It’s Monday, but the puzzle threw me right at the start. 1D: “Oblong yellowish fruit.” Even if I weren’t queasy about describing a banana as oblong, why would you add the “ish” to yellow? But it couldn’t be banana because the answer only had five letters.
Papaya came to mind. It looks right:
But that’s not five letters either. Even its alternate name: pawpaw is too many letters. Answer: Papaw, an alternate spelling for pawpaw. Ouch.
But how can you be mad at a puzzle that gives you Disney’s sexiest character at 11D: ARIEL, the little mermaid. Here she is as most of us remember her.
And here she is, about ten years older, sporting her “Ariel” dress available from Pacsun for $57.60. Hope you’re still keeping in touch with Dad and your sisters, babe.
The theme today was kids’ art work. The long answers were PAPER PLATE, MACARONI NOODLES, PIPE CLEANER, and COTTON BALLS, and the clue for the revealer was “What a kid might use to hold them all together,” ELMER’S GLUE. This was the closest I could come for a photo.
At 32A the clue was “Family member who usually goes by one name” and the answer was PET. Rex was troubled by this: “Does anyone in a family go by more than one name? What strangely formal family is this where they’re all calling each other by their full names?”
In the ten-year span 1947-1956, the Yankees played the Dodgers (then the Brooklyn Dodgers) in the World Series six times, winning five of them and losing only in 1955. They met five other times in the WS: ’41, ’63, ’77, ’78, and ’81, with LA winning in ’63 and ’81, and the Yankees winning the other three.
Let’s linger on the 1963 matchup. I went to the Stadium early for the first game with my friend David Katzman and we waited on line for bleacher seats. It worked — we got in! But it was a dismal game for the Yanks, with Sandy Koufax setting the then-WS record of 15 strikeouts in a complete game 5-2 win, outpitching Whitey Ford.
Here’s some cool trivia. The only Yankee regular not to strike out was Clete Boyer. Bobby Richardson struck out three times. It was the only time he struck out three times in his entire 1448-game career. The big blow was Johnny Roseboro’s 3-run home run in the second inning. The other two LA runs were driven in by Moose Skowron. It was Moose’s only year in LA. He had been my favorite Yankee before ’63, so I felt a little betrayed.
How effective was the Dodger pitching in the ’63 WS? Well, in all four games, the Yankees could score no runs through the first six innings. Zippo. Nada. And in all four games combined they scored a total of only four runs. Gasp.
Here’s the Moose, explaining why his batting average shot way up in 1962. “I use five bats!”
I’m a little tired tonight. Here’s a short poem by Ted Kooser from Winter Morning Walks. Then I’m going to cash in my chips.
As if to spare the birds at the feeder
any more competition than they already have,
a snowflake drops right past the perches
crowded with finches, nuthatches, sparrows,
and without even thinking to open its wings
settles quietly onto the ground.
See you next time!
The Wellington Files 