Looking east from the front lawn yesterday.

“Don’t threaten me with love, baby. Let’s just go walking in the rain.”
— Billie Holiday

An assignment from 1978:

Interesting fact: The highest opening play in Scrabble is MUZJIKS for 128 points.

Here’s a classic I’d forgotten about. Casey Kasem performing a long distance dedication on his radio program and finding himself at odds with the audio engineer’s song decisions. I had it on cassette tape in the mid-nineties, before the Internet. I’ve since lost the tape.

YouTube keeps the memory alive:

A sweet mix by Synchronoize, fusing the Foo Fighters with Guns N’ Roses. A reminder that art can be found anywhere.

Symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify, and this lack of awareness can spell disaster for somebody who could otherwise be saved. Neurologists point out that the damage to a stroke victim can be reversed IF PEOPLE AROUND THEM UNDERSTOOD WHAT WAS HAPPENING AND TOOK THE NECESSARY ACTION. It’s imperative that the victim get in medical hands within three hours, and the first step is for others to know what’s happening. Remember that during a stroke, the victim’s ability to communicate is impaired.

There are three simple steps to recognizing a stroke. Take the first three letters of stroke, S-T-R, and:

1. Tell the victim to Smile.
2. Tell the person to Talk. (Like, ask them their address.)
3. Tell them too Raise both arms.

If she has trouble with any one of these tasks, Call 911 immediately and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher.

*A newly discovered symptom of a stroke: Tell the person to stick out their tongue. If the tongue is crooked, they could be having a stroke. Pick up the phone.

“Respect the masterpiece. It is true reverence to Man. There is no quality so great, none so much needed now.”
— Frank Lloyd Wright

Photo by Royman, the big brother I never had. Gracias, amigo!

From ProofreadNOW:

While many people may not know what an appositive is, clients use them often in the documents we see on our server. This week’s in-depth tip, last seen here in 2004, is on the appositive and how to use it. We use as our guide the venerable Chicago Manual of Style.

A word, abbreviation, phrase, or clause that is in apposition to a noun is set off by commas if it is nonrestrictive – that is, omittable, containing supplementary rather than essential information. If it is restrictive – essential to the noun it belongs to – no commas should appear.

• The yoga instructor, Stella, posed for photos.
• Mortimer Schnerd, chair of the termite eradication committee, spoke first.
• Howdy Doody, Mortimer’s brother, then delivered a rather wooden speech to the crowd.
• Tulabell’s husband, Rockford, had been a student of Big Jim McShane’s. (In formal prose, “Tulabell’s husband Rockford had …” is acceptable.)
• My older brother, Snagglefoot, taught me to waterski.

but

• My sister Wahini surfed the North Shore last winter. (I have two sisters.)
• Margrave’s movie Ski Florida If You Can! is in theatres now. (Margrave made several movies.)

Going Deeper
A problem arises when a proper name includes a comma before the final element, as in “the [Slobovian] Constitution Act, 1798” or “California State University, Bumbleridge.” Because such a comma is part of the name and not part of the surrounding sentence, a second comma is not, strictly speaking, required when the name appears in the middle of a clause. But its absence may be sufficiently disturbing to most readers to suggest recasting the sentence (as in the first example below), slipping in a mildly illegal comma (as in the second), or adding a nonrestrictive clause or phrase after the proper name (as in the third).

• the 1798 Constitution Act was hailed …
• California State University, Bumbleridge, has a waterski team …
• California State University, Bumbleridge, often called CSUB, has a waterski team …