Darcy V
USA
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USA
I read the instructions three times before starting but still didn’t understand what I was supposed to do. I decided to try anyway and see how far I got. I ending up solving the puzzle (enjoyably!), but I didn’t really solve it, it seems, and I still don’t understand even after reading the column. Rotate the locks?
I almost never comment here but just had to say I loved this puzzle.
@Nancy J. BARLEYWATER instantly brought to mind, to my astonishment, a line from a song in “Mary Poppins,” when the children sing about their requirements for a nanny: “Love us as a son and daughter/And never smell of barley water” As a child I listened to the album over and over, always wondering what in the world barley water was.
A YOGINI is a female practitioner of yoga (Hindu or Buddhist), not necessarily a teacher.
I seem to be gathering from people’s comments here that Vertex is being discontinued? If so, I am very very sad. Vertex is a uniquely relaxing puzzle and both fun and fascinating to solve. It’s my favorite reward at the end of a long day (and my daily puzzles also include, in no particular order, Wordle, Sudoku, both crosswords, and Connections). PLEASE at least make the archive available?
@Kathy I think of birthstones as relating to months, not zodiac signs. The birthstone for the month of October is opal.
I really wanted 17 across to be WHOSESARINOW
Another language in which the word “computer” is literally “electric brain” is Tibetan (same number of letters)…..
Came here to say I loved this puzzle, especially JAKE and JAPE, both of which made me feel old in a deeply satisfied way. Thank you!
@Nancy J. Great song! Music by Phil Lesh Lyrics by Robert Hunter
Did anyone else stumble on SENDITBACK clued as [Line from an unhappy diner]? Isn’t this what a diner would *do* rather than say?
This is just to note, re Caitlyn’s column, that “re” is not an abbreviation. It is a full-fledged English preposition, derived from the Latin. And (my pet peeve) it does not need to be followed by a colon in the middle of a sentence, as almost everybody seems to think.
@Teresa I had a puzzle map like that too! It was a gift from my mother, who was terrible at geography. I loved playing with it and learned the US states very young as a result.
My own alma mater got around the alumnae/alumni problem decades ago by dropping the Latin ending and referring to everyone as an alumn, adding an s to make it plural. This always struck me as a sensible solution, and I’m so used to it that the argument in this column strikes me as touchingly old-fashioned.
@Rachel Merriam-Webster’s second definition of SLAY: “to delight or amuse immensely.”
@Sam Lyons I can recall segue being used broadly to mean “transition” as far back as the late 1970s when I was in college, a good 20 years before the scooter.
Why are bracket contents TEAMS? I was thinking of sets, in math, or income levels—?
@Rebecca Yes! Absolutely stuck on MTA for CTA (having grown up with the L at 14th and 1st as my closest subway stop). Had to reveal the answer.
@Margaret Yes, but unfortunately “Give it to me straight” would not pass muster because the answer would include a word in the clue [it].
@Mergatroyd Look again—it’s TAOISEACH (no R), and that is his name. I had to run the alphabet, and the I was the very last letter I filled in.
Can someone enlighten me about the ODES of Solomon?
Can someone please help me understand DEALERSSHOE?
@Pat Look up “meet”in the dictionary. It is an adjective that means “appropriate to the circumstances.”
I enjoyed the puzzle and finished in a reasonable time but didn’t notice the theme at all until I read the column, and I still don’t understand how CRASH COURSE reveals anything. Can someone please explain? Thank you!
@Barry Ancona A teacher in Hinduism or Buddhism could be a yogini (or not), and a yogini could be a teacher (or not). A yogini could also be a goddess. The association of the words feels a little too loose to make for a satisfactory clue, I think—maybe something akin to juxtaposing “recognized expert” and “college professor.”
@Sonja I must beg to differ. I studied at the School of American Ballet and performed as a child with the New York City Ballet Company. We called them both toeshoes and pointe shoes, with equal frequency.
@Jake Roberts It’s pronounced “share”
@Francis Agreed. I’d suggest [“Is it just me?”]
@Bill I understand the spork to be a modern coinage, but not a modern invention. I remember my grandmother’s silver had small spoons with tines at the edge. We used them for pie ala mode. I was taught that they were called runcible spoons, a word I believe was made up by Edward Lear, used in his poem “The Owl and the Pussycat,” a childhood favorite of mine. This was in the early 1960s.
@Jersey Girl Sounds like we went to the same camp.
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