Twelve games into the season, the Gnats are a dismal 4-8. That includes dropping two out of three to a miserable Cards club in DC. They’ve been scoring runs: they have some decent hitters, James Woods, of course, CJ Abrams, Brady House, and Daylen Lile. And two of their new starters have looked good: Littell and Griffen. So they’ve been able to jump out to decent leads, but in three of their games the bullpen just exploded and blew it all to hell. As Seinfeld might explain, they know how to “take” a lead, but they don’t know how to “hold” a lead. It’s early though — things will undoubtedly get much worse.
BTW, the agent in that clip is Donna Hanover, Rudy G’s ex. (Unless I’m wrong.)
One of the answers in today’s NYTXW was DIGRESS, which is, of course, a female diger. It reminded me of this bad joke that has a place in my heart because my bro told it to me, alav hashalom.
In a war between two tribes, a warrior is captured. He is offered the chance to earn his freedom by performing three tasks. If he fails, he’ll be put to death. He accepts the challenge. The tribal chief explains the tasks: He shows him a large lake. The first task is to swim back and forth across the entire lake in one hour. Next, he shows him two large tents. In the first, there is a ferocious tiger with an abscessed tooth. His task is to remove the tooth. Finally, in the third tent is the beautiful Princess Fatima. The chief explains that no man has ever been able to satisfy the princess. Satisfying her would be the third task.
“Let’s go,” the warrior says. He jumps into the lake and swims as hard as he can for an entire hour and makes it back with only seconds to spare. He’s led to the tent with the tiger. After he enters, you hear the most godawful sounds and shrieking and screaming, and you can see the sides of the tent bulging at one side and then the next. Finally, the uproar dies down. After a few tense moments, the warrior staggers out. He can barely walk and is bleeding from a thousand wounds. He slowly makes his way over to the chief and says: “Okay, now where’s that lady with the bad tooth.”
This song is by The Ataris, clued in the puzzle today right up there at 1D with “Pop-punk band named after a video game company, with ‘The.’” “Pop-punk” seems like an oxymoron, but it fits.
A little wordplay today with SYNODS (“Church congresses”) and NOTOK (“Unacceptable”).
How Sy expresses assent (SYNODS).
Is it TIK? (NOTOK).
Yeah, kinda weak, but I got some good responses from the gang yesterday with this nonsense for RHINO (“One with thick skin, notably”); NOODLEBOWL (“Customizable Asian-fusion dish”); OJS (“Drinks with or without pulp, for short”); and HEDDA (“‘_________ Gabler’ (Ibsen play)”).
A hippo who dresses up as a RHINO and calls himself a RHINO is a RHINO in name only,
NOODLEBOWL: Site of the New Year’s Day football game for Penne State.
OJ’S: Shortly after the famous trial, OJ’s daughter was driving around in his car and wrapped it around a telephone pole. When the cops came, she said “Oh, man. When my dad finds out about this, he’s gonna kill me.” When the cop saw who it was he said: “You’re right. Gonna get away with it too.”
Ibsen’s notebooks reveal that his first version of the play was about a vegetable stand and was called HEDDA LETTUCE. When that bombed he revised it to involve a turkey farmer and called it HEDDA GOBBLER. Only when that crashed did he write the version we all enjoy today.
One of our neighbors dressed his mailbox up for us. How nice. It’s on our walking route.
We’re closing the store a bit early today. Heading into Heeboken for some falafel and a concert. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 