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Game pieces in Othello and Connect Four / WED 10-19-22 / Looney Tunes bunny / Genre for Luther Vandross / John of "The Suicide Squad" / Home to over seven billion people / Swirl in a stream
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
Constructor: Ryan Patrick Smith
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Tom Swifties — Theme answers are puns that follow a specific structure ... here, Wikipedia can explain this better than I ever could
Word of the Day: CHOUX (46A: Pastry dough used in crullers and beignets) —
Choux pastry, or pâte à choux (French: [pɑ.t‿a ʃu]), is a delicate pastry dough used in many pastries. Basic ingredients usually only include butter, water, flour and eggs (auxiliary ingredients and flavorings are also added).
- IN VERY POOR TASTE (17A: "You cooked this? It's *disgusting*!" said Tom ___)
- INCONSOLABLY (26A: "What do you mean there are no PlayStations left in stock?" asked Tom ___
- UNIRONICALLY (48A: "I'm worried I may have anemia," said Tom ___)
- FRANKLY INCENSED (63A: "You guys are supposed to be 'Wise Men' and *these* are the gifts you bring a newborn?!" asked Tom, ___)
Here's the deal: Tom Swifties ... are an old thing. They are in corny old "joke" books, probably, and they are definitely on websites (over and over and over again). In the end, what you have are ... adverbs. Well, one adverbial phrase, and then adverbs. That's it. You (yes you) can go to a Tom Swifties page on the internet, just find a bunch of adverbs that will fit symmetrically in a grid, and bam, you have a "theme" now, congrats.
That's a bit harsh IMO, as the finds today do seem novel within the genre, but in general I agree it can be hard to get excited about a theme/concept that feels stale without any sort of new twist. Though, I'm sure some people appreciate a well-done version of a standard concept.
Anyhoo, for this set specifically, I quite enjoyed the middle two, though the first and last didn't quite land for me. The VERY felt a bit out of place in the first answer (I think IN POOR TASTE is the more common in-the-language phrase), and the last one felt just a bit too contrived, though I did appreciate the attempt. But also ... maybe the frankincense and myrrh aren't the most exciting gifts, but they brought gold!!! If I ever have a child and you bring me gold as a gift, I promise not to make a crossword slandering you.
 |
| I had no idea what myrrh looked like ... apparently it's this |
Outside the theme, there weren't any long (>7) slots, but some fun stuff in CHEW TOY, SPA DAYS, etc. And pretty smooth too, with only YAR, ECCE, INDC standing out to me as dings. Let's not normalize IN[city name] as crossword fill! (So easy to say as a solver! If you ever see me using this in a puzzle I make, please do not hold this against me)
 |
| This is an apatosaurus. It does, indeed, have a prominent NECK |
I loved the vibe that ANAL, SEXY, LMFAO brought to the puzzle! Of course they were clued a lot more tamely than they could, but I enjoyed seeing all the somewhat boundary-pushing fill. There were also quite a few fun clue moments. I chuckled at the reduplicative "reduplicative" clues for ISIS and NENE, and was a fan of the fresh (to me) angles for SMOG, ASAHI, and others. Clue of The Puzzle for me was [One foot in "the grave," poetically speaking] for IAMB -- a really fun aha that made the whole puzzle worth it! (A foot in poetry is a measure of poetic meter, and an IAMB and a common type of foot)
- 3D: Relief pitcher's success (SAVE) — I know zero things about baseball. Every time I see a baseball clue I skip it. Honestly, I'm proud of myself when I even recognize a clue is a baseball clue
- 68A: Het (up) (RILED) — I had never heard of "het up" before! Wonder if it's just a gap for me or whether this is regional or generational
- 25A: Support group associated with the Twelve Steps (ALANON)— This puzzle taught me that AA (which I was familiar with) and Al Anon (which was new to me) are two different groups that serve different audiences
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101 comments:
What on earth is “TWOD”?
I had the "O" in [kind of column, 55A], confidently dropped in Oped, and was basically screwed for about 20 minutes.
ONES over TWOD was a fun little combo that made up for my normal annoyance at spelling oneD, TWOD, threeD, to the nth dimension
Gonna listen to Luther Vandross and Kanye Slow Jamz all day at work tomorrow
Easy breezy until that nook of TWOD, ONES, INDC, NOONAN, CHOUX, and ECCE. Kind of ridiculous when you see them listed out like that.
Clerics, druids, paladins do NOT do magic. Leave that to wizards and illusionists. Healing, maybe, but not magic.
Played harder than the usual Wednesday for me, more like an easy-ish Friday, took a while to get a toe hold but easier after I got the first theme answer. Never heard of LMFAO. Franklyincensed is pretty cute.
Easy. No erasures and LMFAO (as clued) and CHOUX were the only WOEs.
The Tom Swifties were clever and amusing, liked it.
@Rafa - I knew “het up” but it’s been decades since I’ve heard it used in conversation.
I was bothered by MAGIC: Druids, clerics, and paladins do not cast MAGIC spells, they cast Clerical or Druid spells, which are different than Magic User spells.
I heard “het up” growing up in the south.
@Rafa, I have to disagree: the "Wise Men" themer was the best, worth the price of admission.
laredO before EL PASO at 6D. Wrong classic country song. Misread the clue at 47D as past tense and had HAd AN IN. ONEd at 55A looked okay for a type of column, but the giveaway was that it would have been odd to have it neighboring TWO-D without a cross reference clue.
Thanks for filling in, Rafa. Sad day.
Tom Swifties are old, really old. So very old. Absolutely not my cup of tea when solving an NYTXW.
HET as the past tense of HEAT is something I have known for years, perhaps because of the unfortunate experience of living in Texas for a while
Really wanted type of column to be OPED instead of ONES. This just made that little chunk even more painful as even after I cleaned it up it took me some time to appreciate that TWOD was TWO-D instead of some sort of text-ese. Haven’t seen TAR in forever.
I did the same! I knew it had to end in an S from HAS but couldn’t parse it out for the life of me.
"Don't drink; don't smoke; what do you do?" Tom asked adamantly.
Opposite experience to Rafa on the clue for 21A, which I though was forced.
But generally, the constructor clearly likes wordplay, as seen in the theme and in a lot of the cluing. Made for an overall pleasant solve.
Ah Rafa, poor sex. Freed to great heights in the ‘60s, reborn as internet porn, losing prominence to online gaming for excitement, now it whimpers into the tight little grid of crossword puzzles. Boundary pushing or juvenile titter? Edgy editing or cluelessness? What passes for Sexy lands in a few little squares with a dusty thud in the back of a newspaper? It’s a sad ass situation.
I’d like to thank Great British Baking Show for Choux. Wish I hadn’t hung onto OpEd (hi @Joaquin) for Ones, but it was the sloppiness of imagining the unwanted past tense Ha(d) An In that caused the problem. And so I puzzled mightily at the best part of the puzzle, Two D, In DC, Ones. The French Marquis de LaTefee was a great hero of the Revolutionary War. It’s true. Too bad it wasn’t clued that way.
Same, and I basically had to guess randomly at the answer. What is a ONES column?
Seemed like a lot of potential trouble spots, especially for a Wednesday - Latin crossing French ECCE/CHOUX gets a thumbs down from me. Not sure about the clue for TWOD - it’s a legit clue and answer, just seems out of place (and to complicate matters, it crosses INDC). I imagine LFMAO may cause a few turned heads among the uninitiated as well. But these are all wheelhouse nits - if you enjoyed the theme, the rest of it probably fell into place pretty nicely.
I had no use for these Swifty quips when they littered Boys Life - still don’t and totally down with Rex’s disdain of them as themers.
Some decent fill here - liked CHEW TOY and HAS AN IN. CHOUX was a WOE. Yesterday we have SOT - today ALANON. the only NOONAN I recognize.
I know the term reduplicative - but I’ve always known NENE, ISIS etc as tautonyms.
EL PASO
Solved as a themeless - here’s hoping we get a fun Thursday.
Why is "In very poor taste" a Tom Swifty?
And what is LMFAO?
Speaking of gold, frankincense, and myrrh…Matthew includes the story of the magi in his gospel as a way to identify for his Jewish Christian audience who the infant recipient will be. Gold is the gift for a king. Incense is used by the high priest in the Temple. And myrrh is one of the spices the women at the tomb at the end of his story intend to use on Jesus’ dead body. Cute Christmas story, eh?
I loved this puzzle. Got stuck a bit on the final theme answer and took forever to finish, but it was worth it.
The downs throughout are SEXY. {Just want to say "hey" to you li'l gingko loving lonely NYTXW junior editors. Got a tee-hee from your POOR TASTE, your F in LMFAO, and your ANAL. I hear your childish cries for help, and if it makes those lost years of studying the great literature of the world and that spiffy and wildly expensive diploma seem like less of a waste, I am clutching my pearls in your honor. Feel free to drag us through fewer of your gutters.}
Never heard of an apotosaurus, but now I know about those necks and goodness me does that Wikipedia article go on and on.
Every one of us put in BUGS bunny, didn't we? Sneaky devil.
Pronounced with theatrical flair, "the grave" doesn't have to be an IAMB.
Uniclues:
1 Teenager bids adieu, promising not to be good.
2 Bed and breakfast missed credit card payment deadline.
3 A number 2 pencil.
4 It's late at night. You have business needing attention. The room is pitch black. Suddenly you feel something soft, plush, and slimy between your toes.
5 A previous president according to detractors.
1 "SEE YA. I'LL SASS."
2 INN LATE FEE WOE
3 MAGIC TWO-D AIDE
4 RUN INTO CHEW TOY (~)
5 SIR ANAL NECK
"This puzzle took longer to solve than most Wednesdays," I said CLUELESSLY.
Tom T
As a relatively new solver I don't mind finding themes that have been used frequently in the past - they are new for me! And I enjoyed figuring them out.
So thank you to Mr. Smith.
Oh, and i never heard of Het Up either. Maybe not NY slang?
An arithmetic term: Start by adding all the figures in the ones column and then ...")
Same trouble spot worsened by INDC and TWOD.
Fun puzzle, but the magic clue was askew. A list of D and D professions which have some magic, but are the more specialized at, better at healing is off. That's like giving 3 shades of blue as a clue for color.
Of course OPED before ONES, but I fixed that in a hurry. Resisted BUGS because it wouldn't work with any adjacent answers, and briefly considered DODO before NENE, also an instant reject. LMFAO as clued was a WTF, but I even remembered CHOUX, but where that came from who knows. Everything else was pretty straightforward so a speedy time, probably.
Tom Swifties were the rage many ages ago when I was a youngster. Eventually they evolved into having the joke be in the verb, like, "I'm bailing out!" Tom explained, which I thought was an improvement.
Nice to see a reference to a couple of famous PAULs. Only one backwards ROO in POOR, as far as I can see. I'm still way behind though.
Nice enough Wednesdecito, RPS. Really Pretty Simple, but maybe some younger solvers will get an insight into what used to make us laugh. Thanks for some fun.
I struggled with this for a while but once I figured out what was going on, it fell in a very quick whoosh. Last answers I put in were ONES (first it was OpEd) and TWOD, thinking neither one could possibly be correct, but I got Mr Happy Pencil. Yay! Finally I figured them out. Cool! Is there a term for when you get a right answer but have no idea why it’s right ? (Other than lucky guess?)
Magic joybursts for me the moment INCONSOLABLY and UNIRONICALLY hit me. And hey, what a gift joybursts are, no?
So creative for half the Swifties to not end in Y, plus we had grid neighbors SEXY EDDY, MAGIC FRANK, and EDGY LOLA to join the party. In addition, there was a double-letter fest in rows 7 and 8, not to mention the two reduplicative answers near AGAIN. Then there was the lusciously devilish gotcha clue – [Kind of column] – that screamed OPED even if that word didn’t share two letters with the actual answer ONES. It certainly gotchaed me for a bit, and I see here I'm not alone.
So Ryan threw a ton into the box today – it was like a piñata! You gave it a whack and you got so much back! Thanks for this, Ryan!
I thought Swifties had to end with an -ly adverb. So 17A screwed me up in more ways than one.
CHOUX is not the dough used in classic French beignets, and why bother with any other kind???).
@kitshef: That is the best Swifty ever.
What is one’s??!
AMY: Confession time, I enjoy Tom Swifties and got a kick out of Frankly Incensed. Peppy write up, Rafa: thank you. As for 67 Across, there's a college in Delta, Mississippi, Delta State, whose mascot is the Fighting Okra.
AMY: Confession time, I enjoy Tom Swifties and got a kick out of Frankly Incensed. Peppy write up, Rafa: thank you. As for 67 Across, there's a college in Delta, Mississippi, Delta State, whose mascot is the Fighting Okra.
Frankly, I disagree with Rafa about 63A. Best clue/answer in the puzzle.
The Swifty I always remember from back in the day: "I've dropped my toothpaste!" said Tom, crestfallenly.
@kitshef
Oh, you. How long have you held "adamantly" in store for this occasion? ;-)
Since my sensibilities have already been coarsened this morning, I guess I'll explain to those who are asking that LMFAO stands for "Laughing My Fucking Ass Off". Often it appears at the end of ROTFLMFAO where ROTF is "Rolling On The Floor". Internet-speak, you see. You're welcome.
Yes, and ANAL, tee-hee. I think Ezersky is one of those junior editors of which @Gary Jugert speaks, because he sees to it that that word appears with alarming regularity in Spelling Bee. That and "enema" and "dildo" and "fellate". Meanwhile, SEXY evokes Borat's "[make] sexy time" which I was surprised to see Mr. Clean say yesterday in the course of Rex's write-up.
The other thing people are asking about is ONES. This means "ones column", as in "tens column", "hundreds column", etc., when teaching schoolchildren arithmetic.
I didn't put "Bugs" in because I was already tipped that this wouldn't jibe with the pirate cry, but yeah. I can't recall for the life of me what LOLA looks like, but a few synapses told me that had to be right.
ECCE Homo ("Behold the man") is what Pontius Pilate said about Jesus just before he was crucified. It's also the title of a slim and rather peculiar book by Nietzsche, one where I can never quite tell the extent to which he's putting us on. (It was finished shortly before his final plunge into madness.) You gotta see it; it's really something.
GLENN was sneaky. I like it.
"Tiles" before DISCS.
What wonderfully amusing Tom Swifties -- and they're all new!!!!
I went to Xword first, just to see if the constructor had come up with these himself, and he did. In any event, I certainly had never heard any of them before. Nor were they easy to see coming in advance -- at least not for me. They weren't even easy to see when I had crosses.
I could do a puzzle like this every day of the week! What fun! There's a playfulness here and a love of wordplay that makes me think that Ryan Patrick Smith would be an amusing and entertaining fellow to have lunch with. Loved every minute of this puzzle.
@Kenneth Jones (7:47) -- It's hardly an unusual name. But you don't happen to be the Kenneth Jones from the BMI Workshop, are you?
Frankly, my fave clue/answer in the puzzle is 64A. Very clever.
And don't want to brush past my fave Swifty from back in the day: "Oh no! I've dropped my toothpaste!" said Tom, crestfallenly.
Hey All !
Good ole Tom. He Swiftly went through the puz. Is there an opposite to a Tom Swifty? Like, "He went through the test with great difficulty," Tom said easily.? Maybe a Mot Twifty? Har.
Liked this puz. Does seem more TuesPuz-ish, IMHO. I know, I know, stop saying that kind of stuff (he said puzzlingly.)
I don't see any other -LY endings outside the theme, so that's nice. I can see ECCE/CHOUX cross causing some people problems. I know ECCE for some odd reason. CHOUX was new to me. Is it pronounced like CHEW(TOY)? Or CHō?
bugs, natch, first for LOLA. bLOB for GLOB. Never did parse TWOD. Saw as a one word Huh? New name for a political Twit INDC? "He has good intentions, but he's a TWOD." Har.
Too bad the center Across wasn't a Themer. "Nice rubber suit" Tom said LATExly.
Terrible, I know!
SEE YA.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Wordle 487 4/6*
🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
onelook.com script: ??ir?-thd
Thx, Ryan, for the Wednes. challenge! :)
Hi Rafa; good to see you again, and thx for your excellent write-up! :)
Med+
Technical dnf at ONEd / HAd AN IN. Obviously didn't pay attention to the tense. First thot for 'column' was OpEd, hence the 'd', and after getting INDC, ONEd seemed ok for a ONE down 'column'. Besides, what's not to like about ONEd being just above TWOD? Took me forever to hunt down the error.
The other issue was thinking I must have gotten something wrong at LMFAO.
Big OKRA fan here. It's a staple on my grocery list.
CHEWy offering, notwithstanding the 'Gumbo STEW'; enjoyed the meal, tho. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Sorry about the repeat. It was so nice, she said it twice, Tom said, repeatedly.
@ TTrimble
Your comment did make it! Both times. Surprise...
I knew the expression but not that there was a duo called LMFAO.
Tom Swifties seem a little stale, maybe I'll have a banana instead, she said appealingly.
Actually I thought 63A was the best of the bunch (bananas again).
Rex News
Enjoyed this one. A the same do-overs already noted, plus bLOB. And now I know what Tom Swifties are. Old as they apparently are, and as I am, they're new to me, which is always good, almost. Some fun fill too. And maybe i'll read ECCE Homo again. Don't want much more from a puzzle.
I have never seen a recipe for Beignets that used Pate a CHOUX. Beignets are traditionally made with a yeast risen dough.
In the past I’ve groaned at the Tom Swiftie puzzles but lo and behold I thought this was fun! I got stuck for WAY too long on 52D trying to remember the name of Daft Punk before I just gave in to crosses. I FINALLY got Daft Punk from searching “electronic duo helmets” post solve. During solve when I had L- - - O, all I could think of was LizzO who I know is not electronic nor a duo.
@jcai…I would describe “het up” more as older folks’ slang as a “Oh, don’t get so het up about it.” For some reason, I always associate it with the “het up” person as being somewhat unjustified in being RILED.
I’ve decided I am disappointed with myself for NOT thinking of OpEd at first. Not that I thought of ONES either cuz I was stuck thinking there might be a column with fewer letters than Doric or Ionic…
Yeah, as for the Looney Tunes bunny I did NOT put in Bugs but for the wrong reason. I thought “Bugs was Warner Bros.” Um yes, but no. Post solve I saw that Looney Tunes AND Merrie Melodies were divisions of WB.
Really liked Rafa's intro. Bright and smart. Happy to learn the difference between AA and AlAnon, to see a picture of the dinosaur, ditto for frankincense.
I don't get the "adamantly" Swiftie.
UNIRONICALLY is the one I didn't like.
I guess LOLA came on the scene after my cartoon-watching days.
Good puzzle. Crusty. Some new stuff.
Me too but what the hell is "twod"? 57A
@mathgent
Adam Ant is a pop musician of 80's vintage who had a song with a lyric, "Don't drink, don't smoke, what do you do?"
I first heard about Tom Swifties on this blog. Whoever he is/was, he'd end up giving me a swift kick in my pate a CHOUX.
I didn't STEW for long....au contraire...I enjoyed the play. If they are supposed to be absurd, then I think this is the way to go. Except....they made sense and they were funny.
When I started, I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. Is this an irony thing? Oh, wait, let's have some fun with our language and play a guessing game. I felt like a TYKE playing TAPS on my CHEW TOY.
IN VERY POOR TASTE was the happy feet moment. I skipped everything else and dove down to INCONSOLABLY. It made it harder but words like ASAHI, OUTRO, ECCE and LMFAO meant nothing to me. I have a question though...Couldn't that apatosaurus also have a large nose?
FRANKLY INCENSED was my last entry. I had fun with that one. It was gold....
@Rex
So sorry to hear of Olive's passing. 🙏. Thx to @Z (10:00 AM) for the link.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
That little nook of "INDC", "ONES" and "TWOD" (I see it now, "2-D"), was rough, not made easier by the fact that I really wanted "OPED" for 55A (can't say I've thought about a "ones column" since grade-school math).
Nevertheless, I enjoyed today. I think Tom Swifties are uncommon enough now that they didn't feel too tired ("INCONSOLABLY" was especially good). All in all, good Wednesday.
Finished this crazy puzzle, but I'n not sure how. Can someone explain TWOD for a flat? Was LOLA a friend of Bugs Bunny in Looney
Tunes? Why is ONES an answer for a kind of column?
Didn’t mind the Swifties at all and enjoyed the theme but had a few stumbles along the way. No idea what TWOD is short for, had to guess at ECCO/CHOUX, didn’t know CENA and who is this ALAN ON guy? Just kidding. DEMONSTRABLY before INCONSOLABLY which is obviously much much better.
All the themers were quite clever but I particularly liked UN-IRON-ICALLY and FRANKLY INCENSED. However I have to say “I thought LMFAO was IN VERY POOR TASTE,” she said pearl clutchingly.
@Knitty Contessa — Gingko biloba beignets are made with choux pastry, Tom said doughtily.
Choux Choux Ch'Bougie
UNIRONICALLY sounded pretty desperate on first sightin, but hey -- it's in the Official M&A Help Desk Dictionary, sooo … ok. But … INDC/TWOD ... har
Like @JD, M&A's thanx to the British Bakin Show, for his knowledge about CHOUX. Still, cannot believe that M&A brain retained that.
Funny theme, so M&A liked it immediately. fave themer is definitely UNIRONICALLY.
staff weeject pick: YAR. Bravely done, as the constructioneer coulda just gone with a more standard EAR/EDGE, instead. Only 10 weejects to choose from, btw. Better YAR clue: {2.25 feet??}.
some high spots, Tom said loftily: CHOUX + CHEWTOY. MAGIC. NECK with an Apatosaurus. Marty Robbins's ELPASO tune reference. One little kiss and Felina, goodbye.
Thanx for that nice hunk of fun, Mr. Smith dude, M&A said gratitudously.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
@OFL
Just learned of Olive's passing. A big hug to you 🦖.
This one grew on me as all my complaints turned out to be due to my misunderstanding -- e.g., I hadn't realized that the quotation marks around "the grave" were meant to designate the foot in questions (I'd been thinking, but that's a spondee plus an anapest! If I'm right about what you call a pair of stressed syllables); and then that the three dots in the clue for EDGY were not a blank to be filled in (as in, e.g., EDGe) but just a connector between two definitions. But while I figured out that TWOD = TWO-D, an apartment number, I do think the "for short" should be "for example."
My problem with the columns was worse than most. I began with my usual difficulty reading the tiny clue numbers in the grid, and trying to put it where MAGIC was -- I had the IC, so left the ion/dor kealoa blank. Then I finally noticed that error and put in OpEd, ready to fault the puzzles grammar for cluing HAdANIN in the present tense. So when I figured it all out, I thought it was brilliant. I loved the Tom Swifties.
I have no idea how to make a brioche, so that didn't bother me. And neither puff pastry nor millefeuille would fit, so I managed to dredge up CHOUX. (Question: is that because the "leaves" of flour lay tightly on top of each other like cabbage leaves? All I can think of.)
My sons played D&D incessantly for about 3 years. The younger one wrote several school papers on thinks like "Irish mythology" using D&D manuals as a primary resource, and got As on all of them. (Luckily, they have academic sounding titles and authors.) But I never learned the details of the game, so MAGIC was good enough for me.
@Rafa, thanks for filling in, and for your comments!
And my condolences to Rex; thanks for letting us know, @Z. Hope to see you back here sometime.
TWOD is short for two-dimensional, he stated flatly.
@Rex-Ah crap. So sorry.
@Z-Thanks for posting.
Thanks for explaining. So sorry to hear the news. Pets always take your heart when they go.
Oh, @Rex...So sorry to hear you lost your little fur baby. Condolence being sent your way.
@Rex,
So very sad, my 2 furrballs and I send condolences. Tears are streaming down my cheeks.
@Rex: The news about your precious Olive is heartbreaking. Few losses touch our hearts so deeply as the parting of a beloved pet. May you be comforted by your sweet memories and the knowledge that you gave her a most wonderful life while she was here.
So sorry for your great loss, Michael. Hope your memories will become a balm in time. Thank you, @Z, for letting us know. (From Walk Away Renee)
I love Tom Swifties and these seemed fresh and fun. The first was my least favorite, the last was the best for me, though INCONSOLABLY hits the Swifty spot really nicely.
I did the OpEd ONES switcheroo but it didn't take long, just the time it took to read 51D.
RPS, nice jobe, thanks!
Rex, so sorry about Olive, my deepest condolences.
@Z, thanks for the heads-up.
Two dimensional. Like one less than 3-D
Note for the future: Babs Bunny is also a Looney Tunes character.
@TTrimble - a couple of years, probably. I came up with it around the time of a previous Swifties puzzle, but I did not solve that one until the following day, so my post was seen by the Syndies but almost no one else. I'm still waiting to get rich off of it.
@Bob Mills - TWOD, or TWO-D, is short for two-dimensional.
Two dimensional, ie. no depth, ie. flat
I dug this puzzle, he said trenchantly.
@Rex. So sorry about Olive. Losing a pet is so wrenching emotionally.
Fervent followers of @egs (hi Mom) will recall that i recited an old Carnak the Magnificent joke a few weeks ago. That same joke appears (in non-Carnak order) at 10A today.
I love any wordplay, so Tom Swifties are ok by me. Thanks, Ryan Patrick Smith
My condolences to Rex as well. As it happens, my wife and I had to put down one of our two cats on Monday, and so I definitely commiserate. It hurts.
@Rex - so sorry. Cats are the best.
Ugh, I get “2D”, but “TWOD” is only half-abbreviated. No one would ever write it that way!
@TTrimble. Very sad. Sorry for you, and for your wife.
This is my first time encountering Tom Swifties since really getting into the NYTXW, and if they're as old and hoary as they seem to be, judging by comments, then I have to imagine this puzzle is an intentional throwback. Considered in that light, I liked it.
Brief animation primer: LOLA Bunny debuted in the movie Space Jam in 1995. She's never made much of an impression that I've noticed, except for in the short-lived Looney Tunes Show, (Cartoon Network, 2011–13), a sitcom take on the characters, akin to the equally short-lived The Muppets (ABC, 2015). I loved both and wish they had lasted longer. In TLTS, Lola was voiced by Kristen Wiig, and had a one-sided sort of stalker relationship with Bugs. It's funnier than that makes it sound.
I seem to recall LMFAO putting on one of the less popular Super Bowl halftime shows, but then, I'm not an expert on Super Bowl halftime shows.
Wrong at first:
● chipS instead of DISCS
● OpEd instead of ONES, though a Spidey sense told me quickly that it wasn't right even though it fit like a glove
● Once I got the theme, I tried to do 48A without crosses and put down "without irony." I kinda like my phrasing better, not gonna lie. Oh well, what can you do when you live in a CHOUX?
Agreed. Clue written by a non D&D player. Wizard. Sorcerer. Paladin? No
Agree with Anonymous at 8:30. Swifties must end in -LY adverbs. The INPOORTASTE one doesn't even contain an adverb. I guess the whole thing is an adverbial phrase or something. But No.
The clue for LMFAO was some forgettable trash pop music group that nobody cares about who performed at a Superbowl 10 years ago? Really? Who actually knew that answer???
Catching up late to @Z's 10:00 link. Olive looks so incredibly sweet and laid back and loving. I'm truly sorry for your loss, Rex.
@TTrimble
🙏s for you and your family on the passing of your cat.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Haven't been around today, but just had to appear to offer condolences to Rex. As a lifelong companion of cats, I have some idea of how Rex and his family are feeling and I send them my love.
Well, I am much relieved not to have been the only person who had anbitnof a struggle getting HAS AN IN rather than HAd. I completely missed the word play on “column” at 55A which left the incorrect OpEd in and made IN DC impossible to suss out.
In that same little chunk was TWOD. Even correctly entered, that one didn’t translate to TWO D until I wasnsitting in a meeting b
Tom Swifties get their name from a series of YA mystery novels featuring boy detective/inventor Tom Swift. All were titled "Tom Swift and his Electric Bicycle" or something similar. The texts were full of puns. The one I remember best was "Let us" said Tom, crisply. Our family had about 20 volumes, I really enjoyed them when I was maybe 10 years old.
What does WOE mean?
Knowing the situation all too well - my sympathies @Rex and @TTrimble.
Just awful!
My sympathies to @Rex and @TTrimble as well. I haven’t had a kitty since I found out my daughter was close to deathly allergic (My BFF took the cat and I had visiting privileges) but I still have a special place in my heart for ki-kis! May Olive rest in peace as well as the Trimble ki-ki…
I just HAD to come here on a weekday, since I also did not get ONES and TWOD. I'm still shaking my head. DNF because of these two. Grr.
Loved all the themers – they're both clever and groany. But my favorite is the fill-in-the-joke at 10A because it made me laugh. Is there such a thing as a dad joke you need to read to get it?
Thanks, Ryan, for the fun Wednesday!
Just read the commentariat and want to add my sympathies to @Rex and @ TTrimble. I’ve spent most of my adult life with cats and also send love in this grieving time.
Anonymous 5:54pm…What On Earth?
Close (not DOD GLENN), @M&A. It's "One FINAL kiss, and Felina, goodbye." I memorized those lyrics, don't know why--except to point out the illogic of the whole thing. Example: There are a posse's worth of armed men on horseback waiting at Rosie's BACK door; yet our hero goes there instead of the front: how much worse could that have been?
Maybe the place was closed. Anyhoo...let's get to the puzz. I always liked the cleverer Swifties, of which we have four examples here. Cruel misdirect on the bunny: we all wrote BUGS, didn't we? I don't even remember any LOLA. Also Nose before NECK, not a dino expert.
Fine for a Wed., birdie.
Wordle par via no greens: BBYYB, BYBBY, YYBYB, GGGGG.
ILL IN' & ABLE
LOLA will SASS EDDY,
FRANKLY she's AVID for men,
VERY RILED up and ready,
OHNO, she's ATIT AGAIN.
--- SIR PAUL MASON
I tawt I taw a puddytat - it TWOD in on widdo tat feet, like the fog.
TWOD. Use THAT in a sentence today - amaze your friends, scare your enemies, worry your mother.
TWOD
dats all!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for CWOSSWOHDS
And PS - I adore Tom Swifties - or TWIFTIES
A classic French beignet is made with a choux dough; a New Orleans beignet is made with a yeast dough.
LMFAO ?? What the.. ?? Not a difficult puz, but a somewhat annoying one for all the "out there" answers. Moving on to Thursday and hoping it does not bring a TURKEY, except for my Thanksgiving meal.
@anon 5:44: Laughing My F***ing Ass Off
DNF because of the cluster**** of INDC-TWOD-ONES. Bad. Bad. Not Good!
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