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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- CORN KERNELS (18A: Edible parts of an ear)
- PIMPLES (23A: Benzoyl peroxide targets)
- CHAMPAGNE BOTTLE (40A: Item smashed before a ship's maiden voyage)
- WHEELIE (53A: Basic bicycle trick)
Adora, known by her alter-ego She-Ra, is a fictional superheroine in the Masters of the Universe franchise. She is introduced as the protagonist of the 1985 Filmation series She-Ra: Princess of Power and again appears in the 2018 reboot She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. A series of toys under her name was produced by Mattel in 1984.Her first published appearance was in the 1984 minicomic "The Story of She-ra", which, like the subsequent He-Man and She-Ra animated feature film, introduced her as He-Man's twin sister, Princess Adora, kidnapped by Hordak in her infancy. That minicomic, which features He-Man, the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull, and Castle Grayskull itself, also features one of the very first published appearances of both Hordak and Catra. The minicomic was shipped with the 1985 released original She-Ra action-figure/doll.
In the 1985 series, She-Ra was intended to extend the appeal of the Masters of the Universe setting by being of interest to young girls in the same way that He-Man appealed to young boys. Filmation writers Larry DiTillio and J. Michael Straczynski created the backstory for the property. She-Ra was introduced in the movie The Secret of the Sword as Force Captain Adora of the Horde ruling Etheria, but turned out to be Princess Adora, the long-lost twin sister of He-Man, Prince Adam. (wikipedia)
• • •
The Downs-only solve was a cinch today. Only two significant hesitations in the whole puzzle, first at RUN-ON (30AD: Yammerer's sentence type) and then, worse, at 59D: Crackle, as a fire (SPIT). Never heard of anyone refer to a fire as "SPITting." News to me. Had SP- and still no idea. But once I worked out all the nearby Down answers, the -IT became undeniable. Problem solved. Nothing else made me pause for more than a few seconds. I puzzled for a bit over how to write C3PO (or some "informal" version of his name) into the grid, but that didn't take long (9D: Humanoid robot who appears in all nine "Star Wars" episodes, informally). I would've known SHE-RA even without the (ridiculous, condescending) anagram part of the clue, but I'm a little surprised to see her clued as a "comic book character." I mean, true enough, she debuted in a "mini comic" (apparently—see "Word of the Day," above), but she actually gained fame as the title hero in the animated *TV series*, "SHE-RA: Princess of Power" (a spin-off of "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe"). He-Man and SHE-RA were possibly the first major cartoon series that I felt too old for. In terms of TV addictions, I had moved on from cartoons to MTV at that point. Still, I was young enough to be cartoon-adjacent, to see the ads etc., so I know the names He-Man and SHE-RA well, even if I couldn't tell you much of anything about them.
The weirdest thing that happened today during the Downs-only solve was getting PELO-- and wanting PELOPS well before I wanted PELOSI. PELOPS was a mythological king and (probable) namesake of the Peloponnesian peninsula in Greece. Here's a cool PELOPS story from Britannica.com:
Pelops was a grandson of Zeus, the king of the gods. According to many accounts, his father, Tantalus, cooked and served Pelops to the gods at a banquet. Only Demeter, bereaved over the loss of her daughter, failed to recognize him and partook. When the body was ordered by the gods to be restored, the shoulder, Demeter’s portion, was missing; the goddess provided a replacement of ivory.
And if you don't know what happened to Tantalus ... well, it's not good. But of course the answer ended up being PELOSI, the erstwhile Speaker of the House (57A: Former House speaker Nancy). Not as interesting as PELOPS, frankly, but far more Monday-friendly. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Mediumish. DOdo and EXtol were costly adjacent erasures.
ReplyDeleteSmooth grid, fun theme, liked it.
Croce Solvers: Croce’s Freestyle #804 was pretty easy for a Croce or about 2x last Saturday’s NYT. This time most of the PPP was in my wheelhouse. Good luck!
The part of city government responsible for promoting local arts, theater and dining in the region of the Taj Mahal is the AGRA Culture Department.
ReplyDeleteFrogs croak, but ASPS RASP.
I was doing real well before I came to 24D (“The Wire” actor Idris),and I continued to do well after that. I can now truthfully say “Able was I ere I saw ELBA.”
This puzzle took about as long to solve downs only as the SpaceX Starship lasted. But in looking over the finished product, I think it is, in some ways, an almost perfect Monday. Consistent theme, good revealer, very clean fill. Nothing thrilling, and too many short answers, but a great one for a novice solver. Really nice effort, Emily Carroll.
Like Rex solving down clues only, this went very smoothly. However after filling the last square there was no Happy Pencil! But I had a hunch where the problem was: 34 d "anagram of SHARE", for which I had put RHESA (mainly because I actually have a great niece named Rhesa!!!) even though the acrosses ARPS and ESE looked pretty dodgy. So that was easily sorted, even though I've never heard the name SHERA.
ReplyDeleteUntil then I didn't even realize there were 5 theme answers, as PIMPLES and WHEELIE were short enough to fall under my radar. Unlike Rex I was kind of amused by POPPIN' PIMPLES. And WHEELIES... there is a house a block from mine, full of rowdy adolescents, where the dad is always drunk and there is often some drama going on. But if there's not, this boy is always on his bike and when I walk by he says "Watch this!" and is POPPIN' one.
For 57 a, Rex wanted PELOPS, but I was staring at PE-O-I and not being allowed to look at the clue I thought: that will absolutely be PEROGI!
[Spelling Bee: Sun 0, last word again an 8er. There were several compound words in the 7s and 8s.]
@okanaganer 1:19 am
ReplyDeleteBad bad you for talking about solving via down clues. The Central Park maven won't like it!!!!
I think the reveal is vague enough; its wording is such that it skirts the agency issue. Perfect Monday, imo. (By the way, Rex, I’ve been known to use WHAT’S POPPIN’? from time to time. [See also, How’s tricks?])
ReplyDeleteRex – I’ll suffer the image of 23A all day long, grateful that 10D wasn’t RONDA. The idea of the resulting 9A sickens me a ton more than pimples. So thank you, Emily. (But point well taken. “knuckle” and “balloon” are both 7s, so . . .)
Mom hates it when I pop my knuckles, so I try to do it just one at a time, stealing glances her way between each pop, as we sit in our matching recliners watching whatever. She probably hears but is too nice to let on that she does.
Speaking of Mom, we have ESTEE today. Sigh. Mom’s go-to church perfume is ESTEE Lauder’s Private Collection, and I don’t think I’ve hated any perfume more than that one. She adores it, feels beautiful and sophisticated when wearing it. I think it smells like it went bad back in the Reagan administration, but I’ve never let on how I feel. So maybe we’re even.
If you squint, you can infer a nod to the theme with OPIUM – ya know – people poppin’ those opioid pills.
Loved the clue for LAP. My sister, Shum, recently rescued a STRAY cat and named her Oanie (long story, but we all kept our mouths shut about it). Oanie is lovely and will allow me to put her on my LAP briefly. I’m hyper alert, waiting for any hint that she’s done and wants down. When this happens, I automatically let her go, trying to cat-communicate that I’m not forcing myself on her and that we’re cool, I’m cool, no pressure. It’s my goal for her to see me as someone who Gets It, who gives her her space. I want to be the favorite aunt.
I guess ISLAM is second only to Christianity? Mom’s church had this big meeting about whether to split from the main group, and the issue involved their stance on gay marriage. I put my toe in that water, asking what the current stance was, like, were they voting to leave because they wanted to allow it or Not allow it? She said she wasn’t sure. Hmm. I dropped it, afraid of my rage bubbling to the surface. But I popped a couple of my knuckles a little louder.
@LMS: I can’t recall whether it was Linus or Charlie Brown who quipped about the three things you should never discuss, “politics, religion and The Great Pumpkin.” That’s how I approached a similar discussion with a friend who was in some turmoil over a similar schism within her church.
DeleteMy five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Shifty type? (5)(4)
2. Positive restaurant review? (3)
3. Piazza, for one (2)(3)
4. Ear lobe? (6)
5. Relative of lime and mint (4)
UPPER CASE
YUM
EX MET
KERNEL
JADE
I hated ‘YUM.’
DeleteI never knew that Nancy Pelosi was descended from Zeus. Fascinating stuff!
ReplyDeleteELBA BAUM cross for a Monday - sigh.
ReplyDeleteI thought ELBA crossing BAUM was a nice touch - a NYT signature calling card of sorts. So nice of them to drop in a mini-Natick like that just to let all of the noobs know they are being thought of. It’s the crossword equivalent of forensic evidence matching the the NYT’s DNA. It’s nice that little details like that don’t go unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteBaum wrote the famous Wizard of Oz series of children's books. On which one of the most famous movies in history was made. Maybe a young person wouldn't know the name but then a young person would more likely know Elba who is a well known current actor whose name has favorable crossword letters. (I am sure many other puzzles do also)
DeleteIf you look at the original source of Rex's use of "Natick" this cross is in no way a Natick, not even a mini one. That is rendering the word meaningless. Natick is after all a town in the Boston suburbs that only Southern New Englanders and marathon enthusiasts would likely know a vastly smaller group than who would know Baum, or Elba.
While solving I definitely noticed that although there were a lot of not-so-easy across clues (SALOME, HOSEA, READER, the revealer, etc.), the downs were almost all gimmes. I thought to myself that the down-only solvers would have a field day.
ReplyDeleteIf I actually had ever heard the revealer, I would have thought this was a really good Monday puzzle. But I always feel like especially on a Monday, themers and revealers have to be pretty much universally familiar.
Croce 804 was medium for me. NW was particularly thorny, and I had no idea what either the clue or the answer for 13D meant.
ReplyDeleteWell, I’ll be. Finally, finally, I left the revealer blank and tried to figure out what it could be … and I did! I am so weak at this skill, where, puzzle after puzzle, I claw, scratch, scrounge the universe of my brain to crack the connection between the theme answers – to no avail. But today – it was WHEELIE that did it, where my brain tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, “Pop a wheelie”, and there it was! WHEELIE to “Whee!” Maybe my efforts are beginning to pay off.
ReplyDeleteA triumph! Oh, so was Emily’s puzzle, so clean, alive with action verbs (THUMP, BASH, POKE, SPIT, YELP), with a few areas where I had to deliciously hesitate (on a Monday!), and just a smart feel.
Other likeable features were those six double E’s scattered among the answers and the proper-noun schwa A-train of HOSEA / SOUSA / MENSA / ROSA / SHERA / ELBA / AGRA / HONDA, and wannabe common noun AORTA. Add to that a pair of echoes: CORN KERNELS bringing Saturday’s KERNEL (clued “Ear lobe?”) to mind, and LEMON going with ZEST in today’s mini.
So, Emily, not only did your excellent puzzle provide a sweet outing for me, but it gave me a most memorable triumph. Thank you!
Amy: solved fast, but enjoyed the crunchy bits encountered along the way. And thanks for the Tantalus lesson, Rex. Looked up what happened, and yup, not great. Here, for anyone curious:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Tantalus
WHATSPOPPIN was a Top Ten hit by Jack Harlow in 2020, so it’s current. Harlow was 21 when the song was released.
ReplyDeleteI thought this this was a completely fine Monday puzzle. I think Rex is being a bit fussy today.
Such a fun Monday, done in what I’ll now think of as SpaceX time. My doctor told me to lay off the cheese, and now that PARMESAN sure is tantalizing (a word I plan to use more often now that I know its origin — thanks, Rex!).
ReplyDeleteLike Nancy gushing when her last name was displayed in a past grid, I too am very happy to see mine front and center.
ReplyDeleteNaticked by ELBA BAUM cross and unsure about AMES, so a rare DNF Monday for me. That cross makes this not a Monday difficulty IMO.
ReplyDeleteA perfect Monday - - clever theme, not a whole lot of proper names, but I do wonder if someone going through the nytxw archives say 20 years from now will have a clue who PELOSI was. Names that are front page headlines today are quickly lost to the mist of history. Don't believe me? Go back and look at some of the old Time Magazine's Man of the Year awards.
ReplyDeleteI did today's puzzle while suspended head down by bungee cords from the Williamsburg Bridge. How'd it go blindfolded, JM?
ReplyDeleteRex asked whether people still say WHATS POPPIN? But I didn’t know anyone ever said it. Maybe it’s a regional thing, or generational, but I’ve never heard that expression in my life. What’s happening? What’s cooking? What’s going on? What’s up? But never popping. A wonderful Monday though, and one which would be just right to offer a beginning solver as a maiden voyage.
ReplyDelete@Nancy from yesterday: I agree with you about the pop culture factor in the puzzles and that upon the occasion of Will Shortz’s retirement it’s going to get worse - much worse.
@Wahtsername: +1. This is my first time encountering this phrase. Don't recall hearing it in a movie or TV program, reading it in a book or online, or encountering it IRL. I don't listen to a lot of new music either (and music, like so much of pop culture - heck, culture in general - is fragmented these days), so that song from 2020 was unknown to me.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteWHATS POPPIN everybody?
That mysterious OXO brand, which I haven't seen IRL, just in puzs. I did, however, Goog it a while back, and found out they name branded it OXO because it's the same whether you read it vertically or horizontally. NEATO.
Add BASH to the WHATS POPPIN could-be list. SHE-RA, too, POPPIN out of that costume...
Random Nonsense:
Is someone who constantly steals citrus a LEMON DEMON?
Double E lovers flipped over NEE ESTEE LEERED at THREEPIOs TEENSY WHEELIE.
THUMP WIPER sounds like an insult.
Marathoners who continue OPT TO RUN ON and YELP when finished.
Yes, I'm a DOLT.
Happy Monday.
No F's (OOPS! Forget something?)
RooMonster
DarrinV
No happy music for me, so I guess a DNF? The awkward phrasing of "Decide one will" gave me enough pause that it was a Natick of aPTTO/SALaME as opposed to the correct OPTTO/SALOME. SALOME is kind of a deep cut for a Monday, but I'll take the hint that I need to brush up on my Oscar Wilde...bibliography?
ReplyDeleteThx, Emily; just right for a Mon! :)
ReplyDeleteMed.
Very smooth solve. Seemed fast, but avg time.
Enjoyed the trip.
___
Thx, @jae: on it! 🤞
___
Excellent Jim Horne acrostic yd at xwordinfo.com. Med. dif.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
BAUM was a gimme - c’mon he wrote The Wizard of Oz. I have never heard anyone say WHAT’S POPPIN. it’s not a thing in my world. For some reason I had aPTTO before OPTTO. that was my only write over. easy puzzle. but fun
ReplyDeleteSince I have never said WHATSPOPPIN to anyone, and no one has ever said WHATSPOPPIN to me, the revealer was a complete really? OK, I guess, and left me feeling strangely rustic and untutored. I have a similar familiarity with NEATO. Maybe I just live in the wrong part of the country.
ReplyDeleteDon't POKE the bear seemed particularly timely if you're a Bruins fan. In fact, if you're a Boston fan, yesterday was pretty memorable.
Always interesting how a character like SHE-RA can be instantly obvious to someone like OFL and unknown to me. I think I'm more in the Steamboat Willie generation.
Solid Monday, EC, and not your fault that I couldn't see where you were going. Every Constructor manages to find holes in my knowledge, and thanks for all the fun.
Child care day and I brought the New Yorker Monday with me but not the Croce. Time to see if I can get through Ms. Shechtman's toughie before the boy wakes up.
I agree that this a perfect puzzle for Monday, I thought it POPPed. I will say hand up with @Whatsername that I’ve never heard WHATSPOPPIN before today but it’s definitely inferable. My only minor “ugh” is the idea of PIMPLES with the POPPIN thang. Not sayin’ it was never done by yours truly but gross nonetheless.
ReplyDelete@LMS I got a kick out of your Mom and Estee’s Private Collection. It reminds me of how I felt about Estee’s Youth Dew in the 80s…YD was deemed an “old lady” perfume by my friends and I. Looked up both before I came to comments and apparently YD came out in ‘53 and PC in ‘73. One website says that Madonna wears Youth Dew today.
I'm with you, Whatsername (8:51) regarding WHATS POPPIN.
ReplyDeleteIn my 80+ years, I have never heard anyone use that expression. Plus I have never heard SPIT used as clued today. Neither slowed me down but both seemed a bit odd, particularly for a Monday.
I sent my completely unneeded brain out into the beautiful sunshine while I stayed behind and -- for reasons I can't possibly explain or justify -- actually finished this yawner of a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI got excited for a second when I saw the constructor name along with the sci-fi/comics bent, thinking it was an old high school friend who is now a screenwriter, animator, and director with credits on blockbusters like Pacific Rim: Uprising and Jurassic Park: Dominion. But the screenwriter is Emily CARmichaeL, not Emily CARROLL.
ReplyDeleteEither way, I enjoyed this puzzle, for the reasons that @egsforbreakfast summed up beautifully. Mondays are supposed to be accessible and cleanly filled, with cluing and themes that are gently clever, and this really delivered. It was a breezy solve but again, it’s a Monday. That’s correct.
And yeeeah I think WHATSPOPPIN was well-played out by the time that song became a thing. It had its origins in AAVE, and came into common use in the late aughts. But it’s absolutely fair game imo, even if I think it would be cheesy to use now (or as the Zoomers would say, “cringe”).
@Beezer - my grandmother was a Youth Dew fan, but my childhood ears always heard her saying "Youth Jew", which seemed a strange choice for a seventy-year old lapsed Anglican.
ReplyDeleteAside from it being Monday, it's amazing how fast I finish & enjoy the puzzle when. it's a constructor I know (& like!).
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, crosswords can be enjoyable. I forgot after a rough weekend. Nothing fancy here, but smooth and no cringes and not too much junk or pop news. They might have over helped on SHERA, but I was thankful for it.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to remember the order of the books of the bible. It's not hard to remember how many people have actually read them -- almost zero. And it's easy to know the long list of popularized craziness written in those pages.
I lost a tooth to my enemy CORN KERNELS on a Thanksgiving day once. My dentist actually went into the office to help me. I also had a tooth fall apart eating mashed potatoes once. And I have an implant in my front tooth with a huge screw that makes for dramatic x-rays. I've had braces twice. I could be driving a Maserati with what I've dumped into my face.
NKs: I've never read anything by Oscar Wilde, but know all about him. His PR guy is killing it.
Uniclues:
1 Patriotic composer peeked.
2 Dermatologist.
3 The cheese stands alone (and ready).
4 Beloved golden boy using Ant-Man tech.
1 SOUSA LEERED
2 PIMPLES READER
3 ON-CALL PARMESAN
4 TEENSY THREEPIO (~)
Even though I solved this blindfolded and left handed, I was able to complete the puzzle in under two minutes, so it did seem awfully easy, even for a Monday. I do acknowledge that the letters I entered into the grid don’t form any actual words, but that’s mainly because I couldn’t see the clues.
ReplyDelete@kitshef re: Croce - When I said wheelhouse I should halve said refrigerator where I have 13d in the freezer.
ReplyDelete@Joaquin and @Anonymous (9:04) Thanks for chiming in. I feel better now about not knowing that one.
ReplyDelete@Beezer: I was a decade ahead with the Youth Dew but as a young working gal in the 70s, I thought wearing ESTEE was the ultimate in sophistication. In the 80s, I moved on to Chantilly and White Shoulders, then Obsession and Angel in the 90s. These days those all seem heavy and overpowering and I can’t stand to be near any of them. Unlike Madonna, I’ve evolved now to Donna Karan’s Cashmere Mist, light and lovely.
@Liveprof and @Joseph Michael: I was actually looking forward to your “Monday” comments today. How sad is that? 🤣
The cork gets popped, not the bottle.
ReplyDeleteHellza
I never heard anyone say WHAT'S POPPIN' either, but if somebody did say it, I'd know what they meant, and so would you. So it was good enough for me, and I'm in the team that thinks comparing PIMPLES to WHEELIES is kind of fun.
ReplyDeleteI HAVE heard people way a fire was SPITting when the little knots explode; in fact, I've heard it referred to as SPITTIN' and POPPIN' so it's a bonus themer.
Everyone who was stumped by L. Frank BAUM should go read The Wizard of Oz right now, followed by the other 20+ Oz novels he wrote. They're in the "can't put 'em down" category.
I saw the Boston Lyric Opera perform Richard Strauss's Salome a few decades back, and it turns out Strauss based it on Wilde's play. I didn't know that, but somehow associated the name with Wilde. It's hard to forget once you've seen it; Salome is spurned by John the Baptist, has her step-father behead him, then hold the head aloft and kisses its lips. She also performs the Dance of the Seven Veils, in which, as that other Oscar (Hammerstein) once wrote, "she went about as far as she could go."
@Roo, I have an OXO vegetable peeler. It's ergonomically designed. Also, everything they make seems to be in black plastic.
Is EXALT/EXtol another kealoa, or am I defining one of them wrong?
Anyway, it was a fun puzzle. I've been away for a few days, and this was a nice one to return to.
@Liveprof, I wish I had bungee cords and a bridge to work with, but all I've got right now is the blindfold. You can read my report at 10:27am.
ReplyDelete@Whatshername, it's not sad. You're just keeping up with new ways to do the Monday crossword.
JM: I'm impressed you got answers onto the grid. I was writing with my right hand, and once the winds kicked up much of my writing went onto the clues area or onto my left hand.
ReplyDeleteYes, you should get a bridge, for sure.
I’ve not often heard WHAT’s POPPIN other than from a friend from my youth, but I rather like it. “How’s tricks” is one of my regulars as is “what’s up.”
ReplyDeleteI don’t suppose I will ever completely lose my affinity for junior high humor, which is to say that PIMPLES as an answer didn’t offend me. After all, we have had zit and zits often enough. As I wended my way down the grid though, the PIMPLES really had me wondering what on earth the reveal was going to be. When I got the reveal, I admit I had a little junior high giggle at the thought of answering my friend Cheri S who is the one person who often asked me “WHAT’S POPPIN?” by saying, “My PIMPLES.” And to that, Peter Pan would say (and I agree) , “Never gonna grow up, not me!”
Other than that shameless admission, I found the puzzle slightly more difficult on the across than the very easy downs. Loved the cat clue at 2A; I frequently solve with my sweet Pip (shelter sister to my avatar cat the late and still sorely missed OC) on my LAP, and did so today. A very pleasant solve. Have a great week everyone!
Woulda caught onto the theme mcguffin sooner, if THEWEASEL had been one of the themers.
ReplyDeleteSpeakin of which, I just heard that Tucker Carlson has been *popped out*, at Fox News -- as in: no longer employed there. [More news on this available almost everywhere except maybe on Fox News.]
staff weeject pick: STY. Cuz whatspoopin resides therein.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Capital of Vietnam} = HANOI. Never been there, but did spend many months in Saigon, as part of an all-expenses-paid tour, c. 1970-71.
some more fave stuff: PARMESAN. PELOSI. TEENSY. L. Frank BAUM. ROSA Parks.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Carroll darlin. Never heard tell of that POPPIN greetin before, but kinda like it.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
what's runtin:
**gruntz**
I certainly never saw that reveal coming - I'm with those who've never encountered the phrase before. And what a motley - and funny - array of POP-able items! Post-solve, I did I ranking of POPPIN' satisfaction levels: for me, the CORN KERNALS took first place, POPcorn being one of my favorite foods. I will draw a veil over earlier years of skin issues. Overall, a "medium" day for me; enjoyed working it all out.
ReplyDelete@Whatsername 11:28 - Yes to White Shoulders and to Chantilly, which I found intoxicating but borderline do-I-dare-wear-this? Anybody else for Ma Griffe?
@Carola: Ma Griffe is one I have never tried. After googling though, it sounds like it might be similar to what I wear now so I’ll have a sample next time I’m at the mall. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteJUST short of a PR for Monday.
ReplyDeleteImagine the rant Rex would have had id the speaker clue would have been MCCARTHY! Being independent I dont care for either. I just love laughing at Rex's overreactions and narrow mindedness when opposing political entries appear in the puzzle.
Millions of people know Natick. "Framingham-Natick" is one of the exits on the Massachusetts Turnpike. I've only heard of Idris Elba from crosswords, and with a few exceptions the same holds for Baum.
ReplyDeleteVillager
Repeated clues are one of my favorites. Reminds one of how many meanings, variations ojrlanguage provides.
ReplyDeleteI found another kealoa! EX--alt or tol? Only her hairdresser knows for sure. So I wrote ALT over tol and that was the only glitch in a super-easy romp.
ReplyDeleteIf we have to have PIMPLES before breakfast, must we POP them? Ew.
Once we have KERNELS, aren't we pretty sure we're dealing with CORN? The whole phrase seems redundant.
Isn't it the CHAMPAGNE cork we pop, not the BOTTLE?
And never have I asked--or been asked--WHATSPOPPIN. Must be a regional thing.
Typical Monday pap, fills the slot. Lot of "off" things but no pet peeves--and thank goodness there wasn't a RONDA, otherwise 9-across would be...no wait, I haven't had breakfast yet. Par.
Wordle birdie.
Humanoid robot - just the kind of thing I always talk about.
ReplyDeleteGot it all anyway. Hooray for Monday.
And I agree with @Spacey - WHATSPOPPIN is only spoken by - what? - humanoid robots, I guess.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
ONE INAWE
ReplyDeleteWHAT might SHERA say when ROMEO's ONCALL?
ERE he'll POKE SALOME, he's POPPIN' them ALL.
--- HOSEA SOUSA
Where's POPPIN' Fresh? Or Jay? Oh, it was fine as is. Noticed: OPTTO ASTO, RUNON ONCALL. Circled: Meg RYAN.
ReplyDeleteWordle birdie, near eagle.
Only time I've heard somebody say "what's poppin", is when something actually was popping, and that something usually was popcorn.
ReplyDeletePoppin' Fresh died at 71, and was buried in a lightly greased coffin. Per Pillsbury.
ReplyDeleteI have owned and used several of OXO ergonomic products. But the last one I bought was their plastic sink mats. Two huge problems with them.
ReplyDelete#1: they float, something sink mats should not do. They're supposed to sit on the sink bottom to protect breakable dishes and glasses.
#2: their undersides have more nooks and crannies than a very high word count xword puzzle.