.png)
Maori dance with rhythmic chanting / MON 10-27-25 / Computer-controlled players, in gaming lingo / Longtime Supreme Court justice Frankfurter / Words set in stone? / Olympic gymnast Sunisa
Monday, October 27, 2025
Constructor: Tarun Krishnamurthy
Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- FALL EQUINOX (18A: Celestial event on September 22 or 23, typically)
- FLOOR WAX (24A: Application that might be put on with a spray mop)
- FIREFOX (40A: Browser that competes with Chrome)
- FORT KNOX (51A: Location of many gold reserves)
Felix Frankfurter (November 15, 1882 – February 22, 1965) was an American jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1939 until 1962, advocating judicial restraint.Born in Vienna, Frankfurter immigrated with his family to New York City at age 12. He graduated from Harvard Law School and worked for Henry L. Stimson, the U.S. Secretary of War. Frankfurter served as Judge Advocate General during World War I. Afterward, he returned to Harvard and helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. He later became a friend and adviser of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. After Benjamin N. Cardozo died in 1938, Roosevelt nominated Frankfurter to the Supreme Court. Given his affiliations and alleged radicalism, the Senate confirmed Frankfurter's appointment only after its Judiciary Committee required him to testify in 1939, a practice that became routine in the 1950s.
His relations with colleagues were strained by ideological and personal differences, likely exacerbated by some antisemitism. (wikipedia)
• • •
As for the theme, it's simple and elegant, and makes for some colorful answers. Not much else I can ask for from a Monday. The revealer makes perfect, punny sense of the initial "F"s and terminal "X"s. Nothing more to say about the theme than "good job." Solving Downs-only didn't present much difficulty today. As I said, FLUFF (the answer to the very first clue I looked at) was about the hardest thing I had to handle. Even after I had the final "F" in place, and all adjacent answers in place, I just stared at it for a bit. The clue was too vague for me to grasp, and none of the crosses were particularly helpful. Usually with Downs-only solving, you get some help on the Downs you can't crack immediately by inferring some of the crosses, but I could only confidently infer that last "F." The remaining four letters were all first letters in very short answers, and they all could've been multiple things. Which means FLUFF just had to ... come to me. Which it did, eventually. The only other clue to throw me like that was the one for BOTS (33D: Computer-controlled players, in gaming lingo). BOTS are just ... BOTS. I had no idea about the "gaming lingo." I wrote in NPCS ("non-player characters"). Luckily, -RAIT only had two possibilities and one of them was "K" (which seemed unlikely), so I got the answer down to B-TS and still didn't consider BOTS because that word seemed too ordinary for the specialized-looking clue. I thought maybe "gaming lingo" meant the answer was an initialism or abbreviation. But no. Just BOTS. Shrug.
Wanted WINE BAR and then ... well, nothing, before WINE STORE (11D: Establishment with red, white and rosé options). Wine is sold in liquor stores here (NY)—I don't even think you can get it in supermarkets, the way you can in California (my main point of reference, since that's where I grew up). So the phrase WINE STORE is one that never passes my lips, though I'm in no way doubting its validity. Just trying to explain why STORE didn't leap to mind. One other hiccup in today's solve—wrote in NAMED (?) before NOTED (53D: Famous).
A few more things:
- 14A: Olympic gymnast Sunisa (LEE) — I probably would've gotten this if I'd been looking at Across clues, but I thought (correctly, it turns out) that she was best known as "Suni." Weirdly, SUNI has never been in the grid. Not as the gymnast, that is. SUNI has appeared four times, between '67 and '91. How was it clued? ... Well, you're probably never going to need this information, but you can go ahead and add SUNI to your mental store of antelopes now if you like. If you think you don't have one of those, think again: ELAND? RHEBOK? IMPALA? GAZELLE? GNU? And if you wanna get real crosswordy, there's ORYX, ORIBI, NYALA, and KUDU. There's also something called a STEENBOK (four appearances, once just last year) and a DIKDIK (multiple appearances, all of them old). And now SUNI, theoretically (": either of two very small delicately built antelopes (Nesotragus moschatusand N. livingstonei) of southeastern Africa" (merriam-webster dot com))
 |
| [suni] |
- 3D: Like 20 Questions questions (YES/NO) — do people still play this? Feels like a permanently pre-digital experience. Or maybe there are digital versions of the game, that seems likely. FRY crossing YES/NO reminded me of my home town (FR-ESNO), and the fact that my friend Malcolm would always call it "Fres-yes!" (always in the voice of some kind of promotional slogan).
- 10D: Words set in stone? (EPITAPH) — maybe my favorite Downs answer. Certainly my favorite Downs clue. Me: "They probably mean the stuff ... you know, they write it on your tombstone ... epi-something ... epigram? No, that's not it ..." My brain did this for a few more seconds and then the answer clicked. And it was right! No help from crosses! And since it's Halloween week, and tombstone decorations still adorn the landscape, it's timely. Speaking of timely, or, rather, extremely untimely—they started putting up Christmas decorations at my local park yesterday (that is, October 26!!!!). I thought surely Halloween was a firewall, a barrier beyond which the Christmas Creep could not travel. I was wrong.
 |
| [evidence (Otsiningo Park, Sun. 10/26/25)] |
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration opens January 8!)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
79 comments:
I’ve always spelled it ‘FLYER” but I guess either spelling is considered correct?
Monday-level easy, except I had "horrors" at first instead of SORROWS and couldn't understand why the music didn't sound. The constructor made good use of high-Scrabble-count letters throughout.
Should have labeled alt spelling. Flyer is far more common.
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Plan B, for seniors (6)(6)
2. Synthetic oil producer? (3)(6)
3. 46 years? (5)(10)
4. Break character? (7)
5. Combinations with numbers and sets (5)
SAFETY SCHOOL
ART FORGER
BIDEN PRESIDENCY
ESCAPEE
BANDS
My favorite encore clues from last week:
[Contents of some sheets] (4)
[Shot-putter?] (5)
RAIN
NURSE
A FLiER is someone who flies; a FLYER is a leaflet (and probably an alternate spelling for a FLIER). Never heard of the gymnast, but I knew FELIX Frankfurter off the top of my head--he's one of the more famous Justices, in my experience. (Also I'm a lawyer, which helps.) Otherwise fairly easy and as @Rex said a lot of fun.
I didn't know FELIX but it was easy enough with BANFF (very gettable even in my Downs-only solve) and then the theme confirmed it. The revealer makes it pretty much an ideal Monday theme.
Like Rex, I started with NPCS for BOTS, then I re-read the clue. No way they would clue Non-Playable Characters as "players".
I also ended on 1D, which I had to correct from CHAFF. It fits the clue, has the terminal F for the theme answer FLOOR WAX, and CRY HEE APS are all valid crossword entries. FRY LEE UPS is definitely better short fill.
Neat little puzzle today. I did know FELIX (meaning "happy") was the first name of Justice Frankfurter. We have all these last names that can refer to German cities, or to foods that hail from those cities, so that for example Ich bin ein Berliner could be rendered "I am a doughnut". Similarly for Hamburger, Wiener, Frankfurter, ...
But I digress. FELIX is also neat for being a mini-themer, displaying the side FX but now in the vertical direction.
A good number of names. LOU and LEWIS and LOIS are so close and yet so far from names for a ROI, all in LIEU of Louis.
OMAR right next to MARXIST, heh. We don't need daily reminders of Trump and his gang, but this tireless and utterly idiotic recitation of "radical lunatic leftist Marxist Communist" (and now "terrorist"), these mindless litanies used to describe any Democrat: when and where will it ever end? (Oh, to have the likes of Frankfurter back on the bench again, instead of this freak show of jurists -- that would be the nice word -- that we do have.) The SORROWS of today's world.
Best get off that topic. As I was saying, there were some neat words in today's: HAKA was I think in a recent write-up. XENON ("Xeno-" means "strange, foreign", as in "xenophobia" -- maybe we could use more xenophilia these days). EPITAPH ("taph" means "tomb"). LENTO.
I like FIREFOX; it's my favorite browser. I didn't know until now that it was so named as a result of REPEATed avoidances of trademark conflicts, after trying Phoenix and Firebird first. Nothing to do, I don't think, with Foxfire which is the name of an interesting (now defunct) serial devoted to Appalachian culture and craft, and connected with the back to the land movement.
BEST OF ALL (or perhaps not) is how quick the puzzle was, so that I can get on with my day. Hope yours is a good one.
A pair of vowels incorrectly guessed initially (flyer/flier, adapter/adaptor). And I would argue that ‘flier’ is incorrect for a pamphlet; that is always a flyer (in my experience - Hi, Anon 6:36)).
I'm gonna guess the constructor is not a huge gymnastics fan, as 'Sunisa' is almost always referred to as 'Suni' LEE (Hi, Rex).
I, too, wanted NPCS where BOTS went, but I could not remember the term and put in NPRS (non-player roles??), before the crosses took me to BOTS.
Very clever never-done-before theme, bolstered by the lovely FLUFF, BEST OF ALL, and EPITAPH in the supporting cast. I was happy to encounter more answers than usual on a Monday that I couldn’t immediately slap down after reading their clues. I also liked seeing LOU, LIEU, and LEW connected in the NE.
I noticed many F’s in the grid (14), and XwordInfo confirmed that this puzzle broke by two the record of F’s in a 15x15. WTG Tarun!
In trying to guess the revealer, I got halfway there (saw the F/X sandwich, but got no farther). I’m slow in this skill, in which my Frontal corteX is a still a bit of a FuzzboX -- the symmetrical LEWIS LENTO in the grid is quite apt. But I’m ever hopeful!
And ever grateful for a high-quality Monday outing. Thank you, Tarun!
Hey All !
Well, a theme including the usually deficient (or at least sparsly used) F! Nice. Plus a bunch of other F's running willy-nilly about. Tarun apparently got the memo. 😁
Did find it a tad odd to have one AX, and three OX's, although that doesn't pertain to the Theme. It's just F and X, ala EFFECTS. On the SIDEs of the Themers. It'll happen. I mean, how many F-X words is there with the OX ender? Not enough energy here to find out. Har.
Nice MonPuz. More SEX today. NYT, rowr!
I can see some good @Uniclues for @Gary today. Here's one:
Stave off the interest of an entire continent?
REPEL EURO RISE
Welp, have a great Monday!
Fourteen F's (Gotta be a record for a 15x15)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Where I come from, NY, people don’t pronounce “EFFECTS” like F-X. Also, I’ve only heard of autumnal equinox but, again, maybe that’s a regional thing. On the plus side, it’s always nice to see one of the leaders of the Hamas caucus of the Democratic Party Ilhan Omar. Never heard of Lee Sunisa.
Pretty good for a Monday puzzle. Darrin will surely love the high F-count.
The clue for 24 Across references a “spray mop”, which I drew a blank on (I was thinking you might spray stuff ON the mop, not out of it). It turns out I own three of them, and two are still inside of the box. I must be a slow learner.
Definitely found some unusual stuff for a Monday in today’s grid. That Supreme Court dude crossing the state Forrest that I never remember sort of set the tone for me (the spelling of FLIER looked weird as well). You don’t see HAKA and AMAS on many Mondays either. The last square for me was the L in SAL crossing LENTO as I don’t speak Spanish (or is that MeXican, or perhaps both?) and what little I know about music I learned from CrossWorld.
Having a little bit of crunch on a Monday was nice for a change. I wonder if they will mess up the days again and we will have a plug and chug fest tomorrow .
Enjoyed the puzzle and the theme; wonder whether the constructor missed an opportunity, or couldn't execute, two more F-X combos, symmetrically in the center column no less, with FELIX and FIER(x?). Oh well.
Per Wikipedia, Felix Frankfurter was the third Jewish Supreme Court Justice (succeeding Benjamin Cardozo, who succeeded Louis Brandeis) and just the second who was required to testify prior to confirmation (hmmm...any guesses why?)
My favorite line in the Wiki bio was that, in advance of the Brown versus Board of Ed landmark decision, the chief justice (considered likely to be the swing vote in opposing the overturning of pro-segregation Plessy vs Ferguson) died. Frankfurter reportedly remarked (though possibly apocryphally) that the untimely death was the first solid piece of evidence he had seen to prove the existence of God.
Thanks for catching the vertical bonus themer, FELIX. Some sweet construction!
YES YES
I started working on this puzzle while half watching the news and half listening to my husband read me something out of the latest issue of Sky & Telescope. This is not a recommended modus solvandi. Even a Monday puzzle deserves a lot more than I was giving this one. When I muted the TV and my husband wandered off, I was finally able to concentrate.
And it was all worthwhile because I loved the puzzle! I was at first only dimly aware of a whole lot of Xs and Fs before I focused on the themers. I thought it was a brilliant theme with a perfect revealer and, as @Rex said, the non-theme answers were top quality, too. EPITAPH! FIERY! HAKA! MARXIST! BEST OF ALL!
I had no serious hold-ups – I didn’t know the side-by-side NILLA or FELIX Frankfurter, but the crosses helped me out, although I did hesitate over the spelling of FLIER. BOTS was also a mystery but ended up filling itself in. I’ve shopped in specialty WINE STOREs, so no problem there. I like the word ROOFTOP, but it strikes me as borderline redundant – where’s Santa going to land? The ROOF bottom? I liked the temperature variation in FIRE, FIERY, HEAT and ON ICE.
@Lewis (7:36) -- Liked your alternate themers. I couldn't get past FUSEBOX and FAIR SEX.
Thanks to Tarun Krishnamurthy for a fun ride.
And how about Roald Dahl's FANTASTIC MR. FOX?
I think I recently threatened to tell a story about ALFA Romeos, and thanks to 30D, this puzzle has given me the opportunity. My husband and I had a holiday in a very pretty part of rural Ontario earlier this fall. We stayed at an inn which had been recommended by a friend. It’s a big place – more like being on a campus than in a hotel. There are a number of buildings with guestrooms and suites, a separate cottage with reception desk and gift shop, a "cookery" school, a pub and a restaurant. There are parking areas scattered around these buildings, and one evening as we were walking to supper, we gradually became aware that there was an enormous number of ALFA Romeos, some new and some vintage, parked here, there and everywhere. Also an overabundance of Porsche Carreras and, most spectacularly, a 1929 Bentley that looked like it had just exited the factory! What!? We soon saw that the far end of the dining room had been given over to the ALFA Romeo Club of Montreal, a lively bunch who were eating, drinking, being merry, raising their glasses and giving the odd speech. My husband talked to one of guys the next day and it turned out they were on a touring holiday to Lake Huron. And they were mostly ALFA drivers but the Carreras and the Bentley, affiliated with another classic car club, were welcome add-ons.
The Bentley sported a shiny, new-looking metal plate that announced it contained Lucas electricals. This made my husband nearly choke as Lucas electrical systems, manufactured in the U.K. starting in the mid-nineteenth century, were notoriously unreliable, dubbed by frustrated owners, “The Prince of Darkness.” There are websites devoted to Lucas jokes, such as: Lucas invented the three-way switch: Dim, Flicker, and Short, and its back-up: Smoke, Smolder and Ignite. Oh dear. We don’t know whether this magnificent and still fully functional car retained its Lucas components, or whether the owner kept the plate as a conversation piece.
When the ALFAs & Co. left the inn the following morning – what a sight! You’ve watched footage of the great caribou migrations across the northern tundra? Well, it was not remotely like that, not even a little. But it was a grand parade in its own luxury automotive sort of way.
Flier and adapter confused it for me…I had them in as flyer and adaptor. I fixed to adapter realising that Edna was a name and Odna was not, but given I’m not in the US I had no clue that they were Nilla not Nylla wafers - never heard of them at all.
Some US spellings I know straight away to alter, but some like these still throw me!
Don't forget about okapi in your list of antelope!
I played a memorable game of 20 Questions with my partner on a long car ride a couple years ago. I tried to get him to guess the polio vaccine, at which he failed spectacularly. I think he's still mad about it somewhere in the back of his mind? And I can't really blame him...
But yes, that game still exists, as far as I know, but mainly for those bored in the car.
Do some people pronounce Eff-Ects as Eff-Ecks?
I try to never let a faux firebox flummox me while my f***ing ex is at the fusebox in my fourplex. And the same goes for anything on the FX channel. And BTW, what is FELIX doing unacknowledged? You can't get more FXist than that.
Mrs. Egs: I thought you were taking your bestie to Canada.
Me: What? Oh, that BFF BANFF FLUFF? Just talk.
Mrs. Egs: We'll speaking of talk, your voice sounds terrible and I noticed that there are two empty bottles of Bordeaux sitting here. Wanna tell me what happened?
Me: WINESTORE my esophagus. Plus I'm suffering the SIDEEFFECTS of a SIDEoFFries.
Forget about Jimmy Kimmel. FIREFOX instead.
The abolition of the French monarchy was a purely financial decision. The ROI was too low.
The clue for 8D [On the house] seems to fit the answer to 25D ROOFTOP.
Really great puzzle. Thanks, Tarun Krishnamurthy.
For a Monday puzzle, the fill felt remarkably fresh to me. And I liked the playful, impressionistic quality of the theme -- nothing too literal here. Then, because neither F nor X are common letters, finding so many theme answers -- all of them completely in the language -- and also having them work symmetrically, seems nothing short of a minor miracle. A terrific Monday.
Wait, @Rex, you've never heard of Felix Frankfurter???
"one of the leaders of the Hamas caucus of the Democratic Party" <--- Source needed. Otherwise it sounds like the usual claptrap that MAGA indulges in.
Thought i came across HAKA just last week but maybe I’m imagining things. I do believe this is the first time OFL has ever deemed the fill “impressive”
Spelling of "flier" threw me, perhaps because I don't eat wafers. Also surprised at no indication of an abbreviation in the clue for "quad". I know it's Monday, but that's keeping it TOO simple!
No one has mentioned it so I guess I’m a bit of an outlier, but my only hangup in this puzzle was the first word across—never thought of making a samosa as FRYing. All the “F’s” got me to it in the end, along with FLUFF, an “F” festival in itselF. Plus a PHonetic F in EPITAPH.
Literally just last week I called fill “impressive.” https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2025/10/breaking-bad-sister-in-law-wed-10-22-25.html
👍 nice ones today 👍
Your comment reminds me of the fact that I -- a world-famous non-car-familiar person -- swooned with pleasure over two cars I saw in the flesh, as it were, both in Europe in the 1960s. A fire engine red ALFA ROMEO convertible and a metallic gold Bentley convertible that magically changed color in changing light.
I have thought about these two cars often over the years when I try to think of the Platonic ideal of a car. I have been ready to tell anyone who asked me what the most beautiful car(s) I ever saw in the flesh were.
Unfortunately, it's a question that no one has ever thought to ask me.
This was a bit harder than the usual Monday - a nice change - & I enjoyed it. Thank you, Tarun :)
I was a tad flummoxed by the revealer as I hadn't noticed the F part of the themers (sorry @Roo!) REPEATing SIDE EFFECTS out loud multiple times didn't give me an aha. So Rex to the rescue.
Now, after my enlightenment, I not only get the theme but I think it's great. Thanks, Tarun Krishnamurthy!
I guess downs-only would be hard but I don't do that and found this one Monday-easy, appropriately enough, since the only proper I didn't know was LOIS. Sad to see that FELIX Frankfurter has been forgotten.
Thought the FX thing was ingenious and it made a very nice Monday puzzle with lots of interesting fill.. Nicely done, TK. This Kind of Monday is a real treat, and thanks for ll the fun.
@Roo-Knew you'd be happy about all the F's. Got to be a record.
@Southside-You're kidding about "Spanish or Mexican", right? Right?
Yes, anyone who is not trying to make sure they are pronouncing it as written.
Even if not, FX is common parlance for effects: FX channel, Special FX, a movie titled FX, etc
One letter DNF at the FLIER/NILLA crossing - turned my brain off for the product name, which I of course know as a vanilla wafer, best on banana pudding at a potluck.
@For more on Ich bin ein Berliner as famously uttered by President Kennedy, you might be interested in this article, which explains how he was correctly identifying himself as a (metaphorical) citizen of Berlin, and notmistakenly as a doughnut. The audio file is worth listening to!
@mathgent, given the lack of outcry in the comments, I guess some (most?) people do - but not me: I definitely pronounce the "t".
@Nancy. The question I would ask you concerns whether you actually spend time thinking of the Platonic ideal of a car.
I feel like I'm in an alternative universe, as the "effex" reveal just doesn't fit with my "effects," with the "t" clearly pronounced. After repeating SIDE EFFECTS multiple times, I did catch on to what the constructor was doing, and thought, "Rex is going to eviscerate this." Anyway, it was still fun to solve. I liked being reminded that the adjective for FIRE isn't FIREY but FIERY and FALL EQUINOX being paired with the BEST O' FALL.
Not in my experience...but the clue said it was a "hint," meaning it wasn't precisely the pronunciation.
I take it the "state Forrest" you refer to is BANFF. It's, as the clue mentions, in Alberta which, though a bit to the right of most other provinces, has not decided become a state.
@Carola I had hoped it was obvious I was kidding around!
It would be so nice to encounter a puzzle without ENO in it. That's my only quibble with this otherwise very nice Monday puzzle.
Sorry, but not having heard of Justice Frankfurter just doesn't cut the mustard. TIL he was one of the founders of the ACLU.
Medium. LEE as clued was it for WOEs and no costly erasures.
I learned HAKA recently from a much harder puzzle.
No junk, clever/cure theme/reveal, some nice long downs, excellent Monday, liked it a bunch!
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #1056 was again a fairly easy Croce for me, i.e. less than 2 X a medium NYT Saturday. The eastern center gave me the most resistance. Good luck!
Now that you bring it up, I find it hard not to think of the Platonic ideal of a car. One of those things where you never knew how much you wanted it. Spotlit by a sunbeam from on high, gleaming. It looks exactly like what Nancy describes. And a pinnacle of driving pleasure.
This image will last me the rest of the day.
Glad you carried out your "threat", @Barbara -- that's a pretty fun story!
Hi @tht 11:03 - yes, it was. I just think this question of using or not using "ein" to change a meaning is an interesting quirk of German - probably because I taught it for 30 years :)
Too bad FELIX didn't have a matchat 51-D; looks like he tried, and got the F, but couldn't quite get the X.
Frankfurter was one of those justices who defies expectations -- in this case, being appointed as a New Deal radical, but turning into a free-market conservative while in office. He was a good judge, though, unlike some of the conservatives on today's court.
Why do English men drink their beer warm? Lucas made the refrigerator. I had a English Triumph TR4A that the turn signal assembly went up in smoke and fell apart
but the whole point of ENO is that he -- or at least his music -- fits in anywhere.
First of all, don't go around calling the kudu obscure -- it's the national animal of Namibia, for chrissake!
Second add me to the group who says SIDE EFFECTS with s long E and an audible T. That put me off at first, but then I realized that special (as opposed to side) effects are often called "FX." So it's either a mongrel answer, or a hybrid one. My feeling was that side effects are medical, and they don't do that there.
I also live in the Audible T Universe. I finished it (downs-only) and had no idea what the theme was doing. But just like you, @Carola, I thought "it was still fun to solve."
A computer controled player is called a NPC which stands for "non-player character." A bot is more a denizen of the internet.
Neat puztheme & revealer combo. I was a bit confused about what the puztheme was up to, for a little while. I blame them extra Across longballs BESTOFALL & MIAMIHEAT.
Smooooth solvequest, for the most part. Only no-knows were shorties LOIS & HAKA. Also, no ?-marker clues of mystery to de-code.
staff weeject picks: BFF [sported a puztheme "F"] & SEX [sported a puztheme "X"]. Congratz to @Roo, on that impressive F-count, btw.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {___ Island (smallest U.S. state} = RHODE.
some other fave stuff: BESTOFALL. EPITAPH. IREPEAT. TIN clue.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Krishinamurthy dude. Nice F-ing, X-rated job. har
Masked & Anonymo4Us
... and now, for yer puz-hauntin pleasure ...
"Graveyard Smash" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
@Barbara S, that inn sounds like a pretty neat place. Can you name it for us?
This went very smoothly solving down clues only; I didn't have to "cheat" at all. For a while I thought the theme was going to be FALL, as it's in both 18 and 33 across. Nice to see FIREFOX, the browser I'm using right now.
EFFECTS is definitely usually pronounced F-X. And as we decided a few weeks ago -- the last time BANFF appeared -- it is pronounced "bamf".
@Carola Good to know! I am merely a student of German. Yes, that business about ein, eine is a little tricky for speakers of English.
The HEAT from MIAMI made my FLOOR WAX FRY. My BFF, BANFF, had a FLIER he waved from the ROOF TOP....He's UP in arms with delight. YES or NO on this HEAT....BEST OF ALL, though, it kept the FOX and the WOLF from the AZA NOX zoo from roaming. The SIDE EFFECTS from everyone from the HEAT made one think of the MARXISTS in FORT KNOX while watching the EQUINOX FALL. I would OPINE that RHODE island is cooler.
LEWIS, our RHODE scholar was on FIERY FIRE today. He was UPS on the ROOFTOP of FORT KNOX and yelling about this MARXISTS name HAIKA. NOTED by ALL and AONE of a speech, nobody was IN ON this SEA of INFO. HAIKA was happy, though.
I went back to RHODE island for some TIN Gin in LIEU of ASIAN WINE which the RNS, EDNA and SAL recommended. YEP, it BEAT the HEAT SORROWS... No FiERY SEX FLUFF but that's my OPINE on these matters. The HEART ADAPTER fixed all of that. OSCAR EDNA ASA LOU LEWIS and SAL all said so.....
And that's the truth......
Was it RFK Jr.?
The recommended temperature for an ale is 50° or so, close to traditional British basement temperatures as most pubs didn't have refrigeration for kegs. Most Europeans drink their beers warmer than Americans & until the last 25 years or so they had way better beer. The better question is why American men drink their beer so so cold, as the cold masks the flavors (Twin Peaks advertisers beer at 29°, double yuck (the place & beer)). But drink it how you like it.
Nilla Wafers are so named because if they called them Vanilla Wafers they would have to contain vanilla (also why there are so many cheez products)
Love this!
lovely puzzle ironically folks on The NY Times chat are disparaging it I called FOUL! this is a great puzzle
Being a car guy, though, contrary to what my wife thinks, not really obsessed, (no, really). I need to chime in on the Alfa/ideal car thing.
@Nancy. I would have never guessed that you would have a Platonic Ideal of a car but an Alfa’s a great choice. I can almost imagine what it must have bee like to come upon that fire-engine red Italian beauty and stop short. As for the Bentley, well, you can park it on the other side of the street.
I’ve never owned an Alfa but I have test driven a few and then gone home to do the math, realizing that with three kids and a mortgage it wasn’t gonna happen. But the idea of that kind of car - lovely to look at, exquisitely tuned, and a joy to drive. We’ll just ignore the fact that they’re a bit quirky, just like the 1962 Austin-Healy 3000 Mk2 I once owned. It had the problematic Lucas electrics cited by @Barbara S, and - just as problematic - twin Lucas carburetors. But it was gorgeous (do a Google image search) and I loved it and it was a very difficult day for me when I had to sell it to pay my university tuition. Probably a good thing, but painful.
Barbara S. Your “threatened” Alfa tale was great and reminded me of a lovely time in Ireland when my wife I made a reservation at a country inn while we were driving across the island. When we pulled in to the parking area of the Mustard Seed Country House to find an armada of Jaguars taking up most of the spaces. And all with Belgian plates. Apparently a club that undertakes a tour every year. They were rowdy and fun and kept inviting us into their dinner arguments. Our basic French kinda failed us, but it was fun. They were forgiving.
When they left in the morning it was, as you say, “a grand parade in its own luxury automotive sort of way..” Quite a treat.
BTW, highly recommend the Mustard Seed if anyone’s stuck in Limerick for a day or two.
Good job, @Gil I!
There are commenters who say they are careful to pronounce the t, and I have no reason to disbelieve them, but I'm pretty sure if someone says it quickly and drops the t sound, the human brain will process it as EFFECTS nevertheless. I would be FLOORed if studies proved otherwise. So I agree with you.
The largest collection of privately owned Bugattis used to live in our small town (pop 1100) in NH and there would be an annual convention of Bugatti owners and a "parade" around the town common. One owner stayed with us when we were running our B&B. Wish I could cite a number but probably somewhere between 30 and 50 in all. Interesting group.
@okanaganer (above). It's the Waring House Restaurant and Inn, Picton, Ont. The food's excellent, too. I got addicted to their orange chocolate mousse after one tasting. Thank goodness we were there for less than a week.
tht
You said it accurately earlier. The extreme right which controls this country repeats a string of insults over and over again. every time they mention a Democratic. And it works as shown by the post you responded to. To criticize Netanyahu and the rest of the Israeli extreme right and a Democrat is immediately turned into a Hamas supporter. The irony is the Trump fascist, white supremacist administration with its Gestapo tactics is filled with anti-Semitic appointees. And they have a lot more power than the Congress person will ever have
I deliberately used a string of insults to show both sides can play the same game only more truthful.
Frankfurter was a conservative in terms of his era on the Court. but he would be a centrist now.
Upstate George
But 99 out of a hundred times people say Quad. It has become a word in itself.
The Times puzzle does not add for short in a clue for this type of word, even on a Monday.
Jberg
I most do not pronothe t in effects un less maybe when I am saying with emphasis
My guess almost everyone frequently or always elides the t in the middle of a sentence without realizing it. The only way to be sure is to listen to a recording made when the speaker isn’t thinking about the subject. The subject being in your mind impacts on the way one speaks.
Haven’t really thought about Frankfurter, J. since my last brief to his former bench - I think it was about 2002. Old FELIX may have appeared in a puzzle since then, but if he has, I don’t recall. . Hope he wasn’t too obscure for anyone.
The theme made me laugh, recalling a familial near-crisis involving not SIDE but sound EFFECTS.
My daughter inherited her mother’s obsession with words. She had life threatening respiratory issues for her first two years and was in and out of the hospital so much that we became like family, to the RNS in the pediatric ICU. As a result, we spent countless hours singing, reading stories and just talking to her. As a result, (or, according to her doting father just because she was the smartest, cleverest and by far most beautiful and talented girl in the history of the world), she developed speech incredibly early and was trying to spell and write phonetically a little before she turned 4.
At age 4 during circle time at Montessori, when asked what activity she would like to do, she wanted to teach everyone a dance. Literally since birth, her body responded to music, just about any kind. At her request, she began to study dance at 4. Today in her mid-40s, he continues to take dance classes and uses all kinds of visual and performing art activities with her 4th - 6th grade special needs classes.
A couple days before her presentation to her Montessori peers she became frustrated but didn’t have enough language to explain exactly what was wrong. She kept telling us her dance was “not right,” “not done,” and just “Not doing!” But was frustrated because she couldn’t explain exactly what was wrong. The more we tried to offer suggestions, the more frustrated she became.
Unfortunately, Dad had to go on a trip for work and would leave for the airport before she was awake the next morning. He was a percussionist and music teacher. They had a very special connection through music and she was very upset he was leaving before her dance was “ready.” Still flummoxed, we planned to go to school the next day and ask the teacher to let her demonstrate after Dad got back from his trip.
In the middle of that night, I woke up hearing her awake in her room. When I went in, she was sitting at her little table writing and told me she knew Daddy was asleep and didn’t want to wake him up. When I asked what she was writing, she said “leaving Daddy a note in his suitcase for help.”
The note said “Plz I ned sndfx.” By then, of course, Dad was awake and she ran to him with the note. The two of them went to our tiny “music/guest room” and found just the set of maracas and a tiny pair of finger cymbals that were the perfect “snd fx.” I’ll take “snd fx” over SIDE EFFECTS any day!
Photos of the Waring House. Thanks for giving us the name, Barbara. The setting is lovely and the food looks out of this world. I place dibs on the bedroom with the gold drapes, which is the last photo (LOL).
Hear ya. Similarly, 1994 Bill Clinton’s immigration stance was considered moderate. Anybody espousing those views today would be called a right winger.
Here’s a quote from 1995 State of the Union Address: "All Americans, not only in the states most heavily affected but in every place in this country, are rightly disturbed by the large numbers of illegal aliens entering our country." He highlighted efforts to strengthen border control, saying, "The jobs they hold might otherwise be held by citizens or legal immigrants, and the public services they use impose burdens on our taxpayers." He proposed increased border patrol and tougher penalties for employers hiring undocumented workers.
- 1996 Remarks on Immigration Policy: Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) of 1996, which increased border enforcement, penalties for immigration-related offenses, and deportations. In signing the bill, he stated, "This bill makes clear that those who break our immigration laws should be sent back to their home countries”.
Lo mejor de todo, y esto no se puede enfatizar lo suficiente, es que el sexo vende.
FX-ive puzzle. FLUFF BOT, as they say. Funny FELIX finds fame too. Sooo much gunk for a Monday.
I like the word EQUINOX. I wish it was more useful.
People: 10 {ugh}
Places: 5
Products: 8
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 33 of 78 (42%) 🔔 {Can you hear the joyous ringing of the gunkometer? On a Monday?}
Funny Factor: 1 🤨
Tee-Hee: XENON SEX.
Uniclues:
1 Guillotine?
2 It causes naked Floridians.
3 Stop white people.
1 ROI ADAPTER
2 MIAMI HEAT TRAIT (~)
3 REPEL EURO RISE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Long legged trade show. MINISKIRTS EXPO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Post a Comment