Captain Quahog

Well, I can see from the comments I've read so far, that my prediction last week has been validated, that the return of Will would not result in whine-free comments. It puzzles me in the extreme that so many people get upset whenever a puzzle is puzzling.

Fun puzzle-- not sure it belongs on a Thursday. But it would be too difficult for a Monday or Tuesday, and maybe also for a Wednesday, and it's themed, so... where to put it? Thursday it is! I am dismayed to learn of so many people not having heard of the Frost poem. I'm not really up on poetry, but geez -- this one is so famous. Even more dismaying is that some people seem to be proud of their ignorance. I forgot to mention that my streak reached the important milestone of 420 yesterday.

I'm on team "no tree." However, it's worth noting that, when I was a kiddo, we always had a live tree. And I really mean "live" - once you cut a tree, it's not really alive any more. It would more accurately be termed a "dying tree." Our Christmas trees were dug up, roots and all, by my father and, when I was older, by him and my brother and me. We would go out before the ground was frozen and dig one up. He would encase the roots in burlap and it would sit in a tub in our cold garage until it was time to set it up indoors. It would be moved into the house, tub and all, and a decorative fabric draped over the galvanized tub. Once the holidays were over, it would be returned to the garage until Spring, when we would plant it on the hill behind our house. I would estimate we had a success rate of well over 50% -- probably close to 75%. Some trees did succumb to the trauma, but it's still a lot less trauma than having the trunk sawn through. We eventually had a pretty substantial and attractive grove of mostly blue spruces on that little knoll. I returned to that house a few years ago, over 50 years after my parents sold the house, and they are still there, easily seen because all trees growing naturally in the area are deciduous. Other than these tall blue spruces. No, they are not propagating, so they are not invasive (and blue spruce habitat is less than a mile away). So, put me on either team "no tree" or on team "truly live tree." Merry Christmas, one and all!

I'm going to comet on Thursday's puzzle here because I just saw a comment that needs to be responded to, but the comments there are closed. I had a tab open to the Thursday comments and, before closing it, looked of any new comments. The newest comment, by someone named Patrick, admitted that PEG was a word and technically correct as clued, but still lambasted it as "most egregiously awful. Hostile, almost." That's fine -- there are words I'm not fond of, or certain usages or definitions of words I don't care for (octopi, anyone?), but I don't expect constructors to cater to my own personal preferences. Our own Eric H. replied, suggesting that that Patrick check out the definition of PEG in a dictionary. That was met with a reply, written by Don from MD, claiming that it was NOT in "any dictionary to which I have access" and Don specifically cited Wiktionary.org, claiming that of the 18 definitions provided, not a single one related to throwing. So I went there to see for myself: There are 18 definitions of PEG used as a *noun* and none of them, of course define a *verb* meaning to throw. But if Don had bothered to continue to scroll down to the verb definition, he would have found that there are 13 entries of PEG as a verb, the 5th of which is simply "To throw". Don't believe me? Look back at those comments and then check out that entry on Wiktionary. Please, people, if you're going to register a complaint, please try to do your homework a bit better.

Gotta say... MICRODOT had a completely different meaning to me about 50 years ago. What a trippy puzzle!

Thank you to everyone who commented on the loss of my beloved pup yesterday. I have been mostly offline since I posted -- a sort-of relative (my brother's nephew through my sister-in-law, but no relation to me) came to Maine to hike in Acadia. He arrived yesterday afternoon and we had a nice dinner together, where he got to meet several of my misfit friends. He also got to meet my remaining pup. My friends and I gave him a lot of recommendations for which trails to check out in Acadia, and a recommendation to swing through the Whites on his return to McGuire AFB. I met him about 30 years ago, when he was a toddler, so he doesn't remember me, and I had no idea what he would look like. It was a good meetup. He's an interesting guy -- USAF pilot who flies big planes. He just returned from a 6-month deployment to the Middle East. He is considering moving to Boston to fly for a commercial airline when he leaves the USAF in about a year. So, I was offline most of yesterday. I did check in just now and the cockle of my simple heart was warmed by all your well-wishes. Thank you all. Now, if only I can post this before the power goes out. It's blowing a full gale out there and much of Maine is already out of power...

I've browsed the comments quickly, but not in detail, so I apologize in advance if this has already been raised. COCOON! OK, I know it's been pedantically hammered to death. I saw it, too. It didn't bother this biologist much, because this is a crossword, not an entomology textbook. But you do you. What everyone seems to have missed is that this clue/answer pair missed an awesome opportunity related to the theme. One of the most spectacular moths, whose pupa spins a most awesome COCOON, is... Antheraea polyphemus, the POLYPHEMUS moth! During some eclosions, my home is completely covered with them at night -- I even hear their softly flapping pit-a-pats against my windows. It is a sight to behold. And in the morning, there might be 50 or so POLYPHEMUS clinging to the siding, the windows, and the deck -- a tiny fraction of the hordes that were present the night before. THAT is the sin of the 70A as clued. A much better clue would be "Wrap for 20A". That this opportunity eluded the constructor and the editors is a crime against all cruciverbalism!

Looks like today's winner for "clue and answer pair most commented upon, incorrectly, as being wrong" goes to.... ding-ding-ding-ding! NOR! Yes, it is a Boolean operator. Maybe not one YOU use in YOUR favorite coding language, but it is, in fact a Boolean operator. (Please note that although Boolean operators are used in coding, they are not exclusive to coding, and they predated coding by many decades.) There is a whole world beyond any one person's narrow experience - and in today's world, there are wonderful search engines where you can double-check what you think you know about. And if you check on this, you will find, that NOR is, in fact, a Boolean operator, whether you personally use it or not. Maybe not one of the basic operators, but a derived one, which does not equate to it not being an operator at all...

Some may recall my occasional mention of my pups, and that one of them made a visit to the emergency vet in the wee hours of the morning two weeks ago. Sadly, she had to be put down yesterday. I'm still rather lugubrious over this, and will be for some time. Her sister is out of sorts, too. It's just the two of os for now.

I posted this late Monday in the comments for the Monday puzzle, but I thought I should post it again in today's comments, since most people probably missed it. Here is the posting: One of the language-centered podcasts I listen to just dropped an episode I think a lot of people here will like. Helen Zaltzman's The Allusionist's most recent episode is titled "Word Play Part 4: Good Grids." It's about crossword construction, with a focus on newer constructors bringing newer and more diverse points of view to puzzles. (If you think crosswords are not allowed to change with the times, or if you're easily triggered by inclusion and diversity, you might want to skip it.) The guests include constructors Erik Agard, Juliana Pache, Rachel Fabi, and Adrian Johnson. I don't agree with everything I heard, but it was time well spent (<40 minutes if you skip the ads). <a href="https://www.theallusionist.org" target="_blank">https://www.theallusionist.org</a>/

I love when I learn new stuff from a puzzle. NUYORICAN! How awesome is that?? I love how it rolls off my tongue -- and I hope I retain this for future use. Not often that a Tuesday puzzle presents me with stuff to learn, but there it is!

Update: As expected, my power went out soon after I posted yesterday. It came back last evening, but the internet is still out. I just tethered to my phone to get the puzzles and emails done and update here. There has been extensive damage to the grid just north of me and Versant says it may be several days before power is restored, especially to the Lincoln area; I am grateful to have had mine restored so relatively quickly. This is nothing at all compared to what Lewis and others have had to go through, though, and I am very grateful for that. Best wishes to the people affected by Helene and Milton. My remaining pup is still out of sorts, apparently wondering why her sister has been gone so long. They have never been apart more than a few hours as long as I've had them and the shelter told me they had been together all their lives. (They were 10 years old when I adopted them.) This must be disconcerting for her. Untethering soon after I post this. It's a glorious, if chilly, day here, and I might just take my pup for a ride.

I remember a faculty meeting about 20-25 years ago where I referred to DONGLEs (probably a discussion about connecting laptops to projectors -- I don't recall the specific context) and many shocked eyes were turned my way. Awkward silence ensued. I guess the term was unknown to most of them and they thought I had used some sort of naughty slang in a meeting!

It is well known that people tend to remember, in various contexts, some sort of "Golden Age" that never existed. Like, how wonderful the '50s were and we should go back to those much better times. No, the '50s weren't all that great, if you view that era through a realistic lens. Likewise, all the whiners in here complain about how there was a "Golden Age" of wonderful puzzles when Will Shortz was the editor, and everything has gone to someplace very low in a hand basket since he's been on leave. No. The very same whiners who whine up a storm most Thursdays and Sundays -- any day when the puzzle is harder than a Monday or Tuesday, really -- were whining up a storm when Will was editing the puzzles, too. They just forget about all the whining that went on back then. There are no "Golden Ages." Stephen Jay Gould did a great job of debunking these sorts of false memories in Eight Little Piggies. Don't get me wrong -- I respect and admire Will Shortz and will welcome his return. I also respect and admire Joel Fagliano and all the effort he has put into these puzzles over the past several months. He doesn't deserve the vitriol that is directly or indirectly (passive-aggressively?) directed toward him when a puzzle is a little bit... puzzling. Will's return will not result in less whining. There will be no return to a mythical "Golden Age" of whine-free puzzledom. Having said that, it sounds like there is an issue entering dashes on mobile apps. That should be fixed.

I want to comment on Deb's comment, which many have criticized. I also enjoyed the puzzle but thought it could have been better. Not for the same reason as Deb, but because I thought it could have been more difficult. There are people who come here and whine whenever there's a rebus or a word they don't already know, or whatever. Often, they call the constructor "lazy" or "stupid" etc. Or they make nonsensical proclamations like "rebuses are not crosswords" thus displaying their own ignorance about what a crossword is. In most cases, these criticisms are obviously invalid and not well thought out. Contrast that with what Deb did. She stated that she liked the puzzle, but thought it could have been better. She then compared it to a puzzle from about 13 years ago that she liked better and that she considered a similar mechanism or theme, and she explained why she thought today's puzzle fell short. Deb's criticisms are valid and well stated. I may not agree with them, but they are valid opinions stated respectfully and supported with a reasonable argument. I just wish that all those who chime in with "that's not even a word!!!" when the word in question is in most, if not all, dictionaries, or "The constructor is lazy and incompetent if they use a rebus" when just about all veteran solvers know that it is much more difficult to construct a rebus than a plan-vanilla puzzle. I could go on. Please be like Deb. Provide a cogent criticism. And consult a dictionary first!

Hey, kids! Are there any Elks out there? The June issue of The Elks Magazine includes a feature article on the history of crossword puzzles. I was surprised to see that the NTY was a relative latecomer to publishing crosswords, only agreeing to publish them once WWII began, mostly to provide a diversion for anxious people during "blackout hours" when they were supposed to hunker indoors with the drapes closed. Once the puzzles became a daily feature in the 1950s, the first NYT puzzle editor, Margaret Petherbridge Farrar, supposedly instituted the progression in difficulty during the week, from easiest on Monday to most difficult on Saturday. But I have seen many people who comment here say it was a policy instituted by Shortz. I have been working through the archives and I do not see any progression in difficulty in the older puzzles. Is this perhaps because the policy was suspended at some point and re-instituted by Shortz, or is the article wrong about this? Any clarification? Anyway, I thought I'd de-lurk to mention that the article is out there and also to ask this question that popped into my head when I read it. Carry on.

Fun factoid related to 52A: When learning body plans in comparative anatomy or embryology, when students first encounter the complete gut (complete in this context means having two ends -- mouth and an anus), they are told that this means humans (because humans have complete guts) are a "tube within a tube." Some believe this applies only to worms with tube-like bodies, but it really applies to any organism with a complete gut, including humans, even though the "inner tube" (the gut) is highly convoluted in humans and the outer tube (epidermis) is not very tubelike. Topologically, humans are still a "tube within a tube." This is especially evident during early embryonic development, when gastrulation first forms the gut (by forming the anus, since humans are deuterostomes) and then the mouth forms. The "tube within a tube" structure is very obvious at the point when the mouth is formed. FYI, yes, we clams are also a tube within a tube (with some very interesting exceptions), but with an important difference: we are protostomes -- our blastopore forms our mouth, not our anus. That shows up later. I think the situation in humans (and other deuterostomes) is rather... unappetizing. This is your comparative anatomy and embryology lesson for the day.

I hope all the regular commenters here who live in the flooded parts of Connecticut are OK -- I know there are several. I have a friend in Bethany who sent me some images of washed out roads and bridges just to his west, and I know it was worse when you get closer to New York. Stay safe, everyone!

Just a quick de-cloaking to strut about and pump my chest and announce that I reached a 1000-game streak today. I never cared about streaks at all until someone pointed out that if you miss a day or three, as long as you complete the older puzzle(s) before the newer one(s), your streak is maintained. Sadly, this meant I started to care about streaks. (Whenever I traveled my streak would get broken so I didn't care...) I am not sure my life has improved now that I care about my streak. I'm not about to break it, though! So, a hearty "thank you" and an equally hearty "damn you!" to whoever it was who turned me on to this little bit of streak strategy.

Fun marine biology factoid* (relevant to the MINI, 4D) for the day: This pink sands, famous at Harbour Island (Bahamas) and all the south shore beaches of Bermuda, among other places: Next time you're at one of these beaches, take a magnifying glass with you. Scoop up a small handful of sand and check it out with the magnifier. It's almost entirely composed of pure white coralline sand, just like most white beaches on coral islands around the world. But a few of the grains will be deep, intense red. It is these deep red grains that make the sand appear pink. The red grains are the pulverized exoskeletons (we actually call them "tests") of a single-celled protist, a member of a widespread group called foraminiferans -- "forams" for short. Members of this group either secrete a calcareous test or they aggregate materials from their environment to form the test. The one responsible for Bermuda's pink beaches is Homotrema rubrum -- the specific epithet referring to the intense red color of the secreted test. H. rubrum is colonial, and you can find it coating coral rubble, often forming large encrustations. Scarlet, of course. *Sadly, I must now include a disclaimer for the pedants who feel the need to 'splain what I suspect most of us already know: a factoid is not really a fact. At least according to its etymology. I suspect such people also think the word "decimate" can refer ONLY to the specific situation where you are killing 10% of the soldiers in an army.

I have a moderately humorous anecdote about the term SUCKING FACE. I'm ancient enough that I learned programming on a mainframe with punch cards. It was a great innovation when remote terminals came about and you could just type your programs directly into the Televideo 925. No more handing over your punch cards to the ladies at the computer center! Yay! However, this did require having a logon ID and a password. In order to make my passwords memorable, I had a habit of making them rather... spicy, shall we say? The F word was a favorite ingredient. For some reason, I had not used the mainframe in a while and when I tried to log on, I could not remember my most recent password. This meant one thing: I had to go to the window in the computer center and ask the white-haired ladies at the window to retrieve my password for me. (Password security was rather lax back in those days...) I provided my ID and answered some questions and she ran off to look up my password. I did mention to her that my passwords were sometimes a bit on the salty side. When she returned, she looked at the slip of paper on which the password was written, and said, with great disgust " You aren't kidding about having an offensive password" and clucked at me once or twice. Another white-haired old lady asked "What was it?" Not wanting to say it out loud, lady 1 showed lady 2 the slip. SUCKFACE Lady 2: Oh, that's not bad at all! Henry Fonda said that to Kate Hepburn in On Golden Pond!

Suggestion for the EMU: Place a block on all comments accusing the constructors of being "lazy." It's fine to not like a puzzle or a mechanism therein. But as soon as I see someone accuse the constructors of being "lazy" I know I am dealing with someone who has nothing intelligent to add to the conversation. I have never encountered an exception to this general rule.

As much as I detest OCTOPI as a plural for OCTOPus, and as invalid as its etymology is, and even though I correct my students when they use this abomination in a paper, like many words of faulty pseudo-latin origin, it has entered the English lexicon, so I reluctantly deem it a valid crossword answer, even though it is like unto fingernails, or maybe actually nails, on a chalkboard to me. But my students still can't use it. FYI, the allowed plurals, depending on context, are: OCTOPuses, OCTOPodes, and OCTOPods.

At the risk of jinxing myself, or of being accused of bragging or humblebragging, or some other unnecessary harshing of my buzz, today my streak reached 731. Counting the leap day in 2024, this means I hit the two-year mark. I never hit the one-year mark in the past, because I would travel or get involved in work stuff or for som other reason miss a day. Then... someone told me that if you still competed the puzzles in red when you miss a day or two, your streak would remain intact. Thank you to whoever told me this. Also, curses to you for telling me this, because I didn't really care about my streak until you did so! Coises, I say! Coises to whoever it was! On a tangentially related note: I never solve for time, or at least I didn't until my niece started solving the puzzles. I always preferred to savor a puzzle rather than rush through it. But she likes to compare times, so now, I worry more about the time than I should. Fortunately, my niece is a novice solver and her times are quite low, but she is getting better and faster at solving and has beat me at a few of the minis recently. Given enough time, her speed will increase to the point where I will feel pressed to hurry along. Maybe I should just concede to her at that point...

Has anyone yet mentioned this issue with OLD in the MIDI?? I'm surprised nobody has commented on that yet. ;^)

I'm always pleased to see reference to one of my favorite places on the planet, and one I have had the privilege to have visited and done research on: the deep-sea hydrothermal vents. A truly magical and wondrous thing on our world and one that was completely unknown until 1977, when research largely conducted by marine geologists and geophysicists from Oregon State University pointed to their existence, finally confirmed by the first visit to the vents in the Alvin. There were no biologists on this research cruise, since the assumption was that the environment around the vents would be highly toxic and barren of life. Little did they know The first message we received was "Send biologists!" (I was working in the Marine Geology Department at the OSU School of Oceanography at the time.) It was two years before a biological expedition was made. And its was 15 years before I went there myself. A research cruise I will never forget.

Whew! A good, tough puzzle, nicely made and clued. I had a few knowns int he NW, worked around counterclockwise and quickley filled in the short answers int he center section. It didn't propagate right away, though. I knew WALTHER but not the following three letters. I did enter PPK from the crosses, but assumed I had errors in the NE and would have to go back to correct something. But then I filled in the last square and was surprise, pleasantly so, to get the happy music. Overall, I was surprised to finish in a little under my usually Saturday average, not that I race thought puzzles. For the first few minutes, I thought it was going to take longer. I have a friend, a wildlife rehabilitator, who, whenever she would see a cute picture of an animal on Facebook, would exclaim SQUEEEE! in the comments. She hasn't done this in a few years, but I recognized SQUEEEEE! from her comments. I had assumed it was an expression only she used. TIL it is a more generally known expression. I love learning stuff I didn't already know from puzzles!

Interesting phenomenon re: ICE RAN that I just noticed. Like many others, I had never head freezing RAIN referred to as ICE RAIN. So I looked it up. Unlike many others, I don't automatically ASSume that if *I* have not previously seen a particular usage/word/definition, that it MUST, therefore be WRONG WRONG WRONG! I usually check to see if it's a regionalism that I was not aware of, or a word that was not in my lexicon, and so on -- I try to find an opportunity to learn something. I don't get angry at the puzzle. So I fired up the electric google machine and entered, in quotes, "ICE RAIN". Right at the top was a definition for ICE RAIN at Dictionary.com. I don't usually use that as a source, and the results here might illustrate why. Dictionary.com defines ICE RAIN as freezing RAIN. A synonym. But if you check out the example sentences, they are all - every one - like this: "Forecasters expect the storm system to hobble the upper Midwest with ice, rain and snow for days, as well as move into the Northeast and central Appalachians." Dictionary.com is based upon Random House Unabridged Dictionary, with borrowings from several others, including American Heritage. The only dictionary listed that I own in hard copy is an old (third edition, ©1996) AH Unabridged dictionary, and it lacks an entry for ICE RAIN. I conclude that Dictionary.com scrapes online sources for entries and is befuddled when a comma comes between two words. I concur that the answer is dicey.

Because I really never grew up, when I saw the clue for 96A, I immediately thought LOO, but dismissed it because.... I laughed out loud a few seconds later when I the crosses confirmed my juvenile first guess.

Excellent puzzle! Lots of new words for me: POKEBALL T SWIZZLE DONEZO I *love* it when puzzle includes stuff I don't already know! Or uses words in ways I fond new and interesting. And some excellent cluing. I'm torn between the clues for 16A, 61A, and 43D for my favorites.

Ahem. I think I detect some disrespect toward bivalves in 101A. If you bony bipeds think you're so darned smart, let's see you do what the oyster does. How long would YOU persist in building a bed that can become a reef that protects the coastlines you critters clearly love? Hmm? How long?

Thanks for the years of great columns, Deb. You'll certainly be missed. I hope your next stage is as rewarding to you as the past years here have been!

This! "One of the things I love about doing the puzzles is that they force me to accept when I am wrong, correct my errors and move on. I can’t dig in my heels and insist my answer to, say 7A, is right if the fill tells me otherwise. I’m not sure whether this has seeped into the rest of my life, but I like to believe it has. My loved ones may tell you otherwise." Thank you for writing this so plainly, Amy.