So you can always get what you want?

Jimmy Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want” (July 1970) sounds as though it may have been meant — or must have been meant — as a reply to the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” (July 1969). And Cliff’s repeated try sounds like a reply to “Satisfaction.”

Or am I just hearing things?

[Why might this song be in a (very) young singer’s repertoire? There’s a Little Mermaid connection.]

A Calvino “over and over”

Marcovaldo’s son Michelino has shut down the GNAC of the blinking SPAAK-COGNAC sign with a slinghot full of stones. Another son, Fiordaligi, is pursuing a timid window-to-window flirtation with “a moon-colored girl” in a garret, somewhere beyond the G.

Italo Calvino, “Moon and GNAC.” In Marcovaldo, trans. William Weaver (New York: HarperCollins, 1983).

TOMAHAWK COGNAC, TOMAHAWK COGNAC, TOMAHAWK COGNAC: another example of a Zippy “over and over.”

Related reading
All OCA Italo Calvino posts (Pinboard)

“Is cognac waning, Papà?”

Marcovaldo is trying to teach his children some basic astronomy. A flashing neon sign on the roof of the building opposite his makes things difficult: twenty seconds of sign — SPAAK-COGNAC — follow every twenty seconds of night. All Marcovaldo’s family can see of the sign is GNAC.

Italo Calvino, “Moon and GNAC.” In Marcovaldo, trans. William Weaver (New York: HarperCollins, 1983).

Related reading
All OCA Italo Calvino posts (Pinboard)

Recently updated

How to improve writing (no. 119) It’s difficult to improve writing when you’re angry.

“Philosophic Guide”

[From Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye (dir. Gordon Douglas, 1950). Click for a larger view.]

“You sure we’ve come to the right place?”

It's one of the stranger moments in Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye : psychopathic gangster Ralph Cotter (James Cagney) and flunkie Joe “Jinx” Raynor (Steve Brodie) come to Dr. Darius Green’s address for helping in finding the right kind of lawyer. But it turns out that Dr. Green has closed up shop as a sketchy man of medicine. He now heals minds, he says, not bodies.

This visit is reminiscent of the visit to the Tabernacle of the Sun in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much 1934): there, too, the visitors, Bob Lawrence (Leslie Banks) and his friend (Hugh Wakefield), stand looking at a signboard (a much simpler one) before entering.

You can compare the two scenes via YouTube: this one and that one.

Connecting dots

Artist unknown: Data, information, knowledge, insight, wisdom, conspiracy theory.

Via A.Word.A.Day, whose word today is dot-connect.

How to improve writing (no. 119)

From an article in The Washington Post this morning:

Former president Donald Trump mocked President Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally in Rome, Ga., on Saturday, the latest in a series of insults he has hurled at his rival but one that disability advocates regard as a demeaning form of bullying.

Only disability advocates see it that way? Better:

Former president Donald Trump mocked President Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally in Rome, Ga., on Saturday, the latest in a series of insults that decent human beings regard as bullying.

The oddest thing about the original sentence’s effort to be “objective” is that only one of the many people quoted in the article is known as an advocate for people with disabilities.

*

March 12: Simpler:

Former president Donald Trump mocked President Biden’s stutter at a campaign rally in Rome, Ga., on Saturday, in yet another effort to demean his rival.

Related reading
All OCA How to improve writing posts (Pinboard)

[This post is no. 119 in a series dedicated to improving stray bits of public prose.]

Mystery actor

[Click for a much larger view.]

I didn’t know he was in the movie, but I recognized him, even with all the makeup, which makes me think that someone else will recognize him too. Leave your guess(es) in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if one’s needed.

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A hint: He was successful in business, in both a big city and a small town.

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Oh well. The answer is now in the comments.

More mystery actors (Collect them all)
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?

Domestic comedy

[Passing by storefronts.]

“Think of all the money we’ve saved on dry cleaning.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

[That is, we’ve almost never needed it.]

Katie Britt is a dirty no-good rotten liar

Pass it on. Pass it on (Washington Post gift link).