Elaine wrote a piece for viola, “I am also fond of lonely islands,” after reading Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book last December. And now there’s a recording, at YouTube (and elsewhere). The violist is Paul Cortese.
Saturday, March 5, 2022
I am also fond of the composer
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Steve Mossberg, whose name I’ve seen just once before on a Newsday Saturday. Today’s puzzle is a true Stumper. I started with a gimme — 10-A, five letters, “Start of three California county names” — but I sometimes thought I’d have to sound a 1-A, nine letters, “Lament of defeat.” But that would have called attention to me in the café of the performing-arts building where I was solving. So I had to finish this puzzle.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
11-D, eight letters, “Understood!”
19-A, eight letters, “They’re grounded.” My first thoughts were of appliances and punishments.
24-A, four letters, “Really smart.” A nice way to redeem a familiar answer.
24-D, five letters, “Word from Gothic for ‘patience.’” No, not really. (The OED will confirm.)
25-D, five letters, “Music that sounds loud.” Respect the pun.
33-A, nine letters, “Rhythm associated with autumn.” A bit improbable, but the answer’s improbability makes it at least slightly delightful.
39-A, nine letters, “They may mean ‘Welcome home!’” Ick.
49-D, five letters, “Whom Woz once worked for.” Not the giveaway you might think.
52-A, eight letters, “Convenient for eating while walking.” Be careful.
45-A, four letters, “”Understood.” Now you can see the difference that the exclamation point makes in the clue for 11-D.
One clue that makes me want to say no, just no: 53-D, four letters, “Number often seen right after AK.” No, not now, and not ever. There are so many better ways to clue this answer. One Stumpery way: “It’s Felliniesque.”
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
*
Steve Mossberg responded to a comment I left at Crossword Fiend about “Number often seen right after AK”: “53-Down was indeed an awful cluing angle that wasn’t meant to go to print. My sincerest apologies for its inclusion.”
Friday, March 4, 2022
The keepers
The Washington Post Book Club newsletter describes Ukranian librarians at work. Quoted in the newsletter, Archibald MacLeish’s “Of the Librarian’s Profession” (1940):
When wars are made against the [human] spirit and its works, the keeping of these records is itself a kind of warfare. The keepers, whether they so wish or not, cannot be neutral.MacLeish was the ninth Librarian of Congress (1939–1944).
Nancy and Sluggo and Ted
From The Mary Tyler Moore Show episode “Just Around the Corner” (October 28, 1972). Mary and Murray (Gavin MacLeod) have been talking about newspapers. Ted (Ted Knight) jumps in:
“Oh [clears throat ], I don’t care much for them myself.”Related reading
Murray: “Ah, he’s very blasé now, but you shoulda seen him run and grab the paper when he heard Nancy and Sluggo broke up.”
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)
[Yes, Ernie Bushmiller described his readers as “the gum chewers.” But Nancy is not for dopes alone. I’ve seen nothing more about Ted and Nancy, but a later episode identifies him as a Three Stooges fan.]
An Eberhard Faber album
Here’s a short video tour of an Eberhard Faber sales-rep’s album (circa 1915). Must be seen to be believed.
Thanks, Brian.
*
Here’s a reference to James O. Hobart, the Eberhard Faber rep whose name is stamped on the album’s cover: “of the Boston office.” Thanks again, Brian.
Related reading
All OCA Mongol pencil posts (Pinboard)
New directions in compensation
“In the COVID-19–induced chaos of spring 2020, the University of Missouri system quietly added a section to its rules and regulations that allows for individual tenured faculty salaries to be cut by up to 25 percent”: “Cutting Faculty Salaries by Executive Order” (Inside Higher Ed ).
Thursday, March 3, 2022
Things in books
In The Paris Review, Jane Stern writes about strange things she has found in books:
Here are some things I have found: a Seattle traffic ticket for jaywalking, the luggage slip for a first class flight to Paris, to-do lists with some very curious items like “pick up the whip” or “explain cremation.” Often I find ticket stubs (Hamilton !). Once I found a check fully made out for $375.15 that was never given away, and just today I found a yellow card from Pacific Photo Express that offered to transform my images into a “photo fun button.” I am not sure I want such a pin: the illustration shows a creepy little girl getting cozy with Frankenstein’s monster. I can’t quite imagine the right occasion on which to wear that.The strangest thing I’ve found in a book: this list. But this receipt means more.
Stern’s essay found via Oddments of High Unimportance.
Things in tins
“A palpable shift”: The Guardian reports on the British public’s growing appreciation of tinned fish.
Related reading
All OCA sardine posts (Pinboard)
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