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Lyra's brightest star / TUES 11-28-23 / South American grasslands / What an Uno player has in hand upon crying "Uno!" / Soccer star Hamm
Tuesday, November 28, 2023
Hello, everyone! It’s Clare for the last Tuesday in November. And you know what the end of November means — we can start fully celebrating the full holiday season. I’m breaking out my ornaments and decorating tomorrow. As I’m writing this, I just got back from trivia night, and we won!! The tiebreaker question at the end was, “What was the average price of gas per gallon in 1978?” We got the closest, but could the price really have been only 65-ish cents?! My Steelers made me happy last weekend when, after firing their offensive coordinator, they seemed to realize it’s legal to throw a pass downfield over the middle and generated over 400 yards of offense for the first time in many years. Other than that, I’m busy with work and enjoying the crosswords (and this isn’t a plug but also the NYTimes Connections game).
ANYHOW on to the puzzle…
Relative difficulty: Pretty easy
THEME: Rhyming scheme involving colors
Theme answers:
Well, the theme and the clues gave me the blues. Not entirely, but I couldn’t resist the rhyme, and I do think clues blues is a better rhyme than ORANGE DOOR HINGE (58A). The theme seemed to hinge (if you will) on that clue/answer, and I can sympathize with the constructor wanting an exclamation point there, but the answer just didn’t do it for me.
- GRAY DAY (17A: Colorful rhyme for gloomy weather)
- REDHEAD (18A: Colorful rhyme for a "ginger")
- GREEN SCREEN (24A: Colorful rhyme for a filming background)
- MELLOW YELLOW (44A: With 46-Across, colorful rhyme for a 1966 Donovan hit
- ORANGE DOOR HINGE (58A: Colorful (albeit rare!) rhyme for an item at a hardware store)
Sepsis is a serious condition in which the body responds improperly to an infection. The infection-fighting processes turn on the body, causing the organs to work poorly. Sepsis may progress to septic shock. This is a dramatic drop in blood pressure that can damage the lungs, kidneys, liver and other organs. When the damage is severe, it can lead to death. (Mayo Clinic)
• • •
Well, the theme and the clues gave me the blues. Not entirely, but I couldn’t resist the rhyme, and I do think clues blues is a better rhyme than ORANGE DOOR HINGE (58A). The theme seemed to hinge (if you will) on that clue/answer, and I can sympathize with the constructor wanting an exclamation point there, but the answer just didn’t do it for me.
I did really like MELLOW YELLOW (44/46A). I distinctly remember my dad often singing the single line, “They call me mellow yellow” – though he pays so little attention to music that he was probably picking up on the soft drink ad, not the song by Donovan. MELLOW YELLOW didn’t quite fit because the other answers all had the color first, but close enough.
The vertical symmetry in the puzzle grid looked nice, and, while it probably wasn’t intentional, I liked the big sort of T shapes in the middle of the puzzle along with the clue for 41D: Partner of a crossed “t.”
I didn’t know Benjamin HOFF (65A: Benjamin who wrote "The Tao of Pooh"), so I Googled him and now know that he wrote some popular books and then in 2006 wrote an essay that denounced the publishing industry and announced he was quitting writing books. I also wasn’t familiar with MEMOREX (42D: Big name in cassette tapes, once). I see that some commercials – “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” – were quite famous, but that was well before I was born, and somehow ads for recording tape don’t pop up much these days. I also had a mind-blowing revelation when I learned that LATISH (47D: Not quite on time) is the proper way to write that word and not lateish or late-ish. Whoops.
The top part of the puzzle got off to a strong start, with GET RICH, TOOK OFF, AIR HOLE, ANDORRA, GRAY DAY, and REDHEAD. Then the puzzle got progressively less interesting to me. I think “Go bananas” should have been FREAK “out” (35A) or something akin to that. I hated TGIF (56D: What you might say as you crack open a beer). Does anyone actually still say that? Do people only crack open beers on Friday? And… NEATO!! My nemesis word is back. In a write-up a couple of months ago I said I never wanted to see that word again, and now it’s back haunting me. Last time, it was clued as “cool beans!” and this time it was “swell.” I personally think it’d be swell if we got rid of this word from our lexicon. Cool beans? Some of the rest of the answers were crosswordese and were just okay; I find the crosswordese excusable if there is an amazing theme, but this wasn’t one, at least for me.
Misc.:
Signed, Clare Carroll, whose colors are Black and Gold
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Misc.:
- I’m a REDHEAD (18A), so it feels like this clue was tailor-made for me. (I do dye my hair, so I’m cheating a bit here but, oh, well.) In the realm of RED… my Liverpool Reds have been doing pretty well — we managed a tie against Man City at City’s home stadium when we didn’t look great. We’ll see how the rest of the season shapes up.
- GEESE (24D: Birds in a gaggle) are awful when they’re on the bike path. They really just stand there on the path and make you barely squeeze past them and then look at you in a very mean way that makes you think they’re about to attack you.
- Everyone needs to watch “The Americans.” It was a criminally underrated show and is one of my top three favorite shows of all time. I was obsessed with it. All six seasons are perfect. The series finale was the best and most fitting I’ve ever seen (even better than “Breaking Bad,” in my opinion). And Matthew RHYS (4D) and Keri Russell connected while starring in the show and are now partners and have a kid!
- Another underrated show that was on Netflix was GLOW (33D) about female wrestlers. Side note: I really liked the clue (What fireflies and happy faces do) for that one!
- It wasn’t quite a GRAY DAY (17A) in DC today, but it was rather cold and getting colder as we head into December… It’s going to make biking rather hard, but I shall try to double up (or triple up) on layers of clothing and see if I can make it work.
And that’s all I’ve got! Stay warm and enjoy the holidays, and I’ll see you in December.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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84 comments:
Easy. My only problem was misreading the first theme clue and mistyping EIRE so I didn’t realize what was going on until I hit the Donovan clue. 58a was amusing and apparently is a somewhat controversial meme (Eminem 2010?).
According to Merriam-Webster: “Of course, the two-word term door hinge does not form a true rhyme with orange, but half of it can be used to create a half rhyme with the name of the citrus fruit.”
Like the puzzle.
Me too for CourSES before CLASSES.
I second Clare’s “The Americans” and “GLOW” recommendations. RHYS was also excellent as HBO’s “Perry Mason”.
I came here specifically to read what others thought of ORANGE DOOR HINGE. I thought it was hilarious! It made me smile as soon as I had that a-ha moment. I think it may have annoyed me on a tougher day, but I thought it was a goofy little ray of sunshine for a Tuesday. Sorry it wasn't so for you :-(
Building up to an answer of Eminem rhyming is pretty sweet. People my age (60) might have a hard time with that; unless they watch 60 minutes, which is what people my age do, so I say it's fair. Watch the clip on YouTube with Eminem and AC from 60 minutes.
Some trite stuff RDA AFT AMP but not too much
FRAN Drescher clued very much in the moment.
Not really important but Helmut KOHL was really tall - at least compared to Maggie Thatcher when I saw them in 1984 (?) at the Salzburg festival.
Loved the reminder of the Memorex commercials! I have that (by now reupholstered) chair! It's really not comfortable, but I inherited it from a favorite aunt.
Fun clueing - so I'd say a good Tuesday!
OK, I’ll add it: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IQNBQI3UDag
SoCal Craig
Since ORANGE doesn’t rhyme with DOOR HINGE, they should have gone full-bore wacky and made the clue “colorful (albeit rare) rhyme for an item at a hardware store in Cockney London” with the answer ORANGE DOOR ‘INGE.
Agree with Clare that it was a little underwhelming. But it was definitely quick. I liked ADOPT ME and can imagine my teenage self saying it to my best friend’s worldly parents when I was frustrated with my own.
Clare, I am a REDHEAD too, or was before it all went gray. When I show friends pics of the childhood me (such as that bratty teenager), they are amazed at my Lucille Ball shaded hair. And I 100% agree with you about “The Americans.” Probably my favorite show ever. As for your father singing MELLOW YELLOW, I hope he added the whispered “quite rightly” after “They call me Mellow Yellow.” That confident little bit made me like the song so much more.
Fastest Tuesday in a while. Definitely agree with the “neato” sentiment.
Pretty sure ORANGE DOOR HINGE is a reference to an interview with Eminem about his being able to rhyme anything. Makes the clue a little more interesting :)
You are much too polite about “orange door hinge.” 🤯
From an old Eminem interview on 60 minutes: "If you're taking the word at face value and you just say orange, nothing is going to rhyme with it exactly. If you enunciate it and you make it like more than one syllable, or-ange, you could say like, 'I put my orange four-inch door hinge in storage and ate porridge with George.'"
ORANGEDOORHINGE is what made the puzzle for me. Enjoyed it!
Even though I'm in the target demographic, I must have missed 60 Minutes the night of the Eminem interview. Thanks, all, for clarifying the reference.
I know Matthew RHYS (4D) but I wasn't aware of "The Americans" until now. Don't know Benjamin HOFF (65A) or his Pooh book. Both were crossed fairly. Easy Tuesday.
Nice puzzle, just challenging enough to be enjoyable. I resisted the urge to take "anyway" instead of ANYHOW.
A nitpicker might point out that MELLOWYELLOW reversed the position of the colors vis a vis the other theme entries. i thought it was OK.
The Americans was great. It went eight seasons and only struggled a bit near the end. I loved Keri Russell (the second season of The Diplomat is expected a long year from now), Margo Martindale (she's nailed every role I've ever seen her in), Noah Emmerich (the FBI agent), and the wonderful Frank Langella.
I’m one of the minority who don’t know the RHYS dude, so that cross with SEPSIS was brutal.
Not a fan of the DOOR HINGE nonsense, and I don’t know much about rap music other than that it’s frequently vulgar and misogynistic. And get off my lawn.
I'm 67. I would have been single-digits-years old when one of the interstitial bits during the cartoon-forward show we all used to watch (Captain Penny) on our local channel pointed out that no word rhymes with "orange." Then somehow they worked in a punchline with "door hinge." I've never forgotten it, and all I'm sayin' is that it's been around a lot longer than Eminem.
“Not quite on time” is late, not LATISH. Stop trying to minimize your lack of consideration for other people.
Due to a peculiarity of my solve pattern, I ran into the clue for RHYS almost immediately after the clue for HOFF, and wondered if I had stumbled through a hole in time and wound up on Saturday. But those two answers aside, the rest could have run on a Monday.
Easier than my Tuesday average but I found the NW corner to be Thursday hard. I had IODINE and EIRE and nothing else until the very end. AISIDW (Actor/Actress In a Show I Don’t Watch) didn’t help. And had COURSES instead of CLASSES for the longest time.
I liked the conversational answers today: HEY, ANYHOW, TGIF, ADOPT ME, NEATO. I liked the trio of openings: TRAP, PORE, AIRHOLE. I liked the NEATO / NATO pair. And I realized that PICANTE is a lovely word for people who don’t like spicy food, with “I CAN’T” right in the middle.
I applaud ORANGE DOORHINGE. No, it doesn’t rhyme to me, given how I say “orange”, but it does rhyme for others, and it is such a magnificent stab, so out there, so gutsy, and so silly, that my thumbs fly straight up. Gimme gutsy in a grid!
Gia, I also applaud your theme, so simple and engaging, and, best as I can tell, you’re the first one to come up with it. It started my day with an inside-and-out smile. Thank you so much for making this!
ORANGE DOOR HINGE is a slant rhyme. Slant rhymes have there place, but a rhyming crossword puzzle where all the other rhymes are true rhymes is not it.
The only true rhyme for orange I've ever seen is in the musical "Unlock'd," where Sam Carner wraparound rhymed it with "more enj-/oyment."
Shout out to ORANGEDOORHINGE, my son's now defunct high school band! I honestly thought they invented the name, but now see Eminem should be credited. A quick, fun Tuesday for me!
I’m glad it was you, Clare, because @Rex would have decimated this puzzle. You were merely disappointed and yes Memorex was quite famous when us older folks were kids, I’m 54 and it was definitely something I knew very easily. Thanks for the write up!
Even forgetting about the H, ORANGE does not rhyme with DOORHINGE in my euphonious accent (Long Island). Not a quibble though, I enjoyed the puzzle!
I hated ORANGE DOORHINGE, it ruined what was already a so-so theme. All of the others actually rhyme. If you want a rhyme for orange, forget Eminem, you have to go to the true master of song rhymes: Tom Lehrer. When challenged in an interview to come up with a rhyme for orange, he produced the following ditty:
Using an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
Oyment thereof.
I didn't know the Eminem reference; now that I do, I think it was a great choice. I didn't know the actor either, but RHYS is a fairly common Welsh surname, and if you're old enough to have some old MEMOREX tapes lying around, you've probably heard it.
I almost bought a GREEN SCREEN when I was teaching via Zoom, but decided it would be too vain.
I just noticed AIRHOLE crossing "piehole," a nice touch!
Since several have mentioned Eminem… I have a pretty clear memory of a comedian (I think Gary Mule Deer) making that joke on some variety show in the 1970s. I’ve spent the last hour or so chasing that memory online with no luck, but did find this podcast that persisted in chasing down their own childhood memory from a Canadian puppet show. Suffice to say the rhyme predates all of our memories. https://underunderstood.com/podcast/episode/orange-door-hinge-rhyme/
Mike Birbiglia has some wonderful material on folks who arrive late, esp to his shows. He calls them late-ies, and asks them why they are late. His wife is a late-y -- oh, no!
Ace-Queen, anyone?
No? Then how about Company that saves another from a hostile takeover?
I’m amazed that I’m the one who has to say “Rhymes with Orange” is a consistently funny, in a special way, semi-famous syndicated comic strip by Hilary Price, the one comic strip that sends me to buy a local paper with it in it. Her books make perfect Christmas presents. Of course what’s really funny is after all nothing rhymes with orange.
Ed
I laughed out loud at ORANGE DOORHINGE because it's a hark back (coincidentally?) to the PC classic game The Curse of Monkey Island, where you're trying to get some pirates to stop singing but they continue to rhyme a verse with everything you say. (spoilers) Only when you say "We can all avoid scurvy if we all eat an orange" do they then get confused and reach for rhymes, and one of them is "DOOR HINGE" which they still don't accept, and then stop.
Hey All !
@Clare
Yes! I don't understand why Team management/owners don't listen to fans. Canada should've been fired many weeks before. We actually looked like a real team on offense! (Oh, and I like NEATO. 😁)
Used to watch "Drake & Josh" on Nickelodeon years ago. It was a show targeted to teens and tweens, but man, it was very well written, and quite funny! The reason I'm telling ya this, is one one episode, Drake was writing a song, and a lyric line ended in ORANGE. He was trying to figure out a rhyme, when Josh ran into the door, and said, "Ow! I just hit the DOOR HINGE!" And Drake was like, "DOOR HINGE!"
Wondering if that was a seed for this puz?
Anyway, nice handling of the Themers. When you have non-conforming letter counts, the best thing to do is left-right symmetry. Gia had two 7's and two 6's, which could've been put in symmetrical, but then they had a 13 and a 15. Hmm, what to do? Left/right symmetry!
I liked the theme. Puz played slightly tougher than a typical TuesPuz, so that was nice. Couple of double -F's! NEATO. Har.
Have yourself a great Tuesday!
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm gonna go to bat for ORANGE DOOR HINGE here -- I'm willing to bet that, if you're honest, most of you don't aspirate the h when you say "door hinge," so it's as perfect a rhyme as you're going to get for orange. Plus it's delightful! Don't be such a Gloomy Gus, Claire, that's Rex's thing.
@Clare - Yes, the GEESE are about to attack you. You're probably talking about resident Canada GEESE, the FROUS (Feathered Rodents of Unusual Size) of the northeast. I dream of eliminating world hunger by giving everyone all the goose they can eat. GEESE are the best guards for your house. Fence in your yard, turn loose a little flock of domestic gray geese and no one will ever bother you at home. They'll raise a hellacious ruckus should anyone enter the yard, and they'll attack them at the same time. Plus, when you get tired of the noise and goose shit all over your yard, you can eat the FROUSs.
Sorry, if you grew up in NYC and its environs as I did, then "orange" and "door hinge" do not rhyme. Any native NY'er pronounces it "are-inge."
I've heard "camp" described as something so bad that it's good. And of course a "groaner" is actually a kind of praise for a pun. So, can a rhyme like ORANGE DOOR HINGE be so bad it's good?
Nah. Don't think so.
Nevertheless, this was an enjoyable puzzle to solve ANYHOW.
I've never used either word conversationally, but I feel like SWELL ≠ NEATO.(Swell seems to be just a bit north of fine, or if used sarcastically, south of meh. NEATO clocks as offering genuine, albeit trivial, excitement). Guess the clue works in the sense of "Swell, NEATO is in the puzzle again.
Read the Tao of Pooh back in High School so Benjamin Hoff lives rent-free in my brain. May have to check out the Americans, (and I loved the first season of GLOW).
I'm in for ORANGEDOORHINGE. Had no idea Eminem was on a crusade for orange rhymes. Might have been fun if the other rhymes were more cockeyed than colorful.
After my "aha" moment with the classic (albeit rare) ORANGEDOORHINGE, I realized that there were some beloved color-related rhymes missing, including, but not limited to, these RARES:
Chartreuse Dead Goose
Periwinkle Nose Crinkle
Veridian Meridian
Alabaster Fly Caster
I also really liked the 20A clue (:::::). I'm thinking of constructing a punctuation-themed puzzle with clues like ;;;;;; and ????? and ,,,,,,,. Actually, the last one could be a pretty cool way to clue CANDYMAN (,,,,,, I'm your_______).
We need a word for the answers like those in the column at 12D (OREO NEATO INTO), which share a common ending. Finis (end) and idem (same), seem like the logical basis, but a finisidem doesn't seem catchy. Any ideas?
I think ORANGEDOORHINGE is a nice substitute for MELLOW YELLOW in the Donovan song. They call me ORANGEDOORHINGE (quite rightly).
Not too high on this one, I must admit.
Nice little stunt, and after a couple themers I was looking for a black jack or a white knight. I know, technically they're not colors, but I was looking for them anyway. But then the ORANGEDOORHINGE saved the day, by virtue of its goofiness.
The generation gap is alive and well as Mr. RHYS was a mystery, as was Ms. KALING, but MEMOREX was a gimme and I guess I have something in common with Clare's dad, as I have been known to hum MELLOWYELLOW on occasion. And hey Clare, re NEATO--100%!, as sports commentators I'm watching now are fond of saying as shorthand for "I agree completely".
Met Mr. HOFF today also, and found out that a "quirky person" is an ODDONE. Odd duck, yes, oddball, certainly, but ODDONE sounds a little, well, odd to me.
Nice Tuesdecito, GB. I'd Gladly Be solving still if there were more to do, and thanks for all the fun.
I’m kind of with Clare on the revealer. It was a DOOR HINGE that had started to rust because it creaked so badly I cringed. Still, it was quite an enjoyable Tuesday puzzle and I really liked the other rhymes. It made me think of a sign I saw a few years ago that said “Nothing rhymes with month. Think about it.” I have and I’ve never come up with a single thing.
Clare mentioned the Connections Game which I have just recently discovered. It’s great fun and I’ve really gotten INTO it. Something different besides the usual word solving/finding. Give it a try sometime.
@mathgent (6:49) I never watched The Americans but agree with you that Margo Martindale is a treasure.
-ODE ONE-
There was a man of very right wing,
(No redhead or orange ,but still
He was known as the Ging).
To speak for the House was his role
But many cosidered him a downright
Airhole.
His Primary goal was to get rich
And that's why people now call him Ging rich
hated this. fill was boring and old SYNOD PONE ENOS OED OREO EIRE. then i hated it even more finding out it's an eminem reference
Great write-up Claire! Oh, and back in 1978, when gas was around 65 cents (I remember well as I was 17 and that was a lot for me), my beloved Stillers won the Super Bowl!
Wow. As I finished the puzzle I felt like ORANGEDOORHINGE alone made it worth the price of admission and I didn’t even know Marshall Mathers said it on 60 Minutes and that makes me like it even more. I’m with @Ben on the pronunciation of DOORHINGE.
If Canada GEESE are in a gaggle they are annoying and act like they own the road but will likely just squawk at you. If you get near their nest or babies in the spring, they WILL come after you. Swans are WAY meaner than Canada geese and the geese are afraid of swans. They don’t hang in gaggles and one swan “couple” hanging out will keep Canada geese away from that area. I used to walk our dog to an area that had a boat ramp near the river and the dog and I would watch (from afar) as the huge resident gaggle would follow single file down the boat ramp. One goose was lame and they would all (I swear!) look back and check that they weren’t too far ahead of the lame goose taking up the rear.
Like many others, "orange" and "door hinge" do not come close to rhyming in my New Yawk accent. That suggestion, however, predates Eminem by quite a few years, and I recall a Games Magazine piece that rhymed "orange" with "bar Inge" (referring to the playwright)...
Everything else works okay for me. I cut constructors a lot of slack for Tuesday puzzles: so long as the theme works and there isn't too much goop, I'm reasonably happy, even on this GRAYDAY.
Joel B: for another use of enjambment to rhyme, there's Tom Lehrer's fellow lyric master (and childhood camp-mate), the late Stephen Sondheim, who rhymed "silver" thusly:
"To make a rhyme for "silver"/ or other rhymeless rhyme/ requires only will, ver-/-bosity and time"
Does anyone really describe a party as “ lit”?
I despise slant rhymes in poetry or dumb sayings, however now that I know that ORANGEDOORHINGE is in the dictionary, I guess I have to give it a pass.
Piling on to say that The Americans is a fabulous show, definitely in my top five of all time. We stumbled on to an interview with RHYS, and were shocked to discover that he's not American. He nailed the accent.
MELLOW YELLOW not my favorite Donovan track, but it was an earworm (quite rightly).
Just to be clear - it's not the H that bothers me with the DOOR HINGE. It's the fact that I pronounce ORANGE or-unge or are-unge.
@whatsername 10:07
I thay thome thingth motht everyday
And thome jutht onthe per month
And though my thpeech ith very thlow
My nothe thtill alwayth runth
Wanderlust - agreed on "quite rightly." When that song is on, I say that line.
Before reading the comments, I assumed that the door hinge was something that a certain national hardware chain had cooked up. But no.
Clare - once or twice I rode from Germantown to office near 21st and K NW on Bike-to-Work Day - weather was much nicer. Though there was a bit of rain on the way home one night. Think I waited out some of it under overpass.
A few Memorex cassettes - but mostly used TDK. Have a couple Sony Metal Masters around; those go for a pretty penny.
Another hand up for courses for CLASSES. Too bad courses for horses is a letter too long to fit in weekday puzzle.
I loved orange/door hinge for being silly and bold. And I’m not disappointed in the comments I expected to see here. Reminds me of the viral blue/black vs. white/gold dress phenomenon.
Cue the sound of an airplane in the cartoons with smoke coming out... rowrrrr kerblam. I'm gonna guess before reading replies the last "rhyme" is well covered by y'all today.
I enjoyed @Clare's review. Matched up pretty well with my thoughts. We like those like us, don't we. Maybe today I will find something to like that is nothing like me. Maybe I'll try to understand why people eat eggplant.
Yesterday and today zipped by so fast puzzlewise. They're dropping into my wheelhouse for a change. It means I have to go find something else to do and inevitably it's less good than a crossword. I've been doing puzzles from 1993 and they take forever, not because they're smarter or better than today's (they're decidedly not), but the pop stars -- just as overrun in those grids as they are these days -- are long forgotten. My favorite lately was [Tubby the Tuba creator]. How have we allowed Tuby and his creator to lapse into the shadows of obscurity?
Uniclues:
1 Coffee house popular with millennials.
2 Hamm hammered.
3 HOT and MILD on the wall.
4 Love 🦖
1 FREAK HAT REALM
2 LIT MIA
3 PICANTE POST-ITS
4 RELISH ODD ONE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Last sound you heard as you decrescenoed onto the pavement. And your first thought afterward. THUD. ALIVE!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s a story book I read to my children many years ago, “The Green Queen. She lay in her red bed and looked at the gray day. She had to go out so she got up. She put on her blue shoes, her black Mac,” etc. So this brought back old delights. And then to find the silly rhyme for the notoriously ridiculous orange. Mwah, genius!
And thank you "@efrex.
Hi Clare! Nice write-up.
Easy & enjoyable Tuesday - never heard of ORANGE DOOR HINGE but MELLO YELLOW brought me right back to Donovan, too.
Thanks, Gia :)
Speak for yourself, kiddo! I use NEATO all the time!
Back from a lovely holiday in sunny Santa Rosa California and I looked forward last night ti “Last Tuesday Clare.” Great job, and not because I agree with you right down the line (and especially NEATO). Just yuck! I am of the generation familiar with the word, and I dislike the word as much as I dislike its users being labeled the “Beat Generation” or something similar. Enough.
Clare, I too cheer the Steelers (and the Pirates) big time. My dad got his Ph.D. at Pitt and I liked going over to see him z(from home in Columbus. Of course that was in the yore (late ‘60s) but what a good football era! And I was devastated when my beloved Pirates and all of Pittsburg and the world lost Roberto Clemente. He was such a generous man.
On we go into the holidays and on January 4th, the big truck packs my stuff and I am moving out to California to start my career as Grandma and community activist. This next month is going to be stressful. Ugh!
Colorful rhyme for when a PETA activist wrests a mauve mink stole from the shoulders of an unsuspecting passerby—
Yes, it's a PURPLE FUR PULL.
I had an American History teacher in high school who used "Be that as it may..." as a segue all the time.
Alas, poor blue. Didn't make the cut. Coulda been a contender, with BLUEBIRDFLU. [Which is no more un-hinged than the (albeit cool) ORANGE themer, IM&AO.] Sure coulda used them U's, too boot.
staff weeject pick: HEY. It gets yer attention.
fave stuff included: E/W puzgrid symmetry. FREAK. DOTTEDI. ODDONE & ONECARD pairin. ORANGEDOORHINGE.
Thanx for yer no-hinges-barred hue clues, Ms. Bosko darlin. And … gee, a MIA, Gia!
Masked & Anonymo s
They're ba-a-a-ack:
**gruntz**
The answer is not rare, it is impossible: there is no rhyming word for “ORANGE” in English.
Medium for me because of a slow start: nada in the top row and a misunderstanding of the first two theme clues. Only when RED HEAD filled in from crosses did I comprehend that I wasn't supposed to find a rhyme for "ginger." Slow day on the brain front. Thanks to those who provided lore on ORANGE DOOR HINGE, all new to me. On the other hand, MEMOREX went right in. I have a cupboard full of those cassettes with taped Metropolitan Opera broadcasts from the 1990s, now languishing unplayed, alas. I liked RELISH and LATISH as neighbors. Also appreciate the comments on common words that have no rhyme and the efforts made to disprove that - something I'd never thought about. Crossword bonus!
Wow, this was the absolute perfect Tuesday. Of course it was easy, Tuesday's are supposed to be easy. There was a little crunch to it, but everything was incredibly fair. The marquee DOOR HINGE wasn't great, but 🤷♂️.
This would be the puzzle I would give to people to introduce them to xwording. I don't remember this byline before. I'm sure it's probably been there before, but either way, keep up the great work.
Puzzle went very quickly (no "downs-only" today) and I got a little chuckle at ORANGE DOOR HINGE so thanks Gia for that.
Re Connections: it can be a frustrating game; some days one or more of the categories are actually impossible for me. I remember one day the last bunch was a list of 4 surnames; couldn't figure out anything, turns out they were all ELIZABETHs. (The only one I recognized was TAYLOR). However I did like the "All stay the same if rotated 180°" a few days ago.
[Spelling Bee: Mon 0, pretty straightforward. Sun -1, missed this 10er which I think I've never seen before. But I did get this silly 8er.]
Yep I immediately thought of Monkey Island too! I reject all other theories, it must be a nod to the Guybrush Threepwood fans out there ;)
Still remember well the Memorex ad with a recording of Ella Fitzgerald breaking a wine glass with a high note. And I also remember in 1978 my wife and I deciding we were no longer drive when gas hit the unbelievable 65 cents a gallon.
Also, I believe there is no word in the English language that rhymes with orange.
Because of my eldest daughters name, she much preferred I sing that other Donovan hit about a certain Miss Juniper.
Thx, Gia, for the color-rama fest! 😊
Hi Clare; good to see you again! Thx for your write-up! 🌟
Med (I think, bc I tried a downs-only solve). Did better than expected but couldn't quite pull it off.
Got all the colors except for GRAY DAY.
Had ADOPT(e)E; couldn't remember MEMOREX.
Love Donovan (esp MELLOW YELLOW)!
RELISHed the battle; will keep trying downs-only every Tues.
Fun adventure; liked it! :)
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Croce's 862 was med (just under 3x NYT Sat.), with the NE being the toughest to suss out. On to K.A.C.'s Mon. New Yorker. 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@egs (10:53) I'm not convinced that runth would be a legitimate contender but . . . A for effort and entertainment value!! LOL
@CDilly (11:50) Relocating and rebooting - that's some exciting news! And what a beautiful area you're moving to. You will almost be neighbors with @GILL.
No head-scratching today. I TOOK OFF, ended up with HOFF, and found nothing off-color in the fill.
Colorful rhyme for 21: BLACKJACK
Colorful rhyme in a gaggle: PUCE GOOSE
Colorful rhyme riding a steed: WHITE KNIGHT
Colorful rhyme for going in London: BLUE LOO
Colorful rhyme for your appointments: LAVENDER CALENDAR
I could go on, but I could dye if I stay.
@bocamp, I have tried the downs-only method on Tuesdays but never succeeded. So I decided to just let Monday be the only day for that, and Tuesday is like Monday used to be but a little bit trickier. Works for me and I look forward to Monday!
I too love Donovan; MELLOW YELLOW is kinda fun but I prefer tunes like "Please Don't Bend". And @Jim, Miss Juniper is nice too; classic Donovan.
FREAK is certainly used without the preposition in that sense these days.
Orange door hinge… I immediately thought of Simon Bar Sinister and Cad committing crimes that featured orange, because it messed up Underdog’s need to rhyme when he performs a super feat. (Underdog eventually grappled Cad with an apple, if I remember correctly.)
Carthago delenda est !!
No colors, c but Cato rhymes with NATO.
Yes
To tea73 10:46 AM
About Rhys.
He also nailed the accent as HBO’s Perry Mason as someone here said
Based on the comments, it looks like Eminem had heard the slant rhyme before he used it in the interview, maybe in a children’s he watched!
Doesn’t surprise me because word play like that is usually around for a long time.
Liked the puzzle. One slant rhyme doesn’t bother me at all. Neither did the reverse order in Mellow Yellow.
Being reminded of that Ella Fitzgerald Memorex commercial was fun.
Terrible puzzle
I felt the puzzle had a unique and lively character. The way it mixes up soft balls and spitballs, and the rhyme idea turned out fun-fun. But this puzzle attempt to do the impossible! (And succeeded) in the sense that it is supposedly impossible to find a rhyme for the word “orange”. I can’t think of a decent one, so you have to try to find something indecent, like a “near rhyme”, which can be fun, or an anti-rhyme, or a shocker. But that’s not so easy either. So what did the Times come up with? Door hinge. Perfect. It nails it. Like: “Who gives a … (five-letter word that rhymes with watermelon). If this puzzle were a person, I could pick them out, I bet. You’re all resting up for Wednesday’s.
Kurt Vonnegut rhymed orange and door hinge in Welcome to the Monkey House, which was published in 1968.
I agree on all counts!
Clare Carrol said: “MELLOW YELLOW didn’t quite fit because the other answers all had the color first, but close enough”
Incorrect. GRAYDAY also has the color first.
Heh heh. Well, if you're gonna try rhyming ORANGE, this is about the closest you're gonna get. In some dialects, where the O is long, it almost works. Points for a good try.
I never sang along with MELLOW YELLOW--but I did often whisper "Quite rightly" afterward.
Other rare entries: TAN FAN, MAUVE STOVE, VERMILION COTILLION. Fun wordplay.
some of the FILLING was not too THRILLING: DOTTEDI...and there's yet another NEATO sighting! Blargh! It's so '50s. And who is this HOFF guy?
My coffee cup has a picture of a bee on it and the words "BEE KIND." Okay. Birdie. Perhaps a robin ORANGEbreast.
Wordle birdie.
A true blue start to the Tuesdays of this year.
I know. You're thinking, "Orange ya going to stop?'
Makes me want a polka dot coffeepot.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
IT’S A TRAP
At my SCREEN DOOR the REDHEADs stop,
ONE by ONE they GET INTO my loft,
ANDORRA never TOOKOFF her TOP,
PORE DEERE took all DAY to GET ME OFF.
--- SCOTTY HOFF
IT’S A TRAP
At my SCREEN DOOR the REDHEADs stop,
ONE by ONE they GET INTO my loft,
ANDORRA never TOOKOFF her TOP,
PORE DEERE took all DAY to GET ME OFF.
--- SCOTTY HOFF
How about a white knight or a blackjack? Oh. Now that I checked above it's been said. Some folks live by the mantra 'If it's YELLOW let it MELLOW, if it's brown flush it down.' Not here.
Wordle phew. Not so good lately.
I was born the day "Mellow Yellow" hit number one. It's a favorite of mine. What did make the clue odd is that "Mellow Yellow" isn't really a rhyme FOR the song, the way "gray day" is a rhyme for overcast weather.
The best rhyme for "orange" comes from Tom Lehrer:
Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
Oyment thereof.
Actually, the Donovan song that hit number one the day I was born was "Sunshine Superman". Don't know how my brain made THAT mistake! I know better!
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