Some wordplay yesterday with ASSAILS, ENTICE, LOCALDIVE, NOME, SLIME, and TAGLINE:
Brat, after spanking: ASSAILS
How to keep your otolaryngologist chilled: ENTICE
Bar that serves only light beer: LOCALDIVE
What my wife’s get-togethers with her five sisters will have, if I play my cards right: NOME
‘SLEMON? No, ‘SLIME
TAGLINE: You’re it.
Did I put a hex on them? I neglected to pin a kinehora to my recent plaudits. Anyway, the Gnats got swept by the lowly Marlins in DC. Swept!! That’s baseball for you. I cast an All-Star ballot yesterday on which I voted for CJ Abrams, James Wood, and Jacob Young. Love those guys – love ’em all.
Here’s Wood. Don’t knock him.
There was a beautiful story on NPR’s Moth Story Hour last night by a trans woman on her return home to Montana for the wake and funeral of her beloved dad after a long time away, and thinking she might never go back. She was stressing over it, so stayed away from the wake, but a good friend from high school said he and the guys wanted to see her: if she didn’t go there, they’d come to her home. She said, “Okay come.” Then she said (to us), “I should mention that I was on the football team.” Audience chuckles. “I should also tell you I was the quarterback.” More chuckles. It turns out the friend who called was an offensive lineman. It was his job to protect the QB. He was still doing it. The get-together was warm and loving and accepting. Beautiful story. The way it should be.
You talkin’ to me?
Here’s a poem from today’s Writer’s Almanac by Twyla Hansen called “For No Good Reason.”
As if you needed one,
as if you could help it,
for no good reason
a tune out of nowhere
pops into your head
when you least expect,
riffs effortlessly in the
folds of your cerebrum—
your own private jukebox,
your personal music device
on random minus the earbuds—
drumming itself up to keep
you company: here, a little
Janis Joplin while you vacuum
cat hair; there, a John Denver line
as you peel potatoes at the sink.
How can others not hear it,
this frequent odd gift?
Sometimes you forget
and blurt the words to the chorus,
which, after all, is all you can remember,
those take me home, country roads,
that feelin’ good was good enough
for me, even conjuring
the gas station in Colorado
back where you, wearing
those bell bottoms and that
paisley, were about to fill a tank
of freedom into the blue VW Bug
when Carole King belted out
and it’s too late baby, now it’s too late
though we really did try to make it
and you couldn’t move, couldn’t
quit sobbing to the steering wheel
that would not console those blues
or say what you had left to lose,
wouldn’t question why in hell
you were going down that road
where for no good reason
you seemed to be heading.
Official Owl Chatter munchkin Maeven challenging a strike call:
BTW, since it came up, I like the new system for challenging bad ump ball/strike calls. My only beef is a batter will often move his hand to the top of his head to adjust his batting helmet, and that motion can be mistakenly taken for a challenge. I suggest to challenge a call, the batter should be required to pat his head with one hand, while rubbing his belly with the other. That way it will always be clear. I’ve asked George to forward the following video to the Commissioner’s Office.
From historian Heather Cox Richardson:
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) played a video of Trump sleeping in two Cabinet meetings as Rubio was talking, and asked Rubio how the president could make good decisions about war if he couldn’t stay awake even during public events. Rubio insisted he had never seen Trump asleep in a meeting, although in the instances Lieu showed, the president was sleeping in a chair directly beside him. Lieu accused Rubio of lying to Congress.
The administration announced it is dropping tariffs on imported farm and construction equipment to ease prices, after claiming repeatedly that tariffs have no effect on prices.
Shannon Bream of Fox News asked Kevin Hassett about a WSJ report that delinquent credit card balances are at their highest level in 15 years because people are using their credit cards for necessities. Hassett assured her that, for the most part, there is no financial threat to the credit card companies.
Whew. Had us worried for a moment.
Wait, what?
Shannon was Miss Florida before becoming a hard-hitting reporter. She and her husband Sheldon have no children as she believes she was called by God not to have children and concentrate on her career. We know what you’re thinking: How in the world did she land that job at Fox News?
We’re with you 100% Georgie!! Don’t let them push you around!
You may have heard about a little trouble our Georgie (Santos) may have gotten himself into again. Can’t they leave the poor guy alone? There are now betting sites that let you bet on, like, news events. And George learned people could bet on whether he’d attend Trump’s inauguration or not. So he posted on social media that he would attend, and then bet against that, and didn’t attend. Apparently, now some government officials with no sense of humor are investigating him for “insider trading.” Gimme a break!
Don’t worry big fella. We’re all going to show up in court to protest: Phil, me, Ana, Sarah, Taylor and Trav. We’re not going to let them hurt you!
In yesterday’s puzzle, at 8D “Deep fissure” was CHASM. I hadn’t heard this beautiful song by The Felice Brothers before Son Volt shared it with us.
Thanks for popping by! See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 