"That's really a Doric?" "I column as I see 'em!" ("Kind of Ionic, isn't it?")
@Mike I've been turning green as you string me along with your puns. At least you don't use old ones. I'm going to use the haricot in the garden to make rabbit stew.
@Mike Another great post through the uprights. You're the pillar of this community!
@Mike I say we should put you on a pedestal! The height means it's easier to aim the slings and arrows.
@Mike I'd say that is a capital idea. @------@ | | | | | | | | __|__ _|__ (Almost Corinthian if you squint your eyes.)
23D is misleading/wrong. The Packers are publicly owned, they're governed by a board and do not have one owner per se.
@AT came to the comments to see if anyone had pointed this out. I think “one of 31 in the NFL” is a better, more “trivia”-esque clue anyway.
Agreed. Many other teams also have multiple minority owners
Many franchises have multiple owners. Depending on how you define an owner, one could argue that Green Bay is actually in the minority with a single owner because the franchise is owned by a single corporation. But I agree that this is a misleading/wrong clue.
@AT There are also several teams with more than one owner… often the sons and daughters of a patriarch who left them the team in their will. My hometown team, the Buccaneers, have ownership split among 6 brothers and sisters.
Good puzzle! I just love when I'm staring at mostly empty spaces, and suddenly a grid spanning answer appears in my head from just a few of the letters. That happened three or four times with this one, and every time was like little fireworks going off in my head. Not literally, of course, because that would be fatal, probably.
You do not want to put oil on that sliding glass door. Silicone spray.
@CarolinaJessamine Yes! A long time ago I was advised of that by my building's maintenance pro. I remember him saying how oil ends up turning to gunk, so to never oil the tracks.
@CarolinaJessamine Something in need of OILING brought to mind the Tin Man after the Wicked Witch has caused him to rust! I got the answer because it fit with the crosses I had, not because it really seems like a thing.
This was a really satisfying puzzle. Nice and chewy, lots of answers I've never heard of.
A really tough puzzle that I didn't seem to be getting anywhere near solving, but with a few fragmented words for the idiomatic phrases, the ice started breaking and I was in. There were some solid fills that I knew, some flyers that worked, and I was distracted by listening to the Warriors/Lakers game while I was working it (Warriors won!), so I wasn't obsessing about being stuck so many times. A favorite moment was when I got at the last three letters of 50A and thought, wait a minute, could that AI WEIWEI?? Went back, changed some earlier letters I had from (wrong) crosses and Yes! What a delight to see him there. So cool. Thank you, Karen, for a puzzle that was both whimsical and solemn—a welcome pleasure after an awful day.
@dutchiris AI WEI WEI was a gimme because I've seen his name mentioned many a time, and I've been to museums and galleries that featured his work. However... I am one of those rubes who don't understand modern art, for the most part, so while I appreciate and respect AI WEI WEI's important role in the modern world, I've only ever shrugged at his artistic projects. I admit to not even stopping by one of them in an exhibition hall in the castle of Palermo, when my wife and I were on our way to a lower level to look at recently uncovered Phoenicians ruins...
This turned out to be too hard for me. I completed the bottom half of the puzzle no problem, but the top half defeated me, even though I knew some stuff that would have confused me before I learned about it from previous NYT puzzles, like RADON. Given my interest in history I also had some gimmes that may have been hard for others: SIAM, IRENE and LAR. My problems were too many to describe here, but, for example, I had MaSs for MUSH, which fit with the clue, and even though I had _____THE OLD BEAN, I had no idea what the first word would be: I had few letters in it, including an initial "a" rather than U... The long expression across the middle of the puzzle was a mystery - I couldn't parse it even when I filled the grid in the end relying on autocheck. I needed another thread in today's comments to understand what was going on there. I would never have got that, myself. Being Polish, I found OWNER a very weird word relating to NFL. I don't think of sport teams in terms of them having owners. Over here traditionally sports clubs were associations, and many still are, even if they've acquired sponsors over the years. They don't have owners. I was also confused by having sItU rather than LIEU as "place" (after the DIEs/DIEM controversy recently I thought sItU was a good enough solve for its clue) - it meshed with two other answers there, but completely ruined another two. So yeah, no gold star for me today, but since I don't care about streaks, that's fine.
@Andrzej I thought of you while I was working this puzzle and how mystifying the long idioms might be. Good job that you got as much of it as you did. I wouldn't even be able to read the clues for a Polish crossword.
@Andrzej I too put in sItU, and couldn't see LIEU for the longest time. Certainly the very late hour last night, plus the drinks on a rare weeknight out, made the solve a real struggle for me! But ALSO and ASKS only came after a night's sleep... Interesting that KEYBOARD WARRIOR was the seed for the puzzle; I don't recall hearing that before, and had been thinking of trolls at first.
A solid, well clued puzzle with a nice array of fresh long answers. I wonder how many people (like me) knew JETHRO Tull because of the band. And I was happy to see NOBLE Jazz composer Duke Ellington’s SATIN Doll make the cut (although it’s not my favorite of his songs).
@Marshall Walthew I don’t recognize the Ellington title. I felt a bit smug filling in She’s A there, because I have a theory that song titles are usually predictable enough that you don’t really need to know them to get the answer. Often that works, but not tonight.
@Marshall Walthew I’m of the age that we were learning about the Industrial Revolution just when the band was popular. How surprised were we to know how tha band got its name. (Cf. REO Speedwagon).
@Eric Hougland It’s a classic you should listen to it
I guess I’m in the minority, but I will report that I did not enjoy that puzzle.
Recently listened to Aqualung for the first time in decades, and it was so good.
@Mehitabel Great song with one of rock's greatest guitar solos by Martin Barre, fine album but, let's face it, the eponymous Aqualung is a pretty dodgy character.
@Ed Martin Barre played here a few years ago with his band, which included Clive Bunker, the original Tull drummer. They hadn't lost a step.
@Mehitabel Me too. One of my sister’s favorites that I did not initially appreciate until I was older.
Solid! Enjoyed the long entries
I'm delighted to see you back, Mrs. Steinberg, and with a first solo themeless to boot! It was a fun solve, with bits and pieces that were breezy and others that were oh-so-chewy that I had to resort to a few lookups to break them open (not that i dont like a challenge, but on Fridays and Saturdays I prefer to keep it stress-free and so i set a time limit to feeling enSNARLed.) SAY THE MAGIC WORD made me smile. Just yesterday I suddenly remembered how, sitting in the backseat of my parents' car, I would ask my mother to please turn on the MAGIC button (yes, back then we didn't press buttons on the radio; we turned them.) Knowing how much I loved music, she always knew what I meant. I loved VAN for [Many a short-term rental.] I wasn't USING THE OLD BEAN until it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, this wasn't about a home. Parallel thinking to the rescue. (And then, after the aha VAN, my mind landed on another VAN: <a href="https://youtu.be/pbZf8GY1-Ag?si=dqFqzx1rmDi0NxIM" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/pbZf8GY1-Ag?si=dqFqzx1rmDi0NxIM</a>) Thank you, Mrs. Steinberg for a fabulously satisfying romp. You've truly succeeded in constructing a lovely Friday puzzle!
@sotto voce Ooh, thanks for linking to Van the Man. Here's one back at'cha <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8JGddtWfO6I" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8JGddtWfO6I</a>
@sotto voce I think that’s my favorite Van song. “Too late to stop now!”
@sotto voce I had inN before VAN. SAY THE MAGIC WORD was a gimme that surprised me, as I haven't heard or said that phrase in decades.
@sotto voce Man, I love that song. Thanks.
I smiled at the crossing of CROSS and WORD, both part of 15s, in the lower left of the grid. Good luck to everyone competing this weekend!
A fun puzzle. Didn't breeze through but answers came at a consistent pace. Filled in SAY THE MAGIC WORD with no crosses, expecting to have to change it later. Also expected to have to change JETHRO! So many answers I didn't know but filled in from crosses. Now, this is a message for @Puzzlemucker. I've been going through the archives and this morning did a puzzle from November 9, 2023 that had ROSANNE Cash as an answer. You posted a link to her song /video "She Remembers Everything," which I'd never heard before. I listened to it several times in a row and cried my eyeballs out. So beautiful and poignant. I think I'm at just the right age to appreciate it. So thank you! I never know what I'll find in the Wordplay comments.
@Beth Wow! So happy (?) you had that experience. It really is a beautiful and haunting song. She said it was inspired by the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearing.
@Beth Almost anything by Rosanne Cash is worth listening to. We saw her for the first time about two years ago. It was just her and her husband John Leventhal, both playing acoustic guitars, and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.
@Beth Made me look! an acoustic version, with lyrics <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAI9wFsHnsM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAI9wFsHnsM</a>
I came here expecting to read every comment saying this was too easy. Pleasantly surprised to see that is not the case. (Didn’t expect the crossword nerds would be so up in arms about the singularity of NFL ownership). In any case. I must have really really been on the same wavelength. Because I had all six long entries figured out almost immediately. (Versus sussing out the long entry from the crosses). Though. Using.Your.noggin. Was my initial guess for 11down. TIL jethro Tull is not just a music band. Thanks for the breezy Friday.
@Weak "Didn’t expect the crossword nerds would be so up in arms about the singularity of NFL ownership" Really? You're supposed to be Weak, not naive 🤣 What is this board about if not about picking nits? The more pedantic the better? 🤩
@Weak As a young fan of the band, I assumed, like Deb Amlen, that JETHRO Tull was the name of the leader of the group. When I learned that his name was Ian Anderson, I also learned about the "agriculturalist." I don't think I ever learned why those chose to name the group after him. But I'm still trying to figure out who that "Aqualung" dude is and how he got such a strange name (not to mention his strange behavior).
When I tell you I sat here for WAY too long stressing over what POSSIBLE pasta shape could look “pinched” if not farfalle??? Pain.
Never heard of USINGTHEOLDBEAN before, learned quite a few new things today! A little ashamed I didn't get NSF until the crossings, as they run the entire Antarctic Program. We're about halfway through the Drake Passage, hopefully reaching Palmer Station on the Antarctic peninsula in a couple days. Looking forward to being on solid ground soon.
@Michael "In a couple days" really drives home the scale of the area where you are! (This after me having to look up the Drake Passage in the first place the other day.) With all the budget cuts, I sincerely hope your projects remain funded! I realize the Antarctic Program as a whole probably is... But I'd read half of NSF grants were defunded, thus my imagination running away with a picture of your ship being turned around mid-Passage-! Hahaha.
@Michael Interesting that you have Internet -- or are you paying a lot for it. We sailed Drake's passage a few years ago, and the charge for sending an email was about $5/kilobyte, I think. We didn't send any.... I thought others would comment that Grad students probably won't be getting grants from NSF anymore after Elon Hatchetman gets done 'fixing' our government....
5A “Shape-shifters?” and B_OBS… I alternated between ‘no way!’ and ‘push up bra’ for O, before ‘of course!’ with L.
@Stavros Had to chuckle 🤭 at your first take. Many of us would have to concede the aptness of that fill! *Sigh*
@Stavros Well, it wasn't a Thursday, so it would've been a stretch: B O O B S R A But, you never know until it's filled, right 😉
@Stavros First thing that came to my mind. Of course, as I'm entering my second childhood, I've devolved back to about 14, when they were often the first things that came to mind.
@Stavros That occurred to me, too, but I immediately ruled out BoOBS because "oAR" was already an answer elsewhere (with an S).
32 teams 32 logos 32 starting QBs 32 franchises 32 ownerships, even But, even excluding the Green Bay packers corporation, there are many teams with co-owners: see Bills, Browns, Giants, 49ers, Jets. It’s a common noun and an easy fix with a better clue.
@Ken Burk Yes, as a Green Bay Packers owner, I resented this clue.
@Ken Burk Yes! I actually would have loved the clueing "One of 31 in the NFL". That would have been a kind of clever way to test someone's trivia knowledge. Even understanding co-owners are a thing I think that would have made more sense considering the Packers quite literally do not have an owner making 32 a factually incorrect clue no matter how you interpret it.
@Ken Burk Many teams have more than one logo and use a different one for throwback day.
I solved quickly (for me, for a Friday). It was fairly "self-contained," meaning not that many proper names or things to be googled. I liked "keyboard warriors."
Solved this unaided, but very slowly. Took me 45 minutes or so. Don't think I've ever seen LAR, though it must be a crossword staple. Same for OMBRE. The three consecutive E's in ICALLEMASISEEEM were mystifying for far too long. DOGEAR from "Turndown?" also took quite awhile. Seemed like a Friday puzzle of old, at least to me. Quite the workout.
@Xword Junkie I had pretty much the same experience as you. It was a good workout without too much frustration, but a few of the entries were complete unknowns. Good thing there were some workable, though not gentle, crosses.
Welcome back, Karen Steinberg! I just loved seeing all of those grid spanning entries, especially SAY THE MAGIC WORD. Is there a MAGIC WORD we can say to get us out of this nightmare? Please? Having just finished Percival Everett's exceptional "James" last night, I got a kick out of seeing 47 D.
@Nancy J. It was one of those books that was over too quickly. I loved the character, his sense of irony. I kind of miss him.
@Warren Great book! "James" is better than Twain's original. I re-read "Huckleberry Finn" this winter after reading "James".
"CRATER" and "SOLD" are not only answers in this puzzle but likely words repeated several times on Wall St. this week. This was a great puzzle to give me a break from the onslaught of terrible news, thanks to the constructor. DOGEAR was a favorite.
Very enjoyable Friday puzzle! It was not easy for me, yet I never despaired that I wouldn't be able to finish, as sometimes happens to me. I just kept plugging away and suddenly, USINGTHEOLDBEAN and the very reasonable crossings, voila! Not easy, yet I never felt the need to do a lookup, so that kind of feels like a perfect Friday to me. Tough, but achievable! I liked it! I love the crossing of JETHRO and JINKS. Not sure there's a reason I love it but it's somehow pleasing. Then again, I am partial to the letter J, in general. 😉 The NW was the hardest for me. I couldn't stop vacillating between otoh for 1A and OMBRE for 4D. I didn't know any other hair blending term but otoh seemed so good. I also struggled between internet WARRIOR and KEYBOARD. The former seemed more fitting except that it wasn't very um, fitting, for any potential crosses. Then there was whatis versus SAYTHE at 3D. Finally seeing SUTRA helped me clear it all up! ICALLEMASISEEEM and this was a very fun and lively outing for me. Love the triple Es there! Great spanners and a lot of fun fill. Also, I give myself extra points today for successfully identifying that the nit of the day would be 23D for OWNERS. Although I understand the counterpoints in the comments, I would have to agree with the nit. PAREN Lapsed Packer backer here, born and bred. PAREN Cheers to the weekend, crosswording friends!
@Mtmetz Hi! ☺️ Just wanted to thank you for your kind note out on yesterday's comments. I only saw it today, so wasn't sure if you'd check back there or not. I really appreciate your kind words and professional advice! You prompted me to look up the info you mentioned, which built my confidence in the team I'm working with. It's not the Mayo but the hospital I'm working with has been awarded the best for cardiac care in the Twin Cities. Their team of electrophysiologists seems pretty robust: two PA-Cs, one CNP, and three MDs. I spoke with the CNP specializing in electrophysiology yesterday and next, after a couple of tests, I'll meet with the doctor who'll do the procedure. There are three at this location and the PA (after my sharing about my anxiety) recommended one in particular, because they have the most experience and she thought I'd be most comfortable with them, which I appreciated. I didn't think to ask how many they do a year but I will next time. Anyhow, a lot of off-topic info but I wanted to respond to you and let you know that you were very helpful and it made a difference. I appreciate it as I work to keep my anxiety low about this. Facts are always a good thing! ☺️ And now, to put this back on-topic. What a great puzzle today! What did you think of the puzzle? Puzzle, puzzle!
I know Satin Doll because both bands I play with play an arrangement of it. In fact rehearsal last night included it. Say the magic word came quickly. But struggled with a lot of it.
Nice fill today. Glad I took a chance on it. Got stuck for a while in the west because I'd confidently entered I teLL EM AS I SEE EM as soon as I saw the triple E in the east. This was compounded by an inability to parse DOGEAR from [Turndown], and unfamiliarity with SAY THE MAGIC WORD. (I think if my parents had ever said that to me, I'd have said "Abracadabra" in puzzled tones.) Good to have some fill that was solidly in my "general knowledge" wheelhouse, for a change, and I see that my total ignorance of American football was a positive advantage in finding OWNER.
A solid Friday workout that I solved around half a minute faster than my average time. Some great clues. I especially liked “Turn down?” for DOG EAR, as it took a while to get it. On CROSS AT THE GREEN, I’m reminded of a crosswalk near my office for around 30 years at the university where I taught. At one point, they installed a voice alert for blind people, and for the longest time I thought whoever installed it was trying to be sort of hip, as I heard it as “Hit the road. Walk sign is on.” One day as I stood there, I glanced at the street sign that I’d walked past or stood beside thousands of times. “Edgar Rd.” Just then the signal changed and the voice alert sounded and I realized it was quite mundane: “Edgar Road. Walk sign is on.” I preferred my mishearing.
What a lovely grid. So much squeezed in, with so little junk. My girls feature at 13D, thanks Mrs Steinberg 🦙 Fond memories of seeing Mr Anderson play the flute while standing on one leg, around 1978 I think. JETHRO Tull was out of my punk/ska musical comfort zone to say the least, but I was dragged to our local university by a friend to see them. I enjoyed it so much I bought their latest album. Can’t remember the title (it’s in the attic somewhere) but the song that stuck was Mouse Police. No idea what it was about, but still get the chorus as an ear worm nearly 50 years later. Chuckled at 55A. We don’t have such a law as jaywalking; you cross where you like effectively, but we do have the green cross code, shown in tv ads over 50 years ago. It featured the actor who became the Darth Vader you saw in the first three Star Wars films, as the Green Cross Man; a kind of Superman lookie likie, showing us kids how to cross safely. Thanks for the memories.
@Helen Wright The album was 'Heavy Horses' and 'Songs From the Wood' was it's stablemate from Tull's folk/prog years. Some of Ian Anderson's best work.
@Helen Wright Back when I went to college in the mid-80's, one was assigned a roommate in the dorms. The two of us could not have been more opposite, especially in musical tastes. Mine ran to new wave/ska/punk, hers to older stuff I thought was sooo boring -- including JETHRO Tull. Home on a school break, I heard a song of theirs on the radio that I actually enjoyed! Of course, back at school I excitedly told her I'd heard a new track by them... It turned out to be off Songs From the Wood and about a decade old. We have remained close friends all these years, and she still ribs me about my faux pas!
43 1/2 minutes (!!) slower than my average -- but a puzzle completed without a lookup is a puzzle completed without a lookup. Worth every second.
‘One of 32 in the NFL’ is wrong. The Green Bay Packers don’t have an owner. They’re publicly owned.
@Arcturus The Green Bay Packers team has an owner: Green Bay Packers, Inc., a nonprofit publicly held corporation with more than 500,000 shareholders. See <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers,_Inc" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers,_Inc</a>.
@Arcturus I had the same thought! I think even in consideration of the other commenters’ explanations below justifying the constructor’s choice explaining that other teams may have multiple owners as well the clue is not precise. The Green Bay Packers are publicly owned, unlike any other major sports franchise in the US, which should lead to a different clue/wording. Maybe make it about the NBA or MLB instead?
@Arcturus Yes this is an obviously wrong clue, as there are teams like the Giants with two 50% owners, the Packers with shareholders, the Dolphins with private equity funds as minority owners, the Texans with county government as a minority owner, etc.
@Dylan Didn’t need to be about sports at all. No league has an equal amount of owners to teams any more. For a common noun, the clue wasn’t clumsy - it’s just flat out wrong.
This discussion made me wonder what these NFL "teams" actually are. Lo and behold, here is a list of the NFL team entities: <a href="https://www.nfl.com/legal/privacy/nfl-entities-list" target="_blank">https://www.nfl.com/legal/privacy/nfl-entities-list</a>/ Besides Green Bay Packers, Inc, we find New York Football Giants, Inc, Football Northwest LLC, Houston NFL Holdings LP, "Miami Dolphins, Ltd., a Florida limited partnership," and so on. These are the entities that own the teams, with whom the players sign contracts, which own the equipment, etc. Here in Philadelphia, for example, we speak of Jeff Lurie as the owner of the Eagles. While he is the "controlling owner" (holding at least 30% interest) and the face of ownership, the actual owner of the Eagles is Philadelphia Eagles LLC. I think all this makes the clue technically correct. Though I doubt it's what the constructor and editors were thinking!
Old joke: UMPIRE#1: I calls 'em as I sees 'em. UMPIRE'#2: I calls 'em as they ARE!. UMPIRE#3: Until I call 'em, they ain't nothin,.
@RozzieGrandma 2026: The electronic pitch caller gets to decide.
@RozzieGrandma This reminds me of an old George Carlin line: "I calls 'em like I sees 'em, and if I don't see 'em, I make 'em up. (I tried unsuccessfully to confirm that this line came from George Carlin, so...take the attribution with a grain of salt.)
I jaywalk, and I have always jaywalked since I let go of my mother's hand. Songs, warnings etc. be darned. My NYC mind just says "I can get across - I'm going!" I was shocked other places to see people calmly standing on corners waiting for the walk signal when there was no traffic whatsoever. What's up with that? You can stand there - I'm crossing the street.
@Amy. I love it! This is such a great post. It made me think of the trend “tell me you’re from Manhattan without telling me.” (Written with good intentions and praise for your post not a judgment of people from Manhattan.)
@Amy After living in New York for 5 years it was a bit of a culture shock going back home to Seattle where people just *stand there* at a red light. Not a car in sight! Here in North Carolina it's about 50/50 whether folks will cross against the light. I suspect most of the folks who do are transplants from the northeast!
@Dave Munger That’s because Seattle cops would actually ticket you for jaywalking! Haven’t looked it up since moving back a couple years ago to see if that’s still the case, but it sure was 20 years ago. (ask me how I know)
Baht yesterday and Siam today. Happy Songkran y'all!
A perfect Friday puzzle! The long answers were creative and in the vernacular. And the puzzle was relatively free of proper names.
There’s often a wonderful wink in Friday puzzles, and today is no exception. Many thanks, Karen, for USINGTHEOLDBEAN! TIL about LAR/lares and now feel the house is missing something.
@Lizziefish I started out with USING YOUR NOODLE.
Today I learned that there’s a name for what I do here every day.
@Steve L: SAY THE MAGIC WORD? SNARL? USING THE OLD BEAN? CALL EM AS I SEE EM? We know you contain multitudes, you’re not just any old KEYBOARD WARRIOR.
Got it--finally! With no outside help. One of the clues is the word STAND. It got me thinking (something I try to avoid). A STAND could be: 1. a position 2. the opposite of sit 3. to endure (or abide) 4. a small table It's when a clue has a multiplicity of possible answers (but really only one) that makes for a good crossword puzzle.
@JB 5. A group of trees 6. A small store And maybe a dozen more. Polysemy!
@JB 7. a pedestal or rack used to hold sheet music for musicians to read while playing or conducting
I've been around all kinds of boats all my life, read many books about the sea, and never, repeat never, have I heard anyone use the word "oar" as a verb. Please make it stop. It hurts my ears.
Ed, Older folks here may have used it more; the ones a few centuries older. It is still a verb, if not heard much as such these days. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oar" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oar</a>
@Ed that clue helped in making my head spin along with the whole NW corner. I can't remember seeing this use of OARS other than in a crossword, but I have seen it and it is a verb, and the clue's multiple meanings made it perfect for a Friday puzzle.
@Ed Not what the doctor oardered, eh? Why do dinghys glow? Because they have an oarer. Pass the grog me hearty!
So many fun spanners! I was so bummed when Thailand came into being as it meant I'd no longer hear my favorite national anthem: "I Am Siam, Siam I Am".
@ad absurdum Or, "We are Siamese if you please, We are Siamese if you don't please. We are former residents of Siam, There are no finer cats than I am." Lady and the Tramp, 1955
a delightful friday puzzle! made my brain wake up with clever cluing and amusing fills hello ai weiwei! happy friday, everyone!
On the topic of CROSS AT THE GREEN, which was straightforward for me, even though jaywalking as an alien concept here in Great Britain, I have a bit of green/cross trivia which may be interesting to others here. In the UK we had a road safety campaign aimed at children during the 1970s. "Always use the green cross code, because I won't be there when you cross the road!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7_Bz9fIPA&ab" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR7_Bz9fIPA&ab</a> The Green Cross Code Man was played by bodybuilder Dave Prouse, who went on to fame playing the body, if not the voice, of Darth Vader. (The poor fella is likewise dubbed in my linked advertisement---his Somerset accent was deemed undesirable in a role model for children.)
@Oikofuge Who else remembers that episode of "Endeavor" where Inspector Bright gets sent to Traffic Division? He does a PSA for the Pelicon crossing, accompanied by a bird of a similar name. I had to look that up; it's PEdestrian LIght CONtrolled crossing, as opposed to a zebra crossing with no lights.
@Oikofuge Yep, I mentioned him in my earlier post but couldn’t remember his name. I was a Northern lass at that point, so never picked up the delightful accent of my adopted county. DH is a Devon boy so a similar accent, softened by a few years in London.
Hey, guess what everybody! I'm eating TACOS in my car!! It's like kismet but not, if you see what I mean... 🌮🌮
@HeathieJ Brava! Just this afternoon (as I was trying to finish a cup of ice cream before he had to leave for work), I had a conversation with my 17 year old nephew about lessons I've learned about foods that are inadvisable to eat while driving a car. Specifically Taco Bell bean burritos and KFC mashed potatoes and gravy. I finished the ice cream before I drove home.
When you back into an answer like I CALL ‘EM AS I SEE ‘EM — that is, when you get the last part of it first — those triple E’s just look wrong. I lost half a minute because I forgot it’s HIGH JINKS and not HIGH JINx. Other than that, it was a pretty smooth solving experience. I hadn’t heard KEYBOARD WARRIOR or CROSS AT THE GREEN, but it wasn’t too hard to figure out either one. Thanks, Ms Steinberg!
@Eric Hougland Yeah, the triple E had me worried. I also had internetWARRIOR for a while, which snarled things up a bit.
I just want to put my two cents in. Pigs are far from boorish. This is very unfair. They are fascinating and highly intelligent. Studies have shown they can easily distinguish between an actual object and its reflection. And they are curious. It is a sight to behold when one sees a sow on her side with six or seven piglets nursing. OK, OK, it's a crossword puzzle. I get it. Still, they got a bad rap.
@JB I don’t think the clue refers to literal pigs. Or else the clue would have been “Boar-ish sorts”.
@JB I can’t tell if this is tongue in cheek or not. In case not, while calling a boorish sort a “swine” is also a slight on pigs, I believe that is the sense here. 😊 Enjoy this classic line from Don Rickles’ Potato Head in Toy Story 😊: <a href="https://youtu.be/AEJBL2gagJg?si=X4NnX62eCYzQXJPp" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/AEJBL2gagJg?si=X4NnX62eCYzQXJPp</a>
@JB I saw it as a synonym and as such talking about the application of that word to humans. But then your comment had me take a (mental) step back: why do we relate [Boorish sorts] to these actually very intelligent animals? Seems quite contradictory indeed!
@JB Here's a link to a great BBC video on pigs and humans. Both the children and piglets are very cute. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mza1EQ6aLdg" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mza1EQ6aLdg</a>
The NW was a tough nut to crack. I didn't know LAR, and then the very corner itself got me. The old bean needed a nudge.
@Anthony same, I was stumped in the NW despite having the two long crosses. I should have known LIEU, and I believe that with xIAx this would have ultimately led to completion. But alas. Next time.
@Anthony Usually they said it in the plural: LARes as in The Lares and Penates for Household gods.
@Anthony -- Yeah. Nothing was working....
Yesterday's Comment was flagged--I would love to know what the Emus are up to....what offense(s) I am committing, etc. I might be driven to join The Other Blog... or stack my Comments elsewhere, under my same moniker... I suppose I could email the capricious Emus, but I forget what the address is. Some odd clue/entry pairs in this puzzle (from my point of view)... and --alas for the MOL-- an error. I knew of "household gods" as LARES and PENATES, but there was no room for the E... So I decided OAR could work, with the somewhat unkind descriptor of "Shape-shifters" for BOOBS. (Just you wait, Young Things.) I guess that's my Laugh for the Day.
@Mean Old Lady I used the g word a while ago and that hasn't turned although my other posts have.
@Mean Old Lady Could a BRA be called a "shape shifter?" The push-up variety, for instance. That would have made for an amusing double clue and cross.
tough for me, a beautiful and humble woman
How can I think about the Lares (and their companions, the Penates) without a brief trip to Leandra, one of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities? (Although this is a very, very short story, it might take a couple of replies to fit it all in.) Gods of two species protect the city of Leandra. Both are too tiny to be seen and too numerous to be counted. One species stands at the doors of the houses, inside, next to the coatrack and the umbrella stand; in moves, they follow the families and install themselves in the new home at the consignment of the keys. The others stay in the kitchen, hiding by preference under pots or in the chimney flue or broom closet: they belong to the house, and when the family that has lived there goes away, they remain with the new tenants; perhaps they were already there before the house existed, among the weeds of the vacant lot, concealed in a rusty can; if the house is torn down and a huge block of fifty families is built in its place, they will be found, multiplied, in the kitchens of that many apartments. To distinguish the two species we will call the first one Penates and the other Lares.
Within a given house, Lares do not necessarily stay with Lares, and Penates with Penates: they visit one another, they stroll together on the stucco cornices, on the radiator pipes; they comment on family events; not infrequently they quarrel; but they can also get along peacefully for years— seeing them all in a row, you are unable to tell them apart. The Lares have seen Penates of the most varied origins and customs pass through their walls; the Penates have to make a place for themselves, rubbing elbows with Lares of illustrious, but decaying palaces, full of hauteur, or with Lares from tin shacks, susceptible and distrustful. The true essence of Leandra is the subject of endless debate. The Penates believe they are the city's soul, even if they arrived last year; and they believe they take Leandra with them when they emigrate. The Lares consider the Penates temporary guests, importunate, intrusive; the real Leandra is theirs, which gives form to all it contains, the Leandra that was there before all these upstarts arrived and that will remain when all have gone away.
@Bill this seems like something I need to read!