Today’s Saturday Stumper

Thank you, Lester Ruff — that name sounds so much like something from a Nabokov novel; it must be a pseudonym, don’t you think? — for a challenging and enjoyable Newsday Saturday Stumper. It begins with a giveaway, just enough to inspire a mistaken sense of confidence: 1-A, six letters, “Big name in parliamentary procedure.” Which leads to another giveaway, 1-D, eight letters, “Tried to catch.” And then the ground steepens in all directions.

Some unusual clues:

From the Department of Lifelong Learning: 8-D, eight letters, “Device in a ‘busting miles’ crime.” An easy answer, but I didn’t know it’s called “busting miles.”

From the Department of Dimly Recalled Trivia: 9-D, five letters, “Seemingly indecisive poet.” That name too sounds like something from Nabokov.

And from the Department of Faintly Dated Foods: 46-D, six letters, “Meat served with pancakes.”

The clue and answer pairs I liked best, because they’re so fiendish: 13-D, six letters, “India and Pakistan have one.” And 38-D, eight letters, “‘Pygmalion’ lead character.” Eight? Uh, DOOLI’L’?

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

Masonic grammar

“I didn’t know whom to believe!” Nellie DuBois (Jeanette Nolan), on the witness stand, in the Perry Mason episode “The Case of the Betrayed Bride” (October 22, 1964). So strange to hear the proper (and now stilted-sounding) whom on TV.

Related reading
All OCA Perry Mason posts (Pinboard) : “Whom are we kidding?”

Feet on the move

The Sunset Foot Clinic is leaving Silver Lake. And with it will go a famous happy foot/sad foot sign with a connection to David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King.

Thanks, Seth.

A podcast recommendation

“John Green reviews facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale”: The Anthropocene Reviewed. Each episode is a pair of essays on seemingly unrelated topics. But only seemingly. See, for instance, “Lascaux Paintings and the Taco Bell Breakfast Menu.” Or for unexpected emotional resonance, “Googling Strangers and Kentucky Bluegrass.”

[The first person I heard use the word Anthropocene: Van Dyke Parks.]

“Here are horses!”

Count Leinsdorf’s horses:


Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities. 1930–1943. Trans. Sophie Wilkins (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995).

Related reading
All OCA Robert Musil posts (Pinboard)

Todd

Chris Christie, on The Late Show just now: “Please, God, can we say goodbye to Chuck Todd?”

A plea that a person of any political persuasion can endorse.

[The next day: I had it as “get rid of.” Wrong.]

2020

Harris–Buttigieg.

Language debate

Re: tonight’s Democratic debate: if candidates are going to speak in languages in addition to English, Pete Buttigieg will rule.

I’m not sure what I think about last night’s speaking in Spanish. With Julián Castro, it seemed a fitting expression of identity. With Beto O’Rourke, it seemed like show-offy pandering. With Cory Booker, it seemed like a way to one-up O’Rourke. The look on Booker’s face as O’Rourke began his first (non-)answer in Spanish: hilarious.

[The correct answer to the question of how many languages Pete Buttigieg can speak is the answer Sarah Palin gave to a question about how many magazines and newspapers she reads: “All of ’em, any of ’em.”]

“Youth and sardines”

Jean, a painter (Daniel Gélin), and Joséphine, a model (Simone Simon), are breaking for lunch — some nice fish. Big fish? Jean asks. Joséphine replies from inside the house.



Jean is disappointed.



Joséphine is pragmatic.



Jean is doubtful.



Joséphine is more cheerful.



As they prepare to eat, Jean is rhapsodic. He never tires of looking at Joséphine, he says. “There’s the most extraordinary grace in your every ordinary gesture,” he tells her. “Leaning toward me, getting into a carriage, raising your arm, reaching out to me, eating sardines.” And:


[Le Plaisir (dir. Max Ophüls, 1952). Click any image for a larger view.]

It must be love.

Related reading
All OCA sardine and sardines in film posts (Pinboard)

Brief debate thoughts

In her closing statement tonight, Representative Tulsi Gabbard spoke of “ushering in a new century,” &c. It's 2019. What century is she talking about?

Senators Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren seemed to me the plausible candidates in tonight’s debate. But Warren needs to stop prefacing her responses to questions with So. As for Bill de Blasio's self-presentation as an advocate for working people: LOL, LOL.