Orange Crate Art

Saturday, February 26, 2022

Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper is an easier puzzle by “Lester Ruff,” or Stan Newman, but I found it challenging in unexpected ways — three-letter-word ways, like 36-D, “Tank filler” and 39-A, “End of Bill Gates’ full name.” What? Oh! Or in three-letter words, HUH and AHA.

Some other clue-and-answer pairs of interest:

7-D, fifteen letters, “As luck would have it.” As luck would have it, I saw this answer straight off.

10-D, five letters, “‘I could’ve got more out’ speaker in a ’93 film.” Strange to see this clue in light of current events.

24-A, five letters, “Turned, in a phrase.” Oddly appealing to see this word standing alone.

25-A, seven letters, “Reference note for a certain sitter.” I was thinking of info for childcare — bedtime, phone numbers, prohibited treats, &c.

28-D, four letters, “Apt rhyme for ‘praise.’” Is the answer as un-obvious as I think it is?

30-D, nine letters, “Pleasantly reminiscent.” And let’s keep it that way.

35-A, fifteen letters, “‘You’re welcome’ alternative.” YOUBETNOWORRIES?

51-D, four letters, “Word from the Dutch for ‘eye.’” The clue improves an often-seen answer.

60-A, five letters, “Parisian pen.” I like this word, which I can’t recall ever noticing in a puzzle.

My favorite: 55-A, ten letters, “‘Magnificent __________’ (what Aldrin called the moon).” It’s new to me, and it’s memorable.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Friday, February 25, 2022

Another Lumbly

Very strange: PBS is re-airing a documentary tonight, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. The narrator is the actor Carl Lumbly. “Lum-blee” was my toddler pronunciation of Columbia, Miles’s record label.

[I’ve been listening to Miles Davis, or “Meel Day-da,” since toddler days. Thanks, Dad.]

At a kitchen table

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, Supreme Court nominee, in her remarks this afternoon:

“My father made the fateful decision to transition from his job as a public high-school history teacher and go to law school. Some of my earliest memories are of him sitting at the kitchen table reading his law books. I watched him study, and he became my first professional role model.”

I like seeing the kitchen table in her story. Kitchen tables can make good desks.

You can watch and listen at C-SPAN. Judge Jackson’s remarks begin at 12:49.

A wine–whine merger

I had a hearing test yesterday (aftermath of an ear infection). I did good on the test. Yes, I felt like a schoolkid.

Part of the test had a recorded voice asking the testee to repeat a word: “Say the word ______.” I was amused to hear the voice say “Say the word wheat,” pronouncing wheat /hwēt/. I said /wēt/. The doctor was amused when I pointed out, post-test, the difference. I trust I received full credit for my answer.

The shift from /hwēt/ to /wēt/ is an instance of what’s called the wine-whine merger, aka glide cluster reduction. An undated map from UPenn shows the /hw~w/ distinction as “completely absent from New York State.” It was certainly absent from Brooklyn, /wich/ is /wer/ I learned to /tawk/.

No cookies

“Are those fresh candy-cane cookies I smell?”

No, because that’s a line from a Hallmark movie that I wrote down on a scrap of paper in December, and the time for candy-cane cookies is long gone — if ever there was such a time. At any rate, there’s no time for them now.

Thursday, February 24, 2022

“A great piece of land”

The defeated former president, marveling at Vladimir Putin’s invasion:

“He’s taking over a country — really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in.”

Imagine FDR marveling at Hitler.

But what really strikes me here is the idea that a country is nothing more than a property, something to take as one’s own. Not a culture, not a history, just “a great piece of land,” with a lot of people on it, and a good price — just “two dollars” in sanctions. It’s the same mentality that let the defeated former president see Greenland as something to buy (or trade Puerto Rico for), and the same mentality that lets him see women as parts to be grabbed at will.

The History Channel

Admiral James G. Stavridis (ret.), on MSNBC a few minutes ago: “Sometimes you’re watching the History Channel in real time. This is one of those times.”

*

And he just invoked 1914, 1939, and 1962 (the Cuban Missile Crisis).