Here are two lines from a poem that did not make it past the Owl Chatter guard puppies:

“Even the roadkill, coveting concrete, stands 
And walks. Where are those left behind?” 

[Where, indeed?]

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You know the expression: “He received his just deserts?” Its meaning is very different from “He just received dessert.” The D word is pronounced the same in each case — like chocolate cake. But with one “s” it means “what he deserved” and has nothing to do with food. With two, it’s that sweet food thing at the end of the meal. A lot of people put in an extra “s” incorrectly when they mean the first, above. But none of us ever will, right? Good. Now give me a cookie.

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Derek Rose, of the Dull Men’s Club (UK), posts:

These are photos of my lucky pants. I first wore them when I did my O levels at age 16. Got good results. Then A levels. I am now 63 (do the maths). I have worn them for a driving test, final degree exams, first dates, motorcycle test… no way was I falling off wearing them! Hgv test, numerous interviews, when I got married (they let me down a bit on that one!). Last time I wore them was for the last job I applied for about 7 years ago. I will wear them again sometime for sure and eventually they can bury me in them.

Does anyone else have lucky pants?

Andrew Brown: Plenty of wear left in those yet, look after them.

Neil Reddy: I had a pair of pants like that in prison. Not very lucky for me unfortunately.

Dave Rowley: I used to, but someone threw them away. Sandra?

Rob Clay: My lucky pants spent most of their time on random bedroom floors…fnar, fnar.

Steve Fox: I had a lucky rabbit’s foot once but I lost it

Alan Freeman: I’ve got a pair of shoes that I bought during my 1st year at university. I repair them myself so never been to a cobbler. They are a heavy shoe and get heavily used every winter. I’m 80 now so they have had over 60 years of use and still going.

Derek: Wow…We need the photos ! That’s fantastic !

Alan:

Derek: Quality. I wish you another 100,000 miles in them.

Kinehora!

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It was on this day in 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of a bus to a white passenger. The boycott of the city-owned bus company it inspired lasted 382 days. We were on that bus — it’s in the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn MI.

The limo from JFK’s assassination is there too. Did you know it was cleaned and repaired and continued to be used by the government for a while before it was turned over to history?

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In the puzzle today, the theme was “Cold Front” and the theme answers were all phrases in which the first word (the “front”) had something to do with coldness. CHILL PILL, COOL CAT, FROZEN ACCOUNT, and POLAR OPPOSITE.

The adjectival use of “chill,” above, evoked for me the “chill rains” in Bart Giamatti’s great essay on baseball, “The Green Fields of the Mind.” Here’s the opening paragraph, in which those rains fall:

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.

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A special Owl Chatter mazel tov to Alexis Lewis and new hubby NJ Senator Cory Booker! Woo hoo!! We love CB ever since he gave an incredible speech at our Caitlin’s graduation ceremony at Raritan Valley Community College when he was the mayor of Newark. Alexis is Jewish and 38, and CB is not and 56. Just look at these crazy lovebirds! Did you know he played football at Stanford? Big dude.

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I found this story online. It’s one that Sen. Booker told at Caity’s graduation (though he told it much better). It was on the topic of having your actions be consistent with your words, or else your words will have no force.

During the 1930s, a young boy had become obsessed with eating a lot of sugar. His mother was very upset with this. But no matter how much she scolded him and tried to break his habit, he continued to satisfy his sweet tooth. Being totally frustrated, she decided to take her son to see Mahatma Gandhi who was the boy’s idol.

She had to walk many miles across the country, for hours under scorching sun to finally reach Gandhi’s ashram. There, she recounted her difficult journey and shared with Gandhi her unpleasant situation:

“Bapu (Father), my son eats too much sugar. It is not good for his health. Would you please advise him to stop eating it? ”

Gandhi listened to the woman carefully, thought for a while and replied: “Please come back after two weeks. I will talk to your son.”

The women looked confused. Then she took the boy by the hand and went home. She made the long journey home and in two weeks time made it once again as Gandhi requested. When they arrived, Gandhi looked directly at the boy and said: “Boy, you should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health.”

The boy nodded and promised he would not continue this habit any longer. The boy’s mother was puzzled. She turned to Gandhi and asked,

“Bapu, Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here to see you?”

Gandhi smiled and whispered in her ear. “Mother, that time I was not qualified to advise the little one because I too, was same like him, eating a lot of sugar myself two weeks ago.”

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And then there’s this line by the late Larry Josephson: “Discussing the Mahatma with a four-year-old is like taking Gandhi from a baby.”

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There’s a great very old New Yorker cartoon by George Booth of a battle scene from the Revolutionary War. The British have a line of drummers marching towards the fighting accompanying the soldiers who are going to enter the fray. And in the corner there is one drummer peeling away from the battle: marching off towards the edge of the page, but still drumming.

I conjure up the image because some drummers are starting to peel away from Trump. There’s MTG, of course. And now there’s Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas. Nehls is clearly on the lunatic fringe, which is saying a lot these days. He co-sponsored legislation to put Trump on the $100 bill and to rename DC’s airport after him. He came under fire for not coming under fire, i.e., misrepresenting his military record (“stolen valor”), and was accused on the air of rudeness by CNN’s Erin Burnett. Well, according to historian Heather Cox Richardson, he announced he won’t be running for reelection. The reason? All together now: He wants to focus on his family. Owl Chatter supports Nehl’s decision to focus on his family.

And here’s Erin.

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Baruch atah Adonai. That’s how many prayers begin, “Adonai” being a term in Hebrew for The Big Fella. It literally means “Our Lord.” Well, God was smiling down on his namesake at Met Life Stadium yesterday: Adonai Mitchell. It generally does take divine intervention for the Jets to win. Mitchell was thought to be a “throw in” when the Jets traded Sauce Gardner to the Colts for draft picks. But he was a key part of the deal for the Jets and he showed why yesterday, snaring 8 catches for 102 yards and a TD.

Mitchell is 23, from Texas, 6′ 2″, 205 lbs, and droolingly handsome, amirite girls? We’ll be keeping an eye on the young man here at Owl Chatter. Good game, AD!

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Thanks for stopping in! See you tomorrow!