My beautiful granddaughter Lianna played viola in her 7th grade orchestra’s holiday concert last night and it was absolutely wonderful. Their final selection was a gorgeous Turkish folk song I had heard before: Uskudar. Here are two versions almost as good as Lianna’s:
The words translate to:
When we were going to Uskudar it started to rain.
When we were going to Uskudar it started to rain.
The clerk is mine and I’m the clerk’s, and no one can interfere.
My clerk looks so good in a starched collar.
When I looked for my clerk, I found him at my side.
My clerk looks so good in a starched collar.
I checked the program to make sure Lianna was listed (with the proper spelling), and I noticed that almost everyone in the viola section had a beautiful and interesting name, either first or last. Here they are:
Lianna Becerra
Jennifer Chukwukere
Doga Demir
Aiden Frank
Layla Green
Bryson James
Genesis Martinez
Devi Ray
Rio Reyes
Ashley Sutton
Enzo Tolentino
Maya Tung
And that’s just the violists. There were cellists named Brighidin Boyen and Haydn Lee (Haydn Sikh would have been better), and violinists named Adrija Adhikary, Xiomara Tepetitla Luna, and Gem Gold. Gem Gold!
The puzzle’s theme today was “Lucky Breaks,” and things we associate with good luck were “broken up” into separate word segments. For example — can you find “horseshoe” in ABHOR, SESH, and OEUF?
It triggered this very important flow of data:
Lucky Charms cereal debuted in 1964 with oat pieces in shapes of bells, fish, arrowheads, X’s, green clovers, pink hearts, orange stars, and yellow moon marshmallows.
Currently:
Heart Charm – Gives life to objects
Star Charm – Power of flight
Horseshoe Charm – Power of speed
Clover Charm – Power of luck
Blue Moon Charm – Power of invisibility
Rainbow Charm – Power to teleport
Red Balloon Charm – Power to float
Unicorn Charm – Brings color to the world
The inclusion of PANERA in the grid, boringly clued as “Big bakery/cafe chain,” led to a big soup discussion on Rex’s blog. This was fitting because the constructor was Matthew “Stock.” The commentariat was invited to list their favorites. I posted the following:
Hot and Sour
Matzoh Ball (fluffy, if possible, and not too salty)
Split Pea
The Meyersville (NJ) Grange used to host a monthly soup contest during the winter. For $7 you could sample dozens of wonderful soups and pasta dishes. If you brought an entry, you got in for free, and prizes were awarded to the top six vote-getters. The first time I participated, I entered an escarole and white bean soup. It was a little bitter from the escarole, and my daughter still roars at the memory of the first guy who tried it. He turned to the fellow behind him and said “Stay away from that one.”
Old New Yorker cartoon: A long table full of somber monks in their cowls hunched over bowls of soup. A monk at the head of the table is ladling out the soup and he says: “Forgive me brothers for breaking the sacred vow of silence, but I, for one, am tired of vichyssoise.”
“What sharing is, per a rhyming expression,” was, of course, CARING. LMS chimed in with: “My colleague will share any part of her lunch with any student. I’m always stunned at her generosity. The day after Thanksgiving break, she shared her leftovers with so many students that what was supposed to be her lunch all week was gone in one day. I, on the other hand, will turn off my lights, close my door, and wolf down my lunch in a corner like a little selfish, unsharing pig teacher.”
There were some tuchas sightings today! Hurrah! First — a plural! — the clue was “Burros” and the answer: ASSES. It caused one fellow to note: “Now they’re coming at us in droves!” Ha! There was also SASS, and TESSA, which is ass-backwards and a semordnilap. What is a semordnilap, you ask? Well, it’s “palindromes” backward, but it’s different from a palindrome. It’s a word that spells a different word backwards. TESSA — ASSET. A palindrome spells the same word backwards: MADAM, or RADAR.
“Cousin of a cassowary” was EMU. And I loved this note — “How do cows communicate in the digital age? EMU”
Curt Simmons, who died Tuesday at age 93, had a very solid career, mostly with the Phils and Cards. He was the last living member of the Whiz Kids, the 1950 Phils who won the pennant. He anchored the staff with Robin Roberts. His lifetime record was 193-183 with an ERA of 3.54. A three-time All-Star, he won the World Series with St. Louis in 1964.
On June 2, 1947, Phillies owner Bob Carpenter arranged an exhibition game between the Phils and a team of High School All-Stars. Simmons, who was then 18, pitched for the high schoolers in front of 4,500 fans and struck out eleven Phils. The game ended in a 4-4 tie. He was later signed to a contract by Philly with a large bonus. Both Hank Aaron and Stan Musial named Simmons the toughest pitcher they faced in their careers.
A note on owl-chatter at the two-month mark: Every day I wake up and have no idea what I will write about. And almost every day a whole bunch of wonderful nonsense pops up! If Seinfeld was a show about “nothing,” I think owl-chatter is a blog about nonsense. I do the puzzle and read Rex Parker’s blog and the wonderful comments it sometimes inspires. I check to see if anyone died, especially old ballplayers. Sometimes an item in The Writer’s Almanac tickles me, or other things I peruse. Sometimes something so beautiful wafts by that it moves me to tears. And I love looking for pictures. Thanks for visiting, but honestly, if there were none of you, I’d still crank it out.
The Wellington Files 