The clue at 17A today was “Sting operation at a senior center?” and the answer was BOOMER BUST. Ouch! It’s a play on “boom or bust” but it seems to take for granted that boomers are in senior centers these days. Alright — I’ll be 75 in January (if I make it that far), but you don’t have to rub my nose in it in the goddamn NYTXW!
The puzzle was co-constructed by Gary Larson — not the cartoonist — who is very good. At 35A the clue was “What the first call to a receptionist might come in on,” and the answer was LINE ONE. Remember those old phone systems where you had those clear thingies at the bottom of your phone and they would blink if a call was coming in on that line until you pressed it down? Here’s one that even has a rotary dial.
OMG, it’s ringing!! Can you get that, someone from the 1950s please?
See that photo? There’s quite a story behind it. That’s Paal Enger. That’s not a typo for Paal — he was from Norway, where they play fast and loose with vowels. He died a few weeks ago, at only 57. He had heroes he emulated when he was growing up. One was soccer great Diego Maradona, and the other was fictional crime boss Vito Corleone. He was a rising soccer star and was also so taken by The Godfather that he visited NYC to see the locations where it was shot. And he was drawn to a life of crime, culminating in his theft of Munch’s great painting The Scream. His soccer teammates sorta knew he was dabbling in crime: he often showed up to practice in fancy cars he had stolen and lived quite a lavish lifestyle.
His first attempt at The Scream failed. He snuck into The Munch Museum through a window, but a glitch in his plans caused him to grab Munch’s
Love and Pain (aka Vampire) instead (see below).
Enger and his partner kept the painting hidden in the ceiling of a pool hall he owned that was frequented by off-duty police officers. “They don’t know it’s hanging just one meter from them,” he said. “That was the best feeling. We let them play for free just to have them there.” But his partner blew their cover and Enger spent four years in prison: all the while still itching to cop The Scream.
Once he was out, he waited until the country was distracted by the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, and on Feb. 12, 1994 climbed a ladder and broke a window to get into the National Gallery in Oslo. Within 50 seconds, he slipped back out with the painting. Our Phil, of course, was on hand and got this shot of the exterior. Phil is afraid of ladders so he didn’t follow Enger inside.
Enger and his partner left behind the ladder, their wire cutters and a note: “A thousand thanks for your poor security.” The crime was so well executed that even though Enger was an obvious suspect, no evidence could be produced against him. And he taunted the police, calling in false leads. They devoted an entire squad to him called Enger Management (no they didn’t).
He was eventually caught via his efforts to sell the painting and sentenced to six years in prison. He began painting in prison. In the photo of Enger with The Scream, above, the painting is a version of it that he painted. In 2011, his abstract paintings were exhibited at a gallery in Norway. His inclinations towards crime remained strong, however, and he was charged with stealing 17 paintings from an Oslo gallery in 2015.
Here’s how his obit in the NYT by Alex Williams ends:
This is not to say that he was wholly averse to acquiring art by legitimate means. In 2001, he bought an unsigned Munch lithograph at auction for about $3,000. Leaving the auction house that day, he ran into the former head of security for the National Gallery. “Congratulations,” he told Mr. Enger. “It’s great that you’ve actually bought a Munch — much better than stealing one.”
Here’s Munch’s Love and Pain, followed by, well, you tell me.
Here’s something I learned recently. When you are recycling a can, it may be important not to crush it, as some folks like to do. If your recycling system has you separate cans yourself, go ahead and crush it to your heart’s content. But if your system is like mine — you mix everything together — paper, glass, cans, etc. — and it’s sorted later, it’s very important NOT to crush the cans. If you crush them it can screw up the sorting and result in the whole mess having to be used as landfill, defeating the whole porpoise of your effort. This has to be true, because I heard it on the radio in the middle of night when I couldn’t fall asleep.
Look at this poor guy!
Flipping around the stations just now, I fell upon a classic Yankee game from 2011 — July 9th, in fact — exactly 13 years ago today. It was the game in which Derek Jeter got his 3,000th hit. I remembered that it was a home run, but I had forgotten that he had five hits that day — going 5 for 5. Only one other player got 5 hits in the game in which he got his 3,000th hit. That was Craig Biggio, who went 5 for 6 when he did it. Jeter’s is the only 5 for 5.
Even more amazing, perhaps, is that Jeter is the only player ever to have 3,000 hits as a Yankee. (A-Rod had over 3,000 hits, but not as a Yankee.) Lou Gehrig had 2,721 and Babe Ruth 2,518 for second and third places. There are so many little surprises in this list. Bernie Williams, at 2,336 is ahead of Joe DiMaggio who had 2,214. How could that be? And where have you gone?
Last points on Jeter: In 2012, when he was 38 years old, he led the major leagues in at bats (683), plate appearances (740) and hits (216), while batting .316. His 3,645 lifetime hits is sixth most in MLB history. More than Willie Mays, Ted Williams, Mel Ott. Over a thousand more than Jim Rice.
Did you know that Gertrude Stein’s famous line is not, “A rose is a rose is a rose?” It came up today because the clue at 14A was “Thrice-repeated words in one of Gertrude Stein’s truisms” and the answer was A ROSE. But the actual line from her poem Sacred Emily is “Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.” Who knew? My old (now dead) tax professor Bernie Wolfman used to say that Stein wrote Section 61 of the Internal Revenue Code defining “gross income.” “Income is income is income,” he said.
My dad loved roses. I remember him watering the rose bushes he grew in our Brooklyn garden on President Street. My sister Bonnie’s middle name was Rose. What a beautiful name: Bonnie Rose. And Lianna’s middle name is Rose too.
Here are some red ones. OMG, look at this face! Could you plotz?
Can’t top that. Not in a million years. See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 