The Washington Post - 24.02.2020

c8 eZ re the washington post.monday, february 24 , 2020

ACROSS

1 On a peg,

as a golf ball

5 Panda Express

kitchen items

9 Aerospace giant

__ & Whitney

14 Predeal

payment

15 Rapper/a ctor

with a cool

name?

16 Ta lk show host

in the National

Women’s Hall of

Fame

17 Keyboard

chamber work

19 Pending state

20 Go off-script

21 Indian royal

23 Very long time

24 Shih Tz u or

Chihuahua

28 Wet just a bit

31 Airer of old films

32 Kindle download

33 Norse royal

name

36 Was shown

on TV

40 Authorize

someone to

represent you at

the shareholder

meeting

44 Te a biscuit

45 Sank, with

“down”

46 Fellows

47 Pontiac

muscle car

49 Financed like

many fleet cars

52 Personal unrest

57 __ Paulo

58 Bruins star Phil,

to fans

59 Eye surgery

acronym

63 Singer Ronstadt

65 Command to

bypass a recap

of prior episodes

... and what the

puzzle circles do

68 Make sure not

to see

69 “Electric” fish

70 Product preview

71 Like a bad

breakup

72 Deuce topper

73 Smoochy love

letter letters

DOWN

1 Cantina snack

2 Oklahoma city

3 And others:

Abbr.

4 Jeans

5 Quipster

6 Te xt digitization

meth.

7 Knightley of

“Love, Actually”

8 Brown ermine

9 Frigid zone ice

formation

10 N.Y. tech school

11 Carrying a

weapon

12 It’s forbidden

13 Skimpy

swimsuit

18 Column that

aptly includes

the letters BIO

22 Stick (out)

25 Sign gas

26 Relative via

marriage

27 Mideast bigwig

28 Magazines

with Alfred E.

Neuman

29 Intl. oil group

30 __ facto

34 Had lunch

35 Snake’s poison

37 Capital of

Italia

38 They aren’t

together

anymore

39 Unit of force

41 “Picnic”

dramatist

42 Prepare (for)

43 __ extra cost

48 Te nse NBA

periods

50 Ta ylor of

“Mystic Pizza”

51 Largest living

antelopes

52 Muslim

religion

53 Hardly worldly

54 They’re

forbidden

55 Unexpected win

56 “Today” weather

anchor

60 Crock-Pot dinner

61 Hogwarts

librarian __

Pince

62 Screwball

64 Prefix with card

or count

66 Land in l’eau

67 Future

therapist’s maj.

LA TIMES CROSSWORD By Matt McKinley

SATURDAY’S LA TIMES SOLUTION

© 2020 Tribune Content Agency, LLC. 2/24/20

Contest rules

l T he contest is open to kids ages 6

to 14 who live in the United States.

l Each child may submit only one

poem.

l Poems must be original and not

previously published.

l Poems can be illustrated, but that

is not required.

l E ntries will be judged on creativ-

ity and form.

l Each poem should have a title.

l Poems should not be longer than

100 words.

l An adult (a parent, guardian or

teacher) must send us your entry. On

each entry, the adult should include

your n ame, age a nd hometown, a s well

as the name, email and phone number

of the adult submitting the entry. A

note from the adult giving permission

for you to enter the contest is also

required. A teacher can give permis-

sion for an entire class if parental

permission has been obtained.

l The adult should fill out our

online form, which can be found at

wapo.st/kidspostearthdaypoetry. Or

entries can be sent to Kids Post Earth

Day Poetry Contest, The Washington

Post, 1301 K Street NW, Washington,

D.C. 20071.

The deadline to receive entries

i s April 1.

If your poem is published, you will

receive a prize package that includes

a KidsPost T-shirt and pencil and a

selection of books related to the

Earth and/or poetry. Winners will be

notified before publication.

If you have questions about the

contest, please email them to kids

[email protected].

chip says

before the first earth Day (april 22, 19 70 ), there were

few legal protections in the united states for the

environment. the raised awareness led to the clean

Water act and the endangered species act.

kidspost

kidspost.com

it’s a leap year. What do you

know about this unusual

feature of our calendar?

take our quiz to find out.

today

clouds dominate, rain could show

up later in the day and highs

manage to make it to the 50s.

illustration by lily grace oliver, 7, arlington

birthdays of the Week

monday, february 24

baseball player eddie Murray (1956).

apple co-founder steve Jobs (1955).

composer Michel legrand (1932).

tuesday, february 25

arlington’s sebastian White (2011).

the nationals’ erick fedde (1993).

singer george harrison (1943).

te nnis player bobby riggs (1918).

Wednesday, february 26

lanham’s aiden tyree (2013).

te nnis player li na (1982).

singer Johnny cash (1932).

singer fats Domino (1928).

comedian Jackie gleason (1916).

thursday, february 27

north Potomac’s abigail brodsky

(20 07 ).

the nationals’ aníbal sánchez (1984).

actress elizabeth taylor (1932).

olympic swimmer ethelda bleibtrey

(1902).

author John steinbeck (1902).

friday, february 28

Potomac’s miles Lynn (2009).

si nger Jason aldean (1977).

comedian gilbert gottfried (1955).

racecar driver Mario andretti (1940).

saturday, february 29

Paralympic swimmer Jessica long

(1992).

astronaut Jack lousma (1936).

sculptor augusta savage (1892).

sunday, march 1

gaithersburg’s andrew sracic (2013).

vienna’s devan kackar (2009).

singer Justin bieber (1994).

actress lupita nyong’o (1983).

White

Tyree

birthday announcements are for ages 6 to 13 and are

printed on a first-come, first-served basis. they do

not appear online. a parent or legal guardian must

give permission. We need photos at least a month

ahead of publication. We need names (if photos are

not desired) at least a week before publication.

include name, address and birth date (with year of

birth). fill out the online form at kidspost.com or send

the information to kidsPost, the Washington Post,

1301 k st. nW, Washington, D.c. 20071.

Brodsky

Lynn

Sracic

Kackar

BY CHRISTINA BARRON

A

pril brings together two

things kids are passionate

about: the environment

and poetry. Students

around the world have spo-

ken so well recently about the planet

and the problems it’s facing. So on

Earth Day 2020 — the 50th anniver-

sary of its first rally to encourage

greater protections for the environ-

ment — KidsPost will feature kids’

P ut your love o f E arth into (a few) w ords

istock

words on why they care, what worries

them, what encourages them, what

they’re doing or anything else related

to the Earth.

Those words need to be written as

a poem, in celebration of National

Poetry Month. We won’t require it to

be a certain form, so you can write a

sonnet, haiku, cinquain (a type of

five-line poem) — or whatever you

like. But the poem must be original.

That means your words, not copied

from a book, the Internet or any-

where else. (Trying to pass off some-

one else’s w ords for your own is called

plagiarism, and it is never okay.)

A panel of judges will select as

many as 10 poems for publication on

Earth Day (April 22) in the printed

KidsPost and on kidspost.com. The

writers of those poems will be noti-

fied before publication and will re-

ceive a prize package.

We’re looking forward to sharing

your words to get even more people

focused on saving the planet.

poetry contest

find out more

earth day 2020

learn about the history of earth Day

and about this year’s events at

earthday.org.

national poetry month

find out about events and other ways

to celebrate poetry on the academy of

american Poets website: poets.org/

national-poetry-month.

Adapted from an

online discussion.

Dear Carolyn:

I’m afraid my

1 6-year-old

daughter is

missing out on

the best parts of

her youth. She’s a

good kid, gets good grades, but

doesn’t seem to have any

friends, doesn’t date, doesn’t go

to parties, football games or

dances — nothing. Her entire

life is focused on a blog she runs

and the fan fiction she posts on

another site.

I’ve checked her blog; it’s

okay, but nothing most girls

would be interested in.

These are the years to have

fun, learn social skills and build

a good résumé for college. My

daughter will have absolutely no

extracurricular activities unless

she writes about her Superman

and Batman fan fiction. My

husband and I have told her

about all the fun she’s missing —

he played football and ran track,

I was a cheerleader, in the

theater club and never missed a

dance — but she’s just not

interested. In anything.

We don’t think she needs to

be a cheerleader or an athlete,

but we do think she needs to be

involved in something. What

should we do?

— Worried

Worried: Recognize, now, that

she is involved with something.

It’s just not what interests

you. And that’s fine.

Even better, it’s authentic.

Your daughter isn’t afraid to be

herself — despite pressure, no

doubt, from her popular parents

to be what they think a teen girl

should be.

Pressure, plus scorn. “Unless

she writes about her... fan

fiction”? Why wouldn’t she?

“Nothing most girls would be

interested in”? You just totally

invalidated her.

To be fair, if she doesn’t have

friends, then that is concerning.

And you’re right about building

in-person social skills.

But she might have a huge

community you don’t see. She’s

also 16, not 6; she needs you to

believe in her, not pick out

friends for her. So respect her

terms: Some kids see sports/

dances/theater as scholastically

sanctioned torture, not “the

best parts” of anything. She’s

not interested in the cheer

scene! Except perhaps

ironically. Work with that, not

against it.

Or, better idea: Just stop

trying to fix her. Hedge against

isolation by encouraging a

volunteer gig or part-time job,

sure. But otherwise, unless she’s

depressed, why not treat your

evidence of “missing out” as

proof instead that she’s opting

out, and comfortable in her own

skin? The kid you describe

sounds productive and focused

— just more solitary than you’d

choose to be.

Readers’ thoughts:

l My mom used to laugh off

science fiction and fantasy as

“that silly stuff [daughter] likes.”

And then I moved to L.A. and

got on the writing staff of a

fantasy TV drama. Suddenly

what [daughter] liked wasn’t so

silly after all.

l I interviewed for my (elite)

alma mater for several years.

Plenty of kids do track, football,

cheerleading — if that’s your

milkshake, fine — but someone

who at 16 dedicates time and

passion to something not

mainstream? That’s special.

l I was forced by my parents

to “get out with the other kids.”

It was torture, and I much

preferred books, TV and

needlecrafts indoors. Now at

62, I’m still a reader and

needleworker. And I still resent

my parents for making me feel

so utterly alien from society.

l My brother had a son like

this and took him to Comic-Con

events. He found his community

there!

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

Teen’s parents mistaken on missing out

Carolyn

Hax

nick galifianakis for the Washington Post