It’s Jane Austen’s birthday today: Happy Birthday, young lady! An author so popular that all the way across the ocean the people of Texas named their state capital after her. [No they didn’t.] Born in 1775, she’s 248, but, honestly Jane, you don’t look a day over 200. C’mon, take a load off, girl — just throw all that crap off the sofa — you like beer?
For those of you who question the power of the written word, this note was in today’s Writer’s Almanac: After the First World War, Austen’s novels were prescribed to shell-shocked British soldiers for therapy, because the psychologists found that Austen helped them recover their sense of the world they’d known before the war. [Zelensky tells me Owl Chatter is serving the same purpose for the Ukrainians.]
Brava, Janie. Phil! — Run out and pick up some ice cream! Here’s a twenty — maybe a few Ben and Jerry’s.
Did you know you’re a fashion trend, Austen? Whoda thunkit? Jane Austen dresses are definitely a thing.
How’s that for a classy opening?
Now let’s take a look at this gorgeous grid today, by Garrett Chalfin:
Usually, the requirement of symmetry just results in black squares scattered here and there. Look at today’s climbing diagonals. And it’s so clean. The only construction flaw I can see is at 23D/36D the ASS is above the FLANK.
Of course, it only inspired dread for curmudgeon Rex. Here’s how he opened his writeup:
“I could tell right away from the shape of this one that it was more likely to be a puzzle to endure rather than savor. That thick tube of 8s running through the middle would, at best, hold up OK, but would be unlikely to provide much sizzle, and the highly cut-off corners would play like puzzles unto themselves, with maybe one winner in each corner if I was lucky.”
The puzzle had quite a bit of material for our dirty old man department. The clue at 13D was “Situations involving multiple romantic partners,” which turned out to be the tame GROUP DATES. But right next to it at 16D was “Portmanteau for poly relationships,” which was THRUPLES. And 17A was “Film unlikely to have a costume designer:” PORNO. And I think the constructor may be risking a little jail time when he throws in WEE LASS at 18A (“Young woman, quaintly”), with the emphasis on ASS at 23D (“Bottom”). Hot stuff coming from a constructor who just graduated high school last year. Has your mom seen this puzzle, young man?
Egs noted: ”Based on my own experience, I immediately threw down OCTUPLES for poly relationships.”
OC readers may be pleased to learn the streak is alive. The Detroit Pistoffs of the NBA lost their 22nd straight game last night to Pennsylvania (nee Delaware) Nancy’s Philly 76ers. Detroit lost by 32 points (124-92), but they were only down by 4 after the first quarter, and they played them even (30-30) in the fourth quarter. Those middle quarters musta been ugly.
Philly also won the funny name competition with bench players Mo Bamba and Furkan Korkmaz (I’m not kidding), which is an anagram of “Kafka’s mazourka” [no it’s not, but it should be]. Detroit has a Jalen, Jaden, Jared, James, and Joe for all the good it’s doing them. They’re playing like they were put together on JDate. Next up: Atlanta on Monday. OC will be on hand, for sure.
Back to that THRUPLE. Rex struggled a bit with the spelling (throuple?) since he thought it was pronounced to rhyme with hoople, but it isn’t. In any event, it brought to mind (for him), Mott the Hoople. Remember that band? They did well with this song David Bowie wrote, below. And one commenter wondered if they were named Mott the Hoople to avoid confusion with Mott the Applesauce.
Re the holiday cat pix Rex is posting that are being sent in to him by his readers, okanaganer posted: ”I recall some comic had a bit about a guy who awakens from a 30-year coma. A nurse shows him her smart phone and says ‘you can look up any fact; watch movies; listen to any song you want.’ The guy says ‘That’s amazing! What are you looking at right now?’ She replies: ‘Cat pictures.’”
Here’s a cute one from today (the cat’s name is Brady):
With Lianna’s sleepover with friend Quinn canceled we were freed up to see Maestro in Cranford. Very nice theater we had never been to before. Independently owned. Very intense film. Cooper is spectacular. Whoever did the makeup should get an Oscar — he looked more like Bernstein than Bernstein did. (Wait, what?) Our favorite scene: Lenny conducting the performance in the cathedral. Wow.
Let’s close with some more Jane Austen dresses. So lovely. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 