Today’s Saturday Stumper

Holy moly. Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper, is by “Anna Stiga,” Stan Again, Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, appearing under the pseudonym that signals an easier Stumper. But I found today’s puzzle a real challenge, half an hour’s worth of challenge. I repeat: holy moly.

I shopped around in search of a toehold (yes, that’s a deliberate mixed metaphor) and started with 52-A, five letters, “Capital city closest to the equator” and 53-D, four letters, “Swimmer in every ocean.” And from there, my solving was hit or miss, words here and there. I was feeling truly 1-A, six letters, “Not very quick.”

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, nine letters, “They're fit for kings and queens.” Clever.

7-A, eight letters, “Be persnickety.” See 7-D.

7-D, five letters, “Potable associate of Rice-A-Roni.” When I saw the first letter, I knew what it had to be. The answer feels like a stretch to me, but I do acknowledge that “associate” is the right word. We’re not speaking of a beverage that pairs well with the San Francisco treat.

17-A, six letters, “Was in circulation.” Now there’s a Stumper-y answer.

20-A, five letters, “Target area.” Nice.

27-D, seven letters, “Red White & Blueberry limited edition (summer 2022).” Something to do with Oreos, right? THEOREO? No. And 25-D, seven letters, “Partner for a 27 Down” has nothing to do with milk.

29-D, five letters, “Fall over in elation.” I laughed.

34-D, nine letters, “Monitor monitors.” They seem to get well-deserved respect in the Newsday puzzle.

39-D, eight letters, “Refuses to even think about.” I had the first letter wrong for some time. Is it supposed to mislead?

40-A, fourteen letters, “Handler of fried eggs.” My first thought of course was SHORTORDERCOOK.

47-D, five letters, “What program notes provide.” Uh, the names of the members of the orchestra?

61-A, six letters, “Early entrant into the game console business.” A name I haven’t thought of in decades.

My favorite clue in this puzzle: 31-A, fourteen letters, “Mystic contemplation of one’s navel.” Why? Because I knew the answer right off. But I didn’t take time to read the clues for the two fourteen-letter answers as I worked my way down to 52-A and 53-D.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

A 2023 calendar

[Click for a larger month.]

Free: a 2023 calendar, in large legible Gill Sans, three months per page. The calendar includes all the days, weeks, and months of the year, with days painstakingly distributed across weeks and weeks painstakingly distributed across months. Minimal holiday markings: MLK Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

You can download the PDF from this Dropbox link.

[I’ve been making calendars in the Mac app Pages since late 2009, when the cost of outfitting my house with Field Notes calendars began to feel unjustifiable.]

Elizabeth Cotten in the news

She’s being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence.

Recently updated

New directions in chicken soup I can now say that I agree with Joe.

Local weather

A few minutes ago a TV meteorologist said “Holy moly!”

Related reading
Holy moly! (Green’s Dictionary of Slang)

“Total privacy”

In public:

Dorothy B. Hughes, The Expendable Man (1963).

New York Review Books has reissued two Hughes novels, In a Lonely Place (1947) and this one. Both are good, but this one is better. It’s a “wrong man” novel with a plot element that a reader in 1963 probably would not have anticipated. In 2022 you might. (I did.)

I suspect that Hughes was hoping that this novel, like In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse. would be adapated for the screen, and I suspect that she had an actor in mind for Dr. Hugh Densmore, her main character. But I can say more only in the privacy of a phone booth.

Past and future

From President Biden’s speech last night:

“We must vote knowing who we have been, what we’re at risk of becoming.”

The New York Times has a transcript.

Have you voted yet?

George Booth (1926–2022)

The New Yorker cartoonist was ninety-six. The New York Times has an obituary.

Here’s the short documentary referenced therein: Drawing Life with George Booth.

Washington Post, sheesh

In a piece about the hazards of permanent daylight-saving time, another inapt similar to :

Similar to how sunlight in the morning can pull our internal clock earlier, light from any source too late into the evening can do the opposite and “push” our internal clock later.

Better:

Just as sunlight in the morning can pull our internal clock earlier, light from any source too late into the evening can do the opposite and “push” our internal clock later.

Could the awkward similar to result from fear of making a mistake with as or like ?

Related reading
All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard) : An NPR similar to

Tele-Rest No. 300

[Click either image for a larger view.]

I’ve had a Tele-Rest No. 300 sitting around for many years, purchased (in the 1990s?) from a going-out-of-business office-supplies store. I bought this item only for its box, which predates ZIP codes. The Tele-Rest itself is stamped with a San Diego ZIP code (92109). Herman H. Renneker (1898–1966) must have been a thrifty user of outdated packaging.

A brief obituary describes the circumstances in which the idea for the Tele-Rest was born. It was during the Second World War, when Renneker was working in the purchasing department at Solar Aircraft:

It was one day at Solar, when all the telephones were ringing at once, that Renneker walked out of the office, went across the street for a cup of coffee and hit on the Telerest idea.

Here’s the patent for “Telephone Hand Set Supports” (Dec. 9, 1958).

I have a Model 500 telephone that I used in my office (its ring astonished students), so I (finally) tried attaching the Tele-Rest to the handset this morning. Alas, the device is not especially helpful for keeping the handset on my shoulder. It’s just too small — the Tele-Rest, that is. If I were really using a Model 500 in everyday life, scrunching the handset between my head and shoulder would work much better.

[The box is more attractive than what’s inside. But you can still click for a larger view.]

My Tele-Rest will remain in the Museum of Supplies. But an Etsy seller has a grey Tele-Rest for sale, right now, marked up to $14 from $1.49 — that’s the price scrawled in grease pencil across the box (marked down from $2.25).

This post is the twenty-third in a very occasional series, “From the Museum of Supplies.” Supplies is my word, and has become my family’s word, for all manner of stationery items. The museum is imaginary. The supplies are real.

Other Museum of Supplies exhibits
Ace Gummed Reinforcments : C. & E.I. pencil : Dennison’s Gummed Labels No. 27 : Dr. Scat : Eagle Turquoise display case : Eagle Verithin display case : Esterbrook erasers : Faber-Castell Type Cleaner : Fineline erasers : Harvest Refill Leads : Illinois Central Railroad Pencil : Ko-Rec-Type, Part No. 3 : A Mad Men sort of man, sort of : Mongol No. 2 3/8 : Moore Metalhed Tacks : A mystery supply : National’s “Fuse-Tex” Skytint : Pedigree Pencil : Pentel Quicker Clicker : Real Thin Leads : Rite-Rite Long Leads : Stanley carpenter’s rule