So my doctor says I shouldn’t swim in the ocean. He’s worried about harpoons.
Ba da boom.
But, yikes, I just learned how deadly the seas are for whales — and that’s without us even trying to kill them. A cruise ship docked in Brooklyn last week with a 50,000 pound endangered sei whale pinned to its bow, dead. It was a 44-foot adult female (and kinda cute, according to our panel of male whales). She was well-fed and healthy, so a collision with the ship was the cause of death.
According to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, 30 large whales met this same fate last year, just along the NY/NJ coastlines. And worldwide the loss of whales runs (swims?) to 20,000 annually. WTF!! In this particular instance, in its defense, the operator of the ship, MSC Cruises, said the company has protocols to avoid crashing into whales. Deck officers receive training on protecting marine life and the company sometimes alters its itineraries to avoid areas where whales have been spotted.
Good! And it should help that they are kind of big, no?
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) is seeking to tighten enforcement of ship speed restrictions in the NY/NJ ports. While white-bellied sei whales usually live far off shore, climate change has brought more whales closer to shore. Here’s one now! Wow — what are the odds?
How’s that for a cheery opening?
Well, I’ve blubbered on long enough.
So whadya think? Will the lady of the hour alter the course of history? Somebody has to or we’re f*cked up the kazoo. Here’s a nice shot Phil copped for us of SD with her daughter.
“Any other weaknesses?”
At 41D today, the clue was “Italian seaport that’s home to Miramare Castle,” and many of us did not know TRIESTE, in part because it “looks” French, not Italian. But commenter Steve shared this, putting us to shame: On March 5, 1946, Sir Winston Churchill delivered “Sinews of Peace,” a message heard round the world that went down in history as the “Iron Curtain Speech.” “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an “iron curtain” has descended across the continent.
At 12D, “Snowdrops, for spring” was EARLY SIGN. They are flowering bulbs. Also known as Galanthus. Here you go. Thanks Phil!
Even better — commenter Andy shared this: Tchaikovsky wrote a set of 12 piano pieces, one for each month of the year. The April piece is called “Snowdrop.”
Did you know that “Lie, in slang” is CAP? That was news to me. It means “to lie (duh), set up a false front, bullshit.” It’s from hip-hop as far back as the 80s and often appears as “no cap,” meaning, no lie or it’s true. Here’s Rex on it (he’s an English prof): I am quite certain that CAP will have put nails in more than a few solvers’ tires today. Hard, hard generational divide there. I forget where I (recently) learned that meaning of “(No) CAP,” but I know that after I learned it, I marched into class and asked my students if they knew the term, and yeah, they all knew it (and laughed at me, I presume affectionately). [OC note: I ran it by Lianna too. She knew it.]
8D generated a great back-and-forth. The clue was “Who soliloquizes ‘The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run.’” The answer is AHAB, you know, from Moby Dick (see whale discussion, above). It set Rex off, as follows:
“My only other significant gripe with this puzzle is the clue on AHAB (8D: Who soliloquizes ‘The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run’), specifically the use of the term ‘soliloquizes.’ I know you want to misdirect people, it’s fun, etc., but that is a term for drama. ‘Hey, remember that famous AHAB soliloquy?’ No, you absolutely do not, because there’s no such thing. Hamlet has soliloquies, Macbeth has soliloquies, and almost certainly IAGO has soliloquies, which is what I (and, please tell me, many of you?) put in there at first. That quotation sounds very poetic, Shakespearean, even, and if you’d told me IAGO’s soul was grooved to run on iron rails, I’d’ve said ‘yes’ (and also ‘why are you talking like that?’). I love good misdirects, but that was a cheap one.”
But commenter Joe Dipinto laid waste (IMO) to Rex’s stance (albeit with quotes from Cliff Notes and SparkNotes):
Note that this chapter (37) has stage directions at the beginning and in the middle. From now through Chapter 40, the novel will take on the style of a play. The novel shifts into first-person narration from Captain Ahab himself. Since the novel is temporarily turning into a play anyway, you can think of it as a soliloquy, a dramatic monologue laying out the internal reflections of a character.
— from SparkNotes
and —
In these chapters [37-40], Melville continues to present dramatic scenes, using brief stage directions, soliloquy, and dialogue.
— from CliffsNotes
Anony-mouse tossed this in:
i think soliloquy was fine. so does merriam webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/soliloquy
1 the act of talking to oneself
2 a poem, discourse, or utterance of a character in a drama that has the form of a monologue or gives the illusion of being a series of unspoken reflections
I loved 1A: “Pop of color for an interior designer.” Answer: ACCENT WALL. Neat, right?
7D was well-liked: “One who can’t handle their moonshine well?” Answer: WEREWOLF. 34A was strong too: “Evidence of a past personal connection?” Answer: NAVEL. (Get it?)
Son Volt treated us to the Jerry Garcia Band’s version of the appropriate song. but I like how Elle and Toni treat it:
And how about “Verklempt” at 24A as a clue for TEARY? Gotta love it.
So Linda and I drove out to Sellersville PA last night to hear Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas perform. Incredible traffic doubled the drive time to 3 hours, but we built in enough of a cushion, so it worked out. A tractor-trailer turned over on Route 78, nailing 4 cars and shutting down all three lanes for hours. Yikes! We drove through a lot of nice local areas. Traffic was still backed up as we sped past it in the other direction 6 hours later!
The show was terrific: they were at the top of their game. They saved Josefin’s Waltz, featured on Owl Chatter recently, for their encore. At the end, Alasdair said, let’s all dance our way out of the theater and into the streets and stop traffic and go on all night. Then he said, Or maybe just lock down the place and play in here all night. Alas, it wasn’t to be. The average age of the audience looked to be about 85, so we were all pretty tired as it is. But I had mentioned Alasdair in a comment on Rex’s blog relating to a puzzle clue for “fiddleheads” and this morning I found this response:
“I love Alasdair Fraser. Saw him (and his ‘anarchist’ – I think that’s what he called them – band of fiddlers) at the SF Opera House once where he never really ‘ended’ the concert. Just continued playing as he & his band walked off the stage, up the aisles, and out onto the sidewalk where they continued to play for another half hour or so.”
Here’s a nice reel to send us off tonight. Thanks for stopping by!
The Wellington Files 