Hey everybody — it’s Bob Dylan’s birthday today! He’s 83, kinehora. How about opening for us today, buddy? Your choice.
To 120, old man!
The Blue Jays have a pitcher named Zach Pop. He’s Canadian. Every out he gets is a Pop out. See this photo? — his eyes are Pop eyes. Any drawing he does is Pop art. His son is named Snap Crackle Pop. A branch of his family lives in Boston. They are the Boston Pops.
Wretching and Gagging Dept.
At 57A yesterday, “Food brand with a rabbit mascot” was ANNIE’S. Rex noted: First time I ever saw maggots was in a box of ANNIE’S macaroni + cheese, true story.
And commenter Sailor wrote: Here’s another true story: In a January 2024 article titled “The Plastic Chemicals Hiding in Your Food”, Consumer Reports released the results of their testing for phthalates in common food products. Of 85 products tested, the highest level of phthalates per serving was found in Annie’s Organic canned cheesy ravioli (a General Mills brand). Caveat emptor.
Just in case you’re as ignorant as I am (God forbid) — Phthalates are colorless, odorless, oily chemical compounds that are used as plasticizers to make plastic products more flexible, durable, and transparent. They are also used as solvents and additives in polyvinyl chloride (PVC), also known as vinyl. I.e., they don’t belong in your child’s ravioli.
Here is the same girl, three weeks after eating that ravioli.
I was looking through one of the poems for the day and didn’t like it. Not Kooserish enough for us: too poem-y. But the word curlew was in it. So it reminded me of this song by Irishman Christy Moore. I shared it on OC a long time ago. So it’s about time for a replay. It’s “So Do I” and it’s about a day the fisherman likes.
These goddamn college presidents just don’t love the Jews enough!! What gives? In the third hearing the Repubs called to shriek themselves hoarse loving the Jews, Michael Schill of Northwestern U was given an F for tepidness in his Jew-loving by right-wing lunatic and Trump sycophant Elise Stefanik. (For those of you who are not in academia, an F is the lowest grade that can be given. It means you failed and are a stupid Jew-hating moron.)
Schill was accused of “unilateral capitulation to the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic” protesters. Ginny Foxx of NC said he should be ashamed of endangering Jewish students. Whom we love to pieces!! More than we love our own goyishe children!! She later corrected herself and said he should be “doubly ashamed.” Thanks for clearing that up, Ginny. It was a little ambiguous.
Hmmmmm, and isn’t Schill a German name? Just wonderin’.
No, he’s Jewish and a descendant of Holocaust survivors.
Wait, what?
The shrieking grew so intense, the self-hating Jew Schill at one point stated: “I really am offended by you telling me what my views are.”
Well, somebody has to!!
Jonathan Holloway of Rutgers raised this insane and clearly anti-Semitic point regarding the protesters: “They were not, as some have characterized them, terrorists. They were our students.”
Not good enough, Holloway!! We love the Jews so much more than you do, it’s ridiculous, Foxx screamed into her mic.
The Republicans have vowed to call more hearings. [Yay.]
Wow, who’s this?
She’s Aerin Frankel, 24, and she’s the goalie for Boston in the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Her height is an issue — she’s 5′ 5″ — but she’s been incredible. In the semifinals against Montreal, Frankel made 109 saves on 111 shots in the first two games alone. Her 57 saves in Boston’s 2-1 triple-overtime victory set a new PWHL record for saves in a single game. Boston was outshot 145-102 in the series, but Frankel only yielded four goals for an outstanding .972 save percentage. [Georgie — check the math on that.]
Phil used his magic to get that shot of her, above, that has us all drooling, but she usually looks like this.
In a story by NBC News that, insanely, did not mention Taylor Swift once, Travis Kelce commented on the anti-gay speech teammate Harrison Butker gave at a Catholic college.
“When it comes down to his views and what he said at Saint Benedict’s commencement speech, those are his. I can’t say I agree with the majority of it or just about any of it outside of just him loving his family and his kids. And I don’t think that I should judge him by his views, especially his religious views, of how to go about life, that’s just not who I am.” (My emphasis.)
But Trav essentially knocked Butker by comparison when he said:
“I grew up in a beautiful upbringing of different social classes, different religions, different races and ethnicities, in Cleveland Heights. It showed me a broad spectrum, just a broad view of a lot of different walks of life. And I appreciated every single one of those people for different reasons, and I never once had to feel like I needed to judge them, based off of their beliefs.
Well-said Trav.
Here’s the girlfriend, at work. Wedding bells in the offing, TK?
BTW, the answer at 16A today was SWIFTIES.
This poem is called “To a Daughter Leaving Home.” It’s by Linda Pastan and was in today’s Writer’s Almanac.
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.
OK, let’s end today with a good foot-stomper. At 19D, the clue was: Wedding staple with the line “Take it back now, y’all” and the answer was CHA CHA SLIDE. What? I heard of the electric slide, but not this. Anyway, it was gettable from the crosses. It was new to Rex too, and he shared this song with us, about yet a different slide. We’re heading down to Charm City tomorrow for a weekend away. Ball game versus the Bosox in Camden Yards on Monday. Hope we can post from there.
Thanks for stopping by!
The Wellington Files 