Sardines everywhere

You know how fans feel when their favorite band gets a big recording contract and becomes everyone’s favorite? That’s kinda how I feel about sardines, which are now everywhere.

This week, in The New York Times, Alison Roman explains “How to Make the Most of Those Cans of Sardines.” Though Roman professes to love the small oily fish, most of her suggestions are about masking the flavor, with lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil, herbs, &c. Any or all of which are good in moderation, of course. There’s also a recipe for baby potatoes with sardines, celery, and dill — behind a paywall, but using a browser’s Reader View should show it. Shh.

Since 2017, “the small oily fish” has been my deliberately dumb inelegant variation on “sardine.”

Related reading
All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)

Blanchett’s OED

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It’s not just Tom Hanks. Cate Blanchett, too, has the twenty-volume second edition of the Oxford English Dictionary on her bookshelves. As seen on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night. If you disable your ad blocker, you can see it here.

A related post
Hanks’s OED (As seen on SNL)

“I never learn to learn”

“Isolation,” says Bernardo Soares, “has carved me in its image and likeness”:

Fernando Pessoa, from text 49, The Book of Disquiet, trans. from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith (New York: Penguin, 2003).

Related reading
All OCA Pessoa posts (Pinboard)

VDP in and on uncharted waters

Van Dyke Parks talked with the Los Angeles Times about life in and on these uncharted waters:

“Tie me to the mast. Show me what you got. I am not moving. There’s a very social aspect to what I do, but also I’m very monastic. What I do is write. And that takes being alone. This solitude that’s being forced on me and my wife is — hell’s bells as it is — just standard operating procedure.”

His theme song for this time: “Getting to know me, getting to know all about me.”

If the LAT article goes behind the paywall, you can read it here instead.

Related reading
All OCA VDP posts (Pinboard)

Radio stars

A headline from today’s New York Times: “Trump Wanted a Radio Show, But Deferred to Rush Limbaugh.”

Before reading the article, I thought, Oh, so he thought about doing talk radio before deciding to run for president. But no. He floated the radio idea last month.

Total authority

I read these words: “When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total.”

And I think of these: “I’m Gumby, dammit!”

prius starts wont go into gear

Elaine and I put on masks and gloves for a robbery shopping expedition this morning and found ourselves with an unusual problem: our Prius wouldn’t go into gear. The electrical system switched on, but the car wouldn’t move. Turning the car off was a problem too, requiring repeated presses of the Power button before anything happened. It took half a dozen false starts before we could back out of the driveway.

I did a search — prius starts wont go into gear — and found a range of explanations, from faulty foot to faulty brake-pedal sensor to failing hybrid battery. While the car was moving, we thought we should take it in to the dealer. So we called, got the okay to bring it in, and soon thereafter had an explanation. An error code in the car’s computer system pointed to a problem with the battery in the key fob. Cost of a new battery: $5.95. But with labor: $62.50.

I share this account so that a Prius owner with this same problem might find a fix that saves time and money.

[When we shopped, we saw many other customers wearing masks. Employees, not so much. And now no one can accept a tip.]

“Us, the unnoticed”

Fernando Pessoa, from text 24, The Book of Disquiet, trans. from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith (New York: Penguin, 2003).

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As I discovered later in the day, the materials of this passage reappear in Text 274. On the one hand, kings, emperors, geniuses, saints, leaders, prostitutes, prophets, and the rich. On the other, “there’s us”: the delivery boy, Shakespeare, the barber, Milton, the shop assistant, and Dante.

Related posts
Pessoa now : Pessoa and Almodóvar

Mystery actors

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I think that two of the three are easy. Can you name them all? Leave your answers in the comments. I’ll drop hints if I can think of good ones.

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All three names are now in the comments.

More mystery actors (Collect them all)
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?

Mysterious boxes

From the New York Times: Metropolitan Diary:

I was walking to the corner store to pick up a soda when I noticed a postal worker unlocking one of those olive-colored mailboxes that have always been a mystery to me.

And then the mystery deepens.

By the way, they’re called relay boxes. I’ve seen an opened one just once or twice.