Joy

Oof… that was a ROUGH Tuesday! Totally not in my wheelhouse- seemed to be a lot of Star Trek and sports trivia, which is like a foreign language to me. Hardest Tuesday for me in a long time…way above my average. I found it hard to find a foothold and I didn’t understand the theme, even after I got the revealer. Oh well…on to Wednesday! Hopefully it’ll be easier on me.

I am all for this!!! One of my best Sunday and I have the Olympic theme to thank for it. As I typically solve Sundays the first go-around online in just the “clue” form, I was slower because I didn’t catch onto the color “help” right away. Once I switched back into normal view, I solved much faster. As a huge Olympic nut, I loved the imagery of this, as well as the ingenious and fun clueing, of the theme! Oddly enough, I got stuck on the “revealer” clue, which I kept returning to OLYMPICring instead of the real answer. Still solid and loved the nod to my favorite tile of year (despite the negativity- I love the ideal that the world can come together to compete and love one another/support another through some of our most poignant and powerful times in a life. One only needs to look at the times we have as a human race have congratulated and consoled each other during the Games to know that all is not lost.

Slightly disappointed in myself for not picking up on the puzzle theme more quickly. Like many others, I saw Frost and went straight to “less travelled,” even though I read this poem only about a month or two ago when helping a student with their homework. Still stuck on 7 and 8 down, though, and I’m at a loss! Hoping I can get it done…very proud of myself when I got 20 across right away. I also don’t know whether to be upset or glad that Deb’s column didn’t actually help me at all (though always entertaining) because I got all the “tricky” clues! I think after a few years, I’m definitely picking up on the misdirects.

I petition that the Gray Lady finally adopt the Oxford (SERIAL) comma! I learned many years ago that the reason that they didn’t was because someone ran the numbers back in the day and realized they could save money on ink by omitting it. While I don’t know for sure, I’d wager that most subscriptions are digital, and therefore ink cost isn’t as crucial for them anymore. Bring on clarity and consistency! As for the puzzle, I thought it was cute! I struggled with some of the theme words, and not always consistently (didn’t remember what HELLO in Chinese is, but got MAHJONG before BRIDGE), but was able to get the revealer on the first pass thanks to having enough crosses. POTHEADS made me chuckle and I wasn’t sure if it was right at first…

Dear Deb, I came here looking for help…and boy did I find something else, and yet something akin to help. I’m so sorry for your loss, but having gone through almost exactly what you went through- a few years prior- I can empathize (down to holding hands until very end). However, unlike your father who gave you the gift of crossword joy, my father (for still some unfathomable reason) did not care for crosswords. Anytime I would shout out a clue I didn’t know, but thought for sure he would know, I’d get either an answer, a question as to why I wasn’t solving the thing by myself, or both. What made this all the more mysterious to me as to why he didn’t seem to enjoy crossword puzzles was this was the very man who instilled in me a love of words and literature and the power of knowledge (and many other invaluable lessons and incredible memories of what it means to be a loving and caring parent). So, without having even gotten to the “tricky clues” portion, thank you Deb for bringing your wit and wisdom and thank you for your father for creating that special bond that brought you to all of us who look forward to your column every week!

I don’t get all the hate today…and I had a hard time figuring out the theme. Sadly, had to come here to figure it out (GRADEINFLATION made sense, but I stupidly thought that JFK was talking about the “ides,” not the EDGE- with the date in the clue “confirming” my guess)- and WOW to see Will on the byline! Deb will be missed, but it was cool to see him pop up! Loved the idea of the theme, especially personally having seen the world of grade inflation besmirch the name of education…but for some reason still struggled today with the actual trick of the revealer (didn’t think it was a rebus, bit couldn’t figure it out, idiotically), and just had too many wrong answers that seemed right. I think it was my headspace today, as work was a nutty day and my brain is fried. A real shame, because I think I could have really embraced this puzzle if I were thinking straight…especially since Thursdays are becoming, if they aren’t already, my favorite day for puzzles. When I finally did get the theme, it flowed better, but I still got stuck in the northwest corner. C’est la vie. This one is on me, not the constructors (and I think we could be on the same wavelength, anyway). Hopefully I’ll get to see more from them so I can properly enjoy their work!

Gosh, do I love me a rebus (now that I know how to find one…for the most part)! Surprised to see one on a Wednesday, but I thought the timing was perfect…was this moved up a day on purpose to fit with the intense heat we’ve been having (at least on LI) for the past 3 days (with predictions of it breaking tomorrow)? MAGNACARTA was my foothold into the rebus trick, although it took me a few more rounds to get the right phrase for the revealer. A few misdirects and figuring out exactly where the other rebuses were sent me a few minutes above my Wednesday average, but well worth it for a rebus surprise treat!

Once I’ve figured out the revis trick, I do enjoy solving a puzzle with it in there. I feel like I haven’t seen a true “rebus” in a while, so this was a pleasant surprise for me. And surprise indeed! That it was a Wednesday was definitely notable (and I figured would garner a lot of comments…), but I thought it was easy enough to catch onto…however, that’s because I’m experienced enough to know when to pick up on the trick. Call me CRAYCRAY, but I loved it (even if a HS student of mine told me to “never say that again”)!

Woof…that was tough. Definitely felt hard to get in anything through the first pass through. All I had were a few suffixes and a guess at AUSTEN something-S (upon second pass through guessed at ITE). The downs were “easier” in the first. Had to resort to some lookups for trivia’s sake (I really felt I should have known ASH CARTER, but others were new to me- MR LONELY and GALOIS), then the column, but surprisingly went through the rest of it quite easily. Still have no idea what the heck THE BARTMAN is, and I lived through the 90s…the only Bart I know of is Simpson, but I wasn’t a fan of the show, and comics superhero doesn’t make me think of a cartoon show. I didn’t read through all of the comments yet, but if someone could explain that to me, I’d appreciate it. Additionally, I love the link from the columnist for the Jane-ites vs. Austenites branches of adoration!

It took me waaaaay too long to figure out that instead of an equal sign that I couldn’t find on the keyboard for the app just to type in the word “EQUALS” in the rebus. And then it took me even LONGER to figure out that the y’s I was supposed to be turning into x’s was in the clue not the answer. I’m bummed because it was such a cute theme and I could have enjoyed it more (and gotten some of those answers must faster) had I been a bit more with it today. Not to mention I also had Chris Rock for the SNL clue for most of the puzzle that got me stuck in the northwest. Sorry to Mr. REDD (and any of his fans), I have no idea who you are… and one thing that I still don’t understand is the clue for 9A. I was able to deduce the answer from crosses, but I really don’t understand the clue at all. “Catch dead to rights”??? What is it asking? Can someone kindly educate me? Other than my own sticking points, I really did enjoy it, especially when I figured out the directions for the theme! Those clues were super cute.

This was a fun one! I especially liked the crossing of SAINT and SINFUL and the dual clueing of “often-discarded part of a fruit (though, sadly for me SEED was not the correct answer for either and lost me some time and caused some confusion). The last of the theme entries I had was CRIBNOTES, surprisingly enough as a teacher. I typically do call them cheat sheets for my students, but as soon as I was able to parse it together, crib notes struck a vaguely familiar chord. Fun theme and some good clues that made me think. Great Tuesday!

A Disney reference crossing with a football reference? UHUH! Talk about my Achilles heel… probably should’ve have deduced KNEE, but that was definitely the last to fall for me and needed to run the alphabet to get that N there. Cute puzzle otherwise!

I should have picked up Étoile earlier than I did…disappointed in myself, not only because I took French in HS, but also I’ve fallen in love with the Amazon show of the same name!

I’m still stuck on how SNOT is an alternative to “tisn’t.” I tried look back in the comments, but couldn’t find an answer. It seems like everyone is in on this clueing but me. :( any help is appreciated!