My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Khan tract? (6)(6) 2. Its cups aren't supposed to runneth over (3) 3. Golden retriever who ends up with a chocolate lab? (7)(6) 4. Small scale business? (4) 5. Outspoken parenting critic, maybe (8) MONGOL EMPIRE BRA CHARLIE BUCKET DELI TEENAGER
@Lewis 6. Who has successfully juggled 15 balls simultaneously.
@Lewis As one who never read nor saw "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," I thought the clue CHARLIE BUCKET was dismal. I got it from the crosses, but it still made me cross.
This is not the first time for me to register this objection. I grew up with guns. Most of my family are hunters. BBs are not toys. BB guns are weapons. We killed birds with them. A childhood friend was blinded by one. Here's a better clue: The Mama bullet said to the Papa bullet, "We're going to have a _____ !" ba-dum, tish OK, so that's not plural. It needs work, but you catch my drift. Not toys. Please.
@Jim Yes! When my 2 teen-age boys got ahold of a BB gun and I found it, I immediately marched it down to the police station and turned it in! We don't live out in the country or do any hunting. I will never forget in 4th grade that one of my sister's 2nd grade friends shot and killed another classmate "playing" with Daddy's gun. Never any guns in our house.
PSST... If you WATCH CAREFULLY, you'll SEE stars ALIGN, pointing you to your TRUE NORTH. And when that happens, BELT OUT A SONG at the top of your lungs, and FASHION your way FORWARD at 100 MPH with a smile on your face. Ain't life grand? Thank you, Colin, for an inspired and inspirational puzzle, with both "Lola" and Billy Idol providing the earworms/soundtrack.
This is Colin’s third NYT puzzle, but his first two, both Fridays, showed that he has a talent for clever and original cluing, and an ear for lively answers. Even on this Monday puzzle, those talents came through: • Every theme answer, including the revealer, had spark, IMO, and lovely answers showed up elsewhere: SPANGLISH, AMITY, FUROR, GO BOOM. • As for cluing, while Monday puzzles are often for me, an experienced solver, automatically filled in from top to bottom, today there were sweet hesitations, which my brain appreciated. Clues like [Make a loud exploding noise], [Friendship], [Hullabaloo], and [Stand at the side of]. I also liked a pair of serendipities -- Row two, with its three four-letter answers that contain O, A, and L; and the fact that ODD ONE is answer #43. My brain got its hard-day workout in trying to guess the revealer after uncovering the theme answers. Oh, it failed miserably, but the effort felt sublime. Colin, I have adored your puzzles and can’t wait for the next. Thank you for today’s perfect springboard to the day and week ahead!
@Lewis Agree 100%. I thought there was a certain "je ne sais quoi" about this Monday puzzle, and your mention of Colin's Friday puzzle construction experience explains that.
With Sam's musings in mind... I think that the [Direction pointing straight up from the Equator]--or from anywhere--is simply up. Up on a map is different from up in real life. There are four cardinal directions on maps: north, south, east and west. In real life, though, there are six: the previous four, and up toward the heavens and down towards the center of the earth. In that scenario, north is no more up than south is; in fact, unless you stipulate that you mean "on a map", no direction perpendicular to a standing person is up or down. Only up and down are up and down. (On Sukkot, the Jewish holiday that just ended last week, observers shake the lulav and etrog--a group of various branches tied together and a citrus fruit--in six directions. Eastward, southward, westward, northward, up and down.) Interesting, I once noticed that on star charts, east is to the left, and west is toward the right. Looking up rather than down necessitates this difference.
@Steve L Well, left and right depend on where you stand. A friend from Argentina once told me that all of our globes were upside down. Not sure if he was sending me up or putting me down.
@Steve L agreed, straight up at the equator is ninety degrees to true North. At one point in history, the convention was that east was at the top of maps.
@Steve L I couldn't really tell. Did you have a problem with the clue? Seemed spot on to me. (What do you think, emus?)
@Steve L If you’re standing at the North Pole, up is true north.
Some tricky puzzles today. Fifty-five words to get to Genius on the Bee and now this clever concoction. Some may zoom through it, but it took me more than 15 minutes (for a Monday??). Granted that I didn't WATCHCAREFULLY and had some ODIOUS typos, but even so, it was more complicated than the usual Monday. I loved it. Thank you for waking me up on the drowsy Sunday afternoon, Colin Adams. Nice puzzle!
Really loved the clue for OPAL, as I just delivered a halloween Baby last week! And I enjoyed BATS hanging in the middle of the grid like hanging in a cave.
A bit crunchier than the usual Monday. Good stuff.
My NYT Crossword streak is at 2,271 days. I think today is a good day to break it. I stand with the tech union in opposition to their corporate bosses. I’ll see you folks once again when the strike is settled.
@Dave S You must be my crossword doppelgänger! I’m also at 2271 and this will be my last until the strike is resolved.
To slice or not to slice? For me, that is the true existential question. In our kitchen*, I am the one most often called upon to assemble the cheese boards, charcuterie boards *sensu stricto* (meats only,) and charcuterie *sensu lato* (meats and cheeses). What to do with the brie? In general, I find a double-créme cheese like brie still too firm to be scooped and spread (like a triple-crème, such as Saint-André might), but too flimsy to be sliced by the guest. But pre-cutting it into bite-sized pieces will usually just devolve into a gooey mess once the board reaches room-temperature. And having a nice large wedge of brie, cross-supported by another wedge, adds a nice third dimension touch to what is basically a two-dimensional construct. Or, as I say, "who cares? Nobody eats this stuff anyway--it's just for show," as I munch a piece before throwing 90% of the left-over board into the trash (Happy note--we've recently begun a leftover charity donation program--not an easy task, given legal constraints.) In general, for meat-n-cheese boards, I follow the 3-3-3 rule: at least three varieties of cured meat, three cheeses, and three sides like dried fruit, nuts, or olives. For cheese-only boards, the "rule of five"--five varieties, including one soft (like brie), one blue, and one goat- or sheeps-milk, for the cow's milk intolerant. * I am currently on medical leave--Hello, Wordplay!
Bill, Get well soon, if not immediately!
@Bill Thanks for the 3-3-3 rule, I'll try to remember that. I have a dedicated brie plate (wood, with a little glass dome) and yes, the special knife with the forked tip. Brie never, ever goes to waste in my family. I leave the actual charcuterie to my brother-in-law, who hunts and cures his own.
@Bill, I just learned the 3M rule from Robert Hollingwirth. When offered a gig, you evaluate it for Music, Money, and Mates. If it checks 2 out of 3, do it. (You might, while on your leave, enjoy his podcast Choral Chihuahua.)
So this was an unusual Monday in the length of some down, non-theme answers. Obviously not Fri or Sat hard, but a little window into that style. But still accessible! I liked it! BB. Yes, a thing. When I was a kid, seemed like bb-guns were ubiquitous except in our pacifist house!
Worth mentioning to crossword users—the New York Times Tech Guild is on strike after giving management months to reach a fair contract. They've requested that readers honor the digital picket line by not playing NYT games like Wordle or Connections and not using the cooking app until a deal is struck. <a href="https://nyguild.org/post/new-york-times-tech-guild-walks-off-the-job" target="_blank">https://nyguild.org/post/new-york-times-tech-guild-walks-off-the-job</a>
@Hunter H. Thanks. I would think "popular NYT Games" would include the crossword.
Spanglish - I really enjoy the combo of another language with English. There was a German lady who owned a small a shop. As a child, I would often go there to buy presents for my family. The German language uses "ge" in front of verbs to denote past tense i.e. sehen - see gesehen - saw. This shopkeeper would put "ge" before English words. "He getook the money and he gewent home." I so enjoyed hearing her speak. Thanks for the memory and the smile.
An additional benefit to reading wordplay: Today I saw a movie in a local art house. Browsing the adverts for upcoming films, I saw a brochure with the name Andrzej Wajda and thought hmm, that name looks familiar, picked it up and learned there's a 16-day Wajda film festival in Tokyo in December. Come home and learn (from IMDb, shout out to to Sunday's puzzle) that Wajda is an Academy Award-winning director and "the most prominent filmmaker in Poland." And I probably wouldn't have given the advert a second look had I not recognized the name Andrzej
@Bill in Yokohama I replied to your post but for reasons I don't get at all my message did not show up. "Moderation", srsly...
When I retired, I took off my wristWATCH (at Children's Rehab Hospital, we had to chart *everything* for "long-term care" and do all the special education paperwork as well) and never put it on again. Who needs BELTs when there's elastic? SUITs don't SUIT me. I've never been accused of being FASHION FORWARD...and I always wanted to make Tim Gunn cry... Thanks anyway, Colin Adams. SNL's cold open made my day...even if I saw it in the wee hours of Monday. November! Cranberry sauce: check. Candied orange peel: check. Prep for Fruitcake: check--it's today's agenda. (Recipe from the new _Baking in the American South_)
@Mean Old Lady In keeping with SNL's cold open, I dub thee M-O-L-amala.
Sam asks in today's column, "can robots become aroused?" The answer is "Yes", if constructed using an Erector set. (OK, boomer.) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set</a>
@Jim And for all my fellow boomers out there, here is a TV ad for the updated 1963 version. I’m not sure my set was quite so advanced as this, but I sure got a lot of use out of it! Thanks for the memory…. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2ae8mz7u" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2ae8mz7u</a> — — — —
Diana Ross and Bob Ross together in a clue made my morning!
Seeing UP as a clue for DUENORTH brought back a memory from my wife’s time as a museum guide. She was giving a spotlight tour “The Search For the Nile”, and one of the visitors asked how could the Nile flow up? L
Gotta love the internet. I searched on this string in Google "do most rivers flow south" And on the same search results page I saw both "No, most rivers do not flow south" (under AI Overview) and "Even though it is true that most rivers flow south..."
I confidently entered MDS for stethoscope users, which delayed getting the gold star by a minute. The downs there made no sense as a result, but I just woke up so it took a moment before I realized how to rectify the situation. It did not help that I was only familiar with the apparently British spelling of one of the downs, FURORe. So yet again the American penchant for abbreviating words and the abundance of US acronyms was a source of confusion for poor Polish me 🤣. In everyday language we have exactly zero abbreviations for a dr/MD (we call an MD either "doktor" or "lekarz", which is related to the verb "leczyć", to heal. It does not mean "healer" though - that would be "uzdrowiciel", from "uzdrowić", a different, more miraculous and less scientific verb for healing). Also, RN, EMT, IOU - some of the most common US acronyms in these puzzles, one of them used today - don't have Polish equivalents. A nurse is just a nurse, "pielęgniarka". EMT is "ratownik medyczny", literally medical rescuer. And IOU is "skrypt dłużny". In general we use very few acronyms. The few common ones include AGD, artykuły gospodarstwa domowego, literally "household items", which we somewhat strangely use only for electric or electronic household devices: a chair or a rug, while definitely household items, are not covered by AGD. Abbreviations other than acronyms are used more often, but almost exclusively in slang. Eg. "promka" is short for "promocja", a promotion as in marketing/sales.
Actually, is IOU an acronym? It's phonetic rather than formed from the first letters of words. Do you still call that an acronym in English? In Polish we have no words that sound like single letters so I lack the language to describe this. Actually, as I wrote the above I realized something - these days it is slightly dated, but in the past "de", our sound for D (that is an "e" as in egg), was a common way to refer to "dupa", our less-than-polite word for a person's bottom. An acronym of sorts? [Emu, EMU.]
@Andrzej I say “dupa” far more than its English equivalent. It’s a perfect word 🤣
@Andrzej While today's puzzle used DR(S) as an abbreviation -- and I largely agree with you about our American penchant for shortening words and phrases -- in the singular it is the title for a person so accredited, which is not always a *medical* title. Similarly (but also kind of conversely?), MD and RN are accreditations that follow a person's name. A medical doctor can be addressed: Dr. John Doe or John Doe, M.D. It would not be "Dr. John Doe, M.D.". (The title "Dr." may be used by anyone who has received a doctorate, such as Dr. Jill Biden.) I'm curious if the Polish language has this type of titling as well!
A bit more difficult than usual for a Monday, but most prefer that so no problem. I totally don’t believe in FASHION. I think people should wear whatever they like and find comfortable. That’s my excuse for knowing nothing about what is fashionable and often struggling with fashion clues in crossword puzzles. I did enjoy today’s puzzle though.
@suejean I hate shopping for clothes and just want to find stuff that is comfortable and durable. (Much of my wardrobe is decades old.) I think that too many people, at least in this country, spend way too much money on clothes. I look at some of the pictures the NYT publishes about fashion shows and trends and I just laugh. Despite that, I truly enjoyed “The Devil Wears Prada.” If you haven’t seen it, at least watch the clip Sam Corbin posted. It almost convinced me that the fashion industry has a valid role to play.
@suejean I'm with you on that, suejean. My fashion? - Blue jeans and t-shirts, and that''s about it. ..
@suejean I'm with you there! Still wearing stuff that's 20 years old.
@suejean At one point, realizing I would NOT be rejoining the teaching workforce for a long time to come, I took some outfits to a donation center where folks in rehab could get clothing suitable for interviews and job sites. All of my things were clean and unblemished, but I was told they did not want clothes that were Not Fashionable. And they showed me the door! LOL
@suejean Me too! Recently I was watching the video of my son's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. I was wearing a skirt/top that is still one of my favorites. The Court of Honor was in 2000! I moved to Germany for 2 years, and we rented out our house which involved packing up everything and putting in storage. When we came home my children came to see us and help move us back in. I said to the 2 daughters, "You can put my clothes back in the closet and decide if there are things I should get rid of." They said in unison -- "Everything!" I'm so glad baggy pants are back in style! I never stopped wearing them.
I’m breaking my streak and canceling my games subscription in solidarity with the NYT Tech Guild.
@Laura Thanks for the reminder about canceling the subscription. I didn’t think about that. It can be easily restarted once the strike is settled.
Congratulations on your first themed puzzle, Colin. It had a little more bite than the average Monday, and that's always appreciated.
Nice Monday. But thinking about my FIBULA, tibia ( and whatever other bones I crushed back in February ) just makes all the metal in my ankle hurt. Eight months and I still walk (hobble) terribly. If you’re considering breaking an ankle, I highly do *not* recommend. Two thumbs way down. This puzzle, however, fresh and fun! Thank you Colin!
@CCNY Sorry you’re still having trouble with your broken ankle. If I remember correctly, you got tangled up with dogs or their leashes, didn’t you? I hope your recovery takes a turn for the better. The three broken bones I’ve experienced were all minor, but I don’t think I will ever fully recover from the last two. I don’t envy you having a much more serious fracture.
@CCNY A person very close to me horribly broke her ankle while climbing and it was put back together with metal plates in surgery. The most crucial element of recovery for her was finding a good physiotherapist - the first one to help her was OK, but then she changed physios and the new one turned out to be much better: the manual therapy and prescribed exercises allowed this person to almost fully recover. She only very rarely experiences any pain these days, 4 years after the accident. So I would recommend finding the best physio you can.
Bit of a challenge for a Monday but an enjoyable workout. None of the theme answers were going to come to me just from the clues so had to work them all out from the crosses. Just made for a nice challenge. And... wasn't at all familiar with the term in the reveal so that was the last thing I worked out. Just made for a nice touch. No interesting puzzle finds today. ..
@Rich in Atlanta What, you ever saw "Project Runway"? I loved watching the workers create... but I quit making clothes ages ago!
When I went to do Sundays puzzle, uncharacteristically at night, I inadvertently opened Monday’s. Was so pleased with how, suddenly, Sunday was REMARKABLY easy. It was this morning when I went to do Mondays that I realized my gaffe. Ha! Onward to Sunday. Don’t know where else to make this comment: No disrespect to others who create the mini, but I sure miss Joel’s.
A breeze, and thank goodness. I need more puzzles like these. Why? Because my wife and I share a NYT games account (me for the crossword, her for sudoku) — but she once, years ago, started a Monday crossword. (can recall why I wasn’t doing it), got halfway through, and then left the puzzle up. All day. Even after solving on many a Monday since, my Monday completion average is still…six hours. It’ll take many more Mondays like these to get me anywhere near to respectable average time. So thank you Mr. Adams!
I intend to honor the Tech Guild’s digital picket line and refrain from Time’s games for the duration.
Thank you, Sam Corbin, for that absolutely delicious scene from "The Devil Wears Prada" -- my favorite scene in the whole hilariously fashion-skewering movie. Watch it, everyone and then rent the film if you haven't seen it. I watched "Devil" -- and adored it -- from the point of view of the determinedly FASHION-BACKWARD person, but I imagine you'll enjoy it too -- even if you're a fashionista. One of the greatest satires ever made, I'd argue.
@Nancy Same here. I usually laugh at what I see in the fashion pages of the NYT, but I truly enjoyed that movie — especially that scene, which is probably what got Meryl Streep that Oscar.
What is brie (or any other cheese) doing on a charcuterie board? And why ‘unsliced’? Because it’s cut in wedges? Over here, BTW, when a wedge of cheese is served at table, some people consider it rude to slice it crosswise, from the point. You’re supposed to keep cutting it into (smaller) wedges.
@Max Mendel Good to know! Despite the name clearly indicating meats, in the states a “charcuterie board” has come to mean a collection of tasty bites (including cheese, pickles, and fruit) artfully arranged. It’s annoying, I get it (but it’s also delicious).
@Max Mendel As others have described, a charcuterie board has come to mean a collection of savory items which include meat.* Distinguished from a cheese board, which does not have meat... In the age of Instagram, "boards" have exploded in popularity - the more photogenic the better. As for brie, it might be cut in bite-size wedges on such a board. More commonly, it is either as a large wedge, or a smaller wheel will be put out whole with a small wedge removed to facilitate access. And yes, most Americans attack soft cheeses cutting crosswise, without any regard to leaving any of the center for anyone else. I used to be quite didactic about this in my youth! But have learned it's easier to just avert my eyes... hahaha. *The meats on a charcuterie board do tend to be, in fact, what the French actually consider to be charcuterie, fwiw!
Colin, Marine Layer slub t-shirts along with Levi 501s are all you need. ko points out that a few food and wine stains on the shirt are... not fashion forward. Nice one. We argued over tune and SONG and of course ko was right. And, I was not right, in another word, wrong. Thank you Colin a fun solve
When I saw WATCH and BELT, I thought the revealer would have something to do with stuff you have to take off and put through an airport scanner. But as soon as I had FASHION, I did write in FASHION FORWARD. By then I had SUIT -- so at least there was one item I thought of as being related to fashion. Look, don't expect me to notice your accessories. I won't notice your WATCH even if you paid $50,000 for it and I won't notice your BELT even if it's the finest alligator or even made of solid gold. I might notice a drop-dead red-carpet gown or a dramatic full-length coat. Then again, I might not. I think you'd call me FASHION BACKWARD. High point of this puzzle for me: the amusing clue for SPANGLISH.
@Nancy I judge other men by their shoes. Not only for quality or stylishness, but are they well maintained? If you're wearing scuffed-up Florsheim Imperials, you get an automatic downgrade from me. I think it goes back to spit-shining my jump boots.
goodbye to my 1156 day streak! if you'd like to join me in donating to the Times Tech Guild's strike fund to help the people who keep the puzzles flowing while they fight for better working conditions, you can find it at gofundme (dot) com (slash) f (slash) nyt-tech-strike-fund union strong :)
We Rightpondians do have to tread very carefully with 39d!
That clip from Devil Wears Prada is the GOAT ! Thanks for the laugh on Nervous Monday. Don’t forget to vote.
Please either break your streak for the NYT tech guild's strike OR, PREFERABLY, donate to the strike fund! NYT tech workers are so important, let's support them! Google [NYT tech guild strike fund] and you'll find it (can't link to it here, of course)
What a thrill to be name-dropped in the first paragraph of the Wordplay column! Thanks for watching (back in the day), Sam. I’m a big fan of yours—so I won’t take your “judgmental source” comment too personally. ;)
I booted up, but only in (stylish) hip waders to explore that fascinating drainage ditch. I did not push my laptop’s buttons.
The clue for 2D doesn't ring true to me. After nearly a half century of working mostly with Hispanic people, including teenagers who speak creatively, shall we say, I can't ever remember anyone saying anything like "Dónde está la library?" They might say "Dónde está la librería?", though, looking for the same building, which is more what I'd consider SPANGLISH. (For the uninitiatied, "biblioteca" is the word for library, while "libraría" actually means bookstore.) The confusion of similar words with slightly different meanings is a hallmark of SPANGLISH. Switching from one language to another in mid-sentence is called code-switching.
Steve, You're too close to the subject. To wit: There is no single, universal definition of Spanglish. The term Spanglish has been used in reference to the following phenomena, all of which are distinct from each other: The use of integrated English loanwords in Spanish Nonassimilated Anglicisms (i.e., with English phonetics) in Spanish Calques and loan translations from English Code switching, particularly intra-sentential (i.e., within the same clause) switches Grammar mistakes in Spanish found among transitional bilingual speakers Second-language Spanish, including poor translations Mock Spanish <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanglish" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanglish</a>
@Steve L Just to pile on a bit, every first-year Spanish student learns, "Donde esta la biblioteca?" It's sort of an inside joke.
@Steve L Spanglish is a mix of Enlish and Spanish in the same sentence. Using "la librería" instead of "la biblioteca" is more like anglicizing. So while "Donde está la library?" sounds clunky to my ears, it's still Spanglish. Sincerely, An avid Spanglish speaker
Easy! With few brand names/references to baseball/obscure (to me) abbreviations I got any clue that were by the crossers. Only one I couldn’t get or know was skateboard clue. Lovely jubbly.
@Jane Commit that skateboard one to memory: that's the only way I was able to smoothly plunk it into the grid today. I love "lovely jubbly"! Hopefully the emus do, too...
Late puzzle find; just stumbled across it from my usual answer history searches. Anyway - a Sunday from June 30, 2002 by Joe DiPietro with the title "Bylines." Some sample theme clues and answers: "Bathrooms near some shaving detritus? :" LOOSBYAWHISKER "Underdog's fastener? :" KNOTBYALONGSHOT "One who selects arithmetically? :" CULLERBYNUMBERS "Mountaineer in peril? :" ONEBYALANDSLIDE And there were a few others. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/30/2002&g=89&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/30/2002&g=89&d=A</a> ...
I'm very disappointed to see a word perceived as a slur by many make it into the crossword. Calling someone a 'Slav' does not usually come with positive connotations and I would expect NYT to do much better than that. Furthermore, the Balkans are neither the 'native homeland' of Slavic people or populated solely by them - Greeks, Albanians, Romanians and other groups are present in large numbers as well.
@Lisse It has never occurred to me that the word Slav could be offensive. In 1969 I studied in Yugoslavia, the land of the South Slavs.
@Lisse Where in the puzzle is SLAV? I can't find it. If I saw the clue, I could formulate an opinion on what you say, but it's not there.
@Marcia Fidler As it was explained to me by a person from ex-Yugoslavia, the original version in Slavic languages is not offensive in any way. However, when translated to English, Slav is a term that is often used as an insult and Slavic people/person should be used instead.
@Lisse Issues with the word 'slav' have been brought up before, yet its use and cluing remain pretty much status quo. I highly recommend contacting the Games staff directly, using the email address provided at the top of the screen (right under the box where you typed your comment). There is zero guarantee any staff will see your comment here, nor that it would be passed along to have it addressed. That said, I'm with Steve L: where is the word in today's crossword puzzle with which this column and comments are associated, Monday, November 4, 2024?
Monday solved but Sunday sits, incomplete. I worked on it throughout the day as I had spare moments. I couldn’t find my mistake last night or on a quick pass this morning. I refuse to check the puzzle! Buuuuut, I don’t have it in me yet to go through and find the error. Maybe after coffee.
@Katie Follow up: I had LENdTO for LENTTO at 10D. Happy music. Side note to follow up: I just noticed I tend to use LEND in present tense, LOANED in past tense, and HAD LENT in past perfect tense. Okay, this has nothing to do with Monday’s puzzle. Just my dull thoughts.
Stars don't align. Planets align.
@AnnieM Planets align in astronomy and astrology. But stars align in an idiom. ;-)
@AnnieM Sure they do. But over a time scale of hundreds of millions of years. Still relevant, even though we can't see it happening.
@AnnieM Stars do align, just on a much longer time scale than planets. Also, from an earth-centric point of view, the gradual precession of our rotational axis causes apparent changes in star alignment. For instance back when the Egyptian pyramids were built, the north star wasn't Polaris, it was Thuban. Since then, we have moved from the age of Pisces to the dawning of the age of Aquarius.
Struggled with this one. I blame the time shift. 7 minutes and had to correct two mistakes before getting the Gold Star
Not sure I get Sam's photo reference. Run off of the extra rain on a rainy day? It is raining here this morning. Rainy days and Mondays . . . I can't think of many other possible themers, not many clothing items that can also be verbs. I can't "top this". Maybe after I "scarf down" some breakfast. Skirting the subject, let's move on to Strands. Strands #246 “In a(n) ...” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🟡🔵
If I want to BELT OUT A SONG on karaoke night, It's usually "War Pigs" by Black Sabbath. That one gets folks POWERED UP. A BILLY IDOL song would also fit the bill. LOLA not so much. I CAN SEE for miles and miles...