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Ending a sentence with it Now with a 1795 source for the ill-considered prohibition on sentence-ending it .

MLK

[“Martin Luther King Trial Montgomery Alabama Intergration.” Photograph by Grey Villet. Montgomery, Alabama. From the Life Photo Archive.]

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.

The Life Photo Archive gives no date for this photograph or other Villet photographs with the same description. The context, I think: King was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 3, 1958, when he tried to enter a courtroom for the arraignment of a man accused of attacking Ralph Abernathy. King had refused to obey a police order to move on. More information here and here.

If King were alive today, the hatred, inequality, xenophobia, and violence that pervade our American culture would cause him to weep — and do more than weep.

Procrastination and creativity

Adam Grant, a professor of management and psychology, and a pre-crastinator:

My natural need to finish early was a way of shutting down complicating thoughts that sent me whirling in new directions. I was avoiding the pain of divergent thinking — but I was also missing out on its rewards.

So he taught himself to procrastinate.

Related reading
All OCA procrastination posts (Pinboard)

Richard Hendrickson (1912–2016)

Richard Hendrickson, a weather observer for eighty-five years, has died. The New York Times has an obituary.

Mr. Hendrickson made an appearance in these pages in 2014, after the CBS Evening News ran a story about him. I liked seeing his checked button-down shirt and solid tie, his rotary-dial telephone, and his 1930s weather notebook.

Topical humor from The New Yorker

Zack Bornstein, “First Obama Came for My Guns.” Clever, funny, and short.

Bill Flanagan, “Li’l Donald.” Clever, funny, and a little longer.

Plainfield T.

An imaginary football team (its colors: mauve and puce), an imaginary star (Johnny Chung, the Celestial Comet), an imaginary school (Plainfield Teachers College): “The Greatest Hoax in Sports Agate History” (The New York Times ).

I think this story beats that of I, Libertine .

[Agate: “condensed information (as advertisements or box scores) set especially in agate type.” Agate type: “a size of type approximately 5½ point” (Definitions from Merriam-Webster.]

Everyday carries

Pez, candy cigarettes, pocket flashlight, pocket magnifying glass, pocket microscope, “ID wallet,” ChapStick, Coin Caddy, bike-lock key, wallet, house key, license, car key, college ID, pen, cigarettes, lighter, grad-school ID, tobacco, rolling papers, Kryptonite-lock key, faculty ID, office keys, Wrigley’s Extra, El Pico key ring, Burt’s Bees Lip Balm, discount cards, keychain flashlight, miniature California license plate, multi-tool, iPod, iPhone, emeritus ID, Jack Black Lip Balm.

Related posts
El Pico key ring : No smoking

[“ID wallet”: made of black plastic, with plastic windows to hold a maximum of two cards. Used by grade-school secret agents to carry, uh, ID. Sequence often approximate. Thank you, Rachel, for the Jack Black. No connection to the actor. I went back and added a pen: what was I thinking?]

Gevalia coffee, unbalanced?

We bought the wrong Gevalia coffee, Traditional Roast, not House Blend. As with toothpaste, there are just too many varieties. It is easy to err. Traditional Roast, as it turns out, tastes just fine. However:

Gevalia describes its Traditional Roast as “medium-bodied, smooth, and perfectly balanced.”

And House Blend, as “medium-bodied, smooth.”

Does Gevalia believe its House Blend to be less than perfectly balanced? Slightly askew? Off its foundation?

Related reading
All OCA coffee posts (Pinboard)
[Image found here and altered.]

Scam diction

We received our first “Internal Revenue Service” phone call this morning. Is that because we’re reading The Pale King ?

I listened to the recording a bit before hanging up:

“The reason of this call is to inform you that IRS is bringing a lawsuit against you,” &c.

The IRS doesn’t make such calls. But if you didn’t already know that, would you catch the details that mark this call as phony?

Related posts
Ballad of the spam mail : Fake speeding ticket : Phishing : Tech scamming

The Pale King : note-taking

Chris Fogle, a self-described “wastoid,” has walked into the wrong classroom and found himself in Advanced Tax, surrounded by note-takers:


David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (Boston: Little, Brown, 2011).

This post is meant to divert Manfred, who writes about note-taking practices at Taking Note Now.

Related reading
All OCA DFW posts (Pinboard)

[T&A: Training and Assessment. Fogle joins the IRS.]