Early turnout: in one hour and three minutes of trick-or-treating, we’ve had six children call at our door, already matching our 2015 total (over three-and-a-half hours).
Twelve Reese’s Cups gone, twenty-eight to go. One hour and fifty-seven minutes to go.
*
Three more children. And that’s all. Anyone want a Reese’s Cup?
Monday, October 31, 2022
Halloween count
Mary Miller’s silence
From Politico: “Rep. Mary Miller (IL-15) is the only member of the state’s Republican congressional delegation not to condemn last week’s violent attack on the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”
Mike Bost (IL-12), Rodney Davis (IL-13), Adam Kinzinger (IL-16), and Darin LaHood (IL-18) have all condemned the attack.
Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)
A sharpener sharpener
[Zits, October 31, 2022. Click for a larger view.]
In today’s Zits, Jeremy Duncan has asked Connie, his mom, if there’s anyone famous in the family tree. She cites Jeremy’s great-great-grandfather. Hyphens are already in the air.
But I think I’d hyphenate this job title as pencil-sharpener sharpener.
Connie’s joy makes me suspect that it’s her great-grandfather she’s speaking of.
Related reading
All OCA punctuation posts (Pinboard) : The Hammacher Schlemmer crazy making hyphen shortage problem. : House hyphens : “Hyphen killer” : Living on hyphens : Mr. Hyphen and Mr. Faulkner : One more from Mr. Hyphen
Masks
[“Brinks Holdup.” Photographs by Ralph Morse and Yale Joel. January 1, 1950 (?). From the Life Photo Archive. Click any photograph for a larger mask.]
None of these photographs appear in the January 30, 1950 Life article about the Boston Brinks robbery. The robbery took place on January 17, so the date for the photographs must be a mistake. There is no indication that these are the masks the robbers wore. But they’re good masks. Here’s a post from 2021 with six more.
The last time Elaine and I committed to Halloween (2015!) we had six kids show up in three-and-a-half hours — pretty sad. On this Halloween there are more kids in our neighborhood than before, so we’re once again going to give out candy, or try to. We are hoping to dispose of the contents of two large bags of Reese's Cups tonight. Good stuff.
Turn up, kids! Or I’ll be the one who has to eat the leftovers.
Happy Halloween.
Related reading
All OCA Halloween posts (Pinboard)
Reaching out
This morning I have had a president, a vice president, and an undefeated former president reach out to me, one of them “personally reaching out.”
Just another Monday.
Gender and evaluations
From Inside Higher Ed: “Two new studies show how bias against women in student ratings operates over time, worsening with critical feedback and instructor age.”
I think that anyone who teaches knows there’s truth in these studies. If the instructor is a man: he’s tough, demanding. If the instructor is a woman: she’s a bitch. And I can only imagine how some students might regard a non-binary instructor.
Sunday, October 30, 2022
Yet another letter to Mary Miller
[Click for a genuinely readable view.]
A note for the non-local: Mary Miller’s husband Chris Miller, our representative in the Illinois state legislature, runs a father-son Christian-themed camp with considerable emphasis on guns. But the camp doesn’t allow participants to bring their own weapons: “For safety reasons, please do not bring any firearms or archery equipment.”
Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)
SHELL
[3437-47 Fort Hamilton Parkway, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]
Granted, it’s only a tax photograph, but it’s beautifully composed, with the long lines of the pavement below and the long line of the wire above, all moving toward to the station; the pipes and telephone pole projecting upward; and the globes atop the pumps (SHELL) and the clock. And the hatted man, hand in pocket, moving toward the camera. I am imagining him as Max von Mayerling, lost in Brooklyn, walking back to the car to tell Madame (Norma Desmond) that it will be a long drive back to Los Angeles.
The tax records give 1930 as the approximate date of this station’s construction. In 1931, the station was briefly in the news, as one of twenty-five Brooklyn gas stations robbed by a trio of young men. In 1949 the station appeared in New York State court records, when a station owner petitioning for a variance to expand cited the history of this Shell station to support his petition:
[Click for a larger view.]
So by 1947 this smart little station was already larger.
In 2022 the corner of Fort Hamilton Parkway and Chester Avenue is still a Shell station. At some future point someone may look at this photograph and say “That was what gas stations looked like.”
Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives
Saturday, October 29, 2022
No[!] Hurry[!]
Teachers, tell your students: Michelle Reis, actress and former Miss Hong Kong, nearly died because of a doctor’s unpunctuated text.
Related reading
All OCA punctuation posts (Pinboard)
Today’s Saturday Stumper
Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is by Paolo Pasco, his first Stumper, I think, and truly Stumpery (twenty-six minutes for me). The northeast and southwest, relatively easy. The northwest and southeast, much more challenging. Here’s a profile of the constructor.
Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:
1-A, ten letters, “Groups attending board meetings.” I thought of CARPENTERS. Finally getting 8-D right helped a lot here.
3-D, seven letters, “Selling points.” An answer meant to confound.
8-D, seven letters, “Figure skater attire.” My first (wrong) answer.
10-D, ten letters, “Heavy metal instruments.” My second (correct) answer. I took a chance, because I liked the possibility of seeing them in the puzzle.
23-A, nine letters, “They’re often taken out of stock.” Fees of some sort, right? Right?
26-A, nine letters, “Exercise with no running.” Nifty.
33-D, seven letters, “Dutch doctor known for his optotypes.” Who? For his what? Oh, that! Everything has a name.
34-A, three letters, “Guy going back for a plan.” Didn’t fool me.
41-D, five letters, “Trunk depression.” Weirdly defamiliarizing. But not always a depression.
49-A, ten letters, “‘Encore’ antonym.” Ha.
51-A, ten letters, “Shades worn on your feet.” New to me, though not to my feet.
No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.
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