In Maniac Ridge

I was in Maniac Ridge, New Jersey, uncertain whether maniac was an adjective or a noun. The car needed gas, so I pulled into the garage of a Sunoco station. I popped the gas cap and an attendant filled the tank. (No self-service in New Jersey.) The garage was filled with vehicles in need of repair: a golf cart, a sedan, a bus. I had thirty-one papers with me, all of which needed grading, and I needed to find a place to work.

This is the eighteenth teaching-related dream I’ve had since retiring, and the third with grading. All the others: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17.

[The number of papers probably owes something to J.D. Salinger’s Zooey : “Advanced Writing 24-A loaded me up with thirty-eight short stories to drag tearfully home for the weekend.”]

“A continuum of insidiousness”

“A continuum of insidiousness”: Adam Schiff’s phrase, which expands Gordon Sondland’s reference to Rudolph Giuliani’s ever more insidious demands, interests me. The thing about a continuum of insidiousness is that every point on it is insidious, some just more so than others.

I have to imagine this continuum as existing in both space and time, because Gordon Sondland was in way over his head as he traveled it.

The Musgrave Single Barrel 106

From the Musgrave Pencil Company: the Single Barrel 106, a pencil made from a cache of 1930s Tennessee Red Cedar found “in the wreckage of an ill-fated storage building.” I like the origin story, the design, and the play on single-barrel whiskey. The 106 is one nifty-looking pencil.

Found via Lexikaliker. Or in Google Translate’s English, Lexikaliker.

Related reading
All OCA pencil posts (Pinboard) : Musgrave 1930s or ’40s refill leads

Telling the truth

Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, a few minutes ago, addressing his father: “Do not worry. I will be fine for telling the truth.”

WordPress 5.3: Kirk

The latest version of WordPress, 5.3, is named Kirk, for Rahsaan Roland Kirk.


[“Cabin in the Sky” (Vernon Duke–John La Touche). Kirk, manzello; Tete Montoliu, piano; Tommy Potter, bass; Kenny Clarke, drums.]

Lots of Kirk recordings on YouTube, pre- and post-Rahsaan (a name he added in 1970), but not that many filmed performances. This one is my favorite, found long ago via Music Clip of the Day. Aside from the music — and what music! — I love Tommy Potter’s puzzled look at the end. Who needs a rest?

At the movies

Holden Caulfield is killing time at Radio City. The stage show has ended, and “the goddam picture” begins:


The Catcher in the Rye (1951).

The summary that follows — an amnesiac duke, a failing publisher, a meet-cute, a sudden bestseller, the return of an old fiancée, the end of amnesia, temporary complications, happy endings all around — sounds an awful lot like a Hallmark Christmas movie. It’s still 1951, in some ways, and people still hate-watch the goddam movies. They really do.

Related reading
All OCA Salinger posts (Pinboard)

Robert Walser on TAL

In Episode 687 of This American Life, “Small Things Considered,” Lilly Sullivan looks at the life and work of Robert Walser: “What the Eye Can’t See.” A photograph of a Walser microscript appears on the episode’s front page.

Related reading
All OCA Walser posts (Pinboard)

Word of the day: franistan

[“Torking the Sneem.” Zippy, November 18, 2019. Click for a larger view.]

Th’ word franistan rings a bell. Readers of a certain age will recognize it from I Love Lucy : in the episode “The Publicity Agent” (May 12, 1952), Lucy poses as the Maharincess of Franistan. But franistan, no cap, has a longer history, which goes back to the comedy of double-talk. Here’s a short piece that mentions both franistan and kravistate (also in today’s strip). And then there’s frammis. I love harmless nonsense.

Here are samples of double-talkers Al Kelly and Cliff Nazarro at work. I’m pretty sure that the fellow who asks “How’s th’ thingamajig, Zippy?” in the last panel of today’s strip is a cartooned Kelly.

Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard)

[Click for a larger Kelly.]

Domestic comedy

[It’s Hallmark season again.]

“Do we have to watch this? It looks really stupid.”

“Can we find something stupider?”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

What’s up with Trump?

Something strange here:

In an unannounced visit, Trump is getting the first part of his physical exam today per @PressSec: “Anticipating a very busy 2020, the President is taking advantage of a free weekend here in Washington, D.C., to begin portions of his routine annual physical exam at Walter Reed.”

— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) November 16, 2019

~ Unannounced indeed: when I checked the presidential public schedule at Factbase this morning there was no mention of a trip to Walter Reed. Trump’s first two physicals as president were announced in advance.

~ Those physicals took place on January 12, 2018 and February 8, 2019. This one is taking place a little over nine months after the previous one.

~ Nothing White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham says can be believed. Her claim about taking time on a “free weekend” is plainly laughable. Total time for this visit, including travel from the White House to Walter Reed and back: three hours and twenty-five minutes, probably less time than it takes Trump to play a round of golf on one of his unfree weekends.

~ The press secretary’s subsequent claim that “the President remains healthy and energetic without complaints, as demonstrated by his repeated vigorous rally performances in front of thousands of Americans” is plainly dubious. Standing and yelling are not typically considered signs of good health. Standing and reading robotically from a teleprompter are not typically considered signs of good health. The joke about “without complaints” writes itself.

~ It seems to me reasonable to suspect that something is wrong or that Trump and company have begun laying the groundwork for resignation. Don’t laugh. I’ve been telling family and friends for weeks now that I think Trump might resign rather than face the humiliation of impeachment. A medical diagnosis of some sort might pave the way for a brokered resignation, with a deal to cover his trouble with the Southern District of New York. It wouldn’t be the first time Trump relied on a doctor’s diagnosis to avoid trouble.

~ Finally, since nothing the president says can be believed, his insistence in June 2019 that he, unlike Richard Nixon, won’t leave in the face of impeachment counts, I think, for naught.

There’s more about today’s unannounced trip at CNN.

*

Trump’s explanation of this visit changed via tweet later last night:

Visited a great family of a young man under major surgery at the amazing Walter Reed Medical Center. Those are truly some of the best doctors anywhere in the world. Also began phase one of my yearly physical. Everything very good (great!). Will complete next year.

So now we’re meant to think that he went to Walter Reed to visit a family, and — because he was already there? — he “also” began his physical? None of it makes sense.