Some heavy hitters are celebrating birthdays today. James Joyce (1882, Rathgar, Ireland), and Ayn Rand (1905, St. Pete, Russia). Rand’s name at birth was Alissa Rosenbaum. Had no idea.
This poem is called “The Past Is Still There.” It’s by Deborah Garrison and was in today’s Writer’s Almanac.
I’ve forgotten so much.
What it felt like back then,
what we said to each other.
But sometimes when I’m standing
at the kitchen counter after dinner
and I look out the window at the dark
thinking of nothing,
something swims up.
Tonight this:
your laughing into my mouth
as you were trying
to kiss me.
If you enjoy little word games like Wordle, you might enjoy a new one I just learned about called Squeezy. It’s by Jeff Chen and it’s at imsqueezy.com.
It’s about time we had some “real” owl chatter, amirite? It’s the first anniversary of Flaco the owl’s escape from the Central Park Zoo to freedom. The Gothamist took the occasion to chat with David Lei about Flaco. He’s a wildlife observer and photographer, based in Manhattan, who specializes in urban owls. David estimates he’s taken tens of thousands of pictures of Flaco. His favorite is one of Flaco sitting on a park bench. ”It speaks to how he is an owl of the city.” I can’t get a copy of that one, but here’s another.
Here’s how David describes Flaco:
First of all, Flaco is beautiful. Just absolutely majestic and magnificent. He looks much like our native great horned owls, but quite different with beautiful orange plumes and orange eyes. He’s got a massive 6-foot wingspan, and it’s just a delight to behold him.
He was able to watch Flaco gain strength and get better at flying, hunting, and hooting. He was born in the zoo and thus never flew or hunted, and he was not known to hoot much.
“He initially wasn’t very good at flying. He’d get exhausted quite quickly, flying a short distance from one tree to the next, crashing into branches when he went to land, but he kept at it. He got better very quickly, and before long, he was quite graceful in flight.”
He went on:
“I last saw Flaco on the Upper West Side around 90th and Broadway two nights ago. He was hooting from what’s become a favorite building, and he looked great. The hooting appears to require a fair bit of energy to project that sound two blocks away, and to keep at it for perhaps hours on end. He seems to be doing really well.”
Owl Chatter Math Dept. (Hi Judy!). At 47A today, the clue was “N-_______ (mathematical sets)” and the answer was TUPLES. But judging from the outcry it elicited, tuples in fact are not sets. Here’s one note: Tuples and sets are distinct: tuples are ordered, and sets are not. The 3-tuples (2, 3, 5) and (3, 5, 2) are not equal, while the sets {2, 3, 5} and {3, 5, 2} are.
OK, got it. Thanks!
I had not heard of tuples. Sets, vaguely, but had forgotten what they are.
At 18A the clue was New Delhi’s ________ Temple, and the answer was LOTUS. Here’s a picture of it. It looks like a giant origami creation.
Are you familiar with the SUNK COST FALLACY? The clue at 8D was: Rationale for “throwing good money after bad.”
A “sunk cost” is a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Economists say it should not be taken into consideration in making decisions. At any moment in time, the best thing to do depends only on current alternatives. Thus, if a new factory was originally projected to yield $100 million in value, and after $30 million is spent on it the value projection falls to $65 million, the company should abandon the project rather than spending an additional $70 million to complete it. Conversely, as a rational actor, if the value projection falls to $75 million the company should continue the project.
Even though economists argue that sunk costs are not relevant to rational decision-making, people often consider previous expenditures, e.g., when deciding whether to repair a car or house. And that is the sunk cost “fallacy.” ”Concorde fallacy” derives from the fact that Britain and France continued to fund the joint development of the costly Concorde supersonic airplane even after it became apparent that there was no longer an economic case for the aircraft.
At 61A, “1979 hit whose title is stuttered,” is not The Who’s “My Generation,” as first came to mind, although the “my” is correct. Have a listen to the correct answer: the debut single of The Knack. Turn it up!!
It’s My Sharona, of course, one of those songs everyone emerging from that era knows. It was written by Doug Fieger and Berton Averre of The Knacks. Fieger sings it as well. It reached #1 on the charts where it remained for six weeks.
Come a little closer, huh, ah, will ya, huh?
Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona
Sharona is Sharona Alperin who was 17 when Fieger, 25 at the time, met her. Fieger recounted that “It was like getting hit in the head with a baseball bat; I fell in love with her instantly. And when that happened, it sparked something and I started writing a lot of songs feverishly in a short amount of time.” My Sharona, he claimed, was written in 15 minutes, recorded at the first run-through, and took only 15 minutes to mix.
They dated for four years and were engaged at one point but never married. After splitting up they married others but remained great friends. She was by his side often when he fought his losing battle with cancer at age 57. She spent a lot of time at the memorial service and felt good seeing how well respected he was in the music business, which was his life’s passion (after Sharona, of course).
Sharona did not go into music. She went into real estate; her domain name is Mysharona.com. She says being “the” Sharona has been overwhelmingly positive. She gets at least one message a month from friends who just want her to know the song is on. Family members recently called her from a Dodgers game: “They’re playing your song!”
“About 70 percent of the people I meet, as soon as I introduce myself as Sharona, they say ‘My‘ Sharona. And another 20 percent, you can tell, they’re thinking it. It’s so funny.”
Here’s the happy couple. Cue it up again, Phil! And kick it up a notch or two this time.
This beautiful young woman, below, from Japan is Akane Shiga. She is from Hokaido and is 22 years old. As we said about Ella Shelton a month ago, she will knock your teeth out with a stick if the situation calls for it.
She fell in love with ice hockey when she was just 6 years old and has never let go. She played on Japanese national teams with much success. Still, when the Professional Women’s Hockey League held its 15-round draft, she was overlooked. Undaunted, she flew 6,000 miles to Ottawa, tried out for the team, and blew their socks off. She’s the youngest player in the league and the only one born in Japan. She’s played in six games so far and is doing well.
Knock ’em dead, Shiga. Owl Chatter’s in your corner.
I’ll close with an exchange between Rex commenters that got me laughing out loud. First, you should know there is no trolling in Rex’s blog. Once in a while there is a comment that might come across as obnoxious but that’s rare and is often followed by an apology. One of the long-time commenters is Gary. He chats about the puzzle a bit each day, and this and that, and then he makes a list of what he calls “uniclues.” He puts together several of the answers from the grid and makes up a clue connecting them. Has maybe 10 of these a day. It’s an attempt to be funny. Rarely works, but harmless. Some folks like them. I just skip the list. No biggie.
But today, a commenter calling himself No Parking very rudely posted: For the love of sweet baby Jesus, I find your uniclues to be an annoying waste of space.
I thought Gary would just let it go. But he didn’t. About two hours later he responded: No Parking, OMG! Thank you so much. I was worried the internet was almost full and we need to worry about how much space remains. I will stop writing uniclues immediately. You’re the best.
No, you’re the best, dear readers. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 
One response to “The Sharona”
Owls fascinate me!!
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