Domestic comedy

[The school-closings crawl crawls along the bottom of the television screen.]

“… canceled … canceled …”

“Isn’t that spelled with two ls?”

“It can be either way.”

[And then, as if the television were listening.]

“… canceled … cancelled …”

Related reading
All “domestic comedy” posts

Gmail display ads

The New York Times reports that Gmail is now showing display ads alongside messages:

Display ads are a growing business for Google as it expands beyond the simple text ads that appear next to search results and on other Web sites.

The ads contain images and sometimes audio and video and often publicize a brand, like an airline, as opposed to suggesting a specific action, like booking a flight on the spot.

As of this morning, there’s no mention of this development on the Gmail blog.

[In Firefox, the answer is Adblock Plus.]

Henry’s repeated gesture

[Henry, January 13, 14, and 15, 2011.]

I like Don Trachte’s Henry (now in reruns) for its clarity of line, reminiscent of Ernie Bushmiller’s Nancy. I am unclear though about the gesture in the panels above. It’s one that Henry performs frequently. It means something like “Well, that’s that.” But what to call it? It’s not washing one’s hands of the matter, which would mean abandoning responsibility. I’d call it dusting off one’s hands. But to say “I dusted off my hands” would hardly suggest the gesture’s meaning. Is there, reader, a better name for this gesture? I would ask Henry, but he’s not talking.

Used wisely (i.e., sparingly, perhaps once a day), this little gesture makes an amusing, dowdy addition to everyday life. It is cheaper and quieter than a Staples Easy Button and uses no batteries.

A related post
Betty Boop with Henry (Henry speaks!)

Ernest Borgnine’s Lifetime Achievement Award

“But am I worth it? Really. It comes down to that. What have I done, really? But, hey! I’m not going to turn it down”: Ernest Borgnine receives the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award tomorrow.

Ernest Borgnine to have night of a lifetime (Chicago Sun-Times)
Ernest Borgnine, Still Building A Life’s Work At 94 (NPR)

[Thanks, Rachel!]

A related post
Happy birthday, Mr. Piletti (Marty after Marty)

Illinois Supreme Court typo

My son Ben found a great typo in the Illinois Supreme Court ruling that just put Rahm Emanuel back on the ballot in Chicago. Read closely, and you’ll find it too:

[Thanks, Ben!]

More typos
Brodaway : Mange : Premisis : Shink

“A DONUT IS ALL THIS”

[Life, October 11, 1943.]

“Few other foods furnish such perfect balance of protein, carbohydrate and fat!” I went looking for something in Life, and all I got was this infographic from the Donut Corp. of America.

A related post
Close reading Taco Bell

Steinbeck pencils

Together for the first time on stage: the Blaisdell Calculator, the Eberhard Faber Blackwing, and the Eberhard Faber Mongol, John Steinbeck’s favorite pencils.

Related posts
John Steinbeck on the Blackwing pencil
Mongol No. 2 3/8

Close reading Taco Bell

Here is the Statement Regarding Class Action Lawsuit, from Greg Creed, President and Chief Concept Officer of Taco Bell:

At Taco Bell, we buy our beef from the same trusted brands you find in the supermarket, like Tyson Foods. We start with 100 percent USDA-inspected beef. Then we simmer it in our proprietary blend of seasonings and spices to give our seasoned beef its signature Taco Bell taste and texture. We are proud of the quality of our beef and identify all the seasoning and spice ingredients on our website. Unfortunately, the lawyers in this case elected to sue first and ask questions later — and got their “facts” absolutely wrong. We plan to take legal action for the false statements being made about our food.

And here is the ingredient statement for Seasoned Ground Beef, as published on Taco Bell’s website:

Beef, Water, Seasoning [Isolated Oat Product, Salt, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Tomato Powder, Oats (Wheat), Soy Lecithin, Sugar, Spices, Maltodextrin, Soybean Oil (Anti-dusting Agent), Garlic Powder, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Caramel Color, Cocoa Powder (Processed With Alkali), Silicon Dioxide, Natural Flavors, Yeast, Modified Corn Starch, Natural Smoke Flavor], Salt, Sodium Phosphates. CONTAINS SOYBEAN, WHEAT

Two things strike me: the verb to start (“We start with 100 percent USDA-inspected beef”) and the identification of oats and soy as seasoning.

Further reading
A beef over “beef” content of Taco Bell tacos fuels this class-action suit (Los Angeles Times)

[This post contains no false statements about Taco Bell’s food.]

Nabokov hypothesis confirmed

The New York Times reports that gene-sequencing technology has confirmed Vladimir Nabokov’s 1945 hypothesis concerning the evolution of a butterfly group known as Polyommatus blues.

[Vladimir Nabokov in Ithaca, New York, 1958. Photograph by Carl Mydans, from the Life Photo Archive.]

Obama on education

From Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tonight:

Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us — as citizens, and as parents — are willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.

That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.

Here’s the text of the address.

[“Yes, we can”: three words. “We do big things”: four.]