of working-class poverty filled with ancient radios, makeshift tables and chairs, cracked and peeling walls, and sofas doubling as beds. Shadows in Paradise is the romantic comedy of the trilogy — tracking the relationship between an inhibited garbageman (Nikander, played by Matti Pellonpää) and an inhibited supermarket cashier (Ilona Rajamäki, played by Kati Outinen). One might think of the film as a painfully awkward variation on Marty (dir. Delbert Mann, 1955): compared to Nikander and Ilona, Marty Piletti and Clara Snyder are players. In The Match Factory Girl, a revenge tragicomedy, Outinen returns as Iris, a cipher of a factory worker who takes calm, indiscriminately murderous action in intolerable circumstances. (Part of the pleasure of watching Kaurismäki is seeing his people reappear from film to film, as in, say, the work of Preston Sturges.)

Elaine and I found all three films greatly rewarding, but we also thought that things improve from one to the next. And the trilogy’s ending is both satisfying and hopeless: nothing should follow that.

Other Kaurismäki posts
Ariel
The Man Without a Past

Ben Leddy makes history

Our son Ben, making musical history.

Previously on Orange Crate Art
Ben Leddy rocks the world

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!

*

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.]