MSNBC, sheesh

Earlier this afternoon, a reporter spoke:

“He can also pretty regularly say things that drive a wedge between he and their support.”

Maybe someday a news organization will add a director of grammar and usage to the staff.

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

Word of the day: trig

As found in Sarah Orne Jewett’s Deephaven (1877):

Kate had evidently written to me in an excited state of mind, for her note was not so trig-looking as usual.

I think this definition from the Oxford English Dictionary explains this instance of trig: “Trim or tight in person, shape, or appearance; of a place, Neat, tidy, in good order. Chiefly Scottish and dialect.” Or perhaps this one: “Prim, precise, exact.”

I can hear a hundred compliments: “Your handwriting ... it’s so trig.”

Unwanted political spam texts

From Daring Fireball: What to do with unwanted political spam texts.

Not a joke — genuine advice to make them stop.

Advertisements for myself

This item gives new meaning to Norman Mailer’s phrase “advertisements for myself.” From the August 27 installment of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American:

Sam Stein of The Bulwark reported yesterday that the Trump campaign is about to start running ads in the area around Mar-a-Lago. Trump insiders say the campaign has paid almost $50,000 to run ads to make Trump and local donors feel good. On August 14, Kevin Cate, former spokesperson for President Barack Obama, predicted that Trump would spend his first television dollars “in Florida (for his ego and against his team’s advice). And that’s how you’ll know we’re in landslide territory.”

They’d better start running these ads soon. A glance at Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts and reposts suggests that he’s becoming ever more unhinged, if he’s even still hinged at all: God, Q, and military tribunals.

Here’s a link to the Bulwark story.

Got Better Cotton?

Actual label text:

By choosing our cotton products, you’re supporting Walmart’s investment in Better Cotton’s mission.

This product is sourced via a system of mass balance and therefore may not contain Better Cotton.

I’m not surprised to discover a page about Better Cotton and greenwashing. And a page about greenwashing and “mass balance” more generally.

The Blogger comment form

Google has tinkered, unannounced, with the settings for the Blogger comment form. Thanks, Google. Your choices as a Blogger blogger:

~ With “Full page,” it’s impossible to see a post while commenting without switching between tabs.

~ With “Embedded,” comments look (to my eye) godawful. The line spacing is too tight (and, as far as I can tell, cannot be altered), text is awkwardly justified, and clicking on a Comments link takes the reader to the bottom of the comment form. Dumb. “Embedded” does have the advantage of allowing a comment to nest as a reply to a previous comment. But that detail doesn’t offset (for me) the ugliness.

~ “Popup window” provides decent readability and keeps the post in view. That’s what I’ve chosen for Orange Crate Art. [And as I discovered after writing this post, “Popup window,” too, allows a comment to nest as a reply to a previous comment.]

In all three formats, the option to preview a comment before posting is gone. Proofread carfully!

Why not comment today and take “Popup window” for a spin? Watch that window pop.

[“Proofread carfully”: in my teaching days, something I liked to include on pages going out with essay assignments.]

Domestic comedy

“His /ant/ or /ahnt/ was there — I’m not sure which.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

A transcription tip

If you’re watching TV and want to get down what someone is saying, you can, of course, rewind, pull out a phone, record, and hit play, pause, play, pause as you transcribe. But with a small stretch of text, there’s an easier way. Just write down the first letter of each word:

o b o e w s c o b w i t g n o e i a y n f p o t u s

Which you can then expand into:

“On behalf of everyone whose story could only be written in the greatest nation on earth, I accept your nomination for President of the United States.”

And then you can still rewind to check that you have it right.

Actual NYT opinion column

[The New York Times, August 26, 2024.]

It’s by Rich Lowry, editor of National Review.

And what does that photograph signify about the DNC? That it was entertainment? Or garbage? If I hadn’t unsubscribed from the Times last Wednesday, I think I’d be unsubscribing today.

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A lost Clipper Now with 1950s film footage of the strangely shallow building on Doyers Street.