Monday, June 7, 2021

Monday, June 7, 2021, Erika Ettin

Today's theme is ROLLWITHIT. That is, take the last word of the theme answers and put "roll" with it. Eye roll is strong. Forward roll I'm less sure about. Is that a somersault? California roll is sushi, and I'm on board with that. But what's "camera roll?" I've been working in photography since the 1980s and I'm still not 100% sure what's meant by camera roll. Is it film? Is it said more in the movie world? I don't know. I do know I score the theme at 50%. Not IDEAL.

HALLE Berry

But all was not MISERY. We've got some language-y answers in CHERI (Paris sweetheart) (I tried "amour" at first), PLAYA (Spanish beach), and FELIZ. And does MEOW qualify as a different language? :)

I would have said that Singapore was actually part of the MALAY peninsula, not that it was below it, and Wikipedia appears to back me up on that, but I guess technically it is an island, so maybe it doesn't really count as being part of the peninsula? I think Cape Cod is technically an island now that that canal is there, so do we call Massachusetts the land to the west of Cape Cod? I know, I know, not really an apples to apples comparison ... but I'm going to ask my brother who's living in Singapore about the MALAY peninsula the next time I talk with him, and if I remember, I'll report back to you about it.

Puzzles can bring up so many questions, right? At least for NERDS like me. :)

Congratulations to Ms. Ettin on a NYTX debut. Even though I trashed the theme a little, it was ELSE OKS by me. 

- Horace

11 comments:

  1. Hey Horace, I think in the 2nd themed clue, ROLL goes with PAY not FORWARD. Maybe that ups your score somewhat? Up here north of the border we call it LABOUR DAY... I was bedevilled by typos on this one and wound up 3:23 - so my sub-3 holy grail will have to wait..

    I finally tried an ACAI berry a week ago, after having entered it into dozens of crosswords. Not bad!

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    1. I like "payroll" better, but the revealer does say "... or a hint to the ends of ..." so I'm afraid the ruling stands.

      I had a fast start, but needed a cross or two for FROYO, IRKING, THRU, and some others. Ended up with 3:57.

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  2. Seems easy, even for a Monday: "Cover for a smartphone," "Snow clearer," and "Library item" would all be fun to clue for a Saturday, wouldn't they? But here they're all the first thing that comes to mind. Best feature of the puzzle is the "Popular berry" duo. As for the theme, I must admit, I thought it was poor.

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  3. 4:50 for me, which is fast for a Monday. I guess I'd agree with the 50% on the theme scoring, although I'd allow partials and probably boost it to a 75% or 80%. I also agree on MALAY and thought the same thing during the solve, but it does seem to be *technically* correct. Also, I always associated GORY with consisting of bloody body parts, most often internal, so I thought that a bit off, too. The CTY Project just started playing HOTELCALIFORNIA, so that's timely for me.

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  4. 2:54 for me. Isn't a camera roll just the old-time roll of film you put in your automatic camera?

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    1. And I'm completely fine with forward roll. It is a somersault.

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    2. Yeah, ok, forward roll is a thing, but I argue that nobody says "I did a forward roll."

      As for camera roll, I find out from the Googles that it's a place in an Apple phone app where all your photos are stored. So it turns out that it's probably too current and iPhone-y for me, and sometimes that happens.

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    3. Colum, you're right. I think it might even be an old photographer's term for a roll of EXPOSED film, but I'm not sure. 2:54 = scorching, just like the weekend was here in Toronto!

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    4. Look, who are you going to believe on this Philbo, a Harvard-educated MD brainiac or a real-life "old photographer?" I'll stake my favorite lens on it not being a term for anything used by actual photographers.

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    5. ... backing slowly away...... :)

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