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Relative difficulty: 4:10 (Monday average 4:56; Monday best 3:16)
THEME: INNER NERD — The word NERD is hidden in five across entries.
Word of the Day: Able was I, ere I saw ELBA (5A: Idris ___, People's 2018 Sexiest Man Alive) —
No argument from me
• • •
Hi everyone! It's Rex's birthday today (Monday), so I, Laura, am here with the traditional gift of a guest-post to give Rex the night off (on Sunday).
Theme answers:
- 17A: Dachshund: WIENER DOG
- 23A: Copies of movies submitted to critics prior to release: SCREENER DVDS
- 32A: Partner at a table for two: DINNER DATE
- 42A: Times when everything goes perfectly: BANNER DAYS
- 49A: Genetically engineered, highly selective medical treatment: DESIGNER DRUG
- 60A: The secret geeky part of you ... or a hint to 17-, 23-, 32-, 42- and 49-Across: INNER NERD
I feel like I've heard inner geek in the language more often that inner nerd, but there's a negligible difference in how many google hits each phrase gets (1.8 million to 1.7 million, respectively), and nerd is likely an easier term to embed in two-word base phrases. In fact, I did a quick search in several crossword constructor tools, and could not find a phrase where geek was embedded. So, yeah, here for your inner, and outer, nerd.
Hey! While I have you here, I wanted to thank all of Rex's readers and fans who backed The Inkubator. We wrapped up the campaign at 307% of our goal, and we're looking forward to publishing kickass puzzles by women -- cis women, trans women, and woman-aligned constructors -- starting in January. If you missed the Kickstarter, check back at our website for information on how to subscribe.
Bullets:
- 1A: Aware, in a modern way: WOKE — This term is now used with some irony, and perhaps disparagement, but I think it's still pretty helpful. "I was apprehensive about sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner with my uncle, but it turned out that he was really woke."
- 16A: "Social contract" philosopher John: LOCKE — Locke posited that people in a state of nature acted reasonably, and the purpose of society was to resolve conflicts and ensure peoples' rights to life, liberty, and property.
- 34D: Nickname for a 12-time N.B.A. All-Star: DWADE — Dwyane Wade has played for the Miami Heat for most of his 15-year career.
- 46D: Olympic gold-medal gymnast Simone: BILES — One of the greatest gymnasts of all time, Biles just won the 2018 World Championship. And she's the only woman represented in this grid.
- 18D: Artist M.C. ___: ESCHER — I wanted to post a clip of that episode of The Simpsons with an Escher-inspired couch gag, but found this animation instead:
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If solving the puzzle on a daily basis is indicative, then hand up for being a NERD. Personality deserves a more complex assessment, and even aspirations of emulating Idris ELBA are in PLAY, but doing the puzzle and then taking the time to post about it on a blog, just weird.
ReplyDeleteNice themers, but I ignored the plural clue and threw in BANNER year, which is the phrase first thought of by most of us, I'm guessing. DVDS are still a thing for critics? I know a WIENER DOG is still extant, because Thanksgiving at my nephew's house involved three of them. Nobody came or left the building without raucous fanfare. And those pointy noses pry. The people behaved themselves.
We are living in an era of two of the greatest athletes of all time: Serena and SIMONE.
Got the INNER NERDS pretty early on and filled in the rest of the NERDS off of the letters already in place.
ReplyDeletePretty easy, but fun. My hairdresser calls me a NERD because I work on the LA Times puzzle while under the hair dryer while the dye does its magic turning my gray hair into something it isn’t. I don’t act my age, so why should I look it?
Good start to the week.
Tough. I had Erase before EAT IT for way too long. Plus DWADE and BANNER DAYS did not come easily.
ReplyDeleteCute and smooth, liked it.
ReplyDeleteLaura – I like you from afar. I like the things you say and your take on stuff. I want you to accept me, but I don’t think you’ll really take me seriously, mainly because I could’ve looked at this finished grid, chewed on it, made notes, chewed some more, and never noticed that only one woman is represented today. I’m not WOKE. We both construct – you a squillion times more than I do. I took a look at the grid to see where I could’ve added more women. Change DWADE to DIANE? That would afford us the goddess INO, but give us a male king ROI. BOONE could become Lorna DOONE. The southeast could’ve had MEG, ERMA, and ALMA…
I dunno – I just always feel ashamed when I don’t notice the slight, like I’m missing the chip that would have woke women abide me.
Idris ELBA is fine, but too in-your-face sexy. I decided that my pick would be Forest Whitaker. I just watched Taken 3, and I tell you – Whitaker has that je ne sais quoi that makes me all wobbly and giddy. George Clooney – hate to tell you, but it’s my plan now to do a Viennese Waltz with Forest Whitaker. Forest – have your people email my people, k? nerol 2 at msn. Mwah.
If we took all the themers, shook’em up and reconfigured, we could have…
WIENER DVDS. I wouldn’t put it past him
SCREENER DOGS. Work for the TSA. Have the cool, official little vests on. All bidness.
Hey, LOCKE- how’s that prediction working out for you? You been following the news?
Laura’s right – “…is there anything to be ashamed of, in one's nerdery? If you like a thing, and it makes you happy to learn about it, and read about it, and talk about it, and share with like-minded people who also like a thing, own it!” I think the important part of this observation is the “like-minded people” deal. I’ve cleared many a room by running my mouth about crosswords at a cocktail party.
But what if the thing you like isn’t nerdy, just dumb and shallow? Do we openly own that? What would we call it? Vapidery? I just messaged Kate Chastain that she’s my favorite Bravo reality star. I really did, and she really is. When she messages back, I’mma ask her what she thinks of Forest Whitaker.
The theme brought out my inner crossnerd as I perused the finished grid...
ReplyDeleteThere's SKI so close to SNOW, and there are BIO and OHIO and I can't think of any other words in our language that end with long-i long-o. Can you? I found a Boggle-style EVEN (starting with the E in ACTIVE PLAY) to go with ODD, and a Boggle-style ORDER (starting with the O in IDO) to go with LAW. And finally I found a Boggle-style TYPOGRAPHICAL to go with ERROR (just kidding).
I definitely have some of that theme stuff, so this was a quick one.
ReplyDeleteSet a personal best with this puppy; made me regret eating ice cream while doing it. Lost precious nanoseconds (tip o' the hat to M&A) while licking the bowl.
ReplyDeleteMy Connecticut son-in-law is St. Lucian, and last week a neighbor said in passing, "You look just like Idiris Elba!" My daughter says that he has been strutting ever since. Never underestimate the power of a passing compliment.
Medium-hard for a Monday. Never heard BANNER applied to anything short of a year, but I’m OK with stretching the concept.
ReplyDeleteMy first contact with Idris ELBA was in Pacific Rim. He was, frankly, terrible. Since then everything I've seen him in, he has been at least good, so I guess the lesson is don't trust first impressions.
Posting for the first time to say I originally had HAMMER for 18D and it gave me some problems
ReplyDeleteClue for ODD was otherwordly. I'm always brought up short by words like ARGUER and RVER --- there are many words I like but rarely use, but these are not them.
ReplyDeleteHello! I have a question. A few weeks ago, the little error marker when you check your answers went away in the NYT Crossword app. Before, when I checked my answers, I would get a little black mark in the corner of any squares that I had filled in incorrectly. It's gone now, and I found it very useful when solving. Has this happened to anyone else, and if so, do you know how to get it back? Much appreciated!
ReplyDeleteNaticked on a Monday! My wife and I solve together on paper over breakfast. Neither of us knew 5 across or 8 Down. I guessed A, she guessed E. It could have been any vowel. Ironically, if 5 across had been clued as Laura suggested, it would have been in both of our wheelhouses.
ReplyDeleteWe supported Laura's Inkubator and we're delighted it over-fulfilled. Looking forward to the arrival of the puzzles next year.
Three cheers for nerdism!
Lots of erasures for me for a Monday. I had awes for wows, dealt for doled, erase for eat it and boys for guys! Sheesh!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a superb Monday puzzle and I thoroughly enjoyed solving it. But I didn't even realize there was a theme until I got to the revealer. I'm not sure how I feel about a theme that you don't notice until the revealer bops you on the head with it, and I'm not sure if it says more about the theme or me. Either way, this was a terrific puzzle!
ReplyDeleteCould really do without the terrorist organization in the puzzle at 35A.
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I saw screener DVDs on the heels of wiener dog I knew a theme was brewing but didn't make the connection until the reveal.
ReplyDeleteThat's just the way it's supposed to work.
My only stutter was mate for date. It would have been a crappy answer but Dwade was a complete unknown. Dinner mate sounds like a convenience food next to Hamburger Helper on the grocery shelf.
All-in-all a nice Monday.
A crossword blog is one of the few places where word nerds can find kindred spirits, fly our inner nerd flags proudly, and then return to the real world for the rest of the day.
Hi Laura, very nice discussion of nerdism. EVE could have been clued as a woman’s name. EVE Arden for instance. And let’s not forget Debbie BOONE. One could have put in ALBA at SE corner too. And made WAG and WELK, while changing ARIA to ARBY. But you’d need to make STAY SKYY. Which I think is a vodka, no? All in all a solid Monday. I DUG it.
ReplyDeleteMy INNER NERD stayed hidden until the revealer - up until then, the only thought I had about the theme was a possible superhero tie-in; was 42A a referral to Bruce BANNER? Glad it wasn't because otherwise 17A was... (Hi, @Loren. Forest is a great actor but how can you get around his Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland"? Chilling.)
ReplyDelete"Awes" before WOWS but 1A WOKE me to that ERROR. Thanks for the sweet Monday puzzle, Evan Kalish, and @Laura for the write up. I'm all for accepting inner nerdity, which is what makes a person interesting.
My five favorite clues from last week:
ReplyDelete1. Special interest group? (6)
2. Superior floor, e.g. (7)
3. State without words (3)
4. It covers the floor (5)
5. Get an F in physics? (8)
THE FED
LAKEBED
AWE
CSPAN
MISSPELL
Mine too!
DeleteHow ‘bout savedbythebelle and byeallrights?
DeleteSince I don't have an INNER NERD,
ReplyDeleteI never saw the hidden word.
The clue for 1A is not wrong, but it’s not really right either. “Aware” is that we see sexism in education when we notice that most administrators are men even though most teachers are women. WOKE is when we see the structural advantages in the hiring system as well as our own individual attitudes and beliefs that support hiring men over more qualified and able women. “Aware” is seeing that staff lower in the cultural hierarchy of your institution have a frustrating situation and wanting to help them. WOKE is intuiting that administrators might actually know the “culprit” and are working to resolve issues or address problems deeper than messes in the boys bathroom.* Of course, once something like WOKE is described posers appear. So, these days, when someone describes someone as WOKE it almost always means they think they aren’t.
ReplyDeleteIt’s been a long time since I picked up LOCKE, but I think Our Fearless Substitute Leader slightly misspoke. I seem to recall that Locke posited that people in a state of nature acted UNreasonably, and the purpose of society was to resolve conflicts and ensure peoples' rights. Anarchists think that people are naturally rational and reasonable so laws and the state are unnecessary. Of course, this position can only arise in the relative safety of an orderly society where the assholes among us are regulated and controlled. Defining who the “assholes” are is another problem altogether. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter and all that. Anyhoo, I could be misremembering what LOCKE actually said, undergraduate courses in the history of political thought happened 35 years ago so there may be a little dust on the gray cells.
Oh, the puzzle? A fine Monday.
*The reference here is to a post from a few days ago that brought back memories. In my case the “perpetrator” came from a refugee camp, their father was in the local program for victims of torture (yes, a local social service agency had such a program), and the most I could tell my janitorial staff was, “it’s complicated, we’re aware, we’re working on it.” Fortunately, the local social services agency had appropriate resources and their support resolved the issue. Of course, my situation may not be applicable to others.
26 and 27 D were timely for certain unfortunate travelers yesterday
ReplyDeleteMy preferred term for my disorder is nerditude. Other than that It was a fine write-up, and a fun puzzle.
ReplyDeletePuzzle could be rated N for Explicit Nerdity.
ReplyDeleteI needed the revealer -- up to then I was trying, futilely, to see what the last words of each theme answer had in common. Good puzzle, though, which I liked a lot better after seeing the theme was better than I'd feared.
ReplyDeleteNever heard anyone say BANNER DAY, though.
@Z, you may be thinking of Hobbes - as I understand him, Locke thinks people innately recognize natural law, but every once in a while someone is tempted to violate someone else's rights, so it's more convenient to have a government. OTOH, since it's only a matter of convenience, everyone retains a right to revolution against any government that does not protect individual rights. For Hobbes, since the alternative to government is chaos, there is never a right to revolution.
OK, now I've shown my INNER NERD, so enough of that!
DWADE? Huh? Had dinnerMate and got the error screen. Looked and looked. Figured MWADE was yet another sports nickname I'll never know. Finally circled back to it and saw that MATE cold be DATE and got the finish. DWADE. Eyeroll.
ReplyDeleteI do the puzzle this morning AND IT’S GOOD.
ReplyDeleteWith WIENER and SCREENER popping up first, I thought the theme was gonna be some kinda rhyme thing. Then DINNER and BANNER didn’t fit and it was CLEAR I was frigging *Wrong Again.* Just like my parole officer is always telling me. Finally saw what was going on when I got to the revealer. Nice payoff, Evan.
Except for WOKE which, as clued, has to be one of the most annoying slang terms in modern history. Even worse than PHAT and GROOVY.
Thought 33D coulda been clued as *Williams, Roberts, and Hood.* But maybe that sounds too much like a LAW firm.
@Z
ReplyDeleteI'll bet "your" janitorial staff didn't think it was very complicated. Since you're so very "woke" did you help them clean it up?
@Z (9:38) and @jberg (10:38) -- I was a Political Science major in college. The best final exam essay question I ever had to answer in any course in any discipline was a question for my Political Philosophy course. (I paraphrase the phrasing; it's been more than 50 years):
ReplyDelete"All political systems attempt to balance two opposing "goods": a society's desire for maximum freedom and a society's need for maximum order. Choose any two philosophers we have studied this year and explained how they each resolved this dilemma."
We had studied Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau and Locke. No fool I. I ignored Plato (didn't seem relevant to the question); Aristotle (never really "got" him); and Locke (didn't think he contrasted all that well with either Hobbes or Rousseau.) I chose Hobbes -- the ultimate pessimist about man left to his own devices in the State of Nature and Rousseau, the cockeyed optimist about human nature. Their views were crystal clear and they contrasted beautifully. I got an "A".
FWIW, I have always been pretty Hobbesian in my view of human nature. More so, the older I get and the more of the world I see.
jberg,
ReplyDeleteRight you are. Lots of folks, myself included, think the only true explanation of natural law is Thomistic.
My how times have changed. William Safire as devout and observant a Jew as ever lived, wrote about Yasir Arafat with wit and charm. He even used a pun "Yasir, that's my baby". This is all by way of saying using a word or name is not the same as sanctioning it.
And last, the robin is not a spring bird. Over almost all its range they over winter. Yes, there is some facultative migration in some populations, but that old wheeze of the robin being a sign of spring, is, forgive me, for the birds.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteFUNNER DARRIN. Har.
Neat puz. Liked it, though there are a few nits (making me UNFUNNER DARRIN). No one has yet mentioned the three count. There's 26 of 'em. High. 41 blocks. High. Plus, those closed off NW/SE corners. Also, no F's! No respect...
Still a good puz. Played easy. I unfortunately don't see the male/ female disparage in puzs. I really don't think it's done intentionally. It's just whatever fits the grid during construction to make cohesive words. Sure, you can make the changes some of y'all mentioned. I'll try to be more aware in the puzs I make. If anybody ever sees 'em! Side note to @Moly Shu below.
WIENER DOG always fun to see. I was an OUTER NERD in High School. Back when it wasn't an honorary thing. HASH tagOHWELL. 😋 Completed ERROR free in slightly over 6 minutes. An ego BOONE. Didn't EAT IT. Har.
Side note, @Moly, although it's been probably at least a month now, (procrastinator, what can I say) I couldn't get your e-mail to send you that Schrödinger puz. Maybe you can send it to me?
ODD INNER NERD
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Nancy:
ReplyDeleteMore so, the older I get and the more of the world I see.
the older, richer, and whiter one becomes, the more "order", i.e. "no one's gonna take my stuff even if I've not really earned it", becomes the prime directive. today's NYT has an article by Leonhardt on the increasing of monopoly since Reagan. read it.
So, yesterday I posted a comment in which I pointed out that the NYT had probably violated its own guidelines for puzzle construction by putting in debatable political clues as if they were true. My comment was deleted by the moderator, as is his right as it is his blog. I just find it curious that he doesn't tolerate anyone but him questioning the NYT's political clues. He can trash references to the NRA, but he doesn't want this community to see similar objections from folks who just want consistency in construction. Interesting.
ReplyDeleteWell this, as I like to say, is a Monday that knows how to Monday. The revealer was a genuine revealer for me. Nice.
ReplyDeleteBarava to Laura for spelling Dwyane Wade's first name the same way he does. Not a typo.
Liked seeing CROON over BOONE, but that made make think of Pat and not Debbie. Once you hear Pat Boone sing "Tutti Frutti", you'll never forget it, and that's a shame.
INNERNERD is OK, but personally I wish someone would embed LOGOPHILE.
@Muse the Communicator: We like U from afar, also. I rarely notice whether a grid has as much x, y, or z in it as one would normally expect/desire/dislike. Too obsessed with countin up the U's (2), the weejects (26), and the Ow de Sperations (couple of minor hits).
ReplyDeleteEspecially liked this puz's HIDEME & ANDITSGOOD. They are raised-by-the-wolves-scrappy.
The most desperate fillins seemed to be within the herd of themer cats. SCREENERDVDS & BANNERDAYS were everso slightly joltin in their unfamiliarity to m&e. honorable mention to non-themer ARGUER, tho.
Flat out didn't know DWADE. Not a 12-time NYTPuz all-star, evidently.
staff weeject picks: ROE & ROW. They rocked M&A's rho-boat. Ain't on the fence, on the row vs. dwade issue, tho ...
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Night before a holiday} = EVE.
Thanx, Mr. Kalish. It was funish.
And thanx to Laurasorceress, for the primo sub job, while @RP is out there on his b-day toot.
Masked & AnonymoUUs,
Innerd of CrossWorld
**gruntz**
Hobbes was more the state of nature guy. Locke was “tabula rasa”.
ReplyDelete@Banana D -- What on earth does being increasingly pessimistic about human nature have to do with "nobody should take my stuff" and the "increasing of monopoly since Reagan's day"???? You obviously have a point you want to make on the blog, which is surely your privilege, but please don't try to link it to my totally, totally unrelated comment. You don't even know what I am increasingly pessimistic about, because I haven't told you. For all you know, I might be pessimistic about the same things you're pessimistic about. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd she's the only woman represented in this grid.
ReplyDeleteDawn Wiener, the Heather Matarazzo character in "Welcome To The Dollhouse," was disparagingly called WIENER DOG. So that's two.
(Yohko) OHNO, that's 3.
Delete@anon11:03 - Good use of the sarcastic WOKE.
ReplyDelete@jberg and @Nancy - Yah. “Government is a necessary evil” sums them all up pretty nicely, eh?
@Anon11:35 - If I ever knew what “thomistic” meant I’d forgotten. Looking it up know, that’s hardly surprising as someone raised Calvinist. Lets leave it at I find Aquinas somewhat lacking. I’m pretty sure the political/religious discussion that would follow from saying anything more belongs somewhere other than a crossword blog.
@Nancy
ReplyDeleteI didn't say anything about you, personally, only that history has taught us that old, rich, privileged folks are the ones most interest in preserving "order". the clear text of your musing was that Hobbes becomes more favored as one (anyone!) grows older. I neither know nor care about your status, and wasn't commenting on it. Hobbes was keen on preserving "order" for the reason I stated. again, that may be you, or may be not. either way, not material to how folks (anyone!) move towards a Hobbesian point of view as they age. it's not a coincidence most Republicans are old, rich, white folks seeking to keep young, poor, dark folks out of the country. again, that might be you or it might not be. not material to why Hobbes is favored. it's not about you; it's about Hobbes.
OTOH -
"FWIW, I have always been pretty Hobbesian in my view of human nature."
so, I guess it's reasonable that you embraced Hobbes as most folks do?
"According to Hobbes, the sovereign must control civil, military, judicial and ecclesiastical powers, even the words."
[the wiki]
Hobbes has been seen as favoring autocracy from the beginning. that's not everybody's cup of tea, but mostly it is for those in positions of power and wealth. not, in a word, democratic.
@z,
ReplyDeleteNot surprised you find Aquinas lacking. I am however surprised you weren't extremely familiar w Thomistic. Only a few years ago, one of your favorite punching bags, Paul Ryan, was defending subsidiarity. It was all over the news for weeks and of course sent the know nothing empty suits ( and protestants) scrambling to catholic encyclopedias/ There trey learned what it means how Aquinas expounded on and honed the original Aristotelian argument.
@Z
ReplyDeleteyou should know better: not all government is the same.
ReplyDelete@Banana Diaquiri
This is what you posted earlier:
@Nancy:
More so, the older I get and the more of the world I see.
the older, richer, and whiter one becomes, the more "order", i.e. "no one's gonna take my stuff even if I've not really earned it", becomes the prime directive. today's NYT has an article by Leonhardt on the increasing of monopoly since Reagan. read it.
If you didn't want to appear to be referring specifically to @Nancy, you should have worded your response differently.
@Banana Diaquiri - Why must you be so argumentative that you resort to deliberately misrepresent what people say just to start a new argument? @Nancy made a comment about human nature. You proceeded to re-interpret that as her having made a comment about the ways to control that human nature, which isn't what she said. "I believe people are essentially pigs" != "People are pigs, so we need dictators to control them".
ReplyDeletePlease stop this.
@Pete/JC66:
ReplyDeletethe fact remains: my comment was about Hobbes and his notion of "governance". of necessity, I had to quote what Nancy said. at no time did I write "Nancy you are...". not ever. if one opts to defend some argument by somebody (Hobbes in this case), one risks being a bird of a feather.
@JC66:
If you didn't want to appear to be referring specifically to @Nancy, you should have worded your response differently.
the comment was posted by Nancy. without it, there'd be no reason for my comment. simple as that. she brought Hobbes to the discussion. I could have brought Calvin, but demurred.
@Pete:
"I believe people are essentially pigs" != "People are pigs, so we need dictators to control them".
but, as the wiki and all other sources say, Hobbes did say that autocracy is the answer to the problem. that fact is undeniable. may be Nancy is that extreme, may be not. it doesn't matter, since that wasn't, and isn't, my point.
For those of you who like to binge-watch TV shows, tune into “The Wire”. You’ll be immediately hooked, especially by Idris ELBA’s phenomenal performance as Stringer Bell. Here’s hoping he becomes the next James Bond!
ReplyDeleteGalena, Illinois (yes, it got its name from mining lead ore) has a “wiener dog” race every year as part of its Octoberfest weekend. Needless to say, a dachshund race is loads of fun to watch.
@Z - you observed that “Anarchists think that people are naturally rational and reasonable”
ReplyDeleteYou might be interested in “The Undoing Project” by Michael Lewis. I covers the friendship between Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky and their Nobel Prize winning work on human judgement and decision making...which turns out to be not so rational.
Calvin and Hobbes, now they have meaning.
ReplyDeleteThe funniest line that's ever been written about a philosopher, (albeit not Hobbes, unfortunately, but Schopenhauer, a philosopher whom I didn't study) was written by Larry Hart in the song "Zip" from "Pal Joey". It's sung by a stripper with an intellectual bent who punctuates her strip tease act with thoughtful, even cerebral asides:
ReplyDeleteZip! I was reading Schopenhauer last night.
Zip! And I think that Schopenhauer was right!
Here's one version of the song.
'Cause NERDs like us, baby we were born to puzz...
ReplyDeleteHappy Nude Year 2019 everybody!
KNEW NOR CHASM
ReplyDeleteROBIN’S CLEAR about her ACTIVEPLAY,
so on a DINNERDATE without DELAY,
she KNEW she’d get a LEI
‘cuz that GUY’S gonna STAY,
ANDIT’SGOOD to have a BANNERDAY.
--- SIMONE BOONE-LOCKE
I knew something was going astray when things changed from the rhyming WEINER and SCREENER to DINNER, but I didn’t slow down enough to catch the INNERNERD. Agree that it’s a good one for a begINNER NERD.
ReplyDeleteNever really thought of Dean Martin as a CROONer, more of a lounge singer.
As I have mentioned to @teedmn using her word: This puz was full of gratuitous NERDity.
For the GUYS: SIMONE by default.
For the gals: Sexiest Man Alive and xword fave Idris ELBA.
Happy New Year to all, may BANNERDAYS lie ahead.
Working on tomorrow's resolutions? Here's one - let your inner nerdity flow at the ACPT IN mARCH. pUZZLE ALONG WITH 700+ OF YOUR PUZZLING FRIENDS - IN REAL TIME. yO - IT DON'T MATTER IF YER SLOW - I FINISHED #631 (OR WAS IT 641?) LAST YEAR. iT'S JUST FUN. mS. @tEEDMN (SEE ABOVE) AND I HAVE GONE FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS NOW.
ReplyDeleteSorry - my caps key locked and I'm not going back on that paragraph today.
The puz was tough for a Monday - an advanced beginner puzzle, IMHO.
The themer actually helped me. 'Cause I never, never start at one-a and go in order. Just bonce about, and you'll find themers that aid you!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
ACTIVEPLAY: green paint? Oh, I suppose sitting around a board game is "play" and not very "active," but still...sounds redundant. Took a few extra beats to parse NOTIN for "away." DESIGNERDRUG directly over GMOS brought a smile; it's the meat in an acronym sandwich with EMTS, so some point deductions there.
ReplyDeleteSCREENERDVDS is one of those in-house-only expressions not seen or heard outside of the industry, so another deduction. SIMONE Biles is DOD by a lot more than default! Deductions move this from birdie to par, but yours bleeding-green truly is ecstatic over yesterday's NFC results, as my Eagles blanked Washington while Da Bears let us into the playoffs by downing the Vikings. Fly Eagles fly!!!! And Happy New Year to all!
My fault - shoulda said SIMONE by the vault.
ReplyDeleteHey, a very nice Monday puzzle to end the year for we Syndies. Liked it a lot.
ReplyDeleteThe philosophical discussion by the commentariat WOKE me up. I loved Calvin and Hobbes, as I'm sure everybody did, and now I see there may be more to it than cartoon foolery. Personally, I'm in the middle of that Calvinist/Hobbesian dichotomy which is probably a good place to be.
Hey, also, @Spacey - no criticism here (I just can't), but is there not a teeny contradiction regarding your dislike of acronyms and continual use of DOD?
Are GMOs all bad? Discuss.
More Mondays lie this will lead to BANNER DAYS ahead. Btw, the singular BANNER DAY is a thing, to the plural is just fine.
First-rate Monday and a welcome last day of a generally rough year. Yeah, I know, such dating is pretty arbitrary, but wishing a Happier New Year for all!
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle for this New Year's EVE. Happy 2019, fellow left-coasters.
ReplyDelete