Owl Chatter is broadcasting from our nation’s capital tonight. Well, at least not too far into its outskirts in a Best Western in Maryland. Just a little getaway for the long weekend.
Special thanks to friend Bob for the head’s up on a terrific art exhibit in the Smithsonian:
“We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection”
https://americanart.si.edu/exhibition/we-are-made-stories-robson
Here is one of the featured artists: Bill Traylor was born into slavery in 1853 and worked as a sharecropper after emancipation. He only began drawing when he was 85, to document his memories. He produced close to 1,500 pieces of art, including this neat pig I photographed. He died in 1949 at the age of 96.
Watching a tight Michigan vs. Michigan State basketball game now. The game’s in Annie Arbor and the Michigan band, as a goodwill gesture in the wake of the Michigan State shootings this week, played the Michigan State fight song before the game. The ‘Rines held on for an 84-72 win. Go Blue!
I couldn’t finish the damn puzzle today! The Northeast corner did me in. I’ll spare you the details (too painful), except somehow the answer for “Mares, e.g.,” was SEAS. That’s a WOE in my book: What on earth? It turns out “mare” is the term for a lunar sea, i.e., a large dark plain on the moon. Galileo thought they were seas when he first saw them through a telescope. The plural is usually “Maria,” however, not mares. Oh, well. All’s fair on Saturday.
In this photo of the moon, the dark regions are the maria.
Remember the early James Bond films? Loved ’em! Sean Connery starred in six of them, and Goldfinger was the third (1964). Remember the hot blonde he seduced into betraying Goldfinger? He took his revenge by painting her entire body in gold so she died of “skin suffocation.” That’s how Bond explained her death in the film, but in reality, skin doesn’t breathe. The filmmakers didn’t take a chance, though, and left a small patch on the lovely lady unpainted. But painting someone completely can prevent sweating and cooling, and thus bring on heatstroke and death. Or the toxic chemicals in the gold or paint might prove fatal.
Anyway, back to that blonde, the actress was Shirley EATON, who dropped in on the puzzle today at 45D as “Shirley of ‘Goldfinger.’” This might jar your memory.
She is still living and is 86. She retired from acting way back in 1969 because she wanted to devote herself to her two children.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 