Beware the ides of October! Bad decisions will be made. One such, was the idea that Frannie and I had of starting a drive home to Boston from Minnesota yesterday without having any plan for last night. Well, we stopped in at a couple decent-ish hotels only to find them completely booked. Then we paid for a room at a hotel we had never heard of, walked into the room and walked right back out to cancel the transaction. Then after driving for another hour or two, we parked in a hotel parking lot and slept in the car for an hour or so before getting back on the highway. Add in another fifteen minute snooze in a rest area parking lot, a lot of mediocre coffee, several bad food decisions and twenty-two hours, and here we are back in Eastern Massachusetts. There may have been other bad decisions made, too, but I'm too tired to tired to think of them.
As for the puzzle - are we still writing about the puzzle? - I enjoyed the grid art right off the bat. Strangely, one bit of junk food that I didn't eat on the drive was a doughnut! But if I had, it would have been with a GLAZEDEXPRESSION ("I'll bet you dollars to doughnuts ...").
So, does anyone actually dip doughnuts into milk, as suggested by the clue "This doughnut would be great dipped in milk!" (OLDFASHIONEDIDEA). Am I crazy? or are old-fashioned donuts great when dipped in coffee? Anyone?
And speaking of old-fashioned, this old dog has a hard time learning new tricks. Our favorite doughnut shop here in town had an oven explosion and never re-opened, and ever since that happened (maybe seven or eight years ago now) I have eaten very few doughnuts. Same with produce. The produce market that I had been going to forever closed during the pandemic, and all I've eaten since then is potato chips. Or am I just thinking of the 45 hours I spent in the car going to Minnesota and back this week? I'm sorry, I OTTERPOP while I'm ahead. Or at least before I get any more behind.
I'll be back tomorrow, when I hope my brain is working better.
- Horace
Trickiest part for me was gArMENTS. That slowed down that whole part of the grid for quite a while.
ReplyDeleteFavorite answer: CANOPYBED. When I saw "retirement" I thought of a reference to sleep but it took me quite a few crosses to get the answer which is a nice kind of clue - you sort of know where they might be going with it, but it takes some effort to work out what.
Tell us more about that hotel room! For the record, I am not, nor have I ever been, a doughnut "dipper". Liked this puzzle, and fun theme (and visualization thereof) though I thought "UHH" and "UMS" were a bit questionable. It only took me 12:32 so not super tricky today..
ReplyDeleteI thought this puzzle sucked. One of the worst the NYT has published in a long time. Not very clever, but very annoying. Never heard of PIRIPIRI hot sauce. Really?
ReplyDelete