The Wellington Files

  • Birchbark

    In a Congressional hearing recently, Banana Republican Congressman from Florida, Matt Gaetz, asked a pointed question of Colin Kahl, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, based on an article in Global Times.

    Kahl replied, “I’m sorry, is this the Global Times from China?” Gaetz said no, then checked and said yes, it was, and asked Kahl if that made it untrustworthy. “As a general matter, I don’t take Beijing’s propaganda at face value,” Kahl answered. Gaetz said: “Fair enough.”

    Yup.

    How about a 3rd Grade grammar lesson from Jaime Raskin of Maryland? Noting Colorado Republican representative Lauren Boebert’s reference to a “Democrat solution,” Raskin said  “I would like to educate our distinguished colleagues that ‘Democrat’ is the noun. When you use it as an adjective you say the ‘Democratic member.’ Or the ‘Democratic solution.’”

    He said he was beginning to suspect that this usage was intended to be “an act of incivility.” [Ya think?]

    He went on to say it would be like the Dems saying “Banana Republican” every time they said “Republican.”

    “But we wouldn’t do that,” he said. “So, out of pure political courtesy, when it’s an adjective, refer to the ‘Democratic’ congresswoman or the ‘Democratic’ member.”

    Will that be on the test, Mr. Raskin?

    Some of you may have noticed baseball is back. Hurrah! I watched a few innings of a Mets-Nats spring training game and was thrilled to find their crack announcing team at work — Gary Cohen, the old pro, along with Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling. Get this — the question came up about a team’s batting order being in alphabetical order. The odds are very high against that happening. Cohen said it was some number over 300,000 to one. Yikes! But I did the math. (Judy — pay attention!) The odds of the highest lettered player being in the #1 slot is 1/9, right. Then for the second highest to be in the second slot is 1/8, etc. So I multiplied 9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2 and got 362,880. So the chances of a batting order being in alphabetical order is 362,880 to 1. In fact, Cohen said, in the entire history of baseball, it only happened once — back in 1933 or 34 (I forget). And I think the team was St. Louis — the Gas House Gang. I tried to track it down, but failed. Cohen did note that he did not know if the alphabetically ordered batting order occurred by intent or randomly.

    Here’s Keith with his first wife Sue. They had three daughters together and look like a hot couple, but they divorced way back in 1983 after only four years of marriage. Go figure. The Mets retired his number last year (17). We’ll catch up with him at some point in the future. Don’t worry — he’s an Owl Chatter favorite.

    The puzzle got off to a good start today at 1 across. The clue was “Like some plants that don’t need watering.” Four letters, starting with F. Some commenters said they were hoping it was FACE. You know, a “face plant,” defined as falling face first into something. But it was FAKE — fake plants don’t need water. That wasn’t bad either.

    And 31A had a good clue for the simple word LINE. It was “common theme park sight.” We’ve all been there.

    ANZAC day was in the puzzle, as a “Down Under holiday.” According to Anonymous, “it stems from the acronym Australian New Zealand Army Corps which was the name given to armed forces fighting in World War I. April 25 is the day that Australia commemorates the storming of beaches in Turkey by ANZAC ‘diggers’ on orders from British commanders where they were swiftly mowed down by Turkish machine guns. The event is seen now as the birth of a nation as Australia was only federated a few years earlier in 1901 and many see it as the establishment of a national identity.”

    “Cher or Madonna, e.g.,” at 5D was MONONYM. A person known by one name. Here’s LMS on it:

    “When Sage was in high school and fretting that she didn’t know what to do with her life, I said, ‘Hey! You can learn photography and become a world-famous pet photographer! You have a magical connection to animals; they’ll do any pose you ask! Fancy movie stars will hire you for their Christmas cards. Dog food advertisers will insist that they book ‘Sage’ for the shoot! You’ll be so famous that you’ll be known just as ‘Sage’ like Cher!’  She looked at me for a minute and said, ‘Mom. I want to do something meaningful that helps people.’ I felt shallow and pedestrian.

    Sadly, one of the Rex commenters was bidding goodbye to everyone today (for some reason I am not aware of). His “name” is Birchbark, and he was very much loved for his input by the veteran commenters. (I’m a noobie.) This was a very pretty goodbye note posted by Barbara S. She found a poem to share. I don’t quite understand it (duh), but it seems beautiful.

    Barbara S — I’ve just now looked at the blog for the first time today, only to find that we’re saying goodbye to @Birchbark. You will be missed. For you, a poem.

    BIRCH BARK
    by Michael Ondaatje

    An hour after the storm on Birch Lake
    the island bristles. Rock. Leaves still falling.
    At this time, in the hour after lightning
    we release the canoes.
    Silence of water
    purer than the silence of rock.
    A paddle touches itself. We move
    over blind mercury, feel the muscle
    within the river, the blade
    weave in dark water.

    Now each casual word is precisely chosen
    passed from bow to stern, as if
    leaning back to pass a canteen.
    There are echoes, repercussions of water.
    We are in absolute landscape,
    among names that fold in onto themselves.

    To circle the island means witnessing
    the blue grey dust of a heron
    released out of the trees.
    So the dialogue slides
    nothing more than friendship
    an old song we break into
    not needing all the words.

    We are past naming the country.
    The reflections are never there
    without us, without the exhaustion
    of water and trees after storm.

    Thanks for wasting a little time with us. See you tomorrow (Anne Hathaway may drop in!)

  • Furling a Wieldy Umbrella

    The beautiful, talented, classy, dark-eyed Emma Watson graced our puzzle today, clued by her role as Hermione in the HP films. But in the following clip, she is Belle, from the film adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. It’s a real nice song and Watson does her own singing. [Warning: the scene contains mud-splattering.]

    Emma was born on April 15, 1990 in Paris, but she is British, born to parents who are both lawyers. She knew from age 6 she wanted to act. She did no professional acting before landing the Harry Potter role. As a child actress she was tutored privately on the set 5 hours a day and did very well on her exams. She earned her college degree from Brown University in English Lit in 2014.

    Watson has been associated with many progressive causes, including Palestinian rights, which has not endeared her to the Israelis. This is from her Wikipedia writeup:

    “Watson is an outspoken feminist. She has promoted education for girls, travelling to Bangladesh and Zambia to do so. In July 2014, she was appointed a UN Women Goodwill ambassador. That September, an admittedly nervous Watson delivered an address at UN Headquarters to launch the UN Women campaign HeForShe, which aims to urge men to advocate for gender equality. In that speech she said she began questioning gender-based assumptions at age eight when she was called ‘bossy’ (a trait she has attributed to her being a ‘perfectionist’) while boys were not, and at 14 when she was ‘sexualized by certain elements of the media.’ Further, Watson’s speech described feminism as ‘the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities’ and declared that the perception of it as ‘man-hating has to stop.’ The speech made worldwide headlines; the organization’s website crashed after press coverage of the event. Watson received threats shortly after making the speech, which left her raging. ‘If they were trying to put me off [women’s rights work], it did the opposite.’ Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka [pronounced exactly as it is spelled], the executive director of UN Women, stated, ‘For a time, there was a conversation about whether ‘feminism’ was a good thing or a bad thing. Her speech gave us the word back.’”

    The camera is very much her friend. I had a hard time picking out this photo. (Chris — you’ll have to go looking for the bikini shots on your own.)

    The clue at 71A was “neat and tidy” for KEMPT. You know, the opposite of unkempt. LMS had a long post using a bunch of “opposite” words like “gruntled, ept, heveled, and sipid.” And then burtonkd dug up this New Yorker piece by Jack Handy, called How I Met My Wife. It rewards careful attention.


    It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate. I was furling my wieldy umbrella for the coat check when I saw her standing alone in a corner. She was a descript person, a woman in a state of total array. Her hair was kempt, her clothing shevelled, and she moved in a gainly way. I wanted desperately to meet her, but I knew I’d have to make bones about it, since I was travelling cognito. Beknownst to me, the hostess, whom I could see both hide and hair of, was very proper, so it would be skin off my nose if anything bad happened. And even though I had only swerving loyalty to her, my manners couldn’t be peccable. Only toward and heard-of behavior would do. Fortunately, the embarrassment that my maculate appearance might cause was evitable. There were two ways about it, but the chances that someone as flappable as I would be ept enough to become persona grata or sung hero were slim. I was, after all, something to sneeze at, someone you could easily hold a candle to, someone who usually aroused bridled passion. So I decided not to rush it. But then, all at once, for some apparent reason, she looked in my direction and smiled in a way that I could make heads or tails of. So, after a terminable delay, I acted with mitigated gall and made my way through the ruly crowd with strong givings. Nevertheless, since this was all new hat to me and I had no time to prepare a promptu speech, I was petuous. She responded well, and I was mayed that she considered me a savory character who was up to some good. She told me who she was. “What a perfect nomer,” I said, advertently. The conversation became more and more choate, and we spoke at length to much avail. But I was defatigable, so I had to leave at a godly hour. I asked if she wanted to come with me. To my delight, she was committal. We left the party together and have been together ever since. I have given her my love, and she has requited it.

    The puzzle theme today was GREEN EGGS AND HAM, which ran across the grid in the center. And four theme answers were: ON A BOAT, IN A TREE, IN THE RAIN, and WITH A GOAT.

    Now, Owl Chatter is about to blow your f**king mind. It’s what you come here for, amirite? While you’ve been pronouncing it SOOSE all your life, Geisel himself said it should be pronounced SOYCE (or ZOYCE), and he did not like that it was pronounced SOOSE.

    Or, to make matters verse:

    You’re wrong as the deuce
    And you shouldn’t rejoice
    If you’re calling him Seuss.
    He pronounces it Soice (or Zoice).

    And, get this, from Rex’s guest Claire today: “The vocabulary of Green Eggs and Ham consists of just 50 words and was the result of a bet between Seuss and Bennett Cerf, his publisher, that Seuss (after completing The Cat in the Hat using 236 words) could not complete an entire book without exceeding that limit. The 50 words are: a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you. ‘Anywhere’ is the only word used that has more than one syllable.”

    Thanks for all the good work, Doc!

    One comment today noted: “I’m disappointed that there is no ASS today, and only one GAM and one TATA, crossing A BRA no less [from abra cadabra].” [Tata is slang for boob, in case you’re not up on these things.]

    I’ve heard the term GAM before for leg. It was clued today as “Leg, in old slang” at 57A. But when I googled it, all I found was: 1. a school of whales, porpoises, or dolphins, and 2. a social meeting or informal conversation (originally one among whalers at sea). But those are in the traditional dictionaries. The Urban Dictionary, which must be put together by dirty old men, has “gams” as “a nice long pair of female legs.”

    Etymology-wise, there’s this for gam: low slang, probably the same word as gamb “leg of an animal on a coat of arms” (1727) and ultimately from Middle English gamb “leg,” which is from French (see gammon). Now, in American English slang, especially with reference to well-formed legs of pretty women, but this was not the original sense.

    The Owl Chatter photographers caught up with one of my tax students after the midterm modeling her gams.

    Cary ELWES, of The Princess Bride, was in the puzzle today. Did you know he waged a twitter war with troglodyte Senator Ted Cruz? It turns out Cruz is a major fan of The Princess Bride. And when he tweeted some swipe at Hollywood liberals, Elwes snapped: “How does it feel to know that not only the entire cast and crew of your favorite movie The Princess Bride, but almost the whole entertainment industry, have nothing but rabid contempt for you?” And he called Cruz a “miserable ROUS” ― referencing the Rodents of Unusual Size (which attack The Princess Bride hero Westley and heroine Buttercup as they traverse a dangerous bog called the Fire Swamp, in case you were wondering).

    One of Elwes’s relatives was the British miser John Elwes, who was the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol (1843), having been referenced by Charles Dickens himself in chapter six of his last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend.

    When Elwes was a teenager he worked as a production assistant on several films, and was assigned to Marlon Brando on Superman. His job was to get Brando out of his trailer every day. When he introduced himself to Brando, Brando insisted on calling him “Rocky,” after Rocky Marciano. Elwes has no idea why.

    One scene in The Princess Bride called for Count Rugen to hit Elwes and knock him out. Elwes told Christopher Guest to go ahead and really hit him for the shot. But Guest hit Elwes so hard that he was knocked unconscious, and rushed to hospital. He woke up in the ER, still in costume with stitches being sewn into his head. He’s lucky it wasn’t Alec Baldwin, armed.

    It was love at first bite when he met his wife Lisa, a photographer, at a chili contest in Malibu in 1997. They’ve been married since 2000 and have a daughter. He’s a damn good-looking guy, I’ll give him that.

    Here’s the view from my kitchen window this morning. Brrr.

    See you tomorrow!

  • Eggs For Breakfast

    Owl Chatter says goodbye to, and honors the memory of, Shinta Ratri, the leader of an Islamic boarding school that offers a haven for transgender women in Indonesia, where they really need it, to say the least. She died on Feb. 1 in Yogyakarta, a city on the Indonesian island of Java. She was 60 and died of a heart attack.

    Ms. Shinta, who had transitioned as a teenager, founded the school, Pesantren Waria al-Fatah, in 2008, as a retreat and a place to pray. For transgender women in this largely Muslim nation, discrimination is particularly acute at mosques, where men and women generally pray separately.

    “In the public mosque we made people uncomfortable. We needed a safe place for trans women to pray,” Ms. Shinta said. Transgender women in Indonesia are known as waria, an appellation that combines the words for woman (wanita) and man (pria).

    “The first thing I tell every trans woman who comes here is, being a trans woman is not a sin,” she said. “In this world it’s not just men and women who exist. There’s us. We trans people exist as well.”

    The school faced a defining crisis in February 2016 when a mob from the hardline Front Jihad Islam raided it and forced it to close for five months. Ms. Shinta turned the raid into a lesson in courage and affirmation.

    “When the fundamentalists sent us a threat through social media that they would attack the school, we tried to evacuate,” said Renate, a student at the school, “But she said, ‘No, I am done running.’”

    Ms. Shinta told the students: “We will defend this place even at the risk of our lives, because this is our fundamental right, our basic right. Because when we are not allowed to pray, to express ourselves, to gather and to learn, of course we stand up against that.”

    What a beautiful woman.

    On a (much) lighter note, commenter Joe Dipinto worked out an hysterical spoof of Simon and Garfunkel’s pretty song “For the Asking.” He rewrote the lyrics for it from yesterday’s puzzle answer “FOR THEE, ASS KING.”

    First, here’s the song:

    So click on it to get it going and replace the lyrics with the following. If you are not shortly roaring in laughter, check yourself in somewhere.

    Song For The Ass King

    Here is my song for thee, Ass King
    Ask me and I will play
    So sweetly, I’ll make you smile

    This is my tune for thee, Ass King
    Take it, don’t turn away
    I’ve been waiting all my life

    Thinking it over, I’ve been sad
    Thinking it over, I’d be more than glad
    To change my ways for thee, Ass King

    Ask me and I will play
    All the love that I hold inside

    Hm hm hm hm for thee, Ass King
    Hm hm hm hm hm hm hm
    Hm hm Hm. Hm hm hm hm.

    Continuing with nonsense, I mentioned recently that quite a few Rexites work the Monday puzzles via the down clues only to make them a more challenging. These folks come across as a little high and mighty. So commenter egsforbreakfast (“egs”) took a swipe at them with this funny note about doing the puzzle via the diagonals, which, of course, is impossible.

    Here is his note, followed by mine:


    “I did this Diagonals Only. The Diagonals-Only approach can be hard at times, given that there are no diagonal clues. But, fortunately, today’s puzzle started with the biggest, friendliest gimme ever seen at 1 Diag: PMLSEEEIONREUN. The rest was Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!, except for a brief piddle at 37 Diag. where I initially had LMNnT. I quickly saw that it had to be LMNIT, and it was off to the races.”

    My rejoinder:

    “@egs– I tried diagonals today too. The lack of clues is daunting for sure, but not having to find “words” as answers is liberating. Also, you can “attack” it from four directions — upper left to lower right and lower left to upper right, of course, but also upper right to lower left and lower right to upper left.”

    In the Serious-Discussion-About-Utter-Nonsense Department, the following back and forth emerged today from the clue/answer: “Tie-breaking soccer shots: Abbr.:” — PKS.

    Ebenezer C. Morley said: “A penalty shoot-out (more properly known as just a shoot-out, because no penalties are involved) is used only in elimination tournaments to determine who advances in the tournament and who does not. But it does not affect the actual score of the game, which remains a draw in the record books.”

    Anonymous said: “Some soccer games are allowed to end in ties. But in soccer games where a winner must be declared (like the World Cup final), if the game “ends” in a tie, each team shoots penalty kicks to decide the winner.”

    Ebenezer C. Morley replied: “Anonymous: – a small technical clarification:

    “In soccer, when a tournament elimination game or final game ends in a draw, the shoot-out determines who wins the Cup or who advances. It does not determine the winner of the game; the game itself remains a draw in the record books. So, while Argentina was awarded the World Cup because it outscored France in penalties 4-2, the actual game ended in a draw, and the score of the game remains in the record books at 3-3.

    “Think of it as two candidates for office who receive the same number of votes. Only one of them can take office, so there needs to be an extraordinary post-election mechanism for determining which one can legally take office; in many municipalities this is something as simple as a coin flip. But neither candidate actually wins the election – rather, one candidate is legally permitted to take office, and this is determined through a post-election extraordinary mechanism.

    “In this regard, soccer differs from many other sports that use tie-breakers to actually determine a winner of the match or game itself (e.g., tennis and golf). In soccer, it is a post-game extraordinary mechanism used because only one side may advance (or receive the Cup).”

    Anonymous came back with:
    “FIFA’s own website, in black letter, describes the Final’s result thusly ‘Argentina wins 4-2 on penalties.’

    Anonymous“The more I read your post Ebenezer the more baffled I am
    You write that ( in tournament play) when an elimination game ends in a draw….
    That ‘s nuts. The match hasn’t ended. The match continues with PKs.
    And if the PKs aren’t a de facto continuation of the match, what are they?
    And why would a match’s prize be determined by something that wasn’t part of it?”

    Ebenezer C. Morley came back with the following:

    “Because the match is a game. And the the game is over after regulation time and the overtime. If the game ends in a draw, a separate competition, the penalty kicks, determine who advances.

    “That is because in an elimination tournament, there needs to be a way to determine who is eliminated and who moves to the next stage – so that they don’t have to replay the game. The penalties take place after the games ends, for the sole purpose of determining who is eliminated and who moves on. But the penalties do not change the outcome of the game itself – which is and always will be a draw in the record books.

    “And Argentina advanced to the world cup title. But not because it won the final game. It did not; it drew that game. It won the world Cup because it beat France in penalty kicks. And those are two distinct things.

    “Like it or not, that’s how soccer does it, and those are the rules.”

    But it just couldn’t get through to Anon who just kept getting angrier and angrier, . . . as you all will if I don’t let go of this right now!

    The theme of the puzzle today was “BEAR WITH ME,” and 4 long answers contained a type of bear and the letters ME. E.g., POLARoid caMEra was one (see it?). And last one used a SUN bear, which many of us had never heard of. It’s an adorable mini-bear, sort of. This is from Wikipedia:

    “It is the smallest bear, standing nearly 28 inches at the shoulder and weighing 55–143 pounds. It is stockily built, with large paws, strongly curved claws, small rounded ears and a short snout. The fur is generally jet-black, but can vary from grey to red. Sun bears get their name from the characteristic orange to cream colored chest patch. Its unique morphology—inward-turned front feet, flattened chest, powerful forelimbs with large claws—suggests adaptations for climbing. It’s the most arboreal (tree-living) of all bears: the sun bear is an excellent climber and sunbathes or sleeps in trees 7 to 23 feet above the ground.”

    I liked this short comment: “I’ve lived with my wife for 37 years. She knew all about sun bears, what they look like, where they live etc. I’ve never heard of them. Weird.”

    Now I’m gonna try to find one to say good night to you. See you tomorrow!

  • The Umbrella of Opinion

    Last week, the chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, James Comer (R-KY) sent a letter with 20 co-signers of a like mind to Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg. The letter complained that the federal government had not responded effectively to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. It referred to a preliminary report by the “Department Of Transportation’s National Transportation Safety Board” and demanded Buttigieg provide “all documents and communications regarding NTSB’s progress on the cause of the derailment.” 

    Buttigieg responded: “I am alarmed to learn that the Chair of the House Oversight Committee thinks that the NTSB is part of our Department. NTSB is independent (and with good reason).”

    C’mon Pete — how are we supposed to know that? Just be happy he spelled your name correctly. (Wait, did he?) Kudos for not referring to the blunder as an “oversight.” Glad to see you’re bigger than that.

    I loved today’s puzzle, but was in the minority. Curmudgeon Rex rexcoriated it, as so often happens. Anyway, it took common words or expressions and changed their meanings by doubling up a letter or two. E.g., take the expression “admits defeat.” Use the clue: “Update Wikipedia after the 2012 election?,” and you get: ADD MITT’S DEFEAT.

    The best one was part of a mASSive tuchas extravaganza I’ll discuss below. It took the common expression “for the asking.” Then it gave the clue: “Words accompanying an offering to the ruler of the donkeys?” And the answer was FOR THEE, ASS KING. Hysterical, no? Just the type of ridiculous nonsense we live for at Owl Chatter: thank you, Will Nediger! Will’s a veteran constructor. Today’s was his 46th puzzle in The Times.

    Since we’re on the topic yet again, the clue at 5D was “Tuchas,” and the answer was PATOOT, as in “you bet your sweet patootie.” The second T in PATOOT met up with the T in ASSORT. And then — get this! The ASS from ASS KING, above, crosses the answer ASSASSIN — a double! — clued as “Charlotte Corday, to Jean-Paul Marat.” Whew, a breathtaking ass-ault, Nediger — well done!

    It reminded me of a New Yorker cartoon from many years ago. It’s a dad with his grown-up son, and we see them from the back. And they both have identical enormous rears. Enormous. And the dad has his arm around his son and he’s saying: “It’s about time we discussed your inheritance, Andy.”

    Here’s a recent exchange of comments on Rex’s blog (on trans kids):

    “I kept hoping that the people who professed an all-embracing acceptance of all kinds of people would extend that inclusivity to those who have differing opinions.”

    The reply: “A difference of opinion would be about, say, pizza toppings. Human rights do not fall under the umbrella of opinion. You are either right or wrong about them. No one is under any obligation to extend acceptance to people who literally want LGBTQIA+ people dead.”

    Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, born 1 October 1987, was in the puzzle under her professional name Michaela COEL. She’s a British screenwriter and actress. She won an Emmy for outstanding writing for her work on the 2020 comedy-drama series I May Destroy You. Her parents are Ghanaian but she was born and raised in East London. At an awards ceremony in 2016, Coel wore a dress designed by her mom made out of Kente cloth, a Ghanaian textile. Here’s Ms. Coel, and this may be it. [I can see that fabric making a beautiful owl — amirite, Jenny?]

    We had a choice of three kinds of pancakes in the puzzle: 110A: “Russian pancakes,” BLINI; 101D: “Pancake served with sambar,” DOSA, and, of course, 41A: “Yiddish for pancake,” LATKE. All that was missing was a load of CREPE.

    I was today old when I learned this may be why (from an anonymouse comment): “All the pancakes seem to be throwing a bone to the fact that this past week included Shrove Tuesday, the last day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Pancake feeds are a common tradition in many Christian churches.” [Yeah, but latkes? Sure, what the hell?]

    Please, help yourself to some dosa.

    You may not have heard “of” Marni Nixon, but I bet you heard her. She was clued as “Soprano Nixon” at 96D today. Born Margaret Nixon McEathron on February 22, 1930, she was an American soprano and ghost singer for featured actresses in musical films. She is now recognized as the singing voice of leading actresses on the soundtracks of several musicals, including Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady, although her roles were concealed from audiences when the films were released. Nixon also made concert appearances, specializing in contemporary music as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, and gave recitals at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Town Hall in New York. In the Disney film Mulan, she was the singing voice of Grandma Fa. She had a very successful career and in 2011 received the George Peabody Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Music.

    She was married three times. Her first husband was Ernest Gold, who composed the theme song for the movie Exodus, starring a young plotz-worthy Paul Newman. Nixon had three kids with Gold before she made her exodus from the marriage. [Yes, I will stoop that low at times.] Sadly, she died in 2016 at the age of 86. I’m guessing she’d like to be remembered in Owl Chatter belting one out.

    Here’s a feel-good story from Met Diary today, written by Len DiSesa, that even an old draft dodger like me could enjoy:

    Dear Diary:

    It was a warm August day in New York in 1969. I was 21 and just back from Vietnam.

    I had been drafted into the Army two years earlier, and my second year in Southeast Asia had been the longest in my life. It ended with me returning to the World — Brooklyn — in one piece as one of the lucky ones.

    I took a cab from Port Authority to Bensonhurst. I was in my khaki uniform. The cabdriver, a middle-age man, kept looking at me through the rearview mirror. There was no conversation between us. I was lost in a swirl of emotions.

    When we got to my block, I could see all of my neighbors sitting out on their porch steps. Someone had strung up a large banner: “Welcome Home, Lenny!” They were all cheering.

    Through my tears, I could make out my parents, my sisters and my girlfriend. I was overcome, completely surprised by the reception I was receiving from the people who had watched me grow up.

    What moved me the most, though, was when I reached for my wallet to pay the substantial sum of money showing on the taxi meter.

    “Put your money away, son,” the cabby said. “You’ve paid enough. This ride’s on me.”

    We had a teensy beensy bit of snow yesterday — almost imperceptible. It was a snowless winter here in Jersey. Let’s end today with this poem by Ted Kooser from Winter Morning Walks. See you tomorrow!

    The cedars in the roadside ditches
    are nearly black against the many grays
    of this winter morning, but unlike
    most things with darkness at their centers
    they don’t turn an impenetrable shell
    to the light. Rather, like ink on wet paper,
    their dark limbs bleed into the light,
    reaching farther and farther
    into the whiteness of lightly falling snow.

  • Princesses and Kings

    I lost my brother Jay shortly before 9/11. He was only 63, so I was pretty much robbed, of what, 20 years or so with him? For a time I was working in an office in midtown and he had an office a bit north of there so we met for lunch every week or two. It was during this time that my wonderful niece Alana was born, and, to be honest, I thought I lost my brother over her. Alana was his first, and to put it mildly he went nuts. She was all he could talk about. There was no point in me being there – he wasn’t listening to anything I said, he just went on and on about how gorgeous she was and smart and sweet and gorgeous — did I mention gorgeous? All of that was true — no question, but enough already.

    I came home and said to Linda – “I think I’m losing Jay — there’s just no connecting with him anymore, it’s all Alana — there’s nothing else on the planet. I don’t know why I bother to meet him.” When he wasn’t raving about her, he was pressuring us to schlep up to Riverdale to visit, but that was a tough trip because we didn’t have a car at the time. The same thing happened a few years later when his second was born — my wonderful funny handsome nephew Jared. I remember holding him during his bris (and not watching), which was a great honor that I still very much appreciate. Anyway, the years went by, and I just accepted that Jay had gone totally nuts. Short of not letting the kids play with chain saws, he pretty much gave in to them on everything else. The concept of him ever punishing one of them was too ridiculous even to contemplate.

    And then something happened to us in Brooklyn — we had Caitlin. And I held her in the hospital room and it was “Whoa.” Overwhelming. Indescribable. I remember having two immediate thoughts. First — did my mother love me this much? — Yikes, I wished I gave her less grief over the years. And second, I felt, for the first time, that there was something (or someone) I would give my life for without hesitation if necessary. And of course I felt the same way about Sam when he was born, and the feelings only grew stronger over the years, even over difficult years.

    I remember at one point being surprised that I was so surprised by all of it. We knew plenty of people who had kids — yet we never got any idea of the overwhelming feelings we’d be having. How come nothing tipped us off to the intensity of the love even in any movies we saw or books we read — even books specifically on the topic of parenting?

    And then I remembered Jay. How he fell off the planet when Alana was born. How I complained to Linda how crazy he had become. It turned out he was the only one who conveyed it accurately in his way, who painted the true picture for me, but I couldn’t appreciate it at the time. It was a Catch-22. If he hadn’t gone totally nuts, he wouldn’t have been painting the picture accurately. But I couldn’t take him seriously — the guy was clearly completely nuts.

    I spoke briefly at Jay’s funeral and thanked him for all the gifts he gave me — many of which, like that one, I only appreciated after he was gone.

    Here’s Caitlin and her quintet, 2.5 years ago. I just noticed Lianna and Leon are holding hands.

    I should never have given the Owl Chatter camera crew the night off. (I took pity on them for schlepping out to Kentucky for that moron convention yesterday.) It meant it was up to me to take a shot of Chris’s wonderful band last night down at The Rail in Whitehouse Station. They tore the roof off the place and the burgers were [insert chef’s kiss]. Wonderful event. But here’s my pathetic effort at photography. Don’t blame me for that blurry guy on the left — he’s actually blurry in real life. Chris is next to him on the gee-tar. (BTW, Chris is a big fan of Owl Chatter — thank you for the kind words, buddy!)

    And here’s that chef’s kiss I owe you:

    Get this — the band has a new drummer because the old drummer refused to get vaxxed (as was required by their rehearsal space), and got Covid and died. He was 52 and left behind a 12-year old child. They have a new vocalist too because the old one also refused to get vaxxed. She’s still living but is apparently brain dead because she noted about the drummer that “at least he was true to his beliefs.” When Chris pointed out that his beliefs killed him, she said he died because he didn’t take Ivormectin or something and she still refuses to get vaxxed. Chris has cut all social ties to her. BTW, don’t worry, all of the bandmembers photographed above, as well as the chef who is modeling the “chef’s kiss” for us, are vaxxed and boosted. Owl Chatter is a safe space.

    Some holdover issues from yesterday’s puzzle. 35D was “Princess Diana or Diana Ross,” and the answer was GAY ICON. One commenter asserted a little too snippily that Princess Di was absolutely not a gay icon. Hrrrumph. Just for fun, I checked Wikipedia for “Gay Icon,” and found a pretty big entry. It includes the following, which I posted for the snippy guy (who later deleted himself, so to speak). It’s a bit long, but lovely.

    “Highly regarded by the LGBT community due to her work with gay men suffering from AIDS, Diana, Princess of Wales, is considered to be a gay icon. The hardships she faced during her life within the British royal family and her struggles with bulimia have been cited as factors to which members of the LGBT community can mostly connect. Writing for Them, David Levesley described Diana as ‘a symbol of the familial oppression many queer people know all too well,’ and added that ‘[queer people] admire her for how long she lasted in the face of a shitty situation. Is there anything more queer than a fabulous woman trapped in a bleak household?’ James Greig from Vice also held a similar viewpoint, stating that “her status as a tragic diva aside, it’s undeniable that Diana made real, material changes to the lives of LGBT people – particularly through the work she did around AIDS.” In an article for Newsweek, Desmond O’Connor wrote that Diana’s work with dying HIV+ gay men was crucial for reminding ‘the people of Great Britain that their ‘untouchable’ sons deserved to be loved.’

    “In 2009, a panel including Sir Ian McKellen and Alan Hollinghurst chose Diana’s portrait to be shown in the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, London. In October 2017, the Attitude magazine honoured Diana with its Legacy Award for her HIV/AIDS work. Prince Harry accepted the award on behalf of his mother.”

    Here are two shots of The Lady. First, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles jacket on a magazine cover (no shit!), and then looking quite sexy.

    On that mbira — the thumb piano. I hope you took a few minutes to watch the video I posted yesterday — it’s pretty neat. Anyway, commenter CDilly52 shared this:

    “First of all, blessings upon the house of Professor Bruno Nettl, one of the founders of the discipline of ethnomusicology and one of the kindest, most creative and intelligent people I have ever met. I had a double major at Illinois in music performance (flute and voice) and music history. This meant two recitals and a senior thesis. And lots of masters level seminars because the major was newish in the days gone by.

    “Anyway, my seminar with Dr. Nettl was in African music. It was one of the best classes I ever took and it was an opportunity for me to work with my new ‘steady’ and eventual husband on my final project. As a percussionist, he was already familiar with every percussion instrument introduced in class and he and Dr. Nettl were well acquainted since the percussion department at Illinois was then and still is known for new music and percussion ensemble work that employs every sound one could imagine and incredibly creative composers-percussionists.

    “Throughout the course of the semester, I was starting work on my thesis about J.S and CPE Bach‘s flute music and performance practices/ornamentation. Since I also had to have a final project for ethno, I really threw the spaghetti at the wall to see if it would stick.

    I took a movement of the CPE Bach unaccompanied partita with its persistent atomic rhythm and we added African percussion underneath. It included a passage with the mbira trading off portions of a sequence with the flute with African drums underneath syncopating the atomic rhythms of the Bach. And that’s why the TINE of the mbira was a gimme. And to this good day, I wish I had a recording of that piece, but reel to reel tape was all that would have been possible and the line was long to get the department sound guys to help set up to record. Undergrads were at the end of the end of the line.”

    Turning to today’s puzzle. Puzzles definitely have a vibe. I learned that from Rex. Who are the people it features? — if it has a female newsperson, is it Laura Ingraham or Rachel Maddow? If there’s a “Mel” is it Brooks or Gibson or Torme or Ott? Does it have rappers or country-western folks? Gay idioms? Etc. In that light, I enjoyed Rex’s comments about his experience of today’s puzzle:

    “Despite the ‘not my vibe’ content, despite the deliberately unfun grid structure, I enjoyed the solve, largely because it felt like the puzzle was really trying to fight me but I was knocking down everything it could throw at me—all the junk I don’t really care for, all the potential traps and dead-ends, and alllll of the ‘look at my tricky clues!’ I felt immortal walking through this one. Like Keanu at the end of ‘The Matrix’—nothing could touch me. I could feel that it was probably a ‘hard’ puzzle—lots of tricky clues, lots (and lots and lots and lots) of names—but there was just no stopping me.

    “So this was a rare experience where I thought like the puzzle hated me, like it was saying ‘OH, IT’S ON!’ the way some dumb fake tough guy might, but I managed not only to defeat it, but to make friends with it as well. This puzzle definitely voted for Trump, but we’re still gonna have a beer later. It’s fine.”

    I have to say I agree. There wasn’t much that engaged me. The clue for 2D was cute: “Something that guarantees you’ll come out on top?” And the answer was ROGAINE.

    BTW, what do you get when you combine Rogaine and Viagra? — Don King!

    THORA Birch dropped in today — an unusual actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Kevin Spacey’s daughter in American Beauty (1999), which we loved and won the Oscar for Best Film. (Spacey also won for Best Actor and Sam Mendes for Best Director.) She was also in The Last Black Man in San Francisco in 2019, which I liked, but I don’t remember her in it.

    Ever been just a tiny bit embarrassed by your parents? (Me neither.) Well, Thora’s folks were both porn stars who were in Deep Throat. Although her name is an anagram of TORAH, she is only partly Jewish, and the Torah business is a coincidence. Her name derives from the Norse god of thunder and lightning: Thor, which would have been her name if she was born a boy. Her younger brother is named Bolt (not kidding). Given her parents, let’s face it, it could’ve been worse. (They could have gotten away with naming the son Dick, but I’m not going to give that topic any more thought (probably).)

    Because of their own experience in movies, Thora’s parents were reluctant to encourage her to act, but were persuaded to show her photograph to agents by a babysitter who noticed her imitating commercials. Thora got her first big break at the age of four, when the babysitter accompanied her to a successful audition for a Quaker Oats commercial.

    Sifting through photos of her, I was amazed at how changeable her looks are. I think she’d be pleased with this choice.

    And we’ll let her pretty blue eyes bid you farewell today. See you tomorrow!

  • Thumb Piano

    We might call it “Godstock:” a semi-spontaneous flocking of 50,000 young people over a two-week period to pray and sing in the chapel at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. For Owl-Chatter readers unfamiliar with Wilmore — it’s in Jessamine County. Does that help? A bit north of Burgin, and just west of Nicholasville? Can you place it now?

    According to a front page article in the NYT, posts on TikTok and Instagram, plus WOM (word of mouth) spread the word. Jenny Palmer told her boss she had to leave work, and drove eleven hours straight from Jacksonville, FL. Valor Christian College up in Ohio canceled classes. The NYT said “almost the entire student body drove down in a bus,” but Owl Chatter investigators discovered that there are close to 200 undergraduate students at Valor, so unless that’s some big-ass bus, something’s off there.

    According to The Times, “the revival at Asbury began on Feb. 8, when a few dozen students lingered after an ordinary morning chapel service to continue singing and praying together. Word about the spontaneous gathering spread on campus, and by evening, students were dragging mattresses into the chapel to spend the night. Within days, their enthusiasm had exploded into a national event.” Ka-boom!

    Around 50,000 people came before the college started to wind things down. The town’s population is just 6,000.

    The NYT continued, “By last weekend, traffic was backed up far along the road coming from Lexington. The university scrambled to set up banks of portable toilets, a large screen on the lawn to simulcast what was happening onstage in the chapel and heat lamps, when the temperature dropped and snow began to flurry. The line to get into the chapel on Saturday afternoon was a half-mile long.

    “’Sixteen-plus-hour days feel like five minutes,’ said Eli Baker, an Asbury undergraduate who was talking intensely with his friend Brenden Krebs [no relation to Maynard G.] at a packed coffee shop on Day 10 of the revival.

    “’It’s like Woodstock,’ said Nick Hall, 40, an evangelist from Minnesota who arrived last week.”

    [Note: Except for the portable toilets, it’s not like Woodstock. I saw the movie Woodstock; I spoke to people who went to Woodstock; I read articles about Woodstock. Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.]

    “Many drawn to Asbury in recent weeks describe an extraordinary sense of peace in the room. Attendees of all ages recall bursting into tears upon entering the building. ‘It doesn’t feel like America in 2023 in here,’ said Margaret Feinberg, who traveled from Park City, Utah, to attend. ‘It just melts away.’”

    Feinberg? Seriously?

    Owl Chatter photographers were able to slip inside to photograph this scene, which is not exactly mayhem. Let’s call it prayhem.

    Back on Planet Earth, today’s puzzle gave me quite a workout. It was great. For one thing, the focus of the NYT away from the tuchas and onto boobs continued with 6D: “Wireless support providers, at times.” BRAS. And 38D: “Space between leaf veins.” AREOLA. Leaf veins? Whatever.

    “Kings and queens, e.g.,” was a tough clue for PIECES. My favorite was 22A: “One who collects just for kicks?” Answer: SNEAKERHEAD. Apparently this is someone who collects and trades old sneakers. There’s a big market for them on eBay. (“Kick” is a slang term for “shoe.”)

    Here’s a note by Sir Hillary on it:

    “My son is a burgeoning SNEAKERHEAD. He chooses to devote lots of space in his small Manhattan studio to boxes and boxes of old-school kicks — Air Jordans, etc. I don’t really get it, but he seems to have a decent handle on the secondary market, so OK. It’s not like my 19 framed James Bond film one-sheets are any more rational.”

    The clue for POP STAR was “Miley Cyrus or Hannah Montana.” Hi Hannah! You go to that thing in Kentucky? Didn’t see you there.

    The clue for TINE was “What musicians pluck on an mbira.” Huh? That’s new to me. An mbira is an instrument sometimes known as a thumb piano. It’s pretty neat. Here’s a video:

    A few weeks ago, Owl Chatter posted a beautiful Irish song by Christy Moore, called “So Do I.” I go back to listen to it from time to time and it never fails to grab me. Here’s the first verse:

    This is the day the fisherman likes
    And so do I
    When the rain puts a shine on the chestnut spikes
    Hear the curlews cry
    The nightingale sings her best
    We’ll drink a pint in Hamilton’s Rest
    And the girl I love wore a muslin dress
    The fisherman dreams of the sun in the west
    And so do I
    And so do I

    Play Ball! Spring Training games start today with Texas facing KC, and Seattle up against the Padres. It’s looking bad for the Washington Nats whom we’ve been following since their championship run in ’19. But we’re sticking with them. Hoping for better results for Detroit too, after a very poor 2022.

    Three cheers for Anderson Comas, left-handed outfielder in the White Sox farm system. He came out as gay recently with this heartfelt note, below. He’s a good-looking young man. The White Sox responded with a nice note themselves. Anderson is just the third pro baseball player ever to come out: no major leaguers yet.

    “This may be my most personal thing I ever share and it’s that I’m proudly and happily part of the LGTBQ+ community 🏳️‍🌈 I’m also a human with a great soul, I’m respectful, I’m a lover, I love my family and friends and that’s what really matters, I enjoy my work a lot, being a professional baseball player is the best thing that happened to me so I just wanna say something to those people that says that gay people can not be someone in this life, well look at me I’m Gay and I’m a professional athlete so that didn’t stopped me to make my dreams come true, I’m doing this cause I wanna be an inspiration for those like me out there fitting for their dreams, please don’t listen to those stupid things that people say about us, fight for your dreams, believe in yourself and go for it 🤨❤️”

    White Sox assistant general manager Chris Getz praised Comas in a statement Sunday afternoon and said Comas came out to the organization last year.

    “I was very pleased that he was comfortable sharing with us in player development,” Getz said. “I also was happy at the reaction across the organization, which as you would expect was to support, help and congratulate a teammate. With his social media post today, we are all so proud of Anderson and that he is comfortable sharing such an important personal part of his life so openly.”

    That’s it for today, folks. Owl Chatter is heading out to Whitehouse Station for a fat juicy burger and to hear friend Chris’s rock band rock the house. See you tomorrow!

  • Milk Bust

    On this date 82 years ago, Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics to This Land is Your Land. He had grown tired of hearing Kate Smith’s God Bless America, having traveled the country and seen the struggles of the (unblessed) poor, so he wrote it as a counter song. It was sung by Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, and Pete Seeger’s grandson at Obama’s 2009 inaugural celebration.

    Arlo Guthrie tells a story on occasion, of his mother returning from a dance tour of China, and reporting around the Guthrie family dinner table that at one point in the tour she was serenaded by Chinese children singing the song. Arlo says Woody was incredulous: “The Chinese? Singing ‘This land is your land, this land is my land? From California to the New York island?’”

    Here is one of the verses:

    This land is my land; this land is your land,
    From the Rupununi, to the Corentyne.
    From the green heart forest, to the Atlantic waters;
    This land was made for you and me.

    Wait, what? No, that’s the Guyanese version. It’s included in the list of national folk songs of Guyana. It’s been adopted by many countries.

    Who comes after Tuesday Weld? Wednesday Addams, of course, of the Addams family, played by the eerily adorable 11-year-old Christina RICCI, who popped into the puzzle today at 55A, with her Sotomayor-red nails.

    At 17, she shifted to grown-up movies including The Opposite of Sex (1998). (What’s the opposite of sex? — law school?) Ricci was born in Santa Monica in 1980, but raised in Montclair NJ where her family moved when she was young.

    Her first marriage was a disaster — abuse, calls to the police, restraining orders, the whole nine yards. She has full custody of their son. She remarried in 2021 and has a daughter now too. Ricci is the national spokesperson for the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). Don’t mess with Jersey girls.

    Ricci starred opposite Charlize Theron who won the Best Actress Oscar for Monster. Theron acknowledged Ricci during her acceptance speech, calling her the film’s “unsung hero.” Roger Ebert said, “Ricci finds the correct note for Selby [her character], — so correct that some critics have mistaken it for bad acting, when in fact it is sublime acting in its portrayal of a bad actor. She plays Selby as clueless, dim, in over her head, picking up cues from moment to moment, cobbling her behavior out of notions borrowed from bad movies, old songs, and barroom romances.” A. O. Scott of The Times described Ricci playing her role in Woody Allen’s Anything Else with “feral, neurotic glee.”

    The Owl Chatter photographers caught her relaxing at home. Sorry RC! Probably should have knocked.

    At 52A, “Colorful garment” was DASHIKI. The original dashiki is a brightly colored pullover shirt of African origin. Here’s a stylish, modern, full-dress version. How do you walk in it?

    Today’s puzzle had a dark lining to it, like a Christina Ricci character. SATAN himself appeared at 58A, clued pretty mildly as “Dark force.” And terrorism! — 42D “Navy vessel in 2000 headlines,” was the USS COLE. Do we really need all that unpleasantness in our puzzle, constructor Joe Deeney?

    On the other hand, there was yet another ANA de Armas sighting (at 51A), said Tom droolingly. Did her parents know what they were getting her into, naming her ANA?

    In his nice article about Dianne Feinstein in his newsletter today, Frank Bruni, noting her passionate fighting for gun control, observed: “In 1978, she saw, up close, what firearms can do, kneeling beside the gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk to check for a pulse after he was fatally shot and feeling her finger slip into a bullet hole.”

    At the unveiling of a bust honoring Milk in 2008, Feinstein said hearing the shots and finding Milk dead were the hardest moments of her life. She couldn’t talk about it for years. She said Milk was a real character: very funny, very intense, very loud. He was shot by Dan White, a friend of his, who felt betrayed when he wasn’t allowed to reclaim his position after resigning. Milk’s being gay had nothing to do with the killing.

    DWAYNE (The Rock) Johnson went a few rounds in the puzzle today too. Before making movies he was considered one of the all-time great pro wrestlers. His grandfather (via adoption) was a Samoan-American wrestler, and his dad was a pro wrestler too — as is his daughter, Simone! His ambition was to play pro football, and he went to U. of Miami with that in mind, but he couldn’t make the first team and went undrafted upon graduating. He tried Canadian ball for a while and then turned to wrestling.

    His first marriage lasted about ten years, produced Simone, and ended amicably. He seems like a mensch. He remarried and had two more daughters with his second wife. He voted for Obama twice, sat out 2016, and endorsed Biden in 2020. He’s considering entering politics himself. He’s only 50 and knows how to smile.

    Thanks for wasting some time on our chatter. See you tomorrow!

  • Bronx Girls

    After closing down Owl Chatter yesterday, I was noodling around a bit more on Liberace and came up with this wonderful July 4th shot of him. How could anyone not love the guy? The hairy legs. The baton. God bless America.

    Welcome to the Owl Chatter Hall of Fame, sir. No question. Unanimous. First ballot.

    Way fewer names in the puzzle today, but what a delight to see Amy Adams. Amy was born in Vicenza, Italy on August 20, 1974, which makes her 48. She is married to actor and painter Darren Le Gallo, and they have a 12-year-old daughter Aviana. She was born in Italy because her dad was stationed there in the military, but from age 8 and on she grew up with 6 siblings in Colorado (amid the orange groves). She was raised a Mormon until her parents divorced when she was 11, but is not religious. She did not go to college, and worked for a time as a greeter in a Gap store and as a waitress at Hooters.

    Adams finds little value in being a celebrity and maintains that the “more that people know about me, the less they’ll believe me and my characters.” Carl Swanson of Vulture found her “suspiciously unnarcissistic for a Hollywood star, gracious, hardworking, and decent to the point of almost not being a celebrity.” Anthony Lane in The New Yorker wrote: “The spry benevolence that carried her through a film like Enchanted (2007) has been cross-grained, in recent years, by the stern resolve of The Master (2012) and the snap of American Hustle (2013), and now, in Arrival, her gift for sorrow, her strength, and her instinctive sweetness of temper are rolled into one.”

    Adams has received 5 Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and one for Best Actress (for American Hustle (2013)). She is beautiful in a way that doesn’t hit you over the head.

    Amy Adams (Photo by Robin Holland/Corbis via Getty Images)

    Here’s the clue for 24A: “‘Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their ___, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman:’ A.O.C.”

    The answer is HOOPS (as in earrings), and there’s a bit of a story behind it. It was a nod to Justice Sotomayor who refused to tone down her red nails for her confirmation hearings, as she had been advised to.

    AOC tweeted: “Lip+hoops [at AOC’s swearing in] were inspired by Sonia Sotomayor, who was advised to wear neutral-colored nail polish to her confirmation hearings to avoid scrutiny. She kept her red,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted about the Supreme Court Justice, who is also of Puerto Rican descent, referring to her choice to express herself the way she saw fit and not capitulate to outdated perceptions and arbitrary standards. “Next time someone tells Bronx girls to take off their hoops, they can just say they’re dressing like a Congresswoman.”

    Don’t you love thinking of the Justice and the Congresswoman as “Bronx girls?”

    AOC has been vilified on the right and lauded on the left, but Owl Chatter may be the first to note how pretty she is. We are so shallow.

    Looks like the puzzle turned from tuchases to boobs for a change, with 10D’s “Liquid that may be pumped,” being BREAST MILK. Cutely, it wasn’t too far from KID’S MENU at 34D.

    On the topic, Camilita noted:

    “One branch of mammals doesn’t suckle: the egg-laying monotremes, which include today’s platypus and echidna, or spiny anteater. These animals lack nipples. Their babies instead lap or slurp milk from patches on their mother’s skin. I guess they drink …..drum roll please….Skin Milk!!!”

    A group of platypuses is called a “paddle” of platypuses, and that’s the plural, not platypi. Here are some cute young ‘uns.

    And here’s a poem by Kooser, from his collection Delights and Shadows. Softy that I am, it is sending me off to my tax class near tears.

    At the Cancer Clinic

    She is being helped toward the open door
    that leads to the examining rooms
    by two young women I take to be her sisters.
    Each bends to the weight of an arm
    and steps with the straight, tough bearing
    of courage. At what must seem to be
    a great distance, a nurse holds the door,
    smiling and calling encouragement.
    How patient she is in the crisp white sails
    of her clothes. The sick woman
    peers from under her funny knit cap
    to watch each foot swing scuffing forward
    and take its turn under her weight.
    There is no restlessness or impatience
    or anger anywhere in sight. Grace
    fills the clean mold of this moment
    and all the shuffling magazines grow still.

  • Penn’s Aunts

    I had forgotten (if I ever knew) that Mia Hamm was married to ex-Boston shortstop Nomar Garciaparra. They have twin girls who will be 16 next month, Grace Isabella and Ava Caroline, and a son, Garrett Anthony, who just turned 11. Mia is 50 now and was born in Selma, Alabama. Nice to see her in the puzzle today. The clue was: “Sports star inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2021.”

    Hamm is regarded as one of the greatest woman soccer players of all time, and has been called the most marketable female athlete of her generation. She signed endorsement deals with Gatorade, Nike, Dreyer’s Ice Cream, Pepsi, Nabisco, Fleet Bank, Earthgrains, and Powerbar. She starred in a commercial for Pert Plus, was featured on a Wheaties box, and endorsed the first Soccer Barbie by Mattel. She retired at age 32 in 2004, having scored a record 158 international goals. Her #9 jersey was “inherited” by midfielder Heather O’Reilly.

    Hamm was mentioned in an episode of Friends. When Rachel had Joey put his hand on her belly, she says, “Aw, it’s unbelievable! Wow! She is kicking so much! Oh, she’s like, um, who’s that kind of annoying girl soccer player?” Joey asks, “Mia Hamm?” Rachel says, “Mia Hamm!”

    Here she is, en famille.

    It felt like women athletes’ day in the puzzle, because Mia was accompanied by soccer great Abby Wambach, and figure skater Irina Slutskaya.

    Abby was named female U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year six times and is in the National Soccer Hall of Fame. She’s the highest all-time goal scorer for the U.S. team. She was born on June 2, 1980 in Rochester, NY, the youngest of seven. She credits her siblings with “toughening her up.” She played college ball for the Florida Gators. She is gay and was married to soccer player Sarah Huffman from 2013 to 2016, and is married to writer Glennon Doyle now. In 2016, Mattel unveiled a Barbie doll in her likeness, but it was part of a series that was not intended to be marketed to the public. Abby posed nude for The Body Issue of ESPN The Magazine. She wanted to send the message that no matter what shape you are, you’re beautiful. That Barbie doll looks a little creepy to me.

    Irina Slutskaya, world-champion figure skater, was born on February 9,1979 in Moscow. Her dad was Jewish, but she was raised in the Russian Orthodox Church. She has three children, two from her first marriage and the third from her current marriage. She was a brilliant and groundbreaking (icebreaking?) skater. She invented the double Biellmann spin with foot change, was the first woman to land a triple lutz-triple loop combination in competition, and the first woman to land a triple salchow-triple loop-double toe loop combination. It’s hard to even type those.

    Here she is, blowing Owl-Chatter readers a kiss. Love you too, Irina!

    Owl Chatter readers who were planning to visit the Liberace Museum in Las Vegas are about 12 years too late: It closed in 2010 after a 31-year run. But in the “Liberace Garage” you can still see all 8 vehicles from the Liberace Museum, housed in the Hollywood Cars Museum. Also in the “garage” are the rhinestone-encrusted Radio City Baldwin piano, and stage costumes worn by Liberace.

    Wladzio Valentino Liberace was born in Wisconsin on May 16, 1919, and died in 1987 at age 67 in Palm Springs. Sadly, he had an identical twin who died at birth. I remember his flamboyant piano-playing with the outrageous outfits, wild pianos, and his signature candelabra. [Note how the e in “candle” shifts to go in front of the l for “candelabra” — an example of a vowel movement.] At the height of his fame (from the 50s to the 70s) he was the highest paid entertainer in the world. He was in the puzzle today, clued with “Subject of HBO’s 2013 biopic ‘Behind the Candelabra.’”

    Music critics were harsh in their assessment of his piano playing. Lewis Funke wrote, Liberace’s music “must be served with all the available tricks, as loud as possible, as soft as possible, and as sentimental as possible. It’s almost all showmanship topped by whipped cream and cherries.” Liberace himself said, “I don’t give concerts, I put on a show.” His favorite response to the critics was to note that he cried all the way to the bank. My mom got a kick out of him.

    His TV show drew 30 million viewers, and he received 10,000 fan letters a week. It was broadcast in England and he became young Elton John’s hero. He denied being gay his whole life and even sued (and won) several defamation cases against publications stating he was gay. But there is no question that he was gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course). In a 2011 interview, actress and close friend Betty White confirmed that he was gay and that she was often used as a “beard” by his managers to counter rumors of his homosexuality.

    As flamboyant as Liberace was on stage, a lover of his stated that he was boring in his private life, mostly preferred to spend his free time cooking, decorating, and playing with his dogs, and that he never played the piano outside of his public performances.

    A little known historical fact:  William Penn’s mother had two sisters who ran a pie shop.  Their pies were delicious and they charged very little for them.  You could safely say “the pie rates of Penn’s aunts” were the talk of the colony.  [That dreadful comment comes to us from egsforbreakfast on the occasion of 8D being PENZANCE, as in “The Pirates of.”]

    And 13D was Double ENTENDRE, which led Lewis to share these actual headlines:

    Kids Make Nutritious Snacks
    Milk Drinkers Are Turning To Powder
    Grandmother Of Eight Makes Hole In One

    It’s only getting worse. Better stop now. See you tomorrow!

  • The Inverted Jenny and the Penny Black

    Denzel! What a surprise — welcome to Owl Chatter — we are big fans (who isn’t?)! Didn’t think we’d see you in the puzzle, with that Z and all. And clued so simply – “Oscar winning Washington.” What did they expect us to put down: George? Loved you in Philadelphia — “Innocuous.” Ha!

    So, let’s see — you’re 68 now — ouch! Born in Mt. Vernon, NY, married to actress Pauletta Pearson for 40 years this June — yikes! Renewed your vows in 1995 in South Africa, with Desmond Tutu officiating. Classy.

    Four kids, including pro footballer and actor John David, Yale grad Katia, and the twins Olivia and Malcolm. Malcolm a U. Penn grad — the Red and Blue! Excellent!

    Presidential Medal of Freedom last July — that must’ve been a kick. Listen, settle in — get comfortable. Can we get you a beer? You’re always welcome here at Owl Chatter.

    Well, we made it back from DC. It was a very nice visit. Tipped off by Bob to a baseball-themed exhibit at the National Postal Museum, we checked it out and it was pretty neat. Lots of non-baseball stuff too — the place is enormous. Did you know they only started using stamps in 1847? And they only became mandatory in 1855. Before that a fee was collected from the person to whom an item was delivered. And there was no glue to lick on the back — you had to use a little gum to affix it to the envelope. Here’s the first stamp ever (it’s from 1840 in England). The Penny Black.

    Do you guys know about the “inverted Jenny?” It may be the most famous error stamp. It was issued in May, 1918 to celebrate the start of air mail, but the plane was printed upside down on the stamp. It was a Curtiss JN-4, known as the “Jenny,” so the error was called the “inverted Jenny.”

    William T. Robey, a collector, went to his local Post Office early to buy a sheet, hoping for an error, since the earlier printings were most likely to have flaws. He got lucky when he noticed the error, but when he tried to buy more, he was turned down and the Post Office immediately stopped all sales. Robey’s sheet was the only one that reached the public. The Post Office sent inspectors out to try to convince him to give it back but he refused. He came under intense pressure, but held fast, eventually selling the sheet to a dealer for $15,000, which was a whopping sum back then. It enabled him to buy a house for his family in an upscale neighborhood and, years later, he still had enough left to pay for his daughter’s wedding. Needless to say, the value has skyrocketed since then. A single stamp goes for roughly $1.5 million at auction these days. There were 100 on the sheet. The whereabouts of four of them are currently unknown. Hey, Denzel — you got one?

    Denzel wasn’t the only actor in the puzzle today — Lon Cheney of the old horror films came by as well. He was a master of disguise as evidenced in The Hunchback of Notre Dame and The Phantom of the Opera. The studios didn’t know from makeup back then. He did all of his own makeup. His son was a horror movie actor too, Lon Cheney, Jr. He was the Wolfman. They were both honored with postage stamps, in a set with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff.

    Gotta get some sleep. See you tomorrow.