Trump? Fake? So?

Slam!

       In the "Spelling Bee" puzzle today, the Times recognizes only one word as the use-all-seven-letters solution:

       GROUPIE.

       So how about PIROGUE?

       They're going to be getting a lot of letters from Louisiana.

* * *

            Interesting piece today in what's left of The Times's sports coverage. Rory Smith says soccer is going the way of wrestling in its adoption of neokayfabe.

            Soccer I don't care. But wrestling! And -- though Smith doesn't go there --  politics!

            Start with kayfabe, a term whose roots are uncertain, except that carny talk is involved, and fake. Smith nicely defines kayfabe as "the illusory cloak that is doggedly draped over professional wrestling: the maintenance of the pretense that what you see in the ring is unscripted, competitive, what we would consider real."