62A: Claudia _ Taylor (Lady Bird Johnson) ( ALTA) - I'm sure I've seen this clue before, but I completely forgot the answer.57A: Parting words from Donald Trump (' YOU'RE FIRED!').49A: Parting words from the von Trapps (' SO LONG, FAREWELL.').34A: Parting words from the Terminator (' I'LL BE BACK').23A: Parting words from the Lone Ranger (' HIYO SILVER AWAY!').17A: Parting words from the Everly Brothers (' BYE BYE LOVE').I would list all the bad short stuff, but I haven't got it in me right now. The gangly crosswordese of ECARTE ( 28A: Card game for two) over SAXE was the epicenter of bad, but the bad spread all over, especially strongly from the OER/AER crossing down to the far SW corner and the plural of the word no one likes in the singular: ADES. Bigger problem was the fill, which was really subpar.

Trump is firing *you* - he's not going anywhere (' YOU'RE FIRED!'). song (' SO LONG, FAREWELL.'), one is involves a metaphorical parting of an abstract concept (' BYE BYE, LOVE') and the last has nothing to do with the speaker's parting. Some of them are real 'parting words' (' HIYO SILVER AWAY!' / ' I'LL BE BACK'), one is part of a longer parting. I think the theme is a really cute idea, but it's also really inconsistent. Decorum will be observed! Seriously, my grandma is a force of nature, and a tough broad, and I have incredible respect and love for her.Īs for the puzzle - didn't much care for it. I crossed the room to say 'hi' and 'happy birthday' and give her a hug, and I didn't even make it within hugging distance before she exclaimed, 'Take that cap off! I don't allow that.' Thus, caught somewhere between embarrassment and laughter, I said 'OK' and walked penitently to the outer hall, where I hung the offending item of apparel with my coat, thinking 'man, grandma does not &*$% around.' No wonder her whole family (excluding me, apparently) turned out so incredibly kind and polite and generous and well-behaved.

Oh, one last thing - perhaps my favorite moment of the weekend was seeing my grandma at her 90th birthday. I was going to ask my wife why they were so delicious and before I could get the question out of my mouth, she said 'butter.' 'Mmm, butter.' OK, I'm drifting away into random anecdote land now, so I'll get to the puzzle and promise you slightly more coherence tomorrow. Here's the short version: I saw the whole of my mom's side of the family everyone was lovely my grandma is beyond awesome and I'm not sure I believe she's actually 90 - her little house is filled with arts and crafts of her making, all of it legitimately appealing and not just 'pretty good for a grandma with spare time on her hands.' And her scones. Lots of pictures, many of them crossword-related. So this will be brief, and I'll regale you with tales of my weekend trip to Idaho (for my grandma's 90th birthday) tomorrow. I got in very late last night (1:30am) and now it's 8am-ish and I'm running on reserve battery power, and precious little of that.

Parting word crossword nytimes