Rats in cars

“The ‘check engine’ light came on, and I brought it to my mechanic, who popped the hood and found chicken bones, some bread and part of a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich sitting there”: “Why So Many Cars Have Rats in Them Now” (The New York Times ).

A tip our Toyota dealer offered: set the ventilation to recirculate if you’re leaving a car parked for any length of time — say in an airport parking lot. Doing so keeps at least some of the innards off-limits to critters.

The sound of the Senate

I’m watching me some C-SPAN2. As voting remains open on whether to begin debate on the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the sound of the Senate is extremely odd. It suggests to me a cross between a laundromat and a gathering of chanting ghosts, led perhaps by Diane Feinstein and Charles Grassley.

Today’s Saturday Stumper

The Newsday Saturday Stumper seems to once again be available from the Newsday site without a subscription. Hurrah! Today’s Stumper is by “Anna Stiga,” or Stan Again, Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor. The pseudonym marks an easier Stumper, and this one is indeed easier, though several clues made me struggle. 8-D, nine letters, “Baker of artisanal breads”? Well, it’s not PEPPERIDGEFARM.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, six letters, “Unsuccessful.” I always think of the answer as a word I learned in college.

12-D, three letters, “Know how.” Sneaky.

20-A, twelve letters, “French president’s term.” Pretty Stumpery. I thought the answer had to be in French, and there is an answer in French that looks right, but it’s wrong.

21-D, four letters, “‘_____ travail!’ (‘Too much work!’: Fr.).” Part of the reason I thought the answer for 20-A was in French.

28-A, three letters, “Common contents of bookcases.” ART? CDS? Also pretty Stumpery.

30-A, seven letters, “Hershiser in ’88, Pujols in ’04”: uh, sports? No doubt many solvers will just know this, but not me.

41-A, seven letters, “‘Father’ to ‘père,’ per Wikipedia.” I just liked seeing the answer.

47-D, six letters, “One of four in Romeo and Juliet.” I caught on.

48-D, six letters, “Museum pieces.” There’s a poem that comes to mind.

58-A, four letters, “Fair pair.” I always like an answer that I think I understand until I realize that I’ve probably misunderstood it. It’s like getting a bonus answer when the puzzle is done.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Dad, i.m.

My dad, James Leddy, died seven years ago today. He’d have been ninety-four this year. I’ll listen to one or more of his CDs today — maybe Ethel Waters, maybe Lee Wiley. Here is what I wrote after my dad died.

The new Bloomusalem

Leopold Bloom ascendant. From the hallucinatory “Circe” episode.

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

A few notes:

~ Derwan: In 1904 Michael Derham and James Derwin were both Dublin builders (Don Gifford, Ulysses Annotated ).

~ “Morituri te salutant”: “They who are about to die salute you,” as gladiators said to the Roman emperor.

~ The man in the macintosh is a small mystery of the novel. He’s seen at Patrick Dignam’s funeral, but who is he? A misunderstood remark gets him into the funeral notice as M’Intosh.

~ “Fireraiser”: an arsonist.

~ Higgins: Bloom’s mother’s maiden name.

~ “Rubber preservatives”: condoms.

~ “Toad in the hole”: meat cooked in batter (Wikipedia).

~ “Jeyes’ fluid”: “a disinfectant for drains or sewers” (Gifford).

~ “Purchase stamps”: trading stamps.

~ According to Gifford, the book titles are, save perhaps for Care of the Baby, most likely invented. Drat.

~ Baby Boardman appears in “Nausicaa.” He may be the brother of Gerty MacDowell’s friend Edy Boardman. Bloom, like any capable civic leader, is kind to babies.

None of these bits of detail should obscure the comedy of Bloom’s ideal city taking the form of “a huge pork kidney.” Why a kidney? Here’s why.

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)

Nancy meta

[Nancy, September 23, 1949. Click for a larger view.]

The final panel explains: E. Bushmiller broke his glasses.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

[In the final panel, I like the way the hallway and door are nice and neat. Only Nancy and Sluggo, the products of the artist’s pen, are messed up there.]

Recently updated

Thirteenth Avenue Retail Market Now with new links, an opening date, and a statement from Mayor Fiorello La Guardia.

“Strange fishes withouten heads”

From the “Oxen of the Sun” episode. The scene is the National Maternity Hospital. Leopold Bloom has stopped in to ask after Molly’s friend Mina Purefoy, in her third day of labor with her ninth child. Here Bloom encounters a group of unruly drinkers: medical students and Stephen Dedalus. The episode is a series of imitations of English prose styles, beginning with a chant and ending in manic American revival talk, commercialese, and slang:

You’ll need to rise precious early, you sinner there, if you want to diddle the Almighty God. Pflaaaap! Not half. He’s got a coughmixture with a punch in it for you, my friend, in his backpocket. Just you try it on.

The following passage is recognized as an imitation of the fantastic travel narratives of the fourteenth-century writer Sir John Mandeville. The “castle” is the hospital. See if you can figure out what’s described.

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)

Freddish

From The Atlantic, Maxwell King’s “Mister Rogers Had a Simple Set of Rules for Talking to Children,” a look at what a producer and writer from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood called Freddish:

Hedda Sharapan, one of the staff members at Fred Rogers’s production company, Family Communications, Inc., recalls Rogers once halted taping of a show when a cast member told the puppet Henrietta Pussycat not to cry; he interrupted shooting to make it clear that his show would never suggest to children that they not cry.

Orange Crate Art is a Neighborhood-friendly zone.

Related reading
All OCA Fred Rogers posts (Pinboard)

“Longest way round”

Bloom thinks about himself and Molly. From the “Nausicaa” episode:

James Joyce, Ulysses (1922).

See also Stephen Dedalus on how we are “always meeting ourselves.”

Bloom seems to apply an unusual spin on the traditional adage.

Related reading
All OCA Joyce posts (Pinboard)