For Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday, which was just a few days ago:
Comments
Open thread 6/5/2026 — 15 Comments
The use of the spelling Türkiye which has emerged only in the last year or so is one of those little things about political correctness that really irks me. Who made the decision and how did it get propagated throughout our various media? What makes Turkey so special that we now are supposed to use that country’s own spelling in an English-speaking country? We don’t say or write Deutschland, Sverige, Hellas or even Italia or España. We don’t use the umlaut in English for chrissakes.
I saw a photo of Marilyn taken in 1948 when she was 22, before she became a blonde. The resemblance between the Marilyn photo and wedding pictures of my aunt at age 21 in 1948 were uncanny. I later asked my cousin, her daughter, about her mother’s resemblance to 1948 Marilyn. My cousin replied that she had also seen the resemblance.
Like Marilyn, my aunt died in the 1960s in tragic circumstances, before turning 40. My cousin said that beauty was no guarantee of a happy life.
I saw a Marilyn movie in the 1990s—Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?. She had some talent as a comedienne. Not just a dumb blonde. But would Arthur Miller have married a dumb blonde? Married to perhaps the most prominent playwright and ballplayer of that generation—reminds me of Alma. (You can work Tom Lehrer into so many things. 🙂 )
Prominent authors such as Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Gloria Steinem, have written accounts of Marilyn’s life.
We don’t use the umlaut in English for chrissakes.
Mötley Crüe vehemently disagrees.
Just call ’em gobblers, especially Cenk and Piker
I’m not sure how to produce the umlaut in casual typing on my Mac, so it will be Turkiye at the most — although as I typed that, I see auto-correct has now been programmed to produce it with the umlaut. I overrode it.
Would appear that someone here has never been a stamp collector…(postage stamps, that is…).
The New Yorker magazine uses (or used to use) the umlaut in coöperate. Just a bit of pretentiousness. But I agree about Türkiye, which no one knows how to pronounce. I even had the same reaction when we were forced to switch from Peking to Beijing, Bombay to Mumbai, etc.
It also reminds me of the pretentiousness of those NPR talkers who are always careful roll their Rs when pronouncing someone’s Hispanic name. Or the American-born Sylvia Poggioli who liked to say her own name with a forced Italian accent.
Kate, to get my umlauts I just copied and pasted from the previous comments.
@Marisa:We don’t say or write Deutschland, Sverige, Hellas or even Italia or España. We don’t use the umlaut in English for chrissakes.
We don’t say “United Mexican States” or “Bharat” either. It’s very selective. Related is the phenomenon of talking heads using the native pronunciation of a city, for a while they all said “Firenze” instead of “Florence”, don’t know if they still do.
Also related the BCE and CE circumlocution for BC and AD. They’re dating from the same event, but the BCE/CE naming avoids saying what event that is. All other dating systems that I’m aware of refer to the defining event: the radiocarbon calendar dates from 1950, Japan dates from the reign of an Emperor, Rome dated from the founding of the city (AUC), the Eastern Roman Empire and the Hebrew calendar date from the beginning of the world (AM, though they don’t agree on when that was), even the Republic of San Marino dates from its legendary founding in 301. But for one dating system we have to be careful never to say what event the calendar dates from…
How does an advanced and civilized nation turn into ***a pack of hunting hounds directed against humans***? Sebastian Haffner, who came of age in Germany between the wars, seeks to answer that question in his important and well-written memoir.
We’ve gone many places and nobody had the slightest idea that was Marilyn Monroe.
So he was mentioning Marilyn’s disguises when he said that. But apparently, disguises weren’t really necessary.
I don’t recall where I read this, but it was a first person account of I think Arthur Miller’s sister who spent an afternoon out on the town in NYC with Marilyn. I believe Marilyn was wearing sunglasses and perhaps a scarf, and some not terribly frumpy outfit, and after a couple hours out amongst some people, the Miller lady asked Marilyn how it was that nobody is recognizing or bothering her.
Marilyn replied, “Oh, because I’m not putting on my Marilyn Monroe persona. Watch this!” She then proceeded to change her gate to a more sexy walk, and changed her voice and spoke a little louder, and within a couple minutes she had a small throng asking her for her autograph.
Big remaining SCOTUS decisions
Birthright citizenship
Counting ballots received after election day
Who can the president fire?
Limit challenges to immigration enforcement
Can states stop boys from participating in girls sports?
Gringo,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a great movie, and one of the few my millennial daughters like from the classic Hollywood era. Marilyn had some real talent. Elton John’s Candle in the Wind is the best summary of her life.
The use of the spelling Türkiye which has emerged only in the last year or so is one of those little things about political correctness that really irks me. Who made the decision and how did it get propagated throughout our various media? What makes Turkey so special that we now are supposed to use that country’s own spelling in an English-speaking country? We don’t say or write Deutschland, Sverige, Hellas or even Italia or España. We don’t use the umlaut in English for chrissakes.
I saw a photo of Marilyn taken in 1948 when she was 22, before she became a blonde. The resemblance between the Marilyn photo and wedding pictures of my aunt at age 21 in 1948 were uncanny. I later asked my cousin, her daughter, about her mother’s resemblance to 1948 Marilyn. My cousin replied that she had also seen the resemblance.
Like Marilyn, my aunt died in the 1960s in tragic circumstances, before turning 40. My cousin said that beauty was no guarantee of a happy life.
I saw a Marilyn movie in the 1990s—Gentlemen Prefer Blondes?. She had some talent as a comedienne. Not just a dumb blonde. But would Arthur Miller have married a dumb blonde? Married to perhaps the most prominent playwright and ballplayer of that generation—reminds me of Alma. (You can work Tom Lehrer into so many things. 🙂 )
Prominent authors such as Norman Mailer, Joyce Carol Oates, and Gloria Steinem, have written accounts of Marilyn’s life.
We don’t use the umlaut in English for chrissakes.
Mötley Crüe vehemently disagrees.
Just call ’em gobblers, especially Cenk and Piker
I’m not sure how to produce the umlaut in casual typing on my Mac, so it will be Turkiye at the most — although as I typed that, I see auto-correct has now been programmed to produce it with the umlaut. I overrode it.
Would appear that someone here has never been a stamp collector…(postage stamps, that is…).
The New Yorker magazine uses (or used to use) the umlaut in coöperate. Just a bit of pretentiousness. But I agree about Türkiye, which no one knows how to pronounce. I even had the same reaction when we were forced to switch from Peking to Beijing, Bombay to Mumbai, etc.
It also reminds me of the pretentiousness of those NPR talkers who are always careful roll their Rs when pronouncing someone’s Hispanic name. Or the American-born Sylvia Poggioli who liked to say her own name with a forced Italian accent.
Kate, to get my umlauts I just copied and pasted from the previous comments.
@Marisa:We don’t say or write Deutschland, Sverige, Hellas or even Italia or España. We don’t use the umlaut in English for chrissakes.
We don’t say “United Mexican States” or “Bharat” either. It’s very selective. Related is the phenomenon of talking heads using the native pronunciation of a city, for a while they all said “Firenze” instead of “Florence”, don’t know if they still do.
Also related the BCE and CE circumlocution for BC and AD. They’re dating from the same event, but the BCE/CE naming avoids saying what event that is. All other dating systems that I’m aware of refer to the defining event: the radiocarbon calendar dates from 1950, Japan dates from the reign of an Emperor, Rome dated from the founding of the city (AUC), the Eastern Roman Empire and the Hebrew calendar date from the beginning of the world (AM, though they don’t agree on when that was), even the Republic of San Marino dates from its legendary founding in 301. But for one dating system we have to be careful never to say what event the calendar dates from…
How does an advanced and civilized nation turn into ***a pack of hunting hounds directed against humans***? Sebastian Haffner, who came of age in Germany between the wars, seeks to answer that question in his important and well-written memoir.
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/76918.html
We’ve gone many places and nobody had the slightest idea that was Marilyn Monroe.
So he was mentioning Marilyn’s disguises when he said that. But apparently, disguises weren’t really necessary.
I don’t recall where I read this, but it was a first person account of I think Arthur Miller’s sister who spent an afternoon out on the town in NYC with Marilyn. I believe Marilyn was wearing sunglasses and perhaps a scarf, and some not terribly frumpy outfit, and after a couple hours out amongst some people, the Miller lady asked Marilyn how it was that nobody is recognizing or bothering her.
Marilyn replied, “Oh, because I’m not putting on my Marilyn Monroe persona. Watch this!” She then proceeded to change her gate to a more sexy walk, and changed her voice and spoke a little louder, and within a couple minutes she had a small throng asking her for her autograph.
Big remaining SCOTUS decisions
Birthright citizenship
Counting ballots received after election day
Who can the president fire?
Limit challenges to immigration enforcement
Can states stop boys from participating in girls sports?
Gringo,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is a great movie, and one of the few my millennial daughters like from the classic Hollywood era. Marilyn had some real talent. Elton John’s Candle in the Wind is the best summary of her life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK1XlMsTgmM&list=RDlK1XlMsTgmM&start_radio=1
Looks like it’s official. Bears are headed to Indiana.
A dierisis is not an umlaut and vice versa. So, no worries.
Niketas: but the BCE/CE naming avoids saying what event that is.
I always say those: Before the Christian Era / Christian Era
I’m Jewish. And, I recognize and really appreciate the role of Christianity in the world.