Sidney Poitier (1927–2022)

The New York Times has an obituary.

My checklist: No Way Out, Blackboard Jungle, Edge of the City, The Defiant Ones, Paris Blues, Lilies of the Field, A Patch of Blue, To Sir, with Love, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Stop / Stop

The difference between the iOS Timer and Alarm screens bugs me.



Shouldn’t Stop appear in the same spot on both screens? Imagine:

Must get up . . . not be late again . . . reach for phone . . . aha, orange button . . . zzz.

It’s poor design, I think, to make Snooze the more visible option. (Perhaps a developer’s joke to give everyone an easy excuse for being late?) Snoozing can be disabled for an alarm, but that might also be a risky choice. So I tinkered with a screenshot to fix things:

[If only it were fixable on the phone.]

How did I finagle the system font (SF Pro) to make a replacement button? All SF fonts are available from Apple as free downloads.

*

As I just discovered, users have been noticing the Stop / Snooze inconsistency since 2017, at least.

[I found myself hitting Snooze not while sleeping but while cooking. I was knocked for a unexpected loop when my alarm sounded a second time.]

On January 6

An idle question: do doctors and nurses still check on a patient’s mental state by asking who’s president? And if so, is more than one answer considered acceptable? And if more than one answer is considered acceptable, what does that say about where we are? In more than one country?

The crisis of American democracy is a crisis of fact.

On January 6

President Joe Biden, telling it like it is:

“My fellow Americans, in life there’s truth, and, tragically, there are lies, lies conceived and spread for profit and power. We must be absolutely clear about what is true and what is a lie. And here’s the truth: a former president of the United States of America has created and spread a web of lies about the 2020 election. He’s done so because he values power over principle, because he sees his own interest as more important than his country’s interest and America’s interest, and because his bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution. He can’t accept he lost.”

And: “He’s not just a former president. He’s a defeated former president.”

You can see the full remarks from Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at C-SPAN.

[My transcription.]

On January 6

Here’s an opinion piece by Capitol police officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell: “The government we defended last Jan. 6 has a duty to hold all the perpetrators accountable” (The Washington Post ).

On Tuesday night the two men appeared on the The PBS NewsHour, interviewed by Lisa Desjardins. The interview begins at the 23:08 mark. Here’s an excerpt:

Desjardins: Officer Dunn, do you think this danger is still here? Where are we right now, in terms of the threat to democracy, from your view?

Dunn: You know, it’s scary to think about where we are. Sure, we succeeded as far as our mission that day. Democracy went on, late in the night, January 6th into January 7th. Democracy prevailed. But I think it’s very important for everybody now to realize how close and fragile democracy is, and that everybody, everybody, even anybody watching, anybody listening, has a job to do in protecting and defending democracy. That could be us police officers, we police; the legislators, the lawmakers, they need do their job and legislate; the judges judge; and the American people need to vote about who to put in those positions. We need accountability, and we need to make sure the right people are in office that want accountability also.

[My transcription.]

Lighted squares

Stefan Zweig, Diaries (1931–1940). Trans. from the German by Ediciones 98 (Madrid: Ediciones 98, 2021).

A 1935 visit to New York lets us see Stefan Zweig as a spectator-tourist, visiting Radio City, the Savoy Ballroom, and “a self-service café” — no doubt the Automat. This passage’s description of “a geometric composition of lighted squares” made me think of the miniature cityscape in a 1947 film noir.

Elsewhere the diary entries veer from everyday details — letters, reviews, visits with friends and publishers — to an everpresent dread, as Zweig, the citizen of the world, watches the rise of totalitarianism: “I am sure there’s another coup brewing, and I think it will be successful.”

But I think of what our friend Eva Kor said: “Never give up.”

Related reading
All OCA Zweig posts (Pinboard)

[I’m glad that I got a copy of this book when I did: it has already disappeared from Amazon’s listings. Also available from Ediciones 98, in Spanish: Diarios (1931–1940) and Diarios (1912–1914).]

“Sepulveda”

[“Move Over, Jack Nicholson.” Zippy, January 5, 2021. Click for a larger view.]

Today’s Zippy is all about Los Angeles.

The Golden Mermaid? It’s in Santa Monica. My greatest named-apartment-building thrill in Los Angeles: spotting the Alto Nido. We drove back around the block so I could get a picture. Joe Gillis was just leaving.

As for “Sepulveda,” here’s a recent article about Los Angeles pronunciation.

Related reading
All OCA Los Angeles posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard)

Recognitions

I recognize that bus, which I saw in the Berkshires some years ago. It was surrounded by hippie-esque types and their children. And I recognize this bus too, which I saw a couple of years ago, parked at an orchard in downstate Illinois.

The buses belonged or still belong to a group now in the news. Their website was online last night and gone this morning. But it’s at the Internet Archive. And you can still read a Wikipedia article about the group.

I learned only last night that someone from our small town went off thirty years ago to join this group.

[Their website is back.]

Wordle

“Created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner”: The New York Times has the story behind Wordle. And here’s the game. Fortunately, it’s only one play a day.

I wondered about the name: wasn’t there a website for creating a cloud of words, a “wordle,” from a chunk of text? Like this? Or this? Yes, but it’s gone.

Thanks, Ben.

Ten movies, two seasons

[One to four stars. Four sentences each. No spoilers. Sources: Criterion Channel, HBO Max, TCM, YouTube.]

Treasure of Monte Cristo (dir. William Berke, 1949). There’s a sailor, see, named, lol, Edmund Dantes (Glenn Langan). And a dame, Jean Turner (Adele Jergens). And the whole thing’s a set-up, I tell ya. And it’s filmed on location in San Francisco, which is probably its main redeeming feature. ★★ (YT)

*

Meet John Doe (dir. Frank Capra, 1941). When he answers what can only be called a casting call for a newspaper’s circulation stunt, Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a jobless ex-baseball player, becomes John Doe, a desperate everyman who has vowed to commit suicide on Christmas Eve to protest the state of the world. As John Doe, Willoughby becomes a national hero, and then, when he defies his newspaper boss, a national disgrace, as Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck), whose column put this scheme into motion, watches from the sidelines, appalled at what she’s helped bring about. Here, as in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Capra’s depiction of the power of journalists and politicians to manufacture reality is eerily prescient. Alas, the John Doe movement’s plain, corny, hopeful ethic — be a better neighbor, look out for the other guy — now seems unattainable in a country so bitterly divided. ★★★★ (TCM)

*

The French Connection (dir. William Friedkin, 1971). I think I had last seen this movie when it was released. Gene Hackman is Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a brutal, reckless NYPD detective, hellbent on nabbing Alain Charmier (Fernando Rey), the suave Frenchman behind an enormous delivery of heroin to the city. Remarkable to see how the cops put together the pieces of the puzzle. Great action sequences, both automotive and pedestrian, as Doyle and his partner Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) track Charnier and his associates, foreign and domestic, on the streets of New York. The greatest sequence pits Doyle against a henchman (Marcel Bozzuffi), car versus elevated train, racing through Brooklyn, where, yes, there are candy stores. ★★★★ (CC)

*

Holiday Affair (dir. Don Hartman, 1949). Canon formation: does it really become a “holiday classic” because TCM shows it? Janet Leigh plays Connie Ennis, a war widow and comparison shopper whose possibilities in life are subject to four male force fields: her dead husband, whose picture stares out from her nightstand; her young son Timmy (Gordon Gebert), whom she calls “Mr. Ennis”; her patient, lackluster suitor of two years, Carl (Wendell Corey); and a charismatic free spirit, Steve (Robert Mitchum). Try to guess who will win in the battle between ghost, boy, beta male, and alpha male. Weirdest moment: “Mr. Ennis” on top of his mom in bed. ★★ (TCM)

*

Take One False Step (dir. Chester Erskine, 1949). O contingency: an academic, Albert (William Powell), in Los Angeles to raise money for a new university, walks into a bar and discovers an old flame, Catherine (Shelley Winters, a young old flame). When Albert’s bloody scarf is found in Catherine’s apartment but she isn’t, Albert becomes the target of a police manhunt. And when he seeks treatment for rabies after being bitten by a dog, his situation becomes still more desperate. A Detour-like premise, but with odd touches of comedy, and one great, strange scene with Houseley Stevenson as a sloppy but surprisingly methodical doctor. ★★ (YT)

*

The Passionate Friends (dir. David Lean, 1949). Think of it as a variation on Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945): here too the story is one of desire and restraint. Mary (Ann Todd) loves Steven (Trevor Howard) but marries Howard (Claude Rains) for money, security, and a placid friendship, and Howard’s fine with that. But Steven appears and reappears in Mary’s life — brief encounters, plural, so what’s she to do? Three great performances, and the closing minutes are gripping and startling. ★★★★ (CC)

*

In the Good Old Summertime (dir. Robert Z. Leonard, 1949). It sits between The Shop Around the Corner and the second remake, You’ve Got Mail, and it’s the warmest of the three stories of love and hate and correspondence (and it was my mom’s choice on Christmas). Judy Garland and Van Johnson are wonderfully at odds as Veronica and Andrew, music-store employees; Spring Byington, Buster Keaton, and S.Z. “Cuddles” Sakall add to the movie’s gentle humor; and Marcia Van Dyke gets to play a Strad. The revelation for me, but it may already be obvious to you: Judy Garland was a great comic actor. Follow her facial expressions in any of her conversations of Johnson and see for yourself. ★★★★ (TCM)

*

Breezy (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1973). Rhymes with queasy and uneasy. We watched because it stars William Holden. He’s a craggy, cranky, divorced real-estate man who finds a young woman with a guitar (Kay Lenz) at the foot of his driveway. She’s Breezy, a manic pixie et cetera, and the relationship that develops between the two had us making faces (eww) now and then — indeed, often — and yet we could not look away. ★★ (TCM

[Chosen by TCM guest Paul Thomas Anderson, who recycles some of the movie’s dialogue in Licorice Pizza. So the movie’s prime-time slot on TCM was just a matter of commercial interests at work.]

*

Curb Your Enthusiasm (created by Larry David, 2021). The eleventh season is, I’d say, pretty, pretty, pretty good — not great, and lacking the kind of strong, loony narrative arc (Larry’s “spite store” vs. Mocha Joe) that held season ten together. As Larry and Jeff (Jeff Garlin) begin work on a new series, complications arise about a pool fence, a city ordinance, a daughter who cannot act, restaurant etiquette, Mary Fergusons, favors for favors, and a surprising final-episode cameo. As councilwoman Irma Kostroski, Tracey Ullman is a great foil for Larry. As Leon Black, J.B. Smoove has become all too reminiscent of Eddie “Rochester” Anderson (but with language). ★★★ (HBO Max)

*

Hacks (created by Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky, 2021). Jean Smart is great as Deborah Vance, a Las Vegas stand-up comedian and almost talk-show host whose jokes and merching strongly recall Joan Rivers. A much younger (self-proclaimed “Gen Z”), improbably canceled writer, Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), is given the unwelcome assignment to leave Los Angeles and help revitalize Deborah’s material. So: mismatched partners, fighting and bonding and fighting and bonding, with a good measure of smart (no pun intended) comedy, and a predictable, cringe-worthy montage or two (or perhaps they’re spoofs of predictable, cringe-worthy montages). Some plot twists come out of nowhere (before disappearing), and many ends are left loose, especially with the show’s secondary characters, so I look forward to the second season. ★★★ (HBO Max)

*

If Winter Comes (dir. Victor Saville, 1947). On the rebound from a former love, a writer of textbooks and newspaper columns (Walter Pidgeon) marries a miserable woman (Angela Lansbury). When a much younger unmarried pregnant woman (Janet Leigh) turns to the writer for help, he becomes the stuff of scandal. And meanwhile his former love (Deborah Kerr) comes back into his life. Great work by Lansbury, Leigh, and Kerr, but Pidgeon is absolutely wooden. ★★★ (TCM)

*

Designing Woman (dir. Vincente Minnelli, 1957). Mike, sportswriter (Gregory Peck), and Marilla, clothing designer (Lauren Bacall), marry on impulse, and — surprise — they turn out to be an odd couple, with a poker game on one side of the house and theatricals on the another. Even if it’s 1957, the movie is painfully coy: a major issue in the marriage is whether Mike and his previous lady friend Lori (Dolores Gray) ever, well, you know. (Peck was almost forty; Bacall and Gray, in their early thirties). The saving graces here: Mickey Shaughnessy as Mike’s punchy bodyguard, sleeping with his eyes open, and Jack Cole as a choreographer whose performance in the movie’s final minutes is worth the long wait — promise. ★★★ (TCM)

Related reading
All OCA movie posts (Pinboard)