Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Wednesday, June 15, 2022, Rob Baker

Another day, another debut. And another uncommon theme! 

Diary of a Crossword Fiend has their saying "Tuesdays gonna tuez," but a while ago I countered with "Wednesdays gonna wooz," and I say it again now. Today we have a quote puzzle with a circle and a rebus. The clue for 57D "Rips [five letters]" explains that you need to put two letters into the circle in order to get T[EA]RS, but in the cross, the circle becomes a Schrödinger square giving either the static "stationary" or the paper "stationery." Very nice.

But all that rebusing and Shrödingering is in service to the quote: "NOMATTERHOWMUCH YOU PUSHTHEENVELOPE ITS STILLSTATION[E/A]RY." Heh. And yes, I know that "push the envelope" is metaphoric, but if you were to actually push one across the table, or into a mailbox, for example, in that moment, while still being stationery, it would not be stationary. See, that's the kind of in-depth thinking we get paid the big money for.

Elvis in KISSIN Cousins

In other news, I had never heard of Elvis's 1964 film "KISSIN Cousins," and when I Googled it and saw the image above, I thought someone had created that image as a joke suggesting that the premise was that he played his own male cousin and fell in love with himself. But I guess only the first part of that is true. Pity.

I enjoyed seeing the oh-so-useful SAWHORSE in the grid, everyone loves Winnie-the-POOH, and REPAST (Meal) is a word that always brings a smile. If I had more time, I'd look into the etymology of that last one for you, but today I've got to light out early. 

This one was odd, but not the ODDEST, and despite the philosophical problem mentioned above, I chuckled when I completed the quote, and that's always a good way to start the day.

I hope you enjoyed it, and that your day goes/is going/has gone well.

- Horace


3 comments:

  1. Loved it! I would've loved it even without the rebus, but that made it even funnier.

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  2. I'm quite confused about 60 across. How does one know that some random square is two letters (which I still don't understand)?

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    Replies
    1. In this case, the circle and the clue for 57D indicate it. "Rips [five letters]" spells out that a five letter answer is needed for the clue "Rips," and the circle points out the square that will need to have two letters.

      In 60A, however, two different answers can be made by using just one or the other of the two letters (E and A) entered to complete 57D. The end of the quip can either be read as "still stationery," or "still stationary."

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