Today’s poem by Gayle Brandeis from The Writer’s Almanac is called “Feeling East.”
I used to think East
was wherever I pointed my right
hand. I was six, my body
the center of space, the axis
on which directions turned.
When I learned directions
are fixed, that our bodies
move through space
like fish, East became
the sunrise, but, even more so,
the lake. Around Chicago, Lake
Michigan is what is East,
and my body could always feel
its presence. Riding home
from the city, dozing
in the back seat, I always knew
where we were.
Living out West now, I find
directions hazy as smog. My right
hand points to mountains, to palms,
but their presence looms light
in my body. When I get lost,
and I do, I close my eyes
and try to feel East,
tracing sharp shores of memory,
the pull of the lake in my blood,
following the three right turns home.
It’s not enough to lose the game? Seriously. During Saturday’s 28-16 loss to UCLA at the Rose Bowl, multiple Colorado players and program staff had jewelry and money stolen from the locker room. Pasadena police are investigating.
Colorado coach Deion Sanders said people online arguing that players shouldn’t have valuables in the locker room bothered him. “So they shouldn’t be blessed? They shouldn’t be blessed? That’s crazy. That’s like if you have a car in your driveway and somebody come and steal your car. ‘Well, you shouldn’t have a car.’ That’s how stupid that sounds. These are young men that worked their butts off or were blessed and gifted by family members whatever was stolen.”
“All that stuff should be replaced. This is the Rose Bowl. They say the Granddaddy of them all, right? I’m sure Granddaddy has some money,” Sanders said Tuesday. “Grandpa should have some money to give these kids.”
You tell ’em Prime Time!
In today’s puzzle “Six Flags ride named for a powerful animal,” was EL TORO. When they just had E–OR-, someone said they thought it was EEYORE. Ha!
Several posters said what their costumes were for Halloween. Wanderlust said: We had an alien-themed Halloween party and I went wrapped up in dying vines and gourds and other autumnal detritus, playing a denizen of a planet that plants seeds on their bodies so they always have food at hand. My people live for only a year, and I told everyone I was nearing my death and invited them to eat anything they wanted from my body. Some did pick Brussels sprouts off a stalk hanging from my neck.
At 34A, “Little shots?” was HYPOS. Malaika, who subbed for Rex today, asked for someone to explain it to her — she didn’t know what a hypo is. So many explained it was short for hypodermic (needle). Then I posted: “That’s odd, I thought HYPO was what you get when you hit the wrong key on your hypewriter.” (Weak tea, I know, but someone has to do it.)
Remember Theda Bara? I barely heard of her. She was part of a theme answer today. The theme was three five-letter words that are anagrams of each other. So for the clue “Silent film star Bara didn’t want to leave us,” the answer was THEDA HATED DEATH.
One poster noted Theda Bara’s name was arrived at as an anagram of “arab death,” and Wanderlust added: I looked it up on Wikipedia, which says the origin of her stage name is disputed, but publicists for her 1917 film Cleopatra noticed the anagram to Arab Death and claimed she was “the daughter of an Arab sheikh and a Frenchwoman, born in the Sahara.” She was actually the daughter of a Jewish businessman, born in Cincinnati.
But dgd sort of ended the fun:
“Origins like you claimed for Theda Bara are usually fake and so it is with this one. Her first and middle names at birth were from the daughter of Aaron Burr, Theodosia Burr, and it was made shorter and more exotic for her screen name. Arab Death was invented after the fact as is common to create the false origin. Her sister also took the screen last name of Bara.”
Any way you slice it, she was pretty hot for her day: One of cinema’s first sex symbols. She never appeared in a film with sound. She married film director Charles Brabin, who survived her. They never had children. She died in 1955 at the age of 69.
The eyes of all gay ice hockey fans were on Travis Dermott of the Arizona Coyotes last Friday night. The NHL banned the use of “pride tape” on hockey sticks, but Dermott defied the ban a week earlier. Friday was Pride Night for the Coyotes and gay fans were hoping to see Dermott defy the ban again. Unfortunately, he couldn’t play due to illness, and none of the other Coyotes took up the cause. Boo. But it was Pride Night, and signs of support for the LGBTQ+ community were highly visible elsewhere inside the arena. Sean Durzi and Liam O’Brien of the Coyotes walked into the arena before the game wearing the Coyotes’ Pride-themed jerseys. And Matthew Spang-Marshall — who is the president of the Arizona Legacy Pride Hockey Association — dropped the ceremonial puck prior to the game.
Lyndsey Fry (below), the Coyotes’ radio analyst, is the only openly gay member of an NHL broadcast team. She says Pride Nights are important steps forward. “There are cities where I don’t feel comfortable holding my wife’s hand. We have a long way to go, so that’s what these nights are for.” Back in 2000, two women were kicked out of Dodger Stadium for kissing each other to celebrate a home run. [Jeez Louise!] The Dodgers started hosting a Pride Night in 2013.
One hour before puck drop on Friday evening, fans walked into the Arena with a welcome message on the main scoreboard that read, “Pride Night,” with logos of the Coyotes and Kings against a colorful, rainbow-themed backdrop.
The national anthem was performed a cappella by four members of the Phoenix Gay Men’s Chorus.
Howler, the Coyotes mascot, wore a rainbow headband as he tossed T-shirts into the crowd.
And the league has since reversed itself and removed the ban on pride-taped hockey sticks. They look pretty cool.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 