Goodbye to Teri Garr.

The brilliant comic actress died today, at the age of 79 (from complications of multiple sclerosis).

From the NYT obituary: "Onscreen, Ms. Garr’s outstanding features were her eyes, which could seem simultaneously pained, baffled, sympathetic, vulnerable, intrigued and determined, whether she was registering a grand new discovery or holding back tears...."

ADDED: Here's my son John's tribute to Teri Garr, at Facebook.

“The mug shot did good for him. They’re just grasping at straws to try and get him to stop running. And he’s running anyway.”

Said Lydia Lozano of Summerset, S.D., "who wore Mr. Trump’s mug shot on a blue T-shirt with the outline of an American flag," quoted in "‘I’m Being Indicted for You,’ Trump Tells South Dakota Rally/In his first rally since his fourth indictment, the former president focused on his Republican rivals and President Biden, as some in the crowd wore Mr. Trump’s mug shot on their T-shirts" (NYT).

Also, Josh Haeder, South Dakota’s treasurer, proffered a riddle: "How many indictments does it take to steal the presidential election in 2024? Here’s the answer: There’s not enough, because Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States of America."

By the way, how would "the outline of an American flag" look different from the outline of any other flag (I mean, excluding Nepal, etc.)?

Meanwhile, in The Washington Post, there's this modest note from Aaron Blake — "A reminder of how one juror could save Trump."

"The desire to deafen and respond with noise reflects a kind of discredit of the political discourse."

"We are not being listened to, we are not being heard after weeks of protests. So now we are left with a single option, which is not to listen to you either."

Said the French essayist Christian Salmon, quoted in "France’s Latest Way to Sound Anger Over Pensions Law: Saucepans/Protesters have been harassing the French government in clanky demonstrations that have gone viral in a country with no shortage of kitchenware" (NYT).

The noisemaking — "casserolades" — is over raising the age of retirement from 62 to 64.

Pan beating dates back to the Middle Ages in a custom, called “charivari,” that was intended to shame ill-matched couples....

A website created by a union of tech workers now ranks French regions for casserolades based on the level of cacophony and the importance of the affected government official....

Wikipedia has an extensive article "Charivari." It begins:

"The Kate Spade brand was like a ray of sunshine — an antithesis to pessimism, self-conscious ennui..."

"... and even the sarcastic humor of her brother-in-law David Spade during his “Saturday Night Live” heyday. The company’s calling card was unabashed optimism."

Robin Givhan writes (in WaPo) about how Kate Spade's designs (handbags, etc.) were so nice at "a time when much of the highbrow fashion industry was fixated on minimalism and the washed-out, dour aesthetic known as heroin chic."

And then Kate Spade killed herself. Was the fashion always a facade, some desperate grasping to climb out of horrible darkness? Were the women who wore "heroin chic" happier than those who went for Kate Spade's clear colors and happy shapes?

It's interesting to think of these questions after blogging about Miss America's effort to get away from "outward appearance." What are other people really like on the inside? Well, the inside is private. We get to choose how much access to give to our inner selves, and to show what's on the inside, we need to let it out — by actions and gestures and by words but also by how we look. We've got to wear something, and we can choose to reveal what we are inside through what we wear, but we don't have to tell the straightforward truth.

You can wear yellow-and-white polka dots when you are gloomy and nothing but black when you're doing just fine.

This made me think of the Teri Garr character in "Afterhours":