Ahmagawd da keef. Haven't felt a punch like that in quite some time.
Here's a great clue from a Friday puzzle a while back that I didn't write about.
- Vessel that is 1% full. Answer: YACHT
Yahh, so, I'm still at 10, so that's all I got.
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Monday 5:04 (crusht)
I've been neglecting the puzzle this week, for no particular reason. Probably some anhedonia in there, but I'm not really that down.
It's a little weird using italics these days. Posts on Facebook and most other places don't allow rich text, so stress is usually expressed with caps ("I'm not really THAT down"). In a way, this makes sense. All caps, since the early days of chat rooms, has meant shouting. So one word in caps would automatically be stressed. I would prefer italics, but would I really go through the trouble of highlighting a word or executing some keyboard combinations to use it in such an informal setting? Is this going to become more common in real text as well? Is this how e-mail lost its hyphen?
I kinda like the hyphen in e-mail, since as one word, "email" isn't spelled like it's pronounced. There were other ways it was formatted in the old days with a capital E, e.g. E-mail, Email. I'm not sure if every publication has folded to the non-hyphen use (if anyone would hold out, I'd bet on The New Yorker, which still uses a diaeresis in coöperation), but email snuck into the dictionary long ago. People will do anything to avoid using just one more character, one more keystroke (and let me tell you, it took nearly a minute to find the ö and place it in there).
Anyhow, Monday's puzzle was very very easy, but they did do something I don't think I've ever seen on Monday in particular (I think they once did this on a Tuesday, but I think was a holiday). The theme answers made up he phrase "make love, not war" and the answer for the decade of origin was 60s. The crosses were 6-Iron and 0-carb. Maybe because I was doing this puzzle on a Wednesday, I was psychologically ready for a slight curveball. I was definitely aware I was doing a Monday puzzle. I could tell I was going really fast, yet I hardly paused before I dropped in the numbers. Go me.
I'm too sloppy to not use auto spell-check, but Blogger has a weak dictionary. Curveball is certainly acceptable as one word, and "carb" has been in the lingo for quite some time. Anhedonia is definitely a real word. Woody Allen wanted to call his movie Annie Hedonia, but that pun was way over the head of most people, so it became Annie Hall. Adding things to the dictionary is also a hassle (it works this poor way in MS Word, too) which is that adding "curveball" does not automatically make capital C "Curveball" legit as well, so you have to add that too. I'm actually pretty amazed it recognized diaeresis, but not anhedonia? The public definitely needs to know more about one than the other.
EDIT: Blogger has a horrible dictionary. While touching up some language in the third paragraph, it tagged "snuck!" Only the most snotty (and likely British) grammar teacher would insist on "sneaked." Using snuck as the past tense of sneak dates back to the 1800s. (Aside: I'm fairly sure that an apostrophe is never correct when pluralizing years or CDs or anything else. It's 60s, it's 1800s, yet Blogger tags all of these as misspelled. Amazingly, testing some other words, DVDs works just fine, as does DVRs. Is CD just too old? LPs doesn't work either, but modern stuff like ISPs isn't accepted.) It is a strange word, though. The past tense of leak isn't luck. I suppose the closest is strike-struck.
I've been neglecting the puzzle this week, for no particular reason. Probably some anhedonia in there, but I'm not really that down.
It's a little weird using italics these days. Posts on Facebook and most other places don't allow rich text, so stress is usually expressed with caps ("I'm not really THAT down"). In a way, this makes sense. All caps, since the early days of chat rooms, has meant shouting. So one word in caps would automatically be stressed. I would prefer italics, but would I really go through the trouble of highlighting a word or executing some keyboard combinations to use it in such an informal setting? Is this going to become more common in real text as well? Is this how e-mail lost its hyphen?
I kinda like the hyphen in e-mail, since as one word, "email" isn't spelled like it's pronounced. There were other ways it was formatted in the old days with a capital E, e.g. E-mail, Email. I'm not sure if every publication has folded to the non-hyphen use (if anyone would hold out, I'd bet on The New Yorker, which still uses a diaeresis in coöperation), but email snuck into the dictionary long ago. People will do anything to avoid using just one more character, one more keystroke (and let me tell you, it took nearly a minute to find the ö and place it in there).
Anyhow, Monday's puzzle was very very easy, but they did do something I don't think I've ever seen on Monday in particular (I think they once did this on a Tuesday, but I think was a holiday). The theme answers made up he phrase "make love, not war" and the answer for the decade of origin was 60s. The crosses were 6-Iron and 0-carb. Maybe because I was doing this puzzle on a Wednesday, I was psychologically ready for a slight curveball. I was definitely aware I was doing a Monday puzzle. I could tell I was going really fast, yet I hardly paused before I dropped in the numbers. Go me.
I'm too sloppy to not use auto spell-check, but Blogger has a weak dictionary. Curveball is certainly acceptable as one word, and "carb" has been in the lingo for quite some time. Anhedonia is definitely a real word. Woody Allen wanted to call his movie Annie Hedonia, but that pun was way over the head of most people, so it became Annie Hall. Adding things to the dictionary is also a hassle (it works this poor way in MS Word, too) which is that adding "curveball" does not automatically make capital C "Curveball" legit as well, so you have to add that too. I'm actually pretty amazed it recognized diaeresis, but not anhedonia? The public definitely needs to know more about one than the other.
EDIT: Blogger has a horrible dictionary. While touching up some language in the third paragraph, it tagged "snuck!" Only the most snotty (and likely British) grammar teacher would insist on "sneaked." Using snuck as the past tense of sneak dates back to the 1800s. (Aside: I'm fairly sure that an apostrophe is never correct when pluralizing years or CDs or anything else. It's 60s, it's 1800s, yet Blogger tags all of these as misspelled. Amazingly, testing some other words, DVDs works just fine, as does DVRs. Is CD just too old? LPs doesn't work either, but modern stuff like ISPs isn't accepted.) It is a strange word, though. The past tense of leak isn't luck. I suppose the closest is strike-struck.
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