Sam
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I just spent literal hours trying to figure out why I wasn't completed - and finally it registered that "Avis" is the car rental company, not the sneaker manufacturer. D'oh.
Initially thought it was "Look I'm a DEA hat". Seemed an odd lyric for a Sondheim musical.
@Jeff P. I was so sure that it was STENO. And as someone who's typically bad at anagrams, I felt really proud of figuring that one out. Ah, well.
56-Down, GOO - I was so, so sure that it was a P instead of a G....
I'm terrible at crosswords, but I solved this in less than an hour (over 2 hours shorter than my Sunday average!) because literally as I was opening up the crossword to take a look, I was randomly thinking, "Oh, it's March 15. That's the ides of March!" Thank you, my random brain.
Personally annoyed by "echoism". It's a psychological term that is not in use and doesn't exist in the literature. A neologism coined in a book in 2018 that has not caught on - the author of that book appears to be the only person who uses the term. I mean, c'mon ... that's just not fair. And who drinks "stale beer" the morning after, on purpose? Setting aside its questionable efficacy as a hangover cure and the worrying implications of alcoholism ... like, open a fresh one, at least.
The solution to "Amazon affiliate" really stumped me for the longest time. And I audibly groaned when I finally got the pun. Terrible, terrible. Outstanding.
Okay, but "where students learn about congress" solving to SEX ED CLASS was a brilliant misdirection on a July 4th.
Well, I solved it. I solved a Sunday puzzle, in less than an hour, without once cheating. So ... obviously this puzzle is too easy. There's no way I'd be able to solve a Sunday normally.
Well, I almost made it to the end without cheating - but I had to surrender on the very final clue. The heck is a VOILE?
I despise Mike & Ikes so much that I legitimately could not remember their existence. Even when I had I_E, I couldn't bring it to mind. Cognitive blocks.
GYNO is a term used by some laypeople - a natural shortening of "gynecologist", I suppose. In my experience, medical people always, always say "OB/GYN", pronouncing each of the letters, in a very fast torrent. I noticed it when I first starting working with doctors, because I thought it was very unwieldy and difficult to parse as a term that they threw out extremely casually. I personally find it fascinating how the medical field just settles on a common term or pronunciation. ICU is always "I-C-U" but neonatal ICU is always "Nik-kyew" - I have never heard "N-I-C-U" except from maybe some new nurses or residents who immediately die of shame and will self-correct by the next time.
I must be a bizarre outlier. I usually can't finish a puzzle without at least semi-cheating (my umbrella term for various Googling tricks that I've chosen to categorize as somehow less than cheslating). But this one, I finished without doing that once, and quicker than usual. But the comments seem to be all about how it was too hard. I thought it was a bit easy.... And it wasn't because I got lucky with the trivia, either. I don't know about Baywatch or Nobel winners, and "Sam who putted croquet-style" makes no sense to someone who knows nothing of golf or croquet. Even the trivia I did know ended up leading me astray - CACO for "demons from Doom" and BENDS for "altitude sickness side effect".
My idiot moment of the day: "Goup? That's not a word... I think... maybe it's cool new slang." Got stuck on that for sooooo long.
ADIEU and ADIOS are the same length! I struggled with that for most of an hour before I realized I had the wrong Romance language loanword.
Gah! ETTA James! Not ELLA Fitzgerald! I spent hours stuck on that area because of that mistake. My thoughts: "Hmm - LEATRO must be an Italian word I'm not familiar with." "I guess ... a really good SALE would 'quench' my thirst for a good bargain?"
@Asher "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" is a long-running comedy radio show on NPR that lampoons news and current events. It's presented like a gameshow (though it's not really) and the contestants are referred to as a 'panel' (they're actually comedians, journalists, writers, and pundits).
@Jamie I got WRIER (though I had WRYER for a while, which I will insist is the correct spelling), but, being an aged dork who has never been cool, I entered WILD TEA, thinking "Yeah, that sounds like the kind of cool neologism some hip youngsters who are all into the reefer might come up with." I genuinely felt a bit disappointed to realize it was actually just WEED TEA. So uncreative! C'mon, cool young people, do better.
Got tripped up on BERT. For some reason, I never think of the Sesame Street gang as being Muppets.
@Vaer I had the V, but I didn't have the O. I was unfamiliar with "Plastic _NO Band". I guessed that maybe Brian ENO had inspired a band name - and "VEILE" is kinda like "veil" and mosquito mesh is kind like a veil... but no. And c'mon, relax, man - my comment was obviously tongue-in-cheek. Folks in the crosswords comments seem VERY willing to jump on each other.
@Lavinia Surely they have avenues in London? Don't tell me that's an American thing.
Got stuck on "Kind of hike". Groaned audibly when I finally got it.
UNLIMITED TALK AND TEXTS? Are we back in the year 2000?
@Bruce So I guess I should clarify that I was joking. The joke was that if I, a crossword dummy, was able to solve it, then obviously the puzzle wasn't hard enough. Hard to convey the ironic tone in text, I suppose. I had literally never solved a Sunday puzzle in less than an hour without using the "check" or Google - so I was very surprised. Perhaps my love of Kit-Kats was rewarded, for once.
The heck is an EARLAP?
I feel like there's a conspiracy at NYT to make me subliminally want a SLUSHIE. I do the crossword to avoid my unquenchable gaping hunger for sweets, thank you.
I noticed the repeating letters and so finished this puzzle much much faster than my usual, despite not understanding the wordplay in the slightest. My stupidity works for me for once!
@John "Career" is the older term, meaning to move at full speed especially in an out-of-control way. From the French "carrière", meaning "racecourse". "Careen" is originally a nautical term, which used to mean to turn a ship on its side for cleaning or repairs - or to sway/lurch from side to side (like a ship). But especially in North America, "careen" and "career" are now used interchangeably, though many style manuals insist on "career". Outside North America, "career" is more common, though both usages still exist. Also adding confusion is "carom", meaning to bounce or rebound (originally from billiards) which many now mix up with "careen" when referring to bouncing motion (e.g. "The skater lost control and careened off the boards").
@Joe I assumed a SALOC was some kind of intellectual gathering that I'd never been invited to - because if I wasn't enough of an intellectual to even know what a SALOC was. You must admit, my recursive logic was sound.
Was so convinced about ULNAS. Beethoven's Third - might've been called SROICA. He was German, right? Maybe it's a German or Latin word I don't know....
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