Monthly Archives: July 2020

NYT Spelling Bee 7-29-20

Don’t worry, I’m not going to skip out on the regular puzzles. But here’s an early one from my phone. I think I’ll start doing these, too, but who knows!

After being proud of a few long words such as OFFAL, AIOLI, WILLOW, WALLOW, FALLOW, FOLLOW, I finally quit after I got AIRFLOW to push me over to the penultimate dot. Also it used all the letters, so I didn’t mind that.

I got 28 words out of the thing and a score of 89 out of 109.

I did yesterday’s also, so I’ll post that later, but that’s what I’ve got for you for an earlier morning post.

LA Times Crossword 7-27-20 (7-28-20) Complete

I decided to try yesterday’s LA Times crossword puzzle. I tried for time because I didn’t for the two earlier today. Certainly it uses a different logic and has no NY-specific clues.

There isn’t a lot of overlap with the NYT and WSJ puzzles, but there is one that I should unashamedly mention each time one of these comes up: 61A Online craft shop.

Of course it’s ETSY!

That’s where my #raabidfun products are, too! If you haven’t yet, check it out at shop.raabidfun.com.

I think I can get used to the LA Times puzzle if I feel the need to do another one. No matter what, though, there’s great advice from this setup: Remember to share puzzle with your friends! And I have.

NYT Crossword 7-28-20 Complete

Ask and ye shall receive, right? Yesterday I said that I was surprised there wasn’t a lot of baseball stuff yet, and here we go!

BASEBALL SEASON 2020:
38A So-called “twin killings” in baseball, for short: DPS (double plays)
41A One who brushes off a plate, informally: UMP (umpire)
44D Some building beams: IBARS (a stretch, but former Angels infielder Erick https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erick_Aybar and current Red Sox Minor Leaguer but included in the Major League 40-man roster Yoan http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?player_id=646243)
55D Meh Feeling: BLAH (attitude toward this baseball season and 2020 overall)

Of course Will Shortz decided to be racy with 63A Object of dirty looks? SMUT. Classic.

BTW so much sniping right now during the Bill Barr hearing. Aren’t these people adults? Whose decision was it to hire this group?

I wish I could reclaim my time.

WSJ Crossword 7-28-20 Complete

I’m doing the crosswords while listening to Bill Barr’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, so I’m not counting times today. The audio keeps getting lower and lower in the transmission, and I don’t know what’s going on. It could be the Washington Post feed on YouTube, but I don’t want to go elsewhere because they’re really good at showing the raw footage without any overlays.

I got the theme of this puzzle kinda late. The clue: 59A Feature of Manhattan, and of this puzzle’s answers that contain circles. The answer: CENTRALPARK. Another NY-specific clue. I think of Central Park so little that it’s always a surprise to me when people on TV walk in front of skyscraper after skyscraper and then happen upon a endless greenery.

Now, the theme is related to the following clues:
16A Pelt by a fireplace: BEAR(SKI)NRUG [SKI PARK]
24A Public projects of questionable merit: BOON(DOG)GLES [DOG PARK]
35A Award show rollout: RED(CAR)PET [CAR PARK]
51A Bought some time, in a way: FEED(THEME)TER [THEME PARK]

THEY REALLY HAVE TO FIX THIS AUDIO SITUATION. Come on, Congress. Get it together.

WSJ Crossword 7-27-20 Complete

There’s too much TMI. Seriously. Today’s crosswords had TMI answers. It was 51D Texter’s “I didn’t need to know that” in the NYT and 7D “You’re oversharing!” in the WSJ puzzle. I don’t know what that says about the New York Times that they need to clarify texting is involved while the Wall Street Journal felt it unnecessary.

Either way, they need to get some original ideas. No overlap between papers in the same city. Where are my OREOs and AARPs and NEONs?

This puzzle took me 8:38. A little up from last week, but it’s still below the 9+ I’d done for WSJ before.

Pardon me for failing to talk about this in the NYT one, but they put PORN as an answer. Leave it to Will Shortz to step it up from what was in the prior week. And shame on the Wall Street Journal for trying to one-up him with SEXAPPEAL as an answer in today’s puzzle. Don’t encourage Will Shortz. You’re better than that.

NYT Crossword 7-27-20 Complete

Pretty easy Monday puzzle. Took me a little over seven minutes. I’m happy that it’s the part of the week that lets me fill the boxes quickly.

I learned of the existence of someone today: 52D Actress Anne of “Wag the Dog.” (HECHE). I looked her up and saw that she was in a relationship with Ellen from 1997-2000. I also haven’t seen Wag the Dog, so I can be excused for not knowing about her.

Baseball season has started, and I hope that there will be a lot of baseball clues in upcoming puzzles.

And on the topic of baseball: It used to be where there were player-managers on Major League Baseball teams. That is to say that there used to be players who were on the team who had to decide about themselves if they should play or sit. They also had to be teammates and their teammates’ boss.

There are no more of those in Major League Baseball, but I do not think it is prohibited. The manager wears a uniform just like a player wears a uniform. (Side note: I was happy that Dave Roberts got to wear 30 again for the Dodgers when he became the manager. I miss the days when I could see him wearing that number in center field.) The coaching staff wears the team’s uniform. Nobody but the players are members of the union, right? Can coaches be part of the MLBPA? If there is another player-manager, would it be a violation for management to be part of the union for players?

NYT Crossword Special May 2020 Intl Day of Pink Complete

What is the International Day of Pink?

I didn’t know what it was before doing this crossword.

International Day of Pink has one purpose, to create a more inclusive and diverse world. We do this by encouraging young people to challenge social norms, ask more of their educators, and stand up against bullying towards their 2SLGBTQIA+ peers. Over the years we have worked with countless educators, politicians and organizations around Canada to spread this message and create young activists for this mission. We hope to continue this work and reach more communities with every passing year. We can only do this with your support and involvement.
https://www.dayofpink.org/en/home

Well, cool. I’m against bullying. Good on NYT for raising awareness!

This puzzle was the second puzzle I did today that has Molly Ivins as an answer. I didn’t know her name until today, either. The puzzle took me longer than I’d wanted it to, but I struggled with other answers, too, until finally I got them all. Total time was 17:27.

Back to Monday tomorrow.

NYT Crossword 7-26-20 Complete

Another Sunday in a row, but it took me a long time. Sunday puzzles aren’t necessarily the hardest, but they’re just so lengthy. I think my favorite clue of this puzzle was 106A Where spaghetti and orzo rank in terms of their suitability for making necklaces? BELOWMACARONI. It’s true! You can’t really make those into necklaces.

Speaking of pasta:
On an early date with my now-fiancee, we made pasta from scratch together. It really isn’t that hard. Ingredients are just flour, egg, and salt. Some people say only to work the dough with hands while other people say that it’s totally fine to use a Cuisinart. Since this was an early date, Cuisinart it was! I can tell no difference in the quality, so I recommend that method. I have a pasta roller and some cutter attachments for my KitchenAid, so we were set once the dough had rested in a fridge for a little while.

I recommend that everyone who can eat pasta at least tries to make pasta from scratch once. During the COVID era, you’ve got the time, and it is even cheaper than getting dried pasta from the store.

NYT Crossword Special June 2020 Great Outdoors Month Complete

This puzzle had too many of the same clues/answers from July’s special puzzle. I say that because I did them in this order. In reality, July’s is the one I should have a problem with.

This puzzle made me kinda sad because I miss being able to go to places. COVID is really bringing me down. I had gone on some bike rides with my fiancee, but the tires were falling apart, so I ordered new ones. That was back in early July. The tires were supposed to arrive at the latest yesterday, but the postal service tracking still shows that it is at the pre-shipment stage. The seller assured me that the tires had been sent out, so I don’t know why it’s not in the system when the label says it’s priority mail. Not pointing any fingers except to the bike that is not safe to ride without new tires.

NYT Crossword Special May 2020 Free Comic Book Day Complete

Since I do the Saturday NYT puzzle with friends, today’s puzzles are special ones. May’s puzzle wasn’t as fun as the July puzzle I posted yesterday.

I don’t really have much to say about this one. The special June one later today should be a substantially better post than this one is.