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High-ranking Turkish officer / WED 2-9-22 / Mythical ship that sailed to Colchis / Uncle of 1960s TV / It changes length every four years / Leftorium owner on the Simpsons / They're chucked in a chuck and bored in a board
Wednesday, February 9, 2022
Constructor: Grant Thackray
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
Mmm, trivia. The one thing that keeps this theme slightly interesting is that it zigs and zags in a couple of clues, doubling up the "not actually" factor with MANTIS / SHRIMP and reversing the "not actually" factor with ORCA / WHALE. I guess the SEA / CUCUMBER one is supposed to be zig and/or zag as well, with the addition of the emphatic "certainly" to the clue, but that's essentially a decorative "certainly" — the SEA / CUCUMBER simply isn't a CUCUMBER, just like the FISH and EEL in the puzzle aren't FISH or EEL. I guess the idea is that CUCUMBER is *really* far afield from what you might think it is, but frankly I don't really know what it is ... I'm imagining a cucumber ... so I have nothing to chuckle at here. I also have no idea what a MANTIS / SHRIMP is (or didn't until I looked it up just now). You can't play on misconceptions that I don't have. The only bit of trivia that was at all informative to me today was the ELECTRIC / EEL info. I assumed it was an eel. I admit to not having given the matter a ton of thought. Apparently said "eels" are not closely related to eels at all—they are more akin to catfish. Anyway, I found all the cross-referencing in the theme clues fussy, though probably necessary (since isolating that "incorrect" word really highlights the impact of the theme concept, gives it some oomph). Mainly it was just kind of flat. "Huh, interesting" was the highest high. The "lowest low" was ORCA / WHALE, a term I am hearing for the first time ... right now? They are ORCAs. What crossword solver doesn't know what an ORCA is? When have we ever called them ORCA / WHALEs, why would you do that??? I guess I can see someone somewhere thinking they're sharks, but I can't imagine that same person thinking their name is ORCA / WHALEs. "Killer whale" is the common term, isn't it? Yes! The wikipedia entry begins: "The orca or killer whale is a toothed whale etc." What is this ORCA / WHALE nonsense? And for your closing themer!? That is a good example of *not* sticking the landing (to borrow some Olympic Games terminology, which seems fitting / timely, though I'm paying no attention to the Games at all this year). The most bizarre feature of the theme answers is that SEA / HORSE is not among them. I mean ... that's the King Aquatic Misnomer, but somehow the SEA / HORSE is just sitting this one out? Disappointing.
- JELLY / FISH (1A: With 6-Across, underwater creature that's not actually a 6-Across)
- ELECTRIC / EEL (23A: With 25-Across, underwater creature that's not actually a 25-Across)
- MANTIS / SHRIMP (36A: With 38-Across, underwater creature that's not actually a 38-Across (nor a 36-Across, for that matter)
- SEA / CUCUMBER (47A: With 48-Across, underwater creature that's certainly not a 48-Across)
- ORCA / WHALE (64:A With 65-Across, underwater creature that actually "is" a 65-Across despite a common misconception)
Mantis shrimp, or stomatopods, are carnivorous marine crustaceans of the order Stomatopoda, branching from other members of the class Malacostraca around 340 million years ago. Mantis shrimps typically grow to around 10 cm (3.9 in) in length, while a few can reach up to 38 cm (15 in). A mantis shrimp's carapace (the hard, thick shell that covers crustaceans and some other species) covers only the rear part of the head and the first four segments of the thorax. Varieties range in colour from shades of brown to vivid colours, with more than 450 species of mantis shrimp being known. They are among the most important predators in many shallow, tropical and subtropical marine habitats. However, despite being common, they are poorly understood, as many species spend most of their lives tucked away in burrows and holes.Called "sea locusts" by ancient Assyrians, "prawn killers" in Australia, and now sometimes referred to as "thumb splitters"—because of the animal's ability to inflict painful wounds if handled incautiously—mantis shrimps have powerful raptorials that are used to attack and kill prey either by spearing, stunning, or dismembering. Some mantis shrimp species have specialised calcified "clubs" that can strike with great power, while others have sharp forelimbs used to seize the prey (hence the term "mantis" in its common name). (wikipedia)
• • •
My biggest mistake today was having the EL- at the front of the second themer, knowing we were looking for "misnamed" creatures, and writing in ELEPHANT (it fits!). I mean, why not? Why not an ELEPHANT / EEL. There's apparently a MANTIS / SHRIMP, so ... ELEPHANT / EEL seemed like a good candidate for this theme. Cryptozoologists, add ELEPHANT EEL to your Life List. Only one other initial mistake today—the far more understandable ERIN-for-EIRE mistake (yet another klassic kealoa* for you) (2D: Cork's land). I guess EIRE is just a general name for the island, while ERIN ... is also that, but more poetic. There are various explanations of the alleged difference out there. They are never gonna help me much in crosswords, I'm afraid. No idea who / what EGGMAN is (I wasn't even sure if he's in the video game, or the cartoon, or comic books, or movies, or what part of the Sonic universe he operates in ... largely because I know absolutely nothing about said universe except that its video game platform is SEGA). Speaking of eggs, I thought ROE was sly for a couple of reasons—first because it added a bonus AQUATIC answer to the puzzle, and second because it symmetrically echoed OVA in the NE. Nice eggy wordplay. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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109 comments:
People have absolutely called them "orca whales," I've heard that since I was a kid.
Much less resistance than a typical Wednesday. My only overwrite was at 28D, ARMs up before ARMORS, but Diana RIGG set me on the right course quickly.
Did this last night. Not my favorite theme concept. Two word SEA creatures just has a strong 6th grade science “fun activity” vibe to it. Add in all the cross references, which I just stopped reading because each clue was just “two word sea creature” to me, and the solving process didn’t exactly spark joy. This means I never saw the ORCA WHALE clue and didn’t realize it was being too cute by half.
I just did some quick double checking and ORCAs are dolphins, so not generally considered WHALEs. A quick perusal of the interwebs will quickly show that dolphins both are and are not considered “WHALEs.” For instance, Wikipedia says, They {whales} are an informal grouping within the infraorder Cetacea, which usually excludes dolphins and porpoises. Notice the wish-washy “usually” in that sentence. Spend a couple of precious nanoseconds and you’ll find that dolphins are in the “toothed whale” parvorder. In short, it’s not a “misconception” so much as how far down the taxonomic table you are when discussing whether or not a Killer WHALE is actually a WHALE. Blrrrgh. One good thing was doing this quick fact-check and being reminded that hippopotamopodes are related to WHALEs. 🦛🦛🦛
As for the rest of the puzzle, I like the word PIQUE. Now I wish I had used it as my first wordle guess. Maybe tomorrow. On the other hand, ODEUM sounds to much like ODious so I always wrinkle my nose as I enter it. Being a part of the ODEon/ODEUM kealoa doesn’t help (FWIW - Merriam-Webster only lists ODEUM, it doesn’t even give ODEon as an alternate spelling, while Wikipedia prefers ODEon, listing ODEUM as the alternate spelling and even redirecting to ODEon when searching for ODEUM. Anyway, it is ODE and wrinkle the nose and wait for the crosses for the last two letters.
**wordle alert**
Another birdie so six under after 35 holes. Four yellow on my second guess made my third guess fairly definitive once I saw what it might be.
This started out feeling pretty easy but then toughened up. The theme answers were not readily apparent and getting one was no help in getting another. But then AQUATIC tied it all together quite nicely. I suspect most people know an ORCA is a WHALE but that doesn't diminish the joy of the solve.
Spritely. Liked it.
Don't like wordle comments here. Start a wordle blog.
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water … now we find that the ORCA is actually a killer dolphin. Well, bless their sneaky hearts.
I wish they would establish some sort of convention regarding abbreviations and stick with it. Today - no abbreviation in the clue for the abbreviation for sacrifice (SAC) - annoying.
I had PIN before AIR which lead to all kinds of difficulty with the ARGO crossing EGGMAN mini-section in the east.
Congrats to whoever came up with the clue for ROE (Preschool group?). That’s some major-league NYTs-worthy cluing right there.
I didn’t know what a LINTEL is (too be honest, I still don’t, even after looking it up) - apparently it’s the top, or maybe the bottom part of a window. I just thought I had a mistake in that section.
CHA and CHE look a touch uncomfortable and out of place - sort of like they don’t want to be here hanging out with this motley crew, and I don’t blame them. CHE got dragged all the way over from the European continent and CHA isn’t even a word. Forcing them to participate against their will is really cruel and unusual punishment.
Some random reactions:
• I was blown away by the MANTIS SHRIMP after reading https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/86128/10-eye-popping-facts-about-mantis-shrimp .
• Sure it’s AB NEGATIVE, but my brain only wants to see that word meaning “like one who denies” (ABNEGATIVE).
• Two highly original clues. In all the places I’ve checked, I haven’t found anything in Crosslandia’s history – in the NYT as well as all other crossword publishers – like [Place to find a crook] for ELBOW, or [It changes length every four years: Abbr.] for FEB (or anything like it for FEBRUARY].
• Regarding EGGMAN, all I have to say is “Goo goo g’joob”.
Much to draw from your creation, Grant, a lovely place to dwell for a bit. Thank you greatly for this!
@Lewis - I am the walrus.
Goo goo g’joob - some weird fill in this one. I liked the FROND - FESTER block and TOPEKA but side eyed a lot of the other stuff. The U cross with ODEUM and TUG was rough - add the ugly short glue and this didn’t flow well. The BEET SALAD can go with yesterday’s cilantro.
I liked the theme fine - no issue with the WHALE descriptor since it is needed. Cool to have AQUATIC cross two themers.
Enjoyable enough Wednesday solve.
@SouthsideJohnny -- In the NYT that clue was first used in 1995 by Cathy Millhauser.
And to you know who you are, I tried using your shortcut to get around printing the entire url for that MANTIS SHRIMP article, but it just didn't work! Something about that it wouldn't accept "HTTP".
@Lewis’ link.
Thx Grant; skookum Wednes. puz! :)
Easy++
Pretty well breezed thru this one, with one exception: didn't know SIM or MANTIS, but guessed correctly on the 'I'.
Also, unknown were JOVE, ECTO, and EGGMAN. Thx for the fair crosses.
Erred on CITGO in a recent Croce xword. Looked it up later, so it was a gimme today.
Do sudoku every day, but had to smh as to what 45 was referring to. D'oh, the numbers 1-9 in each row and column add up to 45, as do the numbers in each of the nine squares.
Fun solve; liked it a lot. :)
@okanaganer yd
Thx; every now and then I'm on the wavelength. :)
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yd pg: 5:45 / Wordle: 3
Dordle 4&3/7 SYRUP&CHORE
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zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I thought this was fun. Didn't mind being back in science class. Didn't mind the missing sea horse (and am sure that occurred to someone and they preferred SEA/CUCUMBER and, gasps and horrors, we know two SEAs would've killed us). Didn't mind ORCA/WHALE, though think the whole twist would've been been a little better if the cluing followed suit. There's no misconception that killer whales are dolphins, right? I mean, they ARE dolphins. So the clue flipping is either to establish that dolphins are whales - ugh - or the misconception is that they are sharks - true, they aren't, but thinking they are is worse than a misconception. Anyway, it gets a little messy there, but it's still fun.
I had no idea ODEon/ODEUM was a kealoa so went straight with ODEon and then got completely messed up because I had no idea what you call a tower on a barge and didnt see tower rhyming with blower. Landing STEAD still didn't flip S_n to SIM. Needed all that to happen as still could only solve MANxxx/SHRIMP from the downs. So this was harder than it needed to be, for me, but still a nice start to the day.
Just like Kealoa is a thing, Erin eire (Erin error?) should be a thing
Lol @amyyanni. Really? Who knew?
If you like wordle (👋🏽👋🏽 @amyyanni) and don’t trust the NYT, you might want to check this out. It is Apple specific, so all you PC/Android users can ignore the link and ask Uncle Google how to preserve the original game on your local device.
Orcas are in a suborder of whales but the family of dolphins. Weird clue
I found this Monday easy which is a little disappointing except for the boy am I smart feeling, which is unusual enough to be satisfying. The only "that's news to me" answers were ECTO, EGGMAN, and MANTIS, and the crosses were fairly obvious. I never time myself, except for "that took a long time" and "that was over too soon". This one falls into the latter category.
DRILLBITS had a nice clue.
CITGO of course made think of Fenway Park and baseball so a smile there. Some perceptive player watched a homer disappear over the Green Monster and said "See it go.".
A nice Wednesdecito, GT. Good Theme and nicely executed. Thanks for all the fun.
Éire is the name for the island of Ireland in the Irish language . Erin is a common poetic name for 🇮🇪 in English.
I don’t really disagree with anything Rex said, but I enjoyed the puzzle. Never ever ever heard of mantis shrimp but they seem scary.
Mantis shrimp are well known in the salt-water aquarium hobby and yes, thumb splitter is a well deserved nickname. They come into the aquarium hiding in the live-rock and the only clue they are present is the clicking noise their tails make when they snap.
What @amyyanni said. Nothing against wordle or those who like it, but the discussions just seem out of place here. Thank you.
Sometimes I go to a SEAfood restaurant and they have steak on the menu. Very out of place. I guess I have to order the steak?
I figured the theme early on and waiting eagerly to drop "sea cucumber." In fact, sea cucumber went in where "electric eel" is supposed to go without thinking twice.
I grew up having to eat sea cumcumber and it is one of the most hideous tasting foods on this earth. Mom kept telling me to enjoy it because of how expensive it is--no money in the world can win back the taste buds I lost in those experiences. The only worse food I've ever eaten to date is beef brains; thank goodness mad cow wiped out brains from the store shelves.
I think real originality is the hardest thing to produce in a crossword theme -- harder than cleverness, harder than crunchiness, harder than humor. So when a constructor comes up with an idea that doesn't remind you of any other puzzle that's ever been done, you want to ask -- or at least I do -- what on earth made him think of that??
Because my knowledge of AQUATIC critters isn't all that sophisticated -- or maybe because I just about never think about them at all -- I found this puzzle on the hard side for a Wednesday. I saw JELLY FISH right off the bat, but what was a CUCUMBER doing there? Did it belong in the same puzzle?
There were also two kealoas today: Would it be URAL or ARAL? Would it be AB NEGATIVE or AB POSITIVE? I did the smart thing, writing in the letters I was sure of and waiting for confirmation on the others.
I have no idea what DRILL BITS are, but I'll take your word on it, Grant. An interesting puzzle that made me use my TETE.
I understand that comments here diverge into all sorts of topics that are not strictly "on-topic," but there is usually a "hidden hand" that self-corrects and moves things back to the stated focus: The NYTimes Crossword Puzzle and Michael Sharp's commentary on the day's puzzle.
This "hidden hand," however, does not seem to be self-correcting the "off-topic" reporting of Wordle scores and the discussions about these; this divergence seems to be recurring with regularity and, in fact, multiplying.
I find this unfortunate.
Hey All !
FROND BEETSALAD and DRILLBITS BATHE seem like they could also be Sea creatures.
Also neat total Acrosses at 1A and 63A, JELLY FISH? CMON! & SEES ORCA WHALES.
ICEDTEA sorta a word without a home, as it's symmetric to the Revealer, but has nothing to do with the Themers.
Reading up on y'all's links to that MANTIS SHRIMP. Dang, it's a badass! Wonder if it's tasty? Har.
TOPEKANSAS is cool. Had TOledo first, bit no DO state. Ohio, OH. Oh...
Fun puz, got me all swimmy. (Swimmy! Get it? 😁)
yd -0!!!!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm with @Nancy in appreciating the originality of this one. Unfortunately, that's all it has going for it. It bored me (not the way DRILLBITS might) and could never PIQUE my interest.
ORCA WHALE? Never in my lifetime, but I'll take @Joey's comment at face value and assume it's "in the language".
Woulda thunk that, given the theme, 52A would be clued using the Rays.
Alternative clues for two answers today:
18A Youngster guarding the hive? (BEE TSA LAD)
41D Jerk in the pool? (AQUA TIC)
Always nice to see a 5 letter Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) -- It might be junk (EMAIL, begins with the E in PIQUE, 45A, moves to SW).
I enjoyed the fishy trivia. Never heard of the MANTIS SHRIMP and have no desire to tangle with one!
Hanging out on the shore ...
Dictionary.com's word of the day is EGGcorn. (hi @Joe)
Being from the Pacific Northwest, ORCA and WHALE used together just sounds off. Don't have an issue with it, tho, especially as it fits nicely into the theme.
@Zex (7:53 AM)
Thx for the link. I use the Apple Shortcuts app frequently, so this is right up my alley. :)
@póg mo thóin (8:23 AM)
Thx for the clarification re: ÉIRE vs Erin. :)
@RooMonster (9:26 AM) 👍 for 0 yd
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td pg: 14:57 / Wordle 235 3/6*
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Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I ride my horse equus all day long.
I waited for the puzzle to print and gave it a quick looky. I saw 1A and thought I'd have to do the bouncy ball act and follow it hither and yon. Oh, wait....it's not a ball....it's all about underwater creatures. Do you call this a caconym? Or am I full of caca?
I followed Grant through the left-right marching order. I really like this:
I had forgotten about the MANTIS SHRIMP; that one took the longest. Then I did my "of course, dance."
the first time I saw one was at the Monterey bay aquarium. I think it was the peacock variety. Anyway, our sweet tour guide told us that when they first got him/her the little critter killed every single crab within punch. The following day they found all kinds of shell leftovers. So...Mr. Mantis got shipped off to his own private little abode. No touching allowed.
Yes, yes, yes...I wanted a SEA HORSE badly. As a matter of fact, I went scuba diving just trying to find the cutest thing under the sea. Twas not to be today...
I get to another "like." CHE at 24D. I wanted to squeeze in cosi or quella or even cui. Oh...it's CHE. Thank you Grant for not cluing him as a Cuban hero.
Really enjoyable Wed. I had fun. I want to go swimming in Mexico. Maybe Cozumel. Eat a beautifully grilled huatchinango. Flirt with our private bartender. Sleep under the sea. Watch "Little Mermaid."
Gee, two more kealoas were mentioned in the comments that I didn't think of -- maybe because I already had the needed crosses by the time I got to them. EIRE/ERIN and ODEUM/ODEON.
Add that to the two kealoas that I mentioned in my earlier comment, that makes four kealoas in one puzzle.
That's a lot of kealoas.
Sea creatures can be kind of scary. I’m trying to imagine what people thought when first seeing a lobster.
@Joey - Quite literally, People has absolutely called them orca whales:
https://people.com/pets/beached-orca-whale-alaska-freed-with-sailors-help/
:)
That said, I'm used to only hearing "orca" or "killer whale," not a cross of the two.
Basically everything Rex said, except (LOL!) ELEphant EEL. I'm just gonna have fun with various visuals throughout the day.
ORCA WHALE just seems stupid dumb. And if there's one thing I know...
Found it easier than yesterday and more enjoyable, but that's a low bar.
Sloth out.
🧠
🎉🎉
Easy. Cute and informative with an “I’ll bet you didn’t know that” vibe. Liked it a bunch! Fun Wednesday!
Enjoyed this one a lot. JELLY FISH, SEA CUCUMBERS, and ELECTRIC EELS, oh my! What a strange world is going right now in the depths of our oceans and most of us up here on the surface know so little about it.
Great minds think alike, @Lewis. 26D combined with the theme made me think of this lyrical statement of identity from another underwater creature:
I am the EGG MAN
They are the egg men
I am the walrus
Goo goo g’joob
Some people may say ORCA WHALE, but they're probably the same ones who say "Canadian goose." The name ORCA displace 'killer whale' when researchers found out that they were actually pretty docile and friendly. However -- I had always assumed that the word came from some Northwestern Native American language, but I looked it up and it turns out to be Latin for--you guessed it, 'whale.' [Actually, I just realized that was @Tex's point.]
Speaking of looking things up, according to the link Rex provided Erin is just Eire in the dative case, at least in origin.
Anyway, I had fun with the puzzle, although I did miss the sea robin. And isn't there a sea slug, as well? And in addition to its symmetry with ROE (a bonus AQUATIC term), OVA was also directly above EGGMAN.
Being familiar with the British movie theatre chain, I wanted ODEon, but I guess ODEUM is the same thing in Latin, and the Romans count as classical, too. It's strange that M-W has only the latter, though. I just checked the OED; it has separate articles for each, although the ODEon listing does say "= ODEUM." I'd better quit before I fall completely down the rabbit-hole.
I think that earlier in the week it is more important to have easy stuff than tough clues, explaining why some of today's clues might be more or less approximate. Not that I think that it's right, just that I sometimes think that's the way those who publish the puzzles think. So I filled the entries in not worrying if the clue are 100% correct. And I enjoyed this puzzle very much. Better than most Wednesday puzzle in my opinion.
Can't say that I always enjoy the transition from "who cares" to the "deep" discussions I read here. But I usually enjoy most of the comments here. Thank you all.
Regarding my comment yesterday. When visiting cities (business or pleasure) I didn't live in, I would often frequent a drinking establishment more for the purpose of playing a video game than for drinking. One place in San Diego included a Frogger arcade game. Not my favorite game but that's what was there. Perhaps my favorite game (after Space Invaders) was Cosmic Alien, more because I was good at it. That's why games like Joust (which I never got good at - I had only so many quarters) never made it to my top ten list.
Until I did this puzzle I had no idea that a sheep was actually an aquatic animal.
Thanks Grant for sharing this oxymoronic twist on all creatures misnamed. Nice unique PIQUE for DIY woodworking today! Thought I’d chuck this link in for @Nancy & others who opted for Drama 101 over Shop 1B. Woodworking Brace Jaw Chuck Hand Boring Drill With Twist Drill Bit And if that link actually works, thanks to all blog stars for the continuing patience and support they have lent this Newboy.
As has been noted, the theme doesn't sing, but they seldom do for me.
I just looked up ORCA, which I knew only from crosswords. I learned something. They are called apex predators because they have no natural predators. They're at the top of the food chain.
I do WORDLE every morning, so does my wife. It only takes five minutes or so and I get a kick out of pressing enter and getting a row of greens. I also enjoy reading comments about it. They're usually short and don't clog the blog.
A chuck is a clamp. I don't see the clue for DRILLBITS. I also don't see the clue for PREACH.
I loathe cross-reference clues where one refers to the other and so on. But despite that, this puzzle had a certain appeal which more than made up for it. I would’ve used CATFISH in STEAD to start and I’m shaking my head at the absence of SEA HORSE. Why on earth would you make this puzzle without using it? Fiddler Crab would’ve been another good one.
The SEA CUCUMBER has to be one of the oddest creatures in existence. I’m not sure of its purpose but I do have one which I bought in Tarpon Springs, Florida where they’re sold as a tool for exfoliating skin, similar to a loofah sponge.
Thanks@Z on the ORCA info. I THOUGHT I had heard that ORCAS were actually dophins but now I know they are actually both. @jberg, I don’t really think of ORCAS as docile especially since the one grabbed its trainer/handler off her platform and killed her but they probably have less reptilian brain than a shark so I MAYBE I’d choose to be stranded in the water with a hungry orca than a hungry shark.
@Nancy, I don’t think of ARAL/URAL as a kealoa, especially today since ARAL was clued as —— Sea. The Urals are either clued are a mountain range and are often clued as the divider between Europe and Asia. The ARAL Sea is getting closer to non-existence every day/year that goes by unfortunately.
I very much enjoyed this puzzle but I finished it quicker than Tuesday (and I think Monday).
I wanted to see starfish here. Keepers at the National Zoo’s Invertebrate House would prefer us to use sea stars, however.
@mathgent I don’t get “chucked in a chuck” either but PREACH is often used these days kind of like AMEN! (I heartily agree, please continue to vent on this point)
Easy, fun, informative
Yay!
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Wordle 235 3/6
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Rolled in a nice long birdie putt today. 3-under after 7.
There is a long time practice of mentioning all kinds other puzzles on this blog. It's very easy to skip over the ones that are of no interest to you.
BTW:
Wordle 235 3/6
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I was absolutely delighted with this puzzle from start to finish. Almost all the themers made me grin. The nontheme answers were mostly very good (EIEIO had a brilliant clue, and I really could only CARP at a few overused words like LEIS and ARAL and the greenpainty BEET SALAD, which is, as a classic picnic dish, just horrible, though a favorite restaurant makes one I love, with nice chunks of beets, properly garnished).
Plus I learned a few new things AQUATIC. And, oddly enough, that windows have LINTELS. I knew doors did, of course, but not windows. Nice to be reminded of JOVE's birth name. Mostly known by his nickname Jupiter, which comes from Zeus pater (Father Zeus).
Despite the comments of OFL Uncle Grumpypants, this was a lovely puzzle IMO.
In case you haven’t yet had your fill of sea creatures with misleading names:
Lionfish
Pigfish
Lizardfish
Zebra Shark
Eagle Ray
Sea Spider
Sea Robin
Elephant Seal (perhaps related to Rex’s Elephant EEL)
I know that most of these work opposite of how today’s theme worked. I’m just throwing them out for fun.
Uncle FESTER made me remember fondly FESTER BESTERTESTER from Don Martin’s MAD Magazine series, FESTER and Karbunkle. I guess it would have drawn some howls from today’s youths to clue him as Karbunkles pal.
Same way that it might not have worked out well to use “ 26D. Guy who subsequently professed to be the walrus.” as the clue for EGGMAN.
After getting the entire top row, I had to think JELLY FISH? CMON.
Liked the Puzzle fine. Thanks Grant Thackeray.
Gotta run. I’m late for my ORCA WHALE watching trip.
I thought that odd, too, prior to the NYT announcement of its purchase of Wordle. Then I concluded that the NYT had intentionally allowed/encouraged Wordle commentary to pre-promote Wordle as it, the NYT, had determined to acquire the game for itself.
I will say, that worked on me, as it was here I learned about Wordle, and now am already addicted!
P.S. Soon enough there will be a separate rising Wordle column. One of us?
If you want to hear a cute song and you have kids so your bar for music artistry is pretty low anyway, go look up the song that goes "Orca whale, orca whale, little sea scallops and an orca whale. Sea oooootttter! Sea oooootttttter! Little sea scallops and an orca whale." I still miss my now-big-kid singing this when she was in kindergarten. There is also the PNW version of this with Douglas firs and mushrooms.
Rex, there's a primer on mantis shrimp and how fantastic they are--I guess I can't post a link but if you Google "mantis shrimp oatmeal" you'll find it. It's from the web comic The Oatmeal, there's no actual oatmeal involved. Truly one of the most remarkable creatures we've encountered on this planet.
The Radiolab episode linked at the bottom is also great. Seriously, mantis shrimp are amazing, and speaking for myself I was extremely delighted to encounter them in this puzzle.
I had also never heard "orca whale" so was a bit thrown by that one, but one of the other commenters apparently heard it growing up, so I guess that's just a cultural difference.
Anyway, I found this puzzle delightful, with the mantis shrimp a standout.
I'm a math guy who never got how people's head can explode when being exposed to what I think are relatively simple math concepts. I read @Rex's link to the ERIN/EIRE discussion and what do you know, my head exploded. Linguists be crazy.
The chuck of 56A is the part of a drill which securely holds the bit for drilling. On some drills it is tightened or loosened with a chuck key(not related to the Chucky movie franchise).
That was a fine puzzle. Did not know the mantis shrimp thing or the electric eel. I'll be damned.
Also, another vote for keeping the Wordle stuff out of the comments.
I enjoyed this one but also kept waiting for the SEAHORSE to arrive. I also thought for sure that the capital ending in its state's abbreviation would be ALBANY given this was the NYT but caught my error on the downs. Surprised no one else mentioned this.
I thought it would be helpful to consolidate all the Wordle/Dordle results through noon into a single post, for ease of reference.
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(Not only does it provide a comprehensive overview, it looks pretty. I bet serious Wordlers will start tiling their bathrooms with green-gold-black-white mosaics.)
Sorry, I don't mean to lead the thread astray. Do we all like sheep?
I might have missed it, but I fully expected the Trumpsterites to be screaming to the High Heavens that the NYT, as usual, was aiding and abetting the Great Satan of Venezuela.
@RP: Well, yeah -- the easy-peasy-gimme-meat SEA HORSE didn't show up, but at least U got them unfortunately-not-so-rare Kazakhstan grazers, the ARAL SHEEP. so enough with the sea carp-in'.
Of the seacritters that did surface in this puz, only the MANTIS + SHRIMP was a know-no, to M&A.
This is a pretty brave construction job, where all the themer answers are kinda on the short side. This can put the pressure on the seafearin constructioneer, to still be able to plunge down in the word-count to 78, or lower depths. [78 on the nose, in this case.] Desperation. can. ensue.
The school of weejects swam thru mostly non-desperado-infested waters, tho. Maybe CHA & CHE the rebel-turned-Italian jumped out of the main, just a wee bit.
Definite honrable mention to SEA, of course -- casts out some primo themer-level respect for the runt words.
So where's all that there greatly anticipated Ow de Speration? Where? In the ODEUM with the PASHA, maybe? 'Bout it. Sooo … nice constructioneerin cruise.
thUmbsUp also to OVA over EGGMAN. And maybe to PIQUE PEND, as wantin to be in the sty? [Yeah … didn't think so.]
Thanx for invitin us all over to yer cool little dive, Mr. Thackray dude.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
Olympic effort required:
**gruntz**
Easy as snot, almost:
**gruntz**
I too am the EGGMAN . . . . I guess we are dating ourselves!
ROE was clever and cute.
Nice theme + nice open grid + very few 3-letter answers + no ETTA James or the typical fill = 2 thumbs up.
And now for the most important news (confess AmyYanni, you're dying to know!)
Wordle 235 3/6
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Nice to get a birdie after yesterday's disaster.
SHEEP???! How can SHEEP be in this puzzle, forcing the awkward qualifier in the revealer?
Thanks @Tool Guy! Yes. Now I remember when my Dad taught me how to use a drill…”you put the drill bit in the chuck, then you tighten the chuck around it with THIS like so.” I tend to think of the verb “chuck” as “get rid of” but in this case they mean “put into.” Now I must see WHY certain ground hogs are called woodCHUCKS….
Good news/Bad news
Daily Dordle #0016 2&5/7
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zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
@joe dipinto That's my favorite Messiah joke! I'm glad it's out there in the zeitgeist, not just me and my husband giggling about it to each other for the last 22 years
My favorite comments this morning.
Ray Yuen (8:50)
Beezer (11:23)
old timer (11:49)
Tool Guy (12:07)
Rex writing, "You can't play on misconceptions that I don't have," made me chuckle today. Is that the crossword equivalent of taking your bat and ball and going home?
I thought this fun. And I certainly got the "certainly" reference in the SEA CUCUMBER clue - if the cucumbers in my garden ever start wandering around eating things, well that's the last garden I plant.
Grant Thackray, this was a fine Wednesday puzzle, thanks.
Loved the clever theme.
@whatsername 10:56 love Tarpon Springs esp. the pastry shop with the little tables. Sooo touristy yet relaxing.
The only reason I know CITGO is from when I stayed in Back Bay in Boston, my room had a great view of the enormous sign.
Loved the DRILL BITS clue!
Couldn't starfish be in the theme? Maybe not, because it seems to be one word.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; td pg in 12:30. Ugly collection of letters today!]
Yes. But they are whales.
@Unknown 12:31p - I thought the same at first but then read the clue a little closer.
@Seth 12:04 wow! Thanx for reference for mantis shrimp. Absolutely mind blowing what this little animal is capable of. The science that has determined it’s capabilities has got to be serious. 👍👍👍
Re @Seth 12:04. I don’t see a Radiolab link.
What would a Wordle blog look like? "Then I tried a D and that didn't work." "I had _RA_E so I entered CRATE, ERASE, BRAVE, DRAKE, GRAZE and missed FRAME! Whatta ride!"
@WestofNatick, it's in the little square at the bottom of the oatmeal post.
Also looks like maybe I can link if I use html.
Radiolab episode about color.
Mantis shrimp post for those who don't want to Google it.
An orca is in the dolphin family, not whale family
EGGMAN was the Japanese name for the primary villain in Mega Man. In the US he was name Dr. Robotnik. Same person.
*I meant Sonic the Hedgehog, not Mega Man, obviously :-/
@bocamp 7:42
Your courteous posts and appropriate peace blessings bring a welcome civility to our forum. If I may comment on a Chinook word you sometimes use — Skookum means “strong”or “powerful” as in skookumchuck (strong river) or “he's a skookum little boy”.
Klahowya, Tillikum,
Alice, a Vancouver old-timer
Very funny, Georgia (2:12)! And very true.
@Beezer -- I've now been told on two blogs that ARAL/URAL is only a kealoa for geographically-challenged dummies like me. I trust I will never make the same mistake again and I'll certainly try hard not to...but you never know.
Easy and amusing.
Y'all have a lot of very strong opinions about crossword flaws.
@Nancy (4:02) - Just remember that moUntain contains a U, so if the clue wants mountains you want Ural.
I like seeing the Wordle scores here FWIW.
Seals don't think orcas are "pretty docile"...
Who are these "people?" Blue whales, right whales, sperm whales, finback whales, yes; orcas, yes; orca whales? No. Next you'll be telling me that they are king of the sea as well as the prince of whales.
I think I could learn to love you, @Bill L.
Word before ball/drop? Cough.
Wait, now there's DORDLE??!! Who knew?
Dordle 4&6/7 RATTY&LEFTY
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zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
Am I the only one who thinks the ORCA WHALE thing follows perfectly from the clue? It's not saying that there's a thing called an ORCA WHALE, just a thing called an ORCA that's actually a WHALE (Yes, as in killer whale). The final themer has already announced it's breaking the pattern, so, why not this part, too?
@Joe from this morning when I was still looking at Joshua trees and cholla cacti...
My kids used to get the *hugest* kick out of this. They were very familiar with the Messiah, and we lived in a semi rural town where several people grazed sheep. Of course if the sheep were near the fence when we went by the kids would start singing, "We like sheep, we like sheep!"
My uncle, a gold certified curmudgeon, routinely referred to anyone who didn't think outside the box as steeple, once prompting a similar outburst...
Miss those days
In 33A, equating "burglarize" with "rob" is wrong. Burglarizing is entering a structure (usually a home or business) with the intent to steal something or commit some other crime, such as assault or arson or murder, etc. In other words, a burglary is not a theft, let alone a robbery, and a burglary does not even require the presence of another person. Even if the target of the burglary is to take property, that does not constitute a robbery, which does require the presence of another person. Robbery is taking property from another person by force or fear. It can be committed anywhere and not necessarily in a structure, i.e. it does not require a burglary and, unlike burglary, necessarily involves taking property directly from a person.
Yes, I know I sound like a lawyer.
@Nancy & @Bill L - Just to rain on the parade a little.
@pmdm - You’ve gone Blue! Now you should do a profile. I was actually better at Stargate than Joust, and at some point we learned the Galaxian trick to have the aliens not shoot anymore, which stretched the quarter out.
@Zex - No worries. The Ural River rises in the Ural Mountains and has nothing to do with the Aral Sea. Seems simple enough to me.
Wonderful puzzle. A bit easy for a Wednesday, but then again JELLYFISH and ELECTRIC EEL went in with no crosses.
Given the prior use of “EggMan” as one of the bizzaros in Pink Flamingos, curious that a kids cartoon would choose the same moniker.
@thefogman - BS2 delivered yesterday
The syndilinker really needs an alarm clock. WAKE UP!!
Do I get a prize for the shortest rant? Anyhoo, on to calmer waters. Good, solid leadoff themer right out of the box. Not often seen in that position. I too anticipated the SEA horse, but he never rode in. Too busy carrying the kids around, I guess. Not only did I never know about the MANTIS SHRIMP--not once in the article I read after the solve was it mentioned that it is NOT a SHRIMP! Curiouser and curiouser. By all accounts he's a vicious critter, and I want nothing to do with him.
Yeah, the SEA CUCUMBER is essentially a section of intestine. That's about it. It just lies there on the ocean floor and lets the current pass through, absorbing nutrients. Weird. I suppose it looks sort of like a CUCUMBER, when viewed from above.
Saying ORCA WHALE is like saying hamburger sandwich. Purely redundant, and a theme defect. But overall a nice, educational puzzle with very little junk, once you get by the vowel string in the NW. Mrs. Peel, AKA Diana RIGG, takes a DOD encore.
CITGO is featured in "Wizard and Glass," part of King's Dark Tower series. Highly recommended reading--but be warned. You'll be sucked into the whole series. But at least read W&G; it's the best one.
Back to the puzzle: another birdie. Pretty decent week so far.
JEFF SEES SUM
C'MON let's PIQUE at MAE's slumber,
TOPEKA BIT ATTA RIGGED flip.
SEA, in STEAD of A CUCUMBER,
it's TIME she got LEO'S HOTTIP.
--- NED L. MILLER
Half-baked seafood puns. Three of them were good, the other two - not so much.
PS - Well done Burma! I know it was low-hanging fruit, but it was too hard to resist.
FISH not a FISH? EEL not an EEL? SHRIMP not a SHRIMP? WHALE is a WHALE? I dunno. Can Shortz and Co. be PICKIER inSTEAD?
Lopez, Garner, Aniston . . . JENS in the corners.
Unlike the TV show, this seems like ABNEGATIVE.
Enjoyed this thematic AQUATIC-fest. But let’s take a look at some of the down fill :
CHE and CHA, SUM and SIM. They make nice couplets.
And then back to aquatics, ROE and EGGMAN.
MANATIS and SHRIMP are apporpriatelly tagged as the odd balls.
The Middle East was on the chaotic side (literally, sorry to say) -- but recoverable??
Apparently Rex is on vaca, so we in SyndieLand must travel about to find our way to the puzzle.
Went to the Aquarium last week - didn't see these creatures, at least...not all of them.
This week's puzzles so far have been tough but fair. For me.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
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