From the Saturday Stumper

My favorite clue from today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper, 44-Down, seven letters: “‘Canvas’ for digital art.” IPADMINI? No, too big. No spoilers in crossword posts; the answer is in the comments.

Today’s puzzle by Matthew Sewell, is difficult, but not excessively so. I solved it, which means that it’s perfect. (Solipsism at play.)

Allyn Ann McLerie (1926–2018)

“Her most acclaimed later role was as Florence Bickford, the mother of the title character (played by Blair Brown) on The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd”: from the New York Times obituary for Allyn Ann McLerie.

[Orange Crate Art is a Molly Dodd-friendly zone.]

Domestic comedy

“That beer at dinner wiped me for a loop.”

“Wiped?”

“Knocked me for a loop. It’s a good thing I have my insoles in so I can walk straight.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

[The beer: Modelo Negra.]

“Too smoky for the smoke”

At the Neue Welt, a Berlin concert hall:


Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz. 1929. Trans. Michael Hoffman (New York: New York Review Books, 2018).

Related reading
All OCA Döblin posts (Pinboard)

Overheard

“Where are you gonna be when school starts?”

“Thirteenth grade.”

Thirteenth grade is (as they say) a thing. But I suspect the speaker was offering a sardonic substitute for “community college.” I prefer James Hayes-Bohanan’s point of view: college should never be mistaken for high school.

Related reading
All OCA “overheard” posts (Pinboard)

“Helena, em-dash, em-dash, Helena”

It is night. In Kerkauen Castle, someone cannot sleep:


Alfred Döblin, Berlin Alexanderplatz. 1929. Trans. Michael Hoffman (New York: New York Review Books, 2018).

What a novel. Elaine and I are about 180 pages in. Like Walter Ruttmann’s film Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927), Berlin Alexanderplatz is something of an imagist documentary of a metropolis. I’m reminded too of the urban inventory of Walter Benjamin’s One-Way Street (1928). And yes, there’s a resemblance to Ulysses. But Döblin’s novel moves at a quicker pace and ranges more widely than Ulysses, stepping away from the sorrows of the protagonist Franz Biberkopf to explore any matter that commands the narrator’s attention. Which can lead to astonishing moments, as in this passage.

[The last words of this passage in German: “Gänsefüßchen, Lore, Gedankenstrich, Gedankenstrich, Lore, Gedankenstrich, Gänsefüßchen, Gänsebeinchen, Gänseleber mit Zwiebel.” That is, little goose feet (quotation marks: «), Lore (diminutive of Eleonore), em-dash, em-dash, Lore, em-dash, little goose feet (»), little goose legs, goose liver with onion. In Eugene Jolas’s 1931 translation: “quotation marks, Eleanore, dash, Eleanore, dash, quotation marks, quotation francs, quotation dollars — going, going, gone!” Each translator sacrifices the literal sense to suggest the wordplay of the original.]

Hollywood and Argyle

[Click for a larger view.]

It’s the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Argyle Avenue, as seen in the opening moments of Nightfall (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1957). The Pantages Theatre stands on the south side of the Boulevard at 6233. The film is telling its audience, “This is happening in Los Angeles.”


[Click for a larger view.]

Here’s the same intersection, as seen in Google Maps (September 2017). There’s been considerable change to the northeast corner, but the Taft Building, sign and all, still stands on the north side of the Boulevard at 6280. (From this angle, the sign is obscured by palm trees.) On the south side, the Guaranty Building, minus its sign, still stands at 6331. (The Church of Scientology now owns the building.) The Hollywood Equitable Building, at 6253, is now condos. The Pantages is still a theater, though no longer one showing Serenade (dir. Anthony Mann, 1956).

The Pantages, the Pantages: and now I have a song running through my head.

A mystery actor and a telephone EXchange name

[“DUnkirk 7–3899, that’s all we need.” Click for a larger view.]

Do you recognize the actor in that photograph? Leave your best guess in a comment. I will drop a hint if necessary.

*

11:56 a.m.: A hint: the actor is best known for playing a character whose name is also a song title.

*

1:25 p.m.: Oh well. That’s Anne Bancroft, as Marie Gardner, in Nightfall (dir. Jacques Tourneur, 1957).

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

More EXchange names on screen
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : Chinatown : The Dark Corner : Deception : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : The Little Giant : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Nightmare Alley : Perry Mason : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Side Street : Sweet Smell of Success : Tension : This Gun for Hire

Decorum and PBS

The PBS NewsHour has too often been exceedingly decorous in its coverage of misogynistic, racist, and xenophobic remarks. No “grab them by the pussy,” no “shithole countries” on the NewsHour. I tuned in tonight expecting to hear Roseanne Barr’s vile tweet about Valerie Jarrett characterized as “controversial.” But no, there it was in Judy Woodruff’s summary of the news:

ABC Television abruptly canceled its top-rated revival of the show Roseanne today over a racist tweet by its star, Roseanne Barr.

True, Woodruff described Barr’s tweet (“muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj”) only in vague terms:

She went after former adviser to President Obama Valerie Jarrett over her politics and her looks.

But in a longer segment, the NewsHour’s William Brangham offered a frank explication of the tweet and made a passing reference to Barr’s history of “racist tweets.” And guest Eric Deggans (from NPR) spoke of ABC refusing to tolerate “open racism.” Which is something we need to speak about openly, without evasion, without regard for decorum.

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