I got it after one mistake, but. Like you, I got yellow and green first, then I thought there’s no way in hell that “extra virgin olive oil” is a category in and of itself and, besides, that would be at most a green-level category, but more likely a yellow. I mean, it’s the first damned thing I saw, but I don’t think I’ve come across a category that is literally the category answers themselves.
With the purple, the funny thing is just two hours ago I was listening to a podcast that mentioned “The Shining,” but I have no memory of the hedge maze in it. I couldn’t think of anything related to “hedge maze.”
Oh, dear do I. I was so politely using that a teaching moment to explain to my daughter what a “red herring” was, only to realize before I ran out of chances that was not at all a red herring – Oh, wait. I didn’t realize that was the category name, as well. I thought the category was something or another about Wizard of Oz. So I guess I have seen it before, just not paid enough attention.
The 2024 Wicked movie is part one of two, so it’s the first in a series all in its own. I got that category just thinking ‘one word movie titles’ because those bug me a little and I notice them.
People today was pretty obvious, but I still got it last.
I saw ___ HOUSE right away, but there were five of them, so it had to wait. And I thought the movie titles might be a red herring. But I got yellow and green in short order, and the others fell in right behind. Pretty quick one for me today too.
Given you were complaining about the title of the Strands puzzle a few weeks ago, I wanted to draw your attention to today’s Strands puzzle. Unlike the previous one, this one was quite literal.
The title was Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, the spangram was Frost poem and the remaining words were from the title poem.
I did very well with the Hangdog puzzle. I’m surprised how few people have heard of that word, I thought it was commonly known. Maybe it’s a bit outdated.
I got blue and yellow straight off. I had to take a pause and come back to the rest because there were so many food adjacent terms - CHICKEN & BUTTER obviously, but also gumbo FILÉ, BUFFalo wings, GRINDer, SANDwich, STICKY rice, LADY fingers - which was actually correct.