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"The Duck Variations" playwright / WED 3-16-2022 / Swiss author of "Elements of Algebra" / Butterfly also called a common tiger or wanderer
Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Hey besties! Welcome back to Midweek with Malaika / Malaika MWednesday / Miercoles con Malaika. Rex is on vacation, so I'll be with y'all for the next few days. If you want to get into The Malaika Headspace while reading this, you can put on this song, which is what I listened to (twice) while solving.
Relative difficulty: This took me 9:59, which is average
THEME: Ducks! — Lots of things clued using the word "duck" plus a lovely image of a duck in the center
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: TANA (Largest lake in Ethiopia) —
- Duck-- AVOID (1A)
- Duck-- SHIRK (5A)
- Duck-- TAKE COVER (17A)
- ___ Duck-- DONALD (25A)
- Duck, e.g.-- BATH TOY (46A)
- "The Duck Variations" playwright-- MAMET (58A)
- Duck-- STOOP DOWN (60A)
- Duck-- DODGE (65A)
- "Duck, duck ..." follower-- GOOSE (67A)
- Something a duck lays-- EGG (59D)
- Bugs and Daffy in "The Iceman Ducketh," e.g.-- DUO (61D)
Word of the Day: TANA (Largest lake in Ethiopia) —
Lake Tana (Amharic: ጣና ሐይቅ, romanized: T’ana ḥāyik’i; previously Tsana) is the largest lake in Ethiopia and the source of the Blue Nile. Located in Amhara Region in the north-western Ethiopian Highlands, the lake is approximately 84 kilometres (52 miles) long and 66 kilometres (41 miles) wide, with a maximum depth of 15 metres (49 feet), and an elevation of 1,788 metres (5,866 feet). Lake Tana is fed by the Gilgel Abay, Reb and Gumara rivers. Its surface area ranges from 3,000 to 3,500 square kilometres (1,200 to 1,400 square miles), depending on season and rainfall. The lake level has been regulated since the construction of the control weir where the lake discharges into the Blue Nile. This controls the flow to the Blue Nile Falls (Tis Abbai) and hydro-power station.In 2015, the Lake Tana region was nominated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve recognizing its national and international natural and cultural importance. (Wiki)
• • •
Also, by the way, debut! Congrats!
There were quite a few things I enjoyed about this theme, aside from the above. It is very impressive to me that the across entries were near-symmetrical within an asymmetrical grid. (The exception was MAMET, which makes me wonder if the editors changed that clue to be duck-like after the fact, along with EGG and DUO.) I also liked that we got a little variation within the clues. They were all duck-y, but we still got a fill-in-the-blank, an example, a definition, etc. And we got a good mix of the different meanings of the word (shirk, dodge, and the animal).
I think a weak spot for this puzzle is that ultimately the theme answers on their own aren't too interesting, so we really are relying on the clues and grid art to delight us. One thing I like to think about is if a theme answer in a theme puzzle would be a nice entry in a themeless puzzle. Something like STOOP DOWN wouldn't, but it still takes up a lot of real estate.
I've been forcing my friends to do crosswords lately (the good kind of peer pressure, I like to think) so one thing that I've been very cognizant of is clues that don't make sense to new solvers even after the puzzle is complete. I think if I were very new to puzzles and finished with NTH for [Imaginary ordinal] or TWAS for [Opening on Christmas Eve?] or YESES for [Sís or das] I would still be pretty lost.* In my opinion, those types of clues are okay on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, but not on a Wednesday. What do y'all think? (Oh, and while you're sounding off about that, can you please explain [Word of leave-taking] for PEACE?)
Bullets:
- I have never heard the term AREA MAP outside of crossword puzzles, and would love for these entries to always be re-worked to Area Man
- TEA clued as [Cozy "spot"] is very cute
- Cluing NEVER with a quote from "Romeo and Juliet" really threw me off because usually the Times reserves its Shakespeare quotations for old-fashioned words like "ere"
- Happy Women's History Month! This puzzle referenced about ~ten males (depending on what you think counts**) and zero females. Every human mentioned in this puzzle (six) is white.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
* Explanations:
- An "ordinal" is what it's called when you add (usually) the "th" to a number, like fifth or tenth. In math (and occasionally other places) you'll refer to some large, unspecified number as N, e.g. "to the Nth degree"
- The word "twas" begins (or "opens") the poem "A Visit from St. Nick" which you might read on Christmas Eve
- The word sí means yes, as does the word da. So in their plural form, they are yeses
** Males of various species: Mike MYERS, DONALD Duck, ELI Whitney, Raphael, MAMET, EULER, Romeo, J. R. R. Tolkien, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck
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137 comments:
In the Constructor Notes, Joseph Gangi describes himself as “a lawyer, musician and curler from Minnesota (among other things!)”. I would add constructor of a most unusual and enjoyable puzzle.
An interesting guy - I think Mr. Gangi should be doing commercials for Dos Equis beer.
“PEACE” is a thing when you are saying goodbye to someone.
Agree 100% with your comments & frustration regarding all the (white) males in this xword.
Thanks for your write-up!
Loved the ducky in the center, although I think a lot of us have been thinking of late back to the days of “duck and cover” nuke drills in grade school. I’ve been shaking my head for decades over whether this would really be an effective strategy for warding off harm in the event of a nuclear strike. All of this head shaking has seemingly reduced me to the level of a delusional commenter on a deluded crossword blog. (But I love it).
It was interesting how all the action here resided in the clues. Looking at the finished grid, you wouldn’t know that there was a theme. But there certainly was one, to the point of getting (almost) annoying.
I’m a Tolkien fan, but had somehow, over the years, come to think of him as John Ronald Reagan Tolkien. I’m pleased and relieved to learn that he is a REULE.
You say potato, I say TOETOTOE. Let’s call the whole thing off. Thanks for a fun debut, Joseph Gangi.
Can I be
AliasZ?
Some people take their leave from a conversation by saying just “peace” (as opposed to “peace out”).
Wow. I didn't even see the duck in the grid until you mentioned it. YEESH. I bet a lot of people are going to HATE that.
@Malaika You say PEACE (like "peace out man") (like "cya later dude") if you are Gen X and making fun of the boomers use of "peace," but using it as a farewell. I say it almost every day when ending Zoom calls. It resonates with me like a Brit saying "cheers" for "great, see you later."
Didn't know REUEL, EULER, or SAI, but the crosses were fine. I usually struggle a lot beginning on Wednesday, but this one went (suspiciously) fine.
I like a 10-duck grid... 11 if you count the grid itself. So many ways to use one word. Seems like we need more words if we're reusing this one so much.
Hi Malaika (always makes me think of Balalaika), happy MWednesday.
QUACK! Ashamed to say I actually didn't see the duck at first... tunnel vision, I guess. Some years ago there was another puzzle -- maybe a Sunday -- with the rebuses DUCK, DUCK, (on and on) then finally GOOSE!
We have lots of ducks around where I live, but none are white. Many green heads. I think the first white duck I ever saw was on Seinfeld... Joey or Chandler's pet?
[Spelling Bee: Tues 2:02 to reach pg (new record!!) Then 0 / QB later.]
I like ducks. I like grid art. Do I like ducks as grid art? Sure, why not?
I even noticed the grid duck soon after seeing the word duck a dozen times...and upon completion of the puzz. Whip through water - that's me.
I enjoyed this theme with all the types and variations of "duck" despite the presence (at 1A no less) of one of the more infamous examples of the kealoa: AVOID of the AVOID/evade/elude trinity of "wait-and-see". A big thank you to the constructor for not including all three in this puzzle. That would just be yuck.
Instead we have a nice smattering of duckses of all kindses. Nicely done.
TAKE COVER reminded me of Duck & Cover, which reminded me of grade school innocence (gullibility) which had us believing that a school desk would provide all the protection needed in case of a nuclear attack.
It's the airplane-seatbelt-against-the-mountainside & locked-car-doors-while-driving-through-UFO-sighting-country armor of invincibility approach. Very effective.
Congrats on a very spiffy NYTXW debut, Mr. Gangi! Looking forward to more from you.
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🎉🎉🎉
Great writeup, Malaika! (Especially your last bullet)
I don't necessarily agree with late-week difficulty of the NTH/TWAS/YESES clues. Maybe Thursday, but I think they're Wednesday fair game. On the other hand, I'm an idiot so don't go by me. 😉
And since you asked, a person who's leaving (or taking their leave of) another person or group might say PEACE on the way out the door.
Easy-medium. Clever and amusing, liked it. A fine debut!
...and I knew memorizing J.R.R. Tolkien’s actual names would eventually come in handy.
Peace, like peace out or peace be upon you, often shortened to the one word.
Who knew that there were so many terms associated with the word DUCK? Not me, but I guess I’ve never pondered it until today. Cute puzzle with a cute, little duckie in the middle.
Only mess that needed sorting out was at 31D where I automatically put in BUC. Football always in the forefront.
Cute puzzle.
I'd have said 67A is also a theme answer, and in fact I think it's the reason the puzzle exists: The whole grid is a big game of "duck, duck, goose," with "goose" in the very last spot. Nice work all around.
P.S. regarding "males" in the puzzle: Bugs Bunny is nonbinary, and Donald Duck is likely trans (he can lay eggs!). Your overall point stands, though, and thanks for pointing it out.
Delightful start to my day.
Thx Joseph, for this ducky Wednes. puz! 🦆
Hi Malaika, always good to see you! :)
Med+
Fairly straightforward except for the NE and SAI, which I forced myself to insert (whew!)
Failed to notice the duck in the grid; my bad. :(
Tolkien fan here.
Overall, a fun solve. :)
@okanaganer 👍👍 for your 0 amazing time yd! :)
___
yd pg: 8:03 / W: 3*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Trouble in the NE: I don't know ASL so I had HIm, and had no clue of Mr. Tolkien's second middle name. That made ISSUE difficult to see. Other than that, the puzzle was just "ducky."
@Malaika. I like your review. You bring a nicer vibe to the blog. I do wish you hadn't echoed @Rex in pointing out that there are 10 males in the grid. But in that vein don't forget HERR and HIS and AMIGO. Although clued otherwise, RAY and STEW are male names. I don't notice things like this and I'm not sure what the point is. It would be an ISSUE if the editor purposely made this happen
But I would have loved this clue today: "Duck or flower"
I look forward to your coming reviews. Thank you.
Thank you to both Joseph Gangi and Malaika… a really fun and clever puzzle, and a really great write-up. A good way to start my day of travel back home to northern NM (and great skiing) after a biz trip to DC, which was actually not too bad either.
Was hoping NEWBURYPORT would fit in somwhere...
A theme I can get down with.
Oh, Joseph had me before I entered my first answer with that cutest duck ever, complete with tail feathers, floating in the middle. Charmed, I paddled through the grid with a smile in my heart, a smile that got recharged as it came across those clever clues for TWAS, REIN, TEA, and especially [It’s mined, all mined!] for ORE.
The grid was a kind of ZOO, actually, as apart from the DUCKs and GOOSE there were other animal reminders: RATS, EEL STY, VEAL, REIN, EGG, RAY, and one-letter-off SHIRK. It would have been cool, also, given the theme, if the A in DECAYS were an O.
That asymmetrical duck in the middle was balanced by symmetrical elements (Hi, @Malaika!), giving the puzzle a feel of normalcy rather than CHAOS. Symmetry included the four theme-related horizontal corner answers as well as the TAKE COVER and STOOP DOWN theme pair, not to mention the black lines coming in from the perimeter.
Yes, Joseph, you had me at the start, and you have me now, having experienced that wink in your eye, greatly anticipating your next creation. This one gave me such a sweet lift. Congratulations on your debut, and thank you!
A puzzle that is a prescient reminder for all of us during these days...
https://youtu.be/LWH4tWkZpPU
SAI, TANO, URANO, and REUEL were all unknown to me, so I had to “keep the faith” that the crosses all made sense - which is a lot easier on a Wednesday since the crosses are friendly and accessible (I always seem to run out of crosses on a Saturday, lol).
I would say that clues and answers like NTH, STET, ERRATA, et c. generally start showing up pretty regularly by Wednesday, so those we will just have to get used to. Hopefully Shortz will keep the sign language clues and answers to an absolute minimum going forward.
A pretty ambitious theme that is executed pretty well, especially with the diagram in the middle of the grid. I wonder if there are other candidates - I don’t think there are sufficient alternate definitions for PENGUIN for example, although that would be pretty cool grid-art. How about PIG OUT or HAVE A COW . . . GO APE . . .
Beautiful grid and clues. Nice to know this is a debut. Wonderful work Joseph!
As Petey Fisk. President of the Greater Tuna Humane Society says, "If a person says, 'Duck,' you don't know if they're talking abiut a bird or an accident."
Loved this puzzle. Definitely think the EGG/DUO/MAMET additions were a mistake. It distracts from what is actually a simple game of DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK DUCK GOOSE.
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2:
JULIET: O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
ROMEO: [Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
JULIET: 'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.
ROMEO:I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.
If it walks like a duck… Cute idea and neat grid art but don’t think the gimmick supports all the theme content. Some oddball fill but mostly fun and smooth. Liked TOE TO TOE crossing AMIGO and EULER is always nice to see. Didn’t know SAI but the crosses were fair.
Enjoyable Wednesday solve.
The GOOSE at the end brought a smile and really made the puzzle for me.
And while I’m one of those that rarely notices grid art, today’s representation of baby brachiosaurus really jumps out at you.
HAngEr before HAT PEG, anyone?
I do feel like this Tuezzed, where yesterday’s Wedsded, so they should have been switched.
IMAGE for ISSUE, no wonder the NE didn't make any sense. Sheesh.
This had the kind of grid art that appeals to me, so simple and obvious that even I saw it right away. Agree with Mailaika that said art is often tortured and frequently looks like a character in an early computer game, no matter what it's supposed to be.
Hand up for the "cuck and cover" drills. Somehow we never learned the contortions necessary to kiss your ( ) good bye.
Congrats on the debut, JG. Thought it was Just Great, and thanks for all the fun.
You have to kinda like a puzzle that gives you a cute little feathered friend before you even get started and then follows it up with DONALD DUCK. But I was disappointed not to see DAFFY. How could you make this puzzle without him? But forgiving that, I will say congratulations JG on you ducky debut!
So am I the one just now discovering this? Wordle 2, a six-letter version. This is what you get called getting lucky on your first try.
Wordle2 113 2/6 #wordle2 #peace
🤍🤍🤍💛🤍🤍
💚💚💚💚💚💚
https://www.wordle2.in
Enough with the phony sensitivity.
Do you really think that the constructor intentionally set out to use only men’s names??
Wokeness be damned!
Peace…
Quacky, Wacky Wednesday. Grin worthy, for sure. Thanks, Malaika, for the cheery review.
This error can't be ducked: "ith" is the imaginary ordinal where "i" is the imaginary unit in complex math. "nth" is a real but unknown ordinal.
Recently learned that die Eule is German for owl and thought of EULER. Wise man.
Didn't notice the grid art! How cool.
Kinda regular Wednesday but fun.
For starters, I didn't see the duck in the grid. I did think it was a quite arresting grid when I first saw it -- and then I completely forgot about it. Now that the blog has let me know there's a duck there, I've looked at it -- and it's quite a cute duck. It gives the puzzle a certain je ne sais quoi that it didn't have while I was solving it.
I found the puzzle an interesting mixture of a challenge-free West Coast that put up no resistance at all and an East Coast that gave me some trouble. First, I had SkIRt before SHIRK at 9A -- crossed by a lot of stuff I didn't know. I don't know what a "flat palm b" is in ASL (10D). I haven't the faintest idea what "prepare to proof in baking" is. (13D). Proofing is something copy editors do, as far as I'm concerned. And I don't know either of Tolkien's middle names. (12D.)
Moving down the East Coast, what on earth is a SAI? It had to be SAI and yet I was sure I must have a DNF. But, no, SAI is right. I'll go back and read the comments to see if anyone has mentioned what it is. Must be an acronym.
The puzzle got more interesting as it moved from left to right. And the duck is cute.
The constructor must not be a native Minnesotan,as here it is always "Duck, duck, gray duck." Gooseless.
How childish. I loved it. The central premise of this single word having so many different meanings is the kind of wordplay I love in puzzles. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
I noticed the kealoa at 1A before I noticed the grid art duck, which I only noticed after seeing the second duck clue, looking to see if 67A was going to be GOOSE, and the eye scan of the grid registered the central duck. Nice.
A debut you say? I like the way this guy thinks.
I love the, ahem, easter EGGs throughout the puzzle. Can’t get Daffy into the puzzle? Sneak him into a clue. Likewise, MAMET has a duck play, use it in the clue. That’s good stuff. I would have really laughed if we had gotten a Shakespearean duck clue.
I’m with @Frantic Sloth on those clues being Wednesday appropriate. I’d say even Monday appropriate. I was even wondering what about “Imaginary ordinal” —> NTH would be confounding to a new solver. I suppose “ordinal number” is something one might have forgotten from 6th grade math class, but that’s not something specific to solving crosswords.
@Brian B - I laughed at the implication of your post that Bugs and Donald are human. What about Raphael?
@OffTheGrid - It would be an ISSUE if the editor purposely made this happen - Bias does not have to be intentional to be HARMful. (How’s that for the tersest synopsis of Critical Race Theory ever).
@Anon12:26 - @Alias Z used to comment regularly but he hasn’t been about for years. Besides, our nom de blogs aren’t copyrighted and I doubt anyone would mistake you for him - well, maybe at first.
@Son Volt late last night - Yep, and I don’t even like most fantasy. LeGuin is just exceptional.
@anon - Nothing about the clue requires that we think of NTH mathematically.
@Mr Cheese - See my previous response to @OffTheGrid
Since I’m back, if you read @bocamp every day the PEACE clue would be very easy.
@bocamp late last night - Shhh, we weren’t going to talk about that.
Thanks Malaika, good review!
I am SO glad that I’m not the only person that is often totally blind to grid art! I mean, why WOULDN’T I check out an odd blob in the middle of an NYT puzzle that looks like a DUCK!? And, like @Gary Jugert, I didn’t notice until I read Malaika…yeah…SHEESH.
After having spent an enjoyable few years watching TMNT with my son many moons ago I learned that Raphael’s weapon was a SAI. Fond memories of my second stage of Saturday morning cartoons. Sigh. Next I’ll be waxing poetic about Optimus Prime…
The puzzle also made me wonder how many establishments today have coatrooms, let alone HATPEGS.
@Mr. Cheese No one said the constructor intentionally set out to do it - the only one assuming false motives of others is you. Maybe instead of attributing Malaika's comments to "wokeness" and "phony sensitivity," consider taking her seriously?
Some great cluing today -- Wet wood woe (Wow!), and It's mined, all mined!
Also noticed SOLO next to DUO in the SE, and NEVER (6D) on top of YESES (49D) and near It's A DATE! (22D)
Also liked the HIS and HERR towels at 10D and 28D.
Troubled by AVOID PEACE: TAKE COVER in the NW, followed by CHAOS at 27A
So much going on in this wonderful puzzle.
Hey All !
This had the feel of the monthly Monthly Bonus puz that's on the NYT puz website. 80% + clues are all related to one subject.
Liked it, fun to see the duck drawn out with the Blockers. Nice to get so many duck related answers/clues. Nice job on the relatively clean fill with the constraints of where the Themers are.
Female presence if you look hard enough. ZOOs have female animals, EGGs are laid by females, RATS NESTs have female RATS, MONARCH butterflies have females. See?
spa-TEA, think that's it for writeovers. YAY ME.
yd -3, should'ves 3 (ack!)
No F's (Not Ducky!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
I did not know SAI URANO MAMET (as clued) KNEAD (as clued) REUEL or the ASL answer. They all worked out before the music did not play except the ASL answer. I had HIm in first and had already changed it to HId. I'd SUE seemed like a posible problem. Took a couple minutes to find the error.
A wonderful Wednesday. The first puzzle ever to get an 18 Quack rating. One for each duck clue and a 6 quack bonus for the art work to match the number of black squares in the duck.
This is easily, as I rate them, best debut puzzle the NYT has published. (Granted, I've not seen all of them.) Will the second be a letdown? Hope not. Nothing more to say.
Thanks, @whatsername, for letting me know there's a "Wordle 2"! Oh, goody -- another time suck to amuse me!
While I had an awful day today with Wordle 1 -- one of those "you have four letters in the right place and you need one more and it could be any one of three and you pick the right one dead last". But I had a good day with Wordle 2, the 6-letter game. Not the eagle you had, @whatsername, but a pretty nice birdie.
Wordle2 113 3/6 #wordle2 #peace
🤍💛🤍🤍🤍🤍
🤍💚🤍💛🤍🤍
💚💚💚💚💚💚
https://www.wordle2.in
@Mathgent -- Would the odds of doing well on a 6-letter puzzle compared with a 5-letter puzzle be lower, higher, or the same? I'm sure there must be a mathematically-determined answer.
Hi! fun puzzle. Note it's cosy with an s -- brit spelling -- so thinking of tea comes naturally; also a tea cosy keeps the tea cozy and warm.
Boomers used “peace” to say hello or goodbye, like “shalom” in Hebrew.
Why wasn't the clue for LINEN Tablecloth or napkin? It seemed to be begging for a plural.
Hah! I solved this with a protracted chuckle, although the light was slow in dawning. I noticed the growing flock in the clues as I worked my way through the acrosses, but it wasn’t until the halfway mark that I looked at the grid as a whole and saw our fine feathered friend. My visual sense is usually sharper than that and I thank all the people who didn’t see the duck until coming here – you’ve made me feel less unobservant. I thought this puzzle was a charmer, even more so since it’s a debut. And I loved the fact that after all the Ducks, it ended with GOOSE.
I think for all three of the 5-letter answers clued as “Duck” I tried – at least mentally – to put in “eider.” I was sure this crossword standby was going to turn up somewhere, even though it’s usually clued with some pun on “down”: “Falling down in a pillow fight?” and “What can get you down?” are but two examples. It occurs to me that STOOP DOWN could have been reworked as “eiderDOWN” if the constructor had been so inclined.
Good grief, “duck” has a lot of meanings, everything from the waterfowl, to a mollusk (geoduck), to a vehicle that can travel on land or in water, to a type of cotton or LINEN cloth, to a Cockney term of endearment, to “a batsman’s score of zero” in cricket. And I never until this morning wondered why there was a single word that referred to mallards and to the actions of AVOIDing, SHIRKing, TAKing COVER, STOOPing DOWN and DODGing. I guess it must be the speed with which ducks can dive and disappear that gives rise to all these human-centered meanings.
I seemed to learn a lot today. I never knew that URANO was a prefix for heavenly, but apparently URANOgraphy is a term for celestial mapping. I liked the misdirection/paradoxical quality of DRYROT as the answer to “Wet wood woe.” And, for the half-dozen or fewer anagram-lovers among us, wasn’t the REUEL/EULER pair a revelation?
Fun puzzle. Made my morning. QUA-A-A-A-CK! (That’s PEACE in Duck.)
P.S. For some reason, adored HATPEG. It gave me a warm, fuzzy, kindergarten sort of feeling.
Both my childhood and my parenting missed TMNT, but luckily there’s Google. Seems a bit tough for a Wednesday.
https://tmnt2012series.fandom.com/wiki/Sai
@scott (9:31) If you go to xwordinfo.com and read the constructor notes, Joseph states: “I do send apologies to my fellow Minnesotans; we all know that the real answer to 67-Across should be GRAYDUCK.”
Stinky cheese,
I'm sure Mr. Cheese is far from alone in thinking that Malaika was wildly off base in her comments and and her world view. I for one agree with him. As for taking her seriously--I do. I have no doubt that her comments spring from sincerely heled beliefs. Those belief, however, don't withstand scrutiny. Seeing the world through the lens of race doesn't illuminate, it distorts.
Loved this one. Was really a puzzle, not a trivia and vocabulary (and proper name) exam.
OK. looked it up. Napkins and tablecloths most commonly the linen. Sheets and pillowcases are sometimes bed linen or bed linens. A linen closet is a place to store the linens. That explains it all.
I thoughr iTH first although I do not recall seeing it in the wild. Nth works informally as imagine any ordinal, say the NTH one.
Well...this was ducky. Let's see...hmmm...what should I choose while visiting my French Patisserie? Should I choose the lemon curd? Oh, wait...there's some Bakewell pudding! Why not just go for the well known Bakpia Pathok? So many yummies to choose from....
Who doesn't like a duck? Apart from them pooping all over hell and gone, and a quack that makes you jump through the quick, they are cute - especially when they're herding their babies through 4 lane traffic and pushing them into a croc infested little pool.
Just so you know....I'm the one stopping at a busy intersection, getting out of my car and demanding everyone stop, so that mommy and her babies get safely over to the side with delicious little worms.
I haven't read all of you yet (I will...I always do) but did anyone else think PEKING duck for 25A? DONALD needs to get some underpants.
I wanted to learn ASL and I started to learn. the only way my first-born grandson could communicate was through ASL. He was a wiz and he taught his Nonie how to fetch him his breakfast.
This was enjoyable, Joseph ....even though I didn't know TOLKIEN even had a name attached to his R..
I make a mean omelet with a GOOSE EGG. Enough to feed a gaggle of hungries....
PEACE to all of ye....
A ducky puzzle. Congrats on the debut. And, by the way, a prison staff member who has been manipulated by inmates into breaking the rules is also a duck.
@anon 10:31 Mind telling me exactly how pointing out a bias is "wildly off base" and "doesn't withstand scrutiny?" Asking for a friend.
@OffTheGrid @Mr. Cheese
I think of all white male references this way. Sexism exists on a continuum; at the start is language. Mailman, weatherman, etc evolved slowly to mail carrier, weather forecaster/ meteorologist. Mankind vs humankind. Miss or Mrs vs Mr. None this was conscious but that doesn't mean it wasn't sexist. Personally, I remember when I was very young taking mailman, weatherman, etc. literally. I thought that only men could have those occupations. Only referencing white men in a crossword puzzle excludes the majority of the population. Cluing ELI as Whitney is particularly interesting. Many historians believe he stole the idea from a woman or slaves.
It would have been nice to see Daisy in the mix today.
A ducky Wednesday with some clever clues and only a few suboptimal moments - OAKY ERA HIS SAI. Unfortunately I started this while watching the Zelenskyy speech so TAKE COVER, NONSTOP HARM and AVOID PEACE amplified the scenes of CHOAS in the video.
I did enjoy Malaika’s writeup. My take on the NTH TWAS YESES clues is if they have gettable crosses, which these did, then they’re fair game for a Wednesday. This puzzle didn’t provide a lot of resistance either, so they helped with the balance. I'll defer to @bocamp on the PEACE ISSUE.
The real question of the day: Why-a no chicken?
Thank you for reminding me of that Jeremy Jordan clip!!!!
Lively little puzzle. Learned what "proof" means in baking and a little something about sign language. Also about a MAMET play I hadn't heard of.
I would say that the clue for 61D is goofy.
Only men were milkmen in this country. Only men were mailmen in this country. ( At least for all intents and purposes). The langue wasn't sexist at all; it was perfectly appropriate. Professions in which women were engaged---even if it was unusual--had no such language. Think doctor, lawyer, dentist etc. Of course there are exceptions--actor and actress, waiter and waitress and the like. But many jobs for a long, long time cleaved along gender lines. And frankly, I see nothing wrong with that. And sometimes so called-d progress is just rank nonsense. I'm reminded of an incident in San Francisco some years ago now where female firefighters were allowed to drag a body down stairs rather than carrying it on their shoulders ( the eponymous fireman's carry). The feminist's argument was " well, dragging someone downstairs is better than dying. Which is of course true. But so is this: It's better to be carried downstairs than dragged. And men have the strength to do it. Women don't. Give me a fireman over a female firefighter any day. Lots of jobs the laptop class has never plied need physical strength. Pretend all you want that preferring men in those jobs is sexism, but it aint,
Never heard the term "area map"??
I've read the Lord of the Rings over two dozen times and I looked at that clue and said "R lots of vowels maybe an L?" and moved on... Don't ask me what the other R is.
The ducks were cute, it took me surprisingly long to suss some of them out. Like BATHTOY which made me laugh.
My younger son spent a year in Jordan while in college. He came back saying "PEACE" for both hellos and goodbyes. I think he's finally mostly stopped doing it.
Did anyone know URANO? I sure didn't.
@KnittyContessa: Whitney is the one who did the work of applying for the patent which he subsequently spent years in court defending against the illegal copies that proliferated. In the end, he made very little money before the patent expired. It is true that Catharine Littlefield Greene is believed to have made key suggestions to Whitney, but this claim has yet to be corroborated.
This little ducky in the middle of the grid was a bit of joy in a morning nearly devoured by the sadness of war. The grid and the theme must be the sweetest I’ve ever seen and a big thank you to the constructor.
Nice duck puz. As soon as M&A laid eyeballs on the puzgrid, knew what was bein D-pic-ted.
Plus, absolutely primo, that the 1-A clue got to be {Duck}, right outta the rodeo chute.
Like others, I mourn the absence of DAISY Duck, here. Also, Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
But -- if U are bothered by the general overall lack of grid-gals, U could consider these puzgrid modifications:
ACROSS.
41. Cereal BFF of Pop
43. Flat ___
45. Surfing noob
DOWN.
34. Lady "The Famous Five" kid lit author Blyton
35. Lady "Brave" singer Bareilles
36. Decorated, like a tree "trick" on Halloween, informally
However, this also gets rid of TANA, tho ... and TANA almost sounds like a plausible girls' name … [searching] ...
yep. Check out Tana Mongeau, on Google.
staff weeject pick: SAI. As in: "SAI what …?!?". Coulda easily have been replaced by POI, btw. I kinda like SAI, tho. Has some desperate cros-sword power, or somesuch.
Thanx for bein kind to our webfooted friends (cuz a duck could be somebody's brother), Mr. Gangi dude. And congratz on yer D-duck-table debut.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Indeed, the clue was fowl.
MFCTM.
The Bard (8:00)
If I recall correcty we have had the discussion about PEACE (and Shalom and Salaam) being greetings of hello and goodbye before. Regular readers need only think of @bo camp.
Cluing foul: NTH is not imaginary. Clearly, both Gangi and Shortz flunked algebra. Clue it as "Unknown ordinal" or "Variable ordinal" -- or "Last in line," but that would be a late-week clue.
Really enjoyed your write-up today, Malaika. I also love your name.
@KnittyContessa 11:13. Really good post. I didn't notice (should have) the all male white references. Brought a ton of memories as I'm sure it did to most of we females. (is "we" the correct usage?)
Anon 11:41. There are lots of things males do better than females and I wouldn't call it job sexism:
Men can be half-naked at home with all the family while watching the TV and drinking beer.
They can piss anywhere they want and make a contest out of it.
Wow...the list does go on, doesn't it....
When my husband falls on the floor, I can't pick him up. I call the fire department; we've actually become friendly because they come often. One of their female firefighters picks my husband up like he weighs ten pounds. I'll take her a million times over the over-weight male captain.
Yes, any bias or prejudice once established is justifiably allowed to continue as long as possible. History is sacred. That is why I am so upset about all those Catholics that are crossing our southern border.
Liked the 🧩 okay ✅ and the review/critique even better! 🎯
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@Whatsername (8:44 AM)
Thx, didn't know of this version:
Wordle2 113 3/6* #wordle2 #peace
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@Smith (9:23 AM)
Had no idea re: EULE; thx for that! :)
@Z (9:43 AM)
Oooops … 😉
___
td pg: 21:29 / W: 3*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@ aslightrain: its only a crossword puzzle mot the editorial page. You put in the letters the way the guy/gal who made it designed it. That's all there is to it!
I regret posting about the "males in the grid" highlighted by Malaika. I don't regret what I wrote but that I responded at all. And as I wrote earlier, I liked her write up and look forward to her coming comments this week.
42a sounds like something Lili Von Shtupp would say.
"Wet wood woe! Dwy wot! How unwomantic."
I liked this puzzle.
🟨 ←WABC's #63 song for 1966
@aslightrain Yes, true. Eli Whitney worked for Catherine Littlefield Greene. It is believed that she had the idea for the cotton gin, told Whitney and he worked with the slaves on the plantation to come up with the actual device. Unless it's changed, children are only taught about Whitney, no mention of Greene or the slaves. As Malaika pointed out, in a puzzle that referenced all males, white males, during women's history month, this particular clue really highlighted the issue for me.
Bugs Bunny is definitely a "they." Not a male
Fairly tough for a Weds, and I too never noticed the gridDUCK.
Good writeup, Malalaika, though I could do without the truly Rexian gender observations. I'll just point out that every DUCK is technically a female. A male DUCK is a drake, and of course doesn't lay eggs. His job, as far as I can see, is to swim around and look pretty. Indeed, that is true for most males in the animal kingdom, way more colorful than the females. That, and copulate at the command of the female. The funniest thing I ever saw was watching lions get it on in East Africa. There was no question the lioness was in charge, and her mate got slapped hard if he did not perform on command. (Indeed, the females seemed to do most of the hunting, though the males did most of the fighting).
SAI was a total Woe. I wish it was the Society of American Indians, but they of course formed the more crossworthy AIM.
old timer,
No. Ducks are.. ducks. Sure, male ducks are drakes. And female ducks are hens.
This is a sweet little Wednesday of a puzzle. I saw the grid art right off. I was surprised how hard it was to come up with DUCK synonyms but I managed in the end.
Post-solve, I went looking for a 5-letter word to start out my Wordle day (I chose CHAOS), and that's when I noticed, like @BarbaraS, the EULER/REUEL anagram. Bonus! (Curious, I looked up the other Tolkien initials, John Ronald Reuel, so not all were exotic.)
I'm so glad Joseph Gangi, in his xwordinfo notes, gave a shout-out to 67A and its "real" answer, GRAY DUCK. That's what we in MN say when we play the game. It means you have to come up with a different color for every DUCK playing the game, which I find more creative than just DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE.
Congrats, Joseph, on the debut!
not the first, just by reading the a few comments, but PEACE as in TATA really only existed, in a serious manner, during the Age of Aquarius, ya know "Shaft" and all that.
Gill,
Couple, three things.
Women too can be half naked at home with the family. They can even drink beer and watch TV.
And be assured women can also piss anywhere and make a contest of it. ( Google it. You'll get tens of thousands of hits with video proof).
As for your husband's persistent falling, I'd call a doctor if it my spouse were frequently falling. Sounds like he's in rough shape.
By the way, the word you wanted was "us" not "we". In your sentence nous is the object of the preposition of. The objective case of that personal pronoun is us. We is the nominative case.
@Z/9:32
I've always wondered: can the Mods know that a Black Name (and less likely, individual anonymice) isn't being stolen by someone? or are we just expected to respect the Black Names, and not do a Trump and elbow our way to the front?
@old timer - No, not all ducks are females. Ducks refers to the entire genus, it's just also the term for a female duck. All dogs are dogs, but female dogs are bitches and male dogs are dogs.
Isn't it more accurate to say that DONALD Duck is a eunuch? Along with every other cartoon male, outside of the various XXX worlds.
Loved the puzzle and the grid design. Only nit to pick: stoop DOWN, because that's the only way you can stoop!
Nonbinary Bugs Bunny is like a Tumblr account from 2011.
@albatross shell - Poe's Law. Obey it!
@johnk - See me second post.
@tea73 - I really liked R lots of vowels maybe an L. I briefly went "Roald?????"
@Everyone - It's John Ronald Reuel Tolkien. Quiz on Saturday.
@Boston Blackie - I don't know how the mods could tell if someone "stole" any nom de blog. Somebody made a concerted effort once to post as @Evil Doug, going so far as to steal his avatar image. It was pretty obviously not @Evil Doug and @Evil Doug would point out when it was the fake. That was pre-moderation, but I don't know how the mods could tell if it was happening. So, black or blue, I think it's just basic respect to not pretend to be somebody else. Also, if people post enough their "voice" does tend to come through. I'm pretty sure that I could change my nom de blog and avatar and you would all know it was me within five posts.
Since we are on the subject... Here's another oversimplification - You don't have to be a bigot (or even male) to be a sexist. Sexism is about systemic disadvantage that is often not readily apparent to the advantaged. Like thinking it's perfectly normal and not at all problematic to have only males in a puzzle.
BTW - The "Bugs is not male" is a funny take but he is coded as male fairly often, especially when there's a woman or a pin-up in the cartoon. There are plenty of examples of his gender being irrelevant, but there are also plenty of examples of him being 1940's and 50's stereotypically male.
anonymous 1:37,
Nope. Female ducks are hens, male ducks are drakes so far so good. But ducks refers to the entire genus? Um, what? What genus is that?
Ducks (and geese) are all in the FAMILY Anatidae. But they are spread over many genuses. I'm just a birder not an ornithologist, but even I know scoters are in the genus melanitta, and mergansers are in the genus mergus. I think redheads are in aythya...
Anyway. No, ducks are not in the same genus.
As for dogs, well, breeders use the term bitch its true, but I've only ever heard that term used when discussing a particular dog or its close relatives. And because I always hear it when speaking of breeding I also hear the term for the male-- a sire or stud. So, I guess what I'm saying is, you've gotten it all very wrong.
Never thought of that, but Daffy does lay eggs, and Bugs is whomever they want to be. Made me smile!
Would it really have been so hard to fit "canvas-like fabric" into the grid? Geez.
It's a slow workday, so let's play Anonymisogynist Fact-Check!
[raucous applause]
1) "Only men were mailmen in this country."
Putting aside that Anonymisogynist is utterly and hilariously missing KnittyContessa's larger point about language, let's see if he's correct.
According to an authority no higher than the United States Postal Service itself: "Women have transported mail in the United States since at least the mid-1800s." [source: https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/women-carriers.pdf]
[sad trombone plays, audience laughs]
Hm, things aren't looking good for Anonymisogynist already. Could he lawyer his way out of this? I can see him cracking his knuckles and readying his fingers over his keyboard right now, preparing to dazzle us with devastating logic: “Guess what, dummies?? I was referring to the 1700s. Checkmate!”
What do we say, studio audience, do we let him have this one?
[audience boos]
Sorry Anonymisogynist, but since KnittyContessa was referring to the word still being in widespread usage when she was a child (indeed, the word is still in widespread usage even today), and KnittyContessa was certainly not alive in the early 1800s, it appears that Anonymisogynist is hopelessly wrong.
(I'd also like to ask the audience to note that Anonymisogynist attempted to qualify his blanket statement with "At least for all intents and purposes." What does that even mean in this context? I'm imagining Anonymisogynist saying, "Okay, maybe there were women delivering the mail, but it's not like it was for an intent or purpose or anything." What a cut-up!)
And although Anonymisogynist goes on to argue that women simply didn't perform jobs like delivering the mail because their frail constitutions were incapable of withstanding the hard physical labor, per the earlier source, 40 percent of today's USPS mail carriers are female. What do you say, audience, can we get a round of applause for our postal ladies?
[cheers]
Stick around for more Anonymisogynist Fact-Check after the break!
Wordle: good grief this is not my day
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FWIW, there is this from the NYT Crossword submission guidelines: "Diversity in cultural references — for age, gender, ethnicity, etc. — is desired". So a puzzle like this sends a mixed message to potential constructors.
On the one hand, I'm happy that this puzzle got published, as a enjoyed it. On the other hand, it does make it seem as though the editorial department is not taking its own guidance seriously.
It's not that you might read "A Visit from St. Nick" on Christmas Eve (although you might), but rather the clue signifies the next words that TWAS opens onto — i.e. "Twas the night before Christmas" = Twas Christmas Eve. 🎅🏽
I may not have all my DUCKS in a row but I have 2 Birdies in a row.
Wordle 270 3/6
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Welcome back to Anonymisogynist Fact-Check!
Anonymisogynist, some bad news and good news. The bad news: your first "fact" was wrong and you look silly for making it. [audience goes "awwww"] The good news: you're still in the game! [audience goes "woooo"]
Let's see what else you've got to say.
2) [anecdotal evidence about female firefighters in San Francisco dragging a fire victim down stairs]
What exact incident is Anonymisogynist referring to here? It's impossible to say, since the details are so vague they may as well be hypothetical (just the way Anonymisogynist, who has a difficult time seeing others with any sort of complexity, likes them). Still, here's an instance that seems to align with the basic outline: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Female-firefighters-save-a-life-show-they-belong-2309674.php
OK, so in this news story, female firefighters do in fact appear to have dragged a fire victim down a flight of stairs. Wow Anonymisogynist, I guess we owe you an apology. We’ll go ahead and give this one a rating of Tr-—what’s that? I’m now receiving word that this story is missing important context. Please stand by.
A more complete version of this story: a team of firefighters consisting of three women and one male medic put themselves at immense personal risk to save a fire victim. The unconscious victim was obese and required a team of three, including the male medic (described in the article as a “big, burly guy”), to be carried out. Oh, and they saved the person's life.
Anonymisogynist has crassly turned a story of heroism into one of female inferiority by omitting absurdly crucial details. I simply can’t give this anecdote anything but a rating of False.
[sad trombone plays, children in the audience now openly pointing and laughing at Anonymisogynist]
Final round. Is there any hope for Anonymisogynist's redemption?
3) “Men have the strength to [carry people downstairs]. Women don’t.”
OK, I’m getting bored of my own shtick here, but this is amazingly untrue. It would be insulting to women everywhere to even pretend this was something I would need to research. It should go without saying that firefighters go through years of training and testing. Luckily for all of us, their standards are more rigorous than your misogynistic “Men strong, women weak” ones. (Of course, it’s entirely possible that the standards themselves contain gender-biased language, but I’m not under any delusions that Anonymisogynist will ever be capable of having that conversation.)
Anyway, Anonymisogynist is 0 for 3. Thanks for playing Anonymisogynist Fact-Check.
(You don’t need to tell me this is petty and I have like 700 better ways to spend my time. I’m well aware!)
Boy oh boy did Anonymisogynist just get skewered. Such an interesting character. Everyone knows that you can't fix stupid, so that explains why his comments are so frequently so absurdly foolish. He was very unlucky in several regards, with lack of intelligence and unfortunately he turned out to be a jerk as well.
The NE was just one big Natick. One middle name of JRR Tolkien? "proof' in baking? a clipping of a seldom-used (by me, anyway) app? All together? Really? Insanely difficult for a Wednesday.
I noticed two or three of the "Duck" clues, and checked to see if they were symmetrical. Only then did I notice that the grid was not symmetrical, wondered for a moment about the weird blob in the center, and then saw it. A duck!
I too had the same reaction as others that NTH couldn't be symmetrical, but on further thought I'm not so sure. In the series i, 2i, 3i, ... what do you call an unspecified member? Not ith, because that's the first one. Just like in the series 1 duck, 2, ducks, 3 ducks the nth element is the NTH element, not the 'duckth' element. To put it differently, ordinality is not dimensional.
Biggest problem was thinking URANO was related to the planet, so not wanting to put it in until I had all 5 crosses.
And just wondering why, with all those ducks around, none of them had eaten the EEL.
I'm pretty sure Daffy is not a duck, but a coot. Or maybe a hybrid, I think he has webbed feet.
PEACE!
Anon 4:40,
Great stats, but you omitted the most interesting from the place you cadged your data. Right there, in that small paragraph you lifted was this fact:
Female mail carriers increased in the 20th century from fewer than 100 to…”
Well, who cares? Your site makes my point for me.
I say, with the backing of your website, that for all intents and purposes, mailmen were, well, men. Sure, there were a few gals, less than 100 in a force which stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from The Gulf of Mexico to just below the gulf of St. Lawrence.
What do I win for winning, at least, this part of the argument?
@Anon 2:23 - You're right, I got my genus / family / class / whatever wrong. It was entirely outside the point I was making, but it was wrong. I find taxonomy soul crushing, so I won't even bother to look up what was right. You can mark this down in your list of accomplishments - you were right in one pointless thing on a crossword blog on 3/16/2022.
OTOH, you are 100% wrong on the rest. Bitch / Dog is used all the time when discussing dogs. Some will argue that dog = intact male, others that dog = male. If you were not hopelessly solipsistic you might have wondered, are certain words used in a way that I am unfamiliar with, and then done some research before telling someone they were wrong. But no, you are hopelessly solipsistic, and pathetic and a nuisance.
Oh, if you're also the anon who took a swipe at @Gill I's husband, it's my recollection that he's in a chair, and if I ever meet you I'll smack you for making that comment.
Didn’t see the bottom of a post.
I wasn’t referring to that episode.I was referring to SFFD’s testing requirements which were indeed relaxed to
accommodate women.
No one, least of all me, disputes that heroines exist.
@Anony 1:27. I actually had fun laughing at you comment to me.
While I'm sure it's true that there are a lot of women who sit half naked at home drinking beer and we piss anywhere we can....wouldn't you agree it's a male hormone god-give right rite of passage?
Not that it matters AT ALL but my husband has had 4 strokes. I (a female) have lifted him several times...he's heavy. I'd rather have a strong female firefighter pick him up in one fell swoop, give him a gentle smile and reassure him that he is in good hands.
I sure am loving the duck/drake...lion/lioness discussion. Don't even get me started with the platypus...
@Anonymisogynist Please don't confuse my mocking you for several hundred words with a genuine interest in anything you have to say. You've shown through your comments today and on other posts (you might hide behind anonymity, but it's always easy to identify you by your condescending tone and bigotry) to have the worst possible personality combination: cruel and dumb. Please don't ever talk to me again.
Urano has 51 citations according to Xword, with a definition related to heaven or sky. I tried putting this in one of my crossword submissions (not to the Times) and it was rejected as crosswordese. I recovered with the help of a translation app by cluing Urano as Uranus in Spanish. Crossword published.
@aslightasrain Fictional representatives of maleness don’t count (but a man playing a ludicrously stereotypical woman means he’s somehow less representative of maleness), Mike Myers and David Mamet somehow represent different centuries and fields, and Eli Whitney is responsible for ending slavery. Someone asked me to define a bad-faith argument, and I’d like to thank you for giving me so many options to choose from.
Box of fluffy ducks I say to all Kiwi solvers.
Best,
john
I'm a woman AND I DON'T EFFIN' CARE IF EVERY SINGLE NAME IN A CROSSWORD PUZZLE IS A MAN'S NAME. I. DON'T. EFFIN'. CARE. What a ridiculous thing to get all het up about.
Instead of counting up the number of men in today's grid, why not go out and do something practical and meaningful in the world that will make women's lives better in some way?
This certainly isn't it.
@GILL I.:
Having been through 3, count 'em 3, inguinal hernia repairs, I envy girls who, so far as I know (due to difference in anatomy), don't have to worry about that bit of failure. There're legends about wimins lifting crashed cars off of victims.
On a similar topic, I've always been puzzled about why it is that girl BB players end up with more, per capita, leg injuries than boys. According to the 'experts', it's because of the wider hip girdles of girls. But a 'wider stance' should be an advantage. It is for closeted gay men in bathrooms, after all.
Anonymisogynist gives off a masochist vibe as he just seems to enjoy getting punched in the face. He seriously does not realize that the only one in his entire life who actually gives a rat’s ass about anything that comes out of his mouth is him. I will concede that I have some empathy for his situation, but I will also say that honestly it is hard to be sympathetic toward someone who constantly chooses trying to discredit others instead of focusing on self-improvement. OMG - arguing about the number of women delivering mail a hundred years ago is sad. That guy needs to watch the movie Rain Man and focus in on the OCD because the whole intelligence/family support tie-in will escape him. OMG, still ROFLMAO.
*******Quizlette for today*******
In the James Thurber story "The Breaking Up Of The Winships":
1. Who does the wife (Marcia) consider to be the greatest actress ever? ___________________.
2. Who does the husband (Gordon) say is 20 times greater an actor than the wife's choice? ___________________.
@Anony 1:27...I forgot to say thank you for the grammar lesson. I guess I still don't know my genders.
@Anony 1:37...Would it be OK to thank you as well for coming to a mansel in distress?
@Anony 6:06...Ouch. Bet your glad you didn't go through 28 hours of child labor and have a very handsome nurse pat you on the head and tell you to just breath....
Why would anyone care about the race and sex of crossword puzzle answers. Sounds racist and sexist.
Discrimination and patriarchal leanings don't have to be overt or intended on order to exist. Look up "implicit bias" for further info on the topic.
@Gill I - No need. It was more my strike against overt evil as much as defense of your husband. Now, if I could just pummel M McConnell who just disgraced himself on The News Hour, and solidified his standing among the TBiT*s.
*True Believers in Trump
Do you really think all discrimination is consciously intentional?
Do you really think bad things should get a pass because they weren't purposefully intentioned? Or because you weren't the one who was offended?
Ironic that you complain about "wokeness" when your eyes are so clearly shut.
@Joe Dipinto 6:14 PM
Thanks for reminding me about that tragicomic tale. That was an argument over the relative acting chops of Garbo and Donald Duck.
Thurber wrote a lovely little story called "The Wood Duck," also worth a read.
Like it or not, white males accounted for a lot of history. It's no slam against anyone.
@8:51
It helps that they got to write the history.
Peace out! Is very 60’s. Ringo’s Starr usesPeace and Love.
Wonderful. Thank you.
@Barbara – I forgot about "The Wood Duck". I like that story too. They're both in my Thurber Carnival book.
It’s been a busy day of ultimate so I hadn’t checked in since my 1:46 comment. Probably just as well. But let me add a “nicely done” to several of you. If you’ve read my comments before you’ll know which ones I mean.
DECAY ISSUE
DONALD NEVER drank ONESHOT -
it HOLDS INSTA-pleasure -
"I KNEAD TO AVOID DRYROT,
NONSTOP - HOLY TREASURE!"
--- HERR ELI EULER
This puzzle was an odd duck. Lots of theme. Some were good some were so-so. But a great debut nonetheless. So congrats to JG. What bugged me the most was the lost opportunity to fix the lack of symmetry between 19A and 58A. MAMET was clued as part of the theme but 19A was not. All it would have taken to tie it in was to clue 19A like so: Duck the ______ .
For 55 Across, how about "Traditional Asian weapon that looks and sounds like a Greek letter"?
SAI = PSI ? No? (SIGH)
Of course I got it all but one or two letters. JRR sure had a name I do not remember ever hearing. ouch.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
DNF. Cmon man, REUEL, TANA & SAI? On a Wednesday??? That's above my pay grade. Picture's cute, but yike! Some of those clues! Opening on Christmas Eve? Do not open until the weekend. URANOver the line, dude.
Wait. Daffy Duck is white? Other than the whites of his eyes, what part of him is white?
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