Separated at birth

Donald Wolfit as General Auguste Mercier in Edge of Darkness (dir. Lewis Milestone, 1943) and Christopher Guest as Corky St. Clair in Waiting for Guffman (dir. Guest, 1996).

Also separated at birth
Claude Akins and Simon Oakland : Ernest Angley and Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán : Nicholson Baker and Lawrence Ferlinghetti : William Barr and Edward Chapman : Bérénice Bejo and Paula Beer : Ted Berrigan and C. Everett Koop : David Bowie and Karl Held : Victor Buono and Dan Seymour : Ernie Bushmiller and Red Rodney : John Davis Chandler and Steve Buscemi : Ray Collins and Mississippi John Hurt : Broderick Crawford and Vladimir Nabokov : Ted Cruz and Joe McCarthy : Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Gough : Henry Daniell and Anthony Wiener : Jacques Derrida, Peter Falk, and William Hopper : Adam Driver and Henri Gaudier-Brzeska : Bonita Granville and Cyndi Lauper : Charles Grassley and Abraham Jebediah Simpson II : Elaine Hansen (of Davey and Goliath) and Blanche Lincoln : Barbara Hale and Vivien Leigh : Pat Harrington Jr. and Marcel Herrand : Harriet Sansom Harris and Phoebe Nicholls : Steven Isserlis and Pat Metheny : Colonel Wilhelm Klink and Rudy Giuliani : Ton Koopman and Oliver Sacks : Steve Lacy and Myron McCormick : Don Lake and Andrew Tombes : Markku Luolajan-Mikkola and John Malkovich : William H. Macy and Michael A. Monahan : Fredric March and Tobey Maguire : Chico Marx and Robert Walden : Elisabeth Moss and Alexis Smith : Jean Renoir and Steve Wozniak : Molly Ringwald and Victoria Zinny : Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Gene Wilder

“Dan Duryea is my executive producer!!”

“If only real life were as well-lit as a good film noir!”: today’s Zippy goes to the movies.

Related reading
All OCA Zippy posts (Pinboard)

A “conversation” with a chatbot

“I like movies that are realistic. I like movies that are romantic. I like movies that are about us”: from The New York Times, the transcript of a reporter’s two-hour “conversation” with Microsoft Bing’s A.I. chatbot. That's the bot talking about movies. It’s more than slightly unnerving.

As I said to my son this morning, I’ve had it with thinking about chatbots as part of the world I want to live in. A line from Ted Berrigan’s poem “Mi Casa, Su Casa” sums it up: “‘I want human to begin with.’” And thereafter.

Related posts
A 100-word blog post generated by ChatGPT : I’m sorry too, ChatGPT : Spot the bot : Teachers and chatbots : Imaginary lines from real poems : ChatGPT writes about Lillian Mountweazel : Rob Zseleczky on computer-generated poetry : ChatGPT’s twenty-line poems : Edwin Mullhouse fail

[In the poem, the line is in quotation marks: quoted speech?]

Gentleman ?

Rehema Ellis, talking on MSNBC earlier this afternoon about proceedings in a Buffalo courtroom: “The gentleman did apologize.”

Perhaps Ellis didn’t want to say his name. Neither do I. But gentleman has got to go. The gunman did apologize. The killer did apologize. Or said that he apologized.

Garner’s Modern English Usage on gentleman :

Gentleman should not be used indiscriminately as a genteelism for man , the generic term. Gentleman should be reserved for reference to a cultured, refined man.

Never for reference to a mass murderer.

Mystery actor

[Click for a larger view.]

Leave a guess — or something more certain — in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if one seems to be needed.

*

Here’s a hint before I head out on a walk: this actor is known for playing a character for whom the bell tolled. Ding. Ding. Ding.

More mystery actors
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?

Recently updated

O.B. Rude Drug Co. Now with a 1922 ad for mail-order pharmaceuticals. Rude had quite a reach.

Valentine’s Day

[Peanuts, February 14, 1976. Click for a larger view.]

Today’s Peanuts is yesterday’s Peanuts.

[Today I am thinking about blog posts as respite from current events — another campus, another shooting. Another and another and another.]

Valentine’s Day

[Green glass heart amulet. From Egypt, 21st–25th Dynasty, ca. 1070–664 B.C. 2.2 × W. 1.6 cm (7/8 × 5/8 in.). Gift of Helen Miller Gould, 1910. Metropolitan Museum of Art. From the online collection. Click for a larger view.]

More about amulets and the heart, or ib, at this museum page.

Changing jobs

Zippy, as Griffy deconstructs the concept of narrative continuity in today’s Zippy  : “Is it too late to work for Hi & Lois?”

Venn reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts : Hi and Lois and Zippy posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard)

Jury doody

I have been summoned for jury duty, petit not grand, beginning today. So I called in last night to see if I was needed today. “Over 100 people are calling this number, so you may experience busy signals,” the summons said. “Please be patient and try again.”

I tried for five-and-a-half hours last night, calling close to 300 times before getting through, after getting busy signals, silence, or “Verizon cannot complete . . . busy.” Yes, more than 100 people were calling.

It’s 2023. Is there a good reason for courts not to post the necessary information online, protected, perhaps, by a password?

*

Later this same morning: I learned that today is a court holiday. No trials. So why were potential jurors required to call in last night?