.png)
Relative difficulty: Medium (seemed slowish, but it's oversized (16x15), so maybe that was it)
Theme answers:
- CAIROMEXICOCITY (21A: Three world capitals (5, 4, 10)
- OHIOWASHINGTON (38A: Three U.S. states (4, 4, 10)
- PANAMALITHUANIA (59A: Three countries (6, 4, 9)
Reiki (霊気, /ˈreɪki/) is a Japanese form of energy healing, which is a subset of alternative medicine. Reiki practitioners use a technique called palm healing or hands-on healing through which a "universal energy" is said to be transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the patient in order to encourage emotional or physical healing. Reiki is a pseudoscience, and is used as an illustrative example of pseudoscience in scholarly texts and academic journal articles. [...] Clinical research does not show reiki to be effective as a treatment for any medical condition, including cancer, diabetic neuropathy, anxiety or depression; therefore it should not replace conventional medical treatment. There is no proof of the effectiveness of reiki therapy compared to placebo. Studies reporting positive effects have had methodological flaws. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)
• • •
The NW was hard, and TROPE was ultra-hard (1A: The girl next door, for one). "Why is the girl next door TRIPE? That seems mean." The rest of the grid isn't so tough. I weirdly had more trouble with "NO DUH" (41D: "Obvs!") than almost anything else (outside of that NW corner). In five letters, I wanted "TOTES!". Then with the "N" in place, I wanted "NOTED!" Once I solved it correctly, I noticed that "NATCH!" might also have worked. Live by the slang, die by the slang. I confused my "Reeses" and spelled Jean (RHYS) like Jacob at first (RIIS). The grid has a couple of highlights—MON CHERI, "OKAY THEN!"—but most of the rest of it is just OK, a little on the sloggy side. I find RENTACOP depressing for a host of reasons and wish it would go away (29A: Hired security guard). It's sneering and derisive. If you don't like cops, don't put them in your puzzles. Easy. RENTACOP is far from original at this point, anyway, so maybe leave it behind. Not thrilled by repetitions today, namely two forms of the verb "to eat" (EAT UP and ATE IT) and two ITs (HAVE AT IT and, again, ATE IT). Never that thrilled to see noted ethnic caricature TONTO (68A: Role once played on TV by Jay Silverheels) (and speaking of grid repetitions: you've already got "TV" in one of your answers (TVMOM), so you could lose it here). I want to call AGOG a kealoa** (I had the "A" and wrote in AVID), but AVID is not a very good answer for that clue—doesn't really convey the "anticipation" part, so it's probably not a true kealoa. False kealoalarm. See you tomorrow.
**kealoa = short, common answer that you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
When CAIROMEXICOCITY fell, I grinned and looked down at the other themer clues. It was fun and pretty easy to get the others. And then of course how can you not try to think of others. . . I was satisfied with my TOKYOTORONTO until I saw that each themer’s center was a four-letter place. So I came up with TRIPOLIMAYBERRY. Hah.
ReplyDeleteI feel at once impressed and intimidated when someone casually uses the word TROPE. But I’m a sapiophile, so, well, this is someone I wanna spend more time with.
To be a “big name” in something, shouldn’t that something be a pretty commonly-purchased thing? I laughed at the “big name in gumdrops.” It’s like saying ‘big name in spackling compounds.”
AGING crosses OWNING. Oh hell no. Now that I’ve discovered TikTok, I’m powerless not to order a crap ton of under-the-eye bag-reducing snake oil.
“Put in the pot” could be a step in a brownie recipe. And yes, there is a story there. Sage is in Colorado, and Gardiner regularly visits her. . . you do the math. I was game to try a brownie. Won’t be doing that again. I was flat on my back for like four hours, and it was not pleasant.
Speaking of Gardiner, I got a kick out of the @Loren’s son stuff last night but was too tired to process. That whole thing started when I posted about his having been a dedicated bed-wetter. I have always had his blessing to talk about this, possibly saving some moms from the hideousness of consulting neurologists, limiting liquids after 4pm blah blah. “It’s a laundry problem,” said the dad of Gardiner’s best friend in Chapel Hill when he was little – a pediatric neurologist at Duke.
I did do a panicky mental check of New Year’s Eve 2002 to make sure I had kept my clothes on. Whew. I’m good. My wildest story involves a…
…bar in Cordova, Alaska
…bandana tied around my head, tied tight and forcing my eyebrows way down onto my eyelids
…antennae fashioned with long cocktail straws and maraschino cherry toppers
…Stoli
…a flashlight I was using as a “microphone” to interview patrons
…a nice policeman
I think Sage is currently building a cool repertoire of wild times. She’s doing an externship at a zoo in Florida and has now twice, in the span of two weeks, administered an enema to a rhinoceros. No. Really. I want a Rhino Enema Story, too, and will get on that forthwith. Given that I’m not a vet student, I imagine a nice policeman will be part of my rhino story.
Bless your heart
DeleteIn the odd animal medical stories ge re, I saw a vet have to medicate a rattlesnake today. It involved a long clear tube and a catheter into the snake’s belly through its mouth. No thank you. I think I’d take the rhino.
Delete
ReplyDeleteVery tough NW, but the rest of the puzzle flowed nicely. Didn't make the connection between TROPE and the girl at 1A, or between REPEL and the pole at 15A. Didn't know My Chemical Romance at all (was it ... rap?). The downs weren't much help: I think of TRACER in terms of bullets, not mail. When you RENAME a file, you're editing the file's name, not the file itself. And MEXICO CITY was easy enough but the lead-in could be anything. Finally decided it had to be ROME and CAIRO followed from that. That plus RENT-A-COP was the key to the corner.
32 across is also a kealoa, is it ums or ERS ... can't stand the excitement. I went with ums at first because ERR was already right downstairs.
ReplyDeleteWhat this puzzle sets out to do it does well, but my reaction while solving was more Rexian than Musian. I just don’t get excited by lists nor how words share letters. TBF, Buzzfeed is the big name in listicles and is worth half a billion dollars, so somebody loves lists. And The Spelling Bee is fairly huge so people love playing with letters, so this puzzle should have lots of fans. Just not me.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, the fill had its moments. NO DUH always makes me smile. And I wanted to add a T to AS STATED to make it ASS TATTED. Maybe just a small butterfly. I also amused myself by pondering the OARless coxswain not being able to RHO while the DJS kick out the JAMs. EAU EAU.
It took me a precious nanosecond to realize it wasn’t A-SIDE and the “house” was the audience. NO DUH Zherlock.
**Wordle Talk**
Based on the feedback I’ve seen, 3 or 4 guesses is strongly the norm, with 1,2,5,6 and DNF being relatively unusual, with the predominance of 3 and 4 guesses growing the longer people play.
LMS is always a tough act to follow. I'll just do my usual blather. I really liked this puzzle. I pretty much got it with MEXICOCITY being 10 letters. I briefly feared the solution would be a rebus (not unheard of on Wednesday) to squeeze in the other 2 names of 5 & 4 letters. Letter sharing is such an elegant alternative. It's clear that Dylan paid attention in kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteI am INIT so I'll HAVEATIT and EATUP. There, I ATEIT. Some will be bothered by these entries but I'm not that ANNAL.
Time for @Rex and Wordle.
Did you know that SIR WALTER RALEIGH COULD SEE INTO THE FUTURE? THIS IS WHAT HE WANTED
ReplyDeleteIt made me go whoa to see WOE RHO and EAU
ReplyDeleteI loved having to grope, to figure out TROPE
[Going from 0 to 100, say] made my day
Thank you, sir Dylan, for a lovely fun fill-in
@Rex said ".......Why is the girl next door TRIPE? That seems mean." He must know the meaning of TROPE. Was he trying to be funny? This was just weird.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy his verbal meandering regarding the theme and whether or not ELDORADO was a hidden revealer.
I loved the Tori Amos rendition of "Desperado", quite sultry. Linda Ronstadt's version is still better, though.
My goodness this was a ribald post Mardi Gras start to Lent. Seeing HAVE A TIT GRADUATE to TAIL and NUDE left me AGOG, and wondering where ATEIT and INIT SLOMO might take me, so to speak. OKAYTHEN. Happy hump day indeed. Alas, alone and tired after a long day I just went to bed, wondering what pleasures I should give up this season.
ReplyDeleteOh, the theme. Briefly thought a rebus was coming, until ROME got swallowed by CAIRO and MEXICOCITY, and had some fun seeing the other two unfold. And have been to all those places except Lithuania, so some memories from this, tho they transited quickly to thoughts of Ukraine. Think ANTED looks weird - just want ANTEeD.
Thx Dylan; excellent Wednes. puz! :)
ReplyDeleteMed.
Troubles in the NW at the get-go, altho CAIROMEXICOCITY came quickly, which helped get the Midwest and NE.
PANAMALITHUANIA was a bit of a WOE, but eventually fell to the crosses.
Took a while post-solve to suss out the hidden words in the themers; liked the idea.
Good journey, had fun. :)
@Eniale 👍 for 0 yd
Way to go! joined you at '0'; I get there every now and then.
___
yd pg: 9:16 / W: 3*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
It’s cool that the theme answers go from city to state to country, and that the middle element of each theme answer is four letters, two going to the first element and two going to the last. That tightens the theme considerably.
ReplyDeleteThe NW annoyed me. We TRACK mail, not TRACE it.
ReplyDelete@Jennifer 7:35
DeleteYou can request a postal TRACE if you are trying to find someone who has left town, often under cover of darkness. People who do that are called skiptracers.
A splendid Wednesday puzzle. Like some others, I momentarily felt a dreaded rebus coming on, but no worries. And to cap it off, a delightful Musian post,
ReplyDeleteWordle 256 4/6
ReplyDelete⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Another eagle reduced to par by a guessing game...
Is TROPE supposed to be an uncommon word, judging by Rex and some of the comments? I'm surprised, as it comes up quite a bit for me in conversation (both IRL and on message boards) about movies, TV shows, and books. There's even a great website called TV Tropes that's a fun read that categorizes hundreds of tropes. That clue fell quickly for me.
ReplyDeleteEasy puzzle, but I had a rough time getting TRACER, as I'm not familiar with that term in relation to mail. As @Jennifer wrote, with the verb form, I'm familiar with TRACK and a TRACKing number. Perhaps the inquiry is formally known as a TRACER, but I had never heard it referred to as such.
I enjoyed the themers and the embedded place names. Clever and cute.
I completely agree about TRACER. In reference to the post office tracking, track yes but TRACER?
DeleteOversized grid, but only three themers … interesting choice. TBH, I didn’t know three themers was an option, but some of my puzzle ideas may have just gotten easier.
ReplyDeleteThis is an example of a theme I enjoyed thoroughly and wish I'd thought of.
It seems like the puzzles this week are falling a touch short - acceptable, but not stellar. I think I’m with @Z, maybe if you are into parsing together letter-strings the theme may be more enjoyable - I guess I just find that more tedious.
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be a lot of generic stuff that just lies (lays?) in the grid looking kind of bored - OKAY THEN, SODA POPS, HAVE AT IT, EAT UP, ATE IT . . .
SLO MO is certainly valid for CrossWorld, but jeez, that was the big selling point in the 1960’s - give it a rest. Three times a year max.
You ask the Postal Service to put a TRACE on a package that is lost in transit, i.e. when you track it and receive the following on a package you expected on 2/2/22
ReplyDeleteJan 31: Left Baton Rouge at 11:47PM for the next destination.
Feb 1: Left Baton Rouge at 11:47PM for the next destination.
Feb 2: Left Baton Rouge at 11:47PM for the next destination.
Feb 3: Left Baton Rouge at 11:47PM for the next destination.
.
.
Feb 17: Left Baton Rouge at 11:47PM for the next destination.
You got pretty annoyed and tried to alert them that the package was lost by about 2/4, but an article isn't lost for 14 days. You tell them that even if they had put it on an ox-cart it would have reached the next destination by 2/7, but they insist it isn't lost and can't do anything. When it's finally 2 weeks late, they'll put a TRACE on it. And find nothing, 99% of the time.
I wonder why they even bother with tracking if they never use the results in real time, say to check if things are actually moving through the system appropriately.
Agree with Rex — can’t say I didn’t have an aha moment but I can’t say it was very satisfying. But it was kind of fun to find the hidden places, even though they should have all been immediately obvious to me. I didn’t realize that the hidden places all ended with the first two letters of the long final place. That’s a nice construction touch, but it doesn’t have much to do with the solving experience. I had QuItO for CAIRO for a long time, and I can assure you that that did NOT help at all.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw that 1A was [The girl next door for one] and was five letters I thought, "Got it." Turns out, I wasn't even close.
ReplyDeleteSeemed hard for a wednesday. Rex has an issue with Tonto? He really needs to get a life.
ReplyDeleteA happy way to start the day. . .
ReplyDeleteWordle 256 3/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟨🟨🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Any puzzle that begins with "the girl next door, for one" to clue TROPE is starting off in a way that's guaranteed to please me. So I was already prepared to be pleased. And the theme, nicely arranged in the grid, pleased me too. It wasn't hard to figure out, but it did require some crosses; you couldn't just plop the answer right in.
ReplyDeleteI've never associated Sir Walter Raleigh with EL DORADO. I associate him with tobacco and with putting his cloak over puddles to impress queens.
This nit's for you, @Anoa Bob. SODA POPS is the type of really awful POC that even I notice.
"Going from 0 to 100, say." You say AGING. I say LUCKY.
An enjoyable Wednesday -- appropriate for the day, too.
The embedded strings are not easy to identify especially keeping the elegance consistency of a 4 letter central themer. That said - I think the geography lesson is better suited to Globle.
ReplyDeleteOverall fill was solid - liked SEA GOD and OKAY THEN - REIKI was foreign. Impressed at the use of TROPE at 1a.
The wonderful contralto of Robyn Ludwick
Enjoyable Wednesday solve.
It's a little know fact that.....
ReplyDeleteTracking and tracing are different.
We track mail for which tracking bar code has been issued; we follow it on its normal path to delivery (usually at additional cost or as a feature of certified/priority/express services).
Tracing refers to the search for lost mail - whether is has a tracking number or not.
I have read that beauty pageant participants use Preparation H for bags under the eyes, @LMS.
ReplyDeleteAgree,@Todd. Ran long and that's fine.
@OffTheGrid - It seems you forgot that the blog is Rex Parker Does the NY Times Crossword Puzzle. I thought of that Tripe comment as just him sharing a piece of his solving experience. It’s almost like a Wordle, you’ve got TR-PE in place and try to work out the word. TRiPE was just his first, erroneous, guess. And, yeah, it is kind of funny. Much like my A-SIDE/ASIDE moment of diffusion amused me. We use A-SIDE and beside and seaside and decide, so why no eside?
ReplyDelete@Pete - I suspect because people like the sense of security a tracking number provides. What I find annoying is ordering something, getting an “it shipped” message, and then having USPS or UPS tell me for a week that the label was created but they haven’t received the package from the shipper, yet. I assume that’s a flaw in the shipper’s process, not USPS or UPS. And thanks for the explanation of a postal TRACER.
My favorite cover of Desperado isn’t. It’s a diffusion sort of thing.
I found this … easy. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ReplyDeleteWhat's the problem with Tonto ? He was a real Indian, got to kick the shit out of white guys in almost every episode, and the residuals must still be piling in for his family because I don't think those reruns have ever gone off the air. And his taste in clothes was way better than that Lone Ranger outfit. Sheesh !
ReplyDeleteWho ever went to a "malt shop" for a "soda pop" ? That's what the "corner store" was for. (Yeah, I'm that old.)
Having a little problem tracking @LMS train of thought this morning. Still a big fan, though.
BFF had a TRACEr put out on a missing pkg last Xmas. Canada Post did eventually track it down. :)
ReplyDeleteThx to @Pete (8:17 AM) & @C. Clavin (8:39 AM); here's some additional support for TRACE:
What to Do About a Letter Lost in the Mail
"Letters sent using priority, certified, registered, insured and express mail have a unique number assigned when you print the label. You can use the number to track the item's location or receive automated delivery notifications. A letter without a tracking number, such as one sent by first class mail, cannot be TRACEd using that method." (Julia Fuller on sapling.com)
"USPS.com is the website for the United States Postal Service. The site offers track and TRACE of shipments and a webshop, amongst others." (USPS)
___
td pg: 8:35 / Wordle 256 4/6* (lucky guess; could have easily been a dnf) 🎩s off to @Unknown (8:31 AM)
⬛⬛🟨🟩⬛
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟨🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteAt least the middle fours weren't highlighted with circles or shaded squares. Saves the comments from myriad complaints about making the theme too easy.
Noticed the 16 wide grid. Good for me. Still only 38 Blockers. Good for the puz.
ASS TATED. Need @JOHNX to tell us a story about that. 😁
Thought Rex would eviscerate this puz, but he seemed neutral. Felt a bit corny to me. On the other hand, it is neat to see the overlappiness. Not a puz I would EAT UP, but still gets a OKAY THEN.
ASIDE Rex note: it's funny what gets his goat. Today is the innocuous RENT-A-COP. And 83 paragraphs on ELDORADO being a quasi-Revealer. Fun to read his ramblings.
Hope everyone recovers from your Mardi Gras hangovers. You crazy kids these days. To us olders, remember you used to say the next morning, "Ugh, never again!" Well, I got there finally (years ago). AGING folks like me just can't handle the next day.
Probably in the minority here, but MINT and chocolate don't mix well to me. Egads, I know. Keep your MINT OREOs and give me the Mega Stuf ones!
yd -3, should'ves 1
No F's (WOE!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Nice to see a puzzle with very few people clues / answers. Except for TV Mom I didn’t see any
ReplyDeleteThis has been an easy week.
ReplyDeleteThought with @Pablo we would have swath at 10D but NO DUH.
@LMS thx for "big name in spackling compound" 😄 (which Otto C turned into "sparkling" compound, something for your unicorn, perhaps?)
Themers were ok... not "sparkling". Not sure why but rebus did not occur to me. Had ...MALITHU... and thought, well, there's LITHUANIA with MALI in front, so must be something about overlapping.
Found NW corner hard! But TRACER was a head slap (NO DUH).
Finished well under avg time, probably would have been a PR if I'd seen TROPE right away (hi @Rex).
Thx, Dylan!
I may be simplistic - or at least not mind lists so much, but I had a good time figuring out the "missing cities/countries etc.) It was amusing and I had fun with it. I also have to agree with some of my colleagues here that "trope" was almost a "gimme." - or at least a logical and appropriate answer. l liked this one.
ReplyDeleteExcellent puzzle. I enjoyed finding the squeezed proper nouns, the cluing was sharp, I learned some things. The waterfront is covered.
ReplyDeleteLoren used "sapiophile," new word for me. It means sexually attracted to smart people. I like smart women but that isn't what turns me on. On the other hand, I've been turned off by women who aren't smart.
Loren also said "put in the pot" was part of a recipe for marijuana brownies. If the one she had was like the San Francisco version of the eighties, you're only supposed to eat a quarter of one at a time. I learned that from Home Baked, the book by Alia Volz that I recommended a few days ago.
Doesn't NODUH mean the same as DUH?
The configuration of electrons wasn't in the chemistry curriculum when I was in high school. Is it there now? Can someone give me a quick idea of what it is? The Wikipedia article was over my head.
I liked this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis was a little too easy for a Wednesday; I completed it in record time even though I sort of took my time. Rex’s musings about EL DORADO being part of the theme totally made no sense to me. I think I liked TROPE the best. You see, I think I WAS the girl next door. This guy and I would sit outside our respective houses—there was a fence that separated them— and talk away. One evening he brought over a pizza and we sat on the floor and solved the world’s problems (you probably didn’t know that; if anybody’d listened to us, we’d have world peace). I even talked him into picking me up in Milwaukee and driving me home after sophomore year, an 8 hour drive from Cincinnati. I’m pretty sure he expected a big payoff for that selfless offering but I got sick and slept in the back seat of his Beatle all the way home. He was a super nice guy but I was totally into bad boys at the time—he didn’t stand a chance.
ReplyDeleteI’m so glad the Muse is back—I hope she sticks around.
If any of you are wondering why I love @LMS… read the first post of the day.
ReplyDeleteShe ALWAYS leaves me smiling :-)
@mathgent -- re: pot brownies. I agree. For any beginners out there, if you want to try an edible, start slow and wait at least 30-60 minutes before evaluating your mental state and whether you want more. Too many stories I've heard of people eating a bit of a brownie or a whole brownie to start with, waiting a few minutes, not feeling anything, eating more, and so on, and then they're crumpled up on the couch staving off a paranoid anxiety attack type of high where time is moving one minute per second and they think they are about to die. Youtube "cop eats pot brownies" for an amusing 911 call of what happens when you do this. Start slow, kids!
ReplyDelete@Pete - thanks for the TRACER explanation. Now that you mention it, that does sound familiar. I've only once had a missing package about a dozen years ago, and I do believe the clerk said she was going to put a TRACE on the package. (The package was located as a misdelivery, I believe, but never returned. It was an expensive wedding album. Who in the heck keeps someone else's wedding album and doesn't hand it back to the postal carrier?)
Wordle 256 5/6
ReplyDelete🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
[ !!! ]
Kinda flew through this with the exception of the NW. Could not see TROPE . I did not even see the theme and wondered where the middle answers were - granted I did not look that hard, I just forged ahead.
ReplyDeleteDesperado is a great tune, Rex. Here’s my daughter and I last Thanksgiving
https://youtu.be/qRMF2pkw-GA
@EdFromHackensack (10:05 AM)
ReplyDeleteThx for the vid; awesome! Got a big 👍s up from me. 🎹 🎷
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
This had some interesting moments... From holy crackers, where am I...to Oh, this can be fun moments.
ReplyDeleteI'll start with holy crackers:
I must've stared at 1A for a day and a half. I wanted my post office inquiry to be STAMPS? I bawled with dry tears because this is Wed. and I usually breeze thru. I had to make a call to get TRACER/TROPE. I know what trope means but I thought it was one of those "stop and tip-toe through the tulips" thingie.
I had some no pate on my crackers as well with RHYS OCTETS and REIKI. They sound like JD's law firm.
The this can be fun moments:
I finally was able to get CAI[ROME]XICO CITY. Rather than just push on, I wanted to figure this out. Oh...embedded words. I see where Dylan is taking us. clever said I... let's see what's next on the menu. So I got OH[IOWA]SHINGTON and my happy feet started to dance.
By being able to get the themers, I was able to pen in answers I didn't know.
Well what did you like? you ask. Other than frowning at 1A and 1D, I enjoyed the puzzle. I learned that TROPE means the girl net door and that come hew a CUD rather than hay....I saw a few repeats with IT and EAT/ATE.. I know that bothers some people, but I'm just fine with it if the answer is amusing.
Now here's the other fun part for me: I've been to all these places. I could tell you stories about my adventure in each one...but I won't...
@mathgent 9:25.
Gets my favorite comment of the morning...HAH...gotcha!
@Pete :8:03 last night and the story of meeses...
I think my nickname must be Shirley Temple. See...I have absolutely no trouble eating a whole little piggy; a veal cutlet from Mary's Little Lamb, A whole chicken from Peep and Ducky or just about anything once dripping in red blood. I know there's a name for it: Something like"do as I say...but not as I do?
I am the biggest meat paradoxist, carnismist, hypocrite, this side of EL DORADO.
I actually tried to go Vegan but the smell of bacon made me want to chew my dog's leg.
At least you were nice and fed your cute snake a baby toad.... :-)
I have no idea of how 50D, "Stable electron configurations" can be correct. Back in the good old days, when electrons floated around in their shells, and stayed where you could find them, electrons in an atom filled up shells inside out, up to 2 in the first shell, up to 8 in the second shell, up to 18 in the third, ... If the highest shell was full you have an non-reactive atom with all where are the electrons are stable in their shells. So, an atom with 8 (an OCTET ) atoms is has an unstable configuration of electrons in the outer shell - it wants two more, and will react with any other atom that will share one or two.. If they have exactly 10 electrons, 2 in the first, the 8 in the second shell are in a stable configuration, but so are the two in the first, so you have 10 atoms in stable configurations.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this is all moot because atoms floating around in shells, while a useful model, is nonsense - they're bouncing around hither and yon, in two places at once if they feel like it, and no one knows where they are or when they're there, so there's absolutely nothing stable about them.
On another note, the bot that tracks how long it's been since TIT appeared in the NY Times XWord has been posting a lot of 0s this past week. I'm wondering if this an oblique reference to that most holy of celebrations, Mardi Gras at NOLA, where they continue to celebrate the baby Jesus with drunk guys on balconies overlooking Bourbon street yelling "Show me your tits" and then throwing strings of beads to those women who oblige.
@Karen Rackle. Give yourself credit for a Birdie. When it comes down to guessing one letter they're all equal in my mind.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @Todd 8:50 - I thought it was hard for a Wednesday, with the exception of the theme answers once I'd seen how ROME overlapped the other two capitals. For the rest...so many of the clues just left me with a blank stare and an "OKAY, THEN, let's move on to the next one." That started at Square 1: TROPE x TRACER? Not as chance. Seldom have I been so grateful for such sops as REV and CUD. As for the theme...very cool how each has that 2+2 letter chunk to unite the other two elements.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bocamp :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent puzzle. Gave me a good workout and paid off with a clever theme. Loved looking for the hidden location in each themer.
ReplyDeleteIrony, thy name is Rex Parker. Overthink things enough to say that one of the answers (EL DORADO) is a revealer and then criticize it for being a lousy revealer. It’s the cruciverbalist equivalent of saying that the chimney is a door and then criticizing it for being a poor way to get into the house.
Floating clue in search of a grid answer (for 12-year olds only): What one puppy said to another at dinnertime.
The silly TRACE/TRACk discussion calls for the application of Joaquin's Dictum.
ReplyDeleteI though it was a really fun Wednesday offering. Felt like just the right difficulty for a Weds with the added bonus of another Rexacommie PC rant about, of all things, TONTO! Seems like OFCL sifts through the clues/answers with a scanning electron PC scope to root out the evil constructors who dare to use terms Rexie doesn’t agree with. Off with their heads!
ReplyDeleteMedium. Geographical mash ups with some nice long downs works for me, liked it....and the NW took some effort.
ReplyDeleteHi people, yes I am the poster formerly known as Giovanni.
ReplyDeleteI usually read the comments daily except when that windbag anonymous starts up, I can't take it. He's so full of himself. Do not say anything about Saints or you will be fake pwned.
I'm just had my 2 year crosswordversary. I'm doing the Friday Puzz in about 30 to 35 minutes now and Saturdays in 35-45. Last Saturday only 29 minutes.
In other news,
I killed on Wordle today!
Wordle 256 2/6
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Not exactly dazzling but interesting and clever. I wasn’t KEEN at first but I warmed to it. The themers aided in the solve which is always a plus in my book, and getting the first one made getting the other two more fun. Pleased to see a mention of the legendary ALEX Trebek.
ReplyDeleteAnyone familiar with the expression SODA POPS is also no stranger to AGING. As I heard Dolly Parton once say in a movie on TV, “Time marches on and sooner or later you realize it’s marching across your face.”
Possible boring content alert!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhile details differ, the basic story of the Lone Ranger's origin is consistent in most versions of the franchise.[8] The Lone Ranger is the sole survivor of a group of six ambushed Texas Rangers.[12] A posse of six members of the Texas Ranger Division, led by Captain Dan Reid, pursued a band of outlaws led by Bartholomew "Butch" Cavendish, but are betrayed by a civilian guide named Collins, who was secretly working with Cavendish, and led the unsuspecting rangers into an ambush at a canyon known as Bryant's Gap.[13] Later, a Native American named Tonto stumbles onto the grisly scene. He discovers one of the rangers, Captain Reid's younger brother, John, barely alive, and he nurses the man to health. In some versions, Tonto recognizes the lone survivor as the man who had saved his life when they both were children. According to the television series, Tonto gave John a ring and the name Kemo Sabe, which he said means "trusty scout".[14] John Reid then tells Tonto that he intends to hunt down Cavendish and his men and to bring them to justice. To conceal his identity and honor his fallen brother, John fashions a black domino mask using cloth from his late brother's vest. To aid in the deception, Tonto digs a sixth grave and places at its head a cross bearing John Reid's name so that Cavendish and his gang will believe that all the Rangers had been killed.
In many versions, Reid continues fighting for justice as the Lone Ranger even after the Cavendish gang is captured.
[checks watch] Okay. Still March. Here's hoping I won't be calendarbarassing myself anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteI like a good rebus, but this theme was better. Fun to figure out and what @Lewis 728am said.
For me, some of the Wednesdees just seem like a crankier version of the Tuesdee Tues, but not this one.
Got a kick out of the Jim Carrey-adjacency of NODUH and OKAYTHEN.
RATS reminded me that I have a movie to watch. (Hi, @GILL!)
Excellent sophomore effort, Mr Schiff!
@Mr. Cheese 933am LOL! Who are these imaginary people wondering why you (or anyone) love @LMS??
@GILL 1024am Girl, you are so not alone in your carnivorous paradoxy. How someone like me can swoon at the suffering of any living organism and still blissfully devour things with faces is beyond any explanation except willful denial. Not proud of that, but compartmentalization has been my lifelong specialty. Until recently. I fear my comeuppance looms. 🙀
🧠.5
🎉🎉🎉
***Look Away, Wordlephobes! Alert***
Wordle 256 3/6
🟨🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟨⬛🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Kinda shameful how this word came so easily to me.
@Silver How on earth did you type all that? I found it interesting and entertaining. Thanks!
ReplyDelete-FS
Semi-hidden stuff. Works fine for m&e. Like for @Muse darlin, it is temptin for M&A, to come up with additional theme stuff. Must. resist. the. temp tation. And the Stoli.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: DJS. Plural abbreve meat. Three other popular weejects (3,3,3): EMOREAU. [M&A has very low resistance.]
fave snacks: MINTOREO. SODAPOPS.
Thanx for the chewy ROMEIOWAMALI centers, Mr. Schiff dude.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
LITHUANIA was my first guess in Globle recently. I think Israel was the Secret Country that day.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Rex, I love lists. Nothing is more fun to me than memorizing a list. Oscar winners, the Periodic Table, Top 100 Songs of the Year, Blue Note Record label's catalog numbers... Back in 2003/4, the bartender at my local hangout challenged me when I said I could probably learn all the World Series winners. He said "I'll give you a week." I said, "A week! Sir, you cut me to the quick. I'll recite them for you tomorrow." And I did. The reason I know it was in 2003/4 is because the Marlins were the last team to have won at the time. I've had to tack on the later teams, but it's easier to remember the batch I memorized in a giant block, because I used grouping "mnemonics".
So if you have a list you need memorized, send it to me and I'll be happy to do it for you.
Anyway. I liked this puzzle. I think the theme is just inventive enough, and sets elegant parameters (all the middle entries are 4 letters; upscaling from city to state to country) without seeming strained. Cool, bro.
I thought about linking something from G&S's "The MAKEDO" but I don't want Rex to get his ASS all TATED. I wonder if Sir Walter Raleigh would have liked Donald Byrd (from Blue Note 84259).
@Gill I - No, no, no. I forgot what was in the video & what text wrapped around it on the clickbait I actually clicked. That was in Australia last week, near Brisbane where they got 2' of rain (yes, feet), The snake, the mouse, the toad & the cricket all seemed to be in the same predicament as mine, but they all found a way out - just catch a ride on the snake. My snake is still stuck, the mice escaped, I don't think there are any more toads down there, as that's the only thing the snake could have eaten over the years.
ReplyDeleteJoe D,
ReplyDeleteI'll second you on loving lists. A pal and I memorized all the MLB batting champions from 1900 on. We had a lot of fun getting the list down pat. One of our tricks was to make one player from each decade the "key". At any rate, years later on my wedding day, my pal who was my best man helped keep me calm by quizzing me on the champs. Almost always using one of ours keys to the decade.
I'll text him in a minute to confirm this, but I'm pretty sure he'll be able to name whatever year I throw at him.
what @Pete said.
ReplyDeletethat said, I was for a couple of years a chem major. not that I have much still in main memory, so off to the wiki. the 'stable' elements might be construed to be the noble/inert gases. and, yes, of the naturally occurring ones, all but Radon are benign (although Radon is nasty for radioactive reasons, not chemical) and have full outer shells.
now, memory restored, 'stable' is a function not of total electrons and shells, but of valence electrons, which reside in the outermost shell, and it turns out that number is 8.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valence_electron
as to electrons as particles in atoms, well we know they're more amorphous than that.
@Wondering. Glad you enjoyed it. I copy/pasted from the Wiki.
ReplyDelete@Gio:
ReplyDeleteexcept when that windbag anonymous starts up
I resemble that remark. you do know that anonymous is a group, of varying number of participants. if you read @Nancy late yesterday, she told the tale of text analysis, and one of the mice mused that @OFL could buy one and render anonymity ended.
should have edited after discovering valence. not all noble/inert gases have full shells, just full wrt valence.
ReplyDeleteHi @Gio! Good to know you’re still around.
ReplyDeleteI liked the concept and the themers just fine. I never quite get how people can like some kinds of wordplay, like Wordle, but dislike another, like rebuses or SB. There's nothing quite so pleasant as messing about with words, to paraphrase Wind in the Willows.
ReplyDeleteNo magic brownie stories, but a few years ago a friend and I went to the NCAA hockey playoffs and after a nice lunch, were walking over to the first game and decided to split a magic cookie, a gift from an old stoner friend in Colorado. As it turned out we seriously over served ourselves. My friend spent most of the game sweating buckets, but for me it was more of a state of semi-paralysis. We both knew that "this too shall pass" but the experience was less than pleasant, as I tried to watch hockey while keeping my head still and just moving my eyeballs. Not recommended.
As a famous basketball coach once said, "Try not to suck". This one definitely Didn't Suck, so thanks for the fun DS.
@ Karen Rackle (10:01) Bogey for me too, in the same way. I had the four last letters on my second try and it took me three guesses.
ReplyDeleteI went through a spell of reading everything the local library had on early Spanish conquests in South America. The legend of EL DORADO originally wasn't about a city but about a chief/king/big wig who covered his body completely in gold dust every day and then washed it off that evening in the local lake. This was just one of the fantastic tales of riches and pleasures the locals would spin for the Spaniards to get them to move on.
ReplyDeleteAnybody else out there who hasn't watched a single episode of Jeopardy! since we lost ALEX Trebek? Without ALEX it just wouldn't be the same. I think they should RENAME the show.
I've told this here before but for any who may have missed it.... Lone Ranger and TONTO are out for a ride when they are suddenly surrounded by a large group of Indians on horseback in full war paint with weapons drawn. Lone Ranger turns to TONTO and says "Looks like we could be in serious trouble here." TONTO does a slow turn back to Lone Ranger and says "Who's this 'we' paleface".
@Anon 11:56
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want to be lumped with the other anonymice, get a name (or are you being TRACED?).
@Frantic
I think today's WORDLE stunk.
Wordle 256 3/6
⬛⬛🟨🟩⬛
🟨⬛🟨🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@JC66:
ReplyDeleteby your estimate, how many of us mice are objectionable? and in what way(s)? just curious. do all of us mice look alike? big noses? dark skin? fat? smelly?
For a while I thought I was watching SLOMO of SLOPITCH, but it turned out to just be the girl next door looking three dimensional (TROPE l’oiel).
ReplyDeleteI liked the theme, even though it was easy. Thank you, Dylan Schiff.
Did anyone else initially read "HAVE AT IT" as "HAVE A TIT", and wonder what the hell was going on? Just me?
ReplyDeleteBeen meaning to say: I like the idea of “kealoa” but might have gone with “geenaviolasammybetteossie” (when you have five letters and the clue is Davis of Hollywood).
ReplyDelete@Loren
ReplyDeleteEat less. I'd guess 1/4 of what you did. I know you probably won't. Wait. 30 to 6 minutes to try more. Depends how much food is in your stomach.
I made some hash brownies for a party. I had this conversation with several guests.
Them: How many should I eat?
Me: One/half you will feel it.
...One you will be stoned.
...Two you will be wasted.
...Three you will see see God.
The next day I saw two of them A and B. The separate conversations went like this:
A,B: Oh those brownies last night. All I could do is sit in a chair. I couldn't move.
Me: How many did you eat?
A,B: 4
Me: I told you 3 and you'd see God.
A,B: I thought you were kidding.
A: It was terrible.
B. It was fantastic.
So my advice is:
Just lie there in the clear air doing figure eights through the pearly gates where the soul and the universe meet. When you come down land on your feet.
Ride the chaos. Never took you for a control freak.
@AnoaBob: yep. Young M&A's intro to ELDORADO came in the form of an epic Uncle $crooge comic book tale, written and illustrated by the amazin Carl Barks dude, back in the 50s. (I think my intro to that particular Lone Ranger/Tonto joke came pretty much at around the same time period.)
ReplyDeleteThis particular NYTPuz theme reminded M&A of a recently written-up runtpuz, somehow. It ain't quite the same, but worth includin here for comparisons, I reckon. Hasn't been passed by the test-solvers staff tho, so could be a slightly risky solvequest -- I guess y'all'll have to give M&A test solver feedback, on it then … but, as always, best wishes & no refunds.
M&Also
**gruntz**
@Anon 12:53
ReplyDeleteI doesn't matter since, in my mind, all mice are lumped together.
Some here skip over @Anon comments altogether.
As I said, if you want to distinguish yourself, just click the "Name/URL" box and choose a name. You'll still be untraceable.
@Gio/Giovanni! I thought it was you. Congratulations on your Wordle result.
ReplyDelete@Anon 11:48 – Cool. I have no doubt your friend still remembers all of them. Even if sometimes it may take a little longer to pull them up, as happens with me.
Using tricks is absolutely the way to go. For the WS, I arranged the Yankees' wins into groups of four:
•1923,27,28,32 ← symmetrically mirrored
•1936-39 ← consecutive
•1941,43,47,49 ← all the odds minus 5
•1950-53 ← consecutive
•1956,58,61,62 ← alternating except 61
•1977-78 ← outlying pair
•1996,98,99,2000 ← consecutive after 96
•and then 2009 all by its lonesome
@Frantic...
ReplyDeleteMy favorite niece (well one of them) who happens to be a vegetarian, once asked me:
Aunt Jilly (that's my nickname) you can't even squish a cockroach; you name all the daddy long legs eating up the flies, you pick up a snail walking on the sidewalk and put it on some soil...so how on earth can you devour pigs ears and you love escargot and you practically kiss raw meat before you sauté it to smithereens and not feel the least bit guilty?
Good question. Can someone explicate? Maybe @Joe Dip has a name for this phenomenon?
How can you be a lover of all animals and devour them as if it were your last meal?
@Frantic and I are soulless mates...
@Pete 11:45. This is actually becoming fun. Have you named that little snake of yours, yet? How about "Hissnsqueek". I've actually eaten snake and it's good.
I'm now going to pray to God that I don't go to hell. I will make deviled eggs for my homeless friends and I will go out and pick up garbage.
I feel better already.
My kids were big fans of the TV TROPES website - I think I actually learned the word from them. But it took me forever to see as an answer to 1 across. I also had a hard time with Panama having misread 48 down as Season not Session - I had Flu there confirmed by 55 Across Alas. Took a while to sort that out! Despite the missteps I got it all in under average time.
ReplyDeleteMFCTM.
ReplyDeleteLoren (5:03)
Nancy (8:33)
Gill I. (10:24)
Pete (10:27)
Joseph Michael (10:47)
I'm bad at history and only knew Sir Walter for the cape-in-the-puddle incident, so tried CHIVALRY for 5 down. Also for "Obvs!" had NATCH then NUH UH before NO DUH.
ReplyDeleteI actually really liked the consistency of all the fill. Not too many names, and nice short stuff like REPEL, TV MOM and SLO MO. Rex's dislike of RENT A COP is... puzzling (Ha).
[Spelling Bee: yd fast 4:07 to pg, then QB later on. td 10:08 to get pg.]
@Gio (11:05 AM)
ReplyDelete🎩s off for your 2
@Silver (11:11 AM)
Not boring at all; not sure I ever knew TONTO's backstory. Thx for the lesson! :)
I'm among those who enjoy making (and memorizing) lists. They're not only useful, but fun, and mentally engaging. 🤔
@GILL I. (10:24 AM) / @Frantic Sloth (11:15 AM) re: carnivorous paradoxy:
For anyone thinking of going meatless, in addition to respect for animals, there are many other reasons to give it serious consideration. Like any addiction, it can be overcome.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Smithsonian touches briefly on why TONTO is problematic.
ReplyDeleteIt’s amazing to me that even this much explanation is needed in 2022.
@pabloinnh - Partly de gustibus and all that, but Wordle is more of a logic puzzle to me than “playing with words.” And the Spelling Bee is just anagramming, also not “playing with words.” “Playing with words” is what Muse did with her “put in the pot” riff or what Rex did by going from EL DORADO to Desperado.
@mathgent - “DUH,” “Well DUH,” and “NO DUH” are all very close, but my sense is that NO DUH is a whisker more insulting than the other two. Although “Well DuuuuH” with an eye roll is probably even more insulting… so maybe which is worse is eye rolling dependent. I think we can all agree that if it comes with an OCTET of eye rolls it is at least stable.
Hi Gio,
ReplyDeleteToday is the Feast Day of Charles The Good.
Charles was a son of Canute IV of Denmark and Adela of Flanders. When he was only five years old, his father was assassinated in St. Alban´s Church, Odence. He was taken by his mother to the court of Robert, his maternal grandfather and Count of Flanders to grow up.
Blessed Charles became quite the warrior, and accompanied his grandfather in a crusade to the Holy Land and also fought against the English. After Robert's death in 1111, the new Count Baldwin, Robert's son, relied heavily on Charles for advice.
The people came to have a high regard for Charles´ wise and beneficent ways and his personal holiness. Baldwin arranged for Charles' marriage to the daughter of the Count of Clermont; when Baldwin was wounded in battle, he assigned Charles as successor before he died in 1119. Charles ruled his people with wisdom, diligence, and compassion.
He made sure that times of truce were respected, and fought against unethical marketing practices, particularly against greedy and influential families who had plotted to hoard grain so that it would be sold at excessively high prices. His just nature encouraged the wrath of his opposition.
One day in 1127, as Charles was praying in the Church St. Donatian, his enemies set upon him and killed him.
Tonto is absolutely no problem to most people.
ReplyDeleteI'm not much swayed by Smithsonian Magazine or the students of grievance studies.
Hi-Yo, Silver!!
---J. Reid
Joe D.
ReplyDeleteThat is a SUPERB grouping. Never would've thought of `23, '32 Symmetry. Never.
I've never tried to memorize only one team's serieses. The Yanks are obviously the most challenging. I may take a look at the Cardinals. Closest thing the NL has to the pinstripes. Thanks.
@Gio I vanni welcome you home, too! (and apologize for that idiotic joke) Don't let the (bad) anons get you down - we got your back. Best to ignore.👍
ReplyDelete@GILL 113pm Ha! Soulless mates, indeed. I even corrupted Mrs. Sloth away from her ill-fated attempt at vegetarianism when we met. All I needed was to catch a whiff of her mild disillusionment, and my Risotto alla Milanese with lemon garlic chicken started the ball rolling. An eventual prime ribeye steak grilled to perfection (if I do say so myself) finished her off.
Karma is giving me the evil eye now though - already cannot eat boiled/steamed lobster. I imagine other animals will follow.
@bocamp 144pm LOL! You're sweet to give us a little pep talk, but I think I'll just let things naturally unfold. 😘
@Z 152pm Isn't it "hi-ho, Silver!"? See how I home right in on the pith of that article?
Oh, what the hell...
Daily Dordle #0037 6&4/7
⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
Well, that was annoying. (The second word usually comes immediately after the first.)
@Anon 2:15 – You can group the Cards into three sets of three, plus two more this century. Most of their wins are in even-numbered years—but only years ending with 2, 4, or 6. They sort-of alternated with the Yanks during the 1940's. Their only odd years are 1931, 1967 and 2011.
ReplyDeleteWhat 🦖 said 🎯, and same with all who had - slow nw corner.
ReplyDelete🤗🦖🦖🦖🤗
Wordle ones, it is (mostly) a guessing game, luck…. 🥱and a quick fix.. enjoy!
Frantic,
ReplyDeleteZ's favorite authority on Lone Ranger matters--The Smithsonian Magazine--says no. You're wrong. They use my locution.
But of course that exclamation is barely an aside, it's as far from pith as humanly possible. But points for getting home in correct.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/hi-yo-silver-away-51426976/
Warning worse than Wordle for lots of folks I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteJoe D,
I have no doubt--none --that you're correct.
But it'll take some doing for me to unwind how I learned Series winners (by decade). Worsening matters, I sometimes cleaved winning teams in the same decade into multiples if their rosters were sufficiently different. The `55 dodgers bears only a passing resemblance to the team that won in `59.
All of which is a long way of saying, I have work to do. Thanks much for the excellent tip.
This one was full of "look how smart I am!" annoying clues, including "stable electron configurations" for "octets." "Have at it," to my mind, usually means to engage in a fight (verbal or physical), not "dig in" to a repast. The theme was meh if not meh-minus, and I agree about the offensiveness of "Tonto." If you have to have it in your grid, clue it as something like "Spanish for stupid or foolish." I wrote "natch" instead of "no duh," then immediately regretted it (I do the puzzle in ink, in the print edition; I'm very old-school). Rex was understating the case when he called this puzzle unsatisfying.
ReplyDelete@Z. Have you ever done the BEE? It really has little to do with anagrams per se. You have seven letters from which to assemble words (repeated letters allowed). Some words may be anagrams but that is not the focus.
ReplyDeleteJoe D.,
ReplyDeleteOh I know the 1931 Cardinals. How they beat the greatest team in MLB history* is not only one of the universe's great mysteries, but one of its most profound injustices.
* The 1926, `27 and `28 Yankees are often cited as the greatest team ever. Especially the 1927 iteration. But the 1929, `30, and `31 A's are actually a tad better. Incredible as it may seem, the teams' statistics are astoundingly similar. The Yanks with a very slight edge in power, the A's superior in pitching and fielding.
All fantastically inside baseball of course, but it' amazing to many, including me, how few people know how truly awesome those A;s teams were.
Speaking of lists, I can't memorize a grocery list. I can't remember why I went down to the basement. Y'all must have super capacity brains.
ReplyDelete@thfenn @8:00 Sadly, that's a bogey, not a par.
ReplyDeletePar = 4, and as Z astutely points out, scores fall into a bell curve centered somewhere around 4 (hence 4 = par). Just as really great golfers are less than scratch, someone pretty nimble with words will likely average just under 4.0.
Of course, the "guessing game" inflates scores, as you ran into.
As to the puzzle, liked the theme, and once Lewis pointed out the progression, liked it even more.
WOTD? "ASIDE" That was genuinely clever. While TROPE was a little tricky, in general this skewed easy, and I was a hair under my average time.
TRACER? Meh. I'm always asked if I want a "tracking number." This was probably the one answer that could have used a better clue. I had no issues with TONTO.
@Anon – well, I was only learning a single fact pertaining to each year. Never mind what players were on any teams, or even who the losing teams were (which I've been meaning to go back and do but have to figure out how to approach it.)
ReplyDeleteI would have got the theme earlier if I hadn't thought Mr. Trebek's name was ALEk. That made it tough. And I had the uncanny feeling of looking at 1A and thinking it could be TROPE but that that was too esoteric for the puzzle; same thing for REPEL just below. But eventually I had a bunch of unlikely-seeming answers that all confirmed each other, and it was all downhill from there.
ReplyDelete@BEE-ER - What do you think? The only pleasure the Bee ever gives me is the frisson of schadenfreude when Twitter erupts in anger over some omission from the word list. “Good Enough for the crossword but not the Bee” is a fairly common refrain. My going on at length about the arbitrariness of spelling and the absurdity of that game is hyperbole, but only just barely.
ReplyDelete**wordle alert**
Two of the plausible first letters had been eliminated, so a chance at birdie with an easy tap in for par.
Wordle 256 4/6
⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
🟨🟨⬛🟨⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
And I smiled at the portmanteau of one of our regulars being my first get in the Quordle.
Daily Quordle #37
6️⃣5️⃣
7️⃣9️⃣
quordle.com
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨🟩🟨🟩⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I forget what the Greek name for my nit would be, but when I was teaching I'd say a TROPE is a figure of speech. In other words, you can't call an example of a trope a trope. It's like saying a metaphor is flashing eyes. Is that taking a part for the whole?
ReplyDeletepg-3
@Bocamp you are a dear.
Since no one has mentioned it, I’ll just mention that DAP is a big name in spackling compound and be on my way.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:55 What on earth is wrong with simply saying "The Smithsonian says it's Hi Yo!" and leave it at that? Can you not post here without starting your comment as "... you're wrong" to someone who hadn't made an assertion which was capable of being wrong, and follow up with a number of snide comments (her question was so besides the point as to be ridiculous, and that she earned valuable points in your eyes by getting "home in" right)?
ReplyDeleteSomeone who chooses to be anonymous and then expects dozens of fellow Rexites to go to a great deal of trouble to try to figure out *which anonymous* he is. Wow!
ReplyDeleteI actually have patients who could be deemed more stable and a lot less delusional than that.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete[shakes fist at sky, screams] @Zeeeee!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy? WHY? WHY Do you keep upping the Wordle ANTE⁉️
Daily Quordle #37
6️⃣7️⃣
4️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@Everyone 548pm Thanks for the backup, but I just figured it was a case of sarcasm blindness, complicated with inferiority complex-based arrogant condescension. Sometimes it doesn't pay to forego the winky face. 🤷♀️
@Anonymous 6:08pm Sorry - I guess I meant persecution complex. Please indicate where - exactly - in my Lone Ranger comment I attacked you. I wasn't even TALKING to or about you.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, you started it! 😝
Didn’t you guys cancel Sir Walter Raleigh along with Tonto ? C’mon people.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWow. TROPE just came to me as I wS making my supper! What a tough NW for a Wednesday, and what an odd mix of oldish and newish. Another theme that skews to the constructor’s enjoyment mire than mine, but a fine Wednesday solve especially woth that crusty corner in the NW.
ReplyDelete@Frantic and @GILL: I’m the same way when it comes to red meat. Extreme animal lover and defender of all critters … but just the day before yesterday I sat down to a delicious steak dinner without feeling the slightest bit of guilt. I’ve always thought it’s because I grew up on a farm and at an early age became inured to the fact that there are certain animals which exist solely for purpose of providing food to human beings. If some farmer/rancher did not breed and feed them for the purpose of selling them, they would never exist to begin with. Now when it comes to wild animals though, no way.
ReplyDelete@Frantic Sloth’s winky face comment reminded me of this which I ran into in yesterday’s AVCX (so don’t click if you still plan to do that puzzle).
ReplyDeleteHumanely raised and harvested livestock will only have one bad day in their entire lives, and even then they probably won't know it. No one, with the possible exception of Lewis, can say that. I feel no guilt about eating them. Factory raised, well that's hard to conscious.
ReplyDeleteWhat is EMO re genre for Chemical Romsnce
ReplyDelete@West Coast shrink:
ReplyDeleteA bit of transference there. The point wasn't that we mice want the Named folks to keep track of us; far from it. Only that text analysis (mentioned late last night by @Nancy), if T. Rex sprung for the program, would allow the Named folks to keep track of us, should they want to. Why they would, since those with an opinion have by and large announced that they won't even read our classic prose, escapes me. More's the pity.
I enjoyed the Robyn Ludwick link and thanks to whoever it was who posted it. Feel free to take credit. One song I particularly enjoyed is below with approximate lyrics.
ReplyDeleteDON'T CRY NOW
I picked him out of a lineup for
the gun-shy tortured hearts class of '84
And He lay rolled up tangled on the floor
in pitiful disarray.
He said
it's you I've been hiding from
And the shots of love's silent gun.
I might mail my heart into the sun
It might make me give a damn.
And I said lucky for you every now and then
in the fetal position is how I like my men,
face down, covered in sin,
Baby we might could get along.
He said don't cry love,
don't cry love,
you'll never get it
Don't cry love,
don't cry love,
You never get what you want
The clock on the wall said a quarter to four
and so I drug him across the kitchen floor
And made sweet love by bedroom door
But that left him all confused
Cause his heart was like a coffee can
And it held all his fortune and bad luck he ever had.
He kept it bound and left it gagged
under the cushions of our divan.
And I said lucky for you every now and then
in the fetal position is how I like my men.
face down, covered in sin.
Baby we might get along.
And he said just don't cry love,
don't cry love
you never get it
Don't cry love,
don't cry love,
You never get what you want
He folds with the queen of hearts in his hands
And settles for a very mediocre plan
to never give up on the one-night stand.
It's just easier that way.
He keeps his heart is like a coffee can
He doesn't trust a bank a woman or the man
And keeps it hidden under the subwoofer in his bright orange 1972 chevy van
And I said lucky for you every now and then
in the fetal position is how I like my men,
face down, covered in sin,
Baby if we could only get along.
And he said don't cry love, don't cry love,
you never get it
Don't cry love,
don't cry love,
You'p never get what you want.
Well I picked him out of a line up for
the gun-shy tortured hearts class of '84
He lay rolled up tangled on the the floor
In beautiful disarray.
This may be and old one. An 84 year old woman told it to me today.
Men always talk about growing balls when they talk about getting tough. Balls are soft squishy and tender. They should talk about growing a vagina. They can take a real pounding.
@Z
You mentioned Soduko has much to do with math has as Wordle does with spelling or visa-versa. Numbers have nothing to with Soduko. They make use numbers but only as 10 distinct obects. Nothing to do with any other properties of numbers. Ten letters, punctuation marks, colors, or presidents would work just as well. Sodoku is a puzzle that is solved by logic. Whether math is a subset of logic or logic a subset of math might be a bit of a philosophical conundrum.
Wordle is a game that is solved by knowing 5 letter words. The meaning of the words is as irrelevant as numbers are in soduko. Knowing how to spell the words is completely relevant to the game. Knowing how to spell is relevant to all parts of the game. Since only common words are used this aspect of the game is certainly suppressed. It would apparent if famous names or obscure scientific words were allowed it might become nore apparent.
I was surprised my suggestion of a 2 player wordle game with one person trying to nail down a word and another person able to change the word to any other thus far consistent word after each guess. He would be trying steer the word to words that might create enought random guesses at the end of game to prevent a success. The first player would have to avoid the traps.
People who are keeping a list of used words in wordle will have an increasingly huge advantage as time goes by. Maybe you'd like that list. I wouldn't. But i wouldn't want to play my 2 person worde either.
My thanks to Silver for sharing the legend of the Lone Ranger and Tonto.
ReplyDeleteFurther nerd alert: The Green Hornet, Britt Reid, is the Lone Ranger’s grand nephew.
I just watched Key Largo on TCM. Jay Silverheels, most famously known for Tonto, has a brief appearance.
Oh, and I thought the puzzle was enjoyable.
I liked this one. Rex is right. The costrctor could have and should have turned 5D into a revealer. That would have knocked the ball out of the park. 5D: Mythical place who’s knickname is a hint to 21A, 58A and 59A.
ReplyDeleteTVMOM OPTION
ReplyDeleteI SEA THAT you are AGING, MA'AM,
MONCHERI, try RENT-A-dude.
OKAYTHEN now A SLOMO JAM,
we'll HAVEATIT in the NUDE.
--- TONTO ELDORADO
Thispuzzleremindsmeofmylifewheneverythingkindofrunstogether. Know what I mean?
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords, and punctuation
Everybody is right. Part very easy, part nasty pisser. Ignore the lame trick - you won't miss it.
ReplyDeleteNice one Burma!
ReplyDeleteHand up for NATCH!--My only overwrite. Hey, looky that: no red line! Like I always get with "writeover." Oh well. Theme is a PPP stuffer; oh joy. Par.
ReplyDelete