We have had poems in Owl Chatter by Anna Krugovoy Silver before.
Sadly, she passed away at only age 49 back in 2018. I wish she hadn’t — for selfish reasons. She seems like the female version of our Ted Kooser.
This poem of hers from today’s Writer’s Almanac is about women, but men can enjoy it too, from the outside — I certainly did. There’s a whole women’s planet we guys will never post a settlement on. If my path through a department store takes me through the cosmetics department I get a whiff of it, literally. If it takes me through women’s underwear, I worry I’m going to be arrested for trespassing, or worse, and I pick up my speed. The poem is called Woman with a Hole in Her Stocking.
Such a universal female gesture,
a woman grabbing the seam of her stocking,
tugging it forward over the exposed toe,
tucking it under her foot so the tear won’t show.
There’s something graceful and humble
about the way she will balance, crane-like,
on one foot, cradling the other in her hand,
her back bent, her face tilted downward,
trying to hide the damage of the splintered
floorboard, or untrimmed toenail.
Sometimes, while she’s leaning over,
a strand will float loose from its ponytail.
Then she’ll stand, recombing her hair
with her hands, repair after tiny repair.
After the Uri Geller write-up yesterday, I continued to think about him. About how lucky he was to find a wife able to put up with his unique lunacy. They have two beautiful children too. I was imagining what a divorce proceeding would have been like.
“Your Honor — look at this silverware drawer! I haven’t had soup since the Yom Kippur War! My children can’t eat cereal!”
On this date in 1871, Marcel Proust was born in Auteuil, France. Here’s what a madeleine looks like, a bite of which let flow the protagonist’s memories in his novel. (I urged Phil to help himself to a couple but forgot to say “after the shot.” He’s incorrigible.)
The actual bite in Proust’s own life upon which the notion was based was not of a madeleine, I just learned. It was a bite of a “rusk,” a hard, crisp, twice-toasted bread. I can see why he zhuzhed it up for the book.
Happy Birthday, MP!
The clue at 17A today is “Antagonize a powerful figure,” and the answer is POKE THE BEAR. It reminded me of this joke I posted for the Rex gang. Why shouldn’t you suffer too?
So an Israeli soldier is captured during wartime. The enemy captain tells him if he can perform three feats of valor they will let him go. He says, sure — what are they? First, you must swim this snake-infested lake across and back in 30 minutes. If you survive, we will bring you to this tent containing a fierce bear that is suffering from an abscessed tooth and hasn’t been fed in days. You must extract the tooth. If you survive that, we will bring you to the tent of Princess Fatima, who has had many lovers but has never been satisfied by a man. Your final feat is to bring pleasure to our princess.
Let’s get started, the Israeli says, and he dives into the lake. Fighting off the snakes, he makes it across and back in just a few seconds under 30 minutes. They bring him to the bear’s tent. He enters and they seal it off behind him. You hear the most godawful screams and roars for what seems like forever and then it’s eerily quiet. The doorway opens slowly, and the soldier staggers out — alive, but only barely. OK, he says to the captain — now where’s that lady with the bad tooth.
As I tell my students, it’s important to pay attention to the instructions.
Another verb/animal expression from the puzzle was at 27A: “Become absurdly outlandish, as a TV show,” with the answer JUMP THE SHARK.
It comes from Henry Winkler and the TV show Happy Days. Some felt the show was growing a little tired, you know, losing its zip. So it turns out Winkler happened to be a very good water skier — he was an instructor when he was a kid. So as a way to boost interest, they set up a wild episode in which Winkler, in a bathing suit and his iconic leather jacket, actually water skis over a shark. In fact, the show hadn’t been flagging — it continued to be quite successful for several more years. But the expression “to jump the shark” became synonymous with doing something crazy in an attempt to avoid a decline. Winkler said he wasn’t upset at being associated with the phrase, in part because “at the time, I had great legs.” The phrase itself was coined by comic Jon Hein with his UMich roommate Sean Connolly. Go Blue!
Here’s Winkler, on dry land.
In the fourth Indiana Jones film, Indiana takes refuge in a lead-lined refrigerator to shield himself from the detonation of an atomic bomb. The blast hurls it far enough away that he survives unharmed. The scene was criticized as being “scientifically implausible.” Ya think? Even the idea of a lead-lined fridge is ridiculous.
In any event, the expression to “nuke the fridge” became synonymous with film scenes that stretch credulity and, in doing so, diminish respect for the film. It’s in the same ballpark as shark-jumping.
Here’s Karen Allen, the only woman in the cast.
Thanks for dropping in — see you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 