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Elaine Fine on the airwaves Now with a link to an archived broadcast.

The perception of doors

[Hi and Lois, May 16, 2017. Click for a larger view.]

The wall line above Lois’s head in the second panel suggests that the Flagstons’ front door is located just a foot or two from the house’s corner. We know from exterior shots that the door will not be found there.

But what really delights me in today’s strip: those windows. They must switch places whenever the door opens or closes.

Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)

[Post title with apologies to Aldous Huxley.]

FSRC: annual report

The Four Seasons Reading Club, our household’s two-person adventure in reading, just finished its second year. The FSRC year runs from May to May. (The club began after I retired from teaching.) In our second year we made it through thirty books. In non-chronological order:

Honoré de Balzac, The Human Comedy: Selected Stories, The Unknown Masterpiece

Willa Cather, My Àntonia, My Mortal Enemy, Obscure Destinies, One of Ours, O Pioneers!, The Professor’s House, Sapphira and the Slave Girl, The Troll Garden, Youth and the Bright Medusa

Beverly Cleary, Jean and Johnny, Ellen Tebbitts, The Luckiest Girl, Sister of the Bride

Hans Herbert Grimm, Schlump

Homer, Odyssey

Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

Joseph Roth, Hotel Savoy

Carlo Rovelli, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Timothy Snyder, Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century

John Williams, Stoner

Stefan Zweig, Chess Story, Collected Stories, Confusion, Journey into the Past, Messages from a Lost World: Europe on the Brink, The Post-Office Girl, The World of Yesterday

Aside from a few uncollected stories, we’ve now read all of Cather’s fiction. We have much more Zweig to go. Onward.

Credit to the translators whose work gave us access to the world beyond English: Linda Asher, Anthea Bell, Jamie Bullock, Simon Carnell, Carol Cosman, Richard Howard, John Hoare, Benjamin W. Huebsch, Helmut Ripperger, Joel Rotenberg, Joe Sachs, Damion Searls, Erica Segretrans, Will Stone, and Jordan Stump.

A related post
FSRC: first annual report

Orange stereogranimator art

[“Orange Blossoms and Fruit, Los Angeles, Cal., U.S.A. 1870?-1906 1897.” Made with the New York Public Library’s Stereogranimator.]

A joke in the traditional manner

Where do amoebas golf?

No spoilers. The punchline is in the comments. (And yes, “On a miniature golf course” would be much too obvious.)

More jokes in the traditional manner
The Autobahn : Did you hear about the cow coloratura? : Did you hear about the thieving produce clerk? : Elementary school : A Golden Retriever : How did Bela Lugosi know what to expect? : How did Samuel Clemens do all his long-distance traveling? : How do amoebas communicate? : How do worms get to the supermarket? : What did the doctor tell his forgetful patient to do? : What did the plumber do when embarrassed? : What happens when a senior citizen visits a podiatrist? : What is the favorite toy of philosophers’ children? : What was the shepherd doing in the garden? : 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 did the ophthalmologist and his wife split up? : Why does Marie Kondo never win at poker? : Why was Santa Claus wandering the East Side of Manhattan?

[“In the traditional manner”: by or à la my dad. He gets credit for all but the cow coloratura, the produce clerk, the amoebas, the worms, the toy, the shepherd, the squirrel-doctor, Marie Kondo, Santa Claus, and this one. He was making such jokes long before anyone called them “dad jokes.”]

Happy Mother’s Day

[Photograph by James Leddy.]

That’s my mom Louise Leddy and me. My dad Jim made a notation in the baby book next to this photograph: B.M.

Today seems like an appropriate time to say that our daughter Rachel and her husband Seth are going to have a baby girl, due in October. Which means that my mom, Rachel’s Grandma Louise, will soon be someone’s great-grandmother. And Elaine and I will soon be grandparents. Grandparents? But we’ve always been “a nice young couple.” [Insert moment of stunned silence.]

Happy Mother’s Day to all.

Telling

Mark Shields:

There have been three memorable American presidents, the story goes. President George Washington could never tell a lie. President Richard Nixon could never tell the truth. And President Donald Trump cannot tell the difference.

Overheard

“Have either of you ever been to a French restaurant?”

And from the same speaker, a minute or two later: “You set it on fire and drink it.”

I would like to have heard whatever was said in between.

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

Carhartt B324

A recommendation to my fellow man: Carhartt B324 Washed Twill Dungarees. They’re carpenter pants, not heavy or stiff, not baggy or saggy, and their slightly longer length begins to look perfectly appropriate after a few days. A pocket on the right leg solves the problem of carrying a cellphone. And there’s another pocket on the left leg. And because they’re carpenter pants, there’s also a hammer loop, which seems to me weirdly cool, even if I don’t often carry a hammer. B324s come in five colors: Black, Dark Coffee, Army Green, Dark Khaki, and Field Khaki.

I just retired a pair of Carhartt B18 jeans after seven years. I’m pretty sure I’ve never had a pair of jeans last that long. I hope the B324s are as durable.

[A caution: the cellphone pocket easily holds an iPhone 6 or 7, but the Plus size may not fit. Try before you buy. May 2019: The iPhone XR fits. But try before you buy is still good advice.]

Domestic comedy

[After warbling a couple of lines of “It Ain’t Me Babe.”]

“Aren’t you glad I’m not Bob Dylan?”

“Yes — you’d be insufferable.”

“But I’d be out on the road all the time.”

“Then it’d be okay.”

“No!”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)