Sold a Story

Coming tomorrow, from American Public Media, a podcast series by Emily Hanford: Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong.

In 2018 Hanford wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times: “Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?”

Here’s a related article from the Times: “In the Fight Over How to Teach Reading, This Guru Makes a Major Retreat.”

If you have any doubt that reading instruction has gone wrong, listen to the average, everyday college student read aloud in class. But that’ll be difficult to do, because many instructors have learned not to ask students to read aloud. It’s likely to be painful.

Related posts
Reading, really fast : A story from my literacy tutoring : W(h)ither grammar

[“Read aloud”: I don’t mean cold-calling on students to read. I mean, say, asking a student to read a passage that they’ve referenced in a discussion.]

Cheesy vignette

[As seen in the OCA test kitchens. Click for a larger view.]

What’s wrong with this picture?

Yesterday’s A.Word.A.Day explains.

Stemside

Elaine and I like to invent imaginary radio shows. O reason not the need. Please.

This one is mine: Stemside. It’s all about tomatoes. E.g.:

“Coming up on Stemside: tomato sandwiches. Are they really as good as people say?”

[Spoiler: they are. And you should always let tomatoes sit stem down.]

La Fabrique de l’oeuvre

From stale bread to a madeleine: La Fabrique de l’oeuvre is a French National Library exhibition devoted to the evolution of À la recherche du temps perdu .

Here is a report from Le Figaro, in French and English. And here is a report from The Guardian, with the detail of the stale bread (pain rassis ).

Related reading
All OCA Proust posts (Pinboard)

The reason is not because

In the latest episode of Michigan Radio’s That’s What They Say, Rebecca Kruth, host, and Anne Curzan, linguist, talk about “the reason is because.” Citing the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage as an authority, Curzan says that this construction is “fine.” The word because, she says, reminds the reader that an explanation is coming. I would think that the words the reason is are reminder enough, even if other words fall between reason and is.

A point that Curzan doesn’t mention: MWDEU argues against the charge that “the reason is because” is redundant by pointing out that because here need not mean “for the reason that.” No, MWDEU says, because here can mean “the fact that.” Which would make “the reason is because” the equivalent of “the reason is the fact that.” But if that’s the case, it’s simpler and more graceful to say “the reason is that.”

In Garner’s Modern English Usage, Bryan Garner offers a markedly different take on “the reason is because.” While MWDEU cites many well-known writers who have used this construction (Francis Bacon, Jonathan Swift, Robert Frost, Ernest Hemingway, P.G. Wodehouse, Groucho Marx, and others), GMEU uses the Google Ngram Viewer get a sense of contemporary usage, with “reason is that” significantly outnumbering “reason is because” in print. In the GMEU Language-Change Index, “the reason is because” falls into Stage Four: “Ubiquitous but  . . . .” And Garner quotes a withering assessment:

This construction is loose because reason implies because and vice versa. Robert W. Burchfield, the distinguished OED lexicographer, put it well: “Though often defended by modern grammarians, the type ‘the reason . . . is because’ (instead of ‘the reason . . . is that’) aches with redundancy, and is still as inadmissible in Standard English as it was when H.W. Fowler objected to it in 1926.” Points of View 116 (1992).

Garner, as you can already guess, recommends replacing because with that.

Recommending that a writer stick with “the reason is because” if it feels “natural” and “sounds good,” as Curzan does, is decidely unhelpful. If “the reason is because” is far less common in writing, if it’s likely to stand out to many a reader as a known redundancy, it’s in a writer’s interest to change because to that. It doesn’t matter what Robert Frost did. Or Jane Austen.

That’s What They Say is fun when Kruth and Curzan investigate idioms and word meanings. But I’d check the feature’s advice about usage before going along.

NetNewsWire

Yes, there’s a problem with FeedBurner. But one also needs an an app or service that picks up RSS feeds in a snappy manner. NetNewsWire for macOS and iOS is my new choice. It’s fast, easy to figure out, and free. It has a long history, with a developer, Brent Simmons, who has a sense of cultural purpose and doesn’t even invite donations. Here is the app’s website.

“The old Internet”

Marie LeConte misses “the old Internet.”

Why a duck?

Roaming Boro Park, Brooklyn, I came upon this lively blend of residential and commercial life.

[3717 Fort Hamilton Parkway, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

As with these Fort Hamilton addresses, it appears that a storefront and residential entrance were added to an existing house. Imagine being able to step from your residence for candy, soda, stationery, and cigars. (Don’t worry, Elaine — I’m not getting any ideas, about smoking or about remodeling.)

Next to 3717, on the southeast corner of Fort Hamilton and 38th Street, stood a gas station with battery and lubrication services. Today Google Maps shows 3717 with a pull-down steel door over what was (and still is?) a storefront. Lion Transmission and Parkway Collision sit next door — no gas.

What knocks me out about this photograph: Donald Duck. He’s advertising Nu-Blue Sunoco gasoline. Why a duck? Why not a mouse? Well, Mickey Mouse was also hired, though every link to an image of Mickey’s signage turns out to be defunct. Donald’s wall today sports a stylized flag of Mexico and a lion in profile. A larger lion looks down from a second-story wall.

In a fine testament to American capitalism, many of the brand names appearing in this photograph are with us in 2022. How many names can you spot? I see eight in addition to Sunoco, seven of which are legible. I’ve put my answers in the comments. Click for the larger view for a better look at everything, including the gumball machines.

Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives

[The building to the left, as seen in another photograph, houses Willam Rabus Plumbing & Heating.]

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stella Zawistowski, known for tough puzzles. This one took me thirty-one minutes, and at many points I thought I’d have to give up. And then something would fall into place, and onward.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

4-D, eleven letters, “High-upkeep?” Read the clue carefully.

5-A, ten letters, “Removes one’s words, in a way.” My first answer. I had a hunch and played it.

7-D, fifteen letters, “It may keep you up at night.” Uh, SATURDAYSTUMPER?

13-D, seven letters, “General rearrangement.” Now I get it.

17-A, ten letters, “Originally, a river crystal.” Huh.

23-A, five letters, “Whom DiMaggio called ‘the best I ever faced.’” I liked seeing this name.

25-D, eleven letters, “Fourth-century Christian milestone.” Yep, still know it, sort of.

26-A, nine letters, “Sports pages.” I felt pleased with myself for sussing this one out right away. (I am not a sports-minded person.)

28-D, three letters, “Half a Furniture Galleries brand.” An insanely great answer.

34-D, four letters, “Tragic retiree-to-be.” Another hunch played.

57-A, four letters, “Dieter’s unit.” I had all the letters from Down answers and didn’t see how fiendishly clever this clue is.

40-D, seven letters, “Ford debut of 1930.” Must be a car, no?

42-D, seven letters, “Sempiternal.” “Midwinter spring is its own season, / Sempiternal though sodden towards sundown.” I still love Four Quartets.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Peg and Pinkie (and Floyd)

Looking into the fortunes of the Ace-Hy Sign Co., I found my way to old issues of Billboard. And somewhere on or near a page with an Ace-Hy advertisement, I noticed this item, in Bill Baker’s column “Pipes for Pitchmen”:

[Billboard, November 6, 1948. Click for a larger view.]

Two names stood out: Peg Jackson would be Arthur Jackson (1911–1977), known as Peg Leg Sam, singer and harmonica player, with a long history of performing in medicine shows. Here’s a short documentary about him: Born for Hard Luck (dir. Tom Davenport, 1976). Pinkie Anderson would be Pinkney Anderson (1900–1974), known as Pink Anderson, singer and guitarist, also with a long history of performing in medicine shows, often with Peg Leg Sam. Here’s a 1970 home recording of the two men doing medicine-show material. Here’s a sample of Anderson alone. And here’s Pink’s son, Little Pink Anderson.

Even if you think you’ve never heard of Pink Anderson, you probably have. Here he is with Floyd Council. Those two musicians were the inspiration for the name Pink Floyd.

*

And here’s a Peg Leg Sam T-shirt.

[For anyone curious, there’s much more of Jackson, Anderson, and Council at YouTube.]