Good morning readers! (It’s morning here.) Before we go any further, we have an addendum to an item from the Dull Men’s Club (UK) that appeared in our previous post. It was the note about DMC(UK) member Andy Spragg’s bottle of Gravy Browning that was finally finished after a long period of devoted service.
Since our report, the following back-and-forth appeared:
Kenneth Harwood: Your troubles are over!! You can get it on eBay. Here’s an item number 235423495375. Mind you not for 40p.
Andy: I probably can’t overemphasize the importance of the 40p-ness TBH.
OC Note: It’s an interesting item. It only colors whatever it’s added to. It does not flavor it (other than adding salt). I haven’t seen it on the shelves here in the U.S.
Meet Foxglove. Opening yesterday in Rex’s holiday pet pix feature. Hi Foxie!
Here’s a holiday love song, courtesy of Son Volt. Thanks SV!
Carat, karat, caret, or carrot? Even people adept at karate can have trouble distinguishing carat from karat. I know, who kares, right? Well, when you are talking about the weight of a diamond, that’s in carats. The “fineness” of gold is karat. Pure gold is 24 karat. If it’s only 14/24 gold, that’s 14 karat. And caret is the little arrow symbol you use to add material to text (^). It has nothing to do with jewelry.
Phil had us add carrot to the list so he could try to hit on Bernadette here. It didn’t go well. You’ll get ’em next time, Buddy! Her loss.
Here are some items from Frank Bruni’s “For the love of sentences” feature:
In Wired, David Ferry, on people with Parkinson’s disease wrote: “Amy Lindberg spent 26 years in the Navy and she still walked like it — with intention, like her chin had someplace to be. But around 2017, her right foot stopped following orders.”
In The New Yorker, Helen Rosner named the filet o’tofu sandwich at Mommy Pai’s in Manhattan as a 2025 restaurant highlight: “As the name of this sandwich suggests, it bears some structural similarities to a McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish, but only in the sense that we human beings share more than half our DNA with a banana.”
In The Wall Street Journal, Jason Gay wrote about the phenomenon football fans experience when a catch is being reviewed. Of course it was a catch. Wait a minute — did it touch the ground? Did he have “control?” What’s “control?” Here’s Gay: “It’s the affliction of overthinking: If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, wait, hold on, it must be a chandelier. It’s further evidence humans can ruin the spirit of anything, if given the time and technology.”
Gay also marveled at the return of the quarterback Philip Rivers, 44, a grandfather, who’d retired and was coaching high school football, to replace an injured starter for the Colts: “He moved like a man trying to make a sandwich in the dark.”
Last, in The Times, Glenn Thrush and Alan Feuer mused about Trump’s failed efforts to prosecute his perceived enemies: “Revenge, it turns out, is a dish best served with evidence.”
If you SHORT CHANGE someone, you “cheat” them, according to Suzanne Oliver, the constructor of yesterday’s NYTXW. But it had another meaning in the four theme answers yesterday too. In JAZZ QUARTET, we had a quarter “short” of the R. In JEDI MASTERS, we had a dime “short” of the E. In OPEN NOTES, we had a penny “short” of the Y. And in PERSNICKETY, we had a nickel “short” of the L. So “short” change — get it?
Commenter Lewis came up with this poem:
First we lose the mighty PENN
A coin once stubborn as a JENN
Next to go will be the NICKE
Which has slowed down to a TRICKE
Followed by the mighty DIM
Certainly, it’s past its PRIM
Sadly, next will be the QUARTE
I’ll drown my sorrows in a PORTE
I guess I find it very STRANG
To have to say goodbye to CHANG
Miriam Webster’s word of the day today is “bespoke,” and I’m glad it is because I always wonder what it means when I see it but have been too lazy to look it up. It means “custom-made.” I’ve heard of bespoke suits so that makes sense but it’s not limited to clothing. I googled “bespoke ice cream” and this came up among the photos. That’s the most drooling I’ve done since the last Sydney Sweeney photo.
Today’s puzzle was one for the C-SUITE. Normally that’s where the CEOs hang out, but today it revealed the theme of “sweets” that had two C words, viz., CHOCOLATE COIN (you know, for Chanukah), CUPCAKE, CANDY CORN, and CHRISTMAS COOKIE.
In general, you want to keep your theme clean. That is, there should be no other (non-theme) answers with two C words in the grid. Rex had some cat fun with that at 2D. The clue was “Go off a ski jump, say,” and the answer was CATCH AIR. Here’s Rex:
I’m not really sure what a CAT CHAIR is (is it sweet?), but I want one for my cats now. Actually, scratch that. They have plenty of chairs. All the chairs in this house are CAT CHAIRs. Hell, every rectangular-shaped surface in the house is a CAT CHAIR. This crossword puzzle was on the counter for all of ten seconds before it became … CAT CHAIR!
Follow-up notes to CAT CHAIR:
Bob M: I’ll have to check with a Bronte expert, but did Rochester ever CATCH EYRE?
Jnlzbth: First line, last chapter: “Reader, I married him.”
KBF: A cat chair need not be rectangular. If there’s a sock on the floor, Tasha will sit on it.
Anony Mouse: Is a dog chair a “bark-o-lounger?”
“Maybe we should take our mouse ears off.”
The Mariners and Gnats traded . . . actors? The Gnats picked up Harrison Ford in exchange for Jose Ferrer. Remember Jose?
So. What the hell am I talking about? It was a real trade. Harry Ford (first name Harrison) is a minor league catcher and top prospect, and Jose A. Ferrer is a solid relief pitcher. Here are the nonactors:
May the force be with you, Gnats! Harry is a rare-for-baseball dual British-American citizen. He was born in Atlanta, but both his parents are British. He has played for British teams in international baseball competitions. Jose is Dominican and a good left arm out of the bullpen. The Gnats will miss him.
Clever clue/answer in a recent LA Times puzzle: “Subject of some air battles?” Answer: ARMREST.
Nooooo! Not that!
“B . . . twelve! You have a B-twelve deficiency.”
Let’s close today with this poem from Winter Morning Walks by Ted Kooser. One of my favorites.
A little snap at one side of the room,
and an answering snap at the other:
Stiff from the cold and idleness, the old house
is cracking its knuckles. Then the great yawn
of the furnace. Even the lampshade is drowsy,
its belly full of a warm yellow light.
Out under the moon, though, there is at least
one wish against this winter sleep: A road
leads into the new year, deliberate as a bride
in her sparkling white dress of new snow.
See you tomorrow Chatterheads. Thanks for popping in!
The Wellington Files 
One response to “One Wish”
the doctor in the office could have said “your tumor is B-9”. !!
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