Sushiesque

Fontstruct will ruin your life

If you are anything like me.

Fontstruct: typeface design without the burden of skill or the pressure of producing anything too legible.

Morning commute with Philip K. Dick

Blackletter days

This is the Adventist Congregational Church on Hampshire Street, Cambridge, as photographed by AntyDiluvian last summer:

Note the tidy lettering visible across the bottom of the photograph, amidst the peeling black paint. This was the only clue I could find to explain what the church's freshly-painted sign was trying to mimic:

I am charmed by the combination of lumpy not-quite-neo-Gothic capitals, semi-Roman numerals, and inexplicably dotted i's.

Thanks, Tom!

See also: Clarendon Hill.

Record shop clerks vs. Conor Oberst

Last weekend: Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes is sad at Turn It Up, on Pleasant Street in Northampton.

April of 2005: The since-departed CD Spins on Newbury Street, Boston, was looking forward to the demise of Conor Oberst.

Now and in the hour

Driving through one of the Brookfields (East? West? plain vanilla Brookfield, Mass.?), we wondered whether the dead were speaking to us through shrubbery.

We did not turn the car around.

Update: We have located the hedge in Google Maps, and it is actually in Spencer, east of all the Brookfields, between Lake Lashaway and Muzzy Lake.

Also from this weekend's Western Mass. shenanigans: Where have our civil liberties gone?

Learned & Noble

Excerpted below: some private correspondence in the wake of our query concerning the elusive N.S.D.U.N.S.P.H.I.

Fancy McCulture-Pants: There is only one mention of [American Name Society founder and probable N.S.D.U.N.S.P.H.I. member] Mr. Elsdon Smith in OASIS, in the papers of some dude named Learned Hand :

* 80-2 Smith, Elsdon C., 1946, 1950.
Attorney in Evanston, Ill., later in Chicago. Author of "The Story of Our Names" (1950) asking LH how his name may have affected his life; very amusing answer by LH.

Dick Umbrage: he is a famous mid-century US judge, responsible for the "Hand Test," a determination of negligence in tort law. he was one of the judges who shaped U.S. jurisprudence (for better or for worse) to evaluate the majority of civil law actions in strictly economic terms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calculus_of_negligence

Sushiesque: the Hands were apparently way into adjectives-as-names: Learned had a cousin named Augustus Noble Hand (also a judge).

Dick: HE WAS THE JUDGE IN THE U.S. VS. ONE PACKAGE

Dick: i apologize for the enthusiasm.

Fancy: The enthusiasm was well founded...

U.S. VS. ONE PACKAGE

was about "immoral or obscene devices"

Dick: the defendent was a package of condoms!

Where have our civil liberties gone?

They are staying at the Econo Lodge on Route 9 in Hadley, Massachusetts.

Special thanks to Kalista, for turning the car around.

Query concerning the National Society to Discourage Use of the Name Smith for Purposes of Hypothetical Illustration

The following plea was sent to the secretary of the American Name Society, but we're interested in relevant information from any source. (Please leave a comment here or send a message to christine at sushiesque period com.)

from: c*******.e*****@gmail.com
to: tg*****@usd.edu
date: Fri, Mar 28, 2008 at 10:29 AM
subject: Query concerning the National Society to Discourage Use of the Name Smith for Purposes of Hypothetical Illustration

Dr. Gasque,

Hello. I am an academic librarian doing research on the National Society to Discourage Use of the Name Smith for Purposes of Hypothetical Illustration. I am contacting you in the hopes that, in your capacity as secretary of the American Name Society, you might be able to help me.

I recently came across an intriguing entry for "N.S.D.U.N.S.P.H.I." in a 1949 dictionary of abbreviations, but my subsequent searches on Google and LexisNexis have not turned up any references to the organization later (or more informative) than a brief mention in a 1981 Washington Post article that implied [American Name Society founder] Elsdon Smith's involvement. Am I correct in believing that the society is disbanded or, at least, inactive? Or has it merely changed names? I am curious as to whether there is any archive of the society's records or publications (if they produced any) and am interested in corresponding, if possible, with any lapsed members.

Sincerely,
Christine [Middle Name] [Last Name]

Our query has since been forwarded to the American Name Society listserve.

Proofreading in public

We are not responsible for the vandalism pictured below, but applaud the literate vigilantes who took it upon themselves to correct the punctuation on these MBTA signs:

Commas on ramp to inbound platform at Harvard.

Semicolon on outbound platform, Park Street.

Richard B. "Rico" Modica Way attacked by zombies

The ever-mutating alley in Central Square, on Tuesday:

Et moi, et moi, et moi

1. Last weekend, I cornered some gussied-up anime kids with the help of co-Bostonist Rick (and the saintly patience of Courtney and Ryan). This made for some decent photographs and a swell post; I've just been informed that my shot of one Kingdom Hearts posse made it onto Gothamist proper.

2. Ken Ueno—minimum security composer, throat-singer, current Umass Dartmouth faculty, and sometime Jon Whitney collaborator—wreaked some choice havoc at the Boston Modern Orchestra Project show last night. My review will soon appear is up on the Boston Herald's web site, of all unlikely places.

Letters & Periods

It is a natural inclination of mankind to save trouble and time. With the rapidly expanding use of abbreviations, however, particularly during World Wars I and II, it is not too certain that any amount of time is being saved, especially for readers who insist on knowing what the letters stand for. Goodness knows what the Atomic Era will bring forth!

Edward Frank Allen, Dictionary of Abbreviations and Symbols (London: Cassell, 1949), purchased from McIntyre & Moore on Wednesday evening. (They're having a 50%-off sale in preparation for their move from Davis Square to dangerously close to my apartment.)

The following are some of my favorite entries from the D. of A. & S., after my first, brief perusal:

C.T.A.U. Catholic Total Abstinence Union.
M.A.O. Master of Obstetric Art.
Ms. Massachusetts.
N.S.D.U.N.S.P.H.I. National Society to Discourage the Use of the Name Smith for Purposes of Hypothetical Illustration (an American organisation).
P.P.C.L.I. Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry.
S.D.U.K. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
S.M.C. Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers.
vaud. vaudeville.
V.O.P. very oldest procurable (whisky).
V.V.O. very very old (whisky).
Xper or Xr. Christopher.

See also: Two unfortunate acronyms.