Domestic comedy

“O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can I know my trousers from my pants?”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

[With apologies to William Butler Yeats.]

Mystery actor

[Click for a much larger view.]

The actor with folded arms: do you recognize her? Leave your best guess in the comments. If you’ve seen the movie, you may leave more than a guess. I’ll add a hint if needed.

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The answer’s now in the comments.

More mystery actors (Collect them all!)
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?

[Garner’s Modern English Usage notes that “support for actress seems to be eroding.” I use actor.]

Cartoon chef mansplains mayo

[Life, June 28, 1937. Click for a much larger view.]

“Now I’ll explain, ladies!” But Clara was doing just fine on her own. I like that Jane addresses her and not Mr. Chef: “You’re right, Clara!”

Daughter Number Three’s post of an ad about “sissy-sweet salads” made me think of a Hellmann’s ad about a “he-man ‘chef’s salad,’” which led in turn to this ad. And speaking of salad, or “salad,” look at that delightful plate: lettuce, cheese, cherries, grapes, and a big glob of mayo.

Related posts
Hellmann’s or Best Foods? : Mayonnaise vs. salad dressing

Vintage sardines

Zingerman’s Portuguese sardines are available in the 2015 and 2016 vintages. The small oily fish are meaty and delicious.

Thank you, Kevin!

[Since 2017, “small oily fish” has been my deliberately dumb inelegant variation on “sardine” — like “slender yellow fruit” for “banana.”]

Ugh, ugh, ugh

As CNN would have it, Mike Love and John Stamos are the Beach Boys. Dana Bash called them that just now. Ugh.

The ill-named Love did not correct Bash when she said that he wrote “Surfin’,” the first Beach Boys hit. Ugh.

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7:24: This CNN-televised performance is a godawful embarrassment. You’ve gotta work really hard to ruin “God Only Knows.” And that was before Mike Love had sung a note. Ugh again.

*

July 5: Someone has shared the evidence on YouTube.

[Brian Wilson wrote the music for “Surfin’,” and Love may have had help with the words. The song is credited to Wilson and Love.]

The Fourth

[Jasper Johns, Flag on Orange. 1998. Etching with aquatint in colors on Hahnmühle Copperplate paper. 27 × 19 9/10 inches. Click for a slightly larger view.]

Orange flag art.

Two Americas

Writing in The Atlantic, Sarah Zhang says that America’s vaccine future is fragmenting:

Earlier this year, the Biden administration set a goal of partially vaccinating at least 70 percent of adults by Independence Day. The U.S. will narrowly miss the mark; the number is currently hovering around 67 percent. When you zoom in closer, though, we’re doing both better and worse than that, depending on where you look. Our pandemic fates have diverged. The plateauing national case numbers obscure two simultaneous trends: an uptick in several sparsely vaccinated states and continued declines in well-vaccinated ones.

And some states vary widely from region to region. That’s a subject of conversation in our household almost every day. Our congressional district, Illinois-15, represented by Mary Miller, continues to have the lowest vaccination rate in the state.

We sent Miller a letter nearly a month ago asking what steps she has taken and will take to encourage vaccination in her district. No reply. No surprise. She’s busy! Witness her recent trip to the U .S.–Mexico border.

Today’s Newsday Saturday

Today’s Newsday  Saturday crossword is by Lars G. Doubleday, aka Doug Peterson and Brad Wilber. Easier than last week’s puzzle, I thought, but it felt a bit more challenging, with many satisfying and unusual clue-and-answer pairs. Some I especially liked:

1-A, eight letters, “Toast for tots.” I know about it because of a photograph from my infancy, and I know that it’s still made, but I think it’s pretty difficult to find in the States now, at least under this name.

1-D, four letters, “Numbers on letters.” Just because.

9-D, five letters, “Jerk.” Noun? Verb?

10-D, nine letters, “Retro golf pants.” I have no idea what they look like, but I know the word from the title of — spoiler alert — a Steve Lacy tune. (The soprano saxophonist, that is.)

16-A, six letters, “Get into gear.” Nice misdirection, even in the words “get into.”

40-D, six letters, “Prepares eggs for custard.” Strange word, and I have no idea how I know it. I think of sitting the eggs in little chairs and handing them little spoons. I think I’ve been watching too much Peppa Pig. Elaine says that 40-D is misclued, and Merriam-Webster appears to support her. The answer refers to a way to prepare eggs as eggs. Anyone who just 40-D eggs won’t come out with custard.

52-D, four letters, “Tireless runner.” I thought it had to be an animal.

54-D, three letters, “Was more than superficial.” Almost too weird.

57-A, six letters, “Turn down.” Meaning what?

My favorite clue, whose answer, even if obvious, still somehow came as a surprise to me: 12-D, six letters, “Unfinished stories, often.” I’ve been thinking too much about narrative.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

“Disobvious”

[Peanuts, July 6, 1974. Click for a larger view.]

Yesterday’s Peanuts is today’s Peanuts.

Lucy’s dilemma reminds me of the great discussions of prefixes in two recent episodes of A Word in Your Ear — 1, 2. A Word in Your Ear is a podcast from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, hosted by Katherine Feeney and Roly Sussex.

Richard Signorelli’s Twitter

Richard Signorelli is an attorney in private practice, formerly an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His Twitter account looks to me like required reading for anyone interested in the sea of troubles the Trump Organization finds itself in.