A special Owl Chatter tip of the cap to 72-year-old Pamela Hemphill of Boise Idaho, the former so-called “MAGA Granny.” Pamela served time in prison for a misdemeanor conviction for her activities in the Jan. 6 insurrection, but rejected Trump’s pardon. Her eyes have been opened to Trump’s perfidy and she says accepting the pardon would be an insult to the Capitol police and help support Trump’s false narrative. Brava, Pamela!
Linda and I went to our local (Chatham, NJ) library yesterday. I had some copies to make of some documents. The library’s copier is very good and the cost is 15 cents per page. Staples charges 30 cents a page plus tax. Ouch. And another local copy place charges 20 cents plus tax.
It’s a new machine at the library with a new payment system. It used to be you fed money into the machine, made your copies and received any change that was due you. Under the new system, you make your copies and then go up to the front desk to pay for them.
We made 39 copies. At the front desk I told the woman I wanted to pay for 41 copies. It came to $6.15 and I had exact change. On the way back to the car:
Linda: Why did you say 41 copies when we only made 39?
Avi: Because last week I made two copies and forgot to pay for them.
Linda: That’s very ethical of you.
Avi: For 30 cents I can be ethical.
Linda: How much has to be at stake for you to abandon all of your moral principles?
Avi: A dollar.
I wrote a letter to the Times today!! Just sent it in. It was on Michelle Goldberg’s Op-Ed on the Broadway show “John Proctor Is the Villain.” It’s set in a high school in a small town in Georgia during the height of the #MeToo movement. She said she cried the first time she saw it. She went to see it a second time with a friend and when it was over her friend was in tears as was a woman in the row in front of them. Two other women were sobbing outside the theater.
This is the letter I wrote to the NYT:
To the editor:
Michelle Goldberg’s article on the play “John Proctor Is the Villain” notes that it’s remarkable for so many audience members to find themselves openly sobbing during and after the performance. As a long-time fan of the NY Jets, however, I can assure you it’s a very common reaction.
This poem is called “We Dreamed You” and it’s by Keisha-Gaye Anderson.
I see her face
when my lids surrender
to the limits
of this battered body
and it makes the cane ash sting
less in my throat.
She has fat brown cheeks
red satin ribbons
floating on fluffy plaits.
She hums, traaa-la-la-la-la,
so sweet
like a sugar in a plum.
She skips along a carpet
of flamboyant petals,
red like the rose apple she nibbles
on an already full belly.
Laughter like a bird song
no thick memory
whatsoever of who sent her
into this future
finally free.
In yesterday’s puzzle, the clue at 55D sent Crossworld into a tizzy. Here it is: “‘Divine medicine,’ per the Greek physician Paracelsus.” The answer was BEER, but that’s not relevant to the problem. Do you see it? It turns out Paracelsus was not Greek — he was Swiss. A bunch of folks took it as a sad comment on the declining editorial standards of the NYT. Srsly?
Also yesterday at 14A the clue was “Girl in Jefferson Airplane’s ‘White Rabbit.’” The answer, of course, was ALICE. Rex’s guest blogger Malaika confessed to never having heard of either the band or the song. What’s with kids today? And get off my lawn! Here’s what such a person looks like (showing off her “mehndi” from a wedding she attended).
Grace Slick is 85 today. I had forgotten (or never knew) that JA performed at Woodstock. They weren’t included in the movie because their performance wasn’t so great. They were postponed to early in the morning and they and the crowd were a little off. But, I don’t know, this version of White Rabbit seems good to me. I’d have put it in the movie.
One of the comments yesterday took GS to task for supporting experiments on human prisoners once, instead of on animals. But I couldn’t find anything to support that on Wikipedia or elsewhere on the interweb. She has come out in support of 9/11 victims and the LGBTQ community. So I’m going to give her a pass unless I learn more.
Grace Slick is not a stage name. Her name at birth was Grace Barnett Wing and her first husband’s name was Jerry Slick. Later in life she stated she did not realize she was considered very sexy back in the day, something most of the men in the country had no trouble noting. She said she would have slept with a lot more men had she known. She did reveal that she had a one-night stand with Jim Morrison (yes, that one). And she was struck by how sweet and gentle he was: very different from his dark on-stage persona.
Here are three pics: Grace young, Grace later, and Grace’s only child, her daughter China Kantner.
At 15A today, the clue was “Like 2027 and 2029, but not 2025.” Got it? Think numbers, not years. The answer is PRIME. Those are both prime numbers.
Anony Mouse noted: There are thought to be infinitely many primes that are only 2 apart, like 2027 and 2029. These are called twin primes, and the twin primes conjecture that there are indeed infinitely many of them is the most famous unsolved math problem, as it is unproven despite being known about for thousands of years.
Kitshef added: The largest pair of primes that are only 2 apart so far discovered have over 300,000 digits.
OK, enough of that. My brain hurts.
You ever been to (or seen on TV) a “walk-off” ballgame? This is when a run is scored that ends the game right then and there, so the home team “walks off” the field. What usually happens is the home team dugout empties out and the batter who got the walk-off hit is mobbed by his teammates, doused with Gatorade, etc. It’s a joyous scene.
Last night, Reno was trailing Albuquerque going into the bottom of the ninth. Reno loaded the bases and the batter drove a double to deep right-center. That’s when things went a little crazy. The runner from third scored. No problem. But as the runner from second rounded third he was confronted by jubilant teammates bolting out of the dugout, and he tripped over one on his way home. D’oh! The umpire called him out on account of interference (by his own teammate)! So the game was only tied, right?
Well, even though the runner was called out, the ball was still in play. The call did not trigger a “dead ball.” And the centerfielder, thinking the game was over, threw the ball into the stands! When a fielder throws the ball into the stands, every runner is awarded the base he is heading towards plus one more. Since the runner who had been on first was between second and third when the throw was made, he was awarded home and thus became the winning run!!
Let’s finish up overseas today: France. This lovely note and photo were posted by Martin Phillips of the Dull Men’s Club (UK).
“The Sea Starts Here. Don’t throw anything in”
The other day whilst strolling through inland Libourne (SW France) on a hot and humid day, I noticed a simple yet profound message on a manhole cover which instantly transported me to the sea! Maybe not literally, but for a moment, and in my mind, I was there. Then a few paces later as I tried to cross the busy road, I was back to reality.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 