Call me cheesy, but my favorite ACTION FIGURE was always my MOM. No, really: I even mostly forgot to rebel as a teenager because I was too busy looking up to her. You know, she saw her last advisee less than a week before the cancer finally took her? Somehow that sticks in my mind as more action-hero than all the other amazing, crazy things she’d done in her amazing, crazy life. I suppose I should have known that every crossword puzzle was going to start lighting up with words that so clearly, so obviously are about my mom. This will keep happening for a lot longer than the compressed time of these past few weeks. Eventually, it’ll generate smiles like today’s more reliably.
@Sam Lyons That's really awesome, Sam. Thanks for sharing.
@Sam Lyons, Lovely sentiments, and I’m sorry for your recent loss. Having lost my mom when I was in my early 20s, I can surely say (40 years later) that the passage of time is a healer of the raw emotions, but luckily does not erase all those thoughts and memories that made her special. I wish for you peace and comfort as you remember your mother’s life in the coming weeks and months.
@Sam Lyons Oh, gosh, I'm so, so sorry. Such a huge loss. And yet, such a beautiful post. Sending much love wrapped in a great big hug.
@Sam Lyons, Thinking of you, and I’m so sorry for your loss. 🙏🏻
How is James Brown’s music genre “FUNK” when his nickname is The Godfather of Soul?
@Ryan Amen. And also, The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.
@Ryan Slight Tuesday misdirection. A person can be more than one thing
@Ryan Maybe Adam and the editors haven't heard of Sly & the Family Stone or Kool and the Gang.
@Eldridge Gerry The people who ought to know consider James Brown the inventor of funk.
@Ryan I've been scrolling, looking for this comment!
@Ryan Brown started in soul and later invented funk (along with The Meters and Sly & the Family Stone). That according to George Clinton, who ought to know!
@Ryan He definitely did funk. Soul too, sure, but yes to funk.
@Ryan <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t5C1lqBR8uw" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=t5C1lqBR8uw</a>
Not to nitpick an otherwise fun puzzle but I’ve always heard it as “RIDES Off into the sunset”.
Re the column, not the puzzle: TRUSS is quite common to mean “secure tightly” if you’re referring to closing up the extremities of a turkey by using string and little metal pegs that hold the string in place and the cavity mostly closed up.
@Steve L And a prisoner might be TRUSSed up to prevent escape or a fight...
@Steve L Hernia belts. what?
I know it's a Tuesday, but one and done, no lookups, gold star, Yea!! Here's an interesting post about one of the poems of 14A [Classical Persian poet] RUMI from the internet: "The Guest House": Frequently shared in mindfulness circles, it frames all human emotions—joy, sorrow, and depression—as unexpected visitors to welcome and learn from. Here's the whole poem. I could live by that: This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight. The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in. Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond. From--<a href="https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/guest-house" target="_blank">https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/guest-house</a>/
I found this surprisingly challenging for a Tuesday, but my solve time was in my usual Tuesday range, if at the high end of it. I can't recall ever encountering the word PEAKY, and PICK SIX was a huge mystery, too. I'm glad crosses were gentle enough so that I only had to guess the K there. The discussion of the etymology and pronunciation of PEAKY and its alternative of "peaked" here is quite interesting: <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/383671/what-is-the-origin-of-the-adjective-peaked-pronounced-pea-ked-meaning-ti" target="_blank">https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/383671/what-is-the-origin-of-the-adjective-peaked-pronounced-pea-ked-meaning-ti</a> HANG TEN was another complete unknown, and CONNECT FOUR only came to me with many crosses. I don't think we had that game in Poland before 1989. My grandmother bought me some cheap, no-name, plastic version of it in 1990 or so, but I never enjoyed playing it much. I can't remember what it was called, or what language the box and instructions came in - it was not English, anyway. Another thing I arrived at exclusively via crosses was OOMPAH. I wondered if Polish had an equivalent term. AI claims it's bum-cyk-cyk, but that's not correct - it's simply a disparaging term for folk music. Dictionaries only explain OOMPAH descriptively, as the sounds made by brass instruments. The Jesus quote obviously reminds me of one thing only - the brilliant scene from Monty Python's "Life of Brian": <a href="https://youtu.be/4yTT_cQVMOs?si=VOGGoXdZUU1HXn9V" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/4yTT_cQVMOs?si=VOGGoXdZUU1HXn9V</a>
@Andrzej An interception in football is also called a PICK because you pick off the ball that is thrown by the other team. If you return that for a touchdown of your own it’s six points, so it’s called a PICKSIX.
@Andrzej So the term in Polish is "bum-cyk-cyk"? To me, that would imply that the "standard" in Poland is triple (waltz or mazurka) time, unlike "oom-pah," which implies duple (polka or march) time. Hmmm . . . (Despite the name, the polka originated in Bohemia; whereas Chopin's Polonaises, and Bach's "alla polacca," are in triple time.) (I remember that you're not a musician.)
“Okay, Mr. Wayne? - loved your saddle slouch, but in that scene you were supposed to ride *on* into the sunset, not *off*… I know, I know, but we’re going for the sense of continuation here, not a clear ending. Honest mistake. Okay?… Great!” “Alright people, places again! This is Take Two!”
After two millennia and counting of possession by the rapacious, one might wonder what the earth will be worth when the meek get their shot.
@Mike R Good point. At the current rate, I suspect that "the meek" will end up being a life form other than human.
@Mike R There was a cartoonist whose name I hope to remember before I'm finished with this. It was a picture of a large city by an ocean. Out of the ocean were the heads of dolphins watching the nuclear destruction of the city. The caption was "Blessed are the meek..." Ron Cobb. His name was Ron Cobb. He was an incredibly smart social observer cartoonist. Wiki tells me he died in 2020.
@Mike R What? You don't consider Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and Larry Ellison and Sam Altman meek? Come now--they only rent out Venice for their weddings, not all of Italy. That's pretty meek.
In 1761, Franz Josef Haydn took the second job of his career, as Assistant Music Director of the court orchestra of Prince Paul Anton Esterházy. The old Music Director was, in effect, retired, and so Haydn had to do most of the work, and, when the Director died five years later, was promoted into his position. Paul Anton divided his time between his city home in Vienna, and his country home, Schloss Esterházy, in the rural Hungarian countryside--an even bigger schloss, Esterháza, was built several years later--and the household, including Haydn, followed suit. As a new boss, Haydn was eager to ingratiate himself with his employees, and so, among the first works he wrote for the Esterházy orchestra were three remarkable symphonies--Nos.6-8--themed around time of day. They feature plenty of solos for the principal musicians, in which to show off their chops; if they had been written 200 years later, they would have been called "Concerti for orchestra." Here's No. 7: "NOON," performed by Giardino Armonico: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jk41uzE89s&list=RD3jk41uzE89s&start_radio=1&t=23s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jk41uzE89s&list=RD3jk41uzE89s&start_radio=1&t=23s</a> *** Despite his many innovations, Haydn write all that much music in quintuple time: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Eh8wNMkw&list=RDtT9Eh8wNMkw&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Eh8wNMkw&list=RDtT9Eh8wNMkw&start_radio=1</a> *** Nor did he write for female folk trios: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QMApfa5AUo&list=RD3QMApfa5AUo&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QMApfa5AUo&list=RD3QMApfa5AUo&start_radio=1</a> Fun puzzle, fun theme!
@Bill I messed up my comment to you, so it’s randomly posted above. What I was trying to say was, as I know so little about the classical composers, or jazz, I love reading your posts and getting a little education along the way. So, thanks. Now, if I could only find a tech guru to improve my communication skills…
@Bill, Also, TAKEFIVE, with thoughts of the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s iconic jazz standard (composed, I learned today, by quartet saxophonist Paul Desmond). I echo the thoughts of others on your enlightening comments on topics musical. Always enjoy them.
Nifty re-purposing of the revealer phrase. I couldn't guess it and actually thought that the theme phrases might not even require a revealer. But the revealer turns out to be terrific. I also found the fill to be smooth and junk-free. A second really nice early week puzzle in a row. I hope this portends well for the rest of the week. Some thoughts: I've never heard the word PEAKY. I would use PEAKED in that instance, pronounced PEAK-ED, in two syllables. When someone gallops into the sunset, they RIDE OFF. "He rode off into the sunset" is a Thing. RIDES ON implies that someone is continuing a ride that was started earlier. I would have clued this answer: "Gets back on one's horse, maybe". Or "What one does after giving his horse a brief rest". Something like that. One of the better Tuesday puzzles, I thought.
I like seeing ING sharing the puzzle with HAYDN, because that’s what his famous Surprise Symphony was.
A straightforward Tuesday, though I confess i didn’t quite get the theme revealer til Wordplay. I was expecting some maths based reveal. Re Mothers Day. Yeah, your celebratory days always throw me; ours is in March, when it’s generally still cold and miserable. I so wish it was May like yours, or even June, when we celebrate Fathers Day. Whoever set our Day clearly had Mummy issues. RIDES ON? Ok. I’d have gone with Off, but you do you.
@Helen Wright It's 26th May over here.
@Helen Wright May is a nice month for Mother's day, usually. All these days, including Easter, come in the Spring. But for many years it seemed like tornadoes always hit in the south and midwest on those holidays. So I associate those holidays with sickly, unstable air.
Today’s poem made from words in today’s puzzle jesus of starbucks a/ i have seen a man with leaky hands meek, lifeless, listening sickly to the earth said i to the man what are you listening to and the man said not what, who and in that d/ golden moment i saw a/ omaha
Terrific concept for a theme, including a revealer that nails it. And tight. I don’t think there are many other phrases like the theme answers. All I got is TURN TWO, which is baseball slang for “perform a double play”. But that’s pretty niche, I think. I certainly didn’t know it; I just came across it while trying online to find other theme-like phrases. Then, pleasingly fitting the theme words – a pair of sevens, a pair of sixes, an eight and an 11 – in the grid well, there’s grid-building prowess. So, high props to Adam for concept, revealer, tightness, and technique. Turning my thumbs up even more are a rare-in-crosswords five-letter palindrome (LEVEL), the gorgeous IMPROMPTU, and a poet I love (RUMI). Not to mention that anything that even obliquely reminds me of “Catch-22” makes me smile. So, a heap of feel-good in the box today. Thank you, Adam, for a splendid outing!
@Lewis What was it that reminded you of Catch-22? Missed that one
Two in a row, finished with no help. I puzzled most over the MOM/SORER clue; our Mother's Day is in March. Very nice.
Peaky? I dont think I've heard of that word
@navcad82 Then you must have Blinders on. <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcvUGs3xaDM" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lcvUGs3xaDM</a> JK. Yeah it’s always been “peaked” to me too.
Welp, three seconds off my Tuesday best
Wow I spent 25 minutes trying to do this with just acrosses. That was quite a work out, and I came so darn close I just couldn’t crack the bottom revealer, either side, which is ridiculous because it’s so obvious in retrospect. Anyways, great grid work to make it all fit and wonderful tight themers. I can hardly think of a BETTER ONE (ok that’s a bit of a stretch, I’m going to have to better my clever ideas, I guess).
The only time I've heard "peaky" was when my English friend was feeling under the weather, so it fell in as easily as the rest of the puzzle. What I might call a soothing solve, and I was ready for that. Thank you, Adam Vincent, it was nice spending time with you.
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” ― Rumi
Late to the party today, but had to drop in to say that the presence of IMPROMPTU and INANIMATE in a Tuesday puzzle were worth the price of admission. Thank you, Mr. Vincent, for spicing it up on the vocabulary and warming the hearts of word lovers everywhere. I haven't yet read the comments, but if anyone is wondering why the Godfather of Soul was paired with FUNK, here is the evidence... James Brown performing "Cold Sweat" – <a href="https://youtu.be/tvltTXEg5kI?is=qKr3ig2m9Rk-HyRb" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/tvltTXEg5kI?is=qKr3ig2m9Rk-HyRb</a> Not only is it the funkiest funk and worth a look at for, if nothing else, his moves, but it was also the first time that horns were used as rhythm instruments. I must, however, also shout out LEVEL 42 with "Something About You," an 80s throwback, with a lead vocalist who's also the bass player of the band, a rare occurrence- <a href="https://youtu.be/FNZtbSNXY_s?is=SkuvL2xqCAQAHuL1" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/FNZtbSNXY_s?is=SkuvL2xqCAQAHuL1</a> P.S. After the first themer, I was so worried that we were in for a football puzzle. What a relief when that wasn't the case!
@sotto voce You led me in a roundabout way to one more puzzle find. A Sunday from April 27, 1969 by A.J. Santora with the title: "Words to the Wise." Some theme clues and answers: "Ups____" ANDDOWNS RUNSACROSS FOURLETTERWORD A pair of linked answers: LOOKIT UPINYOURFUNKANDWAGNALLS and... CROSSWORDPUZZLEMAKERS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/27/1969&h=79a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/27/1969&h=79a</a> ....
4D - PICK SIX Timely, if you're a NY Giants fan!
@Dave K. Here I am, thinking to myself, hey, they're 3-1, they haven't been picked off that often this year, and then I realize... (For those of you who still don't get it, the Giants put an end to a possible last-minute defeat on Sunday by instigating a PICK SIX against their opposition on the final play of the game.)
My Diary of a Crossword Fiend review: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2026/10/05/tuesday-october-6-2026/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2026/10/05/tuesday-october-6-2026/#ny</a>
'Peaky' probably a bit too on the British side for a lot of the solvers (and the comments seem to attest to that) . Personally, I found it a great reversal of furtune for once 🤣. Otherwise, I found this to be an excellent Tuesday puzzle! Challenging, but not time consuming. So many Mondays and Tuesdays lately have basically been 'auto-fills'. Well done to the creator!!!
@Hitch Re PEAKY Not insurmountably British. :)
I certainly got PEAKY almost immediately. We Brits (and Australians, Kiwis etc) have to grab what little morsels the NYT deigns to drop for us!
@Hitch PEAKED I'm famliar with but not PEAKY.
Peaked, pronounced as two syllables, is what I've seen in the past, never "PEAKY", and the use is a bit strange, because if you're peaked, you're at a low point of sorts, healthwise. Anyway, the puzzle solved smoothly, presented few problems, and took me a bit longer than yesterday's, so for me, an appropriate Tuesday presentation. Thanks, Adam.
@JayTee Peaky is the British version of peaked, essentially. Surprising that they used this cluing instead of something relating to mountains.
@JayTee Looking PEAKY or peaked derives from the fact that if you're undernourished or gaunt, your face looks more angular.
@JayTee I've always assumed that 'peaked' meant 'reached a peak' - meaning a high point!
@JayTee in addition to being in British usage, you will find it in 19the century (and early 20th century) American literature—I’m pretty sure I ran across it in books by Louisa May Alcott, and some other children’s literature as well, where I absorbed the meaning by osmosis.
Quite fun! Connect Four unlocked the revealer for me. I liked the symmetry in the middle of the puzzle in 25 and 33 across too
I certainly heard the description "peaky" when growing up in England, so it may be more of a Brit thing.
I've never heard PEAKY, but my dictionary has, so okay. I've certainly never heard "RIDES ON" into the sunset. Otherwise, a decent Tuesday puzzle.
@NanuNanu @Billy Does this help? A sweet version of "I Ride an Old Paint" by Linda Ronstadt. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zd5pBO8BR8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Zd5pBO8BR8</a>
@NanuNanu Yes! Our mom would say, "You're still looking PEAKED," pronounced PEAK-ED (Peek-id).....when judging if we should be going back to school.
Somehow i succeeded with the Across Only challenge. (Yay me!) I think i just got lucky, after getting a bit stuck with GOSTAG (i had GOSolo) and the SW corner (i couldn’t think of a masked animal and got misled with a RESCUEpeT instead of a CAT). But after a bit of fiddling i got the gold star ⭐️ Yay! Anyone else?
@Petrol I had SOUL instead of FUNK (I think of Prince) so was similarly messed up in that area
@Petrol I completed it with Across Only clues as well. 65A and the revealer took me way too long to figure out. (I'd guessed the wrong last letter of 53D which didn't help!) Also a gold star. At least I managed to complete it in half the time as yesterday's (also Across Only).
Good Tuesday puzzle. A typical workout for me and I was almost done before I finally caught on to the theme. That's always a nice touch. And of course my puzzle find today. A Sunday from January 16, 1977 by Jordan S. Lasher with the title: "Variations." Some theme clue and answer examples: "Egret plumes, e.g." FEATHERSOFABIRD "One at an early bash in Eden." PARTOFTHEFIRSTPARTY "Painful instant for Trigger." MOMENTOFTHESPUR And some other theme answers: COLOROFANOTHERHORSE THEMARCHOFIDES CRIMEOFTHESCENE AHANDINTHEBIRD Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/16/1977&h=11d" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/16/1977&h=11d</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta -- This is possibly the most interesting and informative post I've ever read -- either here or on The Other Blog. At least it is to me. Although I am easily old enough to have been doing puzzles back in 1977, the fact is that I wasn't. So I sort of figured that all the cleverest wordplay-based puzzles that exist today were begun in the Will Shortz era. Who knew that the Will Weng era produced wordplay as sparkling as the one you cite? Wordplay puzzles don't get any better than this one, and I therefore found your citing of this puzzle to be a real eye-opener. And I'm quite sure, btw, that I never solved it and have in fact never seen it before.
Symmetry is my jam and today's puzzle delivered, both in grid and answers. Fun Tuesday!
Standing at the STERN of my boat I see I'm ASEA again rather than At SEA. I'm also wondering what color cape would go best with RESCUE CAT'S orange tabby coat, perhaps NAVY. I'll have to ask the RACCOON. Not a totally Toughened Up Tuesday, perhaps medium Tough. Back ti listening to the father of FUNK and his children.
This is the first time I've seen Jesus in one of these puzzles. We almost never get Catholic things. Kind-of nice.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight You do realise Jesus is a common Christian figure, not just Catholic? In fact, living in Catholic Poland, full of hate-filled, backward-looking priests and bishops, I see much less of Jesus's teaching of love and compassion in our church than in, say, the protestant churches of Europe.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight You do realize there is much more Jesus-by-volume in the protestant faiths than in Catholicism with its host of saints, right?
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight JESUS unfortunately begins with a J, which makes it less likely to see him in a puzzle. He has only appeared 13 times, although it's his second appearance this year (Jan.4). ALLAH, on the other hand, has shown up 191 times. All high-frequency letters. Incredibly, JESUS has never been clued as one of the ALOU brothers.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight This is actually his 11th appearance in the modern era, always clued to the religious figure. The most recent time was January 4, 2026 with [The Lamb] as the clue. Pre-Shortz, there were two occurances of JESUS, once as the baseball player and once as the religious figure.
"...Catholic things." He was Jewish.
Having a mix of horizontal and vertical thematic content was interesting. Seemed like a decent Tuesday puzzle, albeit a bit easier for me than most. Happy for the lack of DIRNDL and DOUGIE in today's grid.
If you'd like some FUNK with your ACTION FIGURE, enjoy Schoolhouse Rock's "Verb, That's What's Happenin’”: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=weaCffBvWGE&ra=m" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=weaCffBvWGE&ra=m</a>
I know little about the Classical composers, or indeed jazz, so I love reading your posts and getting a smidgeon wiser each time. Thanks.
@Helen Wright Ah, this was meant for @bill. The fickle finger of fumbles strikes again.
Fun, clever theme! The SW had me slightly IN A SNIT because INASNIT just didn’t look right… but then I realized the reason the music didn’t play was because I had a typo… (Stupid fat fingers) Rating: 9/10
@Darren I looked at 30D and the only thing I could think of that you buy at a newsstand was a rAG. Which gave me rARX as the author of the quote I still remember from college from SomethingOrOther 101. And still—*still*—it took a bit for the penny to drop. Some days all you can say is, “Good grief.”
Leftovers: I've been galloping after you all, trying to catch up after spending Sat and Sun enjoying Toronto's lovely autumn and the end of the Jewish holidays. I kept on finishing puzzles just in time to have the comments window slammed in my face. But I did want to reply to one nit from Sunday's puzzle (the grid for which I contemplated in mute delight before actually reading a single clue!) – the argument over the clue at 37A, [One may be teen or false] = IDOL. This is a very mild form of zeugma, the technical term for using one word to mean two different things in one phrase. Here is a page with examples: <a href="https://westbraeliterarygroup.com/glossary/zeugma" target="_blank">https://westbraeliterarygroup.com/glossary/zeugma</a> Alas, it doesn't have my favourite from the writer known as "Saki": "The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go, she went."
@SBK in TO I was trying to see how COOK fit the "zeugma" definition, when I caught on. I'm not the brightest solver lately....
@SBK in TO We had my favorite example recently: Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
Why is “is released” a clue for DROPS? Why not “releases”? Is there slang I don’t know here?
@Dfkinjer The new way to say "is released" or "opens" is to say DROPS... I will tell people that Spelling Bee DROPS at 2 a.m. here in Central Time, while Wordle drops at midnight....in case you need to know.
@Dfkinjer Not as much slang as jargon. It comes from the music recording world, where instead of saying a new record is available for purchase, they say it drops at such and such a time and date. It has since spread to any new “content.”
@Dfkinjer I frequently say that a new episode of a streaming show DROPped, especially if it was initially "released" on a TV channel, or a movie that had an earlier theatrical release. On a related note, a new season of "Ludwig" dropped on Acorn, but I can't watch it until October 13th, unless I upgrade my subscription. Ugh. If you haven't seen the show, it's about a crossword setter who solves murder mysteries.
While the [May Honoree] is of course accurate for the US, it falls in different months in other countries. It's actually interesting, there are a bunch of different ones that all came about organically in each place.
Was working the downs first. Anyone else have rAG before MAG? My grandson has a giant CONNECTFOUR set. It was directly across from where I slept on my most recent visit, so that was easy! I still have some Star Wars action figures hanging around, but I wish I hadn't got rid of my Sailor Moons.
@Amy Hand up for rAG before MAG—and even a (brief) moment’s consideration to rARX as a last name for a quotable revolutionary. (Yes, I know.) I don’t think I’ve ever called a magazine a MAG. It’s a shortcoming I must own.
From today's column; "As with 1D, the word for [Secure tightly] is generally rare in modern speech." I don't think Sam meant 1D, which is quite modern. More like 20A, right? Yes, PEAKY is a bit quaint. And does nobody say, "TRUSSed up like a Thanksgiving turkey" anymore?
"And does nobody say, "TRUSSed up like a Thanksgiving turkey" anymore?" Grant, Yes. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4jegsa?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4jegsa?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Barry Good to know. I was afraid I'd been reading too many old detective novels.
@Grant I didn't notice when I pushed back on the TRUSS comment that it also mentioned 1D. I don't know if Sam actually did mean PEAKY, but 1D, DROPS, is if anything a relative neologism.
Sam: Every Thanksgiving my wife stuffs the turkey and TRUSSes it up with Dacron suture that I used to use to close patients' sternums after open heart surgery. I saved the unopened unused material that would have been discarded and it has lasted a good long time.
@Mtmetz 100% cotton kitchen twine works okay, too!
@VN Dunno, I can't feel a thing.
@VN Yeah, but you have to have something to say...
@VN 😂 A few times I've gotten here with no posts. In my excitement, I couldn't think of anything to say. So I missed them.
I have never surfed. The one time I intended to, I got an ear infection in Las Vegas and by the time I got to LA I couldn't go in the water for six weeks. So I watched my cousins. But I could never understand the physics of "HANG TEN". Hang five seemed more plausible, as one's weight could still be distributed towards the middle of the board. So, can anybody tell me why it's not impossible to hang ten?
@Francis There are some youtube videos showing hanging ten. Looks like one way is to stand on the front tip of the board. Magically, the board doesn't flip.
@Francis I'm strictly a body surfer, but I've asked board surfers about this. From my limited understanding, you need a long board to HANG TEN. When you're at the front of the board, the tail end gets swamped by the wave continously breaking on it, and that offsets your weight. Wave choice is important. You need a nice, long, rolling wave that breaks consistently. That's the best I can do. Hopefully, someone with actual experience will chime in.
@all Thanks. I like the idea that the board is balanced by water on the other end. Even if that does obey the law of physics it still seems pretty magical. And unstable.
How come this column is now being published much later than it used to?
Mark, I hadn't noticed any change to the publication schedule. What variation are you seeing?
I've little doubt 20 Across would be looked upon with horror by the adjudicator of Spelling Bee.
@Flummoxed Well, it didn't like VARIOLA the other day. But of course, no one likes smallpox.