Deus Ex Machina

I've said it before. I love reading Maureen Dowd, not so much for what she has to say in oh so few words—and only once a week—but for the words she uses that I have to look up.

I get it. Trump is a germophobe like Howard Hughes. Maureen spent a lunch with Trump prior to the election with The Donald keeping a "giant" bottle of hand sanitizer" on the table. My only surprise is that she didn't tell us what she ate.

The highlight of this week's screed against The Donald is using the foreign phrase "deus ex machina." I forgot what it meant so went to the hard copy OED that gets a bit of a workout on Sundays.

Someone who comes to the rescue is basically the gist of the meaning, and of course Maureen has used in a perfect context.

Little did I know when I was watching all those cartoons and the Long Ranger on Saturday mornings that when the hero came to the rescue, I was witnessing "deus ex machina."

So, when the cavalry came charging, banner flapping in the wind, and bugle blowing charge to chase the Indians away from the ambushed settlers, they were the 'deus ex machina."

And when the Long Ranger and Tonto same to the rescue, they too were the "deus ex machina." Or when Nell was rescued from the train tracks by Dudley Do-Right, he was "deus ex machina."

I was in the city on Monday and walked past 43rd Street on Third Avenue and was pleased to see that they really did keep the ceremonial street sign in place, Jimmy Breslin Way above the 43rd Street sign.

There was a ceremony when Beslin died, attended by Big Bird the mayor, and a few other functionaries installing the sign.

The vicinity of the sign is of course for those who don't know, near the Daily News Building, or what was the Daily News Building when the paper was published there on 42nd street, near Second Avenue. The building ran through the block, and the trucks left the loading bay on 41st Street.

Jimmy of course wouldn't be caught dead using '"deus ex machina" in a sentence. But then Jimmy always reminded us about reporters like Maureen, and others who write for the NYT, "they went to college."