Another Private Library

Again, this is a post about a personal collection of books, and again the collection is found in New York City. The last one mentioned, which is also located there, belongs to, "The Talented Mr. Towles,", but a more recent one is found in New Mexico - see, "Cormac McCarthy's Library". There are more.

Proving the Point

   This article is from The New York Times Magazine and you should have a look at it since I am focussing only on the books. Many other beautiful objects are described, but there over 4,500 books in the 1,100 square-foot apartment belonging to Peter-Ayers Tarantino.
“A Home That Proves You Can Never Have Too Many Books,” Alexa Brazilian.(NYTM, Nov. 16, 2025.)
  The pictures tell the story about the books, but I will quote a few words about some of the many objects found among them.

  “Tarantino has been in his current apartment, which has become a kind of treasure map of his intense and far-flung enthusiasms, since 2018. In the small foyer, painted rain-cloud gray with cream-colored trim, his lizard skin Belgian loafers sit at the foot of a 1920s Japanese tansu chest; on top are twin Moorish wall busts bought in Catania, Italy; above looms a nickel-silver Spanish Colonial mirror. Behind the front door hangs an Ethiopian coming-of-age cape, a cowrie shell-embellished lion’s pelt…”

   “Then there are the books, which not even the wood-paneled living room’s floor-to-ceiling shelves can contain. Tall, neat piles are stacked everywhere: volumes on South American art, on the history of interior design, on British eccentrics, on American Jazz Age writers, on the Ballets Russes.”

   "Despite the apartment’s relatively small size, Tarantino has found a way to accommodate large collections. Above a series of framed Sumatran ceremonial sarongs in the narrow hallway to his bedroom hang more than 50 pieces of headgear — an English boater, a Portuguese fisherman’s hat, the cap of a Tyrolean soldier. Spotlights are positioned to illuminate each." 

   The pictures illustrate the books, but as I indicated, the words in the article describe much more: 

   "But arguably his most striking collection can be found in the small kitchen. Above taupe cabinets and across from an assemblage of framed maps of South America, each with its own picture light (he had 10 outlets wired inside the wall), Tarantino displays his 62 cream-colored ceramic English pudding molds from the 19th and 20th centuries."

The Bonus:
   There are many comments about this article, most indicating how beautiful this apartment is. There were comments, however, about such practical concerns as dusting and disposing of the items when that time comes. But, one true bibliophile from Copenhagen had this to say:
"I don't know about the 'Peruvian ceramic bowls', but Keith Lowe's 'Naples 1944' is an excellent book about some sadly neglected and tragic events of WW2. Second photo, left side, second shelf from the top, eighth book from the top."

Suiting Up

   

   Newspapers do what they can to attract and keep readers, even the New York Times. Along with recipes and puzzles, the NYT now offers, "WIRECUTTER" which tests and recommends various products. Coming under the imprimatur of the New York Times, one assumes (well, some of us) that the products being proffered are ones that we should consider for purchasing.
   Along with my subscription to the NYT, come many emails alerting me to "breaking news", important stories, and many others are directly from Wirecutter. A recent one related to suits for men, and the clearly recommended, highest rated, reasonably affordable suits came from a company in Canada - Spier and Mackay. 
   "Elbows up" remember, and buy Canadian. I am sure there is a lot of Maple-Washing in the apparel industry, just as there is in grocery stores, so check out Spier and Mackay.

SPIER AND MACKAY
   You may not be shopping for a suit, but perhaps most of us should be. I need one, because I have gained weight. You may require one because you are looking for a job or lost a family member. Having just travelled, I can assure you we all need to dress better. Plus, suits  may again become fashionable. As Wirecutter suggests: "Even in our exceedingly casual era, we feel pretty strongly that everybody should have at least one suit. And if you pick the right one — a high-quality piece in a versatile fabric and color — that might be all you need. A great suit can carry you through a lifetime of weddings, dates, business meetings, and beyond."

   Although Spier and Mackay may be “menswear’s best-kept secret” and offer "peerless suits" for under $500" (probably Canadian), I was unaware of them, probably because I have not been suit shopping. You likely don't know about S&M because, like most people, you dress mainly in sweatpants or pajamas. It appears that they offer menswear generally and not just suits.  Here is information about them.
  Their website is spierandmackay.com. I think that they operate mainly online, but their address is: Heartland Town Centre Mississauga Showroom, Location 77, 5 Britannia Rd W, Unit 7B. Tel: 905-670-3388.

Sources:
   I usually offer them, but since this seems like an endorsement or sponsor's message, I will also add that I am not on commission.
   The email message from the NYT and Wirecutter came in Sept., but I kept it and just noticed it. Here is the link to Wirecutter, which may not be behind the NYT paywall. I assume one can trust their recommendations. 
   I did some cursory searching and it appears that Spier and Mackay have been around for a while and nothing negative was noticed. 
   But, expect to pay more because of the tariff thing:

"Canadian Suit-Maker Got Slammed by China Tariffs," Matt Lundy, G&M, May 22, 2025:
  For American customers of Spier & Mackay, a Mississauga-based retailer of men's clothing, prices have been on a topsy-turvy ride this month. 
A standard navy suit went from roughly US$498 before tax, to US$1,345 and now US$772 – something entirely out of the company's control. 
That's because the suit – stitched from 100-per-cent wool and, more importantly, made in China – ran afoul of the Trump administration's trade war with Beijing, which has resulted in punishing tariff rates and the end of duty-free shipments of Chinese goods under US$800.
   Despite shipping all its products from Mississauga, Spier & Mackay has faced U.S. tariffs as high as 170 per cent this month on its Chinese-made garments, including suits, knitwear and noniron shirts. Other Canadian companies that make products in China and sell to Americans have been similarly sideswiped....

   Spier & Mackay celebrated its 15th anniversary this month and has built its reputation as a purveyor of quality suits at reasonable prices. The company is frequently promoted by Derek Guy, the megaviral influencer better known as Menswear Guy. (Spier & Mackay is “the best source I know for affordable tailored clothing," he said on X in 2023.)
   To juice its growth, the company has relied on the U.S., which accounts for around 70 per cent of sales. Before the trade war, Spier & Mackay would typically send 300 to 400 packages to the U.S. every day.
  But with tariffs jacked up, American customers have balked at the charges in their online shopping carts."

   It will soon be "Black Friday", so shop now.

Olde Posts Addenda (4)

 More "Breaking News" to add to the older news items already provided in Mulcahy's Miscellany. 

Excessive Drinking - OF WATER!
   Back in 2021 I questioned whether we really needed to carry a large bottle of water with us when we drove to the 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee (see "Hydration: Going Against the Current.") I don't get out much, but apparently students are still putting canteens in their backpacks and carrying large water jugs for the short distance between seminars.
   This was noticed by Frank Bruni who writes for The New York Times. When he was asked to characterize the students at Duke, where he teaches, he offered this description in his weekly newsletter. He makes the point I was trying to make in my hydration post, but he does a better job, which is why he writes for the NYT and I don't. It is really quite good and is found in the Newsletter on Nov.21, 2024:

   "What’s most remarkable about my students isn’t their wokeness or pre-professionalism. It’s their sogginess. They drink water constantly. They carry water everywhere. If the young people who fought in World War II were the Greatest Generation, the young people pursuing their bachelor’s degrees today are the Moistest one. They live on the cusp of some imagined desert, beside an oasis that’s their last call.

Sometimes I glance at the desks in a lecture hall or the big table in a seminar room and think I’m looking at an art exhibit of Exotic Cylinders. There are improbably tall, slender water vessels and squatter, wider ones, though almost all taper at the base, the better to fit into the cup holders of cars and cardio equipment. They are shiny and matte, turquoise and lavender, their provenance imprinted on them in distinctive fonts. Here a Corkcicle or an Owala, there a Stanley or a Yeti.

Those brand names are a clue that part of what I’m seeing is pure commercialism: If you build it, they will fill it with water. Canny entrepreneurs have turned the frumpy canteens of yesteryear, associated with cowboys and mountaineers, into the spiffy fashion statements of today, dangling from student knapsacks and essential for any vigorous Peloton session.

But there’s more to it than that. There are principles, politics: The refillable Hydro Flask or ThermoFlask replaces the disposable plastic receptacle and represents scrupulous stewardship of the environment. There are economics: A beloved, portable vessel with water from a tap obviates an Evian or a Dasani from the convenience store refrigerator case.

And there is self-care, an ineluctable phrase that didn’t exist — or had negligible exposure — when I attended college. My students correctly wager that health-wise, including skin-wise, hydration is best, so lugging around liquid sustenance is a kind of personal optimization. It abets peak performance. Along with a dewy complexion.

I reflect on my desiccated youth — when there were old-style water fountains rather than newfangled water stations, and I had to bend over and slurp up enough to last me several hours — and feel foolish and cheated, the improbable survivor of a parched and primitive time. I now understand why my fellow boomers and I made a mess of the world, and the generations after ours should cut us some slack. We were thirsty."

Excessive Eating - The Obesity Epidemic
  More recently in, "Weighing In" obesity was observed and proof is now offered in: "Three-Quarters of U.S. Adults Are Now Overweight or Obese: A Sweeping New Paper Revels the Dramatic Rise of Obesity Rates Nationwide Since 1990," Nina Agrawal, The New York Times, Nov. 14, 2024. Definitions are offered for the plus-sized people and I will have to check and see if I belong to that growing crowd:The paper defined “overweight” adults as those who were age 25 and over with a body mass index at or over 25, and “obese” adults as those with a B.M.I. at or over 30.
The "sweeping new paper" is found in The Lancet, "National-level and state-level prevalence of overweight and obesity among children, adolescents, and adults in the USA, 1990–2021, and forecasts up to 20," Nov. 14, 2024. "Over the past several decades, the overweight and obesity epidemic in the USA has resulted in a significant health and economic burden. Understanding current trends and future trajectories at both national and state levels is crucial for assessing the success of existing interventions and informing future health policy changes."

More Metals  At Costco - Now You Can Also Buy Platinum
   

   Oddly enough, when I complete this post I will likely have spent as much time writing about Costco as shopping there. Although they are getting out of the book business (see:"More Bad News For Books"), you can find on their shelves, gold(see: "Gold At Costco!!) and silver (see: "Hi Ho Silver??) to take to your compound when the apocalypse arrives. You will have food that lasts years if you have also purchased "Readywise, Costco's Emergency Food Kit" (see: "Evidence of End Times at Costco?".)
   "The sales of silver and gold are going well and now Costco is offering bars of platinum. The Costco website lists the item as a one-ounce (roughly 28.3 grams) 999.5 pure platinum bar “with a proof-like finish.”  The bars bear the image of Lady Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck and good fortune – an image also on some of Costco’s gold bars. Customers will need a Costco membership to buy these bars. Unlike most other products available at Costco, however, you can’t buy this one in bulk. There is a limit of one transaction per membership, with a maximum of five units per member. The bars are also non-refundable."
For more see: "Platinum Rush? Costco Is Selling a New Precious Metal in the U.S." Uday, Rana, Global News, Oct. 4, 2024.

BOOZE At Costco For Ontarians
  While platinum is not yet available to us, we can now purchase, beer, wine, champagne and some 'soft' mixed cocktails at Costco, but not the hard stuff. For that, we will still have to go to the LCBO, but it is not yet clear what we do with all of the empty containers. See: "Ontario's 41 Costco Locations Can Sell Alcohol As Of Oct. 31, 2024," CBC News, Oct. 30, 2024. 

Happy Thanksgiving to Those In the U.S. 
   You have a lot to be thankful for - platinum at Costco, for example. Eat that turkey, but begin a diet in the new year.

Update: More Horrible News

Breaking News: Awful Things Also Happened in Ancient Times
   No matter how old the news, the newscasters always begin their broadcasts with "Breaking News", so I thought I would as well. In an attempt to prove that Canada in 2023 is not the worse place that ever existed, I posted, "Horrible Things Have Happened" for which this is an update. 

    From the New York Times, Dec. 8, 2023 by Elizabeth Povoledo:
   "Life for the Lowest Class in Ancient Pompeii? It Was Awful: Excavations in the Ancient Ruins Have Unearthed a Cramped Space Where Enslaved Workers and Donkeys Performed their Grueling Tasks."

  "Archaeologists excavating parts of the ancient city of Pompeii made public new discoveries on Friday that provide a grim glimpse into the bleak existence of enslaved people two millenniums ago, including the existence of a “bakery-prison.” 

  The newly excavated area consists of a cramped space where donkeys and enslaved people lived, slept and worked together, milling flour to make bread. The single window that was found there provided dim light: it opened not to the outside world but to another room in the house, and was crossed with iron bars...
    With their feet chained, and dressed in rags, Apuleius describes the workers as having “eyes so bleary from the scorching heat of that smoke-filled darkness they could barely see, and like wrestlers sprinkled with dust before a fight, they were coarsely whitened with floury ash.”
   The donkeys were no better off: “Their flanks were cut to the bone from relentless whipping, their hoofs distorted to strange dimensions from the repetitive circling, and their whole hide blotched by mange and hollowed by starvation."

   There is more, but that should be enough. Now it is those Italians who will have to apologize for the horrible things they have done. You may recall that we not only apologized to the Italians, we also provided compensation. See: "Apologizing Again."

Cliché-ridden

 

   Last week I noticed an article and will call it to your attention as a public service. If you think you are about to construct what you fear might turn out to be a cliché, go to this piece which consists of a large number of them and see if you can find it.
   The article was published as a "Guest Essay" in a respectable newspaper, although, admittedly, a number of people think it is not. In any case, one has to admire the cleverness of the essayist who had accepted, an article of over 700 words consisting of nothing but clichés. And, he didn't even have to worry about punctuation since all 700+ words are in just one sentence. 
  I suppose I could simply paste here the entire article since it is only one sentence long and consists only of clichés, but we live in increasingly litigious times and I don't want to have to go to court to defend myself against charges of plagiarism. So, presented below are bundles of the clichés from the 'essay', separated by ellipses to indicate that some of have been left out. I will then conclude with the source so you will know where to find them. 

   The article begins with these clichés:

"Ramped up, amped up, ratchet up, gin up, up the ante, double down, jump-start, be behind the curve, swim against the tide, go south, go belly up, level the playing field, open the floodgates, think outside the box, push the edge of the envelope, pull out all the stops, take the foot off the pedal, pump the brakes, grease the wheel, circle the wagons, charge full steam ahead, pass with flying colors, move the goal posts, pour gasoline on, add fuel to the fire, fly under the radar, add insult to injury, grow by leaps and bounds, only time will tell...
have your cake and eat it too, a taste of one’s own medicine, stick to one’s guns, above one’s pay grade, punch above one’s weight, lick one’s wounds, pack a punch, roll with the punches, come apart at the seams, throw a wrench into, caught in the cross hairs, cross the Rubicon, tempt fate, go ballistic, on tenterhooks, hit the nail on the head, a nail in the coffin, joined at the hip, welcome with open arms, rub shoulders with, shoot oneself in the foot...
skin in the game, game changer, change agent, strong suit, ground game, ground zero, inflection point, tipping point, playbook, page turner, singing from the same hymnal, singing a new tune, straight out of central casting, the devil’s in the details, take the bull by the horns, the canary in the coal mine, chickens coming home to roost, beat a dead horse, pony up, the straw that broke the camel’s back...
speak truth to power, break the glass ceiling, the writing’s on the wall, between a rock and a hard place, beyond the pale, take the wind out of the sails of, that ship has sailed, sinking ship, tidal wave, roller-coaster ride, gravy train, tanked, cratered, Rubik’s Cube, Rosetta Stone, Rolodex, poster child, problem child, rock star, pundit, national treasure, charter member, heavy hitter, heavy lifting, political football, throw a Hail Mary, full-court press, hit a home run, play with house money...
armed to the teeth, cut one’s teeth, rib tickler, spine tingling, pull the wool over the eyes of, pull the plug on, pull the trigger, loosen the reins, sweep under the carpet, throw under the bus, throw for a loop, read the riot act, lead the pack, the short end of the stick, at the drop of a hat, the jury is still out, hung out to dry..."

And ends with these:

fever pitch, pitch perfect, picture perfect, perfect storm, take by storm, eye of the storm, back burner, petri dish, echo chamber, hot button, hard wire, go viral, bingeable, blockbuster, on steroids, testosterone-laced, metastasize, contextualize, preternaturally, outsize, gobsmacked, turbocharged, weaponized, apocalyptic, existential …

The Source:
"The Tip of the Iceberg," Michael Massing, New York Times, April 27, 2023.
The Bonus: Is found in the illustration at the top; an entire book of clichés.