Owl Chatter says goodbye to, and honors the memory of, Shinta Ratri, the leader of an Islamic boarding school that offers a haven for transgender women in Indonesia, where they really need it, to say the least. She died on Feb. 1 in Yogyakarta, a city on the Indonesian island of Java. She was 60 and died of a heart attack.
Ms. Shinta, who had transitioned as a teenager, founded the school, Pesantren Waria al-Fatah, in 2008, as a retreat and a place to pray. For transgender women in this largely Muslim nation, discrimination is particularly acute at mosques, where men and women generally pray separately.
“In the public mosque we made people uncomfortable. We needed a safe place for trans women to pray,” Ms. Shinta said. Transgender women in Indonesia are known as waria, an appellation that combines the words for woman (wanita) and man (pria).
“The first thing I tell every trans woman who comes here is, being a trans woman is not a sin,” she said. “In this world it’s not just men and women who exist. There’s us. We trans people exist as well.”
The school faced a defining crisis in February 2016 when a mob from the hardline Front Jihad Islam raided it and forced it to close for five months. Ms. Shinta turned the raid into a lesson in courage and affirmation.
“When the fundamentalists sent us a threat through social media that they would attack the school, we tried to evacuate,” said Renate, a student at the school, “But she said, ‘No, I am done running.’”
Ms. Shinta told the students: “We will defend this place even at the risk of our lives, because this is our fundamental right, our basic right. Because when we are not allowed to pray, to express ourselves, to gather and to learn, of course we stand up against that.”
What a beautiful woman.
On a (much) lighter note, commenter Joe Dipinto worked out an hysterical spoof of Simon and Garfunkel’s pretty song “For the Asking.” He rewrote the lyrics for it from yesterday’s puzzle answer “FOR THEE, ASS KING.”
First, here’s the song:
So click on it to get it going and replace the lyrics with the following. If you are not shortly roaring in laughter, check yourself in somewhere.
Song For The Ass King
Here is my song for thee, Ass King
Ask me and I will play
So sweetly, I’ll make you smile
This is my tune for thee, Ass King
Take it, don’t turn away
I’ve been waiting all my life
Thinking it over, I’ve been sad
Thinking it over, I’d be more than glad
To change my ways for thee, Ass King
Ask me and I will play
All the love that I hold inside
Hm hm hm hm for thee, Ass King
Hm hm hm hm hm hm hm
Hm hm Hm. Hm hm hm hm.
Continuing with nonsense, I mentioned recently that quite a few Rexites work the Monday puzzles via the down clues only to make them a more challenging. These folks come across as a little high and mighty. So commenter egsforbreakfast (“egs”) took a swipe at them with this funny note about doing the puzzle via the diagonals, which, of course, is impossible.
Here is his note, followed by mine:
“I did this Diagonals Only. The Diagonals-Only approach can be hard at times, given that there are no diagonal clues. But, fortunately, today’s puzzle started with the biggest, friendliest gimme ever seen at 1 Diag: PMLSEEEIONREUN. The rest was Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!, except for a brief piddle at 37 Diag. where I initially had LMNnT. I quickly saw that it had to be LMNIT, and it was off to the races.”
My rejoinder:
“@egs– I tried diagonals today too. The lack of clues is daunting for sure, but not having to find “words” as answers is liberating. Also, you can “attack” it from four directions — upper left to lower right and lower left to upper right, of course, but also upper right to lower left and lower right to upper left.”
In the Serious-Discussion-About-Utter-Nonsense Department, the following back and forth emerged today from the clue/answer: “Tie-breaking soccer shots: Abbr.:” — PKS.
Ebenezer C. Morley said: “A penalty shoot-out (more properly known as just a shoot-out, because no penalties are involved) is used only in elimination tournaments to determine who advances in the tournament and who does not. But it does not affect the actual score of the game, which remains a draw in the record books.”
Anonymous said: “Some soccer games are allowed to end in ties. But in soccer games where a winner must be declared (like the World Cup final), if the game “ends” in a tie, each team shoots penalty kicks to decide the winner.”
Ebenezer C. Morley replied: “Anonymous: – a small technical clarification:
“In soccer, when a tournament elimination game or final game ends in a draw, the shoot-out determines who wins the Cup or who advances. It does not determine the winner of the game; the game itself remains a draw in the record books. So, while Argentina was awarded the World Cup because it outscored France in penalties 4-2, the actual game ended in a draw, and the score of the game remains in the record books at 3-3.
“Think of it as two candidates for office who receive the same number of votes. Only one of them can take office, so there needs to be an extraordinary post-election mechanism for determining which one can legally take office; in many municipalities this is something as simple as a coin flip. But neither candidate actually wins the election – rather, one candidate is legally permitted to take office, and this is determined through a post-election extraordinary mechanism.
“In this regard, soccer differs from many other sports that use tie-breakers to actually determine a winner of the match or game itself (e.g., tennis and golf). In soccer, it is a post-game extraordinary mechanism used because only one side may advance (or receive the Cup).”
Anonymous came back with:
“FIFA’s own website, in black letter, describes the Final’s result thusly ‘Argentina wins 4-2 on penalties.’
“The more I read your post Ebenezer the more baffled I am
You write that ( in tournament play) when an elimination game ends in a draw….
That ‘s nuts. The match hasn’t ended. The match continues with PKs.
And if the PKs aren’t a de facto continuation of the match, what are they?
And why would a match’s prize be determined by something that wasn’t part of it?”
Ebenezer C. Morley came back with the following:
“Because the match is a game. And the the game is over after regulation time and the overtime. If the game ends in a draw, a separate competition, the penalty kicks, determine who advances.
“That is because in an elimination tournament, there needs to be a way to determine who is eliminated and who moves to the next stage – so that they don’t have to replay the game. The penalties take place after the games ends, for the sole purpose of determining who is eliminated and who moves on. But the penalties do not change the outcome of the game itself – which is and always will be a draw in the record books.
“And Argentina advanced to the world cup title. But not because it won the final game. It did not; it drew that game. It won the world Cup because it beat France in penalty kicks. And those are two distinct things.
“Like it or not, that’s how soccer does it, and those are the rules.”
But it just couldn’t get through to Anon who just kept getting angrier and angrier, . . . as you all will if I don’t let go of this right now!
The theme of the puzzle today was “BEAR WITH ME,” and 4 long answers contained a type of bear and the letters ME. E.g., POLARoid caMEra was one (see it?). And last one used a SUN bear, which many of us had never heard of. It’s an adorable mini-bear, sort of. This is from Wikipedia:
“It is the smallest bear, standing nearly 28 inches at the shoulder and weighing 55–143 pounds. It is stockily built, with large paws, strongly curved claws, small rounded ears and a short snout. The fur is generally jet-black, but can vary from grey to red. Sun bears get their name from the characteristic orange to cream colored chest patch. Its unique morphology—inward-turned front feet, flattened chest, powerful forelimbs with large claws—suggests adaptations for climbing. It’s the most arboreal (tree-living) of all bears: the sun bear is an excellent climber and sunbathes or sleeps in trees 7 to 23 feet above the ground.”
I liked this short comment: “I’ve lived with my wife for 37 years. She knew all about sun bears, what they look like, where they live etc. I’ve never heard of them. Weird.”
Now I’m gonna try to find one to say good night to you. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 