Welcome everybody to Owl Chatter’s post #600. Hard to believe. It seems like just yesterday we were putting #599 to bed. Wait — that was yesterday. Never mind.
It’ll be a quiet celebration — just us and the owls. George is on leave dealing with his legal problems and Phil is still out West sucking up to Chloe and Kate, and who could blame him? We’ll have a cold Fiddlehead IPA later; there are still a few in the fridge from our trip up to Vermont in June. (Hi Lizzie!)
Here — there’s one for you too, reader.
Truth be told, if Georgie were here, he’d probably make us spring for champagne. But Janelle MONAE was in the puzzle today, and, seriously, I just don’t go for that champagne sh*t.
Yeah, I like all my kisses French
When I’m on my champagne shit
Everybody turnin’ ’round takin’ them pics
‘Cause I’m on my champagne shit
Don’t ask me shit about work
‘Cause I’m on my champagne shit
I’m talkin’ high heels and no shirts
‘Cause I’m on my champagne shit
You tell ’em, girl!
The puzzle’s theme today was milestones of life in a cutesy fun way. So for “Age 1,” e.g., the answer was AMATEUR STANDING. Get it? A one-year-old is an amateur at standing (up). And “Age 21” was BAR ADMISSION. That’s the age you can start drinking at bars. But the one at “Age 100” really set Rex off. The answer was CENTENNIAL STATE. I.e., when you are 100 you are in the state of being 100. Here’s Rex:
Of all the “___ State” nicknames, The CENTENNIAL STATE has to be the least well known / most obscure. Looking up a lot of state nicknames right now and I’ve at least heard of many of these: First State (Delaware), Palmetto State (South Carolina). Turns out lots of states are named after their state university mascots (or, more likely, vice versa): Tarheel State, Cornhusker State, etc. But CENTENNIAL STATE? That’s a state nickname only dogs and hardcore Coloradophiles can hear.
That made it appropriate for me to share this story (which some of you may know) with the Rex gang.
Many years ago, I was visiting my friends Robert and Susan in Vermont. When I arrived, they offered me a drink and asked if I was hungry. Then they offered me a Colorado orange and we all laughed. Except for me, because I had no idea what they were taking about. So they told me this story.
Several days earlier Susan was heading out to shop for groceries and she asked Robert if there was anything he wanted her to pick up. Yes, he said, get some more oranges. And make sure you get the Colorado oranges: I had one earlier and it was delicious. Susan said Okay and walked out towards the car but came back in and said: I thought oranges only come from Florida and California.
Robert said, So did I, but I checked to make sure, and it said Colorado on it.
Susan said, Let’s check again. So they rooted through the garbage and found the discarded orange peel. On it, clearly stamped in red lettering, it said COLOR ADDED.
Ever since then, when I offer Linda an orange, I call it a Colorado orange. It never gets old. Here’s one now, below!
(BTW, a nice comment from Aelurus thanked me for the laugh.)
In his writeup today, Rex mentioned that he has stayed away from all TV coverage of politics since the 2016 election. (It was in connection with his noting that he didn’t know that the “political analyst WALKER” at 72A was AMY.) And a commenter who calls him or herself ncmathsadist wrote: “Your abstention from TV coverage of politics is wise. There is much sanewashing of Trump’s incoherent and utterly irrational gibberings.”
I hadn’t heard the term “sanewashing” before. It’s brilliant, no?
And this is Amy Walker, formerly of the NYT:
If you enjoy wordplay you should know that a palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same in both directions. A famous one, spoken to Eve no doubt, is “Madam, I’m Adam.” A semordnilap is a word or phrase that you can read backwards as a different word. A semordnilap is itself a semordnilap because it spells palindromes backwards.) Anyway, commenter Andrew shared this wonderful and amazing takeoff on Bob Dylan’s Subterranean Homesick Blues with every line (every line!) a palindrome, most of them new to me. It’s by Weird Al Yankovic, whose stock just went way up in my portfolio.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 