I seriously hope Rizzo wins a second World Series ring with you guys, and that's not even bitterness, haha. I have a friend who's a big Red Sox fan, and I'm guessing you're...not. But I think this is just their year!!
Toast 🤓1:32 · 2022-06-27T04:48:50.004Z
Thanks for setting the puzzle! I'm enjoying all the puns and dad jokes.
Maybe I just haven't quite figured out the final pattern, but it felt like the "BAD MOOD" part of the solution worked different from the others. I thought what I was doing was "start from the beginning of the entry, move once cell to the right right for each word of the phrase until you're on the rainbow color word; then go up one cell." But clearly, that doesn't work with a BAD MOOD that has three empty cells above it at the beginning and only two words in the phrase. Yet empty cells do count, or "Once in a BLUE moon" wouldn't index to A. So, that was weird, but apparently not weird enough to throw off everybody!
It took me a while to get "ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK" right, because New York was briefly named New Orange (and I didn't understand what the numbers meant).
I was amused by the reference to Gaffney's "IN-B", which seems rather apropos.
Laura M 🤓11:03 · 2022-06-27T16:26:02.902Z
I think it's "start from the beginning of the THEME WORD in the entry; move one cell to the right for each word of the phrase until you're on the rainbow color word; then go up one cell." The theme word is the first word in all cases except BAD MOOD and ONLY ONCE, and ONLY ONCE works because there's an A in the 4th position over both words :-)
Thanks for the comments! I refer to metas often by their answer, which I can't do for the current one until its deadline lapses, but I think it might beat MASS IN B MINOR (115) for lowest number of solves! Great job on getting that one so early!
The puns and dad jokes are pretty much on-brand for every puzzle, bahaha.
Toast 🤓1:32 · 2022-06-28T20:22:38.224Z
They pulled even, ha! Maybe 115 is just some kind of magic ceiling for "rearrange three-letter answers".
Laura M 🤓11:03 · 2022-06-27T07:10:55.562Z
Excellent puzzle! And I feel slightly better about not getting the MGWCC after managing to solve this one :-)
boharr 4s · 2022-06-28T02:20:46.285Z
Needed help. Nothing shiny for me.
I K Snamhcok 4s · 2022-06-28T15:06:02.157Z
Loved this one, Mikey! Even with needing some help, it was very fun!
Hector 🤓12:38 · 2022-06-29T05:01:44.906Z
Very nice. Anyone else get stuck on Green New Deal? I used the nudges, and would rate this very difficult, so 5.
Yeah, that was definitely what was throwing a lot of people - and I didn't even think of that but totally see that! Yeah, this is about as Level 4/5 as it gets, although kind of a weird split where the first step is more moderate (perhaps - getting the phrases that have the color), and the second makes you get inside my brain, which is weird!
Abide 2:07 · 2022-07-02T13:11:52.548Z
When I tested (without parentheses) that was my first “I’m stuck” part.
whimsy 🤓24:36 · 2022-06-29T05:10:04.930Z
Excellent! Although I was experiencing woozy's first step of it "just sitting there..." -- and needed nudge #6 to kick in for me. And as soon as I got the first 2 or 3 letters I was calling out what I wanted the next ones to be!
Thanks, whimsy! Always love your kind words - this was a doozy (so might agree woozy), and I'm hoping for some easier ones over the next couple of weeks!
Next two are going to be easier, I promise! I'll be working through more of your back catalog soon!!
Cindy Heisler 2s · 2022-06-29T20:46:57.378Z
I had the right idea, but needed some of the nudges to narrow it down. Very nice, Mikey. And again, I love your clues!
FrankieHeck 19:09 · 2022-06-29T21:23:18.429Z
This one really took my mind off the Gaffney meta this week! Needed nudge 7 to finish it. Some of my rabbit holes as I waited for nudges: Reading the poem being referenced in the clue for 23D...lots of colors mentioned in that poem! And reading about all the color phrases. "Painting the town red" originated from a MARQUIS, Mood Indigo is by DUKE Ellington, and Once in a Blue Moon was performed by EARL Thomas. I also found the letters to spell most of the colors in intriguing clusters in the grid. In the end, I knew I'd just have to wait for help on that final step. Fun as always.
Hector 🤓12:38 · 2022-06-30T02:55:51.176Z
TOWN WITHOUT PITY could be a town name minus the letters P I T Y. Take those from PEARL CITY (Hawaii) and you get EARL (the only other plausible one is RAPID CITY -> RAID). And has nobody mentioned "AL S." and "L. YONCE" in there (two muggle supersolvers)?
KayW 11:27 · 2022-06-30T01:16:06.756Z
Whew! Even with all the nudges this was a week 5 for me. I can't believe how long it took me to think of the ORANGE phrase LOL
Bird Lives 30s · 2022-07-01T02:53:18.800Z
Ingenious, but way over my head and out of my league.
"Fame" actress who you might ask to hurry up by saying "Come on, Irene"
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Orizzontali
1A
"Fame" actress who you might ask to hurry up by saying "Come on, Irene"
5A
World capital whose name comes from the Arabic for "roundness"
9A
Scorch
13A
Norwegian king (you at least know the first three letters)
14A
Crude organization (I'm hilarious)
15A
Canonized fifth-cen. pope who told Attila not to attack Rome, and then Attila was all like "Okay"
16A
1962 Gene Pitney song with refrain "No, it isn't very pretty what a [title] can do" (4)
19A
Wall, e.g.
20A
Location
21A
See 44-Down
22A
Just pitch it
24A
"Hey, you didn't shuffle the cards right!" "Come on, Mr. Roosevelt, you're always asking for a ___" (5)
26A
Bach's "Mass ___ Minor" (that was the answer to an impossible Gaffney meta a while back!)
29A
That's slick!
31A
Narrow inlet
32A
"Come on, I know where the puzzles can be found!" (5)
35A
Up, basically
39A
"This just in: tea prices are ___"
40A
"Blah blah blah"
42A
It launched April 1, 2004
43A
Some landscaping gizmo
45A
If you mismanage mine, you'll incur my Roth: Abbr.
47A
End of a problem?
48A
Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 1988's "Breathing Lessons" (4)
51A
Rank below marquis
54A
Capp, Pacino, and others
55A
Endure
58A
Michael who said "I knew exactly what to do. But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do"
60A
Number of even primes
62A
Baker, for one
64A
Quick star sightings?
66A
How you can experience your first crossword puzzle (5)
68A
Little worker
69A
"___ is me!" (Something I say often, as a Cubs fan)
70A
Puzzled interjections
71A
When you're in one, snit happens (2)
75A
Young fellows
78A
H
79A
Beige shade
81A
Give
85A
Climate change concern (2)
88A
In shape ("I'm in shape - a nice oval")
89A
This is on the house!
90A
"Glamour"-ous rival
91A
Sound of the energy going out of a room when I enter it
92A
Old Fords
93A
Golden ___
Verticali
1D
Beds in 22-Acrosses
2D
"Look at all these cars I bought!" "Wow, that's ___"
3D
[I'm such a scary dinosaur!]
4D
"Fried Green Tomatoes" director Jon
5D
"HOW ABOUT YOU COMPLETE THE TASK IMMEDIATELY THIS TIME"
6D
Choose
7D
Sarcastic chuckles
8D
You can toss it
9D
Indy 500 sponsor
10D
Skip over
11D
Some insurance company
12D
2015 World Series champion athlete who was the "king" of the baseball diamond that year, hint hint
15D
When the goulash wasn't ready for dinner yet, I was ___
17D
Teensy
18D
In ___ (not yet born)
23D
Magazine whose first issue in 1923 asserted, "There is a new kind of literature abroad in the land, whose only obvious fault is that no one can understand it"
25D
Dolphin featured in music video for Hootie and the Blowfish's "Only Wanna Be with You"
26D
Uncertainties
27D
G but not H, for example
28D
Ran in the wash
30D
1945 song written by Cahn and Styne amid a California heat wave
33D
They take care of suits
34D
Willing to listen
36D
Down, perhaps
37D
Top of the clock
38D
R&B group who admonished in 1994, "Don't go chasing waterfalls"
41D
Have a bawl
44D
21-Across, but with thymine replaced with uracil
46D
Copying
49D
"Don't Bring Me Down" and name this 1970s rock group led by songwriters Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood
50D
Website that was not initially created to sell Pez dispensers, despite the widely propagated myth
51D
PC panic button that I could use in real life, let me tell you
52D
Obamacare, at least initially
53D
CD-___, storage acronym few of my students have ever heard of (some haven't even heard of CDs)
56D
36-Down in public
57D
Engrave
59D
I was going to tell you a joke about infinity, but it would annoy ___
61D
Crosswordese carbon compound that, when spelled backward, means "solitary"
63D
Presidential nominee monogram that, when spelled backward, is a body of water (we're trying here, folks)
65D
You can have a share of it
67D
Intros
71D
Outdoes
72D
What a Dumas character
73D
Puts in stitches?
74D
"I need a hammer! I need a hammer! This is not a ___!"
76D
Grumpy coworker
77D
Scornful expression
80D
___ circle (trigonometry concept)
82D
Civil rights org. whose letters are in alphabetical order
83D
Starbucks size that's a bit of a misnomer (like I need to be more caffeinated)
84D
Sword that's 75% vowels
86D
What "y" becomes in plurals
87D
Test first given in 1942 by the U.S. Armed Forces Institute