MSNBC, sheesh

A chyron: “Mueller subpoena’s unknown corporation owned by unknown country.”

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

[Subpoena’s may be a genuine possessive and not an ill-formed verb (“The corporation named in Mueller’s subpoena is owned by,” &c.). That aside, the corporation and country are not unknown. They are as yet unidentified.]

Out of copyright

From The New York Times:

This coming year marks the first time in two decades that a large body of copyrighted works will lose their protected status — a shift that will have profound consequences for publishers and literary estates, which stand to lose both money and creative control.

But it will also be a boon for readers, who will have more editions to choose from, and for writers and other artists who can create new works based on classic stories without getting hit with an intellectual property lawsuit.

Works by Willa Cather, Robert Frost, Marcel Proust, and Wallace Stevens are among those falling out of copyright. The challenge for many readers will be to find trustworthy non-sketchy editions. Amazon makes that task more difficult than it should be. A bookstore might be a better place to look.

A related post
Mount Proust (Shaped by copyright law)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Andrew Bell Lewis, is a true Saturday. Not especially tricky, but difficult, for sure. A fine value in puzzling.

Three clues that I especially liked for their novelty: 1-Across, nine letters, “Felonious pier group.” 5-Down, eleven letters, “Timberlake wore them as a teen.” And 13-Down, ten letters, “Start of many a mechanical invention.”

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

coffee

[A repurposed Ovaltine advertisement. Life, March 19, 1951. Click for larger cups and more coffee.]

Related reading
All OCA coffee posts (Pinboard)

“A whole new paradigm”

[Zippy, December 28, 2018.]

A Dingburg conceptual artist at work.

Venn reading
All OCA Nancy posts : Nancy and Zippy posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard)

[You can read Zippy daily at Comics Kingdom.]

Roger Bradfield

Roger Bradfield, the writer and illustrator of Hello, Rock, has a website for his work. And what work.

And even if you’ve never seen a Bradfield book or painting or comic strip, you may have seen his work in the cereal aisle.

The year of Nancy

Todd VanDerWerff: “Nancy, a 1930s comic strip, was the funniest thing I read in 2018.” He means the new Olivia Jaimes version of the strip.

Thanks, Chris, for sending me the link.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

[I love the comic strip, in both Ernie Bushmiller and Olivia Jaimes incarnations. But the funniest thing I’ve read in 2018 is Tristram Shandy, which may also be the funniest thing I’ll read in 2019.]

Waverly goodbye

We ate at Manhattan’s Waverly Diner for the first time this past September. A great experience. But after reading this report on the Waverly and wage theft, I don’t think we’ll want to eat there again.

[If you click through, skip the hijacked comments section.]

Some rock

Fresca, l’astronave, sent me this book. Thank you, Fresca!


[Roger Bradfield, Hello, Rock. Racine, WI: Western Publishing, 1965.]

Dig the interlock. Dig the rock.

Inside, two more rocks: “Are all these other rocks your friends? Is this one your mother? Is this one your father?” 1 + 1 + 1 = some. You’ll have to take my word for it: I don’t want to destroy the binding for the sake of a photo.

[“Some rocks” is an abiding preoccupation of these pages.]

Christmas 1918

[“Police Are Hosts to the City’s Poor: Thousands of Children Receive Presents and Food in Most of the Stations.” The New York Times, December 25, 1918.]

You’d have to be a sentimentalist to like this kind of story. I am, and I do.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it.