Is It Me?
... or is the Times puzzle getting racier by the second? I went to see if SPERMBANK had ever made an appearance before, but I can't log into cruciverb.com. And then there's SCAG, a (previously unknown to me) slang term for heroin. Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I, for one, feel the crossword universe is a little too sheltered and benefits from real-life intrusions.
posted by DO at 7:41 AM
3 Comments:
There are 7 SPERMs in the database, all clued as a kind of
whale. (There's also GIVESPERMISSIONTO, which could have given pause to solvers as it was being filled in, and LEARNERSPERM, which sadly parses as Learner's perm). After all the OVAs, it seems only fitting that SPERM would wriggle into a puzzle in its own right. I think it helps that it was SPERMBANK. Being frozen helps it pass the famous breakfastworthiness test.
I first came in contact with it in 1977 from The Clash:
"I'm So Bored With the USA"
I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.
(Strummer/Jones)
Yankee soldier
He wanna shoot some skag
He met it in Cambodia
But now he can't afford a bag
Yankee dollar talk
To the dictators of the world
In fact it's giving orders
An' they can't afford to miss a word
I'm so bored with the U...S...A...
But what can I do?
Note British spelling. Every time since I've seen it in print, it's been skag.
Keith
Don't miss the 4/3 NYTimes puzzles for further evidence. 43 Down made me do a double take.
Byron
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