This poem is by W. B. Yeats. It’s from today’s Writer’s Almanac and is called “He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven.”
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
Here’s a headline from the sports page I read to Linda in bed last night and we roared.
Quadruple Amputee Cornhole Professional Jailed On Murder Charges
It leaves a lot to unpack, amirite? First, cornhole is that game where you try to throw beanbags through a hole in a board. Like so —
Phil! That’s a great shot for the story — very sexy — now leave the girls alone. Do not introduce yourself!! George is not going to fly down there to bail you out again.
Okay, where were we? Oh, yeah, cornhole. I had no idea you could be a professional. But I found this in Wikipedia:
The American Cornhole League (ACL) is one of the sanctioning bodies for the sport of professional cornhole in the US. Headquartered in Rock Hill SC, the ACL hosts over 25,000 tournaments per year and has an active player base of over 100,000 players. The ACL features a group of professional cornhole players that compete on TV broadcasts (network partners include ESPN and CBS). These players are referred to as ACL Pros.
Okay, so we covered that part of it. Now, as for amputees, quadruple has to be the maximum, right? Unless you’re an octopus? So I’m thinking, how do you throw (or propel) the beanbag? — with your mouth? Hard to picture. But of course he must have prosthetic limbs. Duh.
The murder is the easy part. He (allegedly) killed someone in a dispute in the front seat of his car. He asked the two folks in the back to help him with the body — what are friends for? — but they went to the cops instead. Win some, lose some. His name is Dayton James Webber. He must have been born back when it was popular to name kids after cities in Ohio. I’ll spare you the photo. It’s not a happy tale. When he was ten months old, he contracted a bacterial infection requiring the amputations. Oy. Aside from the pain and anguish, it cost an arm and a leg.
In happier (much) news, we attended a concert at Morristown HS last night. Our Robin’s in the orchestra as a violist, which is reason enough to be excited, but get this: she was asked to design the program cover. Caity said she really worked hard on it. She has been designing amazing character drawings on her PC for years and I guess people know about it. Anyway, it came out great, see below, and she received a very nice credit for it in the program itself and was personally thanked by the orchestra leader on stage. You can see Robin’s signature on it to the left of the word “Directors.”
Look at the details: the highlights in the hair; the finger positions; the tiny folds in the shirtsleeve. Caity said Robin worked a long time on getting the positioning of the arms just right. If you can read music, you can see that the musical notes on the cover are from the popular Yiddish tune Bei Mir Bistu Shein. (No they aren’t.)
Long-time readers of Owl Chatter, both of them, know full well how far ahead we are of the public at large. So, for example, we’ve been excited about women’s ice hockey for over a year now. Mostly because of the sexy uniforms, but still. . . . Well, the sports world has caught up and the PWHL has been soaring in popularity, especially after the brilliant showing by all of the ice girls in the Olympics. The April 5th Sirens game in Madison Square Garden has already sold out! It’s going to be tough to get cheap seats for Sirens games in Newark soon. We were planning on getting to a playoff game, but the girls are in sixth place and only the top four teams get in. Rats! Still nine games to go, so we’ll see.
We were delighted to see that Issy Wonder, a star for Princeton, has been included in the top ten prospects for the PWHL draft this year. At 5’11”, Wonder looks big on the ice and wields a deadly stick. It would be great if joined our Princeton alum Sarah on the NY squad.
I had an awful experience at the Green Village (NJ) post office today. I will be filing a formal complaint. I placed one copy of Robin’s program in a 9 x 12 envelope to mail to Sam and Sarah. I placed one Muhammad Ali stamp on it and knew I would have to add postage. I handed it to the clerk. She clicked her price gun on her sheet of forever stamps, put three of them on the envelope and asked me for $2.34 (which is 78c x 3). What? Usually, the screen shows the weight, a choice of costs, and credit for the postage already on it (78c in this case: the Ali). She said it comes to $2.34 because of the large envelope. I asked if I was getting credit for my 78c stamp and she said yes (which was a lie). With much hesitation I paid her and walked out. But it didn’t sit right. How could the cost come to exactly 4 forever stamps? I looked up postage rates for large envelopes on my phone. It’s $1.63 for the first ounce and 24c for each additional. So even if mine came to three ounces, that’s $2.11. And I paid $3.12: my 78c stamp plus $2.34. That’s an overcharge of over $1 on a $2 item!
I went back in, held up my phone and said, “I’ve been overcharged.” Now get this — she took a stamp off of the sheet, handed it to me, and said “Is that okay now?” I said, “What? No. I was charged over $3.” At no point did she ever try to actually determine what the proper cost should be. She finally removed the three stamps she had put on, gave me back my money, and I walked out (in a huff) with my envelope unsent. There were three women on line behind me at this point. No doubt this idiot will overcharge them too.
I learned that there is a way to file a complaint online with the postal service. I’ll take care of that tomorrow. I wish I had noted her name. Argggggh.
The theme of yesterday’s puzzle was STARVING ARTISTS. The three theme answers were all artists clued via works of theirs that involved food. LEONARDODAVINCI (“The Last Supper”), PAULCEZANNE (“The Buffet”), and CLAUDEMONET (“The Luncheon”). Here are the latter two, respectively.
I know nothing about cocktails. I needed all the crosses to get NEGRONI: “Cocktail made from gin, vermouth and Campari.” Rex, who loves cocktails, wrote: Mmmm. It’s almost Negroni Season. When is Negroni Season? No one really knows. That’s the beauty of Negroni Season.
Anony Mouse clarified things for us: “Negroni season runs from June 1 and ends May 31.”
It’s Opening Day for the Yanks today. Hope they win. Last year the Yanks lost the opener and couldn’t serve beer the whole season.
I thought I’d post a shot of manager Aaron Boone and then, out of curiosity, googled to see who his wife is. He married a cover girl. Literally — her name is Laura Cover. They have four kids and were a model marriage until they weren’t. Boone recently filed for divorce. We wish them all well.
As for a photo, brace yourself, fellas. Hubba hubba.
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 