Owl Chatter friend Delaware Nancy texted us last night with the news that Wendy and Simon’s son Seth has an XW puzzle of his in today’s Wall Street Journal. If you go to WSJ.com/puzzles you should be able to find it. It’s called “In the Can.” There’s good stuff in it, but I’m only going to chatter about it later (below) in case you want to take some time and work on it. Just one point — the answer at 44A is amazing.
In case you thought there might be one tiny shred of decency or sanity in Giuliani from his early days as a prosecutor or when he was “America’s Mayor” on 9/11, his statement yesterday on his indictment in Georgia leaves no doubt that that isn’t the case. Here it is:
“This is an affront to American Democracy and does permanent, irrevocable harm to our justice system. It’s just the next chapter in a book of lies with the purpose of framing President Donald Trump and anyone willing to take on the ruling regime. They lied about Russian collusion, they lied about Joe Biden’s foreign bribery scheme, and they lied about Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive proving 30 years of criminal activity. The real criminals here are the people who have brought this case forward both directly and indirectly.”
Is “permanent, irrevocable” redundant?
Trump’s calm and reasoned response is even funnier. It makes you want to live until Monday.
He promised on Truth Social that next Monday he will present “A Large, Complex, Detailed but Irrefutable REPORT on the Presidential Election Fraud which took place in Georgia,” saying the report “is almost complete.” He went on: “Based on the results of this CONCLUSIVE Report, all charges should be dropped against me & others—There will be a complete EXONERATION!”
He just has to put the finishing touches on it. For Monday. I guess we should reserve judgment until we see it. You know, to be fair.
Today’s NYT puzzle was all about the Taj Mahal. Remember what it looks like?
Well, the grid tried to portray it.
You can see the TOMB on the bottom, and the circled letters spell TAJ MAHAL on top, forming the dome. There’s a lot of info on it in the puzzle as well, e.g., the builder was SHAH JAHAN, at 38D, which was news to me.
To no surprise, it also conjured up the blues singer Taj Mahal for many in the gang. He was born in Harlem, is still living, and is 81. He shares his birthday with my Caitlin, who hit the planet 44 years after he did. This version of him singing Corrina was taped just 7 and a half years ago.
After watching a zillion ballgames starting when I was seven or eight, I love that I still often learn new rules, or see things I’ve never seen before. That happened twice this week.
First, let me remind you that if there are runners on first and third, or the bases are loaded, and the batter hits a ground ball to short which is turned into a traditional double play by the infielders with the runner scoring from third, the batter is not credited with an RBI. That I knew. Here’s what happened in the Gnats-Red Sox game last gnight. (I may be off on some of the details.)
The bases were loaded with Bostoners with no outs. The batter flied out to right field and the runner tagged up and scored from third. But another runner also tagged up and was thrown out. It was a double play, but on that type of double play, the batter is credited with an RBI. Neat, eh? The second out does not diminish the batter’s accomplishment of plating the run.
The second occurrence was in the Mets game against Pittsburgh on Monday. Let me remind you that if a runner runs out of the base path to avoid a tag, the ump should call him out for doing so. OK, the Pirates had the bases loaded with no outs. The batter hit a ground ball to Pete Alonso, the first baseman. The runner from first ran around Pete and was called out by the ump for leaving the base path. Alonso then rifled the ball home where the runner from third was tagged out. Ouch! if you’re the Pirates — two outs and no runs.
But the Mets’ announcers (the excellent Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez) explained that the Pirates were robbed (hmm, that’s a reversal). Even though the runner from first ran around Alonso (i.e., and out of the base path), Alonso never tried to tag him. And the runner should only be called out if he’s “avoiding a tag.” Hernandez (a Gold Glove first-baseman in his day) said Alonso was supposed to make some tagging gesture towards the runner but didn’t. Wow — that was all new to me. And to the ump, apparently. The Pirate manager argued the point but it was not reviewable and the out stood.
BTW, I mentioned above that Hernandez was a gold glove winner — well, he won it eleven years in a row, the most gold gloves by any first-baseman in MLB history. (Don Mattingly is second with nine.) [Who never won one. (Get it?)] Here’s Hernandez responding to one of Phil’s terrible jokes. Don’t encourage him Keith! You have no idea what we go through here at OC.
OK, did I leave you enough time to do Seth’s puzzle? It’s called “In the Can” because it stars OSCAR THE GROUCH, a long answer, and includes the GARBAGE PAIL KIDS, a LITTER BOX, a JUNK MAIL FOLDER, and TRASH TALK. It also includes great old time folkies John HIATT and Bonnie RAITT — the kid was raised right! But my favorite answer was at 44A. It was DAAE. What? Can’t be right, right? But it is — It’s Christine Daae, a character in “The Phantom of the Opera” — a fictional character. Great find, Seth!
Here she is played by Mary Philbin in the 1925 film.
And here’s a more recent portrayal by the exquisite Emily Rossum.
I can see the resemblance.
See you tomorrow! Thanks for popping in.
The Wellington Files 