Caitlin
Kentucky
Kentucky
I just want to say that this is my single favorite set of clues and answers I've ever seen. Maybe it's because the creator is closer to my age than usual, but a bunch of these made me smile or laugh out loud. YEET, EAT THE RICH, SCREWS THE TITANS, along with a few pop culture references that I actually knew - I really loved this. And the theme wasn't a stretch that only makes sense when you're done, almost no crosswordese, this was just delightful.
@Geoff Offermann I think locs is more common than dreadlocks these days, particularly among black people. So quite unlike "amuck" in this sense, which is archaic.
@Meryl S. It's not a denigrating term. It just means an attractive person. It's a lighthearted, tongue in cheek kind of term. And it's probably used more often for men, actually. Certainly I've usually seen it for attractive male celebrities more than anything else. I don't know who these people getting upset at an entirely innocuous Internet-ism is, but as a woman of reproductive age, there are very real problems that we face and this isn't one of them.
I thought this was fine. I do wonder if it would have gone over better if it had fewer theme entries. Often I prefer a few clever theme entries to many, because the theme answers constrain the rest of the fill and make the rest of the puzzle less fun or satisfying. If the theme is entertaining enough, I suppose it justifies that sacrifice, but when it's just mildly clever, maybe not so much. I think Fridays are currently my favorite because so many theme puzzles have silly entries or are filled with tired Crosswordese.
@Andrew I assume they mean the Dead Sea which is generally referred to as the lowest point on Earth, meaning Earth's surface. Everyone is aware that the oceans are deeper than that.
@Barry Ancona for what it's worth I have never called it anything besides a U-turn and I have never heard someone call it a Uie. If someone said that out loud to me I would probably have asked them what they were talking about. I thought it was a made up word when I first saw it as well. Maybe it's slang from a bygone era but I too consider this as crosswordese.
I think it's worth pointing out that the only reason I know how to spell "zhuzh" is because I'm pretty sure it's been in a different crossword. The word itself is pretty common but I would never have guessed it's spelled like that (I think I would guess something like "jugh" or "jujj" because it sounds more like a J to me) - just saying because I bet a lot of the people who think they've never heard of it have heard it, just never seen it written down! (And I don't live anywhere near New York so I don't think that's it.)
@SP it is absolutely just another term for "hottie" a la "eye candy" or "hunk/babe". It doesn't mean anything besides that they're good looking and lends itself to jokes like "he's not a snack, he's an entire meal!". It's also a highly internet-based phrase. Since I'm a millennial who has had the Internet around for my entire adult life, I don't know if this is different from how slang was previously, but almost all slang that comes from the Internet is inherently at least partly tounge in cheek. No one would say "he's a snack" in a 100% serious way, the way you might call someone beautiful or something. It's inherently a lighthearted, fun little term, as is most of millennial/gen Z internet slang. I don't know if people have missed the tongue in cheek aspect of it and that's changing their opinion. As we'd say on the internet, "it's not that deep". Signed, a very feminist millennial woman who has no issue with silly little modern slang.
@Steve L what part of a formal education would ever teach the pronunciation of a word almost no one ever says out loud and is mostly found on Wikipedia pages these days? Maybe French but that's not the only language people learn, nor the most useful for people in this country. Pardon those people who learned Spanish or Mandarin. I know how it's pronounced, I have no idea why, but I took basically every AP class that existed in high school, got a STEM bachelor's from a well respected liberal arts college and a law degree from an Ivy League law school, and while I learned a great deal at all stages of my education, how to pronounce random semi-archaic words wasn't in any curriculum so I don't know why you'd expect education to matter here. What an odd comment. Signed, an objectively highly educated person.
@Jackson I ended up having to check the puzzle to get FAY. I've seen fey as an adjective but have never seen "fay" instead of "fae" before either. And I have seen "fae" a bunch of times as someone who reads a fair amount of fantasy books.
@dutchiris I imagine most people have heard it but have never seen it spelled. It's pronounced more like "juj" to me. It's used very similar to jazzing something up.
@Francis it's the Spanish spelling if that makes it easier to remember!
@Mean Old Lady the hat that most people think of when you say beanie is the knitted hat people wear in cold weather. Not a cartoon hat! They're definitely called beanies now, although I think somewhere calls them toboggans.
@Veritas vos liberabit I would think everyone has heard of "roid rage" at this point.
@Kyle agree - this is probably a millennial term. I'd be open to Gen X but I think it's a term that reached its zenith circa peak Tumblr which is firmly in the millennial category. It's not a Gen Z term at all.
@Grumpy it's don't know that's how I would have thought to spell it but it's been a slang word (not that I would use it) for some time. In Parks and Rec, one of the characters had a "dunzo list" ("it means you and i are done") in 2011.
@David J just want to say that I agree. I've been doing these puzzles off and on for a few years now, and this comment section is dominated by people who I guess want to feel smarter or superior to people. If you dislike a puzzle or clue/entry at all, someone will quickly reply to make it clear that you are just not smart enough and imply that you have no business doing crosswords at all. I've never wanted to comment here because of how mean spirited this comment section is and has been for years now. It made me wish we had a block feature here because a small number of unkind people have consistently made this a very unwelcoming space.
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