“A thing of beauty is a joy for ever” had become unattached from its writer, at least for me, if ever it was attached. But we can stick it back on now. Today’s Writer’s Almanac tells us it’s the birthday of John Keats (1795, in Finsbury Pavement, near London) and that it was he who wrote it. It’s the first line of his poem “Endymion.” Not only that, but we know what the “thing” was, or, more accurately, who. JK fell in love with the girl next door: Fanny Brawne, and most of his love poems were written for her. She was his muse and fiancee. I can see it: she is quite pretty. And she was portrayed by the Australian actress Abbie Cornish, no slouch either.
Ha! We received a note from Owl Chatter friend Chris about Fawlty Towers. He says he needs subtitles for it, and asks “What language is it in?” A reasonable inquiry. We recommend the Yiddish version, of course, with subtitles in Serbo-Croatian. Enjoy!
Anything else?
On another front, I can’t tell you how many notes we received here at the Owl Chatter Fine Arts Dept., concerned about whether Gauguin’s last self-portrait is authentic or (gasp!) a fraud. Well, you’ve come to the right place — we assigned the issue to our fraud expert Georgie Santos, who tells us the painting is authentic. “Are you sure?” we asked him, wanting to make sure that he was sure. “Well, a few thingies here and there on the face were probably touched up by his buddy Ky Dong. But essentially it’s PG’s work.”
Whew. That’s a relief. Thanks Georgie! And thanks to Astoria Bob for help with the research. The painting supports the view that Gauguin was in decline in his later years, compared to his earlier vibrant self-portraits.
For the second day in a row, the Writer’s Almanac featured a poem by Jo McDougall. Fine by us. This one is called “I’ll Be Seeing You.”
World War II is slipping away, I can feel it.
Its officers are gray.
Their wives who danced at the USO
are gray, too.
Veterans forget their stories. Some lands they fought in
have new names, and Linda Venetti
who deserted the husband who raised cows
to run off with an officer
has come home to look after her mother
and work the McDonald’s morning shift.
William Holden is dead,
and my mother, who knew all the words
to “When the Lights Go On Again All over the World.”
TIL (today I learned) from the puzzle that CRETE is the “island home of what may be the world’s oldest living olive tree (2,000+ years).” And egs noted: What do you call that leftover chili you left in the back of the fridge for 2 months? Chili con CRETE.
Also happy to see actress HAILEE Steinfeld in the puzzle today, QB Josh Allen’s wife. Hope you saw her in Sinners. Pretty intense. She’s Jewish on her dad’s side. Yup, the quarterbacks get all the pretty girls (and the tax professors, darling).
For our Dirty Old Man Dept, the clue at 53A was “Cone ___ (iconic Jean Paul Gaultier undergarment).” BRA of course. Ridiculous.
At 30A, the clue was “Earth goddess in “Das Rheingold” and the answer was ERDA. WTF? It really rankled Rex, who did a little digging and learned that ERDA hasn’t appeared in a NYTXW in twelve years. “ERDA?” he wrote. “Never ERDA her.” He loved the puzzle otherwise and so remarked: “The puzzle ends up like a fridge full of delicious food and then one small can of half-eaten cat food that you opened a month ago and forgot about (why would it be behind the mayonnaise?! who put it there?).” And Commenter Tom H opined: The mayonnaise is supposed to go on the refrigerator door not the shelf! [Hrrrrrrumph!] And get off my lawn!
You know that moment in a movie when something crucial is about to happen and the music starts up to set the scene? It’s called a NEEDLE DROP, like on an old record player. Had no idea.
At 39A, Opposite of the Latin “odi” is AMO. The former is hate and the latter is love.
An anonymous commenter shared this, so let’s class the joint up a little (you speak Yiddish?):
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
(Catullus, Poems, 85)
I hate and I love. Why I do this perhaps you ask.
I do not know, but I sense that it happens and I am
tormented.
Headline from The Onion:
ICE Agent, 7-Year-Old Both Wearing Same ‘Military Commando’ Halloween Costume
Hope you’re up for a rant. Have you noticed that whenever Trump commits some horrendous outrage his apologists go marching back into history for some absurd precedent? He tells the press his ballroom won’t touch the East Wing of the White House and then he demolishes it. And his defenders are, like, well, President Polk had the carpets cleaned back in 1887, so why is this any different?
Historian and author Jill Lepore put it like this in the New Yorker of 11/3:
“Historians will need to account for Trump when, as Gerald Ford said when he succeeded Nixon, ‘our long national nightmare is over.’ Analogies won’t help them. Because nothing in American history anticipates or explains the way Trump speaks to his supporters at his rallies, or his use of Truth Social. He riffs; he cusses; he dodges; he weaves; he raises money; he spreads lies. He is lurid and profane. He targets his political opponents, threatening them with prosecution, prison, and execution. He is the world’s most outspoken troll, and its most dangerous. He posts day and night, about everything from taco bowls to possible ceasefires. He is getting worse. In his second term, he has posted three times as often as he did during his first. Tonally, nearly everything he posts is unhinged, even when it’s a simple endorsement or amplification of a policy. Most of the rest is pure nonsense. A sizable percentage consists of outright lies and, especially, false or unsubstantiated accusations.
“Any analogy to this Presidency can be found only in the history of other countries, in the whims and cruelties and fantasies and insanities of the tyrants of antiquity, tin-pot dictators, Latin American caudillos, and modern strongmen. Nero, Stalin, Kim Jong Il. Call the historians who write about those guys, please.”
God Bless America.
Happy Halloween, Chatterheads. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 