Rex Parker is not amused:
Look, I voted for him twice...Me too!
... but this is not a very good puzzle and if I said it was I would get dragged from here to Natick* and back because it's manifestly not. It's a vanity-theme puzzle masquerading as a Friday themeless. You wanna make a puzzle, make a *puzzle*—not whatever this winky, self-congratulatory thing is. It's not a satisfying themed puzzle, and it's really not a satisfying themeless. Neither fish nor fowl. Slightly inedible.Try chewing on it more.
I guess I briefly enjoyed noticing the Fleetwood Mac lyrics that are so closely associated with this puzzle's co-author's 1992 presidential campaign.I did the puzzle last night and didn't even notice. And I took the time to wonder why the mundane word pair "Thinking About" deserved the place of prominence in the center of the grid. I might have briefly thought why is Bill Clinton prodding me with "chewing on"? How is that a good idea? Does he want to remind us of the most famous blow job in the history of the world? Does he want me to think of the cigar? One chews on a cigar.... must I think of the most famous penis substitute in the history of the world and the strange reciprocity of using something he has chewed on?
But don't think about that. Remember the good times.
Chelsea was a darling teen, learning to clap to the beat. Michael Jackson was alive. Hillary almost didn't need 2 people to hoist her up the steps. Yesterday's gone. Yesterday's gone.
_______________________
* Natick is a town in Massachusetts and a Rex-Parker coinage that refers to a square in a crossword that is obscure whether you go by the across clue or the down clue. The coinage dates back to a puzzle that had "Natick" as the answer in one direction (clued: "Town at the eighth mile of the Boston Marathon") and in the other direction — "N.C. Wyeth" (clued: "'Treasure Island' illustrator, 1911") — crossing at the "n," ridiculously resistant to guessing because an initial in a name could be any letter.
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43 comments:
Huh...Fleetwood Mac and Cheese
What's next for the Clintons and the NYT? Does Hillary cover a Yankees game? Is sycophant the right word? Was that in the puzzle?
Hillary wearing a dress? How ancient!
Natick being on the Boston Marathon route is in MA not CT.
Four letter word beginning and ending with d describing Will Weng.
Imus clue one morning in the 90s.
Doesn't calling Clinton the "co-author" imply that he had some input into writing it?
Does anyone believe that he had anything to do with this other than letting his name be used?
John Henry
Does anyone believe that he had anything to do with this other than letting his name be used?
He started working on it the moment he left office. Now it's finally done.
Is there anything the Wonderful Clinton Family can't do! (Gazes at picture of Bill and Hillary adoringly).
Was "put some ice on that" on there?
What about "I did not have sex with that woman"
Or - media-ignored "Russian Uranium profits"?
How many puzzles must a man complete
Before you can call him a man?
How many cigars must a white intern accept
Before she sleeps on the couch?
Yes, how many times must the bullshit fly
Before it's forever banned?
The answer my friend is on page 42
The answer is is on page 42.
Folks who call millennials narcissistic just need to look at the Clintons. The quintessence of boomer self-love. Where do you think this self-centered pathology came from?
"Stephanopolis Foundation Donation"?
25 years ago for the Clinton storm? Hard to believe!
In 1992, there was no internet. It was all ABC, NBC, CBS, with a fledging CNN. The NYTimes ruled the journalistic roost. Rush Limbaugh was just getting started.
The Dems were sick of "12 years of Republican neglect" (Reagan, Reagan, Bush).
But Bush was wildly popular for his perceived success in the Gulf War. So, most major Dems begged off running against him. If you can believe it, an obscure former Senator from Mass, Paul Tsongas, won the Dem primary in New Hampshire.
In this context, Slick Willie rose to the forefront, like a young Elvis, tantalizing us as a "New Democrat", a pro-choice, moderate Southerner, who could bullshit with the best. With an assist from Ross Perot (who garnered 19% of the popular vote) and an assist from Pat Buchanan, who dogged Bush in the primaries, Clinton snuck by with 43% to win a plurality.
And with Hillary, we got 2 for the price of 1. And we didn't stop thinking about tomorrow! Fun times.
Perot handed us the Clintons. Thanks for nothing, jerk.
I was looking forward to clicking on the "N.C. Wyeth" tag to see what else it turned up in Althouse World, but there wasn't a tag.
Mildly surprised.
Googling it, I find it brings up an Althouse Post about Chelsea Clinton and her children's book, but it is a commenter who mentions the name.
Even more mildly surprised.
I am Laslo.
Hillary's 2016 presidential election website is still up and still soliciting donations. Interesting grouping of identities on there to 'Vote Together' for Hillary:
African Americans for Hillary
Latinos for Hillary
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders for Hillary
Women for Hillary
Millennials for Hillary
Missing? Men for Hillary. Whites for Hillary. Lower Middle Class for Hillary. Midwest for Hillary. All the groups that cost her the election.
I would love to never, ever, hear her name again.
Given all the Trump news of course this would be Ann's first post of the day. Trump just tweeted that given how busy his administration is we shouldn't expect him/them to be accurate. Can you imagine Ann's reaction to that if Hillary or Obama wrote that? It would be a two week scandal. For Trump it is now the expected norm.
When Trump said last year that he could murder someone in the middle of 5th Avenue during broad daylight and his followers woundn't care, he was referring specifically to Ann Althouse.
I want to see Trump be the guest editor of the Food section. That would give them something to chew on. And let W write the lead editorial in full-flow Texan. Barry can do the Architecture page with a story on his new 180 foot fried chicken box and golf course in Jackson (soon to be Obama? Nah. Let's call it Rosa) Park.
Natick is in Massachusetts, not Connecticut. You Delaware people are geographically retarded.
Once written predictably shows up to scold Althouse.
Your huffing and puffing does not seem to have much of an effect.
Did you know that Trump had 2 scoops of ice cream yesterday?
CNN reported it!
Clearly, the man is unfit for office!
"Natick being on the Boston Marathon route is in MA not CT."
Good point.
Fixed.
It sounds like a Connecticut name to me for some reason.
How many times is the word "is" used in this puzzle? I seem to recall being told there are many definitions.
Rene Saunce said...
Was "put some ice on that" on there?
What about "I did not have sex with that woman"
Or - media-ignored "Russian Uranium profits"?
How about "bimbo eruptions?"
Speaking of lying liars who lie, hack press caught lying again.
It’s Finally Confirmed: Rod Rosenstein Says He is Not Resigning and Never Threatened To
Hillary apparently has had neurological deficit for a long time
"Seth Rich was a disgruntled leaker, which is why he's dead"... Is that on there?
Chelsea was a darling teen, learning to clap to the beat.
Is there anything she can't do?
I denounce Michael Jackson (that NAME again!) for cultural appropriation. Just think, back then we didn't know that cultural appropriation was bad, we needed 100,000 cops on the street, and even Jesse Jackson (AGAIN!) and Al Sharpton thought drug dealers belonged in jail. And, as the Bunkers used to sing, "And you knew where you were the/ Girls were girls and men were men." Ah, those were the days.
Bill Clinton was the first president I despised simply because he was a Democrat. He revealed how partisan and tribal I can be. As the years went along I grudgingly admitted he actually helped my ideological causes in many ways. I can't hate the guy because there's something real and comical about him. I will never be able to say the same about Obama ... I don't think.
White people learning to clap to the beat is cultural appropriation.
Love the N.C. Weyeth illustration. What a magnificent artist.
As long as the Clintons are alive, yesterday's never gone.
Coming into work this morning I spied two bumper stickers on a truck:
"50% of all Trump supporters are deplorable"
"50% of all Hillary supporters are deportable"
Clue: What some use to wipe a server
Answer: rag
I haven't been able to comfortably listen to a Fleetwood Mac song since 1992.
Sometimes a crossword puzzle is just a crossword puzzle.
Hillary almost didn't need 2 people to hoist her up the steps.
Mook said she was helping those two guys get up the stairs
How many young voters have no clue about Bill?
Clinton From the Starr Report .
After this Easter Sunday conversation, the President and Ms. Lewinsky had a sexual encounter in the hallway, according to Ms. Lewinsky.(318) She testified that the President touched her breasts with his mouth and hands.(319) According to Ms. Lewinsky: "I think he unzipped [his pants] . . . because it was sort of this running joke that I could never unbutton his pants, that I just had trouble with it."(320) Ms. Lewinsky performed oral sex. The President did not ejaculate in her presence.(321)
During this encounter, someone called out from the Oval Office that the President had a phone call.(322) He went back to the Oval Office for a moment, then took the call in the study. The President indicated that Ms. Lewinsky should perform oral sex while he talked on the phone, and she obliged.(323) The telephone conversation was about politics, and Ms. Lewinsky thought the caller might be Dick Morris.(324) White House records confirm that the President had one telephone call during Ms. Lewinsky's visit: from "Mr. Richard Morris," to whom he talked from 5:11 to 5:20 p.m.(325)
I remember being a young X'er, contemptuous of the narcissistic Boomers with their first president and his wife that they thought were so young and hip despite how old and lame they were, flogging their theme song that I liked to call: "Don't stop thinking about 1975."
This video is without a doubt the whitest thing I have ever seen. From Chelsea struggling to find the beat, Hillary refusing to dance because the human body is icky, Fleetwood Mac performing their least-swinging, most-plodding song, Michael Jackson looking like an ad for a skin-whitening product and wearing some kind of teutonic arm band, and finally the relief of a bunch of actual black people sent in to rescue all the white people from their unfunky disaster. I guess everything they say about the evils of cultural appropriation is right after all.
(World Famous Lurker says....)
The painting at the end of the post depicts a scene from RLS's Treasure Island. That book has a place in my heart as I was practically forced to read it when I was 7 years old, on a rainy afternoon, after complaining to my mom that I was bored. It was the first time a book had swept me away into another world, and it helped spark a lifelong love of reading.The boy Jim is being dragged around by the (in)famous Long John Silver.
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