We are shamelessly stealing our opening today from the newsletter of historian Heather Cox Richardson, followed by two questions we have. Here’s HCR:
The biggest story in the country, today and always, is that the president of the United States is mentally unwell.
Over the course of three hours last night, he posted on social media fifty-five times. Those posts accused a number of those Trump considers his personal enemies, including former president Barack Obama, of treason; claimed that investigations of the ties between his 2016 campaign and Russian operatives were an attempt to damage Trump; insisted the 2020 presidential election was stolen; reposted a fake quotation from Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) accusing Obama of making a personal fortune of $120 million from the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare; labeled Obama and others “traitors” and called for their arrest; and demanded to know why acting attorney general Todd Blanche hadn’t indicted any of those people yet.
This morning, he started in again with a long screed attacking the New York Times for its coverage of his alterations to the reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and insisting that Democratic presidents Obama and Joe Biden had “botched” renovations that he was now fixing for “a ‘tiny’ fraction of the cost!” He posted an AI image of Obama, Biden, and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) apparently swimming in a filthy version of the reflecting pool with the caption: “Dumacrats Love Sewage.” Then he posted an image of himself on the $100 bill. And then he was back to calling House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) “Low IQ.”
Two questions:
First, how is it possible that the above astounding material does not make it prominently into the regular news? It should be screaming from every headline in every news outlet: President Clearly Reveals Himself To Be Insane!! Nation and World In Clear Danger. How have we come to the point that the above is barely even news?
Second, would Dumbacrats (with the B) be a better spelling than Dumacrats? I like the B because it’s the B in dumb, but when the word is pronounced the B would probably lose its silence. So it’s a tough call. I guess I’ll grudgingly stick with Trump’s Dumacrats.
We had a terrific outing to Montclair yesterday. Spent some time walking the loop in Anderson Park, then a really great pie at the Teglia Pizza Bar. We opted for The Farmer: Roasted eggplant, Cherry tomato and spinach, Gorgonzola dolce, Finished with Pickled Onions and Arugula. Out of this world! The crust and the Gorgo sealed the deal.
Then we saw the film Omaha. It’s the opposite of uplifting/feel-good, but very well done. Glad we saw it. Talia Balsam has a small role in it. Her dad was Martin Balsam, who won an Oscar for his supporting role in A Thousand Clowns, and whom you may recall from The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, which is nothing to sneeze at.
We are always happy to welcome birds to the puzzle and Owl Chatter . So, how nice to see 16A, where the clue was “Pittsburgh Pirates mascot,” and the answer was PARROT. There’s a bit of a dark side to the story, however. This is from Wikipedia:
Kevin Koch was the original Pirate Parrot for seven years after its debut in 1979, selected over 97 other applicants for his energetic nature and talented disco performance during his audition […] In 1985, it was discovered that Koch had used cocaine during several games and introduced players to cocaine by serving as middle man between drug dealers and players. Koch resigned that year and has expressed regret for doing cocaine and sharing it with the players. Despite the scandal, the Pirates kept the Parrot.
Now I ask you boys and girls: Does this look like the face of a drug dealer?
My wordplay yesterday was with the following puzzle answers: SMITTEN; UH, NO; CLOT; POTATO SKIN; NEWS CREW; and NORSE.
SGLOVE? No, SMITTEN
Aren’t you Mrs. Lennon? UHNO.
Where can I park at the ballgame for under $25? CLOT
A Russet, to a Yukon Gold: POTATOSKIN
Replacement for an old nail: NEWSCREW
NORSE: An RN in Oslo.
Here’s one!
Bill Cassidy, an idiot of the highest order, is getting his ass primaried and will likely lose his Senate seat in Louisiana. The Times had a story about him this week. You may recall he’s a doc, but cast the deciding vote in favor of RFK, Jr., despite his anti-vaxxism, in an effort to kiss Trump’s fat tuchas.
From the article: Mr. Cassidy was always clear about how much Mr. Kennedy’s opposition to vaccines bothered him. In the lead-up to the crucial Senate committee vote last year, Mr. Cassidy told Mr. Kennedy, “If there is any false note, any undermining of a mama’s trust in vaccines, another person will die from a vaccine-preventable disease.”
But Mr. Cassidy then was still trying to ingratiate himself with the Trump administration. He insisted he could vote to confirm Mr. Kennedy with a clear conscience because he had extracted promises from him.
[Puh-leeze.]
Of course, Mr. Kennedy quickly broke those.
So much for the old credo, “First do no harm.” I’m not saying Cassidy is evil like the Nazi doctors, just a politician and an idiot. But when Kennedy is finally finished and the dust settles, who will have the bodies of more children at his feet?
Headline from The Onion:
Trump Unwittingly Breaks Chinese Taboo Against Napping Facedown In Soup Bowl
This poem from The Writer’s Almanac is “Tamanrasset” by Rosalind Brackenbury
On account of my knees
I thought a camel would be appropriate:
I could be helped on
and eventually off again.
Have you ever
got on a camel?
They go down for you
on their own padded knees
and close their eyes while they wait
for you to be set in place,
like priests waiting for all the communicants
to be done, in some high church.
Then they rise, tipping you,
heaving beneath you
but you don’t fall,
you are suddenly
feet up in the air,
carried forward on the long sway
of their stride.
They will carry you across deserts,
across days and datelines
until you arrive one far-off day
in the city of Tamanrasset
where you have been waiting all your life
to go.
And here’s the camel pose:
The writer Katherine Anne Porter was born on this date in 1890.
She said: “I started out with nothing in the world but a kind of passion, a driving desire. I don’t know where it came from, and I don’t know why — or why I have been so stubborn about it that nothing could deflect me. But this thing between me and my writing is the strongest bond I have ever had — stronger than any bond or any engagement with any human being or with any other work I’ve ever done.”
That’s exactly how we feel about Owl Chatter! (Maybe not quite, though.)
At 44D today, “Baseball’s Stengel” was, of course CASEY. Turn it up!
The puzzle defeated me at the cross of “Dangerous ocean phenomenon” and “Language of southern India,” ROGUE WAVE and TELUGU, respectively. Ouch.
Telugu is a Dravidian language native to two Indian states. It is a classical language with a recorded history of at least 2,000 years. Spoken by about 100 million people, it is one of the few languages that has primary official status in more than one Indian state, alongside Hindi and Bengali. It is the fourteenth most spoken native language in the world. (wikipedia)
Here’s Rex on it:
“What made me mad was not the answer itself (it is, after all, ‘the fourteenth most spoken native language in the world,’ I can hardly begrudge its presence here) but my knowing it, or at least having seen it before, and just not being able to get a grip on it. That answer was like a wet bar of soap and I kept thinking I had it and it kept popping out of my hands.
“TELUGU is a language I learned about not from crosswords (It hasn’t appeared in the NYTXW for 35 years) but from cinema. Specifically, once I started going to the movies in earnest (after the pandemic had lightened up considerably), I noticed that my local Regal cinema frequently shows Indian-language movies I’d never heard of. Not old movies—current movies. There seemed to be a booming industry in Indian-language films that were showing right alongside all the western films at the cineplex, but with none of the commercial hype (that I could see). And I know that at some point I noticed that the languages of some of these films were not ones I had heard of (i.e. not Hindi or Bengali or URDU). TELUGU is definitely one of those languages (apparently there’s a whole TELUGU-language film industry, called (unsurprisingly) ‘Tollywood’).”
Wow, it’s Montreal vs Ottawa in the Walter Cup Finals and it was pretty much over in Game One last night with Ottawa up by a goal and the clock winding down to the final 18 seconds. Montrealer Laura Stacey was injured and being helped off the ice by her wife, Montreal Captain Marie-Philip Poulin.
But wait — what was it Yogi said? With two seconds left Poulin fed Nicole Gosling in the crease and she hammered it home for the tie that would end with a Montreal win in overtime. Yikes. Stacey, back on the ice, assisted on Abby Roque’s game-winner.
Here’s the happy couple, Laura on the left. Those teeth can’t be real, can they?
Can’t think of a nicer way to close. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 