Can you listen to “Thunder Road” one more time? C’mon, it’s his birthday today: He’s 74, kinehora. Clarence is alive again, and his wife Patti is playing one of the guitars. The band is in fine fettle. Happy Birthday Bruce!
It’s also the birthday of Victoria Claflin Woodhull, born in 1838 in Homer, Ohio. I hadn’t heard of her, but, boy, was she something. Stand back, fellas. Let her through.
Woodhull and her sister, Tennessee, founded a radical publication that was the first to publish an English translation of The Communist Manifesto, and espoused the virtues of free love, birth control for women, and equal rights. (Abbie Hoffman said he opposed women’s rights: “Why, if women had rights, the next thing you know men would want them too!”)
Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency of the U.S. This was in 1872. Women couldn’t vote, but they could hold office. She formed the Equal Rights Party and it chose Frederick Douglass as her running mate, but he never acknowledged the nomination and he supported Ulysses S. Grant. I’m no expert in politics, but I’m going to go out on a lamb here and say it’s probably not a good sign when your own running mate doesn’t support you. BTW, the S doesn’t stand for anything — it comes from an application to West Point his uncle filled out incorrectly. Grant’s middle name at birth was Ulysses, and his first name was Hiram.
Back to Woodhull. Her views on sexuality and women’s rights were lambasted in the media. Even Harriet Beecher Stowe called her “an impudent witch.” She was depicted in a popular cartoon as “Mrs. Satan,” not a good look if you’re running for office. She and her sister were jailed on Election Day for running an article accusing Beecher’s brother, a prominent preacher, of lascivious conduct. A religious figure, misbehaving sexually? — preposterous!
She was on the ballot in a few states but no one even bothered to count her votes. She once wrote if all women refused to cohabit with men, they would win their rights in a week. That’s like the line on abortions: If men could get pregnant, abortions would be legalized in ten minutes.
Happy Birthday, Woodhull!
This story by Sharyn Wolf is in tomorrow’s Met Diary.
I was crossing the Bow Bridge in Central Park with my dog when I noticed two young women walking back and forth repeatedly from one spot to another,
A photographer was following them, so I figured there was going to be a proposal. I waited a few minutes, but noting happened.
“If this is a proposal,” I finally interjected, “what’s the holdup?”
They told me they couldn’t decide on the right spot.
“Where you are right now, that’s the right spot,” I said.
They looked at each other, one started to cry, and they both pulled out rings.
I continued on, and I must have walked a quarter mile when I heard them running up behind me and yelling for me to stop.
They said they had been very nervous and didn’t know how long it would have taken them to decide if I hadn’t said something.
They asked if their photographer could snap a photo of the three of us, plus my dog.
This poem by Eavan Boland is in today’s Writer’s Almanac and is called “This Moment.”
A neighborhood.
At dusk.
Things are getting ready
to happen
out of sight.
Stars and moths.
And rinds slanting around fruit.
But not yet.
One tree is black.
One window is yellow as butter.
A woman leans down to catch a child
who has run into her arms
this moment.
Stars rise.
Moths flutter.
Apples sweeten in the dark.
I have never encountered any group of individuals quite like the community of commenters (the “commentariat”) on Rex Parker’s NYTXW puzzle blog. He started the blog back in ’06, and I’ve been enjoying it for over a year now. I consider myself a noob, though I am comfortable enough to post a joke or a few words from time to time. My favorite commenter by miles was LMS, a teacher of problem students in NC. She’s been silent lately and is very much missed. When someone notes an illness or a loss, there is invariably a nice outburst of support. One of the folks, bocamp, just this week said he was cutting back on expenses, so he was dropping his puzzle subscription so he would no longer be following the blog. A flurry of “Oh, nos!” convinced him to change his mind in short order.
Then today, Joaquin, who is often very funny, wrote:
“I’m old and dealing with some serious health issues and find the constant negativity of this blog a depressing impact on my life which I don’t need at this point. Therefore, I am taking a break from reading and posting here and will return if/when I get stronger.
“Happy solving. Enjoy these puzzles for what they are – entertainment and exercise for the brain.
“Hope to see you later.”
Many folks wished him well and hoped to see him return soon.
I posted the following:
Joaquin:
From one old-timer to another, two points:
1. Please come back when/if you feel up for our nonsense again.
2. Don’t consent to a rectal MRI no matter what they tell you.
The clue at 14D today was: Classic song with the lyric “Girl, you made me love you / And now, now, now your lovin’ man has gone”
To my shame, I could only get it via the crosses. It’s CC RIDER. That may have been a harbinger of my puzzledoom today. I crashed around Texas. I didn’t know Queen of Naboo, in “Star Wars” was AMIDALA (WTF?) or that the National park in southwest Texas was BIG BEND. I got tricked by “Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You,’ originally.” The answer was SIDE B. D’oh! And who knew “Cretaceous critters” was DINOS? But I was happy with getting as much of it as I could. The clue at 55A was “Bonebreakers, perhaps,” and the long answer turned out to be STICKS AND STONES.
Please enjoy this sweet version of the song. Thanks for popping by. I’ll see you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 