“Kokomo”

The terrible, horrible, no good, very bad “Kokomo” is thirty years old.

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All OCA Beach Boys posts (Pinboard)

Ministries of Truth at work

The Atlantic reports that the White House transcript of the Putin–Trump press conference alters the meaning of a key exchange. The Russian government’s transcript omits the exchange altogether.

Thanks, Elaine.

Recently updated

Sardines of the Times I tried it. I liked it, sort of.

Sardines of the Times

In The New York Times, Tejal Rao writes about canned fish. Among them, sardines:

Good canned fish can be eaten just the way it is, dripping with olive oil, but I like a tin’s worth of sardines seasoned with plenty of lemon zest, soft oregano leaves and some fried bread crumbs, broken up a bit and warmed all the way through as it’s tossed with cooked spaghetti, olive oil and maybe a ripe tomato, squashed between my fingers.

I’ve done sardines and pasta with garlic, parsley, and red-pepper flakes. The oregano is new to me. Must try.

Again and again, Matt Thomas’s Sunday Times digests point me to items I would otherwise miss — like these sardines. Thanks, Matt.

*

July 25: I made this dish last night, minus the tomato. Pretty bland. Some suggestions: add salt, pepper, and lemon juice, and be prepared to use more oregano than seems plausible. I think that thyme or lemon thyme might be a good substitute for oregano.

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All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)

One tea bag, used

“My grandfather would use tea bags and then dry them on the heater to reuse them. He’d have four or five on the radiator at once. This one is a bit special. It was a tea bag my grandma put in her bath”: the artist Laure Prouvost is holding on to a fifteen-year-old tea bag.

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[Provoust’s grandfather was not alone. The artist Joseph Cornell saved and reused tea bags. Paper towels too.]

Leonard Bernstein’s pencils

At the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles: Leonard Bernstein at 100, an exhibition of artifacts — desks, batons, manuscripts, an Olympia typewriter, and much more. What made me flip: five pencil stubs from the 1970s, two Eberhard Faber Blackwings, three Alpheus Music Writers. Try as I might (eight times), I could not get a satisfactory photograph: the lighting and reflections and shadows were against me. This photograph from the Skirball website gives some idea of the difficulty.

But here’s a photograph from the Bernstein Facebook page of some Bernstein pencil stubs, his “soldiers” or “little soldiers.” Look for the distinctive ferrules of the Blackwing (gold) and the Alpheus Music Writer (silver).

Sean Malone has written extensively about the Blackwing at Blackwing Pages. He has also tracked the history of the Alpheus Music Writer and a successor, the Judy Green Music Writer. His post on the Music Writers includes a photograph of Bernstein at the piano, a glass of pencils at hand, with several Alpheus pencils visible.

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All OCA pencil posts (Pinboard)

[I loved seeing Bernstein’s pencils, but it was The Jim Henson Exhibition: Imagination Unlimited that made me tear up — a reaction I did not see coming. Kermit! He’s right here!]

Misheard

Sarah Huckabee Sanders (“the Huckabee Sanders woman,” as our household calls her, Dragnet-style) just said something about “more products” being made in the United States. I heard “war products.” Really.

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“DEMENTED WORDS”

Our president, engaged in statecraft, tweeting at the president of Iran: “WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH.”

I look forward to the day when we are no longer a country that will stand for Donald Trump’s demented words of violence and death. Also his demented words of racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and vilification of all who oppose him.

Jonathan Gold (1960–2018)

Jonathan Gold, Los Angeles food writer, has died at the age of fifty-seven. The Los Angeles Times has an obituary, an appreciation, and a sampler of his reviews.

Jonathan Gold was the subject of City of Gold (dir. Laura Gabbert, 2016), a terrific documentary.

From the Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Brad Wilber, is very tough. I missed by one letter, a mistake I just didn’t see. Must proofread better, dammit.

Two clues that I especially liked, side by side: 9-Down, five letters: “Order blank.” And 11-Down, four letters: ”Applications for Kansas City, St. Louis, etc.”

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.