The clue at 21D today was “Entire range,” and the answer was GAMUT. It led Barbara S. to this funny memory:
The word GAMUT always makes me smile because I had a colleague who used the expression “Throw down the GAMUT.” You’d think it wouldn’t come up much, but he found a surprisingly large number of instances in which to use it. To this day, if I ever use the expression (correctly, I hope) I always have to stop and think “GAMUT or gauntlet?”
Commenter jberg then wrote:
“Barbara, I always had that same GAMUT/gauntlet problem, mostly because I had no idea what a gamut was. Then I started reading some history of early music and learned about Guido of Arezzo, who drew a hand, marked the knuckles and fingertips with the names of all the notes within the range of human voices, and used it to teach singing. Apparently the lowest note was Gamma Ut, hence GAMUT. I never saw the use of it, but at least now I know what a gamut is, so I don’t confuse it with gloves anymore. But then there’s the ‘gantlet,’ something one is made to run, which also confused me.”
The following note from the Merriam-Webster folks fleshes it all out:
“With the song “Do-Re-Mi,” the 1965 musical film The Sound of Music introduced millions of non-musicians to solfège, the singing of the sol-fa syllables—do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti—to teach the tones of a musical scale. Centuries earlier, however, the do in “Do-Re-Mi” was known as ut. Indeed, the first note on the scale of Guido d’Arezzo, an 11th century musician and monk who had his own way of applying syllables to musical tones, was ut. d’Arezzo also called the first line of his bass staff gamma, which meant that gamma ut was the term for a note written on the first staff line. In time, gamma ut underwent a shortening to gamut, and later its meaning expanded first to cover all the notes of d’Arezzo’s scale, then to cover all the notes in the range of an instrument, and, eventually, to cover an entire range of any sort.”
The puzzle today was pretty amazing, IMO. The theme was announced via two down answers: EIGHT and BIRDS. So in eight of the long across answers birds were embedded — and exactly in the center of each word. Our favorite, of course was scOWLed. The others were: bEAGLEs, fraTERNity, maLARKey, laWRENce, balLOONist, pROBINg, and rEGRETs.
BTW, the clue for PROBING was “Fun for a proctologist.” [No it wasn’t.]
How about this one: What a proctologist studies in med school: ANALOGY.
I sometimes request a proctor from my department to help administer an exam in my large class. When making the request, I always ask for a proctologist. It never gets old.
Suggestion from a commenter: Download the Merlin bird app which is supported by Cornell U. Then when you are on your patio drinking wine turn on the sound ID and see the list of singers you are hearing! Fun.
The “appraisal” in the NYT of the late Tina Turner by Wesley Morris was beautiful. He said her book “I, Tina” “always read like a recipe book to me. The ingredients include force, power, will, sex, might. Hence the shock at her death. They’re saying she was 83? Nobody’s buying that. The ingredients made her seem immortal. For seven decades of making music, it all sizzled in her. That energy. It shot from her — from her feet, thighs, hands, arms, shoulders, out of her hair, out of her mouth.” (See photo.)
He goes on:
“Adrienne Warren, who played Turner on Broadway, needed physical therapy and personal training to survive the part. For the Hollywood movie of Turner’s life, Angela Bassett essentially became all muscle. They both won acting awards. But the prize most fitting is probably a gold medal.”
Let’s go with these shots for now. I’ll find one with her electric legs later.
He tells this story.
“In 1982, her tour stopped in Onoway, Alberta. My friend James is from Edmonton, and Turner’s death on Wednesday shook loose a childhood memory of the time his parents drove to Onoway to see her play the Devil’s Lake Corral. He sent a video. It’s a mind-blowing feat of acrobatics, precision, adrenaline, heft, costuming. In other words, the usual. Turner is drenched before the halfway point. But the reason to bring this show up is how it starts.
“Turner blows onto the stage wearing a sandy top and tights and a silky golden wig that looks like a Shih Tzu’s rear. Her first song isn’t her redefinition of “Proud Mary” or her in-the-trenches urgent undoing of “Help.” It’s Rod Stewart’s wife-murdering nightmare “Foolish Behaviour,” and Tina rips its head off. Presumably, the Devil kept to his lake that night.”
Rest in peace, Ida Mae Bullock. Rest in peace, Tina.
In the first sentence of his obit in the Times, actor George Maharis is described as “ruggedly handsome.” He died last Wednesday at his home in Beverly Hills at age 94. Most of us remember him for his role of Buz Murdock on “Route 66” in which he appeared from 1960 to 1963. It was said he left the show for health reasons, but the truth is the executive producer was angry and felt betrayed when he learned Maharis was gay.
Maharis was arrested in 1967 on charges of “lewd conduct,” and in 1974 on charges of “sex perversion” for cruising in men’s bathrooms. He did not discuss his sexuality in interviews, but in one with Esquire in 2017 he proudly described being the July 1973 nude centerfold in Playgirl magazine. “A lot of guys came up to me and asked me to sign it for their ‘wives,’” he said.
Maharis was well-respected for serious theater work before his TV show, and appeared in various movies and TV shows after it. He was born in the Astoria section of Queens [Hi Bob!] on Sept. 1, 1928, the son of a Greek restaurateur. He attended Flushing High School and later served in the Marines.
Here’s what ruggedly handsome looks like, ladies (and gents). Yup, I can see it.
On this day, 101 years ago, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated. Here are some things I didn’t know about it.
Its 36 marble columns represent the 36 states that existed at the time of the assassination. There is a myth that one of the words in his inaugural address etched into the Memorial is misspelled, but that is not the case. Masons did accidentally carve an E instead of an F, but it was filled in. (That’s one serious-ass typo, gentlemen!)
One of Lincoln’s hands is in a fist and the other is relaxed. Some believe the hands are forming the letters A and L in sign language, but that was not the intent. The intent was to symbolize Lincoln’s mixture of strength and compassion.
The monument was dedicated in front of an audience of more than 50,000 people, and the audience was segregated! Keynote speaker Robert Moton, president of the Tuskegee Institute and an African-American, was not permitted to sit on the speakers’ platform.
God bless America.
Let’s end on a sweet note tonight. We are enjoying Shrinking on Apple+. Jason Segel and Harrison Ford are leads, but a central character is Segel’s HS-age daughter, played by Lukita Maxwell, a knockout. Lukita was born in Jakarta, Indonesia, and was raised in Bali and Utah. Hope you’ll be popping by Owl Chatter from time to time, LM. We’ll keep the door open, right Welly?
Good night, everybody. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 