Tag Archives: nyt monday

NYT Crossword 11-16-20 Complete–and tidepools story

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No personal record today in terms of time, but my Monday streak is very much alive. I mean 31 Mondays in a row is a lot of Mondays.

The concept of Spring Tide is new to me.

As we all know, tides are extremely important to our lives. That’s mainly because without tides, we couldn’t have tidepools. And tidepools are fun! I know that some people don’t like sea creatures. Those people are so entitled because this is America.

In college, my roommate Darren asked me if I wanted to join him and two of his classmates to the tidepools a very short bike ride from our apartment at UCSB. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity, and off we went.

Here’s Darren in a decade-old picture from that visit. I had forgotten how extensive the tidepools are!

I got to see things I probably wouldn’t have seen in the wild. Like an octopus. And then another octopus. And a third octopus that inked. But the octopi were very hard for me to see because they blend in so well.

There’s an octopus somewhere in this photo.

“Oh, look! Another octopus!”
“Where?”
“You’re looking at it!”

See it now? Once you do, you can’t un-see it.

Routinely, I’d be completely lost. I just saw rocks and various sea life. No octopi.

Here’s your last chance to look over the above photos again before you can never again completely miss this octopus.

See it now?
There it is!
See its eyes?
It’s becoming more aware of the situation.
Here it comes!
And now it doesn’t look like rocks.
Google photos turned some of the photos in a gif. NOW try to miss the octopus in the early photos.

And to think this story all came out of 29D Shore phenomenon around the time of the new and full moons: SPRINGTIDE. And I believe that’s about when we went to the tidepools.

As for the rest of the puzzle, there was a pretty moving theme.

17A Sweet item at a bakery: JELLY(ROLL)
Which brings about the joke of why did the jellyroll? Because it saw the apple turnover!
23A Keep watch while a homeowner’s away: HOUSE(SIT)
33A Bar-to-bar activity: PUB(CRAWL)
41A What a speaker or musician may adjust before starting: MIC(STAND)
48A Easy win: CAKE(WALK)
all for the theme
59A Small advances … or the progression suggested by the ends of 17-, 23-, 33-, 41- and 48-Across: BABY(STEPS)! Roll, sit, crawl, stand, walk.

I liked the tidepools part of this blog post better.

Completed in 7:04.

NYT Crossword 10-26-20 Complete

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Not a PR but not so bad, either. Finished in 5:06. But well below my 9:41 Monday average, which includes the ones on my phone. I don’t even remember when I did a 4:21. But my Monday streak is more than half a year long, so it’s the small wins.

67A Home made of hides: TEPEE. This is the spelling I missed in the Spelling Bee the other day, and it still smarts.

And on the topic of give me a break…

18A One reading secret messages: CODEBREAKER
28A Professional joke teller: STANDUPCOMIC
47A Health professional who has your back?: CHIROPRACTOR
62A Apt command to an 18-, 28- or 47-Across: GETCRACKING

NYT Crossword 10-19-20 Complete

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I’m trying to start up the crossword portion of my blog again, and here’s today’s. I finished slower than my average for a Monday because I got stuck trying to resolve a single answer.

39A Make catty remarks from the side. I had put SNIDE, even though I hadn’t heard that used as a verb. It sounds right, right? And 30D Big name in dog food? I don’t have a dog, so I don’t have too good a knowledge of that aisle at the supermarket. Turns out the dog food isn’t ALDO but ALPO. And ALPO is a Purina brand. SNIPE makes more sense anyway.

Today’s theme was emotions/senses in drawn comics, and they weren’t all across answers!

16A Anger, in the comics: STORMCLOUD
59A Nervousness, in the comics: SWEATDROPS
15D Odor, in the comics: WAVYLINES
26D Idea, in the comics: LIGHTBULB

Not my best effort on time at 13:16. My lifetime average for Mondays is 9:42.

NYT Spelling Bee 8-24-20

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It’s a new week, and today marks the return of the shorter puzzle.

I actually got genius level last night, but this morning my time was taken up with refinishing the rest of the folding chairs my dad gave to me. Someone had abandoned them in the alley, and while it was clear they’d been treated poorly, they were worth saving.

Years later, it’s a covid project.

left: the first of six chairs to be refinished; right: one of the then-raw chairs

But back to this one. I’m going to continue looking at it, but it’s possible I won’t go further than this.

NYT Crossword 8-17-20 Complete

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Back to some crosswords! I did this one on my phone. Computer is easier, but phone is more convenient from bed.

The highlighted clue here is 22A That is to say, in Latin: IDEST.

This brings up the discussion of two specific common misuses in writing: i.e. vs. e.g., and my fiancee knows all too well that I enjoy talking about this one.

These two are taken from Latin.

First, e.g.: This is short for the Latin exempli gratia, which means (for) example’s sake. Use this when you’re illustrating your point by providing a subset of all the examples that can be used in that way.

I own scores of domain names, and almost all of them redirect to this blog. When people ask me how to get to my blog, I don’t give the same answer every time. While there are many I repeat (e.g. MyBatteryDied.com, MyAlarmDidntGoOff.com, LochNessMobster.com), I rarely know which domain name I’ll provide in advance of the conversation.

I have more than those three that I repeat. I could have included raabidfun.com, IfAndWednesday.com, and OrCurrentResident.com, as I use those frequently, too. But I didn’t, so it’s e.g.

Second, i.e.: This is short for the Latin id est, which means that is. Direct translation. It signifies a specific item you are discussing/describing. Think of i.e. as the word namely.

Remember when this blog had a more generic domain name? I certainly do. When I started this blog, I was OK with the free name I got. But when I decided to register a domain name through WordPress, I dropped the free one (i.e. raabidfun.wordpress.com) in favor of using ThatShipHasSunk.com.

I’m not giving an example of free WordPress names, I’m talking about my free WordPress name. My free WordPress name only can refer to raabidfun.wordpress.com.

So there you have it.

NYT Crossword 8-10-20 Complete

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After a few days off from the crossword puzzles, I’m back with the NYT Monday. I had done the NYT Thursday but never posted the puzzle that was mostly empty anyway. Really tough time with that Thursday.

So this Monday puzzle was not the easiest Monday but still a Monday. I could see this as a Tuesday, but I might just be tired today.

The theme had to do with 56D Typically lost items that are “found” in the starts of 16-, 24-, 45- and 57-Across: KEYS
16A Designation on many a driver’s license: ORGANDONOR because the musical instrument organ has keys.
24A Bright, sunny area of a house: FLORIDAROOM because Florida keys. Also I had never heard of this room.
45A Launch vehicle for many NASA missions: ATLASROCKET because atlases have keys. I had to think about this one awhile. Key like legend.
57A Ringlet on a salon floor (what’s a salon?): LOCKOFHAIR because locks have keys.

Apparently this is a Florida Room. Sure. Why not? (PC: realtor.com)

Puzzle took me 7:31. I care more today about the Spelling Bee. Still can’t get that pangram.

NYT Crossword 8-3-20 Complete

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Ahhhh Monday. The return of the simple puzzle. Easy and educational.

30A Ancient carver of stone heads in Mesoamerica: OLMEC. Olmec or Ol’ Mec? To the googles!

They were an entire civilization independent of the Mayas. Worth a read: https://www.mexicanist.com/l/olmec-heads/

Here’s something glaringly sloppy in this crossword:
42D H2O, south of the border: AGUA
47D Light blue shades: AQUAS

But 53D “Huh, funny running into you!”: OHHI was funny because I’m a big fan of the film The Room.

The theme clues of this puzzle are related to 57A The terrible twos, e.g. (one hopes!) … or the start of 17-, 22-, 36- or 45-Across?
JUSTAPHASE
17A Where to go for a fill-up: (GAS)STATION
22A Firm place to plant your feet: (SOLID)GROUND
36A Viewing options popularized in the 1990s: (PLASMA)SCREENTVS
45A Cash or stocks, e.g.: (LIQUID)ASSETS

Pretty good.

NYT Crossword 7-27-20 Complete

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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?