I caught myself singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” the other night. How did that happen?
We were having a tuna casserole. I thought casserole — cream of mushroom soup — midwest — Minnesota — The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
And that’s how I found myself singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”
A somewhat related post
“Monkey, monkey, underpants”
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
I let a song get into my head
A witness wardrobe
We were putting up a witness in an upcoming trial. It was just for a day or two. She was blind, and she needed a wardrobe for court. The prosecutor’s office called and told Elaine that she could have anything she wanted. “She”: presumably the witness.
Related reading
All OCA dream posts (Pinboard)
[Sources: Lady Justice (blind), Joan Crawford as a criminal mastermind losing her sight in This Woman Is Dangerous, my recent non-experience in jury dury (no trials), a local attorney charged with propositioning defendants.]
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
“I can feel the heat closing in”
From The New York Times : “Jury in Georgia Trump Inquiry Recommended Multiple Indictments, Forewoman Says.” Two excerpts:
“It is not a short list,” the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code “that we cited at various points in the report.”And:
Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” adding “you won’t be too surprised.”*
February 22: Having now seen footage of Emily Kohrs speaking with reporters, I see a gap between the content of those remarks (sharp and sober) and her affect, which is, well, off. Attention-mongering?
[Post title courtesy of William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch. The link is a gift link; it doesn’t count against non-subscribers’ free monthly NYT allotment.]
An EXchange name sighting
[Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (dir. Denis Sanders, 1959). Click for a much larger view.]
That’s George Hamilton — yes, really — turning in an excellent performance as our American Raskolnikov, Robert Cole, a Los Angeles college student. But what’s the exchange name on that telephone?
A 1955 AT&T/Bell publication gives the following “officially recommended” possibilities for HO: HObart, HOmestead, HOpkins, HOward.
More telephone EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Angel : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : The Dark Corner (again) : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dial Red 0 : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story : Kiss of Death : The Life of Jimmy Dolan : The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Mr. District Attorney : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Nocturne : Old Acquaintance : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : She Played with Fire : Shortcut to Hell : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Slightly Scarlet : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : This Gun for Hire : Till the End of Time : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
The NetNewsWire perspective
I’ve been using Brent Simmons’s free RSS app NetNewsWire for about four months. It’s terrific.
The developer doesn’t accept donations from users. He has reasons. But he suggests fourteen things that users can do instead of giving him money, listed in no particular order. The first: “Write a blog instead of posting to Twitter or Facebook.”
Monday, February 20, 2023
Zweig and Davies, still in the works
Terence Davies’s adaptation of Stefan Zweig’s novel The Post-Office Girl, announced in January 2021, will begin shooting this summer.
Orange Crate Art is a Zweig- and Davies-friendly zone.
Related reading
All OCA Zweig posts (Pinboard)
TomatoBar
A nicely designed Pomodoro app for the Mac menu bar: TomatoBar (GitHub). It puts a little black and white icon in the menu bar and shows the time counting down to its right. An especially nice feature is that the time doesn’t shift around slightly as the digits change — thanks to a monospaced font.
The one thing missing: a sound when a break ends. It’d be nice to close one’s eyes or step away from the desk and hear that the five minutes are gone, without having to check the menu bar. Having to watch the time is kinda at odds with the idea of taking a break, no?
February 21: A comment cleared things up for me: turning on the wind-up noise in Preferences will signal the end of the break. I was thinking only about dings.
Related reading
All OCA Pomodoro posts (Pinboard)
Sunday, February 19, 2023
Unique Diner
Just down the avenue from O.B. Rude Drug Co., a diner. Unique? I’ll say it is.
[Unique Diner, 4923 Fifth Avenue, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]
I’ve never seen a diner located where the traces of a multi-story building linger. A search of Brooklyn Newsstand turns up a 1907 advertisement showing a shoestore at this address. An obituary and a list of members of a WWI regiment suggest that, yes, there an apartment building once stood there.
Dig the neon: I suspect that this diner was doing well. And it looks as if someone cared enough to splash the sidewalk clean. Notice too the Bell Telephone signs, in case you need to make a call.
At this address today, El Nuevo Pueblo, a grocery store, open twenty-four hours. On the second floor, Champion Tae Kwon Do: 718-436-KICK.
Related reading
More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives
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