At ROLLER COASTER, I looked over the whole design of the puzzle and thought, "This is amazing! It must have been a beast to construct!" What astounded me even more was that it can't be an easy feat to let the puzzle itself take center-stage and not be overshadowed by an in-your-face construction marvel. But a marvel it is. And it speaks to Rebecca's and Will's undeniable expertise. I'm sure many will find this "an easy Sunday" but I, for one, love me a tranquil flow in such a large grid. In my opinion, this is yet another testament to the expertise behind it, the uncluttered fill that makes everything seem easy. I loved that there were plenty of clever misdirects sprinkled about a variety of fill, and that the challenges weren't hair-pulling ones and totally inferable. And of course there was the laughter, what with CHEST HAIR being the right answer for what I thought I was just being goofy about. No, they didn't...oh yes they did! Hah! Thank you so much, Rebecca and Will. You're truly powerhouse constructors!
@sotto voce Only just now, after randomly taking another glance at the puzzle (more than 12 hours after finishing it) did I notice the *contents* of the circles. That’s amazing! The whac-a-mole depiction is a great little theme within the theme, and what the constructors did with the (double) roller coaster entry… 🤯 On my first pass, I had indeed found this to be a fun, quick Sunday (I particularly liked the clue for ASST and the crossing of PARSEC and PARCELS), though not especially memorable. But now that I’ve fully *seen* the theme (no idea how I missed it earlier), I really love this puzzle!
@sotto voce I agree. It wasn’t all easy by far! Emu
Read the clue “titled widows” as “tinted windows” for roughly 30 minutes until I was 2 letters from solving it. Perhaps trying to do these puzzles before bed is not helping my solve time.
@Jen Oh my gosh, same here!! Every time I looked at it that's what I saw and then I had to blink my eyes and look again!
@Jen I read it as “tilted windows”. lol. Took almost forty minutes to see it correctly too!
After experiencing a lightning-fast move-in-all-directions ride at age seven, I lost my desire to ever tackle another ride in an amusement park. But I still loved going. Here was a place where everyone was happy, having fun, escaping from the routine of life. Here was a place with its own sounds, smells, bright colors, not to mention the great snacks and carnival games. This puzzle whisked me right back to that fun feeling, like I was there. That alone drew my thumbs up. It's made by two pros. I call them that because I’ve solved enough by them to see their skill, wit, and agility in creating puzzles. Look at today's: • Circles all over the place, including four diagonal lines. It is SO HARD to cleanly fill restraints like this, and this grid has hardly a whiff of junk. • Their first grid was rejected. Mind you, it’s a 21 x 21 Sunday, which requires tremendous effort to fill and clue. Yet they made two more iterations, just to get it right. High skill, persistence, and drive for excellence. Rebecca and Will, pros like you make crosswords not only fun and brain-satisfying, but also bring beauty and quality into the equation. Thank you for this splendid collaboration!
ASST for [Quick second?] is a great clue.
I know some folks dislike circles, but I had great fun discovering the significance of each particular grouping. I immediately noticed CAR RAC (BUMPER CARS) and the dropped TOWER. Noticing the weaving ROLLER COASTER helped me solve the tricky section around PARSEC. I didn’t notice the sliding WATER or M, MO, MOL, MOLE until after completion. Great clue for the common entry ASST. I love how in this case “quick” indicated an abbreviation. So clever. Thanks Rebecca and Will. This indeed was an amusing ride!
If you don't know where the amusement park is, it's admission impossible. (And even if you find it, they'll take you for a ride.)
I found this puzzle rather amusing. The construction was very clever and the puzzle itself provided a smooth solving experience rather than a ROLLERCOASTER ride. I’ll leave to others the task of dissecting the puzzle’s quirks, strengths and flaws. I was delighted to see ERROLL Garner appear in the puzzle. He was a fine jazz pianist who belonged to no particular school but had his own signature style combining earlier stride rhythms with the complicated chordal clusters of the beboppers. His most famous album, Concert By The Sea, is an enduring delight for any fans of bravura piano playing.
@Marshall Walthew It's really wonderful how consistently you share with us your knowledge of music. Heartfelt thanks from me! . . . .
@sotto voce Your words are exceedingly kind. Thank you. Music is one of the great joys of my life and I love sharing my enjoyment with others. I just hope that every once in a while someone reads one of my posts and is inspired to give a listen to some artist or song that they weren’t familiar with and finds a little spark of happiness in their day.
I finished the Saturday and Sunday puzzles yesterday. I really enjoyed both. It occurred to me that while I perceived both as relatively hard, I enjoyed the challenge and felt so satisfied solving. Some puzzles that are just as "hard" aren't as satisfying. I've been thinking about that as I read the yeas and nays of the comments. The totality of our experience seems to determine how hard we perceive a puzzle. Those of us that are drawn to wanting to solve word puzzles are already a specific group who have an innate ability to understand and enjoy language. So why are some puzzles more satisfying than others? I don't know about other folks, but for me it's the images and experiences that the words in the puzzle conjure. It's the wit, humor and joy of the words and how they connect to the very personal mental library that they touch. Like opening a book. Just a little Sunday afternoon musings. I loved this Sunday puzzle. It brought up memories of being in the amusement park with my kids growing up. It was a joy to solve. Cheers from Texas. Have fun and stay safe and cool y'all.
This one took me for a ride. cc: emu handler
Finally, my brain was able to fumble its way around this grid for the first time in what feels like eons. What a beauty; it took me a little while for the theme to hit me. BUMPER CARS was my in and I was off. Beautiful construction, very clever theme/mini theme. I had to go back once I finished to admire the circled gems. 47D was a nit for me; the setting of The Office is Slough. Yes, yes, I know you are referring to the US version, but the original BBC series with the excruciating David Brent will always be forefront in my mind when that programme is mentioned. There is always an extra frisson of delicious cringe for us as my DH did in fact work in Slough for a period. Yes, Slough is every bit as horrible as portrayed, immortalised by Sir John Betjeman ‘Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough It isn’t fit for humans now’ And that was in the 30’s. There is a reason that Sasha Baron Cohen based his original character, Ali G, in Da Slough Massive. I have no reference for SCRANTON so can’t relate to it. Scrantonites, defend your city.
@Helen Wright We truly enjoyed the original version of “The Office” and saw no reason (other than money) for it to be remade.
@Helen Wright “the original BBC series with the excruciating David Brent” I love the original series so much, but “excruciating” is exactly the right word for David Brent. I’m amazed by the sheer degree of cringe Ricky Gervais was able to manufacture in that role…I find it genuinely hard to keep my eyes on the screen during much of his dialogue!
@Helen Wright SCRANTON is known for being the birthplace of the current POTUS, and very little else. I've seen both the US and UK versions of The Office, and I found Ricky Gervais' character a bit too desperate and tragic, while Steve Carell's is merely hapless and unintentionally funny. I suppose it depends on how light/dark you like your comedy. Oh, they tried to do a US version of Coupling a while ago, and it was a miserable failure.
It was no tilt a whirl but it was a good ride! I'm not much for the up side down and big drop rides but I love the tilt a whirl! Wheeeee!! WHAC-A-MOLE reminded me of that super fun whack-a-mole puzzle from maybe spring of this year. I adored it! Especially the graphics at the end. This one was also fun and once I figured out how the circles worked they helped on some tricky spots. I came in under average but it might have been a personal best if I hadn't sat out on our garden balcony. I get distracted out here in good ways. But it's also harder to do Sundays from my phone. Usually I do them on my computer. Because of that, it was difficult finding my error when I didn't get the happy music. I was so glad I've previously read the ever wise and helpful @Eric Hougland's suggestion to look for errors in list view. I'm not sure I would have found it on my phone without it! I had accidentally changed the A in SAGE to an O. I think my favorite was the humble ASST because that was a big aha when I understood the clever clue. I also really enjoyed the Sound of Music reference there with PARCELS -- and I liked it crossing with PARSEC! LLAMA was cute and clever too! Very enjoyable all around!! Especially surrounded by our beloved plants and tacky balcony decorations! 🦩🦩 I don't know much about such things but it seems like a pretty impressive feat of construction!! @G, you would not believe the voice to text errors I had voice to texting WHAC-A-MOLE!! 😂😂
@HeathieJ I am SO late today in getting all the way down the comments to here! (On and off all day while trudging thru chores...) But girl -- the Tilt-a-Whirl, too??! I think caffeinated beverage preference might be the *only* thing I've noticed you & I don't have in common!! See my reply (to @Crevecoeur's comment) from 2 hours ago here: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/41898b?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/41898b?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> And I'm very impressed you managed Whac-a-Mole via voice-to-text. I can only imagine what that took... Eek!
This is my first gold on a Sunday puzzle in a long time. I had a great time sussing out some of the more difficult clues (enneads!) but it was amusing!
@Amanda Congratulations!! 👏 You too, emu!
@Amanda Probably because of its proliferation of useful letters, ENNEAD has appeared 69 times, and the plural another 32. This is one you should remember; you will see it again. It will be clued to the Supreme Court, the Muses, and baseball teams.
Quick puzzle for a Sunday; one cup of coffee. The double ROLLER COASTER in the center was best in show for me, theme-wise, with the BUMPER CARS a close second. I wasn't so sure about the DROP TOWER though. Didn't they used to have a parachute ride at Coney Island? The ROADIE "hopping on the band wagon" was my favorite. One last thing: AGUA at a taqueria? Maybe if you can't handle spicy food. Una cerveza, por favor.
Grant, The parachute jump was still there when I was in high school, but I never tried it (there). Nor anywhere else. Rappel, yes. I did ride the steeplechase (there). <a href="https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/ask-mr-coney/coney-island-parachute-jump" target="_blank">https://www.coneyislandhistory.org/ask-mr-coney/coney-island-parachute-jump</a>
@Grant The (defunct) parachute jump on the Coney Island boardwalk remains a focal point and landmark, even though it's no longer a ride. It gets lit up in carnival lights every night during the summer season. IMO it's especially awesome in red, white & blue glory in conjunction with the Fourth of July fireworks just off the pier there -- though whoever is the lighting designer has some pretty great color combos at other times, too! As for the DROP TOWER, there's (at least?) one of those, too -- very modern -- in the revamped Luna Park. I get queasy just looking at the cluster of people waiting for what seems like forever, way up at the top for the ride to begin... There's also, of course, the Cyclone ROLLER COASTER and at Luna Park, a WATER coaster (but I don't think there's a SLIDE). Too bad the constructors couldn't squeeze in a Ferris Wheel -- now *that* would have been a stunt!!
@G I was also hoping for a Ferris Wheel! I wonder (wheel) if it's been done.
It seems like we got two major camps here: I finished before my morning coffee was cold!! Best. Time. Ever! And @#$%&* puzzle, ruined me! And I had to picture Tom Selleck's Chest Hair...aaaaugh! So, may I respectfully add a third...me. I gave it a good old GO. Hey, there were a few Spanish words, instead of French, there's that, and yes! good old oreo, and peony! being a gardening fiend pays off again! And only a couple sports clues, phew, I don't do sports AT ALL. Any way, tried my best, learned a few things, and yes, it took a few hours, with a few sneak peaks on the old Google, but then, what are Sunday mornings for? Though I must say, my coffee, went stone cold. Happy Sunday all!
Was hoping we might get an animated amusement park upon completion. 🎢 Loved the corner intersections of CASH and CARD and PARSEC and PARCELS (among others) I thought this was a fun Sunday. Sometimes nice to have an end-of-week puzzle without so many spanners or longer fill. Boy did our constructors pack ‘em in on this one. Thanks, Rebecca Goldstein and Will Nediger. That was impressive.
At a Federal level, DOE is the acronym used for the Department of Energy, not Education. ED is the acronym for Department of Education.
Halfway through I realized this might get me a PR - at 13:28 this marks PR number two in one week (got another one on Monday!) Very exciting, although the rush made me lose sight of most of the theme entries and a lot of fill. Looking back at it, it’s pretty cool! Side note, with only a vague idea of what Selleck and Hasselhoff look like, I filled in MOUSTACHE and then CLEFTCHIN before finally landing on CHESTHAIR. phew
@Albert MUSTACHE was my first guess, also. But I never recalled “the Hoff” being anything but clean-shaven so I ended up erasing it and then CHESTHAIR turned out to be the answer.
@Albert I started with CLEFTCHIN myself. (I originally typed ClEfTchIn as folks do in these comments but looking at it gave me a headache.) My favorite part of the puzzle was the WHAC-A-MOLEs at various heights; I laughed out loud when I saw them.
@Albert I started out with GREAT HAIR (well, I thought it was great at the time, esp. Selleck), so I only had to change 3 letters.
Yesterday, I struggled. Today felt like I had a seat on a breezy, silly, twisty, smooth-as-silk ride through a park with the smell of funnel cakes somehow wafting their way in to my solve. Never a fan of scary rides, but this one was lovely. I only wish it had lasted twice as long, but I kept seeing partial answers and guessing the correct fill without spreading the clue! Just a whimsy of a puzzle! Thank you, thank you for such a fun ride!
@CCNY *reading* the clue Not spreading it. I’m upping my offer to ten times twenty sacks of gold for an edit button. It won’t happen, but if it does, I’m having a party and you’re all invited. …
@CCNY In Homer Simpson voice: “mmmmm funnel cakes”
For my mileage I thought Whac-a-mole and it’s depiction were just brilliant
I think there may be a mistake on 23 across. When written in kanji 相 means mutual and 撲 is to slap or strike which I can see why some might interpret this as “to fight” but I’m not sure it’s quite accurate . Japanese is pretty particular on verbs too. They all end in u so “to do” anything kind of implies it will be the same as “to eat” (taberu) or “to drink” (nomu) which threw me off a bit too. Apologies if I’m being pedantic.
@Emily Hey, being pedantic is pretty much why we're all here, isn't it?
That was very enteertaining! WATER SLIDE was the first one that I saw in the circles, although I filled in the ROLLER COASTER circles pretty early on just from the shape. I'd just as soon encounter my amusement parks in crossword puzzles--much calmer than in real life!
I finished this one in normal time, but I was afraid it was going to be a DNF! A few answers that I just didn’t know and had to hope the crosses worked out— SAARINEN, ENNEADS, NAE (as clued), and a few others. Was supremely surprised to get the happy music so quickly. I particularly liked today’s theme. It was fun, playful, and has surfaced a bunch of amusement park memories from my childhood, going to Hershey or Disney with my dad and siblings.
@Tyler D. Despite the tricky spelling, I knew SAARINEN right away, thanks in no small part to his very cool mid-century terminal at JFK airport. I don't recall ever getting to go through it as a passenger -- but I have scoped out its transformation into a hotel! (Opened in 2019.) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Hotel" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Hotel</a>
@Tyler D. Thank you for writing my post for me. I had more or less the identical experience. Which is to say we had the same holes in our knowledge. Lovely puzzle. 🦜🦜🦜
Working the puzzle was a little like standing in line to go on one of the amusement park rides. Many old chestnuts, and even the ubiquitous cookie. Was the original version a bit crunchier? Whatever, it as a relaxing way to spend a Saturday afternoon and a relief from some of the recent brain crushers. I can't say I didn't have a good time. Thank you, Rebecca and Will. See you again soon.
Randos: The HAM 'n' Pineapple Hawaiian Pizza was, in fact, invented in 1962 by the Greek-born restauranteur Sam Panapoulos in the Southwest Ontario town of Chatham. Torakusu Yamaha's first passion was for neither pianos or motorcycles, but for reed ORGANs. The path from the manufacture of organs to that of pianos seems fairly direct--from pianos to motorcycles, less so. I guess the craft of piano-building translated into a skill for fine wood-working. Hence, In a nutshell, as worded by Wikipedia: "Yamaha was contracted to manufacture wooden and (later) metal airplane propellers by the Japanese government during World War II. The company struggled in the aftermath of the war, and in the early 1950s, chairman Genichi Kawakami decided to repurpose its underutilized war-time facilities to manufacture small motorcycles for leisure use." The musical instrument/electronic and motor-power divisions have been subsequently spun off into separate corporations. Nevertheless, all Yamaha products--whether motorcycles, CD-players, flugelhorns, or my beloved C-1--bear the same corporate logo--or *mon*--of three interlocked tuning forks. Here's Erik Satie having a little fun at his local amusement park: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Od6JhUdJE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Od6JhUdJE</a> (the best clip I could find which features Satie's elegant manuscript and Charles Martin's delightful illustration. But is it played on a Yamaha? Can't tell.)
@Bill I like how the YAMAHA logo is simultaneously a motorcycle wheel and three tuning forks. Cheers to the graphic designer who came up with that.
@Bill Thanks for bringing up that surprising history of the “Hawaiian” pizza. I never had anything quite as nice as your C-1, but it brings to mind one of my favorite toys. When I was a long-time co-op dweller in Manhattan I had a hybrid Yamaha upright that had a pedal which you could engage to keep the hammers from striking the strings. It would then digitally produce tones which you could listen to through headphones. It was great when I had an urge to play at odd hours….very nice invention.
My last clue was to fix Yentl to YENTE, ha! Musical mixups, my mishigas, oy! Happy music ensued
@Jess I was stuck on that bc I swear it's spelled Yenta sometimes and I never know the "direction from one place to the other" ones.
@Jess same final fix here, only I had YENTa. When I did my first pass of flyspecking, that gave me ANA at 43D, which I glossed right over. (When I don’t get the happy music, I do a quick run through of the grid to spot any obvious typos, without looking at the clues. ANA seemed like a perfectly reasonable answer in that (no) context, as did ANNA at 51A. If I can’t find the mistake, then I go clue by clue, which is how I found my error. Since I’m really good at making typos, the first pass works probably 90% of the time; it’s a rare day when I have to essentially second-guess every answer.)
CLANK... was flying along, way ahead of my unimpressive PB, had made a few informed guesses but it was CLANG that skewered me... half an hour of needless checking. Slow down to speed up... turn off the timer and enjoy.
Wow first Sunday I managed without looking anything up, except for saving myself from trying the alphabet at two squares at the very end with SACH(A)R/H(A)TERA(D)E/ENNEA(D)S which is just a cruel combo I think. But I loved that nerd knowledge such as PARSEC and RESPAWN gave me a way in.
My claim to fame - well, make that claim to shame - was that I actually worked at a ride at Coney Island for a very brief period of time. The parents of my best friend in H.S. at the time owned a ride/attraction there that shall remain nameless, to protect the guilty. During one summer, my friend asked if I'd like to help out. Think of it as the modern-day internship. No pay. But I had to learn the ropes, and one of those ropes was how to make money working when I wasn't getting paid. Embarrassed to say that it involved short-changing the customers. I didn't feel good about it, so I didn't last too long at the "profession." We both went on to live honest lives and great careers. I did learn to always count my change, not that I bother using cash for anything these days.
OMG... that Whac-A-Mole setup was TOO CUTE! I struggled a bit, but I really enjoyed this.
I had just gotten up from a nap when I started this puzzle, and it showed at first. My mind was groggy when I started, but in the end, I came in a few minutes below my Sunday average. Amusement parks were never my thing. Well, maybe when I was eight years old, but I never understood why my peers were still excited by them when I was in high school and even later. I had a friend when I was in my mid-20s who went off to the arcade when we were at an amusement park or a fair, and I thought that to be quite juvenile, but it seems to be fairly common these days. Except it's all done at home these days. At least most of the time. But the theme of the circles forming the shapes of the attractions was cute. Always something different in crossword. And Will and Rebecca always deliver a quality puzzle.
@Steve L Steve L, I respect you and I am in awe of the breadth of your knowledge, so please do not hate me for this, but... Why the put down of adults who enjoy amusement parks, arcades and games? My wife loves them, and she is a highly skilled professional, probably one of the best in this country at what she does - the last thing you would call her if you met her would be juvenile. And we are both computer and console gamers - do you look down upon me when I go medieval on some orcs after coming home from lecturing at Poland's top rated business school?
I'm sad to report that the drop tower video in the column is fake. I went to YouTube to see it better and the real ride is nothing like the video according to people who've been. The puzzle was great, I enjoyed seeing "haterade" and "respawn"
A leisurely all day solve. The C in the ACE/SACHAR cross the last to fall. Count me as a member of the "tilted windows" club. The WHACAMOLE graphic was cute and includes a shout out to our MOL! Well done and thanks.
Thought the theme was actually going to make this too easy because of how much real estate each one solved, but boy howdy did this one annoy me. NAEbody? Gtfo
@Eric For informational purposes: NAE has been used 340 times as an answer, and with just a few recent exceptions referencing a 2010s dance craze called the NAE NAE, every clue has something to do with a negative in Scotland. This clue refers to Robert Burns, perhaps the most famous Scottish writer ever. NAEbody is indeed a word in Scottish dialect. You're not expected to know that, but if you see a Scottish marker in the clue, it's always NAE. Other clues include [Aberdeen denial'], [Dundee dismissal], and ["Fraid not, laddie."]
Just got back from a quick trip to Cedar Point, so I was vibing with this one…close to a PB!
Well! A PB for me… faster by 3 minutes than my last! I was surprised at the happy music because I was not confident on some of my answers and fully anticipated several squares to need revisiting.
Well since I live 5 minutes from an amusement park, this one came pretty easy, in spite of the fact that my adventures on rides are limited to our porch swing and even then I get seasick. Like others TIL enneads, always fun. Sadly, our park now finds bumpercars “too dangerous” so you don’t actually get to ram your friends, you just have to have a stately little excursion around the floor. They took away that one where you got thrown off the spinny center, too, and also the big barrel one that pasted you to the walls and then the bottom dropped out. A great lesson in centrifugal force. Granted, my childhood included some park-related scraped knees, but it also included more fun. And since they took out the Ben and Jerry’s, the park altogether has lost its charm.
@Crevecoeur Your comment gave me whiplash, a sore back, and a bruised hip and shoulder (Scrambler, anyone?). Good times. I'm grateful for being able to enjoy roller coasters with my nephews after their mom begged off, but I'm not sure I could hang today.
@Crevecoeur I'm a wimp when it comes to a lot of amusement park rides... But the centrifugal force one where the bottom dropped out was always my favorite! I guess despite the measley, rickety chain that served as a "safety belt", I never felt like I was going to fly off anywhere (or get motion sickness). Yay, centrifusion! (My keyboard doesn't think that's a word?) Thanks for the memories!
Fun puzzle! I always thought it was spelled wack-a-mole, but a quick Google search tells me I've been wrong my whole life. 😂
When I saw Rebecca & Will listed as the constructors my first thought was "YAY!" I'm often on Rebecca's cluing wavelength and was sure Will would do something clever with the grid. They did not disappoint! (And it was reassuring to know that even master constructors like the two of them needed a few passes to make a grid as clean and awesome as this final product.) I mis-read 44A as "tiled windows" and my brain went down the path of stained glass mosaics. When I came back to that clue I corrected myself and read "titled windows" but that made no sense so I move on to another section. Finally, the third time I returned to that clue I only was missing 2 letters, and said thank you to Downton Abbey for knowing DOWAGER. Some of my other favorite parts included seeing RESPAWN in a grid, reference to SACHAR's "Holes" and the clever clues in 15A: Quick second? 62D: One hopping on the band wagon? 89A: Sour grapes drink? and 100A: Sub domain. :)
A 53 minute solve that had an interesting theme. I found it challenging (not overly so) and fun to work through.
27 minutes, no mistakes, fast for a Sunday. Fun theme, especially given that I'm in Mason Ohio this weekend for the slightly misnamed Cincinnati Open. Famously located across from the tennis venue is the Kings Island Amusement Park...
@Steven M. I wonder if you were there for the big stir after Jack Draper’s crazy “half-volley” shot at match point. It’s worth looking at the slo-mo videos. I suspect we won’t hear the end of this one for awhile. — — — — — — — — — — — —
Love a PEONY even though there's frequently an ARMY of ANTs on a bouquet of them. My crossword Spanish is not as strong as my crossword French, so that's something to work on. CLANG, CLANG, CLANG went the trolley. Thanks for the rides, Will and Rebecca.
@Vaer Bump, bump, bump went the bumper cars.
I may not have known how to spell whac-a-mole (hint: it’s not wack-a-mole) but I sure did enjoy seeing the little creatures pop up on the board! Fun puzzle.
Is there a TM for misreading a clue for way too long? Count me among those who read 44A as "tilted windows". Transoms fit, but I'm glad I left it blank until I started on the Downs. It ended up being one of my last fills, and I still thought it was "Tilted widows" until I read the comments. Perhaps I CLUBFEDed it.
@Cindy I wonder if there's a (mis)reading equivalent term to mondegreen. I do this all the time too.
@Cindy I feel so much better after reading this. I did the same thing and thought I needed to schedule an appointment with either my eye doctor or a neurologist.
All done, hah OK, it’s things at an amusement park, and then CHEST HAIR jumps out at me. Well then…some games of skill in which you might win the plushie animal: “Chest hair”: you have to guess whether the other contestant has more or less than Tom Selleck. “Dowagers”: you have to guess the other contestant’s age. What a crowd pleaser! “Parsecs and parcels”: given a rectangular package, you have to guess its dimensions in parsecs. “Orrery”: you have 10 minutes to construct one using materials from the cheese curd vendor.
In the end, 1D/1A) CASH/CARD (how delightful) was my only wrong clue and I only needed a few look ups. This was a bit of a roller coaster. Once I cracked bumper cars early, I was on the lookout. I hung in there to ensure that I didn’t reach for that answer key - and stuck it out. Very well written.
HATERADE? Srsly? (Hmm....maybe gotta git me some of that....) I guess I've never gone to a proper Amusement Park....Disneyland didn't have most of these, but the Matterhorn ROLLERCOASTER did end up in the WATER, as I recall. Oh, well. David Hasselhoff--don't know much about him...but Tom Selleck, now.....MOUSTACHE? CURLY HAIR? HEIGHT? CHEST HAIR??? Geez Louise. And, yes...we noticed the 'Hawaiian' pizza. Congrats to Rebecca and Will for stumping DHubby on the Jazz pianist, ERROLL Garner. (I'd have gotten __ Flynn...who can forget that Robin Hood?)
@Mean Old Lady Haterade is a frequent drink of commenters here. Sadly, Flynn wouldn’t have worked, with only one L. And who can forget Misty? “I’m as helpless as a kitten in a tree …”
@Mean Old Lady Stopping by to say thank you for getting me hooked on the game "Blossom." For some reason, I have a harder time at it than at Spelling Bee. I think it's the design of it that makes the words not jump out at me. That said, I love that it then lists all possible words so that I can 1- feel like a dummy for the ones I didn't see, and 2- (try to) learn some new words (which I might never remember.) Lol. I've been having fun with it!
As a "Star Wars" fan, I liked the link to Kessel Run in Tricky Clues! Every time I watch the original movie (or "The Force Awakens") and hear Han Solo misuse the term "parsec" I cringe! Still love the movies though!
@Robin same. I was a nerdy kid who knew what a parsec was, so when I saw the movie (in theaters in its original run), I wondered about that, but was too caught up in the whole experience to dwell on it. (As a 12-13YO at the time, it was pure cinema magic, this wondrous sci-fi universe that was somehow shiny and new but also rusty and old at the same time.) However (and my memory is hazy on this, so I could be wrong), didn’t they address the whole Kessel Run thing in the “Solo” movie?
@CrispyShot Yes, Han came up with some brilliant novel space navigational tactic that allowed him to win by completing the run by traveling less distance than anyone thought possible
Happy to see the Finn Eero Saarinen get a mention today. Funny story about the design competition for the St. Louis memorial (Gateway Arch). Eero's architect father Eliel also took part in the competition and by mistake the jury informed the father that he was in the top five remaining entries. The family celebrated and when the jury contacted them again in two hours to correct the error, they celebrated again.