Theme: "Well, we're waiting!"
Puzzling thoughts:
Today's puzzle takes three familiar phrases that include a day of the week in them, but the actual "day" is chopped off of the end to support the reveal ... I guess
Here's how:
18-across. "Whew! I was so worried the Kahlo was counterfeit!": THANK GOD ITS FRIDA. The familiar "Thank God It's Friday" (oft-times abbr. to TGIF for xword puzzle fill) loses a "Y" in exchange for a weirdly clued quote about a Frida Kahlo painting being real or fake ... meh
30-across. NFL document intended to protect the secrets of the Big Game?: SUPER BOWL NDA. Super Bowl Sunday is one of the biggest sporting events of the year. In this entry, the event loses an "S", a "U", and a "Y" to leave an NDA (also known as "Non-Disclosure Agreement) which is a document usually signed by an employee or independent contractor to protect any intellectual property owned by their employer ... meh
45-across. Retro-chic style that originated with the family of a movie charioteer?: THROWBACK HUR. Throwback Thursday is familiar to Instagram/Facebook/X users as a means to honor some nostalgic events/persons; and specifically on Thursday. Pictures of these events/people are captured with a #TBT. The 1959 movie Ben-Hur starred Charlton Heston as "Judah Ben-Hur". The chariot race is one of the iconic moments in the film. In this entry, the letters "T", "S", "D", "A", and "Y" were omitted ... another, meh
 |
| Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur |
The reveal:
59-across. Impatient person's comment, or an apt title for this puzzle?: I HAVEN'T GOT ALL DAY. Implying (I guess) that because the entire day of the week name (FRIDAy) (SuNDAy) (THURsday) is not in the entry, it aligns with the reveal. I see it, but I wonder whether it warranted an extra 15 squares to fill (16x15 grid pattern)
The grid:
 |
| Note my two errors @ the crossing of DOULA and VAX |
Across:
1. Brewer's ingredient: HOPS. Used in the brewing of beer and ale
5. Paragons: IDEALS. Paragon is defined as "a person or thing regarded as a perfect example of a particular quality". I suppose that you can use the word "IDEAL" as a noun to support this clue, but personally I wouldn't have then made it plural
11. Tea, in Hindi: CHAI. As in a CHAI latte
15. "Or so __ say": THEY. But who are THEY??
16. Like some cottage cheese: NON-FAT. Anyone else try LOW FAT here first? I did
17. Captain's post: HELM. Its origin (HELM) is from the Old English helma; probably related to helve
21. Re-tiring workers?: PIT CREWS. The group of six - eight workers who attend to the race cars (NASCAR or Indy Cars) during the event are known as the PIT CREW. One of their duties is to change the tires. So "re-tire" might be a stretch, but hey, it's Frida ... also, the plural already is CREW not CREWS
22. Swift composition: LYRIC. Taylor Swift is a singer-songwriter known for her LYRIC description of life-happenings
23. Chinese: Pref.: SINO. SINO
24. Stupefies: DAZES.
27. "That's it!": AHA.
35. Competition with pros?: DEBATE. The competition also has "cons".
37. Bygone toy company: TYCO.
38. "The Bear" Emmy winner __ Moss-Bachrach: EBON. Never watched this show, so the name was totally unfamiliar
39. Not boyish: MANLY. We had a Health and Phys Ed teacher at my HS named "Mr. Manley"
40. Greek X's: CHIS. Another word that is rarely seen as a plural
41. Electric shaver brand: BRAUN. I use a Norelco shaver; Braun toothbrush
42. Object: ITEM.
43. Slender: THIN.
44. Mortar's partner: PESTLE.
48. Oxford Word of the Year for 2021: VAX. I had the V and the X but guessed wrong with an E. I should've known that VAX was a much newer word. Also, it can now be used in the board game Scrabble. If I recall the tile values, V+A+X = a total of 14 points. A nice little filler ...
49. Extinct birds: DODOS.
50. "Riiiiiight": I BET.
52. Cast member: ACTOR.
55. "And so on": YADA YADA. I usually think of this phrase with 3 "YADAs": YADA, YADA, YADA. But as the clip below confirms, you can either "YADA YADA" or "YADA YADA YADA"
As I saw this, I kept wondering if the constructor ever considered this as one of the entries or reveal? If you look closely, you can see the word "DAY" both forwards and backwards inside this phrase ...
(note: I pasted this snip many days before HG used it on Wednesday June 5; watch again in case you missed his ...)
63. Facts and figures: DATA.
64. Reprimand sharply: BARK AT. Is this a case of the tail wagging the dog?
65. Green land?: EIRE. Not Greenland, a colony of Denmark ... Ireland, aka EIRE
66. Yelp rating unit: STAR. Mostly used by individual consumers for rating restaurants. If I had to rate this puzzle (on the Yelp scale of ⭐ to ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) I would give this a ⭐⭐
67. Étouffée cuisine: CREOLE.
68. "Dang it!": RATS. Speaking of rating, RATS spelled backwards is star
Down:
1. Start of some addresses: HTTP. The secure ones are plural: HTTPS
2. "You just get here?": OH, HI.
3. __ moss: PEAT. Had the word "moss" been capitalized I might have chosen: KATE
| She is much more attractive than peat moss |
4. Aligns: SYNCS.
5. Naive stock character: INGENUE. [an on-line dictionary cites the origin as] "French, feminine of ingénu ‘ingenuous’, from Latin ingenuus (see ingenuous)
6. "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" genre: DOO WOP. Probably one of the most covered songs in history. Here's the one I chose:
1964 Beach Boys - 2:00 version
7. Finales: ENDS.
8. "100 Years... 100 Movies" org.: AFI. All perps - This is them
9. Back muscle, for short: LAT. Many of us use the abbr. LAT for the name of the newspaper that publishes these puzzles
10. Ave. crossers: STS.
11. LeBarons, e.g.: CHRYSLERS. I actually got this without any perps. The erstwhile sport luxury car that also became synonymous with the family truckster used in the movie Family Vacation
8. "100 Years... 100 Movies" org.: AFI. All perps - This is them
9. Back muscle, for short: LAT. Many of us use the abbr. LAT for the name of the newspaper that publishes these puzzles
10. Ave. crossers: STS.
11. LeBarons, e.g.: CHRYSLERS. I actually got this without any perps. The erstwhile sport luxury car that also became synonymous with the family truckster used in the movie Family Vacation
 |
| 1941 Chrysler LeBaron Newport |
12. Successor: HEIR.
13. No-frills grocery chain: ALDI. I wish we had one closer to us
14. Apple desktop once marketed with the Rolling Stones song "She's a Rainbow": iMAC.
19. Actress Swanson: KRISTY. I am not a Buffy the Vampire slayer fan, so this needed perps
20. Whizzed (by): FLEW.
24. Need for some copiers: DRY INK. Do they mean toner??
25. Basics: ABCS.
26. Petting __: ZOO.
27. Allow in: ADMIT.
28. Moor: HEATH. Check this out:
29. "Li'l" fellow: ABNER. "Li'l Abner was a satirical comic strip that featured a fictional clan of hillbillies located in Dogpatch, USA. Al Capp wrote and illustrated this strip which ran for 43 years (1934-1977)
24. Need for some copiers: DRY INK. Do they mean toner??
25. Basics: ABCS.
26. Petting __: ZOO.
27. Allow in: ADMIT.
28. Moor: HEATH. Check this out:
29. "Li'l" fellow: ABNER. "Li'l Abner was a satirical comic strip that featured a fictional clan of hillbillies located in Dogpatch, USA. Al Capp wrote and illustrated this strip which ran for 43 years (1934-1977)
 |
| Li'l Abner and Daisy Mae |
31. Branch of philosophy: ETHICS.
32. Channel for hoops fans: NBA TV.
33. Birthing coach: DOULA. This came to me in perps
34. New wing: ANNEX.
36. "Talk to Her" Oscar winner Pedro: ALMODOVAR. No clue as to who he is
40. Rosalind of "3 Body Problem": CHAO. She doesn't appear to be one of the headliners in this series
41. "Get serious": BE REAL. My under-my-breath comments as some of these clues and words were being figured out
43. Sked placeholder: TBD. "Sked" is a new-age abbreviation for "schedule". The letters stand for: To Be Determined
44. Occasion for a launch party, informally: PUB DATE. I kept thinking this meant the "launch" of a dart and we were at a pub, on a date. Nope; it's the "publication" date
46. Sported: WORE. Got this one, but by the time I did I was wore [sic] out
47. Having a gap: HIATAL. As much as I dislike having (or writing) clues that are "fill-in-the-blank" I probably would've solved this sooner if the clue read: ____ hernia
51. Polk predecessor: TYLER. Guessed this one correctly
52. Supports: AIDS.
53. Chinwag: CHAT. I never use the term "chinwag". You?
54. "__ for now": TATA. See you later ...
55. Ono from Tokyo: YOKO. One of the "gimmies" today
56. College basketball coach Barnes: ADIA. Another of the obscure proper names today
57. Feathered missile: DART. The item I was going to launch on our PUB DATE
58. Those in favor: AYES.
60. Peacock network: NBC.
61. Roofing goo: TAR.
62. Test for prospective M.A. students: GRE.
Note: I will be back next week (for the June 14th puzzle) and then Mal Man will blog the 21st and 28th June puzzles
57 comments:
Based on the first themed fill, I had a pretty good idea what the reveal was going to be about. Still, it wasn’t easy finding each day’s “pieces.” Nevertheless, I eventually figured it all out. FIR, so I’m happy.
By the way, not to steal Jinx’s thunder, but today is National Doughnut Day. My “coffee and doughnut” at 7-11 first thing this morning was 69 cents cheaper than usual!
Good morning!
Started right off with MALT, and so it went...until it didn't. Had no idea about _BAT_. Don't think I've ever heard of NBA TV -- and what does VAX mean, anyway? Is DRY INK green paint? Had no idea what Pedro's last name might be, so _OA_S became those extinct birds. D-o insisted on TBA rather than TBD, so DODOS never appeared. Bzzzzzzt. Crushing defeat. Not fun. Thanx David and the Ku-less C-Moe.
Took 10:22 for me to finish to....
I knew today's actress, but wasn't sure how to spell "Kristy," and I never heard of this Pedro or his movie. I like "The Bear" and remember seeing the name "Ebon", and thinking, that is destined to be in a crossword puzzle. Even if you don't really enjoy "The Bear," the Christmas episode should be a "must watch."
A few other unknowns including the Chinese prefix, the Hindi anything (which became perp-able), moor, etc.
Clever word play, but the juice wasn't worth the squeeze.
FIR, but pitchers->PIT CREWS, malt->HOPS, essay->LYRIC, etcetera->YADAYADA and cristlers->CHRYSLERS.
Today is:
NATIONAL BOONE DAY (I was raised on a triangular 8 acre plot with the Daniel Boon National Forest on the two long sides)
WORLD CARING DAY (THIS SONG is their theme)
NATIONAL VCR DAY (I just read a novel by Mary Jane Clark, published in 2001, that referred to a rich and famous TV anchor woman who had a VCR for entertainment, and a Beta machine for the stuff that would air on her network. This author ain’t no Mary Higgins Clark)
NATIONAL DOUGHNUT DAY (Defund the Police has resulted in a drop in demand for doughnuts. Please be like Subgenius and do your part to overcome this tragedy)
NATIONAL CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM DAY (Doughnuts alone might not make you adequately obese)
Except on pleasure craft, captains usually don't man the HELM. In the Navy, the HELMsman is usually a low ranking enlisted person.
Hey, who let religion into the Corner? TGIF?
I knew CHIS because my mom and both sisters were in CHI Omega. (A Chi O girl, with her hair atwirl, will steal your heart away...")
I HAVENT GOT ALL DAY, or as we say on the golf course (from the same movie,) "while we're young!")
I had JUST learned DOULA by happening across an old girlfriend. She's now a volunteer end-of-life DOULA.
Coach Barnes is Rick. Full stop. He has more than 800 wins in his coaching career. ADIA has all of 150. Check back in about 15 years, sweetie. (Oh, you're gonna catch hell for that one, Jinx. Too bad the INK is already DRY.)
The old professional sot in me noticed that we had BAR KAT and PUB DATE today. Never met KAT, but she's having more fun than me.
Thanks (I think) to David for a rare namefest that I was actually able to complete without guessing. And thanks to our Chairman for another fun dissection of said grid. Oh, but one driver has a PIT CREW, and 33 drivers in the Indy 500 have 33 PIT CREWS between them.
FIW. I had pitchers instead of pit crews. Also didn't know doula, but I should have as we have had this before.
The theme I got, although it seems a tad lame. And the number of proper names got to me. But it's Friday and I guess I should expect this.
Overall, meh!
Good Morning:
I agree with our esteemed SS @ 6:43, "the juice wasn't worth the squeeze." My initial reaction was negative because the days are inconsistently "chopped", ranging from one letter off Friday, three off Sunday, and five off Thursday. The cluing is convoluted and the answers are almost as tortured. Speaking of cluing, Having a gap=Hiatal was gratuitous, IMO, and was using twelve words to clue the four letter iMac really necessary? Fridays are supposed to be challenging and fun but this more of a chore and a bore. Even though I watched two seasons of The Bear, Ebon was a foreign to me as Chao, Almodovar, Adia, and Christy. I also agree that the plural Ideals is awkward and Dry Ink and Pub Date, at first glance, seemed green paint-ish, but I guess they're in the language, per Mr. G. There were some bright spots in the solve, however, especially the clues for Debate, Eire, and Pit Crews, but not enough to offset the overall theme execution, IMO.
Thanks, David, and thanks, Moe, for your honest and well analyzed review. I missed your Moe-kus but enjoyed your commentary, as always.
Have a great day.
Hola!
Very likely I'm the only one here who is a huge fan of Pedro ALMODOVAR as his movies are all in Spanish. I have several of his DVDs including the one mentioned in the puzzle.
This was not a walk in the park but I stumbled through to the end with only one blank, the V in VAX. Usually these obscure themes are lost on me and this one was no exception. But I do enjoy the solve.
INGENUE always looks wrong to me; I usually want an E instead of I.
Of course, I knew YOKO Ono but not KRISTY, EBON or ADIA. I've come across DOULA in many books.
Speaking of YADA YADA, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss was on Colbert last night and it's startling to hear her talk normally instead of from a script. She was promoting her new movie, Tuesday.
Thank you, David, for a real Friday challenge and thank you, Chairman Moe for clearing up my doubts.
Have a fine Friday, everyone!
Musings
-Now that was a convoluted gimmick.
-Yesterday we had HELM used as a verb. I once had an administrator who appointed someone to “guru” a project.
-Swift was neither fast nor Jonathan. Duh!
-Yesterday, a friend hit his golf ball smack into a tree and it went way up and backwards and hit his partner on top of his bald head. It DAZED the partner and he fell to the ground. We put band aids Neosporin on the cut on his head and he played on.
-I don’t react well to being BARKED at and say that to the BARKER
-Facts and figures
-It is very difficult to SYNC a Husker TV broadcast to a local radio’s play-by-play. The radio usually tells what happens and then I watch it on TV a few seconds later
-I could walk to our ALDI but don’t care for their stores
-DOULA? A twelfth grade girl I had last year is studying to be a midwife. She made $22/hr while training.
-Irish and I must have ESP!
Forgive my using this easy out, but DNF. I HAVENT GOT ALL DAY, so I had to quit. Too many unknowns for me, though like Lucinda I’m familiar with ALMODOVAR’s work, but the other proper names were unknown to me.
Ye, what does VAX mean? I’ve never heard or seen it before.
Thank you C-M for your “puzzling thought”.
That should be yes, not ye.
Sorry Lucina for calling you Lucinda.
VAX is short for Vaccine
Thank you David for a challenging RIDA puzzle, which as you can see I DNF, although I did get the theme.
I'd rate the puzzle as ⭐⭐ and your review as ⭐⭐⭐⭐ as MOE. I docked you one star for the absences of MOE-KUS.
Despite being shellacked by this puzzle I did have some favorites ..
40A CHIS. Constructors it seems have a license to pluralize anything.
44A PESTLE. I have several in my glaze lab, including one that I made.
66A STAR. One of our commenters complained that we reviewers don't really rate the puzzles, as e.g. Siskel and Ebert would rate a movie. I think you've come up with the perfect way to do that MOE.
3D PEAT. I'm inclined to agree with you MOE.
6D DOO WOP. I bought my first Beach Boys album ever a few days ago - Pet Sounds, the album some say inspired Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
13D ALDI. Not a big fan of needing a quarter to rent a cart.
14D IMAC. She comes in colors?
19D KRISTY. Never 'eard of 'er.
29D ABNER. Where I went astray. All we have in puzzles these days are those darned RAPPERS.
44D PUB DATE. Where a couple of Brits meet to drink ALE.
47D HIATAL. I had a HIATUS in this fill until perps inflected it for me.
Cheers,
Bill
Note to Monkey -- that would be VAXine. The year 2021 being when the pandemic started.
Note to MOE. You mean we're going to be peppered with DAD JOKES for two weeks in a row!? (please don't tell MalMan I said that!)
I'll Echo Irish on this one, and throw in another to Jinx for the HELMsman! Tough cluing is expected on a Friday, but there's no excuse for poor, lame, or inaccurate clues. Has anyone gone to a store and asked for some dry ink? Most folks would say "get real", not BE REAL. Could the proper names have been any more obscure? The theme seemed forced, and kind of meh. Not much enjoyment to be had today, other than Chairman Moe's recap!
My heroes include midwives and doulas.
It has been over forty years now since my two children were born at home, with loving and constant assistance from our midwife.
I don’t have much to add to Chairman Moe’s analysis. It’s not good when you finish a puzzle but aren’t sure you FIRred. By the time you’ve got HUR representing all of “Thursday,” the theme feels off-kilter. Thanks, Chris, for not just patting the constructor and editor on the back.
Like C-Moe, I found CHRYSLER to be a gimme, but I also knew ALMODOVAR. I knew ADIA, too, but there’s a better-known coach Barnes with a four-letter first name in college basketball: Rick Barnes. I did really like Adia’s Arizona team that reached an all Pac-12 women’s final against Stanford a couple of years ago, but c’mon, Patti. I’m tempted to say something very un-PC about her inflicting this on solvers.
DRY INK gave me a lot of trouble and made THROWBACK hard to see, not good for such a clunky theme entry. And, like our esteemed Irish Miss, I felt queasy about HIATAL. But I.M. shouldn’t have changed her mind about PUB DAY. Nobody says that. It is indeed green-paintish.
I did like some of the fill. I have to admit I enjoy singing DOOWOP more than I enjoy listening to it. CREOLE was a CSO to our Big Easy. My dog tends to BARK AT me a lot. PESTLE always tickles me. I was right about DOULA, as it turned out. PIT CREWS worked for me. I always like a good INGENUE. And VAX, the 2021 Oxford designee: How many Cornerites tried to squeeze EKTORP in that three-letter slot?
You know, I am just going to lodge a complaint about the full screen ads that pop up. Several times as I was posting they have popped up and you can't get rid of them. Tapping the big X does nothing.You have to close the tab, and when you reopen, the page reloads and the unfinished post has disappeared.
This has just happened to me again. So all I will say about today is; Better luck next time, Dave. C-Moe, great review.
He who stays silent, suffers alone.
Begin
So why the hell does our chairman get to say "This competition also has "cons". And if Donald Trump is in jail when he DEBATES Joe Biden, it will truly be pro vs a con ..." but I can't give a witty reply? At least I got a chuckle from writing it. BTW, the censor clobbered my link in the "Today is" stuff. Guess that's enough of that too. It's for the best; I spend way too much time on this site.
I read this blog on my Samsung tablet using Firefox, so if anyone knows anyway to resolve the problem stated above, I will be eternally grateful.
Monkey
Thank you for correcting yourself regarding my name. Many people want that D in there but my grandmother's name didn't have it. It is a very old Spanish name.
Today I am meeting the ladies for lunch. Yes, we are the ladies who lunch. We will celebrate three birthdays though one of the three can't be there. One is our oldest who I believe is 88 or 89 and the other two are merely in their late 70s.
Pete here
Please explain "green paint" again, and "EKTORP" which I don't recall seeing.
Lee: At first it sounded like you were using a smart phone, but now you say tablet. I use Safari on an IPad, and so far no full page ads.
Thank you for the VAX explanation. I feel like a DODO for not thinking of it.
JINX: I like you a lot, but you get away with lots of right-wing comments at a level pretty similar to what Chris said. There's one other right-winger who does it even more, with impunity. We've had two left-wing things like that the past two days, and there has not been impunity. There's an imbalance, all right, in the no-politics strictures. This is one of the reasons I lurked outside the Corner for a long time.
Bill, will a Joe-ku help to fill the void?
Chairman Moe has some
Chores to complete so we will
Be swapping Fridays
With a bit of practice I might be worthy to stand in his shadow.
Happy National Donut Day, everyone!
Lucina, "the other two are merely in their late 70s" -- gotta love it.
Pete, "green paint" refers to multi-word entries which help the constructor complete a puzzle area, but which aren't in-the-language expressions. I suggested that "DRY INK" in today's puzzle was a green paint entry. We went into EKTORP yesterday. Waseeley posted this about a month ago: EKTORP was defined by Emma Oxford in a comment to her April 17th, 2024 puzzle as "a clue whose answer you can get from context without actually knowing it." (Ex: Swedish Furniture giant with an EKTORP sofa -- IKEA)
I disagree, I liked it.
There are ugly horribly clued gimmick puzzles…like this one.
Copy Editor, you are absolutely right. I have posted many things here that I expected to be deleted, but weren't. But this one, although political, wasn't partisan. It could have come from Media Matters just as readily as from The Heritage Foundation. (It wasn't from either, it was purely from my so-called brain.) Gee, maybe we shouldn't allow bloggers or commentators to use OBAMA, REP, POL, SEN, TRUMP, FDR, ACA, Pelosi, ILHAN, etc. Merely using those names is by definition political, even when used in a nonpartisan way.
But today was an eye opener for me. I've been enjoying participating in this forum as an excuse for putting off stuff I really need to do. I urgently need to swap my first floor office with my second floor bedroom, because it is no longer safe for my wife to transit the stairs. Less urgent but maybe more important, I need to prepare this big ol' monstrosity of a house for sale. (Three floors of living space plus a basement, four air conditioning systems.) I just can't handle the upkeep by myself. Besides, my wife will need to move to a professional care facility in the not-too-distant future, and once that happens, I expect to use a residence as a mail drop and a place to sleep and shower. It will be mostly too late to try to prepare the house for marketing at that point.
I still plan to participate here, just with less investment.
Jinx @ 11:58 and Copy Editor @ 12:24
I was truly "caught up in the moment" when I chose my comment for the DEBATE clue/answer. As you probably know and/or suspect, we bloggers have multiple days ahead of a puzzle being published to solve it, gather our thoughts, and write the blog. On the day I was writing the blog, former President Trump was handed down the verdict on the 34 counts ... so it was hard to ignore
To all of you who comment here and so forth ... I (and I suspect my fellow bloggers) try to provide the following, first and foremost, when writing the blog:
**An explanation of the entries/theme/puzzle concept. Period
Beyond that, I/we add things that individualize our review. I try not to get too "type-cast", although I am beginning to realize that some of you DO look forward to my Moe-kus
[spoiler alert] I think I left out a Moe-ku for next week's review
FWIW, Moe-kus (as well as my humor) come more easily to me when the puzzle is one that I enjoy
Have a great weekend, all. To those who enjoy Thoroughbred Horseracing, tomorrow is the running of the Belmont Stakes. This race is normally 1-1/2 miles in length, but due to renovations at Belmont Park Racetrack, the event will be held at Saratoga Springs, NY and run at 1-1/4 miles. My choices: Dornoch, The Wine Steward, and Sierra Leone
Moe-ku du jour (albeit one that I wrote some 6 years ago):
A cannibal joked
About how he cooks a seer:
"Mine?" "Medium rare"
Jinx @1:37 PM LOL -- Aw shucks Jinx, we love you in spite of your "so-called brain", and speling too! 😊
Jinx, I didn't delete or alter your comment, so if something was censored, it wasn't by me. Perhaps the blog owner?
I also don't know what happened yesterday. I was away. I didn't solve the Thursday puzzle or scan through yesterday's comments until this morning.
When I am busy, I generally still try to take a few minutes to solve, but I may not read the reviews or scan the comments. I also didn't thoroughly read through the review today. But I do try to scan the comments at least every other day.
I'm looking mostly for spam and delete those. I then also look at the comments that get auto-filtered by Blogger. Some are legit spam, and some are legit comments that got erroneously filtered.
Anyway, I did not censor your comments.
Thanks, TTP. Regardless of how it happened, I hope it works as a kick in the backside to get me to focus on things that matter.
Chairman Moe Yes, I had LOW FAT before NON FAT and it had me stuck for awhile. I got all of the unknowns like ALDI, ADIA, EBON, NBATV, KRISTY. But FIW with unknown DRY INK crossed with FAZES. FRY INK made no sense, but DRY INK wasn't much better.
Here was my photo of GREENLAND at midnight last July.
Yes, I know it was another GREEN LAND. My many photos there are not as spectacular.
AnonT Did you ever use a VAX computer? When I was a physics grad student I programmed our department VAX computer to take data from our lab. It was fun climbing in the core of the building dropping cables down to our lab and connecting to this mighty mainframe.
I think the days that are not all there are:
THANK GOD ITS FRIDA
SUPER BOWL NDA
THROWBACK HUR
The first two are missing the final "Y" and the third one is missing the final "SDAY".
Very nice JAYku, Jayce!!
Hand up for LOW FAT before NONFAT, for DOULE/VEX before DOULA/VAX, and for SURE before I BET. Checking the downs stopped me from entering MALT and revealed it should be HOPS.
I remember the VAX computer.
I knew the term SINO from my studies and from life experience. (Eg: SINO-Tibetan language family. SINO-Soviet relations. YADAYADAYADA.)
I held my nose at DRY INK. I don't think Office Depot stocks it.
A former colleague used to say "TBD" a lot while giving presentations. He also used to say something, then say "I.E." and paraphrase himself and then do it again and sometimes even a fourth time. It got old real fast.
I never use the term "chinwag" either, nor do I know anybody who has. At least I pretty much knew what it meant. It sounds British to me.
Good reading you all. Jinx, please know I very much enjoy reading what you have to say. As I have said before, I think you and I think alike in a number of ways.
I get those damn ads too, on my iPad and iPhone, as well as on my computer.
Prof M at 5:10 PM, haha, good catch! I didn't even see it.
Jinx
I'm so sorry about what is happening to your wife and I admire the way you care for her. God give you strength to continue doing so. When we utter the words "for better or worse" we don't think about what the "worse" might be. It's easy to love and care for each other when we are young and fit but the real test comes later when we diminish and you are passing that test with flying colors!
Picard:
I love that photo of Greenland! it is spectacular!
I thought it was a great puzzle! I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
I thought it was a great puzzle! I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
I thought it was a great puzzle! I thoroughly enjoyed it!!
Jeez, somebody please block that anonymous at 6:00, 6:02, and 6:04 from repeating that obvious canned posting. Thank you.
😄
Lucina, the most poignant moment of this ordeal so far happened at a little BBQ shack in the tiny town of Saluda, VA. I left my wife outside while I went inside to get our food and drink. When I came out, she wasn't where I had left her. She was with a woman nearby, and the nice lady brought her over to me. She said she had just gone through this ordeal with her father-in-law, so she knew immediately what was going on. Then this lady, who sounded like she probably had an 8th grade education, said "just remember that when you promised to be there for better and for worse, God promised you that He would be there to help you." It's been a couple of years since then, but I still tear up when I remember that moment.
Jinx
It sounds like you have guardian angels to help and guide you on your journey. Though the woman you described isn't an angel, she might, in fact, have been than helpful angelic guide and who can say that she wasn't sent by God.
I seem to recall that this is the United States of America and we have the right to free speech and self-expression!!
Dear Jinx, having been the ordeal (mutiple myeloma), guard your energy -- you'll need it.
Michael
Very nice!
Finally FIR, I had to put this aside yesterday as the Mideast was killing me as I could only suss ‘sun’ as the answer for Super Bowl and I’m not familiar with nbatv, and doula, annex weren’t coming to me as ebon was also an unknown even though I watch the Bear! And who in gods name would automatically know the Oxford word of the year, regardless of how apropos?! Several other tough spots but they fell without too much tsorus.
I do think dry ink, albeit difficult, is semi legit as that is what toner is! Didn’t know Adia - and the more and more frequently used clueing of ‘informal’ is just constructor license to make stuff up when they aren’t clever enough to figure out crosses that fit. (A pre-arranged British bar meet would be a more appropriate clue for pub date!)
Lee, see if using an ad blocker works; you can peruse several in Firefox Add-Ons list. Good luck!
====> Darren / L.A.
(late to the party this wk)
C-Moe, I’m reading this on Saturday night — so I’m sure hoping you did put a bet down on your first-choice horse!
====> Darren / L.A.
“Having a chin-wag” is indeed Brit slang for idle chatting, usually at a PUB.
====> D.
Yes — but not eight times each day. Like I told you the other day: we heard you the first time.
====> Darren
Ehh…lame theme or not, it was still a kinda-sorta-fun puzzle to do (despite the plethora of obscure proper names, my usual gripe target), even though I got to it a day late.
I haven’t a clue (pun intended) how I remembered the word DOULA, but that saved my arse over in that side of the grid. And being a car guy, CHRYSLERS was a gimme, and helped jump-start (semi-regular need with those cars) that side of the puzzle.
C-Moe/Jinx/et al, I’ve yet to find any politically-themed comments here be offensive; I think our society has become so effing PC of late that our senses of humor have become stifled. I’ve heard a ton of both Chump and Brandon gags that’re hilarious and lighten the whole political scene. I mean, if you get down with it, politics is an inanely humorous business to be in, and y’gotta be prepared to take your licks from the rest of the world. I will say that Biden seems to have thicker skin than the other guy, and can laugh at himself more readily… Maybe it IS a pro vs con thing?? 🤣
====> Darren / L.A.
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