Seashore, an excellent free image-editor for macOS, continues to see updates by Robert Engels, who has taken over development from Mark Pazolli et al. Engels has added — “after many requests” — the option to donate to the project (available from the Help menu). Having used Seashore for at least nine years, I’m happy to donate.
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
ICYMI
Be prepared, there is a small chance that our horrendous leadership could unknowingly lead us into World War III.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 31, 2013
It’s not as if this tweet has been overlooked. Still, I wanted to share it. There’s also this interesting clip about reelection strategies.
Donald Trump* is unfit for office. He has always been unfit for office. It’s long past time for those in a position to do something about that to do so.
Tuesday, January 7, 2020
Becoming a better learner
A helpful conversation from WGBH’s Innovation Hub: Kara Miller interviews Ulrich Boser about becoming a better learner. Ixnay to highlighting!
A catalog saved
The Washington Post reports on an all-volunteer effort to save the contents of the card catalog at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library.
A related post
The Card Catalog (with links to more reading and a catalog-card generator)
Mystery actor
[Click for a larger view.]
Who can it be now? This one would baffle me, so I’m guessing it’ll be easy for someone else. Let’s see.
Leave your best guess in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if necessary.
*
10:08 a.m.: The answer is now in the comments.
More mystery actors (Collect them all!)
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?
Some madeleines
[“À la recherche du temps Sluggo.” Zippy, January 7, 2020.]
In today’s Zippy, Zippy is out for a walk when he happens upon three rocks. He thinks he might be in the wrong comic strip. And thus this final panel. I think of the rocks in today’s strip as madeleines, recalling comics past.
Related reading
All OCA Nancy, Nancy and Zippy, and Nancy posts
All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard)
Monday, January 6, 2020
Another circuit
I learned at lunch that years ago, a friend played in a rock band that traveled the upper midwest: Minnesota, Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula. I suggested that he must have been playing the Hotdish Circuit.
[Cf. the Chitlin’ Circuit.]
How to improve writing (no. 86)
Here’s a sentence brought me up short. From The New Yorker, December 23, 2019, page 69:
Buttigieg can give a thoughtful answer to almost any question, but he rarely tells a joke or heartfelt accounts of the people he meets on the trail.Do you see the problem? You can tell a joke, but you cannot tell an account. Well, you can if you really want to, but you’d be writing decidely unidiomatic English. “He told a joke and heartfelt accounts”: yikes. From 1800 to 2018, Google’s Ngram Viewer shows no results for tell an account or told an account.
So — make sure that verbs and their objects go together:
Buttigieg can give a thoughtful answer to almost any question, but he rarely tells a joke or shares heartfelt accounts of the people he meets on the trail.I’d tweak a little more:
Buttigieg can give a thoughtful answer to almost any question, but he rarely tells a joke or shares a heartfelt story about someone he’s met on the trail.I’ll leave the extra changes to speak for themselves.
Related reading
All OCA “How to improve writing” posts (Pinboard)
[The sentence has the same problem in the online version of the article. This post is no. 86 in a series, dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose.]
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Now would have been the time
It was Friday when I learned that “I was today years old when I learned/realized” is a meme. Thank you, Rachel.
And it was today when I realized that the name of the MSNBC show Kasie DC is a play on “K-C-D-C.”
If I were likely to take up memes, now would have been the perfect time to do so.
*
What I didn’t realize until two days after making this post: Kasie DC is a play on AC/DC.
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