More pencil cups

[Photograph by Elaine Fine. Click for a larger view.]

Elaine decided to play. Twelve cups if you count the reflections.

More pencil holders: from Fresca, George, Sara, Slywy, and me.

Pencil bear

[Photograph by Sara McWhorter. Click for a larger view.]

My friend Sara shared a photograph of a 3-D-printed bear holding Mirado Black Warriors, a pen, and a screw. A stationary stationery bear.

More pencil holders: from Fresca’s desk, George’s table, Slywy’s desk, and my desk.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Matthew Sewell, has a split personality. The top half was as easy as the first word of the clue for 62-Across, “Pie recipe verb.” But the puzzle’s bottom half threatened, in the words of the clue for 31-Across, to “Outwit, perhaps.” But I could finally say, in the words of the clue for 23-Down, “The fog has lifted.” Although I did not follow up with a 54-Across, “Revelation exclamation.” Elaine was still asleep.

My favorite clues: 36-Across, thirteen letters, “Hugo winner,” which broke open the bottom half of the puzzle. 24-Down, seven letters, “Request for a raise.” 27-Down, seven letters, “Price skipping.” And 32-Down, six letters, “Not a major case.”

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

More pencil holders

[Photograph by George Bodmer. Click for a larger view.]

George Bodmer, who draws Oscar’s Portrait, shared a photograph of his bamboo pencil holders. The scene is a weekly drawing class that he teaches at a homeless shelter. More pencil holders: from Fresca’s desk, Slywy’s desk, and my desk.

As Goethe almost said, “Pencil holders! More pencil holders!”

Oswald

[Photograph by Gordon Parks. From “Speaking of Pictures,” Life, September 29, 1952.]

The two-and-a-half-page “Speaking of Pictures” spread begins with an explanation, sort of: “Oswald, a baffling blabbermouth, has become television’s greatest what-is-it.” As Life tells it,

The 15 million fans who watch Ventriloquist Paul Winchell each week (NBC-TV, Mondays) have been both entertained and baffled by the bizarre creature shown above. Few have guessed what he is. They know him only as Oswald, a blowhard Briton who has done everything better than anyone else. To believe Oswald, it was he who taught Pinza to hold his high notes, Crosby to croon, Durante to be funny.

A lying narcissist with a big tie. But any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental.

As Ozwald, this character became the stuff of a “Play Set.” (Here’s the patent.) Ozwald wore a suit. And his tie was red. Such fun. But again, any resemblance to a real person is purely coincidental.

[I think that Oswald won’t baffle most twenty-first-century types. But just in case: Oswald was played by Paul Winchell, whose chin was Oswald’s head. Thanks to Diane Schirf for the link to the patent.]

Brett Terpstra’s guide to DuckDuckGo

Brett Terpstra has written “the ultimate guide to DuckDuckGo.” So many shortcuts — and Instant Answers!

[I’d like a shortcut for Google Books though.]

Bach, not bot

Today’s Google Doodle offers to harmonize two bars of music in Bach’s “signature style.” I tried “Surfer Girl” and “Take the ‘A’ Train” — the results were underwhelming. But as Anne Midgette writes in The Washington Post,

It may only add to the doodle’s charm that what it actually proves is the opposite of what it sets out to do. Nobody can compose like Bach. Especially not a machine.

Another Bermuda Triangle

From Private Life (dir. Tamara Jenkins, 2018). A Thanksgiving guest says that he’s grateful for thirty-one days of sobriety:

“And if I can just make it through today, just today, I will be one-third of the way through the Bermuda Triangle.”

Thinking that “today” marked thirty-one days, I guessed incorrectly that “Bermuda Triangle” is a metaphor for the first three months of sobriety. As the Internets will affirm, “Bermuda Triangle” is an Alcoholics Anonymous metaphor for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve. For obvious reasons.

Good wishes to anyone who just navigated or will be navigating that particular Bermuda Triangle.

Mongols in a penholder holder

[Height: 4 7/8″. Click for a larger view.]

Not a pencil cup, or even a tea tin. What it is is a four-hole holder for penholders, which themselves are the holders for penpoints. (Think dip pens.) A holder for penholders holding pencils: I like that. A holder for penholders holding Mongol pencils: I like that even more. Elaine gave me this penholder holder a few years ago. Thank you, Elaine.

The Mongol is my favorite pencil. Evidence: OCA Mongol posts (Pinboard).

[“What it is is”: I decided that for once in my life, I’d use what Garner’s Modern English Usage calls “this ungainly construction,” just for fun. No comma between the iss.]

Boop, Twinings, jars

[Click for a larger view.]

The pencil cup from Sólo con tu pareja prompted Fresca to photograph pencil cups, which in turn, &c. So here are nine, mine.

Elaine and I carried them downstairs and into the light. Behind Betty Boop and the Twinings tins, please imagine two Bonne Maman jars, an anonymous jar, a china cup, and a plastic cup.

I’ve had the older square Twinings tins since student days. Each is printed with a “4/84” on one side — the date of the tins’ manufacture, I’d assume. The newer Twinings tins make excellent index-card holders. We have six of those scattered around the house for making quick notes.

For more pencil cups, see the Bleistift blog’s Pencil Pot of the Month posts. And reader, if you’d like to post a photograph of your pencil cup(s), leave a link in the comments.

[Elaine gave me the Betty Boop mug many years ago. I have long subscribed to the adage of the Betty Boop & Bimbo Club: “Keep your eyes open and your mouth closed.”]