You know that expression for actors: “Break a leg?” Better not say it to Annie POTTS who visited the puzzle today (no relation to Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast, shown here with son Chip).
She is 71 now. When Annie Potts was 21 she was hit by a drunk driver and, as she put it, broke every bone below her waist but one. She’s been in chronic pain her whole life and has had over 20 surgeries, including a recent ankle replacement. Impressive that she can project so much sweetness, and attained so much success in her career. She has three kids too. Amazingly, none of them has any broken bones. Welcome to Owl Chatter Annie, — don’t be a stranger — Phil!! Get her a seat and some Anacin!!
It’s been a while since we’ve called on our crack OC math department (Hi Judy!). But today’s puzzle invoked Pascal’s triangle at 16A: “Start and end of every row in Pascal’s triangle.” Answer: ONES.
Pascal was French and the triangle was named after him in the West. But it was already known in other regions, e.g., it was Khayyam’s triangle in Iran from the Persian mathematician (and poet) Omar Khayyam. You can see how it’s put together, below. (It keeps going.)
As for its uses or what it means — fuhgeddaboutit. Here’s the first sentence of “explanation” in Wikipedia: Pascal’s triangle is a triangular array of the binomial coefficients arising in probability theory, combinatorics, and algebra. (I fell off the truck at binomial.) You may recall, I’m the moron who doesn’t know what a logarithm is.
Hey, Georgie! — you know who else was in the puzzle today? Get over here Santos — your favorite SNL star, Bowen YANG! He’s at 18D, cleverly clued by “Comic actor Bowen.” Here he is, doing some Santos a while ago. Not bad.
I’m amazed by how insightful some folks are about finding connections in the grid that just sweep by me. Today, right next to each other at 28D and 29D are “Novelist Ken:” KESEY, and “Greek goddess of peace:” IRENE. Here’s what egs noticed:
Gotta point out that Ken KESEY is sitting there snuggled up to IRENE, who provided the title to his best novel:
Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in town
Sometimes I have a great notion
To jump into the river and drown
Irene goodnight…
Let’s have a listen. Here are The Weavers. Pete Seeger is on the banjo.
In one of the comments, someone added these lyrics:
“Sometimes she sleeps in pajamas,
Sometimes she sleeps in a gown,
But when they’re both in the laundry,
Irene is the talk of the town” 😳😂
It’s Frank Sinatra’s birthday today, born in 1915 in Hoboken, NJ. He started out singing solo in bars and roadhouses. A trumpeter for Benny Goodman offered him $75 a week to join the band but told him he’d have to change his name. Sinatra said, “You want the voice, you take the name.” And so he got to keep it. But he hit it big with Tommy Dorsey’s band, which he joined in 1940. He said he learned his distinctive vocal style from the way Tommy Dorsey played trombone, sliding from note to note and then holding long pauses.
He was married four times, most happily to Barbara Marx, his fourth wife. Her maiden name was Blakely. “Marx” came from her earlier marriage to Zeppo Marx. Frank was married to her for the last 22 years of his life. He died at age 72 in 1998. She lived about 20 more years, never remarried, and died at age 90. They are buried next to each other. She had blue eyes too.
Thanks for stopping by — see you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 