Money and gossip

Lukas Mattson (Alexander Skarsgård) to Siobhan Roy (Sarah Snook), in “Tailgate Party,” last night’s episode of Succession:

“You know, I thought these people would be very complicated, but it’s . . . they’re not. It’s basically just, like, money and gossip.”

For me, that observation sums up Succession.

La casa dei Roventini

[1444 76th Street, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Not a beautiful photograph, though the spots do blend nicely with the snow. The arrow on the identification sign points to 1444. On the first floor lived John Roventini (1910–1998), as in Johnny Roventini, as in “Call for Philip Morris!” Roventini was a bellhop who found a new career in 1933 as a spokesman for Philip Morris cigarettes. In the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, he was everywhere — so much so that Philip Morris hired understudies, or what the Associated Press called “traveling ‘Johnnies,’ ” to fill in for personal appearances. But here’s Johnny himself:

[Life, September 18, 1939. Click for a larger view.]

A brief biography:

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 30, 1936. Click for a larger view.]

And look — Johnny Roventini turns up in Gilbert Sorrentino’s novel Aberration of Starlight (1980). The setting is Bensonhurst:

Uncle Tom always took him to a park to have a catch with a hardball and once showed him the guy who said “Call for Philip Morris!” playing softball.

The Roventini family lived at 1444 76th Street for many years. A 1930 photograph has John Roventini at this address. The 1940 Brooklyn telephone directory has a listing in Fred’s name at this address. Here’s Johnny Roventini in the 1950 census, living at this address with his father and mother. His occupation: “Advertising Cigarettes”:

[Click for a larger view.]

A 1940 telephone listing in Fred’s name was still active in 1960 at the 76th Street address. An Associated Press obituary notes that Johnny Roventini lived with his mother until her death. She died in 1961. I think it’s safe to say that Johnny Roventini was living at this address at least as late as 1961.

What I haven’t mentioned: my mom and dad’s first residence was on 76th Street. I recall my dad mentioning at some much later date that Johnny Roventini had lived in the neighborhood. I think my dad once saw him playing handball. And I can now say that in my infant days I lived on the same street as Johnny Roventini. And not only on the same street but on the same block, and on the same side of the street.

Here is a great repository of information about Johnny Roventini, with a recording of his celebrated call: “Little Johnny.” There’s even a placard with safe-smoking guidelines for hospital patients. (Yeesh.) Here are Desi Arnaz (who died of lung cancer), Lucille Ball, and Johnny all doing the call. Here’s Johnny speaking to a movie audience (“Bettah taste, finah flavah”: what a glorious accent.) And here’s a Wikipedia article. And a New York Times obituary. That’s enough.

Thanks to the librarian who helped me navigate the 1950 census. I found my way to the Roventini address by reading the descriptions of Enumeration Districts, the chunks of city that census takers were meant to complete in two weeks. The districts given for 1444 76th Street are wrong. The place to find the Roventinis: 24-1183, page 14 in the Population Schedules.

In the word of 1-D in yesterday’s Saturday Stumper: PHEW.

Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Steve Mossberg, is the toughest Stumper since March 25. That Stumper too was by Steve Mossberg. I doubted I would be able to complete this one, but I did. Forty-eight minutes’ worth of solving.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, nine letters, “Creation for a trade show.” And so it begins. I was thinking of a display or demo of some sort.

2-D, four letters, “Indian name at Woodstock.” I know only Sri Swami Satchidananda. But it’s easy to guess the answer, and it’s a reminder of how many musicians are missing from the movie and the triple-album.

8-D, four letters, “Watches for money.” My first though was the perhaps over-Stumpery SWAP.

14-A, nine letters, “What a wedding band might do.” Have I mentioned this puzzle’s difficulty?

17-A, ten letters, “Enters a new phase.” Do you see what I mean about this puzzle?

20-A, seven letters, “You’d expect it to catch a mouse.” Pretty misdirective.

26-A, six letters, “Musical ‘one more time.’” I knew it right away, but the weirdness of 27-D had me thinking that I must have been misspelling it.

27-D, ten letters, “Veil-wearing activity.” Did I mention the weirdness of 27-D?

28-D, ten letters, “Word in the news expected today (5/6/23).” Who cares? Not me.

36-D, eight letters, "Half of a dance duo." Hoo boy.

41-D, four letters, “Cosmo or Tiki beverage.” My tastes are simpler.

48-A, four letters, “One way to get your things together.” I wanted PAIR.

53-D, four letters, “Digital editing.” More than slightly strained.

54-D, letters, “Stayed.” More than more than slightly strained.

55-A, four letters, “Whom Emerson met in Yosemite.” Easy to guess, but surprising to learn.

61-A, four letters, “What Asian bread isn’t.” I think this clue is a tad bonkers.

My favorite in this puzzle: 56-D, three letters, "Shortened studies." A lot of wit to expend on a three-letter answer.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Medieval Nancy

[Hagar the Horrible, May, 5, 2023. Click for a larger view.]

Geo-B spotted Nancy in today’s Hagar. Thanks, George.

There’s a happy tradition of one comic strip referencing another, as in this Hi and Lois traffic jam, or many others, as in this Hi and Lois crowd scene. But neither George nor I know what a medieval Nancy might signify. Do the words “my husband” portend an appearance by a medieval Sluggo?

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

A Gershwin and a Mongol

January 1, 1930: a photograph of George Gershwin, composing with a Mongol pencil.

Embed from Getty Images[Click for a much larger view.]

Related reading
All OCA Mongol posts (Pinboard)

[It’s a Getty Images photograph, not for sharing. I learned today from Fresca that Getty photographs can be embedded. But you have to click on the photograph and scroll down to see the </> Embed button.]

Look to the tip

I charged my Apple Pencil, paired it (once again) with my iPad, and was all set to draw something for some kiddos.

Nothing.

I turned Bluetooth off. I turned Bluetooth on. I asked the iPad to forget the pencil. I re-paired the devices. Nothing. I restarted the iPad. Nothing. I turned Bluetooth off. And so on.

I finally discovered that the problem had nothing to do with pairing devices: the pencil’s tip needed tightening.

I found the solution not at Apple Support but at iMore, where tightening the tip is the first suggested fix for a non-working Apple Pencil.

Foot and feet

[Nancy, May 12, 1950. Click for a larger view.]

In today’s yesterday’s Nancy : five-foot shelf, two-feet Sluggo.

See also 12ft.io.

[Context: Aunt Fritzi has said that Nancy must earn what she wants by standing on her own two feet. Sluggo: “How about you standing on my own two feet?”]

MSNBC, sheesh

One guest speaking of another, earlier this afternoon: “As Ryan enunciated . . . .”

What’s wrong with said ?

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

How to improve writing (no. 110)

It never fails: or, rather, it always fails. I look at Talking Points Memo and I end up tinkering with one or more sentences from Josh Marshall. I stopped at five:

The fact that one or more of the Supreme Court Justices appear to be venally corrupt in a rather fulsome fashion is a new addition to the story of the early 21st century. But the heart of it remains this: The current corrupt majority wants to wholly remake American law with little attention to precedent or any coherent jurisprudence or theory of interpreting the constitution. They’ve got the power and they’re going to use it. If you don’t like it, too bad. Yet they also want the deference and respect accorded to thoroughly apolitical players guided by restraint and an approach to the work that is more than dressing up their own policy aims with whatever theory serves the needs of the moment.

What I notice:

~ Empty prose additives: “the fact that,” “in a rather fulsome fashion,” “new addition,” “wholly remake,” “deference and respect,” “thoroughly.”

~ Vagueness: “the heart of it remains this,” “apolitical players.” I must have written “Avoid this alone” several thousand times in the margins of students’ essays. I have no idea who the players might be. Persons? Institutions? At any rate, players suggests the opposite of those who are apolitical.

~ An abundance of prepositional phrases: “in a rather fulsome fashion,” “to the story,” “of the early 21st century,” and so on. Chains of prepositional phrases are often a sign of slack writing. (See Richard Lanham’s paramedic method.)

~ Awkwardness: “an approach to the work that is more than dressing up their own policy aims with whatever theory serves the needs of the moment.”

~ Illogic: It makes no sense to speak of corruption of one or more jusitices followed by a claim that a majority of justices are corrupt.

A possible revision:

A corrupt Supreme Court is something new in twenty-first-century America. Yet even as the Court remakes American law with little regard for precedent, jurisprudence, or the Constitution, it insists on being accorded the deference shown to institutions guided by restraint and objectivity.

From 123 words to 44. Is anything missing? Well, yes: an indication of what the institutions guided by restraint and objectivity might be. So perhaps:

A corrupt Supreme Court is something new in twenty-first-century America. Yet even as the Court remakes American law with little regard for precedent, jurisprudence, or the Constitution, it insists on being treated with respect.

From 44 words to 36.

Related reading
All OCA How to improve writing posts (Pinboard)

[This post is no. 110 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose. “Empty prose additives” is a lovely phrase I’ve borrowed from Claire Cook’s Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing.]

“Sushi”

St. Louis sushi, so-called, is a plot point in this week’s episode of Somebody Somewhere. St. Louis sushi is, of course, not sushi: it’s pickle, cream cheese, and ham. “Kinda good but kinda gross,” says Sam. This food item is more commonly known as Lutheran sushi, Minnesota sushi, or prairie sushi. I suspect that the writers chose “St. Louis” for its s sounds and the rhyme of lou and su.

Here are some thoughts from within the Gateway City itself about the series and the “sushi.” Caution: there are spoilers.

I’ll say it again: Somebody Somewhere deserves a much larger audience. It’s terrific.