Saturday, May 29, 2021

Saturday, May 29, 2021, Adam Aaronson

I'm finishing out the week more BASSET than PEKE due to a FWOE in today's puzzle. I don't feel super bad about it because it occurred at a cross of a thing I didn't know exactly how to spell (YIPPEEKIYAY) and a thing I've never heard of (GARI). Our dear readers know that I don't take a fish product of any kind, which means one could count my visits to sushi bars on one finger. I do love ginger, though, especially the tangy pickled kind that comes with spicy tofu pad thai, so not sure how I managed to miss the word completely. Mmmmm, spicy tofu pad thai....

PLOTARMOR also falls into the category of things I've never heard of, but since it is made up of words I do know, there was no ERR. I like the term a lot. I plan to use it to liven up my rants against plot driven shows - you know who you are! 

"Rum-soaked treats" (BABAS) are another food item I'm not familiar with - at least IRL - but thanks to the NYT Spelling Bee (or Busy Bee, as I like to call it), it's a word I now know. 

12D: BLUEGREEN

Despite the FWOE occurring in the southeast, things were most TANGLY for this solver in the northwest. Even with DEEM, TEEM, ASP, and ORDERIN in place I had trouble with the Across answers. I had 'waTER' where LITER was wanted, which didn't help matters. "Get in the pool, say" took a minute because I kept trying things like "take a swim" (RIDESHARE) (see 'waTER' error above).  When I first read the clue, "Four-time Emmy winner from Coney Island, N.Y." I had no idea who it might be and I thought I was doomed to failure, but as I progressed through the puzzle, and with only ERLM in place, I somehow guessed RHEAPERLMAN. I was happy about that. In other lucky breaks, Horace and I have been watching a show on Netflix called "Ragnarok." One episode we watched featured the Loki character, which caused me to read up on him in the Wikipedia - just last night. What are the chances? I think you see where I'm going with this. I was able to drop in LOKI off the clue ("Father of Jörmungandr"). :)

Other CA/Ps I was KEENON include "Bunch of hipsters?" (MANBUN) - ha! I also liked "Help out with a job" (ABET) and "Ones who've split" (SECT). "Frequent book setting" is nicely misleading. "Inflation stat, for short" was similarly trixy (PSI). "Roger's equivalent" (YES) also had me wondering for a while. 

So, that's the week as I see it. Over to you, Colum. Rah rah SIS boom bah!

~Frannie. 

4 comments:

  1. FWOE as well, Frannie o' mine, and it was a dumb one...I didn't read the clue for YES and misread the clue for TANGLY and so had TANGLE and EES. The GARI/YIPPEE KI YAY was pure luck. (I didn't know GARI either.) Loved AND YOU ARE, P.A. SYSTEMS, and IT DEPENDS. I also didn't know PLOT ARMOR but also plan to drop it in conversation at my earliest opportunity!

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  2. I think I followed the same path as you, Frannie - got derailed a bit by KNOTTY instead of TANGLY, and had no idea what the correct spelling of YIPPEEKIYAY was going to wind up being. Same as you re. RHEAPERLMAN, which leapt out at me from only a few crossers. Not an easy go, altogether, and I limped in at 14:20 (door's wide open, Horace!! :) ).

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    1. Not today, Philbo. I FWOEd in about 16, but couldn't find my error for the life of me! I had GARI, but tried GARa, then looked and looked, and finally discovered I had YIPPiE/iCON - both of which looked fine to me when skimming for non-words. Sigh.

      Overall, though, lots to like. I'm with Kelly on ANDYOUARE and PASYSTEMS. Both excellent. And I loved the tricksy stuff Frannie mentions at the end of her review.

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  3. I was able to get through this fine in 23:02 guessing correctly at the YIPPEEKIYAY spelling. Although I've eaten mountains of the stuff, I didn't know the term GARI either. Also, I tried gANGLY until I figured out TIDEPOOL. Nice to see YEAGER in there.

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