Let’s open with Peter Everwine’s poem from yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac called “A Story Can Change Your Life.”

On the morning she became a young widow,
my grandmother, startled by a sudden shadow,
looked up from her work to see a hawk turn
her prized rooster into a cloud of feathers.
That same moment, halfway around the world
in a Minnesota mine, her husband died,
buried under a ton of rock-fall.
She told me this story sixty years ago.
I don’t know if it’s true but it ought to be.
She was a hard old woman, and though she knelt
on Sundays when the acolyte’s silver bell
announced the moment of Christ’s miracle,
it was the darker mysteries she lived by:
shiver-cry of an owl, black dog by the roadside,
a tapping at the door and nobody there.
The moral of the story was plain enough:
miracles become a burden and require a priest
to explain them. With signs, you only need
to keep your wits about you and place your trust
in a shadow world that lets you know hard luck
and grief are coming your way. And for that
—so the story goes—any day will do.

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Yikes! Have you heard the rumors about the Obamas maybe splitting up? Can it be? M was absent from the Inaug and Carter’s funeral. Hmmm. Apparently, the last time he went low, she went high. That can’t be good. There are also rumors about B hooking up with (better sit down) — Jennifer Aniston. He’s 63 and she’s 55. Of course, when you’re a starlet the math is skewed. Use this guide: 55 = 25.

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The puzzle yesterday was murder. But I got it with some lucky guesses. One clue was “Some photomontage art” and the answer was DADA. A photomontage is when one or more photos is used to create a composite work. It was strongly associated with the dadaists. (The mamaists, not so much.) Here’s a weird one. Hi Sandy! (I meant Koufax, but hi to you too, Sandee.) Oooh, Ilya Kuryakin is also in there. Cool.

On the topic, Son Volt shared a compelling song with us by the German band Trio called “Da Da Da.” It was a big hit outside the U.S.

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The Utah Hockey Club of the NHL is having a little trouble getting a team name approved. We think the best name would be the Mormons, but that’s not even one of the finalists. It would allow headlines like Devils Rout Mormons, or Mormons Flatten Penguins. The finalists are the Yeti (or Yetis), the Blizzard, Outlaws, Mammoth, and Venom. The pesky U.S. Patent Office is causing the problems. Yeti is too close to the cooler company name. Blizzard and Venom, also too close to something. Mammoth and Outlaws face the fewest problems, but are boring.

And, speaking of hockey, the ladies of the PWHL are getting good coverage. We watched our Sirens on the MSG network yesterday lose to Toronto before 19,100 fans up North!! We came back to tie twice, but were woefully outshot, and goalie Schroeder couldn’t stop the relentless onslaught. Final score: 4-2. That would be a good name, no? The Utah Onslaught. Nobody asks me. Here are some Sirens in their sexy uniforms.

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I thought today’s puzzle was pretty clever but it was roundly criticized by Rex and his gang. Seven down clues had one letter circled and the clue said “Circled letter” plus a picture. E.g., where the picture was a tray, the answer was BETRAY, with the B as the circled letter.

Then that answer served as the clue for the word crossing the B. In this case it was BACKSTAB. Last, the seven circled letters spelled out the word REBUSES, because when you use pictures to form words (like here) it’s called a rebus.

At 74A, the clue was “Annual observance for breast cancer awareness,” and the answer was NO BRA DAY. It’s October 13th, for those of you who don’t observe. At Owl Chatter, it’s a holiday our reverence for which exceeds even Yom Kippur.

Alright, alright, take it easy. It was a joke. Lighten up. Sheeesh.

Anony Mouse added this info: Just FYI – No Bra Day was started by a plastic surgeon to encourage breast reconstruction after mastectomy (it’s morphed into something either wildly sexist or freeing depending on your point of view). For those of us who have either chosen not to have reconstruction, or have had it reversed, it’s not possible to go braless in public as we use prosthetics.

I also posted the following: Apologies in advance if this is deemed un-PC, but I couldn’t help noticing that NO BRA DAY shared the grid with LARGE SCALE, DROOP, HAVE EYES ON, and STARED AT. Also VENUS, for whom every day was NO BRA DAY.

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An exhibit honoring the beautiful owl Flaco whom all of New York fell in love with is opening February 7th at the New York Historical (formerly NY Historical Society). It will feature Flaco memorabilia: photos, poems, letters, stuffed animals and trinkets. OC readers may recall we featured a beautiful drawing of Flaco by special friend Newton Jenny. [J — you should send a copy in to them. It’s the sort of work they are displaying.]

Roberta Klassen, a curator at the museum said: “He’s such a flexible symbol. People see all these things in him — a New Yorker who had grit, an immigrant — and he was liberated, he was free. That idea was very potent for people. And he was a raptor. Raptors have a hold on people. You can imagine how people felt when this large raptor appeared on your window sill. You’re going about your day, and this large, beautiful bird appeared.”

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Where is the integrity? After the portrait of Gen. Milley was removed from the walls of the Pentagon, every other general with a portrait on display should have requested that his be removed as well. Living generals and the descendants of deceased generals. How about some support for a brother in arms?

In that connection, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) said Milley and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin should be court-martialed because they made the Department of Defense too “politicized” to win wars. “We have the most highly educated and powerful military in the history of the world, and we have not won a war in 80 years,” Van Orden said. The logic is irrefutable, no?

Well the Jets haven’t made the playoffs since Jefferson was in the White House, but we’re not calling for anyone to be court-martialed. Ridiculous.

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We are posting the following clip without comment. The expression in Yiddish is: Res Ipsa Loquitor. The thing speaks for itself.

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We’ll finish today saying goodbye to David Lynch. I caught Blue Velvet late in its run. I went by myself to a seedy theater near Times Square, one of the few places it was still playing. There were about five of us in the theater, all solo, spaced apart. It was intense. When it ended the lights in the theater went on and I stood up to leave. A Black guy seated about six rows in front of me got up too and our eyes met. He just said “Whoooo” and shook his head.

Yup. Rest in peace David.

“O.K., but who really killed Laura Palmer?”

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See you tomorrow!