Sue

I have 365 in a row as of yesterday. Longest streak ever. I've done over 2100 puzzles, but a couple of years ago I started looking up answers instead of turning on auto-check. I think of look-ups as learning opportunities, not cheating. :o)

I learned something yesterday about streaks. Sorry about my strange comment about there being so few comments. I usually do the puzzle after dinner while my husband does the dishes. (I cook, he cleans.) Last night we had late dinner and when I sat down to do the puzzle I did the newest one, not noticing that it was already the Wed puzzle. After 7 pm PST. I finished it, went to read column and comments as always, and was so surprised at only 75 comments. Before going to bed -- now 11 pm PST -- I realized I hadn't finished the other puzzles, so went to do them. That's when I noticed I'd done Wed, but never Tuesday! I assumed my streak was blown. But I did Tuesday before midnight, so it was still Tues, and the Stats page kept my streak! I knew that if I missed a day and did it before I did the next day's that the streak would remain. But I didn't know I could do them out of order if the earlier one finished on its correct day. I've done 2800 puzzles, but streak is only 45 days, so not a big deal to lose it. Longest is 625 days, but usually every couple of months I miss a day or two and start the streak over. Not a big deal to me. But now it's Wed and the puzzle is already finished -- so I'm writing this long harrangue on the Thursday comments. Again, it's after 10 pm in New York....

Did no one comment that this puzzle has every letter of the alphabet? Once I got APEX, JELLO and ISUZU I started looking, and there was IQRANGE down near the bottom. And also E, M, & U sprinkled liberallly throughout!

I thought I was done, but no happy music. I went over it all again and couldn't find a mistake. Finally looked at the answer key. I thought "That's such a bummer" should be pOO, which crossed perfectly with pRO for "Jockish sort." Changed that p to a B and got the happy music. I liked my solution better.....

I am in Hawaii for a week. Today I saw a nene and an emu at the Hilo Zoo. No oreos..... I also saw a kinkajou. Doesn't that look like a word that belongs in a crossword, too?

I loved this puzzle, although it was easy-as-Monday for me. I got the theme right away, but it was definitely in my wheelhouse. In college I debated between majoring in English or Chemistry. I still enjoy both fields. But then I took a FORTRAN class, fell in love, and joined the newly-formed Computer Science department. I submitted my stacks of punch card programs to be run on the brand-new IBM 360. I met my now-husband of 53 years that same semester. It was good times! But we are old, for sure. Nice to have a puzzle without the pop-culture clues. I got NAENAE on crosses....

This one was really tough. Long sentences and obscure trivia. Also trying to do while watching football games. [BYU tromped Arizona!! Go Cougars!!! Still undefeated!!!!] But the advantage to obscure trivia is that they are easy to look up online. I just add "-crossword" to the search line so that I learn something about the item instead of getting all those sites with NYT crossword answers.

I am SOOOO glad the puzzle system doesn't blow a streak if you finish yesterday before you start today! I just opened the iPad App and Thursday's puzzle opened -- only 2/3 finished! I was at 357 days. I really want to hit 1 year. I usually do the puzzles after dinner while my husband does dishes (I cook....) But then a family of 6 arrived who are staying with us until Sunday for their grandmother/great grandmother funeral. They are all close. Grandma was 98 last Monday, so this is a celebration. Anyway, I forgot to go back and finish the puzzle! Now it's done. Streak is 358. Life is good. I just started Friday. Too hard, as usual, but I'll get through it.

Another little easteUregg: 66D -- TBIRD -- goes back to George Lucas' earlier movie, American Graffitti. He made that movie as a total unknown on a miniscule budget. It was all filmed outdoors, except the dance, filmed at Tamalpias High. I think he went to High School there, or close by. The movie was a big hit, and made Lucas the money to do his real dream -- Star Wars. Suzanne Summers, in her first 'real' movie role, drove that little white 1956 Thunderbird that had Richard Dreyfus drooling after her. He was also an unknown. I think the only known actor in the movie was Ron Howard. So many others got their start in American Graffitti, including Harrison Ford. I'm partial to that movie because I own a duplicate 1956 TBIRD that my dad bought knew. I've had it since 1980. But our real claim is that our actual 1956 DeSoto is in the movie, driven by my brother-in-law. And my Sister-in-law was at the dance. They were both in high school and got non-paying jobs as extras, just for fun. My husband and I drove the 1956 De Soto the first year we were married, then gave it to his brother because it was too old to drive cross-country when we moved to Boston.

I'm working on the puzzle, don't know anything about alcoholic drinks, so 5A is waiting for crosses to help. But I'm also watching Jeopardy. One answer was about cocktail served in a brass mug! Question: "What is a Moscow MULE!" Glad my two favorite brain-saving activities are helping each other.

I just found this. <a href="https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/11/17/issue.html" target="_blank">https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1924/11/17/issue.html</a> Article is titled "A familiar form of madness." It was part of a list of "75 Years of Crosswords" articles from NYT. The NYT thought crosswords were a waste of time! My husband was of the same opinion. He frowned when I worked on the paper version each morning at breakfast in the olden days. Then health news came out about how menopausal women shouldn't do hormone replacement therapy, but still needed to do things to keep mind and body active -- like crossword puzzles. I was vindicated!! He's stopped his grousing. :o)

After yesterday's discussion about proper plural of Octopus I have to post this amazing song that explains it all. Thank you Allan Sherman. <a href="https://youtu.be/FVekfpXJGBc?si=t1a7xjB1PrNf9nzK" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/FVekfpXJGBc?si=t1a7xjB1PrNf9nzK</a>

This was a great puzzle. I'm a 007 fan since my Dad bought the paperbacks in the 1960's and I read them all. Loved the S to SH shlide.... But, just one little nit to pick. How can we have a DOUBLEO puzzle and not have any OreOs?

Question -- until a couple of months ago when someone did a Reply to a comment there was an option to View Thread. Now, only the original post does View Thread. When I see a message that is obviously a reply to a previous comment I'd like to see what the original post was. It's hard to scan through all the other posts to find it. The reply may have lots of recommendations, but be a bit nonsensical without reading the original post. How do we get the View Thread choice on all replies that are part of a conversation? Thanks!

I hit 2500 puzzles solved today! What a lovely Christmas present. Streak isn't much -- only 50. I was over 650, but a few weeks back I forgot to finish a hard Saturday before starting Sunday. Oops.... That's the hazard of knowing that if you leave a puzzle and come back in a few hours some of the answers will become obvious. You have to remember to come back! Merry Christmas everyone!

GRACEHOPPER was a gimme. I heard her speak at BYU in about 1970 when I was an undergrad in Computer Science. She told us some day we would all have our own computer on our desks! And they would be connected!! This was the heydey of IBM and Univac mainframes. We couldn't imagine such a thing. And here's info about a lecture she did in 1982 about cyber security. She was alway a woman way ahead of her time. We can now watch Grace Hopper’s famed 1982 lecture on YouTube The lecture featured Hopper discussing future challenges of protecting information. Read in Ars Technica: <a href="https://apple.news/AYx1QGHDNS2eOPamTOtipJg" target="_blank">https://apple.news/AYx1QGHDNS2eOPamTOtipJg</a>

Loved the clue for 16D. When my son was 13 he loved to flash a laser pointer around for our crazy family cat. He learned from his patent-attorney Dad that someone had a patent on the idea! Son thought that was crazy. Dad said, "If you can make an improvement on it I'll get you a patent." So at age 14 our son had his patent on a Lego tower with twirling motor on top to automatically spin the laser pointer around the room. When same son graduated from college with engineering degree and was job hunting he put on his resume that he had a patent -- but not what it was for. This was 15 years ago when they were not all online. A few years ago his patent was cited in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court as an example of a frivolous patent. :o)

For the last few weeks I've been getting a warning in the Games App that I need to upgrade to newer version. But it won't let me because my iPad is too old! New Games App requires iOS 18. I'm on 16.7, and can't upgrade, just because Apple says so. They want me to buy a new one. Now today I can't use Games App at all!! I hate all this 'planned obsolesence!' Yes, iPad is 7 years old, but it works just fine. I can do everything on it I want to do -- except Games App. I did find a work-around. The NYTimes App has a Games link. That one still works. I don't like the crossword layout as well -- font is smaller for my old eyes. And it doesn't have a link to Wordplay column. I had to go to Sections and do search. Nuisance.... I have a cross-stitched plaque my sister made me: "Use it Up, Wear It Out, Make It Do, or Do Without" and that's the way I live. I drove to work today in a car that is 70 years old! 1956 T-bird my Dad bought new, and when I stop driving I have a son who will keep it running. I work for a school district with about 2000 Chromebooks. 6 years ago Google decided Chromebooks should only work for 4 years -- no more system upgrades, even though they worked fine. We had to replace them so we could still do the Calif standardized testing. Los Angeles Unified had 80,000 useless Chromebooks! I guess they all went in the landfill? There was a big, big fuss, and the new ones we bought are good for 8 years, which is better, but still too short.

Difficult -- yes, on one level. But not so difficult on another, because so many of the clues were trivia that could easily be revealed by your favorite search engine. So I finished the puzzle in about my normal time, but this one gets the prize for the most look-ups. I don't mind difficult word-play. I'm not so fond of all the trivia.

Did someone mix up Fri and Sat again? Yesterday took me more than an hour. Today was 25 minutes! No idea about Personal Best on a Sat. My stats say 5:31. No way I ever did a Saturday that fast!

We have a favorite John EELLWWAAYY story. He was QB fo Stanford when his father was coach at San Jose State. When asked if he had any mixed loyalties when the two teams played he said that he only rooted for Stanford. His Dad was all for San Jose State. It was his Mom who had a real problem!

Haven't played dreidle since my almost-50 year old children were in pre-school! But the song came right back into my head. Now an ear-worm. I thought I was finished, but no happy music. Finally had to sneak a peak at the answer. Being a German speaker I put in GELd for the money. But then didn't like SNOd for the [arrogant sort]. So I changed it to SNOb/GELb. I don't speak Yiddish, but know it is similar to German in many ways, so thought that must be the variation. I think of an arrogant person as much more of a SNOb than a SNOT. But German pronounces the final D in GELd like a T, so I guess I understand the problem. Happy New Year. Looking forward to 365 more wonderful puzzles to solve and good columns and comments to read.

Last night Jeopardy had a "Crossword Clues O" category. I was so disappointed that none of the questions were "What is OREO!"

I justs figured out my last one on my own. BandITS! Fun puzzle!

Did anyone else have trouble in the NE because C[IDE]RVINEGAR has the same number of letters as LEMONJUICE? And CABBABE also fits instead of ROMAINE? I put those in before I figured out the themes or knew that it would make one-too-many IDES. Wonderful puzzle!

Loved Katie's story about the car trips. We did similar with our family in the 1980's & 90's. But the trip was only 850 miles, so all in one day. Take out the middle seat of the mini van and put 4 kids to sleep on the floor at 5 a.m. That got us to Reno for breakfast about 9 a.m. Then everyone is awake and can play around (and argue and fight.) Lunch in Elko in early afternoon. Arrive in Salt Lake City in time for dinner! Never had an accident, thank goodness! I have the 1956 Ford Thunderbird that my Dad bought new. He paid extra for seatbelts -- they were an optional add-on, and we'd never seen such a thing before! I remember one trip to the beach (1 hour drive, few freeways) with my Mom, my Aunt and their 6 young children! This car only has one bench seat. 2 kids on the floor under Aunt's feet. Two kids on the seat between the adults, 2 kids sitting up on the back of the convertible with feet hanging down toward the seat. Those were the days!

Wow! I did this puzzle in 15 minutes. My Friday average is 35 min!! And no lookups, except I was stuck. All filled in, no happy music. Time to read the column. Had AWaKE and AxED instead of AWOKE and ABED. I got the ABED from the column and then the SNOBS part fit. So it was fast, but I think I was just on the right wavelength. I started the puzzle thinking I'd make a pass through, then let the brain cells mull while I cook dinner. Come back and finish later..... Dinner isn't started, and I need to get busy!! Company coming in 40 minutes!!!!

Spoiler for today's Connections: I didn't know the Panama Palindrome until it was in a crossword puzzle a few weeks ago. Lean something new here and it carries over into other parts life! Yes, there is more to my life than puzzlels....

I got BRUNO Mars right away, not because I know much of his music, but because of the parody my son did of Uptown Funk -- made it into "Dark Lord Funk." So, for Harry Potter and Bruno Mars fans, here it is: <a href="https://youtu.be/zbdvogFyZZM?si=pgzX3gMbDu3Df6NA" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/zbdvogFyZZM?si=pgzX3gMbDu3Df6NA</a> 17 million views so far! The snake is named Snape! My son is Harry Potter in the video. My other favorite he did is "Talk Nerdy to Me" -- being the nerd that I am. This is the son who came home from 3rd grade one day all sad because someone called him a nerd. I smiled and told him "Congratulations! I'm a nerd. Your Dad is a nerd. We love nerds at our house." He's owned the title proudly ever since. Now almost 40 years old! Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Supports himself as Youtuber and DJ!

I got stuck with DISs instead of DISH, as that made sense for an answer. Then PEeLED could be the ringing bells, and REM the band, right?? So why no happy music?? Finally had to look at he answer key to get the DISHONOR and RAMONES. It's hard when the partial answer also fits!! Clever cluing.

I usually do the puzzles after dinner, but this morning after breakfast I thought I'd do the 'first pass' of Saturday until I got stuck, and then put it away and let the little grey cells do their thing so that after dinner I could get more of the puzzle. Imagine my surprise when I got the whole thing done in 1/2 my usual time! And in one sitting! It was just one of those where my mind was on the same wavelength as the constructor. Somehow I immediately knew POLKADOTS and GARAGESALE! I saw through the wonderful mis-directs pretty quickly, which is not normal for me. HEADRESTS gave me ELBOWROOM. Once I had BOAT from crosses, the rest of that line came to me. Loved the clues for ARGYLE, MAIL, ITCH, RBIS among many others. Also loved the absence of pop trivia. My only sadness with getting this done quickly was that it was over too soon. What am I going to do after dinner tonight?

Did anyone else get stuck on the SHRuNK & LuSSI natick? I had SH, so quickly filled in SHRuNK. [Honey I Shrunk the Kids, right?] I wasn't sure about LuSSI, so I looked it up -- alternate spelling of LASSI. OK that works. That was my only look-up! Not bad. When I couldn't find my error, I finally looked at the answer key. SHRANK!! ARRGGG!!

AAARRRGGG!!! I just blew my 373 day streak! I finished the puzzle in 39 minutes. Not bad for a Saturday. Had to look up a couple of the names (TOADETTE, BORG and NANCY). Then I spent 16 minutes looking for the mistake. I checked all the Os to make sure they weren't zeroes. My husband went through the answer key with me one letter at a time. It all looked perfectly fine. Finally I gave up and turned on Auto-check. It marked the C in CENA as wrong??? So I typed in the C again and got the happy music. Then it all came back to me.... I have both English and Russian keyboards on my iPad. I switch between them using the CapsLock key. I had EPA, so typed C_NA. Then I noticed that I was getting Russian characters instead. Oops. I backed up and erased the Т and Ф, changing them to N and A. But I forgot about the C. The Russian C looks just like the English C and is the same key on the keyboard. But the underlying ASCII code is different, and that's what the xword software is looking at. I lived in St. Petersburg Russia for 2 years in 2017-19, so really needed both keyboards. I don't need it much anymore, but keep it going for nostalgia's sake. It's OK. Streaks come and go. But the daily crossword keeps my old brain working and that's what is important.

I just got home from work and finished the puzzle I had started at breakfast -- not much time then. But we always celebrate Pi Day because one of my coworkers has a birthday today, too. Along with Albert E. Unfortunately, coworkers name is only 11 characters long, or I would have been tempted to re-do the puzzle with his name in it instead. I made lemon meringue and apple pies -- both with fruit from my garden trees. I much prefer pies to cake anyway, so Pi Day is an extra bonus, in its own irrational way.

My favorite clue today, "Necessities for retiring." I read the clue, and went to the squares expecting to write in IRAS. Oops, waaay to short! I'm recently retired, and that IRA is what keeps the household functioning and the fun trips happening. When I came back around again and had a few crosses I got the SPARES and had to laugh and laugh. Also, when I started reading out loud to my non-crosswordy husband the most-commented-on statement about the comments this week, he burst out laughing at just the appropriate moment in my reading. I share Mike's daily pun with DH, but don't bother with reading him all the 'drama.'

This morning KQED is doing an hour-long interview about crossword puzzles with Anna Schechtman. She has constructed for The New Yorker magazine and the NYT. She has a new book about crosswording called The Riddles of the Sphinx. Go to kqed.org, click on Podcasts and find the FORUM podcast to listen to the show.

I loved this puzzle. Robin Weintraub puzzles are usually really hard. And they have wonderful clues. But I must have been on her wavelength this week. I did a Friday in just under 18 minutes! With no lookups!! My usual Friday average is over 35 minutes, with several lookups. Loved the clues -- 'not in English?' and deep pockets and picked pockets....

73A had me laughing out loud. About 30 years ago when my group of friends were all in baby-having mode (now we are all grandmothers...) there was a baby shower. Hostess had squeezed the lemon juice. Friend said, "Can I help?" "Sure -- here is juice in pitcher. Please add sugar from canister on shelf above, and water from the tap." Job done. All is well? Oops -- identical canisters. One had sugar. One had salt. Wrong one in lemonade... We all still remember that baby shower above all others ever attended.

For me today, too many things that I could easily look up -- pop culture names, quotes, etc. But, with a hard Saturday, that got me a good foothold in the puzzle so I could eventually finish. Favorite mis-direct: [Cook's offer with chip]. I had the last two letters __AC, so I easily put in guAC as a gimme. Nope! When I realized the COuE crossing couldn't be right, then the guAC I love so much had to go. I've learned this year that Guacamole freezes well. I make a big batch -- all 5 avocados from a Costco bag-- with lemon and salsa and tabasco and salt. Then plop in blobs on a cookie sheet in size appropriate for hubby and me. Freeze until hard, then move to a baggie. Can pull one out and defrost whenever I need something to offer with Chips!

A friend just brought me a package of JoJo's -- Trader Joe's knock-off version of Oreos. That's got to show up in a puzzle one day soon. Clue: [not quite Oreos].

Was there something wrong with the comments section today? It's 10 pm PST and only 75 comments? And the oldest only 3 hours ago? I started earlier today, and then realized just before bed that I'd been side-tracked and never finished the puzzle. But I did get Mike's pun. And I liked the puzzle. I had _MASK, which was a gimme. I often put one on when I wake up at 6 am and want more sleep. I never watch late night TV, so asked my husband about Seth. He said MEYERS, but that didn't fit! Then I was no longer in the dark! EYEs wide open and seeing the rebus. On a Wednesday! That's OK. It keeps me humble....

Sometimes things are just too close. I confidently put in ham to go with the cheese. The whole middle just wasn't working. Finally looked at the answer key. We had MAC & cheese for dinner tonight, just before I did the puzzle. Never occurred to me to put MAC in the puzzle!

Double diamonds always remind me of a wonderful story -- at least in the end. A 12-year-old in our church was hit by a car just before Christmas, many years ago. At first he wasn't going to live, then never walk again.... On our annual youth ski trip at the end of January that year we stopped by the Rehab Hospital on the way home to all wish him well. The following year on the same annual ski trip I was going up the ski lift that followed the double-black-diamond trail. I looked down, and there was this same young man. Skiing just had he had in previous years! He's now married with a family and only has a slight limp. Miracles happen!

I got the idea of the theme, but then got stuck... I had ant for the little lifter. What is DERa? That whole area was a mess. I took out the wrong little lifter, worked on other words -- figured out UNDERTONES. No having any idea of Hole albums was also a problem. Who is Hole??? Something else to look up. I'm old, so my 1994 listening was still Beatles and Simon & Garfunkle. Those were the albums I played on my record player. (Still have both!) I thought the homophone for JUDICIOUS was just DIS. Didn't see the DISH until I read the column. But either one works!