Nancy at Christmas

“From the legendary Ernie Bushmiller to the cutting edge current work of Olivia Jaimes, Nancy has long been the home to some strange Christmases” (Comic Book Resources).

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

The view from here

“Icicles filled the long window / With barbaric glass”: so wrote Wallace Stevens in “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”

I’m not Wallace Stevens, but I do have a window, and plenty of ice.

[Click for a more barbaric view.]

That’s the view through a storm-door window, covered in ice on the inside. The door opens onto a breezeway. To the right, the side of the gararge. To the left, driveways and a house across the street. The shadow of a blackbird is not crossing the window to and fro. It’s too cold.

Latest in Dancing

[Latest in Dancing. British Pathé, 1962.]

This brief clip plays in the middle of the 2 Tone documentary Dance Craze. You might remember the Madison from Hairspray.

Dance Craze

For anyone who needs to know: the 2 Tone documentary Dance Craze (dir. Joe Massot, 1981) is streaming at streaming at the Yousual place. With Bad Manners, the (English) Beat, The Bodysnatchers, Madness, The Selecter, and The Specials. Eighty-five minutes of youthful energy.

The January 6 report

The Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol is available from the committee’s website. I’m going to read it — all of it — but I’m going to resist the temptation to post choice excerpts. Right now I am thinking about blog posts as respites from current events.

[And speaking of “6,” it’s -6℉, feeling like -33℉.]

Thomas’ missing carriage

I know that Ye Olde Bakery disappeared from the Thomas’ English Muffins package in some distant past. I remember it from when I was a boy.

[Life, February 29, 1969. Click for a larger view.]

But when did the horses, the carriage, and the people disappear? They make for a striking image, especially with the spokeless wheels.

[Click for a larger view.]

Here’s what the Thomas’ logo looked like recently:

[With spokes. Click for a larger view.]

And here’s what the Thomas’ logo looks like today:

[Click for a larger view.]

I noticed the absence of the horses, carriage, and people only this morning. A company representative tells me that they disappeared a few months ago but that they’re still present at the top of the package. And indeed they are:

[Click for a larger view.]

You can see them on the plastic wrap that’s bunched up above the bread clip. (Or muffin clip?) The little orange figures make me think of a pattern on kids’ pajamas.

I must note that the Thomas’ website, where I first looked for an answer to my question, shows a nice awareness of punctutation conventions:

Why is there an apostrophe after the “S” in Thomas’?

When a name such as Thomas ends with an “s” and is used as possessive of something such as English muffins, an apostrophe can be added after the “s” or an apostrophe “s” can be used. It has been the desire of our Company to use the apostrophe after the “s.” Thomas’ is a registered trademark of Bimbo Bakeries USA.

Carriage or no, apostrophe-s or no, I’ll keep buying Thomas’ English Muffins.

A related post
“Think only pleasant thoughts” (A defense of English Muffins)

Domestic comedy

“Pasta aglio e olio is my signature dish. Pasta with tuna and lemon is my initials dish.”

Both recipes appear in this post. And ten years later, I rediscovered the Village Voice clipping with aglio e olio.

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

TCM world

“I live in TCM world”: Charlie Watts, on his taste in clothes. From a Desert Island Discs episode first broadcast on February 25, 2001.

I’ve known about Desert Island Discs for years. Only recently did it occur to me that it’s probably now a podcast. And It is.

These episodes — I’ve listened to five so far — are full of surprises. Did you know that Fiona Hill digs The Specials?

Bloomberg, sheesh

From an article about a defeated former president’s tax returns. Neal is Richard Neal, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee:

Throughout the process, Neal’s more cautious approach to his investigation has grated some of his more progressive colleagues.

Grate, “to cause irritation,” is an intransitive verb. Grating one’s colleagues would be both transitive and uncollegial.

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

Three passages from Michelle Obama

From The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times (New York: Crown, 2022).

On navigating the world as someone “different”:

You learn, as my family did, to be watchful. You figure out how to guard your energy, to count every step. And at the heart of this lies a head-spinning paradox: Being different conditions you toward cautiousness, even as it demands that you be bold.

On putting something small, like knitting, alongside big things:

Any time your circumstances start to feel all-consuming, I suggest you try going in the other direction — toward the small. Look for something that'll help you rearrange your thoughts, a pocket of contentedness where you can live for a while. And by this I don't mean sitting passively in front of your television or scrolling through your phone. Find something that’s active, something that asks for your mind but uses your body as well. Immerse yourself in the process. And forgive yourself for temporarily ducking out of the storm.

On seing children growing up. When the Obamas visit Malia and Sasha, who are sharing an apartment in Los Angeles, Malia produces a charcuterie board. And then:

Sasha attempted to fix us a couple of weak martinis — Wait, you know how to make martinis? — and served them in water glasses, first laying down a couple of newly purchased coasters so that we wouldn’t mark up their brand-new coffee table with our drinks.

I watched all this with some astonishment. It’s not that I’m surprised that our kids have grown up, exactly, but somehow the whole scene — the coasters, in particular — signaled a different sort of landmark, the type of thing every parent spends years scanning for, which is evidence of common sense.

As Sasha set down our drinks that night, I thought about all the coasters she and her sister hadn’t bothered to use when they were under our care, all the times over the years I’d tried to get watermarks out of various tables, including at the White House.

But the dynamics had changed. We were at their table now. They owned it, and they were protecting it. Clearly they had learned.

I still find it difficult to believe that Elaine and I had the good fortune to meet both Michelle and Barack Obama in 2004, during Barack Obama’s Senate campaign. And I still find it difficult to believe that our country went from eight years of an Obama presidency to — what? Michelle Obama, too, finds that difficult to believe.

Also by Michelle Obama
From Becoming