Happy Birthday Pablo! On this date in 1881, Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain. The Writer’s Almanac attributes this quote to him: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Sounds like Yogi Berra, amirite?

Dammit, Phil. You couldn’t let the guy get dressed??!! It’s his goddamn birthday and he’s 144. Argggggh. Sorry Pablo!

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Any of you old-timers relate to this piece from tomorrow’s Met Diary? Me neither. It’s by Maria Lisella.

Now 6′ 2″, at one time even taller.
Like a tree bracing its corner of the elevator,
he extends his cane to hold the door open for her.
A gesture, gracious, effortless, done a thousand
times before at the sight of a pretty woman.

“Thank you, so that’s good for more than one thing,”
she flirts. His comeback quick: “And it’s good
for closing my car door too.” Once dashing,
Scandinavian-broad shoulders, long legs,
Marlboro-man square jaw, cleareyed. Hair
now feathery, thick ankles, halting shuffle
. . . a book under his left arm, another sign he is
still who he truly was, the cane leading on the right.
Important to him to let her know he is still a man
even if not quite in the game, he has a car,

he drives the car, he gets around . . . wants
her to know that much as they part on Eighth Avenue.

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In an op-ed piece in today’s NYT, Ross Douthat takes on Taylor’s new album which he says people are finding a little coarse/bawdy, in particular the song Wood, about which I agree, and conservative, in the sense of looking forward to the married/kids-in-the-suburbs life.

He lost me pretty quickly in an onslaught of gobbledy-gook:

“The religious pronatalist who wants babies in lifelong companionate marriage shares a post-liberal ecosystem with the secular pronatalist who wants them by any means necessary, from polygamy to hatcheries. Likewise the would-be Calvinist patriarch and the would-be Andrew Tate disciple, the heterosexual e-girl flirting with Catholicism and the homoerotically inclined Nietzschean vitalist, and so on through the carnival.”

What?? Can you repeat that please, slower, and in Yiddish?? What carnival? There’s a carnival?

But this sentence seemed idiotic to me: “The impulse to elevate marriage and kids as core life goals is much stronger on the right than on the left, as are heteronormative life scripts and the actual practice of heterosexual marriage.”

Could the “non-heteros” be on the left because the right has declared all-out cultural (and legislative) war on the LGBTQ community, especially the T part? That’s like saying, hmmmm, I’ve noticed Jews don’t like Hitler.

It’s a good thing I don’t let stuff like this upset me.

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Everyone over at Rexworld loved today’s puzzle by Byron Walden, an old pro. I did too. It was super-hard. Impenetrable. Like a Saturday should be. And then, little by little, it opened up.

Here’s a small example. For the simple word ONE, the clue was “1992 U2 hit inspired by German reunification.” That’s a helluva clue for “one.” And it’s a good song that was new to me.

Have you heard of PHILO Farnsworth? Me neither. Here’s his clue: “_____ Farnsworth, inventor dubbed ‘The Father of Television.’” He was granted the first patent for television. It’s usually a pretty good hint that someone is a big deal if he or she has a stamp issued.

Two “fun” answers crossed each other. The clue at 16D was “Especially gratifying, so to speak,” and the answer was BETTER THAN SEX. It was crossed by 30A: “‘You’ve called at a bad time.’” Answer: I CAN’T TALK.

Here’s Rex on that cross: “The best part was the big-answer collision smack in the middle of the grid. BETTER THAN SEX / ‘I CAN’T TALK’–if something is better than sex, so much better than sex that it leaves you speechless … well, that sounds pretty great. I’m happy for whoever got to experience that.”

[We cruciverbalists are an easily excited group. We spend our lives watching Mel OTT and Bobby ORR forever playing their sports, while we munch on our OREOS.]

Perhaps people liked the puzzle because it brought us back to innocent, less-horrifying times. At 17A the clue was “46 years?” and it was a reference to Prez #46. The answer was: BIDEN PRESIDENCY.

Conversely, 32D was “Cursed vibe” for BAD MOJO.

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Linda and I dashed out to Madison today and voted for Mikie for Governess. Remember what Abbie told us: Vote early and vote often. Then it was up to East Hanover for the new Springsteen movie. Loved it. Not a concert film at all, although the music that was in it was very much appreciated. I was immediately sad for the very compelling young woman he fell for, knowing from real life it couldn’t have lasted. She’s Australian but does a damn good New Jersey, if you ask me (and I oughta know). Odessa Young.

See you tomorrow!

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