Justin

I spent entirely too long trying to make Ringo work. (That’s what Paul said.)

I need to watch that new Apple movie with Anya Taylor-Joy. I have been generally unable to comment on anything recently because I’m just shutting down. To begin to comment is to scream until I’m empty.

Frankly I think just “LESSDRESS” is more apropos of what often appears on the red carpet than backless.

I’m not a big fan of the little snail next to my slower than average Monday time. I think I’ll name him Stelmo.

I would’ve needed a pencil for sure for this one. I again went with snob instead of snot and decided a sandwich served on Melba toast might well be a melb. Consider my assumptions checked.

Let us not waste our time in idle discourse! Let us do something, while we have the chance! It is not every day that we are needed….To all mankind they were addressed, those cries for help still ringing in our ears! But at this place, at this moment of time, all mankind is us, whether we like it or not. Let us make the most of it, before it is too late! Samuel Beckett, Waiting for [GOODOH]

I’m too upset to puzzle.

I enjoyed that Kane and sled showed up in the same puzzle.

God morgen! I haven’t even attempted to begin with Thursday’s trickery, and am saving that for the plane. So in keeping with Wednesday’s theme (especially since it is still Wednesday where I’m headed), here were my favorite things about Oslo. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. Two more days would’ve been ideal for getting to them all or at least more of them. Sight: the view of the city and the water from the roof of the opera house, which you can improbably scale like a low-grade iceberg. Smell: the air, which is remarkably clean and just the right amount of humid. No doubt helped by how ubiquitous public transportation is—we didn’t need to get in a car once. Taste: smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast at the Sommerro Hotel. I think the whole trip was worth it to me just for the salmon. Hearing: whatever that man was belting out at the Jul Vinterland near the Oslo Peace Center. I’m not sure what it was but I doubt I’ll ever hear it again. Feel: this works better than “touch” here anyway, as I was mainly wearing gloves, but more importantly didn’t feel nearly as cold as I thought I would, as the temperature hovered right around freezing the whole time. Pretty mild given the latitude and the month, I think. Ha det for now!

Not a Shakespeare clue in sight, but happy birthday, Will! (Other Will.)

I do the crossword as a relief from all the things in life that must be acted on quickly so I’m never in a rush. But many congratulations to all those for whom the time is important! Spoken like someone who doesn’t have a time worth mentioning :)

And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"

I am admittedly still a bit sore about the comment earlier this week, “I hate musicals. Literally, everything about them, and the people who love them, because they're so insufferable.” And so, insufferable though I may be, I was glad to see Elsie show up in this puzzle. Auf wiedersehen À bientôt Good night

Woah did I go awry in the NE, until I realized the importance of being Earnest.

Haven’t done the puzzle. Haven’t read the column. Haven’t felt much like Games are even the right thing to be doing right now. Don’t know what is. Let’s not pretend all this is ok, because it’s not.

Had a blast. I rule.

There's a whisper down the line at 9:39 When the crossword's ready to drop, Saying "Sarah where is Sarah has she gone to hunt an error? We must find her or the puzzle can't start." All the editors and the proofers and the web edition’s users They are searching high and low, Saying "Sarah where is Sarah if she’s off singing a capella Then the crossword just can't go." At 9:42 then the signal's nearly due And the solvers are frantic for the drop— Then Sarah will appear and she'll saunter to the rear: She’s been busy in the costume shop!

Sometimes surfing doesn’t refer to the Internet, and seniors doesn’t mean students! But trials aren’t always in front of a jury. Nice combination of straightforward and tricky, and I didn’t have a breakdown to end the work wk.

Sigma or nah? That’s the gyatt question. 🤔** Is it more skibidi to take the L from life’s big fanum tax, Or to clap back against the Ohio rizz of trouble— And YEET them all? 💀 To unalive… to no-scope sleep… 😴 And by sleep, we mean ditch the rizz—end the dubs and L’s That your mewing flesh is heir to? GYATT, that’s a W! 🙌 To sleep… maybe to dream (sus). 🕵️♂️ But nah— ‘Cuz in that sigma sleep, what Ohio nightmares might come? When we’ve left the group chat of life? That’s the ick. 🤢 That’s the glow-up that makes us take the L so long… Who’d suffer the cringe and L’s of time, When they could just self-unalive with a based dagger? 🔪 But pause… 🛑 The fear of Ohio after death— That unfound country from whose skibidi border No Sigma returns—grills our rizz. So we stay malding instead of pulling up to peace… And thus the sigma grind is glazed by this thought, And big W’s of drip turn L’s instead. 😮💨

Unfortunately the only way I know the periodic table is by singing the Tom Lehrer version in my head (I memorized that instead of paying close enough attention in law school two decades ago), and krypton shows up between argon and neon so that was no help at all. Also explains why I’m neither a lawyer nor a scientist.

I Howled at “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by verbs’ past participles masquerading as adjectives (and vice versa).” Thank you, Sam!

All this time wasted on reading Chekhov when I should’ve just been keeping up with the Kardashians. Where has everything gone? Where is it all? Oh my God, my God! I've forgotten everything.

I enjoyed 35D for the script directive in The Winter’s Tale, EXIT, pursued by a bear.

Ah, my old friend Stelmo. Only when he showed up did I realize that needed Sallie and not Fannie.

Some thoughts on Cruella de Vil: 1. The name may have been inspired by Count de Ville, an alias used by Dracula. 2. If you misspell it as Cruella de Ville it fits nicely in 1D. 3. Dalmatian Stole fits nicely in 13A but of course doesn’t work with Cruella. Not that I tried all that or anything.

I gave up toward the end. I do this for fun (?!) so finally figured out how to turn the timer off. Timers are never fun. Then tried to remember how I started doing these in the first place. 2010 or so. The NYT delivered every morning around 5. In a plastic bag if it was raining, otherwise just a rubber band. The smell of the ink on newsprint as I started with the important part of the paper (the puzzle), folding the section in half and then in half again while I poured the coffee. Mechanical pencil out, wondering how far I’d get in the allotted 15 minutes I had with it before I had to start getting serious about the day. On an occasional Monday or Tuesday I’d get it done. Otherwise it would still be waiting on the dining room table for after work. Life was better when That unsaid, I really liked the theme here, even if I didn’t finish the puzzle. And I would have then, too.

That waterhorse was a nightmare.

“Unentered” felt like an interesting play on “uninterred.”

There was a cabaret and there was a Master of Cerеmonies. It was the end of the world And I was dancing with Sally Bowles and we were both fast asleep...

The terms “chewy” and “chunky” and “crunchy” when applied to crossword puzzles leave me slightly nauseated. Not sure if I’m the only one. I have that thing (misophonia?) where I can’t hear other people chewing and somehow it extends to reading about it, too. That said, I found this fairly chalky for a Monday.

I was ready to be hostile about HOSTAL being spelled wrong but of course I was spelling PESCETARIAN wrong (and even now my phone’s spell check also prefers PESCATARIAN).

DRAMA...not just a staple of reality TV, but also the NYT Crossword comments section. Always compelling.

Birth day party was delightful.