There was a lot of fun in the puzzle today. The LOVE POTION at 6D must have been potent. It was crossed at 13A by RARIN’ TO GO. At 53A, “Small time, as stakes” was PENNY ANTE, and it reminded me of my mom’s sister Penelope, whom we called Auntie Penny.

At 43A HASSLED was “Gave a hard time.” egs noted it’s also on Santa’s business card: “HASSLED — Will travel.” But everyone’s favorite was at 10D. The clue was “What might prompt you to flip the bird?” And the answer was OVEN TIMER.

I also liked 16A where “There are no words . . . ” turned out to be I CAN’T EVEN.

At 35A, the clue was “Farmers business: Abbr.” and the answer was INS. Malaika, the guest blogger for Rex today confessed that it was a mystery to her and made no sense. And a lot of commenters explained about Farmer’s Insurance and all their TV ads. GG noted: “Farmer’s spent $98 million in advertising in 2020 including for the TV jingle that goes ‘We are Farmers dah da dah da dah dah dah.’ Apparently wasted on Malaika.”

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When we assigned Phil to cover Trump and the GOP convention, his response was “You’re kidding right? You expect me to stay sober for that?” But I assured him he could cover it drunk and that it was unlikely we’d use any of his shots anyway. But here’s Vance’s wife Usha.

Usha graduated summa cum laude with a degree in history from Yale and then went to Yale Law School. She clerked for Roberts and Kavanaugh. Her parents immigrated from India. In the movie version of her husband’s book she was portrayed by the Indian actress Freida Pinto, below. I’m betting she did not complain.

How she could marry that creep and have three kids with him is just one of life’s mysteries.

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I watched part of an old interview Bob Costas conducted with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays. Other celebs were in the audience. Billy Crystal was asked about his playing days and he said he tested positive for Maalox. Bob Gibson was chided as a “headhunter” by Mays, and Gibby explained that the outside portion of the plate belonged to the batter. But the area just off the inside portion of the plate was his. And occasionally he’d throw a pitch there and the batter, not knowing any better, “would hit himself with it.” Aaron said he once saw a batter hit in the neck by a pitch, and the pitch had been thrown so hard that the ball lodged in the batter’s neck. It had to be pried out and then you could see the imprint of the ball’s seams in the neck. (I didn’t know Aaron could be so funny.)

When Aaron and Mays walked onto the stage, the audience gave them a prolonged standing ovation. Costas said he noticed that Gibson applauded but did not stand. “I’m not going to kowtow to those two,” he grumbled.

Aaron was asked about the racism that accompanied his passing Ruth’s lifetime home run record. Was he worried something could happen as he rounded the bases for #715? He said he wasn’t worried about that particular event: two guys jumped out of the stands to run part of the way with him but he didn’t feel threatened. They patted him on the back.

They were teenagers at the time, Britt Gaston and Cliff Courtenay. They did it sort of as a goof. They blame each other for the crazy idea now. They expected to go to jail and they were arrested and processed, but only fined $100 in part because Aaron interceded on their behalf. They were surprised security didn’t stop them. “All the guards were watching the home run,” they said. The only one to touch them on the field was Aaron, who gently elbowed them when they got close.

Aaron said, “they are both doctors now.” Actually, Gaston became a successful businessman, Courtenay an optometrist. The three occasionally kept in touch and participated in charity reunions. They grew closer when Gaston was diagnosed with cancer. It’s amazing what can bring you together in life.

They did not know how dangerous their stunt was. When the racist attacks on Aaron grew worse, the FBI assigned an undercover Atlanta cop to watch over him: Calvin Wardlow. He was seated with Aaron’s family and friends, with a gun at the ready. When the teens approached Aaron, he closed his grip around the gun and braced for action. Thankfully, he was able to see they meant him no harm and relaxed.

In an interview in 2010, Aaron said he warned Wardlow before the game not to overreact. “I told him, ‘Now Calvin, you’ve got to be very careful when you pull that gun out on somebody. You know what to do, but so many times, these people are just having fun,’” Aaron recalled.  “And when these kids were running around the base path with me, he said he thought about what I’d said and he said he was so thankful that I did because it wasn’t nothing else but a bunch of kids having fun.”

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Long-time Owl Chatter readers may recall a period a while back in which the NYTXW seemed to toss an ASS into just about every day’s puzzle. One of Rex’s posters started keeping track of the various uses and formations the word assumed in the grid. Well, it reappeared today as part of LMAO (laughing my ass off, of course), and it inspired one of the commenters to share this funny Finnish comic with us. His name is Ismo.

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That’s as good-ass a closing as any. See you tomorrow!

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