My research paid off. The burgers at the White Oak Tavern in Ellicott City MD were outstanding. We didn’t want to overdo it with the fries so we converted one order into the optional salad. When the burgers were placed on our table by a young server who was not our waiter, I asked him for some ketchup. “It’s there,” he said, but pointed to the salt and pepper shakers next to the Sweet and Low holder. I figured he didn’t hear me because it was noisy so I asked for the ketchup again. But he just pointed towards the shakers again and said “It’s there.” WTF?? I was going to say “Where? I don’t see it,” but he was off. Gone like the wind, if that’s the expression.
Our waiter appeared at that point to ensure that everything was fine, so I thought I might have better luck with him. I didn’t want to be stuck using the invisible ketchup. “Can we have some ketchup?” I asked. He explained that they make their own ketchup, “which is over there,” and he pointed towards Linda’s plate — behind the shakers — upon which, finally, I saw a small container, black, with ketchup in it. Aha! That explained everything. He continued to say he could bring us a bottle of regular ketchup but I said, No, that’s fine. It was excellent ketchup, much better than the invisible stuff would have been, for sure.
The Poem of the Day from the Poetry Foundation is by Kevin Young and is called “Ode to the Midwest.”
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
—Bob Dylan
I want to be doused
in cheese
& fried. I want
to wander
the aisles, my heart’s
supermarket stocked high
as cholesterol. I want to die
wearing a sweatsuit—
I want to live
forever in a Christmas sweater,
a teddy bear nursing
off the front. I want to write
a check in the express lane.
I want to scrape
my driveway clean
myself, early, before
anyone’s awake—
that’ll put em to shame—
I want to see what the sun
sees before it tells
the snow to go. I want to be
the only black person I know.
I want to throw
out my back & not
complain about it.
I wanta drive
two blocks. Why walk—
I want love, n stuff—
I want to cut
my sutures myself.
I want to jog
down to the river
& make it my bed—
I want to walk
its muddy banks
& make me a withdrawal.
I tried jumping in,
found it frozen—
I’ll go home, I guess,
to my rooms where the moon
changes & shines
like television.
Loved today’s puzzle, which Welly and I filled in together late last night in our Inn in Columbia MD. So kudos to constructor Gene Louise De Vera.
It was international. E.g., at 24D the clue was “Xi’s language.” Gotta be something Chinese, right? Wrong Bozo-brain (me). It’s the Greek letter Xi, so the answer was GREEK. And “Neck, in Newcastle.” What the heck? Answer SNOG, British term for smooching.
Get this: Did you know that a SEA TURTLE is the “Creature that returns to the beach where it was born for laying eggs?” How does it remember? Might you call that its SPAWN POINT? That was the answer to: “Location where a video game character starts (or restarts) a level.”
And here’s a Saturday-level clue/answer for you: at 6A the clue was “Song and dance.” (10 letters) Answer: RIGAMAROLE. What a great word — sounds like something off the menu in an Italian restaurant. That was murder in two ways — the word itself, plus that’s a variation on the regular spelling: rigmarole. The extra A is atypical. (See what I did there? tee hee)
My eight years of post-secondary education left me just a smidge shy of the capacity to figure out how the DC Metro works. I came sooooo close. We made it to the library in Bethesda and filled out the forms to get our senior discount cards. We just had to load them up at the station. The problem was I had two cards (one for me and one for Linda). So I put $5 on one successfully, but then the machine asked me to tap it again to complete the transaction and I got confused over which of the two cards I had used. It might have gotten cancelled so I tried it again and confused the cards again. Enough time passed for the attendant to notice that idiots from New Jersey were trying to manage what a local five-year-old has no trouble doing. He came over and we did it together successfully. That aside, it was fantastic going to the Gnats game via the Metro instead of paying $30 to park way far away from the stadium and fighting crowds to get out of the lot.
What can I say about the game? It was about as great a game as you can see. James Wood popped a two-run dinger in the first inning giving the Gnats the lead. Then protecting it was like hacking your way through a snowstorm with a baby. Every pitch mattered. Any runner brought the tying run to the plate. And the Jints have a good lineup. Jake Irvin was pitching beautifully, but scary stuff came up. E.g., in the 4th, the Jints had runners on first and second with no outs. But a sweet double play followed by a strike out ended the crisis. In all, Irvin made it through the 8th on just 96 pitches.
I had forgotten my heart pills in the car so, luckily, for some reason, Jorge Lopez was brought in to close, rather than Finnegan. He got two quick outs before Chapman lofted a fly to shallow right. Rookie Daylen Lile made a spectacular diving catch to end the game.
Let’s finish up tonight with the clue/answer at 43A: “Rock band formed by three sisters” is HAIM. It’s the three pretty Haims — Este, Danielle, and Alana, in that order.
See you next time!
The Wellington Files 