In an effort to speed up the game (major league baseball), a rule was adopted limiting a pitcher’s throw to a base (to keep a runner close) to two per batter. If a third throw over nails the runner, fine: he’s out. But if it doesn’t, the runner is advanced a base. A “disengagement” counts as a throw. That is, if the pitcher glares at the runner and steps off the rubber, that will count as a throw even if no throw is actually made.

That brings us to an unusual event that occurred in the ninth inning of last night’s excellent World Series game. The Jays were perched on a fairly secure 6-1 lead, but LA put runners on second and third in short order (Oy!), and then scored the man from third on the first out. So Max Muncy, a big goon of a guy, was left at second. It seemed to annoy the pitcher Varland. There used to be a concern that a runner on second could read the catcher’s signals and convey info to the batter. But the catcher’s signals are conveyed electronically now, so that’s not a fear. John Smoltz, former pitcher himself, surmised that Varland might be concerned that Muncy would spot his grip on the ball, deduce from it what pitch was being thrown, and convey that information to the batter. That would not be illegal: it’s part of the game. It’s the pitcher’s job to prevent the theft.

Anyway, Vernold said F*ckit. He “disengaged” three times. Muncy was moved to third, out of harm’s way. Problem solved. The game ended shortly thereafter.

Here’s Louis Varland. He’s 27 and a Minny boy, born in St. Paul. Wife Maddie is a dentist.

The game turned on an incredibly close call in the Toronto part of the seventh inning. The Jays had their gears in motion to break the game open. They scored one run to go up 3-1, and had men on first and third with no outs. The batter, Isiah Falafel (hold the tahini), lined out to third. Muncy threw to first where Gimenez slipped getting back to the base and was called out. That’s the rally killer LA needed: a double play leaving a runner on third but with two out. But the out call was challenged, and the replays showed Gimenez just snuck his fingers onto the base an instant before the throw arrived. The call was reversed. So there were men at first and third and only one out. With two outs to work with, the pesky Jays pushed three more runs across. Check mate.

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Picked Nit of the Month: In today’s puzzle at 35A, the clue was “Food fight projectile,” and the answer was PEA.

It did not sit well with Rex: “In a food fight, everything is a ‘projectile.’ If you’re taking time to load up individual PEAs on a spoon and flick them at people, one at a time, I guarantee you are losing.”

But “H. C. Andersen” posted:

I believe the “food fight” reference in 35A is not to the classic middle school cafeteria food fight, but to pea-shooting competitions (similar to darts), in which a dried pea (or some facsimile) is a projectile shot at targets through a straw (not at each other, God forbid). Pea-shooter game kits are widely available as toys for kids; and there are adult versions for serious competition; there is even as World Pea-shooting Championship held annually in the UK.

While the game may enjoy more popularity across the pond than in the US, the term “pea-shooter” is ubiquitous. And what American fourth-grade boy, in his own version of pea-shooting, has not spit on a wadded up bit of paper, inserted it into a straw, and shot it across the room toward a female classmate who, in just a few short years, he’ll be pining over.

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What do you know about the Finger Lakes? NY State, right? It’s a start. How many of them are there? Should be five, no? No! Ten then? No again! There are eleven! What gives? The puzzle called ONEIDA the “thumb” of the Finger Lakes today, but it’s not even one of the eleven: it’s a separate thumb off to the east of the eleven. Seneca is the largest at 43,343 acres, but Cayuga is a very close second and is better known due to its proximity to Ithaca.

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For you Simpsons fans (Hi Sam!), DUFF beer was in the puzzle today and generated the following comments:

Andrew Z: Duff beer was named after the bass player for Guns n’ Roses, Duff McKagan.

Anony Mouse: Duff McKagan claims this, but everyone associated with The Simpsons denies it.

D’oh!

In related matters, in a nice concatenation of events, Rex shared the following Simpsons clip (for no good reason) which led to Commenter Jnlzbth (not a typo) sharing an excerpt from Neruda’s “Your Laughter” that appears after it, below.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

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From The Onion:

Student In Hair Styling Academy Nervous About Practicing On Cadavers

MILTON, MA—Wincing at the smell of formaldehyde as she entered the beauty school morgue, cosmetology student Linda Emerson admitted Wednesday that she was nervous for the part of her studies where she’d have to cut hair on cadavers. “I know it’s important to practice before you give a haircut to a living, breathing person, but doing a bob-chop on an 80-year-old dead lady just really freaks me out,” said Emerson, who, after shampooing her cadaver’s hair in the sink with the help of other students, was chastised by an instructor for ripping off a part of the scalp during what should have been a routine blow-drying exercise. “I really want to be respectful of the dead because they donated their bodies so I could learn to cut pixies, bouffants, and buzz cuts.”

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See you tomorrow, Chatterheads!

Special thanks to Astoria Bob for letting us know that the poet Maria Lisella whose work we featured a few days ago lives in his co-op complex and he knows her a bit. She’s the poet laureate of Queens!

Here’s a poem of hers called “We.”

Like that day in February—crisp, sharp cloudless
           it’s like that today when winter refuses to fade.

       The sheets over and under you, creaseless like the sky.

     I bend over your hospital bed, release the railing between us
                        in silence we call mercy into the room.

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Stu Davies posted the following sweet note for the Dull Men’s Club (UK) and it rallied the membership, generating close to 100 warm wishes. Here’s what he said:

Life changing unexpectedly.
When I joined this page it was for two reasons…

The first reason was because I am a dull man, the second reason was the word “chapter” in the title reminded me of 1% motorcycle clubs, I liked the juxtaposition.

What I never envisioned was that typing a few words onto a keyboard would be a life changing act.

Picture the scene, Dear Reader…

A slightly overweight fifty something man who was made unexpectedly single after his wife and his “friend” made “plans” in his absence that didn’t include him.

Life consisted of work, home, sleep, work, home, sleep, work, home, sleep, with no change predicted at any point.

I am a firm believer that humour may be the cheapest and most available remedy to some of life’s ills, so when I stumbled across this very site I decided to join in the fun.

At some point I noticed that a particular lady was a great fan of my early work and regularly commented.

In a rare moment of boldness I suggested we friend each other on Facebook, so we could converse on messenger.

We did this for a few weeks, until one evening in a not very rare moment of clumsiness I managed to accidentally press the button to call her, before I realised what I had done she answered.

We must have talked for well over an hour, the conversation just flowed and then again the next night.

Conversation soon turned into a plan to meet and she drove down to my area for a few days that spring. A fifty something bloke soon began to feel like an awkward teenager again.

She was lovely with lovely eyes and a wicked sense of mickey taking humour

Love has blossomed and my supposed autumn years have rewound back to spring again. I now challenge myself to actually be more outgoing than I have ever been and actively try to engage strangers in conversation, all due to her example.

The last two years have been a blast and when I’m able to I relish perambulating furiously the 120 miles to her place on a Saturday night to spend quality time with a lovely lady, or her venturing to mine for some adventures.

I am not going to write her name, because she is a private person.

So a few words written on a tablet on a lonely winters evening have lead to a whole new happy life that could never have been predicted and someone to think of when I go to bed and when I wake up.

Comments:

Avi Liveson: You’ve given me the courage to leave my wife. Just kidding! Very happy for you. Made my day, mate.

Mark Wrigley: Fantastic stuff, for both of you, long may it continue sir!

Matthew Reed (admin): Oh Stu, I can’t tell you how happy your happiness makes me! To think that my decision to set up this group has facilitated a new beginning for you both, filled with joy and happiness, fills me with joy and happiness! Many, many happy wishes for your future together!

Oh, and if Diane and I don’t at least get an invite to the evening reception then you are both blocked. 

Diane Reed: That’s proper warmed me cockles, that has. So lovely and not dull in any way.

Wendy Brown: As corny/dull as it sounds.. we all need to feel needed.. (Well some of us do.) I am really pleased for you both!

Helen Cann Powell: Hardly dull – in fact more like a never ending and fulfilling brief encounter. What a nice hopeful read for many dull men. All the best for your future.

Jennifer Brand: This has made a cold and dull Saturday night, stuck at home swallowing antibiotics for a dental infection, a little brighter. Out of darkness, light. Congratulations to you both. 

Jose Rogers: What a wonderful story ! I am so pleased to be part of the UK Chapter! Wishing you and all of our fellow members well xx

And on and on . . . I’ve never seen our dull membership so joyful and full of good wishes. Love this club!

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My favorite Bernie Sanders line was when he was running against Hilary. An interviewer asked him if he’d be able to handle the proverbial crisis phone call at 3 am. Bernie said, “I’m usually up at that hour to go to the bathroom.” Well, if he was up at that hour last night he could have watched the end of the LA-Toronto World Series game. Six hours and 39 minutes; 18 innings. Freddie Freeman ended it with a blast over the center field fence. He’s a good guy. If someone had to do it for them, we’re glad it was him.

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I rely on my sixteen-year-old granddaughter Robin (nee Lianna) to help keep me up with some of the latest rock music, but I get most of the current lingo from XW puzzles. E.g., from today’s puzzle, are you familiar with GO HAM? It means to go all out. To put in your maximum effort; to hold nothing back. It was popularized by a couple of rap hits and it may come from an acronym: to go as “hard as a motherf*cker.” To help make it stick, I’m gonna go ham in trying to use it in upcoming OC posts.

It was a very lively and fresh puzzle, meaning there was a lot of neat stuff in it, from ZEBRA COLTS (“Little guys in striped coats”), to TO GO CUPS (“Beverage containers for people on the move”), and a SOFA FORT (“Child’s living room hideaway”). Hungry? Grab some NAAN, a very popular bread in Crossworld, General TSO’S shrimp, or make a stop at the OMELET BAR. You might find the “Sweet but Psycho” singer AVA Max there, or the vampiry ESME Cullen, or droolingly handsome Adam BRODY of the O.C. (the other one: not Owl Chatter). Here they are, respectively.

It was constructed by Adrianne Baik. This is what she wrote in connection with an earlier puzzle (her first) she had accepted by the Times:

I am a college student studying chemistry and climate. I started creating crosswords almost a year ago and am excited to continue making them for people!

When I returned to college for my sophomore year, I rarely mentioned my new passion for crossword construction. Truthfully, I was embarrassed. I was 19, only a few months deep into the hobby and afraid to take myself seriously.

I told my family and closest friends, but beyond that, I just told Arjun, my partner in organic chemistry lab. Every Monday from 1:15 to 5:15 p.m., as we waited for our chemical reactions, we passed time on the NYT Games app, starting with Wordle and ending with the Crossword.

When I first admitted to Arjun that I was creating puzzles, he asked where to find my work. I immediately argued that it was “just a hobby” and I wasn’t good enough for publication. Jokingly, I mentioned that maybe someday, I’d be published in The Times, and we could do my puzzle in lab. He ignored my sarcasm and said he couldn’t wait. I laughed it off.

That night, I felt cautiously optimistic. Empowered, I poured hours into a themeless puzzle with six grid spanners and submitted it. It was spontaneous, one of my first themeless puzzles, and here it is [the earlier puzzle, not today’s].

I suppose the biggest thing I learned from the creation process was to be persistent and be ready to push through lots of frustration and disappointment when a seemingly promising idea didn’t work out. I had to be OK with failing and trust the process. Even when this puzzle was accepted, I had to rewrite the majority of my clues, since this was my first themeless puzzle and I didn’t know how to increase the difficulty.

Today, as my debut Times puzzle is published, I’m filled with gratitude. Special shout-out to my family, my friend Jenny Ngo and my chemistry professor/mentor Spencer Brucks: Thank you for celebrating all the little victories with me this year.

That October day in lab was my last with Arjun, as he died the next day. In the following weeks, his absence was so strong it became a presence itself. Initially, I refused to solve crosswords because they reminded me of the loss. But with time, I understood that he would have wanted me to keep going. I remembered his unwavering belief in me, leaned into it and never looked back.

He continues to inspire me every day. I hope sharing his story will inspire you, too.

Here are two photos of Adrianne. In the second one, she is smack dab in the middle with her chemistry group. I’m going to keep this photo of beautiful kids in mind in case I start to lose hope in the future.

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Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow.

Nick Mangold was a mensch. He was drafted by the Jets out of Ohio State in the first round in 2006 and distinguished himself as one of the NFL’s best centers throughout his eleven-year career with the Jets. He was inducted into the Jets “Ring of Honor” in 2022. An Ohioan born and raised, Jersey claimed him as one of theirs from his playing days on. In fact, he lived here in Chatham, the site of Owl Chatter headquarters, during his playing days, and just moved up the road to Madison when he retired.

Nick put out a call seeking a kidney donor just two weeks ago, but succumbed to kidney failure and passed away on Saturday. He was only 41. He is survived by a sea of very adoring Jets fans, and by his wife Jennifer and their kids Matthew, Eloise, Thomas and Charlotte, for all of whom he so ably anchored the line.

Running back Thomas Jones, for whom Mangold blocked for three seasons, wrote: “Rest in peace to my brother & teammate Nick Mangold. I keep seeing your smiling face in the huddle bro. One of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”

Rest in peace, Nick.

The Jets won their first game of the season yesterday after seven losses, 39-38 over Cincy.

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Owl Chatter readers expressed some interest in Bruce’s lady-friend from the new movie, the Australian actress Odessa Young. Turns out her parents were a musician (dad) and writer (mom) and are big Bruce fans. Odessa herself is too and really pushed to get any role at all in the movie, not expecting to land the major one she did. Her character represents an amalgam of women Bruce dated during that era.

Odessa has been acting since the age of 11, mostly in indie films, with much success, but this role should push her into the stratosphere. Scott Cooper, who made the movie, said of her: “Her stillness and her ability to communicate volumes with her eyes are real strengths. She can convey a whole spectrum of emotions—sorrow, defiance, hope—without saying a word.”

She’s 27 and, sorry fellas, married to director David Raboy, whom she met back in 2019 on the set of The Giant. This was the first photo of her I landed on today. No need to search any further.

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Shakespeare’s PORTIA dropped by the puzzle yesterday, clued via her role in Merchant. She’s the one who said the quality of mercy is not strained. So, tell me, Porsh — how does it keep from getting lumpy?

Also a wonderful visit from STAN LAUREL. What a treat. I once heard someone describe Laurel and Hardy skits as involving some hysterical predicament from which they finally extricate themselves only to find something as crazy waiting in the wings. E.g., in one film they are tasked with carrying a piano across a rope bridge over a deep gorge. Dayenu, right? No, that’s not enough, so a gorilla comes out on the other side. Here it is.

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There was a frankfurter in the puzzle today, but not the hot dog kind. It was Justice FELIX Frankfurter and I was surprised to hear from Rex that he hadn’t heard of him. What!? An English prof at SUNY Binghamton, around 50 years old. How could that be? I commented that not having heard of the Justice doesn’t cut the mustard.

A very brief discussion ensued on how some German place names became associated with foods. And I learned that there’s a whole big deal about whether JFK announced to the German people that he was a donut. “Berliner” is a term for donut. If you are saying you are from Berlin you are supposed to say Ich bin Berliner, without the “ein.” With the “ein” you are saying you are a donut. But Kennedy was in fact correct to use “ein.” Because if you are not truly from Berlin (as in JFK’s case), “ein” is appropriate. For example, if you are Ronald McDonald saying you are a clown, you would not use “ein.” But someone being silly who refers to himself as a clown would use “ein.” (Did that come across clearly? Am I a donut?)

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What a nice lunch today! Met two old buddies from Hunter at Kimura on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. Toshi ordered a whole mess of things for all of us to share and it was out of this world. I tried a Japanese IPA (Neko) and it was very good! (Burp!)

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Let’s close today with this car story shared by Rex Commenter Barbara S because there was an ALFA Romeo in the puzzle (at 30D). She writes well and I like her usage of caribou towards the end:

“I think I recently threatened to tell a story about ALFA Romeos, and thanks to 30D, this puzzle has given me the opportunity. My husband and I had a holiday in a very pretty part of rural Ontario earlier this fall. We stayed at an inn which had been recommended by a friend. It’s a big place – more like being on a campus than in a hotel. There are a number of buildings with guestrooms and suites, a separate cottage with reception desk and gift shop, a ‘cookery’ school, a pub and a restaurant. There are parking areas scattered around these buildings, and one evening as we were walking to supper, we gradually became aware that there was an enormous number of ALFA Romeos, some new and some vintage, parked here, there and everywhere. Also an overabundance of Porsche Carreras and, most spectacularly, a 1929 Bentley that looked like it had just exited the factory! What!? We soon saw that the far end of the dining room had been given over to the ALFA Romeo Club of Montreal, a lively bunch who were eating, drinking, being merry, raising their glasses and giving the odd speech. My husband talked to one of guys the next day and it turned out they were on a touring holiday to Lake Huron. And they were mostly ALFA drivers but the Carreras and the Bentley, affiliated with another classic car club, were welcome add-ons.

“The Bentley sported a shiny, new-looking metal plate that announced it contained Lucas electricals. This made my husband nearly choke as Lucas electrical systems, manufactured in the U.K. starting in the mid-nineteenth century, were notoriously unreliable, dubbed by frustrated owners, ‘The Prince of Darkness.’ There are websites devoted to Lucas jokes, such as: Lucas invented the three-way switch: Dim, Flicker, and Short, and its back-up: Smoke, Smolder and Ignite. Oh dear. We don’t know whether this magnificent and still fully functional car retained its Lucas components, or whether the owner kept the plate as a conversation piece.

“When the ALFAs & Co. left the inn the following morning – what a sight! You’ve watched footage of the great caribou migrations across the northern tundra? Well, it was not remotely like that, not even a little. But it was a grand parade in its own luxury automotive sort of way.”

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See you tomorrow, Chatterheads! It’s Hayride Day with Isaac!

Happy Birthday Pablo! On this date in 1881, Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain. The Writer’s Almanac attributes this quote to him: “I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” Sounds like Yogi Berra, amirite?

Dammit, Phil. You couldn’t let the guy get dressed??!! It’s his goddamn birthday and he’s 144. Argggggh. Sorry Pablo!

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Any of you old-timers relate to this piece from tomorrow’s Met Diary? Me neither. It’s by Maria Lisella.

Now 6′ 2″, at one time even taller.
Like a tree bracing its corner of the elevator,
he extends his cane to hold the door open for her.
A gesture, gracious, effortless, done a thousand
times before at the sight of a pretty woman.

“Thank you, so that’s good for more than one thing,”
she flirts. His comeback quick: “And it’s good
for closing my car door too.” Once dashing,
Scandinavian-broad shoulders, long legs,
Marlboro-man square jaw, cleareyed. Hair
now feathery, thick ankles, halting shuffle
. . . a book under his left arm, another sign he is
still who he truly was, the cane leading on the right.
Important to him to let her know he is still a man
even if not quite in the game, he has a car,

he drives the car, he gets around . . . wants
her to know that much as they part on Eighth Avenue.

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In an op-ed piece in today’s NYT, Ross Douthat takes on Taylor’s new album which he says people are finding a little coarse/bawdy, in particular the song Wood, about which I agree, and conservative, in the sense of looking forward to the married/kids-in-the-suburbs life.

He lost me pretty quickly in an onslaught of gobbledy-gook:

“The religious pronatalist who wants babies in lifelong companionate marriage shares a post-liberal ecosystem with the secular pronatalist who wants them by any means necessary, from polygamy to hatcheries. Likewise the would-be Calvinist patriarch and the would-be Andrew Tate disciple, the heterosexual e-girl flirting with Catholicism and the homoerotically inclined Nietzschean vitalist, and so on through the carnival.”

What?? Can you repeat that please, slower, and in Yiddish?? What carnival? There’s a carnival?

But this sentence seemed idiotic to me: “The impulse to elevate marriage and kids as core life goals is much stronger on the right than on the left, as are heteronormative life scripts and the actual practice of heterosexual marriage.”

Could the “non-heteros” be on the left because the right has declared all-out cultural (and legislative) war on the LGBTQ community, especially the T part? That’s like saying, hmmmm, I’ve noticed Jews don’t like Hitler.

It’s a good thing I don’t let stuff like this upset me.

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Everyone over at Rexworld loved today’s puzzle by Byron Walden, an old pro. I did too. It was super-hard. Impenetrable. Like a Saturday should be. And then, little by little, it opened up.

Here’s a small example. For the simple word ONE, the clue was “1992 U2 hit inspired by German reunification.” That’s a helluva clue for “one.” And it’s a good song that was new to me.

Have you heard of PHILO Farnsworth? Me neither. Here’s his clue: “_____ Farnsworth, inventor dubbed ‘The Father of Television.’” He was granted the first patent for television. It’s usually a pretty good hint that someone is a big deal if he or she has a stamp issued.

Two “fun” answers crossed each other. The clue at 16D was “Especially gratifying, so to speak,” and the answer was BETTER THAN SEX. It was crossed by 30A: “‘You’ve called at a bad time.’” Answer: I CAN’T TALK.

Here’s Rex on that cross: “The best part was the big-answer collision smack in the middle of the grid. BETTER THAN SEX / ‘I CAN’T TALK’–if something is better than sex, so much better than sex that it leaves you speechless … well, that sounds pretty great. I’m happy for whoever got to experience that.”

[We cruciverbalists are an easily excited group. We spend our lives watching Mel OTT and Bobby ORR forever playing their sports, while we munch on our OREOS.]

Perhaps people liked the puzzle because it brought us back to innocent, less-horrifying times. At 17A the clue was “46 years?” and it was a reference to Prez #46. The answer was: BIDEN PRESIDENCY.

Conversely, 32D was “Cursed vibe” for BAD MOJO.

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Linda and I dashed out to Madison today and voted for Mikie for Governess. Remember what Abbie told us: Vote early and vote often. Then it was up to East Hanover for the new Springsteen movie. Loved it. Not a concert film at all, although the music that was in it was very much appreciated. I was immediately sad for the very compelling young woman he fell for, knowing from real life it couldn’t have lasted. She’s Australian but does a damn good New Jersey, if you ask me (and I oughta know). Odessa Young.

See you tomorrow!

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In a book called Kosher by Design by Susie Fishbein, there is a recipe for brisket called Mexican Brisket, that is so easy and comes out so good that it completely changes one’s view on the making of brisket. It’s not as high a hill to climb anymore. We’ve used it three times now, with great success.

Here’s how easy it is to use. Take a 3-4 lb brisket, sear it on each side in a pot in a little oil for a few minutes, add a 24-oz jar of salsa, a 12-oz can/bottle of beer, potatoes (5), carrots (3), and an onion, and that’s it. Simmer covered for 3 hours. Done. Easier to slice (against the grain, of course), if you let it cool a bit.

M’wah.

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There are things that never get boring. Zoey’s face. Lianna’s crazy banter about her music or characters. Leon’s jokes. All the stuff of all the grands really. Their mishegas is inextinguishable. And I thought of them when I read what Daniel (“Danya”) Naroditsky, who became a grandmaster at the age of 17, said about chess:

“Even at my level, I can still discover beautiful things about the game every single time I train, teach, play or am a commentator at a tournament.” Every single time.

His older brother Alan introduced the game to him when he was six but he didn’t explode into it, and Alan routinely beat him for about six months. Chess was just one of the things they played, and his early memories are more generally of loving to play anything with his brother. Then he started getting good. As a fifth grader, he became the youngest person ever to win the Northern California K-12 Championship, then he was the under-12 world youth champ, and earned the title of international master at the age of 15. He was still in high school when became a grandmaster.

After graduating from Stanford with a degree in History, he took a paying position at the Chess Center in Charlotte NC, wrote about chess, became a commentator and on-line presence, and took on students. In 2022, he became the chess columnist for the NYT. Everyone he came in contact with remarked on how clearly he expressed difficult topics and how funny he was.

In October of 2024, a former world chess champ named Vladimir Kramnick accused Naroditsky (and numerous others) of cheating in online games. Many prominent chess leaders rose to Danya’s defense, but it took a terrible toll on his spirit. “To do what Kramnik has done and what everybody who supports him have done, in my mind, morally, it makes you worse than dirt.” He called Kramnik’s campaign “a sustained, evil, and absolutely unhinged attempt to destroy my life,” adding, “He is trying to ruin my life; he’s trying to inflict emotional harm, physical harm on me. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” It may have worked. Naroditsky died last Sunday, just shy of his 30th birthday. The cause of death was not announced. Some speculate suicide or a drug overdose.

What a terrible loss of an extraordinary young man. Rest in peace, Danya.

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From The Onion:

Trump Touts Productive Call With Putin About Ballroom Sconces

“You know, Vladimir and I aren’t as far apart as critics believe. There’s a lot of overlap in terms of our love for hand-cut crystal, gilded iron, and warm-toned bulbs. This bodes well for when we get to picking chairs,” Trump noted.

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So much good stuff in the puzzle today! I got a chuckle out of 9B where the clue was “Plan B, for seniors.” Ready? — SAFETY SCHOOL. Commenter Mark didn’t get it, so asked for someone to explain it. That led to about six responses like: “A high school senior is worried he may not get into Harvard, so he applies to UMass as a SAFETY SCHOOL.” Then I posted the following: “It’s like a safety pin, but with a school.” I got one LOL, which is rare, so I’m happy.

Other solid Friday-level clues: 10D. “It’s on the right in the second row.” Answer: THREE PIN.

53A. “Number discovered in the 1500s.” Answer: ETHER. (Think “numb,” not math.)

12D. “Bolted some nuts down.” Great clue for the simple word ATE.

18A: “Synthetic oil producer?” ART FORGER.

61A. “Bobblehead, e.g.” Great word: TCHOTCHKE. Murder to spell.

In the center, across, there was one long answer that spanned the grid. The clue was “Snarky reply to a question that starts ‘Can I …?’” And the (snarky) answer was: I DON’T KNOW, CAN YOU? It breaks the XW rule against dupes: having the same word in both the clue and the answer. But it has to, because the whole point is the focus on the word “can” as opposed to “may.” (The kid in the clue is being chided for saying “can” instead of “may.”)

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Our Phil tells us Taylor and Trav are planning for the wedding to take place at the Breakers Mansion in Newport RI. He’ll be there as a guest, of course, but not in any professional capacity. We’re sure he’ll sneak a few shots out to us though.

Looking good, sweetheart, as always. You hear about George?

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Well, the Dodgers’ plans to steamroll over Toronto went about as well as Putin’s grab of Kyiv. If last night’s 11-4 drubbing is any sign, it may be a long hard slog. Kudos to the Jays’ handsome young (25) slugger, Addison Barger, for his pinch hit grand slam dinger that iced the game for Canada. He was a “barger,” all right — he barged right up those Californian tuchases. BTW, it was the first ever pinch hit grand slam in World Series history. Suh-weet!

Here’s a shot of him when the buffet opened at his cousin Yitzhak’s bar mitzvah.

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See you tomorrow! Thanks for stopping in.

Excoriating Lincoln as a “woke” president, Trump today began demolition of the Lincoln Memorial. “People always complain that there’s not enough parking in that area, so we’re replacing it with a multi-level parking lot like no one has ever seen before,” he explained. “Probably the greatest in the world. Either that, or something with a lot of gold sh*t in it. Whatever. Who cares? I’ll forget about all of this by tomorrow anyway.” Congressional leaders were unaware that the demolition was taking place.

Trump assured reporters that Lincoln’s head would be saved. “It’s an extraordinary work of great historic significance,” Trump explained. But that was the first part of the monument to be destroyed, as this photo shows.

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Are Linda and I the only people left in the world who do not play Pickleball? Seems like it. Today’s puzzle was a paean to its popularity. PICKLEBALL was the theme’s revealer at 62A, clued with “Sports craze of the 2020s.” And three “rebus” squares all had words meaning “to be in a pickle.” JAM, MESS, and BIND. Last, PICKLE in the grid was crossed by CUKES, which are, after all, pickles in waiting. There was nice wordplay in that the three “pickle words” were embedded in six longer answers: NIN[JA M]ASTERS and BA[JA M]EXICO; THUM[B IND]EX and CA[BIN D]OORS; and JA[MES S]PADER and TI[MES S]QUARE.

The grid also featured a visit by XENA the warrior princess. Phil was scared of her, but here’s a nice shot of her pretty companion Gabrielle.

You’re in luck, girls — George is back! Help yourselves to some Diet Cokes and chill with us for awhile.

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At 23A, “‘Call Her Daddy’ podcast host Cooper” was an odd clue for ALEX, IMO. It’s a woman I’ve never heard of from under my rock. She performed a disrespectful “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” at Wrigley and was roundly booed by the crowd. I would have been among the boo birds. Is nothing sacred?

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Short one today. See you tomorrow!

From our “You Cannot Make This Stuff Up” Dept. The subtleties of the video Trump posted on “No Kings” day elude me. In it he’s piloting a fighter jet and spewing sh*t, literally, on the protesters below. What’s he trying to say?

And last week, when HuffPost asked at a press briefing who chose Hungary as the site of an upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded, “Your mom did.” (Not kidding.)

I gotta admit it, between that sexy photo of KL we posted recently and her “your mom” response, she’s starting to win me over. Bondi’s got the looks, but lacks the charm. Although what Leavitt has is more like counter-charm. Still not convinced? How about this baby tuxedo? Adorbs?

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How’s this for awkward? For wanting the earth to swallow you up? It was at the Miss Grand International beauty contest in Thailand. A pretty big deal in that world. Seventy-six knockouts adorned the stage, nervously hoping to be among the 22 finalists. When Miss Panama heard herself called, she covered her face with her hands in joy, marched down the steps, and posed for ten seconds as they had been instructed. So what’s the problem? They hadn’t called “Panama.” They called “Paraguay.”

Oopsies. “Aaah, I beg your pardon, I announced Miss Paraguay,” the host said, drawing out the long, awkward silence. “There is a lot of noise in this hall, packed full of fans from all over the world,” he added trying to allay her rising suicidal feelings.

Here’s what the miffed Miss Paraguay looks like. She’ll live.

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There was so much to unpack from today’s puzzle. First of all, did you know SHEILA is a term for women in Australia? The equivalent of “bloke” for men. In fact, the clue at 39D was “Young woman, in Australia.” From what I gather, it was a very common term in the past, and still is in rural areas. But it may be taking on derogatory baggage these days. Rex linked us to a discussion in Reddit that contained the following notes (among many others):

“I think these usual terms of endearment/referral (Sheila, chick, missus, bitch) can come off as offensive because they can be interpreted as dehumanising. Even if the user doesn’t mean it maliciously, to me when I’m referred to as those terms it makes me feel like an object, someone who’s name men (or others) don’t bother to learn. It’s like being referred to as a girl when I’m a woman – it diminishes who I am as a woman. Men may not feel this way when referred to as bloke/dude etc because they’re (usually) not made to feel that they’re lower in the hierarchy.”

Reply: “Bitch is not in the same category as those others. If I was talking to a bloke and he referred to his partner as a bitch I would think he’s a fuckhead, the other ones would be fine.”

“I’m a female Aussie.. the term Sheila is one I grew up with.. Not offensive at all.. I just think of it as an Aussie slang for woman..”

These four Sheilas (Gorry, Catley, Kerr, and Foord) are on Australia’s Women’s World Cup soccer team that made it to the semi-finals in 2023, the first time in eight appearances the team made it that far. Brava ladies!

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The puzzle had WORLD SERIES as its central answer, clued with “Climactic baseball event,” but it was not otherwise baseball-related. The “series” referred to a series of numbers (via wordplay) in other parts of the world — a “world series.” DOS (2 in Spanish), FIRE (4 in Danish), OTTO (8 in Italian), and SEIZE (16 in French). That series in turn related to nuclear FISSION in some way (don’t ask), which was the answer at 26D (“Atomic reaction”). And the OTTO referred to above, was OTTO HAHN who discovered nuclear fission. FUSION was tossed in for good measure at 3D, albeit clued nonnuclearly with “Kind of cuisine.”

There was other fun stuff today too. 25D: “David Bowie’s astronaut persona.” Eight letters. For some reason I couldn’t let go of STARDUST, as in Ziggy Stardust, but all the crosses fought me. Of course, it turned out to be MAJOR TOM, duh.

And there was this great clue/answer at 8D: “You got that right!” was the clue. It’s an expression I like to use. But the answer was new to me: SING IT! Fantastic. If you need one example of why I love crossword puzzles so much, that might be it. Sing it, Mojambo!

And this at 34D: “Sara Bareilles musical set in a diner.” Answer: WAITRESS.

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I usually root for the Tampa Bay Bucs if I’m watching a game of theirs. It’s because their coach is Todd Bowles. He was a defensive back as a player and he’s their head coach now. He stands very still with his headset on and watches the game intently. Linda once asked me if he was a person (i.e., or a statue) and she wasn’t kidding.

My heart goes out to him because for four years he was the coach of the Jets. They went 10-6 his first year and almost made the playoffs. But by the time he left, their record was down to 4-12. He wrote a memoir of those years and bookstores display it along with the memoirs of Holocaust survivors.

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Headlines from The Onion:

Anthropomorphologists Find Earliest Known Evidence Of Banana Walking Upright

Study: Pretending Everything’s Okay Works

CAMBRIDGE, MA—A study released Thursday by researchers at Harvard University’s Psychology Department has found that the simple act of pretending one’s life is not a complete shambles threatening to collapse at any moment works. “Even when everything is coming apart at the seams and disaster is almost certainly imminent, putting up a good front for friends and loved ones makes everything better,” said Professor Chris Wanamaker. “Smiling a lot and evasive answers are usually enough to get by. Tell everyone that things are fine, and they will be fine. Just don’t over-think it.”

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Damian Kimmi Marritt of the Dull Men’s Club (UK) reports as follows: I’m on holiday in Keswick and we went to the Derwent Pencil Museum. It was far too exciting for me, but my 17 year old son didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did. I now know how to wrap a map of Europe up small enough to be hidden inside a pencil along with a compass as was issued to air crews during the second World War.

Steve Craig: I don’t see the point.

Gary John: Didn’t hold my dog’s attention for very long.

Tony Phillips: I went there once but apparently my post wasn’t dull enough for the admin to approve.

David Stiles: Are you the Anthony Phillips who preceded Steve Hackett as the lead guitarist of Genesis?

Tony: I wish.

Clare Lorraine Payne: Cuckoo clock museum in Cheshire, that’s worth a visit….maybe a little over stimulating what with the noises.

Steve Foote: You should try the Barometer museum in Barnstaple.

Tim Bucknall: Surely the spiritual home of the DMC.

Aimee Yates: The Museum of Drainage in Prickwillow near Cambridge surprised me by being quite interesting!

Sarah Harris: I plan to take my grandson on a re-creation of the movie Sightseers (without the murder parts, probably) in a campervan when he is 4 or 5. The pencil museum will of course be one of the highlights.

Avi Liveson: But the murders were the best parts!

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See you tomorrow, Chatterheads! Thanks for popping in.

When my beloved Aunt Ida (aleha hashalom) was working on getting her education degree, Pennsylvania kept increasing the number of credits required for a teaching license. She’d earn six credits and they’d raise the requirement by six credits. It was not in her nature to get discouraged. Ever. But she did joke that it would say on her tombstone: She finally made it!

I tell that story because of Yankee great Don Mattingly. He’ll be participating in his first World Series this year as a coach for the Blue Jays at the age of 64. He finally made it! He starred for the Yankees during their World Series drought (1982-1995) and managed the Dodgers during theirs (2010-2015).

BTW, my Aunt Ida had a great career as an elementary school teacher in Pittsburgh. She regaled us with stories of her kids. Here’s one: She was teaching “Creative Dramatics” in an inner city school, a position she invented and wrote a handbook about. She put on plays with the students. In one third grade play, one scene called for several little girl mice to be playing on stage and they are surprised by a cat (a boy), and run away. Well, on performance night, when the cat jumped out to scare them, instead of running, they turned and beat the crap out of him. She could go on for hours with stories like that. (Miss you, Aunt Ida.)

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The owls always root for the bird teams and so will root for the Blue Jays in the World Series. And so will we. But the Dodgers are a likable bunch: Mookie, Freddie, and Shohei. It looks like Bo Bichette is returning (from injury) for the Jays and we’re hoping the Series will be tightly contested. As of now, the gambling people give the Dodgers a 69% chance of winning. We’ll see.

If you weren’t watching Game 7 last night, Seattle took a 3-1 lead into the seventh. Woo had pitched two strong innings, but just missed his ball four pitch to put the leadoff batter on. Ominous. The next batter was the weak-hitting Kiner-Falefa, but Woo put him on too, via a single. The wheels weren’t off the bus yet, but they were wobbling pretty badly. Gimenez laid down a sweet sacrifice bunt and then this: Springer sprang. He’s one of those players who doesn’t get the press like Judge or Ohtani, but he’s a crucial figure in whatever lineup he’s in. Last night: Boom!

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The “aforementioned” Don Mattingly (the very same), had some tsouris in his life. He married his wife Kim when he was just 18, and they had three sons. But she was an alcoholic and it ruined the marriage. They divorced at the end of his playing career. [Their son Preston is the GM of the Phils.] Don remarried when he was 49 and had another son with his second wife at the age of 53. Mattingly’s playing career, entirely with the Yankees, was marred only by its brevity. Back problems cut it short. He was the AL MVP in 1985 and an all-star six times. He won nine Gold Gloves. His lifetime batting average was .307. More importantly, he has always been a mensch.

A controversy arose when Mattingly’s hair length ran afoul of the Yankee grooming rules. Steinbrenner was insisting he get a haircut but Mattingly was miffed and refused. He was benched! It was played up big in the press but was quickly resolved by Mattingly caving, but not really — the haircut he got removed virtually nothing, but allowed Steinbrenner to save face, or, in this case, scalp. It got Mattingly a spot on a Simpsons episode.

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In the puzzle today, at 17A, “Redwood or cottonwood” was TREE. And an ACORN didn’t fall too far from it, at 55A, clued with “Nut-brown hue.” Some folks (me included) weren’t aware that there’s a color called acorn. One Anony Mouse wrote: As an old professional illustrator/cartoonist, trust me. “Acorn” is not and never has been a color. (And get off my lawn!!)

But commenter kitshef found it as Benjy Moore’s #1125. And here it is in skirt form:

kitshef went on to note: “BTW, their 2026 color of the year is ‘silhouette,’ which is described as ‘reminiscent of tailored suiting, this elegant color weaves rich espresso hues with refined notes of charcoal.’”

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Wife: I think I heard someone downstairs. You better go check.

Husband: Okay, you wait here.

Husband: Hey, what are you doing here?

Burglar: I have a gun. Don’t make me use it.

Husband: Okay, okay. Calm down. You can have whatever you want. I have cash and jewels in that safe over there. How about I open it, you take it all, and leave?

Burglar: Never mind that crap. Where’s your kid’s toy chest?

Husband: What?

Burglar: You heard me!! Show me the f*cking toy chest or I’ll blow your head off!!

If you are wondering what the hell is going on, look no further than this story in the NYT: “When detectives from the Santa Rosa PD arrived at a house in Lake County, Calif., on Monday, they discovered what looked like a Lego crime scene. Plastic figurines were everywhere, their heads removed from their bodies and organized in neat rows by facial expression (see photo, below). Tubs and bins brimmed with loose pieces — tens of thousands of them, according to the police — and were scattered across desks in the living room. Unopened sets lined the hallway floors. An investigation that began last month culminated in the arrest of Robert Lopez, 39. He had stolen more than $6,000 worth of the popular toys.”

Detective Jim Bradshaw put aside a pirate ship he was working on and explained: “Limited edition Lego sets can cost up to $1,000 and are becoming collector’s items. A Lego Spiderman figurine was valued at $15,000 recently.”

Upon his arrest, in addition to demanding a call to his lawyer, Mr. Lopez requested that he be allowed to put his shoes on. “I’m tired of stepping on these goddam f*ckin’ things at 3 am on my way to the john.” Okay, Lopez, but hurry it up.

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Are you going to the Mozart concert tonight?

No, I’m Bizet.

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Better stop. See you tomorrow!

We took a deep dive into the bowels of governmental bureaucracy and emerged whole. Got off to a bad start when I failed to make the turn the GPS lady was adjuring me to make — it seemed like a turn into a restaurant parking lot. But, five minutes later, having bumbled around for a second chance, I took the turn and, sure enough, the Motor Vehicle Commission building was hiding behind the restaurant out of sight and as inaccessible as possible. But I made it by the ID check and the strip search didn’t tickle too much. Twenty minutes later we emerged with new plates (C33WGK) and a whole bunch of paperwork validating me and our little 2012 Toyota Camry. Yay! God Bless New Jersey! (We traded cars with Sam who could use the larger Subaru to greater effect with their two little ones.)

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This poem was yesterday’s poem of the day from Poem-a-Day by poets.org. It’s by Elias Lönnrot and was translated from Finnish by John Martin Crawford. It’s called “From the ‘Kalevala’ [Proem].”

Mastered by desire impulsive. 
By a mighty inward urging, 
I am ready now for singing, 
Ready to begin the chanting 
Of our nation’s ancient folk-song 
Handed down from by-gone ages. 
In my mouth the words are melting, 
From my lips the tones are gliding, 
From my tongue they wish to hasten; 
When my willing teeth are parted, 
When my ready mouth is opened, 
Songs of ancient wit and wisdom 
Hasten from me not unwilling.
Golden friend, and dearest brother. 
Brother dear of mine in childhood, 
Come and sing with me the stories, 
Come and chant with me the legends 
Legends of the times forgotten, 
Since we now are here together. 
Come together from our roamings. 
Seldom do we come for singing, 
Seldom to the one, the other, 
O’er this cold and cruel country, 
O’er the poor soil of the Northland
Let us clasp our hands together 
That we thus may best remember. 
Join we now in merry singing, 
Chant we now the oldest folk-hue, 
That the dear ones all may hear them, 
That the well-inclined may hear them. 
Of this rising generation. 
These are words in childhood taught me. 
Songs preserved from distant ages, 
Legends they that once were taken 
From the belt of Wainamoinen, 
From the forge of Ilraariuen, 
From the sword of Kaukomieli, 
From the bow of Youkahainen, 
From the pastures of the Northland, 
From the meads of Kalevala. 
These my dear old father sang me 
When at work with knife and hatchet; 
These my tender mother taught me 
When she twirled the flying spindle, 
When a child upon the matting 
By her feet I rolled and tumbled.

Here’s Elias, just a bit past his rolling and tumbling days.

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I’m glad that HAYAO Miyazaki was in the puzzle today because I have a bone to pick with him. Miyazaki is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation. His The Boy and the Heron won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2023. My bone: we didn’t like it. That’s it: more of a chicken bone than a dinosaur bone. We saw it in Oregon the day after Michigan won the National Football title. Don’t know what all the fuss is about.

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Do you know what a spurious correlation is? It’s when statistics show a connection between things, but it’s false (spurious) — there is no rational basis to accept the connection. Schwalberg’s example in class (50 years ago, alav hashalom), was that statistics showed a connection between cigar smoking and car theft: obviously absurd (unless, as I theorized to him, the thieves were after the ash trays in the cars). Anyway, I’ve long wondered whether the correlation between family dinners and all sorts of wonderful results later in life was spurious. A recent op-ed piece addressed the issue.

As Frank Bruni put it introducing a snippet from it for his For the love of sentences feature, Erin O. White exposed the tyranny behind the insistence that all members of a household gather reverently toward the end of the day for a shared meal: “The messaging on family dinner is intense! I would like to get the P.R. machine behind family dinner working for the end of gun violence in America. Family dinner will make your children smart! It will keep your children off drugs! Your children will learn languages, turn away from vaping and join model U.N. if you just sit together at the table for 15 minutes every evening, a plate of food in front of you.”  Erin just stopped serving them and the world didn’t end.

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Music clues like these terrify me: “Only black key in a G major scale.” How the hell am I supposed to know that’s F SHARP? Anything harder than “Big brass instrument” for TUBA loses me.

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Drove up to Montclair State College last Thursday to catch a good band: Nefesh Mountain. They put on a terrific show. Here’s a sample, which, in retrospect, seemed to catch the spirit of the No Kings rally we attended just two days later.

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The controversy du jour from today’s puzzle was at 39D where the clue was “Aforementioned.” The answer was VERY SAME. So what do you think? Equivalent? Close enough for crosswords? I’m generally pretty loose on these, but this one gets on my goat a bit. Here’s Rex on it:

“VERY SAME is way more colloquial than mere ‘aforementioned’ and requires a much clearer, more proximate referent. I could drift away from my topic and then use ‘aforementioned’ to bring you right back, whereas if I used ‘VERY SAME,’ I’d need to have just been talking about whatever I was talking about for it to make sense. Aforementioned is a defensible clue, just a vague and rather unclear one, to my brain.”

Anony Mouse says:

I don’t agree that “aforementioned” is a legitimate clue for “very same,” even when one could be swapped for the other in a sentence. “Very same” means “identical.” It doesn’t mean “previously stated.” The gulf is just too wide.

But commenter jberg writes: Rex, I think you’ve got it backward. VERY SAME doesn’t always mean aforementioned, but aforementioned always means VERY SAME. At least, that’s how I always read words.

And commenter tht added: To me, “aforementioned” is pretty close to “same as above,” and VERY SAME would function as an emphatic variant. The answer should be capable of subbing in for the clue, where “capable of” implies “under some circumstances,” and not necessarily “under all circumstances.” E.g., it works in this example: “Kacie herself was asking that very same question after hearing the news,” i.e., aforementioned can be substituted for very same here.

My head is starting to hurt. Let’s let it be.

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Why does the press continue to report on whatever Trump blows out of his ass on Ukraine? He’s long ago forfeited any credibility he may have had, which is none anyway. Save your breath and save your ink. Ukraine will continue to blow up Russian oil facilities and Russia will continue to blow up civilians. Call me back in six months and we’ll see what we’ll see.

These Ukrainian women are beautiful and tough as nails. Don’t look at us in that tone of voice, Iryna!

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We’ll let that stern visage close things out tonight. See you tomorrow!

When we moaned at breakfast today “something horrible is happening at 1,” Linda knew exactly what we meant. “Jets game?” she asked. This was to be the dawn of a new era: new coach, new quarterback, new defensive and offensive coordinators, etc. And the Jets hit the ground running. The only problem is they’re running in the wrong direction. Their record is now zero wins and six losses and the only reason it’s not worse is they’ve only played six games. Coach Glenn is beginning to be criticized. I would say the honeymoon period is over, except that with the Jets there is no honeymoon: it starts with a funeral. Sigh. Let’s see what happens today against the 3-3 Panthers in Jersey. [Jets lost.]

These members of the Jets “flight crew” are ready. Whoever #10 is may be in for quite a ride.

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I haven’t been following the NYC mayoral race but from my disadvantage point in NJ, it look like Zohran Mamdani is going to win. Once I nailed down the m/n progression I came to like the name. I have a cousin named Zoltan (my Uncle Morris’s great grandson). Cuomo has spent his career making people not like him and that’s coming home to roost, it seems. The NYT has a story today on Mamdani impersonators. Neel Ghosh is a comic who does a good job. Mamdani himself is playing with it. He recently set up two look-alikes to appear at events simultaneously and posted: “I can’t be two places at once. Or can I?”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Neel Ghosh (@neel.ghost)

Here’s Ghosh out of character.

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The constructor of yesterday’s NYTXW, Samuel Smalley, took some heat for his clue/answer at 1A. The clue was “Measure of rank in Maori culture, informally,” and the answer was FACETAT. It turns out the Maori markings are sacred and meaningful and calling them face tattoos is disrespectful. They are called Ta Moko. Receiving moko constitutes an important milestone between childhood and adulthood, and is accompanied by many rites and rituals. Apart from signalling status and rank, another reason for the practice in traditional times was to make a person more attractive to the opposite sex. Men generally received moko on their faces (moko kanohi), buttocks (raperape) and thighs (puhoro). Women usually wore moko on their lips (ngutu) and chins (kauae). Other parts of the body known to have moko include women’s foreheads, buttocks, thighs, necks and backs and men’s backs, stomachs, and calves.

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At 24D, “Bonheur who painted “Ploughing in the Nivernais” was ROSA. Here’s the work:

Bonheur was widely considered the most famous female painter of the nineteenth century and was best known for painting animals. (To be clear, she made paintings of animals – she did not paint on animals.) She was openly lesbian and dressed in men’s clothing at a time when neither was acceptable in society. Here’s a portrait of Rosa, painted by Edouard Dubufe. Rosa painted the bull herself (not kidding).

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Today’s puzzle by Daniel Grinberg is called “Same Difference.” (In the NYT, only Sunday puzzles have names. And they are larger than the dailies: 21 x 21, as opposed to 15 x 15.) At six places in the grid there is a circled square. And in each of those both the down and across answers are correct whether you fill in the circled square or leave it blank. Thus, “same difference.” For example, at 112A, the clue is “Annoyances for ticketholders.” If you fill the circle in with a T, you get (T)RAIN DELAYS. See? Both rain delays and train delays answer the clue. And it works going down as well. At 112D the clue is “Decorative auto upgrade,” and you get (T)RIM: both trim and rim work. That happens six times in the puzzle. Here’s another one COUNT(R)IES and COUNTIES (“Divisions on a map”), work with BU(R)STS and BUSTS (“Ruptures”).

That would be enough wordplay to justify the puzzle for me, though it’s not particularly exciting a play. But there are two additional features that take it to another level. First, the six circled letters are placed symmetrically in the grid, and, second, the six circled letters spell (in order) DROP IT.

33A was clever. The clue was “Fights back tears?” and the answer was DARNS. Get it? Like to darn a sock. The ? in the clue tips you off that something funny is going on,

There was a gay mini-theme, which I liked, given the dreadful anti-LGBTQ bigotry in the air. At 28D, for “Openly reveal one’s sexuality,” the answer was COME OUT, crossed by CLOSET. And at 114A, “Palm Springs or Puerto Vallarta, notably” was the clue for GAY MECCA.

Puerto Vallarta’s in Mexico. In addition to great beaches, the town looks neat.

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We had the most perfect day. Shot down to Princeton for Princeton Pro Musica’s Bachtoberfest, followed by brilliant burgers and a Fiddlehead ale at the Rocky Hill Tavern.

It was an outstanding concert. Several Bach concertos in the first half, and exquisite choral works in the second. We came early for the conductor’s talk and he was terrific. Get this: at one point he told us to note that the trumpets that will be played will be the old-fashioned kind, without valves to press. There are several air holes the players can use to affect the sound, but some high notes will depend entirely on the player’s use of lip muscles. Amazing! So the cabbie in our Harry James story yesterday was right: It’s all in the lip!

Don’t the pretzel look good! See you tomorrow, Chatterheads! Thanks for stopping by.

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