Joshua Kosman

Solution: ALMS

Slam: anagram fodder
dancing: anagram indicator
charity: definition

New puzzle and clue on Thursday!

OK folks. I make a monthly donation to support the San Francisco food bank. Right now they have a matching program, meaning every $1 turns into $2. Would you join me? Let's raise $1200.

Forget the sacred mystery — San Francisco Opera’s ‘Parsifal’ is pure, dazzling spectacle San Francisco Opera’s “Parsifal” shimmers with beauty and bold staging, trading Wagner’s mysticism for visual wonder and musical brilliance under Music Director Eun Sun Kim.

"In tackling Wagner’s final and most enigmatic operatic creation, the company has deftly bypassed all the piece’s most intractable challenges and opted instead to dazzle the eyes and ears."

I'm back in the Chronicle today, with a review of SF Opera's radiant new Parsifal.

Classical Music Is The 40 Year Old Virgin The BSO's cringe response to Katherine Needleman

Fantastic essay by Rebecca Bryant Novak @notorious-rbn.bsky.social about the craptacular ineptitude of classical music organizations in general, and the Baltimore Symphony in particular, on matters of harassment and workplace sexual abuse.

rebeccabryantnovak.substack.com/p/classical-...

Happens to the best of us :)

Took a minute to realize you meant Ben Bradlee 😆

Police Report Says Member of Congress, 88, Has Dementia A police report says D.C.’s congressional delegate, who was scammed out of thousands, exhibits “early stages of dementia.”

It is far past time to stop tip-toeing around people's feelings and start being upfront with members of the gerontocracy. Sometimes it is just time to take away the keys.

www.thedailybeast.com/police-repor...

its remarkable to see random suburbanites in their fucking PJs have more courage than the vast majority of america's political, social, and civil elites

RWers will NOT stop beating the drum trying to make "trans" radioactive.

They must be resisted steadfastly, until the polarity finally switches and it becomes a toxic subject for them to invoke.

Trans rights are human rights, end of story.

A Familiar Tune with Unfamiliar Words Come gather 'round people ...

I wrote new words to an old song.

Why Trump would be perfect for an honorary U-M doctoral degree Awarding Trump an honorary doctoral degree would be an opportunity to recognize the long way the University has walked in less than two years. U-M juniors may still remember times when the campus code...

Brilliant and powerful.

It’s terrifyingly good

Personally I think a really good reason for you to stop going to Thanksgiving with any MAGA relatives you may have is because you really cannot trust them not to sexually abuse your children

🎶 Cinque…
Otto…
Tredici…
Ventuno…
Trentaquattro…
Cinquantacinque… 🎵

(Le Nozze di Fibonacci)

I canvassed all the performances I could find on Sp*tify to see who, if anyone, nailed this correctly.

Answer: Gerald Finley, Evelyn Lear, and Mary Ann Hart, a mezzo-soprano unknown to me.

Everyone else, including some big names, gets the pronunciation wrong.

This matters if you're a singer performing Charles Ives' setting of the poem. You kind of want to get the words right.

You can tell from the rhyme (because Longfellow's rhymes are never subtle or interesting) what the night is beginning to do.

It's not beginning to lower (rhymes with goer) i.e., descend.

It's beginning to lower (rhymes with hour), i.e., per Merriam-Webster, "become dark, gloomy, and threatening."

How about a bit of poetry/music pedantry to finish out the week?

Here's the first stanza of Longfellow's treacly poem "The Children's Hour":

Between the dark and the daylight,
When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
That is known as the Children's Hour.

A sweaty ICE agent looking into the camera as a woman next to him gleefully flips him off with both hands.

Yesterday on Canal St. in Chinatown.

(Photo by the superb www.instagram.com/nigrotime?ig...)

a large group of people are dancing in a crowd at a concert . Alt: A large group of people slam dancing at a concert.

Slam dancing for charity (4)

In our latest Out of Left Field cryptic crossword, sent to subscribers this morning, @hpicciotto.bsky.social and I explore new philanthropic possibilities.

www.patreon.com/posts/puzzle...

Sam-he-is The Other Minds Festival shone a spotlight on an inventive composer coming fully into his own

New post at On a Pacific Aisle, with thoughts on Samuel Adams, SF Music Day, Philharmonia Orchestra, and more.

pacificaisle.substack.com/p/sam-he-is

Sam-he-is The Other Minds Festival shone a spotlight on an inventive composer coming fully into his own

New post at On a Pacific Aisle, with thoughts on Samuel Adams, SF Music Day, Philharmonia Orchestra, and more.

pacificaisle.substack.com/p/sam-he-is

Bret Stephens Why Mamdani Frightens Jews Like Me

because i'm a dumb little baby who has no grip on reality

Solution: DEMOCRATIC

Arcane: anagram indicator
comedic art: anagram fodder
going blue: definition

New puzzle and clue on Thursday!

a raccoon and two cats are eating from a bowl of food on the ground Alt: Video of a raccoon grabbing a large handful of food from the dish of two intimidated cats and running away with it.

Thank you, this is splendid! Stealing for a cryptic crossword.

Nice! Two things though:

1) That was NOT an extremely easy puzzle. On the easier side of median maybe, but, like, 3 or 4 out of 10?

2) An hour and 10 minutes for your first complete solo solve is terrifically impressive! Absolutely no self-deprecation called for.

Keep it up!

NYT has reached the Fox News Event Horizon where you are less informed if you consume what they put out than if you don't.

Which one? Where? Whose?

Also: congratulations!

I remember during the Tylenol murders in 1982 hearing a news report that law enforcement had decided it was not part of some kind of corporate sabotage aimed at Johnson & Johnson but rather was the work of “a madman”

One of my all-time best (and most fervent) rants

pacificaisle.blogspot.com/2008/01/see-...