Dr. Goddard paved the way for rockets to go into space, where there is no air to support oxidation, as they carry their own oxygen with them.
This program shown here was signed on this day in 1965 by General Bernard A. Schriever, USAF, Commander of Air Force Systems Command and Dr. Goddard's widow Esther.
You may remember that earlier this year I blogged a puzzle Erik created with Andy Kravis which had a picture of Erik recoiling from a pie about to be thrown by Alex Trebek on the Jeopardy set. Erik had created a puzzle that had frustrated the host who is also a big crossword fan.
The word play on this puzzle was devilish and amazing, e.g. 45. Montana team in the '80s: NINERS - It was Joe Montana not the state!
Triple 10-letter horizontal stacks in the corners (the upper stack more "gettable" than the bottom) and double vertical 10-letter stacks amaze me.
For Dr. Goddard, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blast off!
Across:
1. Some halftime performers: MAJORETTES - Talking heads have replaced them on TV
11. Galaxy array: APPS - APPS for your Android phone
15. Home to Gotham City, Metropolis, etc.: DC UNIVERSE - Fictional home for some big comic book characters
16. Persian for "king": SHAH.
17. Technology term from the Greek for "far sight": TELEVISION “TELEVISION won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night,” Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
18. Rhode Island's motto: HOPE - Right on their State Flag
19. Factory problems: RECALLS
20. Maintained: STATED.
22. Queen who sings, "The cold never bothered me anyway": ELSA - It takes seven seconds to say it
23. Holy one?: TERROR - I have never had a student I would call a Holy TERROR and they are all 54. Hardly a lost cause: CORRIGIBLE.
24. Church marriage notice: BANNS - These used to be in our church bulletin but not any longer
27. Red head of the 20th century: MAO - What? The Chinese leader and not Lucille Ball
29. Cut off: APART - "Isabel stepped away from Joanna and stood APART"
31. Fathom, e.g.: UNIT - Below is as low as you can go in the ocean in fathoms and feet
32. Old-timey proof of purchase: BOXTOP - 25¢ and one Grape-Nuts Flakes box top for this!
34. Hawaiian for "long": LOA - Moana LOA (Long Mountain) runs for about 74 miles on the Big Island
36. Slangy "Please call": HIT ME UP - My use of this phrase is "It was not good when my relatives HIT ME UP for money"
37. Rough case: BUR - SaneBURS can be a challenge to remove
38. "The More You Know" segment, briefly: PSA - Public Service Announcement - Here's one
39. Tribute opening: A TOAST
40. Green roller: PUTT - Golf courses roll the greens with machines like this so your PUTT will roll nicely
41. "What a tragedy": SO SAD - This befits the horrible flooding that is going on in Eastern Nebraska right now
43. Messenger substance: RNA - Ribonucleic Acid is a frequent visitor
44. Play __: GAMES - Google Play GAMES Services
47. Subject of the 1975 film "Overlord": D-DAY - I better remember The Longest Day
49. Triangular pastry: SAMOSA - One of South Africa’s favorite treats, as popular as bobotie, boerewors and biltong. No, really!
50. Fair treat: CORN DOG - Featured at this Lincoln, NE eatery
53. Walk with effort: PLOD.
57. Pine product: CONE.
58. Jicama or rutabaga: EDIBLE ROOT - Them and more
60. Parts of a bigger picture: SUBSYSTEMS.
Down:
1. Colo. summer setting: MDT and 35. 1-Down part: Abbr.: MTN - MounTaiN Daylight Time
2. Dell alternative: ACER.
3. "Three Coins in the Fountain" composer Styne: JULE - Young Julius Kerwin Stein (he later changed the spelling of the last name and the pronunciation of the first to "Julie")
4. The slightest change: ONE CENT - Very cute guys!
5. Watterson's Calvin and Susie, at times: RIVALS.
6. What Pandora released: EVILS.
7. Model X maker, before 2017: TESLA MOTORS - Samuel told me via email,
"I think it’s because “Tesla Motors” formally shortened its name to “Tesla” in February, 2017."
8. "Divergent" heroine __ Prior: TRIS All you need to know
9. Spanish "that": ESO ¡ESO está en rompecabezas muy a menudo! (ESO is in puzzles very often!)
10. Contextual meaning: SENSE
11. Note near B: A SHARP - A SHARP is a half step below B
12. Facebook upload: PHOTO ALBUM - Sometimes that album is TMI
13. One way to spread the news: PAPER ROUTE - This was a great way for me to learn about responsibility and capitalism
14. Lose: SHED
21. "The Sound of Music" name: TRAPP - These are the kids who played The Trapp Family Singers on Broadway in 1960 appearing on What's My Line. Arlene Francis correctly guessed who they were.
23. Squee-worthy: TOTES ADORBS - These three words will never pass my lips but here ya go: Squee is slang for squeal which is an expression of great joy, TOTES is Totally and ADORBS is Adorable. Thus something that is Squeal-worthy is TOTALLY ADORABLE. Constructor Samuel wrote, "Gary, For better or worse, I think I came up with this clue"
24. Goose __: BUMPS.
25. Snack that doesn't sound very appetizing: ANTS ON A LOG - There are several "ants" surrounding the log here
26. "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" singer: NINA SIMONE Her Bio
28. Guitarist, slangily: AXMAN - A guitar is called an AX slangily thus...
30. Wonderland trial evidence: TARTS - Of course, the Knave Of Hearts stole them!
32. Was fooled by the fake: BIT - Several defender "BIT" on these moves
33. Unsafe?: OUT - The baseball umpires decision
36. Underworld: HADES.
40. Prospector's prize: PAYDIRT - Those 49er's looking for PAYDIRT in California mostly enriched only the suppliers
42. Cell terminals: ANODES - An interesting way to connect an ANODE and a cathode
44. Sacred Indian river: GANGES.
46. Runs: RACES
48. Deadpan: DRILY - 20 great ones from the master of deadpan
49. Spot saver?: Abbr.: SPCA - Here, Sally is saving Spot from Dick and Jane not the SPCA
51. Wind in a pit: OBOE - Fabulous clue! The OBOE is the wind instrument in the orchestra pit starts everyone off on with an A. (:23)
52. Grab (onto): GLOM.
56. Search subjects for 100+ yrs.: ETS - Nevada has a good sense of humor about all this
Now you can rocket off to the comment section:
FIWrong. Knew some items in the bottom center were off, but not what they should be. 48d DRoLl > DRILY, but I knew CORRoGIBLE had an I, not o. 23d was slang I could only guess at ADORBe > ADORBS, ODa > ODU was a natick, and that left SaBel STEMS with insufficient info to see as SUB SYSTEMS.
ReplyDeleteLots of w/os, some possibly interesting ones: EARTH PRIME > DC COMICS?? > DC UNIVERSE, TAX StamP > BOX TOP, MARIA >TRAPP (shouldnt that be VON TRAPP?), CART > PUTT (golf either way, and both in today's Jumble poem), ANTS ON A DOG > LOG, (never heard of it before either way), W.W.II > D-DAY which suggested AWSOME > ADORBS.
After astronomy, Galaxy to me is a magazine, only glancingly a car, then a phone.
SAMOSAs are Girl Scout round cookies, aren't they?
The smallest state also has the smallest motto? How had that tiny bit of trivia escaped me before?
The MAJORETTES were TOTES ADORBS!
Like sponges they compliments absorbed!
But when a nerdy pup
Asked "HIT ME UP",
The request, SO SAD, was totes ignored! 😟
Elon Musk is a HOLY TERROR!
For TESLA MOTORS he is the carer.
They're now Tesla, Inc.
Because he did think
Motors were causing RECALL errors!
{B+, B-.}
Good Saturday morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteThank you Samuel E. Donaldson and Eric Agard for this impossible CW. I revealed letters often to allow me to finish it.
Thank you Husker Gary for your excellent review. I liked the comments from Samuel.
Ðave
Good morning!
ReplyDeleteWhat a workout! Only NINA SIMONE allowed me to salvage the SoCal area. Never heard of ANTS ON A LOG, and I had MINERS, so that didn't help. Don't recall seeing CORRIGIBLE before -- only the IN version. At the end of the day all of the squares were filled with the appropriate letter, so life is good. Thanx, Samuel, Eric (you didn't get credit in the Barnacle), and Husker.
BOXTOP: In my ute I sent away a boxtop to receive a deed for one square inch of land in Alaska. Also a decoder ring and signed photo from Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.
EDIBLE ROOT: Interesting that your root array was missing the lowly carrot, Husker. The best of the lot is unquestionably the parsnip. Mmmmmmmm.
Clever as all get out...but unsolvable
ReplyDelete😎
Desper- Pretty sure the Alaskan land deed gimmick was promoted by Shredded Wheat.
ReplyDeleteMy brain hurts after that one. But, excellent puzzle! Needed help to get through it, but got through it I did ;)
ReplyDeleteSo is today national rocket day? Or is the first paragraph one of those "on this day in history..." thingys?
ReplyDeleteIt is National Corn Day.
After looking up the answer to 23 down, and seeing totesadorbs, I will never attempt The L.A. times crossword again. That is just plain stupid. I don't mind working on hard puzzles but when you resort to this garbage I can't be bothered even trying.
ReplyDeleteGood Morning:
ReplyDeleteThis was a toughie, but P and P were rewarded with a Tada in 34+ minutes, w/o help. As Gary said, there was devious cluing and some dubious fill, I.e., Totes Adorbs, which shall never enter my mind, let alone pass my lips. I, too, have never see Corrigible by itself, but it makes sense, I guess. My favorite C/A was Holy one?=Terror. My WWII became D Day, Droll turned to Drily, and Maria became Trapp. Needed perps for Tris and, as clued, Loa, ODU, and Nina Simone. I wanted an S on Jule but HG's Julie jogged my memory. Nice CSO to Jinx with the Norfolk school.
Thanks, Sam and Erik, for a challenging but doable Saturday and thanks, HG, for the outstanding expo and the sparkling links. I chuckled at Zanuck's television's fate prediction.
I hope PK is okay, as we haven't heard from her in awhile.
My two main memories of "The Sound of Music" are taking my mother to see it and having her sleep through 3/4 of it, and, on another occasion, taking 5 nieces and nephews, all under the age of ten. As I recall, they all behaved themselves., no Holy Terrors that day.
FLN
Ferm, I do hope you start to see some improvement and results with your rehab.
Have a great day.
Great challenging puzzle even though I DNF. Luckily I enjoy cooking so I knew jicama and rutabaga were EDIBLE ROOTS. GLOM is new to me, I had DROLL instead of DRILY (more familiar with DRYLY), and the impossible TOTESADORBS (?????) made the SE corner too difficult to complete.
ReplyDeleteJerome, it might've been Shredded Wheat -- I didn't mean to imply that both were from that TV show. I also remember a Dick Clark gimmick, send proof-of-purchase for one bottle of Bosco "chocolate flavored" syrup plus $.25 for a 45-RPM EP of four recent hit singles. (The only song I'm really sure was included was "You Cheated" by The Shields, so it must've been '58.) The record was OK, but mom made me drink up the Bosco. All of it. Ick!
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-Greetings from the Island of Fremont Nebraska. The Platte River and Maple Creek have us surrounded by water like many other cities in Eastern Nebraska.
-The trees on the left of this picture outline the holes on my golf course 20 miles west of here as the Platte is out there too
-This is National Goddard Day, a pioneer in liquid rocket fuel. You can also see that on the program autographed by his wife.
-As I mentioned, TOTES ADORBS is a too, too cute phrase but I wonder if slang like this didn’t ruffle cwd feathers in the 50’s. Most are not used today 60 years later.
-BTW, I thought TOTES ADORBS might have been a product manufactured by the TOTES company. I filled it in, shook my head and looked up the phrase where there were ample links.
No way in hell. No way I could figure out ADORBS. Never heard of SQUEE. I Had the rest of the SE and put DRILL and SUBTLE STEPS. DRYLY (not DRILY) is the correct spelling but In knew CORRICIBLE & EDIBLE ROOT were correct, with ODU as a perp. Wanted GRAB for GLOM but since ADORBS is a total bullshit word, I couldn't finish.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of the puzzle, it was nice with JULE & RIVALS filled by perps. I didn't know the song but had enough crosses to get NINA SIMONE.
D-Otto. I'd never heard of 'ANTS ON A LOG' or CORRIGIBLE either but in knew incorrigible was 'bad' so take off the 'in' to get the redeemable person.
ReplyDeleteSquee-worthy- my first thought was a dirty windshield needing cleaning.
'manitoba'- 'just plain stupid' is being polite.
Shoot! I had a typo earlier.
ReplyDeleteIt is National Corn Dog Day.
I loves me a nice, hot , crunchy CORN DOG. It is best enjoyed dipped in yellow mustard whilst walking down the midway right before attempting to knock down some weighted milk bottles.
We had a brick and mortar "restaurant" similar to the one Husker pictured that sold items that are popular at the local fair scene. Turns out those items are only popular during fair time. It soon closed the doors and the owners went back to seasonally hawking the elephant ears, funnel cakes, CORN DOGS, fried oreos and frozen lemonade on the fair circuit. Seemed like a decent idea but most people know better than to indulge in that fare more than once or twice a year.
Good morning everyone.
ReplyDeleteMy paper only gave credit to Sam Donaldson. Sorry Eric.
Very tough puzzle for me. Had to look up several words in the south. But it was a learning experience and enabled having fun with the fill I did know. Many obscure, amorphous clues. But it is Saturday.
UNITS - There are 6 feet in a fathom so HG's visual doesn't quite square with the UNITS.
TELEVISION - Greek "far sight". Developed after most languages were formed so each language needed to choose its own term to label the technological marvel. German chose Fernsehen or "far sight". No Greek was needed. (My mom punned that it was "Teller wischen" or 'plate wiping'. The German 'w' has a 'v' sound.)
Have a great day.
DNF, stopped trying, therefore I missed some easy ones like TRAPP and GLOM. Totally pysched out. Not in the mood for this.
ReplyDeleteI have seen ANTS ON A LOG.
I think we had TOTES ADORB before, but I didn't get it. Don't care for it, nor squee-worthy which I never heard of.
DRILY is an alternate spelling of DRYLY, but I didn't get that either.
I never heard of "Hit me up" to mean "Please call." "Ring me up."
Way to spread the news? They used to say, television, telegraph, tell a woman. LOL. Let me tell you! When my ex and his buddy got together on Saturday mornings, they gossiped plenty. One of their favorite topics, among many others, was the gal across the street who was visited by a stream of men at all hours.
Gary, The NE flooding is indeed horrible. I hope you are safe.
Just thinking of you all has lightened my day. I think I am now bright eyed and bushy tailed.
HIT ME UP is very common among texters, fb users and other social media aficionados. So much so that it is usually expressed with the acronym HMU. Much like lol, fyi, tmi, brb and idk(third base).
ReplyDeleteNo credit to Eric in the AZ Republic either. However, I think we should crown them the Kings of Obscurity and Misdirection! Thank you, Samuel and Eric for the challenge.
ReplyDeleteYet, I managed to PLOD all the way to the NW, from RECALLS upward where I got stuck. TRIS and JULE were unknown though I've seen JULE Styne on credits. I knew he wouldn't be Pele. Had to LIU.
Wind in a pit, OBOE, was my favorite. Rough case, BUR, runs second.
The BANNS of marriage were once commonly announced in church and I'm not sure when that custom stopped.
I've seen ADORBS, specifically in one of Barbara Kingsolver's books, and sussed the TOTES part. Talk about dumbing down the language!
I had MOTORS for a very long time until TESLA perped its way in there.
If you've made snacks for children you know ANTSONALOG.
BIT and OUT are the shortest fill but with the long clues. Clever.
During the special for Aretha Franklin on TELEVISION there was much talk about the song, To Be Young, Gifted and Black so I thought Aretha would be the answer. NINA SIMONE was a surprise for me but easily sussible.
Gary, thank you, and I'm sorry to hear about the flooding in your state. I hope you and yours are safe.
Have a happy day, everyone!
Lucina, I sent you an email yesterday. Didjageddit?
ReplyDeleteKicked my butt.
ReplyDeleteThe northeast wouldn't budge, except for TERROR. Neither would the section immediately under it.
Three red letters appeared when I finally changed the game to regular skill level after putting the puzzle down a couple of times.
- Had TRiPP instead of TRAPP. Tripp was the name of a family that lived across the street many years ago.
- Had the mINERS as the Montana's team. The school with the MINERS as their mascot is UTEP.
- I guessed JUdE. Not sure how I didn't notice the crossing answer was TEdEVISION.
Perps gave me TOTES ADORBS, and I parsed it correctly but couldn't remember what it meant, but only that I had seen it before.
Thank you Samuel, Eric and Husker Gary.
Hi Y'all! Samuel & Eric, groan! This puzzle was sadly akin to bullying. Just MHO!
ReplyDeleteThe NE corner was impossible. I TOTESADORBS the red-letter apps with which I managed to fill this holy TERROR of a cw. (Spell check doesn't like TOTESADORBS either.) Why are such smart people using the slang of less-gifted dolts?
Gary, I'm glad you aren't personally underwater. I came to the Corner this morning just to see how you are. I'm wondering about AVG JOE & Windhover: Please let us know if you are okay. I was watching the weather channel this morning of the flooding and had to turn it off because my food wouldn't go down. The picture of cows stranded on a tiny high dry spot choked me up. Our family men cut wheat in NW Nebraska for many years so it was like a second home for them. Seeing all the good farmland under water and knowing what good hard-working people are Nebraskans...devastating.
IM: thank you for thinking of me. I have been having trouble with my eyes and have had to limit my computer screen time. My screen time has been spent on reviewing my state's driver's license manuel. I have done the cwds, but had to give up the Corner treat. Should have got new glasses before now, but the winter has been so crazy... I'm more worried about passing the eye test now than I am about the written test -- if I can see it. If the test print is small, do you 'spose it will bias the test giver if I whip out my trusty magnifying glass which is now wrapped and ready in my purse?
Solved this one in 46:53 without help. I agree TOTES ADORBS is a stretch, but I'm probably not totally aware of current slang or corruption of the language. Years ago, I got mad at the Times for "slapjack" the answer to "pancake." I'm still addicted to the crossword every morning, and I've been so entertained and enlightened in the Crossword Corner.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
My local paper The Virginian-Pilot accredited "Samuel 'A' Donaldson" whereas this blog seems to prefer "Samuel 'E' Donaldson"... Is this one of those ALAN SMITHEE situations? An attempt to evade negative publicity after that TOTES ADORBS debacle?
ReplyDeleteWilliam Nipper hit the nail on the head. Mad just plain mad when I see drivel used for clues or answers. In my house you can use any four letter word to your hearts content, however the first time someone uses a term such as TOTESADORBS I will pick you up by the scruff of your neck and the seat of your pants and throw you out my front door.
ReplyDelete11 perps and I had it (to paraphrase Abejo). Seriously, it took all 11 perps to fill in TOTES ADORBS, which even then made no sense to me. It might as well have been a Hungarian word. In this case it is a language that is as foreign to me as Hungarian is.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, Mr. Jayce, how did you like ... ? I very much did like the cluing for TERROR, MAO, ONE CENT, SPCA, and OUT. I also enjoyed the rest of the puzzle. MINER fooled me for a long time because I couldn't parse ANTSOMALOG. And for too long I saw Calvin and Susie as DEVILS (which I thought was interesting being parallel with EVILS) before MAJORETTES showed up. I did think of DC COMICS but it wouldn't fit, and, not being familiar with the name DC UNIVERSE, I needed several perps to finally see the word UNIVERSE.
Tough tough tough.
Well, at least I can pat myself on the back for knowing TELEVISION, SHAH, LOA (C.C. has often pointed out in her commentaries that Mauna Loa means Long Mountain), TARTS, and GANGES.
Interesting that the word "television" is so similar in so many languages, at least the European ones. Spitzboov has already pointed out that it is different in German. In Mandarin Chinese it is 电视 (diànshì) "electric vision". (Chinese for telephone is 电话 (diànhuà) "electric speech".)
Good wishes to you all.
ReplyDeleteWow, some real angst today...what’s the kerfuffle over TOTESADORBS? This isn’t the first valley girl slang we’ve seen in a puzzle...you don’t have to like it, just to have heard it.
And Eric Agard got no credit in the Charleston Post and Courier either.
Anyway, one of those Saturday puzzles that just went smoothly for me.
Markovers...DROLL/DRILY, TOTESADORES/TOTESADORBS. And I didn’t get mad....like I did with SYNDICS. So I understand. Even though SYNDICS had never appeared before. Ever.
The Girl Scout cookie is a SAMOA....ask me how I know, as I dig into the Thin Mints.
Hi All!
ReplyDeleteMy PAPER (and D-O's) doesn't list Eric as a constructor - only Samuel (A.). If he (Eric) is, I assume he's responsible for the right-side of the grid which completely stymied me. GolDoRe was right-out (as was [wait for it]-Minor for a Note near B)
Thanks guys for the grid to distract during Youngest's Ortho apt. (and then the hours following - Is it really 2p?). Really good stuff in the fill - even TOTES ADORBS [with two teen-girls, I hear it oft //said sardonically - they make fun of kids that say it but...].
Did no one think of the Kavanaugh hearings [SNL@1:57 of 13:04] at Squee?
Wonderful expo and tribute to Dr. Goddard HG. Thanks for giving me some extra Play_ in the East. The flooding looks awful - is it really better than the photo suggests? [every time Houston floods, Pop calls. "Dad, that's 30 miles away... We're fine."]
Significant WOs: DCcomics-- [D'Oh!], Gold ore b/f Gary gave me the PAY DIRT I needed to finish the South.
Fav: c/a for NINERS is wicked-smart.
Runner-up: Calvin & Hobbes in the clueing - I loves me some philosophy :-)
{A+, B //I was looking for a The Boring Co. cross-promotional :-)}
Wack-a@10:23a: Some CORN DOG Brick & Mortars do quite well year-round. //Cozy Dog in SPI. We'd always stop there on the way out to or back from Lake Springfield. History.
More Fare? I grew-up with ANTS ON A LOG. A tasty (and healthy) treat and my only 10-stack gimme. And I only had the 'NTS' ink'd; just for that I claim a win :-)
Eldest is on here way down from OU. Time to check in on her and get a nap. I can't wait to see her!
Cheers, -T
Musings
ReplyDelete-THIS JUST IN!! THIS JUST IN!! A mother of teenagers is staying with our neighbors. She and they came over around 1 pm today and after discussing the flooding here the subject of crossword puzzles came up (Imagine that!). After rolling my eyes I laughingly said “We had an impossible phrase today - TOTES ADORBS.” She immediately responded, “Oh, that’s “totally adorable”! After I nearly fell out of my chair she calmly said, “Hey, I have teenagers at home and hear it all the time!” How ‘bout dat?
-We are fine here on the high ground 2 miles north of the Platte.
ReplyDeleteHusker Gary et al.,
I knew I'd seen TOTES ADORBS before... Not that long ago. It was in the clue at 20a.
David Aflfred Bywaters
https://crosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2018/12/thursday-december-13th-2018-david.html
Back to my chores...
If I found a reference to Calvin and Hobbes once ever week or so, I'd still be a happy camper. Brilliant stuff in a comic strip!
ReplyDelete4 teens in the house and not one of them has ever heard totes adorbs. I actually had to show them the crossword because they had no idea what I was talking about.
ReplyDeleteI won't dwell on Totes Adorbs. Got it, had heard it, didn't like it.
ReplyDeleteBut I will give a status report. Lancaster County (surrounding Lincoln) has been very fortunate in this flooding. I don't know of any urban flooding, or for that matter any significant damage to a home or business within county borders. There's been some inconvenience with some county roads being underwater and nearly all unpaved roads are VERY soft and muddy. But we've got it good and the weather is now quite nice after a brutal 6 weeks of snow and below freezing temps, including some dips to 10 below zero. And most importantly, we are safe.
Other areas of the state have been hit much harder. My childhood home county in NE Nebraska at one point issued a statement that every road in the county had closures, including numerous bridges washed completely away. This is an area of 42 miles X ~24 miles. And my home town is largely isolated with most roads in and out being underwater. The list goes on, and the devastation is widespread. Even Gary's town of Fremont is partly underwater and there are evacuations taking place today since a levee broke this morning.
It's terrible, and terrifying. If there are any thoughts and prayers left in the pantry, Nebraska could use them now. The recovery from damages could take years.
Correction: It's my wife's home town that is isolated, not mine....It was for a day or two, but isn't now, as far as I know.
ReplyDeleteI went back and checked and yes totes adsorbs was used on December 13 as a clue not an answer. Reading the comments from that day, not a single person has ever heard of it. I shouldn't be surprised that I have never heard of it as I am not a airheaded valley girl with little to no education.
ReplyDeleteI see the near-total rejection of TOTES ADORBS by my Corner colleagues, and I TOTES agree with you all!
ReplyDeleteBut what are we to do? I can keep these "words" out of my life, off my lips, etc., but if anybody--from a Valley Girl to a clique of cruciverbalists--ever actually used them, we're stuck, aren't we?
My chief complaint then is with the clue, Mr. Donaldson. There could surely be better direction to such an off-beat fill.
That awful phrase is the reason I am checking in so very late today. I had a perfect finish but couldn't trust it, so wasted vast quantities of time checking and re-checking.
In the end I was right--and the cluing was just plain wrong in the wrong way.
Venting done.
~ OMK
It's always interesting to read the comments on the corner. Some of today's make me remember what I remind myself of rather frequently: I'm old, and no longer actively contributing to changes in the dynamic system we call language. Without doubt, sometime in the future words and phrases such as "totes adorbs" and "squee worthy" will be listed as perfectly standard in authoritative publications like the OED. Language has to change, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteAvg Joe: thanks for your report. Glad you are OK. Having spent some time in Nebraska, it hits me hard.
ReplyDeleteSandyanon: Shudder! Totes Adorbs almost rates right up there with the F-bomb in every sentence. Ugly!
I am usually okay with slang, informal language, the archaic, whatever, in puzzles. Both appearances of adorkable bothered me. Knowing that several of you have heard it or know someone who has heard it makes it acceptable to me.
ReplyDeleteSandyanon, many words that seem wrong or odd today make it into the standard language tomorrow. Some do not. I think this one will go the way of twenty--three skidoo.
Been on the beach (last day) from 10 til 4,
ReplyDeleteThought I had it all worked out by using my iPhone as a
WiFi hotspot so I could use the IPad for the puzzle.
Dang thing (Chicago Times) would not load...
Ended up doing 3 Sudokus (worked fine)
Anywho, judging by the content of today’s puzzle
I think I got off easy by not being able to do it.
Think I finally understand how an XY Wing works,
Now I have to try and f8nd one....
Well, YR, who knows? Certainly not me.
ReplyDeleteBill G @1549 try this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes1985/11/18
It's a link to the very first strip. There are arrows at the bottom of each so you can go through them sequentially and there's a tiny calendar so you can pick a date. Or you can leave the date off the URL and I think it will take you to the current strip, and you can go back from there. The site also offers other options. I'm sure I got it originally from a link somebody put up here, which I appreciate very much, as I'm currently enjoying Bloom County from the very beginning.
I think I heard DC UNIVERSE mentioned on The Big Bang Theory - those guys aren't just science nerds, they're TOTAL nerds!
And I too hate TOTES ADORBS and its ilk. But I have heard it - on one of the (very few) other TV shows I like, "Last Man Standing". The middle daughter, Mandy, on the old (canceled) version was a total airhead, absolutely stereotypical of the vapid, mindless FB and twit addicted, Kardashian-obsessed oblivious teen girl. But she was really FUNNY! Always perplexing her parents by using these kinds of expressions and being befuddled when they had no idea what she was talking about - sometimes she couldn't even explain what she meant in normal language. I still find the show amusing, but the actress they got to replace her is much less so.
FWIW, over at the crossword fiend, where the age tends to skew younger, there is not one bellyache for TOTES ADORBS.
ReplyDeleteDerek does highlight in his write-up however. He said of it, "Best entry in a sea of great entries!"
Ain't youth grand?
Also, I shudder to think that Aunt Becky's rowing daughters and their classmates down at USC not only know of totes adorbs but use it frequently. They prolly think it's awesome, totally awesome.
OMK, I am in agreement with YR, that some newly-coined words and phrases last and some don't. I did say, "words and phrases "such as" totes adorb would become standard. I have no idea which will and which won't.
ReplyDeleteJeff S. ~
ReplyDeleteActually, SoCal dudes & dudettes don't say "awesome." They say "ah-some."
Growing up in San Francisco, I heard crows actually say "Caw, caw." Down here in Orange County, the crows drop the "w" and settle for something closer to... er, scatting: "Caca, caca."
Sandy ~
I know it's fashionable to go along with the notion that newly coined teen slang will be eventually accepted by the OED and other dictionaries as standard English.
Am I being ornery in holding that TOTES ADORBS will become as outmoded as "What's your bag?" and "You bet your bippy"?
Not every funny phrase makes it into the common lexicon.
Anybody have a fave word or phrase that's become passé?
~ OMK
OMK, it looks weird, doesn't it, when I was responding to the post you deleted and then you reposted?
ReplyDeleteThe teens over at
ReplyDeleteCWfiend are totes ATHOLS
ReplyDelete"Anybody have a fave word or phrase that's become passé? ~ OMK"
Yes. All that Shakespeare crap.
AvgJoe:
ReplyDeleteThank you for checking and assuring us you are all right. I'm really sorry to hear about the devastation, though, and yes, my prayers will be offered for those who are suffering and that help is quick in arriving.
In the book by Barbara Kingsolver that I noted for TOES ADORBS, she quoted a young person saying it.
At our book club meeting today we discussed The Paper Wife by Leila Ibrahim. It's an excellent read.
I will NOT stop doing the LATCW because some c/a is outside my wheelhouse. I have breezed through puzzles others find opaque and vice versa.
ReplyDeleteI am not familiar with most tween/teen girlspeak, even from fifty years ago, in my youth. Most texterese I know came from here. (I text in English.)
Wow! Above my paygrade today and I did not find PAYDIRT but thanks for the fun, Samuel and Eric. (My newspaper doesn't credit anyone for the CWs!)
ReplyDeleteP&P and a couple of Google helps helped to fill all but the SE corner.
We will agree to leave TOTESADORBS undiscussed and unparsed.
Prescience of the blog - I posted a link to ELSA singing Let it Go earlier this week. (D4 enjoyed it!) Yesterday we took the grands to see Disney on Ice; ELSA and Anna had prominent roles.
I'm in the middle of The Huntress by Kate Quinn (who wrote The Alice Network). Another excellent read.
I thought of Christchurch,NZ when I filled in SO SAD.
Thoughts and prayers for those affected there, and in Nebraska.
23 A Squee-worthy: TOTES ADORBS
ReplyDeleteI had never heard of these expressions. I am watching a rerun of the last show of SNL for 2018. In the starting skit I heard SQUEE.
Ðave
Sandyanon @ 5:08--
ReplyDelete"Without doubt, sometime in the future words and phrases such as "totes adorbs" and "squee worthy" will be listed as perfectly standard in authoritative publications like the OED."
Sure, sure, ... but 'someday' ain't here yet!
ReplyDeleteRoy @ 9:06PM,
Well said.
Paper wasn’t delivered on Saturday, and didn’t get around to printing the puzzle until Sunday night. This as a toughie, PUTT totally screwed me up, I was thinking some brand of electric car. So about 95% complete, didn’t get all of the Mid-Atlantic region of the puzzle, between NE and SE.
ReplyDelete