Yesterday’s puzzle had a neat theme. Take 17A: “1987 thriller featuring the same characters as TV’s ‘Californication’?” The answer was FATAL ATTRACTION. And “same characters” meant it used the same “letters.” So I thought Fatal Attraction must be an anagram of Californication — that you rearrange the letters of the first to get the second. But it’s not. E.g., there’s only one T in Californication and 4 T’s in Fatal Attraction. It turns out what’s involved is called a “letterbox.” In a letterbox, all of the letters in the first word (the “source word”) must be used in the second word (the “answer word”), but they can be used more than once. And all of the letters in the answer word must be found in the source word.

This happened five times in the puzzle, the longest one being: “Stranger Things” (source word); SINGIN IN THE RAIN (answer word).

MIRIAM, from the Old Testament, made an appearance, clued as “Prophetess in the Torah.” Of course, I remember almost nothing from my time in Hebrew school. She was the older sister of Moses and Aaron, and observed the infant Moses being placed in the Nile.

Just as Mo later led the men out of Egypt, Miriam is said to have led the women out. She’s a popular figure among some Jewish feminists. During the Passover Seder, some place a cup of water for her next to Elijah’s cup of wine. I don’t know why she doesn’t also get wine. Maybe she’s driving? (Actually, there may be some Biblical association of her with water. Don’t rely on me for Bible stuff.)

39D was “Its moves include the Shirley Temple and Shim Sham steps,” and the answer was TAP DANCE. One commenter said he wrongly put LAP DANCE in at first. Hard to imagine a Shirley Temple lap dance.

Todays’ puzzle was roundly condemned as too easy and too boring by the commentariat. One even took it to task for not having any noteworthy asses in it. I had to chime in at that point. I posted a note conceding that it might not be noteworthy, but there was a hidden tuchas in LASSO right up there at 1 down. I also noted that the answer TATAS clanged around in my head a little but that’s slang for a different body part. (TATAS was boringly clued with “Farewells.”)

Just yesterday, Linda and I asked Lianna what she was learning (7th grade) in Science and she said The Periodic Table. Well, get this! 32 down today was MENDELEEV, the dude who came up with it! Or should I say the dude who “concocted” it, because CONCOCT was right next to him at 26 down (“Cook up”).

Mendeleev was the youngest of 17 siblings, although 3 died soon after birth. However, the exact number of Mendeleev’s siblings differs among sources and is still a matter of some historical dispute, so it’s probably best not to bring it up at Thanksgiving. Why ask for trouble?

In 1863, there were 56 known elements with a new element being discovered at a rate of roughly one per year. As Mendeleev attempted to classify the elements according to their chemical properties, he noticed patterns that led him to postulate his periodic table; he claimed to have envisioned it in a dream: “I saw in a dream a table where all elements fell into place as required. Awakening, I immediately wrote it down on a piece of paper, only in one place did a correction later seem necessary.” His work successfully predicted the discovery of several elements.

A very popular Russian story credits Mendeleev with setting the 40% standard strength of vodka. In fact, the 40% standard was already introduced by the Russian government in 1843, when Mendeleev was nine years old. He never wrote anything about vodka. (Burp!)

Although married, in 1876 he became obsessed with Anna Ivanova Popova. (Who wouldn’t?) In 1881 he proposed to her and threatened suicide if she refused. (That never worked for me.) His divorce was finalized one month after he married Popova. Even after the divorce, Mendeleev was technically a bigamist; the Russian Orthodox Church required at least seven years before lawful remarriage. (Ouch!) The controversy contributed to his failure to be admitted to the Russian Academy of Sciences. It’s sort of like banning Pete Rose from the Baseball Hall of Fame, except maybe not exactly.

Sticking with science just a bit longer, the dodecagon was used twice in Tuesday’s puzzle, once for its EDGES and once for its ANGLES. It has 12 of each. (The ceiling of The Vera Cruz church in Segovia, Spain is a dodecagon.)

Some folks confused them with dodecahedrons. (Idiots!) The latter has twelve faces: think of a die with 12 sides instead of 6.

*********************

Good friend Bob sent me a note about yesterday’s (Banana Bread) post saying he enjoyed it, but confessing (his word) to not liking bananas or anything made with bananas! Wow! I’ve known Bob since college but that fact about him eluded me. I don’t think I know anyone else who dislikes bananas, but that may be the sort of thing that doesn’t pop out so easily. When you’re getting to know someone, after you ask whether they have any brothers or sisters, you don’t usually follow up with “And what are your feelings about bananas?”

In any event, Bob — you can substitute canned pumpkin for the mashed bananas in yesterday’s recipe, especially this time of the year.

Boo!