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Words of the year Now with rizz.

Generations and a settlement house

[179 Gold Street, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Just a human interest shot. I think this photograph holds three generations, maybe four. On the stoop, a daughter, I think (are those saddle shoes?), a mother, and a son. At sidewalk level, a grandmother tending to a carriage. I assume there’s a baby in it. (Is the daughter also a mother?) That face in the window: who knows?

Looking at this photograph, I remembered the Robert Caro maxim “Turn every page,” which for purposes of these tax-photograph posts, I’ve turned into “Walk the whole block.” Aha: there are more humans next door.

[179, 181, and 183 Gold Street. Click for a much larger view.]

But what does the signage say? The placard affixed to no. 179 is a For Sale sign. The three placards on nos. 181 and 183 are beyond my figuring out. But Brooklyn Newsstand came to the rescue:

[“Open Memorial to Mons. White; Catholic Settlement Association Holds Appropriate Formal Opening.” The Tablet, May 18, 1918.]

I can find no obituary for William J. White in a Brooklyn paper or in The New York Times. But I did find a few other items about Monsignor White and the settlement house. A brief backstory:

[Handbook to Catholic Historical New York City (1927).]

Two more items:

[The Catholic Charities Review (June 1917).]

[The Catholic Charities Review (September 1918). Reformatted from the original. Click for a larger view.]

And this tribute, a prelude to a motion to pass a resolution to honor Monsignor White’s memory:

[Annual Report of the [New York] State Board of Charities for the Year 1911 (1912).]

The Dr. White Memorial Settlement flourished through the 1940s. Short articles in Brooklyn papers make note of summer camps, summer school, health care, Christmas parties, and clubs devoted to citizenship, dancing, English, music, sewing, and other endeavors. The last mention I can find is from 1947.

Nos. 179, 181, and 183 are no longer standing. Those buildings and many others gave way to the Farragut Houses, a public housing project, begun in 1945, completed in 1952.

[1940 Brooklyn directory listing. From Stephen P. Morse’s website.]

For my friend Fresca: the next listing in that directory is for a Catholic Thrift Shoppe at 195 Court Street.

Related reading
More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard) : The settlement movemment (Wikipedia)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, is a Stumper indeed. I wrote down 8:51 when I started work on puzzle (last night) and when I looked up (finished the puzzle) it was 9:46. The clues that most helped me along the way:

14-D, ten letters, “#5 in continuous Senate longevity.”

15-A, eight letters, “Literally, ’long mountain.’“

24-D, ten letters, “Most populous double-landlocked nation.”

34-D, eight letters, Troilus and Cressida warrior.”

I had 34-D right off — that was my starting point. But those other three clues (and perhaps 34-D, if you haven’t read Troilus) make for a large dollop of arbitrary trivia: ah yes, #5, not #4 or #6. And yes, this puzzle has triple-stacks of eight and triple-columns of ten, and only sixty-six answers.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

3-D, four letters, “Shortening.” Got LARD?

4-D, eight letters, “Rattled.” That’s a past-tense verb, right?

10-D, eight letters, “Pain med brand.” Sorry, but this just doesn’t feel right in a crossword.

13-D, ten letters, “Eleanor Roosevelt, to Edith.” I first thought the clue must be about a lover. Nope.

15-A, fifteen letters, “Negotiation station.” One part of the answer is more obvious than the other.

16-A, six letters, “Roast participant.” I was thinking of Dean Martin and his dais.

17-A, eight letters, “Reviewers’ hangout.” Do they still have one?

20-D, seven letters, “Spin’s #2 ll-time greatest band (2002).” Again with the trivia.

24-A, five letters, “Cheery.” Wut?

25-D, ten letters, “Rhapsody in Blue, as first written.” Yes, okay, but not as first intended.

39-A, five letters, “Queue component.” No idea what the answer means. Now I understand.

44-A, “Word from the Greek for ‘unequal.’” Somehow it seemed familiar, but only after I got it from crosses.

51-D, three letters, “Porcine purloiner of poesy.” Is it possible to misread this clue as referring to a poetry-stealing pig? I am living proof.

53-A, eight letters, “Light work.” Clever.

My favorite in this puzzle: 52-A, eight letters, “Attractions you’ve never seen.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

The Santos vote

Did my member of Congress vote to expel George Santos from Congress?

Of course she didn’t!

Did yours? The Washington Post has the results (gift link).

Related reading
All OCA Mary Miller posts (Pinboard)

A 2024 calendar

Free: a 2024 calendar, in large legible Gill Sans, three months per page. The calendar includes all the days, weeks, and months of the year, with days painstakingly distributed across weeks and weeks painstakingly distributed across months. Minimal holiday markings: New Year’s Day, MLK Day, Juneteenth, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

You can download the PDF from this Dropbox link.

[I’ve been making calendars in the Mac app Pages since late 2009, when the cost of outfitting my house with Field Notes calendars began to feel unjustifiable.]

Clockwatchers

[Nancy, December 1, 2023. Click for a larger view.]

This panel in today’s Olivia Jaimes’s Nancy brings back memories. In third grade I was accused of being a clockwatcher. And I think it was when the little hand was at 58 or 59, and the big hand was, for all practical purposes, already at 3. Give me a break.

Nancy’s teacher is a more reasonable sort: “But hey, at least she’s practicing the time-telling unit we’re learning.” Also more gullible, as today’s final panel reveals.

My third-grade teacher was a piece of work. It wasn’t until 2020 that I learned about her husband.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

"Orlovius was displeased”

Hermann begins a new chapter:

Vladimir Nabokov, Despair (1966).

Related reading
All OCA Nabokov posts (Pinboard)

[If you happen to watch the Fassbinder adaptation of the novel, in which Hermann is a character among characters, not a protagonist writing his story, you’ll discover that this kind of meta comedy is nowhere to be found.]

How to improve writing (no. 116)

On the main page of The New York Times now:

The Sikh activist at the center of an alleged assassination plot said there was no question that India wanted him dead.

No. He wasn’t at the center of the alleged plot; he was its target. So:

The Sikh activist targeted in an alleged assassination plot said there was no question that India wanted him dead.

Everyone makes mistakes, but when you’re The New York Times, the mistakes should not be so glaring.

Related reading
All OCA how to improve writng posts (Pinboard)

[This post is no. 116 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose.]

Costa, Guerriero, and Sued

[Yamandu Costa, Brazilian guitar; Luís Guerreiro, Portuguese guitar; Martín Sued, bandoneon. July 3, 2021.]

“Viva música, bendita música,” says Yamandu Costa, in this Instagram reel and elsewhere. Long live music, blessed music. The music begins at 3:05.

Related posts
Yamandu Costa in Illinois : “Lamento Sertanejo”

Cogito

I overthink, or at least I think I do; therefore, I am.