Connecticut and comic-strips

Cullen Murphy writes about life in Fairfield County, Connecticut, once home to countless cartoonists, comic-strip creators, and illustrators: “When Fairfield County Was the Comic-Strip Capital of the World” (Vanity Fair).

[Murphy is the son of John Cullen Murphy, who drew Prince Valiant from 1970 to 2004. Cullen Murphy began contributing stories to the strip in the mid-1970s and was the strip’s writer from 1979 to 2004.]

Page 273

[“New York, New York. ‘Morgue’ of the New York Times newspaper. Old and new dictionaries.” Photograph by Marjory Collins. September 1942. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Click for larger dictionaries.]

A photograph accompanying a New York Times article about the end of the newspaper’s copy desk led me to more photographs by Marjory Collins.

The top dictionary is a Webster’s Second, open to a page beginning with bird-nest. The illustrations: a king bird of paradise, a bird tick, and a biretta. You can check these details in an extra-large reproduction of the photograph. My 1954 Webster’s Second has the same illustrations in the same locations, on what must be the same page 273, bird-nest to birthmate. Still there! I feel like Holden Caulfield thinking about the Museum of Natural History.

Related reading
All OCA dictionary posts (Pinboard)

Eleanor Roosevelt on maturity

To be mature you have to realize what you value most. It is extraordinary to discover that comparatively few people reach this level of maturity. They seem never to have paused to consider what has value for them. They spend great effort and sometimes make great sacrifices for values that, fundamentally, meet no real needs of their own. Perhaps they have imbibed the values of their particular profession or job, of their community or their neighbors, of their parents or family. Not to arrive at a clear understanding of one’s own values is a tragic waste. You have missed the whole point of what life is for.

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

This passage reminds me of the one thing I remember of what Alan Alda, the commencement speaker, said at my college graduation. And of something André Gregory’s character says in My Dinner with André (dir. Louis Malle, 1981):

“I mean, I don’t know about you, Wally, but I — I just had to put myself into a kind of training program to learn how to be a human being. I mean, how did I feel about anything? I didn’t know. What kind of things did I like? What kind of people did I really want to be with, you know? And the only way that I could think of to find out was to just cut out all the noise and stop performing all the time and just listen to what was inside me.”

Also from ER
Doing what you think you cannot do : Honoring the human race : Attention

Glen Campbell (1936–2017)

When I was younger, he was everywhere on radio and television. It was difficult to see past the shiny and acknowledge the musicianship. As I grew older, I came to know his work as a member of the Wrecking Crew, as an adjunct Beach Boy, and as the singer in a great Bacharach-style Brian Wilson production. And I learned much more about him from the documentary I’ll Be Me (dir. James Keach, 2014). Today is a good time to check back in with Glen Campbell’s last song, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.”

The New York Times has an obituary.

A girl with green hair

Making slow progress through my dad’s CDs: Julian “Cannonball” Adderley, Ivie Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Mildred Bailey, Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Art Blakey, Ruby Braff and Ellis Larkins, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, Joe Bushkin, Hoagy Carmichael, Betty Carter, Ray Charles, Charlie Christian, Rosemary Clooney, Nat “King” Cole, John Coltrane, Bing Crosby, Miles Davis, Matt Dennis, Doris Day, Blossom Dearie, Paul Desmond, Tommy Dorsey, Billy Eckstine, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Gil Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Erroll Garner, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Stéphane Grappelli, Bobby Hackett, Coleman Hawkins, Woody Herman, Earl Hines, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Dick Hyman, Harry James, Hank Jones (my dad did tile work in his house), and now, Louis Jordan. Here’s a song that’s weirdly, hilariously relevant in 2017:


“(You Dyed Your Hair) Chartreuse” (J. Leslie McFarland–Billy Moore). Louis Jordan and His Tympany Five: Louis Jordan, alto sax and vocal; Aaron Izenhall, trumpet; Josh Jackson, tenor sax; Bill Doggett, piano; Bill Jennings, guitar; Bob Bushnell, bass; Joe Morris (aka Chris Columbus), drums. Recorded in New York City, August 18, 1950.

Also from my dad’s CDs
Mildred Bailey : Tony Bennett : Charlie Christian : Blossom Dearie : Duke Ellington : Coleman Hawkins : Billie Holiday

[Why the narrow strip of YouTube? Because there’s nothing to see that would add to the music.]

Garg’s Law

Anu Garg has proposed Garg’s Law, “a first law of the Internet”: “Do not forward anything you’ve received online without verifying it yourself.”

My interest in this law just spiked when I discovered that a teacher-education program is quoting the apocryphal Mark Twain.

Related posts
Apocryphal T.S. Eliot
Apocryphal Abraham Lincoln
Apocryphal George Orwell

Life with the McCrearys

This This American Life story (first aired in 2001 and recently rebroadcast) is one of the strangest and saddest accounts of family life I have ever encountered: “Yes There Is a Baby.” Extraordinary failings and extraordinary resourcefulness.

Trump on crying and begging for forgiveness

Donald Trump’s three tweets about Richard Blumenthal:

Interesting to watch Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut talking about hoax Russian collusion when he was a phony Vietnam con artist! Never in U.S.[ ]history has anyone lied or defrauded voters like Senator Richard Blumenthal. He told stories about his Vietnam battles and conquests, how brave he was, and it was all a lie. He cried like a baby and begged for forgiveness like a child. Now he judges collusion?

These tweets are a perfect example of whataboutism, a persistent Trump tactic. They’re also replete with falsehoods: while Blumenthal did lie about serving in Vietnam, there is no evidence that he told stories of battle and bravery. Nor is there any record of his defrauding voters or crying or begging for forgiveness.

To point out that Blumenthal, unlike Trump, at least served in the military would also be mere whataboutism. What most interests me about these tweets is the way that Trump characterizes remorse and shame — as a matter of crying like a baby and begging for forgiveness like a child. Trump has said that he has not cried since babyhood (2015) and is not a “big crier” (2016). He has also said that “I never like to say sorry because that means there was a mistake” and that “probably the last time I said sorry was a long time ago” (2015).

Remorse and shame require self-awareness and a functioning moral compass, an ability to reflect upon one’s actions and consider them in relation to some ethical standard. But being a man, on Trump’s terms, means just about never having to say you’re sorry. And never ever asking for forgiveness. That’s for kids.

[In combining the three tweets, I’ve removed the endless “. . .” clutter.]

Railroad emblems

  
[“Speaking of Pictures.” Photographs by Walter Sanders. Life, February 28, 1944. Click any image for a much larger view.]

These pages of railroad emblems jumped out as I was looking for something else. The photographs are from Chicago’s Proviso Yard. The captions note the principal terminals for each line.

Flying high on Dextrose

[Boys’ Life, January 1937.]

This issue of Boys’ Life runs on dextrose. The Curtiss Candy Company has prominent ads for Baby Ruth, Butterfinger, and Oh Henry! on the inside, and a full-color back cover for Baby Ruth, “the most delicious, tempting, nutritious candy bar you can eat.” And there’s a helpful tip: “You’ll want to serve sliced Baby Ruth at your parties — it is a welcome and appropriate dessert.” Curtiss always spells dextrose with a capital D. More Dextrose, Mrs. Higginbotham?