“It is what it is”

Michelle Obama, speaking last night, offering “the cold, hard truth”:

“Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is.”

A nice repurposing of Trump*’s heartless remark about coronavirus deaths: “They are dying. That's true. And you — it is what it is.”

Colder and harder still, Kristin Urquiza’s comments on the death of her father, who contracted the coronavirus after going to a karaoke bar:

“My dad was a healthy sixty-five-year-old. His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and for that, he paid with his life.”

Trump* = death. We must vote as if our lives depend on it.

Theater of War, tomorrow

A Theater of War event for frontline medical providers:

This event will use Sophocles’s Philoctetes and Women of Trachis to create a vocabulary for discussing themes such as personal risk, death/dying, grief, deviation from standards of care, abandonment, helplessness, and complex ethical decisions, the project aims to foster connection, community, moral resilience, and positive action. The project aims to foster connection, community, moral resilience, and positive action.

It’s a Zoom event, free, open to the public, scheduled for this Wednesday, August 19, 12:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. EDT. Reading from the plays: Jesse Eisenberg, Frankie Faison, Frances McDormand, and David Zayas. Register here.

Related reading
All OCA Sophocles posts (Pinboard)

A post about the post

I see from my stats that the 2017 post “The Letter,” revised, is getting a good number of visits. The post has the text of “The Letter,” a poem by Charles William Eliot, revised by Woodrow Wilson, and revised once again by Eliza D. Keith, teacher and suffragist. The poem celebrates letter writing, and the Wilson version is inscribed on the façade of the Old City Post Office, now the National Postal Museum, in Washington, D.C.

Have you called or written to the six members of the USPS’s Board of Governors? Their numbers and addresses are easy to find.

SOUSPS.

*

August 18: To make it easier, here are names and e-mail addresses:

Robert M. Duncan, chair: mduncan@inezdepositbank.com

John M. Barger: barger.jm@gmail.com

Ron A. Bloom: ron.bloom@brookfield.com

Roman Martinez IV: roman@rmiv.com

Donald L. Moak: lee.moak@moakgroup.com

William D. Zollars: DirectorAccessMailbox@cigna.com

I put six letters in a still-extant mailbox yesterday, but I added six e-mails today.

Roger Angell, closing in

A celebration for the writer Roger Angell, who’s nearing his hundredth birthday.

Angell’s essay “This Old Man” is one of the best things I’ve ever read.

Related reading
A handful of OCA Roger Angell posts

Michael Rosen, on the mend

The BBC Radio 4 podcast Word of Mouth comes and goes, with weeks of episodes followed by lulls. But when the show returned after its most recent lull with guest hosts filling in for Michael Rosen, I thought that something must be up. It turns out that Rosen had a dreadful encounter with COVID-19. He’s now on the mend, and he’s written another book for children. All best wishes to Michael Rosen for his continued recovery.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

I think I get at least partial credit for doing today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Andrew Bell Lewis. It started so well, with 4-D, five letters, “Name on the first side-by-side fridge.” Hail, appliance manufacturer familiar to all crossword solvers! And then 5-D, three letters, “Napa nickname” and 1-A, eight letters, “Twisty underground passageway.” Followed by 6-D, four letters, “Tiramisu treat just for 2020.” Hail, treat familiar to all crossword solvers! Though the idea of a treat made just for this hellish year seems pretty cruel right now. And 7-D, seven letters, “Spheroid sweet.” Hail, more quietly, to a more obscure treat, one I enjoyed greatly in my sugar-rich childhood.

Later in the puzzle: 35-D, eight letters, “Single-serving desserts” and 59-A, nine letters, “Yuletide fruitcake.” This puzzle will be receiving a visit from the ADA.

The clue that had me stumped: 43-D, six letters, “Misspend one's time.” I was so baffled that I never saw the obvious answer for 43-A, three letters, “Fostered.” At least not until I began typing through the alphabet to figure out what fit. A little like answering a multiple-choice question by circling and erasing each answer until a bell rings and you get some sort of treat. Of which there are many in this puzzle.

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

A classroom?

[Click for a larger view.]

Here is one example of one university’s idea of a socially distanced classroom. No desks. Lousy sightlines. Notice that the chairs go all the way to the far corner.

I am no fan of online classes, as many OCA readers already know. But right now they’re the only choice to protect the well-being of faculty and students. It’s online teaching and learning that should be the experiment this fall, not an in-person semester that will almost certainly end badly.

Related posts
Choose your own nightmare : College, anyone? : Reluctant professors : Something is rotten in Iowa : Students, stay home : What if

“Nothing stops the mail.”

[Click for a larger view.]

When I saw our postal carrier across the street yesterday, I called out, “Thank you, USPS.” He understood what I meant.

Elaine found this image, uncredited. I want to believe what it says. See also this mailbox.

Eugene Levy, honored

In these terrible times, I liked seeing this video with fellow actors paying tribute to Eugene Levy, recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Newport Beach Film Festival.

And so I went down a Eugene Levy rabbithole. More specifically, an SCTV rabbithole. For instance. For instance. For instance. And for instance. Okay, I’ll stop.

Nancy puzzle

Today’s Nancy, which takes shape as a jigsaw puzzle, is especially clever. Olivia Jaimes continues to breathe new life into the Nancy world.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)