Tricia J
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Michigan
For a brief moment, I thought 58D [Follower of Attila] might be "THE" ...
Got a tiny frisson of delight when I noticed my completion time was also a palindrome
@Mean Old Lady in my version the AORTA is clued as major blood "vessel" - did yours actually say vein?
@MmmmHmm that was yesterday's puzzle. If you read the column that goes with it, those might make more sense (eg (John) Denver is a STAGENAME and Colorado is a STATENAME).
I grew up mostly in a small town in New Mexico, but knew EGGCREAM from the book "Harriet the Spy." The concept kind of grossed me out. It was only much later in life that I learned there was no egg! Still haven't had one.
All this griping about TOGAs/e, but I got waylaid by PRIMe/o and SUGARMa/oMMA
@Rich in Atlanta I was wondering what "evaperon" might mean, why it could be so frequent if I didn't recognize it. Something to do with evaporation? Yet another subatomic particle? Then I realized it was the name (insert facepalm emoji :-)
@Eddie may his memory be a blessing today and all days (in a similar vein, it is my dad's birthday).
I learned about USURY as a high schooler in Youth in Government back in the early 80s. We had to write a bill to introduce and while I was fishing about for ideas, my dad suggested something about interest payments and rates. But what was a way more memorable experience was when the pompous erstwhile student lieutenant governor thought he was too important to come to our committee meeting, so we shortened every instance of "condominium" in his bill...to a 6 letter word. (Anyone who has been in high school can probably figure out what.) Needless to say, he was livid. Perhaps Todd learned that legislating can be a VICIOUS CYCLE.
Am I the only one who now wants to read all about the race in the header photo?
@The Poet McTeagle think potato chips instead.
@Mean Old Lady my three kids are in their 20s and each had a classmate named Ruby. (It was on our short list of girls names as well, but we never had call to use that list..,)
All of you complaining that the app does a disservice to the constructors - have you ever thought that maybe your kvetching also does a disservice to the constructors? Who wants to be part of a firestorm of negativity, even if their inclusion is only tangential? (FWIW I didn't see any special formatting yet finished in close to my Thursday best. I didn't quite understand how the second half of the phrase came about before reading the column, but the phrases were fairly standard English.)
There’s somebody who often posts links to songs connected to the puzzle. That person might not be familiar with Carrie Newcomer because I don’t see a link to her fun ditty “Crash of Rhinoceros”, so I’ll do it: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Vq9iWOUfI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7Vq9iWOUfI</a>
@Nancy pickleball was invented by two men in Washington State back in 1965, trying to amuse their bored families. I suspect the legislature chose it as a nod to that history. <a href="https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game" target="_blank">https://usapickleball.org/what-is-pickleball/history-of-the-game</a>/
@Foster there's a tree called slippery elm. Some people use slippery elm bark as a remedy for sore throats.
@CalGal I used to participate in a group that does mailart swaps, and "addy" is used extensively in that community. I never used it myself because it IRKed me, but it definitely in the world.
I also want to thank @dutchiris for the Church Rock article link. Even though I was living in New Mexico at the time, I was completely UNfamiliar with this event! Granted, as a 14yo I didn’t watch the evening news, but I did read our local newspaper (Roswell Daily Record). And that following school year, as a 9th grader in the speech and debate club, I was preparing speeches about Love Canal and “Silent Spring”and other assorted environmental disasters. Surprising to learn only now that this was going on in my proverbial backyard!
@Alex one could say that all smartphones are PDAs (in the stretchy "crossword clue is not a definition" sense, especially on a Friday)
@Grumpy when I am stuck on a one word clue, I often look it up in a thesaurus. SEEP was right there for [permeate]. So maybe you don't like it, but Roget did (or at least the Merriam-Webster lexicographers did).
@Jennene here in Michigan, lots of churches and Knights of Columbus halls have Friday fish-fry’s (as fund-raisers I presume) during lent.
@SanityPlease maybe because check kiting is a kind of fraud? But yeah, I was slightly confused, because there wasn't an overt reference in the clue wording.
@Murgatroid as the clue says, the *first* word - the number - counts the syllables in the *second* word.
@Malcolm but SAMBAL isn’t a lentil based stew or from India . And LEDs are lights not ornaments. At least those are the rationales I provided myself *after* replacing the L with an R :-)
@Lewis I'm with Vaer - don't remember any talking beanie babies. I was the wrong age to take part in the craze, but I have a younger friend who tells how an older woman ripped one out of her hands in the store. She was 8 when it happened.
@Peter I didn't know that history but Peter Pan is often played by a woman here as well. Mary Martin had the role on Broadway and Cathy Rigby (or maybe some other famous gymnast?) played him in a touring show my dad took me to in El Paso TX in the mid 1970s.
@Sanjana IMPEI is pretty much the only architect I know - so if an architect clue gas a 5 letter answer, that's what I enter. 3 letters? PEI.
@Nil and @Stephen file IMPEI in your crossword memory bank. He shows up a lot!
@Roger Volt was hybrid electric; approximately 35 miles of electric range and then switched to internal combustion. (My neighbors owned one and I borrowed it for a road trip once.) The Bolt on the other hand was fully electric.
@redweather not sure I understand your last point. Are you saying only recently dead people are memorable and worthy of inclusion? James Cameron was valid because he's still alive (or because he's a he?) I guessed at her name based on what I hoped the last two crossing letters were then looked up "Dede Allen" and confirmed she had been a director. Then I read her Wikipedia entry and she does seem to have been notable in the field.
Doesn't Daffy Duck pronounce it more like more like "dethpicable" (that is, with a lisp) than "despicable"? That honestly threw me for a loop the first pass through - I thought there might be another character. Especially when later encountering clues with "wabbit" and "ze".
@Cathy Parrish believe me, ask any student or alum of UM who is the biggest rival - especially in football - and they'll tell you OSU. Weren't there stories all over mainstream media just last week proclaiming it the biggest football rivalry of all? (On the other hand, ask an MSU student and they'll probably say UM. Which (to be fair) probably goes both ways when it comes to basketball.)
@ad absurdum what, 9 months wasn’t enough for you? I was wondering if APGAR was one of the theme words, because it was invented by Virginia Apgar. It works as a mnemonic (appearance, pulse, grimace (reflexes to touch), activity, and respiration) but is also her name. (If my second child had been born a few hours later, his apgar would have been calculated by a local Dr Apgar, related to Virginia, which is why I carry about this piece of trivia.)
@Elizabeth G. I don't drink beer either, but knew CORONA because of all the fake furor about it in 2020. And I've seen people drink it. Never seen a PERONI that I know of.
@Janine eek! can you fill us in on your alternative pronunciation?
@Desert Dweller old red delicious apples certainly do get mealy. And ones purchased in a grocery store tend to be farther from freshly picked, and/or not held at optimal temperature during that time span. This the common stereotype. (That said, we have one family member who vastly prefers soft yellow apples, so we're happy to see golden delicious apples in the grocery store. But even those get mealy towards the end of the off season, and said family member knows the difference between "soft" and "mealy")
@Dee Why all this hullabaloo over a casserole? It’s probably more TexMex than Mexican. Think taco seasoned meat on a cornmeal based ‘crust’ (and topped with cheese instead of guacamole and sour cream, at least in our family). Comfort food not “great” food.
@Joe P I was thinking NOOOOOO... but got thrown by the W at the end. And was scratching my head over SNAN.
@Louise it feels more like slang to me (rather than specialized to any one sport) but the etymology in the previous reply suggests it’s been around a long time!
@haniblecter they definitely are pests (to humans) in pick-your-own orchards in the fall!
@Mean Old Lady if there are any Little Free Library stands near your friends, you might be able to find a new book that way. I've done it on a couple trips now!
@Sanjana PUERH was my initial mistake!
@Mean Old Lady while it's possible that "panty raids" are nowadays called "undie runs", undie runs are indeed what Deb described: people running in their undies. Wikipedia suggests they're usually on college campuses but I had the impression they were often fund-raiser 5Ks for various cancer charities. And since Ann Arbor / UMich formerly had an unsanctioned event called the naked mile, that's what I expected might fit there! (except it didn't match the plural "events" in the clue)
@Mean Old Lady. Junior-senior prom where I grew up, but in the town where we now live it's definitely senior prom at all the comprehensive high schools (jr-sr at the small alternative public HS). But at the same time, when I was aware of elaborate 'promposals' about a decade ago I feel like they mostly omitted an article as in these clues.
@Helen Wright I've lived in various regions of the US and knew GOBSMACKED right off. Not sure where I first learned it though!
When I was a teen (or maybe younger) a dentist accused me of shedding CROCODILETEARS. At first I didn't know what he meant; after it was explained I was offended that he would think he could know what pain I might be experiencing. That phrase has stuck with me as a result! (and was a gimme today)
@Eric Interesting. Your comment led me to consult an online thesaurus: "lithe" is listed as a synonym for both flexible and agile, but they aren't listed as synonyms for one another. If the transitive property applies to synonyms, though, then...
@Nancy the gray letters helped me a little, once I realized they were spelling out emotions. Gave me some of my missing letters in FONDNESS.
@Cat Lady Margaret I was mystified for the longest time, because here in Michigan a "party store" is more like a liquor store with a smidgen of convenience store items tucked inside.
@Selective Walrus I've been keeping tracks of my bests in a note separate from the app. Today was about 10 seconds faster than previous, which I had noted as "6 July 23 (theme helped)". And looking at my Thursday PB trajectory, there have been other changes over a couple years. All that to say, I suspect within a year you'll encounter another Thursday which seems out of line with expectations and becomes your new best Thursday.