George Booth (1926–2022)

The New Yorker cartoonist was ninety-six. The New York Times has an obituary.

Here’s the short documentary referenced therein: Drawing Life with George Booth.

Washington Post, sheesh

In a piece about the hazards of permanent daylight-saving time, another inapt similar to :

Similar to how sunlight in the morning can pull our internal clock earlier, light from any source too late into the evening can do the opposite and “push” our internal clock later.

Better:

Just as sunlight in the morning can pull our internal clock earlier, light from any source too late into the evening can do the opposite and “push” our internal clock later.

Could the awkward similar to result from fear of making a mistake with as or like ?

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard) : An NPR similar to

Tele-Rest No. 300

[Click either image for a larger view.]

I’ve had a Tele-Rest No. 300 sitting around for many years, purchased (in the 1990s?) from a going-out-of-business office-supplies store. I bought this item only for its box, which predates ZIP codes. The Tele-Rest itself is stamped with a San Diego ZIP code (92109). Herman H. Renneker (1898–1966) must have been a thrifty user of outdated packaging.

A brief obituary describes the circumstances in which the idea for the Tele-Rest was born. It was during the Second World War, when Renneker was working in the purchasing department at Solar Aircraft:

It was one day at Solar, when all the telephones were ringing at once, that Renneker walked out of the office, went across the street for a cup of coffee and hit on the Telerest idea.

Here’s the patent for “Telephone Hand Set Supports” (Dec. 9, 1958).

I have a Model 500 telephone that I used in my office (its ring astonished students), so I (finally) tried attaching the Tele-Rest to the handset this morning. Alas, the device is not especially helpful for keeping the handset on my shoulder. It’s just too small — the Tele-Rest, that is. If I were really using a Model 500 in everyday life, scrunching the handset between my head and shoulder would work much better.

[The box is more attractive than what’s inside. But you can still click for a larger view.]

My Tele-Rest will remain in the Museum of Supplies. But an Etsy seller has a grey Tele-Rest for sale, right now, marked up to $14 from $1.49 — that’s the price scrawled in grease pencil across the box (marked down from $2.25).

This post is the twenty-third in a very occasional series, “From the Museum of Supplies.” Supplies is my word, and has become my family’s word, for all manner of stationery items. The museum is imaginary. The supplies are real.

Other Museum of Supplies exhibits
Ace Gummed Reinforcments : C. & E.I. pencil : Dennison’s Gummed Labels No. 27 : Dr. Scat : Eagle Turquoise display case : Eagle Verithin display case : Esterbrook erasers : Faber-Castell Type Cleaner : Fineline erasers : Harvest Refill Leads : Illinois Central Railroad Pencil : Ko-Rec-Type, Part No. 3 : A Mad Men sort of man, sort of : Mongol No. 2 3/8 : Moore Metalhed Tacks : A mystery supply : National’s “Fuse-Tex” Skytint : Pedigree Pencil : Pentel Quicker Clicker : Real Thin Leads : Rite-Rite Long Leads : Stanley carpenter’s rule

Words of the year

From the Australian National Dictionary Centre, teal : “of or relating to an independent political candidate or politician who advocates for greater integrity in parliament and more action on addressing harmful climate change. noun: such a candidate.”

From the Cambridge Dictionary, homer : “This informal American English term for a home run in baseball left players of Wordle who were not familiar with the word feeling confused and frustrated. Tens of thousands of these Wordle players took to the Cambridge Dictionary to understand the meaning of the word homer.”

From the Collins Dictionary, permacrisis, “a term that describes ‘an extended period of instability and insecurity,’” “one of several words Collins highlights that relate to ongoing crises the UK and the world have faced and continue to face, including political instability, the war in Ukraine, climate change, and the cost-of-living crisis.”

From Dictionary.com, woman : “Our selection of woman as our 2022 Word of the Year reflects how the intersection of gender, identity, and language dominates the current cultural conversation and shapes much of our work as a dictionary.”

From Merriam-Webster, gaslighting : “In this age of misinformation — of ‘fake news,’ conspiracy theories, Twitter trolls, and deepfakes — gaslighting has emerged as a word for our time.”

From voters in a poll conducted by Oxford Languages, goblin mode : “‘Goblin mode’ – a slang term, often used in the expressions ‘in goblin mode’ or ‘to go goblin mode’ – is ‘a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.’” Goblin mode beat metaverse and #IStandWith. I think that in conducting this poll, Oxford Languages was stunting.

I’ll add to this post as more words arrive.

NPR, sheesh

“Similar to [a defeated former American president], Bolsonaro,” followed by some verb.

Better: “Like [a defeated former American president], Bolsonaro,” followed by some verb.

There’s nothing wrong with like here. But as Elaine points out, “Unlike [a defeated former American president]” is even better.

Related reading
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[I no longer type the dfp’s name.]

Domestic comedy

From a meeting of the Four Seasons Reading Club (Elaine and me):

“It’s a good book. Its pages are good. It feels good to read it.”

“Good.”

The book is Dorothy B. Hughes’s In a Lonely Place (1947), reissued by New York Review Books. The Hemingwayesque good appears often. Here are the first dozen, smooshed together into a single paragraph for ease of reading:

It was good standing there on the promontory overlooking the evening sea, the fog lifting itself like gauzy veils to touch his face. That too was good, his hand was a plane passing through a cloud. The sea air was good to smell, the darkness was soft closed around him. It was a good moment. This time it tasted good. It was a good omen; it meant Brub wouldn’t have changed. A good fighter. Eyes, hazel; nose and mouth right for the face, a good-looking face but nothing to remember, nothing to set it apart from the usual. Good gabardine suit, he’d paid plenty to have it made, open-necked tan sports shirt. The room was a good one, only the chair was gaudy, the couch was like green grass and another couch the yellow of sunlight. Good prints, O’Keeffe and Rivera. “Because we had to isn’t good enough.”

But really, it’s a good book. As is Hughes’s The Expendable Man (1963). I can’t say as much for Ride the Pink Horse (1946). That one is not good.

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An unforced Halloween error

The Reese’s Cups Snack Size package shows “approximately” twenty servings per package. We had nine trick-or-treaters and gave out eighteen cups, so I assumed we had about twenty-two cups left over. But when trick-or-treating ended, our orange pail still held a lot of candy.

So I counted. We have thirty-seven cups left over. Which means that a package has not approximately twenty but twenty-five to thirty cups. And a serving must be somewhere between one and two cups. My original caculation was an unforced Halloween error.

Halloween count

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?

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.

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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