odds and ends / 7.21.2026

Still from "Clotheslines," directed by Roberta Cantow, 1982.*Sawyer Made split-step stool, for Walker Street Market, photographed by Winnie Yang via The Secret Strategist.*"Ideal Hollow" by Nichola Manning, via drifting lament.*Shell buttons, via slow roads.*Detail of "an exquisite, finest muslin early 1800s French hand embroidered shawl," sold by starchedandcrumpled.*Photo of H.D. and a child on a beach in California, collections of the Beinecke Library.*"The pleasure I take from these sun-dried clothes is more than I can describe ..."*Overlapping in a complex network, each line of garments reads as a household census noting: age, family size, and social status. Bed sheets, undergarments, and women’s hosiery on thin strings allude to bodies not present. Starched white shirts dangle neck-down on tiny tightropes stories high above a precipice of filth-black alleys. A warm summer breeze could bring each garment to life with the weightlessness of guardian angels overlooking the…