More Stranger Things

It’s time. See you on the other side.

Stranger Things 4 Vol. 1 premieres May 27 pic.twitter.com/vMbYkZft0M

— Netflix (@netflix) April 12, 2022

I dunno — this trailer appears to promise a season devoid of all the charm that has made the series worth watching. But as Elaine said, we need to be good Americans and watch anyway.

I have enjoyed seeing a Chock full o’Nuts can, the World Book Encyclopedia, and a pocket notebook in previous seasons of Stranger Things.

[As the trailer makes clear, you-know-who is still alive.]

Lost bookstores

From The New York Times, a tour in photographs: “Remembrance of Bookstores Past.” In 1950, there were an estimated 386 bookstores in New York City. In 2022, fewer than 100.

Rubbish

Leonard Thompson, seventy-one, farm-worker:

Ronald Blythe, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969).

Also from Akenfield
Davie’s hand

Motive in prisons

“Big prisons in small towns”: that’s the focus of the third season of the WBEZ podcast Motive. The stories are Illinois-centric, but Illinois here is a stand-in for a nation.

From Akenfield

He is identified only as Davie, born in 1887, “who cannot read or write a word and who insists that he has nothing to say”:

Ronald Blythe, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969).

Some unusual “some rocks”

[Nancy, June 20, 1949. Click for a larger view.]

Today’s yesterday’s Nancy has some unusual “some rocks.”

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts : “Some rocks” posts (Pinboard)

Sleep study

It was Rembrandt’s biography of Liszt that inspired the three then–surviving members of The Left Banke to conduct a sleep study. They sought volunteers in the tri–state area: New York, New Jersey, and Florida. They found four volunteers in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

Elaine and I were walking toward a Wal-Mart when we saw an older woman from the music society leaving the store — well-dressed, perfect hair. It was obvious that she had not worn a mask while shopping. We swerved to the left to avoid her.

Related reading
All OCA dream posts (Pinboard)

[Talk about pre-cognitive dreaming: the bonkers governor of Alabama is more or less the woman I saw in my dream. I saw a photograph of the governor shortly after waking up this morning. And I must have listened to The Left Banke’s final album at least a dozen times in the last few weeks.]

NBC, sheesh

“Price of eggs soar ahead of Easter:” a chyron, as seen on NBC Nightly News tonight. I have proof:

[Click for a larger mistake.]

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

Automat redux?

The Washington Post wonders if COVID might revive Automat-style dining.

Related reading
All OCA Automat posts (Pinboard)

“It will be sunny one day”

From Letters of Note, a letter from Stephen Fry to a stranger.

It may not be true that it will be sunny one day, but it might help to believe that it will be.