Juneteenth

There’s still no stamp. But there is a flag, designed by Ben Haith. And an explanation.

[Click for a larger image.]

The nineteenth is Juneteenth.

Related reading
All OCA Juneteenth posts (Pinboard)

Father’s Day

[My dad, James Leddy, not yet a dad, in Florida, 1954. Photo by my mom, Louise Leddy, not yet a mom. Click for a larger view.]

Happy Father’s Day to all.

J. Michael Luttig, speaking

Retired federal judge J. Michael Luttig has explained why he spoke so slowly at Thursday’s hearing of the January 6 committee.

Watching the hearing, I immediately got my snark on and made a ill-considered post associating Luttig with the Bob and Ray character Harlow P. Whitcomb. When it occurred to me — not long after — that someone might be speaking exceedingly slowly for any number of reasons, I reconsidered my snark and deleted.

It turns out that there’s no health-related or neurological reason for Luttig’s slow speaking. Read his account: it might surprise you.

No, years

[The New York Times, June 18, 2022.]

Someone near and dear to me would like to call attention to the plain truth: many parents have been waiting not months but years for these vaccines.

WTF, NYT ?

Mark Shields (1937–2022)

From the New York Times obituary:

Of President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Shields said dismissively that “the toughest thing he’s ever done was to ask Republicans to vote for a tax cut.” The House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy was “an invertebrate”; Senator Lindsey Graham made Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s loyal sidekick, “look like an independent spirit.” In both major parties, he said, too many are afflicted with “the Rolex gene” — making them money-hungry caterers to the wealthy.

I listened to and learned from Mark Shields for years on the PBS NewsHour. I always liked the way he prefaced so many of his responses to Judy Woodruff’s questions with her first name: one person talking to another.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, another 2012 rerun while Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, is on vacation, is a “Lester Ruff” creation — an easier Stumper by Stan. This one is indeed less rough. If two-letter answers were permitted, I’d say it was E-Z. I suspect that next Saturday’s puzzle, when Stan has returned, will be gloriously difficult.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

16-A, six letters, “Swindle.” I did not know this meaning.

17-A, eight letters, “Twitter message.” Very nice, and the final four letters are something of a tossup.

28-D, five letters, “Common sense.” Ha.

40-A, eight letters, “That’s Not All, Folks! autobiographer.” A friendly giveaway.

41-D, seven letters, “Cornmeal product.” Pairs amusingly with 55-A.

43-A, five letters, “Rule material.” I thought Oh, it has to be _____, and it is, but I’m still not sure I understood the clue correctly.

47-D, six letters, “Zealot.” Well-suited to our times.

49-D, six letters, “Foul.” It’s a good thing I’m reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I knew the answer right away.

55-A, seven letters, “British toast.” Pairs amusingly with 41-D.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

The ODAAE

Underway, the Oxford Dictionary of African American English. From Henry Louis Gates Jr., the editor-in-chief:

Every speaker of American English borrows heavily from words invented by African Americans, whether they know it or not. Words with African origins such as ‘goober,’ ‘gumbo’ and ‘okra’ survived the Middle Passage along with our African ancestors. And words that we take for granted today, such as ‘cool’ and ‘crib,’ ‘hokum’ and ‘diss,’ ‘hip’ and ‘hep,’ ‘bad,’ meaning ‘good,’ and ‘dig,’ meaning ‘to understand’ — these are just a tiny fraction of the words that have come into American English from African American speakers, neologisms that emerged out of the Black Experience in this country, over the last few hundred years.

To appear in 2025.

Related reading
All OCA dictionary posts (Pinboard)

An EXchange name sighting

[From Black Angel (dir. Roy William Neill, 1946). Click for a larger view.]

I can’t remember the last time I saw a matchbook in the wild (next to the cash register, say, on a counter in a candy store). But I always remember when I see a matchbook filling the screen.

The movie is set in Los Angeles, and CRestview was indeed a Los Angeles telephone exchange.

More telephone 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?

Domestic comedy

“That house was already mid-century modern; then they renovated it to make it look even more mid-century modern. I guess now it’s mid-century postmodern.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

Missing posts

For some reason, two Bloomsday posts today never made it to my RSS, The Old Reader. I don’t know about other services. So just in case, here they are: “Fellows of the right kidney” and How to enjoy Ulysses.