From today’s NYT letters.
To the Editor:
While driving Saturday, the day Alex Pretti, a peaceful protester, was killed by a squad of federal agents while he was trying to help a woman who had been pepper sprayed — I saw a woman standing at the main intersection of a small town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, 30 minutes after sunset, holding a solo candlelight vigil.
I slowed down my car, rolled down my window and asked, “This is for the man in Minnesota, right?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Thank you,” she replied.
David Moore
Sequim, Wash.
The puzzle today was great, and spoke especially to Welly and Wilma, the owls of Owl Chatter. We’ll let Wilma talk about it.
Hi everybody! The theme was all about birds leaving home, which we know all about from when our son Worthington took off for Michigan. The revealer clue was at 54A: “Metaphor for a parent whose youngest has ‘launched’ … like the little bird whose progress is suggested by the three theme answers.” The answer: EMPTY NESTER. Then the three theme clues/answers were:
“Far from any urban center, colloquially.” IN THE STICKS
“Potentially at risk, metaphorically.” OUT ON A LIMB
“In a soaring mood, so to speak.” FLYING HIGH
Here’s a song on the topic. Tom Rush said when he first learned it he couldn’t perform it — he would break down.
In connection with the above, egs posted:
We have a bald eagle pair nesting in our back yard and, believe me, you don’t know “sticks” til you’ve seen an eagles’ nest. It must be 10′ across. A couple of days ago I guess they decided it needed some work and we watched them ferrying 4′ long sticks there for hours.
okanaganer added: around here the power company builds platforms on top of some of their poles so the eagles can build their nests there. And yes, they’re big!
Cdilly52 chimed in:
egs, I envy you your eagles and your locale! Ages ago, when my husband and I were still doing rugged camping, we were treated to an eagle nest repair just as you describe, and a gift from Mother Nature we never forgot, a peek at two very young egrets as they were fed and encouraged. We stayed a week up in the Pecos Wilderness to watch the eagles rather than complete our planned trek.
Sometimes you need to be super clear when making an assignment. Here’s what Phil got for us when I told him we were doing a story on bald eagles. Argggggh.
I learned something from the puzzle about a word I thought I knew: MOOT. It means “deprived of practical significance : made abstract or purely academic,” right? The issue became moot once the debt in dispute was paid. And it does mean that, but that’s only its secondary meaning. Miriam says the primary meaning is “debatable,” open to question. He says they should have foreseen the accident, but that point is moot, i.e., debatable.
The clue for STAY, at 66A, was: “Corset component.” And here’s some random woman in a corset dress:
You may have heard Syd got into a little hot water out in Hollywood. She is launching a line of bras and may have crossed the line with a promotional stunt. [I’m going to pause a bit now to let the fellas recover from the association of Sydney Sweeney with bras in that last sentence. Deep breaths, guys. Maybe a drink of water?] Our Phil was on hand, of course, and turned his videotape of the scene over to TMZ for their report, below. You can see Syd herself climbing the HOLLYWOOD sign to festoon it with chains of bras. Her team may have gotten permission to film near the sign, but did not have permission to use it as they did. Whatever. We’re not going to lose sleep over this.
That’ll do it for today. More nonsense tomorrow! Sleep tight!
The Wellington Files 