I'm trying to think of a pun about state capitals. I'll have Topeka good one. (But it's Raleigh hard to do!)
@Mike Thank you, Mike. Your puns were Augusta fresh air. Juneau how to cheer us up in these dark times.
@Mike We will all Raleigh behind you in that effort. With that, and Providence, you will surely succeed!
@Mike Mike, mike, you are brilliant!!! Des Moines on this guy, I tell ya'. What a great invitation to riff on his idea of state capitals! This, to my knowledge, is the is the first annual Mike from Munster NYT Crossword Pun-a-thon. I'm going to go ahead and presumptuously add "Classic" "The First Annual Mike from Munster NYT Crossword Pun-a-thon Classic"
@Mike I find that when I’m Cheyenne it out loud i have to take care with Lincoln the sounds together so that my wife understands the jokes I tell her. Ha! See?
@Mike. I’m looking for a crunchy, healthy snack after finishing that one… Annapolis my treat!
@Mike meanwhile the world is going to Helena handbasket
@Mike This business of trying to out-pun each other is exAustin! I think we need to take a step back and have a little musical interlude. "Music hath charm to soothe the savage breast!" What about some of the Golden Oldies of childhood, such as "Did you ever tallahassee?"
@Mike I'd be Madison old dairyman if you neglected mine.
@Mike These Big Apple puns are crunchy, but a Minneapolis even sweeter.
@Mike Land sakes alive, I mean Lansing's alive!
Wait a minute here. You've got to be kidding me. Surely you know that Natick is the capital of Massachusetts. No, not out there in the Sunken Place. Here, in Crosslandia. In Natick, when two residents cross paths unexpectedly, they both pretend they've forgotten each other's names and start guessing out loud, getting angrier and angrier with each other until they stalk off in separate directions. In the beautiful State House, where Massachusetts legislation takes place, bills rarely pass because the members of the house accuse each other of unfairly putting words and language in the text they can't understand or even pronounce. It gets pretty ugly in Natick, let me tell you! And six-term Governor Rex Parker refuses to do anything about it! Back to the puzzle. Funny solid Tuesday, took me a little longer than usual and I appreciated that, meant Mr. Baude was doing well. Also liked that AMOR is also a raised capital: ROMA is the capitale d'Italia. With Oslo thrown in for good measure (there must be more to Oslo than Munch, or is that a Scream you've heard before?) Also liked the 2 billion duo, especially since the answers are nearly anagrams -- Islam / gmail. And I know it was meant well, but I believe certain enthusiasts here might take exception to hairball hackers. I fear, Mr. Baude, that this may come back to haunt you. LOO/LAV the Kea-Loa of UK restrooms? Good to think back on Joe Pesci in Goodfellows. That's such a grand movie.
@john ezra Your opening scene reminds me of a funny story from Bennet Cerf that I read in Reader’s Digest. (If both of those names don’t date me …) As he tells the story, he was walking along the street in NYC when up ahead, he saw a fellow who looked most familiar, coming towards him. He knew that he should know the man’s name but it was eluding him. Not to be embarrassed, he strode purposefully toward the man, grabbing his hand to shake it as they met, and said, “For heaven’s sake! When did you get into town? We must have lunch together!” The other man snapped, “Don’t be ridiculous! I’m your dentist!”
@john ezra voting “LOO/LAV the Kea/Loa of UK restrooms” for comment of the year. 😀👏
Congratulations, Mr. Baude, on a fabulous debut! I was very moved by the backstory and how you never gave up. It makes it pretty perfect that you included Mary Tyler Moore in the entries. Remember that intro to The MTM Show? "...you're gonna make it after all..." <a href="https://youtu.be/ZNKOt2k7Pm4?si=dC3725qJSu0MtRAG" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/ZNKOt2k7Pm4?si=dC3725qJSu0MtRAG</a> Maybe you have a fedora lying around or even a beanie will do...now twirl and throw it in the air because you deserve the happiness and celebration. Thank you for a superb puzzle and all my respect, sir!
Solved my 2,000th NYT crossword today! Weeeee!
@morgan, That is a great milestone to reach! Congratulations!!
I really admire your tenaciousness, Jonathan, and you’ve created a terrific Tuesday puzzle.
And there it was. You fill in the grid at such a fast pace, quick leap accross, down, hit your stride, last word, and . . . I'm gonna sit right down And find myself a letter And wonder if you missed it too I'm gonna fight to keep my streak There ain't a word that got us beat A lot of cussing while we fought 'em We'll be glad we got 'em I'm gonna smile and say "Well don't just moan you fretter!" Flyspecking is The thing to do I'm gonna sit right down And find myself a letter It may be that EMAIL won't do I'm gonna sit right down And snailmail ain't no better It's gotta be GMAIL for you
@Whoa Nellie Hah! (So dang fast you double-tap right across your keyboard, kiddo) ...emu drag
@Whoa Nellie I mean, a PE MOVIE seems reasonable as family-friendly fare, as long as there are no shower scenes...
Love a fun theme on a Tuesday!! Entering "Loo" for "Lav" added a good minute to my time today, haha.
@Eli Edwards " To loo, or not to Loo,........that is the question!
Congrats on your debut, Jonathon! That’s persistence! Folks, this is a quality debut and well earned. It is no joke to find good backward themers for any theme, much less fit four decent ones and a long revealer in a grid with smooth enough fill for a Tuesday (and this was very smooth fill with a few additional interesting entries like DETOXTEA and LIPSYNC.) Great job! Finally I hate to keep harping on “Things I learned from Survivor” but literally, as I was doing this puzzle, I had Survivor 24 on and a character was saying “I was trying to be less threatening, so I acted more like a BETA male than an Alpha”. Not that I haven’t heard that term used that way IRL, or clued that way in a puzzle (usually it’s BETA testing or the Greek letter)—but neither often. Cue the Twilight Zone music…
I love it when a constructor comes up with a theme idea that you’d think would have been done before. You’d think that among the mass of constructors over the many years, someone would have come across the phrase RAISING CAPITAL and thought to do what Jonathan did. There it was, low hanging fruit, and nobody saw it – until: Jonathan, who had been submitting puzzles for TWENTY YEARS with no success – who followed every rejection with another submission! – saw it. Who better deserves this lovely theme than one with such persistence. I am so inspired by grit like that. Oh, lovely puzzle with its tight tight theme, and little extras like AMP crossing IMP, like a backward ROMA to cast a faint echo to the theme (Hi, @John Ezra!), like a backward TOPS to go with ELITE, and like the sweet Puzzpair© of CAPITAL/ONE. So, thank you for the fun, Jonathan, but mostly, thank you for a backstory that will stick with me for AGES. Bravo!
@Lewis Another theme echo of sorts at 26A. It was fun to mentally jump around the map to confirm my initial assumption – and not just stick to my east coast bias, haha. Now, if only the clue had included U.S. territories...
@Lewis dang, lewis...you seem like the sorta thoughtful fella itd be fun to quaff a beer with...
Great debut, Mr. Baude! I, too, hope it's not another twenty years. I doubt that I'll be solving many puzzles 20 years from now. So get to work!
Meh. The theme was quite interesting and well implemented, but I didn't enjoy the trivia-heavy fill. I didn't need lookups, but I was tempted to take same throughout my solve. Belvedere vodka was originally a Polish brand, and it's still distilled exclusively in Poland. It was one of our first premium vodka brands. The name comes from the neoclassical Belweder palace, for decades the residence of Polish heads of state: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belweder" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belweder</a> Poland and Polish things don't often feature in these puzzles. I found it a bit sad that when it made an appearance today, it was via vodka, the world's least interesting type of alcohol, and a symbol of Polish uncultured, heavy drinking.
Also, like most Polish things of economic value, the Belvedere brand was sold off to foreign investors, and now belongs to the behemoth LVMH 😢
@Andrzej A Polish friend at uni used to bring in his Zubrowka vodka, the one with a blade of grass in, and speak very seriously about how some vodka is better than others. I wasn't convinced. It does a job when you add other stuff to it! Interestingly, in reminding myself what that vodka was called, I see that the Polish version is banned in the US because the grass used to flavour it contains a substance called "coumarin", which can be toxic in extremely large doses. Wait until they find out what alcohol does...
@Andrzej I totally get why being associated with vodka can be irksomenas a Pole. To that, I will think of the trip to Krakow I missed this autumn while listening to some Chopin. My friends went, and they said so many good things about it, that I'll be sure to come.
@Andrzej This puts Polish things in a much better light: Today my local paper had a little article about a company called GlitterLab, in Czestochowa, that produces glass Christmas decorations. I hope you, or anyone else who is interested, can open the link. There isn't an option to gift the article, and I don't know if there's a paywall. But if you can, then enjoy. <a href="https://eedition.reviewjournal.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=5122b80b-594b-4c62-8ad8-fbb5c602b041&share=true" target="_blank">https://eedition.reviewjournal.com/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=5122b80b-594b-4c62-8ad8-fbb5c602b041&share=true</a>
As a pastry chef (even if my job description has changed a bit in the last year), I'm irritated just a tad by the description of S'MORE as a "dessert item," but ÉCLAIR as "decadent." Why "decadent"? Because it's French, and has a diacritic in it's name? But then, "s'more" has an unnecessary punctuation mark; and if we're talking empty calories, I'd say s'mores have éclairs beat hands down. In fact, s'mores and éclairs bear certain morphological similarities: a rather bland flour-based shell enclosing an overly-sweet, gooey filling, with chocolate added, inside or on top. Éclairs are made with cream puff pastry*, which is one of the quickest and easiest doughs to prepare, if somewhat messy to clean up. True, for élcairs you need to make a custard (crème pâtissière) and chocolate glaze, but, hey, even instant pudding will do in a pinch. Even the great poet Maya Angelou knew that: <a href="https://www.npr.org/2014/06/01/317843650/maya-angelou-foodie" target="_blank">https://www.npr.org/2014/06/01/317843650/maya-angelou-foodie</a> (When I heard that segment air, I said "Yes! Someone who finally gets it!") *not to be confused with "puff pastry," which is one of the most difficult and labor-intensive. In French, they are called "pâte à choux" and "pâte feuilletée," respectively, so you'd never get the two mixed up, even though they both have *two* diacritics in their names.
@Bill 👍🏾 Eclairs (eklerki) are considered a rather unsophisticated dessert over here. I was surprised to see them clued as decadent. Thank you for the post 🙂
@Bill When it comes to the delights of your deserts compared to the "s'mores", I have no doubt that you are superior. However, when talking about "decadent" we're talking about price, it seems to me. And s'mores fit a family budget far better than eclairs. (Don't get me wrong--I hate s'mores and love eclairs, but the economics are the economics.)
@Bill I have once seen S'MORES in a packet, so how would they get eaten the moment they get made? Otherwise, know nothing about these. Yes, puff pastry is very hard work, rough puff a bit less. I would say éclairs are made from choux pastry.
@Bill I love this post so much. And not just because in your footnote you mentioned a part of my favorite dessert, mille-feuille. There is a little French bakery in Redmond, just a short drive from our house in Sammamish, that makes them to perfection. I even forgive them the pink-glazed top. They’re just a short walk from Redmond’s fabulous used book store, too. Sometimes the best things in life seem to come together.
My hat's off to today's constructor, Jonathan Baude. A fine debut! Reading today's "Constructor Notes" was a stark reminder of the hard work and dedication that these amazing people engage in to provide us with a little entertainment. To think about the effort to get a puzzle published here, only to almost make it....if you only make a few adjustments. And to then figure out that those small modifications make you almost start the whole thing over again! What dedication! [And to think that some commenters complain about "lazy constructors!!! It makes me so mad!] Thanks again, Jonathan Baude! May your next acceptance come soon and joyfully!
Congratulations, Jonathan Baude.Your puzzle was a pleasure to work, and just right for a Tuesday. Your family must be thrilled to see you here. Thank you, and I'm sure we'll see you again.
I hate it when loo is lav! Took me awhile to figure it out. A great debut, Jonathan! Thanks. Hope y’all have a terrific Tuesday!
@Terry That was some type of first trickery right there. But that’s what makes it the NYT puzzle and not the USAToday puzzle!!
absolutely pierre-less puzzle today...
@Matt There's a table waiting for you here: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4c5suf?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4c5suf?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
Congratulations on a terrific debut, Jonathan. Now that you've concord this goal, I hope to see more from you. You have to say it like they say it in NH.
I bet there’s some muddle-headed, half-awake solver somewhere who plopped in eMAIL and then got the “…at least one square…” and stared at pEMOVIES for an embarrassingly long time, before getting the G. Silly, silly solver…
I had a hoot doing this puzzle. It provided exactly the level of mental engagement I needed. So, if any of you didn't like it...well...what can I say? You're wrong. (I must be in the "embarrassingly pugnacious" part of my cycle.)
@Francis No, *you're* wrong! (I would have liked it if it were not for the trivia-heavy fill)
Fave entries: ONCD audiobooks and the very genius XII for “Top of the hour?” But better than any individual entry or the delightful theme is the backstory of the constructor’s 20-year quest to get a puzzle before us. Big congratulations, Jonathan! You’re inspiring.
i'd love to be able to create a puzzle like this one. it was fun throughout.
Cool math things I learned today: ONE state name has a single syllable Almost TWO BILLION people subscribe to Islam Almost TWO BILLION people use GMail
I love today's column pic! That was one of the strangest productions of "Oedipus Rex" I've ever seen.
@ad absurdum Oh. I though this was taken on the set of "Sister Act".
@ad absurdum An amateur production of "The March of the Pengui-corns"?
@Andrzej & X I would love to see either one of those. How about you combine them into Nunicorns?
So now I've solved a math problem in Spanish. What a HOOT. Nicely Toughened Up Tuesday with an interesting theme. Congrats on publication, Jonathan.
I'm surprised nobody was triggered by 54A. Know what would be fun? The person who thinks that passing a cognitive function test makes him a genius has described 54A as unintelligent. He thinks being to identify an elephant from a drawing is evidence of a superior intellect. I would love to see a live, televised face-off where this "very stable genius" and 54A both take a legit IQ test*, graded immediately after, and the results shared for all the world to see. It would be hilarious. * Yes, I know "legit IQ test" is probably a sort of oxymoron. It would still be fun.
@CaptainQuahog I wouldn't say triggered, but I feel sorry for archive solvers of the future, when AOC is a mere historical footnote. See also; AES.
@CaptainQuahog "I would love to see a live, televised face-off where this "very stable genius" and 54A both take a legit IQ test*, graded immediately after, and the results shared for all the world to see." Jimmy Kimmel has offered to do that on his show with Jasmine Crockett, AOC, and the one who shall not be named. Jasmine Crockett is definitely on board. I would pay to see that.
@CaptainQuahog So glad to see that post. Sometime after I started posting, it seemed some regulars, like yourself, left the forum. I was accused of being the cause, and I felt awful about it. At least I know now, that if you left because of me, it probably wasn't over politics.
@all Last week I had to have three MRIs (I'm extremely claustrophobic, so it was not as fun as many people assume - har!) and today when I was at acupuncture, my acupuncture doctor asked if I had the results. I told her, totally deadpan, I don't know what they MRIed but the results were perfection. The doctors fainted in amazement over how beautiful my MRI results are. 😂 She gave a huge hearty laugh out of that one!! She said, "I wanted to say something about that to you, but I wasn't sure I should..." Hee! I already had strongly assumed she would take it as she did. 😂 or 😭!
Excellent puzzle Jonathan – here's hoping your next one is just around the corner!
There was a lot to chew on in this one - never heard of Froffles, but it wasn't hard to guess it indicated frozen waffles, and an excellent bit of trivia that Gmail and Islam have the same approximate number of participants. Congratulations on a smashing success after two decades (!) of trying. Most impressive.
Cool trick the paired clues for GMAIL and ISLAM.
In retrospect, BOTOXTEA might not be a good choice for a cleanse. But with SLOB rather than CLOD at first, in it went. Got the revealer and the themers almost instantly, but still needed more than ten minutes to get this one done. Wouldn't call this puzzle a HOOT, but have certainly seen LAMER. Congrats on the debut.
@Xword Junkie But you can see the work that went into making this puzzle, and the constructor's perseverance has got to be applauded!
@Xword Junkie you might get botox tea if you try making kombucha without properly disinfecting everything first
Kind of a tough Tuesday for me, but ended up being an enjoyable workout; and tumbling to the theme was a big help also. That's always a nice touch. A couple of puzzle finds today - the first one fairly appropriate. A Sunday from August 10, 1969 by Kirk Dodd with the title: "Capital ideas." Some theme answers in that one (straightforwardly clued): TRENTONPERIOD STEPHENAUSTIN CONCORDGRAPES LITTLEROCKS WALTERRALEIGH ROBERTLANSING BOSTONTERRIER And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/10/1969&g=58&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=8/10/1969&g=58&d=A</a> I'll put the other puzzle in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: a Sunday from June 20, 1993 by Jan Hurschmann with the title: "Global Stars." Can't imagine having much of a chance at solving that one. Anyway - some theme clues and answers: "Lebanese actress?" BEIRUTALEE "Egyptian actor?" CAIROBLOWE "Russian singer?" OKAYSTARR And some other theme answers: MALTABHUNTER TIBETTEDAVIS ERINTINTIN HELENAHORNE DOVERAMILES Weird. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=6/20/1993&g=35&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=6/20/1993&g=35&d=D</a> ...
Fun, clever puzzle! Not fond at all of the BETA clue. There are thousands of other ways to clue it that don't call attention to fearful manosphere BS.
Justin, Speaking personally, the clue did not call attention to that for me, but your comment sure did. But I don’t submit myself to much of modern culture, so maybe I’m just lucky that way. :)
Mr. Baude is a Northern Michigan man, according to our local paper. Congratulations on persevering and achieving this goal. The puzzle was spot on for a Tuesday—and I don’t mean ACNE.
Masts on a battleship is certainly stretching the definitions of both unless referring to a rarely-attested archaic shortening.
@Robin Look up "Pre-dreadnought battleship" in Wikipedia.
Oof… very well constructed, kudos to Jonathan! But seemed tougher than a usual Tuesday and generally frustrating for people outside the US. Either way congrats on the debut!!!
Sort of a chewy little tuesday innit!!! Excellent debut Jonathan!
Nice to see a shout-out for the Regina Carhops, whose brief but notorious stint in the NHL has made them verboten content in Canadian crossword puzzles. Also, don’t look for official records online, definitely NSFW.* And personally, I’m not learning much from crosswords. Haven’t retained a single surface area measurement of a NY state parcel of land, nor the secondary intercardinal directions between any major US population centres. But I’m having fun, Mom! *Not Something Fact-worthy.
@JohnWM The directions always get me. I have no idea where any city is in relation to any other city, unless I've actually been to that city. For instance, I know that West St. Paul is south of St. Paul, but that's only because I've gotten severely lost in both places.
Thank heavens for state capitals with short names! It would have been a lot harder to find a common phrase containing EESSAHALLAT.
@Beatrice I’ll take that challenge. People frequently ask me how to spell the word “shall”. I always tell them, “onE ESS, A HALL AT the end”.
Fun puzzle overall, but I did find it jarring to see "lamer" in this context. I know people argue about whether this is a genuinely offensive term, but especially in an official NYT crossword (and a crossword that has ASL as one of the other hints!) it strikes me as something that should have ideally been caught and removed in editing. Why use language around disability in that way? We have so many other options.
@Allison I felt the same, not offended exactly but it would have been better without it, right? I think it could have been just as fine a puzzle with ISLAS crossing LASER…
@Allison Yeah that really caught me by surprise too. A disappointing inclusion in an otherwise great puzzle.
@Allison I also despise it when language related to disability is used to describe people's negative traits. I never use such terms, and I think there is no place for them in these puzzles.
Fun puzzle, and an excellent debut! I have a huge amount of respect for the constructor to have kept at this one thing for so long, even in the face of rejection. I'm the kind of person who picks up a hobby and then drops it three months later.
@Katie Same. I've made crosswords before for friends, vow to myself to clean one up to submit it, and then forget about it for months or years, only to start from scratch when I try again (with the software getting better...but changing...each time). Maybe Mr. Baude's story will be the push I need.
I thought 38D should have been DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE--either the clue OR the entry, really. "I'll take 'Obscure Liquor Brands' for a thousand, Ken," might work for 15D. Um, PG MOVIES are "family-friendly"?? Not necessarily so--or you wouldn't need GUIDANCE. That's not to say it can't be a way to introduce and discuss touchy topics, but I'd rethink that clue. I am a bit distressed by the narwhal/penguin morphs/cryptids in the photo. Plus, all you folks in DOVER and BOSTON, please keep your weather to yourselves. Our sasanquas have just this year recovered from the three-day deep-freeze two years ago that dang-near killed every single shrub. I went out walking at 6:30 this morning, and believe me, I had the place to myself (wind-chill 27 degrees F.)
@Mean Old Lady PG movies these days are generally family friendly, at least compared to the old days before PG-13 ratings. Now I consider PG to mean "for kids, but not animated and maybe with a lesson or light drama" as opposed to the 80s when they were most definitely NOT kids' films. I also don't think Belvedere is obscure, but I do drink my share of vodka cocktails.
Well, the impressive construction and the very apt revealer were completely wasted on me since I didn't need them to solve. Which always seems to me like such a waste of constructing chops. But I enjoyed the puzzle in all the other ways. The cluing is better than Tuesday level: ONE; XII, DRAG, SKATE, TIS. And especially S'MORE. Also, TAKE POTSHOTS AT is a really colorful and original long Down. To have it contain a theme answer -- even though I didn't notice that while solving -- is quite impressive. Some thoughts:As you all know, I don't drive. So I was quite amazed to learn that carhops SKATE to you. They do??? Wow!!! How thrilling!!! Note to Tik Tokers who LIP SYNC. Why would anyone watch you when there are real singers out there? Just asking for a friend. As you already know, coping with the icons and the symbols and the trying to guess WHERE on the page all the various "instructions" reside in GMAIL is way above my pay grade. Why this infuriatingly confusing and user-unfriendly platform is the choice of two billion people is beyond me. Quite enjoyable Tuesday, I thought. --
@Nancy I can say with certainty that all of us did not know you don't drive, as this was news to me. Nor did I possess the knowledge that you struggle with GMail icons. Perhaps I was the sole outlier on both of these points. Now that I'm up to speed, consider for a moment the amazing factoid that there are 2 billion GMail users. That's about a quarter of the world's population*. It is hard to think of any other invention that has enjoyed such a degree of acceptance. But maybe everyone but me knew that, too. * <a href="https://www.worldometers.info/world-population" target="_blank">https://www.worldometers.info/world-population</a>/
@Nancy We used to stop at an A&W in Lake George that had carhops on roller SKATEs. I hope they still do, it gave the experience a very '50s vibe. I know Sonic drive-ins have them, as there's one near me.
@Nancy I haven't seen carhops on SKATEs for ages, probably something to do with poorly maintained parking slots and liability issues and spilled food. There are still carhops, though, mostly at Sonic or similar fast food joints. GMAIL was free and convenient when it started up. I got in early, and none of my four email addresses on gmail have numbers, which means I got them first. However, I rarely use the gmail app or websites, I have it pulled into my main mail app and read it there.
love me a surprise amuse-bouche thursday on a tuesday.
Very American, I was 10 minutes slower than usual :(
@Yer (Hell) I'm sure the NYT would be willing to try to better represent those cultures found only in the underworld.
Noticed TOPEKA immediately, as I used to visit there occasionally, and it's where I took my licensing exam to become an RN in 1975. Five multi-hour tests over two days, which they now do on computer in one session in much less time. Jonathan, I'm glad you persevered and got to provide us with this excellent puzzle. I found it slightly harder than a usual Tuesday, but my big delay was finding a typo where I probably used the right finger but on the wrong hand (V vs M).
@JayTee For as long as I can remember I have done that—right finger, wrong hand. What a relief to hear that I'm not alone in making that mistake. I actually failed typing in high school and had to take it over! It was taught by the football coach and he gave me a break the second time. Those were the days when you made corrections with an eraser. GAAACK. I got to be an ace at not making holes in the paper, but at my jobs much later on I gave my IBM Selectric a kiss first thing every morning.
Hand up for entering Loo for LAV. As @john ezra pointed out, it appears to be the KEA/LOA of UK bathrooms 🤣 If you’ve never seen LIP SYNC Battle, you’ve been missing out. This was the first episode that launched the series and hooked me. I couldn’t stop laughing 🤣 Dwayne Johnson was brilliant and Jimmy Fallon never disappoints. <a href="https://youtu.be/Xn3tUOJ9yv4?si=VC5UIxk-re9LJBSO" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Xn3tUOJ9yv4?si=VC5UIxk-re9LJBSO</a> Excellent debut, Jonathan! I’m glad that you kept at it for so long and hope to see your next one soon.
@Jacqui J Well, I fell down that rabbit hole and wound up watching Anna Kendrick v John Krazinski, too. I can only imagine what my feed is going to look like for a while.
@Jacqui J Enjoyed that clip, but my all time favorite has to be Anne Hathaway doing Wrecking Ball. Emily Blunt is cute, but Anne smashes it! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SZfznYgToc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SZfznYgToc</a>
I puzzled over OTOH. But I sure remember the days of ONCD! 📚 🦖
@Molly in Wake Forest 😀 That's just great! One question, what the hell are you talking about? Explain it to me like I'm a 5 year old or a 75 year old.
@Molly in Wake Forest (Emu Evasion Maneuver attempt...) 😀 That's just great! One question, what in blazes are you talking about? Please explain it to me like I'm a 5 year old or a 75 year old.
@Molly in Wake Forest I typed in TAPE my first pass. Oh the heady days of listening to Tom Clancy on a Sony Walkman.
An enjoyable Tuesday puzzle, made even more so by the fact that I got to solve it while sitting with my cup of coffee at hand and cats surrounding me in the morning! Snow day here in my part of Ohio! Congratulations on your debut, Jonathan. You are a testament to the power of perseverance. Here's to your next puzzle.
Here's a nit: [1970s sitcom title character who "can turn the world on with her smile"] : MARY The sitcom was The Mary Tyler Moore Show, or simply, as seen on the opening credits, Mary Tyler Moore. Eponymous to the lead actress. The character was Mary Richards. Ms. Moore wasn't playing herself. There was no title character in that show. Only a title actress who played a character with the same first name. But that name in the title refers to the actress, not the character. I know, close enough for crosswords. I know, "Did it keep you from coming up with the answer? Clues are hints, you know." But still...why did it have to be wrong? (No misdirection was intended, I assume.)
Steve L, Unless they meant the 1985 sequel, “Mary”…
@Steve L A fair nit, but a nit none the less.
@Steve L Well, that changes nothing because I got it from crosses anyway 🤣
@Steve L Oh, so it wasn't "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman?"
@Steve L I knew it was MARY right away 🤷🏻♀️
@Steve L. I was singing the song in my head as soon as I saw the clue…and I still am. Why can I remember lyrics from a TV show theme song from decades ago but half the time I have to check my watch to find out what day it is? (Don’t answer that!)
@Steve L I don't know if you've ever been to downtown Minneapolis, you might have seen the statue of MTM throwing her hat in the air. I sometimes wonder how long that will be there before it just becomes a curiosity, then taken down for irrelevance.