One of the (many) pleasures of being Gnats fans this past season was we got to enjoy their announcers, Dan Kolko, Kevin Frandsen (Franny), and pretty Alexa Datt. Dan (who is Jewish) is very likable and a solid professional announcer. He works well with Franny, a former player. (Alexa, as you’ve seen often in earlier OC posts, is adorable, and a good interviewer.) It took me a while to appreciate Franny because he replaced J.P. Santangelo, another ex-player, who was very funny and whom I liked very much. My favorite line of his was when a player or manager proved him to be wrong about something. He’d say “That’s why he’s down on the field in a uniform, and I’m up here wearing makeup.”
Franny sometimes swallows his words in inarticulate babble and sometimes obscures a point with indecipherable (to me) baseball lingo. But he slowly won me over with brilliant “inside baseball” observations. A small example: he observes what players are doing in the on-deck circle. “[Name] is studying those change-ups. If [pitcher] tries one on him, he should be able to time it.” Sure enough, he steps into the box and laces a change-up into leftfield for a hit. Or he’ll say, “If I were [catcher], I wouldn’t let the on-deck batter stand so close to the plate. He’s learning too much.” He notes zillions of things that would just float by me.
Anyway, I mention all of that just to note that Thomas Friedman was far better today in writing about Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine than I was in my last post. To paraphrase J.P. Santangelo: That’s why he’s writing in the NY Times and I’m slinging nonsense and bad puns here in Owl Chatter.
Here’s TF:
“I have never believed that Trump was somehow an agent of Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, or in his pay. It is much worse. He simply does not cherish democracy. He cherishes money. And he has no problem selling out the first for the second. When he acts in his own commercial interests, that’s his personal business. When he uses the American presidency to make a buck, it is our collective shame.
“There is simply no core American value Trump will not sell out. Desperate to lower diesel prices, Trump actually made a deal to import diesel fuel from Russia, even though it offers a potential windfall for the Kremlin so it can bomb Ukraine harder. . . . Worse, his aides then asked Ukraine to refrain from attacks on Russia’s oil refineries, without Trump making the same demand of Putin regarding Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. It makes me sick to my stomach to even type this.”
If Friedman ate at the Brandeis dining halls when he was a student there, he’s got a pretty strong stomach. So that last line is saying something.
Did someone say Brandeis? Hi kids! I didn’t know we had a rowing club.
While we’ve got today’s NYT open, here’s Mara Stephens’ Met Diary entry:
Dear Diary:
I was forced out of my Carroll Gardens home so a developer could tear it down. As a divorced mother, where would I find a three-bedroom for my two teens and me at an affordable rent?
I searched high and low and ended up moving south to Sunset Park. I found a raw loft space, which I fixed up. (Yes, I invested my own money in a rental.)
The apartment was directly above a 24-hour sex shop and it had a view of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. I refused to open the windows and bought air purifiers.
Our first night there, I cried. What have I done? The noise from the B.Q.E., the constant shaking of the apartment — it all felt unbearable.
I was so depressed I wanted to leave the city altogether, but my kids were still in high school. I had no choice. I was trapped.
The next morning, I went for a long, anxious walk. I bumped into a barber who had been born and raised in the neighborhood, on Third Avenue.
I asked how he dealt with the noise and traffic.
He laughed.
“Are you kidding me?” he said. “It’s my ocean.”
The big trucks, he explained, were crashing waves; small cars, ripples; and the whirring engines, the steady flow of water. He told me he missed these sounds whenever he went to the country.
His perspective changed everything. The second night, I slept like a baby, with a sound machine accompanying the “waves” of nighttime traffic.
Two years later, my home is a haven for my kids and me, and I fall asleep each night to the soothing rhythm of a Brooklyn “ocean.”
Khalil Khabiri of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) posts: The 6 on a dartboard (in my opinion) is in the wrong position, and can be easily mistaken for a 9.
Stefan Rockett: That would mean the 9 in the top left is upside down.
Khalil: no, the 9 is acceptable as the numbers either side of it are the same orientation
Kev Newman: If you’re not a darts player and are partially blind, yeah.
Richard Bellie: Only if you’ve never played darts. I’ve known where the 6 is since I was about 6.
Avi Liveson: Maybe you were nine.
I wake moaning on Sundays in the fall and when Linda asks me what’s wrong, I remind her the Jets will be playing. We plopped down to watch them take on the hated Patriots yesterday, insanely hopeful for a miracle after last week’s win. They are looking better than last year when they set all-time records for futility. We watched them drive smartly down the field on their first drive and score a touchdown! Then we watched the refs take it away because of a stupid penalty. Then we watched them flounder and settle for a field goal. Then we turned off the TV and went for a walk and then to Costco. Because we knew, like every Jet fan on the planet knew right then and there, that it was the same old Jets. Final score: Pats 26, Jets 19.
In his brief sideline interview at halftime, hapless Jets head coach Aaron Glenn tried to exude hope by noting, among other things, that the Jets get the ball to start the second half. But that wasn’t the case: the Jets were slated to kick off. How could he not know that?
Still, my heart goes out to the poor guy. Here he is with his beautiful family. He must be doing something right.
Today’s puzzle’s theme is brilliant. It’s SHADOWBOXES: all about shade, and squares (boxes) that are shaded from the sun. So first, right up there in the NW corner, at 1 across, the answer is SUN. Then, well-placed below, are AWNING, TREE, and HAT: three items that offer shade. Then(!), right below them are those words again, but in shaded squares as part of longer words: F[AWNING]OVER, S[TREE]TWEAR, and T[HAT]SRIGHT.
Here’s how it looks with helpful yellow markings and shadings. Do you see how, e.g., the TREE in STREETWEAR is shaded by the TREE above it? A+ for wordplay, Michele Govier.
We asked Phil to get a shot of a fan with a nice mustache at the Chiefs game yesterday and he came through nicely. We just have to crop out those two random women in the background.
See you next time! Thanks for popping by.
