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Flexitarianism
Do you know the difference between cottage pie and shepherds pie? They both use minced meat but the former uses beef and the latter lamb (hence the shepherd). In a vegetarian version of either, a nonmeat substitute is used. As to whether it’s a vegetarian shepherds pie or vegetarian cottage pie, it depends on which meat is left out.
Wait, what?
A discussion arose in the Dull Men’s Club (UK). Jerry Davies opined: “You can’t have a vegan shepherds pie. Never heard of a shepherd tending to his flock of tofu.”
It brought fond memories up for Ruth Hunt: “Ahh the tofu herds of ancient memory, dotting the hillsides with cubes of white blubber.”
But Jason Thomas was having none of it: “Farmers do tend to tofu like any other product that needs growing or rearing. I know you were trying to be funny. Try harder.”
Ouch! Take it easy, JT — life’s too short. Here, have a look at American actress Bella Thorne, who visited our puzzle this week. I had never heard of her and she’s very pretty. Maybe that will take the edge off.
Bella was born in Pembroke Pines, FL, and had a rough upbringing. She was abused from ages 6 to 14 by someone close to her and bullied at school for her dyslexia. She overcame the dyslexia by aggressively reading everything she could get her hands on. She began acting as a child to earn some money for her impoverished family. Wow — impressive, B. She’ll be 27 in two weeks and her career is going very well — well enough to earn her an appearance in the goddamn New York Times Crossword Puzzle!
In June 2019, Thorne had nude photos stolen by hackers who subsequently threatened her with extortion; she instead released the photos herself. Owl Chatter will respect her privacy and not reproduce any of them here, mainly because we can’t find them online in under a minute and are too lazy to search harder. But for those of you who have a special place in your heart for redheads, here she is again, fully dressed, and apparently pretending to be amused by one of Phil’s ridiculous jokes.
Today’s puzzle announced right at the start that it wasn’t f*cking around. At 1A the clue was: “Namesake of the channel separating Madagascar from the African mainland” (ten letters). Go ahead — fill it right in. Turned out to be MOZAMBIQUE. Have a listen to the Dylan tune. (That’s Emmy Lou Harris singing with Bob.)
The song began as a game between Dylan and co-writer Jacques Levy to find as many rhymes for Mozambique as possible:
- cheek to cheek
- stop and speak
- a final peek
Rhymes not used:
- antique
- technique
- Byzantine Greek
- take a leak
- calendar week
- hide and go seek
- japanese leek
At 36D the clue was “Box office?,” and the answer was CUBICLE. Good one!
At 49A, the clue was “Custardy French dessert,” and the answer was POT DE CREME. But Anony Mouse says: No French person will say “pot de crème” for a dessert. It would be “crème renversée” or “crème caramel” or “flan.” A “pot de crème” is a cream jar as in milk jar.
OK, thanks.
At 14D, the clue for LOS ALAMOS was “U.S. city with the motto ‘Where Discoveries are Made.’” Guest blogger Eli opined: I suppose that’s better than “If You Had Become Death, Destroyer of Worlds, You’d Be Home By Now.”
The association of one of the most delicious fruits — the peach — with the tuchas seems very unfair to us here at OC. And yet, at 64A, where the clue was “Butt text?” the answer was PEACH EMOJI. The following is from emojipedia.org (not kidding): Thanks to its distinctive cleft, the peach emoji is most commonly used for “buttocks.” In 2016 Apple unveiled a new design that would have deemphasized its distinctive cleft, leading to criticism from Apple users. Ultimately this change was not implemented.
Here’s a cleaned-up peach/butt our legal department has allowed us to post:
Hop-scotching the news:
A story in the NYT today starts out:
The Justice Department announced that it has expanded its investigation into the suburban Mississippi sheriff’s department where a self-described “Goon Squad” of deputies has been accused of torturing people for nearly two decades.
Owl Chatter wants to know: What’s the hurry fellas? Can’t this wait another five or ten years?
Also from the Times today:
Senator JD Vance of Ohio, the Republican vice-presidential nominee, said on Wednesday that he would continue to describe Haitian residents in Springfield, Ohio, as “illegal aliens” even though they are in the country legally.
OK. Makes sense.
Headline in The Onion: American Black Nazi Party Worried Mark Robinson Could Hurt Other Candidates Down Ballot.
Here are two stories for your reading displeasure. The first is from tomorrow’s Met Diary and is by Mitchell Chwatt. The second is by me. Mitch’s story jarred it loose in my memory. I submitted it to the Diary.
Dear Diary:
It was rush hour and I just boarded a packed E train at Penn Station.
I noticed an empty seat next to an extremely large and intimidating-looking man. He was wearing a weathered motorcycle-type jacket, and his hair was rather wild, matching the expression on his face.
I told myself not to judge a book by its cover and sat down next to him. I did my best not to brush up against him and kept my eyes straight ahead.
After a few moments, I felt my mouth getting dry. I pulled out my Chapstick and applied it to my lips.
A moment later, the giant of a man next to me reached into his pocket and pulled out his own Chapstick.
“I prefer cherry myself,” he said.
Here’s mine:
I got onto the F train years ago, heading home to Brooklyn from my job in Manhattan. I was exhausted but assumed there were no seats because folks were standing. An available seat not far from me caught my eye, but I immediately saw why. A poor homeless fellow was seated next to the space and nobody wanted to sit near him. He looked pretty bad and hadn’t bathed in a while. But I was so tired I studied that open seat carefully and determined it was wide enough that I could sit down and still leave a little bit of room between me and the poor fellow. So I did so, and it felt good to sit down. I closed my eyes for a few moments to deepen the relaxation. When I opened them a bit later, I glanced over at the homeless man. It was then that I noticed that he and I were wearing the exact same pants.
Note to self: Work on wardrobe when you get the chance.
In that cottage/shepherd pie discussion one fellow referred to himself as a flexitarian, a term that was new to me. It means someone who is primarily a vegetarian but who occasionally has meat. He was taken to task by a member who replied: “wtf on this earth is a flexaterian. If you eat meat then you’re a carnivore whether you eat it once a week or not.” And the flexitarian shot back: Google search it and you might learn how to spell it correctly. [Hrrrrumph!]
But I’ll close tonight with my favorite post on that issue, by Keith Sherry who wrote:
I had a friend who called himself a “huntetarian” – he only ate whatever meat he could catch himself! He was always quite thin, but less translucent than a vegan.
See you tomorrow!
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The Business of Caring
Sometimes you learn the weirdest things in puzzles. Did you ever have your feet X-rayed in a shoe store when you were little? Yeah, you heard me! The clue at 13D was: “Diagnostics done with “Foot-o-scopes” in old shoe stores,” and the answer was XRAYS. Rex was equally surprised and wondered if they used those lead aprons like dentists do. But then commenter BonitaBill posted: “I remember having my feet x-rayed at the shoe store in the 1950’s and there was no protection available.”
Could that be where the expression “twinkle toes” comes from?
Nah.
Wikipedia tells us all about these shoe-fitting fluoroscopes that were used from the ’20s to the ’70s. They were considered useful in sizing for kids shoes bccause kids’ sizes change so often. They were phased out when people started worrying about radiation. In 1999, Time included them in “the worst ideas of the 20th century.” [It came in right behind our friend X’s “golf with a defense.”] In the novel It by Stephen King, a character recalls using one.
I posted about it in the Dull Men’s Club (UK) asking if any members recall having their feet x-rayed when they were little. A good 20 or so said they remember it clearly! Maybe it was used more in the UK.
At 64D, the clue for CAT was: “Abraham Lincoln was the first to keep one at the White House.” Lincoln’s Sec’y of State William Seward gave Linc two kittens as a gift and he named them Tabby and Dixie.
I am lifting the following material from the Smithsonian magazine:
Lincoln’s love of felines was legendary. “Supposedly he was feeding a cat from a plate and Mary Lincoln said, ‘You know, that’s not really respectful, this is a very proper house and seat of government and you shouldn’t feed the cats from the dishes.’ [In response,] Lincoln said, ‘Well if it was good enough for James Buchanan it’s good enough for this cat.’” When asked if her husband had a hobby, Mary simply responded “cats.” “I have seen him fondle one for an hour,” wrote Maunsell B. Field, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury.
You know our Phil. Once we unleashed him on the topic, there was no stopping him. The following are Susan Ford with Shan, Amy Carter with Misty Malarky Ying Yang, Clinton with Socks, and, last, W’s cat India.
And don’t forget Willow who currently resides in the White House.
Finally (on this topic), Rutherford B. Hayes’ wife, Lucy was a cat lover and received a gift of what is believed to be the first Siamese cat to reach the U.S. It was named Siam, but, sadly, contracted a mysterious illness and did not live long. Today, the Hayes presidential library sells (plush) stuffed cats.
[Note: No animals have been harmed or eaten by Haitians in the production of this blog post.]
Today’s puzzle was a marvel of gimmicks and tricks. The theme clues all had warnings about things we shouldn’t do, but the theme answers did them all. E.g., one clue referenced the state slogan “Don’t mess with Texas,” but the answer was AESTX: the letters in TEXAS are messed with.
My favorite was at 41A where the clue was: “A tip in the working world: Don’t …” So you’d think the answer is don’t “mix business with pleasure,” but the answer has the letters of the two words “mixed,” i.e., they alternate: PBLUESAISNUERSES
The puzzle adjures us not to cry over spilled milk. And here’s an unusual song, “Milk,” by a band called Garbage.
Tom McMahon posed the following question for the membership of the DMC(UK):
I’ve just bought another pair of the same trousers that I already have four pairs of, just in case they stop making them.
The question is whether to leave them untouched until one of trousers 1-4 are too worn to be wearable, or to introduce the new pair to the existing trouser cycle and therefore extend the life of all 5.
Sandra Davies inquired whether they are all the same color, and Tom replied: “Of course, what sort of loose-moraled dandy do you think I am? (Grey, btw.)”
Marie Diesel-Dyer wrote: I have this with everything I like. Spare backups. Shoes, clothes, husbands….
Dave Henderson noted: You now have the full set. A pair of trousers, an old pair, an old old pair, a new pair and your new new pair.
Suzanne Knowles counseled: Wait for a trouser to die
Paul Murphy wrote: To answer this question we need to know the lifetime of a pair of the trousers, the current ages of the current trousers, your own life expectancy, the minimum number of pairs of trousers that are needed to be able to wash them when needed/desired, your risk aversion levels to either running out of trousers near the end of your life or have remaining wear in your trousers after your death. (I might have over-thought this.)
A number of members introduced the fear that his pants size might change, most likely upwards.
Theo noted: ‘The clothes I used to buy were nice, why don’t they still sell those? With what I’m buying now, I can’t bend down and reach my toes.’ And I replied: Are you sure it’s because of the clothes? I haven’t reached mine since the Clinton administration, but it’s from all the beer, burgers, etc.
From Frank Bruni: In The Baltimore Sun, Dan Rodricks quipped: “Donald Trump saying he won’t debate Kamala Harris a second time is like the Thanksgiving turkey saying he won’t be available for Christmas dinner.”
Roger Angell was born on this date in 1920. He passed away at 101 in ’22. Along with Bart Giamatti’s brilliant essay “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Angell’s writing on baseball is the best we have. His annual write-up of the season came out in late November (in The New Yorker), and I gobbled it down immediately. His finest work may have been on the Boston-Cincy World Series that ended heartbreakingly for Boston, but not until Fisk struck his heroic historic blow to win Game 6. The homer made Angell think of all of his many long-suffering Red Sox fan friends and picture each of them exulting in the moment. And then he wrote:
“It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team, and the amused superiority and icy scorn that the non-fan directs at the sports nut (I know this look—I know it by heart) is understandable and almost unanswerable. Almost. What is left out of this calculation, it seems to me, is the business of caring—caring deeply and passionately, really caring—which is a capacity or an emotion that has almost gone out of our lives. And so it seems possible that we have come to a time when it no longer matters so much what the caring is about, how frail or foolish is the object of that concern, as long as the feeling itself can be saved. Naïveté—the infantile and ignoble joy that sends a grown man or woman to dancing and shouting with joy in the middle of the night over the haphazardous flight of a distant ball—seems a small price to pay for such a gift.”
It still sends chills down my spine, nearly 50 years later.
He also wrote:
“Since baseball time is measured only in outs, all you have to do is succeed utterly; keep hitting, keep the rally alive, and you have defeated time. You remain forever young. Sitting in the stands, we sense this, if only dimly. The players below us—Mays, DiMaggio, Ruth, Snodgrass—swim and blur in memory, the ball floats over to Terry Turner, and the end of this game may never come.”
Last Sunday, my Caitlin and Danny took my grandson Leon to his first major league game: Boston was visiting Yankee Stadium. Danny splurged on good seats and the weather was perfect, but they were driving so I worried about traffic, parking, etc. So how was it? — Awesome. The Yanks won a good game, and Aaron Judge hit a mammoth home run!
There is nothing like the first time you emerge from the little tunnel and the field spreads itself out before you with the crowd noises and the smells. I wanted it to be as defining an experience for Leon as it had been for me, sixty five or so years ago. Good job Danny and Caity — he will never forget that moment.
See you tomorrow!
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A Tulip Too Heavy For Its Stem
Peter Dellingham of the Dull Men’s Club writes: On a road trip to London a few years ago, the Gerry Rafferty song “Baker Street” started playing on the car radio just as I turned in to the famous London thoroughfare, forever immortalised in the song. Does anybody else have any equally dull coincidences they would like to share?
So Gordon Ward posted: I was in the Lord Delamere Bar of the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi waiting for a mate to turn up. I was reading a Wilbur Smith book and as I turned the page, the hero walked into the Lord Delamere bar of the Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi. Wilbur had described it exactly.
But this coincidence, shared by Richard Aug, will really blow your socks off:
I have a loud noise in my bedroom that starts everyday at the same time, just before I wake up.
It’s been a while since I ran across a poem I felt was just right for Owl Chatter. Today’s selection from The Writer’s Almanac is called “Old Age Home,” and it’s by Burt Kimmelman.
The ride from Manhattan — slipping her
into the passenger seat, swinging
in her legs, shutting the door — to the
suburbs of New Jersey, its trees and
freshly-painted houses, was as neat
as her empty apartment. We placed
some photos on her table, hung up
a few paintings on the walls, arranged
some of her sculptures here and there, plugged
in lamps and the television set.We made our way along the hallway
to a room full of sun, where people
were gathered to talk a little, though
she had nothing to say. There was a
stereo playing music, and once
in a while someone sang the lyrics,
which had returned from some dim region —
a man seated in an easy chair
had wanted, years ago, “a girl just
like the girl who married dear old Dad.”We went to dinner. Someone poured her
a glass of juice. She ate, spilling food,
with a sudden hunger. Afterward
we sat on some couches. Someone asked
her to dance. The music played. She danced
with slight, tentative steps, a tulip
too heavy for its stem. When we had
to go we kissed goodnight, and left her
to lie down in her soft bed, her head
on her pillow, to slip into sleep.
The puzzle today was a tribute to THE SPANISH STEPS in Rome. They spanned the grid as an answer as did TRINITA DEI MONTI, the church that sits at the top of the steps.
Things I learned from comments: There are 39 steps leading up to the church, representing the 39 lashes JC received before he was crucified. Also, John Keats lived his last days in a house that bordered the Spanish Steps, where he died at age 25. Too bad Keats wasn’t worked into the puzzle alongside the steps.
Salvador Dali was worked in instead. We had LIMP, “like the watches in Dali’s ‘The Persistence of Memory.’” And San “Salvador” showed up separately in a clue. (Coincidence?)
Hello Dali!
ciaolenora shared this tale of good fortune, which could fit into the coincidence material, above:
“I was helped immensely by a recent attempt to clear out my attic. I came across a very old scarf I’d purchased years ago in Italy on which was depicted several attractions, one of which was La Trinitá dei Monti. I googled La Trinità and learned it was situated above The Spanish Steps. A very lucky and timely find indeed.”
This comment, by JJK, made me happy:
“I’ve been to the Spanish Steps – my sister and I, both traveling in Europe with our boyfriends in 1980, planned to meet on the Spanish Steps on a certain day at a certain time. Since it was pre-cell phones and we had no way to be in touch, we just had to hope it would work out. It did, we met, it was summer in Rome, and we both eventually married those boyfriends.”
NORA was in the puzzle, not Nick: “Half of a Dashiell Hammett detective couple.” Did you know a type of cocktail glass is named after them? Nick and Nora cocktail glasses. They look like this. Cheers!
When “Unfilled space” turned out to be a six-letter word with CU in the center, it had to be vacuum, no? But it turned out to be LACUNA, a new word for me. It means blank space or missing part. It comes from lagoon or lake, in the sense of a pit or gap.
The Wise Men of Chelm will live forever in Jewish folklore. Their “wisdom” is carefully arrived at but is the wisdom of fools. Thus, when they arranged the trial of a fish that committed the crime of slapping a Chelmite’s face with its tail (the man was carrying the live fish under his coat), they found the fish guilty and sentenced it to death by drowning.
But this story, reported by CBS News, is from the actual town of Chelm in Poland. According to the Culture Ministry, workers removing tree branches near a historic cathedral in Chelm, came upon two children’s skeletons in a shallow burial pit where no gravesites are marked.
Neither skeleton was buried in a coffin and one of the children was buried with the characteristics of an anti-vampire burial. The head was separated from its body, and the skull was facing down into the ground arranged on a stone. This is consistent with ancient burial methods used to prevent a person thought to be a demonic entity from exiting the grave.
Makes perfect sense.
In 2022, Polish researchers found the remains of a woman at a gravesite in the village of Pień with a sickle around her neck and a triangular padlock on her foot. The padlock was supposed to prevent a deceased person thought to be a vampire from returning from the dead. The sickle was thought to cut the neck if the corpse tried to rise from the grave.
You can’t be too careful.
Research for this story was provided by Owl Chatter Special Correspondent for Demonic Affairs, Chava Abramowitz.
Love the smoky eyes, Chav.
See you tomorrow, everybody.
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Taylor and Brittany
I’m pretty slow on picking up stuff. I’d be really pathetic if it weren’t for the puzzles teaching me new things all the time. So it was only recently that I learned what the prefix “cis” means. It’s to distinguish trans folks from nontrans folks. So in the puzzle today, the clue at 14A was “One assigned female at birth and identifying as such,” and the answer was CISGENDER. So someone who is a woman having transitioned to that gender is a trans woman, and women who have not transitioned are cisgender women.
And that’s what caused a flare up among the commentariat in Rex’s blog. Longtime commenter Nancy, as big a curmudgeon as Rex, took strong exception to being given this new classification: cisgender woman. She wants to just be called a woman. This caused several in the community to charge her with transphobia, i.e., being anti-trans. And then, of course, came the defense.
Here’s how Nancy started things out:
You are not allowed to go mucking around with my identity — an identity I’ve had for my entire life which, btw, adds up to a lotta, I mean a lotta years. You can have any identity you prefer for yourself and I will completely respect it, but you cannot go mucking around with mine. You may not re-define me, however “convenient” you may find your new definition. My identity does not exist for your convenience.
Anony mouse chimed in with: These are transphobic comments. Please talk to a younger person once in a while so you can see how off base you are here.
Nancy’s rejoinder: I don’t remotely care how a trans person wants to identify themselves — as a “trans woman” or as simply just ” a woman” or any other way they want to describe themselves. That’s totally their prerogative and privilege. But I’m damned if I will permit them or journalists or anyone else to describe me as a CIS WOMAN. I’m a woman, period.. Make up as many new terms for the trans community as you wish, but not for me. That is not your right. And, no, you cannot call me transphobic because I insist on defining MY OWN bleeping identity. I am perfectly willing to respect your chosen terms of reference, so please afford me the same courtesy.
Anony Mouse (likely a different one) added:
“Cis is merely a Latin prefix with the opposite meaning of trans- . Applying the prefix cis- isn’t an act of redefining you against your will. It’s just a clarification that may seem unnecessary in your life (which is a privilege).
“I recently learned that people in the autistic community refer to non-autistic people as allistic. It makes a lot of sense to me that terms need to evolve so that language can identify members of particular groups (when necessary, in context) without resorting to hierarchical distinctions like ‘normal.’
“At any rate, since the crossword wasn’t asking for the gender of Nancy, and since many people ‘assigned female at birth and identifying as such’ do choose to identify as cis, the clue fits the answer without needing to be seen as an attack on you as an individual.”
Commenter dgd said: I think it is destructive and self defeating to assume someone is transphobic just because certain terminology bothers them. Language can be a very personal thing. I am gay. I fully understand why people in the community use queer but it is not something at 72 I can say easily.
The problem is when progressives become dogmatic and sad to say a bit like their enemies. Taking control of what people call you is a good thing. Imposing new words describing other people not so much. And you are imposing the term ciswoman if you call Nancy transphobic simply because she doesn’t like it.
And look progressives seem to me to spend too much energy on terminology. Changing terminology can be very important ( Black, Latino/a, First Nations, gay – now queer- trans) but an ever expanding list of subcategories that the mass of people find confusing and on this occasion insulting is counterproductive.The final post on the issue came from Anony Mouse:
It would be one thing if someone had said it was transphobic for Nancy to define herself as something other than cisgendered. Nancy can call herself whatever she wants. But the crossword had nothing to do with her, and what appears transphobic is her strong objection to CISWOMAN as an answer in the crossword at all (or perhaps, an answer as clued).
Cis is part of the language that has developed and become normalized in order to allow trans people to self actualize and have language that describes their experience of the world, at times in contrast to non-trans (ie, cis) people. No part of that is an insult to Nancy.
Personally, on whether Nancy should be charged with being transphobic — I grant her a special curmudgeon exemption. It’s one hell of a broad-ass exemption.
Let’s just move on.
“It’s finally Taylor Swift Watching Football season.”
In the ongoing saga of Taylor and Travis, there was concern last week of a rift between Taylor and Brittany Mahomes, the wife of Travis’s buddy, QB Patrick Mahomes. Brit had come out supporting Trump, and Taylor, of course, is with Kamala. But the latest word is B may be souring on Trump. She was quite miffed at his attack on Taylor. Here they are, a while ago, mugging for our Phil.
Two short notes on baseball, and then we’ll close early tonight — I’m tired from teaching my classes.
I love the little nooks and crannies in baseball — little oddities that seem to pop up all the time. I was watching the Gnats play the Mets tonight (the Gnats have slipped behind just a bit, 9-1 in the sixth. Ouch.), and announcer Gary Cohen noted that the Mets had an “all-righty” line up. It is an accepted baseball fact that you would prefer to have a right-handed batter facing a left-handed pitcher (and vicey-versey). So the Mets stacked their lineup with all righties to face Gnat pitcher Parker, a lefty. (It was all “pure” right-handed batters — no switch hitters.) And Cohen noted it was only the third time in twenty years that the Mets did that. Neat.
Second, I learned a new rule last night — how often does that happen after so many decades of watching? First, let me explain the infield fly rule. It applies when there are less then two outs, and runners on first and second, or the bases are loaded. If an infield fly is hit by the batter — i.e., a pop-up in the infield — the umpire will call the batter automatically out, whether the ball is caught by the defense or not. The rule is designed to prevent the fielder from dropping the ball on purpose and going for a double play.
In last night’s game, the Gnats had runners on first and second, with no outs. The batter bunted the ball, but poorly — he bunted it into a soft popup to the third baseman who was charging in. The third baseman caught it. But the announcers (Cohen and Keith Hernandez) were saying maybe he should have let it fall, intentionally, to go for the double play. I thought — but shouldn’t the infield fly rule have been called to prevent that? And that’s when I learned it does not apply when the ball is bunted. Wow.
Then one of them said, maybe the third baseman couldn’t have done that, because he vacated his position at third to field the bunt. So a third-to-second DP could not have been executed. So they showed the replay to check. Amazingly — you could see the catcher racing from home to third to be able to take the throw there if the ball had been intentionally dropped to go for the DP. Again, wow. Apparently, however, the third baseman just didn’t think quickly enough or didn’t know the rule (hard to imagine).
Gary Cohen (left, below), asked Keith Hernandez, who was a brilliant first baseman in his day, if infielders were generally aware of that bunt rule. And Keith said, “You know, Gary, it’s been so long since I’ve played, I just don’t remember.” D’oh!
See you tomorrow!
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Small Hope
Those three delicious As in MALALA make her a natural as a puzzle answer, but who’d be crazy enough to center a puzzle around her full name: MALALA YOUSEFZAI? Robert Corridan would — today’s constructor. And on a Monday, no less. The clue was “Youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner,” and she was used for her “lala.” The theme was LA LA LAND, and the theme answers all sported lalas: RURAL ALABAMA, LA LAKERS, and VANILLA LATTE, along with Malala. The clue for RURAL ALABAMA was fun: “Setting for ‘My Cousin Vinny.’”
It inspired Rex to share an oldie with us, which happens to be the only single I ever bought when I was young. “La La Means I Love You,” by the Delphonics. I don’t associate it with any school girls I had a crush on — I just loved the song.
Listen to me!! La la la la la la la la la means I love you. Oh, you’ll have to understand now. La la la la la la la la la means I love you. Come on and take my hand.
Shakespeare!
Was there a not so subtle anti-South theme in the grid? In addition to RURAL ALABAMA, GWBUSH (a Texan) made an appearance, along with “Dummies” as the clue for IDIOTS. (I would have preferred “doofuses.”) Also, for the clue “What ‘muffin top’ and ‘spare tire’ are euphemisms for,” the answer was FLAB. Ouch! — that last one hits a little close to home. F*ck you Corridan! I don’t need to be fat-shamed in my daily puzzle!
This poem by Ted Kooser is called “Screech Owl.” I snared it off of his website.
All night each reedy whinny
from a bird no bigger than a heart
flies out of a tall black pine
and, in a breath, is taken away
by the stars. Yet, with small hope
from the center of darkness,
it calls out again and again.
That’s a picture of jellyfish that have washed up on Ayr beach in England, posted for the Dull Men’s Club (UK) by Andrew Torchy Appleby. I don’t know if “Torchy” is his middle name, or if he is an arsonist. He stated that he is 62, and has a son who is 32, who pokes them with a stick. He also said, they populate the beach “as far as the eye can see.”
Thomas McChristie shared: Happens around the same time every year… Jelly fish in the waters in the summer are a good thing, they eat plankton and help purify our waters. Between September and October they die off and you’ll find them washed up on our shores. They’re known as barrel jellyfish or to local fishermen as the blob.
Jen Jo says: JELLYFISH HAVE A NERVOUS SYSTEM. Sorry for shouting. Don’t care about poking them with a stick, but I care that people know they have nervous systems, so they can feel right down to the ends of their tentacles. If they didn’t, how would they know prey was caught in them?
[Apparently, it would be okay to poke these, since they are dead, so a little poke would be the least of their problems.]
Dave Fritzler, no doubt a comedian, asked where the peanut butter fish were.
Hey, here’s one!
You know those disgusting grey bin things at the airport you put your shoes, keys, phone, change, wallet, etc. into before going through that X-ray machine? Well, first of all, a study in 2018 showed that those bins carry more cold germs than airport toilets. Second, they were the subject of a front page article in the NYT today even though, clearly, it’s a story of such nonsense it’s far more appropriate for Owl Chatter.
It turns out people have started arranging their crap in the bins in an aesthetically pleasing manner and then photographing it and posting it on TikTok and other such sites. TSA is okay with it, as long as it doesn’t cause delays. Some folks wait to photograph their bins until after they’ve been zapped. The Times article cited this short video.
And here’s a nice one.
The puzzle today contained a P TRAP (letter-shaped plumbing piece), and IAMB (poetic foot). Here’s egs:
How do you catch a Pterodactyl? With a PTRAP!
After breaking several toes tripping over a volume of his sonnets, Shakespeare reportedly said “IAMB suffering from a poetic foot.”
Commenter Les S. More shared two stories today that were behind little doors the puzzle opened up for him. At 14A, the clue was “One assigned female at birth and identifying as such,” for CISWOMAN. And at 56A, the clue was “Fruit that’s a citrus, not a hybrid of a pomegranate and melon,” for POMELO. Here’s the post:
Reminds me of the days when I still worked downtown and took the train home and when I transferred from train to bus there was a person who was quite obviously in the process of gender transformation. There was always an empty seat beside her and she looked so sad. People would stand rather than sit by her. They were uncomfortable in her presence. I’d take the empty seat. We would chat about trivial stuff; the weather, that sort of lightweight stuff. Not her gender, not her decision to change (she probably got enough of that shit), not the fact that people were standing and holding onto straps, afraid to get near her, shunning her. She was very brave. I can’t forget her.
On a lighter note: POMELOs. On a trip to China in 2002, one of our travelling companions got a tip on how to access the old, unreconstructed part of the Great Wall and after a harrowing crossing of a high weir-like structure approximately 2 feet wide and 25 to 30 feet above a small river (my wife and I are both very nervous about being in high places but, at least, should we fall, she, unlike me, is a swimmer), we found ourselves hiking along this fantastic structure. We had a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and some bread and cheese and the six of us stopped for lunch at a suitably scenic point where we were approached by a young woman (Kiwi or Aussie, I can’t remember and I’m shit with accents) with what looked like a bunch of grapefruits in a backpack. She peeled a few, distributed them, and when I said they didn’t really taste like grapefruit, she said they were, in fact, POMELOs, grapefruit ancestors. Perfect picnic.
Think I’ll pop downstairs for a snack. See you tomorrow!
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Avoiding Condiment Fraud
Today’s puzzle wasn’t very exciting, but it did have book titles in it, and one was “The Giving Tree.” Remember that one, mom and dad? The US Postal Service issued a stamp honoring it, and Shel Silverstein, the author.
There was a cartoon in the New Yorker (I think) that had the little boy looking up at the tree, just like in the book. It was called “The Re-Giving Tree,” and the tree tossed a gift box down to the boy and is saying “It’s a blender.”
I found it!
Farrah Fawcett was in the puzzle too. Here’s a shot of her that Andy Warhol took. She was only 62 when she died of cancer back in 2009.
In last Wednesday’s puzzle, for the clue “Part of a club,” I put down MEMBER, but it turned out to be TOMATO. The “club” was a club sandwich. D’oh! And Rex shared this unusual music video by Tierra Whack.
Miriam Webster’s “word of the day” today is LIMINAL. I don’t think I’ve ever used it. It describes an intermediate, or in-between, state — like those brief moments between sleep and wakefulness. It also describes something barely perceptible. The word comes from the noun “limen,” which refers to the point at which a physiological or psychological effect begins to be produced, a threshold. And, thus, “subliminal” means below a threshold: something inadequate to produce a sensation.
The root is also present in “eliminate,” “sublime,” and “preliminary.”
Right off the bat, the clue at 1A mystified me: “‘Here’s looking at you, kid’ or ‘You can’t handle the truth!,’ famously.” I wrote in LINES, but that seemed unworthy. I worked around it and it turned out to be AD LIB. Really? Jack Nicholson came up with that on his own? He did. So did DeNiro with “You talking to me?” in Taxi Driver, and Richard Castellano (Clemenza) with “Take the cannoli,” in The Godfather.
So get this: Simon Hammett of the DMC (UK) posted this: The Heinz people are so tired of restaurants and cafés refilling their bottles with non-Heinz ketchup to ‘fool customers’ that they’ve developed a label sticker where the outer border matches the exact colour of genuine Heinz ketchup. If it matches (left), it’s the real deal. If it doesn’t (right), it’s condiment fraud.
Condiment fraud!
Frazer Martin says: Heinz is crap anyway try Wilkin & Sons Ltd Tiptree and you will never go back!
But Lewis Main said it’s not a fair comparison because Wilkin & Sons costs so much more. It’s like saying buy a Porsche instead of a smart car.
Then it got a little testy. Martin said: Seriously dude what are you rabbiting on about ffs [which I take to mean “for fuck’s sake”].
And Main shot back: Don’t cry. I’m just saying you’re saying Heinz is crap go to this and it’s not a fair comparison.
Martin had the last word (as of now): “There’s only one person crying and that’s yourself. I don’t see how comparing spending £2 extra for a bottle of ketchup is the same as saying spending an extra £50.000 on a Porsche.”
[I cannot begin to express how deeply I love this club.]
The roughly 5 hours of football I watched today, like a beached whale, covered a sweet Jets victory, a crappy Giants loss, and an exciting KC win over Cincy. The internet was mum on whether Tay would be in attendance, but she showed, and was suitably elated at the win. She was dressed in a Chiefs t-shirty sort of dress and black thigh-high boots. Oh, wait — Phil just sent this in — you don’t need my description:
Lookin’ good, babe. Have fun in KC tonight. If Travis takes you out to one of those steak places, be very careful with the ketchup.
See you tomorrow!
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It’s a Trap!
This piece from tomorrow’s Met Diary was shared by Katie Bucaccio.
Dear Diary:
It was summer 2014, and I was in my twenties. I was subletting a tiny, windowless bedroom in South Williamsburg.
One August morning, the heat was so oppressive in that little room that I left the shift dress I was wearing unzipped as I got ready for work, intending to zip up right before leaving.
The commute into Manhattan for what was my first real 9-to-5 job included a 20-minute walk to the Bedford Avenue L station. I was always drenched by the time I got there.
When the train finally pulled in that morning, riders were packed in like sardines. I squeezed my way into a car, and we rumbled off through the tunnel.
“Excuse me,” I heard a man behind me say.
The car was too crowded for me to turn around to face him, but I glanced over my shoulder to see that he was about my age.
“Your dress is unzipped,” he said.
My cheeks, already flushed from the heat, got redder as I blushed from embarrassment. I tried to reach behind me, but I couldn’t grasp the zipper.
“Do you want me to . . . ?” he asked tentatively.
“Oh, yes. If you don’t mind,” I said. “Thank you.”
He zipped me up, and we rode silently the rest of the way into Manhattan.
This is how a story in the NYT on the war in Ukraine opened today: “Sen. JD Vance outlined a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. But objectively, it sounds a lot like Vladimir Putin’s.”
Hmmmm. Can’t quite put my finger on what’s troubling there. Will have to give it some thought.
Here’s a shot of Zelensky and the missus. Looking good kids!
In the wake of Tyreek Hill’s controversial stop by the police on his way to the Dolphin’s game last week, NY Jets coach Robert Saleh gave NJ State Troopers a list of 17 members of the Jets he’d like to have pulled over and held this Sunday until the game is over.
According to NBC news, a truck carrying over 500,000 shrimp valued at more than $300,000 was stolen in Middlesex NJ last week.
This little fella was left behind.
Authorities have placed all suppliers of cocktail sauce on high alert.
There was a neat juxtaposition in the puzzle today. At 16A the clue was “Many Renaissance thinkers,” for POLYMATHS, which means “a person of great and varied learning.” That was right next to “Baseball mascot with a fluffy green snout.” (Phillie PHANATIC) He’s a Phillymath!
At 27A the clue was “Job that anyone could see themselves doing?” And the answer was WINDOW WASHER.
Commenter Lewis reminded us of a clue this constructor came up with back in February: It was “Wind up alone?” Answer: FLUTE SOLO.
If you are a creative cluer, coming up with something for the answer “NYT” could be a challenge. Here’s what Christina Iverson came up with in today’s puzzle: “It once ran the headline ‘Santa Dies on Xmas Trip’: Abbr.” It wasn’t a joke story. Take a look. It’s from 1913.
Hold on a sec, readers. I have to check on that window washer of ours. “You missed a few spots, Francois.”
At 4D the clue was “Where the average American lives,” and the answer was ANYTOWN USA. It prompted egs to ask: Does anyone live in ANYTOWN anymore anyway?
On this date in 1741, Handel’s Messiah was completed. Charles Jennens finished the text in July and gave it to Handel, hoping for the best. It took Handel 24 days of furious writing to complete it. It debuted in Dublin at Easter. The event attracted 700 people; to accommodate such a crowd, gentlemen were asked to leave their swords at home, and ladies were requested to remove the hoops from their skirts.
Hey, little girl –lose that hoop if you want in.
Matthew Spriggs of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) sang the praises of his CPAP machine for his sleep apnea. Before he got it, he would have 86 episodes an hour while he slept, in which he stopped breathing for ten seconds or more.
Yikes! Here’s Matthew:
Also from the DMC (UK), Dawn Stewart posted: Went to make cheese on toast this evening… on going to the condiments cupboard I failed to locate any Worcestershire sauce… I know I bought a bottle in 1993! I wasn’t aware I would need to purchase a second bottle in this lifetime!
Mary Pickens replied: You do. Grow up.
And the response to that was: No! It’s a trap!
See you tomorrow!
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Quiet Please, Ladies!
You know that one annoying woman you see now and then whose voice just grates on you like nails on a chalkboard? Well, if you lived in Afghanistan, she wouldn’t be a problem. This is from today’s NYT: Taliban leaders published rules that, among other restrictions, make it illegal for a woman’s voice to be heard by male strangers in public.
Wait, what? No typos up there folks. Welcome to Kabul!
Back in the states, where Haitian immigrants are chowing down on Fido and Whiskers, Stanley Woolner, of St. Paul, MN, has come up with a solution in his letter to the Times today. We need to start arming pets!
I think he was kidding. No, I’m sure he was kidding. Probably.
Re: Today’s puzzle at 38A: How’s this as a clue for RAIN?: “Petrichor is the aroma produced by this.” So you know that neat smell from rain? Had no idea it has a name. It comes from petra (rocks) + ichor (the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of the Gods). It’s formed by the liquification of organic compounds.
At 22A today, the clue was “Gets ready for the national anthem, maybe,” and the answer was RISES. The guest blogger for Rex noted that the “maybe” here is doing a lot of heavy lifting. It contains the whole issue of should you stand or not stand as a political statement. Or take a knee even (hi Colin!).
I shared the following, on a different aspect of RISES:
About 20 years ago, when I still went to our temple now and then, I was at a holiday service, and I noticed at one point when we were asked to stand that a woman I knew several rows ahead of me was not standing. And then I saw why. She was seated next to a little girl in a wheelchair. And to make the little girl feel less uncomfortable about not being able to stand, she stayed seated too. It was a beautiful gesture I have never forgotten.
Great clue/answer at 50A: “It might cause some unsurprised looks.” Answer: BOTOX.
At 52D, the clue was “2024 Charli XCX album with a lime green cover,” and the answer was BRAT. In modern pop culture, brat refers to someone who is confidently rebellious, unapologetically bold, and playfully defiant. Anyway, here you go — turn it up.
There was a PIANO BENCH in the puzzle today, at 28D. Who the hell put that in there? It reminded me of the great Victor Borge who would, from time to time, fall off of his. I challenge you not to laugh when it occurs in this two-minutes of pure piano nonsense.
T-shirt sold by The Onion for $29: “Jurisprudence Fetishist Gets Off On Technicality.”
This excellent observation is from Frank Bruni’s “For the love of sentences” feature:
In The Washington Post, Monica Hesse parsed JD Vance’s insistence that parents are intrinsically more invested in a society’s health than childless people are: “If it took having your own children to care about quality education, clean air and safe cities, then I have bad news: Parenthood didn’t make you less of a narcissist; it merely widened your umbrella of narcissism just enough to keep your own genetic offspring dry.”
Bruni himself started off his assessment of the debate with:
In Kamala Harris’s big general-election debate four years ago, she faced off against an opponent with a fly on his head.
In her immeasurably bigger debate on Tuesday night, she confronted an opponent with bats inside his. And out they came, flapping and screeching, when he brought up cats and dogs.
[OC True Confessions Dept: I stole the “Fido and Whiskers” reference, above, from Frank.]
Let’s sign off with this note and reply from the Dull Men’s Club (UK). And please be advised that a “roundabout” is a traffic circle, and to “indicate” is to use your turn signal.
Troy Doherty’s post:
So whilst sat at a round about today, several cars turned off before they got to me but didn’t indicate so I didn’t go. I wonder how much time would be saved across our nation if everyone indicates at roundabouts and junctions?
Peter Saxton’s response:
They may have been indicating. Are you sure you weren’t just blinking in synchronisation with their indicators being in off phase of their performance?
Thanks for popping by! See you tomorrow.
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Steady Eddie
We attended the Kacey Musgraves concert Monday night at the Prudential Center in Newark with, what?, 15,000 screaming fans, and came away loving her. It takes a certain gift to make a space that crazy feel intimate. Her voice is beautiful, she’s very pretty, and her love for her fans seems sincere. She cites John Prine as her most significant influence.
If you watch Saturday Night Live, as I do not, you may have seen her perform. She’s been on several times. On Oct 2, 2021, she became the first musical act ever to perform nude on SNL. Yikes! Really?
How great is her voice? Well, she won a national yodeling contest when she was only 13!
We grabbed the free tix thinking, how bad could she be if she can fill that size arena? Good move.
Owl Chatter readers may recall we spent some time on the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which completed its first season last May with six teams. Minny beat Boston for the championship. It was a little odd for a league not to have names or logos for the teams. They said they wanted to give the fans a say in the selection. They came up with the following to start using in Season 2: Boston Fleet; Minnesota Frost; Montreal Victoire; New York Sirens; Ottawa Charge, and Toronto Sceptres.
And here are the logos:
We’ll have to try to get to a Sirens game next season. Last year they played some games on Long Island, in the same stadium the Islanders use, and some in Bridgeport CT. If they play Minny, we’ll get to see pretty Claire Thompson, a defensewoman. Don’t let the smile fool you — she’ll knock out your teeth without the slightest hesitation.
Did you watch the debate? Our favorite part by far was learning that in Springfield OH Haitian immigrants are eating people’s pets. Will these depraved hoodlums stop at nothing to destroy our way of life?
After the debate, the world’s most famous childless cat lady, Taylor Swift, in a post accompanied by a photo of her with her cat Benjamin Buttons, endorsed KH. Shortly after that photo was taken, Benjamin Buttons was eaten by a Haitian immigrant. D’oh! Serves you right, Swift.
I loved yesterday’s puzzle. The clue for 21A was “Straightforward and unadorned, as literary prose,” and the answer was HEMINGWAYESQUE. The other two theme answers were EXECUTIVE BOARD and JFK PLAZA. Then, the clue for the “revealer” was “Group whose members are represented completely (with no repeats)” in those long answers: CONSONANTS. So what’s going on? If you take the vowels away from those three long answers, you are left with all 21 consonants in the alphabet, with each appearing only once. I know: Wow. Brilliant wordplay, IMO.
And with a nod to yesterday’s debate, KAMALA appeared smack in the middle of the grid at 35A.
Hey, DIANE Sawyer was in today’s puzzle. Hi DS! Lookin’ good, girl. She’s 78! Born in Kentucky and made her way to Wellesley College. Did you know she was married to Mike Nichols?
Son Volt shared this wrenching Husker Du song called DIANE about a rape/murder victim the songwriter Grant Hart knew. It’s controversial because it’s taken from the killer’s perspective. [BTW, Husker Du was a Minnesota band and Bob Mould of the band was tickled to learn VP candidate Tim Walz is a fan.]
When I read today’s poem in The Writer’s Almanac, I liked it. It seemed like poems by Owl Chatter’s poet laureate, Ted Kooser. Then I glanced up to see who wrote it. It’s by Ted Kooser, duh. It’s called “A Monday In May.”
It rained all weekend,
but today the peaked roofs
are as dusty and warm
as the backs of old donkeys
tied in the sun.
So much alike are our houses,
our lives. Under every eave—
leaf, cobweb, and feather;
and for each front yard
one sentimental maple,
who after a shower has passed,
weeps into her shadow
for hours.
In July of 1944, Sgt. Edward Kranepool, Jr., of the U.S. Army, lost his life in battle in Saint-Lô, France, during World War II. Four months later, his son, Ed Kranepool, III, was born in the Bronx. At age three, he was swinging a toy bat. Then he played ball in local playgrounds and sandlots. By the time he entered James Monroe High School, he stood 6-foot-3. Monroe was the same school Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg attended. Kranepool broke Greenberg’s single-season home run record there.
Around the time of his graduation in 1962, the Mets were about halfway through their dreadful (40-120) first season. Kranepool attended a tryout, popped nine shots into the stands, and signed on for an $80,000 bonus. He was a Met until he retired in 1979, and still holds the record for most games played as a Met: 1,853. He hit a home run in the 1969 World Series in which the Mets upset Baltimore in five games. He was an all-star in 1965.
In 2017, with both kidneys failing, he auctioned his 1969 Mets world championship ring for $62,475 to defray medical expenses. [Jeez Louise Mets — you couldn’t shell out?] After undergoing transplant surgery nearly two years later, he learned his donor was a Mets fan. A few months after the surgery, he helped the Mets celebrate the 50th anniversary of their World Series victory.
“Steady Eddie” died on Sunday at his home in Boca Raton, Fla. He was 79. He is survived by countless thousands of Mets fans; his wife, Monica; his daughter, Jamie; his sons, Keith and Darren; and seven grandchildren, die-hard Mets fans, I would bet, one and all.
Rest in peace, Eddie.
Things got a little testy in Crossworld today. The clue at 35D was # # # and the answer was SHARPS. Commenter Chris started it. “Here to be an insufferable pedant and say that these # # # are not sharps, these ♯ ♯ ♯ are sharps. There’s unicode for them and everything!” Anony Mouse chipped in: Um actually they’re called octothorps.
But it was Gary who blew things up with:
“Yes Chris. You are being an insufferable pedant. It’s a crossword puzzle and this # is a clue, not a definition. What button on your keyboard do you push to create a sharp in every musical notation software? The # are sharps … and flats are b. You can make the leap to accepting this unwashed-masses approach to music by having a cocktail. And more importantly, nobody on Earth cares except other college-trained musicians and most of them are working in other industries because knowing this stuff doesn’t pay the bills. This is one of my hot button issues… music is an art form and it thrives when people aren’t trying to force it into a box.”
Hrummmmmmph! [I’m still trying to digest the octothorps.]
This should help — Here are some headlines from The Onion’s political coverage:
Trump Avoids Hard Questions By Pretending He’s Shot In The Ear Again
Trump Tries To Rattle Harris By Turning Eyelids Inside Out
Harris Struggling To Button Pantsuit After Month of Hanging Out With Tim Walz
Oy. Enough nonsense. See you tomorrow.
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Chris Bater Doesn’t Know
Fans of the NY (Football) Giants feel about yesterday’s season’s opener the same way the Dems felt about Biden’s debate performance. A disaster of epic proportions. Get the pads on, Kamala!
Is the puzzle trying to THROW SHADE at us here at Owl Chatter? Yesterday we had DOOFUS (“Ding-dong”), and today we have CHUCKLEHEAD (“Numbskull”).
To “throw shade” means to disrespect or insult someone in a subtle way. It was the theme of the puzzle today because “shaded” squares contained different ways of “throwing.” Chucklehead contained CHUCK. Lobster roll contained LOB. Sandcastle contained CAST; and hog heaven contained HEAVE.
The puzzle was Monday-level easy, it seemed to me. I was able to complete it using only down clues, which is rare — I usually need at least a little help from the crosses. But one clue/answer seemed beyond Monday level. The clue was “{ }, in math.” And the answer was NULL SET. Maybe I was just absent that day? (Judy — any thoughts? Should I know that?)
In the short time I’ve been a member of the Dull Men’s Club (UK), I’ve noticed that every post containing a question receives an answer from Chris Bater simply saying “I don’t know.” It’s kind of funny. It’s kind of his way of saying hi, I guess. It’s certainly harmless. It’s comforting in a way — he’s a consistent friendly presence. Anyway, it must have rubbed someone the wrong way because a complaint was lodged against him with the Club’s administration. In response, he received a beautiful (IMO) outpouring of support, including from moi. Here are some of the comments:
David Fullard wrote: At almost 77 I still enjoy the freedom of expression we have. Within the parameters of legality and non offensiveness of course. Personally I welcome folk with ‘different strokes’ please let’s be open minded about harmless slightly esoteric responses.
Scott Nathan said: I’m in the middle of writing a coffee table book filled with his plethora of knowledge and wisdom. He’s becoming somewhat of a legend in my life. [When asked what the title will be, Scott said, “At the moment, I don’t know.]
Kriss MacHenry: It’s his catchphrase. He’s a legend in my house.
Treasaigh Dubhthaigh: It makes me laugh, — well, it’s more of a dull chortle, but still…
Angela Barrow: Always a pleasure to hear from Chris Bater, never a chore. Long may he not know
Listen to this! — Andrew Rainford wrote: I once challenged the Great Man to ‘go on Chris, have a guess’ when he pronounced uncertainty on a particular topic. His reply excoriated me by its succinctness and wisdom. What I took from it is that Chris Bater doesn’t go in for frivolous guessing.
And Chris himself replied to that with “correct.”
This is what I posted: Sometimes “I don’t know” is the best answer. I had a law partner who would make things up to tell clients to avoid admitting he didn’t know something. He was — what’s the word? — an idiot. And eventually got into trouble. People should respect an admission that you don’t know something. Nobody has perfect knowledge. Plus, it’s funny in this context, here in our beloved club. We need more humor in this world.
Chris himself posted a lovely note: Thank you All for your kind words and support.
Anybody hear of Kacey Musgraves? No? She’s a singer/songwriter who won a Grammy for Best Country Album about ten years ago, and six more since then. She just released her sixth studio album. She’s 36, from Texas, and divorced.
Needless to say, living under my rock, the name meant nothing to me. But that’s all ending tonight at 7:30, assuming I can haul my tuchas over to the Prudential Center in Newark. Some nice folks from Hunter can’t make it, so they made their tix available, and I grabbed them. Full report to follow. (No matter how horrible she may be, it can’t be worse than watching the Jets game.) Here she is from a big feature on her in Elle three years ago. Jeez Louise — another knockout.
See you tomorrow!
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