Peter Sokolowski

great record

Visited a very special friend today! Possibly a once in a generation exhibition in Chantilly, showcasing the recent restoration of the most magnificent medieval Book of Hours.

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, Musée Condé MS 65, 15th century

"WASHINGTON, D.C. (August 1, 2025) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) announced today that it will begin an orderly wind-down of its operations"

cpb.org/pressroom/Co...

I think any pasta with red sauce should be called “sanguini.”

Just a glimpse of 18th-century heartbreak for your afternoon 💔

Alert

"The Best of the Best: Jazz from Detroit" screens at the Penn Theatre in Plymouth, MI, 5 pm, Sunday. All seats $5. No advance sales; box office opens at 4:30, 30 minutes prior to the show. I'll be on hand to introduce the film and host a Q-and-A after the show.

(i kid!) Congratulations!

The cover of "The Westerners: Mythmaking and Belonging on the American Frontier," with the font in white over a green-tinted landscape painting of three Indigenous women on a raft, moving across a lake with mountains in the background. Partial images of four different people - Jim Beckwourth, Sacajawea, Ovando Hollister, and Polly Bemis- fold over the left side of the cover from the spine.

And ... voila!

Thanks again to my sharp-eyed copyeditor, and to @joshuajfriedman.com and @bcdreyer.social!

Just more evidence that social media can be a force for good (grammar) ...

For my entire childhood, we had a word for "the circles that appear on puddles during rain" and I never knew that other people didn't have a word for it.

We called them 'buddams.' It was only as an adult I realized that it was 'bon hommes,' my mother's idiolect from her French Canadian family.

Damn lack of polls here…

In my idiolect, _pouring_ refers only to very heavy rain. But I've encountered people who use _pour_ to denote steady, but not necessarily heavy, rain.

If you are in this latter category, can you comment please?

YouTube video by Verlye Mills - Topic Midnight Sun

Collector's item Billy May from his peak in 1957.

(Exactly contemporary with "Come Fly With Me.")

New to me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNLV...

Absolutely beautiful obituary for Bill Labov, describing a life rich in insights and in humanity www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Prepone An Indian English word which means 'to move to an earlier time'

www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/pre...

YouTube video by Paul Chambers - Topic Chasin' The Bird (Rudy Van Gelder Edition; 2007 Digital Remaster)

Birthday Boys

July 31 is a big day in the cosmology of #JazzFromDetroit. Kenny Burrell turns 94 today & Hank Jones would have turned 107. They appeared together on about 40 records. Among the first was in support of yet another Detroiter, Paul Chambers, 7/14/57. www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnrW...

Violinist Nicola Benedetti Confirms Marriage to Wynton Marsalis Scottish violin superstar <a href="https://www.nicolabenedetti.co.uk/">Nicola Benedetti</a> confirmed her marriage to American jazz trumpeter <a href="https://wyntonmarsalis.org/">Wynton Marsalis</a> ...

🎻 🎺 🍼 💒

Humour linguistique (Vous l'avez??? 😉 )

a madeleine for our times

And proof of the alchemy is that with Bellson the trio doesn't have the same lighter-than-air atmosphere. The air in the room i different. Ray Brown said in an interview that Buddy Rich was the only genius he ever worked with. People don't know how great he was on brushes...

Buddy Rich was nothing short of magical with that Peterson trio. Same rhythm section for "Pres & Sweets," and as a quartet for Peterson's "Plays Count Basie" which is terrific.

need to add this word

84. I have really deep relationships with a lot of records, but I’m not sure I have one that’s quite like that with the Ella & Louis duet record. The specific air that music breathes into the room is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. Six absolute MASTERS performing with poise, elegance and wit.

was about to say it's a hill to die on, but

when will u prescribe me coffee ice cream

Cleopatra lived closer in time to 'yeet' being in the dictionary than to the construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

The largest language model anyone could ever need (With apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan) I am the largest language model anyone could ever needI’m trained on hefty datasets that no one sane would ever readI’ll answer any question with great eloq…

I am the largest language model anyone could ever need
I’m trained on hefty datasets that no one sane would ever read
I’ll answer any question with great eloquence and attitude
As long as you indulge me with a little factual latitude
stroppyeditor.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/t...

"raining ropes" is probably more commonly heard for the French one

(honestly, it sounds super fun! i have thought about taking fencing locally for years. once this project is finished, maybe i will...)

never know when Normans might land on that island of yours