How brilliant was the puzzle yesterday? Let me try to give you a small piece of it. 19A was “Remove from power” (OVERT), and 20A was “Boarding pass info” (ROW). Now the first answer, OVERT, makes no sense. How is that “remove from power.” What we had to do was see that placing an H between OVERT and ROW gave us OVERTHROW, which is, of course, remove from power. (The H worked similarly in the down direction.) The revealer came later, at 68A. The clue was “Long-shot candidates,” which was DARK HORSES. It turns out that missing (or “dark”) H from OVERTHROW, above, was the H from HORSES. It’s dark because it’s in the black square between OVERT and ROW. And the same thing happened throughout the grid for the other letters in HORSES. Sorry if I lost you — now you know how my students felt. But it was a brilliant feat of construction. (Not to be confused with feet of construction.)
The “dark” R and S from HORSES both came in one across word: EVE[R]PRE[S]ENT. It led Son Volt to share this warm oldie with us.
While looking over the grid after finishing, I noticed I am in it! At 28D, the clue was “Endures” and the answer is LIVES ON. Maybe the constructor, Hanh Huynh, is a former student of mine, sneakily saying hi? Nah. Although another answer (at 42D) is AVIates. Hmm . . . .
The late Pee Wee REESE is in the puzzle too (“Pee Wee of baseball.”). I shared the following with the gang:
Apart from his ballplaying, which got him into the Hall of Fame, Pee Wee REESE was a mensch of the highest order. He was the team captain when Jackie Robinson came up to the Dodgers. Robinson, of course, encountered vicious racism from other players, even teammates, and fans outside of Brooklyn. In an iconic moment that still rings down through history, during pre-game warmups in Cincy with racist taunts cascading down from the stands and the Reds dugout, Reese went over to Jackie, put his arm around him, and stood there until his statement was clear. There’s a statue in Brooklyn capturing the moment. Blacks felt Reese played a big role in opening the major leagues to them.
(I earned a nice “thank you” from Whatsername, which is always appreciated.)
I loved today’s puzzle too. Friday’s are “themeless.” It’s by Adrian Johnson and he wrote a lovely note about it for the wordplay column in the NYT. It shows you that putting a puzzle together is so much more than noting that CAT can cross BAG. Here it is:
“There are many things I have been fortunate to do as an adult: get engaged to my best friend and partner of almost six years, graduate from college, travel and raise two cats. One thing I haven’t gotten to do as an adult is spend my dad’s birthday with him, which I’m excited to do this year. Happy birthday, Dad. I’m proud to be raised by you, to love you and be loved by you.
“My dad has been one of my biggest fans since my start as a cruciverbalist. When I was growing up, he was a trustworthy foam pit who allowed my sisters and me to bounce and flip through the world with curiosity — a dependable resource and support system that never limited how high we could leap, but always cushioned us when we fell.
“This isn’t a tribute puzzle. It has plenty of things Dad likes (1A and 32D especially), but my puzzles aren’t really tributes to begin with. They’re collections of things I’ve learned and enjoyed, inspired by the many people who teach us important life lessons. I credit much of my success here to what Dad taught me about soccer. He was never the strongest, tallest or fastest player. But he taught me to be a student of the game who was always first to the ball (and other opportunities in life), who always cared for and refined the little aspects of his craft, and who studied strategy, but also people, to make sure I knew how to work with others (or against them, when required). Today, remember to celebrate the foam pits in your life!”
BTW, the two clues AJ refers to above are “First impression of a new video game?” (START BUTTON), and “The good life, in Spanish vernacular” (PURA VIDA). On the latter, Rex noted it’s specifically Costa Rican.
The clue at 25A was “Veronica _, author of the ‘Divergent’ novels,” and the answer was ROTH. I was surprised to read this writeup of it by English prof Rex:
“I once again forgot Veronica ROTH. I know a Tim ROTH and I know ROTH IRAs and if I’m lisping I know Betsy ROTH but that’s it. I think my brain is incapable of retaining any more ROTHs. I have never and will never read those ‘Divergent’ novels and I have never and apparently will never remember Veronica ROTH’s name. It’s a curse. I’ll just have to live with it.”
It led me to post the following, which contains a story some of you may recall.
“Philip ROTH must have slipped your mind, RP. When I set up a small account for savings bonds for my kids with the U.S. Treasury I used Philip Roth as my favorite author for a security question. Years later, when I got locked out, the agent asked me for it but I had forgotten I listed Roth. Exasperated, I moaned that I like a lot of writers, and the agent, incredibly, said: He wrote Goodbye Columbus. I said, ‘You’re giving me hints??’ So much for the Treasury’s security system.”
As I age, and fall apart piece by piece (goodbye prostate!), I often quote Roth’s line: “Old age is not a battle: It’s a massacre.”
Here’s Veronica Roth looking a little leery. Phil! What the hell are you doing?
At 7D, for “Satellite transmission path,” the answer was UPLINK.
Here’s egs: I hear that U-Haul is diversifying into ukulele rentals with a new subsidiary called UPLINK. (Get it? U-PLINK)
At 32A, “Worker involved in firings?,” was POTTER.
Here’s a good tune, if a bit serious, by JC.
Today’s poem is from the newsletter of historian Heather Cox Richardson. It’s called, “On Why The U.S. Is Not Aiding U.S. Citizens Fleeing the Mideast,” and it’s by Donald Trump.
Well, because it happened all very quickly, we thought, and I thought maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked.
They were getting ready to attack Israel.
They were getting ready to attack others.
You’re seeing that right now. And a lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries. So I think I was right about that.
We attacked first, and if we didn’t, it could have been, you know, look, we’re really decimating them. They’re being decimated.
And if we didn’t.
If we didn’t, and by the way, we have massive amounts of ammunition. We have the high end.
A lot of it was given away stupidly by Biden, very stupidly, for free. And I’m all for Ukraine, but they gave away a lot. As you know, when I give away ammunition, everybody pays for it.
The European Union is paying for it, then they can do what they want with it, but they are giving it, let’s say, to Ukraine, and it’s okay, but we gave away a lot of high end but we have plenty. But we have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we’re using in this war. And we have an, really an unlimited supply.
We also have a lot of the very high end stored in different countries throughout the world. With this, we’re literally storing it there, which is actually something that I insisted on in my first term.
I rebuilt the military.
In my first term, the military is great. A lot of, not unbelievable, amount of of ammunition, or munitions, as they say, were given away to you know, the Wall Street Journal incorrectly covered the story when they said that it was given away to the Middle East, not to the Middle East was given away to Ukraine. Very little was given to the Middle East. Middle East would buy a lot. And some of the nations, because they’re rich, they have a lot, but it was given away to Ukraine and it just should have been done.
Look, it’s a war that should have never happened. If I were president, that war would have never happened.
But we have a tremendous amount of munitions, ammunition at the upper upper level, middle and upper level, all of which is really powerful stuff.
Let’s clear the palate with a tune shared by Son Volt a few days ago when RODEO appeared in the grid. Remember when you were young and so in love you were an idiot? Me neither. It’s called “Head Over Heels.”
I’ve been standing for days. Now I get to fall down with you.
At 14D, for ‘Pleasurable place to do business?,” the answer was SEX SHOP. Here’s Rex:
I follow a sex shop on Instagram. Bet you didn’t expect to see that sentence today. Smitten Kitten is very close to where my best friends live in Minneapolis and they have been an important voice in the resistance to ICE, as well as an important source of support for their neighbors who are being hunted and living in fear. Their social media posts are funny and fearless. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been in Smitten Kitten, but next time I’m in town, I’m going, if only to say “love your work.”
He also shared this video:
Phil asked us to donate $25 from his next paycheck to them. We said “But Phil, we don’t pay you anything.” D’oh! So we advanced it to him from some indeterminate future time.
See you next time, Chatterheads! Thanks for dropping in.
The Wellington Files 