Leave it to Shakespeare to come up with the best ever description of Owl Chatter. It’s from his “Sonnet 106,” which appeared in yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac, to our great good fortune. Take a look:
When in the chronicle of wasted time
I see descriptions of the fairest wights [persons]
And beauty making beautiful old rhyme
In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights,
Then in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best,
Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow,
I see their ántique pen would have expressed
Ev’n such a beauty as you master now.
So all their praises are but prophecies
Of this our time, all you prefiguring,
And for they looked but with divining eyes,
They had not skill enough your worth to sing.
For we which now behold these present days,
Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise.
And, speaking of “sweet beauty’s best,” the lovely Sarah Palin was in the news again. So many fond memories. The villains (and villainesses) were so less villainous back then. Sigh. Palin’ by comparison.
Phil! Can you dig out an old shot or two for us?
Nothing sexier? Gotta give her credit — despite decades in the public eye, she was careful to avoid photos with even the hint of indecency making their way onto the internet. Believe me, I’ve searched relentlessly (you know, for a minute or two). Don’t get me wrong — not a fan. Just sayin’. Credit where due.
So, where were we? Oh, yeah. SP is back in the news this week. A jury ruled against her in a defamation suit she filed against the NYT. An editorial said Palin’s PAC contributed to an atmosphere of violence by circulating a map of electoral districts that put Gabby Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs. Seems accurate to me, but the Times quickly corrected the article, saying it had “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the shooting” and that it had “incorrectly described” the map. The jury agreed with the Times that it was an honest error and that it took reasonable steps to correct it.
Palin’s response: “I get to go home to a beautiful family of five kids and grandkids and a beautiful property and get on with life. And that’s nice.”
Dripping with venom, clearly.
The sh*tstorm Trump has unleashed is so dizzying and multifaceted that it’s easy to miss big pieces here and there. For example, did you know about this item in historian Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter: Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum signed an order assigning to the assistant secretary for policy, management, and budget, control over the Department of the Interior, including its personnel and budget. He is DOGE operative Tyler Hassen, the CEO of a Houston-based energy company, who has not been confirmed by the Senate. Elon Musk is now effectively in charge of America’s public lands.
The upshot: Burgum has handed power over the Department of the Interior to a hitherto unknown political operative who is holding his position in violation of the appointments clause of the Constitution. Hassen is responsible for 70,000 employees, the administration of international treaties, the welfare of 574 Native American Tribes, 433 national park sites, over 500 million acres of public lands, 700 million acres of subsurface minerals, and 3.2 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf. Look for the government to sell off massive swaths of public land as a way of raising revenue. They have not been shy about expressing that aim.
From The Onion:
Trump Opens Up Nation’s Aquariums To Commercial Fishing
2-Year-Old Unaware He’s Basis For 6 Couples’ Decisions Not To Have Kids
For us to go to a Mets game (from NJ to Queens) is a big commitment of time and energy; we have plenty of the former and very little of the latter. We took a 9:30 train into NY yesterday for a 1 pm game and got home around 7 in the evening. So you hope to be rewarded with a decent game. In our case, it was way beyond decent. The Mets were playing the Phillies and it was clear that a lot of Philly fans came up for the game. The teams appear to be the main rivals for the Division crown. The Mets won the first two games and were itching for a sweep. Philly ace Zack Wheeler was pitching against decent lefty Dave Peterson for the Mets.
Mets second-bagger Brett Baty popped a two-run homer into the seats early but otherwise Wheeler was in command. Peterson worked in and out of trouble, eventually giving up the lead to a flurry of sharp singles, and left in the sixth with the score knotted at two. Meanwhile, we were treated to some serious glovework at short by Francisco Lindor and right in front of us in left by Brandon Nimmo. A whole bunch of fly balls were “finding Nimmo.” (Get it?)
It was one of those wonderful games in which every pitch seemed to matter. With the score still tied 2-2 in the 8th inning, the Phils put men on first and second with two outs. Oh, no! The next batter, Max Kepler, laced a single to right. But it was hit pretty sharply and right-fielder Soto raced in to pick it up and threw a laser beam to catcher Senger who slapped a brilliant tag on Castellano trying to score. Out! Clearly out! The throw came in a bit on the first base side. Senger knew he’d have to lunge across the plate for the tag, but had no idea where the runner was since he was focused on the ball. “He could have been halfway down the line, and I’d look like an idiot diving towards the plate,” Senger said after the game.
BTW, Max Kepler was born in Berlin and both of his parents were professional ballet dancers. He is not listed as Jewish in Wikipedia.
OK, where were we? Extra innings. With the new rule placing a runner on second at the start of every extra inning, we had to hope Diaz, who was pitching his second inning, could keep that runner (Bryce Harper) from scoring. When Diaz struck out Schwarber his chances looked decent, but Harper quickly stole third. D’oh! And the next batter drove him in. Rats!
Then things got a little weird. Diaz stepped off the mound (“disengaged”) a couple of times and then a third time — that’s an automatic balk and the runner advanced to second. But Diaz called for a conference on the mound: his hip was bothering him. He couldn’t lift his leg. He left the game and, get this — the umps reversed the balk call. Since he stepped off due to injury, it wasn’t a balk.
Alright, in comes Kranick. Max Kranick. In about two seconds the Phils had the bases loaded. D’oh! And there was only one out. I said to Linda: “We can probably handle being down one, but if all hell breaks loose now, we’re f*cked.” That was my trenchant analysis. Inside baseball.
Kranick went back to work. The next batter launched a fly to center. It was caught and all eyes went to third base to see if the runner would try to score. He stayed put. That was a big out. And so was the next one, a grounder. So we went to the bottom of the tenth, down 3-2.
Lindor took his spot at second base as Juan Soto stepped up to the plate, he of the historic $765 million contract. The moment was made for him but his swing yielded only a soft grounder to the right side. Lindor scooted to third. At least Soto advanced the runner. It would be up to Pete Alonso. And he didn’t let us down, driving a double to deep right-center. I knew right away it was deep enough to score the runner from third even if it were caught, but the crowd wanted more and it held off cheering until it was clear the ball was in the gap and Pete lumbered into second base.
Yes, it was all tied up now, but the crowd wanted Philly blood. Nimmo was walked intentionally to get to Starling Marte. “A grizzled old veteran [36],” I opined to Linda — “he can do it for us.” And he did. He lofted a single to center, but it wasn’t very deep and the question became, could Alonso score from second? The “loft” was the key. Since the ball was not hit hard, by the time the throw home was made, Alonso was far enough along that he could score, barely — with a belly flop. No matter. Game over. Mets win.
Have you heard of the Israeli-Dutch singer Keren Ann? I hadn’t, even though she’s 51 and has released 8 albums. Rex shared this song of hers in connection with the puzzle today. The clue was “Might, to Shakespeare,” and the answer started with MAY, but how did it end? Mayhap? Mayeth? Nope, neither of those — it was MAYEST. In fact, commenter jberg looked it up and found that WS used “mayest” only 3 times and used “mayst” 76 times. Whatever. It led Rex to share “End of May” with us.
Among the many atrocities of Trump’s, his support for Russia over Ukraine is pretty impressive, going so far as to blame Ukraine for the invasion and shrieking like a ten-year old at Zelensky to just shut up and give in to all of Putin’s demands. So much for the art of the deal. Europe, of course, isn’t buying any of his sh*t.
I recently learned the conflict spilled over into women’s tennis, of all places. Have you heard of Anna Potapova? She’s 24, Russian, and ranked around #25 in the world, winning a round now and then, but hardly dominant. She appeared at a match in Indian Wells (CA) in 2023 wearing a shirt supporting a Russian soccer team. Iga Swiatek (currently ranked #1) was aghast. She’s Polish and has a heart and a brain and thought it was outrageous for Potapova to give off any pro-Russia sentiments under the circumstances, and she opened her mouth about it. Potapova said she was not expressing any political views: She was just a fan of the team and has been since she was thirteen. It didn’t help that she was unable to name a single player on the team. She was reprimanded by the tennis authorities. Complicating matters is the fact that she’s very pretty, not that we would ever compromise our principles for anything so shallow. (Much.)
See you tomorrow Chatterheads, as we crank out another installment of The Chronicle of Wasted Time. Thanks for popping in.
The Wellington Files 