Good morning Chatterheads! I’ve signed up to embarrass myself again at a major XW tournament, Lollapuzzoola, in NYC on Saturday. This will be my third appearance. They are a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to it.
Speaking of puzzles, I had no idea what was going on in today’s NYTXW even after solving it. It’s by Patti Varol, who edits the LA Times puzzles that I enjoy. I recall Rex was happy when she landed the position, thinking she will lend a women’s perspective to the grids she edits.
Anyway, the five theme answers today were AARON JUDGE, AERIAL PHOTO, AIN’T GONNA HAPPEN, AORTIC VALVE, and AUDRE LORDE, pictured and discussed below.
See what’s going on? I didn’t. Each answer starts with an A followed by another vowel in the order of AEIOU.
Yankee fans will also note that ROGER Maris crosses AARON JUDGE via their shared G. Nice touch. The baseball mini-theme continued at 46A with SHEA Stadium, former home of the Metsies. Bobby Murcer of that era was on the Yankees and was very funny. While Yankee Stadium was being renovated, the Yanks played their home games at Shea for two seasons. And Murcer, who generally had good power, just couldn’t hit a home run at Shea. Month after month, no homer. As the season was nearing its end, Murcer drove a ball deep to right but it just tailed off and went foul. After the game he was philosophical about it. He said: “It’s just as well. If I hit a homer here this season, the fans would expect me to hit one next year too.”
Murcer got into trouble later in his career for publicly criticizing the Baseball powers for letting Gaylord Perry get away with throwing illegal spitballs. Murcer was fined by the league for his comments. As luck would have it, the Yankees were facing Perry shortly after that and Murcer hit a homer off of him. Naturally, the press wanted to hear what he would have to say so they gathered around him after the game. “I got hold of a hanging spitter,” he told them.
Murcer’s feet were tapped to fill Mantle’s shoes and he never quite managed that tall task, but he had a good career and the fans loved him. (.277 lifetime average, 252 HR, 1,043 RBI) Here’s a little statistic that speaks well for him. In MLB history only 24 players hit above .275 while also hitting 250 or more home runs, driving in more than 1,000 runs, and stealing more than 125 bases and totaling 45 or more triples. Among that elite group only Murcer, George Brett, and Rogers Hornsby struck out fewer than 1,000 times.
Murcer became a very popular announcer for the team after his playing days. Get this — he also appeared as a mystery guest on What’s My Line? Damn, I missed it. He married his high school sweetheart Kay when he was 20. They had two sons and were married for 42 years, until his death from cancer at the age of 62 in 2008. Like Mantle, Bobby was an Oklahoma boy, born and bred. A mensch.
AUDRE LORDE the poet, was a true daughter of CUNY. She earned her undergrad degree from Hunter College in 1959 (Go Hawks!), and then taught at Lehman and John Jay from 1969 to 1981. In 1981, she went on to teach at her alma mater, Hunter College, as the distinguished Thomas Hunter chair.
She was born Audrey Lorde, but dropped the Y from Audrey when she was still a child because of the artistic symmetry of the two names ending in E.
This poem of hers is called “Who Said It Was Simple.”
There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.
Sitting in Nedicks
the women rally before they march
discussing the problematic girls
they hire to make them free.
An almost white counterman passes
a waiting brother to serve them first
and the ladies neither notice nor reject
the slighter pleasures of their slavery.
But I who am bound by my mirror
as well as my bed
see causes in colour
as well as sex
and sit here wondering
which me will survive
all these liberations.
She died at the age of 58 in 1992.
ADELE is one of the most popular singers in Crossworld. When your name is 60% vowels, what do you expect? Today she was clued with “‘Skyfall’ singer.” Rex’s guest blogger Eli shared this compelling cover of it by Paul F. Tompkins. I can see why.
The clue at 2D today was “Decluttering maven Kondo” and the answer was MARIE. She is 40 years old and 4′ 7″ in height. Married with three kids. I like this sentence from her Wikipedia writeup: After the birth of her third child, Kondo’s rigorous attitude towards tidying her home relaxed. [Yeah, like Dresden “relaxed” after the bombing.]
Simon Pitts of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) shared the following with the membership: I just fitted a new wheel to my wheel barrow.
Phil Dent: Think you might need a cup of tea now, chap!
Murray Atkinson: In a few years you’ll fit a new bucket, then after that a new frame, but it’ll still be the same barrow. [The question of “Trigger’s broom” — if it has the head replaced and then the handle (leaving no original parts), is it still the original broom?]
Tony Allen: I have a mate with a brush like that. He has an old saying, ‘look after your brush’
Avi Liveson: Catchy. And easy to remember.
Liz Webster Goddard: Let the good times roll!
Avi Liveson: Should be able to cart those bodies into the woods after midnight now.
See you tomorrow! Thanks for dropping in.
The Wellington Files 