Don’t mess with this woman, at least on the basketball court. She’s A’ja Wilson of the LA Aces of the WNBA, who are currently 29-4. Wilson tied an all-time WNBA high last night with 53 points.
Wilson is 6′ 4″ and played college ball at South Carolina, winning the national title in 2017 while being named the tournament’s MVP. In 2018, she was named best player in women’s college basketball and was selected first overall in the WNBA draft. In 2020, she was the WNBA MVP.
A’ja was born in Columbia, SC, in August of ’96, making her 27. Her mom had a court stenographer business, and her dad played pro basketball in Europe for ten years. She was named after the Steely Dan song Aja, which was her dad’s favorite song. She considers herself fortunate, because his second favorite was Hava Nagilah, the popular Jewish wedding song. [No it wasn’t.] Her middle name is Riyadh, where her aunt was deployed in Operation Desert Storm.
How revered was she at South Carolina? This statue of her was dedicated in January, 2021. She has noted: “My grandmother couldn’t even walk on this campus; she had to walk around it.”
Right before sitting down to write this nonsense today, I sent the following to Frank Bruni for his “For the love sentences” feature:
In the 8/28 New Yorker, Anthony Lane says this about “Meg 2: The Trench.”
Much of it takes place on the ocean floor, in a confounding murk; the one bright patch is the opening scene, which is set sixty-five million years ago, around the time of Henry Kissinger’s tenth birthday.
(BTW, Hank turned 100 in May.]
Sliman Bensmaia’s death this month at only age 49 is a terrible loss for mankind. He was doing extraordinary work in neuroscience allowing amputees and quadriplegics to feel sensations and pressure. He was a prof at U. of Chicago. Much of his work was with rhesus monkeys, assessing how their brains respond to stimuli.
Bensmaia was also a talented pianist who played regular gigs around Chicago. He referred to the mass of inputs to the brain as a “neural symphony.”
In 2016, Bensmaia and his group outfitted a man named Nathan Copeland with a prosthetic arm that allowed him to feel through its fingertips. Obama came to observe. He called it unbelievable and gave Copeland a fist bump, which broke it [no it didn’t].
Bensmaia was literally a “Nice guy,” i.e., he was born in Nice, France to parents who are philosophers. He recalled his dad falling down a flight of stairs once, looking up, and saying “That’s life.” He is survived by his wife Kerry Ledoux, his brother Djamel, and his children Cecily and Mateo, all of whom had feelings for him.
On the diamond, the Gnats put it to the Yanks last gnight, 2-1. It was the gninth straight loss for NY, their longest streak since 1982. If they lose tonight, you’d have to go back to 1913 to find a longer Yankee losing streak. Ouch! Here’s the Gnats fine young shortstop, CJ Abrams, whose 8th inning home run made the difference. Oddly, his full name is Paul Christopher Abrams. The “CJ” comes from his being called Chris Junior since his dad has the same name. Here he is, watching the Yankees sink slowly in the West.
Oh, no! Owl Chatter just received word that our caterer, Yevgeny Pregozhin, was killed in a plane crash today. Yev, we hardly knew ye!
Sources tell us he was bringing a load of his incredible pierogies and very popular pigs-in-blankets (all-beef) to a Bar Mitzvah in Detroit. It was so Yev to insist on delivering them in person. We will never forget the spread he so generously provided for Owl Chatter’s 250th-post celebration just a few months ago. (I’m tearing up a little remembering that we still have some casseroles of his in the freezer.)
His dad and stepdad were Jewish and he leaves a wife and three children. Here he is entertaining at his 4-year-old nephew’s birthday party last May. Phil caught him in a light moment. He was so good with kids. Very playful.
Rest in peace, Yev.
Owl Chatter finds it hard to believe we are coming up on our 300th post shortly. Ridiculous. We’ll be keeping the celebration small this time. OC photographer Phil will be here, and we’ve invited one of his favorite subjects as a surprise. Hope she can make it. Still waiting to hear back from some musical invitees too — nothing too loud.
OK folks — thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 