The only hold-up for me was confidently entering OXFORD COMMA, which is the only term I knew for this, and which fit until the crosses weren’t making sense. Also, I am on Team Comma.
@Julia, Same here. I haven’t heard it referred to as SERIAL COMMA.
@Julia I am, I would say, quite the comma freak, as I love all commas, Oxford, or serial, or otherwise. Actually the best advice I ever heard about commas was to use them when you might pause for breath or effect in a sentence, like this. Since then I have never overly worried about commas.
@Julia I, too, am a proponent of the Oxford comma and have never encountered the term serial comma. I use classic closed punctuation, and the amount of commas I am able to insert into a sentence sometimes seems absurd, even to me, and, yet, it does not violate the principle of first do no harm.
@Julia You are 100% correct on both counts. I love the Oxford comma and I have never heard of a “serial” comma.
“Scuse” doesn’t really work for Italian apology. To say “sorry” or apologize, you’d say “scusa” (familiar) or “scusi” (formal), or maybe “scusate” (to a group of people). A “scusa” is the noun for apology, but “scuse” is the plural of that, so the clue really should be “Italian apologies”
@Daniel I really struggled with the top-left (NW), and part of it was because I had SCUSa. That made it very hard to see ESOTERIC.
@Daniel My research seems to confirm what you said. A rare mistake by the editors, I think—but looking at previous usages it’s not the first time, although also more commonly clued as an informal use like “ ‘Scuse me” or as “Italian apologies” which would be accurate. Unless Italians use it the same way we might say “(My) apologies”? Can anyone else confirm?
@Daniel Right? I entered SCUSi and chaos ensued.
@Daniel This is a pathetic error. Easily checked. A first-semester student could tell you it’s wrong. Just infuriating.
@Daniel This threw me also, but my Italian is so rudimentary that I just trusted that the constructor knew more than I die.
@Daniel I feel vindicated! iSOTERIC looks enough like a word to me, so I didn’t even think to look there.
@Daniel Thank you. This error made me waste five minutes of my life. I caught it because entering a correct form (SCUSI) resulted in the cross being ISOTERIC, a non-word.
The Oxford comma adds clarity with no downside. Baffling that the NYT style guide doesn’t use it, but then it also prefers “millenniums” to “millennia.” Fun puzzle with a cute theme. Found it to be a little easier than yesterday, I think.
@Joe I’m also baffled by omission of the Oxford comma- as you say, there is never a downside to using it.
@Joe I'm also a fan of the Oxford comma (from APA) although there seems to be more relaxed rules now. I think that it helps with clarity.
@Joe I first learned the term “Oxford comma” when I began drafting bills for the Texas Legislative Council. The TLC Drafting Manual requires it. A few years ago, I began omitting it if it wasn’t necessary. The pretense is that it always clarifies. “I had dinner with my mother, Mary, and Ed.” Were there three or four at the table? Clear writing clarifies; punctuation is no substitute.
@Joe Journalism vs. books. Journalism is often simpler, shorter sentences. But we used Oxford commas in creating technical abstracts because abstracts can be very dense and the abstract needs to be short. But I am rarely bothered by the lack of any punctuation mark in news content.
@Joe What? Certainly there a downside. They take up a small amount of space, each one having a small chance of pushing a word to the next line, sometimes pushing the line to the next page, occasionally forcing the addition of an extra page. Yes, it is rare, but consider the vastness of millions and billions of books and magazines, brochures, pamphlets, and instruction manuals. Not to mention, in this modern age, countless electronic publications using incrementally more bits and bytes. Like so many ticks, these tiny but voracious parasites drain away our precious and limited resources, even if imperceptibly. We may never know how much they have weakened us, how badly they have enfeebled our already weary and wounded world.
@Joe I know a professional editor who teaches writing at Oxford and prefers to use 'serial comma'; it's a helpful and neutral descriptor rather than implying it belongs to -- or has extra value because it's associated with -- a certain influential institution. There are some good reasons not to use it, especially in flowing prose where excessive comma use can create a jagged effect. But it certainly is useful to disambiguate lists that could be read ambiguously. In this case using it consistently can be preferable but not essential. The more you know about editing, he says, the less you cling to unnecessary rules.
@Joe Agreed. It's clearer. For one dark moment I thought the controversial punctuation mark was going to be the period at the end of a sentence, the frequent omission of which these days is driving me batty. I spent years not even knowing this was an issue. Now I find out I'm signaling agression aggression by punctuation correctly?
@Joe One should use it when it is necessary to avoid confusion and omit it when it is not.
@fionatimes Omitting the comma after mother implies that you have more than one. Replace mother with another relative and it's clearer. My sister, Mary (I only have one) vs My sister Mary (but not my sister Ethel).
@Joe Regarding the NYT style guide: Hear, hear!
Loved this! Great puzzle! A child of mine was learning Chinese. I know that a lot of words can sound similar except for intonation. So I asked him some questions: “How do you say cow in Chinese?” Son: “ wǒ bù zhīdào” “How do you say red?” Son: “ wǒ bù zhīdào” “How do you say bed?” Son: “ wǒ bù zhīdào” “What does wǒ bù zhīdào mean?” Son: “I don’t know.” And that’s how I learned “ wǒ bù zhīdào”
I enjoyed how this puzzle theme just gradually crept up on me. I really haven’t heard of CONGEE so it took NIHAO and HELLO to cement it. I thought it was interesting how OSAKAN was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean just as they are between China and America geographically. I also appreciated the shout-outs for MAHJONG (my late mother’s favorite game) and BRIDGE (my late grandmother’s favorite game). It brings back fond memories watching both of the them play (although beer doesn’t seem to be the drink of choice for bridge, does it?) Wondering, if Lee had OATMEAL, Cheerios, Chex and Raisin Bran for breakfast would those be cereal commas?
@SP Oh! Thanks. No wonder CONGEE rang no bells at all. I hadn't noticed the cultural shift between east and west halves of the puzzle. NIHAO shocked me a bit, but it didn't enlighten me. Also explains the weird appearance of the Pacific Ocean.
@SP Too much and it's a cereal coma.
I thought that puzzle was oddly charming. I don’t think I’ve seen a theme like that before, and I’ve been a daily solver for about three years. A simple concept, well executed, is always enjoyable.
@Striker In the Constructor Notes, they reference a similar theme from 2017 that used the Atlantic Ocean and British and American English differences.
Italian apology should be scusa or scusi not scuse. The clue for scuse should have been apologies (plural) since in the current context it means ‘excuses’ rather than sorry or excuse me. With all due respect, a simple Google Translate search would have corrected the matter. I’m not trying to get this comment published, rather, as someone who loves language and has always regarded the NYT crossword puzzle as among the best, I just would like to see it uphold those high language standards. Thank you
@Diana We welcome with open arms those who love language. Join us often.
@Diana - 100% correct! I found it bothersome because it is grammatically wrong. The word “scuse” only exists in Italian as a plural of “scusa”. So either the answer is wrong or the clue is wrong.
@Diana I disagree. It's an apology. Much like saying "regrets" is an apology in English.
@Diana agreed. Particularly in a foreign language themed puzzle!
As a European, I was unsettled by TOOK and "ultimatum"... I'm sadly serious.
@Andrzej Not sure I get why. "Took" is used frequently in lieu of "capture" in chess (knight takes bishop). And I'm uncertain how we differ on ultimatum.
@Andrzej. @Sara W. Now, you two, start behaving… or ELSE
@Andrzej anyones guess from which direction theyll be coming for you.
Wierd puzzle. Didn’t care for it
@Alan Me too. I came here to see if I was the only one.
@Alan NIHAO crossing ESTOS got me… very rare for a Wednesday to do me in.
I woke up disoriented from a horrible dream about a ruptured friendship -- the sick stress of betrayal and conflict. This charming puzzle about the fundamental sameness that endures across difference brought back some happiness and hope. Thank you both.
@Lydia Strange how a nightmare can linger through a day. I had one recently that it took me hours to shake. I'd mistakenly let a demon loose in the world. That was the end of the dream. And I don't even believe in demons.
RATABLE: adj., 1. Able to be a rat
@Erik P I'm with you on that. This made me think there must be a rebus there, i kept trying to make it "rateable". oh well
My favorite part of this puzzle was its HOMEY feel, pointing out that we share so many basic feelings and habits with everyone else on the planet. Emphasizing our commonalities simply feels good. My heart smiles when reminded – as today’s puzzle reminds – that even faraway people, such as those across the great BRIDGE of the Pacific, are so much in so many ways like we are. I am grateful, then, for not only a fun solve, Ginny and Avery, but for the deeper layer of feel-good you created. Just a lovely way to start the day. Thank you!
@Lewis My take is slightly Other... Having lived across the Atlantic (both as a child and in adulthood) and also far enough across the PACIFIC to be exposed to Other Cultural Influences, I treasure the fact that there are differences--sometimes quite vast. I do understand your point, but I so often witness that people can make too much of "in common," completely missing (for instance) what constitutes good manners...
@Lewis "Homey" rings reflexive alarm bells for me. Like cultures, not all families are the same, and growing up, mine was definitely not warm and cozy. When Toasty didn't work, I had a hard time writing in HOMEY.
FYI, SCUSE is plural, scusi or scusa would've fit better with the clue
@Charles As an Italian speaker, this irked me, too. Much more than I'm ready to admit, actually.
@Charles Exactly. I came to comment on this too.
Charles, So “Plural Italian apologies” would be SCUSES. I’ll be watching for that one soon, crossing PSIS. :)
The people who insist on the Oxford comma include my parents, Ayn Rand, and God.
@Bay Area Native If you asked her, Ayn Rand would say she *was* God.
@Bay Area Native I love the Oxford comma! In Polish putting a comma before any "and" (our "i") is a huge no-no though. I tried to contest that by introducing Oxford commas into my scholarly papers in Polish, but the editors always objected...
@Bay Area Native. I’m not sure you used it correctly there though…
I am sad to see so many negative comments when the theme is of how we are similar and can get along. I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle.
Clever theme. I found myself wishing there were more parallel answers to uncover. I spent far too long trying to make Oxford rather than serial describe the controversial punctuation (I'm generally an Oxford comma observer). This was a marvelous collaboration debut. More please.
@JBW Yes! I realise three lines is sort of six theme answers which is a lot especially when you add the revealer, but it did feel like it needed a fourth set
Have you ever tried to fit the constellation "Camelopardalis" into three boxes using rebuses? I have.
@Francis Nope. I find it too sesquipedalian.
@Francis thats gotta pinch around the tender bits!
Hi, @Francis! Yesterday, in a reply to my post, you queried whether a Sonatina in Any Other Key would sound as sweet (actually, it was the Vierne Mass, but whatever.) A long time ago, like the 18th c., say, before "equal temperament," different musical keys certainly had different qualities, which composers exploited: D major was "triumphant," F major was "pastoral." (Even in Bach's "Well-tempered Keyboard," the keys didn't all sound the same.) Now that musicians (normally) use equal temperament, yes, the different keys should all sound alike--but still, the traditions remain. Not to mention that certain keys are easier on some instruments than others: strings generally favor sharp keys, winds favor flat ones. The concert harp is tuned in C-flat major. Go figure. So when Louis Vierne composed his Mass in C-sharp Minor, he was sub-consciously channeling every other piece in C-sharp he had ever heard, plus it's what fit under his fingers well. (FWIW, my piano tuner favors something called "equal-beating Victorian temperament"--which was developed in 1992!) You and I are on very different Wordplay schedules, although you do seem to stop back often and check in on replies, etc. If you read this, leave a reply on my main post.
@Francis I'm just here to say your location made me laugh (and then cry, of course).
I scrubbed the kitchen floor yesterday, and my arms didn't TREMBLE so much as explode into aches as I lay in bed last night. As I get older, I've added Advil to my list of cleaning supplies. Anyway, this was a lovely puzzle. I wish everyone had the same tolerance as the constructors. I'm praying for my immigrant neighbors every night. I love you all.
Haven't read many comments at all yet today, so not sure what the overall opinions are, but I do take every chance I get to get to take a stand for the Oxford, err, SERIALCOMMA. I have heard it called either but I still think of it as Oxford primarily. Kept it in there as long as I could and happily remembered it's synonym. At work, we are a team bitterly divided on the subject. It's tearing us apart. I'm not sure I can work with those people anymore.... har! They're amazing people, actually. Oh, @Andrezj, thanks for the shout out on HAR yesterday. I didn't see comments till pretty late, but it made me smile a little bigger to see it. And I'm happy to be at your service on sarcastic laughs. ☺️ As for the puzzle, I liked it! A little on the tougher side for me in some areas. Briefly thought of a rebus because of RATABLE, which I thought had an e in it, but everything else worked out without rebuses, so I just went with it. Especially in these oh so divided times, the puzzle was a sweet reminder that we're not really so different in so many ways. And yet, here we are in occupied MN... my heart is so very heavy right now. It's hard to go on doing things like life is normal. Between the constant physical pain I mentioned the other day and this deeply disturbing whatever you call it pain, like, how am I just eating lunch and trying to do my job, like everything isn't so totally screwed up. Okay, sorry... I'm trying to "do better" har! But it's hard.
@HeathieJ These are times that try men's and women's souls.
@HeathieJ @Francis et al in the Twin Cities, We are keeping you in our thoughts every day. 🫂💙🙏🏻
@HeathieJ @Francis et al Thinking about all of you. We didn’t have it quite as bad here in LA, but I still sympathize with what you’re going through 🥰 At least you have the crossword and this forum for a small respite.
Lee has a not bowl of ___ to start off his day Says ___ to his neighbor, then heads on his way With gossip and beer over Friday’s ___ game Life across the Pacific Ocean is much the same
Lovely touch, that the theme answer clues rhyme.
Ya gotta have that second comma. My heroes are my parents, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Unless, of course, your parents ARE Superman and Wonder Woman: My heroes are my parents, Superman and Wonder Woman.
@Cal Gal Nicely worded. Well done. ....
@Cal Gal My favorite example would probably be emued out. ☺️
Scuse is wrong. It’s either scusa for informal or scusi for formal.
@Kevin Here's a link to a link that will get you to the conversation <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4dbi1h?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4dbi1h?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
I got a kick out of the CONGEE - OATMEAL pairing because one of my favorite breakfasts is oatmeal prepared as a riff on congee. Low sodium chicken stock, minced garlic, a bit a ginger (usually ground ginger as I don't always have fresh), onion powder, sometimes a splash of mirin or rice vinegar. I use Quaker old fashioned (rolled) oats. Bring to a boil, cook additional 4 minutes (less for a chewier texture) then I slip in a raw egg to poach for another 4 minutes. Dish out the oatmeal saving the egg to go on top. Then black or white pepper and either a few drops of sesame oil, or a dab of gochujang or chili crisp, or a splash of Chinese vinegar or reduced sodium soy sauce. Yum. An alternative to the poached egg would be to beat the raw egg before adding it, the effect is something like egg drop soup. Every now and then, I garnish with Chinese pickled cucumbers (jiang gua) and/or a bit of pork floss (rou song), but those are extras; it's plenty tasty without.
@CRTH I loved reading that. I would venture that for people who really love food, it's as much the preparation as the actual eating. The fulfilling ritual of effort that precedes the award.
@CRTH Welp, you lost me at "Quaker oats" but I read the recipe to DHubby just to see him squirm. When (just now) he delivered my bowl of oatmeal (with cinnamon) and a dish of fresh fruit to top it off, he apologized for "forgetting the onion powder." Oh, ha ha. Just thought you might enjoy that tidbit.
@CRTH Now I know what I am having for breakfast 😋 thank you for the inspo!
@CRTH Every time I've had CONGEE (usually before boarding a motor coach) it has come with a fried egg on top.
@CRTH First, yum. Second, this sounds more like dinner than breakfast. It's a lot. Third, never use powdered onion or garlic. Granulated garlic or onion -- although more expensive -- has much better and truer flavour. Last, for the veggie-phobes among us, this would be an excellent option to smuggle some veggies into your diet. You'll barely notice those green leafy things in there.
@CRTH I have to try that! BTW I usually do keep raw ginger around but I recently discovered ginger paste (and lemongrass paste), sure does speed up prep time.
For a crossword so focused on including different cultures together (which I enjoyed), it’s odd that the one Italian word is so poorly done. I tried so many options with SCUSA and SCUSI for nothing (which I didn’t enjoy) :_) Oh well, that’s on me for speaking Italian, I guess. I don’t get the hatred for this puzzle, I thought it was easier than usual which is not that bad when you are a puzzle-solver from outside the US.
The Italian clue frustrated me, too, since “scuse” means “apologies” and the clue is the singular “apology.” Oh, well, got there in the end.
Congrats to our crafty cruciverbalists, Ginny and Avery, on a fun and Wednesday-appropriate puzzle! I got the theme clues pretty handily, and managed not to enter "Oxford" before checking the crossings. But I still got twisted up in the northeast corner, by entering eArl for 12-down instead of LADY 🤦 I ended up finishing in 12:34 -- a number I like to think of as "Ramones o'clock" 🥁🎸🤘
I have a correction - 1 Down - an Italian apology would be ‘scusa,’ ‘scusi,’ or ‘scusate’…as in what someone would say as an apology. Una scusa is an excuse/apology. Multiple apologies would be ‘Le scuse.’ So either the clue should be ‘Italian apologies’ or the answer should be ‘scusa’ or ‘scusi’.
@Tina I had to take out my i So thank you!!!
Once again an unnecessary pluralization of an acronym that is already plural. PSI stands for Pounds per Square Inch. Adding an s to it would be like saying Pounds per Square Inches. I hate when people do that. Like RBIs or RPMs or MPHs.
@Doug PSI (pounds per square inch) is a measure (singular) of tire inflation. The spare tire (donut) for my car calls for 60 PSI. The spares on other cars call for different PSIS. The clue is fine.
SCUSE is plural -- clue should have read "Italian apologies."
As noted earlier by others, "apologies" is an apology.
Count me among those who thought the Culture Club song went "Comma comma comma comma comma chameleon..." not "Karma (etc.)..." In fact the last line of the 4-line chorus has a perfect use of the Oxford Comma: Karma, karma, karma, karma, karma chameleon You come and go, you come and go Loving would be easy if your colors were like my dreams Red, gold, and green, red, gold, and green
Loved this theme! Knew the answers. Loved PACIFIC OCEAN down the middle. Thanks, Ginny & Avery. Lots of fun. Have a great Wednesday, y’all!
@Terry immediately getting EPALABS made me feel like I’ve evolved somehow.
Really enjoyed this puzzle! Haven't seen a theme like this before, and it was very satisfying to get PACIFIC OCEAN and suddenly have it click what the doubled clues were for. I also always love when the location of answers within the grid is part of the theme. I see why some people found the NI HAO/ESTOS crossing frustrating, but overall I thought the fill was really strong... even if I did spend way too long banging my head against OXFORD COMMA with 100% confidence I was right.
@David I learned the COMMA as Oxford as well, but already had the S from ESTOS. This is where I brag about speaking both Mandarin and Spanish...but not Italian. SCUSi held me up for a while.
Great theme! Please be aware that 1 Down should have been clued as "Italian apologies" given that "scuse" is the plural form of "scusa", which means "apology" in Italian.
GE, (1) Please consider that if there is an error in the puzzle, the comments may have been made aware of it shortly after the puzzle dropped yesterday at 10 p.m. (2) You may wish to read the responses to the earlier error reports.
I didn't really get the theme, but I'm not a particularly "thematic" solver. I just power through without thinking too much, and let the anomalies sort themselves out.
Last Wednesday I failed. It looked very much like lightning was going to strike twice, as I really puzzled the heck out of the NW corner. I just couldn't get anything going. For 1A I went through "shills", "scales", "spells" and one other one that I've already forgotten. Each time I changed it I was sure I'd finally found all the possibilities, and each time my hopes for wrapping things up evaporated. I was verklempt. I verklempted all over everything. Terrible mess. Also, now my verklempter is sore. Never heard of CONGEE, and I know absolutely nothing about superheroes, so I had "something something something MEN" for ULTRON. I finally got enough letters to guess ULTRON, as that certainly sounded like how a super-villian's mother would name him. I mean, really, if you name your kid ULTRON, you've pretty much settled them into a career path. I know my constellations pretty well, but I'm going to have to check on how close LEO is to the big dipper. It took me forever even to come up with a constellation with only three letters. Finally, I've never had a POLO shirt. In fact, I've never even been on a horse.
@Francis You'd love me in my very fetching, pink POLO shirt.
@Francis The first time CONGEE appeared in a puzzled was in 1988, the second time was exactly two weeks ago, on Jan. 7th. I was fortunate to remember it from then. POLO shirts are pretty common—knit shirts with collars that have a short button-up opening to put your head through. Also sometimes referred to as golf shirts.
@Francis Unless, of course, you're a synthetic fabric maker. I think that a new permapress ULTRON shirt works just as well as ULTRON, Ruler of Evil. Both very plausible. In fact, given the actual existence of acrylon, rayon, and dacron, I'd pick the fabric.
Kudos to all who had so many elucidating comments about the Oxford/serial comma. Quite a contrast to listening to a presidential press conference that could occupy so much time and have nothing intelligent to say.
Wonderful grid and so fun! Thank you, Ginny and Avery -- I hope we'll see more collaborations from both of you! As a loyal Steely Dan fun, I loved the nod to AJA which is one of my favorite albums of all time. Can't Buy a Thrill is another of their great ones, but I digress and won't Do It Again.🎶
@Kelly H I'll do the Dirty Work for you. (Can't Buy a Thrill is my favorite album, although it's hard to choose a favorite when it comes to Steely Dan.)
Once again the Spanish quandary… is it going to be an A or an O at the end of EST_S? Just had to wait and see. This was actually the entry that gave me the trick for the puzzle, as I decided that it had to be NIHAO and ESTOS, especially since the match was HELLO. The last time I played BRIDGE was back in college, where I probably spent too much time playing it, but there is MAH JONG on the computer that I play on OCCASION. And of course I could not forget the "Cooler King", which made 46A a gimme. We had CONGEE exactly two weeks ago, so that helped as well. Not to say that this was an easy puzzle. There were plenty of spots that had me perplexed for a while, and where I needed a few crosses to get going again. A worthy Wednesday. Thank you, Ginny and Avery, for a good Wednesday workout!
As a Brit, I was caught out by AERIES for a while, as that is spelled EYRIES here in my experience. PSIS though hurts my eyes: feels deeply wrong to pluralise a plural even worse than an Oxford, sorry, SERIAL COMMA. Overall though enjoyable Wednesday
@OsteoSynth ah, I was also thrown by the spelling of AERIES, and am also British - that explains things!
Solved it. But count me in the group that abhors crossing Spanish words with Tamil or Chinese words. Why not just do the whole thing in a foreign language? It’s simply random letters at some point. Ooh, how fun. 24A: Nine letter word in a language. 33D: Thirteen letter word in a language.
Fun. But the lower right corner was just brutal. Sprit? Aeries? Sateen? Rough stuff, folks.
@Rebecca Jay Sprit's a head scratcher, Aeries I thought was Eyries. Only got Sateen as it appeared a few weeks back. Didn't get it then but luckily still in my cache for today's puzzle.
@Rebecca Jay Yes that SPRIT - PSIS crossing was brutal!
@Rebecca Jay - I think half my solve time was spent in that corner.
@Rebecca Jay The lower right was in my ballywick- perhaps due to sailing in my youth and having learned all the spelling variations of aery from the Scrabble Players Dictionary. But the west (March Madness, etc.) almost brought me down. Having accidentally ended ni hao with a u did not help matters.
Loved the theme, completely original! This was a joy to do. Hope the creators contribute many more, either together or separately.
What a lovely solve this was. There was something really warming about seeing this puzzle unfold at a Wednesday pace, not just around the core theme but with the round-the-world nature of the filler clues as well. Just what I needed this morning.
Managed to catch on with the second pair - knew *of* CONGEE but not *what* it was. Is beer associated with MAHJONG 'cause with BRIDGE I think of tea (spilled and unspilled)? But now, SCUSE me while I kiss the sky.
@John Carson 😂 Very, very well done on the final sentence!
Wow--not my usual beginning (which is at the SW corner) but the "double Lee" breakfast was catchy, especially since I had just passed DHubby--who was measuring out Bob's Red Mill Old Fashioned Rolled Oats. This is Grocery Shopping Day; given the weather prediction, it should be a mob scene. (Slight chance of snow, slightly bigger chance of sleet. Panic sets in...) If anyone asks: Yes. The Oxford Comma reigns. Hereabouts (a CCRC in Central MS) game-players are divided into MAH-JONG, BRIDGE, darts, and a low-brow offshoot of Canasta. The majority of Residents don't play any games at all, which is too bad. When she's visiting, PhysicsDaughter and I enjoy cribbage and the crosswords, and DHubby and I currently battle via SkipBo. For Spelling Bee, I'm on my own. GREAT ESCAPEs?
Once again, disappointed in the number of whiners in this group. This was a clever concept, well executed! The clue down the middle was sheer brilliance. Well done! (or should I say "干得好！(gàndehǎo!)")
@Paul M I agree. Polite and thoughtful feedback is one thing but some of the comments seem to go way beyond that. My late mother in law came from China in 1929 at age 9 with her mother and $10. She sent four children to college and three to grad school. And she made a mean congee.
@Paul M As always, apparently whining at whiners is a better kind of whining 🤷🏽♂️
SERIAL COMMA instead of OXFORD COMMA is annoying ):