Yesterday’s puzzle was excellent, if hard, — a gem by Brooke Husic, a terrific constructor, partnering with Adam Wagner, also terrific. It took me forever to figure out the theme. In five places there were clues that were a repeated word separated by a slash. E.g., “Tease/Tease.” It turns out our job was to find a two-part word or phrase each part of which answers the clue. The answer to Tease/Tease was RIB ROAST. To RIB someone and to ROAST someone can both mean “tease.”
“Toilet/Toilet” was POTHEAD. Get it? Both POT and HEAD can mean “toilet.” Hard, right? Even Rex called it “Medium-Challenging,” and was impressed.
To round it out, if you’d like a little mental exercise, the other three were: “Quit/Quit,” “Drat!/Drat,” and “Heard/Heard.” Answers below the next separator.
Dropkick, Crapshoot, Got Caught.
The puzzle wanted us to know that the actress Awkwafina’s real name is Nora LUM.
So, one fellow noted that LUM is also the name of Mike LUM, a former ballplayer who, he said, was the only player ever to pinch hit for Hank Aaron! Well, Aaron had a long career, so I thought that was pretty amazing. But I did a little digging, and get this — at the time, it was wrongly reported in the press that Aaron was never lifted for a pinch hitter before Lum (on May 22, 1969). But Lee Maye had pinch hit for Aaron in ’62, as had Johnny Blanchard in ’65. And Johnny Briggs, Marty Perez, and Mike Hegan did it after Lum. Crucial information available to you only on Owl Chatter! BTW, Lum hit a two-run double with his historic opportunity.
Lum was the first major leaguer of Japanese ancestry. He was born in Hawaii and his mom was Japanese. (As of 2017) he holds the record for most games played by someone from Hawaii (1517). On July 3, 1970, he hit three home runs in one game for the Braves against the Padres.
Clue/answers that set LMS off were “Lax LAX option” for TSA PRE. (LAX is the LA airport.) And “Potential response to ‘Look! I colored on the walls!,’” was YOU WHAT! Also “One might be turned down,” was BED.
Here’s her comment:
TSA PRE was new to me. I guess you apply for it so that you can breeze past the line of hapless people like me fretting over making the flight even though they’re there like three hours early? I leave tomorrow morning at 7am for the ACPT (American Crossword Puzzle Tournament), and I’m already at the gate just in case. Just kidding. But my sister will drop me off at the airport at 4:45am. No, really. I don’t travel much, so the hideous scenarios I imagine are exhausting. There will be a wreck on the interstate, and I won’t be able to get to the airport. They’ll have no record of my ticket. All flights to NY will be cancelled because of a rogue blizzard. They’ll lose my luggage. The car service I arranged to take me to Stamford was a scam, and I’ll have to walk, dragging my suitcase, because the idea of figuring out a train or bus is beyond my ken. The Marriott will have no record of my reservation even though I’ve called three times now confirming. Like all other times I fly somewhere, I’ve made myself sick with worry.
Loved the clue for YOU WHAT?!
(All by “Mom”)
“I decided to cut Sage some bangs.”
“I ate that last piece of ham I found in the back of the fridge drawer stuffed behind the Brussels sprouts.” (I had hidden it for a future sandwich.)
“I decided to start selling Amway.”
I also liked the clue for BED, “one might be turned down.” I did an Outward Bound winter camping and dogsledding week in the Boundary Waters (Minnesota, February) for my 40th birthday, and it was beyond cold. Like, colder than 30 below at night. When we got back to civilization, we invited one of our instructors to sleep in our heated cabin on a real bed. She actually declined and slept outside in her sleeping bag. Wait. She WHAT?
Many (including me) found 28D to be a WOE (what on Earth?). The answer was ERHU and the clue was “Two-stringed Chinese instrument.” Here’s what one fellow said: Well, it’s all a question of what’s in your wheelhouse. Big erhu fan here, so no worries. The koto is Japanese, by the way. A close Chinese relative (I.e., both are zithers) is the qin, a very useful instrument in Scrabble.
Of course! And commenter Amy tells us to check out the KORA, a West African instrument. Here’s a pretty Erhuist:
My favorite was “Tricep curls?” (a play on bicep curls). The answer was ARM HAIR. (Get it?)
Many were upset, claiming “tricep” is incorrect. The singular of triceps is also triceps.
The puzzle today was murder: much harder than yesterday’s. I had to return to it about five times until I could hack my way through it. So it was satisfying to finish. (I refuse to resort to Google if I’m stumped. I keep returning and if I can’t crack it, I give up, consider it a DNF (did not finish), and look at the answer key just to learn stuff.)
Today’s was themeless but had a nice pair of answers that were linked. There was TOY PIANO, and the Peanuts character SCHROEDER, who played it. They weren’t perfectly placed to have Schroeder sitting at it, but almost.
I was today years old when I learned that “demonym” is the term for what you call someone from somewhere. So Brooklynite is the demonym for Brooklyn. In the puzzle, the clue was “Harvard or Cambridge grad,” and the answer was CANTAB. It’s short for Cantabrigian, which is the demonym for Cambridge. (Apparently, Yalies call (or used to call) Harvard students Cantabs.) We’re all smarter now, right?
The INDY 500 was in the puzzle, prompting this comment from someone who is clearly not a NASCAR dad:
“Maybe, you can explain why people watch the ‘Indy.’ I sat through one in person and the only thing that kept me from thinking about how bored I was, was thinking about how hot I was. The cars go round and round. That’s about it. Are you waiting for a crash or mishap? Someone burning alive? Blood and gore? I was kinda into it the first five laps or so, but by number 500, I just wanted out desperately. Actually I wanted out at lap 6. What is the point? What is of interest?”
Owl Chatter visited the famous raceway when we were in town for a minor league baseball game many years ago. No race was going on. It was neat to see the place. As for that game, at the time, the Indianapolis team played in a gorgeous old stadium (Bush Stadium) that was later used for the film Eight Men Out about the Black Sox scandal.
In a different sport, Caitlin Clark puts it all on the line tonight against South Carolina. Let’s Go Iowa Women!
Thanks for stopping by!
The Wellington Files 