Orange Crate Art

Friday, February 5, 2021

Naked City Mongol

[Detective Adam Flint (Paul Burke) interviews hospital employee Grace (Bibi Osterwald). From the Naked City episode “Carrier” (April 24, 1963). Click for a larger view.]

There are eight million Mongols in the Naked City. This has been one of them, and the last one I noticed on our household’s trek back through the series.

“Carrier” is one of my favorite Naked City episodes. Sandy Dennis plays a woman with a rare contagious disease who leaves the isolation of a Welfare Island hospital to see Manhattan for herself. And there she meets someone who lives in isolation for a different reason. The episode, like every other episode of the series, is available at YouTube. It’s really extraordinary television.

Venn reading
All OCA Mongol posts : Mongol and Naked City posts : Naked City posts (Pinboard)

Catch a wave

Yep, that’s Poseidon. I recognize him from a vase.

Thanks, Ben.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Danny Ray (1935–2021)

Danny Ray, for forty-six years James Brown’s emcee and cape man, has died at the age of eighty-five. Says the James Brown Estate: “Mr. Ray was the second hardest working man in show business.”

Here’s a 1968 (?) example of the emcee at work, and another from 1974. And from The T.A.M.I. Show (1964), a celebrated instance of the cape routine. And here — why not? — is James Brown’s complete T.A.M.I Show performance. Holy smokes. The Rolling Stones made the ill-advised choice to go on after Brown.

Our fambly was fortunate to see James Brown and company in 2005, with Danny Ray, Tomi Rae, the Soul Generals, and the Bitter Sweets. A night to remember.

[“1968 (?)”: The video seems to have been misdated to avoid detection and removal for copyright infringement. Shh.]

Beep, beep

From Heather Cox Richardson’s latest daily commentary on the news:

While Republican lawmakers continue to grab headlines with outrageous behavior and obstructionism, President Biden has been derailing them in the only way no one has tried yet: ignoring them and governing. Only two weeks into his administration, this approach appears to be enormously effective.

[Insert Road Runner sound effect here.]

Safari 14.0.3 fixes 14.0.1 and .2

The problem with Safari that Mojave users (like me) first noticed in mid-November has been fixed. Safari 14.0.3 fixes a problem that began with 14.0.1 and continued with 14.0.2 — the inability to perform any task that involved opening the Finder from the browser, like, say, attaching or uploading a file. You know, trivial blue-moon stuff. Strange: Apple now offers updates for both 14.0.2 and 14.0.3 for Mojave, with the boxes for both downloads checked as a default.

After learning that Apple employees read all e-mail addressed to Tim Cook, I wrote to him, or them, in mid-December:

Hello Mr. Cook,

In 1985 my first computer was an Apple //c. I’m a liberal-arts type, but I nerded out creating macros for AppleWorks with Beagle Bros’ MacroWorks. I finally gave in and began using Windows in the 1990s. With Windows 7 on the horizon, I switched to a Mac in 2007 and have been a happy user ever since. My family and extended family are now all Mac, iPad, and iPhone users.

But right now I’m not a happy user. For those of us still (for whatever reasons) staying with Mojave, the recent 14.0.1 update breaks any button that opens the Finder to browse for a file. In other words: it’s no longer possible to attach a file in Gmail. (You can drag and drop, but sometimes that’s not appropriate.) It’s no longer possible to upload an image to Blogger. It’s no longer possible to do many, many ordinary tasks that require opening the Finder from Safari:

https://discussions.apple.com/search?page=1&q=safari%2014.0.1%20mojave&content=filterDiscussions

My solution to the problem was to reinstall Mojave, get the [then-new] security update, and stay with 14.0. From what I’ve read in Apple Community discussions, the problem that began with 14.0.1 persists with 14.0.2:

https://discussions.apple.com/search?page=1&q=safari%2014.0.2%20mojave&content=filterDiscussions

The problem with 14.0.1 has been a problem for over a month now, and 14.0.2 apparently does nothing to fix it. Several people have reported calls with tech support that yield no solution. At least a couple of people report being told by Apple tech support to use Chrome. Sheesh!

As I’m sure you will agree, Apple should do better by its customers. Please, make Safari work properly in Mojave.

As you can already guess, I received no reply. It’s impossible for me to tell from the one Apple document about 14.0.3 I can find that Apple is acknowledging a problem that has been fixed. But Safari, at least for now, works.

[Remember the Apple slogan “It just works”? Not so much, as this problem and the many problems with Catalina and Big Sur make clear.]

Wine and cheese

Science! An Iowa State University research study has found that “diet modifications — including more wine and cheese — may help reduce cognitive decline.” Wine and cheese FTW.

Four specific findings:

Cheese, by far, was shown to be the most protective food against age-related cognitive problems, even late into life;

The daily consumption of alcohol, particularly red wine, was related to improvements in cognitive function;

Weekly consumption of lamb, but not other red meats, was shown to improve long-term cognitive prowess; and

Excessive consumption of salt is bad, but only individuals already at risk for Alzheimer’s Disease may need to watch their intake to avoid cognitive problems over time.

I hereby declare this study to be the final word on the subject. But don’t forget the crackers.

A related post
I remember “wine and cheese” (Ubiquitous in college)

Mutts and the mail

[Mutts, February 4, 2021.]

In today’s Mutts, Earl reminds us, or alerts us, that it’s National Mail Carrier Day, aka Thank a Mail Carrier Day. Funny, I thought that day was shortly before December 25. Yes, we write a check for our mail carrier every year.

Related posts
“Everybody’s trusted friend” : The Mailman (An educational film)

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Then, Voyager

[Life, May 24, 1943. Click for a much larger view.]

I’m not sure how I found it, but I did. A complete kit for writing V-Mail, with everything but fountain pen and mechanical pencil: ink, leads, stationery, pen wiper, calendar, ruler, and instructions for pen care.

What led me to Sheaffer’s Voyager? A World War II motto, as seen in a movie flophouse: “Write that letter now.”

[Of course Sheaffer wouldn’t think about wood-cased pencils as writing instruments.]

Conjugation?

“I googled [blank].”

Okay. But what if one uses DuckDuckGo?

“I duckduckgo-ed [blank]”?

“I duckduckwent [blank]”?

“I searched for [blank] with DuckDuckGo” is too prolix for this twenty-first century. But still I’ll go with DuckDuckGo.