While waiting for my train home today, in Penn Station, I had this exchange with an older man in a t-shirt and jeans. By “older,” I mean about twenty years younger than me. I remember it verbatim because I don’t have too many of these.
Him: Covid over?
Me: What?
Him: Covid over?
Me: I hope so.
Him: Seems to be.
Me: Yes.
Him: When the President is re-elected it’s going to start again.
Me: What’s the connection?
Him: Huh?
Me: What’s the connection?
Him: I guess so, yeah.
Then he walked away, leaving me with a handful of questions, but grateful that he left.
OK kids, here’s your assignment. Take nine (nine!) different trees and find words or word pairs that contain them backwards. Assemble them all as down answers in a crossword puzzle in such a way that the grid looks like a tree. This is what Kathryn Ladner came up with today, brilliantly, IMO. Can you find the nine? — the letters are circled. And can you see the tree?
Commenter Smith said he just couldn’t figure out the theme from the circled letters. He said he “spent quite a few post-solve minutes reading the circles forward, backwards, down and even boustrophedon.”
Wow — have you ever heard that word before? Bocamp did some digging for us:
Boustrophedon is an ancient style of writing that dates back to the early civilizations of Mesopotamia and Greece. The word itself is of Greek origin and translates to “ox-turning” or “as the ox plows.” This name comes from the pattern of the writing, which resembles the path of an ox plowing a field. In the boustrophedon style, the text is written in alternating directions, right to left and left to right, in successive lines. The lines change direction, much like the back-and-forth motion of an ox plowing a field, hence the name. It was used in early writing systems.
Here’s a couplet in boustrophedon:
Roses are red
.eulb era steloiv
Who let the oxen out?
Remember 15A: The BAHA MEN? I didn’t. Their big hit was “Who Let the Dogs Out?” That was back in 2000. I’d have guessed it was longer ago. While the question makes sense in the appropriate context (assigning blame for whoever let the dogs out when they were supposed to stay in), the meaning of the lyrics eludes me. E.g.,
Well, if I am a dog, the party is on
I gotta get my groove cause my mind done gone
Do you see the rays coming from my eye
Walking through the place
That Diji man is breakin’ it down?
It won the 2001 Grammy for Best Dance Recording, and did very well on the charts. The band (The Baha Men) makes for a good crossword answer, but a little hard for Tuesday, it seems to me. I got it from the crosses and by guessing the first “A.” Here they are, chillin’, having forgotten all about those dogs, from the looks of it.
An ELAND was in the puzzle at 10D: “African antelope that’s the size of a moose.” I was happy to see it because Vermont Lizzie sometimes uses it as a Wordle starter. Hi Liz! Did you know they were moose-sized? Let’s have a look at one — what the hell else do we have to do?
Yup. Looks pretty damn big. They generally hang out in Southern Africa.
Exciting news: I picked up a pair of tix for a Buddy Guy concert in Red Bank NJ on Sept 30. Can’t wait.
I heard Leonard Cohen explain that the “sisters of mercy” were two mini-skirted teeny boppers who had the assignment of picking him up at the airport in Vancouver when he flew in for a concert once. It must have been a very long time ago, since that song is on his first album. I don’t know what my favorite song of his is — so many of them have been important to me over the years, and so many are so beautiful. But I do have a favorite lyric, and it is from Sisters: If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn, they will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 