Jean who?

“The phenomenon of A Christmas Story leaves those of us familiar with Shepherd as a writer wondering just how many of the multitude of viewers ever read, or even know of, the original short stories, which both inform and interestingly differ from the film”: Samuel G. Freedman writes about Jean Shepherd (The Washington Post).

I listened to Jean Shepherd through much of high school — transistor radio and earphone. One man talking, on WOR, night after night. Excelsior!

Woolworth’s

Night. We were standing in front of a Woolworth’s. We hadn’t been inside one for years. A month’s page from a calendar hung from a string in front of the store. It looked just like a month from my homemade calendars. A tiny piece of newsprint was stapled to one corner of the calendar. I moved closer and saw that it was a short obituary notice. And I remembered that this was the Woolworth’s where an employee had been shot to death.

To the side of the calendar was a kiosk with copies of The New York Times Magazine, a special issue devoted to the employee who had been killed. These were free for the taking. There was also a tiny book of poetry by the employee, resembling the tiny books that used to be for sale at supermarket checkouts — 100 Uses for Vinegar, stuff like that. On the back of the poetry book was the price: 25¢. But these little books, too, were free for the taking. I took one magazine and one book.

When we entered Woolworth’s we saw an aisle that had been blocked off with pieces of china on the floor. Someone was cleaning or reorganizing the aisle’s shelving. I realized that though the magazine and book were free, we had to pay for the items in our shopping cart, which included a set of Venetian blinds.

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All OCA dream posts (Pinboard)

Recently updated

Words of the year Now with woman.

New to me: decadal

I heard it tonight on the PBS NewsHour: decadal. Merriam-Webster gives this pronunciation: /ˈde-kə-dᵊl/. On the NewsHour it came out as /de-ˈkā-dᵊl/. I would just say decade-long.

A check of Google Books suggests that the word is widely used in the study of climate.

Free months from Backblaze

Now through January 31, 2023: follow this link to sign up for Backblaze, and we both get not one, not two, but an additional three months for free. Backblaze is an ultra-reliable backup service, charging $7 a month or $70 a year with no limit on data. I am a happy user (for almost four years) and recommend the service highly.

Coot collective

The coot is a water bird. I’ve seen dozens at a nearby lake. So I thought it appropriate to devise a collective name: codger. “A codger of coots” sounds right to me.

Wikipedia has a long list of collective names for animals.

Image correction

I found by chance that Blogger is messing up images in old posts, displaying images at full size even though they were scaled down to fit properly when posted. The problems seem to be random. So I’m scrolling through the months (I’m up to March 2009), putting images at the proper size again by clicking Small, Medium, or Large or by setting height and width by hand. Tedious, yes.

What I like about doing this work is the opportunity to realize how many minor moments are immediately familiar to me because I wrote them down. I remember — just one example — exactly where I was when I began to think about Frank Sinatra and popcorn — with Elaine in our Corolla, approaching I-57 on our way home from a concert or rehearsal. None of those circumstances are in the post, which dates from December 2007. But the popcorn brings them back.

I think that keeping a blog is a way of converting time into space. The space is always expanding, even as time runs out.

Mondegreen of the day

I always thought the lyric went like this: “Strumming my face with his fingers.”

And then I listened to an episode of Soul Music, and I realized that I’d always had it wrong. It’s fate : “Strumming my fate with his fingers.”

And then I listened further and realized that I had just replaced one mondegreen with another. The word is pain : “Strumming my pain with his fingers.” A quick search will confirm that many a listener has mistaken face and fate for pain.

The Soul Music episode about “Killing Me Softly with His Song” is excellent. Like every Soul Music episode, it hits matters of life and love and loss. Proceed with caution. The episode touches — just touches — on the ugly history of composer credit. You can read about more about that at Wikipedia. Notice that I haven’t named any names here.

[I have to admit it: I still prefer face.]

A 100-word blog post

Are you struggling to find the time to write a lengthy blog post? Don’t worry, sometimes shorter is better! A 100-word blog post can be just as effective as a longer one, and it’s a great way to quickly share your thoughts and ideas with your audience. Plus, writing a shorter post can be a fun challenge and a great way to hone your writing skills. So the next time you’re feeling stuck, try writing a 100-word blog post and see how it goes!

[Generated by ChatGPT in response to the prompt “write a 100-word blog post.” It’s fourteen words short.]

I’m sorry too, ChatGPT

Elaine and I have been toying with ChatGPT. And it appears that the rules of engagement are tightening. A couple of days ago Elaine was a celebrated pianist who had performed with orchestras around the world. Hot damn! And I was a writer who had won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. $100,000! But this morning,

I’m sorry, but I don’t have any information about [our names here]. As a large language model trained by OpenAI, my knowledge is limited to what I was trained on, and I don’t have the ability to browse the internet or access any additional information. I apologize if I cannot be of more help.

I don’t believe that ChatGPT means the end of high-school English. But it will certainly make life more difficult for uncrafty teachers. Something crafty students should understand is that teachers can enter the same prompts their students have entered. Plagiarism by way of ChatGPT will likely be hilariously detectable (I hope).