Estonia is popular in Crossworld since 4 of its 7 letters are vowels. Still, it is noteworthy that it appeared in three separate NYT puzzles last week. Here they are:
WEDNESDAY: What’s opposite Finland on the Gulf of Finland.
SATURDAY: First country to hold elections using internet voting.
SUNDAY: Country that had a nonviolent “singing revolution” in the late 1980s.
Interesting clues, especially that last one. The Estonian Singing Revolution lasted over four years, with various protests and acts of defiance, leading eventually to independence. Take a listen for 2 minutes to what it must have felt like.
And some of you will appreciate this brilliant (IMO) comment on Rex’s blog yesterday:
ESTONIA when you try to be so good
ESTONIA just like they said they would
At 31A today, “Lively get-togethers” was SHINDIGS. Put that together with yesterday’s GREAVES (shin-protecting armor), and you get egs’s quip: I always wear GREAVES to avoid painful SHINDIGS.
This poem, from Today’s Writer’s Almanac, is called “On the Death of a Colleague,” and it’s by Steve Dunn.
She taught theater, so we gathered
in the theater.
We praised her voice, her knowledge,
how good she was
with Godot and just four months later
with Gigi.
She was fifty. The problem in the liver.
Each of us recalled
an incident in which she’d been kind
or witty.
I told about being unable to speak
from my diaphragm
and how she made me lie down, placed her hand
where the failure was
and showed me how to breathe.
But afterwards
I only could do it when I lay down
and that became a joke
between us, and I told it as my offering
to the audience.
I was on stage and I heard myself
wishing to be impressive.
Someone else spoke of her cats
and no one spoke
of her face or the last few parties.
The fact was
I had avoided her for months.
It was a student’s turn to speak, a sophomore,
one of her actors.
She was a drunk, he said, often came to class
reeking.
Sometimes he couldn’t look at her, the blotches,
the awful puffiness.
And yet she was a great teacher,
he loved her,
but thought someone should say
what everyone knew
because she didn’t die by accident.
Everyone was crying. Everyone was crying and it
was almost over now.
The remaining speaker, an historian, said he’d cut
his speech short.
And the Chairman stood up as if by habit,
said something about loss
and thanked us for coming. None of us moved
except some students
to the student who’d spoken, and then others
moved to him, across dividers,
down aisles, to his side of the stage.
For those of you worried about Travis and Tay not getting enough time together these days — relax. They hung out in the puzzle today. TRAVIS appeared as himself at 28A: “Three-time Super Bowl winner Kelce.” And Tay was in the clue for ERAS at 44A: “The ___ Tour (Taylor Swift concert series).” Always good to see you, kids. Eight shows in London — don’t you ever run out of gas, TS?
Ever hear of The Beths? Me neither. But Rex shared this song of theirs since KNEEPAD appeared in the puzzle and it’s called “Knees Deep.” I’m glad he did. Good tune; neat video.
Liam Bancroft, of the Dull Men’s Club (UK), really stepped into it today when he posted: “What’s the most obscure animals found in pub names? Can’t say I’ve ever seen “Monkey” before today.”
I won’t bore you with all 282 responses. I’ll bore you with far fewer. Cow & Telescope; The Moor Cock Inn; The Ferret and Radiator (in Dawlish); Slug & Lettuce; The Rat and Pigeon; Drunken Duck; Butterfly & Pig; The Honest Lawyer (wait, what?); Phoenix & Firkin; Newt & Cucumber; Frog & Nightgown; The Fox and Gynaecologist; The Rampant Badger; Three Pilchers. Enough? Enough. (Pilcher is not an animal, as far as I can tell, but it sounds like one.) And there were quite a few monkeys. This place looks posh.
Two downers in the puzzle today, albeit both in across clues. “Politico Marco” was RUBIO. Yuck. And “Vehicle in a funeral procession” was HEARSE. Thanks for the reminder! Commenter Gary shared this with us:
“Three HEARSE related items: Don’t know if this made the national news, but until a month ago, Colorado’s funeral industry was was completely unregulated and one place had 200 dead people rotting inside a house. Another guy left a dead woman in a hearse behind his rental house for two years. So now the state has decided we oughta have some rules, duh. And finally, to this day, I still wish my car was an old hearse (not a cool Harold and Maude hearse, but a plain ole regular one), but my wife does not have the same sense of humor as I do. She also said I couldn’t ask for a gold tooth when I got my front implant. Boring.”
How’s this for your hearse? Sorry, a hearse.
Starting to look forward to our Saratoga Springs & Middlebury VT trip on Weds. Hope our favorite coffee/bagel place (Uncommon Grounds) has day-old bagels for me. Also looking to load up on Otter Creek and Fiddlehead ales. Good stuff!
(Burp!) See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 