I had the television on while I did the dishes. A commercial spoke of “Pushbuttonese.”
No, it didn’t. It spoke of “push-button ease.” But for a moment I thought of push-buttons and pictographs: ⏏︎. Listening to the television with only cursory attention has its rewards.
Related reading
All OCA misheard posts (Pinboard)
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Misheard
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Matthew Sewell, and it’s pretty easy by Sewell standards. But not too easy. Stacks of three eleven-letter answers give the puzzle a bracing start and finish. I started with an eleven-letter clue, 17-A, “Source for Vermeer's blues.” Blue paint — it’s gotta be, right?
Clue-and-answer pairs that I especially liked:
4-D. three letters, “Henry Louis Gates, circa 1971.” PHD? No, too young.
13-D, eight letters, “‘Outrageous!’” I imagine the answer as spoken by Nancy Ritz.
22-D, eight letters, “Built like the Eiffel Tower.” A lovely word that should see more use.
32-A, seven letters, “What Lysol lacks.” If you say so.
34-A, five letters, “Union capital.” Clever.
34-D, three letters, “Hip replacement?” I, like, dig.
36-D, eight letters, “Kerosene antecedent.” Makes me think of a certain work of literature.
39-A, four letters, “Half of New Delhi.” A smart way to clue a bit of familiar crosswordese. I saw it right away.
No spoilers: the answers are, like, in the comments.
Friday, June 12, 2020
Trump* interviewed
Aaron Rupar has a Twitter thread collecting choice moments from Donald Trump*’s interview with Harris Faulkner (Fox News). Must be seen and heard to be believed.
Especially choice: Trump*’s comment about Abraham Lincoln. I didn’t realize at first that Trump* was joking about Lincoln’s assassination. At least I think he was joking about Lincoln’s assassination. I first thought he was joking about slavery.
Staying in one place
I know nothing about making models, but I’m struck by this (pre-pandemic) observation from Philip Reed, a professional model maker. It’s from a short film, Zen and the Art of Model Making, found at J.D. Lowe’s 30 Squares:
“I do not see that just having to stay in one place is a restriction on life. It’s more having to stay in one place in your head that’s a restriction on life.”I’d say that when people you love are many miles away, having to stay in one place is a restriction. But the point I take from Reed’s observation: Feed Your Head.
A third Robert Johnson photograph
It appears on the cover of a book published this week, Brother Robert: Growing Up with Robert Johnson, by Annye C. Anderson with Preston Lauterbach (Hachette). Mrs. Anderson is Robert Johnson’s stepsister.
Vanity Fair has a brief feature on the book and the photograph. The magazine notes that Annye C. Anderson prefers to be called Mrs. Anderson.
Related posts
Johnson playing for an Italian wedding : A New York Times obituary for Johnson : On slowing down Johnson’s recordings
Soaking up lit
[“Chapter and Worse.” Zippy, June 12, 2020.]
Will Nicholson Baker read today’s Zippy ?
If the name Virgil Partch doesn’t click: he is better known as the cartoonist Vip, a quintessential mid-century modern cartoonist. No connection to Baker that I know of. I must have first seen Vip’s work in Professional Mixing Guide: The Accredited List Of Recognized And Accepted Standard Formulas For Mixed Drinks, a tiny pamphlet (4 11/16 × 2 3/4) published by Angostura-Wupperman, makers of Angostura bitters. My copy is a fifty-second printing, with a copyright date of 1961. I’ve had this pamphlet since childhood (really) — it came with a bottle of whiskey we bought for my paternal grandfather, but it stayed with me. I liked its tiny size. I would have had no idea what Professional Mixing Guide even meant. But Vip would have: many of his cartoons were alcohol-themed.
Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard) : From The Anthologist : Nicholson Baker and Lawrence Ferlinghetti : Nicholson Baker on Maeve Brennan : Nicholson Baker reviews the Kindle : How to make an Old Fashioned (From the Guide)
Thursday, June 11, 2020
Sonny Rollins on presidents
Sonny Rollins, talking with The New Yorker, on whether the tenor saxophonist Lester Young, known as Pres, would make a better president than the present occupant of the White House:
“Well, I don’t really know the present occupant personally, but I knew Lester Young personally, and I would go with Lester Young. His music speaks for itself, and he’s a human being whose personality, whose humanity, made his music what it was. A great musician, but also a great person.”Related reading
All OCA Sonny Rollins posts (Pinboard) : Billie Holiday and Lester Young
Racism, the word, revised
From WGBH: Kennedy Mitchum, a recent college graduate, has prompted Merriam-Webster to begin revising its definition of racism.
Millimetres
Fernando Pessoa, from “Millimetres (the sensation of small things),” The Book of Disquiet, trans. from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith (New York: Penguin, 2003).
See also William Carlos Williams and Wallace Shawn on powders, pencils, mountains, and cigars.
Related reading
All OCA Pessoa posts (Pinboard)
[Five periods: the translator’s symbol for a “place where a sentence breaks off, space left for an unwritten sentence or paragraph, or blank space inside a sentence where the hiatus does not interrupt a phrasal unit.”]
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