I haven't updated my spice rack in a while - I'm behind the thymes. (And being in a kitchen gives me sage fright.)
@Mike Sage fright? Just wait until you see Rosemary's baby.
@Mike I think you're repeating yourself. Amchoor I've seen that one before.
@Mike No big dill, but I'm having trouble cumin up with something that will curry favor with the group.
@Mike, don't get carraway with it, like that nutMeg did. It would be anise gesture to send a cardamom to ask for advice.
I think I might have to save WEIRDFLEXBUTOK for the Thursday comment section the next time someone says something like: “I haven’t done a Thursday puzzle in 5 years, and this is my 40th week in a row telling everyone in the comments.” Great Friday puzzle!
@Jonathan 😅 Yes, I foresee myself using that phrase frequently.
This was such an unusual experience - initially the puzzle felt extremely hard to me, to the point I quite quickly became resigned to looking stuff up. At the time I only had the NE corner filled completely, and just a few words elsewhere. But then I thought: OK, I'll give it one more try. And... I filled the grid without outside help! A lot of (intelligent?) guesswork was involved, but I did it and I'm proud. My biggest surprise? It took me 20 minutes, which is just a bit slower than a typical Wednesday, and considerably faster than an average Friday. I was so engrossed in the solve time wasn't really registering. Initially I wanted to complain about all the proper nouns and trivia, but since I managed to complete the puzzle not knowing most of it, it must have been well implemented into the grid - to be gettable with crosses and a bit of creativity. The constructor of this week's obnoxious Wednesday puzzle should learn from Erica Hsiung Wojcik. Nice puzzle, IMO. Lucyfer the puppy is doing great. He is already visibly bigger than he was when he joined our family just over 2 weeks ago. He weighed 9,9 kg then, and now he's up to 11,4 kg. At this rate he will grow to be a really tall standard poodle, which is cool as we like big dogs. The rate at which he learns new things is impressive. And he's so incredibly fluffy!
@Andrzej Wow. Don’t know what made me feel worse. Failing on this puzzle. Or reading your solve story of the non native crushing the grid. But congrats on blazing through it. I’m jealous. I don’t get the “obnoxious Wednesday” comment though. I don’t get the sense you are the type of person who would pan a puzzle because they couldn’t solve it. Did the 24 on a Wednesday just break some rules for you? What should that constructor have learned from toasts constructor?
@Andrzej One of the catchphrase of my coming of age years was "Happiness is a Warm Puppy". It involved Snoopy, "Peanuts" and Charles Schultz. Despite myself, I still think that's true, or truish.
@Andrzej Same here! I counted myself out then something clicked when I figured out WEIRDFLEXBUTOK. Fun Friday!
@Andrzej I've meant to ask you this, and pardon me if you've mentioned this, but was your inspiration for the name "Lucyfer" Goethe's Faust? "He weighed 9,9 kg then, and now he's up to 11,4 kg. At this rate he will grow to be a really tall standard poodle, which is cool as we like big dogs." "Ist es Schatten? ist's Wirklichkeit? Wie wird mein Pudel lang und breit!"-- Hopefully, he will grow into a GENTLE GIANT, and as, another commenter has mentioned on this forum, Happiness is a Warm Puppy. (IYKYK: Mephistopheles first appears to Faust in the form of a stray poodle, scratching at the door of Faust's study.)
@Andrzej We're expecting pictures weekly (at least) of your growing pup.
Very fun puzzle. I loved WEIRDFLEXBUTOK, and I loved learning that YOYOS can't sleep in space. However, I would have crashed and burned if I hadn't had the inspiration that MOoN and MORN would both fit with Shakespeare's style . I was surprised, though, to find the line is Friar Lawrence's, and not either Romeo's or Juliet's. (Of his major plays, I know "Romeo and Juliet" the least, by far.) Excuse me while I go step into my FAILLE PJs. You are all jealous that I have faille pjs, aren't you? I can tell. I can tell.
@Francis I first tried WEIRDFLEX,BUDDY! 😆 What's this with your FAILLE pjs!? First you tell us you have abs of steel and now this!? Is there no end to your fabulousness!? 😏
@Francis FAILLE pyjamas is surely the epitome of WEIRDFLEXBUTOK!
@Francis @HeathieJ I was so convinced (unfoundedly) of MOON that I tore out INRE. Even though I knew the [double] had to be RBIS. It didn't help that I'd convinced myself that [Reader's digest] was a BOOK review! My last thoughts before falling asleep where trying to puzzle out that one. 🤦♀️ The other area I needed to revisit this morning was 44A: you and me both, Heathie, on BUDDY! WEIRD FLEX came easily, at least. 😆 (Personally, I hear WEIRD FLEX, BUT OK much more sarcastically than the column suggests. I'm a jaded New Yorker: what do I know? Lol!) I bet the GABOR sisters wore FAILLE pajamas, Francis. A sultry style, for sure! Heathie, let the man have his magniloquence – if for no reason than that I get to use this incredible word! 😍
One of the pleasures of crosswords is how the answers ping different areas of the brain, bringing it to life. Today it pinged history, sports, arts, biology, cards, food. It also triggered images and memories – GABOR, sleeping YOYOS, school DESKs of my youth, the taste of PB&J’s, and beautiful swirly SARIs. My TIL was learning STEAM is the familiar term STEM to which “arts” has been added. Especially lovely today were the serendipitous PuzzPairs©: • RAISE / ROYAL FLUSH • BRAG / WEIRD FLEX BUT OK • SARI / backward GARB • FLUSH crossing LOO May I add that gorgeous answers BRING TO LIFE, TRILOBITES, and GENTLE GIANT are NYT debuts? And props to Erica for keeping the number of three-letter answers -- which are usually uninteresting -- to single digits. A quality feel throughout. A themeless puzzle with an underlying theme of pleasure, starting my day with an ahhh. I loved this. Thank you, Erica!
@Lewis For a while, I was quite the pedantic proselytizer, interjecting "STEAM!" every time someone used STEM in conversation. That was about 15 years ago, when it seemed the possibility of amending the acronym was still possible... This was such a lovely puzzle. Looking it over to highlight an item or two, I find it a near impossible task because – examining individually – so much is so good!
the top three non-sexual/food-related sensual experiences in precisely this order: 3. expertly manipulating a pen/curette/crab fork handle/other long, thin, not-too-sharp object to scratch and relieve the maddening itch deep inside your ear without puncturing your tympanic membrane 2. finally managing to find, corral and detonate the sneeze which has already brought you to the edge and then left you bereft and in frustration three times 1. going over the crossword five times, still having 10-or-so unfilled words all over the grid and connected to each other by the slimmest of tendrils, going to get some coffee, suddenly remembering that meat loaf played the biker who was called eddie in the rocky horror film, returning to the puzzle, filling in that one stupid little clue and then watching as the rest of the words fall like dominos to complete the solve
@Matt this is an excellent list and I think I concur entirely.
@Matt I may or may not have expertly manipulated a pen to induce a sneeze, once or twice.
@Matt Sorry, Matt, but this is completely absurd. Dislogging a raspberry/blackberry seed stuck between your molars with the back tip of a flosser is without question the #1 pleasure in life.
@Matt I use a knitting needle to scratch inside my ears. Also dangerous....
EDDIE done did get in this puz! Et tu, emu.
@Lewis What a guy! Makes you cry. Und I did.
I’ve never heard of FAILLE and have never heard the expression WEIRD FLEX BUT OK, so I was totally stuck at the end. Otherwise I enjoyed the puzzle.
@Wayne Harrison FAILLE can occasionally be seen in fashion magazines and 18th/19th C novels but almost never on humans' backs any more. Like many other natural fabrics (pima, rep, poplin, sateen?), it has been replaced by an agglomeration of petrochemical filaments. The new stuff may be cheaper (thanks to Big Oil's successful self-insulation against the economic and ecological costs of their stock in trade.) But the old stuff felt better, lasted longer, held dyes better, and brutalized the planet less. I've got two generations of heirloom clothes to prove it!
@Wayne Harrison Sewing patterns often included tissue faille on a list of fabrics that would be appropriate for the garment. I never knew exactly what it was, but somehow retained the name.
Seems like only a hundred million years when they came out with trilobites which were snack-size trilos. They were super popular treats on Halloween, even though they weren't that tasty(except for the ones with weird flecks!). But everyone agreed they were better than Candy Corn.
@aa Trilo-bites, not oyster crackers (molluscs not having yet evolved) was always my go-to for sprinkling on Cream of Primordial Soup. Yum!
@ad absurdum I thought it was a cereal. It came out same time as TREX (remember the slogan: “silly mammal, TREX are for dinosaurs!)
Crossword superstar Paolo Pasco Jeopardy watch, day seven ... Victory number seven for Paolo, who pulled away from the other players with a strong second half. Could not be caught in Final Jeopardy, in which the clue was "He became the first person to win both an Olympic medal and an Academy Award thanks to a short film he made about his sport". (Answer in reply.) I like how Paolo stays cool even when he's behind. I also like how well he represents our glorious pastime. His winnings are now $195,717. Go Paolo!
Final Jeopardy answer: "Who is Kobe Bryant?"
@Lewis after your heads up yesterday, I watched last night. He is so cool under pressure! It is exciting to see someone I “know” on the show. Rooting for him to go far!!
@Lewis Thanks to our outage, I missed the Thursday show, but found an (almost complete) YouTube filming...enough to see Pablo's unflappable conduct, even when he blanked on an answer after buzzing in. I see no reason why he might not have a long reign!
@Lewis Paolo looked a bit weak in the knees last night when Ken Jennings celebrated his total for the game, and who wouldn't be, with such a potentially life changing jolt to their bank account. Sometimes I long for a champion to get shot down and be gone, but I'd be delighted if Paolo does a Ken and racks up an wizardly run of wins.
@Lewis Spoiler -- I do the puzzles late on their 'real' day, and then watch Jeopardy even later. Sadly, Paolo lost his 8th game. Winner got the 2 Daily doubles. But we'll see him again in the ToC.
Some fine clues in this one. Spirited sort for BARFLY and ordered clubs for ROYALFLUSH particularly tickled me. WEIRDFLEXBUTOK was a WEIRDFLEXBUTOK, and the last answer to come to me. Off topic, and probably late to the party, but I’ve been catching up on the new Jeopardy season since returning to the states and am enjoying watching crossword guru Paolo Pasco mopping up the competition.
@Marshall Walthew He's on Jeopardy? That's almost not fair.
“Weird flex but ok”?? After struggling with this puzzle for quite awhile, I turned to the column for some help and found this expression that wouldn’t have occurred to me, in any situation, ever. I’m not even sure what it means. I think this puzzle may just not be for me. It happens. I guess maybe that’s a weird flex? But it’s ok? (Apologies if I used that wrong.)
it's kinda out of place for a NYT crossword, but it brought me joy. very modern, very online "flex" is short for showing off (like flexing muscles) a "weird" flex is something that most people wouldn't show off about. "but ok" means it's respectable nonetheless
@Heidi I learned it from online memes. You address it at somebody who seems proud of something weird.
@Heidi Look below for example after example of its use.
Notes on [Fin]=ABE=$5 bill: According to Green's Dictionary of Slang, "fin" is an abbreviation of "finnif" or "finnip"--the first citation in the U.S, is from 1909, but the first in the U.K. (for a 5£ note) is from 1868. Green's cites a use from as recently as 1996, but it's hard to judge out of context whether this was talking about "historical" usage. "Finnif" derives from Yiddish for "five," from German "fünf." "Fin" has also been used as slang for a five-year prison sentence. <a href="https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/2yurlzq" target="_blank">https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/2yurlzq</a> So, now I'm an expert on the etymologies of "fin" and "Audi"! Weird flex, but OK.
That was a proper Friday grid; looked impossible to start with, only a couple of fills first pass. But slowly, slowly the answers/guesses came. TIL AUDI. Fascinating.
ROYALFLUSH as ordered clubs is SO creative wow what a clue
@nolan Very creative, but wager almost no one got it without at least a couple of crosses. If you did, my hat off to you.
You know you've solved too many puzzles when you get WEIRDFLEXBUTOK just from the W and the X. Weird flex, but ok... Nice puzzle altogether. Fit for a Friday.
@Yiannis L. "Too many puzzles"? What does that even mean? Impossible.
@Yiannis L. Yes, I would say that's proof positive you've done too many puzzles. Congratulations!
Funny story, I once had to email all the coauthors of a paper I was submitting (some 20 or so scientific bigwigs) and I started the email with "Hell all" :)
@Sonja. Hilarious, thanks for sharing! And be grateful the first “l” was not mistyped (or worse, autocorrected to!) an “i”. The first autocorrect program I ever used in the 1980’s… well we learned how to force it to suggest a lot of, well, objectionable things. Oh to be a grad student again.
Weird flex but ok... Come on! What a fun and satisfying solve. Great job!
A perfect friday puzzle IMO. Tough but not tricky. Educational but not obscure. Great wordplay. GENTLEGIANT broke it open for me.
I think having my kids spread so far apart has been an advantage in some aspects because I’ve been exposed to different generations of speech, TV programs, etc. My oldest is approaching 31 years and my youngest just turned 15. WEIRD FLEX BUT OK is definitely used in my household 🤣 My kids love to tell me I’m BEHIND THE TIMES 🤪 I also spent a lot of time with my grandparents and watched many classic movies with them over the years. So GABOR was also a gimme. Having worked at TRW/Northrop Grumman, LUNAR PROBE was my first fill. Does all of this count as humble magniloquence??? 🤣🤣🤣 Thank you, Erica, for making me feel smarter than the average bear today!
@Jacqui J I think being told that one is BEHINDTHETIMES is the point where one can (proudly) consider oneself as graduating into the "wise-old" stage of life. It's a perfectly WEIRDFLEXBUTOK.
10/10 puzzle, probably one of my favorites EVER!
Rethinking what "score" meant is what finally got that little area on the right to fall. That spot seemed especially tough because I didn't know the phrase about boasting, so didn't have a lot to go on to narrow down "way out in space" or "learning center?" But remembering my sheet music did the trick! That phrase about boasting is so wonderful, wish I'd known about it soon enough not to be 25A. What wonderful cluing. So many seemed entirely too vague to think about until, with a few crosses, they shape-shifted into meaningfulness.
@Lynn And also a hat tip to out friend SOTTO voce. although I'd always assumed it was Latin for "softly." I'm sure some folks were relieved that 25A was not BEHIND THE 8 ball.
In a comedy special on Netflix, Ray Romano talks about his teenaged son, "who brags about things you shouldn't admit to," like not having showered in four days. If Ray had known the phrase "WEIRD FLEX, BUT OK", that would have been the perfect time to use it. Instead Ray comments, "He just wants to hurt us." <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NECSzH96IAI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NECSzH96IAI</a>
It's always kind of funny when I start to write to ask you fine folks what a particular clue means to the answer, and then suddenly, the act of writing it makes me get it. I just got LAT for pull up target. ☺️ Fun and fast puzzle! A particularly liked BARFLY, ROYALFLUSH, and WEIRDFLEXBUT OKAY, even if I did first toy with WEIRDFLEXBUDDY.
@HeathieJ Let's fist bump over WEIRD FLEX BUT OK being a favorite 🤜🏽🤛🏽 (Now I owe you a weird flex, I suppose. How about: I last watched a TV ad with sound on so long ago I can't really remember when it was. I have worse ones than that, of course, but I wouldn't want you to think less of me)
@HeathieJ Yeah, what is "LAT" for pull-up target?
Well I’m pretty proud of myself for wrestling this one to the ground. WEIRDFLEXBUTOK!
Today was a brilliant FAILLE! I know, WEIRD FLEX BUT OK... I always thought that TRILOBITES were a billion kilobytes... I was sure of MOON before MORN. I guess I don't know my Shakespeare (who, along with Dickens, Orwell and Kipling, was an incredible person). I am now left with egg NOG on my face.
Loved this puzzle, particularly the intelligent cluing and 44A. It tracks for me that the constructor is a college professor!
So what if I’m BEHIND THE TIMES? I loved learning the phrase WEIRD FLEX!
A pleasantly annoying puzzle. Took me a little bit longer than I would have liked. Finishing it, I experienced more a sense of relief than of satisfaction. Thank you for reading this.
WEIRD FLEX was hard for a lot of us, but it seems that no one is talking about FAILLE. Am I the only one who didn't know that word? I originally had FrILLs, was able to turn the S to an E when I got EXPEL, but still had no idea what to put in as the second letter. I had initially thought that WEIRD was going to be WE aRe..., and that complicated matters further. Took a few, but I eventually sorted it out when I finally got ADVERTS. I guess many got that quicker than I did. (Did anyone else think that "British spots" might be tea-related?) Phew. Nice workout; very Friday.
@The X-Phile I did not know FAILLE. However! I can pronounce the following: W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie. 💪🏽 Weird flex etc.
@The X-Phile I had the F (from Mr. Efron), but I was stumped. When I had F_ILLE, I was still stumped, but thought “oh, it must be “tuille”, a fabric I *have* heard of - but apparently didn’t know how to spell 😭), so I took out Efron. Eventually the crosses made me realize EFRON had to be correct, and it was just a word I didn’t know. I know it now though 🤓… But for how long?
Loved the fresh fill and had a lovely fun solve but at the end I hit a wall because I had MOON instead of MORN which seemed 100% correct. I stared at INOE for a very, very long time then had to take the whole NE corner apart and put it back together again and finally got the gold star. But I still loved it! 😍
@Lpr I had MOON, the first clue I filled in, forever until your commented helped me keep my streak. 🙏
@Lpr “In re” was my immediate guess for 12D, but I had already put moon in and I was so confident in it…whoops
Nobody was more surprised than I when the music popped up along with the gold star when I finally let go of MOON in the NE. Only a couple of minutes over Friday average - I'll take that flex. Did not think I'd get out of this one without lookups, great puzzle!
Somehow I solved it with 0% certainty on about 33% of my answers.
Well, personally, I love 44A. I'm probably two to three times the age of people who say it regularly, but as a former high school teacher I find youthful slang interesting and entertaining, and given that it was English I taught, I'm also always interested in how language evolves. In particular, I have a soft spot for the phrases that sound harsher than they are generally intended, just because the contrast is funny to me, and WEIRDFLEXBUTOK is right up there with "say less," which is probably my favorite because it just sounds so insulting while actually reflecting enthusiasm. Anyway, thought this was a great puzzle. Anyone else looking forward to the start of the Boswords Fall Crossword League?
@Regine, “say less!” is such a cool way of saying “say no more!” I commented above that a favorite of mine (similar to 44A) that always makes me laugh is “Weird way to propose, but OK!” 😄
"WEIRD FLEX, BUT OK"? Sorry, but I just don't get it. Are they saying flex is another term for bragging? I've never heard it, except in the phrase flexing one's muscles to show off, but seems rather tortured to me.
@John Yeah, it's like bragging about something that maybe someone probably shouldn't brag about... As Deb points out in her article, like bragging that you haven't eaten vegetables in 10 years.
@John "I haven't changed my socks since the ninth grade."
@John it’s a quite popular phrase in modern lingo. Case in point: moment I saw “_UT_K” at the end, I filled in the whole answer blindly with high confidence. Basically, a “flex” is a (usually lighthearted) way of describing someone trying to brag. “What a flex!” “Cool flex bro.” “Weird flex, but ok!”
Ahhh. FINI. Wonderful Friday puzzle.
"What's for dinner, Frankie?" . . . "Not Meatloaf, again! :-( " WEIRDFLEX BUT OK held me up for ages in that section, and I refused to check myself on the actor and the tennis play. Noah Webster, who is much hipper than I, informs me that "The first known use of “weird flex but ok” occurred in December 2017, when a college student named Finn Feighery replied to a post by the human rights activist Malala Yousafzai with a sarcastic response to a tweet listing the highlights of the year previous." ( <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/what-does-weird-flex-but-ok-mean-slang-definition-stunt" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/what-does-weird-flex-but-ok-mean-slang-definition-stunt</a>) This is why I do the NYT XW!
@Bill I’m embarrassed to say that for too many years into my adult life, I thoughtlessly assumed ”Merriam” was the first name of Webster, perhaps a distant cousin or descendant of Noah. I even half imagined a bitter family rivalry over whose dictionary was better. Now that I’m well on the other side of being a young adult, I find with some dismay that just after being proud of myself for actually knowing WEIRDFLEXBUTOK, thus keeping up with the young folk, the constructor informs me in their notes that the phrase is falling out of fashion.
Really chewy with some nice little misdirects like MOoN/MORN and Port/PIER. For a little while I was sure that ROYALFLUSH was going to end with luncH. Looking forward to more puzzles from this constructor!
@Pythia I feel for the MOoN/MORN and Port/PIER misdirects too!
Hoo, boy. Yesterday we awoke to find our internet down...and it stayed that way. (This was a saga that had its opening moments last Saturday, when TV service suddenly went out *right in the middle of the Penn State football game!* This constitutes a dire emergency for DHubby.) Maintenance Guy thought he had it dealt with, and things were okay for about half an hour before it went out again. Replacement of "the box" eventually restored service--until we woke up to the computer issue. We don't use our devices for games; it's where we have our accounts, our medical profiles and charts, our appointment calendar, ongoing correspondence, orders, etc. Complete dependence, or nearly so..... Even a temp "hot spot" was barely useful. Egad. So I am grateful to be back. No one else here has a NYT account, to my knowledge... I don't exactly know how I got all of THIS puzzle. I'm still a bit confused by the new usage for FLEX... maybe the Urban Dictionary? And I'm a Quilter, Not a Dressmaker. Ribbed silk? (I did recently complete 3 memorial pieces from silk ties, but still....) So I cannot account for my getting FAILLE. Once I discovered I had written an M at the end of 5D instead of an N, the answer to 25A was clear. I think it is a good description of Ye Olde MOL. Eventually did Thursday's ...and finished with one wrong letter--missed the H for HUE. My Natick spot...
@Mean Old Lady Hurray for quilting! Think of how some might FLEX their muscles when they are showing off or proud of themselves.
@Mean Old Lady Ah yes, FAILLE added to the list of fabrics with odd French names, like tulle and toile. Also, fabrics that I have never worn.
Don't need no royal flush To crash out My square-filling memory chip Lusts for a dura matar situationship No shame, or blame Here's the bookreport: This solver is behind the times Might slay the grid, but my drip is mid Will do it for the plot, but my eyes are shot! Get delulu on the tough clues And salty when my streak chews No cap, no wolf tickets Leaving no crumbs Just flexin" my prerogative To yap my gums. It's the weekend! There's got to be something in this world to smile about, so find it, hug it live it. WN out. [IYKYK😉]
The ROYAL FLUSH clue was the clue of the week for me. Overall felt like a solid workout with lots of TIL moments, misdirects but ultimately satisfying when things clicked into place.
Does it speak to my years as a stay-at-home parent that I confidently entered WEE for 36A?
@Gig I'm not a parent, but I had similar thoughts. However, wouldn't Pull-up have been capitalized as Pull-Up, as it's a brand name?
First class puzzlement. Many thanks.
TIL - Audi. Yesterday, Sanka. Love the NYT puzzles.
@CS I can’t do that, Dave
@CS You led me to do another answer history search. PODBAYDOORS has never been in a puzzle but it is in the Xword Info word lists. ...
I filled the whole puzzle but had something wrong. I knew it was something in the NE corner with MOoN and INoE. I took a break and came back to it a couple times but couldn't figure it out. I had to look it up and then kicked myself. I just couldn't think of anything else that would smile down on the night besides the Moon but morn makes perfect sense
WEIRDFLEXBUTOK and MAUS (as clued) were complete unknowns, but nothing except U made sense for that crossing. So guessed "U" I did, and the puzzle was finished. Took just over half-an-hour, but I solved it without assistance. Seemed like a very solid Friday, which felt more difficult than many recent Friday puzzles. All the long entries were interesting, including the one that was completely new to me. Nice puzzle!
Xword Junkie, MAUS (as clued) a complete unknown? You're giving your screen name a bad name! This is the ninth time MAUS has been clued to the prize, the author or both. It was a nice puzzle, wasn't it?
@Xword Junkie Aside from its appearance in x-words, Art Spiegleman's Maus is the greatest graphic novel of all time and one of the greatest works of literature on the Holocaust, regardless of format. Everyone really should read it!
Interesting how FAIT can also mean [Done] in French.
@Steve L I remember reading the phrase "fait accompli" when I was in high school. Too proud (or lazy) to look in the dictionary, I tried to figure out what it meant on my own, and assumed it had something to do with "fate". Not too terribly wrong.
I got Gabor and now the Green Acres song is stuck in my head, though it was the other sister. Stream of consciousness happens doing the crossword.
@Laura "I just adore a penthouse view..." It took me forever to understand that line because Gabor pronounced it like "fanthouse". That is one of the better theme songs from that era, to my ear.
Weird Friday But Ok. I liked the not with it/with it juxtaposition. Learned a new slang phrase I want to use just to see someone say “what the heck does that even mean?” Learned about yo-yos in space. And a “Rocky Horror” reference is always appreciated.
@SP FWIW. I used the expression “you trying to flex on me?” Or “why you flexing on me?” All the time. Mostly in jest. I even used the term in a comment last week. So in the real world. If some says like “I ate a salad last night” while you still have jelly dripping on your lips from the donut you just downed. Just drop a “why you flexing on me?” Easier than waiting for a more specific “wierd flex not ok”. But honestly. What do I know. I’m in the solver sweet spot. 55-65 year old who thinks he’s not behind the times. But definitely is.