Thank you for solving! Astute solvers may notice a slight inelegance with the puzzle which we think is also a bit of interesting trivia: Cheez-It crackers are technically rectangles (measuring 1.02" x 0.94"), though they are often believed to be squares. In our defense, they did start out as perfect 1" x 1" squares when they first hit the markets back in 1921. Even their official website (https://www.cheezit.com/en-us/products/cheez-it-original-crackers-product.html)
says "square shape." Nonetheless, we hope you enjoyed solving and weren't tripped up by that detail. Now, go treat yourself!
Bird Lives 3s · 2024-08-05T14:31:23.102Z
Yeah, I noticed that too since I never eat Cheez-its without my micrometer near by.
Hah... got to SCOTC and figured it out. And... now I know that a Pringle is a Hyperbolic Paraboloid! That'll come in handy soon, I'm sure of it.
MatthewL 🤓8:13 · 2024-08-05T15:56:25.613Z
That was great! Had to Google COMBOS because I had no idea what shape they were, but the rest were easy (other than PRINGLES -- but once you had SCOTC it was pretty obvious). And now I know what a hyperbolic parabola is. Who knew? Thanks for the puzzle, guys!
Carolyn 3s · 2024-08-05T15:51:54.974Z
Excellent!
imontoo 2s · 2024-08-05T17:06:57.309Z
Clever title!
I cannot buy Pringles…I could literally eat an entire full-size can of those things!
Actually I shouldn't have been that surprised as when a silly rabbit proves to be slightly more and more reasonable ("Geez, the snacks really do seem to have well defined shapes rather than amorphous snack shapes" and "Gee, SC(R/O) is a legitimate group of letters and if Scotch was my joke Pringles really shouldn't fall into a shape beginning with H so nicely". And of course, there was nothing else we could do with the treats.
I'll drink to that. I was distracted by all the Pokémon red herrings
HeadinHome 🤓1:24 · 2024-08-05T18:40:22.789Z
Had to google that pringles shape! I would have said elipse or maybe circle (and I was thinking Tubes for combos), but SCOTTE / SCOTTC is not a thing. I assume the C for combos is cylinder? Loved this puzzle, and the gentle clue at center for the meta. Now I need some munchies…
Fun one! I got stuck for a minute wondering if it was relevant that Cheez-Its are in fact Cheez-It, singular, as you mention above, while all the other ones I think are written in the plural on their label, but I abandoned that quickly. I mean really who says Cheez-It? They're Cheez-Its. Lots of fun clues in here, and a very satisfying meta!
anopheles 🤓7:33 · 2024-08-06T00:34:22.940Z
15 minutes on the meta, which is slower than I'd like, but it is what it is - I almost put OREO as a hail mary.
The combination of 1a/5a was cute and sent me on a distinct rabbit hole. Once I (slowly!) remembered that PRINGLES have a proprietary shape, I was able to FIGURE it out... sorry.
ELSavage 🤓8:41 · 2024-08-06T17:26:28.133Z
This was right in my wheelhouse, since I'm a math teacher and have often had the phrase "Gee I'm a tree" run through my head.
Like others, I had it at SCOTC, but wondered if there was a simpler H than what it turned out to be. Now I'm definitely hungry for lunch.
Sharkicicles 1s · 2024-08-06T22:26:48.340Z
I had never heard the original pun so I went down the rabbit hole of looking for Gs in the grid. Once the pun was spelled out for me it was a quick one. I’m really in awe of the thinking behind this one. What an odd observation to make and then turn into a meta!
Sharkicicles 1s · 2024-08-06T19:29:19.518Z
I made these the other day… they kind of taste like an extreme cheddar goldfish. A+++ will make again.
Excellent title, cluing, fill and meta you two! You've never really googled until "what shape are pringles?" is typed into that box. With that knowledge, now even more of a 33D lol. Thanks for the MMM!
Darn it! I posted yesterday but obviously did not Save the post because neither comment I made is here. I hate it when I do that. Lovely puzzle that I at first had no idea on. I tried the letters of the treats, the companies who made them, adding G to the name, etc. Then I said the title a few times, then it hit me and then I went down a real rabbit hole:
BUGLES -> ANGLES BU or AN
COMBOS -> RHOMBUS RHU OR COO
PRINGLES -> TRIANGLES TA or P
It was when I was trying to force somehting for Doritos that I thought 'well is it some sort of angle because Doritos are a triangle'...OMG and Cheez-its (whose white cheddar variety should be banned because it is more addictive than drugs) is a square! What a clever and original idea. Now I have to try some Scotch with each of them.
Thank you for the puzzle, feel free to toot your own horn - or bugle - about it.
whimsy 🤓3:23 · 2024-08-09T19:50:22.692Z
Well, that took me long enough! It didn't help that I didn't get the "Geometry" joke but instead could only picture the Keebler elves, working away in the Hollow Tree bakery!
This was excellent, Lydia and Phil!
"Are you ready kids?" "___, Captain!" "I can't hear you!" "___, Captain!"
14A
"Rhyme Pays" rapper whose name sounds like a summertime drink
15A
Windy City "L" org.
16A
Insect in a biblical plague
17A
Treat that was originally marketed as "baked rarebits"
19A
Treat that we put on our fingers to make "finger hats" as kids
20A
Mozart's "The Queen of the Night," for one
22A
Like some whiskeys
23A
Purveyor of "Strands" and "Connections": Abbr.
24A
Pulmonologist's concern
26A
Treat that Pepperidge Farm created after discovering that their Naples cookies would stick together in the package during shipping
30A
Leisure activity on a lake
34A
Like some dissertation defenses
35A
Agile
37A
Belly button type that was added to the most recent edition of the Scrabble dictionary
38A
Place
39A
Ed whose song title "Shape of You" might interest a geometry teacher
41A
Maroon 5's "___ Will Be Loved"
42A
Drop a vowel or syllable in pronunciation
44A
Canned
45A
Plumbing problem
46A
Birthplace of Lego bricks
48A
Treat that did a collab with Taco Bell to launch the Nacho Cheese Locos Tacos
50A
Blinds pieces
52A
Vessel for cooking minestrone
53A
Tuna sometimes seared and served with a sesame seed crust
56A
"Time for me to bounce!"
61A
Treat that's the official cheese-filled snack of NASCAR
63A
Treat that can be used to make duck lips
64A
Stand-up comic Boosler or pioneering percussionist Jones
65A
Fair-hiring initials
66A
Home of the Viking Ship Museum (reopening in 2027 after renovation!)
67A
Favorite "subject" for many elementary school students
68A
___ Faire (occasion to watch a jousting match)
69A
"How do I love thee? Let me count the ___" (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
Verticali
1D
"___ or it didn't happen!"
2D
Dos al cubo
3D
Squirrel away
4D
Like the sunshine for a spotless mind, in a movie title
5D
Canadian Olympic swimming champion Summer (who shares a name with Canada's national apple!)
6D
Éowyn portrayer Miranda with a palindromic surname
7D
Twangy
8D
Animal lacking pigmentation, like Moby Dick
9D
"Back so soon?"
10D
Heart scan, for short
11D
Word sung after the ball drops
12D
WWI battle river
13D
Site of many crafty deals
18D
Singer Malik that split from the boy band One Direction
21D
Color named after a certain gemstone
25D
RR stop
26D
Bike with a small engine
27D
"Who's the best? Oh yeah, it's me!"
28D
Pig ___ (ancay ouyay eadray isthay?)
29D
Address
31D
Map within a map
32D
Greeting that literally translates to "you good"
33D
Techies and Trekkies, stereotypically
36D
Dino friend of Buzz and Woody
39D
Animals known as the "welcoming committee" of the Galapagos
40D
Likely outcome if you let me visit the local animal shelter (I don't neeeeeed more cats...)
43D
"Slide into my ___" (I had no idea what this meant when I first heard it and thought it stood for Doc Martens, so in my head the phrase was analogous to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes")
45D
John who voiced Lord Farquaad in "Shrek"
47D
Pharaoh who is the subject of Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias"
49D
Chestnut-colored horse
51D
"Fabulous!"
53D
Big name in computers
54D
Something one might really dig
55D
Big name in computers
57D
"I think that I shall never see / a billboard lovely as a ___" (Ogden Nash)
58D
Character played by Idina Menzel who sings "Let It Go"
59D
Depend (on)
60D
"___ Zapatos" (Spanish edition of Maribeth Boelts' children's book "Those Shoes" which teaches kids the difference between needs and wants)