Sunday, July 18, 2021, Jesse Goldberg

DIG IN

Well, this was delightful. I am a huge fan of JULIACHILD, and to see her name paired symmetrically with BONAPPETIT is lovely. When I was in my late twenties I used to watch her shows on PBS every Sunday morning. And when I couldn't watch them, I'd tape them on the VCR. In fact, after a while, I had the thing set up to record her show every week. The trouble with that, though, is that we also watched other things on VHS tapes (remember VCRs? :) ), and often we'd leave a tape in the machine. So inevitably, we ended up with many tapes that started with one thing, but were interrupted by a JULIACHILD show halfway through. Heh. That went over big with everyone.

My favorite of these quotes is "A party without cake is REALLYJUSTAMEETING." Brilliant. The "With enough butter, ANYTHINGISGOOD" is well-known. And true! :)

I thought I noticed a lot of food-related cluing in the fill, too. Like "'His wife could EATNO lean,'" "Chicken or veal dish, in brief" (PARM), "Something that's bad if it floats..." (EGG), "Drink garnished with nutmeg" (NOG).

I chuckled at "Toon first introduced in the 1945 short 'Odor-able Kitty'" (LEPEW). And one of its crosses GRAPH got a really nice QMC in "Boardroom plot?" Speaking of clues - is "Word mistakenly heard at a Springsteen concert," BOO, supposed to be referencing "Bruce?" If so, nice try, but no.

One last thing about clues - sometimes I find the Greek myths amusing, and other times I shake my head at the way they reveal our spiteful, vengeful human nature. I had a little of each reaction when I saw "She turned Arachne into a spider after losing a weaving contest" (ATHENA). Why even have the contest? I mean, if you have the ability to turn another person into a spider, don't you also possess the ability to rig the contest so you win? Sheesh!

- Horace