“Whooa!”

[Mark Trail, August 4, 2017.]

The “Whooa!” has returned. All I can say is “Krakablam.”

Related reading
All OCA Mark Trail posts (Pinboard)

[The latest Mark Trail storyline, which includes a two-week-long interpolated tale of a pregnant walrus, sets a new mark for tedium in comic strips.]

/klōs-pin/

Feeling around in the mailbox in search of more mail, I found my way to the clothespin that we use to attach outgoing items to the box. And Elaine called attention to my pronunciation of clothespin, a pronunciation I’ve used, unconsciously, for, like, forever: /'klōs-pin/. (She thinks it’s sweet and says not to change it — not that I can.) I have learned that my mom, too, says /'klōs-pin/. I have also learned that most people say /'klōz-pin/ and that the pronunciation of the word is of little interest to the Internets.

My best explanation of the Leddy version of the word is that it replaces the slightly awkward /'ōz-pin/ with the easier-to-pronounce /'ōs-pin/. (Or even /'ō-spin/.) I think — think — that the replacement is an example of what’s called sandhi.

All that aside: does anyone out there say /'klōs-pin/?

*

August 5: I just remembered a handful of clothespin-centric posts:

From Nicholson Baker’s The Anthologist : About the clothespins in Baker’s book : From Peanuts: “What are clothespins?”

On Louis Armstrong’s birthday

[Louis Armstrong. Photograph by John Loengard. Undated. From the Life Photo Archive.]

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901. My title for this photograph: Bodhisattva at Work.

Related reading
All OCA Louis Armstrong posts (Pinboard)

It’s Mueller Time

[I like this shirt, but I’d rather give to the ACLU.]

The Wall Street Journal, about an hour ago:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has impaneled a grand jury in Washington to investigate Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections, a sign that his inquiry is growing in intensity and entering a new phase.

[Why does the article’s URL include google.com? To get around the WSJ firewall.]

In one eyelet, in the other eyelet

You know the mysterious extra eyelets on sneakers? A YouTube clip explains that they’re for making a heel lock, or lace lock. Best watched with sneaker in hand or foot in sneaker. Gosh, does this way of lacing make a difference. Highly recommended.

[Posted after a long walk.]

In one door, out the other

In front of the Hotel Occidental one finds “an unbroken line of cars.” But a pedestrian can get to the street, at least a pedestrian who is not Karl Rossmann:


Franz Kafka, Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared), trans. from the German by Michael Hoffman (New York: New Directions, 2002).

Also from Amerika
An American writing desk : A highway : A bridge : Companions : Under-porters and errand-boys

“Cost of Trans Troops vs Flaccid Military Members”

[Click for a larger view.]

A chart is worth a thousand words, or 216.6 million dollars. From Danne Woo’s Chart a Day project. This chart appeared on July 26, 2017.

“The latest!”

[Henry, August 3, 2017.]

“The narrow-brimmed straw," aka the stingy brim. Everything old is new again.

Related reading
All OCA Henry posts (Pinboard)

Eleanor Roosevelt on attention

No multitasker, she:

You can finish any task much quicker if you concentrate on it for fifteen minutes than if you give it divided attention for thirty.

Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life (New York: Harper & Row, 1960).

Also from this book
Doing what you think you cannot do
Honoring the human race

Under-porters and errand-boys

In the Hotel Occidental, two under-porters stand behind sliding windows dispensing information to guests. There are never fewer than ten guests waiting. Each under-porter is assisted by an errand-boy, who retrieves materials from a bookshelf and from “various files.” The work is exhausting, with frequent changes in personnel:

Franz Kafka, Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared), trans. from the German by Michael Hoffman (New York: New Directions, 2002).

Also from Amerika
An American writing desk : A highway : A bridge : Companions

[Hierarchy, hierarchy, everywhere in this novel.]