“In her wavering, collapsing script”

Arthur Grumm is playing Monopoly with his friend William Mainwaring. But Arthur’s mind is on “her.” That is, Eleanor Schumann. One of my favorite passages in this novel:

Steven Millhauser, Portrait of a Romantic (1977).

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

Unhelpful reporting

The New York Times reports that the COVID-19 pandemic may have originated with raccoon dogs for sale at a market in Wuhan, China. Which raises all kinds of questions: What are raccoon dogs, and why were they being sold at a Chinese market? Are they specific to China? Are they caught in the wild? Are they bred and sold for food? Or as exotic pets? The Times article offers just a single brief appositive to clarify: “fluffy animals that are related to foxes and are known to be able to transmit the coronavirus.”

A Wikipedia article can tell you much more about raccoon dogs, which are found in Asia and Europe (in Europe, they are considered an invasive species):

An investigation by three animal protection groups into the Chinese fur trade in 2004 and part of 2005 asserts approximately 1.5 million raccoon dogs are raised for fur in China.

And it seems that they’re sold for food. Wikipedia makes no mention of that. A 2022 Times article seems to imply it:

In stall after stall of the poorly ventilated space, he saw live wild animals — snakes, badgers, muskrats, birds — being sold for food [in October 2014]. But it was the raccoon dogs that made him pull out his iPhone.

Fur? Food? Either way, today’s article is some remarkably unhelpful reporting, New York Times.

Saint Patrick’s Day 1913

[St. Patrick’s Day Parade, c. 1910—1915. From the George Grantham Bain Collection (Library of Congress). Click for a much larger view.]

That’s You-know-who’s Cathedral. Happy Saint Patrick’s Day to all.

[Leddy is an Irish name. And yes, the parade moves up Fifth Avenue. And the date written across the top has to be 1913.]

Printer-buying advice

At The Verge, Nilay Patel offers printer-buying advice:

Here’s the best printer in 2023: the Brother laser printer that everyone has. Stop thinking about it and just buy one. It will be fine!

Our household recently acquired a Brother HL-L2395DW, which replaces the HL-2270DW that we used for twelve or thirteen years. We chose to buy a new printer when the old one began to leave a grainy track on the right margins of pages and we realized that for the price of a toner cartridge and a new drum we could buy a new printer.

Searching my blog, I see that I don’t have a single post mentioning our Brother printers. There’s not much to say about them: they work, and they’re far cheaper to operate than ink-jet printers. And while settting up a printer in 2023 is still a bit of a pain, it makes the set-up of years past seem comically convoluted.

And speaking of comically: Patel includes (for a laugh) a ChatGPT-generated guide to buying a printer. Enjoy.

Parts going their own way

The elusive Eleanor Schumann:

Steven Millhauser, Portrait of a Romantic (1977).

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

Chomsky et al. on ChatGPT

In The New York Times, Noam Chomsky, Ian Roberts, and Jeffrey Watumull consider (with examples) “the false promise of ChatGPT”:

ChatGPT and its brethren are constitutionally unable to balance creativity with constraint. They either overgenerate (producing both truths and falsehoods, endorsing ethical and unethical decisions alike) or undergenerate (exhibiting noncommitment to any decisions and indifference to consequences). Given the amorality, faux science and linguistic incompetence of these systems, we can only laugh or cry at their popularity.

All OCA ChatGPT 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 : ChatGPT on Edwin Mullhouse : A reporter’s “conversation” with ChatGPT

“Home Run”

“Bottom of the ninth, two out, game tied, runners at the corners, the count full on McCluskey, the fans on their feet, this place is going wild”: so begins “Home Run,” a sentence-long story by Steven Millhauser. You won’t be disappointed.

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

“And behold!”

Steven Millhauser, Portrait of a Romantic (1977).

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard) : A library slip: 1941, 1992

“And a bottle of blueblack ink”

Summer ending, as the future reaches into the present:

Steven Millhauser, Portrait of a Romantic (1977).

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

Black inks

From Jet Pens: a guide to black inks for fountain pens.

For me, Aurora Black rules.