“This would not be the first time in the pandemic that unwarranted assumptions about human behavior have obstructed an effective response to Covid”: in The New York Times, Zeynep Tufekci writes about the slipshod logic behind delays in authorizing vaccines for children and other instances of slipshod logic in the management of COVID-19.
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Dictation failure
[Dictating a text.]
“I just mowed the whole lawn”
I just move the whole lawn
“Mowed exclamation point mowed exclamation point”
Mode! Mode!
Other dictation failures
Boogie-woogie : A concluding truck for belated pubs : Derrida : Edifice and Courson Blatz : Wrath scholar
By Michael Leddy at 8:46 AM comments: 0
Not lonely, not a bird
Derek Warren, twenty-nine, ploughman:
Ronald Blythe, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969).
Also from Akenfield
Davie’s hand : Rubbish : “Just ‘music’” : “Caught in the old ways” : “The blue rode well in the corn” : “I began in a world without time”
By Michael Leddy at 8:45 AM comments: 2
Wednesday, April 27, 2022
“I began in a world without time”
Horry Rose, sixty-one, saddler:
Ronald Blythe, Akenfield: Portrait of an English Village (1969).
Also from Akenfield
Davie’s hand : Rubbish : “Just ‘music’” : “Caught in the old ways” : “The blue rode well in the corn”
By Michael Leddy at 8:57 AM comments: 0
Days
Betty Horak (Beverly Michaels) is being sarcastic. From Pickup (dir. Hugo Haas, 1951):
“Oh boy, another one of those exciting days.”I’d counter with words from the OCA sidebar, from Harvey Pekar’s story “Alice Quinn”:
Every day is a new deal.
By Michael Leddy at 8:56 AM comments: 0
Tuesday, April 26, 2022
Salinger in Ohio
[Click either image for bigger news.]
I never thought I’d see more than one of these headlines. They’re real, and may be found here and here, at least until there’s a correction. But I don’t think a correction is coming.
QAnon fans take note: J.D. Salinger, too, is alive.
Related reading
All OCA Salinger posts (Pinboard)
By Michael Leddy at 7:46 PM comments: 4
Birx’s merch
Dr. Deborah Birx has a makeover and a book. As she makes the rounds of “the shows,” bear in mind what she said in March 2020. You already know who “he” is:
“He’s been so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data. And I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit during these discussions about medical issues. Because in the end, data is data, and he understands the importance of the granularity.”I called it intellectual prostration back then. It renders irrelevant anything Dr. Birx now has to say.
[“Merch, merch, merch along the highway”: a Van Dyke Parksism.]
By Michael Leddy at 1:09 PM comments: 2
Is it Christian nationalism yet?
Representative Mary Miller (R, Illinois-15), or a staffer writing in her name, has responded to PolitiFact’s conclusion that Miller’s claims about gender-affirming care for trans and nonbinary children and adolescents are false. I won’t link to what Miller (or a staffer) wrote, but I’ll quote:
I am unashamed of our Judeo-Christian heritage and the values that most Americans hold to. God created us male and female — this [i.e., gender-affirming care] is nothing but rebellion against God.And:
Why are we ashamed of our Judeo-Christian heritage and our values? We need to be loud and proud about them. They are the values that bring freedom and productivity to a country, to its communities, and that cause our families to thrive.Samuel L. Perry, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oklahoma offers a helpful ten-point checklist: How can we spot #ChristianNationalism in the wild? I score Mary Miller as an eight, possibly nine, of ten.
Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)
By Michael Leddy at 12:56 PM comments: 4
A pocket notebook sighting
[M (dir. Joseph Losey, 1951). Click for a larger view.]
I like seeing a notebook fill the screen. The pen looks like a Sheaffer to me. Maybe, maybe not. And yes, everything on the page appears to be in pencil.
More notebook sightings
All the King’s Men : Angels with Dirty Faces : The Bad and the Beautiful : Ball of Fire : The Big Clock : Bombshell : The Brasher Doubloon : The Case of the Howling Dog : Cat People : Caught : City Girl : Crossing Delancey : Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne : Dead End : Deep Valley : The Devil and Miss Jones : Dragnet : Extras : Eyes in the Night : The Face Behind the Mask : Foreign Correspondent : Fury : Homicide : The Honeymooners : The House on 92nd Street : I See a Dark Stranger : Journal d’un curé de campagne : Kid Glove Killer : The Last Laugh : Le Million : The Lodger : Ministry of Fear : Mr. Holmes : Murder at the Vanities : Murder by Contract : Murder, Inc. : The Mystery of the Wax Museum : Naked City : The Naked Edge : Now, Voyager : The Palm Beach Story : Perry Mason : Pickpocket : Pickup on South Street : Pushover : Quai des Orfèvres : The Racket : Railroaded! : Red-Headed Woman : Rififi : La roue : Route 66 : The Scarlet Claw : Sleeping Car to Trieste : The Small Back Room : The Sopranos : Spellbound : Stage Fright : State Fair : A Stranger in Town : Stranger Things : Sweet Smell of Success : Time Table : T-Men : To the Ends of the Earth : 20th Century Women : Union Station : Vice Squad : Walk East on Beacon! : Where the Sidewalk Ends : The Woman in the Window : You Only Live Once : Young and Innocent
By Michael Leddy at 8:55 AM comments: 0
An EXchange name sighting
[M (dir. Joseph Losey, 1951). Click for a larger view.]
Perhaps the artist took inspiration from the IBEW logo. ST: in Los Angeles, it might signify STanley or STate.
More EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story : Kiss of Death : The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Nocturne : Old Acquaintance : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Slightly Scarlet : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : Till the End of Time : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
By Michael Leddy at 8:53 AM comments: 0