Gonna stay up late Sunday night? Not me. Owl Chatter closes early New Year’s Eve, and we’re in bed with the owls well before midnight. But there was a nod to it in the puzzle today at 50D: ”What many children are told not to do on Christmas Eve, but encouraged to do on New Year’s Eve.” Ans: STAY UP.
Remember this great Talking Heads video?
Did you know that more pigs live in IOWA than people? Yup, that’s according to 38D. Oink.
Rex shared only one holiday pet pic today, but it was a heartbreaker. Here’s the note it came with: My family had to put down our beloved dog Kairos today [Dec. 14], just shy of his ninth Christmas. Although he couldn’t do the NYT crossword, he loved sitting at our feet while we did 🙂 Here he is last year waiting to unwrap his frisbees:
At 5A, the clue was “Deity from whose hair flows the river Ganga.” Ans: SHIVA. In the Jewish version of the puzzle, the clue was “Something you sit.”
My first ever post on Rex’s blog was about a puzzle that had the Nordic Cross as its theme. My post noted that in the Jewish version they used a mezuzah.
When we sent Phil out on the Nordic Cross assignment, he sent this in. I’m just gonna let it go.
Frank Bruni’s newsletter today reprises his favorite selections from his “For the love of sentences” feature from 2023. To no surprise, many are wonderful. If you were a fan of Friday Night Lights (Hi Joe), you certainly remember Riggins, played by the Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch. Alexis Soloski wrote of him in the NYT: “There’s a lonesomeness at the core of him that makes women want to save him and men want to buy him a beer. I am a mother of young children and the temptation to offer him a snack was sometimes overwhelming.”
He is f*cking gorgeous, amirite?
Also in The Times, Nathan Englander contrasted Tom Cruise in his 50s with a typical movie star of that age 50 years ago: “Try Walter Matthau in ‘The Taking of Pelham 123.’ I’m not saying he wasn’t a dreamboat. I’m saying he reflects a life well lived in the company of gravity and pastrami.”
In The LA Times, Jessica Roy explained the stubborn refusal of plastic bags to stay put: “Because they’re so light, they defy proper waste management, floating off trash cans and sanitation trucks like they’re being raptured by a garbage god.”
And, last, this amazing sentence I’ve shared before:
In WaPo, the book critic Ron Charles warned of censorship from points across the political spectrum: “Speech codes and book bans may start in opposing camps, but both warm their hands over freedom’s ashes.”
Will Shortz stumped me with his Brain Tickler yesterday. Here it is: The following five words have something highly unusual in common. The name of what five-letter country could be added to the list?
AQUARIUM CANCEL CRIES LEG PIECES
The solution appears below.
The Pistons losing streak inspired the NYT to reminisce about other historic losers. It’s not exactly pro sports, but the Washington Generals is the exhibition team that plays the Harlem Globetrotters. The Gens play the roles of “punching bag and straight man” to the high-flying comedic ‘Trotters. They play over 200 games a year and the Generals are supposed to lose them all — it’s how the show goes. And, according to The Times, they have lost roughly 20,000 times. But on the night of Jan. 5, 1971, something broke loose from the chains of history. Here’s the report:
The Generals — who were playing as the “New Jersey Reds” — and the Globetrotters played an unusual game that night, with Harlem pulling fewer stunts and fewer comedic gags than usual. Globetrotters captain and team legend Curly Neal sat out, and it turned into more of a classic basketball game than most Globetrotter events.
Washington raced out to a lead, which wasn’t unusual. What was unusual was the Globetrotters losing track of the score and failing to complete their usual dramatic comeback. Generals owner and founder Red Klotz checked himself into the game in the final seconds and hit the go-ahead basket to put Washington up 100-99.
Even after the timekeeper inexplicably stopped the clock to give Harlem one last shot, the Globetrotters couldn’t continue their winning streak as the crowd sat there dumbfounded. Some children reportedly cried in the stands.
“They looked at us like we killed Santa Claus,” Klotz later said.
Overall, legend has it the Generals may have won as many as six games. But none as stunning as the streak-breaker that night.
OK, puzzlers — give up, like I did? Each of those words, above, can become a sign of the zodiac by changing one letter. LEG becomes LEO; CANCEL becomes CANCER; CRIES, ARIES, etc. And the country LIBYA becomes LIBRA.
D’oh!
Damn you, Will Shortz!
Anybody see or hear of the movie Moon? It was a science fiction film released in 2009 starring Sam Rockwell. Kaya Scodelario is in it too. You may recall her from Wuthering Heights and Pirates of the Caribbean. Some of the puzzle comments on it make it sound interesting. I may try to catch it on Prime. Here’s Kaya, chortling at one of Phil’s idiotic jokes. (It’s a gift.)
Joe Gow is 63 and was the Chancellor of U of Wisconsin-La Crosse since 2007 up to, well, yesterday. He had announced that he would be stepping down at the end of this school year, but the Board of Regents felt it was really really really time for him to go, like, right away. And yet just last August UW System President Jay Rothman said of Gow: “This is a hallmark of excellent stewardship. He has provided a steady hand through challenging times and met the moment when we needed him.” Wha hoppen, mon?
There had been a little glitch back in 2018 when he invited a female porn star to speak on campus, during “free speech” week, for which she was paid a $5,000 speaker’s fee. There was a teensy-beensy public outcry over it, and Gow was reprimanded for poor judgment and denied a pay raise due to it. He also reimbursed the school the $5,000. In retrospect, that was a harbinger of the truckloads of sh*t that hit the fan this week.
It turns out Gow and his wife are very active in the porn industry, under assumed names, and have been active participants in films and publications. The University went bonkers. Rothman said: “In recent days, we learned of specific conduct by Dr. Gow that has subjected the university to significant reputational harm. His actions were abhorrent.”
Board of Regents President Karen Walsh said Gow showed “a reckless disregard” for his role as a UW-La Crosse leader. ”We are alarmed, and disgusted, by his actions, which were wholly and undeniably inconsistent with his role as chancellor.”
To which we strongly add, hrummmmmph!
Gow says he was denied due process and maintains that the creation of books and videos exploring consensual adult sexuality falls within his right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Gow and his wife knew the risks they were taking. In 2015 they wrote: “We think our sex is beautiful and have no qualms at all about other people watching us make love. But our establishment colleagues likely would be shocked to watch us complete the full carnal process – particularly with professional porn stars – and we’re fairly certain we’d be shunned in our community. Our careers likely would be ruined, and what’s worse is that the lives of our families and friends also could be impacted significantly, and not in a positive way.”
Ya think?
So, folks — the next time you make an error in judgment, don’t be too hard on yourselves. You ain’t come close to these idiots.
Here are the Mr. and Mrs. (Actually, OC hopes things work out for you guys. You are not the enemy.)
Good night, everybody. Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 