A go-to salon
I missed this a couple of weeks ago: Arty Morty started a post on his blog with a lavish torrent of compliments about this very place including yous guys. Skipping the first couple of sentences, I’ll share the part that’s about the whole thing, i.e. yous guys.
In case you haven’t noticed by now, Benson’s blog, Butterflies and Wheels, is my go-to salon — a digital Algonquin Round Table where clever commentary and thoughtful debate reflect the values of liberalism, feminism, humanism, and rational inquiry. For more than a decade, it’s been the first site I check in the morning and the last at night, a daily ritual marked by an embarrassing number of midday refreshes — which tells you everything you need to know about what this intellectual gathering place means to me.
(It has early gender critical cred, too: the late Magdalen Berns was a guest author there in 2016!)
Y’all are a digital Algonquin Round Table. I love that.
Ophelia posted this drawing by Al Hirschfield in high enough resolution here that I enjoyed searching for the name NINA that he would hide in his drawings for the name of his daughter.
I found it, but I will not spoil the fun of other readers looking for it.
https://www.alhirschfeldfoundation.org/digital-exhibitions/national-insanity
Ha! I found it!
That was fun! Like a grown-up Where’s Waldo. I had no idea about this Al Hirschfield hidden NINA thing, but I love it!
Indeed. I am probably in the same boat. I have eschewed commercial TV and most of the internet for years. I don’t do any “social” media, as it were. I do however have sites that I check regularly, B&W being the first and foremost. I also like Arts & Letters Daily, which incidentally, Ophelia directed me toward years ago. I have a subscription to Harper’s, and that’s about it. I also have an eclectic and meandering pursue of books that I find interesting, mostly non-fiction. I am not any kind of intellectual, but a reader and observer of sorts. I find the ‘commentariat’ (as I understand the term) interesting and engaging, and at the risk of sounding gushing, my respect for Ophelia and her opinions, criticisms, and general intelligence is formidable. It’s nice to have a place where thought provoking banter happens, motivated by Ophelia’s research and commentary. I’m also happy and grateful that I can participate, even if I’m sometimes crude or worldly, in a place where everyone’s opinions are interesting and provocative. Thanks Arty! Thanks Ophelia! :)
D’oh! I found 3! But I’m still not saying where.
Oh, there’s more than one! I better keep looking, then. More fun!
I second (or is it third?) the comment. I too check here first and last, and with frequent refreshes during the day. These days, I spend a lot of time on my computer, writing and editing, and I don’t have to wait for classes to end to pay a visit.
As for Nina, I think I’ll have to wait for new glasses. I’m afraid I can’t see much that’s hidden.
More than anything, that’s a reflection on our host here.
Five Ninas.
Ahhh I love the Hirschfeld Nina thing (but had forgotten it). My boy cousin/best friend in childhood told me about it and himself drew cartoons with the name Nick (his youngest brother) hidden in them.
Darn, only 3 Ninas. I used to be good at finding the Ninas.
Oh there’s # 4. Don’t give up!
Aw shucks twiliter. Thank you back.
Ok 5. There was one I went back and forth on but I think it’s legit.
I thought I was all out of NINAs, but I literally gasped out loud when I found another one just now. I love this!
I think there’s 5 Ninas.
I’ve always admired Hirschfeld’s ability to capture a recognizable likeness using so few lines, and our brain’s ability to recognize that likeness through/despite/because of his precise exaggeration of just a key feature or two. Remarkable skills on both ends of the process.
Found five Ninas. Whew.
Ditto on first site and last site visited, and constant in-between-first-and-last refreshing of posts. Thank you Ophelia for establishing this oasis of sanity in a world gone mad. Thank everyone else for helping to keep it interesting and fun, amongst other things. On the whole, not a simple thing to do, considering some of the dire topics we discuss here, however leavened by wit, humour and snark they may be.
Also first and last daily checks for me, with several more throughout the day.
I love this family of friends! ❣️
I’m so glad that I have this place in common with so many great minds, and also that I’m not alone in keeping a tab or two (the Miscellany Room being the other) permanently tuned to B&W so that this place is the first I check on a morning and the last at night. I also check it several times a day between waking and bedtime. It seems that we’ve all developed good habits, thanks to Ophelia.
I like to think of my frequent visits to B&W as my daily dose of sanity. Once upon a time in a spiral galaxy kind of like this one there was a vast cloud of gas and dust constantly giving birth to new stars and planets. Some of these planets were hot and hellish. Others were icy and barren. But a few were actually kind of habitable. Then a shock to the system triggered a cascade of reactions leading to the formation of two actively feeding black holes (let’s call them MAGA and WOKE). Anything that got too close to one of these black holes would either be sucked in or flung out only to be caught in the gravity of the other. By now, between the two of them, MAGA and WOKE have devoured most of the original gas cloud, leaving only a few scattered habitable worlds that somehow managed to escape. That’s kind of how I think about B&W.
To take my analogy a step further, most of the mass in the universe is thought to be in the form of dark matter (as others have pointed out, ”invisible matter” would be a better name, since we can actually see dark things!), some as of yet unidentified particle (or class of particles) that doesn’t interact with light and is therefore only detectable through its gravitational effects. In my analogy the dark matter would be the ”shruggies” who would rather see the world turned to ashes than take a strong, bold stance on anything. They are there to be sure – in abundance! – but might as well not be for all the difference it makes.
I regard our hostess Ophelia Benson as the Gertrude Stein of Cyberspace, and have long since told her so. Her reply, as I recall, was “Aw shucks. T’ain’t nothin.'” But I could be wrong. Could well be the world’s first cybersalon. First in the Universe, maybe.
https://thesalonhost.com/the-iconic-salon-legacy-of-gertrude-stein/
Well, that’s a good game! Thank you, both Ophelia & Arty-Morty, for its introduction (I consider you both responsible). I did not know Al Hirschfield’s work before – he is very good. I found three or perhaps four Ninas, not as many as some more diligent others – though perhaps I can claim cataracts in both eyes as an excuse. One thing that struck me was the fellow lighting a cigarette: his thumb appears to be being chewed on by a large parrot made up of his tie, collar-button, and the edge of his collar. Or am I imagining it?
Seconding Arty’s post, and 5 Ninas.
Tim #22, I think that is just a chance and a trick of the cataracts – to me it is a tie that has slippe down from the throat a tad, with a shirt button above it.
Ok, I see it now! I spotted 3 Ninas almost right away. Really had to look hard for the last two, but once you see them, they’re obvious.
Yup, first and last. Sometimes when I should be working so with divided attention. I value and admire you all very much.
Likewise.
This website is quite a wonderful little community that I enjoy visiting.
Visiting?!! You’re supposed to live here!
For Tim Harris in #22, I see credit like this: (1) Arty Morty compared our group to the Algonquin Round Table (in writing), then (2) Ophelia added the Hirschfeld drawing here (in high resolution), then (3) I pointed out the hidden NINA game in my comment #1 (with a link to the Hirschfeld foundation).
My dad showed me the Hirschfeld hidden NINA game around 1975, and here we are in 2025. So my comment #1 passes the torch — from my dad — 50 years ago — to me — and now to everyone here.
Ah! Sorry, Dave! I left you out. So thank you, too.
And your dad!
Thank you, Tim!
I finally started seeing NINAs when I clicked on the image to get it zoomed in.
Now I see them on the non-zoomed in version.
Once you see them you see them. There’s no going back!
I see from the article Dave linked to that Hirschfeld only started putting Nina-count numbers next to his signature in 1960. It was well after that when I learned of the existence of the hidden “Ninas”, and I had been wondering what that number next to his signature was. The cartoon in the OP appears to be from before that period. I didn’t realize until I read that article that he hadn’t always done that.
I found five NINAs. :-)
Hurrah!