Charles Peterson
Twentynine Palms CA
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Twentynine Palms CA
Once I changed SOUPCAN to MARILYN things clarified.
So many hated this one that I felt I had to chime in on Team Liked-It. It took me an hour and a half, much of that time spent thoroughly and pleasantly puzzled. It was mentally stimulating. I made errors and incorrect assumptions, eventually found them, corrected them, figured out the trick (thanks to SHelFP), and solved the puzzle with a gold star and no lookups, even though I don't know actresses or sushi. In short a real Puzzle! Kind of the whole point, I thought.
That bottom third made this the hardest puzzle--for me-- since I started solving around Xmas. Streak-breaker with three lookups AND an autocheck to correct 3 bad squares. Not complaining.
I mean, sure. Define 'desert' as a place with low rainfall--and of course I admit that that is the definition--and Antarctica gets included But if I say 'picture a desert', nobody, not even you definition-pedants, imagines Antarctica. Nobody. Live here in the Mojave long enough and you'll get snowed on, but move away and what you'll remember is 120F in August. The clue is fine.
'kipedia: "Onomatopoeia is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests a sound that it refers to." WORDs. I suppose you mean KAPOW? Perfectly cromulent for anyone who used to watch Batman.
Which part? 'Left-wing'? Given that fascism is the extreme on the right, seems apt. 'Protest'? Sez 'anti' right there, seems apt. 'Group'?? I mean, it exists, as more than one person. OK, it's not organized as a unitary entity...but come on. That clue is Politically Correct, literally.
@heironymous Both Bilbo and Frodo were BAGGINS, my first shot.
Fun. As an ex-scientist I got a kick out of finding T-test. Now I need to construct a puzzle just to sneak in ANCOVA.
Let me find my pearls. So I can clutch 'em.
@Francis Better than Sondheim, you mean.
@KK It's an idiom. To 'win going away' is to win by a lot.
Toughie for this noobie. I knew Ramones so figured it was one of them infernal so-called 'rebuses'. Filled in MONES and eventually 5 more seemingly nonsensical word-ending 'rebuses' (CHESTRATE, e.g.). I dunno, obscure equestrian terms?? No dice. Had to use autocheck, which naturally flagged my 6 nonsense squares. Only after I erased those 6 to blanks did I see it and catch on. Fun, I guess.
@Jeb Jones But...there is no swastika, so if one sees it, one IS imagining it. Do I get my 'NYT Apologist' badge?
@The X-Phile Yes ? How do you pronounce it?
@Michelle Botwinick Ha ha! I recommend the Miles Davis / Gil Evans version.
Agreed. I come here to feel superior to the would-be pedants who are nevertheless WRONG but these days have to wade through all the general complainers to find them.
@SBK in TO I guess I don't understand how inclusion of a commonly used word constitutes 'degradation of the language'. It IS the language.
Fastest Sunday yet. But I've only been solving since Xmas.
I was sure that m amd n had to refer to DASHes...somehow...DASHS? Then I got it.
@Nancy But the very word 'gin' refers to the piney juniper berries that are the beverage's chief flavoring.
@Barry Ancona Yeah but the Nanny/KID correspondence compensates.
@Alex I had HAMMERON for a long time, even thiugh it's not really 'percussive'.
@MM Not Lewis, but if a judge speaks the LINE "I'LL ALLOW IT," she is granting the examining lawyer some LATITUDE in questioning a witness.
@John Carson "Gas station attendants"? I knew you were from NJ without look8ng.
50 shades of the Overton window
@Maks In the USA, a (subjectively and physically) unattractive person can be said to be 'homely'.
Great puzzle. Question for OGs: AVEENO / AVIA: Natick? Or no?
@Em Say it twice out loud. Emphasize 'passion' and it's the passion that's burning. Emphasize 'burning' and it's a passion for burning.
@CatDad Agreed! I LOLed while SMH.
@RP Correct, of course, about RUNS BATTED IN, but incorrect about RBIs. As a baseball fan since 1966, I have never even once seen or heard 'RsBI'. Sometimes if a sportscasyer is being cute they'll even pronounce it like a true acronym: 'Ribbies'.
Good one! Sierra Nevada green-label has been my very favorite since 1990ish. Sacagawea dollars are provided by the change machine at the local laundromat. Before I remembered the Kansas college town I had filled in CHICAGOILLINOIS. *shrug* Never ever seen APERCU. Double dose of Chinese food! What hurt me most was having ALERTS instead of DRAFTS. GOOD 9NE.
@WhySoMad? Agreed. Nobody would refer to a safety workbook as steel-'tipped'.
@JC from KC As many here have noted, this puzzle is infected with youthful slang. 'Amirite?' is pretty common in online places like Reddit, blogs, and Facebook comments. I have seen it used many times even though I'm old. 'Spits bars', on the other hand...
@Rory Fair enough.
@Doc ? I don't agree. To rev up is to exhilarate, no?
@Chris Johnson These clues (now?) read as suggested, in my online version.
@fmondimore Midi
@Jill I was misdirected. 'Cross products' is a math term to me.
'Paddy'. That way it's funny.
Having recently moved to the SE USA, I figured the breakfast chain was ibviously WAFFLEHOUSE. Nope.
@Caro Commonly sold as bookends, ashtrays and chess pieces. I guess.
@Bob Right. Big difference. Although sometimes misspellings do become mainstream. A current example that gets my goat is the common but horrible 'woah'.
Never heard of a 'LIE-IN' protest. Started with sit-in, changed to die-in. But I remember Too Tall Jones. I actually wasn't sure about the spelling of BRIxR, left a square blank, but knew MADEIRA. YMMV. Fastest Sunday ever for me, but I liked it fine.
'Sometimes' Y 'Very seldom' W Thanks to the Welsh.
Sports page usage. Maybe you read the obits instead.
Habits are brain-wired too. And not necessarily easy to break.
"whatever your mind sees in the Rorschach test that is an unfilled grid" You mean a swastika?
@The X-Phile Edgar Allan Poe was also a laudanum guy.
But why is it "terrible"? Please explain.