Ohio place names, pronounced

My daughter Rachel alerted me to a Twitter thread about the pronunciation of Ohio place names. Includes “Menner” (Mentor), which captured our familial imagination in 2017.

Thank you, Rachel.

Still more pencil cups

Elaine Walizer shared these photographs — with captions no less. Click any image for a larger view.


[“Note stylus and letter opener (from Dick Deutsch Printing Co. Warner Bros. Bldg. Phone Prospect 0091).”]


[“This pencil holder is more strategically placed and includes scissors, tweezers, an furled flag, and a mystery object.... revealed below.”]


[“Great for prying things open or up or out... I don't mind folding things; the sad iron is my solution to avoid actually ironing the napkins. (We don't use paper ones.)”]

Thanks, Elaine. The pryer looks pretty powerful. The telephone exchange name for Dick Deutsch Printing is a bonus. But wait: who was Dick Deutsch? And what did he print? Prints. That is, of movies.

From The Film Daily, January 7 and 15, 1936:

Cleveland — Dick Deutsch of the Dick Deutsch Printing Co., has left for a three-week vacation in Miami.

*

Dick Deutsch of Dick Deutsch Printing Co. is back from a vacation in Florida.

And from the same publication, more eventful news from July 17, August 6, August 20, and September 5, 1940:

Richard Deutsch, head of the Dick Deutsch Printing Co., has broken ground at Cedar Ave. and E. 107th St., for a sports coliseum.

*

HERBERT OCHS, Real Art franchise (with his son JACK, DICK DEUTSCH, o[f] Dick Deutsch Printing Co., accompanied by DEUTSCH and son, JEFFREY are in New [York?] from Cleveland.

*

Cleveland — Pioneer Film Exchange has been formed by Herbert Ochs and Richard Deutsch to handle franchises on Film Alliance product and Select Attractions. The Film Alliance franchise covers Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Indiana. The
Select franchise is for Ohio and Kentucky. Pioneer Film Exchange is located in the Warner Bldg.

*

Thieves broke into the shipping room of the Warner Building and stole nine complete features belonging to Herbert Ochs and Dick Deutsch of Pioneer Film Exchange. The cans were waiting to be picked up for shipment. This is the biggest film theft ever reported in Cleveland.

The features stolen were two prints of “The Leopard Man,” two prints of “Suicide Legion,” two prints of “The Challenge,” one print of “Song of the Road,” one of “Spy Bureau” and one of “Treachery on the High Seas.” Ochs reports that due to the co-operation of Film Alliance and Select Attractions which shipped in duplicate prints by air express Pioneer was able to complete all of its obligations and theaters received their prints on time.

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

Domestic comedy

“I could do folding, but I don’t feel like it. I put in a long day at the pageant.”

Related reading All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

[Elaine spent a couple of hours at a pageant yesterday waiting to hear one of her students perform.]

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.