Weaving through traffic

From The Washington Post:

Trump’s campaign team was miffed by a lack of traffic support from local police after he arrived in Washington, forcing the motorcade to weave through rush-hour traffic. Other motorists attempted to change lanes between [across?] the motorcade, showing less deference than typical for an average funeral procession. The welcome from onlookers at the courthouse was occasionally hostile, with several middle fingers from bikers and spectators along the highway from the airport.

Am I small-minded enough to take pleasure in the details of these fleeting humiliations? You bet.

Nancy synchronicity

[Nancy, July 27, 1950 and August 4, 2023. Click for a larger view.]

I mentioned in a post yesterday morning that windows in Nancy are often open: “Apartment dwellers talk to pedestrian Nancy from their open windows; objects fly through open windows with impunity.” And then today’s yesterday’s Nancy and today’s Nancy both have an open window. Well, I’ll be.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

[The pedestrian in the first panel is on stilts.]

On Louis Armstrong’s birthday

[“Musician Louis Armstrong (L) in his neighborhood barber shop.” Photograph by John Loengard. Queens, New York, 1965. From the Life Photo Archive. Click for a much larger view.]

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901.

Related reading
All OCA Louis Armstrong posts (Pinboard)

Swing, swing, swing

On MSNBC just now: “He left his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.” Which made me think of him carrying one as a weapon, ready to swing at someone or something.

A Steven Millhauser interview

It’s from NPR. When Sacha Pfeiffer says that several of Millhauser’s stories make her feel “slightly unsettled, a little viscerally uneasy,” he replies: “If you have to go to your medicine cabinet, I would feel guilty. And I will pay for that medication.” And he adds:

“But unsettled in a way that is not just irritation is fine with me. A story that just makes you feel soothed and satisfied, you might as well watch a rom-com on TV. But if a story makes you question certain things that you’ve taken for granted, I think that’s ideal. It shows you that the world is not necessarily more disturbing, but more complex than you had assumed. And that, I would argue, is a good thing.”

Related reading
All OCA Steven Millhauser posts (Pinboard)

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!