xnerdies

Over it

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ALAS, that’s the feeling of today’s puzzle. Thursdays are a love/hate day. I expect fuckery in the puzzle, but since it’s the last day of the work week I know I have to get it done early or else I risk being too incapacitated later. I love it when I get the gimmick and admire the cleverness. I hate it when I get the gimmick and it’s half-assed. Like today’s. I mean, either do a rebus, or don’t. Use the circles to make a point, or don’t. Make a pun clue, or don’t. Not this wishy washy crap… two of the themers could have had really good clues. The other two definitely needed some work. And there’s a lot to blame here with the weird cluing. An urn at brunch? Morbid. Unix is old? Not as old as Multics 🙂 And I can imagine a lot that’s lurid!

And then this “shtick” bullshit.

25:20 … It was like bad sex… you know, when you’re just waiting for it be over.

UDDERly Easy!

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My OTTER title for this entry is “Does Carol Have The BIRDFLU?”

I’m writing this today because Carol has been feeling a bit under the weather the past few days and has forgotten to keep our brand new blog updated! We hope to be reading her little MORELS of crossword wisdom soon.

Today’s puzzle barely gave me any pause at all. It did have a few interesting facts in it, such as Sean Lennon’s middle name and the opening line of THE RAVEN. I love it when destinations I’ve been to, like PRAGUE, are in the puzzle as well as places I need to visit, like RWANDA and PERU. One day I’ll plan trip based on a crossword’s geographical references.

The theme came to me as soon as I made out GOALPOSTS in the southeast. I immediately figured out the rest of the themers and had to go back to suss out MOVING GOALPOSTS. I’ve always heard it as “moving the goalposts”, though I like “Moving Goalposts” as it sounds like it could be the name of the next Faith Hill album.

The only slight hang up I had was initially writing JIM as Tim. Can someone also explain to me how “Step on it!” clues SOLE?

To me, “sole” (rhymes with “guacaMOLE”) means something like “dude” in Samoan (and apparently in other Polynesian languages, too). And speaking of Samoa, everyone should harass an anti-vaxxer today, as the death toll of the horrifying measles outbreak there has reached 52 this week.

Medical professionals have attributed this outbreak to a rise in fear of vaccines that has arisen thanks to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and an Instagram influencer of Samoan decent named Taylor Winterstein. They capitalized on the tragic deaths of two infants who died after being mistakenly given muscle relaxers instead of MMR vaccines. They have been knowingly spreading lies to Samoans in order to enrich themselves. You can read about it here, but the long and short of it is that Ms. Winterstein and Mr. Kennedy should do the world a favor by digging holes and getting into them.

A second Samoan word in the puzzle today is MOA, which means chicken. Chicken happens to be one-third of my dinner tonight, along with some sweet POTATO ravioli left over from Thanksgiving.

PS- I’ve identified at least two more Samoan words hidden in today’s puzzle! I’ll cook this for anyone who can figure out what they are!

Image result for taamu faalifu

Dealing with it

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Back in college, I had a mild fascination with Tarot cards. I even bought a deck, wrapped it in golden raw silk, and wrapped that in a purple silk scarf. And put them in a wooden box. I never really “read” them … but I liked to play with them. They felt nice.

Today’s puzzle took me back to those days, as many things lately do. I got the revealer after filling in almost all of the puzzle, and then went back and finished the themers. I liked The Tower of Babel and The Devil You Know, but only vaguely know The Sun Also Rises. And then I realized it isn’t a Tarot card dealer, but a Tarot card “reader”… Oops!

Other than the stumper at 1A (I lived in a dorm for only the first quarter of my freshman year and hated it), the rest of it was very easy. Finished in 8:35, 10 seconds slower than my fastest Tuesday. Mini time 0:40 because I don’t know… I just can’t type that fast with my thumbs?

Keepin’ it RIAL

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File:Keith Harring Crack is Wack Mural.jpg

What a hard puzzle for a Monday! My counter is still running (at 20:00) because I’ve given up finding my error. The NW was my last corner to fill. Does anyone still play bridge? Has anyone under the age of 65 ever abbreviated “numbers” as NOS? I do suspect, though, that I’m in the sweet spot of ages that was able to get NES on the first pass.  

Super Mario Bros. box.png


Just found my error. Turns out a pun can’t evoke LAUGS. News to me! 21:16. I’m on a crusade to normalize crossword times over 20 minutes (I’m looking at you, crossword Twitter!)


Good to see ELTON, OTIS, and ANI in the puzzle, and CRACK IS WACK made me smile. ATHENS might be the birthplace of democracy, but when will they start cluing WASHINGTONDC as its place of death? 


Mini time: :32. I GOOFed up on PLUTO. 

Image result for pluto cartoon wiki"


First blog post done! Time to address this SNACK ATTACK!

Sunday, 24 Nov 2019

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Pretty damn challenging 57:38

Had to look up lots of weird stuff on this one… Fortunately I did know Utah’s original name (ex-mormon for the win!). Annoyed that 83A was one of the last clues I got (so much for that Comp Lit major…) Still don’t know what a Chinese Nanny is and Google was of no help there. The only long answer I got from the blog was 102A, and that’s because I have no idea what these rare and valuable instruments are! Well, and I had FACEDUP for the 75D Reached Maturity. So that didn’t help.

Today’s Spelling Bee also was a bit of a let down – tough letters and the pangram was very unobvious. Is it bad that I guessed Cholo? So far, I have 23 words and 73 points.

Mini Time 0.38