My knowledge of opera is negligible, but I reasoned my way to the answer at 80D in today’s puzzle because the clue was good: “Opera character whose name might be heard in an opera singer’s warm-up.” You got it, right? MIMI. Here’s Rex’s note on it:
An elaborate but very clever clue. MIMI is the female lead in Puccini’s La Bohème, which is the opera that Guy and Geneviève go to see at the beginning of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which I saw on the big screen for the first time just a couple days ago (60th Anniversary 4K restoration). That movie feels silly at first, but it turns into something moving and magical. Also, it just looks Amazing. Every frame. [Whoops, my wife reminds me they saw Carmen in Umbrellas, not La Bohème, my bad.]
The clue at 122A was nettlesome: Walker with the 2015 triple-platinum hit “Faded”). You can make it quintuple-platinum if you want, I still never heard of it from under my rock. Any Walker other than Alice will be unknown to me. Or maybe Dustin Hoffman? — “Hey, I’m walkin’ here!” I can’t even think of any well-known Walker ballplayers. Oops, (googling) — my mistake — there’s Larry Walker in the HOF, and Rube Walker, old Brooklyn Dodger catcher. Rube was on their 1955 WS-winning team. Hey, and I just learned he was catching on 10/3/1951 when Bobby Thomson hit his famous HR: the “shot heard round the world.” (And now I remember Dixie Walker and Harry Walker, so never mind.)
Anyway, the puzzle was looking for ALAN Walker, and here’s his duodecuple-platinum song.
At 22D, “House, slangily,” was the clue for CRIB. Rex shared this video that is hysterical, IMO. I even took the title of today’s post from it.
In Maureen Dowd’s piece in today’s NYT Opinion section, she remarks on W’s snub of DJT at the Carter funeral: “W. has clearly not changed his opinion of Trump since he famously said, after watching his American Carnage Inaugural speech, “That was some weird shit.”
As some of you know, my wife Linda has five sisters. Is it misogynistic to say at this point that it explains in part why her dad was a drinkin’ man? Anyway, I used to mention in class from time to time that I majored in brothers-in-law.
Here’s a story by Danny Klecko that appeared in today’s Met Diary. It’s called “Albertine.”
Dear Diary:
What do I know about France?
What do I know about French bookstores in New York City?
Not much is the answer to both questions.
But I do know about sisters.
And I saw two sisters in the French bookstore.
It’s not like I asked them: “Are you sisters?”
I didn’t need to. I could tell by watching them amid a dispute.
When sisters have conflict, their reactions are unique.
Sister #1 said something I couldn’t hear.
Sister #2 replied: “In Malaysia, people don’t mention the tiger for fear it will draw him out.” I’m not sure if this was an allegory, but for a moment, the moment became sharp. Coincidentally, in a moment, after that moment, the sisters hugged each other with their eyes, while allowing each other red carpets of retreat.
I didn’t end up buying a French book.
Instead I considered sisters.
Before leaving in pursuit of ice cream.
We sent Phil a note on his assignment for that story that just said one word: “Sisters.” He sent this in:
Jonathan Page, of the Dull Men’s Club (UK), in this post, alerts us to an extraordinary fact we had no idea was true. He writes:
“I was recently told, whilst in Canterbury for their Christmas market, that British Galloping Horses or Gallopers (carousel) [or merry-go-round] rotate clockwise, whilst U.S. versions rotate anti-clockwise. The Canterbury Gallopers rotated anti-clockwise. Does this mean the ride was imported, or have British manufacturers adopted the U.S. way? Or was I misinformed?”
Paul Goodwin explained: If all carousels spun the same way the earth would be knocked off its axis and float off into space.
Extensive research conducted by Owl Chatter (a minute or two of googling) confirms the fact that, indeed, there is a directional difference between European and American carousels, with the former generally going clockwise and the latter anti. We did not discover why. And Canterbury is apparently an exception.
Looks like Phil may have gotten lucky with this attracive young merry-go-rounder.
We’re heading down to New Brunswick soon to hear the NJ Symphony. We often grab gourmet hot dogs at Destination Dogs when we’re down there. It’s one of our favorite places. We shared a Brat Favre last time. Good beer too. But we’re leaning towards burgers at the Harvest Moon Brewery today. Yum.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 