Owl Chatter readers — have you seen these men? According to NYPD, these two broke into Rick Pitino’s St. Johns office and made off with a ceremonial sword, a bullhorn, and an autographed basketball. Pitino’s entering his second year as the Johnnies’ head coach. Our staff photographer Phil snapped this shot of the duo as they left the crime scene. The University is offering a reward for any information leading to their capture although, at the moment, the reward is only a few sandwiches.
Please keep an eye out for the sword as well. Pitino released this photo of it:
I’m not going to sugar-coat it — the Owl Chatter offices are falling apart with George on an extended leave to attend to his legal troubles. The new guy is a disaster. I asked for material on Edgar Lee Masters and he brought me the file on Lee Harvey Oswald. Jeez Louise. And we’re completely out of Diet Pepsi except for the decaf kind which everyone hates. Arggggggh.
Edgar Lee Masters was born on this date in Garnett, Kansas, back in 1868, but he grew up in small farming towns in Illinois. He got the idea for his Spoon River Anthology from a collection of Greek poems which focused on daily life and ordinary people. He had over 200 local characters look back on their lives from beyond the grave in the small fictional farming town of Spoon River. It was a great success, selling 80,000 copies in four years, and for the first time in American literature put the focus on small towns.
The only glitch was that the people from the real town (Lewistown, IL), found it insulting and were outraged. It was banned from Lewistown schools and the library for 60 years (until 1974)! Masters’ own mother was on the library board and voted in favor of the ban! Ouch! Masters conceded that his mom was not a fan, but noted that his father loved it. (Not kidding.)
The town has since come around and is proud of Masters and the work. In 2015, the 100th anniversary of its publication was celebrated with tours, exhibits, and performances. The local Oak Hill Cemetery features a memorial statue of Masters, and offers a self-guided walking tour of the graves that inspired the poems.
In yesterday’s puzzle at 2D, the clue was “Sleeveless top” for CAMISOLE. Here’s my tax student, Evelyn, modeling one. Thanks, babe! We’ll see you in class next Friday — it’s my last semester!
At 50D, the clue was “University of North Carolina team, to fans,” which is, of course, HEELS, short for Tar Heels. Here’s Taylor with her broken pricey Louboutin heel that she tossed into the crowd in Brazil. The fellow who caught it is selling it to raise money for his cousin’s cancer treatment. A mensch.
Tay’s butterfly heels have held up, kinehora. But look at them — they could go at any minute, the way she runs around. Travis — skip a practice and take the girl shopping! Remember that t-shirt I saw near Times Square? — “I have as many shoes as I want — said nobody, anywhere, ever.”
Taylor was in the puzzle today. Did you know the term SWIFTIES was added to the Oxford English Dictionary last year? [The clue for it in the puzzle was “Fan base added to the O.E.D. in 2023.”]
The puzzle yesterday was an exercise in wordplay. The theme clues all had words the first two letters of which, phonetically, formed another word that started off the answer. [Huh??] So, e.g., for the clue “SAY WHAT?” the first two letters are S and A, which are also the word “Essay.” And “What?” is a question, so the answer was ESSAY QUESTION. (Get it?) Similarly, “MEDALS” were EMMY [“M-E”] AWARDS.
Commenter Lewis reminded us that this constructor (Brad Wiegmann) likes to play with letters. In an earlier puzzle of his, a brilliant clue was “Nicholson and Nicklaus, e.g.?,” for ONE-EYED JACKS. (Each last name has one letter “i” in it, and their first names are Jack. Wow.) And “Søren Kierkegaard and Chris Isaak, i.e.” was the clue for DOUBLE AGENTS. They each have two letters “a” in their names so they are “double-a” gents.
From egs today: If you get paid for uttering cries of fear, do you “eek out a living?”
Lewis is brilliant at finding little serendipities in puzzles that would be easy to overlook but add to the appreciation of the puzzle. E.g., today he noted that the answers ARM WRESTLE and SHAKE ON IT are near each other, and that the answer SNARE, which is right next to SWIFTIES, contains “ERAS.”
At 55A, “Spice derived from the inner bark of a tropical tree,” was CINNAMON. Remember the first Mission Impossible series? Cinnamon Carter was played by Barbara Bain. She was married to Martin Landau for 37 years (divorced in ’93), and they had two daughters. Bain, who is Jewish, will be turning 93 in a few weeks. Landau died in 2017.
Here’s a good example of a song I would never hear (or hear of) because I am too f*cking old and live under a rock, but is popular enough to be cited in a clue in the NYTXW. The clue was “TiK ToK creator,” and the answer was KESHA.
“Ain’t got a care in the world, but got plenty of beer.”
Let’s end today with two more musical selections. First is a song shared by commenter Son Volt connected to the puzzle’s HORNY TOAD (“Spiny reptile that, despite its name, is actually a lizard”).
And, finally, another LR classic which Rex tapped for the puzzle answer BIG PICTURE, clued with “Forest, in a metaphor.” (You know — not being able to “see the forest for the trees.”)
Honey child, I’ve got my doubts. . .
Who doesn’t? See you tomorrow.
[Late-breaking news: I got the call from the waiting list and will be competing (to use the term very loosely) in this year’s Lollapuzzoola, the XW tournament in NYC tomorrow. Should be fun. I’ll bore you with details in our next post.]
The Wellington Files 