I didn’t not like this puzzle. And, I wouldn’t not be disappointed if Jeffrey did not offer us more fun puzzles. I don’t plan to not have a good day, and hope you all do the same! Not a bad Tuesday!
Happy New Year to everyone from the Sooner State! I'm glad you got to learn a little history today. When I was in elementary school in the 70s, we celebrated Land Run Day every April 22nd by staking our claim to "free land" on the playground dressed in bonnets and long skirts. I was an adult before I heard the other side of that history.
Thank you, Mr. Martinovic for this awesome puzzle. There isn't a single negative about it! Only cruciverbalist ingenuity could capture such nuances of the English language, notice the double opposites in "hell, yes" and "heavens, no" and go on to construct a whole puzzle around doubly opposing expressions like it. Mr. Martinovic, you've blown me away. The other thing I loved about this puzzle was being reminded of Carole King singing "It's TOO LATE, baby, NOW, it's TOO LATE..." from her Tapestry album which I listened to in high rotation. I could probably still sing all the songs word for word, though it's been some fifty years. Here's a BBC live recording of her in 1971: <a href="https://youtu.be/hqwLrJ6QWho?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/hqwLrJ6QWho?feature=shared</a> Last but not least, the AD WARS have no effect on me. It's Coke. Always. Pepsi? Never. Always and forever, Coke.
I haven't sat down to create my own crossword in quite a long time, but the simultaneous simplicity and brilliance of this theme has convinced me to get back to it. Great idea that was perfectly executed. Brava.
Please allow me to dive into this opportunity to point out the incessant use of double negatives as positives! Note examples like "Don't forget" instead of "Remember" and "Don't leave" which implores "Stay." Could part of our cultural negativity bias be attributed to our focus on what we don't want as a way of stating our intent? "Don't drop it," really means "Hold on tight," and "Don't lose it" means "Put it in a safe place." Imagine what would change if we use our language intentionally instead of as a way of stating what we fear? Perhaps we will use words to declare and manifest the positive. As a fairly new solver, I do reveal letters and words instead of persevering and remaining determined. The annoying double negative "Never give up" would leave many of my puzzles incomplete, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn something new. When we realize this habit, it forces us to shift into declarative sentences. Shift happens!
@LisaBe In that same category, I long ago abandoned saying in my letters to clients, “… don’t hesitate to call me.” I prefer, “… please call me.”
@LisaBe The expression “double negative” usually doesn’t mean things like “don’t forget” or “don’t leave”, but rather constructions that are truly ungrammatical, like “I ain’t got nobody”.
@LisaBe I don't dislike your comment. :) Seriously, I do think it makes sense to state things positively rather than negatively, and am glad you pointed it out.
The animals in the illustration are too young to know they are supposed to hate each other; still so young that all they feel is sympathy and consolation. As Rogers and Hammerstein wrote in their song for the musical "South Pacific," you have to be carefully taught—to hate. Right now, hate seems to be prevailing and we need to turn that around. We must at least try. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPf6ITsjsgk</a>
@dutchiris Hammerstein wrote the words.
@dutchiris , That song from South Pacific is one of my favorites. Perhaps the emus would like it as well
Predawn here, so there ain't no sunshine yet. Where was I? Oh yeah - fun puzzle and a pretty smooth solve. Catching on to the theme was a big help and that's always a nice touch. I've solved every 2024 puzzle so far, so there ain't no stoppin' me now. Just ain't no mountain high enough. ..
@Rich in Atlanta Oh, and of course my answer history search and puzzle idea today: With some pondering, came up with three fifteen letter answers with the same pattern. Wondered if there might be a possible theme there. Here are those answers; WAXINGANDWANING WININGANDDINING LOVINGANDGIVING Much to my surprise, the only one of those that has ever been in a puzzle is LOVINGANDGIVING in a 1965 puzzle with the clue: "Friday's child." One other 15 letter answer in that one, clued as "Saturday's child." WORKSFORALIVING I guess I have far to go. ..
@Rich in Atlanta Thanks for the earworms, Rich! Bill Withers and Diana Ross to start the work week -- I'm diggin' it! I have to confess, I required a lookup for "Ain't No Stopping Me Now". The earworm was immediate, but the duo McFadden & Whitehead don't got no traction in my brain. In 1979, the track certainly would have been played at my middle school dances though!
Three things I liked very much. First, what a splendid theme! I love word quirks, and here we have in-the-language phrase pairs whose elements are opposites. Hah! New to me and très cool! Second, I adore that this theme gives riddles to crack. After revealing the first theme pair and seeing what was going on, it was great fun to uncover a theme answer and guess at its partner. These two things alone brought a big thumbs up, but then there was an additional gift to my brain, which relishes work. Such as in the NW for me, where I had confidently slapped in ECO for EPA, LITHE for ON TOE, and HONOR for OSCAR. That provided a lovely tangle for my brain to deal with. Lots of loveliness, therefore, for me, in your creation, Jeffrey. Thank you so much for making this!
A puzzler LEFT HOME in the morning but forgot their device. RIGHT AWAY, they realized the blunder: how would they do the day’s puzzle!? They thought, if I STAY DOWN in this part of town maybe I’ll RUN ACROSS a convenience store selling the NYT. Barry, I tried, but failed, to think of a “double negative” for STONE TABLET that I could add to this story…
Cat Lady Margaret "stone tablet" is going to keep me busy for a while trying to find its double negative. Meantime, I hope you caught this last night but in case you didn't you might like Anderson Cooper's reaction to John Mayer doing New Year's at a Tokyo cat bar: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=cnn+anderson+cooper+cat+bar&oq=cnn+andersoon+c&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgGEAAYAxgNMgYIABBFGDkyDwgBEC4YDRiDARixAxiABDIICAIQABgDGA0yCAgDEAAYAxgNMggIBBAAGAMYDTIICAUQABgDGA0yCAgGEAAYAxgNMggIBxAAGAMYDTIICAgQABgDGA0yBggJEEUYQNIBCDg4NzVqMGo5qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:40eebd4e,vid:CrF0fiYZ_2c,st:0" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/search?q=cnn+anderson+cooper+cat+bar&oq=cnn+andersoon+c&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgGEAAYAxgNMgYIABBFGDkyDwgBEC4YDRiDARixAxiABDIICAIQABgDGA0yCAgDEAAYAxgNMggIBBAAGAMYDTIICAUQABgDGA0yCAgGEAAYAxgNMggIBxAAGAMYDTIICAgQABgDGA0yBggJEEUYQNIBCDg4NzVqMGo5qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:40eebd4e,vid:CrF0fiYZ_2c,st:0</a>
@Cat Lady Margaret PAPER SCROLL? Trying to do better but that's all I have so far.
@Cat Lady Margaret When I read your story and comment earlier, I thought I had a suggestion - but by the time I was able to return to reply, it has passed me by. This is close: WATER BRUSH But I don't disagree that a STONE TABLET is difficult to negate! Hahaha Please, emus, don't send my post back to the beginning of time...
This puzzle was a definite HELL YES for me. I don’t always figure out the revealer whilst solving, but it is really fun when I am able to use the theme to fill in the missing clues (especially the long ones). Theme is clever! The ones that didn’t make the cut are pretty good too. Nice Tuesday puzzle that took me a bit longer than usual, but just nice brain twisting. I also like when I learn something new, especially with English grammar and spelling (since I consider myself already quite ‘good’ at it). Didn’t know rigmarole can also be spelled as RIGAMAROLE. New knowledge for the day.
When naysayers play poker, they up the anti. (Well, as far as I no.)
@Mike You are such a card!
@Mike I imagine you spend a great deal of time on this. Members of your fan club will see it as a diamond in the rough, whether or not they have the heart to have their pets spayed. Suit yourself. Shoe, emus!
Unrelated to today's puzzle (or any puzzle for that matter), but I thought the Wordplay crowd might enjoy this. I don't know how to post the accompanying photo, but what it showed was a street piled up with books. And the caption was: This was the scene on the Summerlin Parkway yesterday after thousands of copies of Roget's Thesaurus spilled. No one was hurt, but the spectators were stunned, startled, aghast, taken aback, stupefied, confused, shocked, rattled, paralyzed, dazed, bewildered, mixed up, surprised, awed, dumbfounded, nonplussed, flabbergasted, astounded, amazed, confounded, astonished, overwhelmed, horrified, numbed, speechless, and perplexed. ..
@Rich in Atlanta But clearly not at a loss for words. …….. !!!!!!!!!! Emus, begone! ! Scram! Beat it! Get lost! Make like a tree and leave (with apologies to Biff Tanner)! Get outa here! Buzz off! Go away! Shoo! Skedaddle! Go jump in the lake! Scat! Off with you!
Rich, Photos of that same "accident" in many different locations have been around for years; the joke has been around for decades. I'm not sure the emus have heard it before.
I love the interesting pairing of phrases. Who knew??!! Very nice puzzle.
As Sam's photo caption suggests, the themers are better described as opposites than negatives. But I'll play along and cut some slack for the revealer. The themers themselves are clever; I love the the combinations of opposite words (e.g., GO + DARK and STOP + LIGHT) yield entirely different phrases. I'll relate two interesting aspects of my solve. The first is my confident entry of ECO for 1A, only to correct a few seconds later to EPA, and then to see it pop up again--for real--at 54A. The second is my finishing the puzzle with the entry of TREYS, only to glance below and see Isaac Aronow's The Crossword Stumper column on "Trey." How spooky. Do baby Sumatran tigers and orangs make good emotional support animals? They may be an odd couple but they're both grieving the loss of habitat in Indonesia.
@Henry Su Edit: "I love how the combinations ..." Emus, please give us an edit option.
What a fun theme! For those who don't know, Demi Lovato is an amazingly talented singer-songwriter. So much so that the world probably couldn't handle a Whole Lovato. Duck, duck, emu.
@ad absurdum You are a treasure! Don't you mean duck, duck, gray emu?
It's not uncomplimentary to say this crossword puzzle is anything but uninteresting and maladroit. cc: emu handler
A really nice "Look at all the fun you can have with the English language" puzzle. To see it on a Tuesday is icing on the cake. By changing each half of both phrases separately, you come up with new phrases that are in no way "opposites" of each other. And the ways in which they're not is a real hoot. HIT ME and MISS YOU. Wonderful! This is such a good puzzle idea that it seems lots and lots of constructors would have thought of it. But I don't think anyone else has. Jeffrey has wit and imagination. Kudos! Give the guy a Thursday next time!
Emcee: “OK, folks, we’ve got a newcomer to our comedy stage tonight. Let’s give a warm Yuk House welcome to Ari Stottel!” Ari: “Ever wonder why most people are not logical? It’s true of stand-up comics too, isn’t it? Like the guy who was up here before me. What was his name, Adonis something? He’s at a party and he tells a joke and people laugh. Who knows why, maybe to be nice or maybe the joke was actually funny. But next thing you know, Adonis is telling his wife, ‘Baby, I’m giving it all up. I’m ditching my career as a money changer. I’m going to do stand-up full-time!’ His wife says, ‘But Adonis, you told one joke at a party, that doesn’t mean you’re a comedian!’ Adonis, of course, doesn’t listen and the result? Well, the result is that snoozefest you were just subjected to for the last 15 minutes. Adonis, Adonis, your wife was right! Telling one joke at a party does not make you a comedian. Just kidding Adonis, I love you. Very funny routine. [Loudly whispered aside to audience:] Not kidding.” Who doesn’t think of Aristotle when they think of comedy? Sam, thank you for that. Very interesting puzzle, which is the hallmark of a good Tuesday. Thank you, Jeffrey!
@Puzzlemucker That was some CLASSICAL borscht belt shtick; who knew Mt. Olympus was in the Catskills? And you're here all week!
Enjoyed the puzzle! Had Eon before ERA (44A) and really liked how different the related entries were. Although the revealer mentions grammar and others have debated Negative vs Opposite, my take is to think of film negatives (remember those?). Looking at a negative, every thing is reversed: color, direction, etc. So, I'm OK with Double Negative since both words are reversed. Thanks!
@SuzyQ I like the optical interpretation. Brava. I remember What Cheer?, Ki-Yi-Yi, and soda fountain cabinets from my time in the Ocean State.
I liked this puzzle, and I can easily imagine the theme, twisted a little bit, working on a tricksy Thursday. Sam, as a Canadian, you may be excused from not knowing the "Sooner State"--formerly "Indian* Territory", home to peoples forcibly removed from their ancestral homelands (The Indian Removal Act) and relocated (The Trail of Tears), with no regard to their widely divergant cultures, tradtions, and histories, and smushed onto a relatively small tract of land (which already had peoples living there)--a tract of land which no Euro-americans wanted, until they did (50 years later). At which point the Federal government renegged on even that policy, and "gifted" it to said Euro-american would-be settlers, some of whom (the "sooners") opened their gifts the night before, as it were. Perhaps the Second Great American Sin (I'll leave you all to figure out what the first was); and one for which no current Oklahomans should be burdened with. Of course, the clue was actually about Texas, a state with its own troubled history. *There is no good term--they're obviously not from India, nor, as a rule, savage; but, having been born here, I am just as an indigenous, native American as any. Perhaps Canadians come closest with their term "First Nations". I will dismount my soap-box now. (Even as I hit submit, our local radio,WRCJ, is playing "Oh, what a beautiful morning!"--what irony!)
Furthermore, Columbus was trying to reach the Spice Islands, AKA Indonesia now (minus EAST TIMOR!), also not India, when he labeled the original inhabitants of the West Indies
@Bill Quite a few people from the original tribal nations don’t object to being called Indians or American Indians. What they object to more is being called what they used to call them at FedEx Field just outside of Washington. Most of them, anyway.
Bill, You and I are indigenous but we are not Indigenous. I hope that's clear! <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indigenous" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/indigenous</a> Also, "Indian Territory" is fine if you're referring to something called "Indian Territory." I have found that Indigenous people prefer to be identified by their (First) Nation, not by any more general term. I have found that true for non-Indigenous people too.
I'm not a big fan of cross-referenced clues, but they're easier for me on the big stone tablet than they are for you folks on phones. I wish this had run on a Wednesday, with tougher clues that would have forced me to consider the cross-references; as it was, I just went top to bottom and looked at the pairs of DOUBLE NEGATIVES later. (Newer solvers may get more out of this one than I did, and I hope they do.) Clever concept, good execution, nice solo debut. Thanks, Jeffrey.
@Barry Ancona I solve on my iPad and the cross-referenced clues were not a problem. When, for example, the cursor was in the space for 16A STAND DOWN, the space for 61A SIT UP was highlighted. Having quickly picked up the theme, it was easy to see what each pair of DOUBLE NEGATIVEs was.
Just a heads up.. Tomorrow, I'll be posting my favorite original clues of 2023, and it was a very good year on that front! Et tu, emu?
I felt this puzzle was a perfect Tuesday... clever theme, but easy enough that I think almost everyone should be able to solve it without too much trouble. Even those who found it too easy can still be entertained by the theme.
@Janine I usually try to speed solve Mon thru Wed puzzles, but today I slowed down to appreciate the theme as it unfolded.
I just yesterday - before doing this puzzle - encountered the term “anti-parallel,” which has meanings in physics, chemistry, mathematics: two things are parallel in one sense, yet oppositely directed. The opinions about negative compared to opposite strike me as wrought from the same cloth. Good old University Challenge, keeping me on my toes.
Late answer history search - inspired by ESAU. I was thinking about the old phrase - "he saw Esau on the seesaw."(multiple variations of that), so I went and looked up answers with ESAU embedded in one way or another. I was quite surprised at the number of quite different terms or words that embed that string. First of all.... yes, there were a couple of variations of the phrase I mentioned. One example: SINCESHESAWESAUSEESAW But then... APPLESAUCE, BARBECUESAUCE, HOLLANDAISESAUCE and.... ELEVEN other sauces. Never noticed that. JOHNJAMESAUDOBON MAKESAUTURN THESAURUS CHARLIESAUNT LADIESAUXILIARY ONESAUTUMNYEARS WINNIPESAUKEE Just.. surprised. Funny how we can overlook common letter sequences (or at least I can). ..
As a theme lover I found this especially fun as it was full of theme entries, all of which made me smile. I also thought it just right for a Tuesday. Definitely looking forward to more from Jeffrey.
I don't think anybody has mentioned how "Grammatical no-nos" is a cluing doubly at the answer. It's so much fun!
Long(ish)ime reader of Wordplay, first time commenter. Have been finding both the puzzles and this column to be a great delight. Thought this Tuesday was a lot of fun and enjoyed the double negative theming. Happy 2024 to all of you and looking forward to 364 more puzzles this year!
The puzzle was fair and a different concept than usual...but the photo made it even more worth the solve. Love the eyes on the tiger cub and the hand of the chimp!
Thanks Jeffery for not including Oreo double stuffs in the grid. So here is how a SELLATHON works: Car prices are increased by some amount and then advertised as less than that amount as a discount. Grandfather owned a dealership and his advice was to research the car you want and the price you want to pay. Write the amount on a 3x5 card, point to the car and hand the sales person the card. Say nothing and accept that a dealer is far more experienced at selling cars than you are at buying them. Be prepared for an angry sales person. Remember say nothing, just point to the card.
@dk I wish I could do that. They just keep up the fast talk and I cave every time. But since I intend to die having owned nothing but stick shifts I do have some bargaining power now. Everybody says they like sticks but I seem to be the only one who wants to buy one. Oh well, I really enjoyed this puzzle. I loved 34 A.
I enjoyed the various phrases used for the theme answers. No, opposites and negatives are not the same thing, but they’re close enough for me. (And I like Suzy Q’s photo negative analogy.) I hade SALE-A-THON for 67A, which sorta made sense when I typed it. Finding that mistake took me a minute or so. Thanks, Mr. Martinovic!
30D: Great seeing that one; a term I learned from my mother. Better than my Tuesday average. I feel better about 2024 now after tanking on yesterday's puzzle by overlooking my entry of PLOT instead of PLOY. It was so bad I had to clear the board and start over. Excelsior! I felt like such a meathead :-)
Reason number 4,327 that shows I read and watch too many murder mysteries: I desperately wanted 30 down to be rigor mortis. It's the first thing I thought of because I already had ROBE and DOUBLE NEGATIVE. It doesn't make sense and it doesn't fit, but maybe it was a famous Tuesday rebus... Hahaha! Hey, the heart wants what it wants. New to me: TREYS. Embarrassingly long for me to understand: the two words in 40 down for tussle are AT IT, instead of two other words... I legit could not figure out how that stood for tussle. Please don't kick me out! 😊
@HeathieJ When two are having a vigorous, sometimes physical disagreement, they are often said to be "going AT IT"
@HeathieJ I had to laugh at your dook for ATIT. That particular phrase did not occur to me until I read your post. ..........................................
Fun theme and a Tuesday record time for me! I was especially happy to see RIGAMAROLE, which is such a great word. SHOD us also a fun word.
That was a brilliant piece of construction worthy of more than a Tuesday. To find all those sort-of-self-contradictory pairs of phrases (e.g., GO DARK and STOP LIGHT) and to stack them into a puzzle was genius. I think the cluing left a little to be desired with some late-week level clues (e.g., 5D) with some of Monday stature (18A, 3D, many others). In other words I think it was an excellent piece of construction which could have used help from the editors to make it more even.
Good fun. Also stumbled at OVoid>OVATE and SaLeATHON>SELLATHON. Around here the boating enthusiasts refer to the ocean as *out front* and the bay as *in back*. Not sure how regionally focused that is.
Two delightful puzzles in a row in '24 but a nasty Saturday lurks in our future! No mas! No mas!
@Once a Marine Keep calm and carry on. The last time I had a fear like that, the whole week was easy. of course, eventually karmic payback
Opposites or negatives—neither affected the solve, so I didn't think to quibble about which they were—I just got on with working and finishing the puzzle. I'll agree that it went a bit too quickly, but it was fun while it lasted. Like Henry Su, I entered ECO for 1A only to have to change that to EPA and enter ECO later. A few places needed crosses to get started, but they filled in quickly. They may not use SELL-A-THON, but they've altered it to Toyotathon, which is their current promotion. Thanks, Jeffrey!
Now, wasn't *that* a dainty dish to set before.... Everybody! I didn't even mind being sent hither and thither about the grid. HIT ME was pretty much first into the grid, but I didn't go looking for the pairing, instead working off the partials to fill things in. OVOID before OVATE. SORT before RANK And I looked askance at LAKER, because wasn't he a Cleveland CAValier first? When he took the deal, Ohio people burned their jersey shirts with his number. Then later he returned to a hero's welcome. Fickle or Forgiving? You decide. I also enjoyed the entries like 34A that were clued as opposites, in tune with the themers. All in all, this was just a lovely puzzle! So fun!
@Mean Old Lady "OVOID before OVATE." Me too, then I just erased O-I-D, and waited for the crosses. The kealoa of geometrty. I think that "Ovate" is used more in botany, to describe leaves; and"Ovoid" more in geometry, with special reference to 3-D solids. And, yes, I still think of him as a Cav, so much so that I considered trying to fit OHIOAN into the grid. It was once my displeasure to interact with Lebron James, when the Lakers were staying at our hotel. It resulted in this rather Orwellian conversation with their team nutritionist: She: "You see, we have very special players on our team, who have very special demands" Me: "Aren't all your players special?" She: "Yes, but some of our players are more special than others." Still, he gives back a lot to Akron, OH; and bought his mother a mega-mansion in Bath, so I suppose there's that.
Thanks Jeffrey, for some very pleasant word play! Hope to see you on Thursday soon.
This was an excellent theme well executed. My only quibble would be that I wish the cluing was a bit harder. Like yesterday's puzzle, this fell in almost a record fast time for me.
@CaptainQuahog Congratulations on your record time. Since you found it easy, the NYT editors should definitely rush to make Tuesday puzzles harder and alienate all the people that aren’t yet crossword experts like you. Who cares if this is literally the whole purpose and strategy of the NYT and the early week easy vs later week hard approach to make sure people of all skill levels can fall in love with crosswords….. captainQuahog is smarter than everyone else and we should only cater to his needs! NYT editors, please make all puzzles even Monday with hard clues please because your puzzles need to cater only to CaptainQuahog.
Was anyone else thrown off by ERA being clued as “long time”? I was expecting EON or even AGE, but I feel like ERA is typically defined and clued as a set period of time, not on it being long. I feel like an ERA, while it could be a long time, could also be (in the scale of years) fairly short, like the contemporary era only being about 30 years. I freely admit my perception might have been influenced by Taylor Swift and her fans’ definition of Eras.
Ellie, I treated it as a KEALOA and let NERO and ESAU make the call between EON and ERA.
@Ellie Thornton - “era” : a geochronologic unit equal to tens to hundreds of millions of years… Words mean lots of things…
@Ellie Thornton I also was thrown, but ERA was close enough for me. :-) emu food more emu food
An entertaining puzzle, but all too "short". This was, perhaps, too easily solved, even for a Monday. My frustration with it, therefore, is it went by too quickly: I wanted more.
@Neil Bellinson Not for me. My time was within a minute of my average.
@Neil Bellinson Gotta love a holiday-shortened week: today is Tuesday! Did the emus get the day off yesterday, too?
Not a fan of this one. I think the theme is a bit of a stretch - the revealer clues are double opposites, not negatives. Plus many glues and proper nouns that I didn’t think were either elegant or easy such as AMAS, IVEY, AGHA, SHOD, ATIT. Never heard of RIGAMAROLE but a fun one to learn. I was able to complete the puzzle with crosses and trials and errors but didn’t leave feeling great.
@mimi “Double negatives” is a play on words, “double opposites”, not so much. Thought it was a clever theme, and the revealer appropriate. As someone may have said, to negate something is to take the opposite position.
A lovely puzzle today (thank you, Jeffrey Martinovic & eds.) accompanied by an equally lovely Wordplay image. Why can't we all just get along? Thanks, Sam!
@Josh Just wondering... who is not getting along? Did I miss a few skirmishes? Relax and enjoy, Josh!
Really excellent Tuesday puzzle. Found myself pondering if there are any other idioms that exist as mirror-images of each other. Fun puzzle to chew on during my lunch break!
Can someone educate me about “emus?” I am new to this and feel like the frequent references are over my head and there is some sort of secret society that I am missing out on. Thank you
@Phil The NYT moderates comments for civility. The first line of defense appears to be a filter that picks up curse words and short comments from frequent commenters (which is what bots sometimes do). “EMU” is a backronym for this “Electronic Moderating Unit.” Because short comments sometimes go through without a problem, some people deny the existence of emus. Trust me, they’re real. I long ago lost track of the number of comments I submitted that never arrived here.
That was a hard one. I had to confirm with an online dictionary that people actually spell RIGMAROLE that way when it seemed that would be the only option. Had to look up TREYS and AGHA as I was so completely lost as HOOPS and GOALS didn't work with anything. Do people refer to a 'lemon soda' instead of lemonade? Another one that was tripping me up for ages.
@Theo Lemonade is not carbonated. The clue refers to a citrus drink that is carbonated, therefore, lemon soda is appropriate here. This one tripped me up at first as I thought it was asking for the name of a brank of lemon soda, and I couldn't for the life of me think of any lemon soda brand that is 9 letters long.
Well, that was fun. Thank you, Jeffrey. See you later in the week one of these days? emu food more emu food