Owl Chatter often refers to “Rex” of “Rex Parker,” whose blog on the daily NYTXW is usually entertaining and illuminating. He posted some family pix today. Here he is with his daughter in Beacon NY yesterday. Note his “Grid is Life” shirt.
The puzzle had some neat stuff today. It started off with “Bovine animals that are raced in Tibet,” which was YAKS: hard for a Monday. Remember the famous “One small step for man” moon quote? Well, 23A was “Simple ballroom dance,” for ONE STEP, and two lines above it SMALL appeared, and two lines above that SPACE appeared, clued as “Astronaut’s realm.”
It had MOOD, MAD, and MADD, as well as ARGON and ARSONS. It had “Kind of oil derived from marijuana, for short,” for CBD, right near POT, weirdly clued by “Bonsai tree holder.” It continued the “beer” theme with MICROBREWERY. And it met its tuchas quota nicely with “Get a move on, slangily:” HAUL ASS.
egsforbreakfast commented: “Before retiring, I transported donkeys for a living. I was damn good at it too. People used to say, “ That egsforbreakfast can really HAUL ASS.” I stuck to donkeys because they’re smart, unlike the YAKS. I never met a brainiac.”
The puzzle also, at 42A, took a moment to explain why the NBA team in LA is named the LAKERS. The clue was “California basketball team originally located in Minnesota.” [That’s the same reason the team in Utah is the “Jazz.” It moved from New Orleans.]
But constructor Tomas Spiers wandered into a minefield with 55A: “Big muscle for Popeye after he eats spinach.” ANS: BICEP. A comment: “There is no such thing as a bicep. Biceps means “two heads” and refers to the two anatomic structures that form the muscle. Likewise the triceps and quadriceps muscles with three or four heads. You can’t make it a single noun. Don’t get me started on the item of clothing called a PANT!!!”
Others were equally irate.
Here are some solid ‘ceps. Don’t mess with this babe.
One of the theme answers was TINY DANCER.
Blue jean baby, L.A. lady
Seamstress for the band
Pretty-eyed, pirate smile
You’ll marry a music man.
Here’s a duet Elton John sang with Miley Cyrus at the Grammys.
Do you have a favorite Pope? If so, is it Leo XIII? BTW, if you look at old-time baseball photos you will notice the ballplayers are not wearing uniform numbers. The practice of assigning numbers to players and having them displayed on their uniforms only gained full acceptance in 1937, and was based on the Popes being numbered, although roman numerals were not used on uniforms. This also explains why for several years in the early-to-mid 1900’s the Popes wore vestments that were similar to baseball uniforms with baseball-type caps for certain ceremonial rites.
[Don’t believe anything in that last paragraph having to do with Popes. Numbered uniforms did start in 1916 in Cleveland. They only became universal in both leagues in 1937.]
Anyway, I mention Leo XIII because on this day in 1891 he issued an encyclical addressing labor issues that for the first time made social justice part of the Church’s mission. It’s the Rerum Novarum. It calls for laborers to be paid a fair, living wage. It says to employers: “be mindful of this — to exercise pressure upon the indigent and the destitute for the sake of gain, and to gather one’s profit out of the need of another, is condemned by all laws, human and divine.”
BTW, an encyclical issued on a recurring basis is a cyclical encyclical. The Papal assistant entrusted with distributing these around Vatican City on his bike when ill was said to circulate cyclical encyclicals by bicycle sickly.
Here’s a photo of Leo XIII, getting ready to officiate at Arnie Gurowitz’s bar mitzvah at Temple Shohei Ohtani in Forest Hills.
See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 