Margaret from Brooklyn

@dutchiris But this is not a pipe.

@Mean Old Lady Thank you for teaching me the word "dyspraxia." My nephew was not neurologically like other kids but did not fit any box neatly, so as he grew up he was given whatever diagnosis was in favor and was bounced from med to med. He was afraid of crossing bridges, refused to learn to ride a bike or drive, clung to the wall when on an open staircase, couldn't manage escalators, but that was never explained. Now I know. Fwiw, he now drives--in fact he's a Door Dasher.

@CCNY Ef GRECO? What did GRECO ever do to you?

@Eddie True dat

@Mikey Parmar The response to this post is the most outrageous pile-on I've seen on this board for a long time. Newcomer who is smart but not a wordie tries a pastime that's outside his comfort zone, has a hard time, and ventures onto the board to express his frustration. Advice on tackling puzzles, or encouragement to keep at it, or even a "welcome, we understand how you feel, many of us have been there" would have been friendly. Instead you guys have pretty much guaranteed that he and his GF will feel unwelcome. Nice going.

@David There's a pencil icon at the top right of the puzzle on my PC screen. I don't know what its called but if you toggle it on the puzzle behaves as you describe. I think it's used for tentative entries. When you toggle it off, new entries behave as normal, but existing gray letters remain gray. You need to type over them to turn them black. See if you didn't accidentally turn this feature on; if you did the pencil is surrounded by a gray box.

@Charles BE MINE is one of the sentiments found on Valentine's Day candy hearts.

@Rachel Also the fabric made with this weave. The blue serge suit was once a staple in a man's wardrobe, because it wore like iron.

@Elke This construction turns up in puzzles from time to time, as sports scoreboards tend to have the first three letters of the team's location, not the abbreviations we use in real life. Hence ARI for Arizona, not AZ.

@James If the Times took your advice many of us would be sad. I like the occasional challenging Sunday puz. When I was a kid we got the paper just so my mother could solve the puzzle. It sometimes took her all week. Those were hard puzzles; these days, not so much.

@Catplants Based on your description, the bit doesn't "come" from the horse's mouth, it's "in" the horse's mouth. It would be a shame to have to abandon the expression "straight from the horse's mouth" based on this technicality. Next, someone will say that the reins aren't straight, they typically have a curve; then we'd be off and running.

@Nick We yanks don't know the number of square feet in an acre either. We just know that it's a pretty big measure of area, and has four letters. ACRE is one of those words--like oreo --that us solvers just have to know. Fyi, building lots and farm fields are measured in acres.

@Times Rita I am of a certain age, but thankfully I still have my tonsils thanks to an enlightened mother. At every routine exam the school nurse would sniff disapprovingly. I'm also still left-handed, as is my big sister. Thanks mom! For my friends who did get their tonsils out, the big deal was that they got ice cream afterward. I was jealous.

@Darren Many years ago when visiting friends in Maryland, the hosts served up a crab feast. They covered the table with newspapers, then dumped a pile of crabs in the middle, all red from a coating of cayenne pepper. We all proceeded to dig in, and extract the edible meat from many crabs. While wearing bibs, and lips burning from the pepper. . The Shaking Crabs restaurant near me serves up a similar experience, featuring crabs and hot spices shaken up in a paper sack. And served with bibs.

@S Seth If you're solving on your phone, you can switch to list form by tapping the three lines icon above the puzzle. I find that the alternative view makes it easier to spot errors. That's assuming you have an error and it's not a system problem.

@Jacqui J Thank you; I didn't know that. Now that I do, here's mine: Strands #452 “It's a little buggy” 💡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵

@redweather One of the sellers at my local farmers market offers a "market CSA." I pay a sum in the spring, spend down the balance over the growing season, and get a 10 percent discount on my purchases. (She also operates a conventional CSA at her farm upstate.) A CSA at the farmers market; a twofer!

@David As for colors, on my screens (laptop and phone) VANILLA is cream colored and CONE is brown. And no, the image is not symmetrical, but have you never received a cone with a blob of ice cream sticking out that you needed to eat quickly lest it fall? That's part of the fun of an ice cream cone. Ok, a flat-bottomed wafer cone is more tan than brown, so I'll give you that quibble...

@Derek Parks Recently I ate with friends at a sports bar in the Village. When it came time to order, the following dialogue took place: Friend: What red wines do you have? Waiter: Red Friend: I'll have the red, then

@Molly in Wake Forest If literature rather than visual art is your thing, may I recommend The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse? <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/24517.The_Stuffed_Owl" target="_blank">https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/24517.The_Stuffed_Owl</a>

@The X-Phile Seems to me that anyone finding anything offensive in "Broad band" is exposing his inner Beavis and Butthead. It says "broad"--tee hee tee hee.

@David I found an explanation! It's called "pencil mode." At the top right, click the question mark. Then drill down like this: Questions --> Where to play and game tools This opens a page of detailed instructions and explanations, including using pen vs pencil mode, and the dreaded "rebus." I've been solving for years, but I still learned a lot from this page and its links.

@Lynn When you are ready to do your study, you can count me among the subjects who took home ec and whose mother taught it. Plus she sewed a lot of the family's clothes, knit sweaters, and could even tat! She certainly knew about cutting on the bias. She also did the Sunday crossword every week; we stopped at the drugstore every week on the way home from church just to pick up the paper for her.

@Janine Or if not the earth, certainly the comments section!

@Linda Jo No, we can't. Please don't. I prefer to read through the comments without having to dodge spoilers.

@Katie Pepsi Cola's a stinky drink, tastes like vinegar, looks like ink. Pour it right down the kitchen sink. Pepsi Cola is a stinky drink.

@Jim It feels like PR-speak, along the lines of "Here at Acme, your safety is Job One." But my Google search only turned up one meme: "Problem one: you're completely bald." That doesn't seem like enough to conclude that it's in the language.

@Frankie B The hint was in the framing of the clue as something an investor would ask a start-up. Can the business be profitable on a larger SCALE? Will it SCALE UP?

@Marcia Fidler Absolutely not. Luckily the crossings made no sense so I eventually saw the light.

@Gregg Are you ok with 45 across, where Michigan's famed basketball team is the FABFIVE? And what about Casey at the Bat, featuring the Mudville Nine? After all, there are more than nine players on a baseball team.

@john ezra Thanks for all the information about aluminum process. I'm from Massena NY, where Alcoa built an aluminum smelter in 1902. My dad worked for "the plant" from age 19 to retirement, eventually heading the Industrial engineering department. The whole town worked for or benefited from "the plant" in one way or another. The only thing I can add about the smelting process is that it used the Hall process, required immense amounts of electricity, and was highly polluting (though we didn't know the last thing at the time.)

@Eric Hougland @JB Way to go, you two. I needed a hint Strands #185 “American beauty” 🔵💡🔵🟡 🔵🔵🔵

@Rory I came to this thread just to find what I expected would be an outcry about Les Miz so I could push back. A few years ago "Les Miz" in a puzzle resulted in a huge kerfuffle comment , but not so today. I guess folks have moved on. But you are right. In the UK the show is known as Les Mis, but in the US all the publicity material used Les Miz and that is what has stuck in our language. For evidence, watch this trailer all the way to the end. <a href="https://youtu.be/5s5ImbMCxtE?si=2F8vi4lYAD1Wkx08" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/5s5ImbMCxtE?si=2F8vi4lYAD1Wkx08</a>

@Morn Just to pile on, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary app on my phone, it first appeared in print in 1871.

@Nancy J. I first heard the term CHARISMA in reference to John Kennedy, to describe his appeal. Though I can understand associating it with smarm if your context is Ronald Reagan. And while I'm here, I also associate "grassy knoll" with John Kennedy. I'm still a little startled when I see the term in other contexts.

@Barry Ancona C'mon Barry, you remember me. We've had discussions about stoops, delis, bhan mi sandwiches, all of which revealed my Brooklynite identity.

@Terry A wormhole is a very common device in science fiction, as a way to get around the constraints of time and distance. No need to understand it, just accept it as just one of Dr Who's wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey things, and read on.

@john ezra Every day, for years, this instruction or one like it has appeared at the top of the Comments, and for years commenters have disregarded it: "To get help with a technical issue, please scroll down to the bottom of the puzzle page and tap “Contact us.” This will help you send a message to support, where issues can be diagnosed and solved." The Games techs do not routinely scan the comments to look for technical issues. They expect us to tell them. And fyi, if you use the Contact Us link the message generated includes specifics of your device and platform to aid them in solving the problem.

@Jamie OAST is one of a handful of words that thankfully don't appear in xwords as often as they used to. Along with ETUI and ADIT. I was surprised when I saw it

@Bill In the midst of the pandemic lockdown, listening to sirens of ambulances heading to the hospital down the street, and compulsively reading the morning's illness and death rates, keeping sourdough starter was necessary for our mental health. Not amusing at all.

@D M Mojo I had my first and best cheesesteak while visiting friends in Philadephia about (OMG) fifty years ago. It was from a local neighborhood place, and was made from scratch. I've since had versions that were mass-produced, with meat and onions cooked ahead of time; they were vile.

@SSteve That's correct. Pi are round. Cornbread are square.

@Sara W My Wednesday, Saturday, and Thursday times were within a minute and a half apart. In that order. Not a personal best though--that happened on 2/26/2022.

@Mean Old Lady The Oklahoma production in which Ali Stroker performed and earned a Tony took place in 2019. I saw it and can confirm that Ms Stroker's performance was amazing. I thought the whole production was amazing, but traditionalists most emphatically did not.

@Derek Punctuating with a dash instead of a comma didn't help.

@Nancy When you're looking up EGG AND SPOON RACE, also check out sack race and three-legged race. They are more goofy than super-competitive.

@fionatimes Omitting the comma after mother implies that you have more than one. Replace mother with another relative and it's clearer. My sister, Mary (I only have one) vs My sister Mary (but not my sister Ethel).