Jack

Any puzzle that mentions my favorite astrophysicist *and* makes me do the Macarena is automatically in my all time favorites. The personal best I got is just icing on the cake.

True story: my friend had hip pain for years, despite physical therapy, massages, etc it kept coming back. A new doctor told her to try these shoe inserts, she was very skeptical. "I've done everything, and he thinks some inserts will really be the difference?" A few weeks later, I followed up with her. "How's your hip since using the inserts?" "Well, surprisingly, they actually have helped my hip pain. It's all but gone now." "Ah," I said, seizing the opportunity, "it looks like you stand corrected." I'm not usually so quick on my feet, so the memory of delivering that punch line in real time will forever stick with me. It was a pleasure to see it in this puzzle, and the puzzle was an all around joy to solve. Thank you Mr. Hogan and Ms. Hale for a wonderful Sunday.

I read a book about Phillis Wheatley in the summer before 7th grade, and though it's been over 15 years, when I saw the clue, her name and story came flooding back to me. I'm grateful to see her mentioned so that I can revisit her story and her work. Hopefully it inspires many others to do the same! Even though I got that clue, I found the puzzle quite a challenge, albeit one I really enjoyed.

My first Saturday ever without lookups! Took my sweet time with it, and honestly it was a bit of luck because my pre-coffee thought for 45A was “wouldn’t it be funny if it was TSWIZZLE?” And found it fit, so left it…. was totally surprised to find it was right! I didn’t even know she was person of the year, but it tracks. Maybe I’ll buy a lotto ticket… but now I’ve probably JINXedIT.

& a great game tonight for 25D!