Dog and cat trouble

Our dog ran out of the house in the middle of the night. I ran out to find it. I called it by name — no reply. But there it was, small and scruffy, happily splayed out on its belly in a muddy puddle.

Meanwhile a cat had run into the house. It was greyish white, easy to see in the moonlight coming through the windows. The cat ran from room to room. I followed, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch it.

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[Our household has never had a dog or cat. But we can dream. And we can watch Peppa Pig, as we did last night. That must have helped shape this dream.]

Steve Reich’s Different Trains

In an episode of Song Exploder, Steve Reich talks about the first movement of his 1988 composition Different Trains. The first movement is all Reich chose to talk about, and if you listen to the podcast, you’ll get some idea why. You can hear that movement, America — Before the War, in the podcast, as performed by the Kronos Quartet.

But you really need to listen to the whole piece. How timely it is. Here is a 2016 performance by the London Contemporary Orchestra. Stay with it.

Outtakes (8)

[An outtake from the WPA’s New York City tax photographs, c. 1939–1941, available from 1940s NYC. Click for a much larger view.]

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Outtakes (1) : Outtakes (2) : Outtakes (3): Outakes (4) : Outtakes (5) : Outtakes (6) : Outtakes (7) : More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by “Anna Stiga” — Stan Again, Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor. This pseudonym, like “Lester Ruff,” is meant to signal an easier Stumper. But I found today’s Stumper exceedingly difficult — forty-three minutes of difficult, beginning last night and ending this morning. Two triple stacks of nine-letter answers, two triple columns of nine-letter answers, and one fifteen-letter answer sandwiched between eleven-letter answers. My head hurts. But it’s a good hurt.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, nine letters, “One playing video games all day.” Misdirection right off the bat.

11-D, four letters, “Short ‘Speaking of changing the subject . . . .’” This one I’d quibble with. It’s not really a matter of changing the subject.

12-D, nine letters, “bubblyprofessor.com subject.” The answer seems a little strained. I struggled with the northeast corner.

13-D, nine letters, “High science.” Yes, I struggled with the northeast corner.

14-D, nine letters, “Even now.” Yes, I, &c.

16-A, five letters, “What may end a turn.” I kept thinking of board games, just as Anna Stiga wanted me to.

17-A, nine letters, “Theo van Gogh’s occupation.” I highly recommend the correspondence.

27-A, three letters, “M.’s analog.” Even the short fill in this puzzle is puzzling.

33-A, eleven letters, “Bonus for boldness.” Just a cool answer.

38-A, fifteen letters, “Expression of uncertainty.” Apt for much of the solving.

48-D, five letters, “Latin for ‘is wanting.’” I did not know that.

49-A, three letters, “Household brand spelled with two (not three) dots.” I thought of circles and wanted OXO, because it looks like a tic-tac-toe line.

50-D, five letters, “Noisy no more, maybe.” MUTED, right? Wrong.

59-A, nine letters, “‘Yesterday,’ as first performed.” Odd to think of it this way.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

A merger in Minneapolis

It’s the wine-whine merger. From the Mary Tyler Moore Show episode “The System” (January 11, 1975). Mary wonders why Lou bets on football games:

“I just wondered why you put yourself through this agony week after wheek.”

Odd to find a /hwēk/ where there’s no wh. I think it’s meant to add emphasis.

You can hear the merger here.

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Chock full and Jackie Robinson

Chock full o’Nuts is marking the seventy-fifth anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball with commemorative cans and a donation from profits to the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

Robinson made his first appearance as a Brooklyn Dodger on April 15, 1947. After retiring from baseball, he became vice president of personnel for Chock full o'Nuts in 1957, the first Black vice president of a major American corporation.

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Thomas’ dots

I like to read the box at breakfast, or the carton, or the plastic bag. Thus I noticed a typographical oddity on the bag holding a loaf of Thomas’ Cinnamon Swirl Bread.

And before I go any further: no, Thomas’ is not as good as Pepperidge Farm Cinnamon Swirl, but the Pepperidge Farm was gone. (There was, however, contra a recent claim, plenty of bread in the store.)

Here’s what caught my eye at breakfast:

[Larger view coming up.]

It’s not an apostrophe. It’s not ®, the registered sign. What is it? And what’s it doing there?

[Click for a even larger view.]

I’d call the customer-service number to inquire, but having called one such number to ask about Hellmann’s Mayonnaise and Best Foods Mayonnaise (is there a dividing line? if so, where?), I’m pretty sure I could expect to get nowhere. Let the mystery be a mystery.

I hope they have Pepperidge Farm next time.

[I’d spell it as Thomas’s, but it’s not my bread.]

You and Your Vocabulary

From the Mary Tyler Moore Show episode “Mary Richards: Producer” (January 4, 1975). Ted (Ted Knight) is increasing his vocabulary. Murray (Gavin MacLeod) is skeptical.

Ted: “Say, the newsroom is certainly redolent of coffee this morning.”

Murray: “It’s what?”

Ted Baxter: “And you call yourself a writer? Redolent, redolent of coffee. It means it smells.”

Mary: “Ted, what’s the book?”

Ted: “You and Your Vocabulary. I’m planning to work in a few words to every newscast to give it a little class. What do you think of the idea, Mur?”

Murray: “I think it’s redolent, Ted.”

Murray refuses to work any of Ted’s vocabulary words into his copy. But that night, on the news:

Ted: “Monsignor Walter O’Rourke is dead at eighty-seven. Until his retirement in 1958, Monsignor O’Rourke served the Twin Cities diocese, where he was much beloved. Let me just say this: I didn’t know the monsignor personally, but I’ll bet you he was never lethargic, redolent, bellicose, or lascivious.”

From the Garner’s Modern English Usage essay on sesquipedality : “Build your vocabulary to make yourself a better reader; choose simple words whenever possible to make yourself a better writer.”

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Heather Cox Richardson’s latest

The March 30 installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American is an especially helpful one, about CBS, Mick Mulvaney, facts, democracy, and authoritarianism. HCR puts events into context in ways that go far beyond what’s available on “the news.”

Miller and Meadowses

The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Representative Mary Miller (IL-15) “is benefiting from a $74,054.74 independent expenditure by the Right Women political action committee.” The group’s founder: Debra Meadows. Among its leaders: her husband Mark.

As the Sun-Times reminds us, the Meadowses are suspected of voter fraud, having voted from a North Carolina address where they never resided. As the Sun-Times also reminds us, Miller issued a press release before taking office calling the 2020 presidential election “the greatest heist of the 21st century.” She voted against certifying the result, of course.

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