The embarrassment that is the Jets is taking a back seat to that of the Bears, if only briefly. Their flub in front of a national audience at the end of Thursday’s game against Detroit was a work of art. Dictionaries are already preparing their new editions to include a photo from the final play next to the definition of “screw-up.”
The Bears were down by only a field goal and were on the Lions’ 41-yard line with 32 seconds left and one time out. It’s a no brainer at this point: run a pass play to gain 5 yards or so for an easier field goal. Stop the clock by having the receiver run out of bounds or, if needed use the timeout. Then tie the game with a field goal. The only thing they had to do was hurry just a little bit — thirty-two seconds is a lot of “end-of-game-football time.” You hurry now and then, right? We’ve all hurried. But they didn’t. Precious seconds passed while they lined up sloppily at scrimmage, and then, insanely, seven or so more seconds passed before the QB called for the ball to be snapped. The coach could have stopped the clock by using the timeout but didn’t. There were less than ten seconds left when the ball was snapped. The pass sailed into the air helplessly and hit the ground, incomplete, with no time left. And the entire city of Chicago knows what it feels like to be a Jets fan week after week after week. The coach, who shall remain nameless here, is on suicide watch, and has already been fired. Ouch. And this pretty cheerleader’s work was all for naught.
What many of you probably don’t realize is that this loss comes just a few weeks after another last-second improbable Bears loss to a Hail Mary pass by Washington’s impressive rookie QB Jay Daniels. Our Phil was on assignment for that one and captured the reactions of Bears fans. It lasts about two min. Stick around to the very end.
I loved today’s puzzle, and not just because I was able to finish it. It was full of “chattiness.” E.g., at 11A the answer was HERE’S A THOUGHT, and right above it was SO WHAT? At 10D, the clue for a grid-spanner was “Breakup line.” I immediately filled in: “It’s not you, it’s me” but it was one letter short. Turned out to be: THIS ISN’T WORKING.
The clue for another grid-spanner was “Haughty self-important question,” and the answer was DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?
Pabloinnh wrote:
“DOYOUKNOWWHOIAM is super obnoxious. My favorite reference to this came during a Red Sox game when announcer Jerry Remy was complaining about an imagined mistreatment by an underling of some sort, and fellow booth member Sean McDonough asked him ‘Don’t they know who you think you are?’”
Egs chimed in with: Haughty amnesiac walks into a bar. The bartender says “the usual?” Amnesiac replies DOYOUKNOWWHOIAM?
The clue at 1A was “Handle for a knife.” It’s HAFT, of course, but I confused it with HASP for a while. Commenter Lewis opined that it would have been a wonderful clue if the answer were MACK. (Think of handle as meaning “name.”)
At 1D, the clue was “At-home distraction,” and the answer was HEY BATTER BATTER. And, for the other meaning of “batter,” right next to it the clue was “End result of a starter,” and the answer was HOMEMADE BREAD (think sourdough starter).
Another nice pairing of long answers came near the bottom where the clue was “Fateful encounter,” for DATE WITH DESTINY. It was right above DELICATESSEN, so in case the date doesn’t go well, you can take solace in some corned beef on rye. Or sourdough.
At 29A the clue was “Cooks up, so to speak,” and the answer was IDEATES. Here’s Rex on it: “The only place I’ve ever seen anyone IDEATE is in crosswords. Seriously, a word that would not exist without the generous support of Big Crossword.” But commenter Anony Mouse shared this old IBM ad:
At 48A the clue was “Nearly every third baseman and shortstop in M.L.B. history.” Got it? The answer was RIGHTY. It’s awkward for a player who throws left-handed to field a grounder at third and have to waste a moment turning around to throw to first. So left-handed throwers just don’t play third base.
In Aug 2017, Anthony Rizzo was shifted to third base from first by the Cubs in the ninth inning of a game when they ran out of position players. It was the first time in over twenty years that a left-handed thrower played 3B anywhere in the major leagues and the first time since 1895 one had played for the Cubs, who were known as the Colts back then. Rizzo was only the seventh left-throwing third baseman in all of MLB since 1913, joining Mario Valdez, Don Mattingly, Terry Francona, Mike Squires, Charlie Grimm, and Hall of Famer George Sisler.
Remember this Cindy Lauper song? I always liked it.
It was a favorite song of Tommy Nasseri’s, Marcella’s brother. Tommy just vanished, like, mysteriously, in Doyle, CA, 25 years ago. Marcella figured he was dead and just hoped to recover his remains somehow someday. But when she saw a story in USA Today asking for help identifying a man found sitting on a curb in LA, it struck a chord. The man was unable to communicate. But the arched eyebrows, rounded nose, and deep-set eyes were Tommy’s, and fingerprints confirmed it. Marcella’s working on getting them reunited and raised $7,000 to help fund a medical transfer and items such as clothing and art supplies for him so he can draw. She also picked up a device that will allow him to listen to music Marcella remembered him liking. It included the Cyndi Lauper song, “Time After Time.”
“If you’re lost you can look and you will find me. Time after time.”
We end tonight with “Hail to the Victors,” the Michigan fight song. They were heavy underdogs against hated rival Ohio State today in Columbus — the spread was more than two TDs. I almost didn’t watch. The ‘Rines struggled all season and were only 6-5 and unranked, compared to the Buckeyes who were 10-1 and ranked #2 in the nation. But they held their own and then some for most of the first half, which ended 10-10. Things stayed tight through the third quarter. We were helped by two missed field goals and then made one of our own, late in the game. The final desperate attempt for OSU fizzled and it was over. Michigan 13, Ohio State 10. Sweet. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 