On Juneteenth

Eugene Robinson, writing in The Washington Post:

Making Juneteenth, the anniversary of the day news of emancipation finally reached enslaved people in Galveston, Tex., a national holiday is a victory. But it is a hollow one at a moment when the political party that won the Civil War and made that freedom a permanent reality is now moving heaven and earth to keep African Americans from voting. . . .

If Republicans want to convince us they are sincere in their stirring words about the importance of Juneteenth, let’s see them sign on to the voting-rights legislation that passed the House and now is being considered in the Senate. If they don’t like that bill, let’s see them come up with one of their own to protect the right of every American to vote.

A related post
A passage from Ralph Ellison’s Juneteenth

No mask

I switched back to my older (and younger) sidebar picture this afternoon. I still wear a mask when I’m in indoors with many people, some of whom will certainly be unvaccinated. But no mask outdoors. And I write my blog posts at home, unmasked. So that autumnal photograph of me standing on the sidewalk, wearing a mask, is gone, and for better or worse, my face is back. Hello.

Mac keyboard shortcuts

From David Sparks: twenty-five Mac keyboard shortcuts for greater productivity.

One strange thing about using a Mac: you can go for years before stumbling onto basic stuff. Like, say, Option-Command-L, which opens the Downloads folder from the Desktop or Finder.

Area man patents punctuation mark

It’s the Rhetoricon™, for use “at the end of a sentence, phrase, statement or comment that is both rhetorical and sarcastic.” I’m sure it’ll be very popular.

I’d add a Rhetoricon™ to the end of that last sentence if I knew how.

Pocket notebook sighting

In I See a Dark Stranger (dir. Frank Launder, 1946), Bridie Quilty (Deborah Kerr) pages through a mysterious notebook. You’ll have to watch to understand what it’s about. The movie is streaming at the Criterion Channel.

[Click either image for a larger view.]

More notebook sightings
All the King’s Men : Angels with Dirty Faces : The Bad and the Beautiful : Ball of Fire : The Big Clock : Bombshell : The Brasher Doubloon : Cat People : Caught : City Girl : Crossing Delancey : Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne : Dead End : The Devil and Miss Jones : Dragnet : Extras : Eyes in the Night : The Face Behind the Mask : Foreign Correspondent : Fury : Homicide : The Honeymooners : The House on 92nd Street : Journal d’un curé de campagne : Kid Glove Killer : The Last Laugh : Le Million : The Lodger : Ministry of Fear : Mr. Holmes : Murder at the Vanities : Murder by Contract : Murder, Inc. : The Mystery of the Wax Museum : Naked City : The Naked Edge : Now, Voyager : The Palm Beach Story : Perry Mason : Pickpocket : Pickup on South Street : Pushover : Quai des Orfèvres : The Racket : Railroaded! : Red-Headed Woman : Rififi : La roue : Route 66 : The Scarlet Claw : Sleeping Car to Trieste : The Small Back Room : The Sopranos : Spellbound : Stage Fright : State Fair : A Stranger in Town : Stranger Things : Sweet Smell of Success : Time Table : T-Men : To the Ends of the Earth : 20th Century Women : Union Station : Vice Squad : Walk East on Beacon! : Where the Sidewalk Ends : The Woman in the Window : You Only Live Once

[Byrrh is an apéritif.]

“Sardine Song”

“Oh for the life of a sardine, that is the life for me.” From Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight (1952), it’s “Sardine Song,” words and music by Chaplin.

Limelight is now available on-demand from TCM. If you’ve never seen it, don’t miss it.

Related reading
All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)

The Millers in Esquire

Congresswoman Mary Miller has now made it into Esquire as a member of the Sedition Caucus. Also appearing in a supporting role: her husband (and Illinois state representative) Chris. The Millers’ ignominious appearance in Esquire joins previous appearances in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Vanity Fair.

I have to wonder whether Mary Miller’s infamous “Hitler was right on one thing” was a moment of sheer idiocy, or a moment of sheer idiocy calculated to make a big splash and bring in bucks.

All the Miller posts
Chris Miller, pandemic denier : January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : #Sedition3PTruck : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights : Mary Miller on a billboard : Some of Mary Miller’s votes : Illinois-15, COVID-Central : Another Miller vote

News from New Hampshire

Colleen O’Neill, widow of J.D. Salinger, has offered to donate her defunct general store to the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, for use as a town library.

You can still see the store in its OPEN state at Google Maps.

Related reading
All OCA Salinger posts (Pinboard)

Another Mary Miller vote

Mary Miller (Illinois-15) was one of twenty-one Republican members of the House of Representatives who voted yesterday against awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to all police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. The measure passed with 406 votes.

Among the no votes: Andy Biggs, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul A. Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Louie Gohmert. In a tweet yesterday, Gaetz called Miller “Based Congresswoman.” “Thank you!!” she replied. There’s something about Mary.

Elaine and I are waiting on a reply to a letter we sent Miller asking what steps she’s taken and will take to encourage vaccination in her district. Illinois-15 has the lowest rate of vaccination — 31.75% — in the state. The number correlates remarkably well with the 2020 presidential election results in Illinois-15, where the losing candidate received 72.2% of the vote.

All the Mary Miller posts
January 5 and 6 in D.C., with Mary Miller : The objectors included Mary Miller : A letter to Mary Miller : Mary Miller, with no mask : Mary Miller, still in trouble : His ’n’ resignations are in order : Mary Miller in The New Yorker : Mary Miller vs. AOC : Mary Miller’s response to mass murder : Mary Miller and trans rights : Mary Miller on a billboard : Some of Mary Miller’s votes : Illinois-15, COVID-Central

Bloomsday 2021

From the National Jukebox at the Library of Congress, “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” music by J.L. Molloy, words by G. Clifton Bingham, sung by Corinne Morgan, recorded October 3, 1904. Listen.

Here is a 2008 Bloomsday post with more about the song and its place in Ulysses.

Related reading
All OCA Bloomsday posts

[Bloomsday : “the 16th of June 1904. Also: the 16th of June of any year, on which celebrations take place, esp. in Ireland, to mark the anniversary of the events in Joyce’s Ulysses” (Oxford English Dictionary ).]