I liked the clue at 39D in the puzzle today: “Cheese-loving test subjects.” The answer was LAB MICE. It reminded me of a New Yorker cartoon from long ago. There is a little cage with a mouse that has hung himself. And one scientist says to the other: “Bad news on the anti-depressant.”
Then there’s this comment today: Can’t agree with confusing “lab rats” with “lab mice.” The latter are animals being used in experiments, and they have no choice about being lab animals; the former are typically students who choose to spend an excessive amount of time in the lab.
The puzzle had pretensions of erudition: the central clue was “Tongue of Chaucer,” and the answer was MIDDLE ENGLISH, but all it really did was take the pronouns THINE, THY, THEE, and THOU, and insert them into the “middle” of longer words or phrases. The best was TRUTHINESS, for THINE.
Did you know that in Ye Olde Candy Shoppe, the “y” is a stand-in for the long lost letter “thorn” (“Þ, þ“), which was replaced by “th” during the Early Modern period? So “Ye” there is pronounced “the,” not “yee.” If you are using “ye” as an old version of “you,” it’s pronounced “yee.” Also — if you’re wondering about “Who,” he’s on first.
It was a short hop from Middle English, to “Broken English,” the Marianne Faithfull song from 1979. Some of you may remember it.
MF was dating Mick Jagger for a time (1966-70), but none of Mick’s eight children are from Marianne. She has one child, with a different dad.
It must be old song week. Son Volt shared this Jackson Browne hit with us, since the answer at 44D was DELUGE, clued with “Downpour.” (Nice that it crossed LIGHTHOUSE, the theme answer that contained THOU.)
Some of them were dreamers And some of them were fools
A bit of a hoo-ha erupted recently over bald-faced lies vs. bold-faced lies, to say nothing of bare-faced lies. It raged loudly enough to draw the attention of the NYT Games people. Here’s the scoop — all three are acceptable. Bare-faced was the original. Then came bald-faced, which is the preferred version in formal writing. But it morphed into bold-faced (like bold print), which is acceptable as well.
Rex was not happy with the clue at 27A: “Disinfectant brand with the tagline ‘Healthing.’” It’s an invented slogan by the LYSOL people. Sort of like Steve Colbert’s “truthiness” but lacking in charm. Are you “healthing” when you kill germs with Lysol?
Graham King posted the following for the Dull Men’s Club (UK):
I would be quiet happy if I never left the house again. I have on several occasions thought how plausible it would be to have everything delivered, my job is very easy to do from home, I have two internet connections to ensure i can do my job. Whilst at home i would also try to become as self sufficient as possible and live our lives (me and my wife) from our home. Interactions with other people become so problematic, face to face. Am I alone with this thought?
Anne Finnanger: No.
Margaret McKean: Yes.
Andy S. Carvey: It’s what those in charge want.
Darren Hilburn: Text book introvert here. While I don’t practice what I preach, even I know that after you’ve done the whole being of service/responsibilities thing, the only point of humans is meaningful relationships with other humans.
Steve Craig: I enjoy being at home. I work from home and have as much as possible delivered. I avoid interacting with people, even in a supermarket I use the self checkout. BUT, this is due to Depression so I recognise it’s probably not normal and may not be healthy. I do enjoy spending time on my own or with my dog, even going on holiday or to gigs alone. I could certainly live in a log cabin in the wilderness. One of my favourite books is Walden by Henry Theroux.
I was rooting for Tampa Bay last night vs. Wash. I have a soft spot in my heart for their coach Todd Bowles, who suffered a few seasons with the Jets. The game was tight (23-20), but Tampa lost it when they couldn’t convert a 3rd and one late in the game, settled for a game-tying field goal, and gave the ball back to Washington who only needed to bleed the clock and kick a FG of their own for the win. We’re set up for a good Wash/Detroit game on Saturday. Go Lions! Here’s Todd with wife Taneka and sons Todd, Jr., Troy, and Tyson.
We’ll let the Bowleses usher us out tonight. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 