We’ve seen nouns turn into verbs, e.g., gift. “After Tom gifted his cherished record collection to Sally, she dumped it in the trash.” And sandwich: “Two fat people sandwiched Peggy into the narrow space between them.”
But did you ever hear of a typographical symbol becoming a verb? That’s what’s happened to @, according to LMS, based on no less of an authority than Merriam-Webster (not to be confused with Miriam Weintraub, who went to high school with me, a lovely girl).
The following is lifted from LMS’s note on the puzzle today:
AT has become a full-on verb. See below from Merriam-Webster:
at transitive verb, informal
: to respond to, challenge, or disparage the claim or opinion of (someone) —usually used in the phrase don’t @ me.
It goes without saying that Lucille Ball’s comedic timing is unmatched—don’t @ me, you’ll be wrong. —Matt Brennan
I’ll cut right to the chase: Men should be able to wear makeup, don’t at me. —Carine Green
What’s really cool is that we have a typographical symbol that has been promoted to verbship. If you’re thinking about @ing me your disgust, remember I didn’t cause this – just reporting the facts people.
The puzzle’s theme today was a play on magazine names. E.g., where the clue was “Got any celebrity magazines?” “Alas, we’re …”, the answer was SHORT A FEW PEOPLE. And “Got any news magazines?” “Sorry, we’re …,” STRAPPED FOR TIME.
Joaquin noted:
Speaking of magazines …
Back in the Cold War era, my uncle lived in Washington, D.C. and he had a large collection of old “National Geographic” magazines. Rather than toss them, he ran a newspaper ad offering to give them away. He received an immediate telephone inquiry from the Russian Embassy. This was followed up by a visit from the FBI wanting to know why he was talking with the Russians.
Remember these eyes? Hard to forget. She was an Afghan refugee on the June, 1985 cover.
DON HO paid a visit to the puzzle today, clued as the “Tiny Bubbles” crooner. egsforbreakfast said he liked Don’s brother GUNG better. He also noted it’s not “futile” to look for both FETAL and FATAL in the puzzle because they both were there, the former as a “position,” and the latter as a “flaw.” He claims a secondary definition of “fetal” in Merriam-Webster is “Of, or pertaining to, Greek cheese,” but I’m pretty sure he’s kidding.
Speaking of kidding:
From Lianna today: Did you know that the average frog can jump higher than the Eiffel Tower? That is because the Eiffel Tower cannot jump.
35D garnered some attention. The clue was “One attempting to outsmart a bridge troll, in a classic fairy tale,” and the answer was BILLY GOAT. I must confess I am not familiar with the tale. Gary Jugert is in the same boat and said: “Peevishly admitting I’ve never heard a billy goat and troll story. Did I miss an important parable and that’s why I haven’t gotten far in life?”
And jberg came back with: “Yes, you are missing out. As kids we had a gray book of folk stories, and that was probably the one we most liked to have read to us. Great dialogue, like ‘Well, come along, I’ve got two spears and I’ll poke your eyeballs out at your ears!’ The clue has it wrong, though — the smaller billy goats are not “attempting” to outwit the troll, they are outwitting it.”
6A was “Ballpark figures, for short.” Many of us thought it could be ESTS, for estimates. But it turned out to be the baseball stats ERAS. It reminded okanaganer of this exchange between Monica and Tom Selleck from Friends:
Monica: “So, how many lovers have you had?”
Tom thinks for a minute…: “Um, four.”
Monica, gobsmacked: “Four? Have you SEEN yourself?”
Tom: “Well, how many for you?”
Monica: “Um…”, then silence.
Tom: “Just,… ballpark.”
Monica, immediately: “Oh, WAY less than a ballpark.”
Have you donated $1 to Doug Burgum yet? I just did. He’s the Guv of North Dakota and is running for Prez. As you may have heard, he’s getting a little desperate to qualify for the first GOP presidential debate. He needs 40,000 individual donors. So he’s offering a $20 gift card to anyone who donates $1. So I did. I was careful not to enter a phone number. All he needed was a mailing address and email address, which already get flooded with crap, so what’s a few more? I’ll let you know when/if it comes.
You’d think An Elementary Treatise on Electricity, by James Clerk Maxwell would be hard to put down. It was published in1881 and is 208 pages long. (It’s worth around $600 today.) But somebody took too long with it.
The New Bedford Free Public Library acquired a copy in 1882. It was last checked out on Feb. 14, 1905, probably — the stamp is a little unclear — it could have been 1904. In any event, that’s close to 120 years ago.
So when New Bedford librarian Olivia Melo got a call from Stewart Plein, a curator of rare books at West Virginia University’s library, on May 30th, she said, “Well, it’s about time!” It was in a bunch of books donated to WVU. It showed the New Bedford library as the owner and was not stamped “withdrawn,” which would have meant “no longer owned.” So he sent it back.
Happily, the book was in “optimal” shape, with the words legible and the spine sturdy. When it was taken out, New Bedford charged a 1 cent a day late fee, which would result in a $430 fine. At the current 5 cents a day fee, the fine would have been $2,100. But late fees were capped at just $2 decades ago, to encourage book returns.
Remember this one? Note how much trouble Jerry is having keeping a straight face.
The actor playing Lt. Bookman is Philip Baker Hall, who passed away a little over a year ago at age 90. He popped around in a lot of roles: over 200. I last saw him as the externally gruff but wonderful neighbor on Modern Family. Back in 1984 he played Richard Nixon in Secret Honor, a film directed by Robert Altman. Roger Ebert said: “Nixon is portrayed by Philip Baker Hall, an actor previously unknown to me, with such savage intensity, such passion, such venom, such scandal, that we cannot turn away. Hall looks a little like the real Nixon; he could be a cousin, and he sounds a little like him. That’s close enough. This is not an impersonation, it’s a performance.” Vincent Canby also praised Hall’s “immense performance,” and called it astonishing and risky. Rest in peace, Bookman.
Good night everybody — see you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 