ENISLE feels like a stretch
Hugh, ENISLE hadn't been in the grid for ten years, but long term solvers and newer ones who explore the archives will know it: this is appearance #85.
@Barry Ancona Yes, some crosswordese is a stretch.
@Hugh ENISLE (and words like it) feels like an opportunity to learn a rare word you didn't know before.
@Hugh I forgot I didn’t know that one. It almost feels like a trick.
@Steve L From context, not from the memory of today.
@Hugh If you happen to be enisled, there may be little else to do beyond a good stretch
@Hugh I thought it was a made-up word, and should have been clued with a question mark. Upon looking it up, I found out it's an actual word with usage going back a couple hundred years. So I learned something new, and now I'm going to find an occasion to use it.
I'll probably forget it before the next time it appears. I need my memory refreshed sooner than 10 years later.
@Steve L yeah but that probably won't ever happen outside of a crossword
Wondering if I was the only one who found out BIG KAHUNA also fit as head honcho? Fixed it pretty quickly but AYEAYE threw me off longer. Yeah, read the clue next time lol! Fun puzzle!
@Leontion I had trouble in the SW corner as a whole, so I was very excited to figure out “big kahuna”… until I wasn’t. That was a bit of a time waster. I also plugged in “AYE aye” at first, but recognized that error pretty quickly. Same mistakes, different outcomes!
@Leontion BIG KAHUNA messed me up for the longest time until I fixed it with the guidance of the crosses in that area.
@Leontion Top Banana I’ve heard. Big Banana, no.
@Leontion I tried both of those as well! :)
Ever time I see the name, Gary Larson, I can’t help but think of The Far Side. An alternative title for this puzzle could have been The Far Out Side, which also carries its own ambiguity. Very well done. Can’t wait for the next installment
@Red Carpet After having just had a celebrity collab last week, i really thought it was *the* Far Side Gary Larson writing today's crossword, but apparently it's a more common name than i thought
@Red Carpet I wondered if 127 across ("Less off-the-wall") was an Easter Egg for The Far Side fans!
"Oh, you're studying slang?" "Well, we argot-ing to." (I found that one in the jargon bin.)
Mike, In Munster do you use the Suburban Dictionary?
@Mike Slang? I've got a ton up in my idiom attic.
@Mike Slang is understood by everyone, that’s why it’s called inform-all speech
@Mike "The cops grabbed Mike by the patois and slung him into jail, where he languaged for days before making bail."
ENISLE??? Seriously??
@Patrick Ryan Next they will tell us that the act of marooning is to ENISLATE ("annihilate")
@Patrick Ryan Used to be a crossword standard. I believe it comes from when Napoleon was banished to the island of Elba.
Groovy, phat, on fleek, and bussin’.
OK, Lewis: now provide themers for them!
Far out! I dig the theme and had a gas solving. Peace and love.
SNACKCOUNTER, like, gag me with a spoon... eww! Totally grody to the max! I checked it out and don't dispute its existence but again I say, eww! It reminds me of a time someone said, "Aw, that baby's so cute I just want to get a spoon and scoop her up." Eww!! Stop! Okay, okay, aside from my extreme aversion to the idea of considering people to be edible treats, I enjoyed the puzzle! Went very smoothly along with a simple but cute theme! I actually finished in half my average time to make up for how long Saturday's fun but hard puzzle took me. Har! However, I don't understand IRR at 13D—can anyone, or everyone, enlighten me?
@HeathieJ irregular, hence lower priced.
@HeathieJ IRRegular items aka factory seconds are often sold as is at a discount
Ahh, thanks Greg and Hallie! ☺️ I looked it up and was only finding internal rate of return. Guess I don't go thrifting enough.
@HeathieJ. We have ENVY and AVARICE. Are getting lust here?
@HeathieJ Interesting that 49D kind of fits right into this discussion, in an ambiguous kind of way.
@HeathieJ I’m with you on SNACK. It made me cringe a bit.
@HeathieJ I think they should have their ears boxed!
@HeathieJ I understand your squeamishness about SNACK, but I got to thinking and realized that I sometimes tell my wife she looks delicious, which is much the same thing. She doesn’t seem offended (and trust me, she’d let me know if she was!).
@HeathieJ I'm totally with you. It seemed so sexist to me that I began to think I was misinterpreting it. Perhaps by "hotties," they meant hot appetizers?
Puzzles have often been sparked before by generational patois as answers, but I don’t remember seeing an entire theme based on it, and what a splendid and original idea. A theme that makes solvers of all ages feel seen! While it’s lovely to base a theme on words that echo generations, it’s a step up to hide them in common phrases that use them in their more-common non-generational meanings. Bravo, gentlemen! Beyond the theme, there were answers I loved: NIBBLE, AVARICE, FILCH, SCUFF, and the roll-off-the-tongue AMBIGUITY. There was also a clue, [Green opening], that mightily misdirected me, where my face screwed up as I wondered, “What could that be besides ECO?” And there were sweet serendipities. A quartet of dog references: STAY, SITS, FLEAS, YORKIE. The rhyming ATRIA and ACACIA. No to mention SEE / PEE / LEE / the clue [Wee] / and wannabe KNEE. A merry mix in the box today, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thank you, Doug and Gary!
@Lewis Now that you mention it, I don't really understand 85A, green opening, being HOLE. I had pore in there until the crosses changed that. Never mind, I just got it. Golfing. Hah! Yet another sports reference, if you can call golf a sport.
@Lewis I especially liked the AVARICE/ENVY crossing.
@Lewis Was sure it was MILE. That worked for a while
My favorite puzzle ever! I want to erase the answers from my memory so I can solve this puzzle again.Like a delicious meal with friends.
Very cool, super hot, totally rad puzzle, and a blast to solve. Thank you, gents! And someone's gotta post it for those who don'tknow it... (The Who with "My generation") – <a href="https://youtu.be/qN5zw04WxCc?si=W8aZmDhlkGLAPIMx" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/qN5zw04WxCc?si=W8aZmDhlkGLAPIMx</a> A kickin' week to all!
I came to commiserate about the theme but all I see is crying foul about a rare but perfectly legitimate word. Those complaining about ENISLE should remember that a big part of being a crossword solver is learning new words!
@Marty I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the theme. It didn't bother me, but I agree with you about ENISLE. ENISLE is what I think of as a"poetry word". A word that I never hear anyone use, but is probably found in a poem somewhere. Out of curiosity, I looked, and I found: <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43609/to-marguerite-continued" target="_blank">https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43609/to-marguerite-continued</a> In any case, it's fair game according to my rule. Is it a word? Yes, it is! Even that isn't a hard and fast rule.
What? No Silent Generation? I am speaking up.
@Sue I’m sure you had no trouble with the bargain bin clue, so you had that old timer reference, maybe?
@Sue Just for you... 😉 Driving aimlessly while seeking an altercation (GenSi) cruisin’ for a bruisin’
I remember, back in the 1980's, I used to visit the brick-n-mortar nislery, but now, I just go online and enisle.
Bill, This made a quick revisit to the comments all worth it. Still chuckling… heh heh thanks for the laugh! :)
That was a very clever theme that somehow left me feeling a bit meh (which generation is that?) I think it’s probably because 99% of those phrases meant absolutely nothing to me as a late Boomer. The whole naming generation thing is a fairly new concept to me. Still, I see the work that went into this and, as always, I respect and appreciate the constructors ability. Re comments further down regarding the SNACK COUNTER phrase. Yes, I too found it a bit icky, without getting too worked up about it.
@Helen Wright pretty sure meh dates back to fin de siecle vienna…
@Helen Wright As a late boomer Londoner all of the slang went over my head. Solved using the puns only and only caught on with slang aspect from the column. I needed full explanation 😄
Seems pretty crazy to write a "tricky clues" section with things like "KEN DOLL" and "YORKIE" but then act like the word "ENISTLE" was one of the easy ones.
Cian, There wasn't anything "tricky" about the clue, it just didn't suggest the answer to you (and a few others). <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enisle" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enisle</a>
Considering that the eldest Gen Z members were 3 years old when Eminem released Stan, I'm pretty sure Millennials are responsible for that one.
@Kyle No expert on this, but perhaps Gen Z took STAN to the next level of ubiquity?
@Kyle And I pretty sure very few of either generation know who Stan Laurel was.
@Kyle agree - this is probably a millennial term. I'd be open to Gen X but I think it's a term that reached its zenith circa peak Tumblr which is firmly in the millennial category. It's not a Gen Z term at all.
A very pleasant puzzle for a Sunday, quite clever and enjoyable. The top half went a little fast but got more interesting as I went down. I liked the KENDOLL clue and the cross of ENVY and AVARICE—I wish they had tied those together more. Had a laugh at the clue for AMBIGUITY. Wondering if anyone else but HeathieJ and I (see comments below) really got the willies from the SNACKCOUNTER clue? I am usually the last person to get all PC and feel like something is inappropriate, but this one seemed in bad taste even to me. If it was a really great clue or the only possible option, then maybe, but it seemed kind of meh. And in the meantime, although of course “snacks” is a legitimate slang term for “hotties”, and some people talk that way, do we need to be reminded of it? The clue came off to me as trivializing or normalizing it. If you think I’m being too prudish about this please let me know because it’s not my usual reaction, but I’m thinking if I feel that way a lot of others will to even more strongly.
"The top half went a little fast but got more interesting as I went down." SP, Agree! Most of the fill clues at the top of the puzzle felt like Monday to me; Wednesday kicked in later.
SP, If "snack" is not gender-specific, what is in bad taste about using it? Or would you also not want to see "hotties" in the grid?
@SP Since the theme is observing generational slang, with no advocacy implied, I think we can cut the creators some slack. If there's an issue it would be the word 'hottie' since this is written from creators' pov vs 'snack' which is observed usage, but here again I'd say give them a pass. Here's the Cambridge Dictionary's take on the slang meaning of 'snack' (which tbh I had never encountered before) 'Snack: slang an attractive person: 'Vinny is such a snack.' I'm stuck between wanting to look like a snack and eating a snack.'
@SP I appreciate the solidarity!! Not that anyone's commenting on my post about this, which is fine... but I will say that I agree with everything you're saying. I mean, calling another human that you find attractive a snack is just creepy and crass to me. It's like there's not even human, they're just something to be consumed for your pleasure. Like how I enjoyed some ruffles and onion dip over at my neighbor friend's house tonight... Maybe I'm just too visual about these things, I do also hate the phrase picking your brain, but treating humans with that crass of language is very off-putting. And I rarely object to any of the sayings of other generations. In most ways, I'm pretty chill about these sorts of things. And I'm 100% against any sort of censorship but that means I get to say how I feel about this phrasing.... I guess I'm just a weirdo who is not a fan of talking about you know eating other people.......... I think it's weird. Very, very very, weird and demeaning.
@SP I agree with you. SNACK seemed so out of tune that I avoided it for a long time, thinking there’s no way the editors would let such a demeaning term through. It definitely hit me in the “eww” spot.
@SP Seems similar to eye candy or arm candy. A bit risqué? but not necessarily in bad taste.
@SP It struck me as icky. However, it’s possible that my Gen Z son would roll his eyes as my reaction. Again. It’s also possible that the NYT editorial staff includes, or consulted with, some from that generation before deciding to include it. I’ll still call it icky but I accept that it may not have been used in a demeaning way. Mr. Smartypants tells me it’s like calling someone yummy, which also sounds icky to me.
@SP Boomer here, so SNACK isn't really in my lexicon. For me, the term is objectifying but not demeaning. I'm past the age where I find that offensive, I think it's just amusing. But thinking further, I don't find words to be offensive themselves (except for obvious exceptions), more the intent behind the words and how they are expressed. I guarantee you that I could completely creep you out with very benign words, but delivered in an excessively lascivious manner! Not going to do that, though, but I could. On the other hand, our language has enough AMBIGUITY that very naughty words can be said in an innocent way and be super funny. Delivery and intent is key.
@SP Both hottie and snack seem unpleasant to me, and I'm too old to have never heard of them.
@SP While I understand your objections, the word doesn’t strike me in the same way. To me, calling someone a “snack” doesn’t necessarily imply that they have no value, or are likely to be discarded. It means they are irresistible. While a meal is something a good upbringing says you need and should have, a snack is something you *want*, even if it may not be good for you. It’s simply sweet and enticing. It may not be in the best taste to talk about consuming someone, but since the term is lighthearted and not literal, it doesn’t bother me at all. (Boomer/GenX cusp here, BTW.)
@SP I mostly agree. Maybe it's in the same genus as 'Hey, that fill-in-the-blank is a tall glass of water, eh?'
@SP it is absolutely just another term for "hottie" a la "eye candy" or "hunk/babe". It doesn't mean anything besides that they're good looking and lends itself to jokes like "he's not a snack, he's an entire meal!". It's also a highly internet-based phrase. Since I'm a millennial who has had the Internet around for my entire adult life, I don't know if this is different from how slang was previously, but almost all slang that comes from the Internet is inherently at least partly tounge in cheek. No one would say "he's a snack" in a 100% serious way, the way you might call someone beautiful or something. It's inherently a lighthearted, fun little term, as is most of millennial/gen Z internet slang. I don't know if people have missed the tongue in cheek aspect of it and that's changing their opinion. As we'd say on the internet, "it's not that deep". Signed, a very feminist millennial woman who has no issue with silly little modern slang.
Well, as John Donne never said, no man is ENISLE. Yup, still living rent-free in my head. Must let it go ...
@Xword Junkie ENISLE him. Btw That's an anagram of another piece of crosswordese I recall from a year or two ago Ensile
I'm not sure I will be finishing the puzzle. The NW corner was Monday-easy. However, the rest of the puzzle is proving almost impenetrable for me. Some 30 minutes into the solve, the grid was largely empty. Feeling lost, I checked it. Sure enough, many of my guesses turned out to be wrong. I had to reveal the ungettable - for me - crossing of PA_R and I_R. I'm not really getting the theme, either. The fun factor of the solve at the moment is zero for me. It's not likely to improve. Better to call it quits than spoil my Sunday morning by persevering, I think.
@Andrzej As Kevin D said, go clockwise.
I went revealwise. With reveals, I was able to finish the puzzle, after all. Not my cup of tea, at all. Groaner-adjacent theme, crosswordese ENISLE, two references to the most uninteresting sport in the history of the universe, etc.
@Andrzej Curious to know whether generational slang has ever been a thing in Poland.
@Andrzej I_R and PA_R was my one wrong letter. I gather PARR is their surname. I should have guessed it as the "PAiR" I put in makes no sense with the conjunction being or rather than not. But I haven't a clue what IRR has to do with bargain bins.
@Andrzej I always get a kick out of your curmudgeonly comments -- interesting counterpoint to the much more common raves. By the way, how's the pup? Haven't seen a pic lately.
@RozzieGrandma I meant golf. Curling is positively fascinating compared to it. And yes, generational slang has always been a thing here. I've been losing touch with its latest incarnations as I don't have children (I'm not saying I ate them, but I'm not saying I didn't, either) and I'm not on social media. @Peter I had PAiR took even though it made little sense given the Clue's wording. IRR must be some American abbreviation nobody outside the US could possibly get.
ENISLE !? That's one that would have never occurred to me especially as I'm not sure I've ever encountered it before.
Norman, I feel you (What Gen? ). If I had never encountered a word before, I doubt it would occur to me either.
@Norman I know that term from crosswords. Probably the only place I've encountered it but it has become a gimme.
TIL that “enisle” is a word. Seems particularly apt timing for this vocabulary addition as I’m currently reading Count of Monte Cristo.
The best thing about this puzzle was that it made me glow with victory snaps every time I teased out a fill. The worst thing was that I had two deadly mistakes that took a frustrating ten minutes to find (wasted a lot of time admiring the clever, funny themers and kinky fills), but at last it was done. I remember your last collaboration Doug and Gary, and it was a winner too. This was a fitting wind-up of really, really good week-end puzzles. Thanks to everyone who made it happen.
@dutchiris I like your phrasing 'victory snaps'
I enjoyed this slangy, fast moving puzzle. Some of the slang I knew and some I didn’t, but I was happy to learn some usages with which I was unfamiliar. With crosses and a little logic, even the unknowns were easy to suss out. Fun enough to be a worthy Sunday after two tough jewels on Friday and Saturday. STANLAUREL and SHIPPINGLANES were the cleverest themers for me.
I found this to be kind of a boring slog, unfortunately.
This puzzle was absolutely wizard. Quite spiffing, really.
Wow, what a fun Sunday! I managed to split the difference between my best solving time and my average. I think that's a good indication that the difficulty was spot-on for me. The last two that fell into place for me were 13D and 104A/106D. I didn't know IRR, so I guessed PARR for the last names of The Incredibles. I had SHOPPING LANES and didn't know IRINA. Fortunately today's column explained 104A, and I finally managed to get SHIPPING LANES. 🤦♂️ Looking forward the more from Mr. Larson & Mr. Peterson!
89 Down: Still using apostrophes for plurals? tsk tsk
Speaking of boomers, FAB FOUR crossing ARLO.
@Lewis Except it was ARLO the dinosaur rather than ARLO Guthrie, so it wasn’t a double Boomer crossing.
ENISLE?????????????? Solved unaided in 31 minutes, but will take the rest of the day to get that one out of my head. Otherwise, nice Sunday puzzle.
@Xword Junkie Enisle was a new one for me. Fortunately the crossers helped.
Maybe it was too soon after yesterday's puzzle? Letting two Gods of CrossWorld sit together in back, where they came up with this notion of *common phrase, plus *newer, slang usage, PLUS *punny clue...all piled one on top of the other. And this on top of a dark and stormy night (sideways rain, thunder and lightning, high winds, frightened kitty-cat seeking comfort)...okay, I guess we can't blame that last one of Gary (not THAT Gary) and Doug. But: STREET ROD, fellas?
@Mean Old Lady No doubt definitely not in your bailiwick, but it's a real thing. I know you've heard of hot rod. Street Rod is a term for one of them being raced on streets by idiots who can't be bothered to race them at a drag strip.
My favorite clue. “Collectors item”. Brilliant!
I'm not sure the generational designations were always helpful or even correct in these clues. I'm GenX, and for most of the answers, the generational slang terms came to me first, and then I had to figure out the second parts of the answers that went with them. But I think it's more to do with what circles you run in than when you were born. I probably hang out on REDDIT too much. I sense an additional theme to this puzzle. The boss is the TOPBANANA. "Kids Make Nutritious Meals." A hottie is a SNACK. Speaking of which, I don't have a problem with that last one. Why do some of us have the urge to NIBBLE on kitty cat ears or baby toes? And why does my cat go from enjoying being petted to suddenly chomping on my hand and drooling all over my lap? We often use food-related words to describe those we find overwhelmingly cute. Sweetie pie. Honey. Cookie. Cupcake. And now, SNACK for people we find romantically attractive. To me, referring to someone as a snack isn't necessarily objectifying *them* (although it could be) but more a way to describe the way *you* feel around them... the way your neurological system responds. That said, it's clear from the comments that not everyone has those feelings, or at least y'all have more self-control than I do. And now, I need to go break into the bag of Halloween candy I was saving for the 31st. NOM.
@Beth in Greenbelt I can't speak for cats, but I am consistently grossed out by the imagery of things like SNACK for a human being.... And all the wanting to eat babies and whatnot, yeesh! I don't have that gene in me, it seems. I mentioned in my early post that someone once said to me that a certain baby was so cute they just wanted to take out a spoon and eat up those adorable little cheeks... I made sure to cut that person completely out of my life. 😂 Only kidding on that last bit! But it was tempting... Har! But you know, to each their own. It doesn't bother me that people might talk amongst themselves like that and I've never personally heard anyone refer to another person as a snack outside of this puzzle, so I mean no big, but it does gross me out. If my husband tried saying things like that to me I would kindly ask him to not. I'll prefer he stick to beautiful and lovely and gorgeous and sexy as hell! Hahaha! Ooh, but it's s like when someone says they want to pick my brain at work... No thank you! I will gladly share all of my information with you but keep your pick away from my brain! 😏
RIGHT ON, Gary and Doug! (I’m practicing using the slang the puzzle thinks I should.) Okay, enough of that. Gotta SPLIT.
@Cat Lady Margaret Gonna take the TOP BANANA with you?
I was so certain that 46A was NOd instead of NOM that I didn’t check the crosses, which would have alerted me that NAdE is not a [Handle]. Even with that it seemed to go fast. The theme was silly in a good way and I especially giggled at RIGHTONTIME. I’ll take a little lame humor in my crossword any day.
@Cyndie Should have been “Candidacy for a Palme d’Or”. ;-)
That was a fun solve. The southeast corner was particularly challenging. I'm on a 54 day streak now and I swear I must have seen TSA clued in a dozen different creative ways.
@Matthew I made a mental note this morning. “When in doubt, TSA.”
* 12 minutes under par for the crossword * Queen bee * Wordle in 4 * Purple first in Connections, no mistakes * Spangram first in Strands * Sudoku sweep * Mini in a minute Not keen on Pips, but I love a lazy Sunday. On to football. Go Bills.
Couldn’t help noticing the crossing of two capital sins at 53D, 67A.
I found this a perfect Sunday puzzle! Quite witty, with ideal complexity. I felt like I had a good sparring session, but nothing too exhausting. I only needed one little cheat, I didn't Google, but wikied Asa Butterfield's page to see what he starred in 2013. This required a little reading, so it's a tiny cheat. (I did see that movie a while back ago, but it didn't motivate me enough to look up the actors.) Thank you!
Hi Joan, I also had no clue about Asa Butterfield's title role in 2013 (or any other year), but the five crosses were kind enough to fill me in.
Easy enough, but still scratching my head over those generational expressions. Had no idea what they meant. So…okay puzzle but not really enjoyable.
Did you read the Today's Theme section of the column? It should ease your head-scratching.
What a tough weekend. 29 minute solve, and just in time for Game 2. 99 Days on the Streak, which means, barring the unthinkable tomorrow, I'm looking at 100+ Days
I usually find Sundays fairly easy, but today was quite hard. I thought it was ypsilon. I don't know the slang. I first heard US slang and the term "baby boomer" when I was in New York City 1974-75, and boomer wasn't referred to in the UK for many years. Not that many of us "boomers" used American slang. I was aware of "split" "far out" and "right on" occasionally. CHIS? Please help. Lefty-loosey? Is that really a thing or crossword only? CAP TOSS ritual - something done at the beginning of a baseball/football/hockey match? These big crosswords are a nice Sunday ritual for me, very enjoyable.
@Jane Wheelaghan The Greek letter Chi, pluralized. Yeah.
@Jane Wheelaghan Chi is the Greek letter that looks like X. More than one are CHIS. At a graduation, graduates toss their caps into the air at the end of the ceremony.
@Jane Wheelaghan Lefty loosey, righty tighty is how we teach kids to open and close jars and taps. So, when you want to open the peanut butter jar, you turn it to the left. When you're ready to put it back, you remember that it's right to tight. Commencement = graduation. At the end of the ceremony, you take off your mortarboard (graduation cap) and toss it up in the air to cwlebrate.
@Jane Wheelaghan Righty-tighty lefty-loosey is such a useful mnemonic that I would have expected it to be common throughout the English-speaking world. I’ve heard it all my life, and even at a ripe old age I still find myself invoking it (silently) to get my bearings when reaching under and around in a hidden space to loosen a nut or tighten a screw.
But once they rescued me and I came back to Pittsburgh, I was an exisle.
@john ezra I started to EXILE, but the extra space backed me off, as I'm sure you experienced ...I could hear the constructors snorting and giggling in the background. What's sad is the number of protests for a slightly uncommon word. Have folks not read _Robinson Crusoe_? (Actually, I read it aloud to our kids; it really is chock full of archaic language...)
[What a maroon! (Pre-software Crosswordese)] WOW! A CURRENT APPEARANCE OF ENISLE!
@JohnWM definitely a word I was unaware of before completing the puzzle. Luckily I got the across words and it fit right.
The only problem with this puzzle is that it's too short. I wanted it to go much, much longer. Great job guys!
Oof, the last few squares in the upper-right corner took me an extra ~15 minutes — I’ve never heard of a “street rod” or a comedian named Gabe Kaplan, I haven’t seen Ender’s Game, and I was 100% sure that “_O_KI” was going to be a Greek word. Funnily enough, ENISLE (a word I had definitely never seen, let alone heard) came to me fairly quickly…
@Anonymous GABE Kaplan was in Welcome Back, Kotter. John Travolta was also in it as Vinnie Barbarino 😉
@Anonymous I have seen "Ender's Game," (big fan of the book) but I somehow failed to notice that the main character was Otis from "Sex Education." GABE Kaplan/Kotter is total Boomer fodder. I watched the show as a kid, and never got into it.
"“fly” was a high compliment in the 1980s." OMG not unless you were completely clueless.