Mary Tyler Moore (1936–2017)

[Photograph from Flickr user Tom, licensed under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.]

The actress Mary Tyler Moore has died at the age of eighty. The New York Times has an obituary.

Domestic comedy

[In light of current events.]

“That would be a nice thing to do — we can escape to the Gilmore Girls city.”

“Town.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

[Best Stars Hollow surprises so far: hearing The Free Design’s “I Found Love” and seeing Repetition Pears on the wall of the bakery. We’re hearing and seeing everything for the first time.]

Overheard

[A recipe segment from the NBC show Today, as seen on Facebook. Elaine was watching. Harry Connick Jr. speaks.]

“I can’t remember the last time I had a Tater Tot. They’re so good. You forget about ’em somehow.”

For my money (or my parents’ money), Birds Eye Potato Puffs were the ultimate prefabricated potato-based food. A food of childhood. Look! They’re on sale:


[The Patent Trader, July 1, 1965.]

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

10 Actions/100 Days

From the folks who gave us the Women’s March on Washington: 10 Actions/100 Days, starting with snail mail in the form of postcards.

The Dutch Reach

Do you practice the Dutch Reach?

I learned about the Reach from the podcast 99% Invisible. For a long time, I’ve turned and checked for cyclists (not to mention cars) when opening a car door onto traffic. But the Dutch Reach — using the far hand — makes checking for cyclists second nature.

Another suggestion for safe driving: use hazard lights when highway traffic slows.

“Alternate” and “alternative” “facts”

Mary Norris: “A Small Point of Usage Concerning Those ‘Alternative Facts’” (The New Yorker).

Dan Rather on these times

Dan Rather, writing on Facebook, says that “These are not normal times”:

What can we do? We can all step up and say simply and without equivocation. “A lie, is a lie, is a lie!” And if someone won’t say it, those of us who know that there is such a thing as the truth must do whatever is in our power to diminish the liar’s malignant reach into our society. . . .

Facts and the truth are not partisan. They are the bedrock of our democracy. And you are either with them, with us, with our Constitution, our history, and the future of our nation, or you are against it. Everyone must answer that question.

[For whatever it’s worth, I’ve written to officials at Phi Beta Kappa urging them to make a public statement about truth, falsehood, and propaganda. Like Kellyanne Conway, I’m a PBK member.]

A Little Golden Book

[Click for a larger view.]

This new Little Golden Book cover has been credited to “Internet user Tim O’Brien.” This cover is an inspired piece of work. Kellyanne Conway (a Phi Beta Kappa member, by the way) referred to “alternative facts,” not “alternate facts.” I would suggest thinking of the book’s title not as a mistake but as an alternative fact “to,” as Conway says, “that.” “That” being the truth.

See also René Magritte. See also 2 + 2 = 5. See also Harry Frankfurt on the bullshitter: “He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.”

[Can PBK revoke one’s membership?]

National Handwriting Day

[Wally Cox. Photograph by Yale Joel. 1952. From the Life Photo Archive. Click for a larger view.]

It’s National Handwriting Day. Mr. Peepers is sharpening in preparation. At least in my imagination he is. His knuckles are bandaged, perhaps because of sharpener mishaps. How will you be celebrating?

This photograph was one of many taken for a Life feature on Wally Cox and the television show Mr. Peepers. The feature, without this photograph, ran in the July 7, 1952 Life. Nearly all the pencils in the photograph appear to be Eberhard Faber Mongols. You can see the name Mongol on two boxes in front of the books. The ferrules though are giveaway.

Sharpen. Write. Repeat. Happy handwriting.

Related reading
All OCA handwriting and Mongol posts (Pinboard)

Dickinson at the Morgan

At the Morgan Library: I’m Nobody! Who are you? The Life and Poetry of Emily Dickinson. The New York Times has a review, with many photographs.

[Are you — Nobody — too?]