If you’re at all like me, not a day goes by without you worrying whether you used enough chicken-related expressions in your writing and speech. I know — right? Part of it is it can be hard to keep them in mind. Happily, our friend Miriam Webster listed seven for us along with her word of the day today. Here they are: fly the coop, pecking order, put all your eggs in one basket, walk on eggshells, mother hen, no spring chicken, and rule the roost. If you can think of any more, please let Miriam and me know.
And Miriam’s word of the day today was interesting: nobby. It means chic, or cleverly stylish, and is sometimes used in a negative way: “Robert, let me tell you, I didn’t like the feel of the lobby in Berkowitz’s building. It was a little nobby. It was a nobby lobby, Bobby.”
That bowl game I ran off to watch last night was a good one: The Gasparilla Bowl. It used to be called the St. Petersburg Bowl, but was renamed in 2017 as a nod to the legend of José Gaspar, a mythical pirate who supposedly operated in the Tampa Bay area and who is the inspiration for Tampa’s Gasparilla Pirate Festival. Anyway, when I arrived it was all tied up 17-17 at the half. Georgia Tech (for whom I was rooting) received the kickoff and ran the ball effectively for a whole bunch of plays to get to within striking distance. But on a fourth-and-one, at about the 20, they elected to take the field goal rather than go for it. I thought they should go for it — they were running so well, and I made a mental note to blame that call on the loss, if they ended up losing by four points or less. Central Florida was reputed to have a high-powered offense, and I thought we’d need more points.
But, surprisingly, the GT coach had a better grasp of the game than me. (Hrummmph.) He knew his boys could stop UCF and was in the “let’s just start amassing points” mode. Georgia Tech went on to add a TD and another field goal, while shutting out the Knights. Final score 30-17. Since I missed the first half, I wasn’t aware that GT fell behind early 14-0 and was losing 17-3 in the second quarter. Cool.
GT running back Jamal Haynes, a good-looking young man, was named the game’s MVP on the strength of his 128 rushing yards on 18 attempts. He’s majoring in Business Administration. He certainly gave UCF the business last night.
I don’t read many novels these days, and back when I did most recently, I limited myself to Icelandic murder mysteries, so it’s no surprise that I hadn’t heard of ERIN Morgenstern in the puzzle today at 21A, clued as the author of The Night Circle, described in Wikipedia as “a phantasmagorical fairy tale of magic and romance set in an ahistorical late 19th century London.” She’s 45 and has a BA from Smith College.
Hi Erin! Phil! — give her a chance to get settled! Jeez Louise!! Sorry. Love the pearls.
I also hadn’t heard of Amanda BYNES, who popped in at 10D (“Actress Amanda”). She’s 37 now. She’s had serious emotional/mental problems. Her parents provide much support. Here’s how she looked at her best, IMO. Hang in there, AB. Things can’t be that bad if you made it into a Saturday puzzle in the goddamn NYT.
But you know who won’t make it into the NYT puzzle? Hitler, that’s who. Even if he were clued with something like “Genocidal maniac,” he’s barred. And speaking of the genocidal maniac, he’s been in the news a lot lately, have you noticed? Yes — it’s come to this already — Trump’s language has become so Hitlerish that conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt asked him about it on Friday (as have others). Trump said: ”I know nothing about Hitler. I’m not a student of Hitler. I never read his works.” But according to the NYT (which devoted a third of a page to the story today):
“Trump has long had a documented interest in Hitler. A table by his bed once had a copy of Hitler speeches called “My New Order,” a gift from a friend that Ivana Trump said she had seen him leaf through occasionally.”
I don’t know — no disrespect to the deceased former wife, but it’s hard to picture Trump leafing through a book.
The nitpickers were out in force today. The clue at 22A was “Heavyweight wrestlers,” and the answer was SUMOS. That disgusted a few commenters. Apparently they are never called sumos — only sumo wrestlers. It would be like calling baseball players “baseballs,” one noted. Then someone got even more technical and pointed out that a sumo wrestler is called a rikishi.
OK, thanks.
BTW, did you know that there are women rikishi too? Here are two, pictured below — can you tell which is real and which is fake?
Enough. Tired. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 