Art F
NJ
I knew the sock answer wouldn't be as simple as 'foot' on a Thursday, so threw myself off assuming it must be a Red Hot Chili Peppers reference.
Erm, the theme, no problem. The puzzle as a whole, one of the easier Thursdays I thought. But SHORT I ? How is that a 'clicking sound'? Consonants click, not vowels, and not that answer.
@Nancy Sculerati MD I'm curious too; were you annoyed that the constructor didn't have knowledge of more cannabis strains or something?
Ian : Scotland :: Iain : Wales The answer the puzzle calls for is an outright lie compared to this. There isn't even a 'V' in the Welsh language! Better clues, please.
@John There's Philly and then there's a specific area of South Philly where you can get a 'wit whiz' or whatever. It definitely applies to cheese whiz there which is why I originally filled in 'whizz' out of confusion. Everywhere else in Philly, the vendors and restauranteurs have the common decency to use real cheese.
@Fabio Juliano I don't know about rules, but it definitely made it trickier that phrases like ROLLSEYES and SHOOTSHOOPS fit in those squares
This one started so easy including the theme, but attempts to win without lookups were impossible. I love GARI but didn't know the word, don't know Paul PENA, had MYSIA instead of LYDIA, didn't know that UNIX came from Bell, and thought of tons of barn items but not PAILS. That whole corner was just doom.
That clue for 'acer' is just plain wrong as far as I can tell. An Acer is a company and an acer is some sort of tree, but I couldn't find that definition anywhere. I even checked the Urban Dictionary and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_tennis_terms" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_tennis_terms</a>
I guess I'm opposite to all the frustrated peoples below... I figured out the jjookkee very quickly, but got stymied on all the stuff I didn't want to look up in the corners and sides. For example, I didn't expect 'sets' to be a plural and due to the wording of the clue and spent too much time trying to think of a four letter word for 'setting/locale/location-as-character'
Argh, the theme was simple and the puzzle well done, 90% completed in 20 minutes... But I never heard of an oast and had snow for 'down' so the lower left corner wrecked me, and I ran short of time and had to give up on solving without help, especially since I was stranded on an islet.
@James I'm guessing that there were not a lot of Cecil Adams fans filling out this puzzle. Just another instance where print media has lost to YouTube I guess. (The Straight Dope was like Answers With Joe)
@Charles That messed me up a bit because I had penciled in PAL instead of MAC, which means I had to duck the PEKING that my brain was trying to make for that river
@RJ That's probably because we don't go to the circus or carnivals anymore. Not as many roustabouts and rowdies.
Ugh, got it except the North. Bon mot? Bon vie? Jake certainly didn't help considering I haven't read that in a book taking place after the 1920s.
I guess someone needs to make a gluttony puzzle now, because those (bleh?) competitive eaters also wolf down their food.
I assume EDT was there as a reminder that Tennis nerds were the original reason for Daylight Savings Time?
@Dvdmgsr Agreed, I hate MACS, and thought maybe it was something like SKIS until that word came up later. After solving the puzzle, I figured out it must be some kind of program, but even Google was stumped when I tried searching on Tahoe without 'Mac' involved ""Tahoe" most commonly refers to Lake Tahoe, a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains, but it can also refer to several other things, such as the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, the USS Tahoe naval ship, or the Virginia and Truckee Railroad's "The Tahoe" locomotive. The name "Tahoe" is a mispronunciation of the Washoe word Da ow a ga, meaning "edge of the lake". Common disambiguations for "Tahoe" Lake Tahoe: A large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada straddling the California-Nevada border. Its name is a mispronunciation of the Washoe word Da ow a ga. Chevrolet Tahoe: A full-size SUV manufactured by Chevrolet. The Tahoe (locomotive): A 2-6-0 steam locomotive that operated on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad. USS Tahoe (CM-2): A former United States Navy minelayer. Tahoe airports: Several airports in the region are named after the lake, such as Reno-Tahoe International Airport, Truckee-Tahoe Airport, and Lake Tahoe Airport. "
@ACDC Oxford (though not in the OED itself) defines 'tactic' : an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end. Strategies and Tactics also show up as synonyms in thesauri. (Actually, Stratagem is a synonym of Tactic and Strategy is a synonym of Tactics). I think that the problem here is that everybody feels the need to get pedantic over the difference between micro and macro if they have ever been on a war or planning council of any kind of even just played strategy or wargames.
@Byron Hmm, Buck would have been a better answer for "Stag" than "Hes"
@heironymous Yep, Anise looks like a cluster of stars, me too.
@Steven I thought they wanted APOLLOONE because there is no 'V' in Welsh, so IOAN or IAIN should have been the possibilities for the cross. Rests could've been SETS so I'm sitting there getting annoyed at the cheese answer when the problem lies with the 55 across clue.
It was annoying to me because I assumed the rebus was "is". I treat my peers ' as is' and I knew 'Y is X', argh
@Francis Now it's the opposite. We humans are very bad at just celebrating each other.
@Ed & Mabel "But "race" is, and was, a divisive and damaging social construct with no biological basis and no purpose other than harm." This isn't the place to debate this, but I bet that's a minority opinion amongst humans. I have been bemused many a time when reading on a train or something, hearing somebody holding forth about the pride they have in their race. And of course, once the E.T.s show themselves we'll be back to talking about the human race.
@Darren These days, 1As are respectable professionals who are not likely to engage in that sort of behavior
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