This letter to the editor was in the NYT yesterday. It’s by Kathy Perkins of Lawrence, Kansas.

To the Editor:

The Kansas that invalidated driver’s licenses when the gender didn’t match the holder’s sex assigned at birth is a far cry from the rural Kansas where I grew up in the 1960s. It was not the fantasy of old-fashioned rural America, but community-minded folks with flaws and secrets who lived by the adage “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

I moved back to Kansas in 1996 and obtained a Kansas license. Four years later, I went in to renew it, wearing a skirt and on my way to work. I moved through the line and passed the eye test, and the woman at the final station handed me a document and said slowly, “I want you to review this very carefully.”

I reviewed it and said, “It shows that my gender is male. Can I change it to female?” (By now everyone was paying attention.) She said, “Honey, you can be whatever you want — we aren’t allowed to ask.” The people in line chuckled. I wondered how neither I nor anyone else had ever noticed the “M” on my license.

I believe my grandfather who served as a Republican in the Kansas House of Representatives and Senate has rolled over in his grave at the mean-spirited actions of present-day legislators.

Can’t we just go back to treating others as we wish to be treated? Or put another way: “You can be whatever you want — we aren’t allowed to ask.”

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Not enough news of the good that she did in the world reached me under my rock. But it’s pouring out now, in the wake of Dolly Parton’s death. She was, of course, a long-time favorite of our Phil, who is devastated.

She’s getting wonderful coverage out there in the world, so we don’t need Owl Chatter to pile on. Just wish her fans who are Trump supporters would heed her message of love and inclusion for gays and trans. She wasn’t subtle about it, having written and performed the song “Travelin’ Thru” for the film Transamerica. It was nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe, and Grammy Award for Best Song from a Movie. She performed it at the Oscars in 2006.

Rest in peace, Dolly.

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Yesterday’s puzzle theme was neat, IMO. It was ZZTOP, you know, the rock band. But how it worked was there were four theme down answers with ZZ in them, but you had to relocate the ZZ to the top. So, e.g., with the answer BUZZ ALDRIN, you had to fill in ZZBUALDRIN. See? The ZZ was moved to the front. JAZZHANDS became ZZJAHANDS. The best was a double: FUZZY WUZZY. You had to move all the Zs to get ZZZZFUYWUY.

At 15A, the clue was “November birthstone,” for TOPAZ. This was my comment on it:

“Octavio Paz was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1990. It came as a surprise TOPAZ, but not to his devoted fans. They began distributing his poems on the streets in Mexico and became known as Paz dispensers.”

I was pretty proud of Paz dispensers.

At 14A, for the clue “Pre-Inca civilization known for its underground aqueducts and geoglyphs” the answer was NAZCA,

Here’s me again:

NAZCA: Pre-Inca civilization known for its devotion to auto racing.

Oh no! Is that Dolly? Can’t be: no lipstick.

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In today’s puzzle, I learned there is such a thing as YAK polo, in Pakistan. I would guess nothing feels better after a tough yak polo match than a session of goat yoga.

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The O’s blew a 7-0 lead against the Cards on Tuesday, but won it 8-7 in the ninth. Some say games like that mark a team with destiny. If they win Thursday, kinehora, they’re two games out of the last playoff spot. [They didn’t.] They’ve caught our attention now that the Gnats have drifted. Still a long shot. This girl has faith. A redhead!

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From The Onion:

Old Man’s Son Also Old Man

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One thing we’ve learned early from Phil is whatever you do, don’t mess with the redheads. They are a breed apart. And so we read with interest a story in the NYT yesterday that took up almost half a page about Sadie Sink — one of the more gorgeous redheads on the scene today. (Not sure what Phil did to earn the scowl. Not asking.)

Anyway, could you possibly improve on that hair? Seems like a no to us. But in her role as Jean Grey in the new Spider-Man movie, they have her wearing a red wig. WTF? And it’s been a bit controversial.

From the article:

“Alessandro Bertolazzi, the hair and makeup designer for the film said that using a wig sped up and simplified the styling process. He added that the volume and hair quality offered by a wig makes a huge difference.

“When designing the wig, Bertolazzi said that he had been inspired by Billie Eilish and that he wanted something ‘cool, contemporary, fashionable, in the same time messy, even dangerous.’ Bertolazzi recalled his team working on the wig for around four weeks. They played with length, texture and color.”

Here she is in the wig. The Owl Chatter drool-meter has the wig/nonwig scores about even.

And here’s Eilish.

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It took me a while to equate Trumpism with Nazism, but that line (for me) has been passed long ago. This is Paul Krugman, from his newsletter earlier this week:

“We’re long past the point where it’s considered unthinkable and incredibly rude to make Nazi parallels. There’s a lot of people in this administration or close to this administration who are effectively Nazis, in some cases explicitly Nazis. America is not yet Germany under Hitler. But the reason we don’t have a functioning Gestapo in this country is not for lack of desire to have one. It’s because these people, at least so far, don’t have the juice. So all of the stuff, all of the parallels seem appropriate.”

PK noted Hitler’s obsession with building a “gigantic, gaudy” ballroom, btw.

But his points of comparison took a scary turn. In Hitler’s last days, he blamed his losses on the German people’s failing him. He came up with a Nero Decree the gist of which was to destroy as much of Germany as possible, ostensibly to deny it to the Allies, but insidiously, to take his anger out on the German people: the losers who failed him.

Trump, of course, will never blame himself for any of his wide range of failures. He sees the polls, though he denies it, and knows the people have turned on him. He will exact revenge, because that is all he knows. His construction projects are essentially destruction projects. His idiocy has already wreaked havoc on the military and the economy and the rule of law. How much damage will be done when he starts trying?

Here’s how PK ends his column:

“Increasingly it looks as if he just plain hates this country because it doesn’t love him. How much damage will he do? How much damage can he do? I don’t want to make a specific prediction, but I’m worried.

“And don’t say that he won’t do that or he can’t do that. Those have been famous last words again and again over the past decade. So this is going to be even worse, even uglier, I think than most people imagine.”

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See you next time!