We know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "sweet and noxious? First guess is that it's probably meth." But our best friend lived in a warehouse in San Francisco for a while, and confirmed that the smell is not the smell of meth, so cross that one off your list.
The smell comes and goes. It has no locus, no point of smellular focus. It's been worse since the heat came on. It's kindof ammonia-y. But sweet, too. Our sublet ends at the end of March, at which point we'll probably paint over the triceratops on our wall and move somewhere else. Hopefully to a less smelly unit within the building, but who knows, Dear Readers. We must listen to our nose. The nose knows.
This post goes live after January 11th, per request + suggestion from Dear Reader William. Our first, un-evolved reaction to Dear William's comment was, "o WOT-EVR, guy! You're not the boss!" and also, "Rex posts answers to the NYTimes puzz whenever the haaaaaaayle he wants, so why don't you back off!!!" And if our Dear Reader's comment had caught us in the last hot hey-days of our 20s we may have insisted on posting when we completed this puzzle and not a day later. Just to show you [show you all].
But as of last September our 20s are behind us. We're a mature woman now. Welcome to 30. And we realized, of course! The monthly contest (!). And the prize: one's name in tiny tiny print in the footer of the puzzle!
Are we such a jerk that we would sabotage everyone's good time with the cryptic, no. We are not such a jerk. Thank you, Dear William. Thank you for saving us from our ourself.
This month's theme! Lucky 13! Theme answers paired with "13," except for 13D which was "THIRTEEN" (appropriate).
And now it is time for you to ask us if we know that "triskaidekaphobia" means "fear of the number 13." Yes, we know that. Everyone knows that. "triskaidekaphobia" is the "Jewel lived in a van" of fears. Like how any reference to Jewel initiates the following conversational pageant:
"[something something] Jewel ... "
"Do you know Jewel lived in a van?"
"Yes, I know she lived in a van."
"Oh, ok."
"[something something] 13 ... "
"Do you know that 'triskaidekaphobia' means 'fear of the number 13'?"
"Yes, I know that."
"Oh, ok."
Also, and here's something weird about the theme: the instructions say "ten entries are unclued. One is self-defined; the other nine are related to it." But we count eleven unclued answers. We counted several times. Let's count them again using an ordered list in HTML (robots don't lie):
- 1A) [thirteen] COLONIES
- 15A) [thirteen] GHOSTS
- 20A) [thirteen] DAYS
- 23A) [thirteen] PRINCIPLES
It's a Maimonides thing.
- 37A) UNLUCKY NUMBER [thirteen]
- 40A) [thirteen] CLOCKS
Aiii! One of our favorite books! Hell yah.
- 43A) [thirteen] MOONS
We kinda thought this answer'd be a reference to the lunar Islamic calendar (13 moons to a year) but it's a low-budge Sam Rockwell film from 2002. Sam Rockwell Sam Rockwell. Sam Rockwell. No, we haven't seen Moon yet. You're going to have to sit us down and make us. Yes, we love Sam Rockwell. Yes, we agree we're probably going to love Moon. - 7D) CHANNEL [thirteen]
Like a generic Channel 13? Is there a famous one?
edit! Dear Reader Mister Christopher writes:Re: Tacky Harper's Cryptic Clues -- Channel 13 may refer to NYC's Channel 13 (WNET): "THIRTEEN is the flagship public media entity of the NYC Tri-state area and the most-watched public TV channel in the nation." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WNET
Of carse!!!! New York City chauvinism we might have suspected as much! - 10D) [thirteen] PALMS
Ok what the hayyyyck does this one refer to? This closed hotel named "13 Palms"?
- 13D) THIRTEEN (mentioned previously)
- 30D) OCEAN'S [thirteen]
Our favorite Ocean's reference is the swapped gender fan fiction spec'ed out by Mindy Kaling in 2009:
Highlights!
- 12A) A pixy has terrible trouble making pants? (8)
A PIXY HAS * anagram = ASPHYXIA
- 18A) Need an outrageous group like the Supreme Court? (6)
(Need an) * anagram = ENNEAD
Second, and this particularly appeals to our Freudian sensibilities, it identifies a specific fear from early childhood that each person builds a personality around. Check it out, Dear Readers. It was an Enneagram 5 who inspired this blog to begin with.
- 26D) Diana with a German accent goes topless (8)
(German = HUN) + (accent = STRESS (topless)) = HUNTRESS
- 39D) Butcher's offering two-time loser something really small (4)
(Butcher's offering = MUTTON) + (two (time = T) * (loser = -)) = MUON
Lowlights!
- 13A) Sadly, inertia takes over an indefinite number in multiyear cycles
(INERTIA + (indefinite number = N)) * anagram = TRIENNIA
- 14A) Chicken not eaten? What a drag! (4)
(Chicken = PULLET) - (eaten = ET) = PULL
Suspected PULLET → PULL for several rounds, but couldn't parse how to pick out the ET. Then it came to us. Then we felt waves of meh all over. Also, every example sentence we could think of that uses the word "et" also uses the word "mama," or in some cases "papa." We suspect that this indicates something awful about ourself that we rarely care to examine. We move on.
-
19A) I'm in ship covering low Desert Storm occurrences (7)
(ship = S) (low = MOO) IM = SIMOOMS
- 42A) Mounts Sinai, Cervino, Everest, initially, and southern surrounding (7)
(and * surrounding) S C E + (southern = S) = ASCENDS
- 2D) Almost fat Roman god (3)
(fat = LARD) * almost = LAR
-
5D) Slaves, but in a bad sense (5)
SENSE * anagram = ESNES
- 35D) Bubbly entrepreneur speaks of not speaking (4)
MUMM (homophone)
With that first letter capped off and isolated there in the puzzle, we thought the answer was "DUMM" instead of "MUMM" and that "Dumm" was probably a kind of champagne from some dumb French family. We don't know things about champagnes, except that some people like to get uptight about champagne-is-only-from-Champagne. We lacked this particular content knowledge, and therefore, did not like this clue.
Dear Readers new to this blog can know: "Lowlights" = "we didn't like it!" Yet another case in point of blanket statements about the universal nearly always a mask for the individual-personal. cf "Dads are like that" = "my dad is like that"
At last, we come to this month's tacky clue:
- 11A) Old, like a tart? So they say! (5)
(like a tart = WHOREY) * homophone = HOARY
"whorey." Word? No. Not a word. "Should I wear this dress?" "It's kinda ... whorey ... " "Perfect!"
Also, Maltby, why you gotta bring in a word that casts a negative light on an active and variegated sex life? We say this, even though one of our favorite words is "slutty." Just the other month we were in the Bahamas hanging out with a fat black cat who was a total slut for affection. "C'mere, you fat slut," we said, and considered that eavesdroppers might think we were fat shaming, or slut shaming.
But no. We were fat loving. We were slut loving.
This clue reminds us of something we probably heard in a movie once: "in France, no whore is too old or too ugly." Which, like this clue, comes off as vaguely misogynist and sex-negative. Let's talk about the physical characteristics of the people seeking French prostitutes. What do you believe you are owed, French prostitute-seeking people of the world?
Dear 11A), we pronounce thee tacky and crude—moreso in the wordplay than in the reference, even.