Owl Chatter fave Caitlin Clark is complaining about the officiating in the WNBA. She (and her coach, Christie Sides) say she is getting hammered and not getting the calls. Take a look at this:
WTF! That foul was called, but it wasn’t categorized as “flagrant.” It’s okay. Indiana won the game — its first home win of the season. Caitlin later said: “I wasn’t expecting that. But it’s just like, ‘Respond, calm down and let your play do the talking.’ It is what it is … Go make the free throw and then execute on offense.”
For her part, Chennedy Carter, who committed the foul, did not want to talk about it after the game. “I ain’t answering no Caitlin Clark questions,” she said. Compounding the controversy, it is believed Carter said “little bitch” to Clark as she committed the foul. [Note: Caitlin is 6 feet tall. Hardly “little.”]
The puzzle today opened the prettiest door for us. At 97D, the clue was “Sleeve style with slanted seams,” and the answer was RAGLAN.
“On Raglan Road” is a well-known Irish song from a poem written by Patrick Kavanagh named after Raglan Road in Ballsbridge, Dublin. In the poem, the speaker recalls, while walking on a “quiet street,” a love affair that he had with a much younger woman. Although he knew he would risk being hurt if he initiated a relationship, he did so anyway. Was it ever not so?
We sent Phil over to Dublin to look for the dark-haired Irish girl of the song. He swears he found her, and, yup, — the singer had no choice.
Spoiler alert: Here’s how it ends:
On a quiet street where old ghosts meet
I see her walking now
Away from me so hurriedly
My reason must allow
That I had loved not as I should
A creature made of clay
When the angel woos the clay
He’ll lose his wings at the dawn of day
A Democratic Congressman from Minny, Dean Phillips, has urged NY Gov. Kathy Hochul to pardon Trump “for the good of the country.” Crazy? Of course. But I started thinking – how about if Hochul figured out how much money NYC’s public transit system needs, and how much money CUNY needs, and all the other good NY programs that help people. And throw in a nice raise for public service employees.
Say, it’s $7 or $8 billion. Whatever. 10? Who knows? And she says to Trump – if you can get your idiotic base to fund all this stuff, I’ll give you your pardon. It’s no skin off his ass to raise unlimited amounts of money from the morons who support him. Gov! — you listening?
Geddes Johnson wrote this piece for Met Diary today:
Dear Diary:
I was walking to Grand Central early one summer Saturday. I was wearing seafoam green pants because it was to be a seafoam-green-pants type of day at the beach.
I passed a moving van on the other side of the street where some men were unloading furniture.
“You a doctor?” one of them yelled to me.
“No, sir,” I replied.
He shook his head.
“You’ve got to get some new pants,” he said.
And Dylan Connell shared this Tiny Love Story — about his aunt!
Trading poodle skirts and blouses for trucker hats and flannels, decades before the term “gender nonconforming” entered the mainstream, Aunt Barbara stopped trying to fit into her Missouri farm town. I innocently called her “Uncle Barbara” as a toddler. She always laughed. For all of her standing out, for the acceptance she demanded and got, Barb’s inner life is unknowable. Long gone from cancer, she left me two important gifts: a record of her courageous clothing preferences captured in family photos, and a blazed path for her family to accept me, her gay nephew.
The most maligned clue/answer today was at 21A. The clue was “VCR medium” and the answer was TV TAPE. Here’s Rex on it:
I was groaning and eye-rolling a lot today, with Peak Groan coming with TV TAPE, what on god’s green earth is that supposed to be?! TV TAPE???! TV TAPE. I’m just going to keep saying it, hoping that through iteration, it will magically turn into something, something real, something someone has actually said before. Just gruesome. Embarrassing. How do you talk yourself into TV TAPE!? You gotta exercise discretion. You cannot let your wordlist push you around. There’s so much of this going around—constructors who think that just because it’s in their database, it’s good. No experienced constructor is ever going to try to palm TV TAPE off on you. Criminal. Editorial malpractice.
Yes, but how do you really feel about it?
As usual, egs came up with a different take:
Our early model RCA was always falling apart. Antennas breaking off, knobs clattering to the floor, power cord fraying. I can still hear the Old Man yelling “egs, bring me the goddamn TVTAPE!”
Did you know that a slang term for “Did a great job on” is ATE? That’s new to me. It emerged as a term of admiration and praise to describe a person, usually a woman, who was performing exceptionally well in a drag show, dance competition, or other form of performance. “Man, she ate that sh*t up completely.” Then its application broadened.
See those ballplayers? They play for the Tri-City Chili Peppers and they look like that because their game last night was the first ever “Cosmic Baseball” game, played entirely under “black lights.” The players, balls, bats, bases, etc. could all be seen in a neon sort of glow, but nothing else.
Tri City plays in a Collegiate Summer League and their home town is Colonial Hgts, VA, a bit south of Richmond. The game was a success and will be repeated several times later this season. They say seats are still available for July 20, but internet sales seem to be glitching up. The Peppers beat the Greenbriar Knights 9-4, BTW.
Hope you had some strawberries this weekend! The Mets honored Daryl Strawberry yesterday and retired his number: 18 — Chai, or Life, in Jewish numerology. Anyone with a sweet lefty swing like that, and such a big gracious smile, is welcome as an honorary Jew, for sure. Daryl had his troubles off the field, but he battled through them and is a real mensch today. You’ll always be in the lineup at Owl Chatter, Straw.
Georgie! — get our slugger a cold Diet Coke! And see if we have any Doritos left.
What a joyous face! Good night, everybody. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 