YES! A language theme! Ja, da, oui, and si – they all mean yes in one language or another. If I had to guess, I’d say German, Russian, French, and Italian/Spanish/French.
And more than that, each theme answer (and several other answers as well) contain high-value Scrabble letters. I’m guessing it’s a pangram, but since Patrick Berry told me those don’t matter, I’m not going to check. Still, It’s nice to see such nice variety in the letters.
The word ADJACENT (Next (to)) has taken on a new, amusing, usage lately – as in “word finds are crossword adjacent.” And I hadn’t ever really considered the full meaning of BURGLE (Break into with intent to steal).
SOS (…---…) makes me think of Abba, which makes me think of the Eurovision Song Contest, which, as you probably realize, takes place this week! Fire up those VPNs and tune in on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights. Next year, the U.S. will have its own version, so this is your last chance to get hooked “before it got popular over here.” Well… we’ll see about the getting popular thing, I guess. There was that Will Ferrell movie, but did that really do much? We saw it, of course, and enjoyed the cameos of real Eurovision stars, but did it really convert anyone who wasn’t already a fan?
There I go again, getting side-tracked. EGADS, I can imagine you saying.
All in all, a fine Monday.
- Horace
A gentle introduction to the week. I confess I am fully motivated and challenged by Colum's sub-3-minute exploit of last week, and I would have come close, had I not entered 'TAKE' instead of 'AKIN' for 'Like, with "to"' (c,mon, it makes sense too :) ) which cost me dearly to unravel and led to a 3:52 solve time.
ReplyDeleteWishing y'all a fine week!
Whenever I see a few infrequently-used letters, I check to see whether the puzzle is a pangram. I'm unsure why it wouldn't matter. Why does anything matter? As Horace no doubt knows, it TURNS out that it is a pangram, which I like for some reason, so there. Unlike Philbo's excellent time, my own was a more normal 5:43. Nice little trick, I suppose, and certainly a nice Monday.
ReplyDelete"Why anything," is a phrase I like to use. As a matter of fact, I really didn't bother to check this one, but thanks for letting me know.
DeleteMy error-free time was 3:46. I'm guessing it took Philbo more than six seconds to make the corrections, but as he knows, a clean puzzle is worth a lot more than six seconds. :)
The answer that springs to mind is, "why not?" I would have been seriously flirting with the 3:00 barrier had it not been for my little SNAFU in the lower left... "A little cheese with that whine, Philbo?"
ReplyDeleteWell, I done it again, with my best ever NYT time at 2:37. By the way, I kind of liked the Will Ferrell movie.
ReplyDeleteColum - you are a BEAST!! Congrats on hitting a new low!
ReplyDeleteYeah, wow. Nice time, Colum. And I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. Maybe you'll tune in for the final in Rotterdam this Saturday! :)
ReplyDelete