Today’s poem of the day in The Writer’s Almanac is called “A Color of the Sky” and is by Tony Hoagland. It rewards re-readings. But that’s up to you: As the saying goes, You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t look him in the mouth. (Not to imply that any Owl Chatter readers are horses.)
A Color of the Sky
Windy today and I feel less than brilliant,
driving over the hills from work.
There are the dark parts on the road
when you pass through clumps of wood
and the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean,
but that doesn’t make the road an allegory.
I should call Marie and apologize
for being so boring at dinner last night,
but can I really promise not to be that way again?
And anyway, I’d rather watch the trees, tossing
in what certainly looks like sexual arousal.
Otherwise it’s spring, and everything looks frail;
the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves
are full of infant chlorophyll,
the very tint of inexperience.
Last summer’s song is making a comeback on the radio,
and on the highway overpass,
the only metaphysical vandal in America has written
MEMORY LOVES TIME
in big black spraypaint letters,
which makes us wonder if Time loves Memory back.
Last night I dreamed of X again.
She’s like a stain on my subconscious sheets.
Years ago she penetrated me
but though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,
I never got her out,
but now I’m glad.
What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.
What I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.
What I thought was an injustice
turned out to be a color of the sky.
Outside the youth center, between the liquor store
and the police station,
a little dogwood tree is losing its mind;
overflowing with blossomfoam,
like a sudsy mug of beer;
like a bride ripping off her clothes,
dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds,
so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.
It’s been doing that all week:
making beauty,
and throwing it away,
and making more.
Here’s Hoagland. He was born in NC and passed away in 2018, a month before turning 65. Rest in peace, Tony.
Nothing could stop our Pistons from garnering win number 4 (of the season) last night, stomping all over the Washington Wizards 129-117. Alex Burks came off the bench, played 28 minutes, and scored 34 points. Wow! He played college ball at Colorado. And, get this — we were playing without two of our best players, Cade Cunningham and Bojan Bogdanovic. Pistons are 4-36 on the season now.
After beating Toronto on Dec. 30 to end their record-setting 28-game losing streak, they lost seven more in a row before last night. Seven in a row is nothing, right fellas? Good game!
Today’s puzzle seems pretty amazing to me. I was bumbling my way along, not noticing anything special until I got way down to the last across clue: 62A, “First-year law student … or what every answer in this puzzle has exactly.” Answer: ONE L. Wait, what? Every answer (across and down) has exactly one L in it? OMG, it does. BLOG, ALTAR, LIPO, NEALE, SLEW, and so on. Pretty neat. BILGE and BULGE was a nice combo.
At 13D the clue was “Fuse, as metal,” and the answer was WELD. And today is Tuesday. Do you see the connection? I didn’t, but commenter Lewis noted the shoutout to actress Tuesday Weld, from the old Dobie Gillis show. She was the pretty girlfriend. Marybeth Whitehead, the biological mom in the famous Baby M surrogacy case had a daughter she named Tuesday. Here’s Weld sucking up to some random bus driver. Eyes on the road, Kramden!
Weld’s name at birth was Susan. Her cousin couldn’t pronounce it when she was little and it came out Tu-Tu. That’s where the Tuesday came from. She changed her name legally to Tuesday when she was 16. She is 80 years old now and lives in Manhattan. She is of the Weld family — high society in Massachusetts. Tuesday is a fourth cousin of Bill Weld who was governor of Massachusetts in the 90s.
She was married three times, the last one was Pinchas Zuckerman. Her second was actor Dudley Moore. She had a daughter with first hubby, screenwriter Claude Harz, and a son with Moore.
This paragraph comes straight out of Wikipedia:
Between marriages, Weld dated Al Pacino, David Steinberg, Mikhail Baryshnikov (whose previous girlfriend, Jessica Lange, had been Weld’s best friend), Omar Sharif, Rabbi Henry Sharpstein of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Great Neck, NY, Richard Gere, and Ryan O’Neal. (Okay, I made up Sharpstein, but the others are real.)
Omar f*cking Sharif made the cut! — good old Doc Zhivago. She must have left him because of the Siberian winters. Good rule of thumb — when your moustache gets caked with ice, it’s time to call for an Uber.
Here’s what all those men found alluring. I can see it.
OK folks — I must still be tired from the trip. It’s only 6:30 but I’m beat.
See you tomorrow – thanks for stopping in.
The Wellington Files 