The Washington Post - 18.03.2020

C8 eZ re THE WASHINGTON POST.WEDNESDAy, MARCH 18 , 2020

ACROSS

1 __ d’art

6 It’s sold in bars

10 Axlike tool

14 Move furtively

15 “In memoriam”

bio

16 Cow

conversation

17 Rite of Christian

ordination

19 Hip ’60s Brits

20 Rodeo ropes

21 Honeybunch

23 Montréal mate

25 Fights (for)

27 “Cold Mountain”

hero played by

Jude Law

28 Bolster

31 Enhance,

as an expense

report

33 Whiz

34 Sticking points

35 Carries out

37 ER personnel

38 Fabric ponytail

holder

41 Chinese menu

surname

43 Foldable beds

44 Pet store

enclosures

48 Dismissive

syllable

49 Hasty escape

50 Computer key

51 Bounded

53 Quite

56 Leaves in

the afternoon?

57 Irritate by

rubbing

59 Supermarket

walkways

62 Mall directories

63 1850 s Eurasian

conflict

67 “Ick!”

68 Spanish cat

69 Salty expanse

70 Director

Kazan

71 With the circled

word in the

grid’s center,

what each

circled word is?

72 Celestial red

giant

DOWN

1 __Kosh B’gosh

2 Rain-__ bubble

gum

3 Word whose

meaning

wouldn’t change

if it began

with “z”

4 One-named

singer

5 Boxing decisions

6 “Me too”

7 Corpulent

8 Ultrathin

MacBook

9 War affliction,

for short

10 Jordan’s capital

11 Entry-level job?

12 Astrology

diagrams

13 Ancient ascetic

18 Invite letters

22 __ al-Fitr: end-

of-Ramadan

feast

23 Fitting

24 Hosp. scan

26 MS format

details

29 Mexican money

30 L.A. school

32 Tray filler

35 Milano cathedral

36 Prov. bordering

four Great Lakes

37 Authentic

39 Early TV maker

40 Freezer cubes

41 Game for little

hitters

42 Wrinkly dog

45 Jumps in the

lake

46 Summer in

la ville

47 Vast quantity

48 Served like

cherries jubilee

49 British co.

letters

50 A teaspoon, say

52 Ottoman title

54 French-speaking

Caribbean

country

55 Colorful memory

game

58 Heart tests,

briefly

60 Golden

Tr iangle

country

61 SASEs, e.g.

64 Missy Elliott

music genre

65 Battery

for small

electronics

66 GI’s furlough

LA TIMES CROSSWORD By Paul Coulter

TUESDAY’S LA TIMES SOLUTION

© 2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 3/18/20

scientists look for to track the

presence of otters.

Karen Sheffield, manager of

Huntley Meadows Park, south of

Alexandria, notes that while otter

sightings are unpredictable, re-

cent tracks and spraints show

there has been increased otter ac-

tivity there. A wetlands restora-

tion project finished six years ago

at the park is minimizing invasive

species, making way for healthy

native ones.

The Elizabeth River, a key Ches-

apeake Bay tributary flowing be-

tween Norfolk and Portsmouth,

Virginia, was long considered a

“dead river” because of toxins. It’s

now flourishing after a decade of

community efforts to keep out

chemicals and waste.

“In the past five years, we have

seen a great many more otters,”

said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson,

director of the Elizabeth River

Project. “It means we are doing

our job in the community and for

the o tters.”

Conservation ‘ambassadors’

Nonprofit organizations are

raising awareness of river otters’

importance.

The Elizabeth River Project

helped develop an otter display at

Nauticus science center in nearby

Norfolk. W ild otters are often seen

hanging around the docks there.

An “Otter Spotter” program en-

courages volunteers within the

river’s w atershed to document a ny

other sightings o r signs o f activity.

A newly formed Smithsonian

Institution project is looking for

people — including kids — to help

scientists learn more about the

animals.

“No one has ever done scientific

research on otters in the Chesa-

peake Bay area,” said Karen Mc-

Donald of the Chesapeake Bay

Otter Alliance. The alliance is the

Smithsonian’s citizen-science

project designed to help people

understand otters and their im-

portant role in the food web. Any-

one can email sightings of river

otters or their spraints.

And everyone can help provide

a good home for t he o tters.

“Otters need a clean watershed

to live,” M cDonald said. “We are all

watershed neighbors, and we

need to be good neighbors.”

[email protected]

BY ANN CAMERON SIEGAL

P

layful North American

river otters often sound

like squeaky toys as they

wrestle each other, slide

down riverbanks or frol-

ic in water. Spotting these cute,

furry a nimals is not o nly good f un,

it’s a lso good news for the e nviron-

ment.

North American river otters a re

a species whose population can

indicate how healthy (or not) the

environment is. The otters experi-

enced a steep drop in numbers in

the 1900s because of fur trapping

and pollution, but they are not

considered endangered today.

The nomadic animals often travel

miles over land or through rivers

and streams, seeking habitats

with clean water and a healthy

fish population.

High on the food chain, river

otters eat fish, clams, snakes, tur-

tles, small mammals and birds, so

researchers look for contami-

nants and parasites in otter

spraint, or poop, to learn a bout the

health of the surrounding envi-

ronment and i ts f ood s ources.

Otters’ funny d ance

River otters don’t n eed m usic t o

do a funny rhythmic two-step w ith

their short hind l egs, while r aising

their long tails and wiggling their

butts as they defecate. This funny

motion, known as “the poop

dance,” releases spraint that

serves as an ID card — l ike a “who’s

who” a mong o tters.

Spraint is one of the things

O tters p lay

a vital role

in e cology

of rivers

CHIP SAYS

Did you know that otters excel at holding their breath

underwater? sea otters can be underwater for about

five minutes at a time. river otters can be submerged

up to eight minutes.

KIDSPOST.COm

We’ve got more animal

stories in the special

reports section of our

website. check it out!

TODAY

mostly sunny skies prevail, and high

temperatures could range from 60

to the mid-60s, with light winds.

IllustratIon by Danny ramos, 7, arlIngton

pHotos by ann cameron sIegal

North American river otters are

a species whose population can

indicate how healthy t he

environment is. So spotting

these f urry animals is not only

fun, it’s also good news for the

environment. They’re found in

and near ponds, streams, lakes

and rivers, including

tributaries of the Chesapeake

Bay. Look for dark brown

animals with white chins and

pale brown or gray bellies. They

are about three to four feet long

(including their tail) and weigh

between 10 and 30 pounds. The

Maryland Zoo and the National

Zoo also have resident river

otters, pictured here.

kidspost

Learn more

find out about river otter spraint

and the broad range of information

found within, plus see a video of a

poop dance, at infinitespider.com/

river-otter-poop-fecal-facts.

the maryland Zoo and the

smithsonian’s national Zoo have

river otters. When you have a

chance, watch them in action.

check opening hours online.

the potomac conservancy offers

more river otter fun facts at

potomac.org /blog/2019/5/2/4-

things-you-otter-know-about-river-

otters.

get involved with otter research. If

you’ve seen river otters or evidence

of them in the chesapeake bay

watershed, you can help. Visit the

chesapeake bay otter alliance at

serc.si.edu/chesapeake-bay-otter-

alliance/get-involved.

Carolyn Hax is

away. The follow-

ing first appeared

Oct. 2, 2005.

Dear Carolyn:

I’m in a nice

relationship with

my current

boyfriend, but I

keep allowing my ex to contact

me by phone, email, text, etc. I

can’t seem to let go of this past

relationship. I must admit I still

have feelings for the ex, but it’s

been more than a year since we

broke up. Why is it so hard for

me to accept that he does not

want a relationship with me? I

think about this person too

often, and I know keeping in

contact is just prolonging my

agony, but I can’t seem to let it

go.

— Glutton for Punishment?

Glutton for Punishment?: By

glutton for punishment, I

assume you mean your current

boyfriend, who is entrusting

himself to someone who loves

someone else.

You have thought about his

feelings as much as your own,

right? And told him you’re in

touch with your ex? And haven’t

told him any blatant lies, such as

that your feelings are now just

Platonic? Or omission lies, such

as that you promise you won’t be

getting back with your ex...

(but only because he keeps

shutting you down)?

The only way to get over your

feelings is to turn off your phone

and face them. The only way to

be fair in the meantime is to be

single until you do.

Dear Carolyn: I’ve been with my

boyfriend about a year now. His

mom still doesn’t want to meet

me because she thinks I was the

reason for her son’s divorce.

She’s best friends with his ex and

takes every opportunity to

schedule events so they can still

be one big happy family.

Now she is doing things with

her ex-daughter-in-law and the

ex’s new boyfriend and still

won’t even let me in her

driveway. There’s a little girl

who’s 5 and loves being with me

but wonders why I can’t meet

grandma or mommy.

My boyfriend has already

expressed to his mother how

much it hurts him when she

does things with his ex and not

her own son, but it doesn’t seem

to faze her. He won’t let himself

love me 100 percent because

without his mom’s acceptance

he’s having a really hard time.

What do I do at this point?

— The Mother or Not?

The Mother or Not?: The good

news is, you have choices. The

bad news is, one of them is to

resign yourself to the status quo

and hope some key people grow

up.

And the other is to make life

easy for your boyfriend’s mom.

First, explain to your

boyfriend every lesson this last

year has taught you: that there’s

no happiness in being a

scapegoat, or getting treated like

a disease, or standing between

mother and son, or confusing a

little kid, or being loved less

than 100 percent, or knowing

that the reason for all of these is

(if I take your implied word for

it) based on a misunderstanding.

Then, make it easy for all of

them, yourself most of all, and

say your goodbyes. Say them

because your boyfriend could

end this right now, either by

taking a stand with his mom, or

by enlisting the help of his ex, or

both; all he has to do is want to,

and be strong enough to.

Meaning he doesn’t, or isn’t or

both.

Write to carolyn Hax at

[email protected]. get her

column delivered to your inbox each

morning at wapo.st/haxpost.

 Join the discussion live at noon

fr idays at live.washingtonpost.com

Contact with ex doesn’t only hurt her

Carolyn

Hax

nIcK galIfIanaKIs for tHe WasHIngton post