BarbWho
Rochester, NY
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Rochester, NY
A 500 day streak - Yay me! I had only one lookup, the inventor of Pepsi. Either Wednesdays are getting easier, I'm getting better at the crossword, or this one just hit my literary sweet spot. Probably a combination of practice and a good theme for me.
Fun puzzle. I had been doing the "Easy Mode" Fridays, but I find that I prefer the challenge of the regular clues, even if I have to look some things up. That's how you learn, right?
Fun Monday puzzle. Not quite a personal best time, but close. And best of all it was Day 365 in my current (and longest) streak! Yay me!
Super fun, quick puzzle. A new PB for me. I was kind of hoping there would turn out to be a PacMan theme. Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. That would have made it perfect.
A very fun puzzle today! And a new personal best for me. Yay!
Fun puzzle, no lookups. Day 450 of my streak and a personal best for a Tuesday! Yay!
@Mean Old Lady I agree on GAG REELS. Unfortunately for me "bloopers" also fit, which is what I would say those things are usually called.
I realized pretty quickly that there had to be a rebus element (PING/PONG), but I was on my phone in bed last night and couldn't remember how to do it on a mobile device. So I figured I would just keep going, filling in as much as I could and do the rebuses in the morning. Imagine my surprise when I got the happy music just by filling in the crosses and leaving out the extra letters! Great puzzle, quick and fun, and I am patting myself on the back for recognizing the rebuses and getting all the tricky clues before looking at the Wordplay column.
Fun puzzle, got the theme without hints. But I spent way too much time thinking you could train cats to detect bombs rahter the eaily trainable RATs. Can you imagine? It would give the expression "herding cats" a whole new meaning.
Loved this puzzle. Better than average solve time, with no look-ups!
@Divs My problem was that the "rhyming game" clue led me to believe it was some kind of word game. I had heard of jai alai as a sport, but couldn't see how it worked with the clue. I finally got it from the crosses.
Easy and fun! Got it with no lookups or checking the revealer. Not a personal best time, but close. Go me!
I had ShaGS way too long before realizing it had to be SNOGS. Other than that snag, this one was easy and fun. I got the CALIFORNIA ROLLS without getting cities, but it was fun to go back and admire the cleverness.
You kids! Get off my lawn! I'm old, so this tripped me up for way too long. Although, admittedly, get off my CASE is kind of an older usage, too.
@RozzieGrandma It's like the old joke about the nativity scene in the South where the Wise Men are dressed as firefighters. When asked why, the creator said, Well, they come from a far, didn't they?
Fun puzzle! Personal best time for me and no lookups, so it was doubly excellent.
@Janet I had the same thing happen to me. I did all the others, got the completion music and "TROLL" just appeared. I'm sure I didn't type in the rebus for that one. I guess it was a Halloween treat!
@Andrzej It was DES(DEMON)A that clued me in on that one! I was scratching my head, thinking maybe Othello had a nickname for her, but then I rememberd it was a Thursday - rebus day!
ENCORE was my last fill-in, which was very appropriate for a very fun and nicely challenging puzzle. More from Ms. Miller, please! ENCORE, indeed!
Fun and fast. A new personal best for me, and with no look-ups! Go me!
@Kev 3000! Wow! That's over 8 years. Now that's dedication! I'm happy that this was 500 for me.
@Francis I mix up MONET and Manet too,but my ONEIL mixup us with Oneal! English spelling is so weird. Why should Neal, Neil and kneel all be pronounced the same?
@Jeff B MD Mick! Mick! Speak English!
@Amy Ithink it's supposed to look like the thick edges of a stuffed crust pizza.
@Anthony Interestingly, in the original books, the Wicked Witch of the West doesn't have a name, so the author of Wicked made up Elphaba based on L. Frank Baum. El-pha(rank)-ba(um). Maybe that helps with pronunciation?
@Chris I had JFK for a while rather than RFK, but once battle came into focus, I couldn't imagine the NYT allowing a slur like that.
A rare Thursday done with no lookups and not even reading the Wordplay column first! This was definitely a fun one. I hate rebuses,no metter how clever. Upside words I can live with as long as they're spelled correctly. And only a few minutes over my average time. Yay me!
Fun puzzle today. Got it all with no look-ups and without reading the Gameplay column first. Very happy when I got the keyboard trick. Yay!
@Mike But do you wear your TANKINI?
A fun puzzle with no look-ups for me! Decent time, too.
@Sarah This is a problem with the elves in Iceland, too. From what I've read, they resemble Tolkien's elves - tall, slender and beautiful. Apparently, enough people either believe in them or are at least willing to entertain the possibility, that roads, houses, etc, have to be built away from their known habitats and dwelling places.
@Cindy I love that video with Chevy Chase. It leans just enough into Chevy Chase's obnoxious persona to still be really funny. And the song is great, too.
@Convoid-04 I thought it was "grave." But no, it was a cute one!
What a fun puzzle! Did very well, despite having to look up a couple of sports things as usual. It was #200 in my current streak. And "Gladly, the cross-eyed bear" reminded me of my father, although the hymn he used to always cite was "The Rugged Cross-Eyed Bear." Admittedly, he might have mixed up the Old Rugged Cross with Gladly. He also used to snicker over what he called the Garment Worker's Hymn - "How Firm a Foundation." He's been gone many years now and this was a sweet memory of a wonderful man.
I'm not complaining, but I thought I broke my streak by missing Saturday's puzzle, but when I went to do it today, it said it was unbroken. I had it open in a tab, but hadn't started it yet. Is this some kind of hack? It happened once before with a Saturday puzzle. Other times I've lost my streak if I start late and don't finish by midnight. I'm not as devoted to long streaks as I used to be. They can become a tyranny. Now I just enjoy the puzzles and if I miss one, I just go back and fill it in.
This was a very fun puzzle, but I got seriously tripped up by that PESKY fly! I spent way to long trying to "pesty" to make sense with the crosses.
@Barry Ancona Well, we used to call the city of Erie, Dreary Erie, or the Mistake on the Lake, so maybe it's appropriate.
@Ιασων Yes, tripped up again by my egg-headed knowledge of ancient languages. AORTAS is just wrong.
@Jacqui J Cheese plate fit too, but of course it made everything else confusing and wrong, so BOARD it had to be. ALISONBRIE was my entre into the solve and it was smooth going from there.
Pretty good time for me today. Only held up by SOFAtent rather than SOFAFORT. Oddly, having never read the books or seen the movies, I still knew it was ESME Cullen. One of those factoids that's just in the pop culture air, I guess.
@Jerry Elijah Wood and Daniel Radcliffe. One was Frodo and the other was Harry Potter, but I always get them mixed up.
@Nora But what about the three shells?
@Michael D I always check the blog first on Thursdays, too. Mostly to find out if there's a rebus, because I find that my chance of figuring out a rebus without a clue is nil. Other tricky types of puzzles I can sometimes suss out, but rebuses are generally a no go for my little brain. I did OK with today's trick, and it helped that most of the down clues were relatively easy.
@Mean Old Lady Childish Gambino is the stage name of Donald Glover. I don't think he's using it much any more.
@Joe P It was el roi holding things up for me. Once I switched to LE ROI, that corner fell into place.
@Nancy I knew the queen's name, but I listened to the audio books, so I didn't know how to spell it!
@Mariavictoria C Go I think if you contact the tech support people, they can restore your streak. I've heard of that happening when people have technical problems.
@Librarian My father could never resist mentioning the Garment Worker's hymn - How Firm a Foundation!
@Marty A PB for me, too! Fun, relatively easy solve for a Thursday. No rebuses or other mean tricks.
@The X-Phile Maybe it's because it's so late that I'm this pzzle, but your comment just struck me as hilarious. Actual tears came out of my eye balls. Both Ball 1 and Ball 2! Thanks for the laugh. I needed it.