Wrinkles

We were turning the pages of an (unsolicited) catalogue this weekend when we started laughing, because we realized that every item of clothing in the catalogue was wrinkled. That must be what they mean by Effortlessly Cool®. We imagined that when one places an order, someone picks the clothes up from the floor, rolls them into a ball, and drops them into an paper bag. Way cool.

I used the Mac app Acorn to effortlessly assemble some fabric samples.


Living in downstate Illinois, we know how to make our own fun.

No pictures

This story has made it to The New York Times: “A Lecturer Showed a Painting of the Prophet Muhammad. She Lost Her Job.” It’s a perfect example of administrative overreaction fueled by fear and ignorance.

I sometimes think about works I taught as a professor of English and wonder whether I’d choose to teach them now. Djuna Barnes’s Nightwood ? Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man ? Gilbert Sorrentino’s Aberration of Starlight ? Or, say, almost anything by Ovid?

My syllabi for lit classes in my closing years of teaching had a brief disclaimer: “The works we’re reading contain material that some readers may find offensive or disturbing (language, sex, violence).” With Aberration of Starlight I’d note a handful of pages that some students might prefer to skip, adding, in a comic spirit, that some students might want to turn immediately to those pages. I doubt that my relatively casual attitude would work today.

*

January 17: Recent developments, as reported by Inside Higher Ed: statements from the president, a former president, and the board of trustees of Hamline University; statements of support for the fired instructor from art historians, PEN America, and Muslim organizations.

And later the same day, as reported by The New York Times: the instructor has filed a lawsuit, and university officials now say that their use of the word “Islamophobic” was “flawed.”

*

April 4: Fayneese Miller, the president of Hamline University, will retire in June.

“Older”

I liked this detail from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’s address to the House yesterday, as he moved through a catalogue of American lives: “We are young. We are older.” “Older” — not “old.”

You can watch at C-SPAN. The catalogue of lives begins at 9:14. And an alphabetical catalogue of Democratic values begins at 13:23. It’s quite something.

A related post
“Older person”

On Arthur Avenue

Still in the Bronx this Sunday, on Arthur Avenue, famed street of Italian-American culture. That’s the street where Marty Piletti had his butcher shop.

[2390 Arthur Avenue, The Bronx, c. 1939–1941. From the NYC Municipal Archives Collections. Click for a much larger view.]

This is another one of those photographs that have everything. Here everything means women in hats (a mother–daughter pair?), two women in aprons, a man with a cap, a window full of . . . cans of olive oil maybe?, a mystery storefront with . . . fabrics on display?, sawhorses, a sidewalk entrance to a cellar, a tough customer with a tie, improbable watering cans, and a baby carriage. And if you look closely, a bonus, right above 3073 – 43 BX (the block and lot identification).

Today no. 2390 is the M & G Restaurant. The fire escape appears to be as it was when the tax photo was taken.

Related reading
Buono’s Groc., another photograph with everything : More OCA posts with photographs from the NYC Municipal Archives

Domestic comedy

“We haven’t turned the TV on all day. What a loss.”

Related reading
All OCA domestic comedy posts (Pinboard)

A reader wonders about books about writing

A reader mentions that I long ago recommended books about writing by Claire Cook, Michael Harvey, Verlyn Klinkenborg, and Virginia Tufte and wonders if I’ve since found other books as good or better. That reader must be thinking of this 2013 post, which recommends Cook’s Line by Line, Harvey’s The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing, Klinkenborg’s Several Short Sentences about Writing, and Tufte’s Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.

Several others I’d recommend:

Roy Peter Clark, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer

Sir Ernest Gowers, The Complete Plain Words, revised by Sidney Greenbaum and Janet Whitcut

David Lambuth et al., The Golden Book on Writing

Richard Lanham, Revising Prose

Bruce Ross-Larson, Edit Yourself: A Manual for Everyone Who Works with Words

Francis-Noël Thomas and Mark Turner, Clear and Simple as the Truth: Writing Classic Prose

And for authoritative and extensive guidance in usage: Bryan Garner’s Garner’s Modern English Usage

Four highly touted books I wouldn’t recommend:

Benjamin Dreyer, Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style

Stanley Fish, How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One

Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century

Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz, Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More with Less

Reader, I hope you find these suggestions useful.

Five review posts
Dreyer’s English : The Golden Book on Writing : How to Write a Sentence : The Sense of Style : Smart Brevity

From The Complete Plain Words
If and whether : Incongruity : Involve : Thinking and writing

From Edit Yourself
Managing items in a series : That and which

[Full disclosure: I was a member of the panel of critical readers for the new fifth edition of Garner’s Modern English Usage.]

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, another repeat from 2012, is by Lars G. Doubleday, aka Doug Peterson and Brad Wilber. It started so easily, with 1-A, ten letters, “Trattoria dessert” and 1-D, four letters, “Navigates an obstacle course, maybe.” I navigated nearly the whole course alone. But that southeast section — oy. I had to open a kitchen cabinet to get 58-A, ten letters, “Phrase on a Cheerios box.” And that answer gave me the answer for 44-D, six letters, “Meat rich in zinc,” another clue that flummoxed me. Are Cheerios, too, rich in zinc? I would have to go down to the kitchen again to answer that.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

10-D, eight letters, “Egregiousness.” Yay, properly defined.

13-D, four letters, “NYC storefront closures of 2010.” This clue has, well, aged.

14-A, ten letters, “Head scratcher’s comment.” Nicely colloquial.

15-A, four letters, “Antlered animal.” One that I know only from poetry.

16-A, ten letters, “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ feature.” This pairing seems weirdly arbitrary: countless titles could be substituted for this one.

23-A, seven letters, “Quantum of Solace introducer.” Another arbitrary pairing.

27-D, ten letters, “Where to see shooting stars.”

34-D, eight letters, “’20s fad just before the crossword craze.” Even when you’re spelling it right, it looks wrong.

40-A, five letters, “Polyester in paints.” SRSLY?

47-A, six letters, “She was billed above Bogart in High Sierra.” And she gets the last word.

56-D, three letters, “Beethoven symphonic notation.” Like 16-A and 23-A, the pairing seems arbitrary.

60-A, ten letters, “Show off a certain paint job.” Groan.

My favorite in this puzzle: 12-A, ten letters, “Asset in an appraisal.” Very tricky.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Word of the week: shitshow

Yep, that’s it:

something (such as an event or a situation) that is chaotic, contentious, or unpleasant to an excessive or absurd degree

[The fourteenth vote for Speaker of the House is concluding.]

Mystery actor

[Click for a larger view.]

Leave your best guess in the comments. I’ll drop a hint if one is needed.

*

That was fast. The answer is now in the comments.

More mystery actors
? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ? : ?

Sliced Bread

“The latest ad-hyped products and trending fads promise to make us healthier, happier and greener, but are they really ‘the best thing since sliced bread’? Greg Foot finds out”: Sliced Bread is an excellent podcast from the BBC. Kombucha, portable heaters, zillion-blade razors, and many more.