For a limited time, the New York Public Library is making four often-banned books available to borrow in digital form anywhere in the United States: Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, Kacen Callender’s King and the Dragonflies, Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, and J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye.
Details here.
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
Banned books, free
Salinger in Ohio
Tuesday, April 19, 2022
The Girl with the Pilates Mat
We are being cheated out of spring in downstate Illinois — with rain, wind, and freezing temperatures on too many days. As Elaine observes, we’ve had about four days of spring, two of which were in February. So in lieu of walking, we’re sometimes doing Pilates.
Elaine discovered Rachel, The Girl with the Pilates Mat, a certified Pilates instructor who began posting workout videos to YouTube during the pandemic. Rachel’s great — her channel now has more than twelve million views.
I highly recommend Pilates for strength and balance. And doing these exercises makes me feel taller — almost 5′9″.
Mary Miller, lying
Congresswoman Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15) is a proponent of The Big Lie. But she has lies in all sizes. Analisa Trofimuk of PolitiFact fact-checked one of them: “Rep. Mary Miller says White House is encouraging kids to take ‘castration’ drugs, undergo surgeries.”
I’ll add another: When I called Miller’s office earlier this month to ask why she had voted against a bipartisan resolution affirming support for NATO, the aide who answered the phone said that the resolution supported “nation-building,” which Miller opposes. As I told the aide, the resolution says no such thing, and I reminded him that Miller supports a president — oops, make that a defeated former president — who has repeatedly disparaged NATO. There’s the real reason for Miller’s “no” vote.
Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)
Jane Lynch for Illinois
Jane Lynch has directed a series of TV commercials promoting Illinois tourism. You can find many (all?) of them at YouTube.
Monday, April 18, 2022
Crackpottery, early or late
The New Yorker has a long review by Lauren Michele Jackson of a first volume of excerpts from Alice Walker’s journals. The literary agency representing Walker has tweeted its approval of the review: “thoughtful and lovely.” The review turns the titles of Walker’s books into Amazon links, but there’s no link to Walker’s blog, mentioned in the next-to-last paragraph:
The journal entries selected for Gathering Blossoms Under Fire conclude eight days into the year 2000, but Walker has maintained a blog since 2008. Her posts are more hortatory than her journal entries, but not necessarily more disciplined. In 2012, she wrote her first post on David Icke, whose “freedom of mind,” she writes, “reminds me very much of Malcolm X.” She recommended a video for those who “haven’t been exposed to his thinking.” Icke’s thinking includes the theory that mankind has unwittingly been ruled by an intergalactic race of reptilians since antiquity. In an interview four years ago for the Times Book Review, Walker praised Icke’s 1995 book, And the Truth Shall Set You Free, which promotes anti-Semitic crackpottery about who runs the world. Walker, a proper boomer, seems also to have been diving deep into the brackish waters of YouTube.One might ask: does it matter? Anti-Semitism, early or late, is anti-Semitism. Crackpottery, early or late, is crackpottery.
Is this a late-life aberration, or can the tropism be traced to a deeper angst that was missed in its time?
Jackson almost dodges her own question, noting that the journal excerpts reveal “no sinister taproot” but that Walker, “having grown up in a place where conspiracies, racial and sexual, were daily realities to be reckoned with,” “may have developed a belated hunger for more.” “Belated hunger” sounds to me like a polite rephrasing of “late-life aberration.”
How aberrant? Well, a Walker post from 2015 embeds an episode of InfoWars in which Alex Jones interviewed David Icke. Walker’s caption:
I like these two because they’re real, and sometimes Alex Jones is a bit crazy; many Aquarians are. Icke only appears crazy to people who don’t appreciate the stubbornness required when one is called to a duty it is impossible to evade.Those crazy Aquarians! Sometimes they even file for bankruptcy.
[In a 2018 New York Times “By the Book” feature, Walker praised David Icke: “In Icke’s books there is the whole of existence, on this planet and several others, to think about. A curious person’s dream come true.” Much comment followed. I suspect that the notoriety of the “By the Book” feature, which brought Walker’s conspiracy-thought to widespread attention, made Icke an unavoidable topic in the New Yorker review. Here is a 2013 commentary on Walker’s conspiracy-thought from J. J. Phillips, who is far franker than the New Yorker reviewer: “Go Ask Alice Walker” (The Berkeley Daily Planet ). This link will take you to “By the Book” and follow-up reporting from the Times. Here is some background from Vox. And here is a recent brief retrospective from The Atlantic.]
Mystery actor
[Click for a larger view.]
I think this screeenshot makes it easy — I could be showing this actor in a dimly lit restaurant instead. So this post is less about mystery and more about the surprising moment of recognition. Isn’t that _______? Yes, it’s _______.
Leave your best guess in the comments. I’ll add hints if they’re needed.
*
Here’s a hint: This actor is probably best known for several appearances on a long-running television comedy.
*
The answer is now in the comments.
More mystery actors
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Sunday, April 17, 2022
Outtakes (11)
[Outtakes from the WPA’s New York City tax photographs, c. 1939–1941, available from 1940s NYC. Click either image for a larger view.]
Related posts
Outtakes (1) : Outtakes (2) : Outtakes (3): Outakes (4) : Outtakes (5) : Outtakes (6) : Outtakes (7) : Outtakes (8) : Outtakes (9) : Outtakes (10) : More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives
Saturday, April 16, 2022
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, by Steve Mossberg, is not too easy, not too tough. And there’s nothing predictable about the fill: no ERA, no ERE, no ETA. It’s a fine puzzle.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
1-A, four letters, “Hangouts where TVs hang.” So many places with TVs hanging. A first guess is likely to go wrong.
7-D, fifteen letters, “Nearing the end.” A wonderful fifteen-letter answer, funny in its pompous specificity.
10-D, eight letters, “Usually reserved.” I thought of tables — say, J.J. Hunsucker’s table in Sweet Smell of Success. But I suspect that J.J.’s table was always reserved.
14-A, ten letters, "Thumbs-down pair." No doubt meant to prompt recollection of At the Movies.
19-A, five letters, "Part of a Valentine’s Day delivery." Hah.
23-A, eight letters, “Bogus brown.” The alliteration adds value.
23-D, five letters, “Parlor implement.” What kind of parlor? Here too a first guess is likely to go wrong.
26-A, fifteen letters, “Brief musical excerpt.” A wonderful side-to-side answer.
26-D, six letters, “Racket on the radio.” Turn down that noise!
34-D, five letters, “Lacking seasoning.” Nice misdirection.
40-A, five letters, “Kilt feature.” I’m not sure how I know about this feature, but I do. (I have never worn a kilt.)
48-A, four letters, “Q preceders.” A nice way to take the letter away from lunatic ideation.
50-D, five letters, “Top with a flop.” Special resonance for my fambly.
56-A, ten letters, “Insincere antic accolade.” I’m back in high school, or a Seinfeld episode.
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
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