I pulled out 32D Question that cannot be answered if its answer is “no”: YOUAWAKE because I’ve come home from the Magic Castle and asked Calah that question when I have stories to share. Like there was one time when I performed for a bunch of people who were at the Castle for the first time, and I impressed them. It took many times of asking her, but it turned out that Calah was awake after all!
Ben Carson is trending this morning as the only member of the cabinet left. This may reflect more on me than on him or the reverse, but I didn’t know he was still in government. Why is he still there? Isn’t he a doctor? It can’t possibly the government pay.
I pulled out 1D Home to the so-called “Silicon Docks,” a European equivalent to Silicon Valley: DUBLIN for two reasons. One is that I learned that Silicon Docks is a thing. Mainly, though, it’s that using quotation marks is not necessary after using so-called. Good job, Will Shortz for editing properly.
The theme of this puzzle is hard? But not too hard.
14A Simply not done: UNHEARDOF. You know, like storming the Capitol. 17A Welcome abroad: BIENVENUE. It’s like welcome aboard but abroad so it’s in another language. I get it. 37A “See, someone understands what I’m saying!”: THISGUYGETSIT.
Well this was way easier than yesterday’s crossword. I finished in 17:17. Why is a Thursday easier than a Wednesday? I don’t know. But this one was. I liked the theme of DARK ART. The three black squares in a row took the place of the word ART, so there was (ART)IFICIAL HE(ART), (ART)ICLE II, POISON D(ART), (ART)HUR DENT, FLOW CH(ART). Definitely (ART)IFICIAL HE(ART) was my favorite of all of them.
My longstanding beef with Will Shortz remains but wasn’t made worse by today’s puzzle.
Manage your privacy
To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.