Beth in Greenbelt

Another comment... @Steve L noticed that there are no Ys in the puzzle, to avoid the confusion of whether a Y is a vowel or consonant. I noticed something what cool. The constructor managed to maintained the pattern from one word to the next, as well. Between words, the empty black squares continue the pattern as if there were letters in them. For example, CASA_EDAM. The _ would have been a constant. It's like that all the way through, both across and down. And in the two places where there are two black squares together, the pattern still holds. UTILE_ _MUNI.

@Deb Amlen The link to the Wordplay blog is broken in the app. I get a Page Not Found error when I click it. I found this page by a Googling, but others may not think to try that

SO THERE WE WERE, baking under the Black Rock Desert sun, and paying our respects to a then 85-year-old Dolores Huerta. It was Burning Man, 2015, and she was just as vibrant and passionate as ever. I treasure the photo I have if her in a bright yellow dress and purple shawl, her lipstick deep red, eyes sparkling, and boots covered in playa dust. She led us in a ceremony of remembrance for the peoples and species that are no longer with us. Can we stand up to injustice and fight the powers that be into our 90s and beyond? "SÍ, SE PUEDE!" This puzzle was full of memories for me. Savoring chicken KATSU in San Francisco's Japantown or fish tacos from a local POPUP after flying KITEs in the marina. Memories of my grandma, not her SPOON REST, but the little green ice cream bowls that would overflow with fudge sauce at the end of every dinner at her house. Memories of Hawaii, the land where I was conceived, where they have no need for DST, and where the MONGOOSEs run wild because they have no natural predators, having been introduced to the islands to kill the rats, but instead becoming invasive species themselves, as rats are nocturnal and mongooses diurnal. Memories of the forlorn elephant I saw at the Honolulu ZOO, pacing back and forth its tiny enclosure. "I'm sorry you got such a RAW DEAL," I whispered to him. He stared at me with eyes that seemed to say, "Ah. SUCH IS LIFE." "I would rescue you if I could." "No, no SE PUEDE," was his silent response.

Oh, Howard, I can't get my husband to pronounce Elphaba correctly either. He also puts the stress on the second syllable, and it drives me nuts. Did you know the name comes from the initials of L. Frank Baum? Fun puzzle, although I found it pretty easy for a Thursday. Figured out the trick early on, and it helped. The Wicked theme tickled me. Can't wait for the second part of the movie on 11/20! I've seen the show on stage twice and the first half of the movie twice as well. The second half is going to make me cry, for sure. BTW, what's with all the Oreo hate? I'm not ashamed to tell you I bought orange Halloween ones for my little brother's birthday party last weekend, and they were a big hit. Look, I can savor a Michelin star meal and also scarf down a package of Oreos. The two are not mutually exclusive.

I love puzzles that teach me things I didn't know before. TIL 1) OLEATO is a drink made with olive oil that I'm afraid to even look up because it sounds so disgusting. Anyone tried it? 2) FISCAL's first meaning is related to taxation or public money. I thought it was just basically a synonym for financial until I looked it up. (It does also mean that, but that's the second definition ) <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiscal" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fiscal</a> 3) A sea COW is an order of fully herbivorous aquatic mammals, which includes manatees. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirenia" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sirenia</a> 4) A busser either busses or BUSes a table, depending on where you live. (I looked it up because I'd thought the verb was just buss.) <a href="https://www.consumersearch.com/home-garden/understanding-difference-bussing-vs-busing-tables-explained" target="_blank">https://www.consumersearch.com/home-garden/understanding-difference-bussing-vs-busing-tables-explained</a> There were also a few proper nouns I didn't know but filled from crosses and didn't bother looking up because I'm tired. Proud of myself for guessing RBI from "Diamond stat." Crossword puzzles are doing the job my dad could never seen to manage: teaching me about sports. Loved seeing LeVar BURTON mentioned!

Another clever theme! However, I will not be eating liver. I will not have just a sliver. I will not serve it on my table. I may just toss it in the stable. I will not eat it on a tray. Perhaps I'll give it to a stray. (Cat)

I came here expecting a lot of outrage about SIAMESE TWINS but instead found just a couple of reasonable admonitions not to use the term to refer to people today. In case anyone else is wondering, Chang and Eng were born and lived in Thailand, which was then referred to (by Westerners) as Siam, and according to Wikipedia, the twins coined the term Siamese Twins themselves. Because of their fame, the term came to be synonymous with what we now call conjoined twins. Today, it's just as inappropriate to refer to conjoined twins as Siamese as it is to refer to a person with Down Syndrome (like my little brother) as Mongoloid. So don't do it. I personally find the term distasteful and would prefer not to see it in a puzzle, but that doesn't mean it's not a legitimate answer in the context of the clue or that it shouldn't be allowed.

Jackson Matz says we may have "24K Magic" stuck in our heads after listening to it after the solve. No need, Jackson. It's been stuck in my head since I giddily filled in the answer, and I'm not sad about it! Sam didn't provide the link, so I will. <a href="https://youtu.be/UqyT8IEBkvY?si=lvC2OQ_RgVE-8woU" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/UqyT8IEBkvY?si=lvC2OQ_RgVE-8woU</a> I've often said I wish my mom could have lived long enough to hear Bruno Mars. She would have loved him. And now I'm remembering her in her 80s, stricken with Alzheimer's, but she could still shake her bootie like nobody's business. Thank you, Jackson. This was fun!!!

Was anyone else surprised by MIKE for microphone instead of MIc? I looked it up after finishing the puzzle. Apparently, MIKE was the original abbreviation for microphone, and it's only been changed to MIc in the past 25 years. This article explains why MIKE is actually the better choice. <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66196/microphone-mic-or-mike" target="_blank">https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66196/microphone-mic-or-mike</a>

Deb didn't mention it, but you can also enter both letters into the rebus squares without the slash between them. I didn't add the slash because it would have looked weird for the down answers, and my answers were accepted that way. Pretty easy theme for a Thursday. Seemed more appropriate for a Wednesday to me.

TIL: 1) An adult cheetah weighs between 75 and 140 LBS. 2) The actor who played PEETA in "The Hunger Games" is named JOSH Hutcherson. (PEETA was a gimme but I didn't know the actor's name.) 3) The names of a couple of INCAN gods. 4) "CODA" won Best Picture. I love that movie but had no idea it had won the big prize. (The music group I volunteer with for developmentally-disabled adults is signing to "Both Sides Now" at our concert in two weeks.) 5) There's a candy called SLO Poke. 6) There's a mathematical process called a RANDOM WALK. I'm just so tickled that after doing several puzzles every day since last August, I rarely have to look anything up anymore. Everything eventually comes together through crosses and logic, kind of like a Polaroid picture, and this puzzle was no exception. Zero lookups. Feels like magical! (Okay, I now that I mentioned Polaroid, I've got this ear worm in my head! <a href="https://youtu.be/PWgvGjAhvIw?si=HuKUZ5hLCpToqair" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/PWgvGjAhvIw?si=HuKUZ5hLCpToqair</a>)

It's so interesting the number of folks who found this puzzle breezy and beat their PBs. We're all so different! Here are some facts about my solve: 1) I finished this puzzle with zero lookups 2) It took me nearly 2 hours. 3) I did not know: BOWSER KOOPATROOPA KABLOOEY OCARINAS ANGELICA (Despite living in Northern California for most of my adult life, working for a wine company, and visiting Napa quite frequently) The Stars team The structure of the Hungarian language Dwarf bittern Actress Gillian Where the Shawshank Redemption took place Who presided at weddings in Greek mythology 4) I thought I was going to lose my streak on this one. 5) After spending about an hour on it last night and barely filling in 10 answers, I put it away and hoped my brain would be in a better space this morning. 6) It was not. 7) I persisted. 8) I despaired. 9) And persisted. 10) And despaired. 11) And so on 12) Until it was done! I am convinced of the following: 1) The brain is magic. 2) No human really understands how it works (or what consciousness even is). 3) The gods understand how it works, and will reward patience and perseverance with little nuggets of insight when we least expect it. 4) This is the only possible explanation. Favorite: Deer stalking aid? Least favorite: Most likely to succeed? Also, my linguist husband confirms that EONS is not a metaphor. I neither loved nor hated this puzzle. The one thing I know for sure is that I done did it.

This puzzle proves you don't have to actually know much to finish without lookups. Examples: SAMUELCHASE: I got Chase from the crosses (remembered NACRE from previous puzzles) and then had to come up with a first name. Asked myself what a good first name starting with S for a founding father might be and tried Samuel. Ding ding ding! VIOL: Originally had lute, which worked when I had roe instead of EEL, rune instead of EMMA (People cast runes, right? And they can be made out of stone?), and SUV instead of GMC. Once I tried the only other 3-letter sushi word I could think of, that section fell into place and I crossed my fingers that VIOL was a thing. ADAPTOR: Did not know this British spelling, although with the overseas clue, it makes sense. It couldn't be ADAPTeR because then what's an eSTENTATION? LARAM and OMANI: These were the last ones to fall for me. Had tapINTO and diGINTO for 24A, but neither of those was giving me anything that looked like a football team. Finally realized that iMANI should have been OMANI, which led to LOG INTO. But still, where the heck is Laram? So after finishing the puzzle, I Googled "who won Superbowl 56" and slapped my head. What's that term we use for mis-parsing an answer? And did anyone else think the 6D clue referred to the TV network before realizing it was more straightforward than that? Sometimes a peacock is just a peacock.

I breezed through this puzzle thinking it was really easy and then, like others, had to go back and figure out all the places I went wrong: POwERGAME instead of POKERGAME RuCKus instead of RACKET KINESTHESIs instead of KINESTHESIA By the way, here's an article about the difference between KINESTHESIA and proprioception, which is what I first thought of when I read the clue, but it wouldn't fit, even though I tried to cram it in like one of Cinderella's evil stepsisters trying on the glass slipper. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/proprioception-and-kinesthesia" target="_blank">https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/proprioception-and-kinesthesia</a>

Wow. I'm going to bed and hope my brain will be working tomorrow because right now, I'm not getting any kind of foothold on this thing. It may be the first puzzle since my streak started in January that I can't complete without lookups, but honestly, there's not even that much I can look up. Maybe I'm just tired.

I LOVED this puzzle! It wasn't as easy for me as for some of you, but I did solve it more quickly than most Saturdays. Just like Deb, I was so proud of myself for entering yoganidra for 15A with no crosses. Eventually, I realized YOGA was the last four letters so grudgingly changed it to nidraYOGA. But 5D had to be EMTS, so I changed it to DREAM, muttering the whole time, "That's not what it's called." Then, just like Deb, finished the puzzle and Googled "Is dream yoga the same as yoga nidra?" and learned exactly what Deb learned. Nope. It's a different thing. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T COMPLAIN IN THE COMMENTS ABOUT AN ANSWER BEING WRONG WITHOUT FIRST LOOKING IT UP! But now that I know what it is, I want to start practicing it! I already lucid dream occasionally, which is just so much fun because as soon as you realize you're asleep and dreaming, you also realize that you can do anything you want. Sure, you can fly or walk through walls. At a piano recital and forgot to practice? You can play anything you can think of. On stage and forgot your lines? No problem. You can make up the lines because none of it's real! There were so many other fun answers that were totally on my wavelength. I got AIRSIGN right away because I've also wondered why Aquarius isn't a water sign. Great clue. Got SLEEPMASK because I wear one every night so that, as a night owl and LATERISER, I don't get awakened early by the sun.

In an effort not to be confused with other Beths that comment here, I changed my account name to Beth in Greenbelt, but it looks like the change isn't showing yet. FYI: Any Beth making comments about words that shouldn't be in the puzzle, especially without looking then up first, is not me. Speaking of Beths, ALCOTT's Little Women is how I got my nickname. My mom thought the character was so sweet. Apparently it didn't occur to her that it might not be a good idea to name a kid after the one who (spoiler alert) didn't survive. I'm not so sweet and always aspired to be a Jo, who was so much cooler (but not HEP). Sadly, trying to be cool never works. Just ask the kids who teased me for liking Donnie Osmond's song PUPPYLOVE better than Michael Jackson's ABC. Did anyone else have feelings about 5D and 30A appearing so near each other? I know, different person and different agency, but close enough to trigger the icks. TIL KITTEN HEEL, ETUI, and SKAT (as a game). Haven't been solving long enough to have seen the last two before. I don't usually learn new things from Monday puzzles, and I liked it! Despite the added crunch, I managed to solve very close to my PB.

I've been doing laundry on the wrong day my whole life? I guess back in the days when most women stayed home, it made sense. To me, that's what Saturday morning is for.

A fun puzzle. Didn't breeze through but answers came at a consistent pace. Filled in SAY THE MAGIC WORD with no crosses, expecting to have to change it later. Also expected to have to change JETHRO! So many answers I didn't know but filled in from crosses. Now, this is a message for @Puzzlemucker. I've been going through the archives and this morning did a puzzle from November 9, 2023 that had ROSANNE Cash as an answer. You posted a link to her song /video "She Remembers Everything," which I'd never heard before. I listened to it several times in a row and cried my eyeballs out. So beautiful and poignant. I think I'm at just the right age to appreciate it. So thank you! I never know what I'll find in the Wordplay comments.

Completed in 2/3 of my average Saturday time, which isn't saying much because I'm still pretty slow. But once again, finished with no lookups. I'm learning that the key to completing most puzzles without lookups is simply believing that I can do it. Just having faith that the answers will come eventually, either through crosses or patterns, or logical guesses. With this one, a lot of my first entries were CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR (4/15 puzzle). spamemail before EMAILSPAM. OHwOw before OHBOY. epA before DEA (showing my bias here). CAverN before CANYON. ROamS before ROVES. With some of them, I was on the right track but initially couldn't figure out answers that would fit in the spaces. I guessed 13A had to do with taking a final exam but I wanted the answer to be ALONG THE LINES OF the little blue exam books we used to use in college. (Do they still use those?) 35A makes me sad and angry right now. I don't need to say why, right?

I got very worried when I saw how many sportsball entries there were. Had a feeling I was finally going to have to look some things up, especially when I saw that the revealer was also a sports reference. Sheesh, I thought. Did this constructor not get the memo that he was supposed to make sure the entries were in my personal wheelhouse? /sarcasm But no! I didn't need to look anything up because the crosses were so helpful, and I didn't need the revealer to get the theme. In fact, the theme entries helped reveal the revealer! Filled in ADHOCCOMMITTEE right away and was off to the races. (Don't ask which races... that's also sports.) I did use every single cross to get OLAJUWON. I'm surprised it came together on the first try, and I didn't even have to run the alphabet. Some folks will say that's because the rest of the puzzle was too easy, and maybe it was. But I had a long, hard day today, and this puzzle was fun and not too taxing. Just what I needed this time.

I zipped right along until I got stuck with two empty squares in the middle of the puzzle. Didn't know SCHUSS or OAS and was doggedly running the alphabet on those two (change a letter on one and then run the alphabet on the other. Change another letter on the first one and repeat.) But nothing was working. Finally, I realized my mistake was 30D. I had originally thought of DEtRItis, which obviously doesn't fit, but somehow I rationalized that maybe there was a short form of the word: DEtRIS. Yeah, that makes sense. Once I realized it should have been DEBRIS, there was much head slapping, and I could see that the second word of 38A had to be BEAST, which completed the squares I'd been working on. Never noticed SCRAG until someone mentioned it in a comment. I wouldn't have known that one either, but fortunately, I had filled in all the crosses in that section and didn't need to. Filled in APERTURE but didn't fully understand why until reading the column. I know what an aperture is and that it has to do with letting light into a camera, but I missed the wordplay with "shower" meaning one that shows. Wished the clue for WHITE RUSSIANS had something to do with The Dude, but I can confirm that the clue is accurate, for me at least. Some folks say Kahlúa doesn't have enough caffeine to keep someone up. It does if you're genetically predisposed to be a slow caffeine metabolizer and also sensitive to sugar and alcohol... a recipe for being up all night.

As someone whose family watched original Star Trek in reruns every evening during dinner in the 70s (we ate early), I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle... enough to jump into the comments, which I've been avoiding for the past few weeks while I'm on a cross country road/camping trip with the family. It's hard enough to get the puzzle done every day (keepin' the streak alive!) when we often find ourselves in remote places without cell reception or Wi-Fi. I just wanted to mention that while on this trip, we stayed for two nights at Goblin Valley State Park in Southern Utah, where the "rock monster" scene from Galaxy Quest was filmed. It really does look as other-worldly as in this clip from the movie: <a href="https://youtu.be/EQG3I5efwWo?si=LjhaVbyfgkZ9pj4m" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/EQG3I5efwWo?si=LjhaVbyfgkZ9pj4m</a> For those who don't know, Galaxy Quest is a brilliant spoof of Star Trek.

Zhou Zhang, I'll add a comment to your count. Loved it. A perfect Wednesday. I think this may have been my first Schrödinger since I've only been solving since December, unless I'm forgetting one. Like Sam, I entered all the UPs first and only figured out the alternate DOWNs when I got to 51D. Did anyone else have PRIcE for 32D and as a result, get stuck on 46A for a bit? Took a second to realize "Value" was a verb in this case. And now for something truly silly... references to BLACKPINK make me think of poor JENNIE's reaction to spicy wings in this episode of Hot Ones: <a href="https://youtu.be/sUl6zhUKeAw?si=ID1HhX8vm3AW9ogq" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/sUl6zhUKeAw?si=ID1HhX8vm3AW9ogq</a>