Stefan Zweig in Turkey

Stefan Zweig is reported to be the most-read writer in Turkey.

Related reading
All OCA Stefan Zweig posts (Pinboard)

Van Dyke Parks meets Merle Haggard

As told by Kinky Friedman:

“Van Dyke was worried he’d get lynched because, well, he’s a sort of Noel Coward type,” Friedman says. “So he asked everybody, ‘How long have you known Merle?’ And every one of them would answer, ‘Ever since.’ ‘Ever since,' 'Ever since,’ ‘Ever since.’ So he asked me, ‘What does that mean, ever since?’ I told him, ‘Ever since prison, stupid!’ Stupid is one thing Van Dyke is not. But ever since prison.

Related reading
All OCA Van Dyke Parks posts (Pinboard)

[“A sort of Noel Coward type”? What?!]

Charles Simic on the pencil

Charles Simic writes about “The Poet’s Pencil”:

I knew a poet who could only write his poems with a stub of a pencil. Nothing else worked for him as well. His family and friends bought him fountain pens, ballpoints, typewriters, and laptops, but he kept away from them. “It’s like giving a dog a wristwatch for Christmas,” his wife said.

The poet, of course, is Simic himself.

About Simic’s offhand characterization of “an age of computers and smartphones when pencils are becoming extinct”: with enough use, individual pencils have always become extinct. But the species? No. Not now. Not yet.

Word of the day: wrangler

At many a performance of The Nutcracker, the volunteering parents who manage the young dancers backstage are called wranglers. For obvious reasons.

Is this bit of language heard backstage more generally? I have no idea. Anyone?

For Safari users only

I’m not an IT guy, but I play one at home. That’s how I found a page about how to speed up page loads in Safari. Disabling DNS prefetch — who knew? — makes an enormous difference.

I’ve long used Google Code’s namebench to select DNS servers. That helps. And we just received a new modem/router from our cable company. That helps too. But disabling prefetch — well, as Timmy Martin would say, Gosh!

From the Saturday Stumper

A nice clue from the Newsday Saturday Stumper, 40-Across, eight letters: “Unwritten constitution.” No spoilers; the answer is in the comments.

Today’s puzzle is by Lester Ruff, whose name sounds like an anagram (Re: Truffles), but who knows? Finishing a Saturday Stumper is always cause for minor self-congratulation.

Pottery Barn Kids [sic]

My daughter Rachel has alerted me to the existence of Pottery Barn Kids merchandise: Le Creuset toy cookware and Williams Sonoma toy food, costing much more than many people can afford to spend on real cookware and real food. You can guess what we think about this stuff.

In our household the crucial culinary toy was a 1980s Little Tikes Kitchen, a topic of conversation in a piece of fambly videotape. “Vintage” Little Tikes Kitchens are now even more expensive than Pottery Barn toys.

Barack Obama talks about social media

Barack Obama told an audience in New Delhi that he uses spellcheck and punctuation:

“Which my daughters think is odd. They were explaining to us how if you put a period at the end of a sentence it sounds harsh. I said, ‘No, that’s English. That’s how you know the thought is finished.’”

He said he sees people getting in trouble for their tweets, and says they should follow the old advice of thinking before you speak: “Think before you tweet,” Obama said. “Same principle.”

He said social media is a powerful tool, for both good and ill. “And look, I’ve got 100 million Twitter followers. I actually have more than other people who use it more often.”

Who’s tweeting?

WNYC reports on Dan Scavino, Donald Trump’s social-media guy. An observation from a Huffington Post reporter, Ashley Feinberg:

“The time of day is usually a good indicator [to decipher Trump’s tweets]. In the morning, Dan’s not at work yet, and Trump is sitting on his couch watching Fox News and tweeting himself, so those are usually him — when it’s before 10:00 AM or so. Late at night, too, the 10:30 tweets are usually Trump. But during the day, it’s more up for grabs.”

The eccentric capitalization of ordinary words— “The Failing @nytimes has totally gone against the Social Media Guidelines” — seems to be a good sign that it‘s Trump. Lots of words in all caps — RESTORE AMERICAN PROSPERITY — I think that’s more a Scavino tic.

Mystery actor

[Click for a larger, perhaps more recognizable view.]

I think this one is tough, but when I think they’re tough, other people find them easy — and vice versa. At any rate, the actor is appearing in his first credited film role. Do you recognize him? Leave your best guess as a comment, and enter as often as you like. I’ll drop a hint if necessary.

*

11:00 a.m.: Here’s a hint: medicine.

11:26 a.m.: Another: water.

12:56 p.m.: This post has had many, many visits but no more guesses. I could add another hint: think boat. But I’ll reveal: it’s Bernie Kopell, best known as Dr. Adam Bricker, “Doc,” from The Love Boat. Here he plays an assistant to the Guru Brahmin (notice the photo, lower left) in The Loved One (dir. Tony Richardson, 1965).

That was tough.

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