Words: 72 (missing F,Q,X)
Blocks: 31
Somehow
I sensed that there should have been an extra row or column in this
puzzle, as Mr. Steinberg's last two offerings on Saturday were both
expanded grids. I moved through this one with relative ease, but got
stumped at two Naticks, which kinda bummed me out. Oh well. Unlike those previous two, no
spanners in today's construction, but triple 11-letter across and almost
triple 9-letter downs in the corners;
17a. Whatchamacallit : THINGAMABOB
- D'ya know I actually read the word "gewgaw" in a novel last week - I
was so pleasantly surprised to see it because it justified the
many times its appeared in crosswords, and I said "that's not a
word"....
12d. Buddhism branch : MAHAYANA - I was curious, so I looked; here's the Wiki, and it led to the word "Dharma" which is this guitar player
Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser
62. Amusing editor, at times : AUTO-CORRECT - some very hilarious results : WARNING~! Adult
36. Team member in "Moneyball" : ATHLETIC - I thought this was a Wall Street movie, but it's this one; I don't know what movie I was thinking about
ONE EARED~! (Damn auto-correct~!)
ACROSS:
1. Librarians might use them : HUSHED TONES
12. Lt. col.'s inferior : MAJor - I read this as "literary college's" inferior, so I put in "TAs". Odd.
15. Sci-fi concept : ANTI-GRAVITY
16. Lovelace whom many consider the first computer programmer : ADA - Natick #1, with a proper name crossing a religious branch; "Ida"~? "Ada"~?
18. Solo on-screen : HAN - this guy; I just finished reading "the making of Star Wars" and "the making of Empire Strikes Back"
19. Trail, perhaps : HUNT - the verb, not the noun; pondered PATH
20. Milky Way source : MARS - the candy bar
21. Camera product : IMAGE - yep, that's the output
23. Tablet container : ARK - historic tablets, not electronic ones
24. Coral Triangle tourist destination : BALI - Mali or Bali~?? I didn't get much help from the crossing
25. Left rolling in the aisles : SLAYED
26. Down a lot : TOPE - I shoulda known this; drinking to excess....
28. __ other : EACH
30. Robot starter : NANO - eh, more like NANO-bot, than robot
31. Pay dirt : ORE
33. Hassle : NUISANCE
35. First instrument for many : RATTLE - I still play the rattle, but it's made by Ludwig, and comes in several pieces
38. Icy Hot competitor : BENGAY
39. Keep secret : WITHHOLD
41. Sushi bar delicacy : ROE - dah. Not AHI
42. __ pedal: guitar accessory : ECHO - I have a delay pedal, but not an echo, and I really, really want one. I also have a chorus, distortion, and Zoom pedal, which has multiple effects built in, and there's a pedal accessory that allows me to create a "wah-wah" effect with it. I thought the answer might have been "WA-WA"
43. Slam offering : POEM - didn't get it; perps
45. Org. that monitors plants : OSHA - DID get it, the factory kind of plants
48. Nervous person? : NELLIE - har-har
50. Fail to beat the heat : MELT - the only "ice" found in Florida is that under the skates of the Tampa Bay Lightning, now even in their Stanley Cup series
52. AIDS-fighting drug : AZT
54. Rough stuff : TWEED
55. Low-cost pub : ZINE - publication and magazine
56. "__ bien" : ESTA - dah~! Not TRES
57. Storage unit? : BIT - computer storage
58. Vaping devices : E-CIGARETTES - the evolution of these things is incredible; very popular with the younger types at UPS
61. "Wheel of Fortune" purchase : AN "I" - fill in "AN", and wait....
63. Mo. for which tanzanite is a birthstone : DECember
64. Comics-derived danger alert : SPIDEY SENSE - well, I wasn't sure how to spell "Spidey", since I didn't read the comic book; I tried SpideE
DOWN:
1. Yoga variety : HATHA - ooops, not ASANA
2. Fine after an accident : UNHURT - ah. Not TICKET; my experience in one accident was that the other party involved crossed in front of me while I had right-of-way; he was given two tickets - the other for not wearing the seatbelt
3. Well-lit? : STINKO - well, I got it, but the "O" at the end was a bit meh.
4. "Gimme a __" : HINT
5. Noodle variety : EGG
6. Certain queen's domain : DRAMA
7. Steamed cantina food : TAMALE
8. Like a certain female artery : OVARIAN - I didn't realize there were names for the smaller ones
9. Ink deliverers : NIBS - Dah~!! Not PENS
10. WWII arena : ETO - learned from crosswords
11. Basil's wife on "Fawlty Towers" : SYBIL - a WAG; I thought "sibyl" was the answer to 14D., but it didn't fit
13. Company offering many promotions : AD AGENCY - cute
14. Mystery woman : JANE DOE - Mystery no more~!! I have found her, and this is what she looks like - I might have solved a LOT of criminal investigations, too~!!
22. Watches over : MANAGES
24. Where an engineer may retire : BERTH - Natick #2, the "E" did me in....I am not sure I get this; does this mean a train engineer and sleeping in a car on the train~?
25. Less forward : SHIER
27. Artery problem : POTHOLE - I got this; I was on a different wavelength from the first artery clue, this one referring to the highways into/from a city
29. Bear fruit? : CUB - oh, so witty
32. Secretly unite : ELOPE
34. Arrogant sort : SNOOT
35. Beverage used in Chinese cuisine : RICE WINE
37. "Eldorado" group : ELO - ah, the song Eldorado; Iron Maiden has a song with the same title
39. Soured : WENT BAD - straight up
40. Part-human mythological creature : DEMI-GOD - CENTAUR fit, too
44. Threat : MENACE
46. Get cracking : HASTEN
47. Ancient cacao bean traders : AZTECS
49. TED talk subjects : IDEAS
51. Encyclopedia Brown's first name : LEROY - perps
53. Discretion : TASTE
55. Italian tubes : ZITI - this helped out a lot in the SE
12. Lt. col.'s inferior : MAJor - I read this as "literary college's" inferior, so I put in "TAs". Odd.
15. Sci-fi concept : ANTI-GRAVITY
16. Lovelace whom many consider the first computer programmer : ADA - Natick #1, with a proper name crossing a religious branch; "Ida"~? "Ada"~?
18. Solo on-screen : HAN - this guy; I just finished reading "the making of Star Wars" and "the making of Empire Strikes Back"
20. Milky Way source : MARS - the candy bar
21. Camera product : IMAGE - yep, that's the output
23. Tablet container : ARK - historic tablets, not electronic ones
24. Coral Triangle tourist destination : BALI - Mali or Bali~?? I didn't get much help from the crossing
25. Left rolling in the aisles : SLAYED
26. Down a lot : TOPE - I shoulda known this; drinking to excess....
28. __ other : EACH
30. Robot starter : NANO - eh, more like NANO-bot, than robot
31. Pay dirt : ORE
33. Hassle : NUISANCE
35. First instrument for many : RATTLE - I still play the rattle, but it's made by Ludwig, and comes in several pieces
38. Icy Hot competitor : BENGAY
39. Keep secret : WITHHOLD
41. Sushi bar delicacy : ROE - dah. Not AHI
42. __ pedal: guitar accessory : ECHO - I have a delay pedal, but not an echo, and I really, really want one. I also have a chorus, distortion, and Zoom pedal, which has multiple effects built in, and there's a pedal accessory that allows me to create a "wah-wah" effect with it. I thought the answer might have been "WA-WA"
43. Slam offering : POEM - didn't get it; perps
45. Org. that monitors plants : OSHA - DID get it, the factory kind of plants
48. Nervous person? : NELLIE - har-har
50. Fail to beat the heat : MELT - the only "ice" found in Florida is that under the skates of the Tampa Bay Lightning, now even in their Stanley Cup series
52. AIDS-fighting drug : AZT
54. Rough stuff : TWEED
55. Low-cost pub : ZINE - publication and magazine
56. "__ bien" : ESTA - dah~! Not TRES
57. Storage unit? : BIT - computer storage
58. Vaping devices : E-CIGARETTES - the evolution of these things is incredible; very popular with the younger types at UPS
61. "Wheel of Fortune" purchase : AN "I" - fill in "AN", and wait....
63. Mo. for which tanzanite is a birthstone : DECember
64. Comics-derived danger alert : SPIDEY SENSE - well, I wasn't sure how to spell "Spidey", since I didn't read the comic book; I tried SpideE
my kind of spider sense
DOWN:
1. Yoga variety : HATHA - ooops, not ASANA
2. Fine after an accident : UNHURT - ah. Not TICKET; my experience in one accident was that the other party involved crossed in front of me while I had right-of-way; he was given two tickets - the other for not wearing the seatbelt
3. Well-lit? : STINKO - well, I got it, but the "O" at the end was a bit meh.
4. "Gimme a __" : HINT
5. Noodle variety : EGG
6. Certain queen's domain : DRAMA
7. Steamed cantina food : TAMALE
8. Like a certain female artery : OVARIAN - I didn't realize there were names for the smaller ones
9. Ink deliverers : NIBS - Dah~!! Not PENS
10. WWII arena : ETO - learned from crosswords
11. Basil's wife on "Fawlty Towers" : SYBIL - a WAG; I thought "sibyl" was the answer to 14D., but it didn't fit
13. Company offering many promotions : AD AGENCY - cute
14. Mystery woman : JANE DOE - Mystery no more~!! I have found her, and this is what she looks like - I might have solved a LOT of criminal investigations, too~!!
24. Where an engineer may retire : BERTH - Natick #2, the "E" did me in....I am not sure I get this; does this mean a train engineer and sleeping in a car on the train~?
25. Less forward : SHIER
27. Artery problem : POTHOLE - I got this; I was on a different wavelength from the first artery clue, this one referring to the highways into/from a city
29. Bear fruit? : CUB - oh, so witty
32. Secretly unite : ELOPE
34. Arrogant sort : SNOOT
35. Beverage used in Chinese cuisine : RICE WINE
37. "Eldorado" group : ELO - ah, the song Eldorado; Iron Maiden has a song with the same title
39. Soured : WENT BAD - straight up
40. Part-human mythological creature : DEMI-GOD - CENTAUR fit, too
44. Threat : MENACE
46. Get cracking : HASTEN
47. Ancient cacao bean traders : AZTECS
49. TED talk subjects : IDEAS
51. Encyclopedia Brown's first name : LEROY - perps
53. Discretion : TASTE
55. Italian tubes : ZITI - this helped out a lot in the SE
56. Sera is a form of it : ÊTRE - I pondered "DOSE", as in medical serum; turns out to be the conjugation of the Frawnche, and reminds me of this song
Wax Tailor, with Doris
60. Halting syllables : ers....
Splynter
44 comments:
FIW. Had no idea about TOPE, ETRE, ZITI, misspelt ARK and SHIER, had dIvE instead of ZINE, thought a threat was a Million Electron Volts Alternating Current E? instead of a MENACE, and missed the obvious errors in the crossing words. I hang my head in shame.
It was cruel to put RATTLE and BENGAY across the center, to remind me how old I am, and how young I'm not!
There once was a bright miss named ADA
Who invented new ways to treat data!
The resultant effect
Is AUTO-CORRECT,
And all the spin-offs from Space Invada'!
Buddhism has sects you can learn if ya wanna
Ther-a-va-da, Vaj-ra-ya-na, and MA-HA-YA-NA.
If you're in such a funk
You join as a monk,
As a perk, you spend all day in pajama!
There once was a native of BALI
Who developed a love for TAMALE.
Each night he would sing
To his small guitar string
"I still dream of that TASTE, by golly!"
It was cruel to put RATTLE in the middle
To remind us we're no longer little,
And right 'cross the way
To position BEN GAY
To remind us we're not fit as a fiddle!
{A+, B-, B, B.}
Thank you David and Splynter.
I really liked this puzzle. Some easy fill such as E CIGARETTES, ELOPE, RICE WINE, and AZTECS. Then some other fill that needed a little more proof such as TAMALE and (disproved) photo that was later replaced by IMAGE when nothing could be filled in with photo... All in all, a really strong start but then it slowed down.
With three fourths or so of the puzzle filled, it then became a lot of letter by letter proving until I could guess at the word, and then see if it made sense with the clue. For instance, could see that POT HOLE fit with the crossing letters that I had, and then was amused by the clue "artery problem." Same thing having --AMA and sensing DRAMA, and then getting the drama queen clue.
That NW corner was the toughest for me, having entered ticket and pens. Nothing made sense, so took out pens because it seemed too obvious for a Saturday. Then after a 20 minute break, looked at -c-NGAM--O- and "saw' it should be THINGAMABOB with the whatchamacallit clue.
Splynter, I guessed the A for ADA over IDA simply because the other vowels in that Buddhist religion were all A. Also yes, RR engineer and BERTH in a sleeping car, such as you might find on an Amtrak Superliner.
Great job David. I really liked that clue "Fine after an accident" because it so easily lead one down the rabbit hole.
Morning, all!
David does love his tricky clues, and this one was no exception. "Bear fruit" for CUB? I didn't know whether to groan or grin...
MAHAYANA was a complete and utter unknown and I had to just have faith that all the perps were correct. Fortunately, they were. I knew the name ADA Lovelace from somewhere, I know not where, so that helped.
Hand up for thinking WAWA before ECHO. I didn't even know guitars had an ECHO pedal, to be honest. Also had WILT before MELT, which slowed me down for a bit. Oh, and BIN before BIT, now that I think of it. Those two mistakes really hurt down in the SW until I finally came up with RICE WINE to save the day. And yes, I pick up RICE WINE on a regular basis for my in-laws.
Good morning!
My first thought was THINGAMAJIG, and that would make 2d UNHURT. Oops! We were BOBbing, not JIGging. Only other oops occured at "Basil's wife." With __B_L in place, I WAGged MABEL. Bzzzzzt! Still got everything fixed and finished in excellent Saturday time. Thanks, David.
Kudos to you, too, oh one-eared one. I almost fell into the IDA/ADA trap, but remembered there was an ADA computer language, so I went with the A. BERTH would also be where a ship's engineer would sleep. Ask Spitz.
GONEBAD, GREENTEA...totalled my SW. This is only the beginning of my struggles with this CW. Big DNF.
Finished in reasonable Saturday time for me, which is not that fast. ADA or IDA? I reasoned like TTP and chose the A. I never heard of MAHAYANA. Very enjoyable puzzle and expo.
As an elementary teacher I knew LEROY was Encyclopedia Brown, from a book boys could enjoy.
I was happy that the sushi topper was ROE and not the overused EEL. (BTW this type of eel is also over-fished and getting rarer.) One of my favorite sushi toppers is grilled unagi or eel, but it sometimes seems like the only one used in crosswords.
I never heard STINKO said without the O.
My first entries were POEM and ELOPE. POETRY slams are common. My last entry was IDEA.
RICE WINE is also used in Japanese cookery. I told my DIL about our miso soup discussion. She gave me some DASHI packets, kinda like tea bags, to make the soup. It will be a snap.
When someone says, "That's not a word," they really mean "That's not a word I have met," but often the word is found in books, newspapers and magazines.
Libraries are not so hushed these days. Our library has a large comfortable room for silent study. The rest of the library is not really loud, but it is not hushed.
"Bad, bad Brown" woulda been an easier clue.
And, uh, er, isn't SLEW the past tense of SLAY?
Serious eraseagement was involved in this effort. All have been mentioned, but WaWa was the hardest to set free. Some very clever clue/fill, but autocorrect and Spidey Sense win the prize, IMO. Final fill was that first A in Ada, and I can't claim it was anything other than a lucky guess. I'll only say "phew!"
The Grammarist says, "To slay something can mean to kill it or to amuse it. The past tense of the first meaning is slew, while the past tense of the second meaning is slayed."
The knight SLEW the dragon, but the comedian SLAYED the audience. If he SLEW the audience he would be charged with mass murder.
IMO Bad, bad Brown is too easy for a Saturday.
The auto-correct in WORD makes some funny bloopers, but the auto-correct on my Kindle comes up with unimaginable, far out corrections, not even close in spelling.
Robot starter = nano???
That was bouncing around in my head for quite a while,
but luckily that Que Sera link was even weirder, & I don't care anymore...
Oh, as long as I am ranting, I do have one nit.
That girl in the stockings has really skinny legs,
can we have some Gams with some meat on them?
CED
Hello Puzzlers -
Overall pretty easy today, but there were sticking points. Mahayana was 100% perps, and also not in my spell checker. Tope: now there is a word I most definitely have not met. It looked so wrong.
I have seen some funny examples of Autocorrect mishaps, some of them pretty raunchy. I assume they are not all genuine.
Morning, Splynter, good Spidey Sense today.
My newspaper (Chicago Tribune) published 60 Down as "Halting syllable" (singular) which does not support the plural "ERS" answer. 64 Across superseded the error, where my SPIDEY SENSE told me to fix what was wrong.
Gimme AN A or gimme AN I. I chose the I and then went to the A and ADA was right. Natick, get thee behind me!
Musings
-Scattershot solving wins the day on this Saturday exercise
-Hilarious AUTOCORRECTS. Mine are usually just nonsense and not R-Rated (I’ll be home by “MOON”)
-Who sang For the civilized world accepts as unforgivable sin Any talking out loud with any librarian ?
-Has anyone ever used one of these ANTI-GRAVITY devices?
-Starlings are a NUISANCE in my backyard that I would gladly let you HUNT
-Chris Rock SLAYED me when I watched him. He can say things other comedians can’t
-Original BENGAY with non-anglicized name of Dr. who developed it
-We watched granddaughter’s slam POETRY competition via Skype but WITHHELD our opinions
-A TWEED-wearing ARK hunter
-A DRAMA Queen colleague just wore me out and so I avoided her as much as possible
-POTHOLES disrupt winter driving and their repair do the same to summer driving
-Every father of the bride has told this lame joke: “I told him I’d give him $2,000 to just ELOPE, heh, heh, heh!”
-In this part of the country, one of the first songs we learn has “Do not HASTEN to bid me adieu” and it is…
The book Moneyball was written by Michael Lewis, whose other works (like The Big Short) have often been about Wall Street. That's probably where you got that idea.
Thanks Dave, for the Saturday workout and Lemonade for the fun explanations.
I pretty much missed and had to change what everyone else did.
At one point the only ones I was sure of in the NE were ADA and HAN.
ADA, because a computer language is named after her and HAN, because NAPOLEON wouldn’t fit.
Thanks Yellowrocks for explaining SLEW for dragons and SLAYED for audiences in 25A. I put SLAYED in because it fit, but it didn’t seem right. Now I know.
I slogged through most of it, but turned on red letters for last 10%.
Happy Saturday to all!
VS
I started with thingajig and OaklandA. Figured we didn't have three letters ending in j though, and SW perps quickly had me changing to Ahtletic. The Red Sox, White Sox, and Athletics have uncertain singular forms (as do the Heat, Magic, and Jazz, I guess). Hey, do etre and esta count as clechos?
Husker, that'd be Professor Harold Hill singing about Marian. Then he went into a chorus of Red River Valley.
Good Morning:
Well, this was certainly a challenging offering but Mr. Steinberg's puzzles usually are. After the first pass, with very little filled in, I thought I was facing a definite DNF. But, patience, perseverance and downright stubbornness prevailed. It took forever, but I finished w/o help but not without a big sigh of relief. There were several unknowns (to me) so that made the solve more difficult. Still not sure what Spidey Sense means and, from a strictly personal POV, I would clue autocorrect as annoying rather than amusing.
Well done, David, as usual, and thanks, Splynter, for the amusing write-up.
Have a great day.
Nice Saturday offering by David and I liked Splynter's write up. Like many others I slogged through it but ultimately got it with a lot of help from perps and a couple of WAGs.
THINGAMAJIG was my first thought, but NIBS and ETO changed that.
I didn't think that AZTECS were cacao traders as such. I thought they were more like hoarders especially for the royalty.
I don't find the legs too skinny.
Also an Engineer on a ship could sleep in a berth.
Rainy, rainy day at the beach washing out a Cruising Weekend of older classic cars. But I have to remember that a bad day at the beach is better than a bad day anywhere else and a good day at work.
Have fun today.
Splynter: Outstanding write-up with informative links. Good Job!
As for that ICE MELTing in Tampa Bay ...
Well I thought the WIN (4-3) last night was NEAT ...
Cheers to the Lightning !!!
Avg. Joe 8:55 - I forgot to take note of "erasagement"! Now you're talking!
Irish Miss, I rarely read Spider-Man as a kid, but I do recall that Peter Parker gained all sorts of superhuman abilities after being bitten by a radioactive spider. Among those abilities was an acute sense of impending danger, sensed before seen, a real advantage to a crime-fighting superhero. He called it Spidey Sense. Hope that clarifies....
Unlike TTP, TAMALE was my first fill. Of course! That and HATHA yoga got me started. Then, HAN and from there my IDEAS dried away like desert mist. Slowly, very slowly, a little fill here and there helped to make connections. THINGAMAJIB entered and soon I realized that not many words would end in -JS so the -JIG changed to -BOB which really helped.
So it went like many of your mistrials. Though December is my birth month I didn't know that tanzanite was a birthstone. Traditionally it's turquoise or blue topaz.
Since I'm not a big follower of popular culture SPIDEYSENSE was a pure guess and ECIGARETTES have become ubiquitous so that helped. I have to say, however, that David beat me to a pulp in the NW as I was looking for a monetary fine. Finally, too much time had elapsed and I just went to Splynter's grid guide and filled it. Then MAHAYANA also defeated me which is a shame because SLAYED should have been easy. Ah, well. It's Saturday.
Owen, you made me laugh today.
Have a stupendous Saturday, everyone!
Oops. Forgot to thank Splynter and David for today's workout and fine analysis.
Thanks David and Splynter.
There's a fine line between really tricky clues and ones that seems unfair. NANO for Robot starter was one. The 'worst' example, though, was 'First instrument for many' = RATTLE. A baby playing with a rattle is not making music or using a musical instrument.
I agree with CED. I love female legs but those provided by Splynter's weekly images are way too skinny for me. No worries though... Everyone has a right to his/her opinion.
Hi All!
Fun enough while listening to Car Talk & Wait, Wait. Thanks David for the puzzle and Splynter for finishing the puzzle. DNF.
USDA was my plant monitor (GMOs in my head) and that messed me up in the SE.
ADA was my 1st fill. Working for .gov in the early 90's, I was afraid I was going to have to learn it (the language). She was a pioneer in Computer Science.
I couldn't start a robot w/ a Servo because the answer was not clued for 21a (oops) -a tarnish on my IMAGE.
On E-CIGARETTES - there are two types: thin little ones, like what I use, and the fat-battery ones that billow "vape" everywhere. I can see banning the latter in closed spaces but you'd never notice I was vaping (AUTO CORRECT suggested vamping :-)) next to you on a flight.
Obligatory SYBIL link.
{A all the way OKL}
Hope every one has a great Saturday.
Cheers, -T
Well this bear almost didn't bear fruit, but perseverance prevailed and I solved the whole thing. Once I had MAJ, ADA, and HAN, MAHAYANA was easy because one of the courses I took in college was world religions. Maha means "great" or "major"; hence Mahayana is the "greater path" and a maharaja is a "grand" raja. Mohandas Ghandi was given the title Mahatma, which means great soul. My doctor's surname is Mahapatra.
I agree that some of the clues were very clever, such as the one for NELLIE, and some seemed to be on the brink of unfair, such as the clue for TOPE. And the clue for NANO seemed to be just totally off. But hey, it's Saturday.
I think in the process of construction cluing comes last, so the constructor's thinking starts with already knowing the answer and dreaming up a clue for it. The solver knows the clue and has to work in the opposite direction to get the answer. A clue can always be fashioned for an answer, but an answer cannot always be deduced from the clue alone. I guess that's why you need the cross words. Only after I have gotten an answer do I then look back at the clue in order to "get" it. Hindsight is obviously very different from foresight.
I totally hate autocorrect. I cannot imagine how it can be so wrong so often. And it intrudes on you, changing what you intend to type without your permission; it takes an active effort and awareness to override it. You have to constantly keep a lookout for in order to tell it to go away before it messes you up, which detracts from the process of just typing your message. That just seems like bad programming to me. Spellcheck is far more friendly and useful.
Best wishes to you all.
Autocorrect can be easily turned off. I prefer it "on" as it makes typing faster as it often "sees" what you intend to type and will auto-finish the word saving you many keystrokes. The younger generation using this feature along with both thumbs enables us to type very fashion.
Worked it out after getting up and taking a walk, that worked, completed.
But I thought this a tough one.
Hi Y'all! Groan, David! Thanks for your effort. My experience with this puzzle was STINKO a/k/a frustrating. Thanks, Splynter!
About the only things I got on first try were E CIGARETTES & SPIDEY SENSE plus ELOPE and ORE. Saw a TV news program on the dangers of vaping the night before or I wouldn't have had that.
"Gimmee a ____ " wasn't beer, but HINT which was badly needed most places. I ended up red-lettering most of 1A to get anything going in the NW. Pick & peck & WAG slowly filled. I felt triumphant when on the first try I filled RICE WINE, AZTEC & LEROY, but it was on the second or third pass through without a try.
"Get cracking": a slangy clue. I was expecting slangy fill. Nope. HASTEN is sorta archaic.
I've never used AUTOCORRECT and won't. I have a little red dotted line that appears under words spelled incorrectly, but usually it is under names that aren't recognized or where my finger stuttered and left too many letters.
"Moneyball" really threw me. Didn't know it is a movie. My only reference was when the NBA has a three-point contest during All-Star week, one of the balls is marked as a "moneyball" and gets two points while the other balls at each station get one point.
Anon@1:20 : I see what you did there. :-D
I'm amazed at how many didn't know ADA Lovelace, one of the most fascinating women in history! Her Wikipedia article is rather long and overly detailed, but there are many other articles about her online.
Does it sometimes seem that Jayce and I have minds that often think alike?
Here's a great video about people who make their work routine more fun and/or efficient. Perfecting one's work routines (It ran fine on one of my browsers but not another. Dunno why...)
Like Anonymous T, ADA was my first fill. But I came at it from another direction. I spent several months back in the late '70s working on a play about Lord Byron. In the script, the dead poet is visiting his abandoned daughter, Ada. This was the ADA who was a mathematical genius, married to another genius, and herself the creator of an early computer. As Anonymous points out, it's her name that's used to designate a coding language.
This was a relatively easy pzl for me. I had only a slight reservation when I reached my Ta-DAH moment. I thought I might be stretching it by settling for HUND as my answer for "Trail, perhaps." I came to it by way of perps, and when I looked it up after the fact, I found that some dictionaries (those snooty resources) list HUND as a variation of HOUND. That made it good enough for moi.
But then I saw Splynter's answer was HUNT! How could that be? Sure, it made sense, but it would make nonsense of my perp - because I had HAND, you see, as the answer to "Gimme a _" at 4D. Splynter showed HINT.
Well, you guessed it: I had mistakenly misspelled the ANTI of ANTIGRAVITY as ANTA! That must have been a vestige, a leftover, from earlier years when my fingers were so accustomed to writing ANTA that they had automatically done it again. We don't need to worry about external AUTOCORRECT programs when we have so many automatic responses built into ourselves.
Oh, what did ANTA mean to me? Nothing particularly interesting. It's just that during grad school, I had many papers to write, and a major topic in my field (Theater direction) happened to be the American National Theater & Academy.
Dudley @ 11:22 - Thanks for the info on Spidey Sense. The only comic book I remember reading is Archie and Jughead. I suppose my brothers read the action ones but I didn't.
Bill G @ 2:14 - Some of those "shortcuts" might very well result in a missing limb! Which brings to mind a coffee cup proclamation: Slow and steady, my love does grow, For you, my favorite escargot! 🐌
I loved RATTLE. When I grokked it I laughed out loud. Also loved NELLIE. TOPE was easy. We used to call a drunk a TOPER.
I use Spellcheck in WORD. It highlights suspect spellings and, if you click on the highlight, offers choices. It is not nearly so intrusive as auto-correct. In my Kindle, if I do not confirm my spelling in 2 seconds it "corrects" it to something ridiculous. This interferes with my flow of thought. In Spellcheck I can go back later to correct, if necessary. I agree auto-correct is more annoying than amusing. Does anyone know how I can I turn off auto-correct in the Kindle?
We have several great local Little Theaters here with high quality acting, singing and sets. This afternoon with three friends I enjoyed Legally Blonde, a great play which I never saw before. It was so much fun. I have a unique relationship with a male square dancing friend, no strings, no expectations, no deep involvement, no drama, just fun companionship, a totally new experience for me. I am sure there is nothing more to it, which is why I appreciate it so much.
Well, I was all set to bet the farm on Exaggerator until the rains came. Now? I'm betting on Cherry Wine. This horse LOVES the slop. He's a real mudder. Hell, his mother was a mudder. Plus gray horses never win, right? Wrong! You herd it hear forks.
I just picked up my old (1993 Camry) from the shop. It's been serviced, the brakes replaced, the A/C repaired and recharged, etc. Now if it will only pass the smog check. It has passed every other year with flying colors...
For my money, Dave Barry is the funniest writer alive. Somebody here recommended a recent book of his, "Live Right and Find Happiness." I'm reading it on my Nook for the second time. I was at the coffee shop most recently when reading it and I wonder what the other folks were thinking as I was giggling and laughing with tears running down my face. Here is a quote and paraphrase from his essay to his grandson on his bris.
God appears to Abram in a mellow mood and promises him he will be a king and the father of kings. It's a sweet deal PLUS he gets Canaan and he doesn't even have to smite anybody! But then God reveals the other side of the covenant, which is, and here I will quote God directly. "And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin and all of his future descendants, and then to quote Genesis, "there were deli platters." No, I made that last part up but all the circumcision stuff is really in Genesis. That brings up a couple of questions. Why does God have such a bee in His bonnet about foreskins? Like, couldn't they just shake hands?
How do you think the other household males felt when this ninety-nine year-old guy came wobbling toward them holding s sharp knife and saying, "Guess what God told me to do?"
Yellowrocks, just about every question these days can be answered with 'Google it!'
I just googled "how to turn off autocorrect on kindle" and in less than .54333 seconds there it was. Bingo, bango, bongo...
Slow and steady on this late Saturday afternoon on the way to an ultimate DNF. I have no idea what big bad LEROY Brown has to do with 'Encyclopedia', DEMI-GOD I've never heard before, and although ZITI was an easy fill I was really thinking DIVE for a 'low-cost pub(ication); Why is ZINE a low cost magazine? Fpr 'Lovelace' I wanted LINDA but it wouldn't fit so ADA had to do. I really thought I nailed 45A with USDA but found out it was the wrong kind of plants, so OSHA was another miss while SNOOT forgot to replace SNOUT.
SPIDEY SENSEmakes ZERO sense. What is it?
TOPE- all perps as I thought topers were dope-smokers. HATHA and MAHAYANA were all perps. The rest of the puzzle was just a grind and I quit after 30 minutes.
Good work Splynter but Dave try to use words that allow us mortals a fighting chance.
Thanks to Anon at 5:28 I easily disabled auto-correct. If you are blue, please ID yourself for proper thanks. Spellcheck would need an app. I do not like typing on the Kindle, regardless.
Bill G, I agree that it seems we sometimes think alike. (Does the fact I agree with you also demonstrate that I think like you?) I too have loved Dave Barry and have read every word of his that was published in our local paper. We had a 1992 Camry XLE that served us well for 15 years. We called him Axel. Before that, we had a 1981 Honda Accord XL that we called Alex. Before that, we had a 1971 Datsun Maxima that we called Max. You'll easily guess what we called our early vintage Mazda RX7. Yep, Rex. Having been unable to think of any more names with X in them, we call our current 2007 Camry Buddy. Oh, and our very first little Datsun P510? We called it Dot Dot. After we passed it along to our son, he had it lowered and renamed it Squat Dot.
I meant Accord LX.
Good evening everyone.
Did not care for this one. I don't find auto correct amusing, and, where possible, always opt out of it. We usually said THINGAMAJIG.
Yes, D-O, I would retire to my UPPER BERTH. I guess a Quartermaster or Hospitalman might retire to a berth, too.
Can't see a RR engineer using one, since its his/her job to drive the train. When their hours are up, they get off and someone else takes over.
Did not know about Coral Triangle concept. A new learning. Ditto - poetry slam.
Back from DW's colleague's party. English majors can be fun (esp. when there's beer).
@5:58 who can't really be the Regular Big-Easy: 3 things (below)
LEROY "Encyclopedia" Brown was the baddest boy-detective in the whole damn town. It is (was) kid-lit (70's) where a kid (EB) with "encyclopedic" memory could solve mysteries. My favorite was the story of someone claiming finding an important document between pages 59 and 60 (or some odd-even pair). The point being the claimant was lying because of the way book's pages are numbered. EB called the kid out. There was another one w/ a dancing red lobster - EB pointed out lobsters are only red after they're cooked.
SPIDEY SENSE - that feeling that something is off. Spider-Man (Peter Parker) had it and so do we (sans radioactive spider bite) when we pay attention.
Re: DEMI GOD - Be careful how you answer Sumerian ones
OMK - Yes! The fingers on a keyboard type faster than the brain's thinky-bits respond - muscle memory can be ANTA to what was meant! :-)
To heck w/ ANTI GRAVITY - I just want the flying car I was promised.
Now was the future then.
Cheers, -T
I happen to be in a Buddhism study group that focuses on the Mahayana interpretation of Buddhism. But I realize this is rather obscure and could hardly believe that was really the answer.
Hatha Yoga is what most Americans mean by Yoga so it is less obscure.
But the clue "Robot Starter" for NANO just seems wrong. What was that supposed to mean? As a founding member of one of the first nanotechnology companies back in 1986 I think I would know something about the use of "nano".
Any idea what that meant?
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