ERIN was in the puzzle today at 63A, as in ERIN Burnett of CNN. Burnett is not only good-looking, she has many “good looks.” Ever get one of these?
Or this?
Or how about this?
You’ve been there.
Also in the grid today was ELI Apple. Even if you’re a sports fan there’s a chance you haven’t heard of him. Here’s what I posted on Rex’s blog:
“When Eli Apple (5D) was drafted tenth in the 2016 NFL draft by the NY Giants he became the latest in the short line of professional fruit athletes. Before him were Milt Plum and Raymond Berry of the NFL, Don Cherry of the NHL, baseballers Chet and Bob Lemon, and, of course, Daryl Strawberry. Their mascot is Otto the Orange, of Syracuse U.
“Eli was actually born Eli Woodard, but adopted the surname Apple to honor Tim Apple, the man who raised him from infancy and married his mom. Apple is a Jersey man and was all set to attend Rutgers when its coach (Schiano) left for the pros, so he went to Ohio State instead and had an outstanding college career, which included winning the National Championship in 2015. As a pro, he had some behavioral/personality issues with the Giants and no longer plays in the ‘Big Apple.’ He’s with the Bengals now.”
Here’s Eli, and then Daryl, watching one of his shots sail into the stratosphere.
Sending a special Owl Chatter thank you to Delaware Nancy for help with the “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” material yesterday. Back in 1969 (’70?) we took each other (and another Nancy) out to a Senators-Yankees ballgame in DC. It lasted 18 innings and the Yanks won 2-1. We stayed for the whole game and had a million laughs.
One of the cute clues in the puzzle was at 44A: “You might calmly tell someone not to do this.” The answer was WORRY. But it led LMS down a different path:
“You might calmly tell someone not to do this.” Hmm. DON’T YOU THROW THAT CHEESE STICK ACROSS THE ROOM! I could see it in her eyes – when someone asked her if he could have it – she was gonna throw it. (The background story is that she is at my school for attacking a teacher. And she towers over me.) Not taking her eyes off mine, she winged it across the room. Shit. Now what. Our eyes were still locked as I walked over to her, looked up, and said I’m so disappointed and hurt that you just threw that. She was still. I went on, fanning my face, I think I’m gonna cry. She said, Don’t cry, Ms. Smith. I sniffed, Wanna hug it out? She laughed, Oh God, no. I just said, Don’t do that again or we’re gonna have a real problem. I know I handled it wrong; I should have written her up and kicked her out as a message to her and the other kids, but, well, heck. Baby steps and all that. She’s been good for me ever since.
Hard to imagine there’s a better teacher on this planet. How would she have written it up anyway? — Assault with cheese stick?
She chimed in on another clue/answer. The clue at 62A was “Lead-in to goblin,” and the answer was HOB. Here’s LMS:
I misread 62A as “lead-in to globin.” When my daughter started a blood-borne pathogens class in vet school, we had an exchange that kind of went like this:
Me: Sage, here’s what you have to do. You might want to get a pen to write this down. At some point, you have to raise your hand and say, “Professor? These are pretty bad actors, these pathogens, right?” She’ll agree that, yes, they’re bad. So then you have to tilt your head, squint your eyes a little but not too much and say, “So you could argue that they’re, well, hemogoblins.”
Sage: I’m not gonna do that, Mom.
Owl Chatter: Worth a try.
Here are some cute cheese sticks. Go ahead: fling one.
Pamela Turnure Timmins died of lung cancer last week at age 85 at her home in Edwards, Colorado. Back in 1961, when she was only 23, she was hired to be the press secretary to Jackie Kennedy, the first time a First Lady had one. She was hired at JFK’s behest, at least in part because he was having an affair with her. (Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh and others alleged that JFK and she were having the affair. She had worked for JFK when he was a senator. Timmins seldom discussed the matter and maintained her relationship with JFK was platonic.)
As Jackie’s press secretary she did everything for her and went everywhere with her. When tragedy struck with the death of their infant son, Patrick, Timmins was crucial in handling the media barrage.
JFK expressed concern one day that their ride in a motorcade could ruin Jackie’s hair. Timmins suggested they not ride in a convertible, but JFK insisted the people wanted to see them. It was the Dallas motorcade and it was their last ride together. Timmins was on Air Force One when LBJ took the oath of office. At one point after the shooting, LBJ turned to Timmins and kissed her on the hand.
After the assassination, Timmins helped Jackie through all of the difficulties, including dealing with the tens of thousands of letters that arrived daily. She continued to work with Jackie until 1966, when she married investment banker Robert Timmins. She had previously dated Prince Aly Kahn who had been the third husband of Rita Hayworth. (You following this?) After her stint with Jackie, Timmins worked as an interior designer in Manhattan.
Here’s Pamela with Caroline’s cat, Tom Kitten.
Frank Bruni’s newsletter this week included the following in its “For the love of sentences” feature:
In The New Yorker, Rebecca Mead wondered at King Charles’s verbal stumbles: “He is notoriously hostile to modern architecture, and, in a vitriolic 1987 speech to a gathering of distinguished British planners and designers, he proclaimed, ‘You have, ladies and gentlemen, to give this much to the Luftwaffe — when it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble. We did that.’ Charles’s remarks bring to mind the internet era’s Godwin’s law, which holds that once an argument escalates online someone inevitably invokes the Nazis; usually, though, the comparison is not in the Nazis’ favor.”
Yesterday’s puzzle reached back for a throb from the past: Britney Spears. The theme answer crossing the entire grid was OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN.
At 47D, “Metal bars” was INGOTS, and it led pabloinnh to post the following: My favorite answer was INGOTS. It made me think of old friends Bob and Ray again, one of whose “sponsors” was The Monongahela Steel Foundry, Makers of INGOTS for the Home. They were always reminding housewives that their old INGOTS were getting dusty and it was time to replace them with some new and shiny ones.
Here’s a taste of Bob and Ray from an appearance on The Tonight Show back when Johnny Carson was the host. And then we’ll close with Ms. Spears.
Good night everybody. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 