That expression, “Things will look brighter in the morning” doesn’t get the respect it deserves, it seems to me. It’s amazing. For example:
My brain at 2 am: Lianna’s on her phone too much. Her grades slipped last year. Should I get involved with her homework more? Is her after-school program helping enough — should we spring for a private tutor? Why didn’t she do better in Spanish? She seems a little thin, too. Is she eating enough?
My brain in the morning: Ah, it’ll work out.
At the Summit (NJ) train station this morning, I saw a woman in her 30’s wearing a long black dress carrying a cup of coffee, her phone, and her bag. She wanted to insert an ear-thingie in her ear, so she knelt down and used the floor as her desk. She placed the phone and coffee on the ground, took the thingie out of her bag and put it in her ear, then picked up the coffee and phone and stood back up. It reminded me of when I used to be able to bend over.
Part of the art of constructing a puzzle is to come up with a sparkling clue for an otherwise pedestrian answer. Today, the answer was FRANCE. Here’s how it was clued:
“Country described in ‘One can’t impose unity out of the blue on a country that has 265 different kinds of cheese.’”
But my favorite clue/answer comes from raising two kids through the teen years [insert Munch’s shriek emoji]. Any of you been there? You go off to work — they are going to be home all day with absolutely nothing to do. So you ask them for one small very easy favor — “Sometime during the afternoon, take the meat out of the freezer and put it in this bowl on the counter.” That’s it. That’s all.
So, — express as a percentage, the odds that when you get home the meat will be on the counter. I can’t assign an exact number to it, but it surely is something way less than 1%, amirite?
That’s why my favorite clue today was “All I asked for was that simple thing!” And the answer was: YOU HAD ONE JOB!
Michael Faraday was born on this day in London in 1791. With little formal education, he made several of the major discoveries in physics and is responsible for everything we know about electromagnetism, which, in my case, is nothing. Einstein only kept two pictures on his wall: those of Isaac Newton and Faraday, although later he added that Farah Fawcett poster that was as popular as breathing back in the late ’70’s.
Just to take a short side-trip, for old times’ sake, that poster sold 12 million copies, more than any poster ever in the history of planet Earth. The photo was taken by Bruce McBroom. FF was 29 at the time. For some reason, I thought she was living, but she died in ’09 at the age of 62 from cancer. She was married to Lee Majors for nine years, but had her one child (a son, Redmond) with Ryan O’Neal. Redmond O’Neal is pretty good-looking too. He’s 38 and an actor. He’s had drug problems, unfortunately.
Here’s that poster.
Where were we? Oh, yeah, Michael Faraday. He refused many of the honors that came his way, e.g., he declined knighthood on religious grounds and said he just wanted to stay plain old Mr. Faraday. He turned down the presidency of the Royal Society (of eminent British scientists), and burial in Westminster Abbey, although he has a plaque there, near Newton’s tomb. He was married to Sarah Barnard, whom he met through his church and found to be very magnetic, for 46 years, until his death. They had no children.
Happy Birthday, Faraday!
The musical guest in the puzzle today is LANA Del Rey. She’s 38 and was born in NYC and raised in Lake Placid. She earned a BA at Fordham. She’s had six No. 1 albums in the UK and has won many awards. Rolling Stone placed her in their list of 200 Greatest Singers of All Time (2023), and Rolling Stone UK named her The Greatest American Songwriter of the 21st century (2023). Her greatest honor, of course, was her appearance in today’s puzzle.
Good night, everybody — see you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 