Yesterday, the all-Republican all-the-time Arizona State Supreme Court restored the validity of Arizona’s 1864 anti-abortion law. Arizona did not become a state until 1912, but so what? Under the law, all physicians capable of performing abortions and all women of child-bearing age are to be taken out to the forest and shot.
There. Finished.
I was looking over the box score from last night’s Nats’ 5-3 win over the Giants, and noticed that the last two Giant pitchers were both listed as “T. Rogers.” Digging a little, I learned that one was Taylor Rogers and the other was Tyler Rogers. What are the odds? I dug a little deeper and learned they were both born in Littleton, CO. Yikes! Getting creepy. And they have the same birthday: 12/17/1990! It was at that point that I realized they are twins. Duh. Identical, no less.
Late last season, in an article published on August 10, 2023, it was noted that Taylor had a 2.52 ERA, while Tyler was just two-hundredths of a point higher at 2.54. Taylor had 46 strikeouts compared to Tyler’s 45, and the brothers’ respective WHIPs (walks and hits per inning pitched), were a mere one-thousandth of a point apart — Taylor at 1.093 and Tyler at 1.094.
Overall, Taylor has had the stronger career, with 83 saves and a 3.17 ERA, but both are damn good pitchers. Phil took this nice shot of the brothers and assures me that that’s Taylor on the right. Or the left. No, the right, for sure.
Wait — I didn’t get to the punchline yet. Before joining the Giants, Taylor pitched for the Twins. (Not kidding.)
In the puzzle today, at 49A the clue was “Container in a kid’s backpack,” and the answer was PENCIL BOX. Here’s Rex:
“I do have a question about PENCIL BOX, which is “Whose child?” and (follow-up) “What year is it?” Do kids’ backpacks still contain PENCIL BOXes!?!? If so, I couldn’t be more thrilled. I have several pencil boxes in my desk drawer here, I love them. Pencils rule. But I thought “kids” were moving away from writing by hand generally, and even if they are still writing by hand, the PENCIL BOX (as a kids’ school accessory) seems old-fashioned. Maybe it’s an art thing? Are they colored pencils? Anyway, that answer felt slightly dated. Not INK WELL dated, but … about halfway to INKWELL. I’m seeing kid-branded PENCIL BOXes online, so obviously kids still use them. I just wonder about what percentage actually have them in their backpacks on any given day.”
Here are some responses from commenters:
I have a third grader and he does, indeed, use pencils, though he carries them in a nylon bag and not a box. Pencils are still around, at least for my kid.
My middle schooler has a pencil case, but sometimes he’s had a box – it depends on his whim at the start of the year when we’re buying supplies – and yes, he has to bring it every day.
Yes my grandson also has a pencil box. During the pandemic, when schools reopened, the children were asked to bring in their own supplies so that they didn’t share germs. So I guess there was a pencil box Renaissance in a way. These days they’re back to sharing supplies since we know the more likely mode of transmission is through the air.
NYC middle school teacher here, currently in year 27. Students absolutely use pencil cases in school. I’ve never heard the term pencil box before this crossword.
And then I chimed in, with the following:
I am surprised to see that Rex and several of the comments are completely missing the point on the PENCIL BOX (49A). The true pencil box is a box made out of pencils. Each side of the box is made by placing pencils of equal length one on top of the other until the desired box height is reached. Hold them in place as best as possible with your fingers. You’ll get better at this the more boxes you make.
Next, slather them with a good, fast-drying liquid glue. When they seem securely glued in place, do your best to remove them from your fingers and try to separate your fingers from each other. Ideally, you will have someone available to drive you to the emergency room if necessary, as it is difficult to control a steering wheel with pencils glued to your fingers.
Repeat four times, making sure the opposing box sides are equal in length and all four equal in height. When you have all of the sides completed, just use common sense to finish constructing the box.
“Where runway 9 is always oriented at an airport.” The answer was EAST.
Seriously? Every airport makes sure that runways 1-8 point elsewhere and they place #9 so it faces east? What about small airports that don’t have 9 runways? In other words, what the f*ck is going on? Did you know this?
It turns out runway numbers at all airports have significance based on the direction they face, in relation to “magnetic north.” Point your compass straight north and spin around in a 360 degree circle. East would be at the 90 degree point, right? So you drop the zero and the runway facing that direction (East) is Runway 9. It might be a runway that planes can take off from in either direction. In that case, a plane heading West would be at 270 degrees, right? So drop the zero and that’s Runway 27. The same strip of runway would be both Runway 9 and Runway 27, depending on which direction the plane is heading. It could be identified as 9/27 if there’s no reference to a particular flight.
So each runway at an airport is numbered based on the number of degrees from magnetic north, with the zero dropped.
Gordon Lightfoot wrote the beautiful song, “Early Mornin’ Rain.” Dylan covers it, below. Listen to the lyrics, third verse:
Out on runway number nine
Big 707 set to go
Here’s a note from the American Nitpickers Association & League (ANAL). At 17A, the clue was “Popular Italian entree, informally,” and the answer was CHICKEN PARM. A commenter going by the name A. Vespucci said…
Chicken Parm Italian?
Chicken Parm is an American dish developed in Italian immigrant neighborhoods in cities in northeastern US during the first part of the 20th century. While it certainly has “cousins” in Italian cuisine, it is a big stretch to call it Italian. Better cluing might have been “Popular Italian-American entree, informally.” Or “Popular entree in Italian-American restaurants, informally.”
Geez Louise — gimme a break Vespucci! Close enough for crosswords.
We’ll send you off drooling tonight. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 