Good morning Chatterheads! We’re in icy cold Bloomfield Hills, MI this week. The owls are visiting their son Worthington, and we are visiting new grandson Harold, aka Harry Beary, who turned two (months) old last week. Looking good, little fella! He has already doubled his weight (to roughly what I was at birth), and is a real good eater, kinahora!
Here’s the view from the kitchen. Brrrrrr. It’s 5 degrees, up from 3, and we’re looking to hit 20 in the afternoon. Heat wave!
Speaking of grandchildren, does he look like him at all? This is Jesse Madden, recent UMich grad. He played one game at QB a few years ago, but mostly defensive back, including play with the 2024 National Champs. Jesse is one of John Madden’s five grandchildren, and the first to enter the NFL. (John and wife Virginia had two sons: identical twins.) Jesse was just hired as offensive quality control coach for the Washington Commanders..
So, I ask you, Does he look like his grandpa?
I don’t see it. Maybe a little. He does look footbally. Love the tie, JM!
But let’s get that football face replaced by something prettier. Yesterday’s wonderful puzzle by ace constructor Erik Agard had this clue at 41D: “Move that sends tresses flying.” Do you have enough to carry one off? It can apply to men as well as women. It’s HAIR TOSS. Here are a couple:
I’ve been doing puzzles long enough to recognize instantly that “Messing around on set” was DEBRA. Actress Debra Messing of course. But it took a crafty commenter to note (lasciviously) that messing around on set could also involve having the actress “de-bra.”
DM has been in the news of late, supporting Israel and catching sh*t for it. Maybe Will Shortz was going for some balance by having AHED Tamimi in yesterday’s puzzle: Palestinian activist.
Debra’s 56 now, with a nice head of hair, just itching for a good toss. Phil caught Deb on her way out to pick up a few things at Target.
And here’s Ms. Tamimi, also with the hair. She just turned 24.
I woke up at 5 am in our hotel on the outskirts of Youngstown OH in a panic over whether our car would start. It was 8 degrees out. So I threw on some clothes and went out to see. Mozart, Beethoven — nothing comes close to the sound of that engine roaring to life on a freezing cold in predawn Ohio. Thank you Honda gods!
Unable to get back to sleep, I grabbed a complimentary copy of USA Today and settled into a comfortable seat in the lobby waiting for breakfast to open. And it was there that I considered for maybe three seconds whether to rent some chickens. The story started off noting the soaring price of eggs which resulted in increased business for Jenn and Phil Tompkins who founded “Rent the Chicken” in Pennsylvania.
It costs $500 for a six-month contract. That includes two hens ready to lay eggs within two days of arrival. Two hens usually lay about a dozen eggs a week. You also get a portable chicken coop, feed for the chickens, food and water dishes and access to experts if you have questions. You get the option to buy the chickens at the end of the rental period or even to “chicken out,” as Tompkins said, and return the chickens early, when you realize it was another of one of your insane ideas that went to sh*t.
Here’s Jenn. Our owls said they liked the idea except for the poor chickens being literally cooped up in those little coops — a deal breaker as far as they were concerned.
As a 75-year-old who has spent a lifetime watching the federal government waste zillions of my taxpayer dollars, it’s heartening to watch Musk cut out swaths of waste and fraud in just a matter of days. At the moment, he’s seeking access to all of the information IRS has on all of us. A White House spokesperson explained that “waste, fraud, and abuse have been deeply entrenched in our broken system for far too long. It takes direct access to the system to identify and fix it.” Makes sense.
Incredibly, skeptics have been asking exactly what fraud Musk has unearthed: what savings has he produced. So on Monday he listed $16 billion in canceled contracts. The New York Times made a teensy-beensy correction, noting that a contract Musk valued at $8 billion was actually closer to $8 million. C’mon fellas — they got the 8 part right. The Times also noted claims of $55 billion in savings lacked documentation. Last, when Trump and Musk both stated that Social Security is paying tens of millions of dead people they were wrong — based on shoddy software. As right wing podcaster Trish Regan put it, “Looks like the team got out over its skis on this one.” Seriously.
Seriously. That was the theme of Erik Agard’s puzzle yesterday. The single word “seriously” was the same clue for each theme answer. The first answer was I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU. Next was THE AUDACITY! Then WHO DOES THAT? Finally – WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! It was noted that the last answer set the record for longest one-word palindrome.
At 3D, “Important Powwow figure” was interesting. I just thought powwow meant “meeting.” But it’s a more significant cultural event for a tribe, typically marked by tribal dancing and other cultural activities. Hence, the answer was HEAD DANCER.
And 32D was interesting. We all remember Three Mile Island, right? Well just as harrowing (if not more) was the nuclear plant mishap at CHURCH ROCK, clued with “New Mexico site of the largest radioactive accident in U.S. history.” It’s named after a prominent natural landmark.
On July 16, 1979, the dam at a United Nuclear Corp Church Rock uranium mill was breached and spilled 1,100 tons of milled uranium ore and 94 million gallons of heavy metal effluent into the Puerco River. This was the largest release of radioactive waste in U.S. history. In the great tradition of head-up-your-ass-ism, until recently, no epidemiological studies were undertaken on the effects on the population.
The theme today was QUILTING BEE. It was a bit foreign to commenter Southside Johnny: I have trouble visualizing how it would work – seems like it would be a bunch of people sitting around knitting. Come to think of it, I don’t know how a “book club” would work either . . . maybe everyone gets together to talk about a specific chapter?
It garnered two replies:
First: Quilting bees actually have a great history- quilts are very labor intensive and were often “pieced” by an individual (piecing is sewing the different pieces of cloth together), then people would come together in a “bee” to do the quilting collectively. Quilting is when the stitches you can see on the front and back of the finished quilt are created to hold the pieced top to the batting (stuffing) and the backing. To do this, people actually do sit in a circle and all do stitch work on the same quilt- it is a beautiful (and very practical) community activity!
Knitting in groups also allows for great organic exchange of craft knowledge, but knitted objects are almost always made by just one person.
These (historically feminine) activities are not frivolous or ancillary to our culture, they’re fundamental and profound!
Second: I can take this one. In a book club, people read a book and then talk about it.
A little later, Commenter Dennis posted: My mom was a big quilter so I enjoyed this puzzle’s theme. She passed away last year, but was still quilting up to the end. She made over a hundred quilts for her family and friends. I have very fond memories of quilting bees in our home before I started school. There was nothing better than sitting underneath the quilting frame with my mom and aunts and neighbors gabbing away above.
And whatsername added: Lost my mom nearly 12 years ago and like yours, she had a quilt going right up to the very end. I still have the pieces she had started and thought I might finish it someday. But I don’t have her gift or patience and somehow I like having her unfinished work there, just as she left it.
Local News Headline from The Onion:
Heroic Dog Saves Family Of Five From Herb-Roasted Chicken
See you tomorrow! Thanks for popping by!
The Wellington Files 