As threatened below - I had posted these on Facebook a couple of years ago and managed to find them this morning. Here's a few - I might do some more tomorrow; Dad, are we pyromaniacs? Yes, we arson. What do you call a pig with laryngitis? Disgruntled. Writing my name in cursive is my signature move. Why do bees stay in their hives during winter? Swarm. Just so everyone’s clear, I’m going to put my glasses on. A commander walks into a bar and orders everyone around. I lost my job as a stage designer. I left without making a scene. Never buy flowers from a monk. Only you can prevent florist friars. How much did the pirate pay to get his ears pierced? A buccaneer. I once worked at a cheap pizza shop to get by. I kneaded the dough. Why is it unwise to share your secrets with a clock? Well, time will tell. When I told my contractor I didn’t want carpeted steps, they gave me a blank stare. Bono and The Edge walk into a Dublin bar and the bartender says, “Oh no, not U2 again.” ..
@Rich in Atlanta Thanks for the breakfast treat!
@Rich in Atlanta Thanks for these. I meant to tell you that I reused your priest, pastor, and rabbit joke from yesterday which was received with all the appropriate groans… — — — — — — — — — — — —
@Rich in Atlanta That brought a lot of smiles, thanks , Rich.
When the wildebeest explored the rotating body of water, it was a whole gnu whirled. (Eddy or not, here I pun.)
@Mike I’d like to think of a clever riposte but your brilliant puns came twirly in the morning
@Mike I don't know whether you are DIZZY or DITZY.... I just go around and arounnd, trying to decide.
@Mike Just the thing for dinner! Serengeti, plain, and mete balls.
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Bit of deductive reasoning? (3)(3) 2. Nobody else can take it (6) 3. Dog park? (4)(4) 4. Short hedge (4) 5. Turner on the radio (4) TAX TIP SELFIE FOOT REST OTOH DIAL
Thanks for a fun Monday puzzle, Mr. Evans. And thanks for this reminder: “[G]etting better at crosswords is a long process of not knowing stuff, followed by then knowing said stuff.” I learn new things from crossword puzzles almost every day. And sometimes, I actually remember it.
I set a new personal record today: 8:08 minutes without looking up a single hint/answer! I'm now two years into this new hobby/obsession and I am working Monday-Wednesday with aplomb, mostly because I wanted to use "aplomb" in a sentence today; I recommend you do the same.
@Alan Parker Little Jack Horner stuck in his thumb and pulled out aplomb. Tank you, well done!
@Alan Parker Here is my limerick, composed many years ago for a contribution to a Thanksgiving issue of our local paper: There once was a turkey named Tom Who consented to dance at our prom He hung out all summer It was kind of a bummer When we served him with yams and aplomb.
Swell progression, although for me the line from sister city to alien world is more circular than linear: our world is an alien world in so many ways that we don't really need to take a rocket ship to the Outer Limits. I feel appalled, outraged, incredulous and alienated every time I read the news. Also unable to breathe. What mad universe is this? Good ancillary fillery! If you're going to space you might as well have Padme and Artoo escort you. Don't bother with Orion, head for Tau Ceti, the closest G-class star (like the Sun) which scientists suggest has a system of 5 planets. Let's hope there's one planet where Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin are running things. Can you imagine a bunch of annoying Yippies in control of a planet? They'd probably start demonstrating against their own government. Enjoyed the septet of busybodies / don't ask / rat out / tact / open / lie / intel -- lot of pushing and pulling there between seeking truth and spreading fiction, just the reason this world feels so upside down -- the only thing that's real these days are our tenets -- or are they? And Jump start over Abort sounds like your typical Space-X launch. You can have my seat. I'm going to stay right here on good ol' Terra, in my purple state, writing my purple prose, toddling around in my eco friendly car, a Ford Escort, when I'm not drunk. Tell me all about your trip over some brie when you get back to your host country!
john ezra, Thanks for adding quite a bit to today's story. I was waiting for the SISTER PURPLE HOST ALIEN to do something, but it never happened. I miss ABBIE Hoffman. Please come to Chicago...
@Barry Ancona. Given the colour of the alien I immediately thought of the (one-eyed, one-horned, flying) PURPLE people eater. Emus are too tough to eat
@john ezra - good ole Churchy LaFemme in the Pogo cartoons said: “Me, I’m a _terra_firma_ man… the more firma, the less terra.”
Thank you for your creation, Mr. Evans! Nothing like starting the week off right, with an UBER smart puzzle and MEGA pleasant solve, one of those you wish would go on and on. But since the puzzle didn't take us there, I'll let music do it... Under The Milky Way Tonight (The Church) <a href="https://youtu.be/pWxJEIz7sSA?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/pWxJEIz7sSA?feature=shared</a> + Across The Universe (The Beatles) <a href="https://youtu.be/90M60PzmxEE?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/90M60PzmxEE?feature=shared</a> I wish you all a great week, breezy as the puzzle, melodic as these tunes.
@sotto voce Oh wow, I hadn't listened to Under the Milky Way in ages! I think I still have that cassette in the basement somewhere.
@sotto voce I love both songs! Alexa, play Across the Universe by Fiona Apple. Yes, I live the Beatles too.
If you wanted to borrow an Enormous amount of money. I spose you could put up the entire Earth as collateral. That would make it A LIEN WORLD, if only you could plan it. Also: Wouldn't "Charlotte's Web" be perfect if Wilbur the Humble Pig lived in a STY MIES van der Rohe designed? And frankly, I don't want anyone to PADME any more than I PAD MEself. All this talk of doughnuts, PLAIN or otherwise, and then up JUMPS TART, probably with a WHEEL of BRIE on the side. Mixed feelings about NC being a PURPLE STATE; hope we aren't on the way to a gHOST COUNTRY. We ARTOO good for that. Let TACT KEEP me from making ALOE point here Shall just add that BUTTINSKIS fit so nicely in the BUSYBODIES slot, ALEXical coup! Well done, to T.H.E. Trent H Evans constructor. Thanks and come back soon
@Leapfinger Wow. This is absolutely genius. What a brilliant mind! . . . . . . . . E'mu n awe.
@Leapfinger Love your take on a change of digs for SOME PIG! 'Thought he might like baahaus, as well.
A smug start to the week: I managed it in 12m31s without looking at any of the down clues. Always my Monday challenge, and I managed. Yay me! Hope y’all enjoy it.
@Petrol Good idea to make it more challenging. I'll try all across clues tomorrow.
I just read about Will Shortz's stroke from the link in the constructor notes. I've only done NYT crosswords in the Shortz era, and they've given me lots of pleasure along with plenty of frustration. I also used to really enjoy his Sunday puzzle bit on NPR before the 2016 election news and aftermath turned me into a less regular listener. I'm joining in the well wishes for a speedy recovery.
Trent, your comment on failing memory perfectly describes mine. I am pitifully proud of myself when I remember why I just went upstairs to do something . I also really enjoyed this lovely Monday puzzle, full of interesting clues and entries, but nice and easy. Come back soon.
@suejean I'll join that crowd. Could I even remember a theme answer in this puzzle without flipping over to Xword Info? Well... maybe one, but that would be about it. And... I was going to add something else, but now I can't remember. At least I remember the emus. ..
@suejean It's a real term. Doorway amnesia. I find that if I come to a complete stop and stand totally still for a couple of seconds, the reason for my trip will come back into focus. Most of the time!
BUSYBODIES in a dark hallway . . . So what's up, CLAN? Solvin', man Fillin' fillin'? Yo, you know I had to post, you know why right? Why? Because, yo, I never step on plastic TOYS without a fight? Yeah You know what you gonna hear, right? Whatchu wanna hear? I wanna hear that LEGO YELP LEGO again? Ah, yeah, again and again LEGO block comin' at ya Watch your step, kid Watch your step, kid (protect ya foot, kid) Watch your step, kid (MEGA pain is off) Watch your step, kid Watch your step, kid Watch your step, kid (de floor's a wreck) LEGO on my sole like JUMPSTART from a tazer The small brick, getting my steps to waiver PADME some toes like melted BRIE in a pan Swingin' past strewn blocks like your neighborhood Spiderman So uh, DONTASK, keep clue pickin' While I got to flippin' off the LEGO they stickin' ARTOO beepin', red, danger! Deep in the dark with LEGO to rip ya toes apart!
@Whoa Nellie That's just sick -- as the kids say -- riffing on Protect Ya Neck, you even got in the Spiderman reference. In awe. Right emu-tang clan?
So easy and fast. Not a sweat was broken, even for KRONA. I mean, look at my name! Have a good work week!
I've completed most of the NY Times puzzles since Mom passed in 2020, but I will never be very good at it. It's probably time for me to spend more time on the things that come naturally to me, like portrait painting. But Mondays don't take much time. Today was probably a record for me at 7:52. I recall people saying they completed a Monday in under a minute, so I have no illusions. Just clouds. In my cocoa.
@NESB is Still thinking Frankly I'd need to see a video of someone completing it in under a minute. One would have to be a darn good typist even to enter in the answers with the solution in front of them in under a minute.
@NESB is Still thinking I don't think I've ever seen anyone claim to have completed a Monday puzzle in under a minute. (Maybe type in a completed puzzle in that time.) I once did a Mini in 8 seconds, which required me to type blindly while looking at the clues (and reading the next clue while typing). It also required me to get all the Across clues right immediately, so I only had to enter five answers. Completing this Mini in 8 seconds was a complete and utter freak occurrence, and I couldn't imagine maintaining that pace for an entire Monday puzzle. (I have been able to get others done in 9-10 seconds occasionally.) And even if I could maintain a rate of 8 seconds per 5x5 area, the Mini is 1/9 the size or a standard puzzle, so even that would be 72 seconds, or more than a minute, with no pauses or errors. My Monday best (and therefore overall best) is more than double that rate. I doubt I could ever do much better than that.
@NESB is Still thinking Why bother to time it? I say it matters not how quickly a puzzle is solved. I'm retired. I do the puzzle while I have my (lone) cup of coffee and wait for DHubby to bring me breakfast. I enjoy longer solves, but since I'm paying for this subscription, I do the MTW puzzles as well as the late-week ones. What's your rush?
I'll never understand why the puzzle keeps trying to make 'EKE by' a thing. EKE OUT is a thing. 'EKE by' is not. Scrape by, sure. But EKE on its own doesn't really make sense. It needs the 'out', and the verb phrase is transitive. No dictionary I've looked in reports use of 'EKE by', and some even insist that EKE can only be used followed by 'out'. I also don't get why they seem to think ASAP and STAT are synonymous. ASAP doesn't mean drop everything and do it right now. It's much more forgiving, as implied by what it actually stands for.
lawrence, You may want to take a deeper dive into EKE, past and future: <a href="https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wc/through-the-wringer-squeezing-the-meaning-from-eke" target="_blank">https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/wc/through-the-wringer-squeezing-the-meaning-from-eke</a>/ Regarding ASAP and STAT, please note that crossword clues are supposed to be *hints* to answers, not their synonyms.
@lawrence Apparently, some lexicographers think "EKE by" is a thing: HOW TO USE EKE IN A SENTENCE... Perhaps if Nautiluses and Allonautiluses only had to survive the warming depths, they would do as they have always done—eke by. TWILIGHT OF THE NAUTILUS - ISSUE 104: HARMONY | PETER WARD | AUGUST 11, 2021 | NAUTILUS... I eked by in the rest of my classes, often skipping weeks of lectures just to avoid getting called on by professors. IS THE FUTURE OF FARMING IN THE OCEAN? (EP. 467) | STEPHEN J. DUBNER | JUNE 24, 2021 | FREAKONOMICS <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/eke" target="_blank">https://www.dictionary.com/browse/eke</a>
"but getting better at crosswords is a long process of not knowing stuff, followed by then knowing said stuff. " Exactly, Trent. Padme, Cleo, and Ethel make an interesting trio of women.
Just checking in to let you all know I'm still walking the earth. Insanely busy time right now but carved out the necessary to complete the weekend and today's puzzles. Here's a summary: Saturday: A proper head scratcher with the NE corner still haunting me. Sunday: Pleasantly baffling. Have not read yesterday's column/comments yet and still have a bit to go. I'll wrap that up tonight. Today: Perfect Monday fun. Grandson's second robotics weekend in a row resulted in he and his team placing in the finals. Alas, no gold but silver will do just fine. Expect to get back into the daily commenting groove tomorrow.
6:40 Getting faster on these Monday puzzles If I could only get Saturday’s this rapidly!!!
@Sean Peterson No! Monday's puzzles go by too quickly. I like having a nice long slog, with things to look up so I learn new stuff. But I'm semi-retired, kids gone, no pets. Just wonderful husband and crossword puzzles to entertain me in the evenings.
Nice, breezy start to the week. Love the theme. I’ve started keto today so will probably turn into Medusa by Wednesday when the sugar withdrawal kicks in. Advance apologies if my comments become a little snippy. See you on the other side.
I really hoped 3 Down would be BUTTINSKIS! Fun puzzle to start 5he week.
@Tom I also tried BUTTINSKIS first. Had to abandon it pretty quickly but it was fun while it lasted.
@Tom KIBBITZERS also fit in 3D, by the way, but the B in ABBIE Hoffman put the kibosh on that.
I noted ALAS and ALEX in consecutive answers to 37A and 38A. The recent passing of the long-time host of “Jeopardy” marked the end of an era. Since that time there hasn’t been anyone like him and, I dare say, there never shall be. !!!!!!! …….. For $200, this “bird” is a curse to NYT cruciverbalists.
@Strudel Dad I know there is a lot of overlap between this group and Jeopardy watchers. This morning, the CBS show “Sunday Morning” had a nice piece on Ken Jennings’ new role replacing Alex. It’s worth watching if anyone gets the chance. — — — — — — — —
@Strudel Dad What is a muumuu? (Sorry, too much World Cup ALOHAPARTY) Bella Italia! No wooden spoon this year!
Abbie Hoffman at 1A! LOL. When the judge at one of his trials asked him what state he was from, Abbie Hoffman said he lived in the state of his mind, or something like that. So this fun puzzle had the potential of going into another state completely! I enjoyed it although I had never heard of Padme and kept thinking it was wrong and I’d have to go back. So when I got my gold star my first thought was, Padme?
@Ann I remember I bought “Steal This Book” in 1971. A lot of books were sold, not sure how many were stolen. In order to reflect a little more accurately Abbie’s testimony, I share this transcript from his Chicago 7 trial. When prosecutor introduced him to the jury, he stood up and blew them a kiss. The judge responded, “The jury is directed to disregard the kiss from Mr. Hoffman. Dude was a space cadet, for sure. See : <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yc2pvme2" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/yc2pvme2</a>
@Ann Seeing ABBIE Hoffman in the grid immediately made me think of "The Trial of the Chicago 7" on Netflix. Gripping movie. I highly recommend it to those who haven't watched it yet. . . . . . .
This was a straightforward Monday puzzle. I agree with Sam E. that this is a nice one for beginner solvers. Just a technical note on a frequently appearing entry: the crime associated with 15A is "aid and ABET," in which "aid" means "helping" and "abet" means "encouraging" or "inciting." But, hey, this is a crossword puzzle, and so that level of precision isn't necessary. In other news, I came across this Newsweek article about a dad who was stumped by his kid's crossword puzzle, which features farm animals. The entry that puzzled the dad begins with a P and has four letters. Hmmm. <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/dad-stumped-four-letter-answer-kids-animal-themed-crossword-puzzle-1879292" target="_blank">https://www.newsweek.com/dad-stumped-four-letter-answer-kids-animal-themed-crossword-puzzle-1879292</a>
@Henry Su in my crim law class we actually just learned that there is no such crime as aiding and abetting! Accomplices just get charged with the same crime — if we want to get really technical!
@Henry Su It took me a minute, but I finally got it. And it's not ... ... ... ... ... Emu.
Nice Monday with 4 great debut entries. Even some BRIE for those who wanted it on Saturday.
Loved this one but as I save it for an after work wind down treat was sad that this Brit managed a solve all in 11 minutes. A new record for me as I start to learn how the compilers minds work, having previously only done the English Times crosswords until January of this year.
@Janina - fwiw, it took me ten years to get inside the minds of English constructors. If you have got inside ours in a year, jolly good for you! 🍺
I got to my puzzles late today because it turns out that planning a funeral is a lot of hard and emotional work. But I wanted to say this was a a quick and lovely puzzle! My only regret is that I didn't catch the theme until the article. Plus, I had originally put outer space for the clue about an extraterrestrial's home and didn't even realize ALIEN WORLD had filled itself out after I removed outer space. Anyhow, much appreciation for a fun and zippy puzzle! Also wanted to join in the praises for the Sunday puzzle! I didn't know a Schrödinger's style puzzle was possible! Seems awfully impressive! I want to share some of my silliness. I first had SOUTHEAST for the revealer, but at some point, I decided the trick of this was that they were all over the United States, so the trick must be that the southeast meant the US is southeast of someplace else. And then, in my fuzzy logic, I thought since ONTARIAN was in the puzzle, it must mean southeast of Ontario. That didn't make sense, so then I looked back and saw that I could change southeast to southwest. Didn't occur to me to relook at south as I hadn't debated those letters and it seemed to work... I mean, clearly The US is not south of Ontario. I thought myself mighty brilliant! Hahaha! Well, I guess it was like maybe 33% brilliance. Least I knew something fun was going on and was somewhere in the right neighborhood! Or maybe the right city, state, country, or world... To tie everything together with a nice little bow.
@HeathieJ Ack! I wish we could edit these comments... I obviously meant to say, clearly Ontario is not south of the US. Got that mixed in my voice to text. I'm not great at geography but I'm not that bad! Haha! I wonder how good emus are with geography!? ?
@HeathieJ Well, generally that’s true, but Windsor Ontario is south of Detroit. Emus are geographically challenged.
I zipped through this one.... not a record time, but pretty quick. I was sad it was over so soon. Then I went back and reread the theme answers, and was able to enjoy the puzzle all over again when I saw the connection. I especially liked the progression from small town to the entire world. It would be nice if we could embrace our humanity the same way (a pipe dream, I know).
My husband just read me part of the NYT interview with constructor Anna Schectman about her new book, “The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist History of the Crossword Puzzle.” I’m looking forward to reading the interview (and maybe even the book): <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3e5k2bpf" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3e5k2bpf</a>
@Eric Hougland I read an article on her forthcoming book in the Atlantic. Definitely looking forward to learning more about crossword history by someone truly dedicated to the genre. And to understand the role of women in essentially being the guardians of the pastime.
@Eric Hougland --- I loved your closing line, but the PTB didn't allow my appreciative short comment through. I thought you couldn't discriminate for being short? Such SILLiness
Lots of entertaining things in this puzzle. BUSYBODIES, MOOT POINT, ALOHA PARTY, and JUMP START were all nice mid-to-long entries. A good start to the week.
48 across: the abbreviation for Attorney is Atty., not Att.
AJB, "Atty." is *an* abbreviation for attorney. So is ATT. <a href="https://www.acronymfinder.com/ATT.html" target="_blank">https://www.acronymfinder.com/ATT.html</a> And with three squares to fill in a Monday grid, I'd go with ATT. This comment is subject to appeal.
I didn't even notice that this puzzle had a theme before reading the column. But that's not a bad thing! I treat Mondays like the Mini, trying to solve as fast as possible. I take my time on the other days of the week.
Loved Trent's choice of taking us off our spinning earth and shooting us into outer space. Fun, perfectly launched Monday puzzle!
I had START in at 10D and just couldn’t bring to mind the JUMP part for a while 🤪. That was my last spot to fill. It was a lovely theme, subtle and perfect for a Monday. Thanks Trent. And thanks, Sam, for the article about the Anthropocene. Quite fascinating. I also want to add my best wishes to Will Shortz as he continues to recover.
@Shari Coats Also meant to say how relaxing this lovely puzzle was after yesterday’s brain buster. I admired it immensely once I finished, but it was tough. Even when I figured out the 4 versions of the revealer and was pretty sure I had the south, north, east and west parts entered in an acceptable way, I still wasn’t getting the happy music, so had to flyspeck to find a silly error buried near the bottom that was holding things back. It was just an amazing feat on the part of Simeon Seigel.
I had BUDINSKIES for the longest time until I finally got to BUSYBODIES. And so a new PB eluded me. I’m not even sure now that BUDINSKIES is even the right spelling.
@FJC It would be BUTTINSKY and wouldn't fit. I know because I tried it.
Nice Monday puzzle and a fairly smooth solve. As usual - needed some down crosses before each of the theme answers dawned on me, but all quite familiar terms so they came quickly. Was surprised to see that two of them were debut answers, as they all seem like quite familiar terms. Seemed that a number of people enjoyed my wordplay jokes from yesterday. I came across some more that I had posted elsewhere some years ago, so I'll put some of those in another comment. ..
I like the constructor’s notes. I, too, sometimes create things that a year later I don’t remember how I did it.
Nice straightforward puzzle, than k you for constructing it!
Puzzle: "Bring back to life, as an auto battery" Grumbling at the clue for this answer. "Jump-starting" a car meant to get it moving forward, typically down a hill, and then as it gets up some speed to jump in and engage the clutch so that the moving vehicle turns then engine over and the car will, if you're lucky, start. A booster start, or a boost, is to connect cables from an external power source to temporarily supplant the vehicle's dead battery. But there's not "jumping" into the car, so not technically a jump-start.
@Edward Rice Merriam Webster seems to disagree with you and agree with the usage in the puzzle
@Edward Rice Interesting. On a motorcycle I've always called that a bump start. To anyone who's done this (all too often myself, alas) jump start sure makes a lot of sense. Cool trick if you can pull it off on the first try; a reminder that I'm getting too old for this nonsense otherwise.
@Edward Rice I've spent a lot of winters in Vermont, New York State, and Wisconsin over 60+ years. Sometimes, I've heard the term booster cables, but usually the request from someone is for jumper cables. With jumper cables, you perform a jump start. I have also driven many standard transmission cars, and have helped push them up to enough speed to be able to “pop the clutch.” This has also taken place from the top of a hill. Those were never jump starts. They were popping the clutch.
Anyone else have a technical glitch with their crossword puzzles on Sunday? All of the sudden my Friday and Saturday puzzle dropped from my streak leaving me down out and devastated. I'm hoping someone can direct me to the proper people who can help. It's like having the rug pulled out from under you for no fault of your own. Quite like life. But the NYT crossword experience is my only refuge from that and now it's been invaded too. Yes I know it's not important in the scheme of things but it was my tiny bit of happiness and accomplishment that I could call all my own. With the help of the wordplay team notwithstanding. Enjoyed Monday's puzzle nonetheless with some lovely clues. I wish I had taken more time.
@Judith Fairview Write to <a href="mailto:NYTGames@nytimes.com">NYTGames@nytimes.com</a> I've read here that they're really great about fixing issues with streaks. . . . . . . .
@Judith Fairview Use the email address sotto voce provided. They have reset my crossword streak several times in the last year or so. Good luck.
Two thumbs up for the column picture - Max Verstappen is my favorite Formula 1 driver. They don't normally do doughnuts in F1, because there are stringent weight restrictions on the cars, so burning a centimeter or two of rubber off the tires might have consequences. But Max is special.
@Grant I spent all day trying to figure out your comment. Having lived many years in Holland, I too have a special appreciation for Max. However, it is my recollection that it is a tradition for the top three finishers in F1 to do donuts. The race is over, tires become irrelevant. On the other hand, other car components like transmissions, are not expendable. At Dubai, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished 17 seconds behind Max and requested to do “burnouts” but was refused by the Ferrari team in order to save the gearbox for upcoming races in the next week. Great story, thanks for posting… See: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/54vmp9zm" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/54vmp9zm</a>
easiest one so far this year
@markcomp14 Would have been for me, too, had I known PURPLE STATE. That held me up for a minute. The name is about mixing red and blue I suppose? (so it is - I just checked). . . . Purple rain.
Two Monday's in a row for the gold! Time for a PLAIN doughnut. A gift for you ABBIE fans: Free the Dough Boys. Right on, Trent!
No, no, no! You EKE OUT a living; you SCRAPE "by" as best you can. That kind of thing gives us FITS (and we don't mean DUDS.) PADME? Not PADMA? (I take it we missed about a dozen sequels and prequels....The mother never came up in the ones we saw...) Back to the Saturday Stumper.
MOL, I wouldn't know PADME from PADMa as clued, but I do know the store sign is OPEN, not OPaN, even in Mississippi, where some folks do EKE by. (If the shoe FITS...)
I enjoyed today’s puzzle very much!
I got to my puzzles late today because it turns out that planning a funeral is a lot of hard and emotional work. But I wanted to say this was a a quick and lovely puzzle! My only regret is that I didn't catch the theme until the article. Plus, I had originally put outer space for the clue about an extraterrestrial's home and didn't even realize ALIEN WORLD had filled itself out after I removed outer space. Anyhow, much appreciation for a fun and zippy puzzle! Also wanted to join in the praises for the Sunday puzzle! I didn't know a Schrödinger's style puzzle was possible! Seems awfully impressive! I want to share some of my silliness. I first had SOUTHEAST for the revealer, but at some point, I decided the trick of this was that they were all over the United States, so the trick must be that the southeast meant the US is southeast of someplace else. And then, in my fuzzy logic, I thought since ONTARIAN was in the puzzle, it must mean southeast of Ontario. That didn't make sense, so then I looked back and saw that I could change southeast to southwest. Didn't occur to me to relook at south as I hadn't debated those letters and it seemed to work... I mean, clearly The US is not south of Ontario. I thought myself mighty brilliant! Hahaha! Well, I guess it was like maybe 33% brilliance. Least I knew something fun was going on and was somewhere in the right neighborhood! Or maybe the right city, state, country, or world... To tie everything together with a nice little bow.
@HeathieJ Ack! I wish we could edit these comments... I obviously meant to say, clearly Ontario is not south of the US. Got that mixed in my voice to text. I'm not great at geography but I'm not that bad! Haha! I wonder how good emus are with geography!? ?
@HeathieJ First of all, I'm assuming that you didn't just get a job as a funeral director, and therefore the funeral you were planning was someone close to you, so let me offer my condolences for your loss. As for the puzzle, logic indicates that if there are extraterrestrials out there, they do not live in outer space any more than we do. They just travel through outer space to get from their world to ours. (And of course, it's not an ALIEN WORLD from their perspective.)
Anybody else start with COAL? 😭😂
Matt, No, I was quite sure of ABBIE. But I gather you meant "start" the *second* Across entry. No, I didn't think that would be TACTful for a Monday puzzle. YET not impossible.
What the heck is an Aloha Party? That’s not what we call them. We can them luaus. Or, just parties.
@Cathy 'Hail and Farewell' in the military...goodbye to some, but welcoming newcomers to a duty station. It isn't that far-fetched!
This has nothing to do with today's fine puzzle, but I would appreciate it if somebody kindly explained to me while TAP was clued as "Choose" in an archived puzzle I just solved. I tried googling it but all I get is advice on how to choose a tap, which does not seem relevant (and how hard can it be, anyway?). . . . . Choose? Emu (don't ask me why)
@Andrzej “Tap” can be used a number of ways. See definition 6 here: <a href="https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/tap_1#:~:text" target="_blank">https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/tap_1#:~:text</a>=%5Btransitive%2C%20usually%20passive%5D%20tap,to%20replace%20the%20retiring%20chairperson. Here, it comes from “tapping” someone to do a job or to be part of group or exercise. Probably from the expression “to tap someone on the shoulder.”
A test to see if something I write will actually post. I've had two comments disappear, both more than one paragraph, and one was three or four. Frustrating, not like this puzzle, which was a delightful Monday. Thanks, Trent!
@JayTee Yay! It posted! Just wanted to note that I live in the Four Corners CDP in Florida, about four miles west of where Lake, Orange, Osceola and Polk counties meet.
@JayTee And my follow up disappeared as well. One thing all three missing comments had in common—I mentioned one of the answers in the SW of Sunday's puzzles, which also happens to be the name of a Census-Designated-Place in in Florida in which I happen to reside. So named because Lake, Orange, Osceola and Polk counties meet at one spot.
@JayTee It's been bad lately! Disappearing comments of fine lengths, that is, not crosswords. They're the best! Emus? Jury is still out....
Jaunty little Monday—enjoyed! Crazy story: senior year in college, @10 pm, roommate knocks on my BR door (I’m asleep, first and possibly last time before age 40 that happened).: “Kate, Kate, Abbie Hoffman’s here; come hang out!” Me: 💤💤💤💤, sigh! (He had come to campus for a lecture, but my work was insane at the time.)