Themeless Saturday by Emma Lawson and Larry Snyder
As you will tell from the paucity of my comments, I was able to sail through big parts of this puzzle. However, when the wordplay heated up I had some delightful struggles. This is Larry's first published puzzle and Emma's first Saturday themeless but fourth overall for the LA Times.
Emma is a reasearch librarian at Langara University in Vancouver, British Columbia. Larry is a professor of Industrial and Systems Engineering and director of the Institute for Data, Intelligent Systems and Computation at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. This is another transcontinental collaboration.
Across:
1. Age of the information superhighway: DIGITAL ERA - The switch from a slide rule to a calculator marked the beginning for me
11. 1980s pop duo: WHAM.
15. Hardest part of making guacamole: AVOCADO PIT.
16. Spooned, maybe: HELD.
17. Tropical mocktail: NADA COLADA.
18. Some Minecraft blocks: ORES - I had no idea but ORES made sense with that game title 😐
19. Sounds from a bull pen: SNORTS - Our friend Nick has heard many of those as he is a professional bullfighter/rodeo clown.
20. Fulfills a take-out order?: ERASES 😀 - No restaurants or mobsters here.
22. Actress Winslet: KATE - Her portrait done for the famous scene from Titanic was actually drawn by the director James Cameron
23. Mathewson who was one of the first five inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame: CHRISTY.
25. Blackthorn berries: SLOES.
27. __ Troopa: Nintendo turtlelike creature: KOOPA.
30. Some viewer-supported broadcasts: PBS SHOWS.
34. "Best sleep on it before deciding": BE SURE - $154,940 for this Cadillac Escalade
37. "I can __": RELATE.
38. Tiny object that goes around the world?: MINI YOYO - This is Duncan's smallest YOYO and "around the world" is a standard yoyo trick (not shown here)
41. Date: PLUS ONE. - Joann is my PLUS ONE when we go to graduation parties
43. Teléfono answer: HOLA.
47. Neptune's largest moon: TRITON - TRITON with Uranus in the background
48. Up: ARISEN.
50. Cooler at sea: BRIG - 😀 Cooler is slang for jail and a BRIG is a jail abroad a ship
51. "Facts!": AMEN TO THAT.
54. "That must hurt": OUCH.
55. Rant and rave in public: MAKE A SCENE.
56. Ruby Queen, e.g.: BEET - People seem to either love or hate BEETS. I'm in the former camp.
57. "Little help, please!": I NEED A HAND.
Down:
1. Maker of Købenstyle casseroles: DANSK - Danish cookware
2. Pomeranian voiced by Emma Stone in Disney's "Suite Life" franchise: IVANA.
3. Focus of actors working as waiters?: GODOT - 😀 The actors in the clue are a profession but the waiters in the clue are, uh, just actors in a play where waiting is in the title. Last week, Tom Pepper and C.C. had 15. Welcome message to a waiter: NEXT PLEASE
4. "You matter to me": I CARE.
5. Delicacy: TACT.
6. Fusses: ADOS.
7. "U slay me!": LOL.
8. Clean water agcy.: EPA.
9. Backseat drivers, e.g.: RIDERS 😀
10. Video Olympics platform: ATARI.
11. "Maybe, maybe not": WHO'S TO SAY - How 'bout another way to ask it by a 22-yr-old Johnny Mathis on a 1957 Ed Sullivan Show?
12. "As requested": HERE YOU GO.
13. Some steinfuls: ALES.
14. Physical pros: MDS - During my yearly required physical with my MD, he and I mostly talk about space and golf for 20 minutes.
21. Welcomed: ASKED IN.
23. Farm moms: COWS - Ewes and sows get the day off
24. Guys: HES.
25. Decathlon event: SHOTPUT.
26. Legends: LORE - King Arthur and Robin Hood are two legends of England
28. Quarry: PREY.
29. Flight-related prefix: AERO.
30. Tawny __: PORT - Port Defined All ports are made from a blend of grapes grown throughout Portugal's Douro valley. There are two kinds of port: tawny and ruby. Tawny is aged in wooden casks and released ready to drink, while ruby ages more in bottle than in wood and generally requires many years of cellaring. You're welcome!
31. "The __ Crew": Milwaukee nickname: BREW - Very familiar to baseball peeps
32. Attractive figure?: SALE PRICE - SALE_R_C_ led me to SALES RACK for too long of a price
33. "The Boys" superhero who fires destructive beams: STARLIGHT - Neither the comic book nor broadcast has crossed my path. All you want (or don't want) to know
34. Nemesis: BANE.
36. Low bar?: DIVE - This DIVE is The Bottom Road Bar and is just across the Platte River from my golf course. It has great burgers and unbelievably low prices. Grandson and I ate all that for $13.00 total after 18 holes.
42. "Me too": SO AM I.
44. "Cocaine Bear" actor __ Jackson Jr.: OSHEA.
45. Singer Rimes: LEANN.
46. Paid to play: ANTED.
47. "Facts!": TRUE.
48. Not much: A TAD.
49. Parks of Alabama: ROSA
50. Small float: BOB - 😀 Also called a bobber. It was not my last fill but it was my last, "Oh, now I get it! Fishing gear."
52. Squeak (out): EKE.
53. Once called: NEE - More brides seem to be keeping their birth names.
1. Age of the information superhighway: DIGITAL ERA - The switch from a slide rule to a calculator marked the beginning for me
11. 1980s pop duo: WHAM.
15. Hardest part of making guacamole: AVOCADO PIT.
16. Spooned, maybe: HELD.
17. Tropical mocktail: NADA COLADA.
18. Some Minecraft blocks: ORES - I had no idea but ORES made sense with that game title 😐
19. Sounds from a bull pen: SNORTS - Our friend Nick has heard many of those as he is a professional bullfighter/rodeo clown.
20. Fulfills a take-out order?: ERASES 😀 - No restaurants or mobsters here.
22. Actress Winslet: KATE - Her portrait done for the famous scene from Titanic was actually drawn by the director James Cameron
23. Mathewson who was one of the first five inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame: CHRISTY.
25. Blackthorn berries: SLOES.
27. __ Troopa: Nintendo turtlelike creature: KOOPA.
30. Some viewer-supported broadcasts: PBS SHOWS.
34. "Best sleep on it before deciding": BE SURE - $154,940 for this Cadillac Escalade
35. Big talkers: ORATORS.
36. Richard Williams, to Venus and Serena: DADAGER - Oh, now I get it, it's a portmanteau!
36. Richard Williams, to Venus and Serena: DADAGER - Oh, now I get it, it's a portmanteau!
37. "I can __": RELATE.
38. Tiny object that goes around the world?: MINI YOYO - This is Duncan's smallest YOYO and "around the world" is a standard yoyo trick (not shown here)
 |
39. Boob: TWERP - Professor Harold Hill's take on River City's new pocket billiards table:
It takes judgement, brains and maturity to scoreIn a balkline game, I say that any BOOBCan take and shove a ball in a pocketAnd I call that sloth the first big step on the roadTo the depths of deg-ra-day
40. Group that meets regularly to practice spelling?: COVEN 😀 An "out there" clue made sense when the spelling is about casting spells by a COVEN of witches
40. Group that meets regularly to practice spelling?: COVEN 😀 An "out there" clue made sense when the spelling is about casting spells by a COVEN of witches
41. Date: PLUS ONE. - Joann is my PLUS ONE when we go to graduation parties
43. Teléfono answer: HOLA.
47. Neptune's largest moon: TRITON - TRITON with Uranus in the background
48. Up: ARISEN.
50. Cooler at sea: BRIG - 😀 Cooler is slang for jail and a BRIG is a jail abroad a ship
51. "Facts!": AMEN TO THAT.
54. "That must hurt": OUCH.
55. Rant and rave in public: MAKE A SCENE.
56. Ruby Queen, e.g.: BEET - People seem to either love or hate BEETS. I'm in the former camp.
57. "Little help, please!": I NEED A HAND.
Down:
1. Maker of Købenstyle casseroles: DANSK - Danish cookware
2. Pomeranian voiced by Emma Stone in Disney's "Suite Life" franchise: IVANA.
3. Focus of actors working as waiters?: GODOT - 😀 The actors in the clue are a profession but the waiters in the clue are, uh, just actors in a play where waiting is in the title. Last week, Tom Pepper and C.C. had 15. Welcome message to a waiter: NEXT PLEASE
4. "You matter to me": I CARE.
5. Delicacy: TACT.
6. Fusses: ADOS.
7. "U slay me!": LOL.
8. Clean water agcy.: EPA.
9. Backseat drivers, e.g.: RIDERS 😀
10. Video Olympics platform: ATARI.
11. "Maybe, maybe not": WHO'S TO SAY - How 'bout another way to ask it by a 22-yr-old Johnny Mathis on a 1957 Ed Sullivan Show?
12. "As requested": HERE YOU GO.
13. Some steinfuls: ALES.
14. Physical pros: MDS - During my yearly required physical with my MD, he and I mostly talk about space and golf for 20 minutes.
21. Welcomed: ASKED IN.
23. Farm moms: COWS - Ewes and sows get the day off
24. Guys: HES.
25. Decathlon event: SHOTPUT.
26. Legends: LORE - King Arthur and Robin Hood are two legends of England
28. Quarry: PREY.
29. Flight-related prefix: AERO.
30. Tawny __: PORT - Port Defined All ports are made from a blend of grapes grown throughout Portugal's Douro valley. There are two kinds of port: tawny and ruby. Tawny is aged in wooden casks and released ready to drink, while ruby ages more in bottle than in wood and generally requires many years of cellaring. You're welcome!
31. "The __ Crew": Milwaukee nickname: BREW - Very familiar to baseball peeps
32. Attractive figure?: SALE PRICE - SALE_R_C_ led me to SALES RACK for too long of a price
33. "The Boys" superhero who fires destructive beams: STARLIGHT - Neither the comic book nor broadcast has crossed my path. All you want (or don't want) to know
36. Low bar?: DIVE - This DIVE is The Bottom Road Bar and is just across the Platte River from my golf course. It has great burgers and unbelievably low prices. Grandson and I ate all that for $13.00 total after 18 holes.
38. Sun chaser?: MON 😀 Oh, it's a calendar deal!
40. Hustler: CONMAN - Fast Eddie Felson leaps to my mind when I see that word. His drinking was one thing that put a 43. Snag: HITCH in his plans.
40. Hustler: CONMAN - Fast Eddie Felson leaps to my mind when I see that word. His drinking was one thing that put a 43. Snag: HITCH in his plans.
42. "Me too": SO AM I.
44. "Cocaine Bear" actor __ Jackson Jr.: OSHEA.
45. Singer Rimes: LEANN.
46. Paid to play: ANTED.
47. "Facts!": TRUE.
48. Not much: A TAD.
49. Parks of Alabama: ROSA
50. Small float: BOB - 😀 Also called a bobber. It was not my last fill but it was my last, "Oh, now I get it! Fishing gear."
52. Squeak (out): EKE.
53. Once called: NEE - More brides seem to be keeping their birth names.
32 comments:
This was an “Uber” tough puzzle to me. One of the hardest things I had to do was replace “PINA” colada with something else, since it was a “mocktail” . I finally figured out the misdirection and remembered the classic absurdist play “Waiting for Godot” and then I finally had it. And what is a “dadager”? A combination of “daddy “ and “manager”? I guess so. Anyway, after a titanic struggle I managed to FIR, so I’m happy, not to say relieved.
Good morning!
Tough, tough, tough. Crashed and burned with a large swath of white stretching from New Mexico to Maine. Ran the gamut with EWES/SOWS/COWS. Figured Tawny PORT must be a cartoon character. Put BROTHER where DADAGER needed to go, because it was the only ____ER word that seemed to fit. I'll have to make do with the smell of de feet this morning. Thanx, Emma, Larry, and Husker. (That slide-rule looks like the Post Versalog I used back in the day.)
I found this puzzle much easier than the typical LA Times Saturday puzzle. It took me about 10 minutes to complete the grid and about another 10 minutes to fix a number of mistakes in the NE section. That’s more typical of a Thursday puzzle for me.
NW was my downfall ironically because I wasn't sure if Ms Winslett had a C or K(ate). Thus the gettable DANSK wasn't gotten. BAHA COLADA sounded good and GOhOT just as good as GODOT(AAARRGGHHH! that V8 just thwacked me on the head(Waiting for GODOT)
I was thinking of the thwack, thwack of baseballs hitting catcher's gloves out in Fenways RF "Bullpen"
CHRISTY was called "Big Six". He inhaled poison gas in France during WWI
I confused KOOPAS with Goombas Note Lara's theme
The BRIG was guarded by not so nice Marines
Aha again MONday 'chases' Sunday
WC
DNF, giving up too soon. I should have gotten ___ITAL ERA, which would probably given me _ApSK and fixed piNA COLADA. PINA COLADA = Strained pineapple, so shouldn't the adult version be a "spiked" PINA COLADA?
I also had bBc SHOWS, and thought "tawny" meant hoity-toity.
I didn't come as close to finishing this one as yesterdays, but I liked this one a whole lot more. Clever, rather than aggravating, cluing was the order of the day. Like "cooler at sea" for BRIG. Hey, everything is cooler at sea, or that's the way this old salt remembers those days.
FLN: -T, or you could just forego Starbucks one day and buy one of these. Sometimes it's better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
Thanks to Emma and Larry for the fun stretch objective. And thanks to Gary for the tour.
-T, I had a bean-counter golf buddy in Atlanta who bought a similar keypad, even though his keyboard had the numeric keys. Said it was easier to work on numbers all day.
FIR, but the NE was the last to fall. The name Christy gave me fits especially since I had sows at 23D which looked right since 23A began with a "sh" I thought. I was wrong. And also unfamiliar with the baseball player. And dadager didn't look right and I tried in vain to put dadster instead.
Typical tough Saturday puzzle.
Thank you and congrats to Emma Lawson and Larry Snyder, and thank you, Husker Gary.
What Gary said. Sailed through most of it, and then the going got tough. Tripped myself up in a few areas:
DANeS before DANSK
as do I before SO AM I
tAkE A StaNd before MAKE A SCENE
mine before PREY
taN before MON
cabal before COVEN
trainER before manAGER before DADAGER
DADAGER ? Whoa. New to me.
What a great, challenging puzzle. Fun fill and clues, little crosswordese, some easy answers to get traction, and some tough clues and answers to work out. KOOPA and DADAGER took time to work out. STARLIGHT fell easily with perps.
I loved the multi word phrases and answers.
HOF'er CHRIST Mathewson was a gimme for this fan of baseball and its history. KATE and O'SHEA.
Køben immediately led me to København (Copenhagen), so DANES, or in Danish, DANSK.
Loved it. Just like yesterday's !
SubG at 5:46 AM, here's a tip if you are unsure of why an answer is correct, or what it means: Try reading the review.
You can't post comments to the blog before the blog is posted. So the review is available. I realize you have the option to go straight to the comments and ignore the blogger's review of the puzzle. But the review is always there to help you understand. Gary's written explanation and image at 36A explain DADAGER perfectly.
I do understand if you are on a limited cell phone plan and are trying to conserve minutes, but I offer the tip in the hope that it helps you in the future.
Good Morning:
As has been mentioned, there were several clever clues and misdirects, all fair, IMO, and plenty of toeholds and easy to discern phrases, e.g., Amen To That, Make A Scene, and I Need A Hand, plus a few others. That said, there were also plenty of slippery slopes to climb including, Ivana, Starlight, Godot, Koopa, Dadager, Triton, etc. Momager is familiar, ala Kris Jenner, but Dadager is new to me. I knew Christy Mathewson from my days of intense interest in baseball lore and O’Shea Jackson, Jr. has stuck in my brain because it’s an unusual first name, especially for a non-Irish person. The NE corner did me in because my pop music illiteracy never heard of Wham and could only come up with Chad. The minuscule number (8) of three letter words was a plus to this enjoyment of the almost-solve of a Saturday-worthy challenge.
Thanks, Emma and Larry, and congrats, Larry, on your debut and thanks, HG, for being our dependable, dedicated Saturday Sherpa, giving us a cornucopia of facts and fun, not to mention dazzling eye candy. The Johnny Mathis ballad brought back many bittersweet memories. BTW, I’m in your camp on liking beets.
Have a great day.
I'm with DO@5:58, this puzzle was tough. Started making headway in the SE when I branched off of HOLA. The SW fell after filling PBSSHOWS.
Tried the brother entry for Richard Williams but BESURE and BANE put a stop to that. Tried DADstER. Nope. HEREYOUGO finally put the nail in the coffin.
LOL and ADO got the NW started but fits and starts ruled. Couldn't see TACT as delicacy, so I had to go another way. My newspaper doesn't print characters with accent marks, so I had K(upside down ?)bemstyle casseroles for my clue. Finally got Google to give me DANSK which helped. A series of guesses finally finished it.
FIW. Gary, your analysis filled in my mistakes . THX for that.
BTW, IM@9:15 I also love beets, especially roasted on a grill (not boiled). Wrap 'em in alum foil and bake.
OK, a FIR today, thanks to careful proofreading and changing sOWS to COWS. The mid west and SW took some time to get but finally I thought of ORATORS and BRIG (BerG was my first entry there). On the other side, I tried trainER and mAnAGER before perps indicated it had to be DADAGER. AVOCADO PIT was my first long entry and needed no perps. What fun! Thanks, Emma and Larry.
Thanks, Husker Gary, for leading us through the puzzle today. It's always interesting to read about the constructors too.
Hope everyone is having a good day!
Kudos to Anonymous @7:23. 10 minutes!
This CW had many really clever clues and misdirections like cooler at sea, focus of actors working as waiters, the COVEN clue, low bar and several more. What got me were the proper names that are part of pop culture, my weakness. WHAM, never heard of that duo.
Thank goodness HG explained DADAGER. I had traîner for a long time.
I cannot RELATE to AMEN TO THAT as an answer to Facts.
Yup. I like beets too.
Wow!
(Or in my case, "Waw!)
(What a Workout!)
Learning moments = dadager, wham, and the true artist of the Kate Winslet drawing. Thanks HG!
I started the acrosses, with some perpage, then the downs, then more perpage, then reperpaged the perps, and then gave up and hit the reveal (FOR UNKNOWN NAMES ONLY) in desperation. I think the most enjoyable part for me was trying to figure out what small thing circled the world? I only had the ending "yo," and finally solved the sun follower the give me the starting M. But it was not until I solved "asked in" to give me the "I" that "mini" became a possibility. Without that M & I it would have been impossible! What an elaborate puzzle this turned out to be for me...
Speaking of puzzles, TTP, I don't understand what you mean when you say the "review is "always" available. HG's review was not available to me until it was posted at 5AM EST this morning?
Its noon and I'm done, DNF..but not bad for a Saturn's Day puzzle...some blanks in the NE corner. Liked the clever end-of-the-week worthy clue/answers: "Date/PLUSONE, "Cooler at sea"/BRIG. Started to put wicca for COVEN but wouldn't perp.
Købenstyle casseroles!!!? Yikes.. can we go back to pasta shapes? (Like TTP) Looked partly like the Danish word for its capital, so tried DANSK. Held off for awhile cuz😅 I thought it was Cate not KATE (that's Blanchett), Love the😏 term NADACOLADA, (NADA or Not A Collada) t'wuz a fun WAG. "Back seat drivers" coulda been clued "My mother-in-law" (God rest her soul.)
Inkovers: men/HES,
"Boob":..Alls I had was the first letter T...but I daren't 😉, ....finally this TWERP ...perped it out.
..How come all the planets' moons have names but our own?... (Like Tarzan calling his son just "Boy", but took time to name his pet chimp "Chita")...Speaking of Boys, "The Boys" has been off the tube so long I don't recall any names....and we give names to BEETS?... DADAGER (and "momager") is a term found outside this puzzle (LIU) so I guess fair game 😒.
Lengthen the play ATAD......MAKEASCENE
Lengthen the prayer ATAD, add ____...AMENTOTHAT
2 AM for most...RELATE
Ma's little guy....MINIYOYO
Finally got to the last episode of "Ted Lasso"
Excellent. Jason Sudeikis was spot on insisting that the series end after 3 seasons and not running it into the ground like so many other initially successful but then overcooked series. ("Black List", I'm looking [actually not watching anymore] at You)
Funny day on the back deck...clouds up like a storm then the sun comes out again.
☀️🌥☀️🌥...Make up yer mind!!
Tough but very entertaining puzzle. A true Saturday special. Done in by the NW corner, but an enjoyable outing none the less. Close counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, nuclear explosions, and Saturday crosswords.
Fun, if tough, Saturday puzzle, but many thanks all the same, Emma and Larry. And I always enjoy your commentary, Gary, thanks for that too.
Right after getting stared I wanted to say OUCH! I NEED A HAND with this toughie. But I'm not one who SNORTS, even when I have to ERASE over and over again. At times I felt I could really use a sip of PORT or a BREW of some ALE, but it's early morning, for heaven's sake. No, I just said HERE YOU GO, and more or less got it done.
Have a fun weekend, everybody!
A well clued and solvable grid for a welcome change.
CrossEyedDave @11:36, that ("it's always available") is NOT what I wrote, and it wasn't the point either. You misinterpreted it, just as you did a week or so ago when you wrote that I was yelling at everyone (when I wasn't).
The blog posts (reviews) are normally scheduled for 3:30 AM. Occasionally a typo occurs in scheduling. Either C.C. or I will correct a scheduling error when we see it. Today's review was published at 5:30 AM.
I'll bet a lot of people know WHAM's music, even if they don't attach the band's name
Careless Whisper is my favorite of their tunes that topped the charts.
Last Christmas only made it to #4, but stayed on the charts the longest of any of their songs.
Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go is the catchiest of their hits.
Serena and Venus had a DADAGER.
Come on! I thought the constructors of these puzzles had a grasp of the English language. Especially when one was a Canuck🇨🇦🇨🇦.
I expect Friday and Saturday XWDs to be tough.
In recent weeks, though, I have noticed that one of these two will be relatively easier than the other--and actually doable.
Not so this week. Both yesterday and today I have thrown in the towel.
My patience is clearly more limited than that of some colleagues. But I will say that today's Lawson/Snyder PZL strikes me as more entertaining; i.e., more clever in the cluing.
40A, for instance, caught me completely off guard. 15A & 20A were pretty good.
The only one to make me grit my teeth was 36A, DADAGER. I got it from HuskerG's explanation, but still wanted to object until I saw that it apparently exists as a term aside from this single application.
My only remaining question is... whether Richard actually used this jokey title.
~ OMK
I just finished the Wall Street Journal’s week-end edition CW puzzle. It’s by Mike Shenk, who’s also the editor and has been for a long time. Challenging but doable. Anyway, by strange coincidence, and I always like those, 1-down’s answer was CUB, one we had at 1-down a few days ago.
After a great deal of time and effort I was so proud of the fill I managed on this tough Saturday CW, then simply could not fill the entire NE. Didn’t know WHAM. Didn’t know DADAGER. Kept wanting to write FATHER or MANAGER, but FATHER isn’t long enough and MANAGER wouldn’t work with ASKEDIN. Never heard of, or thought of, DADAGER. ERASES occurred to me but I couldn’t put it together with the clue, as I kept thinking of a restaurant take out, so all I had was the ERA???. A way, at the end of it all, a big DNF, in spite of all my time and effort.
Thanks to Emma and Larry for a Saturday stumper! I had a DNF but I still feel good about the tricky clues I did decipher. Congratulations on your debut, Larry!
H-Gary, once again, you came through with the explanations. Thank you, mucho!
You can put me on your 'love beets' team. A good garden trick is to scatter beet seeds. As they come up, they will need to be thinned. The little plants you pull up are edible as micro-greens in a salad or vitamins in a smoothie. The tops are also good in soups. How great is that??!!
I liked this puzzle but wrinkled my nose big time at DADAGER. Didn't understand it or MON until reading Gary's explanation. A very tough puzzle for me, but mostly enjoyable.
Good reading you all.
P.S. There is an excellent article in the New Scientist magazine, entitled "These bizarre lights in the sky hint at a way to predict earthquakes" and subtitled "A flickering glow in the sky seems to accompany some earthquakes. Could this point to a way of predicting these disasters? Nathaniel Scharping investigates" which clearly and eloquently explains the work I helped with in predicting earthquakes, in easy-to-read layman's language. One part I really liked was seeing a seismologist, Susan Hough, actually admit to being willing to “ponder the possibility of success.” She, and all other seismologists I know, have for years been claiming that our methods cannot work. Unfortunately, you can't read the article without paying for a subscription to the magazine, but I got a PDF of it for any of you who would like to read it. Just email me and I'll send it to you.
TTP@12:24
Sorry, I did just reread your post, and I did misinterpret it.
(I seem to be misinterpreting a lot of things everywhere lately)
(Makes me wonder if I am losing it)
So I question almost everything these days.
In regard to me saying you were yelling at every one. I was wondering if and when you might bring that up again. It was a silly thing to say, and I was just trying to be funny. In retrospect I wish I could take my foot out of my mouth more often. Please (everyone) do not take anything I ever say personally. I was just trying to entertain, and when it goes wrong, it goes wrong spectacularly...
Everything you wrote at 12:24 now makes perfect sense. Except for one line, and please understand I am just trying to understand why I often misinterpret things. Maybe it is because I am taking it out of context, but I don't understand what you meant when you said, "You can't post comments to the blog before the blog is posted. So the review is available."
( I somehow interpreted that as the review "is always available." My apologies...)
CrossEyedDave @5:53
A phrase should be considered in the context of a sentence, a sentence should be considered in the context of a paragraph, a paragraph should be considered in the context of a chapter, and a chapter should be considered in context of a book.
The point is that in order to comment on a blog post, the blog post (in this case, the crossword puzzle review) must first exist. The review exists to provide an entertaining explanation of clues and answers. The review is available.
Some readers may choose to comment without reading the review. I get it. Some may only come to flame and rail at pop culture and neologisms.
My main point was simply suggesting to SubG that each of C.C.'s bloggers put considerable effort into explaining the themes and the answers, and that the review is a readily available resource to explain the clue/answer. But also that I understand that he may not want to load the review if he is on a constrictive data plan.
I somehow got lucky and was able to FIR due to perps for fills I'd never previously heard or seen. DANSK, NADA COLADA, 'Suite Life" or IVANA (those three took a while), DADAGER, "Cocaine Bear"' or OSHEA Jackson, ORES for Minecraft blocks, KOOPA Troopa- a WAG because it rhymed, Video Olympics (ATARI), Ruby Queen (BEET- I hate them), Tawny PORT, "The Boys" or STARLIGHT- they never crossed my path either.
PLUS ONE- new to me but I got it.
Just a lot of luck and it was a challenge to finish it.
I could do both an "Around The World" and a John Glenn (three revolutions) on either my Duncan Butterfly or Satellite YOYO's but I've never heard of a MINI YOYO. Also could do a loop-the-loop" and the easy "walk the dog".
Hi All!
Oy! Took me all day on-and-off and this is as far as I got. You can see I err'd on 17a (and 2&3d - doesn't NINA mean little-girl?; a COLADA for her(?)) and really shot myself in the foot on 11d ("We will see" always prefaced "ask your mother." It meant "no" but with TACT).
Thanks Emma & Larry (both with nice pedigrees!) for the mind bending puzzle. Congrats on the debut, Larry.
Thanks again, HG, for fixing my grid so I can put another quarter in it (D'Oh! A calendar Sun!). A mighty-fine expo too.
I'm pro-beets but never get them as I'm the only one in the house that likes 'em.
Fav: BRIG was really cute.
FLN - Michael knows what I'm talking about re: keyboards. Computers are advanced adding machines so one must enter numbers as fast as humanly possible.
Jinx - I have one of those 10-key pads at home but remembering to put it in my backpack (which is already heavy enough w/ three (win10, win11, & linux) laptops) is another thing. Oh, and I don't do Fourbucks.
BigE - I wouldn't have taken you for a YOYO buff. Cool beans! I used to be able to do many tricks but probably lost the knack over the years.
I enjoyed reading everyone!
Cheers, -T
My Disbursing job required adding columns of figures rapidly. Adding machines are designed for righties thus this southpaw had to adapt
The rule of nines often came in handy. We added top to bottom and then bottom to top. If there was a difference and it was divisible by nine it meant we transposed a number.
WC
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