Joe
S
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@John I suspect that was the editors’ aim all along and the day you cancel, they’ll exclaim, “At last!”
I cringed at SLEEKEN, and ever a bit at DOTER…so I got curious about if, or when, they might’ve shown up in the past. Before today, SLEEKEN (which spell check questions with a wavy red line) had shown up three times: February 8, 1981; May 8, 1960; and November 2, 1953…all clued as “Make smooth.” DOTER has shown up 37 times, most recently, before today, on December 1, 2011. As for the rest of the puzzle…I found it a decent challenge for a Wednesday, finishing a minute under my average time.
@CCNY Our dog is a mixed breed rescue, and I have decided he is my guru. My life is better when I listen to him…for example, when we’re on a walk and he stops and stands still for a few minutes, I think, okay, he’s decided I need to be in the moment now. If I’m reading something political and only just begin to feel the stirrings of anger, but haven’t overtly expressed it, he comes up to me and paws my arm, and I know he’s saying, “Oh, come on, Joe! This isn’t worth it.” He is wise beyond even my years, though he’s six.
One of my favorite puzzles in a long while. I appreciated so many misdirects: 35D, “Acrobat’s display,” for PDF FILES; 49A, “It has a light bulb,” for DAFFODIL; 28A, “Peace sign?” for DO NOT DISTURB; 18A, “Low volume,” for TEASPOON…. Thought for a while I’d have to look up a couple but I managed to push through in about 10% under my average time.
I sincerely enjoyed this puzzle, sitting on my deck, looking at the woods behind my house, listening to the birds. I thought for a while I might end up with a PB but ran into a snag because I forgot that MARK WAHLBERG spelled his name with an H. Still, I finished at just about half of my average time.
A bit sticky for a Monday, which I appreciated, since I usually open the puzzle already missing the Thursday-Sunday challenges. I see XWStats rates it as “hard,” which seems fair, though I did finish around 30 percent under my average time..but slower than I have been more recently.
@Xword Junkie In my younger years, I bowled in two leagues, and often competed in amateur tournaments, and even once wrote an article for a national sports magazine about bowling with one of my IDOLS, Dick Weber, so I can’t tell you how often I saw AMF on large signs but until now I had no idea what AMF stood for.
@Andrzej I have never used it, though I installed it after the Hegseth fiasco, wondering if I’d ever be included in a chat accidentally. So far, no.
@Matt Your comment made me laugh out loud, so thank you for that. (It also took me back a half-century.)
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