MLK

Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.

[“Martin Luther King’s study, Dexter Parsonage Museum, Montgomery, Alabama.” Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith. 2010. From the George F. Landegger Collection of Alabama Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Click for a larger view.]

A note from the Library of Congress:

The Dexter Parsonage Museum, historic home to twelve pastors of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church from 1920-1992, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Martin Luther King lived in the home from 1954 to 1960.

The full-size 6432 × 4643 photograph at the Library of Congress website offers many details.

I’ll quote again words that I quoted at this time last year:

Perhaps the most determining factor in the role of the federal government is the tone set by the Chief Executive in his words and actions.

Martin Luther King Jr., Why We Can’t Wait (1964).

[I think that my excitement in finding this photograph made it difficult for me to realize that the room must be a re-creation. A Montgomery website says that “The nine-room clapboard Parsonage, built in 1912, has been restored to its appearance when Dr. King and his family lived there. Much of the furniture presently in the the living room, dining room, bedroom and study was actually used by Dr. King.” But the books? The records?]

“Surf’s Up”

In today’s Atlantic crossword, by Peter Gordon, a nice tip of the hat: 10-D, nine letters, “Surf’s Up singers, with the.” Nice not to have to think of them as the in-name-only group sharing a stage with Vanilla Ice at Mar-a-Logo. The horror.

Surf’s Up is a 1971 album. “Surf’s Up” is a song, music by Brian Wilson, words by Van Dyke Parks, written for the ill-fated SMiLE project. It’s one of my favorite songs. Listen to the Brian-only version (1967). Then try the finished version. If you think you know what a song titled “Surf’s Up” is going to sound like — well, listen.

Help wanted

Annie Karni, writing in The New York Times: “The statement released Monday by Mrs. Trump was also rife with grammatical errors and typos.” Have you read it? Jeez.

I like this sentence from the Times article: “It was not clear who helped Mrs. Trump draft the statement.” Help!

“Hmmm, hmmm”

Robert de Saint-Loup’s handshake is stiff and distant. His uncle’s handshake is more distant still. Introducing Palamède, Baron de Charlus:

Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, trans. James Grieve (New York: Penguin, 2002).

Related reading
All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard)

A Q believer

“She once spent several minutes explaining how a domino-shaped ornament on the White House Christmas tree proved that Mr. Trump was sending coded messages about QAnon, because the domino had 17 dots, and Q is the 17th letter of the alphabet”: from a New York Times portrait of a Harvard-educated QAnon “digital soldier.”

Springfield 1908

From NBC News:

Illinois‘s two senators have called on President-elect Joe Biden to make the site of a 1908 race riot in Springfield a national monument.

Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, both Democrats, wrote to Biden Thursday asking for the designation, citing the riot’s historic significance, especially its role in inspiring the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Wikipedia has an extensive article about the riot, which might be better described as racial terrorism.

Joanne Rogers (1928–2020)

“She was the inspiration for the puppet character Queen Sara, wife of King Friday XIII”: Joanna Rogers, Mrs. Rogers, pianist and Neighborhood advocate, has died at the age of ninety-two. The New York Times has an obituary.

Orange Crate Art is a Neighborhood-friendly zone.

Today’s Saturday somepin

Today’s Newsday crossword is not a Stumper. The Stumper is gone, replaced by somepin else, an easier themeless Saturday. Today’s puzzle is by Newsday puzzle editor Stan Newman, composing as Lester Ruff. Les Ruff, that is, easier, as every Newsday Saturday now promises to be. And this puzzle was easier, though it felt difficult. Is it a pseudo-Stumper? A semi-Stumper?

Some clue-and-answer pairs I enjoyed:

1-D, six letters, “California’s ‘Garlic Capital of the World.’” I love garlic, so I know the name. But probably anyone who’s bought garlic in an American supermarket has seen the name. The capital appears in Les Blank’s documentary Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers.

36-D, seven letters, “Papal, in Michelangelo’s day.” I learned something.

44-A, four letters, “Former Volvo alternative.” For me it signified (rightly or wrongly) Yuppie. Yuck.

67-A, six letters, “Feel like fighting.” But only because I misread the answer and felt mystified.

I didn’t find much 5-D, five letters, “Roy Lichtenstein ‘impactful’ pop-art painting” in today’s puzzle. Maybe next week’s Saturday will offer more.

No spoilers: the answers are in the comments.

Witness to the Siege

A conversation that aired last night on PBS, Witness to the Siege, with Judy Woodruff, Yamiche Alcindor, Lisa Desjardins, and Amna Nawaz.

Not a rhetorical question: Is there any one person who has done more to damage our country than Donald Trump**? Am I missing someone?

Opportunistic

My favorite sentence (so far) from Trevor Day’s Sardine (London: Reaktion, 2018): “Sardines are opportunistic.” Which means that “they feed on phytoplankton or zooplankton, or both, depending on which is abundant at the time.” Phytoplankton are plant-like organisms. Day characterizes zooplankton as “drifting animals.”

Opportunists and drifters: it sounds like ocean noir. Sooner or later, someone will be caught in a net.

Sardine is a volume in Reaktion’s Animal series, beautifully printed, with many drawings and photographs.

Thanks, Heber, for pointing me to this book.

Related reading
All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)