Leontion
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California
I confess that as a full time working mom, having an extra seasonal cookie sales job was just one straw too many. I was glad to be at their various sports practices, band camp volunteering, etc, but somehow the thought of cookie season made me want to cry. So I cheated, lol! I bought a reasonable number of boxes myself, so she wouldn't be embarrassed, and we took all but one box to a local nursing home and a homeless shelter. Then we sat in the car and laughed about our clever scheme while eating Thin Mints. I haven't thought about that in years-- a sweet memory!
Wondering if I was the only one who found out BIG KAHUNA also fit as head honcho? Fixed it pretty quickly but AYEAYE threw me off longer. Yeah, read the clue next time lol! Fun puzzle!
I didn't mind having an easier Thursday puzzle today, especially because I worked it at the end of a trying Wednesday. I was just going about my work when a parent let her cute preschooler practically climb in my lap. Which would've been fine except several minutes in, she mentioned the child who had just rubbed her hair on my sweater had untreated head lice 😂. I mean... it would have been nice to know I was INJEOPARDY beforehand. Talk about a JUMPscare! So I am recovering from having to bag my favorite work sweater for 2 weeks and put a noxious smelling OTC glop all over my hair, while trying not to imagine I feel something crawling on me. Lol. My ATP was about spent but now I feel renewed!
Fun puzzle! But Ash Carter deserved more than to be called trivia. Please read his remarks on the decision to include transgender people in the military. A wisdom we are now lacking. <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech/Article/821833/remarks-on-ending-the-ban-on-transgender-service-in-the-us-military" target="_blank">https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech/Article/821833/remarks-on-ending-the-ban-on-transgender-service-in-the-us-military</a>/
I've heard of beer pong but finding out beer darts is a thing explains a lot about the state of ... reality. From now on when I read the news, I will remind myself "we are the species who invented beer darts", and life will make more sense.
@SP lol, fellow ped here and I never thought of trying to bribe those preemies with future ice cream, brilliant even if it didn't work. I used to show tunes (or the risk of them) to get my kids to stop fighting in the car when they were little. Worked like a charm. I didn't even reprimand them, just launched into song. "Nooo, mom, please don't sing "The Hills Are Alive" again, we'll stop"!
@Brandon it's ok to look things up when you need to! Or use a thesaurus. Or... holler out to a family member. I try not to use the exact wording of the clue but instead read an article on the topic or look at a map. For instance, I was thinking THOM but looked at an image of the signatures and realized my error.
@Cat Lady Margaret from the only time I drove in NYC: | X X X | | X HXx | | H X X | | X XXX | The H is for random hot dog vendors suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and nobody seems to be in an actual lane. But eventually I got where I was going lol. Next time I'll take a cab and close my eyes!
Face-palmed when it hit me that "Oatey" was my mistake. I kept trying to imagine Kramer saying "hello yew man" and wondering if I had missed a key episode. It still sounds like something he would say.
@B no, it has been the convention for several years now to shorten the combos of two pronoun sets to two words instead of 4. The additional words are implied-- it's not really confusing. This is normal in introductions both socially and at work. You can also use more, such as he/they/she, for someone who uses three sets. And it's considered good manners to make an effort to switch between those at times (but not incorrect to only use one). My pronouns are she/they.
The first time through, I thought Vermeer's bit of gear was "MIRRORS"-- maybe someone will use that one day, lol. This was a fun puzzle! When I started these the rebuses annoyed me, but now I like them. So when I got to the 1215 agreement, I said ha, ITSON then!
Jamais vu I got immediately, only because it happened to me once over 10 yrs ago and I looked it up because it was so weird. I was driving home from a chorus practice at night, and suddenly the very familiar street looked like somewhere I had never been. It lasted all of 10-15 seconds, just long enough to be freaky. I was afraid something neurological had happened, like a TIA, but I felt fine and it never happened again!
@Steve L fortunately there were Greeks who knew these myths were stories, just as there are people today who know the Christian Bible is stories (and poetry). But whatever is wrong with stories? They're a big part of what makes us human. I was raised atheist and my parents taught us myths from many cultures. As it happens, they told us the story of Echo right at the Grand Canyon!
I convinced myself there must be a tradition of funeral lyres and was considering whether I ought to stick that in my death paperwork. Because I had nil first, not ZIP. But maybe I'll add lyres in there anyway just to give myself an air of postmortem mystery-- "what on earth was she thinking? Why lyres? What else didn't we know?" Ha! Fun puzzle! But I don't understand 54 A. I know it rhymes, but why is it apt?
@Anonymous First, a public forum is never a Wendy's unless you make it so. Second, it's never too soon for human rights, but bigots always think it is -- no matter how long you wait. The myth of a right time for justice is deadly-- it never comes. It is created by repeated acts of justice.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight I had excise at first, which fit perfectly but didn't work out! "Excise" is to remove a portion of a organ. Such as removing a tumor from the lung. "Resect" (which also fits the space and definition) means to remove an entire organ-- a cholecystectomy is a resection of the gallbladder. Although "ablate" is used for destruction of tissue (such as by burning or abrading it) rather than excision (where you'd have something to send to pathology lab), it's still gone afterwards-- so it HAS been removed. One definition of remove in my Webster's is simply "to get rid of", and remove is not a specialist term. Just not removed by cutting, and since the clue didn't specify cutting... it's accurate even by specialist rules. I am a physician.
@Thomas they typically come as more than one on a plate. Same as spaghetti. Would you say spaghetti must be described as "dinners" bc it's more than one noodle?
Fun! HOTPOCKET fit in the microwave bfast and RAMENNOODLES in the dorm room, but fortunately my goofs didn't last too long. I have no idea why Hot Pockets came to mind-- I've never even eaten one. I usually eat beans and greens for breakfast, my own weird habit. Must have been Jim Gaffigan whispering in my ear! <a href="https://youtu.be/N-i9GXbptog?si=akvruc7lwf3NKmsG" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/N-i9GXbptog?si=akvruc7lwf3NKmsG</a>
@replay I wondered if "brief" applied to the acronym, not the nature of the hookup
@Marshall Walthew as a doc, I withhold details from anyone not authorized by HIPAA-- I was thinking it was attorney-client privilege until I realized the double meaning. We both maintain confidentiality as a big part of the job.
Enjoyed it! And a little faster than my avg Tuesday even though TMI instead of EWW held me up for a hot minute. Once on a 5 hr drive to ATL from North Alabama, I taught myself to yodel using a CD of "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" The trick is overcoming all that practice smoothing over vocal register breaks and imagine running right at them, like little speed bumps that launch you into the air. It's so much fun! By the time I pulled up to my hotel, I had it down. I can still sing Rambling Bob with all the frills! Any fellow yodelers out there?
@Francis great story! Lol, I can't imagine my dad or any of his colleagues being good business for sex workers. I suspect my dad would have been confused as to what they wanted. The whole image makes me giggle. I get my nerd streak from him. I think my dad was dangerous on the handball court-- he and all the others constantly had their glasses taped up from various accidents playing ball. We are all klutzes. My mom was a mathematician. I was the first to go into a biological field, and my dad was very skeptical about the whole thing. When I told him I was adding a PhD in Immunology, he said he didn't understand biological research at all-- too full of confounding variables. He didn't see it as a hard science. After decades of work, I think he wasn't wrong! Interesting to know your background in science. I enjoy your comments here, and I'm watching your occupation situation with much angst. I told a friend today it's like waiting for the Eye of Sauron to land on us, while we try to pitch in with our small efforts, hoping it will add up to something.
@john ezra way back when I was a broke student, there was no way I was about to waste part of my grocery $ on foil or plastic wrap. I just stuck a plate on top of the bowl. Not air tight but close enough. Now there are all those silicon lid snap-on containers but now and then I still grab a plate.
In my hometown there's a field beside an elementary school where one day someone will be puzzled that every single rock has been broken open. Just in case it was a geode, lol!
Somehow convinced myself that "FORGETM" was a short for "aw, forget 'em" ... because it's Thursday. Lol. But then remembered SADD! Fun puzzle!
It was all worth "Pan in the butt" lol. Wish I had figured what that meant on my own!
Funny that my brain fart today resulted in "blasked" because I initially put "Soho"... perfect place to get momentarily confused! On another note, enjoying what I hope is an intentional gathering of words like FATCAT, NABOB, SEDITION, and maybe even MARIO. Or it could just be my version of seeing a face in burned toast.
Fastest Friday time! Briefly stumped trying to think of a toy with "KA_E" because I had "ACEDIT". But then I ICEDIT!
Fun! The MATRYOSHKADOLLS took me on a TIMEMACHINE back to when I was in college, in 1985-- I was a Russian minor. It was the only language that would fit in my heavy pre-med lab schedule the first semester, and I stuck with it. My fiancé and I wanted to take a summer course with our professor to the then USSR, and my parents said they'd pay for that or our wedding. I think it was $2k apiece. We chose the trip, of course, and it was fantastic! The famous landmarks but also the people. Met a couple of Russian med students and hung out with them while they pointed out the KGB cars. Drank homemade bathtub cherry vodka in the apartment of a refusnik pediatrician and got her some groceries at the tourist shop she wasn't allowed to enter. Learned not to speak Russian in the Lithuanian shops. Took a bus through the Caucasus mtns driven by a man drunk on grappa-- gorgeous and terrifying! I am sad for the Russian people suffering under Putin, the ones who oppose him. I got my wedding dress at the mall for $80, my dad took our photos, and we had cake with a few friends-- just fine. We divorced after 33 yrs when he had a new understanding of himself, but we are friends and he still has the matryoshka dolls we brought back!
I could never forget those Erlenmeyer flasks after my klutzy hands broke so many in organic chem lab that my physicist father almost cried at the bill 😭.
@FJC I think you missed my point. I wasn't unsure of the singular words. I was saying neither is typically served in singular form but each would still be considered one staple on a menu. An order of 3 cannoli wouldn't be called "desserts" and a plate of spaghetti wouldn't be called "dinners". The clue is fine!
@acjones that's not true. There are better meds now for treatment but that's a disproven conspiracy theory. I am a pediatrician and we still use it with very high success as part of protecting newborns from vertical transmission (from their mothers). AZT saved some of my coworkers from getting HIV from accidental needle-sticks when we were in training-- it used to be post exposure prophylaxis.
@Derek I'm peds and I was trying to make it a rebus to get dermis in, but fortunately gave up
@Francis but don't you want to be sure the car in front is moving before you start? How would proper following distance be established and maintained? That's my pet peeve-- 99% of traffic problems would be gone if everyone kept the correct following distance, and yes, I made that up. Just imagine-- easy zipper merging because there's room, no rear-end collisions, no multi car pile-ups... traffic utopia!
Sometimes I feel really in sync with a puzzle, so that even if it comes easily, it's still fun and satisfying-- this was one of those. Thanks! I have always loved dad jokes.
Ha, NANA confused me for a minute-- funny, considering I am a new grandma, to a sweet and snuggly 6 week old! My grandma name is Mimi, but we will see what she does with it. I can already tell she's going to do the crosswords with me!
When I'm teaching med students, I tell them what my former dean always said. Occam's razor says a single diagnosis that explains most of the symptoms is usually right. But then there's Hickam's Dictum: "the patient can have as many diagnoses as he damn well pleases"! Keep both in mind.
@SP that's almost right. A genome is an individual organism's entire genetic material-- even though it can be used more loosely as in the human genome project, it doesn't typically refer to a species level property. So clones would share a genome. Genotype is used to refer to an individual organism's version of a specific genetic sequence-- not to the whole genome. Clones would also share all the same genotypes. Then gene set, as you say, is a collection of genes related by function. Which clones would have in common, because each gene set is a subset of their identical genomes.
@Matt my kids loved Babar, and we still use the Spanish rhino's line "uno, dos, tres, charge!" when about to take on a challenge!
Fun, quick puzzle! And a funny moment wondering if those dating show men could be lunks or punks lol. The mini today though, whew. I haven't ever had to do a lookup on a mini before but finally had to cave. Perfect combo of 4/5 cultural references outside of my lane plus a two line vague cross clue. Probably just me though.
@Khurram because it was not a rebus?
Had to FACEREALITY today and peek at solution for bottom middle... which then all seemed obvious of course! My excuse is that yesterday morning I had to go to the ER for what turned into an unexpected emergency appendectomy and am still a little ACHY. Apparently this is unusual in people in their 60's. But on the good side, now I have an extra day off work to finish reading my book club novel!
The BBQ side dish reminded me of decades ago when the best place around (I will start a debate here) was Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In the beginning they not only didn't have side dishes but would look at you like you were raised by wolves if you asked. They would provide sliced white bread but that's all. Anything else besides the meat and sauce was basically sacrilegious.
@Robin career is correct! I have definitely seen it used but not often. Never really thought about the fact there were two similar words, so I am glad to have that brought out. I got curious to see if they had a similar etymology-- nope! And career was first. If you're interested in more, I found this <a href="https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2019/06/career-careen.html" target="_blank">https://grammarphobia.com/blog/2019/06/career-careen.html</a>
@Alex I'm also a doc and no, not inaccurate at all bc "remove" is not a medical term. The dictionary definition of "remove" is "to get rid of", not "cut out a piece of tissue and send to path" lol. An ablation definitely gets rid of tissue. And a good crossword should take advantage of definitions in a clever way, which this did.
@Isabeau I am in Humboldt and it's only 56 F at 8:15 pm. Don't even own an AC. But if I drive 1-2 hrs east -- so hot!
@Helen Wright everyone I have ever met who "puts up" their garden food in jars calls it "canning"... I haven't ever heard them say "I jarred my tomatoes yesterday", for instance. I grew up mostly in Alabama so maybe regional? But somehow I never thought about that until seeing your comment! Interesting! Here's an article about safe canning that says it refers to using jars or cans but I haven't seen home cooks use cans. <a href="https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can" target="_blank">https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can</a> Canning - National Center for Home Food Preservation
I got Lois Lowry and Lois Lensky mixed up for a hot minute... Strawberry Girl fits exactly (though of course written decades earlier) and was a favorite of mine as a kid. Which made me think "Raisin, Strawberry... what does a pilot say about fruit?🧐 Made for a funny detour but then I sorted it out.
@SP I'm a pediatrician too ... maybe this clue will flush us all out lol. Everyday word in our world that I hadn't even thought of as obscure. But maybe it is!
@John Daly it helps if you massage it