As in any “world,” Crossworld has its own acronyms, terminology, etc. WOE is a cleaned-up version of WTF. It stands for “what on earth?” Here’s a plea for help from an anony mouse, followed by my response.
Anon: I’ve been reading this blog for a while, and I still can’t figure out what WOE is. Help, please?
Liveprof (me): Sure. It stands for What Owls Eat, and is a handy way to refer to mice and similar small rodents.
I didn’t hesitate to offer my nonsense, thinking five or six non-lunatics would help the poor fellow (or gal) out with the real answer in short order. As of now (about 3 hours later), of course, mine is still the only response. Gulp.
If you knew what a tarsier is, as I did not, you would have been able to fill in the answer at 45A noting its “prominent features.” EYES. Here’s the little fella.
Yup. Looks like me when the high school girls walk by the house.
Here’s the “title” of an email I deleted without opening: PAYMENT_DECLIENED. I’ll have to give this to them, though — I like the underscore.
Can you like a poem without understanding it? I think so. Amy Gerstler wrote this one and it became The Poetry Foundation’s Poem of the Day recently. It’s called “Bon Courage.”
Why are the woods so alluring? A forest appears
to a young girl one morning as she combs
the dreams out of her hair. The trees rustle
and whisper, shimmer and hiss. The forest
opens and closes, a door loose on its hinges,
banging in a strong wind. Everything in the dim
kitchen: the basin, the jug, the skillet, the churn,
snickers scornfully. In this way a maiden
is driven toward the dangers of a forest,
but the forest is our subject, not this young girl.
She’s glad to lie down with trees towering all around.
A certain euphoria sets in. She feels molecular,
bedeviled, senses someone gently pulling her hair,
tingles with kisses she won’t receive for years.
Three felled trees, a sort of chorus, narrate
her thoughts, or rather channel theirs through her,
or rather subject her to their peculiar verbal
restlessness … our deepening need for non-being intones
the largest and most decayed tree, mid-sentence.
I’m not one of you squeaks the shattered sapling,
blackened by lightning. Their words become metallic
spangles shivering the air. Will I forget the way home?
the third blurts. Why do I feel like I’m hiding in a giant’s nostril?
the oldest prone pine wants to know. Are we being freed
from matter? the sapling asks. Insects are well-intentioned,
offers the third tree, by way of consolation. Will it grow
impossible to think a thought through to its end? gasps the sapling,
adding in a panicky voice, I’m becoming spongy! The girl
feels her hands attach to some distant body. She rises
to leave, relieved these trees are not talking about her.
July 4th thoughts via Paul Krugman. He discussed Trump’s announcement that he was simply cutting off all trade with Spain. He can’t do that of course, and, for one thing, we run a trade surplus with them, but it just goes by unnoticed. Per PK: “We cannot leave the fate of the US or the world in the hands of somebody who is completely irrational, who is making demands and believing himself to have powers that he does not.
“The problem is a lot bigger than Trump. Something is fundamentally wrong with America, and at this point you don’t have to go through complicated justifications. You can just say something is wrong with a country and a system that lets this guy remain in a position of power.”
Well, we have come to this after 250 years.
Let’s stick with DJT a bit. Per historian Heather Cox Richardson, here’s his take on the sensitive negotiations with Iran. Iranian leaders are “scum. They’re sick people. They’re led by sick people, and they’re, they’re vicious, violent people,” Trump said. “Far as I’m concerned, it’s just a waste of time dealing with them. They’re liars.… There’s something wrong with them. They’re cuckoo. As far as I’m concerned, [negotiations are] over.”
Of course, oil prices spiked, and Trump walked it all back. As Tom Nichols noted in The Atlantic, the Iranians are calling the shots in the war and “are routinely humiliating the American president.” Like many other observers, Nichols noted that Trump was “incoherent.” He referred to Iran as the “Islamic Republic of Japan” and referred to President Zelensky as “President Putin.”
A German official stated: “Europeans don’t take Trump seriously any longer.”
Ya think?
At 57D in the puzzle yesterday, the clue was “Benin neighbor,” and the answer was TOGO.
It reminded me of the time I ordered a sandwich at a deli in Benin and the guy behind the counter asked: “Is it for here or TOGO.”
It was a good exercise in wordplay yesterday, the NYTXW. The theme “revealer” clue was “Renounced … or a phonetic hint to reading the answers to the starred clues.” And the answer was FORGONE, which phonetically is “four gone.” It meant we had to remove four letters (all the same) from the theme answers to make sense of them.
E.g., at 17A, for the clue “Honeybunch,” the answer in the grid: STUTTGART, made no sense. But if the four Ts are removed (“gone”), you’re left with SUGAR.
Similarly, at 49A, you might wonder how BASSISTS is the answer for “Worms or flies, often.” But, take the Ss out and you’re left with BAIT.
[Side note: I separately suggested “bassists” might be a good clue for “infielders.”]
BTW, we sent Phil out to TOGO to put a human face on the story, above. I’m not sure he charmed these three young women. The one on the right, especially. If looks could kill . . . run, Philly!
Wow, beautiful shot, Buddy. Much better.
We bid farewell to Louise Lasser, 87, whom we absolutely loved so long ago in “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” the very funny late-night soap opera parody. According to the NYT obit, “Ms. Lasser — somehow simultaneously neurotic and girlish — appeared on the covers of major magazines, including People, Newsweek, Ms. and Rolling Stone. The show ran only a year and a half, from January 1976 to July 1977, but that was 325 episodes.”
“She’s a survivor,” Ms. Lasser said very aptly of Mary. “But that makes me sad. Because she’s a survivor in a world I wonder if it’s worth surviving in.” (The character eventually had a nervous breakdown.)
I was “working” at a law firm in Norristown PA back then and my favorite secretary (of many wonderful ones), was Sandy. We’d go over the episodes each day, roaring. That was a dark time for me but Sandy was a kindred spirit, laugh-wise, which was important. I didn’t keep up with her after I left, but I should have. I just learned she passed away back in 2011. She was only 65.
I rode an elevator at Hunter with Louise Lasser once maybe ten years after the show ended. Four or five of us in the car. I didn’t say anything. Probably should have. Her dad was the Lasser of popular tax guide fame. Get this! –Louise studied Political Science at Brandeis for three years in the early 60s. Both her parents committed suicide, separately. Ouch.
Rest in peace Louise. As the saying goes, they broke the mold. . . Thank you for all the great, if unusual, laughs.
There were some complaints today about 38D. The clue was simply “On.” And the answer was ENABLED. I can see it. Here’s how one comment explained it: “If your WiFi is enabled, it’s on. If your cruise control is enabled, it’s on. Etc.”
But I liked this one better: “In Silicon Valley, they’re synonyms. For example, you flip the lights enabled when you walk in the door, turn enabled the tv. It’s used in idioms the same way too, for example, ‘you really turn me enabled.’”
“Relative of a bandeau,” was TUBE TOP. It made me realize that what this poor battered world of ours really needs now is a paean to the tube top. Happily, Rex shared this with us. See you tomorrow!
The Wellington Files 