Today's theme is an amusing concoction of puns based on words from the Indian subcontinent. It turns out that "sari," "Holi," and "Delhi" are all Hindi words with Sanskrit origins, while "naan" comes from Farsi. Etymology is fascinating!
It's amusing that the puns start with SARINOTSARI and end with NAANAPOLOGY. It's also cute that all four answers relate to a wedding, so that they tell a little story from choosing a wedding gown, to planning the reception, to the ceremony itself, followed by a minor catering failure at the reception. Hah!
How many different ways can we come up with to clue the humble OREO? An enrobed version just means chocolate or fudge covered. We have them in the US as well. But the cookie will stay with us crossword solvers forever, given its forgiving collection of vowels.
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| DUMBLEDORE |
Would you argue that 25D: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler vis-à-vis "Saturday Night Live" (ALUMNI) is incorrect? Should the male gendered word be available to refer to all genders? Should we care? Perhaps it is fine to move away from gendering, and it is certainly problematic to use "alumni" for mixed-gender groups but "alumnae" for female only. What do you think?
- Colum
I’m with you on the alumni/alumnae question. I took out what I had entered after AL because ‘alumnae’ didn’t fit. I dothink we should move to more gender-neutral language - I love how all commanders are called “sir” on Star Trek shows - but, if you are going to specifically cite two former female SNL cast members without a tip-off in the clue, I think you should go with alumnae. The theme was fun. GAUNT, SCORCH, and SWORNENEMY are good fill.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous commenter. If they had said "Tina Fey and Chevy Chase," for instance, then we could feel happier about the masculine plural. As it is, I think it's weak.
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