Ship Badge. From the collection of ship badges at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England. “Official ship’s badge of HMS Turpin.” NMM Collection Record. From their extensive Ship Badge collection on display in the Sea Things Gallery, National Maritime Museum.
More on history, “In terms of ship’s badges it does not appear to have been formalised in the Royal Navy until the end of the First World War. By October 1918 a Charles ffoulkes was appointed to be the Admiralty Adviser on Heraldry to the Ship’s Badges Committee.” National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy: History of Ship Badges
You are looking at one full month of successfully completed NYT Crossword puzzles. This took me YEARS to achieve. Go me!
A while back, maybe 2010, I was in a headspace that did not provide enough concentration to read books. This left a significant hole in my leisure time. Blogs were popular but hadn’t exploded, or at least I hadn’t found them. Netflix was still sending out DVDs. I rented Wordplay, a documentary about the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Hmm. I like puzzles. I bought a few books and went to town. Actually, I went overboard. I reeled myself back in and compromised on one puzzle a day.
The NYT folks don’t do a good job of letting people know that the puzzles increase in difficulty throughout the week, from Monday to Saturday. Sunday puzzles are not the hardest. Saturdays are. Sundays are actually Wed/Thur level of difficulty. They are just bigger.
If you have a modicum of crossword skill, you should be able to do Monday and Tuesday puzzles straight out of the box. They took me 3 to 4 days to master. Wednesday and Thursday took me 3 to 4 months to get alongside. Friday and Saturday took me 3 to 4 years before I would even fill them out completely. Took me almost that long again before I got my first completely correct Saturday. There was a long time of missing by one.
A perfect record for the month? That means getting all the puzzles done and doing on them the day, or the night before. Puzzles are published 10 pm Eastern time.
Switching to digital helped. Although I was diligent about checking my print answers, I didn’t always find all my misteaks. That’s a lot of little letters to keep track of. Digital will keep you honest and provide hints if you need, either by square, word, or entire puzzle.
When the current crossword editor, Will Shortz, took over, he moved away from obscure rivers in Africa, among other changes. There is the occasional crosswordese, but the modern NYT crossword is more about clever clue writing.
If you like pencil puzzles but have been intimidated by reputation of the NYT crossword, please reconsider. I enjoy them every day, even the ones that stump me.
A young violin student had a chance to play before a visiting maestro. He played his best piece. He put his heart and soul into the performance. Afterwards, he asked the maestro for his opinion. Is he good enough? Does he have what it takes?
The maestro considered. Asked him to play a simple piece, then a complicated one, ran him though exercises. Finally, the great man spoke,
“Technically you are proficient. But that is all. You lack the fire.”
Crestfallen, the young man turned from music to business. He made a fortune in widget distribution. One day, the same maestro came back to town as a guest conductor. At a select sponsors party, the two talked,
“I want to thank you for taking the time to evaluate my playing all those years ago.”
“I didn’t listen. I never do. I tell everyone the same thing.”
The former violin student was thunderstruck. “I changed my life because of you. I change my major because you told me I lack the fire.”
“Ah,” says the great man, “But if you’d had the fire, you would have ignored me.”
This post was supposed to be another fiction sketch. I am having an H of a time – as my grandmother used to say – getting traction on this project. I’ve surfed for writing prompts. I’ve surfed for what to write when you don’t know what to write. One site said, essentially, if you don’t have something to say then you aren’t a fiction writer.
I am not freezing/sweating up and down the aisles of Miller Coliseum.
I am not 145 pounds of agitation waiting for a show to start.
I am not at Nationals.
Gasp! I know right?
The plan was to ride Milton in a teeny, tiny, wee event that takes place the same weekend. When it became obvious this was not to be [Getting A Break], it was equally obvious that I had not ridden enough saddle seat to be worth the time and stress and expense and mental energy that is National Academy Finals. I’ve put on my fancy show jods once this year.
And so, I am happily stalking Stepping Stone Farm through the Internet, via the web and social media. Cast, in order of appearance (many kids, so initials to protect privacy):
J with Whiskey Throttle
M with Transformer (Optimus)
M with Radiant Promise
W with Dottie & Dave
O with Whiskey Throttle
D with HB Whizbang (Snippy), ride & drive
L with Bel Cheval’s I’m Joanie
L with Transformer (Optimus)
Go! Team!
Am I sorry I’m not there? Not really. I have the good fortune of having other options right now. Going just to go isn’t as interesting as it has been in the past [Countdowns].
Am I glad I’m not there? A little. I get stressed just looking at the photos. That part I do not miss.
Is this because I won last year [Elusive, Thoughts]? No. I would have had the same plan this year regardless. However, the gorgeous, fluffy blue [That Moment When …] makes sitting out the show that much easier.
If I go back to Nationals, I want to go with a horse I feel bulletproof on, with a horse who sparkles in the ring. I want to go with a strong chance of – I won’t say winning because you can never predict that – of laying down a stellar trip. Will that ever happen? Who knows.
3 Young Horse & Young-at-Heart WT, 1 of 2
6 Young Horse & Young-at-Heart WTC, 3 of 3
Although I’m usually all about writing up show reports, I feel strangely lethargic about this one. It was the annual in-barn, no-one-but-us-chickens, home show. Less a show and more a glorified lesson with ribbons. So, I shall be brief.
Rodney coped with the show environment, with (small) crowds of horses, with another horse in the ring, with a flat class, with rain, and with mud.
Rodney did not cope with a horse riding up his tailpipe. Now we know.
Milestones
Fourth horse show!!!!
First flat class.
First blue ribbon.
First trophy.
First canter in public.
Moments – Warm-up
Standing around is becoming a vital part of Rodney’s preride ritual. We stood in the barn aisle. We stood in the ring. We stood outside of the ring during classes. He liked standing in the aisle watching the barn get ready for the show. Center ring was a familiar place where he has stood to watch lessons. Standing gives Rodney a chance to slow down and think.
Waiting between classes was less successful because he was obsessed with a little white mare who was also visiting for the show. Obsessed, I tell you. He wasn’t antsy. Nor did it effect his performance in the ring. The rest of the time he was annoyingly mesmerized.
Speaking of slow down and think. When we first picked up a trot, he curled up like a shrimp. I told him that it was okay to slow down. I told him he could trot as slowly as he needed to find his balance in the muddy footing. ‘Oh, alright. I can do this.’ Once he had a chance to think about the situation, he handled trotting in the mud just fine. He didn’t shrimp the rest of the day. He even moved out a bit in the first trot of the second class. When we start off, he often he gets it in his mind that the work will be difficult. I have to convince him that it is not. Pleased that we were able to have this conversation. That he listened. That it worked.
Milton likes a pre-show ride. Rodney, not so much. He doesn’t dislike them; he just doesn’t find them useful. I rode before the show to check out the ring. When I got on the second time, I had to recapitulate almost the entire warm-up process, which at this point is a lot of walking and standing. Now we know.
Moments – Classes
He had a lot of great moments in two short classes. Both trots and one canter were everything I could have asked for. Lots of confidence building on all sides. Then he blew it.
The problem with finishing your pass is that everyone lands in a heap at the end of the ring. Rodney did not enjoy being part of a heap. A third horse joined us for the WTC class. When there is only two of you in the class, you can each stay on your side of the ring. Harder to do with three.
In the first direction, he trotted great. I touched the gas and he thought, why yes, he might enjoy showing off. Walk. Two horses collected at the bottom of the ring. Canter. No. No. No. Go away. I do. not. want. you. in. my. personal. space. Hop. Hop. Hop. Canter. Hop. Hop. Hop.
I was not pleased. Shades of Milton at Mid-South [Hanging With The Saddlebros]. I thought about bailing. We trotted. For the second canter, I cut across the ring. He cantered as sweet as you please, including picking up the canter in the middle of nowhere. Unlike Milton, it was not a policy statement. It really was just the proximity of the other horse. We are hoping it is not a permanent lifestyle choice. We are hoping that having a horse close to him was simply one too many items on his plate that day.
Both of my horses are twinks. Now you see why I enjoy riding Sam.
Speaking of Finish Your Pass, I didn’t. Seven years of saddle seat and I toss it out the window in the first hunter class.
In Balance
Why is it so easy to write in detail about bad moments, see above, but hard to be equally descriptive about moments that go right?
Other than the canter bobble (other than …) the show was an excellent schooling experience. I had no concerns about getting on, the way I did at show # 2 [Kings Ranch]. Right off the bat, he was calmer than he was at show #3 [L&C]. Overall, he handled the show environment excellently. Yes, he’s been to SSF many times. Sometimes, horses are worse when a known space is suddenly overrun with people and horses [SSF 2015].
Our warm-up plan went off without a hitch, at least none that I can remember at the moment, and worked well for the horse. He had to be escorted when we walked into the stepped on anthill busy barn aisle from the back entrance, but that’s a schooling moment, not an anxiety attack.
He handled me in show mode. I wasn’t in the full-on sparkle mode that blows Milton’s mind, but I was still serving a hefty cocktail of nerves and perkiness. If anything, he rose to the occasion. A little, but definitely headed upward.
A gold star. He missed it by that much.
~~~
Okay, so I wasn’t all that brief.
Virtual Brush Box 