@Fidelio @Ron @Henry @Su @RiA
Oddly, I had a few possibilities up my sleeve
Lena Horne / The Sound of Music
Clare Dane / Hamlet
Louis Armstrong / Boxing Day
Moira Shearer / Silence of the Lambs
And one more that might raise some grunts of protest:
Miss Piggy / Ground Hog Day
Great fun to be larkin' with Barkin!!
7
Hi all,
The Thursday column, which published on time, has apparently gone on walkabout. I apologize for the inconvenience.
If you’d like to get there from here, the URL is
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2018-12-27.html
3
What a Wednesday! Felt just like a Tuesday, but with a movie/star name theme. The puzzle that is, not my day. Did it more quickly than a typical Wednesday. Had very little trouble with the theme answers, and I thought them to be kinda humorous.
Most perfectly enjoyable of the theme fill/clue for me was ROBINHOOD/Anne Archer, because he was an archer. Lol...
It may just be my mental state, but I’m starting to like ADULTING as a word. My grandkids will be here all day tomorrow, undoubtably childing. ADULTING could be a relief. Ah, perspective, you fickle vixen.
:-)
2
This is me not commenting about ADULTING. ;)
6
Aw, grow up, Ron! :-)
5
@Andrew
Tee-hee!
Some more matchings (big thanks to IMDb.com) in the spirit of today’s theme:
Ellen/Howard Barkin – The Hound of the Baskervilles
Kristen Wiig – The Devil Wears a Toupee
Ted Danson – Last Tango in Paris
Meryl Streep – The Naked City (since Wiig is “Wig” …)
Gene Hackman – Taxi Driver
Glen Close – Striking Distance
Jeremy Irons – Twelve Years A Slave
Marianne Faithful – Betrayal
5
@Fidelio
Wonderful! Thanks!
@Fidelio, nice. Here's one more for you:
Naomi Watts -- Electricity
2
@Fidelio Very nice. You could have added Bob Barker for 'the Hound of the Baskervilles."
I actually used to sometimes refer to my two dogs as Bob Barker and Ellen Barkin.
3
9 Wordplay people met up for brunch today in Durham! Further details will be posted on the Thursday puzzle's Wordplay--assuming I can get the photos to upload before then. (Something went wacky with one of them).
11
(Something went wacky with one of them).
Liz B,
Photos or people?
7
@Barry Ancona
Laugh out loud funny!
2
@Liz B Can't wait to see you all ... hope you had fun!
1
good puzzle, but too many singer's names, etc. i would like to go back to more cross WORD puzzles, and not buy these google assembled ones.
1
@david g sutliff
I’m not sure what era you would like to go back to, but the very first clue and answer (1 across) of the very first NYT crossword was “Famous one-eyed general.”/WAVELL.
Not exactly famous anymore. But “famous” people as entries are not a new thing and aren’t going to go away.
That being said, I don’t think this puzzle had an unusually high number of famous people in it.
2
I would add that if you go back to those old puzzles, you are *more* likely to see entries like ETC, or ARE clued as "common verb." UGH.
1
Pleasing theme, a little on the easy side for mid-week, but I loved the fresh, fun cluing for the much used OED. This "cruciverbalist" was most pleased!
4
@Babel64
Every time I see "reference" (or ref.) in a clue, and the answer is three letters, I automatically fill in OED. So far, it's worked!
I really enjoyed today's crossword! The theme was fun and moderately easy for a Wednesday (except for Vin Diesel). But I got that through filling in, so the enjoyment was constant. Thanks for a mostly clean puzzle! The only thing that would have improved it for me is leaving out the "ugh"-type fill.
2
SPELLING BEE CHART (mysterX's work appended - too many words for me to have done accurately)
67 words 235 points 1 Pangram -- discussion below but wanted his chart with the last word added to be easy to find - because you should be stuck on this one!
4 5 6 7 8
--------------------------
A 2 1 1
B 17 11 2 2 2
C 25 8 12 2 1 2
K 4 2 2
L 7 5 2
O 4 3 1
R 8 4 1 1 2
67 34 19 5 3 6
6
@Liane
Dear Bee:
ball·cock
/ˈbôlkäk/
(noun) - a valve that automatically fills a tank after liquid has been drawn from it. Used, for example, in a flush toilet, a ballcock has a float on the end of a pivoting arm that opens the valve when the arm drops.
8
@Dan Sheehan - there is no proper excuse for denying ballcock while taking today's 4-letter A. This is coming from a professional musician. No excuse.
6
@mysterx & @Liane
Fantastic job on the grid. Thanks!
Here it is in my format - I find it a little clearer when tabbed.
Tot 4 5 6 7 8
Tot 67 34 19 5 3 6
A 2 1 1 - - -
B 17 11 2 2 - 2
C 25 8 12 2 1 2
K 4 2 2 - - -
L 7 5 2 - - -
R 8 4 - 1 1 2
O 4 3 - - 1 -
The Mexican food one and the 4-letter musical one that @David Connell mentioned were the ones I was missing. I had to look up the Mexican one - 8-letter B-word I never heard of. Sounds a little bit like how Americans like to cook their meats and ribs. Same first 4 letters anyway. Different vowels for the last 4 letters.
8
Today's puzzle was fun and yes, a pretty easy one after a busy yesterday but I am still flummoxed (would like to see that in a puzzle) over BANDS. I never would have gotten that! Luckily it filled in. I do not understand it. Could someone please explain. It seems no one is mentioning it in the comments so must be obvious to everyone but me!
2
@JC, the first three are all names of rock bands, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_(band), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia_(band), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe_(band), but Africa is not.
2
Henry,
Not a rock band, true, but as my daughter noted, a great rock song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTQbiNvZqaY
4
@Barry Ancona, I love that song too - reminds me of my high school days!
2
Thank you all for your overwhelming approval of yesterday's Christmas verse. I enjoy tinkering in light-hearted verse when time and inspiration allows, which fortunately does not happen too often.
Today's puzzle was enjoyable except for the west side where I had a SAW instead of an OAR and my instinctive compass gave me ENE instead of NNE. I've never heard of Yum! and had no idea of Balboa's foe. The coffee managed to wake me up, and once I had the K and the F, I pretty much got the secret recipe.
I too was dubious about a diesel Beetle. I don't think that the original Beetles had diesel engines, but the new Beetles do have that option. Anyway, I don't know of any actors named UNLEADED so Vin Diesel was an excellent choice.
I keep forgetting whether that Greek-born New Age musician is YANNI or Laurel.
12
Andrew-
I TOO want to thank you for providing that FANTASTIC bit of verse. We printed it out , to be able to refresh the smiles it brought.
Would some SEC champagne on New Year's Eve lubricate the brain synapses for more ?
Re:Diesel BEETLES : seem to remember that the VW Jetta engine (>30 yrs. ago) was diesel (and the EPA noted it for its ability to produce significant clouds of black smoke from its (E)TAIL pipe).
1
@Robert
New Year's Eve might be too soon - for me and for you all.
I do envy you living in Vancouver. My mother's side of the family hailed from there, and I have visited many times. Beautiful city.
1
@Andrew
I was late to the party yesterday, so let me add my thanks and congratulations here. Your entries were wonderful.
Speed solve with a misspelled asiago & carat denying my Happy Pencil while Clocky gloated.
Thanks Howard
This was a quick and easy solve, well below my Monday average -- but that's OK by me since the return to the real world after a holiday always feels like a Monday no matter what day it actually is.
I think it helps in the solving to be squarely middle aged, working with young people for whom ADULTING is a topic of conversation yet old enough to have a recollection of PeeWee REESE.
4
The increasingly common practice of repeating words in puzzles within a few days is very annoying. It is understandable when this is done with a small filler word ( but still, should be avoided) But recycling the big unusual word “adulting” within a week or so smacks of ennui or worse on the part of the editor and the constructor.. Déjà vue is not fun in a puzzle!
3
@Skeptical1 I have noticed this phenomenon of repeated-words-within-a-few-days. The weird thing is that words in the NYT puzzle turn up in the LA Times puzzle, which also do regularly. I believe there is a shadowy secret organization that maintains a list of trendy puzzle answers and feeds them to puzzle authors via mind control.
4
Groan. That's what I did after I filled in the grid and parsed the theme responses. Diesel -- juice for a Beetle . . . . oy!
Speaking of ADULTING -- college boy did this in 6 minutes beating me by one -- but he distracted me while I did it. Either not adulting or very adulting!
2
For my sister it was running with scissors and playing with sharp knives. Which she pronounced nife-iss,
1
@Liane, you've trained your college boy well!
Ever since 30 became the new 18 - for all kinds of evolutionary and economic reasons - 20- and 30-somethings have been practicing ADULTING. We gave our daughter and son the book “Adulting” for their weddings to complete anything we may have forgotten in their upbringing. It includes advice on how to buy a house and how not to wear pajamas to work and starts with the sentence “The world does not revolve around you!” Warning - it also includes unneccessary profanity, perhaps also part of the process.
I enjoyed the puzzle today. After wondering, “How am I supposed to know the town where Grey Poupon originated?” Had a fun head slap when I discovered DIJON!
3
Boy, this is challenging for a Tuesday, I thought. Until I finally looked at the top of the page and saw it was a Wednesday. That explains it, I thought. Because the clue/answer connections were vague enough to require both some thinking and some crosses, I found the puzzle very enjoyable. All the theme answers were right on target (ROBIN HOOD again!), but none sprang to mind as I read the clues. So while the Aha moments were rather mild ones, they did exist and there were five (!) of them.
Kudos to Howard Barkin for choosing movies with very familiar titles, whether you've seen them or not. This always serves to make a puzzle less pop-culture-y. Of the five, I saw the original 1938 ROBIN HOOD, which was brought back every single year of my childhood, it seemed, all through the '40s and clear into the '50s. I'm sure there have been remakes, and that may be what younger bloggers have seen. I also saw ANIMAL HOUSE -- very funny, but a bit too broad is my appraisal. The others I missed -- but I've heard of all of them.
In spite of ADULTING again (when once was too much), I thought this was a fun puzzle.
2
I TOO had trouble connecting with the diesel fuel/VW scenario. On account of that, I do not exactly qualify for high HONORS. The puzzle filled easily enough, the end result being a pristine grid with nary a strike-over...As an ink on newsprint puzzler, I worry not about ever having to finesse my way around the grid with a NUB for a writing utensil...During a visit to Missoula in the 70’s I was impressed by the monstrous span of MT. That memorable TREK lacked a heading of NNE from Boise. I was steering in the another direction, toward the Pacific via Coeur d’Alene...This is Little Louie covering one of the songs of his father, “ROBIN HOOD.” Natch, the TEMPO is hot, the signature rhythm of the Prima family.
https://youtu.be/E_Lnnahf4Wc
ALOHA,
Bru
5
@brutus
Exactly! Pencils--whether sharp and long or mere dull NUBs--are really not good for puzzle-solving. Pen and paper! (Or, MTW, PuzzAzz....to save more trees...)
1
@brutus I didn't connect the Beetle with Diesel but I did connect diesel with gasoline and thus juice!
Friendly puzzle. Enjoyed the theme!
1
College student daughter was amused to see the very common ADULTING pop up again, but she has more enjoyment remembering entries like ASTA. Lucky for her, she was unfamiliar with GINSU, but she found the crosses friendly, and she was quick to offer NAOMI and JESSE. We found this rather easy Wednesday fare, if not a CINCH.
P.S. I'm in the "dubious about the BEETLE" camp; for a movie with Vin Diesel, I suggest SILVER STREAK.
4
And I thought Jack Webb should have been featured in the Peter Parker vehicle. But fit and crosses put the kibosh on Sgt. Friday, giving way to Sigourney...Is acting like a high-schooler teening?
3
Great Wednesday grid from Mr. Barkin! Enjoyed the fill (no klunkers!) and the theme took me a bit to grok, but once I got it I was very satisfied. I, like Deb, needed to think a bit about 50A, but it's one of those that when you get it, it makes you smile! Great Lead-in to the next few challenging days!
2
I had never seen or heard the word ADULTING until the recent puzzle. Does it mean acting like an adult when your not yet one, or does it mean a set of behaviors that are adult-like at any age. I wonder what the word would be for acting like a child when you’re the age of an adult? ( Ahem, anyone we know?)
1
@Susan
I think ADULTING generally refers to performing the functions of an adult (holding a full-time job, maintaining a household, keeping track of finances, etc.) as it applies to those who are old enough to act as adults but either have not yet learned to function as such, or to mark the fact that such a young adult has finally reached that point where he or she is functioning as such.
2
@Susan
My understanding is acting like an adult when you're not yet one. Especially as Deb recently recounted her experience with her son in college. Legally he's an adult, but parents will likely see their kids as ADULTING until they get their first job, or get married and have kids of their own.
Susan,
You may wish to read Deb's Wordplay column for the Saturday puzzle (and the ensuing comments).
We celebrated our daughter’s first Christmas yesterday! She liked her new toys but especially loved the shiny, crunchy wrapping paper they came in.
Despite nearing my mid-thirties (!!!), I still feel like I’m faking it at this “grown up” lark and consider completing tasks such as sending Christmas cards in the mail ADULTING.
I saw someone write Happy Kwanza. So Happy Kwanza! One of the shortcomings of my Catholic education was a lack of exposure to other celebrations. I vaguely remember learning about it but I wish I had a friend who’d include me so I could experience it :)
13
@Siobhan Kellar
The most grown-up I ever felt was in the first grade as I thought what babies the little kindergarteners were. I don't think I've ever been very good at adulting ( and my grandson just celebrated the birth of his first born)
4
@Siobhan Kellar
Congratulations on a happy first Christmas with your daughter! :)
I think you hit the nail on the head with your description of ADULTING in terms of "faking it". I (and many of the other millennials/20-somethings I know) use it for those things that we've seen "real adults" do, that seem to be the standard, but that don't come as naturally as we expected them to. Like remembering to...make a grocery list AND actually take it with you to the grocery store AND actually buy the things on it AND actually eat the vegetables before they go bad. Or completing the whole task of maintaining an address book AND buying Christmas cards AND writing the Christmas cards AND buying stamps AND getting them all in the mail in time for Christmas. To me it feels like instead of BEING an adult, I'm a headless chicken running around trying to ACT like an adult. When you run, you're running, when you bake you're baking, when you do adult stuff you're adulting.
I don't know if our parents just made it look really easy or what, but I definitely thought being a "grown-up" would be like... You grow up, and now your brain is developed enough to do the grown-up things. It's been pretty tough to come to terms with how much of adult life is more like, "you learn how to do that by screwing it up a few times".
6
Agreed!! Cheers to faking it together!
3
Another slog-type Wee Bee...and a glaring omission with a type of valve that is of great importance in everyday life! I tried it twice because it was so unbelievable..... (esp given the multiple appearances of a word formed with O L D I in many previus Bees.).
I'm at Genius + and am likely not coming back today.... Boxing Day is so much nicer a concept compared to Shopping Orgy Day.
8
@Mean Old Lady
The concept of Boxing Day may be much nicer, but here in Canada (and, I believe, in the UK and Australia too) it’s a Shopping Orgy Day like your Black Friday. Not for me, though; I’ll be at home reading a good book.
1
I'm stuck on the wee bee (65/226 - 10 more points!) as well. Today's a slog-fest for sure.
Might come back to see if anyone posts anything.
I'm not picking up on the type of valve you're hinting at, though.
1
When I lived in Toledo OH, my coworker (British expat) and her family would spend Boxing Day with me crossing into Canada (back when crossing borders was legal) - Windsor ON specifically - so we could get in some time at Marks & Sparks, pick up Christmas Crackers for the next year, some nice biscuits, and on the way we'd have a reading of Dylan Thomas in the car.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROl7-B1pA1o
2
I adored my Diesel VW stationwagon (stickshift) and was heartbroken when DHubby declared it too aged and unreliable, given that we lived 'far out' and he was constantly away...but I don't know if there were Diesel BEETLEs....
I, too, am tired of ADULTING but there doesn't seem to be any way out of it....and now we seem to be "old-aging," which is even less fun....(but what are the alternatives?)
Had fun doing this on PuzzAzz, but it was over too soon. Is it too soon for another Howard Barkin puzzle? Constructor, please note!
7
@Mean Old Lady Not sure if they are still making them, but there definitely were Diesel VW Beetles at one time. A friend of mine had one and loved it!
1
@Steve Faiella they won't be making any Beetles after July which makes me sad even though I have no intention of ever buying one again. We had a diesel Beetle in my youth that got phenomenal mileage.
1
Why thank you, M.O.L! On my initial submission, I would have pegged this as a Tuesday puzzle, but the theme might have been to tricky for that slot (again, just guessing). So you get a slighty softer Wednesday this week.
Happy holidays!
4
As best I recall, none of those films involved ADULTery, so I'm guessing they were all rated G or PG-13? You know - unADULT(e)rated. Just kidding. :)
Fun puzzle, clever theme and a smooth solve for the most part. Ground to a halt briefly in the SW until BANDS and EMOJI finally dawned on me.
After a very hectic week, I am planning to do absolutely nothing useful today.
10
@Rich in Atlanta
You already have!
I too struggled a bit in the SW. Had SHIPS before BOATS before BANDS. And erased ETAIL before reinserting it. NAOMI was a no-know.
1
To me this was a perfect Monday puzzle, quite easy but full of interest. Even though I'm very weak on films I had fun getting them all with a few crosses and the clever cluing. ( well, no crosses needed for Robin Hood except to confirm it)
As always I wonder what day the constructor was aiming for, so hope that Howard comes to Wordplay again to answer that.
Happy Boxing Day.
4
@suejean Hello! I just wrote a bit on this, unaware of your query.
While I didn't write this with a particular day in mind, I felt it could be anywhere from M-W depending on editorial decision and clue difficulty.
3
@Howard Barkin
Thanks for getting back to me. In any event I really enjoyed your puzzle and look forward to more.
2
Not sure that SLING is properly clued as a “cast replacement”. As a noun, I think of a cast as a solid device to immobilize and a sling as a device to elevate, not so much immobilize. A SPLINT is a removable immobilizing device often used after a cast is removed. However, if the clue is asking for a verb synonym for “cast”, SLING would be a suitable “replacement”, I guess.
3
Richard Basuk,
Well observed. I agree that verbs work, nouns don't.
@Richard Basuk I thought that would be a good clue for "UNDERSTUDY".
1
@Richard Basuk, for certain fractures, a sling can be sufficient for immobilization.
"Your doctor may recommend wearing an immobilization device, such as a sling, splint, or cast, for a few weeks or longer, depending on the location and severity of a fracture." https://nyulangone.org/conditions/shoulder-elbow-fractures/treatments/nonsurgical-treatment-for-shoulder-elbow-fractures.
1
Even without any proximity in time, I've seen ADULTING here (and only here) a few times now. So I've accepted that this is a term used by someone, somewhere, often enough to have become familiar to a few constructors and Will.
But how common is it really? Are there in fact people around who say that? I'm guessing the usage must be pretty much restricted to the generation(s) of people to whom being a grown-up is a new experience. (I had to Google to be sure it meant taking responsibilities rather than, well, anything else.)
Anyway, I think this is one term where usage really is determined by generation!
BETTLEJUICE took me a long time, probably because I don't drive. I picked up a reference on a TV drama once that made me think there was some kind of difference between diesel fuel and gas. Before that I'd always thought the former was just a high-power type of the latter, which doesn't sound particularly appropriate for a VW.
Of the flicks, "BEETLEJUICE" is the one I'm sure I've seen. Not sure about "FANTASTIC VOYAGE." Definitely have never seen "ROBIN HOOD" (unless when I was a tiny child and don't remember). Rented "ANIMAL HOUSE," but quit after about 15 minutes; tried to watch "SPIDERMAN" on TV once, but only made it through maybe ten minutes.
Never heard of NAOMI Osaka or ARIEL as clued, but (surprise!) YANNI was a near-gimme.
In mid-2016 a store near me sold Donald Trump CHIA pets. But the growth was green instead of orange!
Thanks all, and happy Kwanzaa.
5
@Deadline My office is strewn with millennials and "adulting" is a popular concept. And it's on a college campus where the skies buzz with helicopter parents. Coincidence? I think not.
Paradoxically though, I'd have to say that most of my young colleagues are extremely hard workers.
8
@audreylm
Perhaps those who are ADULTING (i.e. on the rise) thinks that being ADULTs means working hard.
Those who've ADULTed for some time have mastered ADULTery have and those who've managed to tolerate being ADULTs have ADULTerated. They don't work as hard as when they were ADULTING. Those who like to live near other ADULTs live in ADULTHOODs and recall with fondness their young, naive ADULTING days.
10
@Wen
Love it!
I'll never get tired of that Langston Hughes opener...so much said in two little words.
11
What do ANIMAL HOUSE, MORK and Mindy, and the GINSU knife all have in common? They all came out in 1978, exactly 40 years ago. The first Star TREK movie arrived the following year.
4
@Blue Moon
I am with you on three of your capitalized entries, but how does MORK relate to today?
@Andrew it was in the mini.
@K Barrett
Oh, thanks. I was also hung up on GINSU. ?? As typical for early-week puzzles, I got it without ever reading the clue (from the crosses).
Introvert as loner?! Come on! That’s enough with the broken stereotype
15
@pmb
I agree. Introverts Unite!
7
@Paul I'd unite too, but that's kind of a socially uncomfortable situation. ;)
9
As audreylm put it in the Sunday comments:
"Introverts unite (separately of course)!"
3
Thank you, Mr. Barkin, for drawing some fun nominate connections between popular films and actors. I stress "popular" because this puzzle could easily have been outside my wheelhouse if the films and actors were less well known or from decades earlier. (Fantastic Voyage dates from the 1960s but I grew up on sci-fi so it was not hard.) Like other commenters, my favorite pairing has to be BEETLEJUICE because Vin Diesel's name is doubly apt -- diesel = gas and vin = (grape) juice. That was my "Aha" moment!
I also liked the cluing for E. COLI although, unlike Deb, I wasn't thinking of muscle pulls but unpleasing musical notes. Clever misdirection indeed.
4
@Henry Su
VIN is also Vehicle Identification Number.
3
@Steve L, nice observation!
@Henry Su Thank you! VIN DIESEL was indeed the "seed" for this theme concept.
3
Held up a bit by the SW because America, Asia, etc. stumped me for a bit and had no clue about NAOMI Osaka, but then I remembered the recent Vanilla Fudge clue and the light bulb went on. Had ATM to start, but then put PIXEL instead of EMOJI, so a little roadblock there, too. Thought the theme was good, and picked up on it right at the start—just had to figure out the connections. Ran through it in about half my Wed. average.
1
@JayTee I am still puzzled by BANDS. Luckily it filled in. Would you-- or someone-- please explain it to me!!! Thank you!
@JC America was a rock/pop music band from the 1970's; Asia and Europe were rock bands in the 80's. Africa, while not a band, is a song originally by the 70's/80's band Toto. So you may have to be of a certain age to get this right off (as I am).
@rsfinn
People who are too young to know “Africa” by Toto May know the remake by Weezer.
I read “Balance shower” like the kind of shower you take with soap and shampoo, which made for confusion. Ultimately ATM was the last thing I filled in after running the vowels on B-NDS.
1
@GreenGirl NYC Thank you! Even after checking the puzzle, I didn’t understand the ATM answer. Never considered “show-er”.
2
@GreenGirl NYC
I, too, was confused about that for a while. Never actually figured out ATM -- got the last M from the cross.
Red Ripe??
@Joe Isaac
When tomatoes turn from green to red, they're ripe, same for some peppers and other fruits.
3
@Joe Isaac When my spouse was growing up in Arlington, Virginia there were men who sold fish and vegetables from pushcarts through the neighborhoods, and one thing I remember him talking about was the man's call, "Ripe ... Strawberries ... Red-Ripe".
Nice to see NAOMI Osaka get a shout out. Her win over Serena at the US Open this year was a great example of a teen introvert ADULTING.
Here’s a link to Langston Hughes reading “I, Too”: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCWngPt-L4
15
When I was maybe 7 or so, I was certain that being a grown-up man involved having loose change and keys in your pocket, and jingling them. If I'd been quizzed on the point, I'm sure that's how I'd have defined "adulting." Jingling.
16
So much ADULTING. Don’t we get to free the inner child on Christmas?
Definitely a fun puzzle, and a fast solve. My best Wednesday yet, just a bit under half my average.
2
second time for "adulting" in less than a week.
1
@Jamie i do kind of sort of apologize for that. Not the coincidental repeat of the term (which of course is a bit of chance), but that the term was more widely used when I created this puzzle; it was a bit of a running joke in our household at the time I dropped it in there. Now, not as much. One never knows how a word will or won't be used as time goes on.
17
@Howard Barkin
I hope that I am inferring correctly from your comment that the word is dying a well-earned death.
UGH and EGAD, what a terrible puzzle. Ok, I LIED, I actually really liked this one a lot.
Noticed that names of the actors were regular words as well. When I saw Sigourney Weaver, I thought SPIDERMAN, but then I thought I'd better hold off because obviously, gender disagreement.
I really liked BEETLEJUICE - that one made me smile. Also liked FANTASTIC VOYAGE. Very clever teme.
I too, had TORERO before EL TORO like Liz B. ADULTING again. I could swear that Will likes to put puzzles with similar words near each other.
A lot of proper nouns in this one. Wonder how much complaint we're going to get.
3
@Wen Thanks, Wen! I did like the gender-neutrality of the SPIDERMAN clue, since gender really does not affect the logic of the theme. Plus, it is scientifically proven that Sigourney Weaver is awesome.
There are more proper nouns than I usually include in a puzzle due to the theme. I try to keep that as fair as possible.
15
A pleasant solve; not too taxing after a day of family and food. My only misstep was TORERO instead of EL TORO, and I'm pretty sure that's one I've fallen for in the past. I really liked BEETLEJUICE. My first car was a 1968 Beetle that did not like winter at all. Other than that, it ran quite well.
5
I have the same affliction as your former vehicle.
6
Monday-like. OHYOU and ADULTING in close proximity.
@Brian
I TOO, eye the two ADULTING sightings with suspicion.
But OH YOU? Where is that? Or IS IT I? UFO (Un-Found OHYOU)?
2
Monday 12/24/18.
Hmm. I’m seeing things that are not there. Thought there was an OHBOY in the Wednesday puzzle. Is this what they call confirmation bias ? Or just plain forgetfulness ?