[Mutts, February 29, 2024.]
In today’s Mutts, it’s “Hairball Thursday.” Mooch uses a planner and quotation marks.
Thursday, February 29, 2024
Mooch, planning
Criterion in The New York Times
“Criterion’s success in marketing beautiful, strange, complex movies is the road not taken by most of Hollywood: a steadfast belief in the value of human creativity and curation over the output of any algorithm”: “Sure, It Won an Oscar. But Is It Criterion?”
Richard Lewis (1947–2024)
The comedian and actor Richard Lewis has died at the age of seventy-six. The New York Times has an obituary.
Last night I watched “Beep Panic” (March 15, 2020), an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm in which Richard Lewis is prominent. Here’s an excerpt. The look on Lewis’s face at 3:10 made me laugh so hard I choked.
Wednesday, February 28, 2024
“The little clouds spoke for them”
Italo Calvino, “The forest on the superhighway.” In Marcovaldo, trans. William Weaver (New York: HarperCollins, 1983).
Related reading
All OCA Italo Calvino posts (Pinboard)
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Bic Accountant Fine Point
I recall using a Bic Accountant Fine Point when I was a kid, and I remember the way the barrel’s edges cut into my fingers. Not a pleasant pen. The BAFP hasn’t been manufactured for some time, and I haven’t written with one in many years. I rediscovered these two in a cup of neglected pens. They’re so old that their caps lack the vent hole that’s meant to reduce the hazard of choking. Bic added a hole to caps in 1991, so these are some seriously neglected pens. Why did I buy them? To use when grading papers? I have no idea.
The Bic Accountant Fine Pt. still commands a loyal following. “I wish BIC had NEVER discontinued them,” says one Amazon review. The lowest price I could find online: $52.95 for a dozen. Highest: $14.95 for a single pen. That’s moving into Blackwing territory.
Notice the little Bic man on the barrel and clip. You can click on the image for a larger him.
If you’re wondering: these pens no longer write. I managed to get a few dim scrawls from one after repeatedly immersing the point in rubbing alcohol. But the ink won’t budge, which is probably a good thing — because if it did, I’d feel obliged to write with these pens. Instead, I’ll install them in a vitrine in the Museum of Supplies.
This post is the twenty-fourth in a series, “From the Museum of Supplies.” Supplies is my word, and has become my family’s word, for all manner of stationery items. The museum and its vitrines are imaginary. The supplies are real.
Other Museum of Supplies exhibits
Ace Gummed Reinforcments : C. & E.I. pencil : Dennison’s Gummed Labels No. 27 : Dr. Scat : Eagle Turquoise display case : Eagle Verithin display case : Esterbrook erasers : Faber-Castell Type Cleaner : Fineline erasers : Harvest Refill Leads : Illinois Central Railroad Pencil : Ko-Rec-Type, Part No. 3 : A Mad Men sort of man, sort of : Mongol No. 2 3/8 : Moore Metalhed Tacks : A mystery supply : National’s “Fuse-Tex” Skytint : Pedigree Pencil : Pentel Quicker Clicker : Real Thin Leads : Rite-Rite Long Leads : Stanley carpenter’s rule : Tele-Rest No. 300
A philosophy of art
“Art is the tangled mess of everything we experience but cannot express in any other way”: in today’s Nancy, a philosophy of art.
See also unicorn trend.
Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)
Monday, February 26, 2024
How to improve writing (no. 118)
“What’s in Store for the Future of Higher Education?”: that’s the subject line in an e-mail from The Chronicle of Higher Education .
I ran this line past Elaine while we were walking. It took her less than a second to notice what’s wrong. Omit redundant redundancies!
Related reading
All OCA How to improve writing posts (Pinboard)
[This post is no. 118 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose.]
A dictionary of rice
“They have narrowed down the words in the four categories of appearance, taste, aroma and texture to about 100 and are now in the process of defining them”: in the works, a Japanese dictionary of rice.
[Not from a dream.]
Bumping into an ex-governor
I was walking into an office building, and out came Andrew Cuomo. I recognized him, but it took me a second to put a name to the face.
“Michael Leedy?” he asked.
“Leddy,” I said, “but how do you know my name? I’ve never been in trouble.”
“But I was,” he replied. “And when I was, there were a lot of show tunes about it.”
Related reading
All OCA dream posts (Pinboard)
[Likely sources: 1. The 2019 movie Bad Education. Hairwise, Hugh Jackman’s Frank Tassone bears at least a vague resemblance to Cuomo. Tassone was known for remembering names. 2. A PBS broadcast of a Tom Lehrer concert.]
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