Hat trick

[Nancy, July 26, 1950. Click for a larger view.]

In today’s yesterday’s Nancy, a window is open, as Nancy windows so often are. Apartment dwellers talk to pedestrian Nancy from their open windows; objects fly through open windows with impunity. As did this bird.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

One family’s dictionary

From the Indiana University Libraries blog, the story of one family’s “lexical bible,” an 1823 copy of John Walker’s A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language, a dictionary first published in 1791.

Related reading
All OCA dictionary posts (Pinboard)

Happy birthday, Steven Millhauser

He turns eighty today.

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

Mystery actor

[Click for a larger view.]

If you’ve spent sufficient time in front of screens large and small, his face will likely be recognizable, even with the sunglasses, and even if you have to look up his name.

Leave a guess in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if one is needed.

*

No hints needed. The answer is now in the comments.

More mystery actors (Collect them all!)
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Criterion’s August

The Criterion Channel’s August offerings are a wow. For instance: Diabolique, Turn Every Page, The Vanishing, Wild Style. And Kay Francis. And Rowland Brown. (I know — who?) Too many movies!

Another indictment

Of you-know-who, on four counts related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Announced just now on MSNBC.

There are six unnamed and unindicted co-conspirators: four attorneys, a former DOJ official, and a political consultant. The attorneys are Kenneth Chesebro, John Eastman, Rudolph Giuliani, and Sidney Powell. The former DOJ official is Jeffrey Clark. The identity of the political consultant is more difficult to figure out.

Here is the indictment. The New York Times has it with commentary (gift link). Paragraph 2:

Despite having lost, the Defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the Defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims were false, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the Defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway — to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.

One detail, from paragraph 90:

On January 1, the Defendant called the Vice President and berated him because he had learned that the Vice President had opposed a lawsuit seeking a judicial decision that, at the certification, the Vice President had the authority to reject or return votes to the states under the Constitution. The Vice President responded that he thought there was no constitutional basis for such authority and that it was improper. In response, the Defendant told the Vice President, “You’re too honest.”

I’d add: But not honest enough.

“Books, always books”

Television comes to the family of “the Author.” But it’s still a bookish household.

Steven Millhauser, “A Voice in the Night,” in Voices in the Night (2015).

Elaine and I have now read all of Steven Millhauser’s fiction to date. His new book of stories, Disruptions, arrives today.

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

[Farmer Al Falfa: a cartoon character. The Merry Mailman: A New York-area children’s show. Tootle: a story about a baby locomotive.]

Sold a Story updates

I gave up waiting for follow-up episode(s) to the podcast series Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong. And now I find out that two follow-up episodes appeared in May, “Your Words” and “The Impact.” You can find them via the link above.

Sold a Story might be the most important podcast series I’ve listened to. It explains so much.

Thanks, Rachel.

Related reading
A handful of Sold a Story posts

“Adoration” again

The digital radio station Classic FM has a list: fifteen pieces for anyone beginning to listen to classical music. Coming in at a number ten, Florence Price’s “Adoration”: “Originally composed for church organ, it was arranged for violin and piano by Elaine Fine.”

Elaine has also arranged “Adoration” for viola, cello, flute, clarinet, and tuba (each with piano), six violas, violin soloist and orchestra, string orchestra, and orchestra. A German music publication called Elaine “wohl die Pionierin der weiten Welt der Adoration-Adaptionen” — “probably the pioneer of the wide world of ‘Adoration’ adaptations.” She’s made all her arrangements of this (public domain) composition available at no cost through the IMSLP.

Elaine is always reluctant to toot her own horn, so I am tooting it for her. Toot toot. And now I will return the horn to its case to await new news.

Related reading
A few more “Adoration” posts

Art into words

“The great blue wave curls in from the left, its toppling white crest a mass of foam tentacles that claw the air”: from a terrific Word of Mouth episode, “Audio description: putting art into words.” This episode might be a great resource for anyone thinking about ekphrasis, or just about how to describe.

[The work of art described here: The Great Wave off Kanagawa.]