TSWOCABTTS

It’s the easy-to-say acronym that’s sweeping this blog post: TSWOCABTTS, pronounced \ ˈswō-ka-bits \.

It is an acronym, not an initialism. The first T is silent, as in General Tso. The letters stand for Television Show Whose Opening Credits Are Better Than The Show.

My nominee: Welome Back, Kotter, whose opening credits I could watch (and have watched) again and again. Elaine’s nomination: The Flintstones. What’s yours?

The Irish “grand”

Stan Carey looks at the Irish “grand.” A bit late, but I better understand one of my grandmothers now. Worth clicking through for the astonishing headline from The Irish Times.

A related post
“Mother, you always pick the grandest things”

Spotted on a walk

Yes, spotted on Friday. Spotted. We placed this lost tiger leopard cub right in the middle of the sidewalk, so that any searcher would also spot it. Yesterday the cub was gone.

Thanks to Fresca for pointing out that it’s a leopard.

“Western-style liberalism”

From The Washington Post:

As the news conference wore on, Trump seemed to confuse a broader discussion of the fight over global governance with his personal grievances against Democrats.

When a reporter asked if the president agreed with Putin’s suggestion, in a recent newspaper interview, that “Western-style liberalism” was in decline, Trump had another thing in mind.

He criticized the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, which he said are “sad to look at” because they are “run by liberal people.”

I’d say that what’s sad to look at is the ignorance on display here. Compounded by cognitive decline?

*

The full exchange (with Peter Baker of The New York Times) is even worse. Thanks, C-SPAN:

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.]