Nothing Fancy today. The Beginning word of each theme answer is another word for Humble.
18-Across. * Unembellished facts: PLAIN TRUTH.
27-Across. * Soda and candy, metabolically: SIMPLE CARBS.
51-Across. * Indie rock band with the hit single "Float On": MODEST MOUSE.
61-Across. * No-frills TV choice: BASIC CABLE.
And the unifier:
38-Across. Part of a rags-to-riches story, and what the answers to the starred clues literally have: HUMBLE BEGINNINGS.
I now humbly present you with the rest of the answers to today's puzzle.
Across:
1. Play people: CASTS. Actors had too many letters.
6. Light-tube gas: NEON.
10. Forehead hider: BANGS.
15. Très très: ULTRA.
16. Prefix that means 2-Down: OMNI. // And 2-Down. 2. The whole shebang: ALL.
17. Easy-to-read font: ARIAL. This clue and answer is written in Arial.
20. Japanese lunchbox: BENTO. They look like so much fun.
21. Boo-Boo's buddy: YOGI. [Name # 1, fictional.]
22. Bryant of "Shrill": AIDY. I am familiar with neither Shrill nor Aidy Bryant (née Aidan Mackenzy Bryant; b. May 7, 1987). Aidy was also apparently a cast member on Saturday Night Live. [Name # 2.]
24. Clairvoyant's gift, for short: ESP. As in ExtraSensory Perception.
25. PC alternatives: MACs. As in an Apple computer. // And 55-Across. Apple platform: IOS.
31. Mobile's st.: ALA. Mobile is on the Gulf Coast of Alabama. If you are traveling on Interstate 10, you are forced to go through the George Wallace Tunnel which runs under the Mobile River in Mobile, Alabama. It always causes a huge traffic jam, especially in the summer as tourist try to make their way from the west to the Florida beaches. Little piece of Mobile trivia.
32. "Kim's Convenience" actor Paul Sun-Hyung __: LEE. Hi, CanadianEh! Kim's Convenience is a sit-com about a Korean-Canadian family who run a convenience store in Toronto. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee (b. Aug. 16, 1972) portrays the patriarch in the television show. [Name # 3.]
33. Like some forest ground: MOSSY.
34. Coke or Pepsi: COLA. Soda fits into the spaces provided also.
36. __-rock music: ALT. Everything you wanted to know about Alternative Rock but didn't know to ask.
37. Cruise stop: PORT. Mobile, Alabama is a cruise port / terminal.
44. Yawn inducer: BORE.
45. Good times: UPS. 
46. Gather, as crops: REAP.
47. Former "American Gladiators" co-host Ali: LAILA. Did you know that Laila Ali (née Laila Amaria Ali; b. Dec. 20, 1977) also wrote a cookbook? If not, please review the answers to last Tuesday's puzzle. [Name # 4.]
49. Ante-: PRE-. Think Antebellum, which means before a particular war. In the United States, it refers to prior to the American Civil War.
50. Hoppy draft choice, for short: IPA. India Pale Ale has become a crossword staple.
54. Forevvvvvver: AGES.
56. Fuel from a bog: PEAT.
57. Sound of relief: SIGH.
59. Word before time or tire: SPARE. Spare Time and Spare Tire.
66. Oscar winner Swinton: TILDA. Tilda Swinton (née Katherine Matilda Swinton; b. Nov. 5, 1960) won an Oscar for her role as Karen Crowder in the 2007 legal thriller Michael Clayton. [Name # 5.]
67. GPS figures: ETAs. Your Global Positioning System will give you the Estimated Time of Arrival to your destination.
68. Give a wide berth: AVOID.
69. Move on tiptoe: SNEAK.
70. __ Ness monster: LOCH. Everything they want you to believe about the Loch Ness Monster. [Name adjacent. Real or fictional?]
71. Really, really into crosswords, say: NERDY. Do you consider yourself a nerd just because you enjoy doing Crossword puzzles?
Down:
1. Trophy shape: CUP.
3. "Deep breath ... ": STAY CALM.
4. TLC and HAIM: TRIOS. // And 5-Down. Performed like TLC and HAIM: SANG. Both TLC and HAIM are female bands. TLC is (was?) a R&B pop group that was big in the 1990s. HAIM is comprised of three sisters whose surname is Haim. [Names # 6 and 7.]
 |
| TLC |
 |
| HAIM |
6. Scand. land: NOR. Norway is in Scandinavia.
 |
7. Down Under bird: EMU. The Emu makes frequent guest appearances in the crossword puzzles.
8. Recorded, in a way: ON TAPE. That is so last century!
9. Nothing, in Latin: NIHIL. Today's Latin lesson.
10. Small stir-fry vegetables: BABY CORN. What is Baby Corn?
 |
11. "__ You the One?": reality dating series: ARE. I'm not familiar with this show, but it was easy enough to suss the answer.
12. SF NFL team: NINERS. San Francisco's National Football League team is the Forty-Niners. [Name adjacent.]
13. "Great" West Egg resident Jay: GATSBY. I first read The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald (né Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald; b. Sept. 24, 1896 ~ Dec. 21, 1940) years ago. It is still a favorite. It has also been adapted into several movie versions. [Name # 8, fictional.]
14. Gets everywhere: SLOPS.
19. "__ the season ... ": 'TIS. I guess the Christmas Season has officially begun, although I began to see Christmas decorations in shops before Halloween. So when does the Season to Be Jolly actually begin?
23. Evil spirits: DEMONS.
25. Supersonic speed measure: MACH. Mach is used as a unit of measurement in stating the speed of a moving object in relation to the speed of sound. A Mach number is the ratio of an object's speed in a given medium to the speed of sound in that medium. Mach 1, then, is the speed of sound, around 761 mph at sea level on a standard day. Thus, if an aircraft is traveling at Mach 1, it is traveling at exactly the speed of sound. Clear as mud, right?
26. Six-time MLB All-Star Moisés: ALOU. Moisés Alou (né Moisés Rojas-Alou Beltré; b. July 3, 1966) makes occasional guest appearances in the crossword puzzles. He was an outfielder and played for a number National League teams, including, but not limited to the Houston Astros, the Chicago Cubs, and the New York Mets. [Name # 9.]
28. "Imagine that!": I'LL BE.
29. Ration (out): METE.
30. Riled up: ASTIR.
35. "Three Billboards ... " actress Cornish: ABBIE. The full name of the movie is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It was a rather disturbing film which starred Frances McDormand (née Cynthia Ann Smith; b. June 23, 1957) who posted three billboards to draw attention to her daughter's unsolved rape and murder. I don't recall the role that Abbie Cornish (b. Aug. 7, 1982) had in the film. [Name # 10.]
 |
| Abbie Cornish |
36. Add bubbles to: AERATE.
37. Plumbing conduits: PIPES.
39. Internet lingo from a cat meme: LOLSPEAK. Hand up if you had heard of Lolspeak. Apparently, it is the intentionally grammatically incorrect text accompanying a cat meme.
40. Hindu mentor: GURU.
41. Person next door: NEIGHBOR.
 |
| Ned Flanders is Homer's neighbor |
42. Stare in awe: GAPE.
43. Relaxing resorts: SPAS.
47. Add to an email thread, say: LOOP IN.
48. TV revenue source: AD SALE.
49. Side that might be mashed or fried: POTATO. Fun facts about potatoes.
51. Uses a spray bottle: MISTS.
52. Selena's "Only Murders in the Building" role: MABEL. Only Murders in the Building is a comedy mystery about three strangers who live in a ritzy apartment building in New York. They all decide to investigate suspicious deaths that occur in their building. The show stars Selena Gomez (née Selena Marie Gomez; b. July 22, 1992), who portrays Mabel, Steve Martin (né Stephen Glenn Martin; b. Aug. 14, 1945), and Martin Short (né Martin Hayter Short; b. Mar. 26, 1950). [Names # 11 and 12, one real, the other fictional.]
53. Key that exits full-screen mode: ESC. The Escape Key.
54. Tequila plant: AGAVE.
58. "__ hardly wait!": I CAN.
60. Nutrition fig.: RDA. As in Recommended Daily Allowance.
62. Anatomical pouch: SAC.
63. Kinda sorta: -ISH.
64. "Put a __ on it!": LID.
65. Big name in ice cream: EDY. A crossword staple. [Name adjacent.]
Here's the Grid:
חתולה
39 comments:
Once again, a Tuesday puzzle seems easier than a Monday one, or at least on a par with it. There were hardly any answers I didn’t know right off, and the few obscure names were easily perped. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Yay, d-o got the theme. (Insert story about blind squirrel here.) Wow, Tilda was only 6 years old at the Battle of Hastings. I bet she could tell some tales. At BANGS, d-o wondered why the DEAF girl was wearing dark glasses. Oops, that E is a G. D'oh. [Time to fix those cataracts.] Yes, ON TAPE is so last century, but it's easier to say "I taped it" instead of "I DVR'd it." Thanx, Chandi and Hahtoolah.
@desper-otoo haha I also thought of the Battle of Hastings when I saw that birth date.
Once again, it is interesting that some find a CW easy and others find it difficult. While I did get the theme, the only name I knew was LAILA; the others were DNKs. Overall this is a Thursday-on-a-Tuesday CW. I did manage to FIR but in Thursday or Friday time. Thanx CD for the workout. Thanx Hahtoolah for the write-up, filled with good info and cartoons, as always.
FIW, missing my WAG @ AnDY x NIHnL. But I got my 5 other Naticks, so I got that goin' for me. I called up my "don't bother" constructors list to add Chandi, only to discover she was already there! What good is a list, Jinx, if you don't use it?
Today is:
NATIONAL FRENCH TOAST DAY (love it if someone else makes it)
NATIONAL DAY OF GIVING (reminder to lift others up during a generous time of year)
NATIONAL ALAN DAY (also covers ALLAN and ALLEN. Means handsome, cheerful, harmony, and noble)
RED PLANET DAY (we’re all friends here, you can just say ‘Mars’)
PROBLEM AVOIDANCE TUESDAY (per Stephan Pastis’ Pearls Before Swine)
MACH is used for near-supersonic speeds too. Civilian jet plane maximum airspeeds are quoted in MACH too, like "0.92 MACH."
Congrats to Sub for finding this easy.
FLN: Jace, I am enjoying the trip. We arrive today, after departing eight days ago for a 2-day trip. I do like to dally.
Thanks to Ha2la for the review and cartoons.
Too many proper names.
FIW. This puzzle seemed a bit crunchy to me.
Never heard of the rock band Modest Mouse or the show Murders in the Building. I guessed House instead of Mouse, and Habel just didn't hit me as wrong.
Also there were way too many proper names for my liking.
This solve just flowed along, although I thought it got a little tougher in the last 1/3
I always mix up ABBIE Cornish the actor with Audie Cornish the journalist on NPR's "All Things Considered"
TILDA Swinton is a great actress, but her roles are usually serious, quirky, fantastical people like in many Wes Anderson movies, or The White Witch in the Narnia movies
Thanks Susan for the blog and Chandi for the puzzle!
Good Morning, Crossword friends. I find the Tuesday puzzles to be somewhat erratic. One week I will find it super easy, then the next week rather challenging.
Yes, Tilda is older than she looks. LOL.
Beautiful full moon last night that was shining in my bedroom window early this morning.
QOD: When you look into the eyes of an animal you’ve rescued, you can’t help but fall in love. ~ Paul Shaffer (né Paul Allen Wood Shaffer; b. November 28, 1948), Canadian musician and band leader
Good Morning:
I'm in the "slightly crunchy for a Tuesday" crowd but, per Patti's standards (my interpretation), the perps were more than fair. For example, in the "olden days", Lee would have been clued as "Harper of To Kill A Mockingbird fame", not as an actor in an unknown-to-many sit-com. I don't have a problem with this reasoning, but it's hard to adjust our expectations after so many years of a different formula for difficulty level. Another non-Tuesday experience for me was the preponderance of unknown entries, some as clued, some just unknown entirely: Modest Mouse, Lee, Mabel, Aida, Laila, Trios, and LOL Speak. But, as noted previously, because the perps were fair, they C/As were acceptable. I went astray at Isle/Port, Ariel/Arial, and Rtes/ETAs.
Thanks, Chandi, and thanks, Hahtoolah, for a fun and interesting review. Favorite comics today were those for ESP, Slops, and Shrimp on The Barbie. When the Christmas Season begins is a matter of interest, I guess: for retailers, around Halloween (if not before!), and for ordinary, sane people, just after Thanksgiving. That, of course, is my humble opinion. 😉
Someone who visited me on Saturday tested positive for Covid yesterday. I'm hoping and praying I'm not infected. 🙏
Have a great day.
Strange that I was able to get this puzzle. I guess these crossword puzzles will continue to progress towards more internet and “unknown” people clues for the older crowd. Nicely executed puzzle (if only it had more actual WORDS in it though).
Although I loved the theme, please stop crossing proper names in puzzles. Today we have Abbie crossing Laila crossing Tilda and Modest Mouse which then crosses Mabel.
Not a fan of the obscure Aidy either.
I didn't know TLC and HAIM, which made the NW starting corner difficult and was my last fill since I thought Tres Tres was Nueva. Today seemed to me more on par with a Wednesday.
Took 6:03 today for this ordinary guy to solve it.
I knew some of today's actresses (Selena's role, Abbie [she played the wife of Woody H's character] and Tilda), but not all (Aidy). I didn't know the Latin, the cat meme thing, and neither the actor (Lee), nor his show (Kim's Convenience).
As I often do, I agree with Ms. Irish Miss's view.
I cringed when I read "Indie rock band...."
Well, I seem to be “out of step” with everybody once again. I guess that’s the perils of going first (much of the time!)
This crossword seemed more suited for TV Guide
Smooth sailing for this non-nerd.
I angree with Uncle Fred. What some cornerites find easy others are baffled by. This morning was too much for me. So many proper names that I didn’t know, and unlike IM☘️ I didn’t find them all that fair. I did get the theme however with no difficulty.
I missed the Ante- clue because I didn’t think a synonym was required but a word that would follow it.
The best part was Hahtoolah’s recap. Well worth the price of admission.
Yes, that full moon was gorgeous.
Only Tuesday and already a screw up. Couldn’t finish the NW from the get go. Mostly cuz I stuck with urn for “trophy” 🤨 “Tender Loving Care and HAIM?”
Inkovers: SIMPLEsugar/CARBS.
Almost always order the BENTO box. A sample of everything.
“Kim’s Convenience” Star? I only remember Francis McDormand from the “Three Billboards etc.” movie. “Indie Rock band?” “Car Band meme?” MODEST 🐭?….Couldn’t remember MABEL from “Only Murders….” required perpaid.
ALT Right? what happened to “no politics” ohhhh: never mind. But calling us all NERDY counts as a multi-personal attach 🥸
Frills TV is despiCABLE
Loved the “Cat spray” cartoon 😀
Nihil crossing Aidy was a bit of a Natick. knew it had to be a vowel after "Andy" didn't work out, but the "I" was a total WAG.
Loved the write up!
(It's one of my "up" moments of the day...)
LOL Misty Cat!
71. Really, really into crosswords, say: NERDY. Do you consider yourself a nerd just because you enjoy doing Crossword puzzles?
Hmm, I would say no. But I have been known to link pics of cats and cakes on a crossword Blog...
Only Murders In the building is a very, very, enjoyable Whodunnit, with lots of famous guest stars.
DW gets it by paying 99 cents a month for Hulu, with ads...
from Princess Diaries to Catwoman?
Hola!
Don't know how, but I finished it though I have no idea about MODESTMOUSE. That was a pure guess.
From when I did watch SNL, I recall AIDY Bryant for her convivial nature.
I am really, really into crosswords but I don't consider myself NERDY. That describes my daughter and her husband.
It was disappointing to drive all the way around the LOCH without any sign of the LOCH NESS monster.
I guess we'll never see Robert E LEE as a clue again.
Have a great day, everyone!
Testing Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, Chandi and Hahtoolah.
I FIRed and saw the HUMBLE BEGINNINGS theme early in the game since it was in the middle (not IM’s favourite spot).
We shall be dragged kicking and screaming into the new CW clueing A LA Patti. But as many have already indicated, perps were fair. But I did not like LOL SPEAK, or the two clues requiring a knowledge of who TLC and HAIM are. The NW and SW corners were the last to fall because of those.
But I did smile broadly at the end with NERDY.
I will take a CSO with LEE. You all may be more familiar with Simu Lui, Lee’s son in Kim’s Convenience, who has now become a Marvel star as Shang-Chi.
Urn changed to CUP, Copy in to LOOP IN, Abbey to ABBIE.
I waited for perps to decide between Keep CALM or STAY.
I noted PEAT and MOSSY.
Of course you all know that the person next door in Canada is a Neighbour.
My BANGS were grown out during Covid when I could not get to the hairdresser. I decided to let the new look remain.
Wishing you all a great day.
Good morning. Once again the editors let a few things slip thru rather than “clean them up”. Astir, forever in cwese has meant awaken or get moving in the AM, not riled up. Has nothing to do with that. Things are getting a little ragged on the cluing.
Definitely didn't feel like a Tuesday.
I agree there were too many names
Hand up too many proper names for my taste. But I enjoyed the HUMBLE BEGINNINGS theme.
This area is a desert. So I am delighted with the rare occasions when things get MOSSY here.
Here I was leading a hike in MISTy and MOSSY conditions.
Hahtoolah I loved all of your illustrations. But the CABLE guy cartoon was the best! So true! We cut the CABLE in 2016 and are doing just fine.
DNF. TITT on the southwest corner, but had gone sour on this crossNAME puzzle much earlier. The only names I knew were GATSBY and ALOU. Managed to perp a few of the others, but they were so obscure, I just didn't care. Why not "third redshirt on the left" in a particular Star Trek episode, or "first bandit to be shot off his horse" in The Magnificent Seven? Sheesh. Can we please go back to crossWORDS? (Rant over!) At least Ha2las recap put a smile back on my face. Thanks!
Musings
-I thought Don’t You Forget About Me by SIMPLE MINDS from The Breakfast Club might make it but CARBS took them out
-Pols from HUMBLE BEGININGS have been known to come out of D.C. as multimillionaires
-I loved John and Uma in NEON!
-My MAC with OSX would not handle a Zoom call I got yesterday. I had him call back and I answered my IOS iPhone and thanks went fine
-Tilda always looked guilty in Michael Clayton
-My neighbor visited Scotland and bought golf ball markers for me at Inverness which is very near Loch Ness
-STAY CALM: Good advice for a rookie (or any) teacher – “Never let ‘em see you sweat”
-I was amazed when I saw my first FB television replay ON TAPE
-Roger Craig and Tom Rathman were two Husker greats who were stars for the 49ers
-MACH 1 becomes lower at higher altitudes
-Golf courses usually warn you when they have just AERATED the greens
Thanks, Chandi, for your puzzle. I like the HUMBLE theme but the names did pile up today....
I'LL BE was my last fill.
News to me that XWD solvers are NERDY.
Awesome recap Hahtoolah! The Cable Guy comic was timely. My handyman showed up 1.5 hrs. late this morning. To his credit, he said, "To be honest, I forgot." Now he is at Home Depot getting supplies....
Other FAVs: Uma T & John T in NEON, Nessie, BABY CORN (Why do food bloggers always take so long to get to the point?), leaf blower, and SPA slug.
Bob Lee @ 8:25. I first tried to make three threes equals nine work, too.
Puzzling thoughts:
16 square wide puzzle grid today - so no diagonal anagram from OMK today
Today's Tuesday took me a bit longer than normal (about 3 minutes or so), and honestly, I was surprised when the little character (on Across Lite) said "Congratulations!" The I in AIDY and NIHIL was my last entry, and I fully expected it to be wrong ... a true NATICK if I ever saw one!
MODEST MOUSE is not a group I know; in checking a few of my crossword puzzle sources, there aren't any other five letter words that follow MODEST that pop up via Google. Did Chandi know this band, I wonder?
HG --> the aerating of putting greens on a golf course are a necessity (as you know), and depending on the type of grass and soil the "result" can be minimal or severe. Depending on the group you play with, you either get longer "gimmies" or get more three-putts. My dad, rest his soul (and bless his heart), had a long-standing "rule" that on any aerated green you had a two-putt maximum ... anything to get an advantage for my pops!!
With regard to names (LEE, e.g.), I am noticing more and more that clues are either being created (or edited) to make them "of the current moment". Actor Paul Sum Hyung LEE is not a person I would know unless I watched "Kim's Convenience" (which I never have, and it's now been canceled). I guess if this were 1982, a similar "of the current moment" clue for LEE might have been "Barnaby Jones actor Meriwether", and a crossword puzzle solver who was born in 1912 (or earlier), e.g., might not have known this ... but as I reflect on what I just wrote, there were far fewer TV shows/movies/venues to watch than today. I bet fewer than 10% of those solving today's LA Times puzzle knew the name Paul Sum Hyung Lee
How about modest means, meaning poor?
FIR with no lookups. All of the above are correct with their feelings about current trends in cluing. But to be fair, if the perps give you a chance at filling it in, why not.. I had no idea who the guy was,, but I'LL BE, METE, and ONTAPE filled him in. As Bob Lee@8:25 pointed out a string of dependence can be very difficult if none are known.
Misdirection and multimeaning of clues should be the aim of the crciverbalist. Witness this past Saturday which had most of us, including SubG and d-otto faulted.
Tip of the hat to Chandi and hantoolah for their respective contributions to today's fun and games.
Thank God for all that is good; thank the devil for keeping him honest.
Murmur
Greetings! I got about half way thru this CW this a.m. when I had to turn my attention to some work commitments. Afterwards my interest waned & I had little interest in picking it up, but I did with some help from Google for AIDY, MODEST MOUSE crossing MABEL and LOLSPEAK.
30D went from angry to anger to what I thought was a very misleading clue for ASTIR.
Thanks, hah2lah, for a fun review. Loved the Emu and the slug at the spa was LOL!!
Hahtoolah does this Deitmer PZL...
I bear witness to how much time can be lost when one remains stubbornly committed to a wrong 3-letter fill.
Early on, I entered URN for 1D. This was after considering--and rejecting--CASTS for 1A.
(After all, the singular CAST is sufficient to account for multiple "Play people"...
--and--
URN allowed me to use the "N" to fill NAKED TRUTH at 18A, and that seemed to prove the excellence of URN.)
But after filling all the rest of the grid,I could not complete the *#@ NW corner.
I never would have finished except for deciding I needed STAY as the first word in STAY CALM for 3D. That choice finally made me go back, grit my teeth, and enter (Yuck...!) CASTS at the start of the XWD.
Thus, we see how another fill, far from the original error, brought things to a successful conclusion.
At last.
~ OMK
___________
DR:. No diagonals.
Well, solving this puzzle has put me in a sort of "I really don't care" mood. Reading Hahtoolah's contribution more than negated that mood. Reading all your comments was also a pleasure.
I guess parents can name their kids pretty much anything they want, spelled however they want, or give them nicknames that aren't necessarily a name at all. Heck, one of Elon Musk's kids is named X AE A-XII. Another one is named Exa Dark Sideræl and another one is named Techno Mechanicus. The triplets are named Kai, Saxon, and Damian. Hey, I have an idea! Let's make a puzzle really hard by using these names in it! (Frankly I think it is just plain lazy to do that.)
Good wishes to you all.
It is amusing to see so many alternatives proposed as a clue for LEE.
My fave is Lucina's dare.
For over a century we would have been quick to pay tribute to the fallen foe, General Robert E., without hesitation. But in the spirit of Cancel Culture we now bid farewell to honoring a name so thoroughly associated with the tainted "lost cause."
(How long, we wonder, before Washington and Lee University sees the light...)
~ OMK
C-MOE@2:28. I like your astute analysis of the proper name conundrum. I would add that as you say some 50 or so years ago there were a lot fewer TV references. Everyone watched the same shows, everyone knew who Johnny Carson was, but with the advent of cable and some 500 channels, each appealing to a certain group, we’ve lost our commonality.
Hi All!
Oy! I nearly tossed the grid encountering so many names on the first pass. But!, I stuck with it and got the FIR.
Thanks Chandi for the puzzle. And Thank you, Hahtoolah, for the fantastically funny expo.
WOs: Amie->AIDY (As God as my witness, I thought they said AMY in the SNL intro - we've had it before (when I ink'd her wrong so you'd think I learnt), SIMPL SUGARS[sic], GAwk->GAPE
ESPs: Anyone notice the plethora of names? BobB did.
Fav: I'm going w/ OMNI - any other NERDs read that magazine?
I confused TLC with XTC (vs. Adam Ant) [TMBG] but I don't think either band was a TRIO.
Somewhere, I heard of MODEST MOUSE (and most the other ALT-Rock bands in Hahtoolah's link).
HG - you mentioned but didn't link SIMPLE Minds - FTFY ;-)
CED asked - "Do you consider yourself a nerd just because you enjoy doing Crossword puzzles?"
Nope. But everyone else does. ++I'm into computers, D&D, and other heady stuff.
Neat-O Pic, Picard (you camera nerd ;-))
I'm just going to leave y'all with this - remember everything you learnt today 'cuz tomorrow is going to be lots of the same -- #Foreshadowing.
Cheers, -T
Thank you, Chandi and thank you, Hahtoolah.
I liked the theme. No real trouble, and solved in a couple of minutes longer than what I would normally spend on a weekday puzzle. Yes, a few unknown names, but what's new? I also liked the write-up.
Being NERDY isn't always a bad thing, IMHO. I guess Im a bit of a word nerd. Most of all, I just like solving problems and learning new things.
Hahtoolah, I must admit that I did not like, and never finished reading The Great Gatsby. Much later I tried watching the movie. For me, it was just as uninteresting as the book. I tried, but couldn't make it much more than the first half hour. No appeal to me, whatsoever. Our differing tastes and interests make us who we are. If I'm ever stranded in a library, you'll find me in non-fiction.
CABLE - Xfinity/Comcast sent me their newest, latest-level, high-speed internet gateway. No additional charges for increased upload speeds. Not that I needed that, because I don't upload a lot of content like YouTube videos, TikToks or anything else. Download speeds were already screaming fast. Multiple nitnoy issues with the TVs since I installed it Oct 19th. They said there's a problem with the main service up on the pole, and they have a service ticket open to fix it. I'm being patient.
Time to call it a day.
TTP - just take the little filter plug off the line. Pop always hit it with the mower (I think he knew it was me) and we got got free HBO for a bit :-). -T
IM, I always enjoy your comments. Re: difficulty - I’ve often experienced Tues as little easier than Mondays
Re: clueing changes - it seems “pop” culture always rules, and we have to adjust 🤷🏻♀️
Re: COVID - I DO hope it skips you!
I got it last week for the first time -
not fun; but it could have been so much worse. So I’m grateful
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