Relative frequency (Project 2025)

In Chapter Fourteen of the Project 2025 Policy Agenda, covering the Department of Health and Human Services, the words addiction, birth control, and hunger do not appear; the word fentanyl appears once; the acronyms HIV and AIDS appear once each; and the word nutrition appears four times.

But the word gender appears twenty-two times, and the word abortion appears 143 times.

Among the anti-abortion strategies this project seeks to implement: the use of “every available tool, including the cutting of funds” to require each state to report “how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method.” The idea here is to counter what the document calls “abortion tourism.” And abortion is explicitly equated with “taking a human life.”

As for birth control family planning, this document addresses only “modern fertility awareness–based methods,” said to have “unsurpassed effectiveness.” (Planned Parenthood says they are “about 77–98% effective.”)

Project 2025

Did you know that there’s a Project 2025 website? And a thirty-chapter agenda?

My Project 2025 is to do what I can (with modest means, admittedly not much) to prevent their Project 2025 from being realized.

Fran Lebowitz at the Morgan Library

“When you look at manuscripts or letters and they’re written in the hand of the writer, you are closer to that writer, you’re closer to the person”: Fran Lebowitz looks at manuscripts and letters at the Morgan Library.

Related posts
A visit to the Kolb-Proust Archive : Gregory Corso’s poem “I Held a Shelley Manuscript”

”Huh?“

At least I know I’m not alone in thinking it a problem: Why are the right- and left-quotation marks on iOS’s keyboard reversed?

[The post title is deliberate. RSS might not display the reversed quotation marks — ” “ — as I intended.]

“Swims clings or crawls”

[Eddie’s Fish Market, 5410 New Utrecht Avenue, Boro Park, Brooklyn, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click either image for a much larger view.]

I went roaming around the primal neighborhood and decided to take a look at the spot where 13th Avenue and New Utrecht Avenue intersect — at 54th Street. The car-and-train chase in The French Connection never made it that far.

I like the Eddie’s Fish Store slogan, and fortunately the second of these photographs has it complete:

If it swims clings or crawls we have it.

Commas be damned.

Bonuses: The neon fish. The kid’s hat. The face at the window. (Click for large and look closely.)

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

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by “Lester Ruff,” or Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, offering an easier puzzle. Yes, this one’s easier. For instance: 47-A, seven letters, “Liked by a lot.” That’s as straightforward as it gets. The dazzling parts of the puzzle: horizontal and vertical stacks of twelve-, fifteen-, and twelve-letter answers.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, six letters, “Image enhancers.” A far less straightforward answer than 47-A.

5-D, twelve letters, “What might hold the mayo.” A stack begins. REFRIGERATOR would be far too straightforward.

6-D, fifteen letters, “They’re behind the wheel.” A stack continues. Not CASINOEMPLOYEES.

19-D, twelve letters, “‘How are you?’ ‘_____’.” A stack concludes. Nicely colloquial.

24-D, seven letters, “Author named for Emerson.” Yep.

29-A, twelve letters, “Spearmint or citronella.” A stack begins.

31-D, three letters, “One of DC's 35-Across (first spelled with its third letter moved to first).” The one awkward spot in the puzzle. The answer is out of the way but unavoidable, given the stack of Across answers. The parenthetical bit seems unnecessary. 35-A should be allowed to fend for itself.

32-A, fifteen letters, “Funds needed for ongoing costs.” A stack continues.

32-D, eight letters, “Film first called The Concert Feature.” Such a strange title.

35-A, twelve letters, “JFK and relatives.” A stack concludes. A really inventive clue.

39-D, six letters, “Its origin story is told in The Man Who Made Lists.” I’m tempted to look at it and the book about it.

48-D, four letters, “Colleague of Queen Bey.” I'm not sure how I know it, but I do.

49-A, three letters, “Caviar on a canapé.” A little tricky.

My favorite in this puzzle: 21-A, four letters, “Nonclassified letters.”

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Notebook and pencil sighting

[The FBI Story (dir. Mervyn LeRoy, 1959). Click for a much larger view.]

That’s an FBI agent questioning a clothes presser about a hollow coin found in a pants pocket. I thought that the pencil might be a Blackwing, but no — it’s a mechanical pencil. Perhaps a Scripto, perhaps a Skilcraft.

See also: FBI agents and Dixon Ticonderogas.

Related reading
All OCA pocket notebook sightings (Pinboard)

Ship, plane, or call center

A recorded voice, as heard on the phone:

“Please wait while I connect you with a crew member.”

It’s raining

[Nancy, July 21, 1955.]

We went for almost a month without having to mow our lawn, so a little rain is a welcome thing. And a dark and rainy morning seems appropriate on this Fourth of July.

Related reading
All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

Jim’s question

Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884/1885).

The question is timely.

[UK publication: 1884. US publication: 1885.]