Pocket notebook sighting

Willie Stark’s notebook, a catalogue of grievances, punishments, and opposition research:




[From All the King’s Men (dir. Robert Rossen, 1949. Click for a larger view.]

My transcription:

Morris — Would
not contribute Party
Fund —
Walton — Road
Contracts denied —
Cancel any Bids

Bill W — Licen[se]
to operate denied —
check gambling
debts —

Bank loan
overdue —

More notebook sightings
Angels with Dirty Faces : Ball of Fire : The Big Clock : The Brasher Doubloon : Cat People : City Girl : Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne : Dead End : Dragnet : Extras : Eyes in the Night : The Face Behind the Mask : Foreign Correspondent : Fury : Homicide : The Honeymooners : The House on 92nd Street : Journal d’un curé de campagne : Kid Glove Killer : The Last Laugh : Le Million : The Lodger : Ministry of Fear : Mr. Holmes : Murder at the Vanities : Murder by Contract : Murder, Inc. : The Mystery of the Wax Museum : Naked City : The Naked Edge : The Palm Beach Story : Perry Mason : Pickpocket : Pickup on South Street : Pushover : Quai des Orfèvres : The Racket : Railroaded! : Red-Headed Woman : Rififi : La roue : Route 66 : The Scarlet Claw : The Small Back Room : The Sopranos : Spellbound : Stage Fright : State Fair : A Stranger in Town : Stranger Things : Time Table : T-Men : 20th Century Women : Union Station : Walk East on Beacon! : Where the Sidewalk Ends : The Woman in the Window : You Only Live Once

All the King’s Whom

From All the King’s Men (dir. Robert Rossen, 1949). Jack Burden (John Ireland) and Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge) are getting acquainted. Jack wonders what Sadie is doing on Willie Stark’s (Broderick Crawford) political campaign:

“Hey, tell me, what are you on this merry-go-round for?”

“I take notes.”

“For whom?”

“For those whom pay me.”

Yes, she’s being sarcastic.

Whom was and is fading, but it’s taking an awfully long time on its way out the door.

Related posts
“I don’t know whom to believe” (Perry Mason) : “Just whom are you talking to?” (Nancy) : “Shouldn’t that be ‘whom’?” (Mutts) : “Whom are we kidding?” (Peanuts)

Humor, humanity, a lawsuit, and ...

[Zippy, October 27, 2019.]

In today’s Zippy:

René Margritte brought humor into surrealism. Pablo Picasso brought humanity into cubism. Margaret Keane brought a lawsuit into court.

And then there’s Ernie Bushmiller.

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

“She was Sanctified holy”

Mrs. Hunt is a believer:


James Baldwin, If Beale Street Could Talk (1974).

Also from James Baldwin
“The burden is reality” : “Life is tragic”

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is credited to Zawistowski (Stella) and Agard (Erik). A tough puzzle, and I was delighted to find myself finishing it, from Z to A, so to speak.

Three clues that paired especially well with their answers: 9-D, four letters, “A lot of legal-size.” 36-A, four letters, “Where America’s day begins.” (IHOP? No.) 57-A, three letters, “Footwear from Oz.”

A clue whose answer made me startle, as I just read something about it somewhere (where?): 17-A, eight letters, “Spanish operatic genre.”

A clue whose answer seems to be a running Agard joke: 62-A, six letters, “They may be dueling.”

And a clue whose answer is a reminder that crosswords do indeed keep up with the culture: 67-A, eight letters, “Suited woman, perhaps.”

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

Some “some rocks”

For a Nancy fan, this remarkable site might be something like Four Corners. It’s some rocks, some rocks, some rocks, all the way down the parking lot. Google Maps will confirm:


[Click for a larger view.]

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

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

Haydn on the move

Elaine has been writing about Stephen Malinowski’s animated scores for Beethoven and Haydn. I am following Elaine’s lead and posting this example because it makes me so happy. Enjoy. (How could anyone not?)



Stephen Malinowski’s animations
Haydn : Mozart : Beethoven

Ben Leddy hosts The Rewind

Here’s the latest installment of WGBH’s The Rewind, “The Voice of the Voiceless,” featuring Mercedes Sosa. You can find all episodes of The Rewind at YouTube.

I’m in. You?

Re: “scum”: White House “press secretary” Stephanie Grisham goes Donald Trump one better in declaring anyone who opposes the leader to be “just that.”

[“Press secretary”: in quotation marks, because she’s never held a press conference.]

VDP and “Southern Nights”

This story is new to me. Allen Toussaint on his song “Southern Nights”:

“That was the last song for the album, the very last song. I had written and recorded all of the other songs, and for some reason I couldn’t come to terms that I was finished with the album. I had trouble being satisfied. I always take forever to do an album, because when I do an album, I don’t plan to do another. The only reason I ever did another album after any album was because I got a request by some company. Left to my own devices, I wouldn’t record me.

“While I was finishing the album Van Dyke Parks visited me in the studio. He was a wonderful guy, a genius of a guy. He said, ‘Well, consider that you were going to die in two weeks. If you knew that, what would you think you would like to have done?’ And after he said that, I wrote ‘Southern Nights’ as soon as he left. I stood right there and wrote it. It all came at once, because I lived that story.”

“The album” turned out to be Southern Nights (Reprise, 1975). Toussaint and Parks recorded “Southern Nights” as a piano duet for American Tunes (Nonesuch, 2016), Toussaint’s final album.

Related reading
All OCA Van Dyke Parks posts (Pinboard)