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Relative difficulty: Easy (felt like a themeless though?) (6:17)
THEME: Common phrases turned "wacky" by removing the H, as a tribute to PITTSBURGH — City that had the final letter of its name removed in 1891, only to be restored in 1911
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: MOE (Antagonist in "Calvin and Hobbes") —
Hi friends, welcome to another edition of Malaika MWednesday! I zoomed through this puzzle without even looking at the theme until it was time for this write-up. I saw the crossed-out clues and was like "I don't feel like dealing with all that right now, I'll get back to that later" and then by the time I got back to it, I had finished the puzzle.
- PEACE MARCH (Nonviolent protest) becomes PEACE MARC (A farewell to artist Chagall?) when you remove the final H
- PUT UP WITH (Endure) becomes PUT UP WIT (Display some humorous posters?) when you remove the final H
- FIGHTING IRISH (Notre Dame team) becomes FIGHTING IRIS (Asset in a staring contest?) when you remove the final H
- DO THE MATH (Figure it out) becomes DO THE MAT ("Let's see that dance move where you lie flat by a door!"?) when you remove the final H
Word of the Day: MOE (Antagonist in "Calvin and Hobbes") —
Moe is a recurring character in Calvin and Hobbes. He is a bully at Calvin's school and seems to beat up or threaten Calvin every time he appears. Moe appeared early in the strip, and was immediately shown to be merciless and have no capacity for kindness (Bill Watterson describes him as "every jerk I've ever known").
• • •
I am a little torn on this one-- I don't typically like wacky "remove-a-letter" themes, but I do appreciate when they have a reason for existing, and this one is pretty cute. (Maybe I'm biased because I lived in Pittsburgh for four years, though.) I didn't know the trivia that was in the revealer, but it's fun, and it perfectly matched what was going on with the clues.
 |
| Yay, Pittsburgh!! |
My issue, I guess, was not the concept, but the humor. I didn't think any of the wacky phrases were particularly funny, alas. FIGHTING IRIS was the closest, but the rest fell a little flat-- PUT UP WIT was my least favorite. It is hard to get a chuckle out of me with a remove-a-letter theme though, so I'll settle with being satisfied with the reasoning behind it.
Elsewhere in the grid, we had some great long fill like FOOT REST and TOP NOTCH, and good medium-length stuff as well like PARKOUR and CRAYONS. I will confess that I have never seen the word ENMITIES in my life (I'm not dumb, I promise!! Just a weird lexical gap for me!!) and when I read through it, thought I had a mistake somewhere. Always good to learn something!
Bullets:
- [Hot chocolate holder] for MUG — There should be more hot chocolate, in general. Every bar should serve hot chocolate and it should be the good kind with melted chocolate.
- [Symbol in the Bluetooth logo, for one] for RUNE — I believe the rune is associated with King Bluetooth.... it sounds like I'm making this up, but that's what Wikipedia said
- [Sci-fi publisher whose logo is a rocky peak] for TOR — To me, TOR is what you use to browse the deep web. I've never heard it used in any other context, aside from crossword puzzles, where the NYT refuses to clue it in that way.
7:45. Easy for Wednesday agreed that the theme, while cute, felt lackluster. If there were more of a connection from Pittsburgh to the theme answers, or a link between them, maybe I would have enjoyed more.
ReplyDeleteEasy, no WOEs and no erasures. I kept expecting to hit some resistance but it never materialized.
ReplyDeleteAmusing theme, fun solve, smooth grid, liked it a bunch!
Hi Malaika! I greatly enjoyed your talk about the constructor's perspective. Funny and informative in the best way.
ReplyDeletePretty much agree with your take on the theme. I got halfway through the puzzle and thought: something to do with the terminal H?... but the theme clues are so bizarre. The revealer made it clear, but yeesh those clues... awkward. And the H-less phrases are... pretty lame.
And the H in Pittsburgh... not very many world cities end in burgh rather than burg. Oh!... here is a list someone made. Note about 97% of them are H-less. Edinburgh Scotland, and... Queensburgh? (South Africa... I know, I've never heard of it either).
…and speaking of PITTSBURGH, we just finished watching the last episode of The Pitt. To reiterate what @ Clare said last week, TV doesn’t get any better than this.
ReplyDeleteParkour totally new to me. Apparently losing the “h” in Pittsburgh was due to a typo.
ReplyDeleteParkour totally new? You mean you missed Rex talking about his cats performing parkour?
Delete
ReplyDeleteNice writeup as always, Malaika! The puzzle was indeed Easy, with one (sorta) WOE and two overwrites.
Overwrites:
FOrTRESs before FOOTREST at 38D (prior to reading the clue)
WEep before WEPT at 61A
WOE:
I needed most of the crosses for UTHER Pendragon at 13A (I haven't read The Once and Future King since college)
Post-solve, I looked up the Bluetooth logo and found this: Bluetooth was named after "the king of Denmark, Harald 'Bluetooth' Gormsson – a name said to refer to his dead tooth ... the design actually contains two letters, rather than just a slightly insect-like B. What you're actually looking at is a superimposition of the Nordic runes for the letters H and B (below), for 'Harald Bluetooth'."
Didn't notice the theme in solving, though I did catch the reference to Marc Chagall. Easy but enjoyable puzzle with one enigma,,,what is a PARKOUR?
ReplyDeleteThink opening sequence in Casino Royale. At the construction site.
DeletePARKOUR is a relatively new (like last 10 years maybe?) sport where people run through urban areas without stopping, so they may leap from rooftop to rooftop, or do a flip as they jump over a parking meter…stuff like that. It’s actually really exciting (and scary) to watch.
DeleteIt's a game/activity where people jump off and around urban landscapes. Google "Parkour The Office" for a funny clip from that show.
DeleteCheck out PARKOUR videos on YouTube. It's pretty amazing to watch, actually.
Delete
DeleteOFL just described his cats doing PARKOUR in lieu of "zoomies", which was an answer.
If anyone watched the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, there was a (masked, I think?) figure doing PARKOUR, running through the city over rooftops, etc.
DeleteWe have a cat named Kedi (pronounced Keddy) from a foriegn untariffed! film about feral cats in Istanbul. She follows when I walk the dog, she leaps and jumps from rocks to downed trees and back: Kedi Kitty Parkour!
DeletePittsburgh linguist here. For more information about the “h” in Pittsburgh see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Pittsburgh
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, I love Pittsburgh! And I live in a very small town with the same identity crisis: Prattsburg/h (NY)!
DeleteHECK, I guess HEll isn’t mild enough for the NYT. That was the first of a few overwrites today, along with a high degree of fat-finger typos. Some mornings . . .
ReplyDeleteShoutout to my friends in nearby Ferrisburgh, Vermont, where the terminal H keeps disappearing and reappearing.
We used to live in Plattsburgh,, NY, which I have seen spelled (mistakenly) without the H. Don't know if that counts or not.
DeleteI also started with with hell which seems pretty mild to me. Is the mat an actual dance that I have never heard of before? After googling, no that's just a bad clue/ answer
DeletePlodded my way through, finished unassisted, then stared at it for a while trying to discern a theme - no clue. So I came here and learned the gimmick. The issue is, other than perhaps PEACE, MARC, the theme answers without the H are pretty much gibberish. Who the HECK says “PUT UP WIT” for example or “DO THE MAT”. The theme really requires that they be real, recognizable phrases to give this one some continuity, if not some glitz. Sorry, but a thumbs down from me.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree. The theme was nonsense. I often think that Rex is too critical, but luckily he was off today. Pretty sure he would have ripped this thing apart (and rightly so).
DeleteIt was fun to solve this puzzle while taking transit home last night from the Cardinals game where they beat the PITTSBURGH Pirates!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, the Cardinals currently gathering in Rome would probably beat the Buccos.
DeleteSad but true
DeleteThe fact that an entity doesn't clue something in a particular way doesn't necessarily mean it is actively refusing to do so; we could do with less inferential accusation in our world right now (unless something more is known that would that would point to such active refusal).
ReplyDeleteOn anther note: I resist the conflation of MACHO and manly (and the OED would agree with me). Again, we could use somewhat less of this aggressive and distorted expression of masculinity in our world right now and a lot more PARKOUR, PEACE MARCHes, and CRAYONS.
PJ Casso
DeleteI am in no way contesting your opinion that macho and manly should not be conflated. But we are dealing here with a crossword puzzle which has CLUES, a type of hint, not definitions. The OED can not settle the validity of a clue for that reason. I believe there is enough connection , at least in the public mind, between these 2 words to justify this clue answer combination. And of course neither the constructor nor the editors are making any political statement here.
Malaika, thanks for sharing the link to your crossword talk. It’s nice to meet a fellow Brooklynite and hear your point of view on submitting a crossword puzzle to outlets, like NYT.
ReplyDeleteWe too, did not know PARKOUR and glad it came up in comments above.
Easy puzzle but a tormented gimmick — non-idiomatic, non-witty.
ReplyDeleteWeird that 1A is prominently featured elsewhere in today's NYT puzzles. You would think the editors would coordinate, no?
ReplyDeleteThat does seem to happen in the NE corner more often than chance would explain. I wonder if in fact they are coordinating?
Delete@JHC yes! This seemed like an editing oversight big time.
DeleteI usually grab a word from the crossword to start Wordle just to make it more interesting. Many days there aren’t even any 5 letter words that Wordle would accept so I improvise. More often than not I get 5 gray squares or one yellow. This is the first time I hit it. So I don’t think there’s a need for coordination among editors. And you know what - I’m a little disappointed - I didn’t get to play the game.
DeleteMalaika, I loved your crossword talk! Thank you for including the link. It was engaging and informative and also nice to see you and put a face to your name.
ReplyDeleteI thought the theme was just kind of dumb. I also just skipped over the those answers, thinking “I’ll deal with these later” and they went in from crosses, but made no sense until I’d finished and spent some time figuring them out.
I think an H at the end of BURG is a British spelling maybe?
Very easy here, as the themers were fairly obvious without the gimmick. Kind of an interesting add-a-letter thing going on and the PITTSBURGH factoid was interesting but not a lot of sparkle elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteTOR for me will always be the Sherlock Holmes story "The Man on the Tor", which is when I learned what a TOR is.
One of the few puzzles where I knew all the names, even UTHER, which is hard to forget once you see it.
OkK Wednesdecito, but a skosh too easy.
Yesterday's headline: Got to QB for the first time in forever. And all the words were familiar, which is unusual.
His name was Herald Bluetooth, and the logo is the Nordic H and B mashed into one letter. Like an interrobang or æ.
ReplyDeleteObvious reavealer would have been "get the h out of here", although that could be seen as a duplication with HECK.
ReplyDeleteHere is how different my life is from Malaika's. I know TOR from at least five different contexts, none of which she has apparently heard of. And I have never heard of the one context she knows.
TOR Johnson, actor from, among other things, Plan 9 from Outer Space
The book publisher
A hill
Short for Toronto, often clued as "on scoreboards"
My sister, familiarly (OK no reason Malaika would know that)
There was a 1956 movie-musical called “High Tor” with Bing Crosby, based on a play by Maxwell Anderson. The title character was a mountain someone wanted to buy.
DeleteThere was a 1956 movie-musical called “High Tor,” starring Bing Crosby. It was based on a play by Maxwell Anderson. The title character was a mountain someone wanted to buy.
DeleteI lit up when I saw Tom’s name atop this puzzle. It’s been three years since his last Times puzzle, and his puzzles are rife with wit and humor. His mind is askew in a marvelous way, and his puzzles feel out-of-the-box.
ReplyDeleteHere he went with the fact that Pittsburgh spent a period without that final H, and rather than move on, he contrived this off-the-wall theme that totally charmed me.
A puzzle sparked by glints of wackorama. FIGHTING IRIS? [Let’s see that dance move where you lie flat by a door!”]? Hah!
A puzzle beautified by answers such as INTREPID, ENMITIES, REALM and HECTOR.
A puzzle marked by a new and lovely clue for OREO, which has appeared 500 times in the Times alone. That is tough to do. Go ahead – try doing the same!
I entered this puzzle with that smile at seeing your name, Tom, and left it grateful for your skill, talent, and eccentric excellence. This one pushed so many happy buttons!
I'm obsessed with an Insta account parkour.ninja in which a Border Collie does Parkour, they are the evolutuonary bridge between dogs and humans.
ReplyDelete@Areawoman Thank you for sharing that link. I have a friend in my Pet Loss Support Group Forum who would really love to see his favorite dogs (Border Collies) & I can't wait to share this with him. Thank you again
DeleteJanine, Cinnamon's Mommy (RIP)
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteDang, I make crosswords, too! But never had a speaking engagement! 😂 (Also never had a puz published. (But, I did write a book! (Still no speaking engagements ... )) Har.
Interesting puz. Never knew some crazy group decided to drop the H off PITTSBURGH once upon a time. According to the clue, it was a 20 year span. Was it the child of one of the changers who changed it back? Might have to Goog that ...
The non-H Themers we're kind of a stretch, but interesting way to clue them. DO THE MAT? Odd,
A quick WedsPuz that I did figure out while solving. Strange clue on HECTOR.
That's about it. PEACE!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Adding Warrensburg(h) NY in the Adirondacks to the mix of add/drop the “H”.
ReplyDeleteWas going to quibble about the second G in FIGHTING IRISH, as a Notre Dame alum, but then I googled around and learn that they’ve officially changed the spelling sometime since I graduated, so the puzzle is correct.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIf the same word showed up in the crossword, the wordle and the spelling bee, what would we call that? It could happen someday. Let’s be ready.
ReplyDeleteAs nice a Monday one could ever hope for. As a Wednesday . . . Meh.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much worked this through the same way Malaika did…I knew something was up with the H when Chagall factored in, but just went with the flow until I finished and revisited the marked out clues and removed Hs.
ReplyDeleteA lot of good stuff with PARKOUR, UTHER, FOOTREST (although I can’t remember the last time I had a footrest in coach). And today I learned about the Bluetooth logo RUNE! I’ll have to dig deeper on WHY they chose THAT…seems a little “random.”
Malaika I’ll check out your link next. Also, funny about those vocabulary knowledge gaps. I had one recently with the word “equanimity.” I’ve SEEN it used many times, but my idea of what it actually means was SO off.
Is the MAT a dance? Is DO THE MAT a Thing? I certainly wouldn't have gotten the theme from that entry.
ReplyDeleteActually, I didn't get the theme from any entry. Not until I had gotten to the revealer. In solving mode, I just said to myself: "Ignore the middle one and focus on the two that are the same." Because I was baffled and was trying to remove MARC ("a farewell to...") from PEACE MARCH and getting...nothing. It was less confusing to just ignore the middle clue which I didn't need.
Now that I see it, it's quite cute -- and the revealer is a good excuse for the trick. Who knew that about PITTSBURGH?
My favorite themer is FIGHTING IRIS.
I don't remember most constructors' puzzles -- but I never forget Tom McCoy. He's the constructor who made my favorite puzzle of all time: 3/8/15.
Finally back in the loop after a long weekend road trip followed by very severe thunderstorms and extended power/internet outages. Thankfully, my biggest loss was a tree. Not that anyone should have noticed, just saying.
ReplyDeleteThis turned out to be quite a clever theme which I didn’t really get while solving, but didn’t need it to finish. Maybe I’m just out of practice but I had to come here to find out about the whole H factor. In retrospect, very nicely done.
Cluing MACHO as "Manly" got this puzzle off on the wrong foot; "Juvenile" would have been more like it. Or maybe "Presidential, sadly."
ReplyDeleteBut the theme! I guess PITTSBURGH, as clued, means you start with the terminal H, cross that out and find a clue that fits what you have left, then cross that out and add the H back in. It hurts my brain to figure out how to say it, although in practice it's pretty simple. It did take some amount of genius to come up with three theme answers where that works.
Maybe Rex found a better way to describe it, I'll go see.
Loved it. Good tight review...honest, detailed....without getting crazy into other realms. Well done, Malaika.
ReplyDeleteThere will never, I repeat never, be an obstacle course where we PARKOUR car!
ReplyDeleteAs T.S. Eliot said, APR is the cruelest way to calculate interest.
Nice to see a shoutout to my personal pronouns: MESHES.
That girl was an easygoing straight shooter type. Always relaxed but never ATEASE.
I decided to break my 4258 day streak rather than fill in the name of the Chainsaw Narcissist's car company.
Cool to produce a workable puzzle from such an offbeat theme. I actually enjoyed the absurd themers minus "h". Thanks, Tom McCoy. And thanks Malaika for your always fresh take on things.
@egs
Delete??
I started off with DO THE MATH and thought , "dang that's why there are 3 clues to the thematic answers":
ReplyDeleteFigure it out > DOH!
Let's see that danse .. > THE MAT
Figure it out > DO THE MATH.
That adulterated my whole thinking and I never saw PITTSBURG(H) as the revealer.
Trying to figure out what PEH PUH and FIH meant, the puz was already lost on me..
Random thoughts:
-I can't PUT UP WITH TESLA
-Last night I REREAD your CRAYONS, dear
-HECK HECTOR, don't LICK and TUG, me LEG HURTS and that's anUTHER EPIC KNOB
-I'm not ATEASE after ATEASE
-Are all ENMITIES AMORAL?
Easily solved as a themeless.
ReplyDeleteJust another Thursday puzzle game on a non-Thursday.
Loved seeing and hearing your crossword talk. Love your humor.
ReplyDeleteWell, Rex doesn't explain anything, and Malaika doesn't try, she just illustrates it. Probably a wise decision.
ReplyDeleteMassachusetts has a Fitchburg, always spelled that was as far as I know. The variable spelling comes with the English spelling, BOROUGH, which is often rendered as BORO--even in official usage, such as on highway signs. Even FOXBORO, the only way I've ever seen it, is officially FOXBOROUGH.
jberg
DeleteSouth of Foxborough (aka Foxboro) are Attleboro and North Attleboro , which are the official spellings of their names. Of course the original spelling was -ough, but at some point they were changed. (Searching a title for a relative buying a house in North Attleboro I saw the old spelling. ).
I googled and found that there are a lot of towns in Massachusetts with either (or both unofficially!) endings
Edinburgh Scotland is of course pronounced -buruh or -bruh but I am happy Pittsburgh doesn’t end that way!
Us guys from Brooklyn and the Bronx are very familiar with how to spell “I ain’t gonna PUT UP WIT dat!” We never need the “H” in the first place. Enjoyed this puzzle because of familiar phrases and not having to look anything up. Didn’t know PARKOUR but got it from firm crosses, and did know UTHER from various book and TV sources about the Arthurian legends. Had to stop and think about ENMITIES because in mental verbalizing I tend to reverse the N and M. Also enjoyed the fun punning in this blog.
ReplyDeleteBizarre theme and theme clues. I thought there would be a twist at the end. Malaika - I saw your YouTube video about crosswords crafting, very impressive.
ReplyDeleteNice talk, Malaika. It was amusing -- and I found it quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Malaika - the idea behind the theme was cute but the theme clues weren't all that cute. But there was great fill, INTREPID, EMPEROR (I always want to switch the O with the second E), HECTOR, PARKOUR.
ReplyDeleteI like the phrase DO THE MATH but I know it should usually be DO THE ARITHMETIC. I worked as a controller, doing the books for a small company, and never once did I have to pull out my college Calculus skills. One of my write-overs was at 34D where I had A TO Z based on the clue, "A little bit of everything." That's when the phrase saved me.
CRAYONS - my brother and I got a new box and drawing pad in our Easter baskets most years. There's something inspirational about a new box of crayons. On the other hand, I always hated to ruin their perfect new shape.
Is ENMITIES a real plural? I prefer the singular ENMITY.
Nice puzzle based on an interesting piece of trivia, thanks Tom McCoy.
What ,pray tell is “parkour” on 5/7/25 NYT puzzle
ReplyDeleteDifferent. Like. Almost qualifies as a 4H ad.
ReplyDeleteBut ... what, no COINSLOTH? [yeah, maybe not.] no BLOODBATH for Drac, tho?
May even have runtpuztheme possibilities, where U keep erodin letters from some "long" [for runtpuz dimensions] base word...
staff weeject pick: ETC. ETCH - H.
some of the faves: INTREPID. TOPNOTCH. ATOM's clue.
And really luved the Ow de Speration glow of DO THE MAT & its crossed-out clue part. hars[h]
Thanx, Mr. McCoy dude. Welcome back. U really raised some H, today.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... and this pup might have universal appeal, for those choosin to try and "smoke it" ...
"Universal Joint" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Malaika's talk was a lot of fun. Her point towards the end about constructor's clues made sense. I have noticed in the AVCX puzzles I subscribe to that often the constructors share something about themselves in the clues. It does add a different dimension to the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNot sure that I ever got it - maybe I'm losing my touch, but it had me 'scratching my head' a bit too often to enjoy so I had to come here.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your talk, Malaika & nice to see you :)
@Gary Jugert-Just saw your comment on yesterday's puzzle--you were wondering "Where are the Utes" and the answer of course is that they're in the movie "My Cousin Vinny", being defended by Joe Pesci.
ReplyDelete@pabloinnh 1:31 PM
DeleteGenius!
Interesting puzzle, but not particularly entertaining. Of the 4 themers, only PEACEMARC(H) and FIGHTINGIRIS(H) managed to amuse me.
ReplyDeleteAgree with @Lewis and @Beezer that there were some really nice words here: INTREPID, ENMITIES, REALM, HECTOR, PARKOUR, and UTHER. Learned about him from my wife who used to read a lot of Arthurian-focused literature. There are benefits to pretending to like something your spouse is into.
As to Lewis's question about finding a new clue for OREO, how about "World's most overrated cookie".
Loved your talk, Malaika. Always nice to have an image of the writer in one's head while reading the blog.
p.s.
ReplyDelete@Malaika darlin: Primo puz-lecture. The Vulture sounds like M&A's kind of xwords. Tried lookin at one of yers, but got nuthin but a blank screen. soooo ... solved that puppy in nanoseconds.
M&A
This puzzle was almost - almost - as bland as Pittsburgh!
ReplyDeleteMalaika, nice write up! After watching your video I now know your last name is not MWednesday.
ReplyDeleteKing Bluetooth always aptly nick-named for his love of blueberries. (According to an episode of Aaron Mankhe’s “Cabinet of Curiosities”.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to your talk, Malaika! It made me feel like a square for mostly doing NYT crosswords. I think I need to branch out.
ReplyDeleteWill look at Malaika’s video on the computer later I hate looking at video on a phone Thanks for the link Malaika.
ReplyDeleteI did the puzzle without paying attention to the crossed out center clues of the themers and made no connection to Pittsburgh and dropped h’s. I had to wait till Malaika explained it all. But as long as every box is correctly filled in, which my dead tree edition puzzle was, I consider it finished! After the fact mat was a bit ridiculous, but ignoring the theme, I liked the puzzle.
What a great day to have a Malaika Wednesday! A Wednesday puzzle with an ingenious theme idea brought to fruition. Sure, some of the theme
ReplyDeleteanswers failed to deliver the level of humor for which our constructor hoped, but the work it took to create this demonstrates masterful skill and creativity. FIGHTING IRIS(H) made me laugh.
Best part of today for me is PITTSBURGH. My daughter danced there for several summers as a teenage student. Those summers provided her the validation she so richly deserved as a brilliant young dancer whose DNA matched her family’s gifts for the performing arts that were recognized by all in previous summers in other cities, but whose career aspirations as a ballerina were (often rudely and painfully) rejected by most because that same DNA gave her lack of physical stature and a curvy frame.
But Pittsburgh’s faculty, professional and well known dancers all not only saw her, they encouraged her to continue to embrace and use her gifts to feed her soul and always to follow her heart wherever it might lead.
She continues to dance, sing and act, but a gave up the competitive life of an aspiring “triple threat” in order to lean in to that part of her desire to help people. She became a teacher.
She now uses all her gifts, skills, abilities, education and training to help 4th through 6th graders with special needs discover and embrace their own “super powers” (as she teaches them to call their individual learning and social challenges) and to celebrate learning on their own terms.
Her students write and perform a play each year. The project started as a way to cajole her students to “use their words.” The biggest learning challenges of many of her students include extreme difficulty expressing feelings and emotions or even daily assignments using language. But they all love receiving or telling a good story.
They collaborate all year to create, write and perform a story of their own. The project has gotten 100% enthusiastic (despite the inevitable frustrations) participation from every student.
This is year 8. According to many end of the year messages from students and parents, The Play is “the best part of Mrs. M’s class.” It’s become a school tradition.
I watched one of the early ones, attended by parents and a few of the administrative staff. One mom was in tears at the end. I heard her say to my daughter “Eliot (11 years old and not his real name) asked me to come today and said he had a surprise. Today is the first time I have ever heard him read out loud in front of others.”
My daughter is a superb actor-singer-dancer, but super power is teaching. She believes in and employs all of her gifts as tools to help others. And she uses the arts every day to stimulate creativity not just for its own sake, but in aid of learning. Her classroom has a bulletin board just for her students to post “Things and people who help.” There are some really funny sayings and cartoons up there from her kids. But up in a small corner titled “Mrs. M’s,” is a small picture (circa 1991) of two of the Pittsburgh Ballet’s principal dancers (a husband and wife team as it happens). Thank you PITTSBURGH!
Please support teachers and help keep the arts alive in our schools.
Well, my favorite part of this puzzle experience was watching Malaika's talk on puzzle editing! Thanks so much Malaika for posting the link - such great insights and it was fascinating to hear a constructor's perspective on what happens to their creations once they're submitted.
ReplyDeleteAs for the puzzle, maybe I'm in a mood this week but this is the second day in a row that I'm stuck with "I should have liked this more than I did". The theme was interesting and I appreciate the effort in coming up with themers that did the trick. But like Malaika, I just didn't find them terribly charming or funny. To be fair, there is a very limited supply of phrases that end with "H" and still mean something intelligible when you remove that "H" - so much respect for construction, it just didn't give me much joy.
Also to be fair, I didn't get the theme until I came here, so solving as a themeless didn't help the fun factor and that's on *me*. But even after seeing what was going on, the revelation elicited more of an "ahhh, I get it" rather that an "Oh cool!!"
I loved your talk, Malaika! And as a resident of the only burg in PA that has kept its final H, I enjoyed the puzzle as well!
ReplyDeleteLa pierna de Ahab.
ReplyDeleteKinda dumb theme, but PEACE MARC Is hilarious as a Farewell to Chagall.
I like the word INTREPID. I would never have guessed HECTOR means Browbeat.
Funny, we were talking cat zoomies and kitty PARKOUR a few days ago and I still needed to guess at the spelling. We're re-watching The Middle and the girl who plays Sue HECK is a genius.
I don't see much joy in adding the word TESLA or ELIOT into any puzzle these days. I did read the entire Wiki on the Pittsburgh name controversy and found it quite joyful.
People: 3
Places: 0
Products: 5
Partials: 10 (sigh, again?)
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 20 of 76 (26%)
Funnyisms: 5 😄
Tee-Hee: EPIC KNOB. LICK. TUG. UNIT.
Uniclues:
1 What goes on at the White House these days, among other super cool things.
2 Starts the "what do we want... when do we want it" cheer.
3 Sat staring at one of those ugly trucks at the stoplight and didn't jump out and start smashing it with a rock.
4 Me at a singles bar. The odds are long.
5 No matter how many times you try, none will ever say "flesh" again.
6 Those showing the world going to heck.
7 Crossworder.
8 Just start drinkin'.
9 Resentfulness toward the nihilist in the neighborhood.
1 MACHO GALAS, ETC.
2 AMPS PEACE MARCH (~)
3 PUT UP WITH TESLA (~)
4 DO THE MATH REALM
5 RE-READ CRAYONS
6 INTREPID CHARTS (~)
7 OREO ATHLETE
8 GEAR UP IPA DIET
9 AMORAL ENMITIES (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Revealing tops for Icelanders. FLANNEL HALTERS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Eric Adams! Ha I never knew about the vegan scandal. Great talk
ReplyDeleteLoved Malaika's talk especially her riff regarding ERIC and in particular her Eric Adams antipathy which actually MESHES quite well with ENMITIES in today's puzzle (even though EMNITIES is a self-confessed lexicon lacuna for Malaika). BTW Malaika, ERIC also anagrams to CIRE, French for Wax, which might provide a hint as to how a certain commentator chose part of his handle and why.
ReplyDeleteHECK: ATHLETE HURTS! A common sentiment, but also the three non-theme H's. If you're gonna feature H in your theme, then there shouldn't be any stray ones out there. Just sayin.'
ReplyDeleteI didn't like the theme clues, with all those crossouts. Don't know how to do it, only that that's not it. Bogey.
Wordle birdie.
In general, I loathe speed solving, but for whatever reason, that seems to be what I was doing today, because I was writing in answers so fast. Did you know that when you do that, it can cause you to misread a clue and write in a wrong answer???
ReplyDeleteHoo gnu!!!
I love wacky, even if it's not very funny. Personally, I do the mat all the time. But instead of being by the door, I'm lying on the living room floor, in front of the tv, sound asleep. I have been stepped on.
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