The Wellington Files

  • Don’t Bully The Military

    We’re closing the shop today. The whole staff has gotten together to go out and celebrate our 1,000th post. Woo hoo! Not only are we thrilled to reach this millstone, I mean milestone, but we get to use up our leftover Chanukah candles on the cake!

    Look how nicely we all dressed up for the party:

    Our gorgeous sports consultant, Sarah Fillier of the New York Sirens. No stick today? You’re gonna need it to fight off the guys!

    George Santos — hey Georgie! Lookin’ sharp! George is our Administrative Manager, primarily responsible for stocking the fridge with diet soda. It was hell for us when he was off in prison. Within a week all we had left was a warm, half-empty can of Fresca. Welcome back Big Fella!

    Some readers have asked why we would give George a full-time position when his only job is to buy diet soda. Truth be told, we just had to take him on once we read his resume. Did you know he is a Holocaust survivor and former Prime Minister of Canada? How could we let a star like that slip through our hands?

    Our guiding lights, our hearts and souls: Welly, Wilma, and Worthy, the owls behind Owl Chatter. Hi Guys! We love you!

    `

    Our amazing Style and Culture consultant Ana de Armas. Looking spectacular as always, Armas. Proud to have you aboard.

    Owl Chatter would be a mere shadow of itself without the consistently brilliant work of our staff photographer Phil.

    The material Phil submits is particularly impressive in light of the fact that he is almost always drunk and usually leaves his equipment in his Uber ride. We are delighted to announce that Phil is receiving a substantial increase in salary. Effective immediately we’re raising his pay to zero!! (Previously, he was paying us $100 a week for the position.) Congrats Buddy! We love you, man.

    Last and, by a wide margin, least, yours truly. Hi everybody!

    IN MEMORIAM

    On a sad note, let’s remember the passing of Owl Chatter’s great Head of Security and Catering, Yevgeny Pregozhin. “My Yevi,” as Taylor called him, was only with us for a few months until, by all accounts, Putin had him killed. But he left an enduring mark. The world may have known him as a ruthless, murdering mercenary, but he was really just a big teddy bear. To this day, Taylor can’t walk by a tray of pigs-in-blankets without breaking down. Here he is, with his brave men.

    OK Gang — everybody! — pile into the Camry. Taylor and Travis are already there.

    See you next time, Chatterheads!

  • Sunshine After Rain

    My girlfriend Wyna Liu (well, I did meet her for ten seconds at a crossword tournament a few years ago) has a great article in the Times today on her puzzle “Connections.” I stopped doing it back when I bailed out of Wordle a few months ago, but I think I’ll resume. Her article made me realize I may have puzzle-fied my brain a little. She started off with four words we were supposed to “connect” — kayak, mom, level, and racecar — and I saw it right away. They are all palindromes, i.e., read the same backwards and forwards. (BTW, a word that is a different word when read backwards is a semordnilap (palindromes backwards).)

    How “famous” is Connections getting? Wyna says SNL parodied it, referring to categories such as “units of measurement plus the letter Q,” or “types of beans minus the concept of love.” She gave a nod to the latter by making a puzzle with three of the top words “BEANS MINUS LOVE.”

    Here’s Ms. Liu (x 3).

    We love Paul Krugman, get his newsletter, and actually read it now and then. I generally don’t think of him as “hip.” But his “musical coda” today is a great oldie that is new to me(!). It’s a Dire Straits tune selected as a play on words for the “Strait” of Hormuz that was the subject of his worries.

    This poem by Jane Kenyon is called “Happiness.” It’s from today’s Writer’s Almanac.

    There’s just no accounting for happiness,
    or the way it turns up like a prodigal
    who comes back to the dust at your feet
    having squandered a fortune far away.

    And how can you not forgive?
    You make a feast in honor of what
    was lost, and take from its place the finest
    garment, which you saved for an occasion
    you could not imagine, and you weep night and day
    to know that you were not abandoned,
    that happiness saved its most extreme form
    for you alone.

    No, happiness is the uncle you never
    knew about, who flies a single-engine plane
    onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes
    into town, and inquires at every door
    until he finds you asleep midafternoon,
    as you so often are during the unmerciful
    hours of your despair.

    It comes to the monk in his cell.
    It comes to the woman sweeping the street
    with a birch broom, to the child
    whose mother has passed out from drink.
    It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
    a sock, to the pusher, to the basket maker,
    and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
    in the night.

    It even comes to the boulder
    in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,
    to rain falling on the open sea,
    to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

    You must have seen Trump fake-solemnly greeting the bodies of our fallen servicemen while marketing the white baseball cap that’s on sale in his campaign store. It would be funny if it weren’t abhorrent. This is from Heather Cox Richardson’s letter today:

    “Recognizing that Americans would recoil from seeing Trump wear a baseball cap at the transfer of the fallen soldiers, Fox News declined to show how he looked yesterday and instead aired footage of Trump without the hat. Caught in their lie, Fox admitted they showed the wrong footage but claimed it was inadvertent. They did not, however, show the real footage showing Trump wearing his merch.”

    John Parrett of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) posts: Can anyone tell me the meaning of this red metal square on a traffic sign please? It’s properly attached with a metal jubilee strap so it seems permanent and official.

    Johnny Northern: Diamond that is, mate. [I.e., JN is claiming it is not a square, it is a diamond.]

    Astronaut191: Nope a quadrilateral (square) turned to have the angles at the top and bottom is not a diamond it is still a square. Diamonds don’t have 90 degree angles.

    P.J. Hawksley: Two way traffic ahead. Where you’re moving from a single lane separated from other traffic to a road where the opposing traffic is separated only by a painted line.

    Simon Everett: Read the question. . .

    Matthew Reed: He was asking about the red diamond, not the road sign.

    Wayne Skells: [posted this chart]

    Andy Burke: Why is the diamond red then? Did the red circle and the yellow diamond have a baby? Isn’t the yellow diamond married to the green triangle?

    Nick Ward: Top secret. Word is it’s a sign for a nuclear bunker for politicians and the wealthy to hide out when the Tangerine Emperor starts WW3.

    Stephanie Burt: No—in the UK the top secret nuclear bunkers are clearly signed.

    [OMG. Too funny!]

    Simon: It’s a target. It’s to give the locals an alternative to shooting the road signs. Small diamonds are cheaper to replace than big triangles.

    [A consensus emerged that it is not a road sign, but not as to what it is. Here’s another curious one.]

    We had a visit from EFREM Zimbalist Jr in the puzzle today. Remember him? He was the star of the TV show The FBI. Get this: FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover requested that the show be technically accurate and portray his agents in the best possible light. He insisted actors playing FBI employees undergo a background check as if they were real agents. Within the agency, Hoover held up Zimbalist as a model for FBI employees’ personal appearance. The two men had a good personal relationship until Hoover’s death. In 2009, FBI Director Bob Mueller presented Zimbalist with a plaque honoring him for his work on the series.

    Just learned EZ Jr. also played the sightless Audrey Hepburn’s husband in the very creepy Wait Until Dark, in which Alan Arkin was delicious as the villain.

    Here are Efrem and his daughter Stephanie, who played the character Remington Steele on that TV series. Efrem’s parents were of Jewish descent but took up none of it in their lives, and Efrem lived his life as a Christian, as did Steph. [Insert appropriate Yiddish expression of disdain.]

    One of my mom’s superpowers (of many) was that she found things in her dreams. What I mean is, say she lost her gloves. She’d go to sleep and dream where they were. She’d wake up the next day and sure enough. . . .

    I thought of that today when I read this note by a generally very sharp poster, Barbara S.:

    “I’ve experienced an amusing phenomenon this week. I’ve been solving late at night, just before bedtime, and I’ve found myself dreaming about answers in the puzzle. On Thursday night, I did Friday’s puzzle and in one of my dreams, I ate an ICE CREAM BAR (55A), a treat I normally never have. On Saturday night, after having done Sunday’s puzzle, I dreamed about a neighbor of my parents who lived close by for many years, DOTTIE Martin. I hadn’t thought about her for years, but DOTTIE was the answer to 129A. And then last night, I seemed to be mother to two dogs (I’ve never actually owned dogs – only cats), and I told my friend [in the dream] that these two were rescue dogs – not quite FOSTER DOGs (35A), but close enough.”

    Now I’m hoping I run into Stephanie Z. or Audrey tonight. If I do, you’ll be the first to know. Of course, with my luck, I’ll be spending the night with J. Edgar.

    See you tomorrow.

  • Women

    We came very close to waking up in a guesthouse in Saranac Lake this morning. But instead of a burger and a local brew up there for dinner last night, it was Costco enchiladas (excellent, btw) and a can of Fiddlehead Ale at home. We were all set Friday night to shoot up to Lake Placid in the morning for the women’s ice hockey tournament final, to cheer our Princeton women on against the Yalies, but Quinnipiac thwarted us and won the semi-final, 2-1 in OT. D’oh! Next year for sure, ladies!

    If you forgot what today is but do the NYTXW, you would have been reminded. It’s International Women’s Day! The puzzle was by Kelly Richardson and was called “Join Together,” which someone noted is a redundancy. It was an extra column wide (22) so it could contain the grid-spanning answer: INTERNATIONALWOMENSDAY. And each of the 22 letters was crossed (going down) by a specific woman’s name. It was an eclectic mix. GWEN Stefani provided the W, and NINA Simone the first N. Sandra Day OCONNOR added gravitas and the second O. EMMA WATSON (full name) provided the first T, and, whoa — who’s that crossing the first A? LILIUOKALANI? Ouch! The first (and last) queen of Hawaii? If you say so, Kelly.

    Hi Em! Diet Coke okay? Phil says he had forgotten how pretty you are, but we don’t believe him.

    Anna Howard SHAW, leader in the suffrage movement, provided the S. Shaw, who was also a physician, worked closely with Susan B. Anthony, and was a companion for 30 years to Anthony’s niece, Lucy. Only months before her death, Shaw said, “The only way to refute” the argument that America was a democracy–and therefore women were entitled to vote–was “to prove that women are not people.”

    Rex has always argued for more women constructors and a greater female presence in the puzzles, but he felt the execution today fell flat. Just gave it 2.5 stars (out of five). For one thing, to keep it tighter, he didn’t think there should be any other women in the puzzle, beside the 22 central ones. But then we would have lost THERESA. It was THERESA May, but it led Son Volt to share this unusual song with us about Saint Theresa of Avila, a Carmelized nun from the 1500s.

    A cat in gold goes alone . . .

    In case you were wondering, Taylor was not among the 22 crossing women, but she was given a nod at 48A: “‘____ Song’ (Taylor Swift hit).” Answer: OUR. Fair enough.

    Getting back to the puzzle, Commenter mmorgan posted: Not the puzzle’s fault, but the idea of women having a day (or Blacks having a history month) really bothers me. There, there’s your day (or your month), enjoy your little crumb and now we can go back to ignoring you. It’s condescending and demeaning. Again, not the puzzle’s fault.

    I replied: That’s one way of looking at it, and I understand. But, for example, Pride month really mattered to my granddaughter when she was 15 and had a lot of gay and trans friends who were struggling. It resonated beyond its term.

    mmorgan answered: Good point. But Pride Month seems more an organically-emergent celebration of and by people themselves and the others seem more imposed by decree. Black History month in particular feels that way, since Black history is basically American history that should be studied every month.

    Among the many reasons we are in love with Caitlin Clark is that she spells Caitlin correctly. She certainly deserves a spot, amirite? So at 55A, the clue for IOWA (Hi Pam!) was “Caitlin Clark’s alma mater.”

    Again, courtesy of Son Volt:

    I hope all you beautiful women out there — especially my Linda (and our Wilma), Caitlin, Sarah, Robin (the artist formerly known as Lianna), and Zozo, are having the best day.

    Remember when you first learned about Obama, like, way back years ago? His extraordinary oratorical artistry? That version of O came back to speak at Jessie Jackson’s funeral. In case you missed it:

    “We are living in a time when it can be hard to hope. Each day we wake up to some new assault on our democratic institutions, another setback to the idea of the rule of law, an offense to common decency. Every day you wake up to things you just didn’t think were possible. Each day, we’re told by those in high office to fear each other and to turn on each other, and that some Americans count more than others, and that some don’t even count at all. Everywhere we see greed and bigotry being celebrated and bullying and mockery masquerading as strength, we see science and expertise denigrated while ignorance and dishonesty and cruelty and corruption are reaping untold rewards. Every single day we see that, and it’s hard to hope in those moments. So it may be tempting to get discouraged, to give into cynicism. It may be tempting for some to compromise with power, and grab what you can, or even for good people to maybe just put your head down and wait for the storm to pass.”

    But, Obama said, Jackson’s life “inspires us to take a harder path. His voice calls on each of us to be heralds of change, to be messengers of hope…. Wherever we have a chance to make an impact, whether it’s in our school or our workplaces or our neighborhoods or our cities, or in Owl Chatter, not for fame, not for glory, or because success is guaranteed, but because it gives our life purpose, because it aligns with what our faith tells us God demands, and because if we don’t step up, no one else will.”

    Here’s a story from today’s Met Diary that could double as a tiny love story. It’s by Sarah Bareau and is called “On the Aisle.”

    My seat was the second one in on the first row. Eventually, a gentleman with a round face, white hair and dark rimmed glasses took the aisle seat.

    We acknowledged each other and the play began. It ran without an intermission. As I stood to leave, the gentleman with the round face, white hair and dark rimmed glasses asked if I would like to have a bite with him.

    “Oh, no thank you,” I said. “I’m not hungry.”

    But then that voice in my head made me speak up.

    “But I could have a glass of wine!” I said.

    He perked up.

    We left the theater and were together for 12 years.

    That story reminded me of an “aisle seat” story of my own which I told here a long time ago, but finally wrote up and submitted. Here it is:

    For several decades, until I retired, I rode the NJ Transit train from Chatham in to Penn Station. I would take one seat of a pair, and hope no one would sit next to me so I could spread out a bit. Some people increase their chances of keeping that second seat free by either placing a bag on it, or by sitting in the outside seat. And the etiquette has always been to cede it gladly if anyone asks for it.

    One day, for the trip home from the city, the woman in front of me “doubled up.” I.e., she both placed her bag on the open seat and sat in the outside seat. But the train was filling up pretty quickly and a man soon asked her for the seat. “I’m saving it for my husband,” she told him, and he moved on. A moment later a woman asked for the seat and the scene repeated itself. Then again. And again. She was swatting them away, like a hockey goalie stopping shots and rebounds. Until one woman stood her ground. “You can’t save seats here,” she stated firmly. The sitting woman explained that her husband had just texted and was very close. “But he’s not here and you cannot save that seat.” It went on like that for a bit until the puck bounced over the goal line: The sitting woman caved. The other woman took the seat with a well-earned “Hrrrumph.”

    Then the husband arrived. He looked down at his wife, incredulously. “You didn’t save me a seat!!” he exclaimed, accusatorily. At this point, the gentleman sitting next to me, and I, choked back our laughter as best we could.

    “I tried to,” the poor wife said.

    Oh, she did, she did. But the husband was having none of that, and just marched off in a huff.

    OMG, that train ticket was worth every penny that day, especially with my senior discount.

    We caught a few spring training innings of the Gnats. Good idea to pick up veteran arm Miles Mikelas. He gave up a three-spot early, but looked pretty strong over three innings. Seemed like a real mensch in an interview with the lovely Alexa Datt, aka Who Datt? MM should be an excellent presence in the clubhouse full of toddlers. Nice moustache too. He said there’s a competition for best ‘stache on the team. We’ll have to weigh in once the season starts. Here are Datt and Miles. Yup, great ‘stache.

    Can’t top those two punim. See you tomorrow.

  • Unlimited Middle and Upper Ammunition

    How brilliant was the puzzle yesterday? Let me try to give you a small piece of it. 19A was “Remove from power” (OVERT), and 20A was “Boarding pass info” (ROW). Now the first answer, OVERT, makes no sense. How is that “remove from power.” What we had to do was see that placing an H between OVERT and ROW gave us OVERTHROW, which is, of course, remove from power. (The H worked similarly in the down direction.) The revealer came later, at 68A. The clue was “Long-shot candidates,” which was DARK HORSES. It turns out that missing (or “dark”) H from OVERTHROW, above, was the H from HORSES. It’s dark because it’s in the black square between OVERT and ROW. And the same thing happened throughout the grid for the other letters in HORSES. Sorry if I lost you — now you know how my students felt. But it was a brilliant feat of construction. (Not to be confused with feet of construction.)

    The “dark” R and S from HORSES both came in one across word: EVE[R]PRE[S]ENT. It led Son Volt to share this warm oldie with us.

    While looking over the grid after finishing, I noticed I am in it! At 28D, the clue was “Endures” and the answer is LIVES ON. Maybe the constructor, Hanh Huynh, is a former student of mine, sneakily saying hi? Nah. Although another answer (at 42D) is AVIates. Hmm . . . .

    The late Pee Wee REESE is in the puzzle too (“Pee Wee of baseball.”). I shared the following with the gang:

    Apart from his ballplaying, which got him into the Hall of Fame, Pee Wee REESE was a mensch of the highest order. He was the team captain when Jackie Robinson came up to the Dodgers. Robinson, of course, encountered vicious racism from other players, even teammates, and fans outside of Brooklyn. In an iconic moment that still rings down through history, during pre-game warmups in Cincy with racist taunts cascading down from the stands and the Reds dugout, Reese went over to Jackie, put his arm around him, and stood there until his statement was clear. There’s a statue in Brooklyn capturing the moment. Blacks felt Reese played a big role in opening the major leagues to them.

    (I earned a nice “thank you” from Whatsername, which is always appreciated.)

    I loved today’s puzzle too. Friday’s are “themeless.” It’s by Adrian Johnson and he wrote a lovely note about it for the wordplay column in the NYT. It shows you that putting a puzzle together is so much more than noting that CAT can cross BAG. Here it is:

    “There are many things I have been fortunate to do as an adult: get engaged to my best friend and partner of almost six years, graduate from college, travel and raise two cats. One thing I haven’t gotten to do as an adult is spend my dad’s birthday with him, which I’m excited to do this year. Happy birthday, Dad. I’m proud to be raised by you, to love you and be loved by you.

    “My dad has been one of my biggest fans since my start as a cruciverbalist. When I was growing up, he was a trustworthy foam pit who allowed my sisters and me to bounce and flip through the world with curiosity — a dependable resource and support system that never limited how high we could leap, but always cushioned us when we fell.

    “This isn’t a tribute puzzle. It has plenty of things Dad likes (1A and 32D especially), but my puzzles aren’t really tributes to begin with. They’re collections of things I’ve learned and enjoyed, inspired by the many people who teach us important life lessons. I credit much of my success here to what Dad taught me about soccer. He was never the strongest, tallest or fastest player. But he taught me to be a student of the game who was always first to the ball (and other opportunities in life), who always cared for and refined the little aspects of his craft, and who studied strategy, but also people, to make sure I knew how to work with others (or against them, when required). Today, remember to celebrate the foam pits in your life!”

    BTW, the two clues AJ refers to above are “First impression of a new video game?” (START BUTTON), and “The good life, in Spanish vernacular” (PURA VIDA). On the latter, Rex noted it’s specifically Costa Rican.

    The clue at 25A was “Veronica _, author of the ‘Divergent’ novels,” and the answer was ROTH. I was surprised to read this writeup of it by English prof Rex:

    “I once again forgot Veronica ROTH. I know a Tim ROTH and I know ROTH IRAs and if I’m lisping I know Betsy ROTH but that’s it. I think my brain is incapable of retaining any more ROTHs. I have never and will never read those ‘Divergent’ novels and I have never and apparently will never remember Veronica ROTH’s name. It’s a curse. I’ll just have to live with it.”

    It led me to post the following, which contains a story some of you may recall.

    “Philip ROTH must have slipped your mind, RP. When I set up a small account for savings bonds for my kids with the U.S. Treasury I used Philip Roth as my favorite author for a security question. Years later, when I got locked out, the agent asked me for it but I had forgotten I listed Roth. Exasperated, I moaned that I like a lot of writers, and the agent, incredibly, said: He wrote Goodbye Columbus. I said, ‘You’re giving me hints??’ So much for the Treasury’s security system.”

    As I age, and fall apart piece by piece (goodbye prostate!), I often quote Roth’s line: “Old age is not a battle: It’s a massacre.”

    Here’s Veronica Roth looking a little leery. Phil! What the hell are you doing?

    At 7D, for “Satellite transmission path,” the answer was UPLINK.

    Here’s egs: I hear that U-Haul is diversifying into ukulele rentals with a new subsidiary called UPLINK. (Get it? U-PLINK)

    At 32A, “Worker involved in firings?,” was POTTER.

    Here’s a good tune, if a bit serious, by JC.

    Today’s poem is from the newsletter of historian Heather Cox Richardson. It’s called, “On Why The U.S. Is Not Aiding U.S. Citizens Fleeing the Mideast,” and it’s by Donald Trump.

    Well, because it happened all very quickly, we thought, and I thought maybe more so than most, I could ask Marco, but I thought we were going to have a situation where we were going to be attacked.

    They were getting ready to attack Israel.

    They were getting ready to attack others.

    You’re seeing that right now. And a lot of those missiles that are hitting in those are stationary. Those were aimed there for a long period of time at these other countries. So I think I was right about that.

    We attacked first, and if we didn’t, it could have been, you know, look, we’re really decimating them. They’re being decimated.

    And if we didn’t.

    If we didn’t, and by the way, we have massive amounts of ammunition. We have the high end.

    A lot of it was given away stupidly by Biden, very stupidly, for free. And I’m all for Ukraine, but they gave away a lot. As you know, when I give away ammunition, everybody pays for it.

    The European Union is paying for it, then they can do what they want with it, but they are giving it, let’s say, to Ukraine, and it’s okay, but we gave away a lot of high end but we have plenty. But we have unlimited middle and upper ammunition, which is really what we’re using in this war. And we have an, really an unlimited supply.

    We also have a lot of the very high end stored in different countries throughout the world. With this, we’re literally storing it there, which is actually something that I insisted on in my first term.

    I rebuilt the military.

    In my first term, the military is great. A lot of, not unbelievable, amount of of ammunition, or munitions, as they say, were given away to you know, the Wall Street Journal incorrectly covered the story when they said that it was given away to the Middle East, not to the Middle East was given away to Ukraine. Very little was given to the Middle East. Middle East would buy a lot. And some of the nations, because they’re rich, they have a lot, but it was given away to Ukraine and it just should have been done.

    Look, it’s a war that should have never happened. If I were president, that war would have never happened.

    But we have a tremendous amount of munitions, ammunition at the upper upper level, middle and upper level, all of which is really powerful stuff.

    Let’s clear the palate with a tune shared by Son Volt a few days ago when RODEO appeared in the grid. Remember when you were young and so in love you were an idiot? Me neither. It’s called “Head Over Heels.”

    I’ve been standing for days. Now I get to fall down with you.

    At 14D, for ‘Pleasurable place to do business?,” the answer was SEX SHOP. Here’s Rex:

    I follow a sex shop on Instagram. Bet you didn’t expect to see that sentence today. Smitten Kitten is very close to where my best friends live in Minneapolis and they have been an important voice in the resistance to ICE, as well as an important source of support for their neighbors who are being hunted and living in fear. Their social media posts are funny and fearless. I don’t think I’ve ever actually been in Smitten Kitten, but next time I’m in town, I’m going, if only to say “love your work.”

    He also shared this video:

    Phil asked us to donate $25 from his next paycheck to them. We said “But Phil, we don’t pay you anything.” D’oh! So we advanced it to him from some indeterminate future time.

    See you next time, Chatterheads! Thanks for dropping in.

  • Big Red Chair

    Jess McClain, below, is a great runner. She was well on her way to winning the U.S. half marathon championship in Atlanta recently when things started feeling creepy. Like, where is everyone? Oh no! She followed a lead car, but the car took a turn off the course! By the time she recovered, all she could snare was 9th place. It cost her $20,000 and a guaranteed spot in the world championship race in Denmark. She filed an appeal and it was held that the racing people f*cked up but there was no remedy: she was screwed. She still has a shot of qualifying for Denmark. She finished eighth last year. We’ll try to keep an eye on her.

    Jess is 34, from ‘Zona, with BA and MA degrees from Stanford. Simmer down, fellas, she’s happily married.

    Forgive me, Chatterheads, for wasting your time with this if you already know it (I could be wasting it in other ways), but it amazed me to learn this just today. Did you know there is a prescribed order for adjectives? Some of this you already apply without even being aware of it. E.g., you say you sat in a big red chair, never a red big chair, right? That’s because size precedes color in adjective-world. Here’s the list:

    Opinion (beautiful, delicious)

    Size

    Age

    Shape

    Color

    Origin

    Material (what it’s made out of)

    Purpose (sleeping, cooking, etc.)

    (OSASCOMP may not help you remember it.)

    So, e.g., you would describe something as a lovely large three-year-old oval green Swiss burlap sleeping bag. And you’d probably need to use it once you finish.

    If you have more than one adjective in the same category, they are to be separated by a comma or an “and.”

    The material I am looking at says these rules are “inviolable,” with only minor exceptions too boring to discuss. Yikes!

    The more I thought about the puzzle’s theme yesterday, the more I liked it. The theme was FIRST THINGS FIRST, and the four theme answers started off with the first things you do in the morning: STIR the pot; GET UP to speed; STRETCH Limos; and SHOWER gift.

    And I learned a new slang term: SLAPS. You hear of it? It’s slang for “It’s awesome.” Like, that new (whatever) really slaps. The Urban Dictionary also says it’s like saying “Good as f*ck.”

    At 56A, the clue was “They already left,” and the answer was TOOLATE. Egs says that also works as an excuse from a carpenter’s son: A TOOLATE my homework.

    True story: When Trump was touring Mount Vernon he said Washington should have put his name on it. “If you don’t put your name on things, no one will remember you.” Right. Hardly anyone remembers George Washington these days.

    A question raised in a letter to the NYT yesterday: When/if this Iran war ends, can Trump count it along with the other nine wars he ended?

    Headline in The Onion:

    Trump On Fence About Attending Ayatollah’s Funeral.

    There’s a beautiful obit in the Times today for Isaiah Zagar, who passed away last month at the age of 86 in Philly. He created giant outdoor mosaics with shards of tiles, glass, pottery, and whatever else was at hand. “My whole stance in making art is joy,” he said.

    He is best known for his Magic Garden Museum on South Street in Philly, but his work is all over the place, much of it outside Philly too. Some is in the permanent collections of the Philly Museum of Art and the Penn Academy of Fine Arts.

    Zagar was born in Philly but raised in Brooklyn and was Jewish. He changed his name from Irwin to Isaiah when he and his wife, the artist Julia Papiroff, were in the Peace Corps in Peru and the artisans he worked with couldn’t pronounce Irwin.

    I’m going to let the photos, below, save me thousands of words. We are certainly going to seek out Mr. Zagar’s work when we get down to Philly. Also strongly recommended along these lines are the Heidelberg Project and African Bead Museum (outdoors) in Detroit. Great stuff!

    Rest in peace, Isaiah.

    Favorite clue/answer today: 6D, “Slow down there, big guy.” Answer: EASY TIGER.

    Cleanup in Stall #3? (3D) MISS THE MARK next to (32D) TOILET LID.

    At 33A: “Wowzers!” Answer: GEE

    We may shoot up to Lake Placid to see our Princeton women skaters in the ECAC Championship game on Saturday. They’d have to win the semi against Quinnipiac Friday first. Hope so. Already found a cheap dump for us to stay in.

    See you next time!

  • The Hokey Pokey

    Hi Folks. Let’s open today with a diatribe from our style/culture consultant, the beautiful Ana de Armas. So many of the women (and men!) at the Actor Awards were dressed abominably, she says (and who are we to argue?). She slammed over a dozen, but here are two examples that speak for themselves: Sarah Pidgeon and Ethan Hawke. Actually, seeing their names, we’d have to say they “chirp” for themselves.

    Sarah is wearing a Balenciaga Spring 2026 Double Maxi Balloon Dress in dusty pink. Jeez Louise, haven’t the Kennedy’s suffered enough? She’s been in hiding since wearing those bags, but Phil caught up with her. She’ll live, he says.

    The Hokey Pokey made an appearance in the puzzle, prompting Commenter Gary to share this with us:

    Here’s my HOKEY POKEY story: I had an ukulele student with a physical disability so we could only do the two easiest chords. We worked on Hokey Pokey regularly and it was one of our big hits. She decided to sign up for the elementary talent show without telling anyone and she rocked the whole school solo with her pink Fender ukulele. She sang, the rapt audience in the cafegymatorium sang, the F and C7 chords thundered like Beethoven’s Fifth. And, as you’d expect, mom and dad, and the grands were all in tears. Hokey Pokey was way more than a kid’s song that day.

    This video is from the recently released Epstein files. [Sorry. Too soon? Apparently, there’s no level too low I won’t sink to for a cheap laugh.]

    Okay, now you may have noticed that Gary wrote “an ukulele,” and not “a ukulele,” and he was taken to task for doing so by another commenter. It prompted Gary to explain that it’s a little messy. In its mother tongue (Hawaiian) the instrument is pronounced “ooh” and that’s why he (intentionally) uses “an.” But he conceded it’s normally pronounced “you” in English, which would call for an “a.”

    A similar issue arises for the Yiddish-origin word “ungefloozen.” (No it doesn’t.)

    Here’s another video from the Epstein files. (Sorry! Last time! I promise.)

    A pat on the back for me! On the heels of Delaware Pam, I also got a submission to Bruni’s “For the Love of Sentences” feature accepted! Woo hoo! I’m not going to repeat it today — I shared it with you last week when I sent it in. (It was about Minnesotans and their take on cold weather.)

    Thanks Frank!

    Steven Danby of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) shares the following: I like to add used toilet rolls inside another one until I can add no more, my family respect this and keep them for me. This is approaching breaking point

    If you can guess how many there is, you can win it!

    Matt Gilley: Keep them until you have enough then add a piece of thin ply top and bottom and around the edges and you’ve got a nice strong but lightweight coffee table top you can paint however you want.

    John Hodgson: What are the painting options again?

    Ian Taylor: If you ironed them, you’d be able to get more in.

    Rob Ade: I do exactly the same. Always nice knowing you’re not alone!

    Andy Fowles: Me too.

    Ian Dalziel: Would there be any mileage in “Why”?

    Andy: It saves space in whatever container they are being stored.

    Graham Reece: 23.

    Robert Rhys Jones: Try to get out more.

    Finally, Bruce Everett shared this short video:

    [OC note: I do the same thing, but never above three. Have no idea why.]

    Mom!

    See you tomorrow! Thanks for popping by.

  • Turquoise and Tangerine

    This “tiny love story” by Adriana Pichardo in today’s NYT has a lesson in it for me. First, let’s read it.

    I met Ángel at a wedding that wasn’t meant to be — mine. I was the bride, waiting. While the planners searched for my groom, I joked nervously, trying to hold the moment together. “This party will happen. If he doesn’t come, I’ll marry you,” I said, pointing to the photographer. He lowered his camera, and I saw Ángel’s eyes for the first time. “I do,” he replied. Years later, life miraculously brought us back together. At 44, I’m walking hand in hand with someone entirely unexpected who feels like home. The angels brought Ángel. 

    For me, the moment in the story that soars is Ángel’s perfect response: “I do.” He seized the moment. That’s what you have to do. I missed it last night at dinner, as I so often do. When you don’t miss it, it’s a story you have for the rest of your life. I’m not talking about major stuff here, like Adriana and Ángel, just funny lines you might have said but only think of later. Here are two I didn’t miss. We were eating at an Irish restaurant in Denville (NJ) and I noticed there were decorative plates on the walls all around the dining room. I waited for the right moment and said to the waiter: “I have a question about those plates.” “Yes?” he replied, glancing up at them. “Doesn’t the food fall off?” He went with it and said something like, “Yes, it’s a problem.”

    The second one I didn’t miss was in Bell’s Tavern, a very nice spot tucked away in a real neighborhood in Lambertville (NJ) right up the street from a fantastic ice cream place: O Wow Cow. I was contemplating their “signature burger.” This time it was a waitress. “I have a question about your signature burger,” I said. “Yes?” she said. “Is there ink all over it?” There wasn’t, she assured me.

    Getting back to last night. We had just attended a Princeton women’s ice hockey game that we loved. We sat right behind a goal so were totally involved in the action for half of the game (we actually ducked once), and pretty much missed the other half. Unfortunately, all four goals were scored away from us, but the whole experience was riveting. Princeton lost 3-1 to Harvard (boo!), but the rubber match is today and we’re hopeful the girls will do better in our absence. [Note: we won 5-1! On to the semis!]

    Anyway, so we stopped for dinner at an Italian place we like a lot north of Princeton (in Montgomery NJ) called Beniamino’s. We were going to split a chicken dish along with a large veggie pizza, Brooklyn-style (square, thin crust). The cute waitress warned us the pie would take 35 minutes. I said, “that’s fine, we’re not in any hurry,” and we opted to receive all of the food together, rather than get the chicken before the pizza. (Thus, we were unable to answer the age-old question: Which came first — the chicken or the pizza?)

    Well, the line I was rolling around in my head seemed obvious to me. I would wait about twenty minutes, and then call her over and, with mock anger, say: “What the hell is taking so long!!??” But I didn’t do it. Mostly because I am a f*cking coward. That worked well to keep me out of Nam, but it worked against me last night at Beniamino’s. Oh, well. I may get another chance. We get back there pretty often.

    There were two musical references in today’s NYTXW: Abba, and Hall and Oates, but when I listened to the tunes Rex shared by them, they were both too pop-py for my ears. Then he threw this one on the pile. Ever hear of The Idles? I haven’t, but I live under a rock. They are a British post-punk band with two #1 albums in the UK.

    Turn it up!

    BTW, did you know this about H&O, via Anony Mouse? “In a losing battle fought with with the public all through their time working together, they rejected the term ‘Hall and Oates,’ insisting that they were not some single entity joined at the hip, but were distinct partners, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and wanted to be known as such.”

    Wait! I was wrong! There were three musical clues in the puzzle. At 18D “Music that’s a little offbeat?” was SKA. Here’s a classic example from a band I think Linda and I saw in England on a musical tour we took back in the late 70’s. (We suffer from CRS: Can’t Remember Sh*t.)

    Rex took exception to a weather-related clue and I agree with him, especially since he backed up his position with data. At 30A the clue was “Like Buffalo, N.Y., about 167 days a year, typically,” and the answer was RAINY.

    Here’s Rex: Almost half the year? Really? I live only a handful of hours away from Buffalo [in Binghamton], and I had no idea. We don’t get nearly that much rain here. We do get around 150 days with precipitation, but much of that is snow. I knew about Buffalo’s lake effect snow. The snowiness of Buffalo is legendary. Infamous. The rain, wow, real news to me. In fact, I’m not sure the clue is right. It’s at least misleading. I’m looking at data that says Buffalo gets 166 days of precipitation, annually. That’s rain or snow, not just rain. I submit to you that snowy days are not RAINY.

    Interestingly, for me, the top city on the chart was Rochester, NY, where I spent some time several hundred years ago. Here are a baker’s top ten:

    This young lady would not let Phil huddle under her umbrella with her. Good move, girl.

    Here’s another exchange on the topic that I liked:

    William M. wrote: RAINY has the sense of something continuous and steady and widespread. Not fine mists in the morning, a few sprinkles in the afternoon, a quick shower in the evening, “lake effect” flurries almost any time of day, or very localized participation alongside clear skies just a few blocks away – much of which in Buffalo is the result of condensation from the lakes that gets “dropped” when the cloud moves over land. I’d hardly call that RAINY weather. The clue is misleading (and not in a clever or good way).

    But Anony Mouse may have popped his bubble with: “Condensation that gets dropped when the cloud moves over land” is pretty much the definition of rain…

    The theme of the puzzle today was ski slopes, and “going downhill.” In the theme answers the word HILL appeared embedded in other answers, going downhill on gentle or sleep slopes depending on the ski slope symbol the puzzle gave you. Here:

    The first symbol (the green dot) near 17 is the symbol for a bunny slope, so the HILL is gradual. And the double diamond down near 107 is super steep (essentially a cliff), as you can see.

    Anyway, the wonderful Commenter Lewis shared this with us:

    “I only snow-skied one time. I was 20. I was waiting for a lesson and had on beginner skies – metal, thick, huge. I was several yards away from the lip of a bunny hill, and the ground I was waiting on ever so slightly tilted toward that hill, and I started slowly gliding toward its lip. Not knowing how to stop, I just kept going, and the next thing I knew, I plunged down, keeping my balance.

    “The bottom was curved like the bottom of the letter U, and when I reached it, I kept going because, again, I didn’t know how to stop. I went up, then down (backwards!), and up and down, like the bottom of a pendulum, in ever decreasing arcs, like something out of a cartoon, until I finally stopped.”

    I responded by noting: “Happily, your cartoon didn’t include a giant mallet appearing out of the sky and pounding you into the snow. Nobody needs that.”

    Commenter Easy Ed responded with: Thanks for sharing your experience. I’m another one-time skier. I went skiing with a friend who was practically born on skis. We got separated and there were no difficulty signs so I started down what l thought was a pretty trail. Suddenly I was moving at a scary speed with trees whizzing by and no end of the hill in sight. I basically panicked and the only way I could think of to stop was to jump into one of the snow drifts on the side of the run. Luckily I landed in thick snow and not on a hidden boulder. An exhilarating memory that I have no urge to repeat. It turned out that the slope was one that the British Army Rangers used for training, another career opportunity missed…

    For the clue at 9A “Move awkwardly (up)” the answer was CLAMBER. Good word! Here’s an oddly compelling song called Carousel by Siouxie and the Banshees.

    Rex took exception to the clue/answer at 9D: For “It’s all there in black and white,” the answer was CHESS. Rex:  “There?” Where? Also, not all chess sets feature black and white men. In fact, if you do an image search (right now, go ahead) you’ll find that very few of the results are black & white. There’s always some form of dark and light, but the “white” pieces are often more of a light brown, made out of a light wood. Something like this:

    But Commenter Andy F. explained: “The opposing sides in chess are always referred to as black and white, I believe, even if the specific set colors are turquoise and tangerine.”

    And Chick Little chimed in with: “I daresay that it was the introduction of turquoise and tangerine chess pieces that put civilization on the slippery slope from which it will never recover…”

    Amen to that, brother. See you tomorrow, gang.

  • Al Tuna

    Decades ago I put together some baseball trips. I’d drive from city to city, mostly minor league towns, visit the city a bit during the day (depending on when I arrived), search out a nice cheap dinner, and take in the game at night. They would last about a week. I got to games in neat places like Madison, WI (where the Muskies play (named for the fish, not the senator); South Bend, IN (after visiting Notre Dame)(where the game is played in beautiful Coveleski Stadium (The Cove), named after Hall of Fame pitcher Stan Coveleski); Altoona, PA (where I snared a foul ball(!) and where the mascot is a fish named Al Tuna); Louisville, KY (where the game was rained out (boo!) and I gave my raincheck to a young mom sitting nearby with her little boy); and Indianapolis (where the Indy Indians played in a gorgeous very old stadium where John Sayles filmed Eight Men Out).

    I could go on. All of that to say that I am thrilled to announce that Linda and I are planning a mini-trip for late April. We’re starting in York, PA, where the Revolution play, shooting down to Frederick, MD where the Keys play, and then over to DC for a Gnats/Braves day game, and finally up to beautiful Camden Yards where the Birds will try to poop on Boston’s pennant hopes.

    We’ll be based all four nights in Frederick, which is equally inconveniently located for each game (except the one in Frederick, duh). It’ll be half-price burger night at the Holy Hound Taproom in York, said Tom droolingly, and we’ll visit the Right Proper Brewing Company for their happy hour in DC (burp!). And get this — it’s “guaranteed win” night in Frederick. If the Keys lose (and I know all about lost keys, believe me), we get a free pair of tix to a future game! As Linda noted, I guess we have to root for a loss? Hmmmm. We generally like to support the Homies.

    Here’s Al. The team in Altoona is the Curve, named after a big curve in the railroad tracks near town, shown on the logo on Al’s uni.

    Staying on sports for a bit, we are excited to be catching a quarter-final game in the ECAC women’s ice hockey tourney down in Princeton tomorrow. It’s the Tigers vs Harvard. Princeton beat Harvard in the last game we saw down there, 3-1, and Harvard looked overmatched. But then the cats lost up in Cambridge. So it’s anyone’s game tomorrow. Of course, our beautiful Sarah Fillier played her college hockey for Princeton so it holds a special place in Owl Chatter hearts.

    This is Claire Thompson, a Princeton grad who plays for Vancouver in the PWHL now and skated for Canada in the recent Olympics (as did Sarah F., of course).

    Drop the puck, ref — we’re ready!!

    Denise Linville sent this tale in to Met Diary where it appeared last Sunday. Anyone who has ever had a mother will be able to relate.

    Dear Diary:

    I was at a busy intersection in Midtown preoccupied by something I had just recently learned, when, thinking it was our turn to walk, I stepped into the street.

    I was only spared from being hit by a taxi because an older woman with a surprisingly strong grip grabbed the back of my shirt and jerked me backward.

    With the momentary high of a person who had just cheated death, I spun around with a grin on my face and began thanking her effusively.

    She wasn’t impressed and began telling me off for being so careless and not paying attention.

    We must have been a sight, me grinning and thanking her, and her scowling and yelling at me.

    I promised I would be more careful in the future.

    “What am I supposed to do,” she said, “follow you around everywhere?”

    The puzzle was terrific today, a nice crunchy Friday that put up a great fight before I wrestled it to the ground. There were two “stacks” of three 15-letter answers each. The constructor, Caroline Hand, made them both flow beautifully:

    SACAGAWEA DOLLAR (wow)

    AMERICAN PALE ALE (burp!)

    DISTRESSED DENIM

    and then

    RUN INTERFERENCE

    ANASTASIA STEELE (again, wow)

    MANHATTAN KANSAS

    Here’s the stunning Dakota J (daughter of Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and granddaughter of Tippi Hedren), who plays Anastasia S.:

    And here’s a good tune SV shared with us, inspired by the appearance of Kansas in the grid.

    Yesterday I learned about chiliagons via the puzzle. They are polygons (Hi Polly!) that have 1,000 sides. Yeah, you heard me: 1,000 sides, like 997 more than a triangle. Rex included a bowl of chili in his writeup. Quite the comedian.

    Chiliagons became a topic in Philosophy (Hi Sophie!) when Descartes grabbed one to demonstrate the difference between pure intellection and imagination. He says that, when one thinks of a chiliagon, he “does not imagine the thousand sides or see them as if they were present” before him – as he does when one imagines a triangle, for example. The imagination constructs a “confused representation,” which is no different from that which it constructs of a myriagon (a polygon with ten thousand sides (Hi Myra!)). However, he does clearly understand what a chiliagon is, just as he understands what a triangle is, and he is able to distinguish it from a myriagon. Therefore, the intellect is not dependent on imagination, Descartes claims, as it is able to entertain clear and distinct ideas when imagination is unable to.

    Not everyone bought it, but I am far too stupid to go any deeper into this. I’m also being careful not to put Descartes before des horse.

    I made a few points in a comment on Rex’s blog. (The words in CAPS were the answers in the puzzle I was playing with.)

    I thought APERCU was a drink. Must be confusing it with aperitif. My Yiddish has gotten rusty.

    Nice to see DRAFTS near the PALE ALE.

    While my sister was still out from her CESAREAN, my brother-in-law named their twin girls ROTUNDA and TUREEN. I’ll merge 11D (OLD AS DIRT), and its cross at 31A (AIRBAG) and call him a DIRTBAG.

    Oy. You’ve had enough of this by now, I’m sure. But come back tomorrow!

  • Fiddleheads

    Did you know that the white inner part of the orange rind is called PITH. Learned that from the puzzle, though I vaguely recall learning it before. Anyway, I posted the following for the gang: I keep a bowl nearby when I’m peeling an orange so I have a pot to PITH in.

    Naomi Watts was in the puzzle too, leading egs to comment: When I see NAOMI from the rear, I moan. (Get it? “Naomi” backwards spells IMOAN.) It led me to share how Ed Norton described his mother-in-law to Ralph: From the front, she looks like you from the back.

    We’ve been moaning over Naomi for a long time. Mulholland Drive: very weird film, can’t recommend. Saw it with Caity a long time ago. We were hanging on by our fingernails until tiny people came on the screen. It was hopeless after that. (David Lynch.)

    When I go beer shopping, one of my favorite past-times, I’m often discombobulated (oysgefumphed is the Yiddish word I made up) because (1) I want to try everything, (2) I’m too cheap to buy the expensive stuff, and (3) I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. So I wander around in a daze waving off attendants offering to help. But at the Bottle King in Chatham, I had a good, decisive experience. I was looking for something a little on the dark side (sounds scary!), but not porter or stout, to counter what I’m usually having these days, a cheap light beer (Busch Light) good for my diet. And I found Brooklyn Amber Lager right away in a nice twelve pack of bottles. Perfect! Then I saw my favorite Vermont ale: Fiddlehead. Key to it all is freshness: they have to be stamped with a packaged on date that is fairly recent, or a best buy date that is well ahead, or I’ll just walk out. And both of these were right off the truck (relatively)! Decided just to get the Lager but was happy to see both. Had one with dinner just now. Nice! (Burp!) (George! — keep Phil away from it. I mean it — I’ll kill him. Or at least I’ll have Sarah F. kill him — she could do it one-handed without her pulse rate rising. And there’s not a jury in the world that would convict us.)

    That’s not the Brooklyn Bridge in the background. It’s the Manhattan. And here are some fiddleheads. They’re ferns.

    My practice for the daily NYTXW is to complete the puzzle the night before (i.e., I do the “Thursday” puzzle Wednesday night). It pops onto my phone at precisely 10pm. That way, at 6am the following morning, when Rex Parker’s assessment and discussion of it appears, I have either completed it or given up, which is rare (he says, giving himself a pat on the back and nearly pulling a muscle).

    I can rarely predict Rex’s take, since he sees so much more in it than I do. Today, e.g., what I thought might have been seen as a gimmick, he loved. The theme was BREAKDANCING and in three squares there were little drawings of figures performing dance moves. In each one, the figure appeared to be forming the shape of a letter, and that letter was used in the answer that ran across it. But that’s not all. Each long answer crossing it had the name of a dance embedded in it and the figure “broke” it. (What the hell am I talking about?) For example, for the answer VINCENT VAN GOGH the second V was a dancer with her body shaped into a V. And that figure “breaks into” the letters that spell T[V]ANGO (tango) that are embedded in VNCEN[T VAN GO]GH.

    Egs said that at his age he doesn’t bend well anymore so any dance is a BREAKDANCE for him. [Yup. I hear ya.] On the topic of aging, Commenter Gary noted in a different context that he took his wife to the oncologist yesterday who was a woman (the doc) so young he would have guessed she was a Starbucks barista. (I wished him good luck. That’s what we do in the Commentariat. We care about each other.)

    At 11A, the clue was “[blank] hair (edgy 2000s trend)” (3 letters), and I had no idea. (The crosses didn’t help, so I crashed on a Wednesday to my great disgrace.) The answer was EMO hair. Srsly? Commenter Nancy S. had the E and filled in EAR hair. Hysterical. EMO is long, side-swept bangs, layered lengths, and a side-swept look.

    In a headline no doubt written by the American Society of Cardiologists, it was pronounced “Taylor Goes Bare.” Sadly, the story was about her not wearing makeup. Puh-leeze don’t do that.

    I should inform our readership (both of you) that broadcasting may be spotty for a while. A (big) falling branch knocked out the internet/cable service at Owl Chatter’s NJ headquarters. Verizon came to do the repair yesterday, but we didn’t know we had to clear the whole driveway from the street to the house from snow for them. So they left. Arggh. We are faring ok so far without it. I’m actually thinking of suspending it for a bit. I get what I need on my phone and we don’t watch much TV. But for the blog, I’ll be using the wonderful Chatham Library and I may not get there every day.

    We’re very sad to note the death by suicide of Katherine Hartley Short, Martin Short’s beautiful daughter, at the ridiculous age of 42. Katherine was a social worker with degrees from NYU and USC. Short and his wife Nancy (who passed away from cancer in 2010) also had two sons, who survive Katherine. All three kids were adopted.

    Martin is a favorite of Owl Chatter’s with a devotion to nonsense at the highest level and a remarkable quickness. He does a physical impersonation of a bagpipe, for Pete’s sake. We fondly recall his appearance on Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” At one point, Jerry says to Short, “none of this is scripted,” and Short says “No kidding.”

    Rest in peace, Katherine.

    Thanks for dropping in.

  • The Measure of My Dreams

    Well, we’re up to our pupiks in snow today, Chatterheads. Lost a branch out front, but otherwise we’re okay, kinehora. Just lost power for an instant (so far). Hope you’re all okay too.

    Here’s the woman I hired, I mean married, to take care of the shoveling. I’m not sure we’ll be able to find our other shovel. (I hid it pretty well.)

    It’s been a while since we’ve heard from our style and culture consultant Ana but she weighed in today to, well, excoriate one of her favorite actresses, Barbie, for a serious style faux pas. (BTW, the plural of faux pas is also faux pas when it’s written, but when spoken, it’s pronounced foe pah (singular), and foe pahz (plural.)) Ana says this outfit of Margot Robbie’s at Tropfest is ridiculous, even considering the gothic Wuthering Heights connection. “Did someone tell her to throw on some underwear and a shower curtain?”

    Simpler is always better, advises our Oscar nominee for Best Actress for Blonde and for Worst Actress (Razzle Awards) for Ghosted. Thanks Ana. We agree!

    Since we’re trapped inside today, we might as well take a look at the NYTXW.

    We’ve never featured The Band before. I don’t believe it’s true. But at 11A today, for “Final use for an old T-shirt” we got RAG. Hello boys! You like tuba solos, folks? Resin up the bow!

    At 48D, the “London theater district,” was, of course, SOHO. Shane MacGowan wrote this song, below. He was a founding member and vocalist of The Pogues, a Celtic punk band we have featured in Owl Chatter before.

    MacGowan passed away in Dublin in late 2023 at the age of 65. His coffin was borne through Dublin on a horse-drawn carriage as fans lined the streets. Hundreds gathered inside and outside Saint Mary of the Rosary Church in Nenagh, County Tipperary, including celebrities Nick Cave, Johnny Depp, BP Fallon, Bob Geldof, Aidan Gillen, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins and former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams. There was dancing inside the church as “Fairytale of New York” was performed by the Pogues with Glen Hansard, Lisa O’Neill and John Sheahan from the Dubliners.

    “Fairytale of New York” went to No. 1 in Ireland on the weekend of MacGowan’s funeral. The Pogues reissued the song as a charity seven-inch single in tribute to MacGowan and to benefit the Dublin Simon Community, an anti-homelessness organisation he supported.

    Oh, no! Just lost the internet till tomw. Will finish up on my phone. Here’s MacGowan’s great song. See you tomorrow, snowbunnies!

    You took my dreams from me when I first found you.
    I kept them with me, babe, I put them with my own.
    Can’t make it all alone, I’ve built my dreams around you.

    Rest in peace, MacGowan.