Two notable deaths in the NYT today. First actress Kirstie Alley, whose Rebecca Howe on Cheers replaced Shelley Long’s Diane Chambers — very big ladies shoes to fill. Alley’s memories of her Cheers years were “somewhat chaotic.” “We never paid attention, we were always in trouble. We never showed up on time.” Sounds like High School, but it worked. She appeared in 150 episodes and won an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a comedy series (as had Shelley Long earlier). She is survived by two adopted children: a son, True, and a daughter Lillie. In 2016, True had a son, Alley’s grandson.
Close friend John Travolta, along with Cheers-folk Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammar, and Rhea Perlman released statements memorializing her. In the headline of her obit in the Times it said: “Everybody Knew Her Name.”
[Side note: Rhea Perlman (“Carla”) graduated with a BA from Hunter College in 1968, studying drama. She later was awarded an honorary doctorate from Hunter. In her very funny acceptance speech, for which I was in attendance, she beamed as she said she looked forward to being called Doc Perlman.]
And Sal Durante died, at age 81. Who? He’s the guy who caught Roger Maris’s 61st home run ball. It was an excellent bare-handed one-hand catch. Amazingly, Sal went to the Stadium with that goal in mind. He got tickets for himself, his fiancee, his cousin, and his cousin’s date in right field. He was broke at the time, so his fiancee paid for the tix ($10!).
Tracy Stallard of the Bosox was the pitcher. Here’s what Durante said about the catch: “I watched the pitching motion, the release of the ball, and I had my eye on the ball all the way to Roger’s bat. I didn’t take my eye off that ball for a second.”
As the ball soared towards him, he jumped onto his seat and caught it in the palm of his right hand. “I got it! I got it!,” he shouted, before falling into the row behind him.
Durante met with Maris after the game, intending to give him the ball, but Maris refused to take it. He knew $5,000 was being offered for it and he said Sal needed the money more than he (Maris) did. He was right. He used half of it to help his parents, and the other half to start off his married life.
After meeting Maris, Durante was brought up to the TV booth to be interviewed by Phil Rizzuto. The Scooter said: “I’m glad you’re a paesano.”
The next August, Durante was invited to the Seattle World’s Fair, and offered $1,000 to catch a ball off the Space Needle. When it was determined that a ball thrown from the 605-foot-tall tower would generate too much speed, the stunt (with Tracy Stallard, then pitching for a local minor league team, throwing the ball) was moved to a 100-foot-tall Ferris wheel.
After catching some practice throws from lower heights, Durante dropped the one for all the money (he got the money anyway). When Stallard asked what happened, Durante said, “I guess I wasn’t relaxed when I knew the money was riding on the toss.”
Here’s a shot of Durante meeting Maris. Rest in peace, Sal.
The funniest clue/answer today came early, at 3D. The clue was “Flying a commercial airline, often.” The answer was ORDEAL.
It inspired me to post the following on Rex’s blog:
Old timers may recall that no one skewered the airline industry like comic Alan King. It was relentless and high profile (e.g., on the Ed Sullivan Show). He was sued over his act by Eastern Airlines – a godsend for any comic!
Here’s what he said about it:
“When I made fun of Eastern Airlines on the Gary Moore Show, their chairman, [former World War I hero] Eddie Rickenbacker, sued. To this day, when I see a World War I movie, I root for the Red Baron. At the preliminary hearing, the judge laughed and threw the case out. He had flown Eastern.”
I liked Alan King. He also said: You live longer if you eat bran, but you spend the last fifteen years on the toilet.
More seriously he observed: “There’s a charm, there’s a rhythm, there’s a soul to Jewish humor. When I first saw Richard Pryor perform, I told him, ‘You’re doing a Jewish act.’ He said, ‘I know.’”
The puzzle’s theme today was words that mean something else in a different language, e.g., MULTIPLEX means plywood in Dutch. It inspired LMS to share this story:
I’m reminded of the time this shy, retiring, sweet foreign exchange student from Spain came up to my desk during a test, looked around furtively, and very carefully whispered, I need a rubber. That *&%$ will wake you up. I helpfully told him that in the US, he should ask for an “eraser” from then on. Then I showed him the Google translate for rubber, and he turned all kinds of red.
She also shared this Swedish roadsign:
(In Swedish, “fart” means speed.)
And this one:
It means “final sale.” You can see that it’s in a shop window.
There were some complaints yesterday that AVA DUVERNAY was too obscure, especially for a Tuesday puzzle. (I knew her, but mostly from previous puzzles.) Today, Pete posted the following:
To all those from yesterday who complained about Ava DuVernay, as in “how the hell am I supposed to know her,” she now has her very own ice cream flavor called “Lights! Caramel! Action! directed by Ava DuVernay” from Ben & Jerry’s. Yes, she’s that famous.
For HAMM, the constructor, Karen Steinberg, chose Mad Men’s Jon for the clue, and not soccer’s Mia. I won’t play favorites, tho — let’s Hamm it up and have a look at both of them (below).
Jon is best known for playing Dan Draper on Mad Men. He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a TV Series (Drama) for it twice, as well as an Emmy. But this terrible blot from his youth is in Wikipedia:
While a member of Sigma Nu fraternity at the University of Texas, Hamm was arrested for participating in a violent hazing incident in November 1990. He lit a pledge’s jeans on fire, shoved his face in the dirt, and struck him with a paddle over his right kidney, before leading him around the fraternity house with a hammer claw around his testicles. [WTF Hamm!!??] The incident resulted in the fraternity being shut down. The pledge ended up needing medical care, and ultimately withdrew from school. Hamm made a plea deal and completed probation allowing him to avoid being convicted of a crime.
I’ll tell you, folks – stuff like that didn’t happen at Brandeis.
As promised, here’s Mia Hamm too (no relation).
Let’s finish today with Dodger (former Bosox) Mookie BETTS, nicely placed out in right field (at 22 across), if you view the grid as a ballfield. For the longest while, I didn’t like Mookie, and not just because he was with Boston. He seemed to play with an arrogance that annoyed me, especially because he is so good. But I watched a game this year in which he had a microphone on during a half inning of play. He was just chatting with one of the announcers and he won me over — he seems like a genuinely nice guy.
But whatever one may think of him, he’s a helluva ballplayer. In 2018 with Boston he became the first player in MLB history to win the MVP, Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, batting title, and World Series in one season. He’s only 5′ 9″ 180 lbs. He’s also an outstanding professional bowler. Mookie married his long-time girlfriend last December. They began dating in high school, and they have a four-year-old daughter, named Mookelina. No, I made that name up — her name is Kynlee Ivory Betts.
That’s more than enough owl chatter for the day. See you next time!
The Wellington Files 