NH

@Avematro What are people who live in Hawaii to be called then?

@Jane Wheelaghan A vise is a tool. A vice is a behaviour exhibited by a tool.

@Red Carpet It makes the solve much easier when you know the first two letters of every down entry. Perhaps too easy. Agree that having the actual downs actually be words would be much more elegant, though probably impossible.

@Barry Ancona Is trivia not factual?

@Jez Agreed. I don’t know the first thing about the Marseillaise (except maybe the tune?) but what other four letter French word is it likely to be? Good tough puzzle!

@David Bloom Being distressingly uncool I thought of Ed Asner. Perhaps he and Russ Meyer were friends? The Pixar film did have a very soft core though. 🎈

@Francis Why do baptists forbid extramarital relations? It leads to dancing.

@Al in Pittsburgh Too bad. @john ezra deserves to win the recco race for today.

@logical Nothing says healthy like cooking your food in petrochemicals!

@kkseattle I always wondered what that other 66/100 was

@SBK When I ran track 60 years ago the starter had a pistol which would be used to start the race. For multi-lap races the same pistol would be used to signify the final lap. The more genteel bell came later.

@Steve L Perhaps it’s a case of HSS (Have Standards Syndrome). HSS is where one isn’t prepared to accept random misuse of the language as acceptable just because some people do it.

@Barry Ancona Not any more, I’m afraid. Two of the major rating agencies have downgraded the US rating below AAA, though Moodys has not (yet). Too many debt ceiling cliffhangers. But AA+ isn’t bad!

@Veevee Leonard cohen was first a poet and writer, only turning to songwriting in his 30s. It went well.

@john ezra I love imagining Mae West meeting Lenin with that line! !,!

@Bill Exactly how it works

@Nora I always give 110%

@Norwood It’s a car. The owner might not be to your liking (or mine) but it’s just a car.

@Nora That is a genius level of clue analysis!

@SP Wryer v. wrier caused a bit of an issue but it all worked out

@Melanie From the interweb: In North America, opossum and possum describe the same animal, but in Australia the word possum refers to a completely different order of organisms. Among the bestknown of their respective types are the Virginia opossum and the brushtail possum. Both are small- to medium-sized, omnivorous marsupials, but the similarities end there. The possum looks like a cute cross between a squirrel and a chinchilla, and it belongs to a different order than the North American mammal that shares (most of) its name. There a North American emu endemic only to the NYT building.

@Barry Ancona In Sam‘s defence, 4-H in Canada is a tiny organization which it would be pretty easy to miss. Canadian 4-H claims 20,000 members vs the 6 million who belong to the US organization.

@Margaret Food waste in the wastewater stream puts additional pressure on treatment facilities which can result in capacity issues. They’re illegal in Toronto too.

@Nancy J. I was very taken by the concept of a velvet underground spider that a researcher named after Lou Reed. Somewhat horrified to learn of the method used by the mother velvet spider to feed her young. Eww!

@Jane Wheelaghan A rhyming slang puzzle would be awesome

@Sean Lots of back-and-forth on this so far. Just want to put my vote in for bare-faced, which is the phrase I grew up hearing (if you get my drift).

@Steve L Well the people who live in Greenland are Danish whatever their ethnic heritage, so it seems to me the percentage Danish approaches 100.

@Splat Tonne is not a British spelling. It is a metric ton, or 1000 kilos. Spelt that way everywhere. The British spelling of “ton” is ton. It’s just a different weight than the American ton.

@SBK Amusing but harsh. So harsh.

@Vaer But their young are called puggles! That makes any animal cute all by itself.

@Andrzej Ive been doing these far longer than that and never figured out the theme. Those entries filled from crosses alone and I had to come to the article to be instructed as to what it was I had done right! Once I saw it I was impressed though. Very imaginative

@Steve L Love that muricans have nicknames for bad beers!

@Alexis So many bands I never realized were Australian!

@Richard Promise?

@Rich in Atlanta I will try. It is a word ladder, with the words in the ladder cluing the answers. So BUSH changes to mush which clues COMMAND TO A DOG TEAM Mush changes to muse which clues CLIO etc Muse changes to mule Mule to … to more for OLIVER That would be a tough puzzle

@Eric Hougland 👍

@Teresa I would agree that fin is not the shortened version of finis, but both are French. .l

@Barry Ancona I took the time to read the articles. While CB radios are very much IRL as you say, nowhere in those articles was the term CBer used. Seems to qualify as crossword glue, no Elmer’s required.

@Andrzej For some reason I’m getting this uncomfortable arranged marriage vibe from this term, which I admit I’ve never run across before.

@Mean Old Lady Unfortunately you can’t fix years of terrible with one speech. It was a good one though.

@Hardroch It’s Barry and SteveL’s job to police the comments. Not sure they need an intern to provide additional slap downs.

@Andrzej That bun is called a Kaiser here in Canada. Obviously of German derivation.

@Bob It seems everything is a word to MW

@Andrzej I guess there’s no such thing as bad publicity!

@Steve L @MB didn’t say anything about any lexicographers other than those at MW. And they are far from the first person on this forum to note that using MW as one’s standard for English usage, spelling, or grammar is a bar so low one would be unlikely ever to trip over it.

@Steve L Well not so much for the birds

@Steve L Well that’s good because I definitely prefer my bits to be unpicked.

@Elizabeth Connors Some people just spit when they talk. Children often lack the boundaries to just take a step back

@Throckmorton but isn’t a close call a narrowly avoided mishap as opposed to a closely contested game?

@Barry Ancona And it’s fifteen letters! He should just anagram his own name