I learned a bit about quarterback signals from an article in The Times this week, a topic we can pretty safely say is of interest to just about no one, and is thus perfect for us here in Owl Chatter. Tyler Bray was a QB with the pre-Mahomes, pre-Taylor Swift, KC Chiefs. During a practice, he signaled for a play using “White 80.” But head coach Andy Reid shook his head and walked over. He told Bray he “held his ‘white’ too long.” OK, so Bray switched to Green 80 but that was no good either, according to Reid. Blue did the trick. Blue 80 worked.
Are these people insane? What the f*ck difference does it make what color they use when they have to release the ball in under 3 seconds prior to getting slammed into by 400-lb linemen bent on ripping them limb from limb? Turns out it’s all about “cadence.”
QB signals go all the way back to 1882 when a Yale coach named Walter Camp drew up five signals for plays for the first time in history. He used random phrases. One was “Play up sharp, Charlie,” which meant a quick toss to an end for a sideline run. In either 1887 or 1889 (there is some dispute, don’t ask), signaling became numeric. A play would be called via a number in the huddle and the QB could yell plus or minus something to change it before the snap.
That held into the 1950’s until a Notre Dame coach named Terry Brennan saw that too many mistakes were occurring, so he devised the color-number system which is still partly in use. Under it, a numbered play is called but with a color, like red 28. Red is the “live” color. At the line of scrimmage if he uses any color other than red, it’s just ignored and they run play #28. But if he yells “red” that means he’s changing the play to a new number. So “Red 17” means switch to play #17. Green, blue, or orange anything means stick with play #28.
Okay, so if that’s the system, why did it matter, above, what color Tyler Bray used? Because in the modern pro game, the cadence in which the signals are expressed matters too. The rhythm and sound of the signals need to be just right: they control the timing and flow of the play. A back-up QB needs to learn the signals for the play but also needs to mimic the cadence of the starter. They need to practice getting it just right, like with a teammate or in front of a mirror. It’s like an actor delivering a line in a play. Different kind of play.
Okay, Liveson, now get out there and let me see what you can do. Sure Coach!
Eudora WELTY was in the puzzle today.
Here’s a comment posted by Barbara S in its entirety. It’s a good example of why I love the Rex group.
My favorite passage from The Optimist’s Daughter:
When Laurel was a child, in this room and in this bed where she lay now, she closed her eyes like this and the rhythmic, nighttime sound of the two beloved reading voices came rising in turn up the stairs every night to reach her. She could hardly fall asleep, she tried to keep awake, for pleasure. She cared for her own books, but she cared more for theirs, which meant their voices. In the lateness of the night, their two voices reading to each other where she could hear them, never letting a silence divide or interrupt them, combined into one unceasing voice and wrapped her around as she listened, as still as if she were asleep. She was sent to sleep under a velvety cloak of words, richly patterned and stitched with gold, straight out of a fairy tale, while they went reading on into her dreams.
Another passage from that book, which describes my life at the moment, goes like this:
To have the past, and to have loved it, to know it exists in the present, not in the haunting shadows, not in memory, but alive beside me in this room.
I’m currently in receipt of an enormous number of photographs taken over many years by my sister, who was an excellent photographer. She has Alzheimer’s disease and is in a care home, no longer able to appreciate her own wonderful visual legacy. Many of these photographs are in good order and well-organized, but I’m in the process of systematizing the rest, which has required me to take a deep dive into memory. Truly, studying these photographs is like travelling backward in time: the past reality they present is so real and so vivid, the dead they resurrect are so very much alive, that when I stop looking at them, I actually have to reorient myself to the present – metaphorically shake my head and slap my cheek. “Wake up, wake up, it’s 2025!”
At 62A the clue was “Compliment on the green,” and the answer was NICE PUTT. Here’s what I posted for the gang:
“Missed opportunity to see a NICE BUTT in the grid today. D’oh! So close.”
Today’s theme was ACUPUNCTURE. The clue was “Traditional Chinese medicine component.” (General Tso’s Chicken didn’t fit.) The theme answers were: GET THE POINT, STAB IN THE BACK, and MOVE THE NEEDLE. Theme answers usually run across the grid, but these were down answers and the constructor, Jared Cappel, explained it was like they were needles being inserted into the patient. Jared is a serious Scrabble competitor ranked #4 in Canada. But that rank will have to be adjusted once the tariffs take hold.
I shared this note with the gang:
My late brother performed EMGs for a living — electromyography. It involved sticking very fine needles into the patient, giving a slight electrical jolt, and analyzing how the nerves responded. When a member of the NY Jets needed the test done, they used him. He was always amused to see a 350-lb lineman scared of the little needles. They would ask “Will this hurt, doc?” and his answer was invariably “I don’t feel a thing.”
Laura Howarth, of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) posted the following:
Having flown a handful of times over the last 12 months with a very dull airline (name loosely rhymes with Lion Hair), I have a question which I’m hoping my fellow dull people can answer. On each and every flight there’s been an announcement “Today we have a passenger on board with a severe nut allergy, therefore please do not consume nuts while on this flight” (or words to that effect). Every flight. Are we being stalked by someone with a severe nut allergy I wonder? Or are there so many people with such an allergy that there is always one on every flight? Or, as I suspect, do they not have a clue about people’s allergies and just announce this to cover themselves just in case??
Here are a few of the dullest comments:
Gaz Trowell: I also fly a lot with the aforementioned terrible air line and they don’t always announce the nut allergy over the tannoy. [Tannoy? I had to look it up. It’s a type of public address system.]
Laura: That means we’re being stalked then!!
Avi Liveson: If you truly believe you are being stalked by a person with a nut allergy who means you harm, you should eat nuts to foil his or her plan. However, your doing so opens the risk of an innocent person dying if your stalking theory is off. Can you live with that on your conscience? I’m feeling a little bad just for making the suggestion.
Adrian Bull: Maybe they have something on your passenger profile that says it’s you with the allergy?
Laura: OMG! Never thought of that!
Jason Andreoli: Never actually heard that announcement on said airline, however, on some routes they may do it as routine just in case and to ensure liability is covered.. Five Guys Burgers does something similar (although the polar opposite) by frying in peanut oil and having sacks of peanuts scattered around the floor to ensure nobody with an allergy and a brain cell ever gets near their produce. [Wow — never thought of that.]
Mayblossom Stiffdog: Only way to prove this is to buy every ticket for a flight, you then being the only passenger on the flight and without such allergy will help to prove your point.
Mark Hall: I can honestly say that in all my 63 years, I have never known anyone with a severe nut allergy.
Gordon McGoochan: You are lucky. My daughter has a severe peanut and legume (soya, chickpeas etc.) allergy, even the smell of a peanut causes her throat to start closing. Once at school a classmate gave her a chocolate covered peanut for a joke, she went into immediate anaphylaxis and spent the night in hospital, it’s no fun for her and a constant worry for her mother and me.
Mark: I don’t deny people have them and sincere sympathies to your daughter, it must be hard to go through life avoiding everything. I just haven’t met anyone personally.
Gordon: Thank you, yes it is incredibly difficult, everything she eats has to be scrutinized in detail, things like pea or soya proteins, chickpea flour and anything cooked in peanut oil for example are all potentially fatal.
Ian Frazier has a funny piece in The New Yorker of 3/17: “Prayers For Everyday Life.” Here’s a sampling:
(Throughout the day)
Oh, dear God,
May I not have thrown away the
Top to our sour cream.
Oh, Jesus,
Where did all that water in the
Basement come from?
(At the workplace)
Dear God Almighty,
Why hasn’t that idiot Liam been fired?
(At the pharmacy)
Oh, for God’s sake,
You are not next in line.
Here’s a fitting tune to send us off tonight. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 