Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Today's time: 7:49.

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Today's puzzle by comedian and View co-host Joy Behar and Lynn Lempel has comedians' names worked into sound-alike phrases: PURPLE HART, PAW PRINZE, PRYOR COMMITMENT, BARR FIGHT, and FALLEN IDLE.  Ha!  Hilarity!

ADAM Schiff, "on the House Intelligence Committee," is a Democratic Congressman from California, in the news lately because of his attempts to protect DREAMers from the thoughtless policies of our racist Manchurian president.

I did not know that Helen Keller was a founder of the ACLU.  This and other interesting facts about the truly great lady are here.

Hey, it's my mule SAL again!  Last time the fill was Erie and the clue was Sal; today the reverse.

Swimmer Diana NYAD has an almost-phonetically-palindromic name. She became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage, at the age of 64!  Dang.  Wikipedia almost always some interesting tangential tidbits: "Nyad was also once ranked thirteenth among US women squash players."

SUSIE Essman is yet another actor I don't know.  I've never seen "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

For "youngest of the fictional March sisters" I put *MEG, but she's the oldest.  It's AMY.  I've read that book maybe three times, but I really couldn't remember which was which.

IDA Lupino (for whom I initially had *IRA) was an actress and singer, who managed to become a producer and director despite the chauvinistic Hollywood machine of the time.  She was in High Sierra, a lesser Bogart joint, and directed the noir The Hitch-Hiker.  I'd-a remembered that if only I'd-a seen it!