— a [BRIDGE] rebus where you have [BRIDGE] in a single square in one direction, which represents the
of a letter in the other direction. Then you've got shaded squares that go "under" the [BRIDGE]—those squares spell out bodies of water, with the [BRIDGE] "covering" one of the letters in each case ... take all *those* letters together, top to bottom, and you get
Theme answers:- CAM[BRIDGE] UNIVERSITY / SN [
B] OG ("bridge" covers "B" from BOG) - URBA [
Y] N ART / BURNED [BRIDGE]S ("bridge" covers "Y" from BAY) - SO [
G] ULFULLY / A[BRIDGE]D TEXT ("bridge" covers "G" from GULF) - "OF MI [
O] CE AND MEN" / BUILDS [BRIDGE]S ("bridge" covers "O" from OCEAN) - "HELLA GOO [
N] D" / LLOYD [BRIDGE]S ("bridge" covers "N" from LAGOON) - "ALAK [
E] AZAM!" / A [BRIDGE] TOO FAR ("bridge" covers "E" from LAKE) - WATER UNDER THE [BRIDGE] / ID [
S] EA ("bridge" covers the "S" from SEA)
Word of the Day: DEL TACO (
94A: Fast-food chain with a sunrise in its logo) —
Del Taco Restaurants, Inc. is an American fast-food restaurant chain that specializes in American-style Mexican cuisine, as well as American foods such as burgers, fries and shakes. Del Taco is led by Brand President Tom Rose, and is headquartered in Lake Forest, California. On December 6, 2021, Jack in the Box announced it was acquiring Del Taco for $12.51 per share. The acquisition was finalized in March 2022. Del Taco has approximately 600 locations in 16 US states. // The chain operates in 15 US states, 1 US Territory (Guam), and had 594 locations as of May 1, 2023. The majority of their restaurants are in California. Del Taco also operates in several other states, including Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah and Washington. The company has a handful of locations east of the Mississippi. // Las Vegas, Nevada, has the most Del Tacos of any single city, and California has the most Del Tacos of any state. (wikipedia)
• • •
Wow. I can't tell if I'd've liked this more or less if I'd actually had the shaded squares and little "bridge" icons in my puzzle. My software did not alert me to any issues, and when I discovered (early) that there were [BRIDGE] squares that played as blanks in the other direction, well, I had no reason to expect that I was missing anything. I figured all would become clear with the revealer. Only the revealer made nothing clear (I was looking for names of rivers literally "under" the [BRIDGE] squares, to no avail), and then the
BYGONES answer came along and things were even less clear. So after I finished the puzzle, I headed over to the NYT site to see what I was missing and ... again, wow. This is some elaborate nonsense. So the "bridges" go over nothing, from a regular solving standpoint ... but that nothing is also a something, if you imagine bodies of water literally running under the [BRIDGES] ... and those "somethings," taken all together, give you ... the standalone word
BYGONES? Which is "apt" by inference? Am I getting this right? Also, please direct me to the [BRIDGE] that goes over a damn OCEAN!? Also also, when's the last time you took a bridge over a ... bog!? A bog? LOL "bog" beat out "stream,""creek,""canal," and god knows how many other plausible water features. Bog? So, enormous sea- and ocean-crossing bridges, and also a bog bridge. From a purely infrastructural standpoint, his theme is ludicrous. And yet it's so elaborate. So much effort and complication to arrive at ... Where?
BYGONES? Truly, a bridge to nowhere.
LOL, still not over "bog." Sigh, OK, what else? I don't know. Once you pick up the [BRIDGE] bit (which I imagine was *pretty easy* when you've got literal bridges printed on your grid), there's not much trickiness left. You gotta navigate (!) your way through some awkward semi-bygone (!!) slang like
DOT BOMB and
DUDEBRO and "
HEY, BUD" ... and some absolutely painful non-terms like
DETAG (101D: Unlink from a social media post, say).
WHAT!? (100D: "Are you serious?!"). What the hell!?!?! Come on, that has
got to be UNTAG, right? Yes, it
Definitely Is UNTAG. Who authorized
DETAG!?
YEESH x 1000. And then
IN CREOLE!?!?! Are we just doing "IN [any language]" now? That seems ... well, bad. And then, holy moly,
ASAGUIDE!?! LOL, it's a debut! Welcome to the wordlists of the world,
ASAGUIDE! I hope you enjoy tempting future constructors with your absolute terribleness. "Hey, try me, I was in the Times puzzle once!" Ugh and oof and why would you
debut this manifestly awful prepositional phrase. AS A WHOLE, AS A RULE, those are AS A phrases that I can accept. But
AS A GUIDE? Especially as clued (
119A: How ancient mariners relied on the stars), just clunky garbage. And *long* garbage as well. Eight letters' worth.
AS A GUIDE sits directly atop
BYGONES and ... let's hope so. Remember the "Dora the Explorer" episode where Dora met Isaac
ASAGUIDE? Me either!
["... and the Sultans play Creole ... Creole"]
What needs explaining? Well, first of all, I needed to explain to myself how in the hell
SIXTY worked as the answer for
71A: Count on one hand? I am assuming that
SIXTY is the "count" (i.e. number) of minutes (or seconds) on a watch "hand." Do not correct me if I am wrong—I like my interpretation, and I fear your interpretation, however correct, will only be disappointing and possibly stupid(er). Did you do UEY before
UIE? T-BILLS before
T-BONDS? Was that fun? Was it? (whether you flubbed those are not, neither is in any way "fun"). I had the "Arabian Nights" prince as AMAHL (because of "
AMAHL and the Night Visitors," I think) (
80D: "Arabian Nights" prince => AHMED), and I had Donald Duck working for the O.S.S. (
43A: Org. that employed W.W. II-era Donald Duck as a spokesperson => IRS). Hey, how come the puzzle routinely calls the AFLAC duck a "spokesduck" but not Donald Duck here. Why is Donald a "spokes
person?" Is it 'cause he talks? The AFLAC duck talks. Sure, all he can say is "AFLAC!" but talking is talking and he talks. It's canon. Anyway, I demand duck equality. If it speaks like a duck ... "Spokesduck." No, I will not, as the puzzle title suggests I should, "Get Over It."
You know what was good? The BRAS clue (12A: They may be wireless). True, no one calls non-underwire BRAS that, but it's accurate enough, and a very nice misdirection. I wonder if anyone got that answer and thought "Wait ... they have SmartBRAS now?" (I mean, they probably do, but again, as with so many things, I don't really want to know). I think it's time to move on now to the much more delightful portion of this Holiday Season blog post ... that's right, it's More Holiday Pet Pics (submitted by you, the readers). Here's Thunder puppy trying to figure how to dreidel without opposable thumbs. Keep at it, Thunder!
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| [Thanks, Jennie] |
And two more festive pooches, Lady Bird and Rory (unrelated ... though their owners' names sure sound alike: Moira and Moya, respectively!)
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| [Thanks, Moira] |
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| [Thanks, Moya] |
Here's another child / animal / tree trifecta featuring Mae (human!) and Connie (canine!) and ... well, unnamed, probably (tree!)
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| [Thank you, Laurie :)] |
And two more Christmas kitties, both belonging to Kathy (thanks, Kathy):
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| [Coco! Another Ornament Kitty] |
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| [Buttercup! Another Christmas Present Kitty!] |
And finally, there's Oliver, to whom this entire Holiday Pet Pics segment is dedicated. On the first day I asked for pet pics, I got ... this:
That's Oliver, dressed as God Knows What. A llama? A sheep? Something like that. Anyway, two days later, I got this:
Hi, Mr. Parker!
My wife, Courtney [W.], submitted a photo of our cat Oliver in the last day or two. Oliver died yesterday, and part of her cat grief has been to regularly check your blog to see if her photo was posted. Sometimes its the little things? 🙂
This would be moving under any circumstance, but the fact that I lost my own cat just last year around this time, and the fact that that cat's name was Olive (!), made this loss especially poignant to me. So I just wanted to say how sorry I am, Courtney. Here's a special little slide show of your sweet baby. RIP Oliver:
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| ["WHAT!?"] |
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| [Crosspaws! Very serious! His decision is final! Court adjourned!] |
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. my wife just walked in with her finished puzzle and said "I don't know where to start... 'BOG'!? [mutual sincere laughter] ... And
MASH IN? [long explanation of why that clue is wrong] You're gonna get mail about that one" (
25A: Add, as cilantro to guacamole). Me: "I know, I know, I've got 'NO' written next to that one, but I just didn't have the energy to write about it. I only have time for so much nonsense, and dealing with
ASAGUIDE took half of it ..."
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