My girlfriend Wyna Liu (well, I did meet her for ten seconds at a crossword tournament a few years ago) has a great article in the Times today on her puzzle “Connections.” I stopped doing it back when I bailed out of Wordle a few months ago, but I think I’ll resume. Her article made me realize I may have puzzle-fied my brain a little. She started off with four words we were supposed to “connect” — kayak, mom, level, and racecar — and I saw it right away. They are all palindromes, i.e., read the same backwards and forwards. (BTW, a word that is a different word when read backwards is a semordnilap (palindromes backwards).)
How “famous” is Connections getting? Wyna says SNL parodied it, referring to categories such as “units of measurement plus the letter Q,” or “types of beans minus the concept of love.” She gave a nod to the latter by making a puzzle with three of the top words “BEANS MINUS LOVE.”
Here’s Ms. Liu (x 3).
We love Paul Krugman, get his newsletter, and actually read it now and then. I generally don’t think of him as “hip.” But his “musical coda” today is a great oldie that is new to me(!). It’s a Dire Straits tune selected as a play on words for the “Strait” of Hormuz that was the subject of his worries.
This poem by Jane Kenyon is called “Happiness.” It’s from today’s Writer’s Almanac.
There’s just no accounting for happiness,
or the way it turns up like a prodigal
who comes back to the dust at your feet
having squandered a fortune far away.
And how can you not forgive?
You make a feast in honor of what
was lost, and take from its place the finest
garment, which you saved for an occasion
you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
to know that you were not abandoned,
that happiness saved its most extreme form
for you alone.
No, happiness is the uncle you never
knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
into town, and inquires at every door
until he finds you asleep midafternoon,
as you so often are during the unmerciful
hours of your despair.
It comes to the monk in his cell.
It comes to the woman sweeping the street
with a birch broom, to the child
whose mother has passed out from drink.
It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.
It even comes to the boulder
in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
to rain falling on the open sea,
to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.
You must have seen Trump fake-solemnly greeting the bodies of our fallen servicemen while marketing the white baseball cap that’s on sale in his campaign store. It would be funny if it weren’t abhorrent. This is from Heather Cox Richardson’s letter today:
“Recognizing that Americans would recoil from seeing Trump wear a baseball cap at the transfer of the fallen soldiers, Fox News declined to show how he looked yesterday and instead aired footage of Trump without the hat. Caught in their lie, Fox admitted they showed the wrong footage but claimed it was inadvertent. They did not, however, show the real footage showing Trump wearing his merch.”
John Parrett of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) posts: Can anyone tell me the meaning of this red metal square on a traffic sign please? It’s properly attached with a metal jubilee strap so it seems permanent and official.
Johnny Northern: Diamond that is, mate. [I.e., JN is claiming it is not a square, it is a diamond.]
Astronaut191: Nope a quadrilateral (square) turned to have the angles at the top and bottom is not a diamond it is still a square. Diamonds don’t have 90 degree angles.
P.J. Hawksley: Two way traffic ahead. Where you’re moving from a single lane separated from other traffic to a road where the opposing traffic is separated only by a painted line.
Simon Everett: Read the question. . .
Matthew Reed: He was asking about the red diamond, not the road sign.
Wayne Skells: [posted this chart]
Andy Burke: Why is the diamond red then? Did the red circle and the yellow diamond have a baby? Isn’t the yellow diamond married to the green triangle?
Nick Ward: Top secret. Word is it’s a sign for a nuclear bunker for politicians and the wealthy to hide out when the Tangerine Emperor starts WW3.
Stephanie Burt: No—in the UK the top secret nuclear bunkers are clearly signed.
[OMG. Too funny!]
Simon: It’s a target. It’s to give the locals an alternative to shooting the road signs. Small diamonds are cheaper to replace than big triangles.
[A consensus emerged that it is not a road sign, but not as to what it is. Here’s another curious one.]
We had a visit from EFREM Zimbalist Jr in the puzzle today. Remember him? He was the star of the TV show The FBI. Get this: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover requested that the show be technically accurate and portray his agents in the best possible light. He insisted actors playing FBI employees undergo a background check as if they were real agents. Within the agency, Hoover held up Zimbalist as a model for FBI employees’ personal appearance. The two men had a good personal relationship until Hoover’s death. In 2009, FBI Director Bob Mueller presented Zimbalist with a plaque honoring him for his work on the series.
Just learned EZ Jr. also played the sightless Audrey Hepburn’s husband in the very creepy Wait Until Dark, in which Alan Arkin was delicious as the villain.
Here are Efrem and his daughter Stephanie, who played the character Remington Steele on that TV series. Efrem’s parents were of Jewish descent but took up none of it in their lives, and Efrem lived his life as a Christian, as did Steph. [Insert appropriate Yiddish expression of disdain.]
One of my mom’s superpowers (of many) was that she found things in her dreams. What I mean is, say she lost her gloves. She’d go to sleep and dream where they were. She’d wake up the next day and sure enough. . . .
I thought of that today when I read this note by a generally very sharp poster, Barbara S.:
“I’ve experienced an amusing phenomenon this week. I’ve been solving late at night, just before bedtime, and I’ve found myself dreaming about answers in the puzzle. On Thursday night, I did Friday’s puzzle and in one of my dreams, I ate an ICE CREAM BAR (55A), a treat I normally never have. On Saturday night, after having done Sunday’s puzzle, I dreamed about a neighbor of my parents who lived close by for many years, DOTTIE Martin. I hadn’t thought about her for years, but DOTTIE was the answer to 129A. And then last night, I seemed to be mother to two dogs (I’ve never actually owned dogs – only cats), and I told my friend [in the dream] that these two were rescue dogs – not quite FOSTER DOGs (35A), but close enough.”
Now I’m hoping I run into Stephanie Z. or Audrey tonight. If I do, you’ll be the first to know. Of course, with my luck, I’ll be spending the night with J. Edgar.
See you tomorrow.
The Wellington Files 