The theme of yesterday’s puzzle was symbiosis and it featured three crossing pairs of answers that are in a symbiotic relationship: clownfish/anemone; tickbird/rhino; and fruit bat/fig tree. It was Lianna’s first day back in school (8th grade) and it feels like we’re back in science class too.
First, some carping. Jberg wrote: I’m not a biologist, but I don’t think any of those pairs qualify as SYMBIOTES. When I hear the word I think of benign intestinal bacteria, or some other pair much more closely related.
And Adam12 replied: I’m not a biologist either but these relationships are all generically symbiotic. Meaning they’re associated in life. I think you may be referring to the further distinctions of saprophytic, parasitic and mutualistic. (Thank you, Mr. Rubin, 1979 AP Bio.)
OK, we’re glad that’s cleared up. The anemone provides the clownfish with protection and shelter, while the clownfish provides the anemone nutrients in the form of waste while also scaring off potential predator fish. It’s a win-win. BTW, the clownfish got its start on the Tonight Show and was heavily influenced by Codney Dangerfield and Phil Silverfish.
The tickbird and the rhino share a relationship because the rhino hosts the tickbird, and when the tickbird rides on the rhino’s back, it eats parasites and other insects off of the rhino’s back. The tickbird benefits the rhino because a rhino typically has near-sighted vision, and the tickbird has great vision, so when it sees a predator, it will squawk to alert the rhino. It will also occasionally say “Watch where you’re going, you fat idiot — you almost walked us off a cliff.”
Last, a fruit bat will eat half of its weight in figs every night. A fruit bat who is selfish is where the phrase “I don’t give a fig” comes from. [No it doesn’t.] The bat will often take the fig away from the tree to eat it and fig seeds will fall as it’s eating, so the bat benefits the tree by spreading the seeds. It also spreads the seeds by pooping them out.
Here’s a fruit bat hanging upside down in a fig tree.
I’m with Rex on this next point — an oxpecker is so much funnier than a tickbird, no? Here’s what he says:
“Tickbird is slang I’ve never heard, and I don’t really get using it here, given that the name of the specific bird found on rhinos is the oxpecker, and guess how many letters oxpecker has? Yes, the same number as tickbird. There is no universe in which oxpecker doesn’t beat tickbird. There is no universe in which oxpecker doesn’t beat most things. Kindly add oxpecker to your wordlists and disperse it liberally throughout all future grids, as a fruit bat disperses fig seeds (though maybe less messily).”
Here are a couple:
This is the second puzzle in a week with a Z-led northwest (opening) corner. We had ZOMBIE and ZAPS recently, and today it’s ZORBA and ZAGS. ZORBA was factually clued with “1964 title role for Anthony Quinn.” If you saw the black-and-white movie, as I did twice, this tune (and the dance, the sirtaki) will be quite familiar to you. Here are the Rockettes performing it.
Nikos Kazantzakis wrote the book. These are his words:
“When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. ‘What vanity,’ they screamed, ‘what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!’ The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. ‘Forgive me, my sisters,’ said the tree. ‘I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.”
*******
“I said to the almond tree, ‘Friend, speak to me of God,’ and the almond tree blossomed.”
No Glam Slam. Handsome U.S. tennis star Taylor Fritz made it to the Sweet Sixteen (quarterfinals) but ran into the wall called Djokovic and lost in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4, 6-4. At least Djokovic didn’t throw a BAGEL at him. Did you know a “6-0 set, in tennis lingo” is called a BAGEL? That was 7D in the puzzle today. In baseball it’s a “goose egg,” and any number larger than one is a “crooked number.”
In an unusual note on the tennis tourney in Queens, according to today’s NYT, Alexander Zverev of Germany, the No. 12 seed, had a spectator thrown out for making Nazi references during his match with Italy’s Jannik Sinner. Zverev complained to the umpire who asked the man to identify himself. When he didn’t, other spectators pointed him out to security personnel, and he was escorted out. Zverev later said the man was singing the Nazi anthem, “Deutschland Uber Alles.” The anthem was banned after the war. It was later reintroduced, but with that phrase and verse deleted. Zverev won the match with Sinner in five grueling sets lasting 4 hours and 41 minutes, the longest match at the Open this year, so far. Poland fell in less time.
Zverev has been in the news for more than inspiring Nazi anthems. He was accused of abusing former girlfriend Olya Sharypova, but an investigation turned up insufficient evidence to support the claim. Another claim by a former beau met the same fate. Hmmmmmm. Owl Chatter’s view: Never trust a man who looks good in glasses.
The Gnats lost their sixth straight game to the Mets last night, 11-5. The wheels are coming off the bus.
As I read today’s poem and decided to share it, I wondered if I’ve been favoring poems with children in them, like this one. I may be nostalgiac for that time — not for when I was a child myself, but for when my Caitlin and Sam were about nine and seven and I was the dad. I’m still the dad, but you know what I mean. This one is called “Nature Walk” and it’s by Gillian Wegener. It’s from today’s Writer’s Almanac.
The fern fronds glow with a clean, green light,
and I lift one and point out the spores, curled
like sleep on the back, the rows so straight,
so even, that I might be convinced of Providence
at this moment. My daughter is seven.
She looks at the spores, at the leaf, at the plant,
at this wise, wide forest we are in, and sighs
at my pointing out yet another Nature Fact.
But look, I say, each one is a baby ready
to grow. Each one can become its own fern.
But she is already moving down the path
toward the bridge and whatever’s beyond.
We often took hikes with the kids. Once we tried to take one on an estate called Skyland, but were besieged by bugs. Sam was so miserable he succeeded in getting us to cancel our plans after a short distance of trying to tough it out. As we were heading back to the car, Sam said, in his squeaky little voice: “I know this place is called Skyland, but it should be called Bugland.”
According to a story in today’s NYT, the general manager of the Quality Inn in Absecon, NJ, complained to Det. Kiamos of the Galloway Township Police that the color of the pool at the inn was being tampered with. “It has to be by a drone,” she told him.
Instead of dismissing her as a lunatic, he said, “You might be on to something.” A drone was later tracked to a nearby business and Patrick J. Spina, IV, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief and harassment. He was using drones to drop packets of “Sea Dye” into local area pools changing their water color into bright neon shades. It’s a product used by people in need of rescue at sea — it serves the same function as a flare.
Spina was doing it as a prank and had a lot of fun. He’s in deep sh*t now because his victims had to spend thousands of dollars to have the dye removed. We’re setting up a small area in the idiot’s wing of the Owl Chatter Hall of Fame for him. Step right in, Pat!
Enough nonsense for today? Enough. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 