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Beginning of a balcony soliloquy / MON 7-24-2023 / Guitar clamp / Card with a single spot on it
Monday, July 24, 2023
Constructor: John Ewbank
Relative difficulty: Easy (3:44)
THEME: SCARLET LETTERS — All the theme answers are made up of the letters S, C, A, R, L, E, and T, with no others
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: HARTE (19th century writer Bret) —
Hi Barbies and Kens, it's Malaika here with a guest write-up! Solving Snack is Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Chunk (straight from the pint so I don't have to wash a bowl) and Solving Music is the new Taylor song "Castles Crumbling." I zoooomed through this puzzle, I know Mondays are the easiest day but it felt particularly breezy. I think I benefitted from being familiar with crossword-y words like EMOTES or the weird-to-parse UN DAY or IOUS.
- [Livestock holders on freight trains] for CATTLE CARS
- [Partner of a pepper mill] for SALT CELLAR
- [Stay very far away, as from a hazard] for STEER CLEAR
- [Courses that might have models] for ART CLASSES
Word of the Day: HARTE (19th century writer Bret) —
Bret Harte (born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush.
• • •
I was able to enter CATTLE CARS and STEER CLEAR very early on, and tried to play Guess The Revealer-- something bovine?? Oh how wrong I was. I believe this type of mechanism is called a "letter bank" although I'm not 100% sure of that definition, so perhaps you can correct me in the comments. The theme entries were all decently fun (raise your hand if you had "salt shaker" first), and the revealer seemed perfectly suitable. My mind wasn't blown or anything, but a very solid Monday.
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| Cow tools |
And I will always give a round of applause to people who can pull off little stacks of vertical non-theme answers in the corners!! Ross Trudeau and CC Burnikel are good at this. I like to call those "colonnades," which is an architecture term for pillars that are in a row, because it describes the vertical nature of the entries and because I like cute little terms for things. I am more familiar with the terms "good sport" and "sore loser" but GOOD LOSER felt very "sure, why not."
I recently gave a little How To Make A Crossword Puzzle talk, and one of the attendees asked me how to make a hard clue easier, especially if it's trivia or jargon. This puzzle had lots of examples of how you can add extra information. For example, the clue [Spider-Man adversary who was struck by lightning] could have just been the first two words, but adding the detail about lightning makes you think about electricity, which leads you to the answer ELECTRO. (Shout out to Jamie Foxx's uhh..... electric portrayal of him, by the way.) [Font style that the shortcut Ctrl+I activates], which clued ITALICS, is another good example. "Ctrl+I" is a good hint that the first letter will be I, and "font style" is a clear descriptor that could have been much more vague, like "formatting option."
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| marry me pls |
Bullets:
- ["That's hilarious," in a text] for LOL — I get that it's boring to say "Will Shortz (70 yrs old) has a different frame of reference from Malaika (26 yrs old)" but here I am, beating a dead horse around the bush, or whatever the saying is. That is simply not what LOL means anymore because language changes and evolves etc etc okay I'm done now.
- [Soccer game cheer] for OLE — I have been trying to watch the Women's World Cup, but the time change makes the schedule Hell-ish. If any of you are in East Asia or Australia / New Zealand, I hope you are enjoying it!!
- [Inedible part of a cherry] for STEM — Cherries are in season and delightfully cheap over here! My local produce store is selling big bags of them for $1.99 and they're so ripe and juicy.
Save And Share :
79 comments:
Somehow I managed to live 80+ years without knowing there is such a thing as a SALT CELLAR. Is that what one uses when adding seasoning to a hand-held tamale?
Easy-medium. Smooth with some fine long downs but with a no help theme. I solved it like an early week themeless and ignored the theme clues, liked it.
@Malaika - Jeff at Xwordinfo said this is a “letter bank” puzzle.
Croce Solvers - The top third of Croce’s Freestyle #828 was easy (except for 6d). The rest was a bear for me (speaking of which I highly recommend “The Bear” on Hulu). I needed help from my bride with 35d and I had a 6d related one square DNF. As always YMMV, good luck!
What does LOL mean now?
THE FIG tree at THE LOS OLE CASAS farm was the FOCAL point for all IDLE LADS to gather. The AER was always CLEAR and it was a perfect DAY for a SOCIAL gathering.
Farmer HARTE would be making some EPIC FIG PIES with a sprinkle of COCOA. He'd take a CUBE of IOWA CAPO he had in his CELLAR and GRILLE it with some SALT and OYL. He'd stick the FIG he had from his JARS and put it on top of the CAPO until it RAN CLEAR of its SCARLET hue. That was one piece of FIG ART!
Of course THE smell would ALERT that ROMEO, ELECTRO. He was the town SNOB who always wore an ASCOT with NCAA LETTERS. He claimed TITLES to THE LOS OLE CASAS farm but....he was a LOSER. He was the DARNEDEST SAD SNOB you'd ever want to STEER CLEAR OF.
When farmer HARTE wasn't making EPIC FIG PIES, he'd be out trying to TIP his CATTLE. "ONO" yelled the LADS..." "We'll put out a LOSER NEWS ALERT about how INANE this is in the USA." "IM ALL IN" yelled ELECTRO..."DOES this mean I GOTTA DIAL it back?"..."I'm not going to claim TITLES to the LOS OLE CASAS....I just want to be a GOOD SOL and not harm the USA.
"I SEE" farmer HARTE would AER to ELECTRO. "You must GEL out and CLEAR your IDLE mind of SAD NEWS." "We will sing OPERA at the met...or maybe some CAROLS with the LADS...!" ARE you IN?" "Yes" yelled ELECTRO..."I GNU you'd LOL at my IDLE threats." "Let's get into my DAY CARS parked by the OLE STILL and go ACE some OPERA by that ICON, ELMO...He took CLASSES in CAROLS and can RAM some E MOTES like an ACE!!!"
It was an EPIC SOCIAL moment. The AER became STILL...THE CATTLE and the one STEER were eating EARS of corn and licking SALT...HARTE took out some more PIES from his CELLAR ...The LADS ALSO sang CAROLS and it was MET with an O ROMEO moment....
The TOOLS for success were: EPIC FIG PIES with CAPO...Some hot COCOA with THE IDLE LADS...ELECTRO becoming an OPERA singer at THE MET....And....Farmer HARTE with a TIP to his CATTLE.
Only discovered the theme from Rex' column after finishing it. A normal easy Monday; only problem I had was with "stand clear" instead of STEERCLEAR.
I've used a SALTCELLAR, but have never seen the words in print, so I wasn't sure of the spelling. If I store condiments in my basement, does that make it a salt cellar? Just asking.
Hey Malaika! I always enjoy your posts. How would you define LOL? Asking for an old friend.
Another member of the “never heard of a SALT CELLAR” club here. That was really the only rough spot.
I liked the way we have ASS crossing ASSES today (in ART CLASSES). Nice touch.
So, Malaika, what does LOL mean nowadays if not Laughing Out Loud (Or “That’s hilarious.”)?
"...beating a dead horse around the bush..."
smmfh.
Rex....please come back.
I had to sneak a peek at an across clue (for UN Day) to finish downs-only. The clues for NCAA TITLE and DARNEDEST weren’t helping me, and when you can’t get two long side-by-side downs, you are doomed. Peeking got me the NC, which I knew had to be NCAA and all was good
But one pleasure of downs-only is to try to figure out the theme without seeing any of the themer clues. I couldn’t do it. I wondered if it had to do with synesthesia (as discussed here some weeks ago), in which some people (i.e. me) associate letters with colors. W is a scarlet letter for me. BTW, is there a difference between scarlet and maroon?
I digress. After discarding synesthesia, I could not see anything the theme answers had in common or how SCARLET LETTER united them, so I finally read the revealer clue. The “in their entirety” part of it made me see it, but my reaction was more “That’s it?” than “Aha!” Agree with Malaika that “my mind wasn’t blown or anything, but a solid Monday.”
Good point about how to make a clue easier. (I’m usually thinking of how to make it harder.) I did use the lightning to get ELECTRO and the Ctrl-I to get ITALICS. I am 60, so 10 years hipper than Shortz, but I don’t know what LOL means now if it’s not “that’s hilarious.” Can Malaika or some other commenter enlighten me?
Slightly more bite than a normal Monday, which is good. Theme of no importance to the solve, which is okay on a Monday.
I’m a little bitter about I SEE, which does not have the informality of "gotcha". I think my first answer of "I dig" is better. Also, surprised that on a Monday there was no indication of an abbreviation for USA.
Croce 828 was generally on the easy side, with problems finishing off the 23A/27A/23D section - two of which are new terms for me. Funnily enough, @jae's 6D was a real help in getting 27A, which unlocked that area.
Lots Of Love ? ?
If I recall correctly - WS named these anagram-like tricks letter banks? Nerdy and vanilla but fine for an early week grid. Agree with Malaika that GOOD LOSER is not often heard. Liked O ROMEO and DARNEDEST.
My favorite SCARLET
Add me to the LOL?? older crowd …
might have been my fastest solve ever. I did have one write over... GOODsport before GOODLOSER. I didnt even notice the theme.
I was really hoping that today would be the Monday I would completely complete doing Downs-only, but nope — about halfway through I was forced to look at the Across clues. Sigh. Someday, someday….
So, in my never-ending quest to guess the revealer by leaving it blank while filling in the theme answers – not even close to getting it today (though I enjoyed trying), and I bow a hundred times to anyone who did. Furthermore, it took me a good number of beats to figure out the theme even after filling out the revealer. Tomorrow is another day.
Some random thoughts:
• What crosswords do to the brain. When I saw JOE IOUS in line six, my brain shouted “Joe Louis!” (famous boxer), just one letter off. When I saw LOL in the grid with IDLE, my brain shouted “almost synonyms!”, just one letter off.
• Lovely PuzzPair© of OPERA / MET.
• Appropriate that SAD is down and low, and next to EMOTES.
• As Jeff Chen points out, this theme is tighter than simply “answers made out of the letters in SCARLET” (such as ALL-STAR CAST or STATE SECRET), but rather words that not only do that, but also contain ALL the letters in SCARLET.
• Sweet long-O enders: COCOA / ELMO / ONO / JOE / CAPO / ALSO / ELECTRO.
John, this got me ruminating, thinking hard over the revealer, then pleasurably noodling over the junk-free filled-in grid, thus pushing many happy buttons. Sweet outing all the way around. Thank you!
I’m guessing LOL doesn’t mean “lots of love”?
This puzzle really lost me at Cattle Car. Gave me Holocaust vibes. Really kept me from wanting to finish it.
"My local produce store is selling cherries for $1.99 a bag" ----
...and up here in the Great White North, a bag of cherries is going for $13.09 at my local grocery, and that's as cheap as they've been so far this year.
But hey, our maple syrup is probably cheaper than yours, so....
yes, language changes. lol used to mean little old lady. if it doesn't mean laugh out loud any longer, why didn't you tell us what it does mean?
also, why are you dissing on will shortz age when you can't come up with an adage? your ageism is unbecoming.
Yeah, I could have done without CATTLE CAR and CAPO together in this puzzle... not looking for Auschwitz vibes with my Monday morning solve.
I understood this puzzle but didn't understand the cartoon Malaika included. It turns out to have an interesting backstory:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cow_tools
LOL now means…?
Thx, John; a LETTER perfect puz to start the solving week off with! 😊
Hi Malaika, good to see you again; thx for your write-up! 😊
Med.
Only gaff was shaker before CELLAR.
Have a CAPO for my guitar, but rarely use it.
Xmas CAROLS still faithfully shuffling 24/7 on the kitchen HomePod mini.
UN DAY coming up in 3 months, to the DAY.
NEWS ALERT: youngest granddaughter's BC Elite ringette team is bringing home the silver from the Czech Lions Cup in Prague. I'm sure they were GOOD LOSERS in the final, tho. (@okanaganer: a number of local girls from your neck of the woods made the team.)
Finally broke the 15 sec. barrier on the CUBE recently. (here's) Max Park's new world record performance. (You Tube)
Thx, @jae; on it! 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I agree with Malaika that this was a pleasant Monday offering.
Hand up for shaker before CELLAR. Even though I have heard the term SALTCELLAR I had always thought it was synonymous with shaker. I look it up…it’s a little storage pot for salt. Much easier to do a “pinch” of salt from a CELLAR.
I THINK that the LOL thing might be akin to Facebook. To explain. Once Boomers got into FB the younger people baled out in droves. So. Does LOL still stand for “laugh out loud”? Yes. Do younger people still use it for “hilarious”…no, they avoid it like the plague since it is now used by Boomers. I now see more “Hahaha” in texts from younger people. Please feel free to weigh in!
Glad I didn’t STEER CLEAR of Monday this week because this was definitely worth the time. A great beginner puzzle with an easy to grasp theme and better than the usual fill. SALT CELLAR was an expression I’d never heard but I know now that I’ve used one many times and just called it the salt dish.
CATTLE CAR is what comes to mind when I think of commercial air travel these days. Herd ‘em in, pack ‘em in tight so they don’t jostle around, herd ‘em out. If anyone balks, threaten them with the proverbial prod until they submit to authority. The last time I flew, the flight attendant had such a hostile attitude I did my DARNDEST to avoid even making eye contact for fear I’d be deemed uncooperative. When drinks were served I asked for water and was handed one of those tiny plastic glasses half full without so much as one ice cube. She poured it from a bottle but it tasted like it came out of one of those taps that said “not potable.“ It was SAD.
OPERA is a GOOD starter word for Wordle.
Hey All !
Thought that A's were the SCARLET LETTERS being referred to, but the Themers also had E's. Hmm? says I. Came here to see that all the Themers were made up of the LETTERS from SCARLET. Ah. OK.
Fill came out pretty clean. GOOD LOSER, though, is not a thing. Losing gracefully, maybe. Would a GOOD LOSER say, "Hey, congrats on beating our team! Nice job! We suck!" while beaming? No, don't think so.
Would nighttime be UNDAY?
Only one writeover today, NEWSfLash-NEWSALERT.
Another Monday...
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Beezer (9:05) Your theory makes a lot of sense. I recall feeling like a dolt because I was still using haha when everyone else was being all cool with their laughing-out-loud shorthand … which I ALSO had to ask for an explanation of. So now apparently haha has come full circle and the millennials probably think they’re absolutely brilliant for coming up with it. LOL!
Twangster, thanks for the explanation of the Far Side cartoon. I stared at it for far too long. It is bizarre. And why did Maliaka include it? Also bizarre. And what does LOL mean in her world? Rex, get back soon. lol
Glad I was not the only one wondering "so . . . what does LOL mean NOW, then?" I guess Beezer's explanation is that it's not that it no longer MEANS "Laugh out loud" but rather that nobody uses it to mean anything?
Well, it was Rubik's CUBE, no doubt about it, so it couldn't be SALT SHAKER. It was SALT C-something-or-other -- and I had no idea. So I waited.
Nothing else about this smooth but unexciting puzzle gave me any trouble. It felt like a themeless and that's how I solved it. The theme is a standby category of "Jeopardy" and I find on "Jeopardy" that thinking about which letters can appear in the answer slows me down too much -- so I just go directly for the answer and hope it's right. Here, with crosses plus the luxury of all the time you desire, there's no need to think about the letters at all. So I didn't.
One nit. Don't like USERS for consumers. Are you "using" pizza when you consume it? Are you "using" the news when you consume it? Yes, consumers of online news or anything else online are USERS, but that's about it. There are much better ways to clue USERS.
As far as I can tell, LOL has lost any meaning and is now just used as a space filler. According toe the Urban Dictionary, it can have many meanings including these:
1) "I have nothing worthwhile to contribute to this conversation."
2) "I'm too lazy to read what you just wrote so I'm typing something useless in hopes that you'll think I'm still paying attention."
3) "Your statement lacks even the vaguest trace of humor but I'll pretend I'm amused."
4) "This is a pointless acronym I'm sticking in my sentence just because it's become so engraved into my mind that when chatting, I MUST use the meaningless sentence-filler 'lol.'"
A puzzle with multiple cross-referenced clues is never fun, esp on a Monday
Another winner. Who'da thunk it you could rearrange those letters so many ways? Quite a post-solve "how 'bout them apples."
I'd never eaten a FIG until my honeymoon in Greece, and there we picked them out of the trees in August walking along the beach.
Until today, I thought a SALT CELLAR was a cellar, but it's just a bowl I guess. I've learned now about the Cellini Salt Cellar on wheels from 1543 featuring three nude sculptures, a horse and a dragon. If I ever give up on the salt shaker lifestyle Ima moving toward the Cellini salt distribution program.
Almost all of my days are UNDAYs these days.
DARNEDEST is one of my favorite phrases. It's the darnedest thing.
Tee-Hee: ASS.
Uniclues:
1 Yoko stars in her own one-woman gender bending rewrite of Shakespeare.
2 Subcommittee of the Rex Parker commentariat dedicated to not being amused.
3 Where nerds finally get with naked ladies.
4 All of them, except to shoe salesmen.
5 How he earns a living as his fame has waned, his youthfulness has soured, and his violin in the subway skills have grown.
6 French word for a nearby American.
7 What bold does when it's drunk and lonely.
8 Valises containing your manliness.
9 All the plots are stupid!
1 ONO DOES "O ROMEO" (~)
2 ANTI-LOL LADS
3 STEM ART CLASSES
4 INANE NCAA TITLE
5 ELMO TIP JARS (~)
6 LES THE ASS
7 DIAL ITALICS
8 GOOD LOSER CASES
9 OPERA NEWS ALERT (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Overly enthused opera critic lauds Alpine singer. "YODELS BEFIT VERONA."
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I am in my 60s. Fondly remember salt cellars at dinners for “company” when the good China was used as were salt cellars. They were very small crystal bowls with a tiny silver spoon. Salt shaker was used everyday.
Did we all notice that each of the four themers contain the letters in SCARLET? And that SCARLET is also in the letters left over?
Who said "Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser"?
We just finished watching the first four episodes of Suits on Netflix. Really excellent. Meghan Markle has a minor role but I think it's getting bigger.
I usually don't do Mondays but I needed something to do last night. Happy I did.
My joke was up then deleted.
So I’ll try it with no quasi-political reference.
I’m glad she spelled it “horse” or “beating dead horse around the bush” would have a necrophiliac connotation.
Is that any better?
Imagine having both no sense of humor and also such disdain for anyone who you don’t consider to be on the same intellectual level as you that you think this is an appropriate comment to make.
@kitshef…thanks for clearing it up! Glad to know I was somewhere in the ballpark. It seems a tad unfortunate since texting is all about being terse and sometimes I do like to convey that the person has amused me even though what they said didn’t actually make me “laugh out loud.” Perhaps we can invent YAM…”you are amusing”
I apologize if my message repeats but I guess even being “blue” doesn’t prevent system errors.
@kitshef, thanks for clearing up the LOL thing and I’m glad I was in the ballpark. Seems a tad unfortunate because I do like to sometimes convey that I think the text sender is amusing OR that I’m not being serious. So, perhaps I’ll start new text initialisms of YAAM and IBS (“you are amusing me” and “I’m being silly”)
@Anon 9:25 – the cartoon is because TOOLS is in the grid, and also Malaika initially suspected a bovine theme.
Ah, the over-online youth...
LOL now is used as an addendum to indicate that a statement should not be taken seriously, which is SO much different that it requires ageism and generational mockery. (On a related note, Cow Tools is here bc it was a Twitter meme a number of years back). The main thing that irks me is that our guest blogger seems to think that only the usage by 26 year-olds in year 2023 is legitimate. Enjoy it while it lasts, 16 year-olds are mocking you as you type...Remember our common humanity, like delicious cherries, the sour variety of which went into a cobbler last night. The inedible part I managed to let slip in was the stone, ouch! Love you anyway, so LOL to my whole paragraph.
Nice Monday theme, tripped myself up for speed with SALTshakeR.
No all day Wimbledon or Tour de France as of this morning (and last week), guess I'll go enjoy the nice weather.
I'm on the younger side of Gen X (still means I'm knocking on 50), and my two kids are Generation Alpha (9 and 7), and they both use LOL, so far as I can tell, exactly as I do (or don't -- it's rare for me to use it. I prefer "haha.") It perhaps means more "chuckle" than "that's hilarious," but that was true when I first came across the acronym on BBSes in the late 80s or early 90s. ROFL was more "that's hilarious," but I haven't seen that in a donkey's age... sorry, I mean, in a minute.
Urbandictionary's most upvoted definition does shed some light. It says that "it is overused to the point where nobody laughs out loud when they say it. In fact, they probably don't even give a shit about you just wrote. More accurately, the acronym "lol" should be redefined as "lack of laughter." I mean, sure, I have observed an ironic usage of the term, but I don't that's new.
So while my kids apparently use it in a sincere manner, from what I can tell, it's popular to use it in an ironic/sarcastic/downplaying manner, like "I went out skateboarding and broke my leg lol." How very 90s/Gen X I dare say.
Solved as a themeless then saw the theme. A pretty easy typical Monday. Thanks, John.
Another Monday, another day when I have to wait for baby Jack's nap before I can tackle the xword. At least the NYT is keeping track of my Monday streak, oh boy.
Missed the theme entirely because I didn't bother to try to figure it out. I was busy fixing typos, which strangely enough I don't have when using my pencil.
My idea of a SALTCELLAR is a small nice bowl with a little spoon in it, so I guess I'm familiar with the term in a nebulous sort of way.
Friends my age used to end notes to their son with LOL, thinking it meant "lots of love", and were a little embarrassed when they discovered their mistake.
I CAPO up on my guitar when I sing "Shenandoah" to achieve maximum croonage on the highest note. "Faaaaar away, you rolling river". Tenor heaven.
@mathgent-I think you're quoting Leo Durocher. That's my best guess and I'm not looking it up.
Nice smooth Monday, JE, but your trick was at the Monday+ level, IMO. Well done and thanks for all the fun.
Whatshername @ 9:09 - thanks for OPERA - never thought of it!
I never noticed LOL in the grid, as I solved MDO (Mostly Downs Only). But I believe it stands for Lack OF Language.
Let's scare all careless rascal cats!
(Just wanted to start the comment out with all red-letter-day characters.)
@Malaika darlin: Primo Far Side toon. Always luved that comic strip. Thanxoxo.
Nice MonPuz theme, other than the letter bank lacked an absolutely essential U, of course.
staff weeject picks: ACE, AER, ARE, ASS & LES. That there A-team and the 3-letter French lesson were the only scarlet letter bankers, among the many weejects.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Rubik's ___} = CUBE.
another fave thing: Relief that the answer to the {The African elephant has the largest of these among all animals} clue weren't JUNK. Altho, then again--sure coulda used that extra U...
Thanx for the letter-perfect themers, Mr. Ewbank dude. Primo job.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
SALT CELLAR was a gimme for me, thanks for a book on origami I bought as a ten-year-old in the mid-80s at a flea market hear in Chicago. One of the forms was "salt cellar." I was, at the time, all WTF is that about that, but then found actual salt cellars around thrift stores and even currently have one in my house, although I just use a ramekin. It's the same basic idea.
I must have missed the debate on eating tamales by hand or something. It's absolutely common here to eat them by hand. How the hell are you supposed to eat them at the bar when the tamale guy comes by? Of when you buy them from the abuela at the Aldi parking lot and are jonesing for a nosh? Fork is normal, too. Both ways are right and common.
For the record, LOL is not an acronym. It's an initialism. Hrrrumph.
I LOLed (in the prehistoric sense) at the clue for STEM. The stems of just about all fruits and vegtables are inedible, so why was cherry singled out? Do people often swallow them while attempting the knot-tying trick?
Just another manic UN-DAY
Gotta confess I once assembled a set of 8 individual-sized SALT CELLARs, matching but in different colors, from e-Bay auctions. I thought it would be cool to serve corn on the cob and give each guest his or her own cellar. I did it once, and never went to the trouble again, but I still have the cellars somewhere.
No one seems to have noticed the definite article subtheme -- LOS, LES, and THE in the same puzzle! Quite a feat.
@Son Volt, I've heard that too -- Shortz invented the letter blank as a cryptic clue, so this puzzle probably got an advantage. Good puzzle, anyway.
I wrote all the above on my phone a couple hours ago, but it wouldn't publish. Now I'll go back and read the comments that came in since then.
I tried to post the note below from my phone, and then from a browser, and failed both times. So here's the third try!
---------------------
Gotta confess I once assembled a set of 8 individual-size SALT CELLARs, matching but in different colors, from EBay auctions. I thought it would be cool to serve corn on the cob and give each guest his or her own cellar. I did it once, but never went to all the trouble again. Still have the cellars, though.
No one seems to have noticed the definite article subtheme: LOS, LES, THE all in one puzzle. Quite a feat!
@Son Volt, right, I've heard that too -- Shortz invented the letter bank as a cryptic clue. That probably gave this puzzle a little boost, but it's a good puzzle in its own right.
@Twangster 8:49 AM
This sent me down a deep rabbit hole. Google image search on Cow Tools memes
Hey, Malaika, I thought your write-up was a lot of fun. Sorry you seem to have triggered some folks
I remember back to when the smiley-face "Have a Nice Day" fad was getting a bit cloying somebody made a T-shirt with the same face with a straight-line mouth and the caption "Have a Day." This puzzle takes it one step further with Have an UNDAY.
Yes, I still use LOL to connote hilarious. What else should I know about LOL? My favorite text expression for hilarity is SNORT!
I'm just waiting for the day ANTI is clued as Rihanna's album. It's about time that clue was changed up. Another option is ANTI-Hero by Taylor Swift.
Note to self, Leo Durocher said "Nice guys finish last." Oh yeah.
Parent if teens here... so I only have indirect knowledge of this. My feeling is that LOL now had now of a "pfft" meaning than "hilarious". It's used more sarcastically I think. But again, take this with a grain of salt
@bocamp, congratulations to your granddaughter and her team! And what a place to have it, Prague! 36 years since I visited.
Today, for no reason, I decided to do downs first. Got stuck in same section!
Re: Thoughts on "LOL" -- and, no, I have no idea what Malaika is talking about either. But now, having finally read Malaika, I see why LOL is the cause celebre of today's blog.
@johnk (11:31)-- "Lack of language"! I love it! Wish I'd thought of it.
Here's what I know: I know I'm not the Boomer who drove Malaika and her generation away from the "Boomer Generation's use" of LOL. Because here's how I use "LOL".
I don't.
My philosophy: If someone can take the trouble to write something funny enough that it makes me laugh out loud, then I can make the very minimal effort it takes to write: "That's so funny!!!" Or "You had me in stitches!" or "That's truly worthy of SNL!".
Also: If no two generations (!) can agree on what LOL means, that's an even better reason never to use it at all.
But, still, the curiosity is killing me. What, exactly, is Malaika saying LOL means to her generation? Does anyone know?
Growing up, we erroneously called our salt shakers ‘salt cellars.’ I was delighted to see salt cellars and didn’t, for even a second, think salt shaker.
In fact, just like “hilarious” could be used in the same way…
Beating a dead horse around a bush, LOL
But hardly a companion to a pepper mill
For me LOL = Life of Leisure...
I think of lol as kinda equivalent to 😕.
Younger people sometimes still use lmao, but by younger I guess I mean millennials? So not that young anymore, lol.
Oh you silly people...
Of course LOL still means "Laugh Out Loud." Inherently it does. The only change is how people are interpreting that when it comes up in a text.
Just like "Ha ha." That could mean I think what you said is really funny. Or, and maybe more often, it could be meant sarcastically as "Wow - Really funny! Not!"
Or another way of looking at the LOL is like if you are in an actual face-to-face situation (remember those?) and you aren't really paying attention as someone else is talking and you think you hear something funny and laugh (out loud) and it turns out the person was just telling you something really serious and personal. You have just given away that you weren't really listening and your LOL was actually just a space filler that was ultimately a giveaway as to how little you were paying attention. The meaning of the LOL hasn't changed, per se. But the sincerity is in question.
The true meaning of any word or phrase is greatly incumbent upon the sincerity with which one perceives the speaker. But, that shouldn't necessarily change the definition of the thing itself, IMHO...
Re: LOL / lol
Our family (all gens) use lol (lower case) in texting to simply mean: 'got a chuckle out of that' . Something hilarious might get a LOL or a 🤣. The default 'lol' for the iMessage app 'tapback' is Ha Ha, which I do use as a quick response, but would prefer 'lol'.
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Actually Malaika, the full saying is
"Beating a dead horse around the bush off the beaten path where you can lead a horse to water, and where a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush beating a hasty retreat straight from the horse's mouth."
Joe, you are too funny!!!
@Joe D
I think @Nancy meant LOL.
Scarlett is bright red with a touch of orange. Maroon is darker, with a mixin of a bit of blue.
Interesting that the example TOOLS were hammers & sickles. Subliminal message there, John? I'm sure OFNP would've made something out of that.
Good, solid theme, not only using just those seven LETTERS, but when you count ALL the letters in ALL of the themers, they will spell out SCARLET LETTERS twice! Extra layer of elegance.
The fill is ALSO clean, if not spectacular. Very well done, a tap-in birdie.
Wordle par after two wrong guesses in the BGGBG pattern.
P.S. RIP Bob Barker, who passed "without going over!" at 99.
No erasures. Easy as PIE(S). A solid beginner-friendly puzzle. Perfect for a Monday.
I GOTTA TIP
NEWSALERT: To DAY STEERCLEAR of CAROL,
ORELSE be INANE and USER,
THE SCARLET LETTER puts you IN peril,
and LADS, she's not a GOODLOSER.
--- ROMEO HARTE
Best Mon-puz I ever RED.
Thanks D,LIW for the bday nod
Wordle eagle!! YGBGG GGGGG
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