Steve H
Wake Forest
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Wake Forest
After the incredible sales pitch in yesterday’s constructor notes, I was jazzed for this. So as 10pm (and bedtime 💤) rolled around, the voices started saying- “Do the puzzle! You know you want to! Sleep is overrated! Do. The. Puzzle.” What would you do? I made the decision any normal puzzle addict should. My first confident entry was 1D (SF transit option) -BART seemed right. And thus, ended my success in that corner, After going UP and DOWN and UP and DOWN, I finally let it go and happy music time. Now I’m a little too amped to sleep!! Maybe some Spelling Bee to calm me down. Great puzzle, Zhou! Thanks!
@Megan ‘A foil by any other name would smell as sweet’ but until it picks up another vowel or 2, I’m afraid it will be relegated to second fiddle in this realm. So I suggest the other fencing disciplines rename their weapons the EFEE and the SABEE purely in the interest of gaining NYTXWD presence, 😆 Or if the emus prefer, the SABU. (This was a lot funnier when it first popped in my head.)
Bring up the rear? MOON Didn’t see that coming!! 🤣 Don’t look, Ethel! But it was too late. Ray Stevens
Impressive! I really enjoyed my late night tussle with this beauty. 8 theme answers plus 2 revealers stuffed into a weekday grid? Just Wow! The simplest clues can trip me up - on any day of the week. Today I fell for “Beat at chess” which has to be ’MATE’. It doesn’t fit so you start making thongs up - Could it refer to a Chess pie? What else can ‘Beat’ mean? BUT IT’S CHESS!! What on earth is going on?!! And then, Duhhh! In the end finished about average. Some toughies, some gimmes, some TIL. Perfect Thursday. Happy Valentine’s Day to all!! XOXO to the constructor (Kareem) and the whole Games team!
Fun, easy Wednesday - on a Tuesday night. . Alternate clues to avoid future lectures and altercations - Plural of octopus,var Tentacled animals, slang 8 octopuses, on the street Octopuses in the 1900’s One spelling of the most discussed marine plural Why I came to the comments today!? Octopuses vs. ______ (How the NYTXWD cage fight started) Our college radio station played the Dr. Demento show late on Sunday nights. This 1980 song pops in my head whenever octopuses come up. Listening to it now, it seems very dated. Or maybe I am. <a href="https://youtu.be/6U7b_9TNHw4?si=6tn6GQeOteLic5HW" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/6U7b_9TNHw4?si=6tn6GQeOteLic5HW</a> Peace to all.
For me AMSCRAY was one of those ‘Oh no they wouldn’t’ ‘ OMG … they did! And I got it!!’ 🎉🎉🎉 moments. Did I get solve it clean? Not even close. Even more reason to thump my chest for that one. Good, tough Thursday puzzle!
First sign of Thursday shenanigans … TA-RT?? How to stretch a 4 letter word into 5 squares. It took some courage to enter a rebus that only worked one way - buy then the “fruit” and JAM thing wafted into consciousness and I was cooking! Just another gem of a creation. As for difficulty, I get good mileage out of any of these puzzles. A little below average, a little above average, it all averages out.
@Name I thought ‘zero’ so I started a countdown - 10, 9, but it’s 3 letters so stop the countdown, skip the crosses and write in ‘one’. Seriously, when I run into these pedantic spots, I try to ask myself - - is it a possible usage? - does it guide the solver toward the answer (without being Monday easy)? Tomorrow the answer for same clue may be “Blastoff” or “Zero” or “Happy New Year” 3,2,1 Happy New Year! 🎊
What a cute puzzle, Sugar-baby, Honey-pie! Right on my average for a Tuesday, but I might have been slowed by keeping an eye on the football game. Regardless, always a few rough spots and learned YASSIFY after the fact.
There are many dark folk songs like Tom Dooley that are cringy to hear today. Steve Martin wrote a “story song” as he calls it that takes the genre and gives it a hilarious modern twist offered up by Edie Brickell. <a href="https://youtu.be/4lFMK3UIa74?si=Z2qGeLdmWJ4y_2Tz" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/4lFMK3UIa74?si=Z2qGeLdmWJ4y_2Tz</a>
@Helen Wright The Boston Pops’ long-time conductor was the legendary John Williams. Since Williams is the only thing I really know about the organization, I googled them and see that Arthur Fiedler was the conductor for nearly 50 years. I now recall that my parents had a record of the Pops with Fiedler. And although the ‘lyrical gangsta’ sounded familiar, I pulled up the video to make sure. Now I will be humming that hook all day, so… thanks for that🤣🤣
@Jane Wheelaghan BART is an acronym for Bay Area Rapid Transit that ties together the San Fran metro area, Silicon Valley, etc. Google tells me that Muni is the city of San Francisco’s transit system which includes the historic street cars and cable cars, plus buses and light rail. The question is - will I remember Muni if I need it in a crossword again? I’m not optimistic, but it will give me pause on BART.
Oh, the relief after a good workout is complete. A little extra time today and I never shy away from a lookup or two on Thursday to make sure I’m on the right track. This was suhwee(T)! Thank you, thank you!!!
@Doug As far as I can tell the down answers follow this format - The first clue/answer is with all letters included. The second answer works when one removes the circled letter - whether an L or R.
This was a fun one. If felt fast because I was always making progress but come in right around average. I had read a few comments about SEIGE fitting the theme. It worked for me but I had a chance to get one more opinion. I asked my wife what it is called when an army surrounds a castle. She said “Seezh”. I told her why I asked and she said that she definitely also pronounced it “seeJ” sometimes. I had SaSha at 53D crossing -uSkarouge. What kind of currency is this dollar store using?!? Of course, a Buck, Buck, BUCKAROUGE!! Simply awesome!!
@Cat Lady Margaret I came here specifically to find this comment to recommend - just like I did yesterday.
That was really, satisfyingly good. The construction with 2 spanners, Wednesday level clues. I noticed the mirroring when the right corner started falling into place and immediately filled in the left. But then I had to stop, read the clues and see if what I thought was going on was correct and the jaw hits the floor.
@Jon H That one got me until the very end. Ad Hoc jumped out immediately, but that was before I knew there was a rebus - and it probably would not have fit anyway even with one. Then QUADRUPLE came along but then I didn’t have enough DOUBLES (or so I thought) until finally when there were only 2 blanks left and I finally saw it. Very slick puzzle.
@Weak @B I love Alone for the simple reason that the ‘drama’ or tension in the show is mostly just nature being nature. And not a vote has been taken in 10, maybe 12 seasons! Sure, the producers make the competition appear closer than it often is but still, major respect for what those humans can do.
That was fun and had some clues. When I came across the “Hamburger connection “, I knew exactly what it wanted … and wished I had some recollection of 3 semesters of German. Not a clue. But the crosses were easy on this one throughout. I also find that when I am dialed and am not distracted the puzzles always come easier. It definitely felt Monday/Tuesday, but they would never run this trickery, minor as it was, on the early weekdays.
@Steve L Yeah, I was wondering how they were going to work the Yutes into the revealer but no such luck.
@Gregg After reading a comment from someone in the UK who used the ‘120 miles’ (which would have been in the Atlantic Ocean), to steer him away from the British London, I wonder if the mileage was skewed intentionally as a hint (helpful or not).
@Andrzej @Roberto Since this was in a thread that included MAINER, it must be Maine and if so, that is indeed, very tricky trivia. But looking at the map, Maine juts waaay out into the Atlantic. CaptainQualog gives a beautiful description of the Down East sailing history of the term in another thread.
@Yael Yesterday I couldn’t string 2 answers together, but tonight i was dialed in. Like 38A - I was all over that LONG I. And Penelope - whoever she is - I guessed with 3 letters. DINKS and dunks. Maybe it’s the time of day - late night puzzling for the win!
@Ken They are soooo dumb!! And addictive - like other wonderful treats that may not be the healthiest for me! I can’t stop picking up the next Oreo I see! 🤣🤣 These comments, on the other hand, not dumb. But still addictive!🤪
@Theo I’m with you. After solving the mini I googled and googled trying to find just one instance of a “wawa” pedal. Nada. The only references I could find were misspelled for sale listings by people reselling Wah pedals. Not a Wawa anywhere - except on signs along the highway.
@Becky Congratulations!! I skip Friday/Saturday usually so I’ve only seen a 7 day streak once. On the rare occasions when I have tried them I find the challenge is to find something, anything to google. Fri/Sat clues are so tricky, a vague whisper that refers to a faint resemblance of the answer. So considering the investment of time and mental energy, employing every tool at my disposal to crack a Saturday, I take any star I can get! (I’m pretty sure I’ve had to turn on autocheck for every Saturday I’ve tried.)
@Steve Exactly!! And then it’s on - you try the others out - Tampa Bezh, The Dead Sheezh, and he would sound great on BUCKAROUGE! How about Emuzh?
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