In The Atlantic, Natan Last, crossword constructor, writes about “The Hidden Bigotry of Crosswords.” An excerpt:
That crossword mainstays such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal are largely written, edited, fact-checked, and test-solved by older white men dictates what makes it into the 15x15 grid and what’s kept out.
When I saw this moment, I knew what was missing. This version is the best I’ve found.
#CurbYourEnthusiasm Guest Starring Dr. Anthony Fauci as Himself pic.twitter.com/0MUbVkiELq
— Simon Taylor (@5imontaylor) March 20, 2020
Elaine and I are great fans of the New York City bookstore Three Lives & Company. We visit whenever we visit the city, and we always come away with a pile of books. It seems unlikely that we’ll be able to visit Three Lives, or New York, any time soon. What to do?
Three Lives is currently doing business by telephone and e-mail (also curbside pickup, and hand delivery in the West Village). I e-mailed to say that I wanted to buy some books, and suggested that the store post photographs of their display tables on their website. They were unable to do that (the website is pretty rudimentary), but they sent me photos. So we now have nine books coming our way for further adventures in the Four Seasons Reading Club, our two-person adventure in reading.
I like the idea of supporting an independent bookstore in all seasons. But especially now.
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My timing is good: Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has announced a #SaveNYC Quarantined Cash Mob for Three Lives.
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In Chicago, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores are doing business on the Internets. And — gasp! — they have, or had, a copy of Robertson Davies’s The Cornish Trilogy on the shelf.
Also in Chicago: Pete Lit reports that Madison Street Books, a weeks-old bookstore, is doing business on and off the Internets. The bookstore offers curbside pickup, free delivery in the West Loop, and one-dollar shipping in the States.
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From The Washington Post: “Independent bookstores survived the rise of online retail. Coronavirus poses bigger challenges.”
[Nine books for two people? Yes, because we already have one copy of William Lindsay Gresham’s Nightmare Alley.]
I like this statement of resolve from Mark Hurst. He’s taking up something C.S. Lewis said in 1939: “We are mistaken when we compare war with ‘normal life.’ Life has never been normal.”
Hurst writes,
Life was never normal, and life certainly isn’t normal now. I’m going to wash hands, sit at home behind this screen, and get on with creating good online.[This passage is in an e-mailed newsletter, so I have no way to link to it. But pass it on with appropriate credit to MH if you think it worthwhile.]
And we will get through this.
David Staunton remembers Grandfather Staunton, “powerful but dim” in his grandson’s past:
Robertson Davies, The Manticore (1972).
Eno’s was and is (as Eno, no possessive) a real antacid. Its main ingredients (at least in our time): sodium bicarbonate, sodium carbonate, and citric acid. Here’s some history. And an advertisement:
[The Illustrated London News, June 9, 1923. Click for a much larger view.]
So now I can add Robertson Davies to my small list of writers and artists who speak fantod.
Other Robertson Davies posts
“Fellows of the first importance” : “Visible branch establishments” : “Like a duck to water” : “A designer and a manufacturer” : “The intrepid Orph” : “The socks-shorts moment” : Wealth, illusion, corruption
Asshats, six of them, with their names visible for anyone to reference. Stupid, selfish, utterly irresponsible.
A related post
Homeric blindness in “colledge”
“How to Practice Social Distancing,” questions from The New Yorker, answers from Asaf Bitton, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. An excerpt:
Going outside in and of itself doesn’t increase the risk. It is really proximity to other human beings, and specifically to their secretions — their sneezes and droplets. So the recommendation is to please go outside if you can. Please take walks, please bike, with a helmet. Interact with your family members outside. But really the key is don’t interact with people outside of your home unit — whoever you are already in close contact with.Dr. Bitton’s “Social Distancing: This Is Not a Snow Day” is now available as a PDF.
A timely episode of To the Best of Our Knowledge: “Up All Night,” about sleep, or the lack thereof.
Speaking of which: I’ve been trying out melatonin for the past couple of weeks. I was getting tired — npi — of lying awake in the wee small hours of the morning. I bought 3mg tablets, took one, and was up all night. After reading anecdotal evidence that smaller doses can be more helpful, I tried cutting tablets in half and was surprised to find that a 1.5mg dose does the trick. I’ve been sleeping through the night. The strangest part: though the alarm is set for 7:00, I’ve been waking up, ungroggy, every morning between 6:30 and 6:35.
Placebo effect? I don’t know. The NIH is skeptical:
There’s not enough strong evidence on the effectiveness or safety of melatonin supplementation for chronic insomnia to recommend its use.Then again, I don’t think I have chronic insomnia.
Research suggests that melatonin might provide relief from the inability to fall asleep and stay asleep (insomnia) by slightly improving your total sleep time, sleep quality and how long it takes you to fall asleep.This post is not a recommendation: I’m only sharing my experience. As with any supplement, consult a doctor, the medical kind. I practice only on sentences.
I woke up with this sentence: “Performance-wise, Al Capone is at the top of the list.”
Capone would probably have given himself a 10, no?
Related reading
All OCA dream posts (Pinboard)
