DUCK TEST~? Bzzzt~!
Splynter,
stepping in for sumdaze, as she ascends to the headline of today's
puzzle as constructor, along with our well-published blog creator/host
C.C. Way to go~! Such an honor to be asked to do the summary, so I will do my
best to engage & entertain. A smooth, satisfying solve for yours
truly (moi~?), within my typical time limit, at what felt like an "olden
days" Monday-level difficulty. No personal names, yet several
geographic ones, and no reveal for our theme in a standard 15x15 grid -
hey, that's been unusual for me lately. Two eleven- and two
twelve-letter spanners, each ending with one word and its secondary,
three-dimensional definition. Easy as 1-2-3, or maybe 6Across~? Here
is the "shape of things";
18. What sounds like a disk, but isn't a disk?: FACT CHECKER
28. What sounds like a cube, but isn't a cube?: WRITER'S BLOCK
49. What sounds like a circle, but isn't a circle?: FAMILIAR RING
63. What sounds like a sphere, but isn't a sphere?: CHARITY BALL
That's NO
And Away We Go~!
ACROSS:
1. __ and flow: EBB
4. Gathers from the field: REAPS
9. Braid: PLAIT
14. Language of Southeast Asia's only landlocked country: LAO - Geographic #1
15. HS class for aspiring premeds, perhaps: AP BIO - Advanced Placement
16. Stranger, slangily: RANDO - 21st century language - but we've seen it in crosswords
17. Bing's web portal: MSN - I use Mozilla's Firefox
20. Cabinet part: SHELF
22. Backed (away from): SHIED
23. Frito-__ snacks: LAY - which is your favorite~?
24. Lean a bit: TILT
26. Gets up: ARISES - I put in AWAKES first, did not quite jibe, but 50% correct~!
32. Rowboat blade: OAR
33. Like limes: SOUR - and - 7D. White part of citrus fruit: PITH - I did not know this
34. Squads: TEAMS - MY two teams are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs - but go Panthers~!
38. Squeaked (by): EKED
40. Spanish "I love you": "TE AMO"
43. England's largest all-boys boarding school: ETON - Geographic~?
44. Passover meal: SEDER - learned by doing crosswords
46. Uterus: WOMB
48. Barnyard baby sound: MAA - that's the calf, not the lamb, correct~?
53. Unhelpful RSVPs: MAYBES
55. Flatbread served with chana masala: NAAN - Ektorp~?
56. Louisville Slugger product: BAT - wouldn't be a C.C. puzzle without some baseball
57. Real gem: BEAUT
60. "All good on my end": "I'M SET."
66. Wedding words: I DO - whether you DO or you DON'T ....
67. Diamond unit: CARAT - "no hug-gee no kiss-see...until I get a wedding RING" - the other def.
68. Republic in the Himalayas: NEPAL - Geo #2
69. Duck sauce for egg rolls, e.g.: DIP - if it looks, swims and quacks like a duck sauce. . . .
70. Minor mistakes: SLIPS
71. Speechify: ORATE
72. UFO pilots: ETs
DOWN:
1. Shade trees on the National Mall: ELMS - I'm scheduled to transport some of the pipe organ pipes back from the Washington National Cathedral at the end of the month
2. Big party: BASH - GALA, FETE, had to wait
3. Exhausted to the core: BONE TIRED
4. Fundraisers with tickets: RAFFLES - Charity Ball~!
5. Clean energy org.: EPA - Environmental Protection Agency
6. Pre-K song subject: ABCs - NOT the Jackson 5 version
8. __ butterfly: one with a busy calendar: SOCIAL - I dream of being a social butterfly, but today I am merely anti-social
9. Give a weather report, essentially: PREDICT - I had a good friend from High School go on to be the TV weatherman in Richmond, VA.
10. Fond du __, Wisconsin: LAC - Geo #3
11. Lower leg joint: ANKLE
12. Mental flashes: IDEAS
13. Parliament conservative: TORY - British politics - some info here
19. Big sandwich: HERO
21. Not dark: LIT - or NOT sober, too
25. Relaxed gait: TROT
27. Trademark in an arcade game name: SKEE
28. Trials and tribulations: WOES
29. Leaf-gathering tool: RAKE - we had LEAF__ on Saturday - all I could think of was "RAKING"
30. Take to court: SUE - what if you were on a date~? Would that be "courting Sue"~?
31. Barroom fight: BRAWL
35. Welcome sign at a cash-only market: ATM INSIDE - nice to see more than just " A-T-M "
36. Complain: MOAN
37. Minor holdup: SNAG
39. Refuse to obey: DEFY
41. "Who, me?": "MOI~?" - Frawnche
42. Saudi Arabia neighbor: OMAN - Geo #4
45. Cottontails: RABBITS
47. Alphabet read with the fingers: BRAILLE - Also Frawnche - the Wiki
50. Come together: MEET
51. "Thumbs down from me": "I SAY NO."
52. Ewe's mate: RAM
53. Taj __: MAHAL - Geo #5 - I bought this sign for my dad's shed(s) - now it hangs in my garage
And I figured out how to do 'side-by-side' images~!
54. Pong Quest maker: ATARI - never heard of this; it's like Pong on steroids
56. Covertly includes on an email: BCCs - Blind Carbon Copies
58. Lyft rival: UBER
59. Spanish appetizer: TAPA - frequent crossword visitor, but today I did some research
61. Correct a verb tense, perhaps: EDIT
62. Dreidels, e.g.: TOPS
64. Knock sharply: RAP
65. Long. crosser: LATitude - Geographic bonus~!
And a comment from out debut constructor~!
Cute theme, well executed. Other than that, I don’t have too much to say about this puzzle, except that it was another Monday “walk in the park.” (Although I did have a little trouble getting “ATM inside,” from momentarily forgetting how to spell “naan.”). FIR, so I’m happy.
ReplyDeletePlease tell me def of FIR? Thank you.
DeleteGood morning!
ReplyDeleteOh no...a dreaded DNF, and on a Monday, no less. [Sob.] D-o was zipping along, basking in the joy of this nameless [almost no proper nouns] puzzle. Hadn't even reached the six minute mark when I slapped down "TOYS" in Florida. Noticed the D-I-Y and mentally said, "Yup, looks right." Never read the 69a clue. Bzzzzzzt. Thanx, sumdaze (Hope you're enjoying Spain!) and our blog mistress, C.C.
LAC -- Fond Du Lac (bottom of the lake) sits at the southern end of Lake Winnebago. My 4th graders had maps of Guam and the U.S. on the classroom wall. They refused to believe me when I told them Guam was about the same size as Lake Winnebago.
Oops, I forgot to thank Splynter for subbing this morning. Well done.
ReplyDeleteFIR without erasure.
ReplyDeleteToday is:
NATIONAL LEAVE THE OFFICE EARLY DAY (supposedly the majority of employers are requiring employees to actually go into the office by the end of 2024)
NATIONAL REPEAT DAY (c'mon, I’m too old for “round two”)
NATIONAL EGG DAY (the other 364 are “work to afford an egg” days)
NATIONAL CHOCOLATE MACAROON DAY (I only like coconut in pina coladas)
Splynter, I love you bro, but please don't ask me to identify my favorite Lay.
I eschew CHARITY BALLs. I just don't fit into those spheres.
That kooky Keep Your Hands to Yourself has become an unlikely classic. I love it, but didn't remember the one-hit wonder Georgia Satellites.
Love the example of a lovely ANKLE. Hope we never get "cankle" as fill, especially when Splynter is doing the visual review, even though there are a lot of cankles around town.
Thanks to sumdaze and CC for this fine puzzle to start to the work week. And thanks to Splynter for the guided tour.
FIR. An easy walk in the Monday park.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the theme and trying to suss out the answers to the long solutions before the fill.
Only learning moment for me was pith, but perps made short work of that. Great puzzle!
Took 4:52 today for me.
ReplyDeleteShort on time.
Solid Monday puzzle - congratulations to the constructors!
Good Morning! Today’s puzzle took some cautious progress and thought. Thank you, Renee/sumdaze and our wonderful CC!
ReplyDeleteI caught onto the theme when I got to 63A BALL which helped fill in the others still open. Clever!
One WO: DEnY -> DEFY.
No people names – Yes! I liked it!
Thanks, Splynter. You surpassed your goal to entertain.
In answer to your question, Tostitos Scoops to contain my guacamole, and Cheetos, finger lickin’ good!
Easy, old fashioned Monday puzzle with a cute, easy to suss theme.
ReplyDeleteI rarely use an ATM. I go to my bank's drive up window so that I usually have some cash with me. I worry about ATM tampering, especially in stores.
Here we hear about seders from friends, newspapers and TV. A local synagogue invited our church members to share a meal at an instructed seder. Very interesting.
INSIDE took just a few perps and wags to get. Then ATM was obvious.
RSVP maybes are frustrating. It seems some people do not commit so they can hold the date for a better offer.
Romantic rivalry-LOVE TRIANGLE.
Thank you, Renee and CC, for a fun puzzle and Splynter, for an enjoyable blog.
Cooking 101. When you zest a lemon you must be careful not to press too hard or you will get the bitter white pith underneath the rind. The zest includes the rind and a tiny bit of the pith. The peel includes the rind and all of the pith.
Amusing theme from our Monday guide Renee(SD) and CC!
ReplyDeleteWe used to like to play SKEE ball and pin-ball machines at the mini-arcade that was near the lake we would sometimes go to in the summer. It sure could eat up the quarters - that was the one occasion my parents would let us do something like that, and I could see why, given the addictive potential of it.
My favorite Lay's chips are BBQ Baked or Sun Chips
Off to work, a minor late start to the day!
When I saw the byline of Renee and Zhouqin I knew it would be an enjoyable solve, and it didn’t disappoint, thanks for the fine collaboration, very nice Monday fare to start the CW week, FIR in 9:09, made my goal of under 10 on a Monday. Have fun in the Pyrenees Renee, nice photo!
ReplyDeleteSplynter ~ good job pinch hitting for sumdaze today! Those tapered wood pipes with a mitre (I’m in Canada so I have to spell like a Canadian eh, is quite the impressive piece of W! As for my favorite Lay, ( good one Jinx 😂), I prefer Salt & Vinegar potato chips or Cheetos Puffs, which in the bilingual packages here are called “Soufflés”.
Good Morning:
ReplyDeleteI absolutely loved this theme! It's fresh, clever, well-executed, and just plain fun. It took me a minute or so to realize exactly what was going on and when I saw the gimmick, I actually smiled. The themers are all strong and solid phrases, the grid is junk-free, the TLWs are minimal, and the fill is exceptionally colorful and lively for a Monday offering. Teams/Te Amo and Ram/Maa made cute duos.
Thanks, Renee and CC, for a very enjoyable and satisfying solve. You two make a great team and I hope we'll be treated to more future collaborations. Renée, enjoy your holiday. Thanks, Splynter, for a very nice write-up and commentary. Loved the Tower of Pisa comic.
DO @ 5:33 ~ I don't recall you ever making any reference to teaching. Am I interpreting your comment about "your fourth graders" correctly?
FLN
Monkey, the handsome and urbane Sean Connery aside, the James Bond spy genre never appealed to me, but I have enjoyed seeing Mr. Connery in other films.
Prof M, I can't picture anyone but Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch anymore than I can picture anyone but Humphrey Bogart as Rick Blaine or Clark Gable as Rhett Butler.
Have a great day.
Excellent offering from our esteemed host today. Thank you, C.C. Fine review by Splynter as well.
ReplyDeleteMy only misstep today was trying Pulp instead of PITH. Cute theme. All entries were familiar phrases.
All the gold in California is in a bank in Beverly Hills in somebody else's name. Gatlin Brothers. I'm broke.
Spendthrift.
Ist National, now owned by the largest bank in Canada.
DeleteOriginally I also put pulp and had to change to pith. Didn't know Rando but filled easily. Last fill was ATM inside. Great Monday puzzle no proper names.
ReplyDeleteWell, that was delightful. My only SNAG was filling pulp instead of PITH. That was quickly remedied.
ReplyDeleteSince I love geography, the few proper names were up my alley.
Congratulations to Renee and C.C. for a super collaboration.
Thanks Splynter for a neat recap. Now I know why the tower of Pisa TILTS. Nice FACT CHECKing.
Well, Irish Miss pretty much said it all; thanks, C.C. and sumdaze, for a most enjoyable start to the week. Everything IM said, well, ditto ditto.
ReplyDeleteI had a fun experience there in the middle with a French perp (moi) helping out with a Spanish word (teamo). I know, I know, why isn 't his Spanish any good, living in California? All I can say--other than mea culpa--is that I guess the two years I spent in France somehow stuck.
I always want to spell Taj Mahal with a J in the middle of the second word, but crosswords--as here--usually perp me back to sanity.
Skee-Ball (27D) always reminds me of the boardwalk in Ocean City NJ, where I spent my summers growing up. My brothers and I invested many a dime in those suckers. Our arcade here in Tehachapi has a couple Skee-Balls, and I love to watch my granddaughters play. (It's more than a dime now)
I would normally be playing duplicate bridge today since it's Monday. But my partner has absconded to Sitka Alaska, to go fishing. The nerve. I was thinking of telling him I was going to call his clinic in his absence with an emergency and that I had to see him (he's an MD). But then I remembered that he's an OB/GYN. Oh well--he promised to bring me back a bunch of salmon and halibut.
Marvelous Monday. Really a rare treat to have interesting fill without actors and athletes! Sumdaze and C.C., you have fulfilled many crossword wishes today. Thanks to both of you, to Patti, and to Splynter.
ReplyDeleteIM -- Yes I had a short stint as a school teacher on Guam. My newlywed bride made application at the Catholic school down the street. They desperately wanted to hire her, but they couldn't pay very much. She wound up teaching at one of the Gov-Guam schools. I went to the nun who was principal of the Catholic school and told her that though I wasn't Catholic, and had no teaching certificate, I had free mornings and would be willing to help out. She hired me on the spot to teach science, spelling, and geography to three different grade school classes. I forget the amount, but it was a paltry sum. In November the island was hit with a rare typhoon that tore the roof off the school. The nun told me that the school could no longer afford my pay, and she refused to let me work for free, so I would have to leave. In honesty, the teaching gig was getting pretty "old" by that time. I was cheerfully counting down the days. On my last day they held a little ceremony, and the students gave me going away gifts. And at the very end the nun announced that the parents had held an emergency meeting and had pledged enough money to pay me through the end of the school year. No good deed...
ReplyDeleteMarvelous Monday. Thanks for the fun, Renee (sumdaze) (congrats on your debut) and C.C., and Splynter.
ReplyDeleteI loved this CW that filled in good Monday time and had an easily recognized and fun theme. (What IM said!)
But I see that I FIWed with a silly SLIP. My dreidel was a Toy instead of a TOP. (Hello d’o.) I did wonder how the resulting DIY duck sauce was relevant, but I suppose you can make your own duck sauce!? Coming here and seeing DIP was an Aha moment.
One inkblot to change Deny to DEFY which more closely fits the clue.(hello RosE)
Re TEAMS: you know that this Canadian will be cheering for the Oilers. We haven’t had a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup finals since 2021, and our allegiance switches to any remaining Canadian TEAM when our Maple Leafs flame out!
YooperPhil - I loved your “ when in Canada” metre comment. I will pronounce you an honourary Canadian (note the U).
While in Canada, look for Old Dutch potato chips out of Winnipeg.
Wishing you all a great day.
How refreshing. No A&E, proper names, or unifier in a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteLAO and NEPAL. LAO and TAO. NAAN and Taj MAHAL. CC and Sumdaze have got S. Asia covered.
Does ETON only enroll the children of TORY members?
I use both Bing with Edge and Google with Chrome, side-by-side on a split screen, but my Bing doesn't start from MSN. Just Bing.com. On my older desktop I also had Firefox.
IMHO, I wish RANDO would join BAE and SESH and all three disappear.
Sumdaze- I always bike with a long sleeve, SPF50, dri-fit hoodie to cover my arms and bald head under my helmet. The sun is not kind to a fair-skinned, blue-eyed red head (when I had hair).
Tehachapi Ken @ 9:56. Ooh! Could I have some of that salmon and halibut. My favorite fish besides a trout from a cold stream.
ReplyDeleteDO @ 9:59 ~ Thanks for explaining your teaching "career" experience. Despite having your doubts about teaching, you must have been honored and touched by the lengths they went to keep you. I suspect that the head Nun played a major part in your continued tenure. Nuns are known for their powers of persuasion and tenacity. Just ask Lucina! 😉
ReplyDelete(The perils of posting after Ray - O 😀!)
ReplyDeleteThank you Renee & C.C. for a funday Monday. Great theme -- really loved the wordplay!
And thank you Splynter for a really great review, worthy of the subjects. I really liked the extended review of the interview with Shelly Yakus and his analysis of (Don't Fear) the Reaper, although to my taste it could have used a little more cowbell.😀
A few favs:
17A MSN. I'm a FIREFOX user myself, starting with the original MOZILLA.
24A TILT. Loved the cartoon -- I've always wondered about that tower. And the sand foundation probably didn't help either. 😀
43A ETON. Four letter British boarding school. Now that's an EKTORP.
72A ETS. This just showed up in my mailbox -- spooky!
11D ANKLE. Yep, a signature Splynter review!
37D SNAG. Now I'm certain of it. 😁
Cheers,
Bill
Kudos to SD & CC for an excellent puzzle to start the week. A very enjoyable solve! Also fun was Splynters review. What a nice Monday!
ReplyDeleteCanadian Eh--
ReplyDeleteI've been meaning to write you, because I always look forward to your posts. They are like a breath of fresh air. You are consistently pleasant and positive and cheerful, no matter what bad luck the day's crossword brings. And that would include Americanisms and abbreviations and expressions that I would think you can't possibly know.
I try to put myself in your place, my
doing a Canadian crossword, faced with Canadian names and abbreviations for Canadian sports teams, firms and agencies. Fuggeddabout it, eh?
My cousin married a Canadian girl years ago; they live in Philadelphia. Diane is loved by all the extended family. She is from the Toronto area, and I'm guessing you 're also from Ontario(?).
Back to the crosswords, don't forget that if you've got a word that looks something like ___OU__ ,you'd better drop the U!
Go Oilers!
.
Monkey--
ReplyDeleteI hope it's OK if the salmon and halibut are not from a cold stream or even inlet. Doc is going to be out in the ocean, off Sitka.
Splynter, sumdaze, CC Hand up for a great team today. Enjoyed the geometrical theme.
ReplyDeleteMy friend Danielle pulled the RAFFLE tickets at our Jugglers Festival last weekend.
Ray-O Yes, maybe you should lay off the fancy HTML and avoid this italics problem? Love your posts, though.
From Yesterday:
Yes, it was tough. And I also didn't like the crossed proper names. But I enjoyed the ECHO theme and found it creative. Sorry that it bugged some people.
Loved this CW! No (ZERO) obscure names!! Perfect Monday CW, FIR in 11. ATMINSIDE took a while for the INSIDE part to blast its way thru my thick skull. Perps had the TNT. PITH I knew, living in FL with all its citrus. I got some grapefruit lately that seemed to be mostly pith, with little actual fruit. DNK RANDO, all perps, then it looked wrong to me, but perps had to be right, so.... Anyway, thanx Renee and C.C. for this nice Monday CW. Did I mention how much I liked no names? Clever theme, too. I give this CW a 5-star rating! Wonderful write-up, too, Splynter, thanx for stepping in, and thanx for making it so much fun.
ReplyDeleteHola!
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, the lower part of the comments are all in italics. How does that happen?
Thanks to Renee and C.C. for this unusual Monday puzzle. And thank you, Splynter, for filling the gap today.
Ironically, TE AMO is rarely used in Spanish. The colloquial expression is "te quiero".
I like LAY'S original potato chips.
DO, you have the most interesting past! It's a fact that most Catholic schools are always short of funds.
Renee, have a wonderful time in Spain!
Everyone, have a great day today!
Now the italics are gone!
ReplyDeleteA comment on the italics problem. I think it's really a bug in the Blogger comment Editor and we've seen it before. The editor usually catches and flags unclosed HTML statements. I suspect that if the closing italics token occurs at the end of a comment, perhaps not terminated by a carriage return, it fails to burp up the bad HTML like it usually does. Just sayin'. Ray - O with his creative, punful comments occasionally falls victim to it.
ReplyDeleteLucina, Google's Blogger has a flaw that allows a user to post a message using a symbol that tells Blogger to put the following typing in italics, but doesn't require the user to to insert a symbol to turn off italics. The flaw, combined with a user error, keeps italics turned on until someone deletes the "start italics" symbol or adds the "quit italics" symbol. (Blogger should reject the post, like it does other types of text treatments like BOLD.
ReplyDeleteWhat's odd is that it won't let ME make that error. Maybe there's some AI that identifies me as a user likely to mess up. If so, they've got that part down pretty well.
ReplyDeleteJinx @1:15 PM I think the missing "end italics" token has to occur at the very end of the comment, and Blogger may also need a carriage routine to "swallow" it.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteWTG, Renee and CC! Just love this puzzle!
Anonymous @11:24 AM? FIR = "Finished it right"
CanadianEh 🇨🇦 ~ ditto to what T-Ken stated about your always pleasant demeanor. Also, I always enjoy coming over here to Canada as I’ve spent a considerable amount of time over the years. The landscape, architecture and cultures are quite similar in many ways to where I live, but I do appreciate the subtle nuances that are different, ie: what we in the U.S. refer to as gas stations/filling stations are called “gas bars” here, restrooms/bathrooms are called “washrooms” to name a few. Speaking of gas bars, the CW favourite ESSO is very prolific here. In the U.S. when things are expressed bilingually, it is English and Spanish, here, English and French. I also like hearing the Canadian accent, although as a Yooper I’ve been mistaken for Canadian due to my accent 😂. Saw a hat for sale in a gift shop today, maple leaf in front with the text in big letters “On the EH Team”. 😊
ReplyDeleteMusings
ReplyDelete-What a pleasant surprise to see our two friends constructing together. It was no surprise that the solve was pleasant as well.
-Don’t Fear The Reaper, but do fear the RANDO!
-I’ll take Ruffles plain!
-Somebody here had a mnemonic to remember the difference between carat and karat but, uh, I forgot it
-Have you ever heard a weather PREDICTER apologize?
-Our town has two Subways, a Jimmy Johns, a Firehouse sub, Irv’s Deli and a local Hero shop among others and now Quiznos is coming.
-Speaking of subs, nice job Splynter!
Puzzling thoughts:
ReplyDeleteNot much to add other than to say, "Congrat's to both sumdaze and C.C. on your puzzle. Well done, ladies! Very enjoyable solve (for a change)
What he said (just above)!
ReplyDeleteH.Gary, I can't remember the C or K trick we were taught either. But I can remember the difference from watching Reds games on TV circa 1962. A major sponsor had a cheesy-but-catchy commercial with a baseball bat as a conductor's wand, and a baseball filling the role as the "follow the bouncing ball" ball.
ReplyDelete"When a beer would taste good
Have a Hudepohl
Cold and golden
Have a Hudepohl
Cold and golden pleasure
Any time of day
Have a Hudepohl 14K."
So 14K is a gold measure, and that leaves the other thing as the unit they measure diamonds in.
I very much enjoyed this puzzle and agree with what Irish Miss said.
ReplyDeleteIf someone double dares me I’ll post a pic of a “cankle” (ala Jinx @ 5:58 AM).
ReplyDeleteGreat.puzzle!
ReplyDeleteI've seen the word "EKTORP" used by commenters several times now and I don't know what it means. I checked "Comments Section Abbrs" link and I see that Picard had the same question on May 24, 2024, and added the question to the comments and there still is no answer. It's was probably defined in some earlier blog comment but I must have missed it. Help from anyone would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteWaseeley can help you with that.
DeleteBrian ~ I believe the term was coined by constructor Emma Oxford. I know what it means but I can’t really define it as she did. It was on the Corner about a month ago when it came up.
ReplyDeleteTehachapi Ken- thanks for your kind words. You will make this Canadian blush!
ReplyDeleteSome CWs have more regional/American clues and I just chalk it up to Canadian disadvantage. But I have been doing the LA Times CW for many years, and have learned a lot of American info. (I am always pleased when I see Canadian Jeopardy contestants do well on American questions.)
I am a pro at U-dropping by now. (I just like to continue complaining about it!)
Yes, I am from Ontario and graduated from U of T (ask Diane about that!).
YooperPhil- thanks for your kind words also.
I am happy that you enjoy Canada. (BTW, we say gas station in southern Ontario, but say washroom in a public area but bathroom at home - go figure!)
Accent- what accent?
I need one of those hats. Go Oilers!
I did a google search for EKTORP and found that there is an IKEA sofa with that name. Then I searched the crossword archives for past Emma Oxford puzzles and on April 17, 2024, she had a clue for an Ektorp sofa maker and the answer was IKEA. Splinter also did the blog that day and mentioned a four letter furniture with a weird name had to be Ikea. Emma commented on that day with:
ReplyDelete"Another point of interest: Will Pfadenhauer and I have been trying to get "ektorp" into the crossworld lexicon. Much like natick, it is also a small city that no one has heard of (IKEA furniture is named after real places, fun fact), but where natick means "an impossible crossing," we submit for your consideration that ektorp should mean "a clue whose answer you can get from context without actually knowing it." Splynter has proved my point above, saying that weird furniture names is all that's needed to know the answer must be IKEA, even if you wouldn't have been able to come up with those furniture names independently."
This solves the mystery.
I was pleasantly surprised when on a road in Massachusetts I saw a directional sign that pointed to NATICK! That made me realize it is a real place!
ReplyDelete