Yankees Fan Inside Red Sox Nation

@Rebecca Printing out the puzzle shows you what the print version looks like. The grade in question, "C+ Fix!", is not being assigned to you the person about to try solving the puzzle but rather to the puzzle creator, John Kugelman, by his sister, Julie Buffington a.k.a. "Mrs. B", who teaches second grade. The printed puzzle note (alas not visible in app or browser) concludes with this: "For authenticity, she [Mrs. B] provided all of the red pen marks in this puzzle's original submission." I love this detail; it, and the photo of a teacher here in the article, remind me of how fortunate I was to have a great teacher back in second grade, and I hope that many solvers here have a similar nice memory of second grade. Thank you, Mr. Kugelman, for a truly delightful puzzle that also salutes great teachers for whose impact on our lives we should all be truly grateful.

@Barry Ancona Chaise = chair in French, banc = bench in French. A bench is an alternative to a chair.

@Vaer James Bond was ordered by M to switch from the Berretta to the Walther PPK after the Court of Inquiry reviewed what happened to Bond at the end of "From Russia With Love". Major Boothroyd the Armourer goes into all the reasons why Bond has to give up his beloved Berretta for the Walther PPK in Chapter 2 of "Dr. No". The Armourer does not love Bond's old weapon, even though Bond does. Bond loves what he does in the double-0 section, and won't give up that life for a desk job, so he consents to the change of weapons. The movies are often far removed from Ian Fleming's books. Personally I don't mind the movies, but I totally prefer Fleming's books.

@Jerry I second the motion! There is no fun in easy puzzles. I truly enjoy leaning things through these hard puzzles. Puzzles in other newspapers are just MEDIOCRE.

@Aven As a Canadian who has lived down here (Canadian expression) for 40 years, I took great delight in the appearance today of HOSER, especially because I have been called same a few times down here! Wonderful false Canadian etymologies in Wikipedia: "A popular origin story holds that in outdoor ice hockey before ice resurfacers, the losing team in a hockey game would have to hose down the rink after a game to make the ice smooth again. Thus the term hoser was synonymous with loser. Another suggestion for the origin of the term involves farmers of the Canadian Prairies who would siphon gasoline from farming vehicles with a hose during the Great Depression of the 1930s. "Hosed" is also a euphemism for drunkenness in Canadian English, and by extension a hoser is one who is drunk. "Another possible origin may stem from loggers' slang, where "hoosier" referred contemptuously to an untrained, inept, or slack worker. "One theory is that it was derived from the term "hose bag" which was a popular insult amongst suburban Toronto high school students in the 1970s. The term was shortened to "hoser" to thwart the rebuffs of school teachers and parents who found "hose bag" offensive. "The term hoser was used frequently on the U.S. sitcom How I Met Your Mother in relation to main character Robin Scherbatsky, who was a native of Canada. She sometimes visited a Canadian-themed bar, Hoser Hut." "I shall now visit my home Hoser Hut to celebrate today's NYT Crossword Canadiana!

@Troy I hear the verb form more commonly when enjoying baseball telecasts, as in "looped into left field for a base hit". The noun form in same telecasts does indeed tend to be "blooper", and the adjectival form is also of the "b" variety, as in "he's on with a bloop single into left field". The longer alternative form for this event is the "Texas Leaguer", which has a delightful origin story for all lovers of ancient baseball like me, per mlb.com: "A "Texas Leaguer" is a bloop that falls between an outfielder and an infielder for a hit. "Origin: Texas Leaguer dates back to 1901, when a rookie named Ollie Pickering made his debut for the Cleveland Blues (the franchise that would later become the Indians). Pickering had become a legend as a Minor Leaguer in the Texas League, and he was immediately placed atop Cleveland's lineup when he was called up -- he even holds the honor of taking the first at-bat in the history of the American League. "Pickering proceeded to have one of the most fortunate starts to his career imaginable, as his first seven plate appearances all resulted in bloop singles. His teammates decided to name the play after him, and it's stuck ever since."

@Jane Wheelaghan ETD is not a statistic. A statistic is usually a calculation based on a series of events. Example: what percentage of trains depart on time? But the estimated time of delivery of a package is a unique item, not related to any other event. Same with estimated time of departure for a train.

@Jane Wheelaghan ETD is not a statistic. A statistic is usually a calculation based on a series of events. Example: what percentage of trains depart on time? But the estimated time of delivery of a package is a unique item, not related to any other event. Same with estimated time of departure for a train. Maybe - maybe - ETD = Earnings To Date, that would be a stat, short for Earnings Year to Date? The puzzle authors should explain this one.

@ObeliskToucher Or maybe "Effect of Maxwell's Silver Hammer" "BANG! BANG! Maxwell's silver hammer came down" - Beatles, "Abbey Road" album