Today’s Saturday Stumper

Today’s Newsday  Saturday Stumper is by Stan Newman, the puzzle’s editor, constructing as Lester Ruff. It’s an easier Stumper (less rough), but it’s not a walk in the park. It’s more like a walk in the woods, but woods with a discernible hiking trail. Not Dante territory.

Some clue-and-answer pairs of note:

2-D, eight letters, “Objective arbiter?” A nice twist.

13-D, six letters, “Sister brand of Nehi.” In days of yore, the choice after two-on-two or three-on-three basketball. (Why?)

23-A, four letters, “Archer follower.” Clever.

30-A, four letters, “Cell descriptor.” What kind of cell?

33-A, five letters, “Ancient allegorist.” I like that the perhaps obvious answer is the wrong one.

37-A, seven letters, “What Kareem wore on the court.” I can’t recall ever being aware of them. Converse, Adidas, Pumas, that was me.

39-D, eight letters, “23 Across-related star surname.” Oof.

43-A, six letters, “Alternative to Bea.” We even know one.

52-D, five letters, “What some policewomen are called.” Another slight twist.

My favorite in this puzzle: 21-D, three letters, “Teen leader of yore.” I was thinking some prefix.

No spoilers; the answers are in the comments.

Alex Katz, scared silly

From Artforum, Alex Katz, interviewed by David Velasco:

Who were you looking to as you learned how to paint?

The guy who set the standards for me was Velázquez.

Do you still think of Velázquez when you paint now? Is that somebody who is in your head, or —

I just think about putting the paint on the canvas. I’m terrified.

Yeah, that’s enough.

Yeah, really. I mean, I load the brush and I hope it works. I mean, I’m scared silly.

If I were teaching a college writing class, I’d show this interview to my students.

A handful of Alex Katz posts
Alex Katz meets Lionel Hampton : Alex Katz’s piano : Focusing : Foods : A pinned note in Katz’s studio

[I wish I could’ve seen the big show at the Guggenheim.]

Et in Hi and Lois ego

[Hi and Lois, February 24, 2023. Click for a larger, more disgusting view.]

Hi and Lois failed the breakfast test today, at least if you don’t belong to one of the bird species that eat the dead.

Dot offers the punchline in the second panel: it’s called carrion “because birds fly away with it.” What a riot.

I have a soft spot for squirrels, as this post, this post, and others will confirm.

Related reading
All OCA Hi and Lois posts (Pinboard)

[Post title with apologies to Latin.]

Tomito

Tomito is a free Pomodoro app for Mac by Gilbert Guttmann. It’s beautifully designed and highly flexible. I think it’s the best Pomodoro app I’ve seen. You can set intervals of your choosing for work and breaks, keep or hide dock and menu bar icons, keep or hide a countdown in the menu bar, keep a stylized timer (small, medium, or large, with color choices) in front of all windows (or hide it), and choose from a number of sounds to signal the beginning and end of Pomodori. That’s the stylized clock to the left: twelve-and-a-half minutes down, twelve-and-a-half to go.

My only problem with the Pomodoro technique: stopping when I’m supposed to. If I’m reading or writing and liking it, why take a break? But break I do, or try to.

Related reading
All OCA Pomodoro posts (Pinboard)

[One small detail: If you find that you can’t quit the app, look for a prompt hidden under some open window, asking if you’re sure you want to quit. You can check a box so that the prompt won’t appear again.]

Cures for hiccups

It looks like clickbait, but it’s from The Atlantic: “The Cure for Hiccups Exists.” I am now waiting to try out the second recommendation. I hope to be waiting for some time.

Mooch as Nancy

In today’s Mutts.

Venn reading
All OCA Mutts posts : Mutts and Nancy posts : Nancy posts (Pinboard)

I let a song get into my head

I caught myself singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary” the other night. How did that happen?

We were having a tuna casserole. I thought casserole — cream of mushroom soup — midwest — Minnesota — The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

And that’s how I found myself singing “It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.”

A somewhat related post
“Monkey, monkey, underpants”

A witness wardrobe

We were putting up a witness in an upcoming trial. It was just for a day or two. She was blind, and she needed a wardrobe for court. The prosecutor’s office called and told Elaine that she could have anything she wanted. “She”: presumably the witness.

Related reading
All OCA dream posts (Pinboard)

[Sources: Lady Justice (blind), Joan Crawford as a criminal mastermind losing her sight in This Woman Is Dangerous, my recent non-experience in jury dury (no trials), a local attorney charged with propositioning defendants.]

“I can feel the heat closing in”

From The New York Times : “Jury in Georgia Trump Inquiry Recommended Multiple Indictments, Forewoman Says.” Two excerpts:

“It is not a short list,” the forewoman, Emily Kohrs, said, adding that the jury had appended eight pages of legal code “that we cited at various points in the report.”

And:

Asked whether the jurors had recommended indicting Mr. Trump, Ms. Kohrs gave a cryptic answer: “You’re not going to be shocked. It’s not rocket science,” adding “you won’t be too surprised.”

*

February 22: Having now seen footage of Emily Kohrs speaking with reporters, I see a gap between the content of those remarks (sharp and sober) and her affect, which is, well, off. Attention-mongering?

[Post title courtesy of William Burroughs’s Naked Lunch. The link is a gift link; it doesn’t count against non-subscribers’ free monthly NYT allotment.]

An EXchange name sighting

[Crime and Punishment U.S.A. (dir. Denis Sanders, 1959). Click for a much larger view.]

That’s George Hamilton — yes, really — turning in an excellent performance as our American Raskolnikov, Robert Cole, a Los Angeles college student. But what’s the exchange name on that telephone?

A 1955 AT&T/Bell publication gives the following “officially recommended” possibilities for HO: HObart, HOmestead, HOpkins, HOward.

More telephone EXchange names on screen
Act of Violence : The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse : Armored Car Robbery : Baby Face : Black Angel : Black Widow : Blast of Silence : The Blue Dahlia : Blue Gardenia : Boardwalk Empire : Born Yesterday : The Brasher Doubloon : The Brothers Rico : The Case Against Brooklyn : Chinatown : Craig’s Wife : Danger Zone : The Dark Corner : The Dark Corner (again) : Dark Passage : Deception : Deux hommes dans Manhattan : Dial Red 0 : Dick Tracy’s Deception : Down Three Dark Streets : Dream House : East Side, West Side : Escape in the Fog : Fallen Angel : Framed : Hollywood Story : Kiss of Death : The Life of Jimmy Dolan : The Little Giant : Loophole : The Man Who Cheated Himself : Mr. District Attorney : Modern Marvels : Murder by Contract : Murder, My Sweet : My Week with Marilyn : Naked City (1) : Naked City (2) : Naked City (3) : Naked City (4) : Naked City (5) : Naked City (6) : Naked City (7) : Naked City (8) : Naked City (9) : Nightfall : Nightmare Alley : Nocturne : Old Acquaintance : Out of the Past : Perry Mason : Pitfall : The Public Enemy : Railroaded! : Red Light : She Played with Fire : Shortcut to Hell : Side Street : The Slender Thread : Slightly Scarlet : Stage Fright : Sweet Smell of Success (1) : Sweet Smell of Success (2) : Tension : This Gun for Hire : Till the End of Time : This Gun for Hire : The Unfaithful : Vice Squad : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?