I wanted to post about Sunday’s puzzle, but it didn’t happen. I’ve been absent from here for several weeks. I had a bad, strange fall, and broke both my shoulder and patella, of course on my dominant side. After weeks at rehab, I’m finally home. As many of you may know, I solve the puzzle on paper. I still can’t write, but managed to peck out Sunday’s puzzle with my left hand on my PC. It was a laborious exercise, but I managed to complete it in an hour. Thank goodness I found it a very easy puzzle, unusual for a Kugelman. Also grateful that I’m able to dictate this into my phone. I don’t think I’ll be able to do many puzzles, since this recovery may take months for the shoulder. Hope I’m wrong, but I was so happy to be able to complete yesterday‘s. Just stopping by here to say hi and to read comments from some familiar names.
@Times Rita Best wishes for a speedy recovery. The other day, I was thinking of Frida Kahlo. She was severely disabled. Her mother devised a way that she could paint while lying in bed. She suspended an easel. Here's a photo of her. I hope this doesn't make things worse. <a href="https://at3center.net/2019/07/08/frida-kahlo-painted-using-assistive-technology-and-so-can-you" target="_blank">https://at3center.net/2019/07/08/frida-kahlo-painted-using-assistive-technology-and-so-can-you</a>/ Take it easy and you'll get better soon, I hope.
@Times Rita I'm very sorry to hear about your accident, but I'm also happy you're back with us and striving to return to solving - when my father had a nasty, near-fatal fall several years ago, his determination to go back to how things had been before allowed him to recover more quickly and more successfully than doctors thought possible. Forgive me for giving advice without knowing your exact circumstances - but please, continue physiotherapy now that you're back home. Not all people do, and yet it makes a huge difference - again, that's what my father did (and ditto wife after a nasty climbing accident), and he reaper the benefits.
@Times Rita I've been thinking about you and hoping that you're doing ok, so I'm glad you checked in.
@Times Rita -- Welcome back! It is very good to see you back here. I believe that if you continue to hunt and peck on the keyboard with that non-dominant hand, it will get easier and easier. Wishing you a steady and smooth recovery!
@Times Rita. Add me to the chorus who wishes you all the best luck in your recovery!
@Times Rita So sorry to hear this! My very best wishes for a speedy recovery. We'll be looking forward to your being back at full strength.
Times Rita, Keep pecking out those puzzles!
@Times Rita Praying for a speedy recovery for you.
@Times Rita So sorry and keep at the rehab! Back in April, my wife tripped on an uneven sidewalk while we were in Oregon chasing my son around one of his marathons. She broke her (non dominant) shoulder in two places. The first month was tough (she wanted to improve much faster than the X-rays and ortho were telling her). Once she got into rehab (well, after the first couple of weeks), things got better and better. She still goes twice a week (she kinda likes it now). She may never regain full flexibility, but has improved tremendously. “Realistic expectations,” I kept reminding her. I usually remembered NOT to add “given our age.” (Trying to avoid needing my own rehab.)
@Times Rita Wishing you a speedy recovery!
@Times Rita Wishing you a speedy recovery!
@Times Rita This is of course not the same level as what you're dealing with, but my left elbow has been giving me tons of pain lately, so I've tried solving right handed. It's so hard to use your non-dominant hand! You have all my well wishes. Lots of love to either a fellow lefty or an honorary one ❤️
@Times Rita Wishing you al the best.
@Times Rita I don’t come by that often these days, but saw your comment to Tuesday’s puzzle and came here to wish you a speedy recovery! I’ve always enjoyed your comments, and hope you’ll be back to easily navigating the puzzle soon!
Poesy? Gest? Can we confine ourselves to words used in the last 100 years?
The crossing of an unusual word for poetry with an American abbreviation almost did me in - on Monday 🤣 I had typed in POEms, initially, and while I didn't like the resulting cross of DImTINC, I had no alternate idea for the poetic entry as the abbreviation crossing with the last letter of POEM(s) could be anything (I've largely given up trying to deal with American abbreviations a long time ago). When I corrected DImTINCT to DISTINCT, and was left with POESs, it dawned one me the final letter would be a Y, and the media org. was simply NYT. Funnily enough, the Polish word for poetry is poezja, which obviously is related to your POESY - the two words sound very similar. Even though I know how you pronounce it, I can never remember how you spell the "Old MacDonald" refrain - with how unintuitive English spelling is (before you bash me for this sentiment, think on how many alternative spellings of "uey" there have been in these puzzles), figuring out how to write down a nonsnensical phrase is practically impossible 🤣 Nice puzzle, much more interesting than a typical Monday.
I forgot to ask when I posted while rushing to leave for work in the morning - what's a blue-book event? I had to rely on crosses alone to get that entry. I thought it might be p0rn-related 🤣
@Andrzej I don't think there is an English speaker in the world who would bash you for saying that English spelling is unintuitive! Tough Though Thought Bough
@Andrzej My favorite unintuitive English spelling: GHOTI for "fish". GH as in "tough"; O as in "women"; TI as in "action".
As a current Captain in the US Army and a former Lieutenant, I can assure you that LOOIE is not real slang or a nickname.
@Eli So, an American looie walks into an English lav to relieve himself...
@Eli As a former squid, I've heard it, although I think it was in an army context. It might have been in a war movie, so perhaps it's an older slang term that's no longer used.
Sir, you can only assure us that you've never heard it.
@Eli. 25 year career, never once heard it. A lieutenant is LT, that's it. Looie might be some old school Hollywood throw-in, or maybe it was in actual use way back, idk.
The coinage does predate and may have been retired before the years of service of posters on this thread. Origin of looie 1915–20; respelling of lieu(tenant) + -ie <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/looie#hdr-headword-dcom-1" target="_blank">https://www.dictionary.com/browse/looie#hdr-headword-dcom-1</a>
Cites from a bit earlier... looie n. Reference library Green's Dictionary of Slang Reference type: Subject Reference Current Version: 2011 Subject: Language reference Length: 344 words ... 125: You are lucky to be a buck private, with nobody over you like a ranking officer to ride hell out of you like a second looie. 1943 (con. 1860s) B.I. Wiley Life of Johnny Reb 342: I wood rather be corporal in company F of the Texas Rangers than to be first Lieu in a flat foot company. 1947 F. Brown Fabulous Clipjoint ( 1949 ) 79: Bassett 's talked to the looie who'd get the call at the Chicago station. 1948 (con. 1944 ) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 26: Some sonofabitchin' looey […] wanted us to get off the goddam ship. 1953 L. Uris ...
@Eli I agree that I’ve never seen it spelled out, but in Aus we commonly (verbally) call FLTLTs “flight LOOIEs” all the time. LTs (Army) are definitely just LT though. And navy? We don’t talk to them. They’re weird. Lol.
Kevin and Andrea, you two sure CLAS(S) UP T(H)E J(O)IN(T). You ought to go out and celebrate your ninth collaboration, perhaps with a (S)US(H)I B(O)A(T)!
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. First and last, say (4)(4) 2. Track event won by the fastest four legs (5)(4) 3. One may sit near a bench marking time (9) 4. Boundaries between areas with different amounts of coverage (3)(5) 5. Annual appraisal statement (4)(1)(4) FULL NAME HORSE RACE METRONOME TAN LINES WHAT A YEAR
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Ubiquitous head coverings] (6) [Butter up?] (5) SCALPS ARIES
Three things Andrea and Kevin did here that gave the puzzle shine, that showed what pros they are: • These theme answers freshen up the box, with the first two being NYT debuts, and the last three once-befores. Wow! • Beauty added loveliness, with LOATH, EXTOL, PIQUE, POESY, and GEST, in addition to the colorful theme answers. • The SHOTs are truly scattered, as none of the circled letters in the theme answers are next to each other. They didn’t have to do any of these; this just shows their push for excellence. And the theme is not only Monday-perfect, it’s never been done before. I had a grand time trying (unsuccessfully) to guess the revealer, not even reading its clue. My brain loved the ride. Thank you, Andrea and Kevin for that, and for the excellence you poured into this. Standing-O!
@Lewis Thank you for your incredibly nice comment and deep appreciation for what went into this. It was difficult for a Monday bec… it WASNT necessarily supposed to be A MONDAY …but we have zero say over what day of the week the editors choose. They see my name and boom it’s slotted for a Monday and there ain’t a thing I can do about it! But we wrote it for a different day and I do not say that in GEST ;) As for the person who complained they’d never heard of Bonanza… I’d say “get a life”, but they clearly have one! ;) But I’m also not going to apologize for being over 60+ and am sick to death of all the ageist comments pooh poohing seminal memories and much accumulation of knowledge and lived-experience in order to appeal to young folks who like to do across/downs only! Obviously we’d not have POESY if we could have avoided it… it was a trade off to get literally everything else to work; That said, we felt it’s an elegant word and damnit, jim… I’ll say it again… This was NOT necessarily meant to be a Monday!
I get frustrated when solvers loudly complain that Mondays are too easy. That’s the point of Monday! Some of us really love an easy Monday. Now it seems like Mondays have been consistently more difficult 😒
@Chaz L. The best things about Mondays, in general, are a pretty straightforward NYT puzzle. I do the whole week but my favorite remains Mondays. Yup a bit more challenging lately. Still I love Monday puzzles.
@Chaz L. Absolutely. I like to whip out my Monday crossword with a cup of coffee, which gives me a nice little confidence boost to start my day. Words like "poesy", "inure", "extol", "loath", and "looie" all feel like Tuesday-Wednesday territory.
@Chaz L. - I just searched the comments for the word "easy" - there are four (4) comments so far, including yours. Not a single one complained, even softly, that today's puzzle was too easy.
@Chaz L. Thanks I thought it was me getting old quickly
POESY isn't a real word and you can't convince me otherwise.
@Mollz now that’s the kind of mental flexibility crosswords are all about!
@Mollz...... POESY....is in the dictionary so I guess we are stuck with it. I'm sure we will see it again in another puzzle.
I was just reading an article about Bernie Taupin and it mentioned his 2023 autobiography titled... "SCATTERSHOT"!! Here he is in a rare interview on YouTube: <a href="https://youtu.be/7BChWdv7buA?is=U8lL7JfE9xupqkn6" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/7BChWdv7buA?is=U8lL7JfE9xupqkn6</a> I was very taken with some of the great words and phrases in this puzzle, some quite unexpected for a Monday — DISTINCT, LOATH, PSYCHED OUT, EXTOL, PIQUE, AND INURE. Put together with other words and phrases in the puzzle, my mind did a John Ezra and wrote a whole story about how Rhoda had her interest piqued by Shaun by whom she was wined and dined, but just this one time, and then she was ghosted. Was he just psyching her out? It really left her all shook up for a while, not knowing his angle. But she snapped out of it at last, regaining her self esteem and repeating to herself "I'm (sorta) hot and not at all plain, and I'm smart because I read the NYT, and I don't need this." So she rose from the ashes, and made herself available again, knowing that somewhere out there was someone for her, as talented as Bernie Taupin with his lyrics sweet as poesy, who might even write for her something like "Your Song" extoling her virtues to the world. So I've infringed on sacred territory and hope JE will accept my apology and rewrite this with his unmatched, one and true talent! I'll see myself out, with a huge thank you to Kevin and ACME for a wonderful puzzle!
@sotto voce Is there a band called “As Good as Ezra” ? <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PFaQ_gPOTks&list=RDPFaQ_gPOTks&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PFaQ_gPOTks&list=RDPFaQ_gPOTks&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB</a>
@Vaer, @Lewis, @Warren, You're too kind, thank you. @Warren, That's funny and flattering, but even channeling him, I can never be even close to "As Good as Ezra." The man's vast literary knowledge would have written as a masterpiece what I managed as an outline. He hasn't posted as often as he used to and I really miss reading his intricate and mesmerizing puzzle-inspired reveries. This was just an ill-attempted shout-out, but thank you (*and* you made me laugh!)
@Sam -- Love the picture and caption. I had to look closely at the picture to get it, resulting in a blazing aha. Picture as pun. Your humor is consistently wonderful.
@Lewis This column wouldn't be nearly as fun to write if I didn't get the chance to make an extra joke up there. And to have it appreciated, no less!
@Lewis Funny, that painting was part of a clue on Jeopardy last week. I still don't remember the artist's name, but Edward Hopper was my wrong guess.
@Lewis On the other hand, another columnist has been criticized for using pictures that give away answers. But for the excellent pun, I'll allow it this time
Surely you GEST, putting a word I've never heard of in a Monday puzzle. It's all good. Took slightly longer than my Monday average.
Sugar is sucrosey. A pocket full of posey. ASHES, ARSON, We’re all psyched out.
@JohnWM Yet again you grab me by the poesy.
Hardest Monday in ages, if not all year! Welcome treat to noodle on even if it’s not an all time classic. Nice to
Dear lord have mercy, as a beginner I have had Monday crossword as a safe haven, but have the Monday editions been harder than usual lately??
@Marte i thought the exact same today
Tougher than usual Monday for me. Recently I’ve been getting Mondays without any help. But SMASH MOUTH? Wow, I absolutely know I’ve never heard of them. I still don’t get GEST. TALIA, LOOIE not easy. And the blue book sounds most mysterious. Doing this crossword on Sunday evening for the first time, when I was going to try and finish Sunday’s. Too late now!
@Jane Wheelaghan <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_book_exam" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_book_exam</a> TALIA Shire is an actress, sister of director Francis Ford Coppola.
@Jane Wheelaghan Traditionally, a composition book, a bound book of lined paper with a blue cover, was used when taking an essay exam in school.
@Jane Wheelaghan GEST looks like an Anglicised term. (Spellcheck wants a z here, but I'm using what I suppose is the UK version.) The Gesta Henrici Quinti (“Deeds of Henry the Fifth”) is an anonymous medieval Latin work, preserved in only two manuscripts now held by the British Library. . . The text is considered the best single contemporary narrative for the first three and a half years of Henry V’s reign Beau Geste is a 1939 American adventure film , based on the 1924 novel of the same title by P. C. Wren. It details the adventures of three English brothers who enlist separately in the French Foreign Legion.
@Jane Wheelaghan hey now, you’re a rock star.
Just felt the need to call out that things like "poesy," "gest," and "onek" (or the very similar "tenk") are extremely common in crossword puzzles. If you want to do crossword puzzles, great! But expect some of these words -- and others like "snee" and "yegg" -- to come up every so often. You'll learn them over time like the rest of us have.
@Kelli I think the issue is that they aren't (and shouldn't) be in a monday puzzle; i've been doing the crossword semi-consistently for almost a decade and I've never even seen that word, which checks out as its only been an answer 3 times this decade, and never before wednesday. I also think it's the combination of "obscure" words with pop culture references that are both 50+ years old and not remotely in the mainstream. I've never heard of "Bonzana" in my life! Let alone enough to know who the brother is. Again if this was a wednesday or later puzzle it would totally be fair game but for a Monday that seemed kind of crazy
Ryan B, This *is* a Wednesday.
@Kelli I've been doing the NYT puzzle every day for 10+years and if I've ever seen POESY in a single one of them I don't remember it
Eric, This is what you don't remember: 24 results for POESY from Modern Era puzzles: Repeated clues show (number of Modern Era occurrences). Date Grid Clue Author Editor Wed May 15, 2024 8D Burns books? (2) MaryEllen Uthlaut Fagliano Thu Sep 8, 2022 25A Verse (3) Matthew Stock Shortz Sun Oct 3, 2021 32A Art of verse Trenton Charlson Shortz Thu Nov 14, 2019 38D Frost bit? Alex Eaton-Salners Shortz Sun Aug 4, 2019 82A Verse, quaintly Will Nediger Shortz Fri May 31, 2019 42A Verse (3) Sam Ezersky Shortz
I wasn't very keen on "POESY". That struck me as a bit of laziness in the puzzle construction. A couple of dictionaries consider it archaic. If it absolutely had to be there, I'd rather see it clued as some kind of pun or word play on Edgar Allen Poe, though that might be a bit much for a Monday.
@Andrew Kennelly - POESY was better than GEST. At least I have vaguely heard of POESY. Or in the Midi puzzle, thinking that bowl games are played indoors in arenas. ARENA hasn't been used for outdoor games since the gladiators.
@Andrew Kennelly The puzzle itself felt dated.
For some reason my comment didn't show up this morning. This felt like a puzzle from the archives. Not because it was difficult, which it wasn't, but because so much of the fill seemed ancient. When I saw HOSS, I thought "Wow, now that's a flash from the past". Then, LIL referring to Abner? It went on from there. Yikes! Anyway, nice enough puzzle, just seemed a little dusty.
“Blue book event”, in my distant past, was more apt to be a grueling problem set in abstract algebra or differential equations. If you found yourself composing an ESSAY, or worse, POESY, it almost surely meant your understanding of the actual problem was all SCATTERSHOT, and would be graded accordingly.
11 (or so, I might have miscounted) names/titles on a Monday is diabolical.
Not to be pedantic but ... pretty sure the SPEC in contracts is short for Specification, not Specific...
It always saddens me when I see my fellow solvers complain about learning a new word. That's one of the joys of crosswords for me.
Pretty straightforward even with just acrosses (although being able to fill in the circles after the first two themers helped). A little pause with POESY vs POEMS but other than that smooth sailing!
Mostly a standard difficulty for a Monday puzzle. I was confused at the end with POESY instead of POEMS. I hadn't heard that term and something psychological stopped me from thinking NYT while I was working on an NYT crossword.
Ok, I get it: the puzzle seems dusty and dated to younger solvers. They're not wrong. Personally, it was a breeze for me, being 66 and all. But there are PLENTY of puzzles that contain equally high numbers of current pop culture clues, which can be tough on us older solvers. I repeat, plenty. In other words, over time, there is something for every type/age/experience level of solver. I'm glad when it hits my sweet spot, and I don't mean just easy. It can be challenging but have vocabulary I love to see, or a theme that piques my interest. I also love an esoteric arcana-filled puzzle once in a while. Embrace the diversity of puzzle land, learn something new, share your niche knowledge with your fellow puzzlers, and go with the word geek flow! (I won't pretend I've never made a negative comment, but honestly, they are few and far between!)
Sorry to be a negative nancy, but I’ve been solving the crossword for a couple years now and it seems to be really going downhill lately. How is this a Monday puzzle? What is POESY? LOOIE? REFI? INURE? APING? What is a derring-do? Not to mention the pop culture references being impossible to solve unless you’re 60
@Ryan I happen to be 60, and I’ll concede the point about the pop culture references (“Bonanza” was already in reruns by the time I saw it). I only learned LOOIE from other crosswords, and I’ll admit that POESY is a bit of a vocabulary test for a Monday. But neither INURE nor REFI strike me as obscure. And if you’ve been doing crosswords for a few years, you’ve almost certainly seen APING in some form, usually accompanied by (accurate, IMHO) complaints that it only ever appears in crosswords. I agree that this puzzle was both dated and more difficult than most Mondays, though.
@Ryan To compare, I’ve been doing the crossword for about 8 years and I got all of these; some I only see in crosswords, but that doesn’t bother me in a Monday puzzle. And POESY is a nice alternative to POEMS :)
@Ryan I did get APING immediately - but only because I feel that APE or APED appears at least once a week
LOOIE? POESY? ONEK? Not to mention the proper nouns. Fun theme but not a fan of some of these fills
@Alex Do you realize that it's ONE K, K for Kilometer? (Though I thought one kilometer was pretty far for a kids' "fun" run.)
Isn't there a cartoon character called SmashMouth SquashCourt? (Sucht witzel have I!)
I see a lot of complaints about POESY... "archaic", "never heard", "new to me", "more a (day of the week that isn't Monday)", etc. But Websters dictionary often helpfully includes recent appearances of a word with the entry for the definition. For POESY, they cite 2 from 2018 (Christian Science Monitor and Vogue), 1 from 2019 (Town & Country), and 1 from 2022 (Forbes). None of those citations are very old, nor are they from marginal or obscure publications. I, therefore, reject the complaints. (“Poesy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poesy" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/poesy</a>. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026).
@Grumpy And while I'm at it, there are several gripes about dated cultural references too. Sure Bonanza, Li'l Abner, Rhoda, and Nat King Cole haven't neen current for a while now, but somehow we never get the same pushback about Star Wars, Star Trek, Silent Spring, To Kill a Mockingbird, Opie (of Mayberry), Leave it to Beaver, Popeye, and so on. They're all well within living memory of many of us, so it seems like they should be in the same category. And nobody seems to mind references to the works of E.A. Poe, Mark Twain, (the US) founding fathers, Shakespeare, Aesop, Ovid, etc. etc. How many years is too many, but not yet enough?
POESY, GEST, and HOSS defeated me today. With only __AD I just couldn't seem to get to TOAD and I just completely blanked on the idea that I might know any media companies based in NYC. Oh, well!
Hi Sam, 1. Re: 69A. The [Contract detail, informally] is a SPEC, as in "specification" (not "specific"). 2. Isn't the illustration at the lead a day late?
@Barry Ancona -- [Little hopper] was the clue for TOAD in today's (Monday's) puzzle.
Lewis, I understand why Sam selected a Hopper, but the title of her selection is "Early Sunday Morning."
@Barry Ancona -- Oh! I just got it, your #2! You are right on the mark, and my apologies. First I got a big aha at the picture's tie to the column's title, and now the perfect chaser aha with your painting title observation. Thank you for that!
@Barry Ancona -- Hah! We posted simultaneously. I actually got your point #2 before reading your post explaining it.
Nice Monday puzzle. Typical slow start for me, but worked things out with some crosses, and finally catching on to the theme was also a big help. That's always a nice touch. And... SQUASHCOURT was a completely unfamiliar term and that was all working the crosses. No big deal. And of course my puzzle find. Just thought this one was kind of cute. A Tuesday from January 25, 2000 by William S. Cotter. Three theme clues and answers: "Dad says 'no'." WHENYOUGETOLDER "Dad says 'yes." JUSTTHISONETIME "Dad says 'maybe'" GOASKYOURMOTHER Here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/25/2000&h=39a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/25/2000&h=39a</a> ....
poem made from words in today’s puzzle…. a/ i am the bird the pretty little gold bird laughing on the painter’s stand here a word, here a word, here-a here-a, word-word am i home? i am, perhaps, i am i won’t ask again d/ hush all is praise hush all is skies hush a/ it’s a tree this time… a tree!
Is the slang term for a lieutenant in the British army a “lefty”?
As usual, I started at the bottom, quickly filling in the SE corner. Then, for some fun, I partially colored in the LOOIE's O's to create a pair of eyes kind of rolling up to view the rest of the puzzle... As I solved, I thought, "My, there are certainly a lot of O's in this puzzle!" I didn't bother to read the circled letters in the four rows until I finished and hunted down the puzzle's hint in the clues. Too bad they couldn't fit "GOOGLY EYES" in there! Nice Monday, guys.
@Mean Old Lady That's so cute that you did that! Made me smile. 👀
Some of these clues were a bit much for a Monday. I haven't had enough caffeine for this. Definitely felt more like a Tuesday.
How about some pop culture references that aren’t 50 years old next time.
I attempted the Across Only challenge with this one, but didn’t quite make it. I couldn’t come up with a guess for the spanner at 39A, and had no idea for the theme reveal because some of the related answers were wrong. Mistakes included: “indoor COURT” instead of SQUASH COURT, “gaslighted” instead of PSYCHED OUT, “bingo” instead of LOTTO, and “POEms” instead of POESY. Also, I spelled SHAUN with a “w”. Still, it was fun to try! I highly recommend it.
@Heidi I immediately put in gaslighted and poems, as well! When you do your all acrosses, do you go back and look at the down clues later?
@Heidi... I got most of the top 2 thirds plus most themers and the revealer on the first across path, so I also went for the Across challenge. And I did it! My second time succeeding at that. It's really hard to not peek over to the Down side.
I remember learning POESY as a child, reading a songbook with an English translation (as well as the original Italian) of a traditional song. This is the chorus: Hark, how the sailor's cry Joyously echoes nigh: Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia! Home of fair Poesy, Realm of pure harmony, Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia!
@Barry Ancona *That's* what you were reading as a child? Wow. Phenomenal. 🙌🏻
Been in the military almost 20 years, never called an LT a Looie - perhaps its an Army thing? Not the easiest Monday, but a finished onek, nonetheless.
@A-A-Ron -- Former Navy LT here: I never heard "Looie" either.
@A-A-Ron Not in my Army; it was always ell tee.
@A-A-Ron I was a lieutenant in the Park View Elementary school sixth grade patrol boys, and nobody ever called me looie.
RHODA x GEST x HOSS was a choice. A word that hasn't been used in a century and 2 TV shows that have been off air for half a century all crossing was ... disappointing.
@Charles...... "Bonanza" reruns are still running.
What a difficult Monday! First time in awhile I've had to get help with an answer. Felt more like a Wednesday to me!
Words like poesy and gest should be required to have some indication that the answer is archaic. These words haven't been used at all, nevermind commonly, for centuries.
Normally when there are proper names in the grid I’m lost, but I must be showing my age because both HOSS, TAHLIA and RHODA were gimmes. A bit chewier than the average Monday, but I enjoyed the fill.
earworm, for the LOUIE spelling :D <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZJ4ESU52U" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZJ4ESU52U</a> or Brother Louie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW7HmK6rEKY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW7HmK6rEKY</a> or King Louie <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwTClRr1x6g" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwTClRr1x6g</a> I'm shot. Gonna go mosey into some poesy. Brought home my mother's old books of classic poems.
@Linda Jo Brother Louis is the one that came to me. ;-) (Haven't listened to it since the 1970's!)
@Linda Jo TIL that the version of Brother Louie i knew from teendom was not the original. I know the Story version of the song. <a href="https://youtu.be/VD5xF1nKzI8?si=3EwRpcZ1-acEHeGc" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/VD5xF1nKzI8?si=3EwRpcZ1-acEHeGc</a>