meta less than zero
hello and welcome to episode #414 of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, “Head Games”. for this week 1 puzzle, matt challenges us to find a seven-letter word ending in a double letter. what’s the theme?
- {How an agitated person gets “worked” (1)} INTO A LATHER.
- {ACT Anti-Cavity or Crest Pro-Health (2)} FLUORIDE RINSE.
- {Emphasizing words (3)} LET ME REPEAT.
1-2-3, lather rinse repeat. we’re looking for shampoo, of course. i’m not sure this could be easier, but hey, it’s week 1. if you’re a friends fan, feel free to pretend i put a youtube link here to phoebe singing her “lather rinse repeat” song.
with only three medium-length theme answers, it’s a relatively unconstrained grid, and matt decided to open it up a little to only 72 words, low enough for a themeless. there’s lots of good stuff in the grid. let’s take a tour:
- {Country of tennis stars Mats Wilander and Stefan Edberg, and also of ABBA and Ikea and Volvo, and I forgot Bjorn Borg in the list of tennis players} SWEDEN. this clue made me laugh. but what about robin soderling? does anybody remember that decade where he was literally the only player ever to beat nadal at the french open?
- {___-Manuel Miranda (“Hamilton” playwright)} LIN. never heard of him/her. what’s “hamilton”?
- {“Whadja say?”} EXCUSE ME.
- {Top-grossing movie in the U.S. in 1992} ALADDIN. i did not know that!
- {Highly unusual, as weather} FREAKISH. i like this word. i don’t like freakish weather, though.
- {“___ and Cressida” (Shakespeare tragedy)} TROILUS. i have never seen or read this show, but i always appreciate a bit of high culture gracing the grid.
and just for funsies, there’s a quartet of Q’s lined up in a diagonal like a win in connect 4 (but not in 21a, HI-Q). i suspect this is why matt included a few cheaters (producing those 2×2 black squares at the top and bottom of the grid), but those certainly didn’t distract me while solving.
I think this is the quickest I’ve ever got a MGWCC- INTO A LATHER came really early into the solve. I checked the other theme clues and immediately submitted the answer. I thought I might have even been first, but had to settle for third. Makes up for the last 2 weeks which killed me.
Nice trolling, joon. I finally saw “Hamilton” last week and it’s as good as they say. It references “South Pacific” several times, although not the famous SHAMPOOing scene.
and you had to come here to rub it in? ;) man, i’m jealous.
I had to buy the tickets in October, and sit in the back row of the mezzanine, but still worth it!
Thanks, Joon — 483 right answers this week.
Soderling kind of a jerk sometimes…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvJlyvAXEAc
I did get distracted by the QQQQ. I eventually got past it, but it took me longer than a typical week 1.
Those instructions are rather wasteful. So here’s how washing your head should go:
1) x=0
2) Lather
3) Rinse
4) x=x+1
5) if x = 1 go to 2
if x > 1 go to 6
6) end
Or maybe
x=0
while x< 1 do
Lather
Rinse
x=x+1
endwhile
end
for i in 0..<2 {
lather()
rinse()
}
OK, I know this is hard to believe but I’m going to be pedantic on a crosswords blog. My above code would throw a compiler warning.
for _ in 0..<2 {
lather()
rinse()
}
Shampoo for my real friends, …
This took me forever, because I’d forgotten how standard crossword themes work. Also, my shampoo instructions say: “Apply to damp hair. Leave in three minutes. Rinse with lukewarm water.” (And I still haven’t figured out where I’m supposed to go when I leave.)
I’ve always liked that the French word is SHAMPOOING so when I’m at a hotel in Canada and the bilingual product labels, I can shampoo with shampooing. Or am I shampooing with shampoo?