CarolinaJessamine
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Central NC
You do not want to put oil on that sliding glass door. Silicone spray.
What Rose Garden?
Love the singing Valentine and the bonus of a themed Friday! I also liked that the stadium cry wasn't "ole" for a change. Thanks, Sarah!
Horses are shod. No one says shoed. Even spellcheck agrees on this. Also, no one ever says "aped" except crossword puzzles.
So clever! Constructors are so amazing, I don't know how they do it. A creative Monday is such a nice way to start the week.
Loved this Sam Ezersky puzzle, so diabolically devious. I didn't notice until today that there was a different editor and wondered about that until I looked at Sam's note. Sorry to hear about Will's illness. Very best wishes to him for a speedy recovery.
Just read the column...Kevin Curry's crossword debut AND he had to look up what a martini was AND his puzzle is a winner! Looking forward to more from Kevin Curry!
I somehow thought that the answer to 26A was going to be BREADBOX, which would have fit the theme. But alas, no.
Big props to you, Tarun. I've been doing the NYT puzzles for many years, and couldn't begin to construct one, so I especially admire someone as young as you who can do that. I enjoyed the fresh cluing. I hope you can take time from your studies to make more puzzles for us.
@Sonja The 60s
Hated it until I loved it! Although I knew when I saw Sam Ezersky's name that he would take care of me. And I'm SO HAPPY to see Will Shortz back!! : )
@David It may sound strange, but some of us actually enjoy being misled. It makes the payoff even sweeter!
@Alex Is this the complaint desk where we come to whine about tamales?
I loved this one. More Sam Brody please!
So sorry to see you go, Deb. Thank you for your column, and best wishes on your new adventures.
I had "LIFESTYLEGREED" for a while...
A fun Tuesday - lots of little treats sprinkled throughout the puzzle.
I hated this puzzle until I loved it. Such fun! More from Zhouqin Burnikel, please!
TIL that CPR training is now required for high school graduation in most states as of 2018. That's great to hear. Interesting to see which states are the exceptions: <a href="https://cpr.heart.org/en/training-programs/community-programs/cpr-in-schools/cpr-in-schools-legislation-map" target="_blank">https://cpr.heart.org/en/training-programs/community-programs/cpr-in-schools/cpr-in-schools-legislation-map</a>
20A not all snakes have "slit" eyes. Crotalids (pit vipers) in the US, including rattlesnakes, copperheads and cottonmouths have pupils that appear vertical when constricted, but elapids (coral snakes) and colubrids (e.g., ratsnakes, gopher snakes, garter snakes etc) do not. And the pupils in all of these snakes appear round when dilated in low light.
How come they never sawed men in half in the old magic tricks?
Such fun! Thanks, Jake Bunch. Hope to see a many more of his puzzles!
Despite what The Terminator said, it's "No problemA", not "No problemO".
Interesting how my puzzle time these days is almost invariably well below average. I feel like I'm living in Lake Wobegon...
@LJADZ Thursday is my favorite day of the week because I look forward to doing a fun puzzle.
I loved this one!
What a moving story! Congratulations (and condolences) from an old Sage Hen.
I usually don't look forward to Saturday puzzles, but this one was fun.
@Dc According to an episode from the Gastropod podcast, avocados' name originally comes from the Nahuatl word ahuacatl, which means "testicle", referring to their shape. <a href="https://gastropod.com/ripe-for-global-domination-the-story-of-the-avocado" target="_blank">https://gastropod.com/ripe-for-global-domination-the-story-of-the-avocado</a>/ That would make an interesting crossword clue. Maybe it would have been fun if they had called avocados "EGG"-shaped", in keeping with the theme.
Sam Ezersky! Hooray! I always love to see him step out of The Hive. And any puzzle with Freddy Mercury in it will make me rhapsodic. More of these please!
@Dom V. If you keep doing NYT puzzles, you will become very familiar with both Paul Klee and his crossword artist buddy Joan Miro
What a fun theme. Thanks!
The clue for 49A should have been "misogynist leaves"
@Jim Hi, Jim. You can do it!
@Michael It depends on regional accents of English speakers in the U.S. For people in the midwestern US, the vowel sounds are pretty much identical. For many people in the northeastern part of the country, the vowels sound different.
I could not get the northeast corner. As a 40+ year transplant to North Carolina from New Jersey, barbecue for me no longer bears any relation to a picnic, but refers to chopped pork in a white bun.
@Nora I just got an ID on this snake from the Snake Identification Facebook page, which is a great source for prompt, accurate identifications of snakes. The snake in this photo is a harmless Indo-Chinese Ratsnake (Ptyas korros). So this would not be a painful bite. Also, since this is a colubrid snake, it would not have fangs, and therefore would not leave two puncture wounds.
I'm glad I don't have a breakfast partner, because they would have had to put up with me muttering "OOO SAYSSSS EYES ELLS" trying to sound out the theme, and failing, humming the sort-of National Anthem.
These "para" themed puzzles tend to be head scratchers for those of us for whom the vowels in "pair" and "para" sound very different.
@NYC Traveler Same here. By the way, a group of solvers who live in North Carolina have been getting together (through the comments) for lunch about once a year for years. It's even more fun meeting other solvers in person. Perhaps you can get a Colorado group together?
Cute solve for a Tuesday. Thanks, Peter Gorman!
I had PEDAZO for 31A I don't know the story behind the MIchael Scott bit, but I used to work in HR, and had similarly "warm" responses when I called managers. They were never happy to hear from me. Congratulations to Ben Zimmer!
Not a big fan of the word "colt" to mean little horses. In the horse world, "colt" means a male horse up to age 4. So you can see colts as full-size horses racing at the track (although many question whether it's humane to race horses so young). I understand that the term here is common usage, but for horse people, the appropriate term is "foal" for horses of either sex under the age of 1. <a href="https://howtoownahorse.com/how-old-is-a-colt-horse" target="_blank">https://howtoownahorse.com/how-old-is-a-colt-horse</a>/
@John They are all mustelids: <a href="https://animalfact.com/mustelids" target="_blank">https://animalfact.com/mustelids</a>/ I only know this because as a kid, someone gave me a book called "The Fearless Family" that was all about mustelids. The book included skunks, but it's since been decided that skunks are in their own family. Interestingly, I see by googling that there's an African Striped Weasel that looks like a skunk, but actually IS a mustelid. Cool convergent evolution.
I love the puns!
Loved this one. I'm sure that emus had a lot of fun with it as well.
Civil Procedure, not Civil Procedures. There's no S at the end.
In the US, bites from pit vipers can result in two puncture wounds (often, but not always) due to their fangs, but bites from nonvenomous snakes usually cause an arc of miniscule punctures. Venomous snakes of course have the potential for greater injury. People are probably bitten much more often by nonvenomous snakes because people like to pick them up and play with them, but those bites are not medically significant.
@Jane Wheelaghan the answer to 58 across has been in the news in the United States recently because the current occupant of our presidential palace has ordered that it's name be changed for unknown reasons. Many people in the US are bewildered and upset. Ordinarily, the NYT crossword stays away from political commentary, and Deb explained that the puzzle was constructed before the order was issued.