Nicholas Mitchell
Boulder Creek, California
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Boulder Creek, California
Actually, my basic complaint with 38A is that CRAVES is not precisely synonymous with NEEDS, yet apparently it solves to _RAVES = "NEEDS no introduction." I may not have objected if _ECESSITIES was the clue rather than _RAVES. At the very least, I wouldn't have to contend with alternative words a I had to with BRAVES and GRAVES.
@jp inframan O, now I get it! People put cucumber slices on their eyes at spas. It seemed like a total non sequitur.
I do not believe 34A was not deliberate, but I needed Deb's coy direction of the importance of a tilde in some Spanish words. Sometimes I solve the puzzle but don't get the Wordplay photo and caption. I admit that I am at this moment stymied, but my brain is a little worn out after ...COMPLETING THE SOLVE! YAY ME!
I've definitely heard lam as a verb, usually with "it". "They're onto us, Bugsy, We got no choice now but to lam it." They didn't make us memorize the periodic table in secondary school, so I used up all the crosses to spell Astatine. (And props to my autocorrect for correcting my spelling just then.) Heavy stuff, that At.
As for 14D, I was once a directory assistant operator (back in the early eighties) when I responded to an elderly sounding woman inquiring about a place of business, and knowing the area I confidently offered what seemed a good fit. When she expressed some timidity I told her, "Go for it!". My supervisor was monitoring me at the time and afterwards gently told me that this maybe wasn't quite the professional way to offer encouragement.
I can't be the only one who would spell 88A with M's instead of B's.
I knew exactly zero theme answer starters to refer to home runs; i.e., jack wasn't the only thing I didn't know. Baseball is the only spectator sport I've watched a fair amount of on TV and have attended a few games in person. (How I got some very nice photos of Barry Bonds.) But none of that experienced help me here. To be so dumbfounded by a Monday puzzle is a rare experience for me. Thank you, Sam, for spelling it out.
@fionatimes CRAVES doesn't work. "Needs no introduction" is a very specific phrase for introducing a guest on a show. I don't think of craving people. So, I feel there's still something I'm not getting, or the constructor's didn't get. The rest of the theme pairings worked fine for me.
@SP I haven't yet had the urge to construct using rebuses. That just occurred to me. Why not? I should expand my horizons.
@MPT I regularly print out the sunday and solve with pen and paper. I had no trouble printing it out, nor filling the solution online once I solved it. Hope you were able to get it to work.
@Cat Lady Margaret Now I feel bad for thinking of that first.
@Becca Ah, my sentiments exactly. In the early days of Internet chat intra-university, I made a friend with a fellow student whose online name was Meep after the call of the cartoon desert bird.
@GD The missing letters inform the answers. .e.g., The K is missing on Knight, ergo a headless horseman. That said, I still don't understand the theme/clue pairing of 38. Across. Caitlin didn't really clarify it for me in a solid way. I'll read on in the comments.
@Andrzej I engaged in a robust conversation about this clue in another crossword puzzle forum. Because I "got it" and appreciated it right away I didn't think much about it, but others had strong opinions otherwise. I am convinced I understood how the constructor wanted this bit of construction to be received. AI is here to stay and it, alluding to the theme song to M*A*S*H, will bring on many changes. I'm a writer of creative fiction and AI frequently causes me existential anxiety, and deserves our attention to, and conversation about, it
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