Opinions may differ — as the commentariat sometime says, YMMV (your mileage may vary), but IMHO this poem from yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac is absolutely perfect. It’s called “The Sound of It” and it’s by Annie Lighthart.
Just a piano playing plainly, not even for long,
and yet I suddenly think of fields of timothy
and how a cow and I once studied each other over a fence
while the car ticked and cooled behind me.
When I turned around I was surprised that it had not
sprouted tall grass from its hood, I had been gone
so long. Time passes in crooked ways in some tales,
and though the cow and I were relatively young
when we started our watching, we looked
a bit younger when I left. The cow had downed a good
steady meal and was full of milk for the barn.
I drove away convinced of nothing I had been
so sure of before, with arms full of splinters
from leaning on the fence. There was no music—
I was not even humming—but just now the piano
played the exact sound of that drive.
A special shout out to the head of the Owl Chatter math department, Bala Cynwyd Judy, whom we had dinner with last night on our way back from a jaunt down to DC for the Gnats game. We did better on the trig test she gave us than on the algebra, but enjoyed the visit overall very much.
The Gnats did gnot do well. In fact, since I raved about them last Tuesday, they’ve dropped five in a row. Ouch! When we were there they fell behind 9-1 by the fourth inning, so there wasn’t much drama. But it was a fun scene, Dominick and Laney popped dingers, and there was a great defensive gem by CJ that was breathtaking. There were 28 hits overall: 18 by Miami. We drowned our sorrows with Ethiopian food when it ended with a final score of 11-5.
Parking at the ballpark is very difficult, unless you are willing to pay $40 which I am not. So I prepaid ($17) for a spot in a lot about a mile away. When I arrived, I followed the instructions and placed the QR code I printed under the scanner. Nothing. I pressed a button and a female human voice greeted me. I explained the situation and she said she would open the gate for us. I waited about a minute before pressing the button again. “Are you opening it?” I asked. “Didn’t it open?” she said — not a good sign. She tried again with the same result. She said there was nothing more she could do on her end and we should drive around the block to the other entrance to the lot — the one my instructions told me not to use. I scanned the code there and it didn’t open at first, but then it did and I sped through before it could have second thoughts.
After the game we found our way back to the lot. I had to scan the code again to get out. It didn’t work. I pressed the button and a male voice answered this time. I explained about the code not working and he started saying something, but after three or four words the gate lifted. I burned rubber and didn’t look back.
Here’s a story from years ago I’ve always loved about Delaware (soon-to-be-Pennsylvania) Nancy’s dad, may he rest in peace. He was exiting a parking lot and there was a long line of cars waiting to pay and get out. When his turn came, the attendant told him owed for 2 hours and ten minutes. He explained he had been waiting on line for fifteen minutes and he wasn’t willing to pay extra for that time. The attendant said, “I’m sorry, but that’s what the machine says you have to pay.” So Nancy’s dad turned off the engine, took the key, left the car right where it was (blocking all the cars in line behind him) and started walking away. The attendant ran after him: “Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay . . . . “
In yesterday’s puzzle, the clue at 23D was “Hesiod’s ‘Theogony’ and ‘Works and Days’” and the answer was EPICS. It prompted this exchange.
Rick started with: Pedantic comment: No one who has read Works and Days and Theogony would call them “epics.” Epic has a more specific meaning in ancient literature, and neither of those fits it.
Then, Mike in Bed Sty countered:
Pedantic, but incorrect. “Epic” does have a specific meaning, and that specific meaning is a poem in dactylic hexameter, regardless of the narrative content. The meaning of epic to which you are referring is the meaning in modern literature, not ancient literature.
[Of course!]
Deion Sanders, no relation to Bernie, is the only athlete ever to play in both the Super Bowl and the World Series. He won the Super Bowl twice, once with SF over San Diego and once with Dallas over Pittsburgh. In four games of the 1992 World Series with Atlanta, Sanders batted .533 with four runs, eight hits, two doubles, and one RBI while playing with a broken bone in his foot. The Braves lost to Toronto. In refusing to give up one of the sports, Deion explained: “Football is my wife, and baseball is my mistress.” You may recall Michael Jordan tried his hand at baseball and couldn’t hack it. Deion was spectacular at football, and not too shabby at all with the mistress. He’s had some health issues of late — several toes from his foot were removed due to blood clots.
He’s back in the news (his nickname is Prime Time) as a college football head coach with Colorado. He was very successful coaching Jackson State last year and was offered the bigger spot at Colorado. His son Shedeur is the quarterback. Colorado went 1-11 last year and was a 20-point underdog going into yesterday’s game with TCU (Texas Christian U) at TCU. TCU, we painfully recall, put a hurt on Michigan in the playoffs last year — they good.
Sanders cleaned house at Colorado, encouraging a record number of players to transfer elsewhere, and he brought in his own folks. Travis Hunter plays for them — he was the nation’s #1 recruit and he’s a “two-way player,” i.e., he plays offense and defense. Yesterday he played in 129 plays, catching 11 passes for 119 yards, and intercepting a pass on the goal line. Sanders said they’re going to put a hot tub on the plane for him.
With 7 minutes to go, TCU took a 42-38 lead. Sanders knew his boys would score again so the issue was could they stop TCU to hold on? There was 4:25 on the clock when Colorado’s Dylan Edwards hauled in a 46-yard TD pass from Shedeur, who finished the day with 510 passing yards, a school record. Deion’s son Shilo is on the team too and led them with ten tackles. The stunning upset was complete when the defense held.
If you don’t know Sanders — he ain’t shy. Here he is after the win:
“We’re gonna continuously be questioned because we do things that have never been done. And that makes people uncomfortable. When you see a confident Black man sitting up here and talking his talk, walking his walk, coaching 75 percent African Americans in a locker room, that’s kind of threatening. Oh, they don’t like that.
“But guess what, we’re gonna consistently do what we do because I’m here, and I ain’t going nowhere. I’m about to get comfortable in a minute. I’m about to get comfortable in a minute.”
Here’s Deion with ESPN’s Ed Werder, who must have dissed the Buffaloes before the game.
“What’s up, boss? Do you believe now?”
Werder continued to ask his question.
“Hold on. Hold on. Oh, no. Do you believe now? Huh? I read through that bull junk you wrote. I read through all that. I sifted through all that. Oh, no.”
“Can I ask my question?” Werder asked.
“Do you believe?”
“Believe what?” Werder asked.
“You don’t believe. You just answered it. You don’t believe. Next question.”
We’ll be keeping an eye on the Coloradans this season, their coach and his kids. For sure.
Deion has been married and divorced twice and has five children. He is currently engaged to marry, and is living with, Tracey Edmonds, a very successful show biz producer. She was married to Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds with whom she has two children. After that she married Eddie Murphy but they split after twelve days. Guests at the wedding said they could hear the couple shouting. Not a good sign.
Babyface said he had bad vibes about Murphy but raved about Deion when he (Babyface) was on Oprah. He said Deion reached out to him to set up a lunch meeting. Deion told him Tracey was going to introduce him to the kids and he didn’t want to meet them before getting to know their dad a little. Pretty classy, Prime Time.
I always liked Deion. He was (and still is) the hottest of hot dogs. But he backs it up. Owl Chatter wishes Tracey and him and the Buffaloes much success.
The puzzle today had mountains as a theme. So I posted:
The Old Man of the Mountain, aka Old Stone Face, was a series of five granite cliff ledges in Franconia, New Hampshire, that appeared to be the jagged profile of a human face. It was a symbol of significance for several Indian peoples and became a cultural icon for NH.
It collapsed on May 3, 2003, prompting folk singer Tom Rush, who is from NH, to comment: You know you’re old when you outlive geological formations.
Pabloinnh posted this later:
True dat about The Old Man of the Mountain. If you’re ever in NH on May 3 and wonder why everyone is wearing black or what the “two minutes of silence” are for, that’s it.
Nah-just made that up. We do have two nice pieces of art depicting The Old Man, and you can look through special telescope type things with inserts at where he used to be to see what he looked like, if that’s your idea of a good time.
From one old man to another– we miss you Buddy. See you tomorrow folks!
The Wellington Files 