COVID, Covid

COVID, or Covid? The Guardian offers a short commentary on “the comfort of pedantry at a time of national crisis.”

The New York Times spells it as “Covid”; The Washington Post, as “covid.” The Times rule, as given in its Manual of Style and Usage: “When an acronym serves as a proper name and exceeds four letters, capitalize only the first letter.”

*

April 21: Shop Talk, a blog for The Chicago Manual of Style, has an extensive discussion of COVID-19 and related terms.

Thanks, Fresca.

Trump*’s two plans

David Frum, writing in The Atlantic about Donald Trump*’s two plans for dealing with the coronavirus:

Either he pushes the country to trade poor people’s lives for the pursuit of economic recovery, or he gets a cable-TV culture war to distract his supporters from the troubles he himself aggravated by his own negligence.

President Trump’s bad leadership has inflicted terrible hardship on Americans. Trump’s Plan A is to use the pain of that hardship to justify more bad leadership. His Plan B is to use the pain as a way to shift odium: Don’t blame me, the guy who failed to prepare for the pandemic. Blame the governors who are now forced to respond to my failure. . . .

Both Trump’s Plan A and Plan B intend to turn American against American, in an ugly spirit of rancor and resentment. In pandemic as in prosperity, the Trump way is to punish opponents, reward friends; accuse victims, protect culprits; demand credit, refuse accountability; protect preferred classes and groups of Americans — and sacrifice the rest.

Henry Grimes and Giuseppi Logan

Henry Grimes (1935–2020), bassist, of coronavirus. Giuseppi Logan (1935–2020), saxophonist, of coronavirus. Each made music again despite great adversity.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by “Anna Stiga,” Newsday crossword editor Stan Newman, composing under a pen name he uses for easier Stumpers.

And if I may: though Will Shortz gets the glory, such as it is, Stan Newman oversees a puzzle that is pretty consistently pleasing, especially on Saturdays. What I most like about Newsday puzzles is the relative absence of the arch and corny. No stunts, no connect-the-circled-letters.

This puzzle was an easy one. I solved in a clockwise circle, starting at 11:00 or so, and found the greatest difficulty in the puzzle’s middle. But just mild difficulty.

Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

1-D, eight letters, “The Star Wars cantina?” Nice. And I don’t even know Star Wars.

6-D, three letters, “Boy, in Brooklynese.” Dat’s me.

9-A, six letters, “Prepares for a take-off.” Is it spelled TAXIES? No.

11-D, four letters, “Squash, for short.” I’d never think of spelling it this way, but that’s how it’s spelled.

15-A, eight letters, “Affecting.” A little highfalutin, this answer.

21-D, eight letters, “Five-sided cardboard box.” Oh — it does have five sides. Huh.

38-A, fifteen letters, “Moneymaking picture takers.” How many p s in papparazzi? Not enough.

46-D, six letters, “Underground comix pioneer.” And comix is spelled appropriately.

64-D, three letters, “‘Mighty swell’ Keats poem subject.” Neato!

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

“Butter maiden” retired

The Land O’Lakes “butter maiden,” a fixture on packaging since 1928, has been retired. No explanation from the company, but the explanation should be obvious: the days of Native American “mascots” belong in the past.

The New York Times has an article. But I learned about the redesign from a blog post by Daughter Number Three. As she says, “Finally.”

“Space enough not to escape”

Bernando Soares has opinions about everything:


Fernando Pessoa, from text 67, The Book of Disquiet, trans. from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith (New York: Penguin, 2003).

Related reading
All OCA Pessoa posts (Pinboard)

Spring

[Fragrances everywhere.]

“What fragrance is that?”

“Laundry.”

And so it was. Probably dryer sheets.

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

Lee Konitz (1927–2020)

Lee Konitz, alto saxophonist, has died of the coronavirus at the age of ninety-two. From The New York Times obituary:

Like many jazz musicians, Mr. Konitz often found himself plying his trade in bars and nightclubs, where the audiences were less than completely attentive. He professed not to mind.

“Wherever I’m at, I’m happy to have a chance to play,” he told the British jazz writer Les Tompkins in 1976. “People come in and say, ‘How can you work in this noisy little joint?’ I say: ‘Very easy. I take the horn out of the bag, and I put it in my mouth.’ I appreciate the opportunity.”

Here is an opportunity to hear a Konitz performance of “Stella by Starlight” (Victor Young), uploaded to YouTube today. All alto, all alone.

लोकः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु

Kavita Pillay, co-host of the podcast Subtitle, spoke with her mother Indira Pillay, a retired pathologist, for the episode “One Virus, Many Languages.” Dr. Pillay said that she doesn’t believe in a benevolent deity but nevertheless has a favorite line of prayer: Lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu. It’s Sanskrit: लोकः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु. Her translation: “Let the whole world be well.” Another translation: “May all beings everywhere be happy and free.” A hope all beings can get behind.

Here’s a parsing of the Sanskrit, which I hope is reliable.

[There’s no transcript for the podcast. I typed the Sanskrit words as I heard them, crossed my fingers, and the Internets did the rest.]

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)