It is time once again to recall a poem by Pierre Reverdy: “Souffle.”
[I has been snowing all day, with more snow expected tomorrow.]
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
“It is snowing”
“Awful ones for the boys”
Valentine Rich (“of New York”) and Nellie Forrester of the Salterton Little Theatre are discussing the casting of parts for the Little Theatre’s production of The Tempest.
Related reading
All OCA Robertson Davies posts (Pinboard)
[“Darling,” the narrator tells us earlier, is ““Little Theatre lingo, copied from the professional theatre.”]
Garamond
In The New York Times, a writer recommends Garamond:
A few months ago, while I was looking at a long-term project I’d been working on in fits and starts, my cursor meandered toward the word processor’s font menu, and with one click the text reappeared in Garamond. I nearly gasped. Dressed in gentle serifs and subtle ornamentation, my words swelled with new life, and I saw hidden in the screen behind them the reflection of someone else, someone whose presence commanded respect.Uhm, okay, sure.
Says the writer, “I cannot start any document — a novel, a letter, an invoice — without first clicking on the drop-down menu labeled ‘Font’ and considering my options.”
Which is why other writers might choose iA Writer, or a similar app. Or pen, or pencil. Or choose to print a draft in Courier, so that it doesn’t look beautiful. It’s always about the words.
“By Dillon His Self”
Dillon Helbig, writer and illustrator, placed his work on a shelf in his public library. Read about what followed (The Washington Post ).
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
“Waffles Has a Good Time”
Thanks, Seth.Lawrence Daily Journal, Kansas, March 18, 1898 pic.twitter.com/bqVNRQkkHi
— Yesterday's Print (@yesterdaysprint) January 31, 2022
This news item pairs well with “A Splendid Newfoundland, Cursing Birds, and the Fashion Fox,” an animal-centric episode of the podcast Criminal. Also pairs well with this refrigerator magnet from Daughter Number Three.
Schlitzerland
I didn’t think about it until later in the day: the name Troy Schlitz in yesterday’s Zippy references The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous. Ah, thought I, like Plutowater, Vitabrush, and Troy, Schlitz is yet another thing of the past, right? Wrong — it’s still being brewed. But this serving tray, which belonged to my mom and dad, is a thing of the past. Did it see any use? Doubtful.
I like the mid-century modern (1957) cartooning. But jeez, it’s a white, white, white, white world. As is, too, the world of this one-off two-page spread in Life :
No name on the tray. The signature on the advertisement: Joe Kaufman. I suspect that the tray is the work of a different artist.
[A jingle in A flat? Why A flat? To keep out the common people?]
“Why Simple Is Smart”
Derek Thompson, who coined the terms workism, hygiene theater, and everything shortage, offers advice for writing nonfiction: “Why Simple Is Smart” (The Atlantic ).
[Simple can also be stupid and dangerous. But notice that Thompson is writing about expressing complex ideas.]
The Times buys Wordle
The New York Times has bought Wordle: “Wordle was acquired from its creator, Josh Wardle, a software engineer in Brooklyn, for a price ‘in the low seven figures,’ the Times said. The company said the game would initially remain free to new and existing players.”
“Initially remain free”: oh sure, but not for long.
Monday, January 31, 2022
Pluto Water and Vitabrush
It so happens that my favorite comic strips sometimes require footnotes. In today’s Zippy, Dizzy Plutowater resigns from his old life: “I’m now Troy Schlitz and I work night shift at th’ Vitabrush factory over in Kenosha.”
As Zippy might say, “Yow!”
Louis Armstrong was a devotee of Pluto Water before switching over to Swiss Kriss. Some details here. And dig the caption for this photograph of Armstrong: “His pluto water [sic] has brought him back to top shape.”
Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard)
[“The bald-headed row”? It’s an idiom.]
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