I was with my mom in the waiting room of a medical facility this afternoon. As I was getting her settled, I noticed a man and woman sitting across from us, the man with his mask under his nose. It’s a familiar look in these parts.
“Sir,” I said, “would you please pull your mask up over your nose? I’d feel a lot more comfortable.”
He looked at me and obliged. And then he got up and walked away, followed by the woman, who appeared to have no say in the matter.
“We better leave before I bounce him like a rock,” the man said, loud enough for me to hear. But I didn’t hear a thing. The man and woman went to stand outside, on the 30℉-ish prairie, rather than sit inside wearing proper masks. Someone would call them when it was time.
I did not bounce. If anyone bounced, this man did, followed by the woman, who appeared to have no say in the matter.
[This is not a dream post.]
Wednesday, December 22, 2021
Bounce, no bounce
EXchange names on the screen
This page fills the screen. The setting is Los Angeles, where GL meant GLadstone and CR could have meant CRestor, CRestview, or CRestwood.
More EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story: The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
“How to draw a snowflake”
Today’s Nancy, by Olivia Jaimes, is exceptionally inventive.
Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)
Hagar in the Oval Office
Joe Biden has a framed Hagar the Horrible strip in the Oval Office (America).
Tuesday, December 21, 2021
Advertising 101
Here we have an effective use of analogy:
Earmuffs : spaniels :: Champion spark plugs : winter
No, that’s not it.
Earmuffs : winter :: spaniels : Champion spark plugs
No, that’s not right either.
Here we have an effective use of analogy word association:
Spaniel makes the reader think winter, which in turn suggests earmuffs, which in turn suggests — Champion spark plugs?
No, wait.
Here we have an effective use of analogy:
Spaniels : earmuffs :: advertising : Champion spark plugs
Next slide please.
Are you ready for winter?
*
December 22: It turns out that spaniels have a history in sales. A reader passed this link on: Popularity of the cocker spaniel salesman. Thanks, reader.
Q & Q & Q & A
Tove Jansson, The Summer Book. 1972. Trans. from the Swedish by Thomas Teal (New York: New York Review Books, 2008).
It’s a wonderful book of vignettes from a summer on an island, with a six-year-old girl, her father (who’s nearly invisible), and her eighty-five-year-old grandmother. The shadow of mortality hangs over everything.
I wonder how many readers have known someone born in the eighteen-hundreds. I can count one grandparent. How about you?
[Thomas Teal is a distinguished translator of Tove Jansson’s work. I hope that NYRB will add a paragraph about him when this work is up for its next printing.]
Monday, December 20, 2021
From the department of irony
I walked into CVS this afternoon. Two employees were standing at the register, each with a mask hanging from one ear. I asked if the store had COVID rapid-test kits available. Yes, right up front, three full or nearly full boxes.
“You should really be wearing your masks,” I said. “You’re scaring me.” They put their masks on.
I bought three test kits in advance of Christmas. We are super-careful in our household and are even more so if someone is coming over.
Verizon, grr
Disappointing but not necessarily surprising: Verizon might be collecting your browsing history (The Verge). With directions for opting out.
When I checked our account tonight, I discovered that our fambly had been opted in. But now we’re out.
