The NYT has apparently sunk to the grammatical equivalent of hanging around in sweats all day. The headline for this story in yesterday’s Style section reads: Who Are You Calling a Dummy Now? I’m sure you’re as aghast as I am at the failure to use “whom.” But what are you going to do? It’s still a good story.
It’s about Sophie Becker whose acting career hit the skids during Covid, but rebounded when she picked up two dummies and put an act together as a ventriloquist. Ronnie’s the blonde, below, and the other one is Jerry, a replica of Jerry Mahoney some of you may recall who was Paul Winchell’s dummy back in the day.
Sophie immersed herself in the history of the art. It has freaked her dad out a bit. He noted with some concern that his daughter addresses her dummy by name, as if it were a real person. And she says, “We’re on our way,” when she’s going to visit her parents. “Sometimes I wonder: Where does it stop and start for her? Where does Sophie end and where does the doll begin?”
Here’s Jerry. Sophie says she can’t leave them out on the couch because they scare her roommates. She heard one yelp in the middle of the night when she saw Jerry.
Austin Phillips made Ronnie — he’s a dummy maker in Portland, Maine. He also tunes them up when necessary. The actress Candice Bergen was interviewed for the story. Her dad was Edgar Bergen, who worked with the puppet Charlie McCarthy. She said he was never referred to as “the dummy,” it was always “Charlie.” “He was treated as something less than a god, but not by much.”
Unfortunately, I could not get an appropriate sample of Sophie’s work for us, but here’s a female British ventriloquist.
Yesterday’s puzzle featured some amazing wordplay by constructor Jesse Goldberg. You could tell something funny was going on right away. E.g., at 2D the clue was “Anaheim players,” which had to be ANGELS, but there was space for only 4 letters in the answer. Similarly, at 6D the clue was “Spell out,” so the answer should be SPECIFY, but there was only space for 5 letters.
Well, the revealer way down at 52A made things clear. The clue was “What each Down answer needs from its clue in order to make sense,” and the answer was FIRST TWO LETTERS. So here’s the scoop: for every single down answer, you had to take the first two letters of the clue and add it to the front of the answer for it to make sense. So for SPECIFY, above, you only enter ECIFY, and the first two letters of the clue (“SPell out”) complete it to be SPECIFY. That happened for every down clue/answer! Amazing.
At 30D the clue was “Shoe polish brand” and the answer was INOLA to which you add SH, for SHINOLA. That explains the expression — when you call someone an idiot by saying “he doesn’t know shit from Shinola.” My whole life (till now) that made no sense to me. But of course, if it’s shoe polish, it might be confused with the other substance by an idiot.
If you were in Philly back in the early Seventies and a sports fan, you had to love Bernie. Bernie Parent (pronounced pa-rent) was the goalie for the Flyers who won the Stanley Cup with Parent in goal in ’74 and ’75. It was the Flyers heyday; the Bobby Clarke era. In the 1973-74 season, Parent won 47 games, a single-season N.H.L. record that stood for 33 years. He also led the league with a 1.89 goals-against average and 12 shutouts, which earned him the Vezina Trophy, for the league’s top goalie.
Parent passed away this week at the age of 80. Oddly, Hall of Fame goalies Ken Dryden and Eddie Giacomin also died very recently.
I remember one game situation from the playoffs back then. An attacker from the opposing team broke free with the puck and charged at Bernie. He took a point-blank shot which Parent flicked away but the rebound came back to the shooter who took another heads-on blast which Parent again flicked away. Time seemed to freeze. It seemed like these two going at it were the only two people on the planet. The attacker took the rebound again and shot again. Bernie, who remained planted in front of the goal the entire time, flicked that one away too. Finally, some defensemen arrived on the scene, like Robert Duvall in The Godfather arriving with armed men at the hospital, where Brando had been left without protection. They whisked the puck away and it was over. Any doubts you may have had about the unique and extraordinary skills Bernie possessed were forever dispelled.
Here’s how Stan Hochman described a similar situation in the Philly Daily News. He compared Parent’s turning away shots to a boxer fending off punches.
“Pow, Gil Perreault from the left,” he wrote. “Crunch, Jocelyn Guevremont from the right. Wham, Perreault again from the left. Bam, René Robert from the middle. Whoosh, Perreault once more with a haymaker.”
Parent is survived by three children from his first marriage which ended in divorce; his second wife, Gini; two sisters; six grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Rest in peace, Bernie.
Senior Living Dept. After carefully watching two YouTube videos on how to replace engine and cabin filters in a Subaru Outback, I decided I could do it myself and save a few bucks. (If you are laughing already — cut it out!!) So I went online to Amazon to order the filters. I needed one for the engine and one for the “cabin:” the part of the car in which the people sit. They were both clearly due for a change. We have a 2017 model and the filter sizes seemed to have changed starting in 2020. So I had to be sure to order the right ones.
I skimmed a few reviews, checked on prices, and placed my order on Wednesday with delivery promised by yesterday. The package came, and I invited Linda to watch me do it! As comedian Jim Gaffigan described a day out with his kids, it’s like one of those movies where the prisoner is being escorted to a new prison on the train, handcuffed to the deputy. Things may seem to go perfectly fine for a bit but you know something’s going to pop. Sure enough, I open the package only to find two engine filters and no cabin filter!
I was super careful when I placed the order, so those idiots at Amazon must have screwed up. So I checked my account to see what I ordered. Sure enough, I ordered two engine filters and no cabin filter. D’oh!
The good news is I was able to replace the filter in the vehicle smoothly and when I contacted Amazon to send the second one back and get the right kind, they told me just to keep it and they’d issue a refund anyway. How great is that!
Epilogue: The cabin filter came today and I was able to install it. All’s well that ends well.
At 22A today, the puzzle asked me: If a group of geese is called a “flock,” what group of animals or birds is called a “business?” A business of what? Answer: FERRETS. Who knew? Hi fellas!
If you’re not fond of ferrets, how about weasels? At 2D for the clue “Talked one’s way (out of),” the answer was WEASELED.
There were some crafty clues today. At 33A the clue was “Takes in the trash?” But “take” here is a noun, not a verb. Like “Take 15” when shooting a movie. So the answer was DELETED SCENES. (Get it?) But, side note — who takes “in” the trash? You take “out” the trash, no?
R. Dangerfield: My wife told me to take out the trash. I said, “I already took out the trash.” She said, “Well, go keep an eye on it.”
And there was a lot going on at 15A. The clue was “Stream with a lot of shade?” Stream here is like to watch something on Netflix. And shade is from the expression to throw shade, meaning to disparage or ridicule. So the answer was HATEWATCH. (I’m too f*cking old for that one, but I can sort of see it.)
At 49A, “In need of an evening out?” was CREASED. The constructor is playing with “evening” here. Like to even something out.
This just in — from The Onion:
Mom Triumphantly Drags Hotel Pool Lounge Chair Back To Family Like Fresh Kill
ENCINITAS, CA—Proudly hauling her prized prey across the Holiday Inn Express’ patio Saturday afternoon, mother of three, Bonnie Cohn, reportedly dragged a pool lounge chair back to her awaiting family like a fresh kill, onlookers confirmed. “Got one!” said the victorious hunter, who had methodically stalked the poolside area for several minutes before eyeing her quarry, charging across the sun-warmed concrete, and viciously pouncing on her target. “They need to put more chairs out here. There just aren’t enough for everyone.” At press time, Cohn’s most dominant offspring had reportedly ripped the chair away from his weaker siblings.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 