Stephen Marshall of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) asks: Anyone know what these bugs are and how to get rid of them? Google lens say they are weevils. They have devastated the leaves on our cherry tree.
Gavin Webster: Which is the lesser of two weevils?
Andy Colleran: Closing your hand sharpish should get rid quickly.
Ian Shore: I asked one of my German cousin’s for you Stephen, and he replied: Weevil look into zis for you, weevil try google first! Weevil find a final solution to rid you of zis invasion!”
Andy Bound: I believe they wobble but they don’t fall down unfortunately.
[OC note: Andy is referring to the following:]
This poem is called “Couple at Coney Island.” It’s by Charles Simic and was in today’s Writer’s Almanac.
It was early one Sunday morning,
So we put on our best rags
And went for a stroll along the boardwalk
Till we came to a kind of palace
With turrets and pennants flying.
It made me think of a wedding cake
In the window of a fancy bakery shop.
I was warm, so I took my jacket off
And put my arm round your waist
And drew you closer to me
While you leaned your head on my shoulder.
Anyone could see we’d made love
The night before and were still giddy on our feet.
We looked naked in our clothes
Staring at the red and white pennants
Whipped by the sea wind.
The rides and shooting galleries
With their ducks marching in line
Still boarded up and padlocked.
No one around yet to take our first dime.
Toni Morrison was in the puzzle yesterday. Did you know her first name is actually Chloe? And Toni is short for her first middle name which is Anthony. Her second middle name is Wofford.
When you make pasta, do you save the water it’s boiled in? The clue at 57A yesterday was “Cooking byproduct sometimes called ‘liquid gold.’” The answer was PASTA WATER. News to me.
Anonymous noted: Despite being Italian, and helping grandma make the homemade pasta , not once did I see her use pasta water. Looked it up. It is a very real thing. And it is supposed to enhance flavor. Tried it this morning with my own homemade pasta sauce and homemade pasta out of curiosity— added nothing to the flavor.
But Teedmn wrote: My understanding is that PASTA WATER isn’t there for flavor but to thicken the sauce so it sticks to the noodles. Before I learned the trick of reserving some of the water for the sauce, my spaghetti sauce would be watery and not cling to the pasta. And Les S. More added: it doesn’t really thicken the sauce so much as it loosens it without thinning it much, if that makes sense. That’s because of the starch. Added bonus: the water is usually a bit salty and adds depth to the sauce’s flavour. Peamut noted he or she was at a cooking class recently and the teacher said using pasta water in making pizza dough was highly recommended.
Anony Mouse 2 said the clue was “baloney,” that chicken fat (aka schmaltz) was “liquid gold,” not pasta water. And get off my lawn!
At 18A, “Downward-facing dog?” which sounds like a yoga position, was a clever clue for the constellation CANIS MAJOR.
It led egs to note: I don’t want to say she has a big butt, but her CANISMAJOR!
This story by Suzanne Schneck is in tomorrow’s Met Diary.
My husband and I were in New York to see “Good Night and Good Luck,” and I had gotten done up for the occasion: dress, hair, makeup, jewelry, a stunning but impractical white coat and an infrequently worn pair of kitten heels.
As we walked to the theater, the promise of spring was in the air, and I was feeling upbeat. I was gliding along. The next thing I knew, I was tumbling in slow motion onto the dirty pavement at Broadway and 44th Street.
My coat and my ego were a bit tarnished as my husband rushed to help me up. To my surprise, two young men also stopped to help.
As I turned to thank them, one of them smiled.
“Hon,” he said, “it was totally worth it! Those shoes are fabulous.”
Jane Eyre was in the puzzle yesterday. So I posted the following: “The bookseller discounted his entire inventory. And when one buyer scooped up everything by Charlotte Bronte, the Eyre went out of his sales.”
Also yesterday, at 30D I had no idea why “Seeking comment?” was the clue for READY OR NOT. Turns out it a reference to the kids’ game “Hide and Seek.” When whoever is it starts to “seek,” he or she announces: “Ready or not, here I come.” Remember Jackson Browne? I saw him perform in Buffalo NY when I was living in Rochester. Excellent show.
Here’s the grid from today’s puzzle, below. It’s unusual for there to be giant black blocks like that. Rex didn’t notice what they are. I didn’t either, but at 8:41 am another Anony Mouse noted that they are kites (with tails). And that works with the answer at 7D: LETS GO FLY A KITE! Nice.
Jeepers, Creepers, where’d you get those peepers? I bet the younger among us have not heard of that idiotic verse (if there are any young among us). Well, the use of “peepers” for eyes is still current. We speak of a “peeping Tom,” for example. It made for a very difficult clue today. At 20A the clue was “Baby blue, perhaps.” It was a reference to blue eyes, but singular. So the answer was PEEPER. Here’s a random pair of blue peepers. (Hi Tay! Sup?)
According to historian Heather Cox Richardson, Trump has tapped Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who is passionately loyal to him, for the position of U.S. attorney in Washington D.C., the top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital. He noted among her qualifications that she “hosted her own Fox News Show for ten years, and is currently Co-Host of The Five, one of the Highest Rated Shows on Television.”
Fox took Pirro off the air after the 2020 election because of her conspiracy-theory-filled rants. In emails, her executive producer called her “nuts” and a “reckless maniac,” who “should never be on live television.”
On another front, Trump’s replacement pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, did not finish her residency and is not currently licensed as a doctor. At least she’s pretty. Here’s the mighty Casey.
Richardson states: The administration appears not to be able to attract the caliber of federal officials to which Americans have become accustomed.
Ya think?
See you tomorrow! Thanks for popping by.
The Wellington Files 