Body-text fonts, pt. 14: Weiss
For Easter, we went to Goshen, where Karin’s dad’s parents live. Samuel found the touchscreen that controls his great-grandparents’ security system. He set off the alarm and instigated a confrontation with the police. … This is the third time he has summoned the emergency services. Some months ago he called 911, but I was able to pursuade the operator that it wasn’t an emergency. Another time, I saw an ambulance travel up and down our street; the driver seemed unable to figure out which house had issued the summons. I checked my call log and learned that Samuel had again called 911. … Since that day, if I catch him playing with my phone, I toss him immediately and mercilessly into the Chokey.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I found a copy of Tikki Tikki Tembo upon the library sale cart. Surely, I thought, the library is divesting itself of this outdated and offensive tale! I paid a few cents and brought it home. …
(It turns out, the library has retained four copies – one of which is missing.)
Perhaps, despite its window-dressing, Tikki Tikki Tembo isn’t really about the Chinese – at least, no more than A Comedy of Errors, with its italianate duke and its Roman Catholic abbess, is about the historic city-state of Ephesus. …
No, that’s disingenuous. Justly or unjustly, the book satirizes the Chinese ethic of filial piety. Perhaps this subversiveness is what has made Samuel so fond of Tikki Tikki Tembo. He listens to it three or four times or until we make him stop. Fortunately, we don’t have to read it to him; he puts on a CD with a reading by Marcia Gay Harden (it was included in a flap at the back of the book). Whenever it’s time to turn a page, a gong sounds and Samuel turns the page and does a little dance.
Daniel, I am sorely tempted to call “Chang” – the name of the second son – but he already has plenty of nicknames.
The book is set in Weiss:
Other books set in Weiss:
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart.
Harold Bloom: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.
I am told that the design of the Swedish typeface Berling was inspired by Weiss.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
I found a copy of Tikki Tikki Tembo upon the library sale cart. Surely, I thought, the library is divesting itself of this outdated and offensive tale! I paid a few cents and brought it home. …
(It turns out, the library has retained four copies – one of which is missing.)
Perhaps, despite its window-dressing, Tikki Tikki Tembo isn’t really about the Chinese – at least, no more than A Comedy of Errors, with its italianate duke and its Roman Catholic abbess, is about the historic city-state of Ephesus. …
No, that’s disingenuous. Justly or unjustly, the book satirizes the Chinese ethic of filial piety. Perhaps this subversiveness is what has made Samuel so fond of Tikki Tikki Tembo. He listens to it three or four times or until we make him stop. Fortunately, we don’t have to read it to him; he puts on a CD with a reading by Marcia Gay Harden (it was included in a flap at the back of the book). Whenever it’s time to turn a page, a gong sounds and Samuel turns the page and does a little dance.
Daniel, I am sorely tempted to call “Chang” – the name of the second son – but he already has plenty of nicknames.
The book is set in Weiss:
Other books set in Weiss:
Chinua Achebe: Things Fall Apart.
Harold Bloom: Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl.
I am told that the design of the Swedish typeface Berling was inspired by Weiss.