The universe is nudging us to eat Tootsie Rolls today. First, on WQXR (NY’s classical music station), Jeff Spurgeon’s “Know-It-All-New-Yorker” Question was on the candy developed in NY in 1907 named after the maker’s daughter Clara and hailed for its non-melting character. The answer was Tootsie Roll. Clara’s pet name was “Tootsie.” It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped in America.
Next came the clue at 49D today: “Wise” bird. The answer was OWL, of course, but Rex (and we) was (are) troubled by the quotation marks:
“LOL scare quotes. ‘So-called.’ What, are OWLs not actually wise now? Which member of the NYT editing team hates OWLs? Everyone knows OWLs are wise. How else could they become professors?”
And the following short video brought us to the Tootsie Roll again:
Loved the puzzle theme today, especially after our visit to the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh a few years back. The theme answers all had an unusual characteristic. Here are two: CANDYLAND and HANDSTAND. Do you see it? The other two are: BRANDY ALEXANDER and SHETLAND ISLANDS. Still no? Each answer has “AND” in it twice. So the revealer was “Boy’s name — or how you might describe the above answers” and it was ANDY, meaning “characterized by ands.”
AW himself was thrown in for good measure at 29D: “Noted painter of soup cans” — WARHOL, crossing the second A in Candyland.
Here’s egs: I really appreciate WARHOL being clued as “Noted painter of soup cans.” At first I missed the word “noted,” and my mind was flooded with dozens of lesser painters of soup cans.
Commenter Lewis had this memory: “I once worked as a waiter in a tony Upper East Side restaurant where Andy WARHOL came regularly. His dinner, every time, consisted simply of a plate piled high with French fries, on top of which he would empty a bottle of ketchup. He came with an entourage, and boy they had a good time.”
Did you know Andy Warhol was in an episode in the last season of “The Love Boat” (1985)?
Here’s a tune by Arthur Alexander, Brandy’s cousin.
The puzzle referenced the Beatles’ song TAXMAN, about a month late. Lewis noted: The album it was on, Revolver, was so named because that’s what a record is on a turntable. [So, nothing to do with firearms.]
The Analogues is an extraordinary Dutch band devoted to reproducing Beatles’ songs with technical precision. I couldn’t find a good quality Taxman, so here’s a different tune.
Let’s Go Gnats! Our boys have fallen on hard times. Since the thrilling victory we witnessed in person last Tuesday they have dropped five straight, the last three a sweep by the Cards. Ouch. Jake Irvin takes the mound against the Atlantans tonight, way down south. Let’s right the ship, fellas.
And, speaking of way down south, a review of “Sinners” in the New Yorker agreed with Owl Chatter that the performances were excellent. Here’s how reviewer Richard Brody put it: “Michael B. Jordan brings both brothers to distinctive life with his powerful presence and a virtuosity that wears its effort lightly. The entire cast carries the action with fierce, pressurized commitment and delivers the characters’ lofty thoughts and sharp-edged talk forthrightly; their performances feel conjured, not acted. Caton, a deep-voiced singer with no prior screen credits, endows Sammie with a preternatural sense of purpose and poise; it’s an extraordinary début.”
With the big boost Chicago is getting these days from the local-boy-makes-good Pope and the rejuvenated Cubbies, the movie counters with this key line of Smoke’s: “Chicago ain’t shit but Mississippi with tall buildings instead of plantations.” BTW, consistent with his devotion to the downtrodden, the Pope is a lifelong White Sox fan — not Cubs. The Pale Hose had, by far, the worst record in baseball last year — a .253 winning percentage (41-121). Even the dreadful Rockies were more than 120 points higher at .377 (61-101).
A report from The Onion, reprinted from 2009:
Study: 74% Of Children Tenting Out In Yard Don’t Make It Through The Night
WASHINGTON—According to a new report released this week by the Department of Health and Human Services, 74 percent of all American children camping out in their backyards never, ever make it through the night.
The study, which surveyed hundreds of innocent children between the ages of 7 and 12, found that, in almost all cases, sleeping outdoors in a tent with a flashlight and comic books and who knows what else lurking around in the dark ended in horrible tragedy.
“We now have definitive proof that most children who camp out in their yards will die a horrific death,” said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of health and human services. “Whether it’s a sudden wolf attack, an escaped mental patient, or just Old Man Greenly, who lost his hand in a gruesome mill accident and now seeks his bloody revenge, young boys and girls rarely live to see their parents or friends again.”
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 