I liked this one a lot! Especially Bougie and Latinx. Not obscure to me (and I'm not that young). Cute theme, cute grid. Bit on the easy side? Bring on Thursday!
1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3bksUSPB4c
Talking about my generation, there isn't much that's more theme-ish for my cohort than SUGAR PIE, HONEY BUNCH
And "Talkin' About My G-g-generation" reminds me of the trenchanting Doonesbury ouevre, which is Not produced by Erik Agard's dad. My apologies if I'm stealing thunder from an uber-entertaining Wednesday, but this article is too good to not pass on.
Talking about my generation: Food is Love.
https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/garry-trudeau-doonesbury-cartoonist-father-son/
2
I liked the look of the grid and the theme was cute. Thanks for flirting with me, Erik. š Also nice to see your iconic AFRO in there.
As a queer 24 year old, this is the freshest and most fun puzzle I've done in a long time. GAYMER isn't exactly a made up term, but it is a widely used identifier on dating apps and the symmetrical LATINX is another great nod. I can also attest the BOUGIE is an actual millennial term that I have used for years and its odd spelling is correct (although the song "Bad and Boujee" by Migos could confuse some). Answers like that and the fun and fresh themers makes this a great puzzle for young and new solvers that often feel a bit left out by some old school (sometimes even stale) clues that are far too common. Please do more of these going forward and keep the fun going!
15
@Michael
I ask tolerance for my thinking at first that BOUGIE was some near cousin to a parakeet. I feel my horizons have broadened, now that I've developed some BOUGIE Regard.
I've never been to the A.C.P.T., and I hadn't intended to go this year. But I am very sorry to hear that it's going to be canceled. I'm sad for the Wordplayers (and others) who were looking forward to it, and for the constructors and others who have worked so hard to make the event a success.
Please, all, be well. And keep enjoying the puzzles through Wordplay.
7
@Kevin Davis @Doug. Soooo close!!! Only eight words/38 points away from QB. Youāre hints are my lifesavers, but I think Iāve lost the plot today. Always tomorrow. š
I really enjoyed this puzzle. Only had to look up UTEP and INTROS. Could not figure those out.
I had to look up UTEP, but otherwise my first Wednesday solve without using any autocheck!
7
Today's grid art may be banned in the state of Georgia!
2
Hello all,
For those who signed up for the ACPT and are not on social media:
The 2020 ACPT has been cancelled, possibly to be rescheduled later in the year. All money will be refunded, and please do not forget to cancel any hotel reservations. More to come as I get the information.
A note from Will Shortz:
Dear Friends,
With the rapidly increasing concern over the coronavirus pandemic, and the governor of Connecticut now declaring a public health emergency in the state, I'm afraid the ACPT scheduled for March 20-22 must be canceled.
I am working with the Stamford Marriott Hotel to see if the event can be rescheduled for later this year. More on this shortly.
Meanwhile, all payments for the live tournament on March 20-22 will be refunded. This may take a few days, so please be patient.
--Will Shortz
6
Letter Boxed
C - T (8), T - Y (7)
Yesterday:
BICYCLE EQUATOR (BEER!)
@EskieF
Meant to post that yesterday I had AQUATIC CELEBRATORY and ROQUE ELECTABILITY.
Fun puzzle. I, too, was glad my knowledge of knitting terms got put to use, if only in a small way. Got stuck on TAPE because I read "sticky roll" and thought maybe it was a pastry...
PALMER, too, didn't quite settle with me correctly so I questioned it being right until I basically finished the puzzle.
Had to fill out a bunch of crossing clues to get my first "Hot food?" solve, but once I did I was off to the races.
This puzzle was an absolute joy, and as a fiber nerd I was so happy to see knitting invoked. Fortunately I twigged to the "hot food" theme early on and was able to fill in the one at 40A given only three crosses - super pleased with myself there. Thanks for a delightful Wednesday!
2
How appropriate that AFROS appears in one of Mr. Agard's puzzles. š
6
Great fun puzzle today...thanks Erik! Like others smooth solve until I reached the SW. I remembered PURL from the other day and UTEP is familiar from many other puzzles Iāve done so those two got things going. Guessed at ARENTI and POE and OAR were gimmes. And the rest fell in except for the cross of 45D and 60A. Started to run the alphabet and when I got to G decided to go with it. Never heard BOUGIE till today but then my lingo is far from modern.
Can anyone tell me how to view the live solve that occurs every Thursday at 1pm EST? Iāve looked in a bunch of places and so far no joy. TIA.
1
8a prompts this shaggy one:
A felonious midget fortune teller escaped from a prison where he had been serving a well-deserved sentence. The newspaper headlines reported it thusly: "Small Medium at Large".
14
@Dr W that reminds me of
an I Love Lucy episode, Ethel was dressed up for a seance, she was Medium Rhea. Fred said to her: Well Done Medium Rhea!!! The writers on that show were hilarious.
5
I looked up Ella Mae and UTEP, but otherwise got through today's puzzle pretty easily. I found it enjoyable.
I was doing fine and enjoying this one until I saw a colossal triple Natick forming in 45D, 46D and 47D... but I thank whomever for the U of Texas at El Paso ... since 47D began to make sense but I had never heard of 45D and 46D.
60A is a variant -- one also thinks of rigup and jigup and gigup.
There -- I've stuck my 53A in.
1
You know how sometimes, well maybe you don't but I do, stare at a word filled in by all the surrounding words and are unable to parse it. I must've stared at 47 down for a good minute to minute and a half before I finally got/saw "Aren't I". Just one of those mornings.
2
Any puzzle using the term stud muffin is OK in my book.
7
That I use an EREADER, sing ALTO, mixed ALOE with alcohol recently, it was great to discover them through crosses. I got EYECANDY and use that term for anything that tempts.
What a delicious puzzle. Thanks, Erik Agard!
2
Oof that southwest corner had me stumped. Never heard of UTEP, GINUP or PURL. Had to peek at the answer key to get those. Otherwise thought it was a smooth solve, solved it faster than my average so Iāll take it.
1
@Reb
Big problems for me in the SW too. I s-l-o-w-l-y got those three answers that tripped you up but didn't know BOUGIE and LATINX and wasn't seeing BLAH which was the crossing word I needed to solve them. Too bad we weren't solving this corner together. It's been awhile since I needed help on a Wednesday.
1
Have there always been ads in the wordplay column and Iāve just tuned them out or are they something new. I have recently started noticing them
Blech. Too much lingo, too little fun. Trading the esoterica of an education for the esoterica of pop culture seems like a downgrade of standards.
7
@Foster Maybe you're smarting because your education in pop culture could use an upgrade ;)
I was interested to see how Mr. Agard, whom I associate with Thursday-Sunday puzzles, would handle a Wednesday.
I thought this puzzle was a delight. I liked CUTIEPIE balancing BEEFCAKE, with EYECANDY and STUDMUFFIN in between.
Somehow EREADER also balances with RANLAPS, and LATINX balances GAYMER.
For me, the difficulty was about as expected for a Wednesday, but the sparkle and wit were extravagant.
9
@Puzzledog
I'm with you, P'Dog.
2
Like Rich my 3 day streak is intact because all my guesses in the SW were correct.
I usually prefer a theme you have to figure out, but these lively ā hot foodā answers were a lot of fun.
2
If you thought last Wednesday's puzzle was a disaster, this takes it a step lower. The SW corner is as bad as it gets - two ___ UP in one puzzle? Very poor editing - shame on Will Shortz for this, (or was it some intern taking over?) Then BOUGIE and LATINX two seriously esoteric answers more apt for a Saturday than a Wednesday. The cuteness of the theme fails in light of the convoluted gymnastics needed to fill this grid. Fail.
9
Kenny,
I can't disagree with the logic of your first sentence, but I liked last Wednesday's puzzle, and I liked this one too. I'm sorry you failed it; I passed with flying colors.
3
@Barry Ancona
I completed the puzzle with no mistakes in 7:44. Longer than average for a Wednesday. The puzzle was a fail - I however did fine, even though it was poorly constructed/edited.
1
Kenny,
I made no assumption about whether you solved the puzzle; you bit on Wednesday misdirection. Sorry you failed to enjoy it; any failure beyond your own is an opinion to which you are, of course, entitled, not a fact.
1
A good story
https://nyti.ms/336uTJm
3
@Frances
great read. so bittersweet. thanks for sharing the link
@Frances
Thank you, that was lovely. Especially since I just finished a 1000-pc puzzle. I had to comment.
Interesting how many affectionate terms are food-related! As for me, I adore food (eating it, cooking it, reading about it, growing it, thinking about it, smelling it, tasting it)....Sweetie PIE, Baby CAKEs, Honey bun....
Fun puzzle. And now on to my favorite part of the week!
9
Just for Leapy (and inspired by 37a).
Someone questioning a friend's choice of Big Ten Schools:
"You could have been a Spartan! You could have been a Buckeye or a Badger! Why a Terp?"
5
@RiA
So many existential questions, so little time!
AS EVER, appreciate the thought.
[smiley]
Today's accompanying photo has a tenuous connection with the puzzle--someone who sells food, but none if it is EYE CANDY, CUTIE PIE, BEEFCAKE or STUD MUFFIN.
But what struck me is the caption, "A food vendor plies his wares on the streets of Manhattan," as if this scene might have been a few days ago. Note the "Hot fesh pretzel" (sic) sign and the price: 35 cents. When you also add in the age of the cars, I'd guess this picture is from the 80s.
@Steve L
I went one step further and looked up Barbara Alper online. Her Linkedin page states that she was a freelance photographer for the NYT from 1995-2005. I agree though that this looks more like the 80s to me. I was unsuccessful in determining the taxi rates from the door of the yellow cab.
Andrew,
The photo may have been taken before she worked for The Times; she was shooting lomng before 1995.
https://www.barbaraalper.com/About-Contact/1
@Barry Ancona
Yes, I had the same thought.
In about 10 minutes I had all but the SW corner. I might be on a new Wednesday PB here! Sadly, that #$%^& corner added 18 minutes to my time.
10
I came here to make the same comment! Everywhere else, I was filling in things at a good clip. Then I finally arrived in the southwest. The cluing and the answers in that corner gave me a double-whammy. Not particularly fond of the construction there, I have to say.
3
In the spirit of enjoying the cultural references in the NYTXW, I've started a to build a playlist on Spotify of songs referenced in the daily puzzle. The Playlist is https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vxpMh06oxbZz1YCwGfiic?si=ZV1yMHw6SRawTMJGujeasw
Today's additions: Ariana Grande's "7 rings", Ella Mai's "Boo'd Up" and "The First Noel" by Keely Smith, one of my wife's favorite vocalists.
I've also set up a spreadsheet that anyone can comment to add a new song, following the template I've set up. I think it'd be fun to see what kind of list each year puts together... but given the number of songs, I'm going to keep it quarterly.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13Ld8gVTHnIOMN0ePvgmPue7lyYi054TSPnkgd2e275A/edit?usp=sharing
6
@Sam T
what a fun idea! you get community builder of the month award. i'm sure you could do the same (different tab?) with movies and books.
in any case, i'm sure these lists are words filled with vowels...
3
The tabs are set up for entry but I only have real motivation for the songs
Great puzzle! Good sparkle (14 red plus signs in the margins), intelligent cluing, minimal Terrible Threes (ten), a bit of crunch (SW corner).
I seem to remember LATINX from a puzzle a few months ago.
4
Well, that was a fun puzzle!
To everyone who read my post yesterday: I'm feeling even better today. The fever's almost gone, my appetite seems to be returning (just in time for this puzzle's theme), things are slowly moving in the right direction. I may never know what it was ā like I posted yesterday, my doctor called in the evening with the test results and it was neither influenza nor the corona virus. I have no idea what can cause such high fevers for ten days in a row. But I'm happy to live with that mystery.
Thank you for all yesterday's comments, they really helped.
27
@Robrecht
Good news. Makes me happy.
1
@Robrecht
So glad you are feeling better. Now go wash your hands, throw out your toothbrush and start a new one, and treat yourself to some dark chocolate. Oh, treat us ALL to some dark chocolate! Why, thank you, how kind!
2
So glad you are getting better!
1
Freud would have a field day with this -- not with Erik, especially, but with us. As in: Why do we so often use food terms to describe sexy people? I won't try to answer that. And Freud is dead.
The first two themers I came across -- CUTIE PIE and EYE CANDY -- made me fume. How much of a male sexist can you be? But then STUD MUFFIN and BEEFCAKE came along and I thought: Equal Opportunity Sexism. Bad, but not as bad.
Erik must have been feeling a bit ashamed of his political incorrectness because he then woke up and became very "woke", indeed. LATINX and GAYMER followed. As in: "I'm not some horny, retrograde male chauvinist; I'm a sensitive and caring member of a much more sensitive and caring generation."
This is one confused crossword puzzle. Can't wait to see what y'all have to say about it.
9
I was bracing myself for some scathing commentary from Deb, but I suppose the āequal opportunityā part helped. For my personal experience, Iād like to imagine these terms are said between two adults in a loving relationship. Or at least two adults equally interested in gettinā some ;)
Iād never heard GAYMER, but I have heard several people say they donāt appreciate being referred to as LATINX. Iād like to learn more about that before I use the term.
1
@Nancy I don't see any way that the pet names from the theme are inherently problematic. In fact, "cutie pie" is one that I heard both of my parents call the other while I grew up, and it warmed my heart to see it pop up in this grid :)
Perhaps it's just so easy to think of scenarios where these terms' usage would be inappropriate that it set off some alarm bells when you encountered them? Wielded correctly, all of today's themers are compliments that could makes someone's day! Let's not let the transgressions of the ill-willed or tactless throttle our vocabulary.
1
@Nancy
I've heard women refer to men as "eye candy" as well as vice versa; and the most common use of "cutie pie" I've heard lately is adults talking to adorable children.
1
I thought the grid just looked like a big old Y.
Y not a PORGY?
https://www.whatsthatfish.com/fish/sheepshead-porgy/1664
or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apiq3VN2Ra8
TIL BOUGIE, which I initially thought was pronounced like "boogie" and sounded weird, but discovered it's actually boo zhee, which for some reason is fun to say! Upon looking it up, I also discovered that the way it's clued today is a secondary definition. The primary definition is "a thin, flexible surgical instrument for exploring or dilating a passage of the body". I have no idea why Erik didn't clue it as such... š
3
@Steve Faiella
That last sentence made me laugh out loud.
2
@Steve Faiella @Steve Faiella Because it isn't a Saturday!
I understand that some people had trouble with the clue as-is with its common though slangy shortening of 'bourgeois', but it would be much harder for many more people with an obscure medical term.
1
@Steve Faiella
If you search various online dictionaries, you won't find that the medical definition is the primary one in several of them. Some dictionaries list meanings of words in chronological order, so that the medical definition would come first, no matter how secondary it is.
I'm sure most people have no idea what a medical BOUGIE is, but most people under 40 know the middle-class meaning. I knew it, and I'm way past 40.
1
Stared at the SW corner for a while, before remembering that UTEP's (University of Texas El Paso) sports teams are the Miners.
I am frequently amused by college teams' mascots and the history behind them. I went to grad school at the University of Delaware, whose athletes are known as the Fighting Blue Hens, referring to cockfighting animals carried as mascots by Delawarean troops in the Revolutionary War. But shouldn't they therefore be called the Blue Cocks? Then there are the Fighting Quakers of U Penn. But I thought Quakers were pacifists?
One last thing: I once saw Gov. Chris Christie and V.P. Joe Biden (both UD grads) deep in conversation in the 50-yard line VIP box allocated to the head coach. Christie was a season ticket holder, Biden was always a free-loading guest.
5
@Grant
TIL (unless you are making this up) that the UPenn sports teams are called the Fighting Quakers.
I seriously hope you made it up. I am appalled.
1
In France if you say "bougie" the word means candle.
3
@polymath
ahhh ... now I see the light .... mille remerciements.
3
@Deb's father clearly did not have her watching Tombstone once a week during her teen years, or she would know that Wyatt EARP was primarily a businessman and lawman (though he admittedly had some brushes with the law, so I can't be too mad, just offended on Kurt Russell's behalf).
I really liked this puzzle, especially since I have an early meeting today and didn't have time to muddle through a complicated theme. Love the inclusion of GAYMER and LATINX; it's nice to see representation via theme weeks like last week, but it's nicer when it's just there, naturally.
5
This rates a āsolveā, (no capital āSā) - but not for the reasons that most folks are grousing about.
The SW corner was a criminal act in crossword construction - IMHO - and I never EVER heard or saw BOUGIE anywhere. AND 47D could readily have been AM I NOT.
But I stumbled through all of that without assistance.
MY problem was entering ELECTRa at 7D (because Iāve never watched a Spiderman movie) and could NOT āseeā the error that caused with NaEL. Once I pressed CHECK PUZZLE, the error was obvious - - - DāOH!!
5
@PeterW
I just have spent 5 minutes in that same corner. I was even second guessing OAR despite it being the only answer that really fit. I had PURL and POE though, and finally took a swag at BLAH and voila! Gold Star. Whew!
This has been a challenging week for me so far! Went over average yesterday AND today. I hardly ever take longer than average, since I was significantly slower when my stats started. Time for a reset, maybe!
If M-W was this tough, I can't wait for Th-S!
4
We used the term Bougie all the time when I was growing up in the 70/80s. Not new.
4
@Sophia Leahy
And the 40s/50s.
I don't understand the complaints about BOUGIE; I think it has a discreet charm.
19
@Barry Ancona Familiar with the term, but never seen it spelled. Thought maybe BOUZHEY?
(Baffled that the emu filter has trapped an innocuous quote from SNL...)
2
@Barry Ancona -- Hah! Good one!
2
Great puzzle.
Skewed young for sure, which meshed well with some of the off-kilter clues and the off-kilter grid.
10/10 for a Wednesday.
3
LATINX is clued as a new dictionary addition in 2018, but it looks like BOUGIE was too! https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/new-words-in-the-dictionary-september-2018
4
I never thought Iād be defeated by a Wednesday, but here I am. After sailing through this clever, if cheeky puzzle, I came to a complete standstill in the SW. I have not read the column nor the comments and I am now hoping for some divine intervention to keep my streak alive. Thank you, Erik!
3
@Andrew
Well, it didn't take divine intervention - just perseverance. Just like getting through life, I suppose.
I had never heard of BOUGIE, LATINX, or GIN UP. At some point I considered LATINE and LATINI, but the X never entered the contest. I had tried out BLAH, OAR, UTEP (I realized that Erik threw us a bone there, because the initials of the paper spell out PASO), PURL, POE and INTRO. Even with all these in place, I could not for the life of me get the remaining squares. Eventually EXILE showed me the way home.
Continuing the food theme then, if Poe wrote The Raven, does that make him a CRONUT?
4
Bougie. Heard it once before. Forgot it immediately. Never again.
I guess Iāll never yell, āSouffle les BOUGIEs!ā again without feeling like Iāmļæ¼ promoting violence.
But Iām GAYME to evolve. (Is that a thingļæ¼?)
3
Too cute for my conservative puzzle tastes, but never mind. What's really got me unhinged is the overabundance of Auto-tune in Ms. Mai's vocal performance.
6
I see that I had the same experience as a few others - down to the same corner and even the same two letters.
For me, most of this was a Monday puzzle. I did what I almost never do - which is fill it in section by section from the top down. Potentially tough answers either came easily from the crosses or were simplified by the clues. Gunslinger Wynonna? No idea. Descendant of Wyatt? Uhh, yeah, ok.
Then the SW corner. OAR, PURL and POE. Ok, except not 100% sure about PURL; maybe there's another term. But - ummm... UTEP. What other school ends in P? BLAH? Probably, but maybe there's another term. Then took me a bit to work out the ARENTI (kind of awkward)/INTRO crossing. EXILE. Ahh, ok. So now I'm left looking at two letters and not 100% sure about everything else. Run the alphabet, trying to find something that makes sense for 45 and 46 down, and 60a at the same time and still wondering about some of the other letters.
Not getting anywhere. Finally just shake my head and type in GI and very surprised to get the success message.
Odd solving experience. Three day streak alive. That probably won't last long.
5
@Rich in Atlanta
your three-day streak can't last longer than a day.
i met the same lucky fate in SW.
3
@Rich in Atlanta
I was questioning UTEP until I realized that Erik had thrown us a bone, realizing the initials of the newspaper spelled out P-A-S-O.
2
@Rich in Atlanta
Same experience with EARP. I've heard of Wyatt. Who is this Wynonna person? Well, I don't exactly follow Wild West history.
Other than that, my guesses were sorta like yours, although I may have been a bit more certain. Anyway, they worked.
And I don't do streaks.
According to Google I wasnāt alone in needing help with 45&46 down. Meh.
1
No Hot tamales, minced Tom morosely.
Fast and furious Wednesday.
Excited to be facing 7 days at 80 degrees or so. Particularly because our Virus in Chief claims warm weather bodes well for Corona, although I have developed a fondness for Dixie.
Thanks Erik.... and do you not sport a āfroā
1
@dk
huskily
4
@dk
Oh, please, keep your 80 degrees (or so).
We in the north have been cheated out of yet another winter, and now we're getting hot weather at least two weeks early.
They are telling us to stay inside to avoid the virus. At this point I'm staying inside (as much as I can) to avoid the heat.
Wonderful Wednesday puzzle! A smooth solve for me, although as was the case for many others, the SW was the last to fall ( āSETUPā instead of āGINUPā led me down the wrong path for a bit). 7D was a gimme for me and brought back happy memories of my comic book days, and I loved 34D (āwhat MoMA knows bestā). I was very familiar with the saying at 14D, but not with The Odd Couple clip, which was fantastic - thanks, Deb! And thanks to Mr. Asgard for another great puzzle!
3
Waiting room puzzling this morning. Hubby in surgery... good Erik Agard puzzle to keep my mind occupied. My own personal STUD MUFFIN will be absolutely fine soon.
Several new terms, TIL BOUGIE, LATINX, and GAYMER (really?).
Think Iāll head off to the archive and do some more puzzles.
:-)
13
@Just Carol
Wishing you a good outcome & quick healing.
8
@Just Carol -- Sending healing thoughts to you and he.
8
@Just Carol
Hang in there! Wishing you both a good recovery. Hurray for the inexhaustible puzzle archive in such moments.
1
This puzzle felt like an Agard creation all the way: Tight bright theme, cleverness in the clues, contemporary answers, junk-free grid, and that indefinable crisp feel of his personality shining through. Having a constructor's personality mark a puzzle isn't necessarily a good thing, but in Erik's case it absolutely is.
I liked seeing that HEAT turned up at the top to underscore the theme.
Clever clues for ART, TEENS, and DENTIST added spark to the heat, and all in all, a most pleasing outing from a brilliant puzzle forger. Thank you once again, sir!
15
A short video from Steve Mould on the subject of color mixing - red light plus blue light gives magenta:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPPYGJjKVco
With pigments, magenta can't be produced by mixing other colors - you have to buy a tube of it if you want it in your paintings.
6
"Have you been to the dentist before?"
"Yeah, I know the drill."
(I love puns, tooth be told.)
23
@Mike - Whatās wrong with chew?
18
@Mike
I told the optometrist that I'd be dilated to have him put drops in my eye. When he laughed at that, I told him I had cornea jokes than that.
34
@Mike
Sound track for this comment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3BBj06JAfc
3
SPELLING BEE GRID
R A C I N P T
WORDS: 61, POINTS: 325, PANGRAMS: 3, BINGO
First character frequency:
A x 11
C x 12
I x 1
N x 2
P x 10
R x 11
T x 14
Word length frequency:
4L: 16
5L: 16
6L: 12
7L: 9
8L: 3
9L: 2
10L: 2
11L: 1
Grid:
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 TOT
A: 1 3 3 2 - 1 1 - 11
C: 3 5 3 - 1 - - - 12
I: - - - - 1 - - - 1
N: 1 - 1 - - - - - 2
P: 3 1 - 3 - 1 1 1 10
R: 4 2 2 2 1 - - - 11
T: 4 5 3 2 - - - - 14
TOT:16 16 12 9 3 2 2 1 61
Two letter list:
AN-1 AP-2 AR-4 AT-4
CA-6 CI-3 CR-3
IR-1
NA-1 NI-1
PA-5 PI-1 PR-4
RA-9 RI-2
TA-8 TI-1 TR-5
56
@Doug , @Kevin
No shame in help and today I needed oodles. Thanks to you both!
10
@Doug @Kevin
Jeez! That was a workout.
Last to fall: It wasn't at all holy because it made me say another 4-letter word.
Thanks, both of you.
1
@Doug Ugh. I'm starting to dislike these high word count bees. In fact, I don't even bother any more. It just feels like too much of a slog with little payback.
11
**S P E L L I N G B E E H I N T S**
61 words, 325 points, 3 pangrams.
It's the greatest hist of Bee-only obscure words & word forms!
15
Hints:
North & South poles
Soviet bureaucracy, usually with āchik
Tarot card groups
Complete, utter (archaic)
Heart chambers
Flower oil for perfume
What opposites do
Substance that does above action
Mound of stones as a memorial
Unit of weight for diamonds
Wrist bones plural
Waterfall or eye cloudiness
About, used for years
Wispy clouds, plural
Acid from lemons, limes, etc.
Skulls, plural
Something that annoys
Drug cop
Adj. of element 7
Person who takes part in something, pangram
Musical suite, from Italian
Aristocrat, noun or adj., pangram
Criminal at sea, adj.
Enhanced nurse, without the āER, pangram
A fool, or a silly fall
Phallus adj.
Indian yogurt dip
Hindu queen
Broccoli rabe
Completely fascinated
Machine gun sound
Wicker furniture material
Device for catching large rodents
Toxin from castor oil plant
Riverbank adj.
Latin trumpet fanfare
Hindu doctrine or sacred text
Yoga type related to above
Large hoofed plant-eating animal
Protective sheet
Scottish plaid
Fish sauce
Small crown
Stretch of land
43
@Kevin Davis Kevin, you are the wind beneath my wings....thank you!
16
@Kevin Davis @Doug. Thanks for being there when I stopped and Thx for the obscure word alert. Iāll review my 32 omissions tomorrow. Too much Bee for a weekday.
7
In response to the Spelling Bee target number of 227, I can say only this: Eep!
13
This one was a doozie
4
an agard puzzle i actually enjoyed. much better than yesterdayās (even accounting for mon v tue). well done.
A truly delightful Wednesday puzzle! Bon appetit!
3
This was a new Personal Best time for a Wednesday, by a wide margin: 13:13, down from 23:44. This puzzle definitely spoke my language.
One thing in particular, I noticed the symmetrical placement of LATINX GAYMER. :)
4
This was really enjoyable - - the theme answers felt like a Monday, but there was so much more to the puzzle. I really struggled to gain purchase on the SW. I had PANSEX instead of LATINX a then sat around scratching my head for a while. BOUGIE is a word I've used in conversation, but it just didn't come to me.
1
This week, thus far, has been an order of magnitude harder than last week, imo.
The sw corner was rough. I finally figured out BLAH which opened that section up. I use bougie all the time, but not necessarily like that. I use it more as a synonym for fancy (versus wanting to be fancy) so that clue really threw me.
Today took me literally three times as long as last wed.
Okay, at the risk of getting flambƩ d:
As for GAYMER, thatās just trying too hard. Iām gonna pwn you whether you are gay or straight. Iāll certainly agree that almost all games with gender roles are āheteronormativeā. But honestly, does it matter what you are (gender, race, age) if you are playing overwatch, fortnite, or mariokart? I canāt think of a more ādemocraticā arena than video games. If thatās what people need to feel like a community, I guess, so be it. Seems more divisive than inclusive.
4
I had to erase the southwest corner and start over again. I was way off!
@Newbie I don't know when you would use GAYMER. I would think, like you say, who cares in games? I can only see it as derogatory. Do gay gamers call themselves this, with pride? I kind of doubt it.
@Santi Bailor
āDo gay gamers call themselves this, with pride?ā
At least some do:
https://twitter.com/hashtag/gaymer?lang=en
Yes, very fun.
bouĀ·gie1
/ĖboĶoZHÄ/
Learn to pronounce
noun MEDICINE
a thin, flexible surgical instrument for exploring or dilating a passage of the body.
Now Iām no rocket scientist but it seems what we have here, is a failure to communicate.
Nice to discover the lovely Ella Mai's music through this!
This one was mostly so easy and fast and un-Wedensday-like in the beginning that I was starting to think it was some kind of joke. There were harder spots. In the SE--I never heard of ARIANA Grande or a GAYMER, but the crosses were pretty obvious (OK, IY of HIYA for "Chipper greeting" was a guess, whatever a chipper is). In the NW there was a new name, Ella MAI, and I could only hope that whatever a sandie cookie is, if the ingredient ended as AN maybe PECAN. And I was still set to finish one of my fastest ever Wednesdays.
But then I spent a good 15 minutes in the SW, finally down to the first two squares before NUP of 60A. I wasn't about to go through the alphabet, so I took a look at the column and found BOUGIE. There had to be an expression GINUP and when I tried it, it got me the happy message. I wonder if I will remember those new words BOUGIE and LATINX (Not sure how to say that. "latinks," with X instead of O or A?) if I ever need them again.
3
That corner took me longer than the rest of the puzzle by far, even though I'm familiar with those words. And my understanding is that it's pronounced Latin X.
@kilaueabart
"Chipper" in this case means cheerful, bright, sparkly, in good spirits, festive, etc.
and Elke
Finally stopped ;laughing, having watched Deb's ASSUME video. Hard to type with tears rolling...It's a gem and I doubt I'll be able to say that word ever again without cracking up.
TIL- HATES ON.
Hope nobody will HATES ON Erik A. choices of theme entries :
two are female gendered: CUTIE PIE and EYE CANDY and
two are male : STUD MUFFIN and BEEF CAKE.
Discuss, try not to be MEANER ,but- be ANGEL(s). ARKS are beside NOEL.
Best clue of the week: 14D : "make an ASS out of U and ME ".
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@Robert CUTIE PIE and EYE CANDY seem pretty gender neutral to me, especially the latter.
3
The BOUGIE are in a STEW as they see the
ticker TAPE (Hi Kids) in recent days
1
But, if you are printer, then red is a mixture of magenta and yellow.
3
Erik, you never let this BOUGIE lady down. Fun puzzle I was going to say was a breeze until I hit the SW corner. LATINX, POE and BOUGIE helped and I eventually remembered PURL but it took a while. Crunch!
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Pretty breezy Wednesday - there were some clues I didn't even read. The only slight struggle for me was the the U in the GINUP-PURL crossing, as I'm not familiar with either phrase.
Lots of colorful fill in this one. Great work!
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BOUGIE must be a familiariarization of ābourgeouis,ā a familiar condemnation from my socialist youth. ļæ¼ someone should do an update of the Leadbelly song.ļæ¼
https://youtu.be/Z2t-X-v7dAM
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@Alan Young
Love that you shared this. Billy Bragg made an updated version during the Iraq War: "The Bush War Blues"
https://youtu.be/RaJqz57_gHc
I'd love to see a remake addressing whatever it is that is happening in DC nowadays.
2
Of "bourgeois," anyway.
@Alan Young
So strange to see BOUGIE clued as "in modern lingo." I remember the term commonly used in the 1950s. It slowed down a bit in the '60s, and kinda disappeared after that. So now it's back! And it's "modern lingo"!
The more things change ...
1
The west side was tougher for me than the rest of it. I did manage to remember seeing LATINX the last time, so that was a bright spot. I don't keep up with all the latest music, so Ella MAI was an unknown, but from the video, she might be someone I'll choose to hear more from.
In another musical musing, here's a performance version of 31A clue and answer (sort of)āGeorgy Porgy by Toto:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2rQbeXGuKM
Simply put, solving a Erik Agard puzzle makes me feel twenty years younger.
14
Mr. Agard is simply pure genius. His fills are always fun, lively and mostly free of crosswordese. They feel effortlessly made. I always look forward to a puzzle when I see his name attached to it.
20
On the one hand, there were the neologisms and modern slang terms - BOUGIE, LATINX, GAYMER, HATES ON, EREADER, on the other, there were all of the old-fashioned themers - all of them (actually, is EYE CANDY old-fashioned?). Certainly needed to stretch my range a bit.
Had the most difficulty with SW. If it weren't for GIN UP, and EXILE, I'd still be (not) solving. Good thing the clues were dumbed down to Wednesday level.
2
UTEP will never be clued better than it was a few weeks ago, "Where Miners have majors." But this was good! All around, a very fun puzzle. 1D was a standout clue, IMO.
7
Very cute theme. Solved like a Wednesday š. Some fun clues. HATINGON FLU and that other virus just now.
2
So what are the four state capitals please - could only think of three.
@Dree
Jefferson City MO
Oklahoma City OK
Carson City NV
Salt Lake City UT
I was so distracted by this clue, I had to pause the puzzle and do my geography lesson.
15
Ah, thank you, Sue!
I was speeding along until I got demolished in the SW. I had to ask my 12-year old to define BOUGIE, and had to run through alphabet twice before I could fill in the Scrabble letter in E_ILE. Tough Wednesday for me.
5
"Gin up" was new to me. Always good to learn a new word or phrase each day.
5
Tom, it was new to me too. Excuse me while I go contrive a martini.
14
Is the grid 15x16 or 16x15? I thought the convention was to put the columns first.
Somewhat surprised 51d passed the clue emus. I just found it queer. (Let's see if the tighter emus here will let that one past.)
@Kiki Rijkstra I see what you did there. Not punny at all!
1
@Kiki Rijkstra āemusā?
@Jim
Emus = censors
You'll see it a lot here.
Speedy, fun Agardian Wednesday. Strong POV.
Selfishly glad it wasnāt the POW! because that means thereās HOT (food)STUFF yet ahead.
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Apropos of mostly nothing, except that Iāve been listening to Richard Bucknerās brilliant album āThe Hill,ā which sets several poems from Edgar Lee Mastersā āSpoon River Anthologyā to music. Hereās the least gloomy one of the bunch, āWilliam and Emilyā:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9pHvmY2gwA
William and Emily (Masters)
THERE is something about Death
Like love itself!
If with some one with whom you have known passion,
And the glow of youthful love,
You also, after years of life
Together, feel the sinking of the fire,
And thus fade away together,
Gradually, faintly, delicately,
As it were in each otherās arms,
Passing from the familiar roomā
That is a power of unison between souls
Like love itself!
4
Some of the answers will inspire a lot of talk on this blog. Perhaps 350 comments for this Wednesday ? Iām going over.
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@Brian
Iāll take the under (though by leaving this comment Iām undermining my own bet).
8
I didnāt even think about 38 down, but now that I do, it fits right in with the themers.
@Brian - I think it'll get to low 200s tops. There really isn't much controversial here. And 38D - PUMAS - I mean, they are not generally considered edible.
It's more like 43 is the revealer - because although the themes are all "hot foods", the are left UNEATEN because they are not edible.
On the other hand, do you need to go to the DENTIST if you had too much EYE CANDY? Or is that an ophthalmologist?
11
Only a touch better than average time. Fun layout.
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