SUMMER FRIDAYS DEP'T.
Indignity Vol. 4, No. 93
GOOD AFTERNOON! Once again, we have arrived on the far side of Memorial Day. The sunbathers have ventured out onto the lawns; the twilight lingers on toward bedtime. This means it is time again for Indignity to resume our own penny-ante version of the tradition, in the once-luxurious writing-and-publishing industry, of SUMMER FRIDAYS. From now through Labor Day, to encourage you (and ourselves) to get out and about while the getting is good, the Friday edition of the Indignity newsletter will be a quick afternoon snack of light fare: the Indignity Morning Podcast, a review of Thursday's weather, some select antique sandwiches. Maybe a THOUGHT OF THE DAY or some VISUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, too. Then we will knock off for the extended weekend. Thank you for your continued support of Indignity.
RECAP DEP’T.
Previously in Indignity
Caught in the marketing crunch
Hollywood Is in the Information Wasteland
THE WORST THING WE READ™ The Washington Post Ignored a Distress Signal
MR WRONG: Working the mailbox
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SIDE PIECES DEP'T.
Tom Scocca
FOR MY POLITICS column over at Defector, I wrote half a column about Joe Biden because I'd read a news report that the Trump trial judge was sending the jury home to come back and deliberate more today, and then I put that half-column on the shelf and wrote about the verdict that the jury went ahead and delivered, and about the people who were very confident that no such thing was going to happen:
For the past eight years, a lot of essentially simple truths were treated as matters of paralyzing complexity. A man who ran his entire business empire on fraud, systematically cheated on his taxes, committed sexual assault, and conspired with his henchmen to obstruct justice had made himself into a presidential candidate, and then a president, and then an ex-president, and that second set of facts was somehow supposed to change the original, underlying facts. Presidents didn't do those sorts of things. Or, if a president did do those things, it certainly couldn't count—that would mean the president of the United States was a criminal, and that would mean ... well, it just couldn't.
Indignity Getty Image Roundup for May, 2024
TO BRING YOU the finest in relevant news photography and illustrations, Indignity subscribes to a plan through Getty Images. We are paying Getty for approximately a dozen images each month. So far in May, we have used seven of those.
With gratitude to our paid subscribers, and one more hearty invitation to our unpaid subscribers to join the paid ones—we are using the remaining five images to present the latest edition of our long-running, intermittent END-OF-MONTH GETTY IMAGE ROUNDUP. What is summer without a picnic, and what is a picnic without the ANT.
Clockwise from upper left: Actors conduct a New Orleans style funeral for a giant fake fire ANT at the seventh annual Fire Ant Festival March 23, 2002 in Ashburn, GA. The small south Georgia town created the light hearted celebration to poke fun at a serious pest problem. "Fire ant attacks are no laughing matter," said festival organizer Shelly Zorn. "With infestations on the rise, the festival gives homeowners a sense of control over an issue that normally inspires aggravation and fear." (Photo: Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images). Luca, an eight-year-old giant male ANTeater, a few days after its arrival at the Sables-d'Olonne's zoo, western France. The mammal anteater that feeds itself with ants and termites, using its vermiform 50-centimeter-long tongue and living in central and southern America, is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as near threatened. (Photo: FRANK PERRY/AFP via Getty Images). Adam ANT of Adam & The Ants (Photo: Pete Still/Redferns). Camponotus cruentatus or Red ANT; a portrait of this beautiful ant. (Photo: Javier Torrent /VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images). Harvard University Professor E.O. Wilson in his office at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. USA. Professor Wilson is a biologist, researcher, theorist, naturalist and author. He is considered to be the world's leading authority on the study of ANTS. (Photo by Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images).
THOUGHT DEP'T.
Do you have a thought? Send it to indignity@indignity.net.
WEATHER REVIEWS
New York City, May 30, 2024
★★★★ The morning breeze over the still-damp sidwalk was so cool as to be close to chilly. In the shade outside the coffee shop it resolutely failed to warm up. Two buses' worth of children filed around the corner and onto their transportation; behind a tinted window the faint image of a hand waved. A slug of leftover rainwater plopped down from the awning. Yesterday's heated swarms of ants were down to a few sluggish stragglers. The wait for the temperature to turn was a bust; for balcony time, a hoodie had to be retrieved from the closet.
EASY LISTENING DEP'T.
CLICK ON THIS box to enjoy today's Indignity Morning Podcast:
SANDWICH RECIPES DEP’T.
WE PRESENT INSTRUCTIONS in aid of the assembly of a sandwich (serve before the soup) selected from Mrs. Ericsson Hammond's Salad Appetizer Cook Book, by Maria Matilda Ericsson Hammond. Published in 1924, and now in the Public Domain and available at archive.org for the delectation of all.
Crabe d’huitre au Fromage a la Gloria
For six sandwiches take two tablespoonfuls of Philadelphia cream cheese and one tablespoonful of butter. First stir the butter until smooth, then add the cheese, cayenne pepper, and a tablespoonful of whipped cream; put it in a paper bag that holds a leaf or ribbon tube. Slice bread and cut it out with a round patty cutter; spread it with butter that has been mixed with some anchovy paste. Decorate across each sandwich, making a ribbon beginning at one side and then one opposite on the other side, then one on each side of that leaving room between for the fried oyster crabs. The sandwich must contain four ribbons and three rows of oyster crabs; put the oyster crabs down on a bias one resting a trifle on the other. Arrange them in the form of a ring on a platter and in between each put a small clift of lemon that has been dipped in chopped parsley or truffles; in the center garnish with parsley. Serve before the soup.
If you decide to prepare and attempt to enjoy a sandwich inspired by this offering, be sure to send a picture to indignity@indignity.net.
MARKETING DEP'T.
Supplies are really and truly running low of the second printing of 19 FOLK TALES, still available for gift-giving and personal perusal! Sit in the gathering heat with a breezy collection of stories, each of which is concise enough to read before the thunderstorms start.
HMM WEEKLY MINI-ZINE, Subject: GAME SHOW, Joe MacLeod’s account of his Total Experience of a Journey Into Television, expanded from the original published account found here at Hmm Daily. The special MINI ZINE features other viewpoints related to an appearance on, at, and inside the teevee game show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, available for purchase at SHOPULA.
