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Palestinian activist Tamimi / TUE 2-18-25 / Kennewick ___ (ancient ancestor discovered in 1996) / Black and/or white water bird / New Mexico site of the largest radioactive accident in U.S. history / ___ trail (rhyming path that formerly had tracks) / Currency common to Cyprus and Croatia / 918 or 539, on the Cherokee Nation
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Constructor: Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Challenging (**for a Tuesday**)
Theme answers:
- "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" (17A: "Seriously?!")
- "WHO DOES THAT?!" (36A: "Seriously?!")
- "THE AUDACITY!" (44A: "Seriously?!")
- "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!" (66A: "Seriously?!")
A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Inaugurated in 1923, powwows today are an opportunity for Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or public, indoors or outdoors. Dancing events can be competitive with monetary prizes. Powwows vary in length from single-day to weeklong events. [...] The head dancers consist of the Head Man Dancer and the Head Woman Dancer, and often Head Teen Dancers, Head Little Boy and Girl Dancers, Head Golden Age Dancers, and a Head Gourd Dancer if the pow wow has a Gourd Dance. The head dancers lead the other dancers in the grand entry or parade of dancers that opens a pow-wow. In many cases, the head dancers are also responsible for leading the dancers during songs, and often dancers will not enter the arena unless the head dancers are already out dancing. (wikipedia)
• • •
I liked this theme. I didn't like it at first because the "YOU" part of "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" seemed contrived. Like ... where was the context for "you?” I'd've believed "I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" (an ordinary enough phrase), but "YOU?" It's something you might say to someone, sure, but the clue wasn't giving me enough to justify the far less common phrase. But then as I went on, I saw that all the clues were identical and all of them required you to imagine exactly the same context—a reaction to someone behaving ... badly? Inappropriately? Outrageously? One of those. So somehow the cumulative effect of the theme was enough to make that first themer OK. And that last themer was a fun adventure and a nice way to close things out. I started from the back end and as soon as I saw there was more than one "O" before that final W"," I was like "OK, how far is this going to go?" and I just kept assuming "O"s and solving the Down crosses until I got to the very front of the answer, the first letter, where I wrote in ... [drumroll] ... "H." "HOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!?" Seriously, how is it not "How?" LOL, I was looking at the black and/or white bird with the second letter "H" (56D: Black and/or white water bird), thinking, "What the hell bird is this? What has happened to my four-letter bird knowledge!?" But of course the second letter of the bird wasn't an "H"—it was a "W." Wow. OK, yes, that also makes sense. Puzzle, done.
When I saw Erik's name on the byline,* I thought "OK, so this is going to be good, but there are definitely going to be a handful of terms and names from marginalized cultures of one kind or another that I absolutely will not know and will have to piece together from crosses." And ... bingo. Three answers where I needed all (or almost all) the crosses to make sense of them: HEAD DANCER (3D: Important powwow figure), AHED (29D: Palestinian activist Tamimi), CHURCH ROCK (32D: New Mexico site of the largest radioactive accident in U.S. history). Never heard of any of those. CHURCH ROCK doesn't seem like it has anything to do with any particular culture on its surface, but the "radioactive accident" in question has been the source of much recent Native American activism (trying to get the environmental impact of the 1979 accident studied and, however possible, remedied). CHURCH ROCK is named after a rock formation that is sacred to the Navajo people. Anyway, I think this is a fine thing to do with your puzzle—include names and terms from groups you think are underrepresented. There's a predictable uptick in difficulty for a good chunk of solvers when you do this, but if the crosses are fair and the puzzle is appropriately slotted for its difficulty, that's fine. I thought this played much more like a Wednesday than a Tuesday, but again, that is solely because of the three answers I mentioned. Everything else was Tuesday Easy.
Notes:
- 14A: 918 or 539, on the Cherokee Nation (AREA CODE) — love this clue. Great way of being inclusive without really adding any difficulty at all.
- 28A: Kennewick ___ (ancient ancestor discovered in 1996) (MAN) — oof, forgot about this one. Never heard of it. And it crossed AHED (another never-heard-of). Luckily, MAN was totally inferrable. This makes at least the fourth Native American-oriented clue in this puzzle:
Kennewick Man or Ancient One was a Native American man who lived during the early Holocene, whose skeletal remains were found washed out on a bank of the Columbia River in Kennewick, Washington, on July 28, 1996. Radiocarbon tests show the man lived about 8,400 to 8,690 years Before Present, making his skeleton one of the most complete ever found this old in the Americas, and thus of high scientific interest for understanding the peopling of the Americas. (wikipedia)
- 43A: Currency common to Cyprus and Croatia (EURO) — nice, oblique way of coming at this very common crossword answer.
- 1D: ___ trail (rhyming path that formerly had tracks) (RAIL) — we love ours (well maintained, no cars to worry about). The weird thing was that even though I wanted RAIL right away, I briefly thought it had to be wrong because I'd never really thought about the term as a general term. "How would anyone solving the puzzle know about the RAIL Trail in Vestal behind the HomeGoods store?" But apparently they're everywhere. Which ... makes sense.
See you next time.
*In case you didn't know, Erik is a veteran constructor and former editor of the USA Today crossword, as well as the 2018 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament champion
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68 comments:
I found it easy except for the NW. Didn't know ROH and had "lead dancer" instead of HEADDANCER (because I didn't know powwow was a dance). I seriously question the clue for CRISIS...a crisis isn't an end result, it merely precedes a good or bad outcome.
Erik was also on Jeopardy! a few years ago!
Erik is fightin the good fight with class and fun. Brilliant.
I agree with Rex regarding the degree of difficulty and some of the more obscure answers - but fortunately the crosses were pretty reasonable ( ROH and the HEAD DANCER concept were tough for me).
This one is in that Tues/Weds level for sure - I think I preferred it as a difficult Tues for a bit of a change of pace.
shoutout to Ahed Tamimi
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past eight years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle, despite the stretched “wow”, does not have an unusually high number of double letters, where unusual is 20 or more. (That “wow” answer counts as six.) The last unusually-high puzzle occurred 1/31/24.
I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
Since I never heard of 1 Across, 3 Down was a Natick for me: It could just as well have been Lead Dancer.
Wow. Not many comments. Anyway:
I think it doesn’t mean “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!” as in “OH MY GOD!” but rather “WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW…” as in “Did you really just do that?”
I loved this theme. Maybe I'm reading it differently than others but I thought it was the brashest crossword I'd seen, with the 1st 3 themers setting up the final one. Like the puzzle saying, "you're not going to believe what I'm about to do." Then doing it. Wow.
I loved the meta – Looking at WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW, then reading over the other three theme answers and seeing that they are the perfect reaction.
What also gave me a big smile was [Dijon-mustered “yes”?] for OUI, mostly because of the scintillating wordplay, but also because this is an answer that has appeared in the major crossword outlets more than 400 times, but never clued like this. ‘Tis a special brain to come up with a clue like that.
Regarding the o-train, two questions come to mind:
• How many O’s did you have filled in when it hit you that it was going to a full string?
• When it did hit you, what was your reaction?
(My answers: Five and a huge “Hah!”)
Loveliness along the way with BUOY, PITHY, THE AUDACITY, and WHO DOES THAT, plus a rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap in STOPS. As for the junk-free answer set, that comes standard in an Agard.
A puzzle with a kapow is rare and wonderful, and thank you for this one, Erik!
Cartoon quiz: where did Rocky and Bullwinkle live? Jeepers!
That whole section with BMW , AHED, and MAN, didn’t know any of them. DNF on a Tuesday first time In memory. Cest La vie,
Rex, rail-trail is indeed a general term, and there are more than 25,000 miles of rail-trails nationwide. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (railstotrails.org) has been promoting these very worthwhile conversions since 1986.
Hey All !
Unsure of the last Themer. Had an easy time with solve, liking the Themers I had, but then hit that last one. If you were to WOW, would it be all O's? How about all W's? Or a combination? Like WOOOOOOOWWWWWWW? Or maybe even WOOOOOOOWWWEEEE? Could've went with YOOOOOOOOOWSERS. Or that would be better as YOWWWWWWWWWSERS.
Or is that last Themer the "Revealer" to the others. I CANT BELIEVE you have THE AUDACITY to put WOOOOOOOOOOOOOW in your grid. WHO DOES THAT?!
Still liked puz. A neat Tuesday, with today being the stereotypically weakest day of the PuzWeek. Fill surprisingly good, which is an Agard staple.
Am I being too SNIDE? Ruh-ROH, I hope not. I'd say HECK NO, TBH.
Welp, have a great Tuesday!
No F's (Seriously?!) 😁
RooMonster
DarrinV
Seemed exceptionally easy to me. 6 minutes under my Tues average, which is a lot.
Didn’t know there was a rail trail in Vestal! Closer to my former stomping grounds is the one in the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, aka the Pine Creek Rail Trail. It runs over 60 miles, from Wellsboro (Tioga County) to Jersey Shore west of Williamsport .
I finished this well ahead of my usual Tuesday time, though not native myself the powwow clue hooked me and I raced through. Migwech (Anishinabe for thank you) to Erik for including clues that shouldn't seem obscure at all for Americans. I was kind of hoping to see the slang NDN (say it out loud) but the area code clue was fun. I'm from the 218, which could have been clued for the Ojibwe nation.
Frostbite Falls
I have come here today to say how much I really enjoy Erik Agard puzzles (including this) and to give him credit for knowing that Astro was the first cartoon dog to say ruh-ROH (followed later by Scooby-Doo)!
Erik is the **only** Crossword Editor I've known who really understands Natick Theory. The NYT could do a looooooooooooot worse when the time comes to appoint Will's successor...
Nothin’ up my sleeve: Frostbite Falls!
I quailed a bit when I saw Erik Agard’s name – I associate him with tough puzzles, even early in the week. But this one went pretty smoothly. When I realized that the theme clues were all the same and that they were all [“Seriously?!”], it brought a grin to my face and made me expect fun, colloquial answers. And so they were!
I liked them all, but I think the one that delighted me most was THE AUDACITY! A more expected answer there, I think (apart from the problem of its length), would have been THE NERVE! But, as a lover of five-dollar words, I was highly amused by THE AUDACITY! and imagined it being spoken in horrified tones by either a prim, overly-sheltered aristocrat or a fussy, overly-censorious librarian. (I feel I can use librarian stereotypes, having been one in my earlier life.) I liked I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU because I thought it toyed with two different meanings: 1) I CAN’T BELIEVE what YOU just said, and 2) I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU as a person, because I CAN’T BELIEVE that anyone would do or say what YOU just did. The hyperextended WOW was just too funny.
Apart from THE AUDACITY!, my favorite answers were HECK NO, UNICYCLE and HAIR TOSS. Couldn’t imagine at first what [Dog-_____ pages] could possibly be and then chuckled when EARED came into view. Thanks to @Rex for making the unfamiliar term, HEAD DANCER, the word of the day.
There was a lot of controversy about Kennewick MAN after the first scientific analysis of his bones found that he was more closely related to ancient Japanese or Polynesian peoples than to Native Americans. Indigenous Americans call Kennewick MAN The Ancient One and revere him as an ancestor, and thus were shocked and disbelieving in the face of this finding. But a friend of my husband, a Danish scientist named Eske Willerslev, lead a team who retested the bones after Eske had refined the study of ancient DNA, and found that the skeleton was most closely related to Native Americans, specifically the people of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in Washington state. In 2024 the PBS series NOVA put together an absolutely fascinating documentary about Eske and his work called Hunt for the Oldest DNA, which I highly recommend.
Nice to see Mr. Agard come up with something a little easier than his frequent New Yorker offerings, which can be brutal as he often cites information of which I have no clue. There were a couple examples of this today, viz. ANYA and AHED, but lots of moo-cows in here too.
Missed the theme that OFL picked up on and learned about CHURCHROCK and Kennewick MAN, Good to learn stuff.
Favorite answer has to be WHODOESTHAT, a question I ask myself frequently these days while watching the news.
Great Tuesday EA. Elegant Activism demonstrated wonderfully well, and thanks for all the fun.
MAN might have been totally inferrable if I had read the clue more carefully and wasn’t thinking that Kennewick was somebody’s first name. So that M could have been any letter for me and I naticked out on B_W crossing _AN.
Frostbite Falls?
Husband is a fan of sorts of Scooby Doo. He (my husband; not Scooby) never, ever says uh-oh. it is always, always ruh-roh.
It's funny, heaven knows, but is it English? Or even textspeak?
Today it's hard for me to write first and read y'all afterwards because I'm so curious about your various reactions. Rex's too. This puzzle completely worked for me on two levels: I liked the unusual crunch for a Tuesday and the fact that I was required to think. And I also liked the off-the-wall humor.
Because my pen slipped as I wrote SWAN at 56D, the W looked like an N -- and so 56A looked like NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Which works very nicely for "Seriously?" Imagine my surprise when NOOOOOOOOOOOOW came in. What on earth? I had to go back to notice my N/W mistake. (I like NOOOOOOOOO better than WOOOOOOOOOOOOW, incidentally.)
I guess I don't know much about Native American ceremonies. I resisted writing in DANCER: To me, the powwow is all talk, all the time. As in "we're having a powwow."
A playful puzzle made with a sly smile and a tongue firmly in the cheek. I liked it.
Waiting for them to ask him back :)
So good to see Erik again. Doing some yoga then on to the puzzle :)
¡Guaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaau!
It was June 6, 2024, when I started tracking funnyisms and since then we've had one puzzle -- ONE -- that blew the top off of my funny-o-meter. Today is the second. Being ridiculously hilarious around NYTXW solvers isn't going to win many friends because generally they're not the knee slapping type, but let me kneel at the feet of the crossword gods and say thank you for today's comedic offering. And now we endure a day likely filled with "too clever by half" comments. I knew the Times had it in 'em, and I'm so proud I lived to see it again.
THE AUDACITY is really funny.
Four references to Native Americans may be a record even if AREA CODE feels like a random way to get there. The Kennewick Man wiki is fascinating and the Church Rock uranium spill wiki is angering.
Being snide feels less indirectly unkind and more in your face unkind. I didn't know what a HAIR TOSS was, but thankfully the world of GIF makers do. That was a fun image search. I think I'm too old to learn to unicycle, but woooow did I ever want to back in the day. They even have mountain unicycles with big tires.
INON / ONIT
❤️ Ruh-roh.
People: 5
Places: 2
Products: 1
Partials: 11 {the price of ha-ha-ha-erty}
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 of 78 (27%)
Funnyisms: 12 🤣
Uniclues:
1 Technique for AHHing and ERRing at the same time.
2 Bed bug outbreak in Niemyje-Zabki, Poland.
3 Where you can buy shamelessness.
4 Adds an LED spoke light and a stereo system (with only one speaker of course).
5 When the head cheerleader eats it.
6 What your head becomes when you fall through the ice.
1 SPA MAN PACES
2 EURO ITCH EVENT (~)
3 THE AUDACITY REP
4 AMPS UP UNICYCLE
5 HEAD DANCER OOPS
6 ICE SKATE BUOY
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Nobody's coming to re-enbrown you. HENNA RESCUE OP AIN'T SO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, was that fun! And, as @Lewis surely noticed, it contains a rare-for-crosswords 15 letter palindrome!
There AREACODE, a cipher and a riddle sitting in a bar. In walks a key, without his collection of stuff related to the singer James, and breaks them all. "Sorry," he says. "I forgot my ETTA kit."
I signed up for martial arts cuz someone told me that that real cute actress from Insecure would be in the class. "Nae. Issa Rae does TAE Kwan Do in the UAE, BAE" gloated Mrs. Egs.
I guess I'll just wait until someone AMPSUP the CHURCHROCK CDS before singing the praises of this puzzle, then I'll give it a REST. TBH, I love how goofy this thing is. Thanks, Erik Agaard.
A few Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clues from today's grid:
1. King James' eye speck
2. ______ lovely day today
3. Taco ________, abbr.
4. Pairs well with curds
(Answers below)
Really enjoyed this puzzle and had a solving experience similar to Rex. Didn't know AHED and BMW, as clued, simply wouldn't come. As for Kennewick ____, my first impulse was keN. Hey, they often give ancient ancestor remains familiar names!
But I figured it all out in the end.
1. MOTE (begins with the M in 57D, HOME, moves to NE)
2. ITSA (the I from 38D, ONIT, moves to NE--ONIT and ITSA deserve one another)
3. TUES (T in 10D, ICESKATE, moves to SE)
4. WHEY (W in 23D, BMW, moves to SW)
And this is where my rambling STOPS
I am from New Mexico. I quickly typed in White Sands and messed everything up. I learned something. Good puzzle.
"Regarding the o-train, two questions come to mind:
• How many O’s did you have filled in when it hit you that it was going to a full string?
• When it did hit you, what was your reaction?"
Answer: I suspected it after writing in the 2nd O, and I was completely certain after the 3rd. And remember: The answer that was coming in for me seemed at that point to be NOOOOOOOOOOO. (See my 9:16 comment for an explanation.)
Yes on the RAIL trails being everywhere but that didn’t make the clue any easier for me because I’d never heard them referred to that way. The one that starts a few miles from my house has always been known as a highline trail.
I thought this was a terrific theme and puzzle with a nice degree of difficulty for a Tuesday. Normally, I cringe a bit when I see Erik’s name because I know I’m going to be challenged, and that was certainly the case today. Nothing insurmountable but I did get completely stuck at the BMW clue - X1,2, what the HECK?? - made worse by the crossing of MAN/AHED. Then I began to see all those O’s emerging, and all was forgiven when the fun quickly outweighed my consternation. I don’t keep a puzzle-of-the-year list but if I did, this one would definitely be on it.
I was so interested in what Rex would say that I forgot to post my reactions first. Just as well, as it would let me cover up my embarrassing error -- but I won't. That error was TOp" instead of TOO for 53-D, overly, leading to WOOOOOpOOOOOOW for 66-A. Made no sense to me, for the obvious reason that it makes no sense.
HAIR flip before TOSS, HEll NO before HECK--the latter does not fit my notion of "emphatic," more "folksy."
I've got pretty good balance, but I don't think I'll try it on a UNICYCLE.
Fun puzzle, despite my error.
What a fun puzzle! And we have a loooooooong RAIL trail in our NY area. Had only two real problems areas in this puzzle—overconfidently filled in HEllNO in the NE and had to scramble back to find that error, and had same problem as Rex in blanking on a four letter water bird, despite already having NESSIE filled in. Kept trying to visualize birds that were black and white instead of black or white, and had them at the sea shore instead of lakes and ponds.
Like some others here, I thought, "Erik Agard on a Tuesday? Seriously?" (sorry), as I associate him with end-of-week, brain-cracking themeless puzzles. Well, more early week puzzles, please, Erik! I loved the wit of this one, especially getting a laugh out of entering WOO...OOW and looking back at WHO DOES THAT? Terrific puzzle.
DNF: Me, too, for "lead dancer." New to me: CHURCH ROCK, Kennewick MAN.
Intriguing info on the DNA search. I had not heard of the PBS series but will be sure to look for it. Thanks!
Medium. No costly erasures and I did not know AHED, RAIL, HEAD DANCER, and CHURCH ROCK.
This was a hoot, liked it a bunch!!
That one got me too.
I don't believe anyone has ever said "I can't believe you." They either say "I DON'T believe you" or they say "I can't believe IT." Why do things like this get through???
That was a hoot! Thanks, Eric! Always looking for an Agard puzzle, always learn something new!
Hah! Your palindrome quip, now THAT was funny! Made my day.
What a nice surprise to see Erik back here in the NYT (& out of the NYer) ... & on a Tuesday?!
Gotta agree with @Rex when describing Erik's puzzles:
" handful of terms and names from marginalized cultures of one kind or another that I absolutely will not know" - but this whoosh (except for 29D AHED) puzzle was just great :)
HAIR TOSS, THE AUDACITY = classic Agard :)
Could RW on Friday be next?
Solid Medium, only overwrite was 72 across had TKO, which was my 1st entry...65 down fixed that oops...
THE AUDACITY! Now we have to supply the silly little circles ourselves? HECK NO!
Not to take away from what redeemed YOU for Rex in the first answer, but adding to the tightness of the theme, I like how the emotions expressed in “Seriously” changed in each answer. The first is disbelief, the second is surprise, the third is outrage, and the last is awe. So maybe the same context as Rex suggests, but different reactions that use the same phrase. Nice.
Yes this was fun! Solving down clues only, I ended up with an error because hands up for LEAD DANCER. For 1 across, without looking at the clue ROL looked as plausible as ROH, which is to say not plausible at all. Actually, even reading the clue it's a toss-up.
I had no idea about the radioactive event... WHITE SANDS was the right length but didn't work at all with the crosses. I also had no idea for ANYA or AHED.
RAIL trail was a gimme because there's a famous one just a few blocks from my house (the KVR, for Kettle Valley Railway). There's even a great new landmark on it, because someone installed a giant metal dinosaur in their back yard right beside it.
Once again, we have an elaborate clue for a ultra common 3 letter answer (28 across), and if I had been reading the across clues it would have been a gimme. @Barbara S, thanks for mentioning the Nova documentary. It doesn't seem to be available online? (at least in Canada) but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
Agard dude is certainly a fine, accomplished puz constructioneer...
Alas, TBH, the 1-Across ruh-ROH puz intro kinda more applies, at our house. Puztheme was not a fave. Each themer actually sorta reflected my opinion of the whole -- but, hey -- I seem to be in the minority, here.
staff weeject pick: BMW. Its clue full of X's matches up well with 66-A's WOOO...OOOW. That BMW/MAN/AHED area was also extra TuesPuz challengin, as clued, btw.
fave stuff included: HECKNO. NONO. KOS & OKOK. INON. ONIT. OUI. IOUS.
Thanx, Mr. Agard dude. U are still a fave, even if this one weren't.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
... har -- here's one that's sorta along the same lines ...
"Answer the Question!" 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I get to join all you smart cookies in giving high marks for this one. I do agree, however, with @JT 11:40. The other themers, especially 36A WHO DOES THAT, indicate that the theme, as Rex puts it, is about "an imagined reaction to someone behaving outrageously" [my emphasis]. If so, then the more natural sounding phrase would be something along the lines of I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID IT.
With __N in place I was sure that 28A "Kennewick ___ (ancient ancestor discovered in 1996)" was going to be KEN. Kennewick KEN has a nice ring to it, no?
8A a crisis is NOT a catastrophy. It can be an opportunity. 16A Heck No is NOT emphatic. Hell No is. And where is your political outrage , Rex, when it comes to 29 D?
@JT 11:40 AM
My wife says, "I can't believe you" in an exasperated tone often. She's long since given up believing my lunacy is a fixable one-time event, and she's positive it is rooted more solidly in a deep pathology unique to me. I think "I can't believe you," is really a synonym for, "I absolutely 100% believe you are a numbskull."
Final themer was awesome, highly enjoyed the puzzle. I find myself saying that all the time so it came easy to me, haha.
I agree with Lewis on liking the lie for OUI . Mustered instead of mustard was so clever (and could've tripped me cup as I don't always see the clues clearly)
Loved THE AUDACITY
Did netlike the final theme answer WOO...
14A was total bewilderment for me until I had a few crosses.
Did others automatically see those numbers as area codes?
I agree with Gary J…(and btw too funny Gary!)…Maybe it is better illustrated with this: ICANTBELIEVEYOU (did that or said that).
It made my think of one of my favourite unattributed quips I've been sent by a friend:
"What's the first thing you notice when someone approaches you?"
"THE AUDACITY"
Barbara's recommendation of the Nova documentary also sent me scurrying to see if I could get it for free on YouTube -- but alas, it's not available in the US either -- not without a PBS membership or some sort of payment. If you find it, @Whatsername, please let me know.
Wooooooooooooow, CHURCH ROCK should have been a gimme for all of us. I can't believe it isn't as much a part of our common cultural references as Three Mile Island. I'm glad Eric has the audacity to do that (that, of course, being "build a wonderful puzzle that also manages to show us our blind spots as humans).
I was delighted to discover I can download the PBS app. Then delighted to find that episode is available! Then disgusted to find I have to send them money to view that episode.
When I was a kid, PBS was our favorite channel and my dad sent them money every year. He said that he really liked it being funded by donations. They had great shows, Nova being the best. But to me they have really dumbed down over the years -- I very rarely see anything listed there that I want to watch -- and Nova is one of the worst examples. When I have tried to watch an episode that sounds intriguing, it drives me crazy that they repeat everything about 10 times as if you are an idiot. So I have pretty much not watched a full episode in about 25 years.
Sometimes I really hate this modern world.
I really got a kick out of the WOOOOOOOOW answer. I had the last W, but my next crosses were 3 consecutive O's somewhere in the middle. Spotting what I thought was a mistake, I checked all 3 and felt confident in them. I put it off for the time being and got another O towards the front, another towards the end. I definitely finished the whole bottom with a smile, watching the O's fall into place.
Also learned something new, as I always thought Scooby-Doo was the originator of "RUH-ROH," as in "Ruh-roh, Raggy."
Really fun puzzle.
Very good Tuesday puzzle. Not especially difficult, with the exception of AHED Tamimi (human rights for Palestinians!) and ANYA.
@People interested in ancient DNA
I found the NOVA documentary on DailyMotion but I couldn't get it to play -- it kept lagging every few seconds. Here's the link in case you have better luck than I did.
Eske did a TED Talk -- here it is. The documentary contains much more profound insight into the subject than this 11-minute talk, but at least you can get a notion of what it's about and also have a look at Eske, who's a wonderful character.
Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have rail trail parks at the two ends of the Jaffa to Jerusalem railway built by the Ottomans and opened in 1892. The 50-mile hour journey took about 3 hours and wound through magnificent mountain scenery and the Valley of Elah where David felled Goliath. Today it has been replaced by a high speed electrified line running mainly in tunnels under the Jerusalem hills and doing the journey in 40 minutes..
Great fun! Favorite themers: WHO DOES THAT and THE AUDACITY.
Agree with @jberg 10:22 that 16A needed a heck more emphasis and I left my HEll NO, just for a bit. Then I finished with what I thought was a WhOOOOOOOsh at the clever 66A, wondered why there was no accompanying music, and thankfully remembered what I forgot to change right before I became grid investigative.
@egs 9:42 am – Pure wit to point out that super-rare 15-letter palindrome. HAH! – but I’ve managed only a 3-letter one :)
Thank you, Erik, for the welcome humor this Tuesday!
@Barbara S, You're the best!
I'm not crazy about watching stuff on my computer or phone (jeez I'm fussy), and I can't install the app on my TV, but my phone is really good at screen casting to the TV, so I can try that. I'll watch it after supper. Yay!
I'm happy indeed to learn about Ms Tamimi, but also, for future reference, AHED is the nickname of a daily front-page feature in the WSJ covering quirky human interest topics.
I don’t think I’ve ever met an Erik Agard puzzle I didn’t love. I relish his ability to put a spin on clues and make solving so much fun.
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