Hi Everybody. Welcome to Owl Chatter Post #923. I thought it might be a prime number, but it’s not. It’s divisible by 13 and 71.
This poem is by David Budbill. It’s from yesterday’s Writer’s Almanac and it’s called “Sometimes.” If you could do without joyous today, let it go.
Sometimes when day after day we have cloudless blue skies,
warm temperatures, colorful trees and brilliant sun, when
it seems like all this will go on forever,
when I harvest vegetables from the garden all day,
then drink tea and doze in the late afternoon sun,
and in the evening one night make pickled beets
and green tomato chutney, the next red tomato chutney,
and the day after that pick the fruits of my arbor
and make grape jam,
when we walk in the woods every evening over fallen leaves,
through yellow light, when nights are cool, and days warm,
when I am so happy I am afraid I might explode or disappear
or somehow be taken away from all this,
at those times when I feel so happy, so good, so alive, so in love
with the world, with my own sensuous, beautiful life, suddenly
I think about all the suffering and pain in the world, the agony
and dying. I think about all those people being tortured, right now,
in my name. But I still feel happy and good, alive and in love with
the world and with my lucky, guilty, sensuous, beautiful life because,
I know in the next minute or tomorrow all this may be
taken from me, and therefore I’ve got to say, right now,
what I feel and know and see, I’ve got to say, right now,
how beautiful and sweet this world can be.
The puzzle yesterday had four theme answers that worked like this: The clue for the first was Circle, cone, cube, cylinder, heart, pentagon, star, triangle. Those are all “figures,” right? And there are 8 of them. So the answer was FIGURE EIGHT.
The next was the longest: Airheads, Dots, Fun Dip, Heath, Kit Kat, Life Savers, M&M’s, Milk Duds, Nerds, Oh Henry!, Peeps, Pez, Rolo, Skittles, Twix, Twizzlers. Get it? Those are “sweets” and there are 16. So it was SWEET SIXTEEN.
Next came the toughest (IMO): Boot, good, loom, moon, pool, rook, woof. Answer: DOUBLE O SEVEN.
And last (my favorite) was: Andrew, Ketanji Brown, Mahalia, Reggie, Stonewall. Answer: JACKSON FIVE.
I posed the following riddle for the Commentariat: Which theme “item” could also appear in a different theme clue? I’ll leave some space.
REGGIE. REGGIE! is the name of a candy bar named after Reggie Jackson. While Reggie was playing for Baltimore, he lamented that if only he were playing in NY, he’d be so popular they’d name a candy bar after him. And that’s what happened when he became a Yankee. The REGGIE! bar was produced for three years. Catfish Hunter, commenting on Reggie’s massive ego, said it’s the only candy bar that, when you take the wrapper off, tells you how good it is.
And get this! — TIL it’s being produced again. Amazon’s selling a 24-bar box for $43. (Back in the 70s each one cost a quarter.) On Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, April 13, 1978, the Yankees gave out Reggie! bars to fans as they entered the ballpark as a promotion. Reggie homered in the bottom of the first and when he took the field the next inning he was showered with Reggie bars by the fans. The game had to be stopped as the grounds crew cleaned up hundreds of bars.
Anony Mouse replied that he or she was among those who threw a bar at Reggie that day! How great is that! He or she also noted that Reggie’s homer was on the first pitch. Since he famously ended the 1977 World Series with three homers on three consecutive pitches, this Opening Day homer meant Reggie homered at Yankee Stadium on four consecutive pitches.
OMG, here he is with Thurman. Too sad.
Rex took issue with Peeps being among the “sweet sixteen,” to wit: “Peeps are a seasonal abomination. If they aren’t on the candy rack near the checkout at a drugstore or grocery store or convenience store, then they don’t belong on this list. One other possible criterion: would you hand it out at Halloween? Peeps? Absolutely not. What are you, a monster? A Peeps sales rep?”
Needless to say, a portion of the Commentariat peeped up about it.
Conrad: I disagree about Peeps. Granted, you wouldn’t give them out as trick-or-treats, but the answer wasn’t candy SIXTEEN, it was SWEET SIXTEEN. And Peeps are undeniably sweet.
Stan: You’re right. Though they are an abomination.
Anony Mouse 1: No, no! My fav sweet—just the yellow ones though!!
Anony Mouse 2: Peeps are marshmallow, which is a candy.
JJK: An abomination, yes, perhaps, but also a sign of spring.
Anony Mouse 3: I have Halloween Peeps (skulls) sitting open on my counter now waiting for the proper hardness to set in. Abomination, NO! A year round obsession for me.
Pablo: Agree with the rather obvious observation that PEEPS are SWEET and definitely belong. I mean, really.
Anony Mouse 4: Cake is sweet. It doesn’t belong. (Peeps is obvi an outlier here and it’s weird y’all can’t/won’t see that.)
Anony Mouse 5: Marshmallows are considered a type of sugar confectionery (candy). And Peeps are marshmallows. That means they’re candy, no matter how abominable you think they are. They’re fun to watch blow up in the microwave….
OKAY!! ENOUGH!! NOT ANOTHER PEEP OUT OF YOU PLEASE!!
Actress Emily BLUNT was in the puzzle yesterday. Well, not really. The clue was “Not sharp, as a pencil.” But she’s too pretty to ignore.
Em is 42 and British. Did you know she’s been married to John Krasinski from The Office since 2010 and they have two daughters? John’s 46 and from Newton MA. (Hi Don and Jelly!)
I’ll never understand fashion. Jennifer Lawrence recently appeared at an awards show dressed in an “off-the-shoulder cream gown by Dior,” which sells for roughly what the defense budget was last year. It caused a stir, with some calling it a bedsheet or a diaper, and others raving about its elegance. You decide. I can’t even figure it out. George! Where is that thing in the middle going?
In today’s puzzle, at 2D, the “Philosopher who wrote the ‘Tao Te Ching’” was LAO TZU. It set Rex off a bit: “He’s the crosswordsiest philosopher who ever lived and it’s impossible to know which spelling of his name the puzzle is going to want: I went with LAO-TSE (last two letters, wrong). Wikipedia has it as LAOZI, and you’d think Crossworld would’ve jumped all over that spelling, but, . . . let’s see, zero appearances! Maybe it hasn’t taken because it looks like it’s pronounced “lousy.” According to Wikipedia: ‘Lǎozǐ is the modern (pinyin) romanization of 老子. In English, a variety of pronunciations and spellings of the Chinese name exist, such as Lao-tse and Lao Tzu. It is not a personal name, but rather an honorific title, meaning ‘old’ or ‘venerable.’ Its structure matches that of other ancient Chinese philosophers, such as Kongzi (Confucius), Mengzi, and Zhuangzi.’ Anyway, as soon as I see that guy’s name, or parts of his name, my ‘Bumpy Fill Ahead’ warning system goes off.”
I added the following:
The spelling problem surrounding Lao Tzu may have been more widespread than originally feared. Here is a recently discovered restaurant review by the great philosopher:
For tzupper, Lao Tzu had the tzoup. Tzadly, he tzaid it tasted like tzoap.
Todd Snider died. He was a folksinger mentored by John Prine among others. He was only 59. Pneumonia. He was from Portland OR but left home at 16 to bum around and work on his music. He was not pretentious. He said “If someone learns something from me, that would be their fault.” Inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in 2021.
Struggled mightily with drugs. But he put a life together. Married to the artist Melita Osheowitz for fifteen years, but divorced in 2014. This is one of her works.
Survived by his mom, bro, and sis. Here he is with Conan.
You go girl! If you need someone to kick DJT in the nuts, it looks like MTG may be your best bet these days. Speaking strongly along with the Epstein survivors this morning she seemed miffed that You-Know-Who called her a traitor. “Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me now.”
Yup. Amen to that, sister. Whoda thunkit?
Still not holding my breath for those files.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 