A couple of war horses from (roughly) my neck of the woods visited the grid today: Jersey Girl Meryl STREEP, and Gertrude STEIN who was born near Pittsburgh. Stein was clued with “Poet Gertrude,” which was a bit of a surprise. I knew she was a writer and hosted a Paris salon for artists and writers, but I wouldn’t have called her a poet.
As LMS put it: “I was also happy to learn that Gertrude STEIN wrote poetry. I mean, I know she is considered an author, but I couldn’t tell you one thing she wrote. I always imagine her just as a community organizer, the den mother for all the Lost Generation writers.”
The theme was cute, based on the expression ARE YOU OKAY? All the long answers contained the letter-pairs RU and OK. E.g, RUnning jOKe and instRUction boOK.
For “running joke,” I posted the following for the Rex gang. (It got one nice response.) Some of you may be very well aware of it already.
OK, you wait until the topic of cats comes up, and at the right moment you say: “Do you know who sleeps with cats?” They will either say No, or look at you funny. In either case, you say “Mrs. Katz.” The joke is they thought you were saying “cats” but you were actually asking about some old Jewish guy named Katz. Now this is the important part: You can’t let the fact that it’s not funny at all deter you. Time goes by. Months, maybe years. You are with those people and maybe the topic of cats comes up again, or maybe the moment just feels right, and you say, “Hey, do you know who sleeps with cats?” They may or may not remember, it doesn’t matter. Again you say “Mrs. Katz.” Years go by. Your children grow up and disappoint you. Uncle Louie gets out of jail. You repeat the Mrs. Katz joke from time to time and then, when you feel that the moment is right, you spring — you say “Do you know who sleeps with cats?” By now they know to answer “Mrs. Katz,” but you say — “No! Mrs. Schwartz!! It’s a big scandal!!”
In honor of that joke, we had a beautiful calico cat years ago whom we named Mrs. Katz, may she rest in peace.
BTW, I tried to get life insurance for a cat once — they made me take out nine policies!
I love LMS’s stories about her mom. This one was inspired by 29D: ROSEBUSHES.
Yesterday I helped Mom up the three steps outside in the “garden” area of our little backyard. She wanted to check the weed situation next to her knockout ROSEBUSES after she had someone lay some of that plastic stuff and then put mulch on top. For the bajillionth time, I vaguely wondered what a knockout rose was, but I didn’t ask. Listen. It was about 93 and muggy as hell, and I’m lacking the gene that affords me any interest whatsoever in plants and gardening. I should have acted more interested, should have offered to walk her over to other areas, but it was just too hot, and I had a headache. Back inside I started feeling guilty and hated myself for my plant indifference. So this morning, I’m going to cut a couple of those roses, and put them in a bud vase on the counter to greet Mom when she gets up. They don’t really look like the long-stemmed roses you get from a suitor, but they’re red and smell faintly rosesome. Is a knockout rose the kind of flower you’d put in a vase? I’m not gonna overthink it; a rose is a rose is a rose, right?
The clue for 40D was “Yawn inducing,” and the answer was the very odd BORESOME. Rex blew up — hated it! Called it the world’s stupidest word. I’d say he was in the majority too. But a smattering came to its defense. It is in the dictionary, after all, and Lewis felt it was less, well, boring than boring. And some were happy to learn (for them) a new word.
The clue for 22A was “2016 Denzel Washington/Viola Davis film whose title refers to real and metaphorical barriers.” Did you see it? FENCES. Not an easy watch. Here they are in a rare happy moment:
I remember an old Chris Rock bit about seeing Denzel dating a white woman. “Oh, no!” he moaned. “Not Denzel!! He’s one of the good ones!! We only got eight!”
But here’s Denzel with his wife Pauletta, to whom he is very devoted. They have four gorgeous kids.
Good to see you DW — Loved you in Philadelphia! Don’t be a stranger!
Good night, everybody. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 