The Times like

[A photograph caption. The New York Times, August 30, 2023.]

I was surprised by the comma, and I was surprised by the like. If I were writing captions, or if I were working at a no-longer-existing Times copy desk, I might cast the sentence like so:

Aides such as Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita (center) have been working for months behind the scenes to ensure that Mr. Trump will have loyal delegates in state parties across the country.

But the Times approves of that like. From The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage (1999):

Like is the preferred expression rather than such as in this kind of phrase: painters like Rubens.

As for such as :

In introducing an example (multinational companies such as Coca-Cola ), the phrase is stilted and should usually be replaced by like. The phrase is slightly less stiff when a noun falls between the words (such companies as PepsiCo ), but like remains more fluid. (Some writers believe that like, in this sense, can be used only to compare a group to an example outside the group: in other words, that Coca-Cola, in the illustration above, should not be introduced by like because it is one of the multinational companies. Usage authorities dispute that rule.)

The 2015 edition bends:

In introducing an example or examples, like and such as are equally acceptable: Impressionist painters like Monet and Degas; expenses such as rent and utilities.

Garner’s Modern English Usage seems to find both like and such as acceptable:

As a preposition, like often takes on the sense “similar to” or “resembling” <I want something like a Degas print>. This use often verges into the sense “as for example” <I enjoy the work of painters like Degas>. Does a reference like that one — such as that one — exclude or include Degas? Do you enjoy the work of painters who resemble Degas but not that of Degas himself? (This is the pedantic position.) Or do you enjoy the work of Degas and others like him? (This is the more usual relaxed position.)

"The pedantic position”: I, a pedant? Nah. I know that “like Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita” includes Wiles and LaCivita. But I do think “such as” is better phrasing. A succinct explanation from Geoff Pope: “Like” implies comparison. “Such as” implies inclusion. Nicely said.

I wonder if I’d have even noticed the Times like without that careless comma after it.

“Slang Stew”

“I'll have bossy in a bowl, flop two, & extra sea dust! Also, a side of bullets, and drag one through Georgia!”

Diner lingo, in today’s Zippy.

Venn reading
All OCA diner posts : diner and Zippy posts : Zippy posts (Pinboard)

A January day

Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Children, trans. Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater (New York: New York Review Books, 2022).

Also from this novel
Time, moving fast, moving slowly, or unnoticed

A Very British Cult

“The sinister life coaching company that takes over your life.” From BBC Sounds, it’s A Very British Cult, an eight-episode podcast by Catrin Nye. Absolutely chilling, and the group’s website — I won’t link to it — makes clear that any former member who dares to speak out does so at great cost.

Plenty of nothing

Champaign-Urbana’s News-Gazette reports that millions in federal money are going to projects in downstate Illinois. But nothing for Mary Miller’s congressional district. Miller refuses to do earmarks.

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

“Not the odds, but the stakes”

New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen (via kottke.org):

“Not the odds, but the stakes.”

That’s my shorthand for the organizing principle we most need from journalists covering the 2024 election. Not who has what chances of winning, but the consequences for our democracy. Not the odds, but the stakes.

And not long after, on MSNBC:

“Donald Trump may be the runaway favorite for the nomination, but a brand-new poll suggests there could be an opening for three other candidates.”

Turgenev understood the flow state

Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Children, trans. Nicolas Pasternak Slater and Maya Slater (New York: New York Review Books, 2022).

Compare Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper Perennial, 1990):

The safest generalization to make … is to say that during the flow experience the sense of time bears little relation to the passage of time as measured by the absolute convention of the clock.

And:

Most flow activities do not depend on clock time; like baseball, they have their own pace, their own sequences of events marking transitions from one state to another without regard to equal intervals of duration. It is not clear whether this dimension of flow is just an epiphenomenon — a by-product of the intense concentration required for the activity at hand — or whether it is something that contributes in its own right to the positive quality of the experience. Although it seems likely that losing track of the clock is not one of the major elements of enjoyment, freedom from the tyranny of time does add to the exhilaration we feel during a state of complete involvement.

Flow states aside, I highly recommend Fathers and Children. Great social satire — like a Jane Austen novel if Jane Austen had written about nihilists. And it so happens that Maya Slater’s fiction is Austen-centric.

Two more Csikszentmihalyi posts
Boredom and attention : “The flow of the mind”

Goodbye, (dumb) TV

Last week our household stepped into the world of today. We bought a smart TV, suspecting that the endless freezes we were experiencing with our dumb TV and a Roku Stick might disappear with a new machine. And they have.

It is difficult to find a home for an old TV. Our Habitat for Humanity ReStore won’t take them, dumb or smart. Elaine’s offer on Facebook found no taker. So we put the TV and its remote out on the grass: “Free, works fine.” Both were gone within a couple of hours. (We kept checking.)

Goodbye, (dumb) TV. Thank you for your service. Stay away from landfills.

Transit Diner (?)

[342 Third Avenue, Gowanus, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Just one more Gowanus corner, taking its place in these pages with Ralph Bozzo’s restaurant, Nick’s Diner, and an empty building clad in scaffolding.

A list of Brooklyn diners of the past has a diner at 344 Third Avenue from 1938 to 1950. In 1936 a liquor license was granted to an establishment at 342. In 1959 a license was granted to the Transit Diner at this address. Was 342 the Transit Diner all along? Reply hazy, try again, says the Magic 8 Ball.

[Brooklyn Times-Union, July 6, 1933. Click for a larger view.]

[Brooklyn Daily, April 6, 1959. Click for a larger view.]

The name Michael Tolopka appears in a 1941 news item:

[The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, November 11, 1941.]

I think that’s our man: a Daily News article from the same date, partially visible behind a paywall, identifies Tolopka as “lunch wagon proprietor” and identifies Russo as “his old [something-]hood pal.” If the Michael Tolopka in this news item is the one found here (1897–1944), I think neighborhood is the better fit. But child- would appear to better fit the column of newsprint.

I can imagine someone asking Mr. Russo, “How could you rob an old pal like that?” The only possible answer, no Magic 8 Ball needed: “It was easy!” But it’s not easy to imagine $1240 as a day’s receipts from this diner.

One last detail: I like the way the Pepsi-Cola sign on the truck and the Coca-Cola sign signs on the diner become one harmonious celebration of soda. A reader got it right: the Pepsi-Cola sign just looks as if it’s on the truck. Both signs are on the diner. The truck carries rock salt.

Google Maps shows something under construction at this address in June 2022. Before that it appears to have been a parking lot for Verizon employees and trucks.

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

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“Sure, Jan” Now with the Kubrick stare.