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Anywho, on to the puzzle…
Misc.:
Signed, Clare Carroll, last thing last
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Constructor: Drew Schmenner
Relative difficulty: On the easy side for a Tuesday
THEME: FIRST THINGS FIRST — In order, things you supposedly do first thing in the morning after waking up
Relative difficulty: On the easy side for a Tuesday
THEME: FIRST THINGS FIRST — In order, things you supposedly do first thing in the morning after waking up
Theme answers:
- STIR THE POT (18A: Intentionally cause drama)
- GET UP TO SPEED (26A: Learn all the latest info)
- STRETCH LIMOS (47A: Promgoers' luxurious rides)
- SHOWER GIFT (60A: Present for an expectant mom or bride-to-be)
Adora, known by her alter ego She-Ra, is a superheroine in the Masters of the Universe franchise. She is introduced as the protagonist of the 1985 Filmation series She-Ra: Princess of Power, which reveals her to be the long lost twin sister of He-Man. She-Ra again appears in the 2018 reboot She-Ra and the Princesses of Power.A series of toys under her name was produced by Mattel in 1984. She has also appeared in a number of Masters of the Universe comic books, most notably in DC Comics' 2012–2018 MOTU comic series, a roughly 1,000 page single story arc, collected in the 2019 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Omnibus hardcover release… She-Ra is known for her incredible feats and charisma. She has been shown multiple times to be able to lift not only full-grown men and robots, but also mountain-like rocks and buildings. She is depicted as being extremely fast and acrobatic. Her speed allows her to easily deflect multiple incoming energy blasts with her sword. (Wiki)
• • •
So, that puzzle is… fine? I’m really tired so I liked that it was a bit easier than Tuesdays often are, but it felt bland to the point that I don’t really know how to describe it. FIRST THINGS FIRST, I didn’t love the theme. The revealer says to look at the starts of the theme answers, so after finishing the puzzle I looked at STIR (18A), then tried to make it mesh with GET (26A). Hmm… STIR and GET, related to FIRST THINGS FIRST? It took me a bit to recognize GET UP as the “start” of the second theme answer. To be fair, the revealer only says it’s hinting to the “starts” of the answers. But to have three of them be one word and the fourth be two feels wrong. Besides, the actions in the theme answers aren’t what I would guess the average person does once they first wake up (or maybe people are better than me and actually do stretch or do yoga or something like I’ve been saying I’ll try to do for years). I realize that any such list of actions wouldn’t fit everybody, but this list didn’t quite sit right with me. I did, though, like the phrases for the first two answers — STIR THE POT (18A) and GET UP TO SPEED (26A).
Other than that, the puzzle just felt full of short-ish, common words. I thought the most interesting and fun answers were MUTATING (9D: Changing genetically) and CHIRP (11D: Cricket's call) and TWEETS (68A: Sounds from baby robins). HUSHES UP (39D: Keeps from being publicly known) was also decent. LIESL (33D: Eldest von Trapp daughter in "The Sound of Music") is a great and uncommon name for a puzzle. And the clue for LOO (8D: Where to go in the U.K.?) is decently cute. But, EST (35D: Winter setting in D.C.) next to ETS (36D: Sci-fi space travelers)? AIRS (4D: Broadcasts)? RETIE (12D: Knot again)? OREO (58A: Black bits in cookies and cream)? MOW (52D: Cut the grass)? ELECT (50D: Vote into office)? Where were the interesting, long downs? The clever clues even if the answers were routine?
It also felt like the constructor was trying a bit to be ~hip~ and ~with the times~ with words and phrases like SLAPS (31A: Is awesome, in slang), NORMIE (65A: Person with mainstream likes, pejoratively), AMIRITE (23A: "Don't you agree with me?," informally), and SPITS BARS (3D: Raps freestyle, in slang). Those are fine, and I personally like when the puzzle sometimes skews younger. But it mostly feels like this meme to me:
The puzzle may have been on the easy side because there were only around eight proper nouns, which feels like less than normal, and they certainly weren’t hard, with the possible exception of SHE-RA (17A).
And that's about all I can think to say…
Misc.:
- The puzzle was clearly wrong about morning routines, because doesn’t everyone wake up to their puppy stealing their pillow at 6 AM, then almost falling off the bed and hitting their head on the bedside table? Or is that just me? But she’s so cute and just wants to cuddle, so I can’t stay mad for long. Until tomorrow, when she maybe successfully shoves me off the bed.
- D.C. got a callout in 35D with EST. But I can’t wait until we’re in EDT in just a week! Losing an hour of sleep is so, so worth its being lighter later. That means more time for another picnic this weekend!
- You’re really going to clue IAN (22A) McKellen as Magneto and not Gandalf?! That feels sacrilegious. I mean, I enjoyed some of the X-Men movies, but Lord of the Rings is the best of all time.
- I remembered the name LIESL (33D) because of the iconic “Sixteen Going On Seventeen” song in “The Sound of Music.” I watched that movie a lot growing up. Just earlier today I was thinking of “snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes” from the song “My Favorite Things,” as the pretty snowflakes were coming down.
- This may be a reach, but OGRE (58D: Shrek, e.g.) obviously makes me think of one line from this promo sketch that SNL did for Connor Storrie hosting this past Saturday. Everyone must watch. I’ve been rather obsessed with “Heated Rivalry” (and the stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams) ever since it aired, so I watched SNL all the way through for the first time in many years.
- February was another good reading month for me. I’ve moved on a bit from my literary fiction horror phase and have now entered my romance phase. Though I’m currently in the middle of the audiobook for “Carl's Doomsday Scenario,” the second in a series. The narrator is absolutely fantastic and does so many incredible voices. It makes biking in the snow and being cold a little less miserable (yes, I did that today; and, yes, I still feel cold hours later).
And with that, I hope everyone has a great month of March!
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Easy. No WOEs and no costly erasures. I paid attention to the theme after I whooshed through this one.
ReplyDeleteSmooth grid, cute morning routine theme, and @Clare I thought SPITS BARS and TRUE CRIME were couple of interesting long downs, liked it.
Days without a Shrek clue: 0
ReplyDeleteVery easy, except I needed a lucky guess for the SPITSBARS/SLAPS cross. This puzzle had a lot of trendy (GEN-Z?) language, but the surrounding crosses were clued in a very straightforward pattern.
ReplyDeleteSame! Better at Jazz, Blues, and Rock. Slaps?
DeleteMe too on that slang crossing. Not quite a guess, as BARS is at least musical, so I took a chance on it and goot lucky.
DeleteJberg
DeleteI had a little trouble at the -LUR /—BARS cross I thought sLUR was the image problem! Finally BLUR came into view abd then BAR.
8:06 for me last night, so that’s easy-medium for me. Loved the theme! 16 wide by 15 tall grid today. And still no starwars clues! : ) Now, I’m not someone who gets in the shower when I’m still sleepy…. So I don’t relate to that last one as much, but otherwise, yeah, stir, get up, stretch! (Clare, I think it's just talking about that initial stretch as you reach up and get the kinks out of your back, not a formal stretching routine.... at least that's how I took it.) TRUECRIME MUTATING at the RODEO…. Nice. Thanks, Drew!
ReplyDelete@Rick, I don’t think Clare is to the “get the kinks out of your back” phase yet…:)
DeleteBeezer
DeleteAbout Clare & stretching. Too young to understand. I agree!
One point about get up. In its defense, technically two words but functionally one. I admit I made the same mistake as Clare and looked at only GET.
I think you are overthinking STRETCH, Claire. I don't think it is referring to a formal exercise routine. rather just to the simple quick stretch of your body when you stand up and before moving - something people often do without even thinking.
ReplyDeleteAnd at least Liverpool now has a decent chance at a Champions League slot (no pun intended), but that's the best they can hope for. I don't know that we (or they) fully understand/appreciate the effect that Diogo Jota's death has had on the team this year...
ReplyDeleteEasy. Way too Easy. Clare got it right: "bland."
* * _ _ _
One overwrite, oak before ELM for the tree at 7A
One WOE, SPITS BARS at 3D (before reading the clue I was trying to make SPorTS BARS fit)
Conrad. Had no memory of the Boston tree. But I knew Connecticut had an oak so I went with ELM and it worked of course. Helps being from RI. Agree it was an easy one
DeleteCoffee is surely number 3, no?
ReplyDeleteGood point!!! Yep, coffee is on there... and then the NYT XW, right?
DeleteClare! Another great review. I did the puzzle in a fit of insomnia at 12 am. Without this blog I would remember nothing about it other than that my time was half that of a typical Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world is #ashier?? Spell check wouldn't even let me type it
ReplyDeleteMore than ashy, like an ashen complexion . Wan
DeleteMore than Ashy but less than ashiest
DeleteSemi-malapop when I had chirps at 68A (before changing to cheeps, then TWEETS), only to have CHIRP show up later.
ReplyDeleteVery, very easy Tuesday, except for ... SLAPS???
Oh, and I really don't get the theme. I mean, I get what it is trying to do, but those are hardly the first things I do, or my wife does, or anyone I know does, in the morning. In particular, SHOWER is about number 25 on the list. Among the missing items are go downstairs, put on the kettle, turn on Murder, She Wrote, eat a muffin, read Rex, check emails, feed the birds, and many more.
I'm also unsure about STRETCH, as I don't think I do that at all most mornings. I can picture people on TV stretching to indicate that they just woke up, but do real people do that? Or is it just a TV trop?
@kitshef 7:14 AM
DeleteMurder She Wrote !! ๐คฃ
Indeed! The image of turning on “Murder She Wrote” first thing in the morning (is there a tv on the kitchen counter? On the table?) sent my imagination wild.
DeleteKitshef
DeleteI did the same thing with CHIRPS Never went back to TWEETS because the downs filled it in.
People’s routines vary a lot in the morning don’t they? I am retired but I used to shower years ago before rushing to work. The list works for w!
@kitshef, I get “Murder She Wrote - or whatever floats hour morning boat. Since I now live in a tiny house and can constantly see it all (well, the LOO has a pocket door), I also turn on my tv while I make my coffee and feed my sweet cat, Pip. I turn on an ancient Law and Order episode until I have had a coffee and am ready to watch Morning Joe (not a FIRST THINGS FIRST sort of show these days). Wo could just as easily be Murder She Wrote. Dame Angela is someone I’d watch or just listen to as she reads her grocery list.
DeleteCute enough early week puzzle - Clare does a good job highlighting the inflection points. Theme is not overly elegant but I like the center spanning revealer.
ReplyDeleteBlue RODEO
SPITS BARS, TRUE CRIME, HUSHES UP are all nice - in general it’s well filled. Some short glue - side eye especially to the anagrammatic pair EST - ETS. Rex discussed the LAV - LOO choice yesterday. Didn’t know NORMIE - don’t want to know it. Today’s word is RODEO.
Angel From Montgomery
Pleasant Tuesday morning solve.
And the springtime turns with the coulee's curve
And it's summer once again
"Whoopi-ti-yi-yo" at thะต RODEO
And we pray our buddies win
Update--"Four Strong Winds" was the last song last night, but I didn't choose it. I did choose and sing "Angel from Montgomery" though. Serendipity.
Deletepabloinnh
DeleteJohn Pine songs.
I did hear them over the years but I didn’t really know who he was. I first read about him sadly when he died of Covid in 2020. I wondered why I didn’t know about this guy. He was only 5 years older than me. More folk oriented than Dylan clearly. Interesting coincidence about the songs.
This was pretty typical of the NYT grids as of late. I saw the reveal, realized the connection between the alleged theme and the reveal was tenuous at best, and continued on just treating it as a themeless.
ReplyDeleteI don’t concern myself with rap culture, or slang in general, so the cross between SPITS BARS and SLAPS was done by process of elimination, but that was the only trouble spot for me.
I fully anticipated some “What’s the point?” type of comments from Rex this morning, and Clare’s observations were pretty consistent with that. So not much to complain about, and pretty easy - which we have been saying quite a bit lately.
Totally agree, SJ.
DeleteEnded staring at SPITS B_RS crossing SL_PS and wondered why on earth you would cross two (obscure, IMO, subject to being refuted here) slangs.
Otherwise, I guess not ACRID, but pretty tepid which, as you say, has been pretty NORMIE these days.
Resisted OREO (singular) when the clue implied a plural, but I guess you crumble up one cookie.
Twenty-two 3-letter words, with the mashup of TEE, EST and ETS most worthy of being flushed down the LOO.
Big picture, it's hard to get truly IRATE over a Tuesday puzzle, AMIRITE?
DAVinHOP
DeleteI can understand why you and others are irked by the three letter mashup you mentioned. But I sorta liked TEE etc. together. Maybe a little of Lewis in me.
I also liked the theme, unlike Southside Johnny.
After STIR THE POT and GET UP TO SPEED I was convinced this was a drug theme. Sadly much more pedestrian!
ReplyDeleteMe too! Came to the comments to see if anyone else had the same thought. Revealer could be HIGH END, maybe.
DeleteYes, me, too.
DeleteA good puzzle. (I could have done without the slang and ashier)๐๐๐๐
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteI ESPIES a 16 wider today. Necessary to get the Revealer in. But FIRST THINGS FIRST. STIR, GET UP, STRETCH, PEE. ๐
Then coffee, crossword, shower, work, fall asleep on the couch. Repeat. Har.
Until a God given day off.
Got the EST/ETS answers back-to-back in order, still deciding if a feature or a nit. Got a Slang crossing of SPITSBARS/SLAPS. SLAPS could've been clued differently. But, no harm, no foul.
Liked this puz, enough resistance for me to push this TuesPuz into WedsPuz time. A few Long Downs sprinkled throughout. Different Revealer tying the Themers together.
@pablo
No points for RUES. Only going for the out-and-out ROOs this year. Maybe change my mind next year. ๐
Hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Oh oh. Hope there are lots of pablos with no capital p.
DeleteWhat is literary horror fiction? Frankenstein? Frankisstein?
ReplyDeleteNeeded a "PEEk at the paper"
ReplyDeleteWhat an impertinent puzzle! It contains both SASS and LIP. Does Drew S. have teenagers at home?
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing Edinburgh was included at 66A. If we were just looking for residents of Glascow, we'd be struggling to squish "Glaswegians" into five squares.
I skip the gym so often, it's unlikely I'll ever BEFIT.
STIR THE POT may call to mind Reggie Jackson for older Yankee fans, famous for boasting that he was "the straw that stirred the drink." He had a big fight with manager Billy Martin right in front of us all (on TV) in the dugout. It seemed clear one of them would have to go. Reggie made his case on the field, pounding the Dodgers in the WS, and it was bye-bye Billy, at least for a while. One of his homers in the Series was a Bruce Springsteen shot: the camera followed it as it sailed into the darkness at the edge of town.
No, but I will in nearly 7 years!
DeleteExcuse from a carpenter's son: A TOOLATE my homework.
ReplyDeleteI'd add BLUR, SLAPS, RUES and SASS to the themers as things I do first thing.
This puzzle SLAPS. Maybe not, but IRATE it good. Thanks, Drew Schmenner.
glurp glurp... shout out for Carl and Princess Donut the Queen Ann Chonk!!! maybe some day they'll have nytxw level of noteriety.
ReplyDeleteSaw that the revealer was in the middle, left it blank, and started bottom up to get the other themers and then tried to guess the revealer, but didn't. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteInstant oh-oh with MASALA but it filled in easily enough. Otherwise, I'm in the generation that had to guess at the SPITSBARS/SLAPS cross, a couple of terms I will probably use later today, or probably not. And I guess if we can get ASHY in one puzzle it only makes sense to get ASHIER in a subsequent one. Something else I won't be saying any time soon.
Nice enough Tuesdecito DS. At least the NYT Didn't Show us the obvious FIRST THINGS with shaded squares or circles, so there's that. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
On the advice of a physical therapist from 20 years back, I always SHOWER before I STRETCH. But if we go with the idea that it's just a STRETCH to straighten out your body, I generally do that while I'm still in bed--particularly with my legs, which are prone to cramp up. But I wasn't really thinking about the order of things while solving, so that was OK. And I enjoyed the meta-quality of the theme, a first-words (or things) theme where they actually were FIRST THINGS.
ReplyDeleteI liked the IAN - ION pairing. After reading Clare, I thought IAN McKellen had been in "Atonement," but no,, that was Ian McEwan, who was the author, not an actor. Those SCOTS are so confusing!
I saw the clue, "Leaves shocked" and thought "you're not fooling me, that's a 'sheaf.'" But even as I was filling it in I realized that that would be 'stalks shocked.' Ah well.
Long ago, in the Golden Age of Twitter, someone posted a list of different categories of adjectives and the order they have to go in. There were at least 15, and if you tested them in your head you realized that the order was correct. You can't say "the red big wagon," for example, it has to be the "big red wagon." I don't have the list anymore, and I'm stuck on whether the clue at 20-A is correct to say "Classical Indian" rather than "Indian Classical."
I've lived in Boston for 52 years, but there is still a lot I don't know. And I don't know of a historic ELM on Boston Common. But there is one, called "The Washington Elm," on Cambridge Common, a few miles away.
From Merriam-Webster, the order is observation or opinion, size and shape, age, color, origin, material, and qualifier (a word closely linked to the noun, like the school in “school bus”), and then the noun. 'Classical' would be "age", I think, and 'Indian' would be "origin".
DeleteThere was a novelty song in the 60s about a "flying purple people eater". The Q was was it purple and ate people or did it only eat purple people?
DeleteWow, that's news to me, about the adjectives. Looks like a listing of some of the order is OSASCOMP: Opinion (e.g., lovely, ugly, etc.), Size, Age, Shape, Color, Origin, Material, and Purpose.
Delete"Classical" seems to fall in the age category, and "Indian" in origin. So Classical Indian is correct.
You make an interesting point re the order of adjectives. Is a SITAR primarily an Indian instrument or a classical instrument? It's a puzzle.
DeleteMy sources tell me that the historic Great Elm on Boston Common was uprooted by a storm in 1876. Long gone but not yet forgotten, apparently.
Sailor
DeleteThanks for the clarification about the ELM.
That’s why it really didn’t ring a bell! (Even though I am from nearby RI).
Thanks, everyone. I understand my problem now. CLASSICAL has so many meanings! In Western music, it's a genre, not an age -- or maybe a style. Older than romantic, newer than baroque. like Mozart and Haydn. But in other contexts it means Greek and Latin, which is more age-like. And I guess for Indian music, it it means anything, it means age.
DeleteOr sometimes it means "serious" as opposed to pop. So the order depends on what meaning one is giving the term.
Had absolutely no idea what the theme was getting at even after completing the puzzle. If you’re going to do this theme, just go all in and do the three “S”es.
ReplyDeleteIt’s Tues in Boston and my paper copy is not the one you’re discussing. 1A IS “utter rubbish.” Almost true! M
ReplyDeleteAs a lover of the English language, I am getting increasingly annoyed by the prevalence of Short’s inclusion of slang terms. Today’s crap included SLAPS, AMIRITE and SPITBARS.
ReplyDeleteAs a lover of the English language, I am happy to see evidence of its vibrancy and capacity for evolution.
DeleteSlang is the best part of the English language.
Delete100% agree! Slang is a wonderfully creative element of language that serves important social functions. For fun, check out Captain Grose's Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, often considered the first slang dictionary for English. The first was in the late 1700s, but here's the 1811 version: https://share.google/FOuYvtuLTwfxqQW7C
Delete“Crap” is a slang term.
DeleteI’d be curious if maybe the original IAN clue *did* mention Gandalf but after the multiple Smรฉagol clues as of late if the editor didn’t decide to tone it down a notch ๐
ReplyDeleteEasy but fun. Only thing I didn't know is SPITS BARS but I consider myself lucky. Thank you, Drew :)
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reason after solving and looking at themers I envisioned a corporate exec sleeping on a conference table. I guess it’s because I picture a business meeting starting with FIRSTTHINGSFIRST. And no, no CBD, POT, or SPEED for me at breakfast.
ReplyDeleteClare you did a good job at recapping my general feelings and I loved the “how do you do fellow kids” thing.
I took a cue from @pabloinnh's comment on the last puzzle that had a central reveal and left the line blank to see if I could guess it after all the theme answers were in. Not quite, but FI was enough. LIke others, I appreciated the double meaning of FIRST THINGS, theme words and real-life morning activites. Nice! Also liked HOT over SHOWER.
ReplyDeleteHelp from previous puzzles: AMIRITE. SHERA. No idea: SPITSBARS, SLAPS.
At FIRST I had a different answer for "Sudden burst of wind"
ReplyDeleteHad SPITSBURP at first, for the rap slang dealie. Otherwise, no big solvequest problems. Got SHERA & AMIRITE ok from crossers.
ReplyDeleteI guess there might be a few folks out there with STIR, GETUP, STRETCH, SHOWER as their FIRSTTHINGS. [A retired M&A ain't one of em. First thing I did this a.m. was check out a phone call that woke m&e up around 8-ish. I think it was a political ad for someone I will now never ever vote for.]
I suppose at the end of a long day, some folks might do POT, SPEED, LIMOS, and GIFTs. Or would at least like to.
staff weeject pick: CBD. For enhancin them end-of-day activities, I reckon.
Thanx, Mr. Schmenner dude. And good to hear from U again this month, Clare darlin.
Masked & Anonym007Us
Audiobooks are the best version of Dungeon Crawler Carl!
ReplyDeleteRe 7A: this clue seems to be a reference to Boston's liberty tree, chopped down by British troops in 1775, which was NOT located on Boston Common, but rather on the only road into and out of town at the time. A monument has marked its location since the middle of the 19th century.
ReplyDeleteThere was a theme?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, nice to see that doomscrolling wasn’t on the list.
Thought this a lite and lively puzzle with lots of slanguage amidst very few proper names that luckily fell easily to the crosses. As @Colin mentioned earlier, IAN was a big break vs SMEAGOL! Might be fun trying to come up with a sentence including both SPITBARS and AMIRITE…
ReplyDeleteYes kind of a thin theme. Like Clare, it took me a while to understand that it was GET UP, not just GET.
ReplyDeleteA few total Unknowns: SPITS BARS, SLAPS, SHERA, LIESL. No problems getting them from crosses, though.
Re 35 down EST... I was shocked last night to read that British Columbia is no longer going to have time changes after next weekend! It will be the equivalent of daylight savings all year; they are calling it "Pacific Time" or PT; no more PST / PDT. Makes sense to me!
I can't agree with Clare at all regarding the change to CDT. I still mourn for the old days when the start of CDT was in April. I don't mind the fall change because that date only changed by a week, but in the spring, it's almost a month earlier than before. I LOVE being able to see without turning on lights in the morning. Right now, I can. Next week, it will take some time to get back to what the sunrise time is today. That was especially a pain back when I rode my bicycle to work and the time change meant I had to go back to using headlights.
ReplyDeleteSLAPS is new slang to me. Urban Dictionary says SLAPS can replace "good as f*&k" and I'm all for that but, fine, coin away.
Is this type of crossword theme a new trend? It seems like there was another "action progression" puzzle not long ago and I can't remember this genre being common in past years. AM I RITE?
Drew Schmenner, thanks for the Tuesday puzzle!
finished 100% at 7 minutes with no idea what the theme was. Until I got here
ReplyDeleteI was looking for "scratch your butt" as a themer.
ReplyDeleteFour longish themers and an extra long reveal dominate the grid and result in some less than optimal fill. There's a bumper crop of POCs, for example, including several two for one POCs where a Down and an Across both get a grid filling letter count boost by sharing a final S.
All those Ss add little if anything of interest or value to the grid. They just take up space and make it easier to fill the grid. They all could be changed to black squares and their true nature of cheater squares in POC clothing would be revealed.
See AIR/ART, PAIN/RUE, ET/ROUT, STARE/SCOT and DOTE/TWEET. The twofer that is the most compromising to the fill quality though involves one of the themers when one STRETCH LIMO isn't enough to do the job. Both it and FRO get a grid filling boost by sharing that final S. The POC Committee Handbook lists POCifying a themer as a major points deduction in the overall grid fill quality.
Anoa Biob
DeleteIn defense of all those esses , as Roo pointed out, the rows were 16 letters long. To accommodate the revealer. An extra 15 spaces to fill up.
Evento con vaqueros y payasos, y no, no Estados Unidos.
ReplyDeleteHere's how to make this puzzle more exciting: Start to post a comment and say it's dull as dish water, but then wonder why people even say that. So you turn to Uncle Go-ogle, and it turns out they don't say that because apparently ditchwater is more dull than dish water, so then you go look at ditchwater images on the next tab over to judge how dull ditchwater might be, and you run into some heavy metal band named Ditchwater with four boys who look way too old to be trying to look tuff and play in a metal band, and then you decide society has gone to the dogs. ๐
Speaking of animals in society, I am learning bird calls using an app called Merlin which is maybe the greatest free thing ever, and this last few weeks the robins have returned to our neighborhood and they have so many different sounds it's crazy. Pick a TWEET robbins, pick a TWEET.
I appreciate being a stirrer of the pot. A little drama goes a long way toward making some comedy, and it can lead to making impassioned speeches aloud in your car. I am always completely right when I'm alone driving down the highway.
I wonder how many inches a limo has to be before it becomes a stretch limo.
Having survived five rounds of Nancy Drew, I don't think you want to be a sleuth. They use that word in every other paragraph throughout the entire series and she ends up getting terribly dangerous situations. Stay home and play the SITAR.
❤️ AMIRITE. Cheeky attitude. NORMIE. TWEET and CHIRP.
People: 5
Places: 2
Products: 4
Partials: 9
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 79 (28%)
Funny Factor: 2 ๐
Uniclues:
1 Chewing tobacco.
2 The symphony.
3 Pyromaniac's redecoration scheme for your house.
4 Presbyters with the power to impregnate the populace.
1 ASTRO LIP TONIC
2 SPIT BARS RODEO
3 ASHIER TRACT
4 POTENT MONKS (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Catholic grammas. ROSARIES LEAGUE.
¯\_(ใ)_/¯
@Gary J, you and I have similar digital spelunking experience habits. Yours leading you to the Ditchwater band gave me my first LOL of the day. There’s a Jeopardy for Others Out there waiting for us. My Grace at least two or three times a week says “Grandma, you know lots of stuff and some of it is really weird,” or something closely akin thereto. Not gonna say she’s wrong.
DeleteGary
DeleteAlways like your comments, but particularly today. Liked your stream of consciousness
And the uniclues were especially good too
Clare Carroll thanks for the strange coincidence of a bloodmoon cauldron names...
ReplyDeleteSweet Tuesday puzzle, maybe more Monday-ish. Only one unknown name SHERA, but easily gettable. ASHIER is a STRETCH I think. TIL SPITSBARS and SLAPS. Enjoyed reading about your morning routine, Clare!
ReplyDelete@Egs, Thanx again for the laugh. I was dispersing A Toolate for a second then laugh out quite loud when I caught on.
ReplyDelete??Slaps and Spitbars?? Hopefully that slang will have a shorter life than house flies, mosquitos and other pests.
SLAPS
ReplyDeleteNever heard it so looked it up
Like much of GEN Z slang, to quote a clue from an earlier puzzle, the answer being AAVE as in African American Vernacular English. Made popular among White young Americans via rap. Apparently, it is used for something striking. I wouldn’t ever use it but it makes sense somehow.
Can’t say much about this one. In my babiest of baby lawyer days, I used to appear frequently before a judge from whom I truly began to learn how to practice law. I was in criminal court because the elected DA in office then refused to believe that anyone actually wanted to work in the civil division (all I can ever wanted to do). Appropriately, I did misdemeanors and “minor” felonies, no “crimes against persons” (aren’t they all?).
ReplyDeleteSo, I did my time learning how to tear families apart without adequate resources to put them back together again, deprive people of their liberty for choosing to use all their food stamps for baby food thereby having to steal diapers, and a litany of other things that taught me that I wouldn’t last long enough as a criminal prosecutor to get the job in that office I really wanted (and finally got 18 years and three elected officials later).
Anyway, Judge Parnell saw hundreds of accused each day in their constitutionally guaranteed Initial Appearances. Often, the accused had angry thoughts they wanted to share with the court. Since most lacked funds to have secured counsel for this first appearance, ergo no-one to advise them that the process would certainly run more smoothly and decisions likely be more favorable to them if they spoke only when spoken to rather than sharing their frustrations with the court, loud and often profane outbursts were common.
Every single day, Judge P kept his calm demeanor and never reacted. He simply informed the accused of their rights appointed counsel immediately if necessary, or explained the process if appropriate, and moved on. When one of the accused kept yelling, the judge would bang his gavel as a deputy encouraged the accused to calm down, and he’d say, “I neither care about nor acknowledge that your bad behavior affected me, because to care would cost me energy. You do not deserve to deprive me of energy because I need my energy to make certain that your rights are upheld precisely according to law and our Constitution. I shall remain entirely neutral and unmoved.” Anyone who appeared in IA court before him could recite that. In fact, it became a thing in the office. When arguing legal points during trial prep with colleagues, it was common listening as a “juror” to say “I shall remain neutral and entirely unmoved.”
This puzzle did not make me happy, upset me in any way, give me a single high or truly low point. The theme had no effect because for me, this solved completely as a themeless. Even post-solve, seeing OFL’s explanation of the theme left me entirely unmoved. My reaction, literally was a very small “oh,” not even a blip. It wasn’t bad, or good, it was just finished. About this Tuesday puzzle, I remain entirely neutral and unmoved.
But am now back in my whirlwind days of trying to fix what was broken then and is now worse. I am wondering (again) what else I could have done then and can do now, . . . So much that screams for action and courage. Daily, I assess where and how best to use my energy because the need is dire. I’m absolutely channeling Judge P while our Constitution itself is at risk. I shall resist, persist, and of course vote. There’s more than plenty that deserves our energy.
Gee, my old signature name just popped up - seemingly out of nowhere. My very occasional comments have been coming up as "Anonymous." ...which kind of irked me. I send this just to see if it comes up as "bigsteve46" (born in 1946 and 6'6'' tall, although at the magic age of EIGHT-O probably more like 6'3".) Let's see ...
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