GANDHI was an answer in the puzzle yesterday (“Surname of two Indian prime ministers”). Per the late radio personality Larry Josephson: “Discussing the Mahatma with a three-year-old is like taking GANDHI from a baby.”
On the answer COCOA, with apologies to Ogden Nash:
When it comes to drink
I like to think
That Jason Momoa
Enjoys his COCOA
Yesterday’s puzzle played with the expression “part of speech,” and had three theme answers that were “part” of a famous speech. ASK NOT WHAT; HAVE A DREAM; and FOUR SCORE AND. Get it?
For my wordplay today, I used IGLOO, DARN IT ALL, and ANORAK. There was also at 62A “Multiple-choice choices, maybe,” with the answer ABORC. (Get it? — “A, B, or C”) It was roundly condemned by Rex and in many comments, but I have no problem with it.
What to say when you don’t want to have to repeat yourself: ASK NOT WHAT.
DARNITALL: Medication effective in preventing the loss of sewing skills. (Stronger version is DAMITOL.)
IGLOO: For repairs to your IG.
ABORC and ANORAK walk into a bar . . . .
At 34A, a “low-lying landform” was a GLEN. Rex took the opportunity to share this great version of a classic with us.
There is a beautiful documentary out there called I’ll Be Me, about Campbell’s final tour, lovingly assisted by his kids while struggling with Alzheimer’s.
The first NBA game I ever attended was back in the early 1960’s. I remember sitting behind one of the baskets, on the floor level. Richie Guerin, who played his college ball at Iona and is in the NBA Hall of Fame, starred for the Knicks and scored 40 that night. We were up against Philly with Wilt Chamberlain. The Knicks lost but only in double overtime. Hella good game.
Of course, we’ll be pulling for Brunson and the boys to upset whoever comes out of the West. First time in the Finals since 1999.
The very pretty Knicks City Dancers will be leading the cheers.
On our local community website, a woman named Gina R. complained about a gardener she used. He sold her five shrubs and planted them in her front yard and guaranteed them for a year. But when three of them died a few months later, he refused to take her calls.
I responded: “You’ve been bushwacked!! It’s highway shrubbery!! Next time, hedge your bets. You’ve got a good case against him, but the shrubs will have to testify.”
You know, we crossword people are a serious introspective group. So, to no surprise, when GREED appeared as an answer in Saturday’s puzzle as one of the seven sins, Commenter Gary was moved to assess his personal chances of getting into Heaven based on his sin “scorecard.” Here’s what he came up with:
1. Pride – I’m pretty sure I rock.
2. Envy – Schadenfreude is my middle name.
3. Wrath – I think I’m OK unless bringing all my skills at mockery up against the Anonymoti is considered wrathful, but in my defense, as a group they seem to be bad at reading and logic.
4. Gluttony – I’m betting everyone is doomed on this one. [Burp!]
5. Lust – Seriously, they should take this off the list if they’re going to keep making women look so pretty.
6. Sloth – One word … La-Z-Boy.
7. Greed – Oddly, I think this is the one sin I’m not dealing with as all I need in life is what I’ve already got, well, except for health insurance. I don’t really need more, but I am fine with my enemies having less. {See envy.}
Here’s a song by The Feelies, a Jersey post-punk, “jangle pop” band that is still around after disbanding and popping back up a while ago. Grows on you.
If you still believe in justice, you have to think Jared will be facing one long hard afterlife. Because he’s sure not getting any payback down here on the planet. AOL shared this shot of Ivanka showing off in a mini. Hubba hubba. [See Gary, on “lust,” above.]
She’s wearing a Donde Esteban Magdalena Silk Mini Dress, priced at $695. (Mention Owl Chatter, and you can have it for $750.)
Reports that the DOJ is drumming up fakackta charges against E. Jean Carroll should surprise no one. That’s the current state of the Department of Justice in our poor, reeling country. Clearly, any attorney still working for that clown car either (1) needs his/her job desperately to support his/her family, or (2) hasn’t a single shred of integrity left.
Headline from The Onion:
DOJ Launches Criminal Investigation Into All Women
Here are the first few lines of a poem that did not make it past our guard puppies. Thanks, poochies!
The future that never happens
is the one that makes us do
what we do while we are waiting
for what is never going to come
And here’s one that got by them. It’s by Maxine Kumin called “At The Pitch.” It was in the Writer’s Almanac on Sunday.
If I could only live at the pitch
that is near madness, Eberhart wrote
but there was his wife Betty hanging onto
his coattails for dear life to the end of her life.
No one intervened when my mother’s brother’s
wife ran off with the new young rabbi
every woman in the congregation had a crush on.
They rose unleashed, fleeing west
into the sooty sky over Philadelphia
in a pillar of fire, at the pitch that is near madness
touching down in the outskirts of Pittsburgh.
Cleveland. Chicago. O westward!
O fornication! I was sixteen.
Eberhart had written his poem before
he sailed off to World War II and a boy
had just put his tongue in my mouth
which meant he could make
me do anything. No one
holding onto his coattails, no one onto my skirt
until my father switched on the back porch light.
Well, if that porch light is on, we might as well say goodnight. We’re shooting down to DC to celebrate Linda’s birthday from Sat to Tues. Catching the Gnats in action against the Pods on Sunday. Plus artwork by Norrie’s cousin’s mom in the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Shirley Gorelick. How neat is that? (Hi Nor!) See you next time, Chatterheads!
The Wellington Files 