Ever take a walk around your neighborhood and, yikes, gotta go! May not make it home in time! I usually just look around to make sure no one is near and use someone’s front lawn. Anyway, today my plans were upended, so to speak, when I came across this sign. The jig is up!
Jamie FARR was in the puzzle yesterday. Who didn’t love Klinger in his day? He probably made cross-dressing a little less difficult for some folks. His clue was “Jamie with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.” A bit of a hooha arose as to whether JF deserved his star. Commenter tht wrote: “I can’t think of a thing FARR has done besides his stint as Corporal Klinger. He got on the Walk of Fame for that?!” Walk Away Renee responded: IMHO, when supporting actors create and sustain truly iconic characters in truly classic television, as Jamie Farr did, their work here is done, and they’ve earned their lasting plaudits and audience’s affection. Don’t have to top themselves, or fall prey to that “yeah, yeah, but what have you done lately?” Hollywood hustle.
I added that the discussion reminded me of how Joseph Heller used to be charged with never have written anything as great as Catch 22 again. His response was always “Who has?”
At 49D, for the clue “Come home soon” the answer was MISSYOU. Awww. Son Volt shared this pretty Kacey Musgraves tune: We got free tix to see KM a while ago at the Prudential Center in Newark and liked her very much. Phil says she’s one of those stars whose charm is hard to pin down in a photo.
I noticed a whole bunch of “letter-words” in today’s puzzle: HUE (like for a color); SEAS (like oceans); OWE (debts); ARE, and ESS. So I thought it was pretty clever of me to post: “Have you noticed this “occurs” in the puzzle: OWE, SEAS, HUE, ARE, ESS?”
My other wordplay was on: HOPI (“Tribe of Arizona”), MEEK (“Gentle and submissive”), EKE (“Barely get (by)”), PASTA (“Many an Olive Garden entree”), and ALOUD (“How a picture book may be read at bedtime”).
Where to find B thru Z: PASTA
Candy for the faint of heart: MEEK and EKE
May I read this to you? Yes, it’s ALOUD
Popular tribal pancake spot: HOPI
Son Volt shared this great song based on MEEK in the lyrics. Haven’t heard it in years, decades maybe.
I been meek
And hard like an oak
I’ve seen pretty people disappear like smoke
Friends will arrive, friends will disappear
If you want me
Honey, baby, I’ll be here
Yesterday, SV brought us this Tom Waits song for “maverick” in the lyric.
LEON Spinks was in the puzzle too. Remember when he came out of nowhere and beat Muhammad Ali? Holy shit. Not sure why Rex connected it to this Peanuts cartoon, which is either a classic, or oughta be.
My Fremch teacher in high school, Oscar Rosenthal, alav hashalom, was very funny. For one thing, whenever you asked him how to spell anything, his response was always A, W, Zayen, Shin, the latter two being Hebrew letters. When you asked him a question he didn’t know the answer to, or didn’t want to answer, he would say: “I’ll ask him when he comes in.” We never found out who him was and he certainly never came in. He showed us slides of his trip to France and whenever his wife was in one, he’d refer to her as a model. One time a student was writing some sentences on the board and, as often happened with students, his writing slanted upward pretty strongly. After watching from the back of the room for a few moments, Rosenthal said: “Andy, it might help if you put a book under your left foot.”
Anyway, he told us that when he was a student, he worked hard to come up with one good essay. It was about his grandmother. And no matter what the assignment was, he would use it. Say, the assignment was to write an essay on Winter. He’d start “Winters can be rough around here. My grandmother never liked winter. She was born in . . . ” and he’d finish off with the rest of his grandmother essay. Trump’s ballroom, it seems to me, is like Mr. Rosenthal’s grandmother. No matter the topic, you get ballroom. Ask about the war, he talks about the ballroom. Crank up an assassination attempt and it proves how much we need the ballroom. Oy. Are we ever going to be rid of this idiot? I’ll ask him when he comes in.
John Harbaugh is one of the great NFL coaches and he was fired this year. And Alex Cora is one of the great MLB managers and he was just fired. So, no matter how shitty a job you’re doing at work, if you ain’t been fired yet, give yourself a pat on the back. You must be doing something right.
See you tomorrow. Thanks for popping in.
The Wellington Files 