Woe is Illinois

Illinois’s budget crisis (a manufactured crisis, as bears repeating) continues to attract mild national interest. The crisis was the subject of a handful of sentences during NPR’s hourly news bulletins this morning. Among the choice details: there may soon be no funds with which to buy food for the state’s prison population.

In related news, Illinois now has the highest unemployment rate in the United States. Our “pro-business” governor seems incapable of understanding that shutting down social-service agencies, decimating public higher education, and failing to pay the state’s bills do little to foster economic growth or human well-being.

This coming Tuesday will mark eleven months without a budget. After Tuesday, passing any budget legislation in the Illinois General Assembly will require three-fifths majority in each chamber. Woe is us.

Related reading
All OCA Illinois higher-ed crisis posts (Pinboard)

I see Mark Trail’s face before me

[Mark Trail , May 28, 2016.]

It’s atilt and wetter, but it’s the same face. Or at least the same nose and mouth.


[Mark Trail, revised, May 10, 2014. Mark Trail, May 14, 2015; April 28, 2016. Click any image for a larger view.]
Mark Trail, Gabe, and Carina (“Carina!?”) have been stuck in a cave since, oh, February. But in real time, it would seem that several hours, at most, have passed. The technical term for this comic-strip imbalance: the sheer-boredom effect . “Mary Worth!?”

More about the face in this post.

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[Post title with apologies to Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz.]

Speed v. accuracy

[Photograph and revision by me.]

From The Song of the Lark

Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark (1915).

Related reading
All OCA Cather posts (Pinboard)

Thirsty doll

[“Thirsty doll drinking milk.” Photograph by Bernard Hoffman. March 1950. Life Photo Archive.]

This doll is drinking what Roland Barthes calls “the true anti-wine”:

Wine is mutilating, surgical, it transmutes and delivers; milk is cosmetic, it joins, covers, restores. Moreover, its purity, associated with the innocence of the child, is a token of strength, of a strength which is not revulsive, not congestive, but calm, white, lucid, the equal of reality.

“Wine and Milk,” in Mythologies , trans. Annette Lavers (New York: Noonday Press, 1972).

Related reading
All OCA Barthes posts

Wine, spiritual

Joseph Joubert:

It seems that there is something spiritual in wine.

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert: A Selection  , trans. Paul Auster (New York: New York Review Books, 2005).

Also from Joseph Joubert
Another world : Form and content : Irrelevancies and solid objects : Lives and writings : New books, old books : Politeness : Resignation and courage : Ruins v. reconstructions : Self-love and truth : Thinking and writing

[This post is for my friends Jim and Luanne Koper.]

Mystery actor

This guy was in countless movies, but he is most likely remembered for just one. Do you recognize him? Take your best shot in the comments.

8:08 a.m.: He’s now identified in the comments.

More mystery actors
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?

Overheard

“He spent thirteen hundred dollars a month on bird seed and peanuts for the squirrels.”

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

[If, like me, you’re never sure whether there should be a hyphen before hundred , consult this hyphenation guide from The Chicago Manual of Style .]

“Two Minutes About Sardines”

“‘Mom,’ I said, ‘Did you put a lot of salt on this sardine? Why is it so salty?’” From an essay by high-school student Fue Xiong, “Two Minutes About Sardines.”

Today I saw someone carrying a Chipotle bag with the words “Two Minutes About Sardines” printed on one side. (I know: what ?) The Internet did the rest. Here’s some background.

Related reading
All OCA sardines posts (Pinboard)

From The Song of the Lark

Dr. Howard Archie is thinking:


Willa Cather, The Song of the Lark (1915).

Related reading
All OCA Cather posts (Pinboard)