"not even a little"

Kip is working for the caterer at a fundraiser for St Thomas. He literally runs into Scott with a tray of some canapés. Kip and Scott have undoubtedly (Maria says for sure) been flirting with each other at the smoothie shop where Kip works as he plans his graduate studies in art history. Scott invites Kip out for Mexican after the reception and Kip asks if he minds waiting until he's done with the gig. Scott replies "not even a little."

This happens in episode 3 of Heated Rivalry. Like many, I have been rather obsessed with the series from Crave, a Canadian streaming service, and it's carried in the U.S. by HBO Max.

I took a bit of a break from that rom com to read The Guncle by Steven Rowley. Imagine my surprise and delight when Grant asks his Gay Uncle Patrick, or GUP, if they are "famouth" (he lisps). Patrick responds "not even a little bit" which I definitely heard in the voice of François Arnaud who plays Scott in Heated Rivalry.

There are oodles of websters who are making parallels in something like Heated Rivalry so I'm just joining the crowd and going from one medium to another.

separated at birth: circles and arcs

wien 2026

sprint95, via architectureofdoom

on tumblr

Robert Smithson - Broken Circle/Spiral Hill

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_Circle/Spiral_Hill

Oberpostdirektion, Kassel. Architect: Klaus Christiani.

Photos: Matthias Heiderich

on tumblr

tumblin' tumbleweeds

In the Accent Duel promo for Connor Storrie as host for Saturday Night Live this past Saturday night, he has a duel of accents with James Austin Johnson. As Johnson walks into the frame and challenges Storrie to the duel, a tumbleweed blows by. When you get to hell, tell them Rozanov sent you. Pow, bang!

When we lived at the edge of the Sand Hills in central Nebraska in the early 1960s, my dad fetched a tumbleweed for us for our Christmas tree one year. I can't picture it any more but I think we spray-painted it with silver.

"Tumbling Tumbleweeds" with the Sons of the Pioneers (1977)

street names

"Whenever I come to a new town, I like to get my bearings. I want to understand the layout of the streets and the layout of the people. In some cities this can take you days to accomplish. In Boston, it can take you weeks. In New York, years. The great thing about Morgen, Nebraska, is it only took a few minutes.

The town was laid out in a geometric grid with the courthouse right in the middle. According to the mechanic who'd given me a lift in his tow truck, back in the 1880s the town elders spent a whole week deliberating how best to christen the streets before deciding -- with an eye to the future -- that the east-west streets would be named for presidents and the north-south streets for trees. As it turned out, they could have settled on seasons and suits because seventy-five years later the town was still only four blocks square."

This is how Duchess describes how small Morgen is, in The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (page 85). The town we lived in in Nebraska when I was in high school was a bit bigger ... but not much.

I too am intrigued by how cities are laid out and what effect that has on its people. Imagine how different Manhattan would feel if its street layout above 14th Street was more like the Financial District or Boston.

When we were in Morgantina, a Greek archaeological site on Sicily, I was intrigued that the streets were numbered in either direction but they were arabic numerals in one direction and roman numerals in the other.