We are safely ensconced in our temporary headquarters in Frederick MD, kinehora, after a very nice time in York PA. (Without the kinehora, a giant foot would come out of the sky and squash us, as has been proven time and time again.)
The Revs (York Revolution) put on a good show for us last night at Wellspan Stadium, but fell to the Lancaster Stormers 8-4. The dropping temperature got to us a bit so we left in the 7th after the Revs came back from 4-0 to tie it, only to fall behind again 5-4. We later learned the wheels came off the bus in the ninth. Rematch tonight, but we’ll be at the Frederick Keys game.
As luck would have it (good luck, for once), we received an email just this morning from mlb.com offering a special $10 ticket deal for select minor league teams and the Keys were included!. How great is that! Saved us $5 each, which I will quickly blow on our visit to a local beer emporium this fine morning.
Our dinner in York last night was over the top spectacular. It was half-price burger night at the Holy Hound taproom and the place was on top of its game: they were out of this world. Linda’s featured fried gouda, mine a generous portion of avicado. For my pint, after sampling tap #9 and tap #21, I went with the latter: a Pennsylvania blonde: perfect. Total bill: around $23.50. Even tipping based on what full price would have been (as I did since I’m a mensch), it was an incredible bargain. I staggered out drunk and we blundered our way over to the ballpark. (Burp!)
I loved today’s puzzle — it was environmentally responsible: appropriate for Earth Day. The word CAN appeared as an answer four times, clued four different ways: it was recycled! And three long answers had shorter synonyms circled within them (e.g., ENCOURAGED, had URGED circled): it was reduced. And four words used the same letters from the first half of the word in the second half: e.g., REAPPEAR (the R,E,A, and P are used front and back), for reuse. And the revealer was: REDUCE, REUSE, and RECYCLE. Pretty clever wordplay IMO. (Curmudgeon Rex was unimpressed, as often occurs.)
I worked with HEROD (“Villain in the Bible’s Christmas story”); GAELIC (“Like some Scots”); AVERSE (“Opposed (to)”); and GLAZE (“Material for a ceramicist”) to post the following nonsense:
On her way out of HEROD’s office wearing her new bifocals, she fell down three flights of stairs. [OC note: an OD is an eye doc.]
I have to be careful not to read too much traditional Irish and Scottish literature, because GAELIC upsets my digestive system.
My poet friend asked me to read AVERSE of his. I didn’t know how to tell him his skills had slipped from bad to verse.
On our way to visit my beautiful daughter and exquisite grandchildren, we pass by the Morris County (NJ) School of Glass. (Several students were recently expelled for throwing stones.) The minute I saw it, I knew I had to tell my punster friend Carl. So I emailed him telling him I took a class in pane management but the professor was pretty bad — I could see right through him. Within seconds he wrote back asking if they serve GLAZED donuts.
First, let’s take a look at this “poem-a-day” from poets.org by Jake Young. It’s called “Working at the Distillery.”
Last summer, I rose
before dawn, crept
through the house still
pregnant with sleep,
pulled on tattered jeans,
a stained sweatshirt,
a baseball cap
ragged with wear,
grabbed my coffee and lunch
from the fridge, and drove
south to Watsonville
to unload grapes
in the early morning light.
All day, I shoveled them
into the destemmer,
then into the juicer,
the golden liquid
sweeter than ambrosia.
I filled tanks to ferment,
piled the empty stems
picked clean onto
the compost heap,
refilled the tank on the fork-
lift, hid the keys,
and followed the sun
that had already set,
chasing the low glow
at the horizon
as the stars came out,
constellations
I could hardly raise
my eyes to see.
Next, here’s what Jake said about it:
“In my twenties, I worked in the Santa Cruz Mountains for a winemaker and fell in love with that world. My last summer in California, before moving to Missouri, I worked the crush for a distiller and helped turn that year’s harvest into wine, and eventually brandy. I found the alchemical transformation itself intoxicating—tasting the fresh juice pressed from the grapes, smelling it ferment in the cellar. What I remember most, though, is the satisfaction of working fourteen- or sixteen-hour days throughout the harvest, and the gratifying weight of exhaustion each night.”
Finally, here’s Jake:
Please don’t infer anything bad from our failure to mention Owl Chatter faves Taylor or Ana for a while. They both, of course, continue to appear regularly in the puzzle, Taylor this week for a song title of hers that contained the word HIM. Bit of a stretch. Armas also appeared with a bunch of other stars, e.g., Bradley Cooper, at the opening of Louis Vuitton’s new store on 57th Street in NYC. Looking spiffy as always, Babe!
So the NYT reports that Tucker Carlson is having buyer’s remorse over his prior support for Trump, because of the Prez’s dishonest and illegal blundering into the Iran war. He’s “tormented.” Apparently, none of the mountain of other stuff bothered him. Trump, of course, flipped his switch easily enough from praise to disparagement: “Tucker is a low IQ person — always easy to beat, and highly overrated.” Yeah, overrated by you, yesterday.
Back on Planet Earth, we had the neatest walk around Frederick today, from the cool coffee place, Gravel and Grind, all the way down Market Street to, and then along, Carroll Creek. Lots of cute shops and restaurants, but none grabbed us enough to dissuade us from our plans of having ballpark fare for dinner. And OMG, the best beer store ever: Frederick Wine House. It’s enormous with a friendly staff, wide selection, and good prices. I loaded up on New Trail ales: very good stuff from Williamsport PA. (Burps to follow.)
Had to scuttle our plans for dinner in DC tomorrow after the Gnats game because the Right Proper brewpub is relocating and hasn’t opened its new quarters yet. Boo. They have a very highly rated Happy Hour. May treat ourselves to Ethiopian food instead. Yum! Also looking to catch the Holy Hound again in York on the way home: the non-burger portion of their menu this time. And we’ve penciled in a movie at Baltimore’s historic Charles Street Theater before the night game on Friday: The Christophers. Report to follow. Love these trips!
See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 