Do you know the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie? They both use minced meat but the former uses beef and the latter lamb (hence the shepherd). In a vegetarian version of either, a nonmeat substitute is used. As to whether it’s a vegetarian shepherds pie or vegetarian cottage pie, it depends on which meat is left out.
Wait, what?
A discussion arose in the Dull Men’s Club (UK). Jerry Davies opined: “You can’t have a vegan shepherds pie. Never heard of a shepherd tending to his flock of tofu.”
It brought fond memories up for Ruth Hunt: “Ahh the tofu herds of ancient memory, dotting the hillsides with cubes of white blubber.”
But Jason Thomas was having none of it: “Farmers do tend to tofu like any other product that needs growing or rearing. I know you were trying to be funny. Try harder.”
Ouch! Take it easy, JT — life’s too short. Here, have a look at American actress Bella Thorne, who visited our puzzle this week. I had never heard of her and she’s very pretty. Maybe that will take the edge off.
Bella was born in Pembroke Pines, FL, and had a rough upbringing. She was abused from ages 6 to 14 by someone close to her and bullied at school for her dyslexia. She overcame the dyslexia by aggressively reading everything she could get her hands on. She began acting as a child to earn some money for her impoverished family. Wow — impressive, B. She’ll be 27 in two weeks and her career is going very well — well enough to earn her an appearance in the goddamn New York Times Crossword Puzzle!
In June 2019, Thorne had nude photos stolen by hackers who subsequently threatened her with extortion; she instead released the photos herself. Owl Chatter will respect her privacy and not reproduce any of them here, mainly because we can’t find them online in under a minute and are too lazy to search harder. But for those of you who have a special place in your heart for redheads, here she is again, fully dressed, and apparently pretending to be amused by one of Phil’s ridiculous jokes.
Today’s puzzle announced right at the start that it wasn’t f*cking around. At 1A the clue was: “Namesake of the channel separating Madagascar from the African mainland” (ten letters). Go ahead — fill it right in. Turned out to be MOZAMBIQUE. Have a listen to the Dylan tune. (That’s Emmy Lou Harris singing with Bob.)
The song began as a game between Dylan and co-writer Jacques Levy to find as many rhymes for Mozambique as possible:
- cheek to cheek
- stop and speak
- a final peek
Rhymes not used:
- antique
- technique
- Byzantine Greek
- take a leak
- calendar week
- hide and go seek
- japanese leek
At 36D the clue was “Box office?,” and the answer was CUBICLE. Good one!
At 49A, the clue was “Custardy French dessert,” and the answer was POT DE CREME. But Anony Mouse says: No French person will say “pot de crème” for a dessert. It would be “crème renversée” or “crème caramel” or “flan.” A “pot de crème” is a cream jar as in milk jar.
OK, thanks.
At 14D, the clue for LOS ALAMOS was “U.S. city with the motto ‘Where Discoveries are Made.’” Guest blogger Eli opined: I suppose that’s better than “If You Had Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds, You’d Be Home By Now.”
The association of one of the most delicious fruits — the peach — with the tuchas seems very unfair to us here at OC. And yet, at 64A, where the clue was “Butt text?” the answer was PEACH EMOJI. The following is from emojipedia.org (not kidding): Thanks to its distinctive cleft, the peach emoji is most commonly used for “buttocks.” In 2016 Apple unveiled a new design that would have deemphasized its distinctive cleft, leading to criticism from Apple users. Ultimately this change was not implemented.
Here’s a cleaned-up peach/butt our legal department has allowed us to post:
Hop-scotching the news:
A story in the NYT today starts out:
The Justice Department announced that it has expanded its investigation into the suburban Mississippi sheriff’s department where a self-described “Goon Squad” of deputies has been accused of torturing people for nearly two decades.
Owl Chatter wants to know: What’s the hurry fellas? Can’t this wait another five or ten years?
Also from the Times today:
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said on Wednesday that he would continue to describe Haitian residents in Springfield, Ohio, as “illegal aliens” even though they are in the country legally.
OK. Makes sense.
Headline in The Onion: American Black Nazi Party Worried Mark Robinson Could Hurt Other Candidates Down Ballot.
Here are two stories for your reading displeasure. The first is from tomorrow’s Met Diary and is by Mitchell Chwatt. The second is by me. Mitch’s story jarred it loose in my memory. I submitted it to the Diary.
Dear Diary:
It was rush hour and I just boarded a packed E train at Penn Station.
I noticed an empty seat next to an extremely large and intimidating-looking man. He was wearing a weathered motorcycle-type jacket, and his hair was rather wild, matching the expression on his face.
I told myself not to judge a book by its cover and sat down next to him. I did my best not to brush up against him and kept my eyes straight ahead.
After a few moments, I felt my mouth getting dry. I pulled out my Chapstick and applied it to my lips.
A moment later, the giant of a man next to me reached into his pocket and pulled out his own Chapstick.
“I prefer cherry myself,” he said.
Here’s mine:
I got onto the F train years ago, heading home to Brooklyn from my job in Manhattan. I was exhausted but assumed there were no seats because folks were standing. An available seat not far from me caught my eye, but I immediately saw why. A poor homeless fellow was seated next to the space and nobody wanted to sit near him. He looked pretty bad and hadn’t bathed in a while. But I was so tired I studied that open seat carefully and determined it was wide enough that I could sit down and still leave a little bit of room between me and the poor fellow. So I did so, and it felt good to sit down. I closed my eyes for a few moments to deepen the relaxation. When I opened them a bit later, I glanced over at the homeless man. It was then that I noticed that he and I were wearing the exact same pants.
Note to self: Work on wardrobe when you get the chance.
In that cottage/shepherd pie discussion one fellow referred to himself as a flexitarian, a term that was new to me. It means someone who is primarily a vegetarian but who occasionally has meat. He was taken to task by a member who replied: “wtf on this earth is a flexaterian. If you eat meat then you’re a carnivore whether you eat it once a week or not.” And the flexitarian shot back: Google search it and you might learn how to spell it correctly. [Hrrrrumph!]
But I’ll close tonight with my favorite post on that issue, by Keith Sherry who wrote:
I had a friend who called himself a “huntetarian” – he only ate whatever meat he could catch himself! He was always quite thin, but less translucent than a vegan.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 