Wednesday, December 11, 2024

(And this is a reposting of my message to @Striker and all who chimed in on that thread) Thank you, you beautiful people, each and every one of you. You've most definitely melted my heart. Your words are high praise which I can only hope to live up to. XOXO

@sotto voce I'm late to the party but can only echo what's been said, that your comments are something I not only read with enthusiasm and often amusement, but seek out. And one thing I particularly like is that your comments are kind, sensitive and observant without being sentimental, trite or treacly.

@sotto voce I was just lucky to be the first to comment. As we saw, the rest of your friends were lined up right behind me! A well earned moment of appreciation. Happy to hear it brought a smile.

@sotto voce You deserve every kind word you received and more. Your post here is just the latest illustration of your eloquence, grace and openness.

@john ezra I love imagining Mae West meeting Lenin with that line! !,!

@john ezra If you had any doubt, you certainly have your mojo back (after yesterday stating you weren't feeling it). "all-you-can-eat buffet-snarfers" -- worth the price of admission! Raising a White Russian to you, sir. (Yes, it's not quite 10am. But it's coffee -- right?)

@HeathieJ - Now can somebody tell a story when multiple doctors over multiple years and multiple tests resulted in a good diagnosis and treatment? Because I can’t. Patient: this hurts Doctor: no it doesn’t ($$$) Patient: no, really, something is wrong Doctor: oh, no it isn’t ($$$$) Patient: can you run a test Doctor: please hold while we ensure that the insurance you pay dearly for will not cover the test ($$$$$) Patient: ow please help Doctor: next patient please ($$$$$$$$$$$$) Gimme a break. Doctors never ever help. Insurance takes the money and runs to the Grand Bahamas. If you pushed long and hard enough to get help, maybe you can get on board with the idea that patients shouldn’t have to do that. I made the mistake this year of going back to doctors. Nope. No help. Nothing but bills. Lots and lots of bills. I need a rubber band around my wrist to snap hard every time I think of going to a doctor.

@HeathieJ haha this was my first Mae West answer with as little as 1 crosser too. NYT Crossword alone has given me respect for her wit

@Mike You're coin to see that you can spend a lot of dimes purse-uing new quarters. You can pretty much bank on it.

Mike, Even when you wax corny, not to worry; I will never red cent your remarks. I realize they are just for pun.

@SJ Demo Under the Polish Administrative Proceedings Code applications may be submitted in writing (also electronically), orally and by... Fax machine. I'm Gen-X/ancient Millenial so I know what that is, but I have to explain it to my students: this semester they are people born in 2005/2006. I haven't had wheels that can play cassettes since 2004 though.

@SJ Demo My sister's kid found a CD at my mom's house and asked, "What this?" My sister and I were both horrified. We are old now.

@SJ Demo SIDEA was probably the slowest answer to come to me in this puzzle, and when I finally got it, a major DOH! moment as I was buying cassettes when the technology first hit the public. I do associate Side A and Side B more with 45s (and lesser so with vinyl albums) though.

@SJ Demo - Cassettes are oddly making a come back. My musician son (in his mid-30's) has given us cassettes of his last 2 albums and other musicians in his circle offer them as merch. I suspect that my husband and I are among the few that have the equipment to play them.

@SJ Demo I have a car where we replaced the original AM-only radio with a new-fangled one that has AM, FM and a Cassette player! That was about 1985. And so I can play “Fun Fun Fun Til her Daddy Takes the T-bird away” Beach Boys song that was my anthem in High School. I started driving my Dad’s 1956 Thunderbird when I turned 16. When I was 30 I got it from him permanently, and I am still driving it around town. We have one-and-a-half cars at our house. Toyota Hybrid for normal days, and the T-bird when we need two cars at once. Whoever is going the shortest distance gets the T-bird…. Our youngest son wants it when I’m done with it. He wants to convert it to electric! Not a bad idea. We did convert the engine to run on regular unleaded gas a few years ago, as leaded premium was not to be found.

@ad absurdum "Redbox and chill?" I had to replace a TV recently, and was dismayed to find that the new and improved model had no RCA jacks (red/white) for audio out, just something called an "optical" outlet. Adapter sold separately, of course. And I'll have to buy another adapter if I want to hook up the DVD player, because the inputs are all HDMI. I know, First World problems. TL;DR: old man yells at cloud

@Chris Absolutely. "Feel" was a very poor formation in this context. I'm rather surprised it passed muster. Even for a Wednesday this was surprisingly sloppy, for an otherwise reasonable if uninspiring theme. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)

@Rich in Atlanta Oi!! Have been working on a theme almost *exactly* like that. Reeallly should have dug deeper before before I started working. In the bin it goes! Thanks for saving me from spending even more time on a dud!

@CCNY Bummer! I recently solved that one in an Omnibus and thought it was genius. So kudos for also having thought of it!

@Rich in Atlanta I don't usually comment on your archive finds, but that one "sounds" diabolical! I'd be curious about @CCNY 's version too. It couldn't be that similar and I doubt there are strict (or any) rules? ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)

@Andrew That messed me up, too. I tried to enlist Google to help me understand, and what I got were Reddit comments that said the likes of, "The NYT crosswords editors do not make mistakes!" and "Get over it!"—not helpful at all. But I swear that you and I are right about this!

@Andrew The plural of lira can be either liras or lire.

@Andrew Maybe think of it this way: The dollar is the currency of the U.S. whereas Dollars are the currency of the U.S. The euro is the currency of the E.U. whereas Euros are the currency of the E.U. and so The lira is... / The lire are...

@sotto voce Currency is named in the singular, as per above.

@Barry Ancona And the clue reads "currency replaced by *THE* euro"

@Andrew Me trying to figure out what word for boyfriend is spelled BAA?S for five minutes and wondering how the Mini went horribly wrong. LIRE my BAA?S.

@Hungry Piggie There are plenty of manifestations of a patriarchal society in today’s world that one might— and should— take umbrage at. I don’t think the clue/answer combination cited is one of them. I would like to see the day when people of any sex, gender identification, nation, or race can all see themselves, first and foremost, as equal members of the “Family of Man”… without feeling denigrated by that terminology! When a young girl, I was taught that “man” was an all-inclusive term that embraced all Homo sapiens. That never made me, as a female, feel “less than”. I think that if we, as a species, are to earn that designation of “wise” we need to eschew silly niggles over what ought to be seen as non-offensive terminology, and address the many serious injustices that still exist. I SORTA like the clue “Socking it to the ___” , though!

@Hungry Piggie I absolutely knew someone was going to be offended by this entry when I saw it last night. I can see why, but I agree more with Darcey. Remember what the clue is (I'm not mentioning it because I fear the first word of it will trigger the filter). That first word literally means "man". And "man" came into the English language first as a name for the entire species; the common word for an adult male was "wer" (now seen only in "werewolf"). Perhaps what we need is a new separate name for an adult male human.

@Hungry Piggie The word "man" originally meant "human." They've been used interchangeably for centuries. "Woman" meant "wife-man," as in a man you take to wife. The gender-neutral use of "man" also survives in words such as "manslaughter." I notice no one gets up in arms about that one--except the manslaughterer, of course.

@Hungry Piggie I agree with @Darcy and @Heidi and would add that for me, the clue is correctly parallel to the answer, as both are terms dating back centuries. As a woman, I have plenty of grievances about male bias in our world -- but historical use of language such as this is not one of them. What concerns me more is that current and future generations could lose the context of these words and with it an understanding of texts from earlier eras...

@Andrzej I’ve seen both, but either never knew (or forgot? Or was too young to know who he was?) that Sam Elliott was the narrator. All I really remember is that it’s about The Dude. Guess it’s time to watch it again.

@Andrzej, You need to see The Big Lebowski, if for no other reason than to fill a hole in your cultural education. Which is exactly what I did about fifteen years ago, when I saw it for the first time at a special screening at the Boulder Theater. I was not prepared for the Rocky Horror-like atmosphere that I walked into — guys wearing bathrobes, strolling around with White Russians in their hands — it all makes sense if and only if (to borrow a mathematical phrase) you see the movie. You owe it to yourself, preferably somewhere on the big screen.

@Andrzej I’ve never seen The Big Lebowski, either, but through cultural osmosis I do know that the Dude abides. Which, oddly enough, is what ran through my head when I got 19A— long before I even encountered 30D!

@Andrzej I agree with those recommending The Big Lebowski. Curious about its revered place in pop culture history, I saw it for the first time recently on a flight to Paris. I was not disappointed. The films by Joel and Ethan Coen deserve a genre of their own, and Jeff Bridges was brilliant, endearing, and perfect as The Dude, supported by a great cast. (It goes without saying that Sam Elliott was Sam Elliott who, IMHO, should be in everything.)

@Andrzej As for The Lion King... It's a Disney animation; I'll leave it at that. The Broadway show (and any possible video version you might find) is a different matter, if only for the costumes and the actors who embody them. Mind you, even as a NYC dweller, I've never seen the show! But I respect the use of various forms of puppetry as a way to bring the animals to life; it was groundbreaking when it first came out.

@Andrzej The Big Lebowski touches on aspects of American culture, but that's not the reason to see it. It's funny, full of crazy surprises, some of which might not resonate with you, but we recognize so many characters, each one carving out an identity to give themself a singular importance. That's true the world over, and you'll very likely recognize Poles who embody that as well.

@Mark Neuroscientists estimate we have between 20 and 30 distinct senses. My favorite is proprioception - the sense of where you and all your body parts are in space. Close your eyes, extend your arm and index finger, touch your nose. How does the body know where your finger is? Or your nose? Amazing! It's involved in every movement your make.

@Jay Yes, totally amazing! I (and probably many others) have the ability to navigate my pitch black rooms without bumping into anything, and too, to locate the light switches directly, without fumbling about. Every once in a while I stop and wonder how.

@Tess Agree!

@Neil - Pounds? What’s wrong with you Brits? it’s pound.

@Neil Yep! This one drove me crazy and ended up adding at least 30 seconds to my score, if not more.

@David Connell It's absolutely the pound. Do you ask "how is the pounds doing today"? Nope. It's the pound. If you want plural, specify.

@Neil guessing you posted without reading any of the previous conversations...

@Blurry Pronouncing it as 'boo-coo' in Atlanta is just fine. I've heard it that way countless times. You probably would want to avoid it in Paris, though (the one in France... it would probably be perfectly acceptable in the one in Texas).

@Blurry I've always used the French pronunciation, but then my mother was a French Lit major. You should hear me say "croissant", which I feel I mostly hear as "cre-SAHNT" these days.

@Blurry TIL = Today I learned It is redundant to say TIL today. Grazie!

@All Don’t get me started on how Americans pronounce papier-mâché. Or Cirque du Soleil.

@Helen Wright So sorry you caught the terribly unpleasant bug. I hope you feel better soon!

@Helen Wright Ugh!! Hope you feel better very soon!!

@Helen Wright Thank you both. I managed to stagger through the pub Christmas quiz tonight without embarrassing myself too much. One question was What US city is nicknamed the emerald city. We put Boston, thinking Irish connections. It’s Seattle but no one could explain why. Any clues?

@Helen Wright so sorry to hear you’re under the weather! Feel better fast!

@Once a Marine Reckon so.

@The X-Phile Send me any of your extras. I'll toast those babies up for breakfast and coffee.

@The X-Phile What!? Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee! Or is it nobody does it like Sara Lee...!? I've never really been sure!

@The X-Phile Reheat? There's your problem right there. The beauty of Sara Lee and Pepperidge Farm frozen cakes is you slice and eat them while all that glorious fat is still frozen and glossy. Toaster?? ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)

@Red Carpet Despite what some have suggested, saying something like "too easy for a Wednesday" is not a humblebrag. It's just your judgment of whether the puzzle was well-placed on the day chosen. Some people are just triggered by the idea that someone else might have had an easier experience than they did.

@Red Carpet Maybe. But I had a tough time with Monday’s and Tuesday’s puzzles. To me, today’s puzzle was a bit like airing The Wheel after Jeopardy. Much appreciated.

@Jane I'm really curious - How did you come to the conclusion the senses were placed as equals? I saw nothing to indicate any sort of comparison between them in the puzzle.

@Bill In NYC, when they laid the grid, their solution was mostly to fill in all the creeks and level all the hills. They correctly figured that once the place was fully urbanized, it would be a blessing. They couldn’t solve the East River, though.

@Bill - My favorite road name in our town is Eleven O Clock Road. I was immensely surprised and gratified to learn that the name of that road is older than US independence, and that it was used when the King’s men marched up to Danbury. The founders of this neck of the woods were called The Outlanders, because they took the king’s offer to try to start farms in from the shore, where rocks are our natural crop. As soon as they discovered the boring rock-free flatness that is the Midwest - they all skedaddled. Christopher Plummer, a longtime Weston resident, played a role in an indie film about it. The most significant road name in town is Long Lots. Long Lots was an 18th-c. French solution to wealth inequality, and features in Connecticut, French Canada and Louisiana. The lots fronted on the King’s Highway or the riverfront in 50-yard widths and went back from there up to several miles (also called ribbon farms, but not here). In that way, everyone had equal access for commerce. Wonder why that didn’t catch on? 😬 When I hike in the woodlands here I see stone fences running due north and south spaced 50 yards apart in otherwise wild woods. Memories of the politics of colonization centuries ago.

@Bill We never number streets in Poland. They always have names, of various kinds. Warsaw has Winnie the Pooh Street, for example (ul. Kubusia Puchatka). The oldest names had to do with geography or what sort of people lived somewhere. Warsaw's Old Town has streets the like of Szewska (Shoemaker street), and a street that originally was laid out on an embankment across swampy terrain is called Twarda (Hard street, because the embankment used stones and gravel). In my part of Warsaw, which was laid out in the 1970s and 1980s to replace old villages, the names of those villages survive in some street names. I grew up on ul. Zamiany - named for the village Zamiana which existed there for centuries before. Incidentally, zamiana means swap, so probably the name originated when local nobles exchanged pieces of land, commemorating it in the place name. Also, our territorial divisions almost never use grids, or even straight lines. The boundaries follow the terrain, or reflect history: a thousand years of people dividing the land between them.

@Bill Here in this part of Texas the various dots along the horizon have names straight out of a Mescal trip. I live in Madera Canyon Lane even though the only wood around is in the nearby houses and the only canyon is possibly the sewer line. Then there is the Hilltop Restaurant a few miles down the road even though the highest hilltop in 200 miles around is the nearest ant hill. Maybe it was just the local tribes having fun.

@Bill There’s a kind of history of New Orleans via street names by John Churchill Chase called “Frenchmen, Desire. Goodchildren, and other Streets of New Orleans “. Well worth a read. New Orleans is famously more of a crescent shape grid as opposed to square and the normal directionals (North, South, East and West) are rarely used, people are more apt to say, lakeside or riverside, uptown (west southwest) or downtown (northeast). Depending on the bridge one takes to get to the Westbank of the Mississippi you would travel Southwest (Luling bridge), Southeast (Huey P Long), due East (Crescent City Connection).

@Gary The word "currency" in the clue can either refer to singular or plural, since it is a non-count (mass) noun.

@B t The CURRENCY of the U.S. is the DOLLAR, not the DOLLARS.

Kate, Sorry not to have answered your KINPIRA question from last Friday: >How would you describe it, like a cooked Japanese slaw? Yes, I think that's a good description!

@Kate Tani Heck, Reno, Nevada is west of San Diego. Did you ever notice that the West Coast curves sharply toward the southeast as you go down from the Bay Area to San Diego?

@Steve L I think this question is actually harder for Californians because of our internal maps. Reno and Fresno are firmly inland and you go East on I-80 to get there…despite all evidence I’m still resisting the idea that Reno is somehow West lol

And you have to travel slightly west from Pittsburgh if you want to get to Miami.

@Heidi Yep, that mere possibility was the highlight of the puzzle for me. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)

@JohnWM WHAT omg

@JohnWM and their LENIN EMOJI

@Vaer I love that song! I hadn't listened to it in a while, because it's on SIDE A of a mix tape that a friend made for me...in the '80s.

@Vaer omg thanks for the earworm!! can't believe I didn't come up with it on my own. Moulding is one of my favorite bassists.

@Vaer Ha! This came on the radio on my way home. I wonder if the 1st Wave programmer did the puzzle. 😁

@Vaer Thanks! I haven't heard any XTC in a long time.

@Katie Likewise ABIDE in a puzzle that references The Big Lebowski was a nice touch.

@Katie Wait...Clueless was Emma? Mind blown. At least I figured out that 10 Things I Hate About You was actually Taming of the Shrew. (It was pretty obvious.)