Louis Armstrong’s house

[34-56 107th Street, Queens, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

Louis Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901. He and his wife Lucille bought this house in Corona, Queens, in 1943. It was Armstrong’s home for the rest of his life. Here he is on the front steps, after the house had been sided. And here are many more photographs of the exterior and interior.

Today 34-56 is the Louis Armstrong House, whose virtual exhibits are many. One remarkable moment: Armstrong on a 1951 home recording, playing along with the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band’s 1923 recording of “Tears” — featuring Louis Armstrong.

Related reading
All OCA Louis Armstrong posts : More photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives (Pinboard)

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by “Anna Stiga,” Stan Again, Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, using an alias that signals an easier Stumper. I began with 16-A, six letters, “Column on sports pages” and began sailing, smoothly. The toughest section of the puzzle: the northwest corner.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

1-A, eight letters, “Daily source of answers for decades.” I was sure that the answer had to be OPERATOR.

1-D, seven letters, “Name at boxing weigh-ins.” For me, a name that recalls the dowdy world.

3-D, seven letters, “Outer space measure.” I was not fooled.

6-D, five letters, “Elder ender.” Made me laugh out loud.

9-D, eleven letters, “Needing a car wash, say.” I can’t imagine anyone using the word with reference to a car. Well, maybe Frasier Crane. But I can’t imagine Frasier Crane saying “car wash.”

14-A, five letters, “His museum displays 10 World Series rings.” I know little about baseball, but I love the idea that this guy gets his own museum.

16-D, seven letters, “Plural from the Latin for ‘pleasing.’” I had no idea.

21-D, eleven letters, “China replacer in ’81.” CORELLE is too short.

28-A, nine letters, “Monthly opening, maybe.” Nicely Stumper-y.

30-D, three letters, “____ king.” I filled in the answer with considerable confidence, but I was still surprised to find it correct.

33-A, four letters, “Sort of inclination.” Sort of, indeed.

46-A, six letters, “Stamp catalog descriptor.” The answer takes me back to childhood.

50-A, eight letters, “Serving with sauerkraut.” See also 37-D, six letters, “50-Across cousin.” This puzzle has food on the brain.

My favorite in this puzzle: 26-D, three letters, “‘What can ____ thee, knight-at-arms’: Keats.” Because Keats.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

*

1:28 p.m.: Oops — now the answers are really in the comments.

A pocket notebook sighting

[From State and Main (dir. David Mamet, 2000). Click for a larger view.]

Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman) writes down a slightly altered version of something he heard a passing localite say: “Only second chance we get is the chance to make the same mistake twice.”

Slight spoiler: White will get a second chance and will not make the same mistake twice.

See also Sufjan Stevens, in the sidebar: “I’m not afraid to get it right / I turn around and I give it one more try.”

Related reading
All OCA pocket notebook sightings (Pinboard)

Dictating on Apple devices

From Apple: commands for dictating text in macOS.

The explanations of dictation for iOS andf iPadOS are far more casual.

[Alas, there is no command to make dictation get the words right.]

Newspapers and novels

Walter Benjamin:

One may, if necessary, read the newspaper while eating. But never a novel. These are two conflicting obligations.

From ”Reading Novels,“ in The Storyteller Essays, trans. Tess Lewis (New York: New York Review Books, 2019).

Dalmatian or sardine

Joseph Turner White (Philip Seymour Hoffman), novice screenwriter, has a question. Ann (Rebecca Pidgeon), bookstore owner, has an answer. From State and Main (2000), screenplay and direction by David Mamet:

“You ever wonder why the Dalmatian’s the symbol of the firehouse?”

“First organized fire department was on the border of Dalmatia and Sardinia in the year 642.”

“That’s why the Dalmatian?”

“It was either that or a sardine.”

Like Ann’s earlier avowal to an inquiring bookstore customer that Jesse James was Henry James’s brother, this one has no basis in reality.

Related reading
All OCA sadine posts (Pinboard) : Firefighting in ancient Rome (Wikipedia) : Dalmatians and firefighting (Wikipedia)

Recently updated

Separated at birth A reader suggests a missing triplet. The reader is right.

“Keys to the Past”

From the National Archives: Keys to the Past, an online collection of typewriter-related documents and photographs.

Time, it goes so fast

“What’s a BVD?”

[I.e., a DVD.]

Schaden meet Freude

The Washington Post reports that Project 2025 is ending its policy work (gift link). Why? The boss is angry:

Project 2025, a collaboration led by the Heritage Foundation among more than 110 conservative groups to develop a movement consensus blueprint for the next Republican administration, is winding down its policy operations, and its director, former Trump administration personnel official Paul Dans, is departing. The Heritage Foundation also recently distributed new talking points encouraging participants to emphasize that the project does not speak for Trump.

The former president has repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025 after relentless attacks from Democrats using some of the 900-page playbook’s more aggressive proposals to impute them to Trump’s agenda since many of the proposals were written by alumni of Trump’s White House. While some participants in the project started avoiding interviews and public appearances, Trump advisers grew furious that Heritage leaders continued promoting the project and feeding critical news coverage.

And:

Vice President Harris’s campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said Democrats will not stop talking about Project 2025.

“Hiding the 920-page blueprint from the American people doesn’t make it less real — in fact, it should make voters more concerned about what else Trump and his allies are hiding,” she said in a statement. “Project 2025 is on the ballot because Donald Trump is on the ballot. This is his agenda, written by his allies, for Donald Trump to inflict on our country.”