The NSC/CANO cross was a bit jarring and took about a minute and a half of the eight minute solve. Rest of it was lovely.
@Jo yeah, I had to run the alphabet to fill that one as my last square - I wouldn’t have thought of the NSC (but it’s a perfectly fine clue). Everything else was easy or totally on my wavelength (like SEURAT, which was a gimme for me but might be tough for others). Very close to a personal best.
@Jo I can see that crossing could be difficult for a non-American non-baseball fan. Fun fact: Robinson CANO was named for Jackie Robinson, who was the first black player in the modern era of major league baseball.
"Want to make another blanket?" "We should probably quilt while we're ahead." (Sew much for that pun.)
@Mike Stop! No more needling us! You've got us in stitches!
@Mike Usually a pieceful occupation, but things can get snippy if someone starts batting around crazy patterns. (Guess that about covers it.)
@Mike These puns are of little interest outside of a small circle of friends. Phil otherwise? Sew sue me.
Mike, I’ve been downright crewel with some replies; but I’ll apologize so we might patch up things. My plea for vindication ought to cover it, eh?
@Mike There you go....mixed up and equating QUILTs with BLANKETs... When a mistake like that gets pinned on a fella, it's serious!
@Mike Another purl to start off our day! Just ignore the rest of the knitpickers.
I always liked Edmund Burke's quote about EVIL. "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Unnecessarily gendered, but you get the point. History is watching.
Ivan IV was feeling awful and went to the hospital. Once he was situated in his room, a nurse came. "OK, Mr. Ivan, what feels so terrible?" she said to him jollily. She knew from deep experience how to handle these grumpy types. He wouldn't answer her, but let her fuss over him and tuck a duvet up under his incredibly long beard. "Does that meet with your blanket approval?" she asked, a little joke that usually got at least a feeble grin. This time, nothing, he simply stared straight ahead. Soon, the new guy came in, the Emile Hersch lookalike, dragging his apparatus, a steampunk coatrack with tubes, wires and bags. "I've an Ivan IV's IV" he said, and giggled. The nurse turned the TV on. Taylor Swift was on stage singing loudly and gyrating. Ivan, who had been staring at the poster of Seurat's "Sunday in the Park," which had the effect increasing the pain in his fibula, like being hit with an anvil, turned his attention to the screen. She was singing -- it seemed more like screaming -- fish clenched: All that bloodshed, crimson clover Uh-huh, sweet dream was over My hand was the one you reached for All throughout the Great War Always remember Uh-huh, tears on the letter I vowed not to cry anymore If we survived the Great War... "Kto eto?" Ivan demanded of the nurse, waving at the screen. "Oh that's Tay Tay, I love her! Especially her Eon tour, like her Era tour times ten, so blockbuster!" On TV the crowd roared the lyrics as one. Ivan felt his leg stir like a sea eel.
@john ezra Fish clenched. It's a sea change.
Random thoughts: • I love the cooperative nature of a QUILTING BEE, where a group works together to make a single quilt. MERGER in the grid struck me as a lovely echo of the theme. • Sweet to see FIRST located at 1-across. • I smiled when I filled TSK-TSKED in, playful as it is, and, IMO, a more effective verb than simply “tsked”. • Apt cross of ON AIR and SKY MALL. • Beautiful words, INGENUE and REGALING. • Is it too soon to give INNIE a “Severance” clue? • FIBULA and LIE in the box got me thinking. A fib is typically an unimportant lie; I’d like to propose FIBULA as being an unimportant fib. So, Joe, on top of a pleasurable theme, your puzzle tripped off lots of lovely sparks, and set me off into the day in a splendid state of mind. Thank you!
@Lewis Thanks for clarifying what a quilting bee is, traditionally a group of people gathered around a basted quilt, doing the quilting on the one quilt. As a quilter of some 50-plus years, I’m something of a purist about the terms!
@Lewis How about the cross of CANOE and CANO and, later, of ANVIL and EVIL? :) ON AIR is atop SKY MALL: might've been even more apt the other way 'round! (You had identified them as crossed.) SEAEEL almost felt like a drawn-out echo from yesterday, lol. I enjoyed the French borrow words ETUDE and INGENUE, the French-derived SAGES, and then the actual French ÉTÉ and even EMILE... VIE could have been cued to the French as well.
@Lewis I got QUILTINGBEE, and of course wanted a U below that Q. Why not OUTIE? -- Oops. U in the wrong place. And I know IRAQ well. My sister lived there in the 70's -- before the Shah fell. She loved it there, then.
A puzzle dedicated to Mean Old Lady! Way to go, Joe.
Regarding SEURAT's work, dots all there is. (Hi Mike from Munster!)
Oooooookay. One of my first entries this morning: BATTING! And then what to my wondering eyes should appear? Oh, goodie! A QUILTING BEE. How long have we stitchers waited for this happy moment? I was solving away, (even willing to overlook the clue calling the *herding* breed--the wonderful BORDER TERRIER--a "Small British *hunting* dog") and I reached 29A ....B...L...A... Say it ain't so, Joe!!! If I had been wearing pearls, I might have clutched them as I reeled back from the breakfast table. Even DHubby TSK-TSK-ED. A QUILT... is... NOT... a... BLANKET. No part of a QUILT is ever referred to as a BLANKETY BLANK BLANKET, BUSTER. Thanks for asking. Yes, at present I am QUILTING two children's quilts (total of 48 pineapple-variant BLOCKs.) Two small art quilts await BIINDING. I am prepping fabric for, well, four other projects. Don't judge! It keeps me off the streets and out of the bars, right?
@Mean Old Lady As per my other post, y'all should probably rethink that prejudice. People are comforted and delighted by warm blankets. It's a compliment. Blankets carry enormous cultural and historical cachet. Maybe some people are attached to quilts. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Mean Old Lady I jumped on here today to say exactly this! Although I was happy to see a puzzle recognizing my beloved craft, please don't ever call what I make a blanket. Ever. (But thanks for the puzzle!)
@Mean Old Lady I think of a quilting bee as something from the days of yore, a group of quilters coming together to work on quilting a top made by one person thereby saving that person the tedium of quilting the entire quilt by themselves. Do you quilt everything yourself? Use a sewing machine?
@Mean Old Lady A Quilting Story (about a quilt that never did, and never will, cover a bed) I worked for a senior living organization that began almost 125 years ago. It was the first one (and still the only) that catered to Jewish people in its state. The entire community came together to create and support this facility and it grew and was known for its excellence. Fast forward to, hm, I'm thinking the 1980s or '90s. It was decided that a community quilt that would celebrate the community would be created... I was not there, so I can't comment on a lot of the decisions that went into creating this amazing craft. But I loved to talk about it whenever I gave tours of the building, because this was an entirely created-by-hand quilt. Women from the community organizations all sat around this huge fabric, each working on their own organization's block, and sewing it together. Meanwhile, their children (who are now adults) were sitting beneath it. The children caught the needles as they went down, and sent them back up! I love to imagine the gossip those children heard, and what they learned, as that immense quilt was created! It is still there, having been removed while the building was renovated, but returned to its spot immediately after, and only removed for cleaning and repairs over the years. Guests love to stop and marvel at it as they walk by, and some share reminiscences of being "under the quilt." Oh, and there is a companion book w/ the story of each square.
@Mean Old Lady I agree, and although I know I'm probably wrong, I choose to believe it refers to the blanket stitch.
@MOL I must point out that you are mistaken about 34A. When I filled in the first part of the entry, BORDER, I immediately thought, “they can’t seriously think a border collie is a hunting dog”….seeing too many spaces, I quickly realized they were not cluing the herding dog, but a true hunter. Pretty are much all terriers were bred to hunt foxes and other small game, including the BORDERTERRIER. Terriers often compete in earthdog contests where a fox or rats in a cage are placed at the end of a series of tunnels. Lots of videos out there.
@Mean Old Lady ---I won't judge. But what would be wrong with doing a little quilting down at the bar?
@lawrenceb56 if I can't bring crafts, I'm not going
As someone currently packing for my trip to QuiltCon in Phoenix this week, I very much enjoyed this puzzle! For the complainers, you really didn't have to know anything about quilting to figure out BLOCKBUSTER or the other clues, (e.g. BORDER TERRIER, BATTING PRACTICE). This grid has EIGHT sports related references (not even including CANOE, the hunting reference, and BETting) and a bunch of music, entertainment and geography related answers. This was more like Easter eggs for us quilters and honestly the theme clue didn't help me at all. P.S. Always love getting to figure out whether it's INNIE or OUTIE.
I used to believe 39D. No longer.
@Francis That adage seems to confuse mistake with evil. Most mistakes are made by people with good intentions, but I really find it hard to believe those doing literal*evil* don't know it *is* evil. They may justify doing evil but evil it still is...
Meh, I did not enjoy this at all. Wednesday is usually my favorite puzzle of the week, so it was especially unpleasant to experience what I did today. First, I had no idea what the theme was about. Was it... Quilting? I'm sure somebody found that cute and oh so loved the puzzle - good for them, and I actually mean that. I, however, know no quilting terminology so the only thing the theme did for me was hinder my solve. Second, the secluded section of the puzzle with the baseballer and some abbreviated organisation crossing was just nasty. At least I got NBC on my own there... I did an alphabet run for NS_ and _ANO when that was my last square left. However, all those letters later I still did not get my happy music. By this time I was so annoyed I just checked the puzzle. It turned out I had another bad square: at the crossing of the actor REo and GASToPS. The latter looked good enough (especially to somebody who has never heard of a GAS TAP), and I didn't know the actor. For an additional level of annoyance: I *did* remember another Stephen from that movie, Fry. But noooo, let's ask about *another* Stephen why don't we... My final move was to reveal the C of NS_ and _ANO. Again, meh. Feel free to stone me for my negativity but I have really had a bad time with this puzzle.
Also, TSKTSKED... I realized what it had to be with enough crosses but srsly...
@Andrzej I have basically never seen the abbreviation "NSC" although we hear the National Security Council referenced all the time, so I was able to infer it. I only have a vague image of a conical "gas tap" and don't think they were in my classes. I had to flat guess at Cano and canoe. I never heard of Ankara and will not remember it. But I still found other parts easy. I found the theme a little wanting. Looks as if lots of people disliked that little Naticky Slab Canoe section.
@Andrzej Commit to memory the actor name Stephen Rea because I have seen it multiple times in puzzles (at least in the archives).
@Andrzej I won't TSK TSK you. We can't like them all. Most of the puzzles this year have left me feeling meh. That may be my mood or the current zeitgeist. Or it's not sharing a wheelhouse or wavelength with the constructor. I don't usually comment on it. I do look for Lewis' comments for an attitude adjustment, to help me see the better points in a puzzle. And I look for the anecdotes and stories from our regulars, the human connection.
@Andrzej That was a tough area. I'd put NSA instead of NSC, so I tried to finish with aANO. Shrug. With names, you just never know. I know people whose name starts with a double a. Even one with a double f. It didn't thrill me today either, but like Linda Jo said, been feeling a bit meh about them in general lately. I think it's me (or the world around us) not them but who knows!
Straightforward with the exception of the C in CANO & NSC. Puzzled by the photo in Sam’s column. Did ladies in the monochrome days really hike in heels?
@Ιασων Looks like a regular granny boot, short bootie with a small heel. Probably the sturdiest shoe available before we had purpose-built hiking boots and athletic shoes. A lace-up leather granny boot would be more supportive than a loafer or flat canvas sneaker or even a cowboy boot. Earlier on, women hiked in long skirts even.
@Ιασων I'm guessing by their Argyle stockings that yon lassies are Scottish. There's probably a BORDER TERRIER just out of scene, chasing rabbits. And yes, most people had just one pair of shoes for everything, but maybe a nice pair for church.
A QUILTING BEE is a normally a gathering of quilters working on ONE quilt stretched on a quilt frame. L
@LarryF Consider it a barn raising but with fabric.
@LarryF Okay, and? That sure sounds like a social sewing event...
@LarryF absolutely. Quilting bees are social events, but with the goal of producing a beautiful and useful product
@LarryF Glad someone mentioned this. Having participated in more than one quilting bee as a youth, I've never heard of one where the quilters are working on their own projects. That kind of thing happens with knitting and probably crochet and embroidery.
Crossword Revolution Day 29: BORDER TERRIER Terriers don’t give up easily. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/escaping-dog-brings-new-orleans-community-together-232130117628" target="_blank">https://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/escaping-dog-brings-new-orleans-community-together-232130117628</a> Crosswords Saved the Day ™.
@Puzzlemucker I loved the story of the spunky little terrier, Scrim. However, I have to say, I found the supposed rescuer’s strategy of shooting him with a tranquilizer gun startling and inhumane.
A frustrating solve. Could not understand 1A before reading Wordplay. Of course it’s a sports thing. That NBC, NSC, CANO square was hair tuggingly annoying. If you know, you know. If you don’t. Sheesh. Got the QUILTING theme, which is cute. More an American hobby I think. I’ll take the win on this one. Always impressed by constructor skills, but otherwise a little bland for me. Sorry.
@Helen Wright Quilting is quite ancient, it’s my understanding that quilted garments have been located in ancient Agyptian tombs. Certainly quilting was done in Elizabethan England. The craft came over from Europe.
@Helen Wright Every year there is a major quilt show in Harrowgate! More than one British quilter is famous on this side of The Pond
29A made me tear up. In our house, the lead-up to Blanket Approval went like this: The Dog (RiP, sweet girl): “Mnnhhh…” Me: “Honey, The Dog wants to be invited on the plaid blanket, preferably somewhere right near the top of your head.” Hubby [decisively; manly-like]: “No! I just washed the plaid blanket. Again.” The Dog: “NnnnhhhhnnNNNN…” Me [reasonably]: “Honey. You like washing things. She likes lying on them. Preferably somewhere right near the top of your head.” Hubby [still manly-like, but an octave higher]: “No. If you two had your way, there wouldn’t be a square inch of surface free of dog hair in the entire house. I’m using the plaid blanket tonight.” The Dog: “NhmPHH…” Me [employing eyelash-BATTING PRACTICE]: “Honey.” Hubby [plaintively now]: “Nooo, you girls get your own blanket.” The Dog: “NhmPHMPHH!” An almost imperceptible tap signaling BLANKET APPROVAL. Curtain.
When she does the puzzle in the morning, my mother will enjoy the baseball and quilting references even more than I did! She’ll likely have to rely on crossings for TAYTAY, a clue the six-year-old in my house would joyfully have offered. In fact, @Sam, in answer to your question, the nickname is so widely used that Siri will play her music prompted by it.
@Robert M, you do know your mom! It did take the crossings, and I did get the quilting!
BLOCKBUSTER: You put two purple pieces together instead of purple and blue. Somehow one piece went in wrong side up. The corners just are so so sloppy. Sigh: you just have to bust that block up and do it over.
@Cat Lady Margaret Did you ever say where you grew up? Tennessee?
@Cat Lady Margaret Found it among yesterday’s comments. Got the southern part right ;)
Last letter to fall? C in CANO! CC now knows! I know CANO. *And* NSC. Will I remember them? Unlikely. Thank you Joe! Happy hump day all!
@CCNY Not much of a sports fan, huh? Robbie was one of a fairly short list of major stars who played for both the Mets and the Yankees. It should be a gimme for a NYer, unless she doesn't pay much attention to sports.
Back in the late 90s, my husband had a small side job where he was helping SKYMALL put their products up for sale on their brand-new website. Nobody was quite certain if consumers would actually buy products on the Internet.
@KadyRN Right, who knew BILLIONS of $$ worth? I still like to see and touch what I'm buying first. Most online purchases are ok, but many are not as nice as they looked online.
A nice quick Wednesday. My great grandmother, grandmother, wife and daughter are all quilters so I had the theme covered. Other than trying LSD before LEG, I didn’t hit any snags. I was delighted to see EMILE Hirsch in the puzzle. I enjoyed his performance in Into The Wild based on Jon Krakauer’s excellent book
@Marshall Walthew I had lsd first too. I’m also part of a group where a number of people are quilters, as well as having several aunts who quilt
Spare a thought for us non-American solvers who struggle ardently to keep up with the many US intelligence agencies. NSC, NSA, CIA, DIA, FBI, NRO, DHS... The list goes on.
@Neil honestly, this Yank can't keep em all straight either. I get em on the crosses.
@Neil as an American myself, I hadn’t heard of the NSC, and I’m unfamiliar with a couple others on your list too. That section was tough! :/
@Neil No worries Neil. If it makes you feel any better, we can’t either!
@Neil They're known as TLAs (three-letter agencies).
As a quilter for 25 years, we take high offense when you call our quilts “blankets”. IYKYK
@Carol I wish I were aquainted with a few quilters. I sleep each night under a quilt made by my late wife's Aunt Ruby of Union Grove, Alabama. It's coming up on forty years old now, though, has had daily use all that time and needs repair, and I don't have the skills to do it.
@Carol That seems counterproductive. Blanket is a MUCH more endearing, warm, and comforting word than "quilt". You folks should probably rethink it. Blanket is a compliment. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Carol I've known quite a few quilters including my own mother and none of them ever seemed to have an issue with "blanket". Perhaps that's a regional thing.
Lots to look up for me as someone who doesn't know anything about American sports, but that's nice always good to learn. Felt more difficult than it was, coming in surprisingly under my average. Thanks for the nicely tricky Wednesday workout! One thing: please, never, ever, allow TSK TSK-ED in a crossword ever again! "Delightful" is not the word I uttered when I realised that really was the answer...!
Good morning! I'm hoping @Mean Old Lady enjoyed today's theme. I know she's a quilter. Some day I'd like to see "Actor Stephen.." clued as "Dolours Price spouse, Stephen", or some such. How many people realllllly wanted "cockadoodledoo" to be a word in today's Spelling Bee?! Me!
As a golf fan, it's funny that PAR is almost never clued accurately for the game. (Average score of all golfers is something like 20 to 30 *over par* for an 18 hole round). Neither I, nor anyone I've ever played with, *expects* it! Yet LIE is clued here perfectly.
@Okanaganer Well, don't most weekend golfers LIE about their score anyway? There's a crossword analog to PAR at xwstats.com, where average times are given based on the stats of their members. But since their members are mostly experienced players, the numbers skew fast for the average solver. But like golf's PAR, the number is still useful to determine the relative difficulty of the puzzle. (Today's is rated EASY, with an average time of 6:01.) It's also interesting that a SUBPAR performance in any endeavor is below average, and yet a duffer's poor golf score is actually ABOVE PAR.
@Okanaganer AMEN!! I once caddied for a man with a 6 handicap. Funnest round of golf ever! You can get to par if you add in the rule that you get to take off a stroke for every ball found in the trees when you’re looking for your own lost ball. (Note, works best in the fall.)
@Okanaganer Who said anything about golf? The clue didn't mention it. Par means standard or normal or average. Even in golf I don't think the expression "par for the course" has ever meant "difficult goal for an amateur". It has always meant that which was to be expected....
TIL there are two actors in "V for Vendetta" named Stephen with a three-letter last name. Clever cluing!
Oh. This was okay. I was going to complain the theme wasn't Thursday quality and then I checked the date again. ;) Still I'm really not fond of the "block" answer - mostly because I'd never heard of a quilting block and it sounds a little generic (border does too), but in the end just something new to me. A cromulent puzzle overall. Sky Mall and destination of a walk were cute. (Huh, cromulent made it into Merriam Webster in 2023. That takes the fun out of using it.)
@B Most quilts are made of blocks of fabric stitched together and surrounded by a border. The blocks themselves may be made of smaller blocks, and so, ad infinitum. (Thank you, Ogden Nash)
Just right for a Wednesday , with a clever reveal. I’m sure you mother was very pleased with today’s puzzle, Joe.
A nice, tidy Wednesday puzzle solved during a bout of insomnia. Doing the puzzles or reading always helps to make me sleepy again. So when I finished the NYT puzzles I pulled up my quilt and went back to sleep.
As a quilter, I was thrilled with today’s puzzle!
@352nightowl I am also a quilter, but I took a bit of umbrage with the 'Blanket' reference. Quilts and blankets are two different things in my opinion and blankets have no space in a quilting bee. I will choose to be more thrilled than irritated and get back to my sewing.
@Mags I agree that they’re two different things, but I wasn’t bothered by the clue. Happy sewing!
This was a fun one. Loving the baseball themed answers. Baseball's back baby
@Mike For our non-baseball fans out there: A WALK is a free pass to FIRST base that a batter earns when the pitcher throws four pitches that are not in the strike zone and which the batter doesn't swing at. The strike zone is an imaginary rectangle formed by the width of home plate and the height of the area between the batter's knees and the midpoint of their torso. There are situations where it is strategic to the defensive team to intentionally give the batter FIRST base (one such case may be that the next batter is considered an easy out). Thanks to a recent rule change, the defensive team can just motion the batter to first base. (This is called an intentional walk.) But usually, pitchers try to avoid issuing walks, as they statistically tend to increase the batting team's chance of scoring dramatically.
As opposed to a LAND EEL??? Otherwise a lovely puzzle. And for those not familiar with Robinson Cano, check out his swing on YouTube. Absolutely terrif/FAB
@Fabiano As opposed to a river eel :)
@Fabiano To expand on what Simon said, the possibly more familiar word “unagi” in Japanese refers most often to eels belonging to the genus Anguilla, which do spawn in the sea but live mostly in freshwater, while “anago” refers specifically to eels of the genus Conger, which live exclusively in the ocean. (Outside of anything you’d find in Japanese cuisine, “unagi” is also used to refer to, or as part of the common names of, other eels and eel-like creatures generically. For example, electric eels and lampreys [neither of which are closely related to true eels] are “denki unagi” and “yatsume unagi,” respectively. “Anago” always refers to congers.)
@Fabiano I had no problem with SEA EEL, but then I eat a fair amount of Japanese cuisine! I do admit I've only seen the English term used as a translation of the Japanese... But I do know there are distinct differences, as @Simon and @Nick described. :)
Eh. Not too tricky but didn’t enjoy this at all. Some pretty weird clueing and was just one of those puzzles you trudge your way through. Well below average time for a Wednesday, but honestly just a boring puzzle with no real standouts.
Loved the theme, but maybe that’s my *bias* as a quilter showing :) Additionally, any reference to my lord and savior at 46D always tickles me. I’m unfamiliar with Mr. Hirsch, so after the first few crosses I assumed/hoped we shared a name, but alas. That middle-left section had me quite stumped - I had bLoB at first, then fLAB and aBC. The only Robinson I knew in baseball was Jackie, and I guess I’ve never thought of 23A in acronym form. Unrelatedly, I initially put down tAx for 1D before realizing that the clue did not actually say “tariff”. Oops. All in all, a slower than average Wednesday for me, but still fun! Thanks Joe!
1A let me know we were on the same wavelength right off the bat. With spring training just starting, this one was a hit for me— thanks!
@Joe P Same here, along with BATTINGPRACTICE. Ah the SKYMALL catalog... I take advantage of this forum to express my gratitude to that company for all the free entertainment my kids got, looking at some of the stuff they were offering. That made some long flights fairly enjoyable.
I love Stephen FRY and so knew for sure that was the correct answer for the V for Vendetta clue. That probably added a good couple minutes to my time.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I don't know that I am getting better at solving, but this was relatively easy for me. No look ups for once. Haha.
Nice puzzle, although it felt way more like a Tuesday-level of difficulty. Fun and breezy throughout, although I'm not sure I agree with Sam's characterization of TSKTSKED being "delightful." :)
Good Wed. puzzle. Played on the faster side for me. Had to run the alphabet to get the "C" in NSC/CANO. When that didn't work, I guessed correctly that ABC was wrong and the proper network is NBC (which of course makes sense now that I think about it). Ran the alphabet again and got the solve. Didn't know SEURAT or INGENUE but didn't even notice thanks to crosses.
@Joe Yeah, I got tripped up there too. I did not know CANO so my BIRDER TERRIER was what really held things up. Which is really surprising since I have two BOSTON TERRIERS.
Everyone in this comments section is far too humble. I requested BRAGGING about special TALENTS
@Sam Corbin I don't want to out my identity, but I am a published artist. (Not that it means much anymore with AI taking over)
@Sam Corbin Understanding, er, capitulating to, the cat. Justifying the ingestion of ice cream. Using puzzles in procrastination on doing taxes.
@Sam Corbin I’ve mentioned it before, but I have *mad* claw machine skills. Next. Level. Please, don’t treat me differently, now that you know.
@Sam Corbin - When there is a pot of soup or stew or leftovers to refrigerate, I always correctly judge which size Tupperware is right for the job. I never pick one that turns out to be too big (which wastes space in the fridge) or too small (which means washing out the incorrect one and searching for another). I always pick the perfect size. Always. Fellas, find yourself a woman who looks at you the way my wife looks at me every time I demonstrate this power, which I promise to use always for Good, and never for Evil.
@Sam Corbin My daughter says I have a special talent for forgetting any incident where someone has wronged me. Is this a brag? I am not sure.
@Linda Jo I did my taxes! Filed this afternoon. I work for a school district and this is "Ski Week" so no school. Not that anyone in my low-performing, low-income district can afford to go skiing! But the week off school did give me time to fight with Turbo Tax and get them done. Windows update made TT not work. Took 3 re-installs. Finally they told me to delete C and try again. Worked Phew!
@Peter C. Truly amazing. What I wouldn’t give to avoid accidentally dirtying a container as I discovered it was too small for my purposes!!
@Tzippi Hahaha it sounds like she is complimenting your capacity for forgiveness? That takes skill, indeed!
@Sam Corbin, I make a mean cheesecake.
Actually easier than the Tuesday puzzle for those who want to know such things. Nice satisfying solve.
The top middle took me twice as long as the rest of the puzzle. ETUDE, SICEM, INGENUE, SEURAT, yikes
I thought "good for an angler, bad for a dog trainer" was pretty cute.
I found this surprisingly easy, granted I start using that Autocheck(?) thing on Wednesdays. I notice a couple of others found the same one hard place I did where 23A and 25D cross, but I did an extremely short alphabet run there and I was finished.
@kilaueabart Yes, that crossing consumed a great deal of time for me, as well.
@kilaueabart I do my alphabet runs in QWERTY order, so this one took a while. I was starting to wonder if I had another error. I learned here some months ago that others do the alphabet run in ABC order. I find that interesting.
2/19/25 Back to the banks of the Pardon Alice River* An old Texan hippie with a peahen and a nene lived for a while in the Piney Woods but she suffered from apnea which she blamed on the trees until one day she happen(ed) to have an epiphany: There’s probably less pollen out west on the Pardon Alice! So the hippie cried “Yippee” and the birds said “Yeah” and they all moved to Stonewall and they’re still there today. Words from 2/18: epiphany, hippie, nene, peahen, piney *See Spelling Bee Forum of 1/24/24 for an earlier reference to the this river. Its real name is Pedernales, usually mispronounced by local anglophones as “per-duh-nal-es” and further corrupted by a TV caption writer as “Pardon Alice.” Neither that poem nor this one has anything to do with the real river. (Poem in the loose sense; “verses” might be a more accurate term. Or “doggerel,” but I’ve never liked that word. “Catterel”?) The river runs west of Austin. Stonewall is the site of the LBJ Ranch. The Piney Woods are in East Texas and adjacent states. The nene of course is Hawaiian; I have no idea how the Texas hippie aquired one.
@CCW Took me a couple of lines before I thought "hmm, this is yesterday's spelling bee!" Got QB on that one. :) Smiled over epiphany being the panagram.
A Monday puzzle for me. I have made quilts, but would never call one a blanket...just saying. A coverlet or a quilt.
@chris et al who have risen to this occasion: Brava! Rise up in protest!
I’m not what would be called a Swiftie (although I think she is a very talented songwriter, a hard-working performer, and an all round admirable person, I am not her target audience), but I have only heard her called “TayTay” from the young people in my life, never a single “Tay.”