On this date in 1923, in Coney Island, Brooklyn, the patron saint of Owl Chatter was born: Joseph Heller. A snippy interviewer once told him he never produced anything else as good as Catch-22. Heller responded, “Who has?” Heller was a shameless womanizer and his divorce from his wife Shirley was brutal. He loved her pot roast but she refused to tell him her “secret.” He offered their daughter Erica $10,000 for it, but Shirley made it quite clear that Erica was not to share it. When, after Joe’s death, Erica published her book about the family, Yossarian Slept Here, she included the recipe in full on the final page. Here are Erica and her dad.
These lines are from a poem we are not sharing in OC:
Morning’s slow mucus, and Sixth Avenue
opened, that strip of vowels and fever silhouettes.
Trump may turn out to be the best climate crisis president ever. A story in the NYT today noted that the global recession he is causing will reduce economic activity so significantly that the pressure on global warming will ease. (Short-term only.)
From Frank Bruni’s For the love of sentences feature:
In USA Today, Rex Huppke pondered the president’s rambling reverie about “an old-fashioned term that we use — groceries” and his definition of it as “a bag with different things in it.” “Jiminy Crickets,” Huppke wrote, “the cheese has slid so far off this guy’s cracker that it hit the floor and the dog ate it.”
In the puzzle today, at 51D the clue was “Popping pills, say,” and the answer was ON MEDS. It led commenter Gary to note: “I’m an elder now. When does the revering start?”
At 68A, the clue was “Title friend of Marlin in an animated film,” and the answer was DORY. My comment: I can’t watch a Mets game anymore without mentioning to my wife five or six times that I’m “finding Nimmo.” (Brandon Nimmo, left field.)
At 39D: “Piercings that might be felt while kissing,” was LIP RINGS. Here’s egs: I recently swallowed my phone and now when I get a call my LIP RINGS. (My comment: Soon you’ll be giving a whole new meaning to the term “butt dialing.”)
My favorite clue/answer was at 20A. The clue was “Places to carry out some takeout orders, for short?” And the answer was ORS. Get it? Operating rooms — “takeout” orders.
Say it ain’t so, Mariano! Our forever hero Mariano Rivera may be in a bit of hot water for a “blown save” off the baseball diamond. He and wifey were added as defendants in a suit alleging a child was abused while in the care of the ironically named Refuge of Hope Church in Westchester NY, which the Riveras founded. They are accused of failing to protect the child. (Mariano is also guilty of blowing the 2001 World Series to ‘Zona in Game 7. (Ouch.))
First of all, according to court records, the child’s name is Jane Doe, which is pretty suspicious from the get-go, amirite? The Riveras claim they were not aware of the abuse.
Has Owl Chatter sunk so low that we will use an incidence of child abuse to go after cheap laughs? (SRSLY — you have to ask?)
Here are Mariano and wife Clara laughing it up at the ballpark. Monsters!!
Yikes! Are you aware that people have been falling out of the stands at baseball games and dying?? It happened in Texas in 2011 and in Atlanta in 2015. And, then, yesterday, in Pittsburgh it happened again. We have a video of it — it’s horrifying The fan seems to self-propel out of his seat and onto the field. He was tended to by medics and is in the hospital now in critical condition. Brace yourself. Or don’t watch.
Sheesh — we can’t end with that.
So — I was today years old when I learned this new word: You know how (often in cartoons) a bunch of typographical symbols may be used in place of an obscenity? — “Why, you conniving little #%@&$!” The string of symbols is called a grawlix.
Grawlix is not to be confused with gravlax, which I confuse with lox. Gravlax comes from grav (cured, as fish) + laks (salmon). I started trying to find out how gravlax differs from lox, but it was too hard for me.
I hope that’s enough nonsense for the day. I’m getting sleepy. See you next time.
The Wellington Files 