We discussed Roman Numerals yesterday in connection with the NYTXW where a clue called for the longest number using them. Not many people are aware of “Jewish Numerals.” Here’s the longest number using them:
OYMYBACKISKILLINGMEYOUSHOULDNTKNOWFROMIT
Our Sirens fell behind 3-0 to Ottawa on the ice last night, but rallied to take the game into overtime. They fell, but, still, an OT loss counts for a point in the standings, so “Good work girls!” Two more assists for our Sarah, who is among the league leaders in that stat. Brava, babe!
Their next game is in St. Paul, MN, where a different type of ICE has been in the news. We asked Minnesota-born Taylor Heise, who plays forward up there for the Frost, what her thoughts were about the situation. “I can tell you this,” she noted calmly. “If those f*ckers come near any of us girls, they’ll be picking up their teeth with broken fingers.”
[Backing away slowly.] We hear ya, babe.
Here’s Taylor.
Christian Dior was born on this date in 1905 in a seaside town in the north of France, Granville. He served in the French army until 1942, but worked as a designer during the occupation for a French fashion house, where, ironically, he was designing dresses worn by the wives of Nazi officers while his sister was serving in the French Resistance. His post-war “New Look” marked the rebirth of femininity in women’s fashion. “We were emerging from the period of war, of uniforms, of women-soldiers built like boxers. I drew women-flowers, soft shoulders, fine waists like liana and wide skirts like corolla.” Happy Birthday, CD!
This poem by Ted Kooser is from his Winter Morning Walks.
In a rutted black field by the road,
maybe a dozen bulldozed hedge trees
have been stacked for burning—-
some farmer wanting a little more room
for his crops—-but the trees
are resisting, arching their spines
and flexing their springy branches
against settling so easily
into their ashes, into the earth,
so that there is a good deal more wind
in the pile than wood, more tree
than fallen tree, and the sparrows
fly in and out, still singing.
Yesterday’s puzzle revolved around one long neat word. ECHOLOCATION. You hear of it? The clue was “Skill shared by bats and dolphins.” It’s amazing. What a bat does (and a dolphin underwater) is emit a sound, and sense from the echo of the reverberating sound wave where an object is. It’s an effective method I often use myself. The sound I emit is: “Linda! Where the hell are my f’cking keys?” Based on the response, I am able to locate my keys!
Cleverly, in the puzzle, the theme answers were all different things in which you can “locate” an echo. The NATO ALPHABET, in which ECHO is the letter E; GREEK MYTHOLOGY, where ECHO is the nymph in love with Narcissus (below, per John William Waterhouse); AMAZON WAREHOUSE, where ECHO is a device that helps with Alexa; and the GRAND CANYON, for obvious reasons.
Any drummers out there, other than my grandson Isaac? There was a clue/answer for you yesterday at 45D: “Drum kit components descended from ‘sock cymbals.’” Answer HI HATS. Hi hats used to be down at sock level.
Here’s Robin (the artist formerly known as Lianna), at her set (in our basement). The hi-hat is on the right.
Ba da boom!
And here’s a sock puppet.
A SERIAL COMMA was in the puzzle as an answer even though it’s generally not used by the NYTXW. It’s also called an Oxford comma. It’s the comma that appears before the conjunction in a list. “Tom, Frank, Alex and Sally” would use one after Alex. Personally, I like them. (What do you call someone who wildly overuses commas? Commatose!) How do we know the NYTXW does not like them? Well, there is often a list in a revealer clue like “as found in 16, 19, 22 and 26 across” and the serial comma is never used (says Rex, who ought to know).
BTW, Rex shared a nice pic of his mom yesterday. I’d be proud of her too, if she were my mom, aleha hashalom.
“Shout-out to my [Rex’s] mom, out on the streets protesting fascism (that’s her with the “Democracy Depends on Rule of Law” sign) (shout-out to the other lady too!)”
Loved the puzzle today. Let’s start with this poem that comprises the theme clues:
Lee has a hot bowl of [blank] to start his day
Says [blank] to his neighbors, then heads on his way
With gossip and beer over Friday’s [blank] game
Life across the [blank] is much the same.
Filling the blank in the final line gives you PACIFIC OCEAN right down the center of the grid. Then, each of the other lines is filled in one way west of the ocean (China) (on the left side of the grid), and a different way east of the ocean (America) (on the right side). CONGEE/OATMEAL; NIHAO/HELLO; and MAH JONG/BRIDGE. (Congee is a Chinese porridge.)
And Son Volt fastened onto the OATMEAL to share this exquisite, devastating song.
What could follow that? See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 