Good morning, everybody. It’s a quiet Saturday at Owl Chatter headquarters. Our 450th post should go out sometime this week. They sure pile up. I can remember about 3 of them. Well, maybe more than 3, but they do recede into the past pretty quickly.
It’s going to be a quiet celebration. Our dear friends Ana de Armas and Teddy Kooser will drop by — it’s been a long time since Ana’s been in a puzzle — and we’ll just have a quiet night with them, and, of course, Phil and George. Georgie has promised to whip up a cake. Yum! Hey GS! — when you go out later — we’re low on Diet Dr. Pepper — there’s a twenty in the jar near the door.
Meanwhile, this wonderful piece by Nancy Klein from tomorrow’s Met Diary made my morning:
Dear Diary:
I was on the subway one day, and the train wasn’t very crowded. I happily found a seat, and there was an empty one next to me.
At the next stop a woman who was maybe in her 60s got on and saw the empty seat. She walked over, turned and lowered herself down carefully — right onto my lap.
Before I could say anything, she got up and turned around as carefully as she had sat down.
“I am so sorry,” she said. “I seem to have miscalculated.”
In a letter to the NYT today, Lois Platt, of Oak Park, IL, raised a question with tax season coming up. “Since frozen embryos are now considered children in Alabama, will Alabama parents be able to claim them as dependents on their state income tax returns?
I’m surprised Alabama even has a state income tax, but it does. Just like a real state.
Well, I’m certainly glad the Allies defeated the Germans in WWII. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to hear Richard Strauss’s Concerto in D Major for Oboe and Small Orchestra down in New Brunswick tomorrow afternoon. It surely would be my loss.
Strauss wrote it in 1945 at the suggestion, even noodging, of John de Lancie who was only in Strauss’s town of Garmisch, Germany, as an occupying American soldier. de Lancie was a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony during peacetime (and later became the Principal Oboe of the Philly Orchestra).
Anyway, he was able to converse with Strauss in French and noted that Strauss had written many fine oboe solos but no oboe concerto. Strauss essentially told de Lancie to f*ck off, but he persisted and Strauss caved and banged out a doozie. The soloist tomorrow will be Robert Ingliss, Principal Oboe of the NJ Symphony. Ingliss says the work is rarely performed despite its brilliance because it’s very hard and requires much stamina. Amazingly, Ingliss himself has never heard it performed live except for his own performances and in rehearsals. The opening segment is 55 measures long so the breathing has to be carefully worked out. In a few spots, “circular breathing” is used: air is forced out with the cheeks while fresh air is taken in through the nose. I’ll try to look for that — I’ll be sitting pretty close. I’m going to keep a steady eye on Ingliss’s cheeks and nose. I hope I don’t freak him out.
BTW, the expression “elbow room” came about from an orchestra that was seated too closely by the stage crew. The oboe player was complaining that he needed more “oboe room” but years of playing the oboe wreaked havoc with his pronunciation, and he was misunderstood. The mistake soon spread to the other instruments. So it’s not uncommon for a flutist who requests more “flute room” to be asked — “Oh, you mean elbow room?”
Baseball great Honus Wagner was born on this date 150 years ago in what is now Carnegie PA. How great? He was one of the five original inductees into the Hall of Fame, along with Cobb, Ruth, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. Only Ty Cobb received more votes than Wagner, who was tied for second place with Ruth. Cobb called Wagner “maybe the greatest star ever to take the diamond.”
His name was Johannes, but his mom called him Hans and it later morphed into Honus. He played for 21 seasons starting in 1897, almost entirely for Pittsburgh. He won the NL batting crown 8 times, a feat equaled only by Tony Gwynn. He was one of nine children and dropped out of school at age 12 to help his dad in the coal mines. He and his brothers played ball in their free time and three of his brothers became pro ballplayers too.
Wagner won the World Series with Pittsburgh in 1909, beating Ty Cobb’s Tigers. There is a legend that Cobb, standing on first base, called the German-ancestored Wagner a “krauthead,” told him he was going to steal second, and was not only thrown out but that Wagner tagged him in the mouth, ball in hand, drawing blood from Cobb’s lip. However, the play-by-play shows this never occurred. It’s attributed to an overly creative press. Wagner and Cobb were actually on good terms.
Honus married Bessie Smith. Their first child was a daughter who was stillborn: Elva. They had two daughters who survived: Betty and Virginia. After his playing days ended, he was the batting coach for the Pirates for 39 years, coaching, among others, Pie Traynor, Ralph Kiner, and Hank Greenberg.
I have two cards signed by Honus in my collection, valued, I’d say, at around $1,000 each.
My favorite clue/answer today was at 50D. The clue was simply “Who says?” The answer has five letters and I was at sea until it came to me. I’ll give it to you later.
At 50D: Fashion items that may be a bit steep: STILETTOS.
Taylor! — darling — hate to ask. We know you’re in over your head with the concerts in Australia, Travis with you, etc., but Phil is on his way down there– can you throw on a pair of stilettos real quick and let him take a few shots for us? It was in the puzzle today and all of my tax students are busy studying for the quiz. I can’t bother Yvette again — she just helped us out with the tankini,
Wow, thanks T! Stunning, as always. We owe you one. (Georgie says hi.)
OK, so the clue was “Who says?”
Answer: SIMON.
Incredible dinner tonight at Jozanna’s in Middlesex NJ, with Owl Chatter friends Dan and Mary. Break your neck to get over there — massive portions of home-made Italian food for, like, no money. Great staff and bare bones Jersey atmosphere — across from some warehouses or something. One of our dishes was “3-Way Parmigiana”- veal, chicken and eggplant stacked and topped with melted mozzarella and gallons of rich home-made tomato sauce served with 2 massive ravioli. $24 — could serve a village. Call ahead, though — we had to eat at 4pm to get a table. BYOB.
I think this shot is of a seafood dish. You get the idea.
Good night everybody! Thanks for stopping in.
The Wellington Files 