A whole bunch of corporations have received Owl Chatter’s Gutless Worm Award for aligning themselves with the forces of hatred and bigotry. They are retreating from support for NYC’s annual Pride festivities for fear of angering scary old Donald Trump. It’s disgusting. Pride already operates at a loss and this will cause a reduction in Pride Week activities. Companies on the Roll of Dishonor include Mastercard, Garnier, Target, Citibank, Nissan, and Pepsi.
In a Mets game this week a routine fly-ball-tag-up play turned into something I had never seen before in my 65 years or so of watching baseball games. Starling Marte was on third and tagged up and tried to score on a fly out to right field. He was thrown out at the plate. But the third base umpire reversed the call and ruled him safe. He said the third baseman, Max Muncy, blocked Marte’s view of the catch, thus affecting his ability to time his run for home. Here, take a look. Good call, Blue.
You may recall we were visited by a lucky lady bug in DC recently. Well, get this — there was one in the puzzle today at 41A. Careful, lady bug! — don’t move to the left — there’s GLUE there (at 39A)! Did you know the “lady” in lady bug is the Virgin Mary? Yup, the clue was “Insect named for the Virgin Mary.”
Also, in the UK they are called lady birds. Their colors and patterns, i.e., in many cases the red color and black dots, are sort of a reverse advertisement. They send a message to predators that they taste bad. They can live for up to a year. Not all species are red.
21D was impossible: “Female in Mexican-style wrestling.” LUCHADORA. What? Well, lucha libre, which means “free style,” is a unique form of pro wrestling introduced into Mexico in the early 1900s. It’s characterized by colorful masks, rapid sequences of holds and movements, and “high-flying” maneuvers by the “luchadors.”
Not all of the masks are this creepy.
Here’s a luchadora.
At 36D, “Over-the-top dramatic” was FULL DIVA. An example of how to use it would be: “Hey, don’t go full diva on me, Babe, it’s just a lady bug — it’s not going to bite.”
From The Onion:
Rusted Qatari Plane Sitting On Blocks On White House Lawn
Hey, New Yorker readers. Did you notice our George Santos was quoted in the Talk of the Town piece on the Knicks in the June 2 issue (p. 15). He’s a lifelong Knicks fan and predicts they will lose to Indy in six. Good to see you’re still relevant Georgie. We miss you!
Thanks for popping by! See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 