Owl chatter is back in NJ after a wonderful trip with Welly to see our Vermont friends, Susan, Lizzie, Robert, and Greta (woof woof!). I collected the hugs I was promised. Fair is fair. Here’s a shot of the view from their kitchen that doesn’t do it justice:
A riddle from Lianna: To quit your job, what do you need?
Give it some thought, and I’ll give you the solution somewhere down below.
There were two sports deaths this week. Cincy pitcher Tom Browning was only 62. He was very popular with the fans, in part because he was a prankster. On July 7, 1993, when the Reds were playing the Cubs at Wrigley, Browning snuck out of the stadium in his uniform, and joined the fans watching the game from the rooftop of a building across the street. (He was fined $500. Booooooo!)
Browning was called up from Wichita in September of 1984 and beat Orel Hershiser and the Dodgers in his MLB debut, pitching into the ninth inning and yielding only one run. He won 20 games his rookie year (1985), a feat no rookie had performed since 1954. An auspicious start, but who could have predicted his perfect game? — the only one ever by a Reds pitcher in their history. It was 1-0 over the Dodgers in Cincy on September 16, 1988. It took him 102 pitches — 70 were strikes, and he didn’t go to ball 3 on a single batter. He was wearing red underwear — something he always did on the days he pitched.
And Football Hall of Famer Franco Harris died, at age 72. His dad was an African-American soldier stationed in Italy in WWII and he married an native Italian woman — a “war bride.” She moved to the U.S. with him when he returned, and Franco was born in Ft. Dix, NJ, on March 7, 1950, just about 50 days after I was born in Brooklyn.
After excelling at Penn State, Harris had a phenomenal pro career with Pittsburgh — 4 Super Bowl wins and 9 Pro Bowl selections. He was the MVP of Super Bowl IX. His most famous play was dubbed “The Immaculate Reception” by Steeler sportscaster Myron Cope. With Pittsburgh down 7-6 to Oakland with only 22 seconds left in the game, a pass intended for Steeler receiver Frenchy Fuqua was deflected, and Harris scooped it up just before it hit the ground. He ran it in for a touchdown and the win. It was the first ever playoff win for Pittsburgh. Oakland claimed it touched Fuqua first, which would have meant Harris was not eligible to grab it under the rules then in effect. But the replays were inconclusive on the issue, and the league upheld the call.
OK — back to that riddle: To quit your job, what do you need? A job.
Now don’t you feel silly? (Thanks, Lianna!)
If you’ve been decrying the lack of opera chatter, decry no more. It’s the birthday of composer Giacomo Puccini, born in 1858. His full name was Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini. That’s some serious middle name shit. He wrote La Boheme in 1896 and Madama Butterfly in 1904, just to name two, but Puccini died in 1924 before he could finish his last one: Turandot. When Arturo Toscanini conducted the premiere of Turandot in 1926, he stopped the orchestra at Puccini’s final notes, saying, “Here the opera finishes, because at this point the Maestro died.” Later, another composer, Franco Alfano, wrote the last two scenes based on Puccini’s sketches.
Wanda Sykes was in the puzzle today — very funny lady. Some people can read from the phone book and I’m roaring. Here’s some of her work:
“I love my family but my family – they’re the type of people that never let you forget anything you ever did… I was in the first grade Christmas play – I’m playing Mary. Now, during the course of the play, I dropped the baby Jesus… They still talk about this. I go to my family reunion, and one of my cousins just had a baby. So I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s a cute little baby. Let me hold the baby…’ And my aunt runs over, ‘Don’t you give her that baby! You know she dropped the baby Jesus!’”
Also: “Seriously, I don’t need a gun. I’m easily annoyed. I would shoot people in my house that I invited over.”
Last one: “When my parents send me emails, the first three are blank.”
Wanda — you are welcome in the grid any day of the week!
I have to balance my Vermont morning with one from Nebraska, from Ted Kooser’s Winter Morning Walks:
An anthem of geese on the wing,
and over the next field
a thin flag of starlings billows and snaps.
At dawn, a sudden fire on a hilltop
four miles east—
Joe Skala’s Airstream trailer
reflecting the sun.
Let’s see how the Jets are doing in their rare Thursday game against Jacksonville. Good night!
The Wellington Files 