Ever drop something in a hard-to-reach area? Sometimes you just gotta let it go. Earlier this month, an Australian woman, Matilda Campbell, hiking with her friends in Australia’s Hunter Valley, dropped her phone between boulders and got caught trying to retrieve it. Clearly, she should have stuck with waltzing. And that’s not the whole of it — she ended up hanging upside down, with only her little footsies visible to the outside, non-idiot world. Hmmm, I wonder if I’d be able to find a stick long enough to tickle her.
She hung like that for an hour before the paramedics reached her, but then it was their lunch hour, and then it took six more hours to extract her. They had to cut away chunks of the surrounding rocks to reach her, and had to be careful not to cause her to slip deeper.
She spent three days in the hospital with cuts all over one side of her body (the side with all the cuts), a sprained ankle, and fractured vertebrae. But she didn’t need surgery. The phone was never recovered.
Glad you made it, MC. Looking good!
In the puzzle today, the winner of the most interesting clue for a boring answer was at 46A: “Main ingredient of the Puerto Rican dessert piragua.” That was the clue for ICE. Looks like what we would call a sno cone. I was never a big fan of these. I did like Italian ices back in the day. Those are creamier.
Lily TOMLIN dropped by at 50A: Hi LT! She said: “We’re all in this alone.”
At 17D, the clue was: “Misleading cognate, like the German ‘Gift’ which actually means ‘poison.’” What on earth?? The answer was FALSE FRIEND. It’s a whole linguistic thing that’s new to me. I’ll be brief but tedious.
A “cognate” is a set of words that descend from a common etymological “ancestor,” so to speak. E.g., night, nacht, and nuit are cognates. A “false cognate” is a set or pair of words that you would think are cognates because of similar sounds and meanings but do not derive from the same ancestor — it’s just coincidence. So our word dog and the word dog in the Mbabaram language sound alike and have the same meaning, but they do not derive from the same root — it’s a coincidence, so they are false cognates. (Mbabaram, of course, for those of you who are as dumb as doorknobs, is an extinct Australian Aboriginal language of north Queensland.)
Now, a “false friend” is a word in one language that looks or sounds similar to a word in a different language, but differs significantly in meaning. Examples include the English word embarrassed and the Spanish embarazado, which means pregnant. Or, as in the puzzle clue, above, the English word gift and the German “gift” which means poison.
I hope that makes sense. I’m not entirely sure I understand it, but since I don’t care it’s fine.
Hey, meet Captain Olivia Benson, one of Taylor Swift’s three cats:
Olivia has a new friend heading her way as Tay and Trav have decided to adopt a rescue cat. Taylor’s other cats are Benjamin Buttons and Meredith Grey.
Taylor’s boyfriend Travis Kelce caught our attention years ago as a brilliant tight end for KC, a sure Hall of Famer once he retires. But it’s amazing how comfortable he seems doing a whole raft of commercials. Here he is with his brother Jason, who was an outstanding center for the Eagles for 13 years. It’s not very profound, but the premise is there’s a Cheerios obstacle course, and Jason runs into trouble getting stuck trying to squeeze through a giant Cheerio. We’ve all been there, amirite? High school gym class?
Mike Schoen of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) set off a storm with this post: I went to a friend’s house and it seems that they use red washing up liquid! Surely all washing up liquid should be green? [OC Note: I think he’s talking about dish detergent.] Here are some of the 46 comments it inspired.
Jenny Todd Taylor wrote: We bought the red as it was all they had available when we needed new. Not fond of it but will continue to use until it runs out. Mike Schoen replied: Very wise: go back to green asap. Karen Seery: Or yellow.
James Nolan: I’m a total barbarian and buy different colours. right now it’s red.
Mike Schoen: OMG
James Nolan: I know I knowww. Stone the heretic. I deserve it.
Jake Pattison: There’s no need for soapism.
Mike King: Ours is pink. PINK! What a time to be alive.
Kate Keely: I buy pink to match the fish slice. [What??]
Victoria Neatby: Have you been living under a rock?
Here’s Victoria:
We’ll give Dee Smith the last word: There is no one policing the washing up liquid industry, they have gone rogue.
Seriously.
Have to close up shop a little early tonight. Need to grab some dinner and settle in for the first game. Let’s see how Cole, Judge, and Soto do. Could be a good series.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 