Condolences go out to all the disappointed Phillies fans, done in by those pesky ‘Zona snakes, in a tense and very enjoyable Game 7. Wow, what a catch by Trea Turner to help keep it close.
Kudos to the brilliant young bullpen that throttled those expensive Philly bats. I’ll be pulling for Texas in the World Series, but won’t mind at all if Zona slips by them.
BTW, remember Adolis Garcia from yesterday’s post? He has a brother named Adonis Garcia. Adonis also played pro ball, for the Braves from 2015 to 2017.
There were two answers in today’s puzzle that got me to do a little digging: CO-PARENT and EGOTISM. How is a co-parent different from a parent? And what’s the difference between egotism and egoism?
On the former, apparently (ouch), co-parenting is when a child’s parents are living apart but work together pretty closely on the child rearing: keeping him or her to the same schedule, pushing the same activities, etc.
And on egotism vs. egoism: With a T it’s believing you are better than everyone else — not a nice quality. Without the T it just means you look at things from a self-centered perspective — not necessarily obnoxious.
I’ve read a few books by Anne Tyler and liked them. I’ve always thought of her as sort of suburban/cosmopolitan. I correctly associated her with Baltimore, where she lives and about which she often writes. But The Writer’s Almanac wrote about her today (her birthday), and said this about her upbringing: “She spent most of her childhood in the mountains of North Carolina. Her family raised milk goats and grew their own food, and she learned folk crafts and traditional music. Eventually, they moved to Raleigh, where she felt like a total outsider — she had never used a telephone, and her feet were so calloused from going without shoes that she could light a match on her bare feet.”
Ever see someone light a match with their bare feet? Me neither.
Lubbock County Texas includes Lubbock (duh) and Texas Tech and has a population of over 300,000. It’s near the New Mexico border. Now, Texas has a Catch-22 abortion ban which essentially says abortions are legal for women who don’t know they are pregnant, but once they learn they are pregnant, they are illegal. (It’s the six-week abortion ban.) So those women would need to go to New Mexico or another state where abortions are legal for women who know they are pregnant. That’s where Lubbock County comes in — it just made it illegal for anyone to transport a pregnant woman through the county or pay for her travel for the purpose of seeking an abortion out of state.
Owl Chatter hats off to Gilbert Flores, a county commissioner, who abstained from the vote. “I am 77 years old,” he said, describing times in his life when his rights were violated. “Now, what’s in front of me right now is, do I have the right, do I have the power, do I want the authority to tell these women what to do, violate their rights?” he said. “I have a difficult time with that.”
Some legal scholars said the ordinance may violate constitutional protections. “Even Justice Kavanaugh, in his concurring opinion in Dobbs, noted that a state would be violating the constitutional right to interstate travel if it sought to prohibit women from traveling out of state to seek a lawful abortion,” said Jeffrey B. Abramson, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
But proponents say the ordinances are enforceable because they apply to someone assisting a pregnant woman with travel and do not prohibit a woman from driving herself or traveling by other means. “We don’t see this as a travel ban,” they say.
Okay. I guess it’s not a problem then. Whew.
Give the lady a lift, Phil — we’ll cover your bail.
If you are a Fran Lebowitz fan like we are, you should get your long black coat, white shirt, scarf, glasses, and dour disgusted expression on, and head over to the Holiday Cocktail Lounge in the East Village for this year’s Fran-Con tomorrow night — her birthday eve. No need to bring cigarettes, real or otherwise, the organizers have bought a shitload of candy cigarettes.
Fran won’t be there, BTW. Are you kidding? — she wouldn’t be caught dead at something like that. Hey, I see she was born in Morristown NJ (in 1950). That explains some of it.
Niece Tamar is visiting from CA tonight for a few days. We’ll be having split-pea soup, a salad, and Thai Sea Burgers. Yum.
We’re going to send you off tonight with a Nick Cave song: “Nature Boy.” It rhymes hysteria with wisteria, which was in the puzzle today at 38D, clued by “Flowering plant that lent its name to a lane on ‘Desperate Housewives.’” Good enough reason for me.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 