While trying to track down my panda, I went to my account profile and discovered she was gone from there too, replaced by a plain blue box.
I went to Edit Avatar (or is it called Edit Picture?) and put my panda back. We will now see if my panda is restored to her rightful position on Wordplay.
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Looks like the latest unheralded "improvement" to the comments system is not interested in presenting avatars. Does this mean the puzzles will no longer present "classic" rebuses?
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Who knows what it means, Barry.
FWIW, I have the thingy checked that I should get email notification when my comments post. I didn't get one re the one above, about my panda-search. I eventually came back here and saw that it had posted, without any notification, and even by replied to by you.
And that my panda is still missing.
{sob}
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Steven Crist, the legendary and recently retired sport of kings essayist, reported on 52d after the malady contributed to this thoroughbred champion's final days. Mr. Crist was an editor, part owner and publisher of the the horseplayer's bible, the Daily Racing Form.
https://www.nytimes.com/1983/10/18/sports/kelso-dies-of-colic-at-26.html
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I just opened today’s puzzle and I feel like 14 across is a Voight Kampff question :D
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When you read these comments, Jason, you will find that you are not alone in that feeling.
(Deja vu)
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A most impressive debut, Mr. Worth: congratulations! I was especially tickled by your bonus answers. You did an amazing job of squeezing those into your already well represented theme answers. Bravo! And revel in your being published in the NYT today!
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Gasoline additive ETHANOL, er. FORCED gasoline additive. it’s in there whether you like it or not. And I don’t due: poorer fuel economy, water absorption in your tank and potential engine damage. Plus it’s a forced subsidy with a lousy ROI.
WHACKED OUT Org. seeking life in space SETI Whatever they learn is literally millions of years old. That’s how long it takes for any info to reach earth. And here’s a thought: whatever transmission we send, could be a dinner call. Hey ET! We not only have food, we ARE food.
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You really can’t have it both ways. If the transmissions are millions of years old, then those aliens aren’t much of a threat.
SETI is really about the question “Are we alone?” and they‘re primarily a listening organization. If those hungry aliens detect that we’re here, it’s likelier that they picked up broadcasts of the Simpsons. Of course, if that’s true, they may decide to give our planet a wide berth.
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Capital of the world’s largest island country JAKARTA? CANBERRA would beg to differ.
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Australia is generally not considered an island. It is a continent.
https://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/islands.htm
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It's both. And per the website you cite: NOTE: "Australia is widely considered as a continental landmass, not an island. IT CERTAINLY IS THE LARGEST ISLAND (caps added), with a size of (2,941,517 sq miles) (7,618,493 sq km)". So the reference says it's both not an island and that it is an island. That's the epitome of having it both ways. Further even if it's not considered an island, GREENLAND is and tops the list - making NUUK the correct answer to the clue.
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Depends on your definition of island. Africa and North and South America can be considered large islands too, then. So can Antarctica. Reminds me of the joke about a religion being a large cult and a cult being a small religion (apologies to anyone that might take offense at that).
Greenland, on the hand, is not an independent country - it's part of Denmark, though it seems to be considered a country of some sort. However, the clue doesn't make that distinction. It's on the largest islands list, but not on the largest island countries list.
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Solved quickly, average Tuesday time. Since I still use pen on paper, I didn't have a keyboard nearby to reference, so the theme didn't register until I read Deb's column. A very worthwhile endeavor, Mr. Worth, congrats on your debut.
ENTERSANDMAN was a gimme, of course, as was ZAPPA. Never tried TARO chips, but had some poi in Hawaii. Let's call it an acquired taste.
Ain't gonna POKE any turtles.
I think it's quaint (there's that word again) and charming that many music fans in the late 70s could take the Village People at face value--just a fun-loving group of guys dressing in costumes. The group's ode to "KEY WEST" wasn't issued as a single, but stands as a disco classic nonetheless.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56SeM4VdGuQ
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Good use of that word, Jimbo. And you're probably right.
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My children found it "quaint and charming" that *their* YMCA was *the* YMCA.
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Tip of the hat to Rich in Atlanta; the commentariat is right on today.
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AMEN to Deb and all the commenters who recoiled at the clue for POKE. Really, people. It's not as if there was any shortage of alternative clues.
Other than that (and I gather it wasn't your fault, Carl), I want to welcome our newest constructor to the stable. Very nice debut. I immediately saw the WEST part of the revealer as you intended, so I wasn't disturbed by the ENTER key being on the other side of the actual keyboard. OTOH, it would have been seriously elegant to have only left-hand keys in the themers. Ah, well ...
ENTER SANDMAN? The only SANDMAN I knew is Mister. Generational I guess.
All I know from TARO is that it's what Hawaiians make poi out of. Never been to Hawaii or eaten either TARO or poi.
I'd have liked the clue for OSTER to be [Big name in small appliances].
I did know that ESCAPE ROOM exists as a game for bunches of people, but I thought the more common (and less complicated) form was a computer game (solitaire). I know I've played something with a very similar name on my computer.
So thanks all (with reservations about the person responsible for the POKE clue). Congratulations on your debut, Carl, and hurry back. Minus animal cruelty.
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Did not get the theme at all. Though I had half the themed answers when I got to Key West, I just did not make the connection. No worries (though I first thought the largest island nation was Australia, then realized it is a continent not an island.) Final stumper for me was Taro Chips. I had Taco Chips, but Juce was just not a Latin word. All in all an amusing fill.
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Same for me, on all points.
Another day dawns as more talent emerges from an ever-expanding camp of NYTXWP constructors. The talent pool abounds, evolving almost daily and I'm digging the growth spurt. Welcome and congrats Carl Worth on a classy, criciverbal coming out. And thanks are also in order for including Frank in the debut....Little Walter's "KEY To The Highway" opens up another Tuesday twofer. Then John Mellencamp will grab your ATTN with "I Saw You First."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_9r1ARmNAk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcGCS1_5c1E
AMEN,
Bru
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Though I often don't catch on to all levels of the theme of the day, I really feel humble that I didn't link today's to the keyboard. I've been typing for decades; my fingers just automatically hit all the right keys, so I have no excuse for missing today's clever fill. A worthy job, Mr. Worth.
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You *do* have an excuse, Meg. I've been typing for decades too, and when I started, a number of the themers were not on the keyboard.
(Manual)
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Same here, Barry, but I got the themers easily enough.
Thinking back, I learned to type on an old manual where hitting the SHIFT key with your pinkie finger lifted the whole carriage mechanism. Then graduated to one where only the KEY bed moved (but this was in typing class, and the keys were blank). Eventually got a job with an electric typewriter, and followed the improvements through all the way to electronics and eventually a variety of computers.
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This is probably the reason why the ENTER key is found only on the right - as a deep echo of the "carriage return" lever from real typewriters.
Ding.
(Still have my Royal 440 and love it.)
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What a fun, fast puzzle! Until I read the comments, I hadn't even noticed the ALT TAB and CAP LOCK theme additions. Even better!
It was a little odd doing the puzzle as I came across answer after answer that had a personal connection for me. JAKARTA, where I have spent time (and eaten TARO chips, by the way, long before they were trendy here). Just last evening I scheduled another driving session with my son who is learning to SHIFTGEARS and politely doesn't complain about having to learn to drive in a standard transmission car. ENTERSANDMAN, AZALEAS, MAINE, and more. If I didn't know better, I would have guessed the constructor had made the puzzle just for me. Hey, wouldn't that be a fantastic gift for a crossword puzzle fan?
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I had ENTERS AND M__ and couldn't figure out what went with ENTERS.
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my well-loved closer for the New York Yankees Mariano Rivera would thrill the crowds at Yankee Stadium entering from the bullpen to the sounds of ENTER SANDMAN!
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Nice puzzle; I like it when I have no idea how the theme is supposed to work until I finally get the reveal and most of the theme answers, and that's what happened today.
I was unfamiliar with the Metallica song and the sense of ESCAPE ROOM in the clue (I still don't really know what that is), so that added a bit of challenge. I was also parsing 24a as 'ENTERS AND MAN' at first and wondering what in the heck I had wrong.
Noticed the ALT TAB, but only because I always review the grid design when I'm done and they kind of jumped out on either end of the reveal. Never saw the CAPS LOCK. I thought those were nifty bonuses.
Congratulations on your debut, Mr. Worth; hope to see more soon.
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COLIC: And continuing the theme of mothers (and fathers ) coming to comfort the baby in the middle of the night, a Sylvia Plath poem
https://youtu.be/aIrkwQHk28A
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Thank you Carl for remind us of all mothers fathers grannies singing and walking up and down at 3 in the morning trying to comfort the loved crying little baby.
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What a lovely lively playful puzzle! I got the key revelar and went literal: a key to ESCAPE a ROOM, to let the SANDMAN in, even to CONTROL for. Freak. But HEAR SHIFT? Went to wordplay to find out and what a lovely surprise! But to the completed crossword and find CAP, LOCK, ALT AND TAB!!!!
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All my observations have been covered earlier, save for two:
* Last year was the first year since 1950 that ORONO has not appeared in a NYT puzzle, and the hiatus has ended.
* My Mac laptop has an "fn" key which I thought initially would be impossible to find a theme answer for, but there is an 8-letter answer legitimate answer (which I'm sure David Connell will get before his first blink).
Congratulations on your debut, Carl -- lots of very nice touches (not pokes) in this puzzle that auger well for your future offerings!
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Oh, there is one more observation: I wanted KALE before TARO for my ALT chips.
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Never had a Mac, so I'd never heard of that fn key.
:)
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The first birthday present I opened that year was a brand new drill. That augered well for the rest of the year.
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Congratulations on a very enjoyable debut puzzle, Carl.
My 16-year-old grandson just recently attended a friend's birthday party in an ESCAPE ROOM in Tel Aviv - first time I'd heard of it, and here it is in the XWP.
I already had JURE in so no danger of entering TAcO, which otherwise would have been my first guess.
My first association upon seeing KEY WEST was the memorable movie Key Largo with Bogart, Bacall, EGRobinson and Claire Trevor.
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Congratulations Mr. Worth on your debut puzzle!
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Nice debut puzzle from Carl. The few things I needed help with were easily gettable from the crosses as is right for a Tuesday puzzle. It also helped that I watched a show just yesterday that had an ESCAPE ROOM as part of the plot, not a term I was particularly familiar with.
I also hesitated to enter POKE, interesting that it was one of the changed clues.
When I looked at yesterday's comments I saw that the avatars were all gone, except for DKs. That is really strange. I hope we get them back.
Well done, Carl, looking forward to more puzzles from you.
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Didn't notice that dk's avatar hadn't been purged along with everyone else's. I suspect hanky-panky.
Are our avatars being held for ransom? What are we supposed to do to get them back? I'm worried about mine because pandas eat very specialized diets.
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Pretty quick one for me. I ignored the theme and those entries all worked out fine via crosses and the standalone clues. POKE was one my last because I didn't want to believe that (inaccurate) answer was the expected one for the clue. A better clue might have been "Ahi, often" or some such.
TARO chip wanted to be TACO for me, until, ah, *trendy* it is.
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Hand up for TAcO before TARO.
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TACO here too.
Do the Trendy Types really eat TARO chips? Outside of Hawaii? Are there really such things as TARO chips?
Yes, Deadline, there is a taro chip.
http://www.terrachips.com/chips/product/taro/
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The clue for POKE is in terrible taste. Many people along the coast where I live spend thousands of hours protecting turtles, their sanctuaries and their breeding grounds from cruel and senseless acts like poking, kicking or tossing for no better reason than pathetic amusement.
The next time this is clued, go POKE a failing campfire.
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Isn’t Australia the world’s largest island nation?
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Technically, Australia is a continental land mass, not an island. Greenland is the largest island, but it’s not a country. Indonesia is the largest island country, and the areas of all of its individual islands need to be combined to make that claim. I don’t know what the largest single island country is. Thought it might be Madagascar, but it has some little islands in addition to the big one. Anyone know?
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Because Australia is a continent, it is usually omitted from island country lists.
https://www.google.com/search?q=largest+island+country
It's the "island continent," but I guess that's considered unfair to the other islands.
I think tiny Nauru is the largest island country on one island only. That's because all larger countries have multiple islands, or at least small offshore islands within their boundaries.
A guy opens his refrigerator and finds Elmer Fudd sitting there.
"What are you doing in my refrigerator?"
"Isn't this a WESTinghouse?"
"Yes, it is."
"Well, I'm WESTing."
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and Elke
Since the door was left AJAR from yesterday, I did not need a KEY for the LOCK to be able to ENTER and could thus ESCAPE from the ROOM.
We used to call the 'pit stops' for REFUEL and dEFUEL , especially if a JOHN was nearby....
Of course , TESLAS need fewer pit stops. We have noticed in Washington State, the rest areas have electric plug-ins , and they don't need ETHANOL.
Cute how in 24A- the Metallica song is 'Sleep with one eye open'- a holdover from yesterday ?
This puzzle was not SPAM- a great cure for ENNUI.
Carl Worth- congrats on a worthy debut- no need to 'backspace' anything.
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AJAR *3* days in a row! Lots of computer keys in addition to the "WEST parts of the themes. Nice!
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I’m new at this and I really enjoyed this puzzle. Thank you.
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I like "where you shouldn't buy a pig" for 14A. Avoids the sadism aspect. And seems about right for a Monday or Tuesday.
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SETI actually seeks intelligent life in space (hence the acronym). Exobiologists seek life in space, generally.
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Congratulations on a very successful first puzzle, Mr. Worth! It was delightful.
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And ALT is to the west of KEYWEST.
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And tab on the other side
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As well as CAPS LOCK symmetrically placed.
Well done, Carl! A Worthy effort!!
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Very enjoyable debut. Well done!
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Thanks for a pleasant debut offering, Carl Worth; nothing seemed off-key to me. I am puzzled that Will did not run this one on Monday and Monday's today.
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I would rate them to be on pretty much the same level of difficulty.
I've noted that the difficulty curve is sigmoid, almost flat between Monday and Tuesday, rising steeply in mid-week and nearly flattening out on Friday and Saturday.
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if 14A were a question on the Voigt-Kampff test, answering it with POKE would probably identify the respondent as a replicant and lead to his or her immediate retirement.
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