We are introducing a new feature in Owl Chatter today. It’s called Inside My Brain.
One nice thing about being retired is we are getting out for walks on a much more regular basis, despite the bad weather. I checked the temperature before going out today and it was 28 degrees. And I thought back to how that may have arisen, the degrees thing. Like before degrees you’d say “How cold is it?” and they’d say, “Pretty cold — not as cold as yesterday, but still pretty cold, sort of like last Friday,” and you’d go “I don’t remember last Friday, I wish there were some way to quantify coldness,” so they came up with degrees. But they went overboard. Each degree is too small. Twenty-eight degrees is essentially the same as twenty-seven, amirite?
So I started thinking that a better measuring “unit” might be a block of five degrees. I.e., twenty-five through twenty-nine could be one “unit.” (It would be Unit 6 counting up from zero degrees.) Then I thought, well, maybe five is too broad. Twenty-five seems a notch colder than twenty-nine. Maybe we should make each unit three degrees.
But then my brain said I was already wasting too much time on the issue and it called for the little Elon Musk that lives inside there to shut down the topic, and he did. Thanks Little Elon Musk.
If I were pressed to come up with a depiction of Joy in its purest incarnation and I weren’t allowed to use pictures of people, e.g., Rafi, —
I might use this video, below. It’s by Francis Bourgeois. Here he is with his pretty girlfriend Amy.
That’s not his real name. His real name is Luke Magnus Nicholson and he’s 24 and from London. He has a degree in mechanical engineering. His family first noted his interest in trains when he was three. However, when he entered secondary school at the age of 15, he suppressed it to fit in better and sold his railway sets. “Being a train enthusiast at secondary school is difficult,” he explained, “gym memberships and trendy clothes took precedence at that point, regrettably.” (That’s how he talks.)
But enough of that. This video, as you may recall, is my candidate for the incarnation of Joy. It goes on a bit (13 minutes), so give it a few and see if it grabs you. There’s a lunch break at a “cat cafe” at one point.
Here are two headlines on the Super Bowl from The Onion:
Andy Reid Removes Bald Cap for National Anthem
Man Hangs Arm Off Couch For Rest Of Game Instead Of Washing Sauce Off Fingers
This poem is called “Choices.” It’s by Tess Gallagher and is from today’s Writer’s Almanac.
I go to the mountain side
of the house to cut saplings,
and clear a view to snow
on the mountain. But when I look up,
saw in hand, I see a nest clutched in
the uppermost branches.
I don’t cut that one.
I don’t cut the others either.
Suddenly, in every tree,
an unseen nest
where a mountain
would be.
Film producer CARLO Ponti was in the puzzle today. He was married to Sophia Loren for over 40 years, until his death in 2007. Commenter Nancy noted, “Yes, but she had a long affair with Cary Grant.” Anony Mouse replied: “Who wouldn’t?”
Here’s Sophie.
But it was a three-letter answer that garnered the most attention (and led to my rare Tuesday defeat). The clue was “Ballad,” and the answer started with LA. No idea. Turned out to be LAY. Yeah, I have a vague, distant recollection of its use for ballad now, as in this title of a song shared by Son Volt: “Lay of the Sunflower.”
I must leave you for a season
Go out logging that hardwood timber
Hardwood timber that grows so low
In the forest of Fennario
Tell me what you need to live, love
Do you ask that you might own
Keep my blue-eyed hound to guard you
I will make my way alone
I will not return in winter
If I be not back by fall
Seek me when this small sunflower
Grows above the garden wall
And did you know Ireland’s longest river is the SHANNON? Again, from Son Volt, The Pogues. Raise a glass!
So I walked as the day was dawning
Where small birds sang and leaves were falling
Where we once watched the row boats landing
By the broad majestic SHANNON
Additional headline from The Onion:
Man With Fogged-Up Glasses Forced To Finish Soup Using Other Senses
Lee Fricker of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) posts the following: 73 is the 21st prime number, and its reverse, 37, is the 12th prime number, which is the reverse of 21. Interestingly, 21 is also the product of 7 and 3 (7 × 3 = 21).
In binary, 73 is a palindrome, it reads the same backward as 1001001. Additionally, every 37th Fibonacci number is a multiple of 73.
[I fell off the truck after 7 x 3. In any event, chew on all of that and next time I’ll see if there are any comments dull enough to share. My brain hurts a little now, so I’m getting in bed.]
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 