I took the road less graveled And that made all the smoothness. (But the forecast calls for Frost.)
@Mike I will ref-rain from horsing around with woulds and shake off my quest-ions about the best way to go.
@Mike That would have to be "the smoothiness" for reasons of scansion. But I diverge....
I had _UCK for the word repeated in children’s games and was worried about modern kids for a moment.
@Shimmer I had D_CK, and similar thoughts, until I remembered U existed!
@Shimmer Me, too! I was momentarily stunned.
@Shimmer Down on the boulevarF they take it hard They look at life with such disregard They say it can't be won The way the game is run But if you choose to stay You end up playing anyway <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=8wb9rQezRYs" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=8wb9rQezRYs</a>
When my husband and I bought our house, the realtor referred to it as a “starter” home. Apparently, we were meant to learn the basics of homeownership here, then move on to something bigger and more challenging. I guess we didn’t learn our lessons, because we’re still here. (Actually, we just really like our house.) But in that spirit, I think this puzzle would make a great “starter rebus”. It’s intuitive and easy to grasp. If the inability to squeeze SEE SPOT RUN into 15A causes a little uncertainty, having the inability to squeeze NEPOTISM into the *very next clue* is like a gentle guiding hand. And then the circles… This is not to say I thought the puzzle was too easy, or boring. On the contrary, I thought it was a fun drive. Having the potholes scattered among the various thoroughfares was a clever bonus. And the clues were definitely challenging enough to be engaging. This puzzle probably won’t sway anyone who is already determined to hate rebuses. But for anyone else, and especially those who are new to the concept, I think this is a great example to show just how much fun it can be to navigate a rebus puzzle. Just watch out for the potholes!
@Heidi I completely agree with your assessment. Seems like a classic Wednesday rebus puzzle with four identical, one-way rebuses identified by four circles. This can be contrasted with our constructor’s last Thursday rebus puzzle of 8/10/2023 which also had four identical rebuses (id/ego), but was two-way and had no circles….made it much more challenging and Thursday-appropriate. It makes me think of Bruce from Atlanta’s comment about the “hidden” pot-holes in Tuscan…I think it would have been a little more of a Thursday with Tuscan pot-holes.
"Dream On" (Aerosmith), "Maneater" (Hall & Oates), The Beegees, "Mesopotamia" (B-52s), "Come Undone" (Duran Duran)...I'm getting the sense that this JASA crowd is slightly younger than I'd have guessed, in their sixties -- or maybe that's what people far into their dotage think is hot right now! Well, OK Daddio, I'll wipe the cobwebs off my eponymous Duran Duran... Ah, it'll take a little time Might take a little crime to come undone Now we'll try to stay blind to the hope and fear outside Hey child, stay wilder than the wind and blow me in to cry... Here in Pittsburgh, the Pothole Capital of the World, most of our streets are bedizened with tarry pancakes of blobby patches which themselves have gotten patched, and the introduction of speed bumps to several of our bumpy boulevards a few years ago was met with incredulity by the local denizens: "We don't need no stinkin' speed bumps!" A pothole developed in the alley behind our garage and soon had the dimensions of a small grave. I bought a bag of cold mix asphalt and began filling it but realized it wasn't going to be enough. Thankfully a neighbor had set out a carton of books: Ann Coulter, Glen Beck, Bill O'Reilly...I grabbed a dozen and through them in the hole. But the lack of content in those books made the hole collapse within a week and I ended up having to do it De Novo, with Emma Goldman, Rosa Luxembourg, Walt Whitman and Saul Alinsky. Haven't had a problem since.
@john ezra Mesopotamia is also a TMBG tune
john ezra, Thank you for saving me the trouble of saying something along the lines of: “…lots of songs springing to mind in this puzzle (though I was thinking of “Undun” by The Guess Who) which will probably be mentioned by others. So I’ll offer up “Lullabies for Barflies” by Amelia Curren.” But I’ll offer that anyway: <a href="https://youtu.be/AIVzE8Q4mp8?si=egVxAXJ9fmWlQcgE" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/AIVzE8Q4mp8?si=egVxAXJ9fmWlQcgE</a>
@john ezra YES (I'm showing my AGE...it can happen)
@john ezra For me, when I hear Dream On, Depeche Mode first comes to mind.
I originally had TRYST as the answer to "Arrangement for an heir" and, frankly, I think my answer is better. Or at least more funny!
In all of Crosslandia’s major venues, this is only the second pothole-themed puzzle. The first, by Tracy Gray (10/22/15), had a different gimmick, and a terrific one at that, worth checking out. Tracy’s lovely gimmick didn’t include the potholes interrupting traffic arteries, like today’s does – a terrific touch, IMO. I also like that the potholes are circled, because, to me at least, the tops of holes are stereotypically circular. My fill-in was enhanced by appealing words and phrases: BARFLY, PETAL, DREAM ON, COME UNDONE. Also, sweet to see BEEGEE and TEEPEE, words made of letter sounds. I love the idea of a group of people making a puzzle, all motivated by making it the best it can be, and guided by that ethos, brainstorming the theme, best answers, and best clues. Every J.A.S.A. puzzle I’ve done has felt like it has been made like this. It’s a great credit not only to the talents of the students, but to the teacher, who fosters that best-it-can-be climate. So, bravo to you all, congratulations on being published NYT constructors, and thank you for a smile-producing outing today!
Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class sounds like the name of an avantgarde music band 😀 I enjoyed the puzzle in general, and caught on to the rebus instantly thanks to MESO(POT)AMIA. I needed quite a few lookups though, as the grid relied on proper names and trivia to a greater extent than I'd like. I also only got the Dick and Jane (whatever that is) line because it was a themed entry. Yesterday @Tom asked me why I wrote of the fall of Polish "communism" with those quotation marks, but because of time zones by then I was sound asleep and only saw the question today: I thought I'd reply here. @Tom It was just a dictatorship, an oligarchy, posing as a communist utopia. It was not communism. If anything, it was closer to socialism, but wasn't really socialist, either. Almost everything about the system and its regime was fake, and almost everybody over here knew it. The great absurdist director Stanisław Bareja captured the spirit of "communist" Poland perfectly in his grotesque comedies. Here's his wiki entry, with kinks to his works: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanis</a>%C5%82aw_Bareja However, I'm not sure how any of that can be understandable to somebody who has not experienced that world themselves, even as a child, like I did. Even my wife's sister, who was born in 1990, after the fall of "communism", and 10 years later than my wife an I, doesn't get what Bareja's films and series are really about. So please, take my word for it 🤪
@Andrzej - I appreciated the air quotes. The hollowness of that place and time was what it was. It still is in many other places!
@Andrzej My husband says the same thing. He was born and raised about 20 minutes south of Tylicz, Poland, just across the Slovak border. He was raised there in the early 1970s so his memories of that era are vivid. He says there was no ideology other than corruption, fear and oppression. He said HBO series *Chernobyl* perfectly captured the look and feel of his life there during that time. His stories — even of what he had to do to leave — are fascinating to my American brain.
@Andrzej Dick and Jane refers to a series of children's books from (I think) the late 1940s aimed at those just learning to read. They contained simple yet inane sentences like "See Spot run! Run, Spot, run!" Even at age six I knew that no child talked that way. Fortunately they were being phased out by then. I know my older siblings had them. To be fair, we all turned out literate in the end.
@Andrzej As a naive seventeen-year-old girl I had the great good luck to go on a study program that included three weeks in the GDR (Dresden, Potsdam, and East Berlin). I left wiser than I came, and it was the beginning of my political awakening.
@Andrzej Thanks for the thoughtful, and thought-provoking, reply. A colleague and friend, Marek, from my old job is a medical doctor in Poland. He was born in the 1960s, and he had some similar views to yours on the nature of “communism” in Poland. In addition to Stanisław Barej, are there other writers who have shed light on that era, and what it may mean for Europe today?
BTW, I loved the chutzpah this group of 55+ individuals showed by ironically placing DOTAGE, clued [Years of decline], in the grid of a PUBLISHED NYT PUZZLE!
A little story: One snowy afternoon, a couple winters ago, my Partner and I were sitting in the living room of our place Up North--I was reading a novel, he was reading news on his i-pad. "Here's a story--Margaret Atwood responds to her novels being included on a list of books banned in Florida County Public Schools." (She was flattered.) "What else was on the list?" "*Beloved*, by Toni Morrison, *Fun Home* by Alison Bechdel . . . yadda yadda . . ., and *Snow Falling on Cedars* by Stephen Guterson." I raised the book I had in my hand. "Why was it banned, did they say?" "Profanity and sexual content." "Yeah, right." A beautiful novel, I may whole-heartedly recommend. (I have not seen the movie.) And we've only just seen the beginning. Great puzzle today.
@Bill I read Snow Falling On CEDARS many years ago and really enjoyed it. My memory is a bit vague on detail; did it involve the interred US Japanese?
@Bill Agree about the novel! I reread it not that long ago. so very well-written. I suspect the real reason for the ban was the exposure of racism in the 'justice system.'
Pretty darn amusing. Caught the rebus on NE(POT)ISM so it was fairly smooth after that. My ROAD bumps was the crossing of ECSEGAR and EROICA. That J.A.S.A. crossword construction class sounds pretty cool. I imagined retired academics in their DOTAGE keeping their minds sharp. “Good for them,” I thought. That’s until Deb said 55 and up. Then I realized I, too, am a retired academic in my DOTAGE keeping my mind sharp! 🙇🏽♀️ If I think I’m still young, I’d better DREAMON! On a different note, I know there won’t be any POTHOLES on the ROADs in my South Carolina hometown that is still blanketed with snow. Why? Because they have no snow plows or salt to clear the streets. Everyone is supposed to just stay home. To be fair, it hasn’t snowed there in 25 years, and rarely before then. Stay warm and dry!
@Pani Korunova My first fill for 20A was oldAGE, and as someone who could register for JASA classes, I thought "well that's a little mean." I was delighted when I changed it to DOTAGE, such a fun word!
@Nora Yes, I’d love to be in such a class. I wish we had something like that here in Portugal. Even a crossword *solvers’* club.
@Pani Korunova *ROAD bump (I hate such errors. I usually just cringe and leave them)
Whenever I actually manage to solve a Thursday I come to the comments and inevitably find out it was an easy one. Oh well. I thought this was clever and quite fast and fun with a few hiccups to keep it interesting.
@Scott - Me too! Oh well — let’s pat each other on the back anyway! A fun romp 😊
@Scott Don't sweat it. There'll always be people complaining about how 'easy' it was while the rest of us break out in a light-to-moderate sweat. Enjoy the win, ignore everyone else 😉 Well done! 👏🏾
@Scott Agree fully. And kudos! I like to peruse the comments for shared victories or roadblocks (potholes?) or insights I might have missed. I hope I never get to the point to where I take the game — or myself — so seriously as to presume my success/delight or failure/frustration is a reflection of anything more than my own take. To each his or her own bee-dazzlement, I say!
Ok, I'm going to start boring myself soon. Ha - as if! I'll never stop being amazed when I complete the crossword without any lookups. For the first time this week and today makes it the third day in a row. 🤯 I wonder if solving it later in the day means I'm a bit more patient? There were a few times I was so tempted to wander into Googleland especially with the Americanisms but I resisted and persisted and subsisted! (If that isn't a saying, I'm patenting it ASAP. No chance I'll manage this tomorrow - Fridays and Saturdays give me palpitations - but I'm pleased as punch right now. Even after reading a comment from someone saying it was rather easy and finished in eight mins. Only 40mins quicker than me but he's in Texas and I expect knowing the start of the Declaration of Independence wasn't a five-min process of elimination 🤣 Hats of the constructors for making a rebus puzzle that was both clever and fun! Mazel! 👏🏾
@Sebastian It's really infectious to read of your joy these past few days! Congratulations on your solves!! Fwiw, the start of the Declaration of Independence was a process of elimination for me, too! (Though I chalked it up to not being fully awake, and once I had a few crosses, it all clicked.) Good luck on the next -- and don't forget to keep breathing when you get those palpitations! You got this!!
@G Ah, thanks G! Your reply made my evening. 😍 I genuinely get giddy with glee (the alliteration was unintended) once I finish and look around to share it with someone before remembering that crossword solving is a solitary pleasure. 🎻😆 Then I remember the NYT crosswording clan is a convivial one - even the grumpy ones make me laugh - so who better to tell! For tomorrow, I'll try listening to calming music to steady my breathing and heart rate. Perhaps some whale song or Gregorian chants... 🤔
@Sebastian, congrats on your improving crossword proficiency! Ah, I remember that excitement! I've been solving for decades, so it was a LONG time ago for me, but I still smile when newer aficionados come into their own! 🎉🎉🎉
Nice to get the gimmick early ish to help with other solves. Some obscure stuff but balanced overall. My great bugbear with the NYT crossword remains the tendency to use “informally” or “in brief” when what they mean is they’re about to brutalise a word beyond common recognition to get it into the grid. I’ve spent many AFTS grumbling about this.
@Phil Agree on the informally or in brief thing especially Afts. End of the boat would've done. Also, I've talked to a few bees, and they aren't dazzled.
@Phil AFTS was a very common abbreviation in help wanted ads, back in the day. Some of us saw nothing unusual about it at all. Different wheelhouses.
@Phil Have to agree. AFTS was the the only entry that bothered me in this one. Unnusual shortenings and abbreviations are my least favorite clues.
Very original and very fun. Thank you, Natan et al. Enjoyed it a lot. I started on the grid midway through my (normally verboten) third cup of coffee—and so in warp-speed mode—but I got tripped up by the Beatles’ having the same number of letters as the BEE GEES. Every reference to a 7-letter band from before my generation’s music era is going to be the Beatles, dontchaknow. Except that Robin Gibb had rolled over into my childhood. As a tween, maybe a little younger, I came across his Secret Agent album while at a record store with my dad. Remember, GenXers, when you could put on headphones and listen to CDs right in the store? Well, I went home with Secret Agent. Lemme tellya, Robin had tailor-written “In Your Diary” for slumber parties. Could you have a better song to play Mansion Apartment Shack or House to or stuff your face with cold pizza to? I distinctly remember that there was no doubt left by the time morning rolled around that I was going to marry Derek from third period. 🎶 “In my diary, I did imagine, I did imagine his face.” 🎶 (With apologies to my Better Half. Sorry, hon.) And for those of you whose inner tween is still alive and well: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XJjIAGQ5ULo" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XJjIAGQ5ULo</a>
@Sam Lyons Great story! Only for you would I listen to this song. (Why was he reading her diary?!)
@Sam Lyons Being a bit older than you, I saw [1978] in the clue and knew we were talking about the disco-era movie! Tween me thought it was pretty great. Adult me feels rather differently... but I still think Aerosmith's cover of Come Together warrants a listen. (In looking for a link to share, I see they've performed it a lot, including at the '91 Grammys! But it originated in this film.) <a href="https://youtu.be/PgUdkvSGYGU?si=elR1BI_meBiLkwG1" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/PgUdkvSGYGU?si=elR1BI_meBiLkwG1</a> My dad had every Beatles album; tween me was already moving away from my parents' music. In hindsight this film probably was a good bridge / baby step! I subsequently learned there was quite a lot of controversy surrounding its creation -- how stars were duped into signing on, etc -- but the soundtrack holds up, IMHO... <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Pepper" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sgt._Pepper</a>%27s_Lonely_Hearts_Club_Band_%28film%29
Missed opportunity to make the Laura DERN clue about one of David Lynch’s works (RIP to a legend)
At first I was a bit let down by the rebuses being all the same, as well as having their location neatly marked on the grid. Ah, but then came the twist - the down answers were ROAD, BOULEVARD, AVENUE and STREET, all with potholes. How ingenious! It's true that this was an unusual Thursday in that it didn't require furrowing my own brows in deep thought, but I think beginners might furrow theirs, and it's fair that they should have an introduction to rebus puzzles. I think this was a very nice puzzle, with a well executed idea and clever fill, and I thank Natan Last and the J.A.S.A. Crossword Class for delivering a gem! To those who would rather see rebus puzzles go by the way of dinosaurs, I respectfully think of you when I see DREAM ON in the grid. I also think of Depeche Mode - <a href="https://youtu.be/7dgrMSTalZ0?si=8UXukua14FHWHKrJ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/7dgrMSTalZ0?si=8UXukua14FHWHKrJ</a>
For those of you who speed through crosswords, you might like this New Yorker cartoon in the current issue: <a href="https://newyorker.com/cartoon/a60276" target="_blank">https://newyorker.com/cartoon/a60276</a>
@john ezra Loved it. But, seriously, they need to work on their solving speed.
@john ezra - Hilarious! And it pretty much sums up my attitude toward rushing through a puzzle as fast as I can. I try not to, but sometimes I just can help it.
Not quite the Thursday challenge I expected, and hoped for, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I hope the only POTHOLES I see this winter will be the ones that appeared in this puzzle.
@Marshall Walthew Too late...
I'm normally average at crosswords, but being singaporean, I immediately got MAPOTOFU, and had no hesitation entering the rebus. I didn't know a lot of the words, but the amazingly great start led to a 24 minute finish with no hints or clues. I wonder if any other enjoyer of asian food experienced the same thing
Definitely! A family favorite and fortunately we have sufficiently Asian markets for all of the ingredients. It was also the "Ah ha!" for the other clues. Right at 24 minutes for me too.
I also finished in 24 minutes. Think how marvelous and mysterious it would be if that’s how long it took everyone! Don’t anyone spoil this for me.
@T 24:26 for me! (Does that count?) I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've ever posted a time, but it's worth it. :) MAPO TOFU is a favorite dish of mine. I'd been holding off on the circles until I reached that one -- the rest easily fell into place after that! Mmm, it's almost lunchtime here, and now I could really go for some good mala Sichuan food!
Yes it was only the easy side, but when I read the story behind the constructors, it warmed my heart. I love that this was a collab with a center for the aging. I lost my parents back-to-back two years ago, and they were both avid, daily NYT puzzlers. They would so have loved to take part in this project! 🥰 A fun theme, a nice break from the earlier puzzles in the week, and now I am ready for the challenges in the next two days’ worth.
This puzzle’s theme is eerily coincidental with the rough encounter my car had with a pothole just yesterday! Solved the crossword in Service Department waiting area. Aha!
Easier than usual Thursday, not that I’m complaining. Good fun.
Enjoyable, but way too easy for a Thursday. I've been doing the NYT crosswords for over 40 years. Only started paying attention to my solve times when the puzzles became solvable online. For a long time, 30-45 minutes was not unusual for me for a Thursday puzzle. This one took me less than 11 minutes. And last week's wasn't much longer than that. I'm grateful for the puzzle creators and editors, but it seems to me that, for the past few months, the puzzles have been getting easier and easier. Missing the challenge is all...
@DW I would go so far as to say the difficulty has dipped severely in the past 1-2 years. I also miss the challenge. But that is what the archive is for.
@DW Don't be so modest, DW. You might just be getting better.
@DW They are easier and it corresponds to the Times transitioning to e subscriptions and games. They need to capture a wider audience and harder crosswords frustrate potential subscribers.
Weird sensation when completing this puzzle. It started out feeling very difficult. Somewhere along the way something clicked and I was able to start it and eventually solve it. When some I thought my time was going to be well below my average, but when I looked at the timer results I was stoked to see that I actually crushed it...finishin the puzzle it in just over half of my normal time.
@Daily-Solver i have to thank my foodie self for knowing MAPOTOFU - def a bumpy start until the trick settled in.
One more reminder to vote for the Griddies. This first round of voting ends Jan 24. That’s Friday, at midnight in the Oceania time zone, according to John Ezra. But why wait and risk falling afoul of election rules? Or falling into a POTHOLE?? Head over to Eric Hougland’s at the link below. Do it now! Carpe diem! You’ll be able to vote for up to 5 puzzles in each category. The ballot has descriptions and dates so you can look puzzles up in the archives to refresh your memory. <a href="https://form.jotform.com/243358842724059" target="_blank">https://form.jotform.com/243358842724059</a>
A fun and easier-than-usual Thursday for me. I took the JASA class remotely during lockdown and loved it. Sadly, as far as I know, our class's puzzle was never published. I got really fired up about constructing, but have yet to actually make my own puzzle. Kudos to this group!
Fun fact: It is thought that MESOpotAMIA is home to the first roads and presumably the first POT HOLES. Fun one! Love the Thursday puzzles!
@Justin And those ROADS are still there because they really knew how to build 'em to last! That was because the water-soluble asphault had yet to be invented.
Just now learned (again, surely?) that furlong comes from the length of a furrow in a farmer’s field. So, trying to look on the bright side of uneven roads: if you’re in a rut, maybe you’re actually a race horse, running for the roses! There’s a hole in my puzzle, dear Liza, dear Liza. With what shall I fill it? (See rebus instructions) A fun one!
@JohnWM - I just replied to your query yesterday -- yes, I was picking up fish at Huntsman. A colleague of mine here was collaborating with a scientist there. I liked the drive so I eagerly agreed to cross the border with tanks full of fish, as a favor for both.
I didn't realize the potholes were all in "street" clues until I finished the puzzle and read the article. Cleverly done!
Now this is how a rebus puzzle should be!
Loving Robert Frost I thought "Obviously its road, what the hell is a ropotad?". Clearly I need more coffee before I attempt Thursdays.
This might be a record low number of comments (complaints, hatred, etc.) from those who dislike rebuses. Well done, Natan et al!
@Mr Dave Didn't exactly seem like that to me, but a positive way to look at it. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
What a brilliant job of road contruction this was, filling all those STREETwise POTholes with clues that were Thursday worthy and SLY, in the best tradition of crossword puzzles. Clearly these constructors are not in their DOTAGE. I bow to their grasp of the complexity and inspiration that were required to give us this gem. Thank you, Mr. Last, and the jazzy JASA class that gave us this one.
Time was 42% less than average. Solved this somewhat aggressively, throwing down answers that weren’t gimmes, but turned out to be correct. Nice aha moment when I got the theme. Left the potholes open until the end on the chance they didn’t need to be filled in.
"Wiimote" is a casual name that everyone assumed was official. Nintendo always called it the Wii Remote (or was meant to). A different company had earlier trademarked "Weemote" for their TV remote for young children, so Nintendo itself was careful to avoid that name.
Fun one! Something clicked immediately when I knew it had to be “See Spot Run”. (Some of us are showing our age there, no doubt.) Like some others, a personal best time, and my first sub-15-minute Thursday! 😁
I enjoyed this one - Beethoven instead of rapper, Frost instead of a baseball hero! I learnt all about Popeye - memories of childhood, when we had no idea what spinach was, it didn't arrive in Scotland for a long, long time after. But it's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and we started with Janet and John.
@Jane Wheelaghan Spinach, minced into a bland, glutinous, disgusting pulp, was often served at my kindergarten in the 80s - because it was healthy, supposedly. I hated it with a passion and could not force myself to swallow any of it. It took me some 20 years to recover from the trauma - I was served garlicky, well seasoned spinach in France (or was it Italy?) and instantly loved it. These days I use spinach in my own cooking, and enjoy palak sauces at Indian restaurants. The spinach Popeye downs so gladly looks like the horror from my childhood though, which is why I never liked that cartoon.
@Jane Wheelaghan Funny, I had Every Good Boy Does Fine in the Southern US. Anyone else have different words for the mnemonic? Average time for me. Would have been several minutes faster if I hadn't gotten stuck with "WEEMOVE" and unable to figure out Bee-dazzler from that. Those crosses alone took me almost 10 minutes to fix.
@Sara My kids learned Ernie Gives Bert Dead Frogs.
@Sara It was “Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge” in Connecticut in the 70s.
@Jane Wheelaghan, et al I was taught Every Good Boy Does Fine, because fine rhymes with line, and that's where those notes are. FACE rhymes with space, and that's where those notes are.
A delightful puzzle. Thanks for the fun.
Loved the moment that the rebus clicked! This was a fun one!
Fun puzzle with lively clueing. Shout out to both Natan Last and Andy Kravis, who led our JASA class in the early COVID lockdown. Not sure what happened to our class puzzle, but both instructors were smart and engaging. Great memories, thanks to you both.
Great job! As I plopped in the last letter, I remembered one of my favorite, mostly forgotten words- finifugal. (adjective, English) hating endings; of someone who tries to avoid or prolong the final moments of a story, relationship, or some other journey. Like a clever Thursday puzzle. Have a wonderful day all!
@CCNY It'll never make the Spelling Bee!!
Dinner tonight…Mopotofu or Mess o potamia?
The Popeye reference today has induced a bit of discussion here about Popeye's enthusiasm for spinach, which sent me down a rather marvellous rabbit hole. There's a narrative associated with this that some here may know---about a German researcher who misplaced a decimal point, thereby suggesting that spinach contained about ten times more iron than it actually does, which in turn fed into a perception of spinach as a superfood, which in turn led to Popeye's superpower. Very little of that turns out to actually be true, and much of it arises from an entertaining but unreferenced piece published in a Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal in the early '80s, which I recall reading at the time. But this unfounded story has launched a HUGE amount of documentary research, culminating in 2019 with an 83-page article with 367 references, entitled "Spinach in Blunderland: How the myth that spinach is rich in iron became an urban academic legend" <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3h3rmfny" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3h3rmfny</a> Several pages consist almost entirely of footnotes! It's an undiluted joy, if you're one of that small number of people who take joy from erudite papers about recondite topics.
@Oikofuge Being in the midst of a Psych (TV show) binge, you've no idea how delighted and surprised I was to find its theme song prominently quoted at the very top of page 2 of the treatise! Thanks for the smile. I still wonder what the bottom line to the spinach story is. Don't have the time to continue at the moment. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Certainly on the easier side for a Thursday puzzle. The rebus was an easy trick to solve.
I am fully expecting this puzzle to be universally loved and adored. I certainly did.
@Francis Grammar nitpick: "I certainly am." ;)
@JS "I certainly am loved and adored"? Not so sure that's what Francis meant. I read the last sentence as "I certainly did love and adore the puzzle."
What a clever one Mr Last and the JASA class have created here. I left the holes open until the very end, then filled the POT (so to speak) to earn the gold star. As a former resident of Wisconsin, I got a good chuckle as the theme began to come into view. Some of those potholes could swallow a car 🤣 On the other hand, The Sunset in the West isn’t looking quite the same these days. We were glued to the TV today yet again as another fire broke out in the far reaches of the LA area and remains uncontained and 31,000 additional people had to evacuate. Hopefully I will wake up to better news in the morning. As always, thank you to Mr Last and the JASA class for brightening my day with your puzzle.
55 plus eh. Well these whippersnappers at J.A.S.A sure came up with a clever and fun theme. Clue difficulty could have been dialed up a bit but a fine morning solve nonetheless. Many thanks.
The constructors of this puzzle are clearly not in their DOTAGE just yet. Well done! As for the theme, we have yet to enter true pothole season here in MN. They have the tendency to appear literally overnight. Sometimes they're big enough to swallow my Fiesta whole.
A relatable puzzle indeed! In Montreal there are the many new potholes that open up each spring, and also the eternal potholes that never get fixed (they just get a little bit bigger each year). So I got the theme quite quickly. Maybe I should make a puzzle with an orange cone theme. These have surpassed potholes as a symbol of Montreal, which is now referred to as Coney Island II.
Very nice puzzle and congrats to the class on their work! I totally missed that the down answers interrupted by potholes were types of roadways, so thanks Deb for pointing out that very clever aspect of the puzzle.
@GRS I was about to post the same thing. A rewarding if belated Aha!