A former student in the news

News from the University of Wisconsin-Madison:

Alexander disease is a progressive and rare neurological disorder with no cure or standard course of treatment. But a new study led by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison involving a rat model of the disease offers a potential treatment for the typically fatal condition.

It’s a significant step in efforts to help people with the disease, says UW–Madison Waisman Center senior scientist Tracy Hagemann, who led the study alongside Albee Messing, professor emeritus of comparative biosciences and founder of the Alexander Disease Lab.

Tracy Hagemann was my student in undergraduate days (commas and poems, not DNA and mRNA). I am happy to see this news about her work. Go Tracy!

Here is the abstract of an article in Science Translational Medicine that reports the study.

Thanks, Stefan. (Also, go Stefan!)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by “Anna Stiga,” or Stan Again, the puzzle’s editor, Stan Newman. It’s a good one, not overly difficulty, but with stumbling blocks and misleading road signs here and there that make for a satisfying puzzle. It’s fairly easy going in the northwest: 1-A, ten letters, “What Astaire (at 78) fell off, breaking his wrist” is a giveaway if you’re an Astaire fan. Things get more difficult down south.

Some clue-and-answer pairs I especially liked:

2-D, five letters, “Penny on Big Bang Theory.” I will reveal a gap in my TV knowledge: the only reason I knew this answer is that 2-D appeared in last week’s Curb Your Enthusiasm. Who was that optometrist? I watched the credits and found out. Oh, her!

36-D, four letters, “      Zirconia (pop legend impersonator).” Who? What?! I have filled another gap in my pop-culture knowledge.

44-D, six letters, “Triple-1 Down sequence.” The clue for 1-D, five letters: “Type of tone.” The sequence is gettable from crosses, but it’s fun to just know it.

45-A, seven letters, “Japanese pen name.” Yes!

51-A, three letters, “Blazin’ Blueberry beverage brand.” I haven’t thought of it since the childhood days of certain persons.

58-A, four letters, “Sermon conclusion.” This clue had me hung up for a while.

61-A, ten letters, “American pen name.” See 45-A.

My favorite clue in the puzzle: 29-D, nine letters, “‘The Raven’ conclusion.” It’s Stumpery.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Iel, iels

The Washington Post reports that the French dictionary Le Petit Robert has added the gender-neutral personal pronouns iel and iels. Says the French minister of education, “L’écriture inclusive n’est pas l’avenir de la langue française”: inclusive language is not the future of the French language. Sheesh.

Recently updated

Words of the year Now with perseverance.

Hi and Lois watch

[Hi and Lois, November 19, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

I am puzzled by the painting to the far left. Is it meant to suggest a recognizable work of art?

I am puzzled by today’s gradient. It’s one thing for a wall to be rendered with a gradient (happens often in this strip); it’s another for a wall to blend into a floor.

I am not puzzled by the green wall and blue sofa. That’s easy: the Flagstons are using a set left over from an Almodóvar movie.

Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)

Extremism and “humor”

“They can talk about violence, they can advocate for violence, and then say, ‘Well, it was just a joke’”: from a Washington Post article on white supremacists, coded language, and “humor.“ Members of Congress should be thinking about these matters when thinking about threats from Paul (“It’s a cartoon”) Gosar — and from anyone else.

Coffee and “the shipping situation”

[As the world anticipates coffee shortages — due, this time, to supply-chain problems and climate.]

[Life, October 19, 1942. Click for a larger view.]

 The original scan (available in Google Books) has a bright green line running at a slant through the ad. I used the free service Cleanup.pictures to remove it. Not a perfect fix, but better than my attempt at copying and pasting little strips of photograph. The pictures to the left show the original and the Cleanup.pictures version.

I found this advertisement from the Pan-American Coffee Bureau while looking (as usual) for something else. The bureau has made two previous appearances in these pages, each time with a memorable slogan: “Give yourself a coffee-break” and “How about some good hot coffee?”

And speaking of good hot coffee — sheesh, just keep any extra coffee for later drinking. There’s no need for jelly.

Related reading
All OCA coffee posts (Pinboard)

[Extra-credit question: What is that guy looking at?!]

Dave Frishberg (1933–2021)

Pianist, singer, songwriter extraordinaire. The New York Times has an obituary.

A few Frishberg songs I like
“Do You Miss New York?” : “I’m Hip” (co-written with Bob Dorough) : “My Attorney Bernie” : “Sweet Kentucky Ham” : “Van Lingle Mungo”

[I bet Tom Waits has listened to “Sweet Kentucky Ham.”]

Aaugh!

On CNN, a legal commentator twice just referred to someone “toeing the line” to suggest disobedience. She should’ve said “overstepping.”

And a minute or two later, the same commentator referred to someone “honing in.” No, “homing in.”

How to improve writing (no. 97)

From today’s Washington Post :

Jacob Chansley, whose brightly painted face, tattooed torso and horned cap became a visual icon of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison by a federal judge in Washington. His lawyer had asked the judge to impose a sentence of time already served, basically the entire 10 months since the insurrection, during which Chansley attracted more attention for demanding an organic diet while in jail and giving an interview to “60 Minutes.”

~ “A visual icon”: It’s not the parts that are an icon; it’s the whole, and here, “visual” is clearly implied. The judge got it right: “He made himself  the image of the riot” (my emphasis).

~ “Wednesday to,” &c.: The sequence of elements here could be improved, with the most important element falling at the end of the sentence. That change will also break up the chain of four prepositional phrases.

~ “His lawyer”: Whose? Obviously, that’s Chansley’s lawyer, but it wouldn’t hurt to bring the name in.

~ “Basically the entire”: That phrasing is basically slack.

~ “For”: I’d say that he attracted attention by doing those things.

~ “While in jail”: the sentence has already established the location.

Better:

Jacob Chansley, whose brightly painted face, tattooed torso and horned cap made him an icon of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced by a federal judge in Washington Wednesday to 41 months in prison. Chansley’s lawyer had asked the judge to impose a sentence of time already served — the 10 months since the insurrection — during which Chansley attracted more attention by demanding an organic diet and giving an interview to “60 Minutes.”

All I planned to write about when I started: “a visual icon.” As usual, looking closely at one detail led me to notice others.

All OCA “How to improve writing” posts (Pinboard)

[I’d add a serial comma (“torso, and horned cap”), italicize “60 Minutes,” and write out January, forty-one, and ten, but it’s not my newspaper. This post is no. 97 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose.]