You Learn Something New Every Day (cont.)

[Wilfrid]

Hey, she doesn’t need 11 vodkas.

[Sneakeater]

2 hours ago, small h said:

I'm working on "herring in a fur coat" this week.

I always assumed they said that in English.  

[small h]

Oh, sure, you COULD. It's time I reacquainted myself with the Cyrillic alphabet anyway.

[cinghiale]

The poet Gabriele d’Annunzio created – apparently at the behest of Mussolini – a number of neologisms in Italian to expunge foreign words from the language, particularly English ones (much like Hitler did). So “lo sandwich” became “il tramezzino”, from the Italian “to partition”. Other inventions, like for basketball and boxing, haven’t survived anglification. But a big one did: in football, the top team doesn’t win "the championship" (with a trophy, I guess), but instead “lo scudetto”, or the badge, whose design he also apparently created.

[Wilfrid]

I have read much D’Annunzio and an amazing biography of him, but I did not know, or had forgotten, that.

This is so good: 

https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2013/feb/04/pike-gabriele-d-annunzio-biography-review

[Wilfrid]

Louis Comfort Tiffany has an extensive oeuvre in painting and drawing, never mind the glass. I saw a lot of his work at the Nassau Museum of Art today.

Maybe I knew but forgot, who knows?

I did not expect some vast Serra pieces in the sculpture garden.

(Yes, it was the best possible weather to be wandering around a sculpture garden in March, even if the grass was a bit squelchy.)

[Wilfrid]

Paul Laurence Dunbar and Orville Wright were buddies at their (just recently desegregated) Dayton, Ohio high school, and for some time after.

Reading Jarrett’s 2022 bio of Dunbar.

[Sneakeater]

That’s amazing. 

[splinky]

in his very short life Dunbar's influence was great. "...I know why the caged bird sings, ah me..."

[Sneakeater]

Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd-Webber share a birthday (day not year) (today, as it happens).

What a difference!

[Simon]

2 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd-Webber share a birthday (day not year) (today, as it happens).

What a difference!

 

[splinky]

On this date, for many years, Broadway's Tommy Tune would accidentally call my cell. It took me forever to figure out he must have been trying to call Sondheim to wish him a happy birthday. The calls stopped after Sondheim's death.

[Sneakeater]

Wow.

[Sneakeater]

Wow.

[Diancecht]

seen five minutes ago at an andronico’s (basically a slightly pricier safeway) 

[small h]

Gotta compete with the goyim and their delicious Easter bunnies.

[Diancecht]

47 minutes ago, small h said:

Gotta compete with the goyim and their delicious Easter bunnies.

oh, you mean these?

jello salad with peeps 🧐🤣😉

[Diancecht]

when i showed the jello mold to hubby, he exclaimed 

“Peeps are for putting in the microwave and making them blow up real good”

[small h]

3 minutes ago, Diancecht said:

jello salad with peeps

I think that might be a sign of the apocalypse. As if we don't have enough already.

[voyager]

54 minutes ago, Diancecht said:

jello salad with peeps 🧐🤣😉

There are no words 

[StephanieL]

On 3/23/2024 at 1:51 PM, voyager said:

There are no words 

There are, but they're not printable.

[Sneakeater]

It's incredible to me that I didn't know until a few minutes ago that Lou Reed's college roommate was Elizabeth Swados's older brother.

I'm sure everybody else knew it.

[bloviatrix]

On 3/22/2024 at 9:40 PM, splinky said:

On this date, for many years, Broadway's Tommy Tune would accidentally call my cell. It took me forever to figure out he must have been trying to call Sondheim to wish him a happy birthday. The calls stopped after Sondheim's death.

I wonder what Sondheim's phone number was.

[Wilfrid]

My first residence in New York, Sondheim lived on the same floor while having his Turtle Bay place renovated. So I didn’t really need his number.

But my fun story, same place, after I moved in I had a lengthy voicemail (land line) from Tony Franciosa, thinking he was speaking to a producer or agent about an opportunity. And it was so much his voice. It never occurred to me to record it as we didn’t expose everything on line back then. 

[splinky]

1 hour ago, bloviatrix said:

I wonder what Sondheim's phone number was.

must have been close for Mr Tune to keep making the error year after year