0dds & Ends for Friday June 8

1
Spelling Bees are great, but...
I participated in them and enjoyed them and still like watching the painfully concentrating faces of children who make it to the finals. (AP: California girl captures National Spelling Bee   )

But they are a mechanical and uninspired approach to words.

Writing is not spelling. Words are more than letters.

I can thank the cable TV news coverage for introducing me to the winning word - "guet-apens" - which I shall never use or hear anyone else use again.

Of course, the lesson is that this is the depth of understanding most people have with words, so their interest stops there.

2
The Milkman
The Milkman is a 1950 film with Jimmy Durante and Donald O'Connor. I don't remember the full plot, but do recall that Durante is the seasoned milk deliveryman and O'Connor is the apprentice who is also interested in the boss's daughter.

I watched it one night with Dad at Aunt Dotty's and Uncle Dave's (Young) on Plymouth in Grand Rapids when I was in college and we were staying there for a night.

(I think that was the same time that Dad's acid reflux got very serious; we stayed up late and talked into the wee hours because he was so sick and unable to sleep. And we watched this movie.)

I remember at the time thinking, How can anyone want to be a milkman? Even a very good milkman? Or make a movie about someone wanting to be a milkman?

There are few milkmen anymore, and fewer still that remember them. Mom remembers milk delivered in cold weather when she was a little girl. The cream would rise to the top, and as the milk froze, it would push up a pillar of frozen cream through the bottle's neck. The bottles had paper caps that were easily dislodged. Grandpa Grandy (her dad) often ate his cereal with the cream from the top off the milk bottle.

3
I feel and think much as you do, care about many of the things you care about, although most people do not care about them. You are not alone.
--Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake

Started: 2012-06-01