Miskatonic University Press

From The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition), 5.250 Word Usage:

fulsome, adj. This word does not preferably mean “very full” but “too much, excessive to the point of being repulsive.” Traditionally, a “fulsome speech” is one that is so overpacked with thanks or hyperbole as to sound insincere. The word’s slipshod use arises most often in the cliché fulsome praise, which can suggest the opposite of what the writer probably intends.

Where I work, about once a week someone suggests “fulsome discussion” of something.

Listening to Art 03.09 is up today: Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome. The ending is a fitting one for this last of my recordings made in June of some of Caravaggio’s works in Rome.

Also, I added an index to artists.

The mention of a library in “Getting His Goat,” which centres on Mr. Weatherbee, is different from any other I’ve seen in Archie comics. It was originally in Jughead and Friends Digest Magazine 32, but I saw it in World of Archie (Jumbo Comics) Double Digest 78 (June 2018).

In the first panel, Mr. Weatherbee, the principal of Riverdale High School, is talking with teacher Ms. Sanchez as he puts up a sign: “I was at the library watching a special program that involved children reading to dogs. It was truly amazing!” Ms. Sanchez points out a possible problem:

Of course, not all of the pets stay under control, and chaos ensues.

It seems to me it must have been the Riverdale Public Library where Mr. Weatherbee saw this literacy program. Good for him for investigating what the public library is doing and bring literacy programs to his school where his students can get involved.

“Getting His Goat” was written by George Gladir, penciled by Tim Kennedy, inked by Ken Selig, coloured by Barry Grossman and lettered by Patrick Owsley. It is copyright Archie Comic Publications.

“Prize Problem” may have first appeared in Archie Pals ‘n’ Gals Double Digest (101) in May 2006, but I saw it in World of Archie (Jumbo Comics) Double Digest 78 (June 2018).

This story is narrated by Mr. Weatherbee. He recounts some of the problems he’s faced during his time as principal. One of them is when the school board introduced budget cuts, and as the panel shows, top on his list of things to consider cutting was the school library. Of course, this would have been a bad mistake, but everything else listed is crucial to a high school also.

“Prize Problem” was written by George Gladir, pencilled by Pat Kennedy, inked by Jon D’Agostino, coloured by Josh Ray and lettered by Vickie Williams. It is copyright Archie Comic Publications.

From My Life as Me: A Memoir (2002), by Barry Humphries (the hyperlinks are mine):

John Wells and I had a number of mutual friends. Chief amongst them was John Betjeman, whom I think I had known longer than John had: since 1961 in fact. At first I used to visit Betjeman when he lived near the Church of St Bartholomew the Great, close to Smithfield Meat Market. Later I would see him and Elizabeth Cavendish in Radnor Walk, Chelsea, in a small house filled with books and pictures. Here I met Cecil Beaton and Osbert Lancaster; and sometimes at dinner there would be Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin, the latter always wearing odd socks.

“Kingsley is our Dickens; Anthony Powell, our Thackeray” declared John.

More Please (1992) (an autobiography) and this are wonderful and I highly recommend them. Until recently I only knew of Humphries as Dame Edna Everage (which I underestimated for a long time, not having seen enough of it) but the rest of his life is fascinating and filled with event, all of which is told with great wit and insight.

His 2009 appearance on Desert Island Discs makes a nice introduction to Humphries.

“Ace Place” is one of those one-page Archie gags. The title has been used many times for different stories, and I’m not sure when this one was first printed, but I saw it in Archie (Jumbo Comics) Double Digest 289 (July 2018).

Jughead and Archie are at the Riverdale Public Library (there is a sign) and Jug remarks that Arch is there every day now. Archie says that “this branch” (worth noting the mention of multiple branches) has a great movie and CD collection and all the latest magazines. Then:

“Ace Place” is copyright Archie Comic Publicatons. As is usually the case with the one-pag gags in current digests, no credits are given.

STAPLR is back up. The server is upgraded, Sonic Pi is now version 2.9, I refactored some code, and I gave things a general cleaning. I’ll be watching it to make sure it stays up. It used to crash every few days, so I hope it’s more stable now.

The ref desk isn’t busy, so the sonification has a lot of silence, but next week it will be a lot more active.

I will be trying some new compositions in September.

STAPLR is down unexpectedly right now (it didn’t come back up when I rebooted after an upgrade) and will be up and down over the next day or two (I hope not longer) while I make other upgrades.