Sunday, January 21, 2024

Monday, January 22 2024, Jake Halperin

Well, the Apian community is likely up in arms today after being short-changed on the Monday NYT crossword:  Today's theme is "the sex talk" (BIRDSANDBEES) with four theme answers PENGUINBOOKS, DOVEBAR, GOOSEBUMPS and TURKEYBOWL.  See what's missing?  The bees!  Where are the bees??  (The Avian community is perfectly satisfied, meanwhile.)  Would have been nice to see a few bee references in there as well; e.g. something with HONEY, or HIVE, or WAX, or QUILTING.  Or make the grid hexagonal for a change!

But hey, I'm quibbling.  It's not that aPOLLIN, really.  As I COMB thru the grid, I see "Bug bite annoyance" (ITCH), which, despite the clear insect reference, doesn't take the STING out of the bee snub.  Perhaps closer is "One who makes his living with his hands" (WORKMAN) - not quite WORKER, though.  And I see nothing in the answers that puts me in mind of QUEEN at all...ok, I'll stop DRONEing on now...

 Nice to see the other other spelling of NOOB (NEWB) for "Inexperienced gamer, informally", for once (correctly spelled with zeros: N00B).  And a shout-out to all of you who knew that Paul ANKA, who wrote "My Way", is a Canuck!

Fun, all in all.  Found it a bit slow going for a Monday.  Was it just me?  

Time to BUZZ off.  See you tomorrow!

-phil


2 comments:

  1. Hi Philbo, could the bees be "B's" or birds followed by words that start with the letter B? I didn't notice the pattern when I solved the puzzle, but when I saw the theme answers grouped together in your review, the idea crossed my mind. If correct, that might take a bit of the sting out for the Apian Community. :) Although the solve seemed to go down like honey for me, I agree that timing-wise, it seemed a bit more like molasses.

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    1. Ugh - I declare - you are right Frannie! That completely escaped my notice. And so I say to the Apian community and its bruised collective ego : Get over it!!

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