I was today years old when I learned (from today’s puzzle) that the currency (money) of Costa Rica is the colon.
A financial audit there is called a colonoscopy. What we would call a 50-cent piece is a semi-colon there.
I think that’s all I have. Drawing blanks on Bartolo Colon, the wonderful former MLB pitcher.
Ha! I posted my colonoscopy and semi-colon lines on Rex’s blog, and Anony Mouse noted: “Your first statement is suspect and the second is just wrong. 50 cents would be worth about 250 colones.” I replied: “You caught me!” He (or she) spelled “statement” incorrectly (statemement), but I let that go. How’s that for magnanimous? I remember a high school teacher (Mr. Carmel) telling us that Julius Caesar was “magnanimous,” and gave the example — “if someone trod on his toe, he would forgive him.”
Some Bartolo Colon trivia: In 2016, he became the last active MLB player to have played for the Montreal Expos. Pitchers still batted in the NL back then and Bartolo hit his first MLB home run on May 7, 2016 with the Mets. He was just shy of his 43rd birthday and became the oldest player ever to hit his first MLB HR. He’s turning 52 on Saturday.
He was a hell of a pitcher. Won the AL Cy Young Award in 2005 and was an All Star four times. Lifetime record 247-188 with a 4.12 ERA and 2,535 strikeouts. It’s no wonder Costa Rica named their national currency after him. (No they didn’t.)
Bartolo met his wife Rosanna when he was 13 years old. They have four sons, Bartolo Jr., Emilio, Wilder and Randy, and live in Clifton, NJ. Ever fall in love with a cute waitress or waiter? Ever not? Bartolo did during a period of marital difficulties and had a boy and a girl with her. Yikes! Her name is Alexandra and she sued him for support at one time. But the parties seem to have worked out some sort of peace deal. Alexandra’s kids visit BC at his marital home. They came to see him pitch when he was with the Mets.
Wife Rosanna was a little suspicious whenever Bartolo got all fancied up to go off to meet Alexandra. She would ask him: Why the cologne, Colon?
The theme of today’s puzzle is MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING. Using ALL to represent “everything,” each theme answer contained a different national currency and you had to change it to ALL for the answer to make sense. Clear as mud, right? Here’s what I mean:
At 24A, the clue was “How some medications are taken [Jordan].” It helped if you knew that Jordan’s money is the DINAR. Only then does the answer ORDINARY make sense because changing DINAR to ALL gives you ORALLY. Crystal clear now, right?
That’s how I learned about the COLON. At 51A the clue was “Ones on your side [Costa Rica].” And answer was COLONIES, so when you change COLON to ALL you get ALLIES.
If your bucket list includes “Watch Cyndi Lauper sail through the air in a garbage can” check out this video. And turn it up!!
I said, “I’m sorry, baby, I’m leaving you tonight
I found someone new, he’s waiting in the car outside”
“Aw, honey, how could you do it?
We swore each other everlasting love”
I said, “Well, yeah, I know, but when we did
There was one thing we weren’t thinking of, and that’s money”
Money changes everything
I haven’t been following the NBA playoffs too closely, but with the Gnats rained out last gnight, I tuned in to the Knicks-Pacers game. Yikes! An historic collapse by the Knicks. They were up by, literally, a gazillion points with like no seconds left, and they ended up losing in overtime. Ouch. Double Ouch. Actually, they were up by 14 points with 2:45 left. The record for teams in that position in the past was 994-0. (Not kidding.)
Our Owl Chatter sports consultant, the gorgeous Sarah Fillier of the NY Sirens of the Pro Women’s Hockey League, filed this report on the game for us. [Note: Sarah is Canadian and is relatively new to sports other than ice hockey.]
Here’s Sarah’s commentary on the Knicks game: In basketball in the USA, making a basket can earn your team one, two, or three points depending on various things. If they let you shoot from a line on the court without trying to stop you, you get one point if it goes in. That’s called a “free shot” or free something. If you shoot while everyone is running around like crazy and it goes in, you get either two or three points depending on how far away from the basket you are.
Thanks SF! Good job! It’s all stuff our readers should find valuable.
This poem is called “Heaven,” and it reminds me how personal the idea of heaven is for each of us. There’s no universal Eden, IMO. E.g., mine would include baseball, beer, and a decent cheeseburger. I would also need some connection to Zoey. Not that she’s my favorite, of course. It’s just that she’s the one who feels like sunshine.
It’s by Carrie Fountain and is from today’s Writer’s Almanac.
We spent months of our lives walking
from Sears to Penney’s, back when we were
vague, a couple of ideas forming ourselves
against the certainty of merchandise,
in the presence of strangers, when no one
knew us or wished to know us or could even
perceive us as we passed, two girls, unsmiling,
unwilling, not finished. When I think
of what we looked like then I think
of newborn horses: stunned and exhausted,
still slick with the cumbersome fluids of birth.
You were the leader. You’d stop
at the waterfall by the food court, dig a coin
from your pocket, and toss it over your shoulder
into the fiberglass river, then turn, press a coin
into my palm, and say, “Now you do it.”
We were hopeful. Our quarters slapped the water
and disappeared beneath it. The little river
went on, past the shoe store. And we followed it—
we followed it as long as we could, longing
toward this: the unseen, unwished-for present.
Here’s the poet:
In Frank Bruni’s “love of sentences” feature, there was this on JD Vance.
From The Atlantic, George Packer: “Few people are capable of conscious, persistent self-betrayal. A change that begins in opportunism can become more passionate than a lifelong belief, especially when it’s rewarded. Ventriloquize long enough and your voice alters; the mask becomes your face.”
Also, in Esquire, Dave Holmes on Lindsey Graham’s suggestion before the conclave that cardinals consider the idea of Trump as the next pope: “I guess he had not yet closed the day’s humiliation ring on his Apple Watch.” Holmes added that while Graham was probably joking, “You can’t be tongue-in-cheek when you are actively licking the boot. There is just not enough tongue for both jobs.”
Uma Thurman was in the puzzle today, no relation to Thurman Munson the dead former catcher for the Yankees. Uma was born in Boston and was raised as a Buddhist. She went to a prep school in Amherst but dropped out to pursue her acting career, and did not go to college. All in all, probably a good move. She was married to and divorced from Gary Oldman and Ethan Hawke. (She was married to Gary Oldman when he was a youngman. However, she was never married to Henny Youngman.)
In 2003, when working on Kill Bill with Quentin Tarantino, Uma was in a serious car crash because he insisted she perform her own driving stunts. She suffered permanent damage to her neck and knees. Tarantino referred to the incident as the biggest regret of his life. He apologized and she accepted the apology.
Here’s Uma. I don’t know — she still looks a little miffed. Maybe it’s the bedhead.
We’re heading down to Maryland tomorrow for a few days at an inn. Will be catching the Gnats/Jints game on Saturday. Hope we can still broadcast, but can’t be sure. Thanks for popping by!
The Wellington Files 