This poem by Mary Oliver from today’s Writer’s Almanac is the perfect way to open Owl Chatter’s Thanksgiving Day cornucopia of nonsense. It’s called “Winter and the Nuthatch.”
Once or twice and maybe again, who knows,
the timid nuthatch will come to me
if I stand still, with something good to eat in my hand.
The first time he did it
he landed smack on his belly, as though
the legs wouldn’t cooperate. The next time
he was bolder. Then he became absolutely
wild about those walnuts.
But there was a morning I came late and, guess what,
the nuthatch was flying into a stranger’s hand.
To speak plainly, I felt betrayed.
I wanted to say: Mister,
that nuthatch and I have a relationship.
It took hours of standing in the snow
before he would drop from the tree and trust my fingers.
But I didn’t say anything.
Nobody owns the sky or the trees.
Nobody owns the hearts of birds.
Still, being human and partial therefore to my own successes—
though not resentful of others fashioning theirs—
I’ll come tomorrow, I believe, quite early.
Mary Oliver was from Ohio and passed away in 2019 at the age of 83. She lived for over 40 years mostly in Provincetown MA with her partner, the photographer Molly Malone Cook, of whom she said “I took one look [at Cook] and fell, hook and tumble.” Here’s Mary. Isn’t she beautiful?
The puzzle today featured the theme “Square the circle.” There were three circled squares that you were supposed to fill in with the words for numbers. You would use a rebus to do that: that’s when you smoosh more than one letter into a square. So, at 43A, the clue was “Process for a descending spacecraft” and the answer was EAR[TH REE]NTRY. And the letters spelling out “three” were all placed in a single square as a rebus. That was an across answer. Then! Going down, through that circled square, you used the (math) square of three, which is nine to get the down answer. Get it? Have I confused you? Going down through the circle the clue was “Gloomy, as an atmosphere,” and the answer was SATUR[NINE], with the “nine” appearing as a rebus within the same circle you used before for the three. So you “squared the circle” by converting the three in it into nine, its square. That happened three times: a two across became a four down, and a one across stayed a one down because the square of one is one. Whew. That wasn’t easy. Give me a cookie.
Among the commentariat, the issue of what is the plural for rebus sometimes arises. Bob M. started it today with “Just curious…the plural of alumnus is alumni…ergo, is the plural of rebus rebi?”
tht replied with:
We’re going to have that discussion again?!?! Since it’s Thanksgiving and everyone is relaxed, we could make a drinking game out of it. Every time someone says “rebodes,” do a shot.
More seriously and soberly: the Latin word rebus is already a plural form (in the ablative case), so the only thing to do is try not to give away the fact you don’t know Latin, by trying to fake it with “rebi”. (It’s sort of like pretending to form the plural of “agenda” as “agendae”, not realizing that “agenda” in Latin is already plural, with “agendum” as its singular.) In my opinion, the only sensible response is to treat “rebus” as English, and pluralize it as “rebuses”. But that’s no fun, is it?
Anony Mouse added:
Rebus actually is a plural, funnily enough. I knew this – it’s one of the endings drilled into you in Latin, but not how it was used in this sense. I just looked it up thanks to your comment! Comes from the phrase “non verbis sed rebus” or “not by words but by things” as in the sense of those puzzles where pictures and letters combine ( with ‘+”s and ‘-‘s) to make a saying. How it was first applied to xwords isn’t clear to me.
Finally, I added:
Thanks! How does it work in Yiddish?
KREBS CYCLE? SRSLY? I’m supposed to know Krebs Cycle is “Essential biochemical process that releases energy in cells?” Can’t complain, though, because the crosses were pretty easy. BTW, when I googled it I found that there are two bike shops on Long Island called Kreb Cycle. (Not kidding.)
Phil! Don’t follow this girl into the woods!! The last time you did that you came back without pants!
You know how when you throw out your garbage in some places like Whole Foods, it’s like a test — you need to figure out what category of garbage it is, e.g., garbage, compost, or recycling? True confessions — I may give it a moment’s thought, but the science is too deep for me so I just pick one at random. If I glance in I generally notice that no one else pays attention to the categories either. So I figure the whole three-part system is just a scam. But maybe not! I receive a newsletter on minor league baseball and the latest one raved about the team and stadium out in Spokane WA: the Spokane Indians in the Colorado Rockies system who play in Avista Stadium. But, wait a minute — isn’t it insulting for a team to be named the “Indians?” Cleveland changed to the Guardians. Well, it’s kosher in Spokane:
“The city of Spokane is named for the Spokane tribe, the first people to live in the region. Professional baseball has been played here since the 1890s, with almost every team using the Indians name. In 2006, the baseball team and the Spokane Tribe announced a groundbreaking partnership that included logos and signage featuring the tribe’s Salish language script. Salish can now be found all over the ballpark, including the primary home jersey.”
Okay, what does any of that have to do with throwing out garbage at Whole Foods? I’m getting there, I’m getting there, — sheesh.
So when Benjamin Hill (who writes the newsletter) visited Spokane the team scheduled him for a whole bunch of activities including the following: He dressed as a mascot (below), rolled hot dogs for a hot dog promotion, AND he spent a few innings on Compost Corner duty.
Stadium employees actually sort through all the garbage to make sure it’s properly categorized! Amazing. That’s Ben on the right.
Bottom line: If you’re ever out in Spokane try to take in an Indians game. It sounds like a gorgeous stadium and a terrific operation. And you can feel good about your garbage getting to where it belongs.
Back to the puzzle, if you’re at all like me (God forbid) you haven’t the slightest interest in ever going to one of those medieval faires, amirite? The closest I want to come to one is in a puzzle, like today at 33D where the clue was “______ Faire (medieval-themed festival).” The answer, of course, was REN. It lit a bit of a light under Eng. Prof. Rex. Here he goes:
The clue is designed to make someone like me (a medievalist) nuts. Do you know what REN stands for? Do you know what it’s short for? I think you do. And if you do, then maybe you too had a little twinge of “huh?” when you wrote in this answer. See, the “RENaissance” (so-called) is, explicitly, specifically, self-importantly, not “medieval.” Not not not. The Middle Ages (whence the word “medieval”—from L. medium aevum, “middle age”) are the allegedly benighted period that the Renaissance was supposedly leaving behind. Thus the Renaissance is, by definition, subsequent to the “medieval” period. To say that a REN(naissance) Faire is “medieval-themed” … the nails-on-chalkboard effect was real and jarring. But then … it looks like the people who put on and go to these “faires” don’t give a **** about such niceties as terminological accuracy. “Many Renaissance fairs are set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. Some are set earlier, during the reign of Henry VIII, or in other countries, such as France. Others are set outside the era of the Renaissance; these may include earlier medieval periods such as the Viking Age or later periods such as the Golden Age of Piracy” (wikipedia). I get that everyone collapses the olden days into one giant Time of Yore and that actual historical periodicity is entirely an invention of historians writing (generally) well after the times in question, and that shifts from one time to another are actually gradual and involve continuity as well as rupture blah blah blah. But where labels are concerned, “REN” is not not not not “medieval.” Not. No. Stop.
[So . . . just what are you getting at?]
I don’t know, Rex — this fair young maiden seems to be eyeing you askance.
Let’s close with some headlines from the Thanksgiving edition of The Onion:
Weird Wooden Chair Pressed Into Service For Thanksgiving
Sweet Potato Dish Stopped Being Healthy 5 Ingredients Ago
Grandma Thankfully Dies Before Sister’s Girlfriend Arrives
Happy Thanksgiving Chatterheads! Thanks for popping in!
The Wellington Files 