If you found yesterday’s owl chatter about Hunter’s graduation ceremony and the lovely Emily Ratajkowski to be a tease, you can feast on much more of it (and her) via this extensive coverage in the Daily Mail (see link, below). There are numerous photos of Ms. R, and several of me snuck in there too! (I’m the fellow in the back row with the mustache.)
Yesterday’s discussion on the usefulness of HS math in later life, hit home with owl-chatter-reader Judy who wrote: “Beth [daughter] and I have a running conversation/argument about the purpose of learning HS math — and she was quite good at it back in HS. But she claims she never uses it now. I argue that it’s part of one’s education to learn critical thinking skills and to (hopefully) become a thoughtful, intelligent adult. Same argument applies to science, literature, history, etc. So, she shared this with me.”
Turning to the puzzle, there was much buzz about a long (15-letter) across answer that threw almost everyone for a loop. Maybe you’ve heard of him? “Best-selling Israeli author of ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind.’” (Ouch, right?) It’s YUVAL NOAH HARARI.
Harari has said “The bitter truth is that the world has simply become too complicated for our hunter-gatherer brains.” (As 12 down tells us: TRUE DAT!)
He’s a history prof at the Hebrew U. of Jerusalem. His writings examine free will, consciousness, intelligence, happiness, and suffering. Wow! — exactly the purview of Owl-Chatter! Well, at least the suffering part.
Harari taught himself to read at age 3. He is gay and married his husband in a civil ceremony in Toronto . He does not have a smartphone. He has said that Vipassana meditation changed his life. He meditates two hours a day and goes on a 30-day meditation retreat each year, in silence and with no books or social media. The only exception he makes is for Owl-Chatter. After learning that Trump cut off funding for WHO during the pandemic, he and his husband donated $1 million to the organization.
Welcome to Owl-Chatter, Professor.
I had no idea what 6 down was either: “Hip-hop duo _______ Sremmurd.” The answer is RAE. But this one I may remember for next time because it’s Ear Drummers, backwards. (Thanks Rex!)
There were some neat food answers. TOOTSIE ROLL, at 18D, and CHOW MEIN, right next to it at 5D. But the Chow Mein may have been left out of the fridge for too long because it’s crossed by NOISOME (“foul-smelling”). That may explain why the crossing answer at 17A is: HATE TO EAT AND RUN. And if your fillings can’t handle that Tootsie Roll, it’s NOT A BAD IDEA (19D) to have one of those TARTS at 49D for dessert instead.
Here’s a poem by Ted Kooser from Winter Morning Walks that’s a little whimsical.
Found, on the gravel road I walked this morning,
one beer can, part full of frozen tobacco juice
that when I shook it came apart like chunks of amber,
and a quarter-sized piece from a fluted china plate,
with a soft pink rose the size of a pencil eraser
and a curl of flying, pale blue ribbon. In a nearby tree,
five noisy crows who had seen me stooping there
were busy creating a plausible story.
David Crosby (August 14, 1941 – January 18, 2023)
And it’s a fair wind
Blowin’ warm out of the south over my shoulder
Guess I’ll set a course and go
(Wooden Ships)
The Wellington Files 