#Erik Agard

[transmutationisms]

i genuinely love erik agard's crosswords he's a great cluer but every time i do one and become delighted by like the tiniest transgression against broadsheet decency standards ("unwind after packing?" -> SMOKE A BOWL) im also like wow it's so sad crosswording is SO conservative that this stood out to me to this extent lol. my fault for relying too heavily on puzzles printed in legacy media but tbf most truly indie puzzles are, well, bad. on account of it is actually a really difficult and time-consuming skill to learn and it's hard to get paid for it outside of such institutional settings :-(

[wausaupilot]

Democratic lawmakers roll out new push to legalize marijuana

Should marijuana be legal in Wisconsin?

by Erik Gunn, Wisconsin Examiner September 25, 2023 With a Dane County hemp farm as a backdrop, Sen. Melissa Agard (D-Madison) renewed her campaign Friday to sell Wisconsin lawmakers on legalizing recreational cannabis for adults. “There was a time when alcohol was prohibited in Wisconsin and across our nation, and there was a time when margarine was prohibited,” Agard said at a press conference…

[antonio-velardo]

Antonio Velardo shares: Wow, That’s Upside Down! by Deb Amlen

By Deb Amlen This puzzle by Erik Agard will make you hungry. Published: August 16, 2023 at 10:00PM from NYT Gameplay https://ift.tt/Evpd6Ui via IFTTT

[puzzlenation]

Crossword Tournament From Your Couch Recap!

In today's blog post, we recap last week's marvelous Crossword Tournament From Your Couch! #couchword

This past weekend was supposed to be the 43rd year of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, but that event was postponed due to the ongoing public health crisis.

But something amazing arose from the ashes of those plans. A small, intrepid group of puzzlers worked night and day for more than a week, bringing an at-home crossword tournament to life: Crossword Tournament From Your Couch. (AKA #…

[dukereviewsmovies]

Duke Reviews: Thor: The Dark World

Hello, I'm Andrew Leduc And Welcome To Duke Reviews Where We're Continuing Our Look At The Marvel Cinematic Universe....

Where Today We're Looking At The Second Outing With The God Of Thunder, With Thor: The Dark World...

This Film Sees Thor Teaming Up With His Evil Brother, Loki To Save Both The Nine Realms And Jane Foster From The Grip Of Malekith (Played By The Ninth Doctor)

And His Dark Elves Who Intend To Use A Weapon Called The Aether (Or To Put It Bluntly The Reality Stone) To Plunge The Universe Into Eternal Darkness, Will The Two Feuding Brothers Be Able To Work Together To Stop This Evil, Or Will Loki Turn On His Brother And Side With Malekith?

Let's Find Out As We Watch Thor: The Dark World...

We Start Our Film With Another Introduction From Odin...

(Start At 0:32)

Starting Shortly After The End Of The Avengers, We See Loki Arriving In Odin's Chambers Where He Sentences Him To Spend The Rest Of His Days In The Dungeons Of Asgard...

Meanwhile On The Planet Of Anaheim (Correction: Vanaheim, The Warriors Three And Sif Fight To Restore Order To The Planet But The Odds Soon Change When Thor Arrives...

(Start At 2:58, End At 4:53)

That's Zachary Levi By The Way, Replacing Josh Dallas As Fandral...

So, In Other Words They Replaced Prince Charming With Flynn Ryder...

Deciding To Stay To Help His Homeworld Rebuild, Thor Says Goodbye To Hogun As Him, The Other Warriors And Sif, Return To Asgard...

Thanking Thor For Returning Order To The Nine Realms, Odin Still Senses That Thor Has Feelings For Jane Foster, Simply Telling Him That She's Just A Human And He Should Look At What's In Front Of Him (Meaning Sif) And That He Should Revel In Their Victory...

But Despite Seeing His Friends Celebrate And Trying A Go At A Possible Relationship With Sif, Thor Still Can't Move On From Jane Even Though She's Already Moved On With The Cop From Bridesmaids...

However, Their Date Is Interrupted By Jane's Assistant, Darcy, Shows Her Some Readings That Is Coming From One Of Her Scientific Devices As Darcy Believes It To Be The Same Readings That Erik Selvig Discovered Weeks Ago Before Being Locked In A Mental Asylum...

But Despite Telling Darcy That She's Not Interested And To Beat It, Bridesmaids Tells Her To Go After Her And So, Jane Does...

Getting In Darcy's Car, Jane Meets Darcy's Assistant (Which She's Not Supposed To Have) As They Drive To The Location Where The Phenomenon Is Happening...

Confronted By 3 Kids They Show, Jane, Darcy And Darcy's Assistant It As They Not Only Lift Up A Truck Like It's Nothing, But They Throw Down A Bottle Only For It To Disappear At One Portal And Reappear At Another Portal At The Top Of The Stairs...

Eventually Going Off On Her Own, Jane Gets Sucked Into A Portal Where She Finds The Aether And Opens It, Not Ony Infecting Herself With The Aether And Reawakening Malekith And His Dark Elves After Years Of Hibernation...

Back On Asgard, Thor Talks With Heimdall At The Newly Rebuilt Bifrost As He Tells Thor That The Convergence Is Upon Them. However, Not Interested In That But In Jane, Heimdall Tells Thor That Jane Is Studying The Convergence As Well, However Something Is Blocking His Vision To The Point That He Can't See Her...

Coming After She Was Infected, Jane Reunites With Darcy Who Is Not Only With Police But Tells Jane That She's Been Gone For 5 Hours...

With The Area Starting To Rain, Everywhere Else But Around Them, Jane Turns Around To See Thor Who She Gives A Piece Of Her Mind...

Explaining Where He's Been For The Last Few Months, Jane Forgives Him Despite Knowing That He Was In New York With The Avengers, However As Our 2 Lovebirds Talk, Darcy Interrupts To Tell Jane That They're About To Be Arrested...

But When Jane Tries To Set Things Straight With The Police, The Aether Attacks Them Which Forces Thor To Take Her To Asgard To Be Checked By Their Nurses And Doctors...

Meanwhile On Svartalfheim, Malekith Talks With His Second In Command, Algrim About Their Homeworld, While Swearing To Make People Of Asgard Pay By Reclaiming The Aether And Spreading Their Darkness Throughout The Universe...

With Odin Rightfully Pissed That Thor Brought Jane To Asgard, Odin Orders His Guards To Take Her Back To The Bifrost So She Can Go Back To Earth, But When The Aether Protects Itself From The Guards, Odin Takes A Look At Jane...

(Start At 1:38)

Captured By Fandral And Volstagg, Algrim Arrives On Asgard In A Disguise And Is Placed In Asgard's Dungeons, As Loki Talks With Frigga (Played By Rene Russo) Who Has Tried To Make His Stay In The Dungeons More Comfortable Despite Him Still Believing That He Should Be King Of Asgard...

Eventually Leaving Loki After He Tells Frigga That Her And Odin Are Not His Parents, Frigga Goes To Meet Jane While Back In The Dungeons, Algrim Breaks A Stone Which He Was Given By Malekith To Become One Of What They Call The Kursed...

Now A Monster With Superhuman Strength, Kurse Tears Through Asgard's Warriors And Unleashes Prisoners From The Dungeon While Doing So...

With Loki Suggesting That Kurse Take The Stairs To The Left, Kurse Exits As Fandral, Volstagg And Thor Arrive To Deal With The Prisoners While Odin Tells Frigga To Take Jane To Her Quarters Until It's Safe...

Later That Night, They Hold A Funeral For Frigga While Back On Earth, Erik Selvig Talks About The Convergence Only To Lead Into Our Stan Lee Cameo...

Stan Lee Cameo!

The Next Day On Agard Odin, Fandral, Volstagg And Some Of Asgard's Warriors Hold A Meeting Over The Defenses Of Asgard And It's Not Good, As The Shields Are Destroyed And Their Artillery And Heimdall Cannot Detect The Dark Elves Making Them All But Defenseless...

Placing Jane In The Dungeon, Odin Plans To Have Malekith Come To Them, But Valuing The Safety Of The People Of Asgard, Thor Wants To Take Jane To Them To Keep Them Away From Asgard And While Malekith Pulls The Aether Out Of Jane, Thor Will Destroy The Aether And Malekith...

But Believing That Thor's Plan Is Too Risky, Odin Tells Him No And That It's Far Greater If They Just Do Nothing And Just Wait And As Risk As Many Asgardian Lives As Possible...

However, Unwilling To Take This Risk, Thor Attempts Talking With Heimdall About Letting Him Use The Bifrost But Unfortunately Odin Has Ordered The Bifrost Closed With No One Allowed To Come Or Go In Asgard And Of Course, Heimdall Will Not Disobey Odin's Wishes..

But Knowing That Malekith Will Return And That Odin Is Acting Out Of Grief Over Frigga's Death, Heimdall Asks Thor What He Needs..

Gathering Fandral, Volstagg And Sif, Thor Manages To Get Them To Help Him To The Point Of Knowing That It Will Either Bring Them Exile Or Death But Again Knowing That The Bifrost Is Closed, Heimdall Reminds The Heroes That There Are Other Paths Off Asgard That Only A Few Know But Namely One...

That's Right, Thor Goes To Get Loki To Help Him Get Off Of Asgard Knowing That He Wants Vengeance Against The Dark Elves For Killing Frigga, But Thor Warns Loki That If He Tries To Betray Him That He Will Kill Him...

Once Loki Is Out Of His Cell, Sif Goes To Get Jane And Take Her To Meet With Thor And Loki Who Go To The Main Hall To Board The Crashed Dark Elf Ship While Volstagg Holds Off The Asgardian Guards...

Managing To Get The Ship To Take Off, Thor, Loki And Jane (Who Faints) Are Soon Followed By Asguardian Air Fighters And Being Fired At By Asgardian Turrets, Forced To Abandon Ship, They All Land On A Boat Which Is Being Driven By Fandral...

With Loki Taking Over The Boat, Fandral Abandons Ship To Deal With An Asgardian Boat Behind Them While Loki Shows Thor The Secret Passageway To Svartalfheim...

Arriving On Svartalfheim, Thor And Loki Have A Bit Of An Argument Before Having Somewhat Of A Brotherly Moment As Malekith Senses The Aether On The Planet....

Back On Earth, However, Darcy And Her Assistant Manage To Get Erik Selvig Out Of The Insane Asylum, But When They Do, A Group Of Starlings Go Through A Portal And Reappear Out Of The Sewers Beneath Them, Happy He's Not Insane, Erik Tells Darcy To Take Him To Jane's Lab...

Arriving Where Malekith's Ship Is, Thor Releases Loki From His Binds Only To Immediately Betray Him...

(Sarcastically) What A Surprise...

Stabbing Thor In The Chest And Cutting Off His Hand, Loki Gives Jane To Malekith As A Gift On The Condition That He Gets A Good Seat To Watch Asgard Burn...

Accepting Loki's Offer, Malekith Takes The Aether From Jane But What Malekith Doesn't Know Is That...

Giving Thor His Hand Back, Thor Grabs Mijonir And Appears To Shock The Aether Into A Million Pieces But The Aether Reforms Itself And Combines With Malekith And Leads To An All Out Fight While Malekith Gets Away..,

(Start At 0:44, End At 3:19)

With Loki Dying In Thor's Arms, Thor Promises To Tell Odin About Everything He Did, But Before He Dies, Loki Tells Thor That He Didn't Do It For Odin, But For Him...

Alone With Jane On Svartalfheim, They Try To Find A Way Back To Earth As Jane Saw Malekith On Earth While The Aether Was Being Sucked Out Of Her, Eventually Entering A Cave, Jane's Cell Phone Goes Off Somehow, Answering It, It Turns Out That It's Mr. Bridesmaids Cop Who Is Calling To Ask Jane Out On Another Date...

Telling Mr. Bad Tigger Voice To Not Hang Up, Jane And Thor Follow The Cell Phone Signal To Another Portal Which Leads Them Back To Where They Were On Earth...

Taking Jane's Car, They Head To Jane's Apartment Where They Reunite With Darcy, Erik And Darcy's Assistant To Fill Them In On Malekith And With Erik's Help They Manage To Come Up With A Location In Greenwich...

Placing Erik's Devices All Over The Area, Malekith's Ship Arrives...

(Start At 0:32)

With Malekith Defeated, Thor Returns To Asgard To Tell His Father, Odin That While He Will Protect The Nine Realms Till His Last Breath, He Cannot Be King Because He Would Rather Be A Great Man Than A Great King...

Giving Odin Mijonir, He Tells Thor That Mijonir Belongs To Him So Long As He Is Worthy, However, Odin Is Unable To Give Thor His Blessing, But Simply Tells Him To Go...

As Thor Leaves, We Get A Surprise As Odin Transforms Into Loki...

Allow Me To Explain, While Thor And Jane Reunited With Selvig, Darcy And Her Assistant, Odin Was Visted By A Guard Who Went To Svartalfheim And Discovered Loki's Body And It's Actually Revealed Here That The Guard Was Loki, Who Survived His "Death" On Svartalfheim...

As The Credits Roll We Get A Mid Credits Scene, With Sif And Volstagg On A Planet We Would Come To Know Later As Knowhere Where They Meet With The Collector (Played By Benicio Del Toro) To Give Him The Aether As The Tesseract Is On Asgard And It Is Unwise To Have 2 Infinity Stones In The Same Place...

After More Credits Roll We Get An End Credits Scene Where Thor Returns To Earth And Reunites With Jane (Or So We Think!) That Is Not Natalie Portman In This Scene, That Is Elsa Pataky, Wife Of Thor Himself, Chris Hemsworth (Yeah It's Natalie In The Apartment But Outside It's Entirely Elsa)

Why?

Well, Apparently Natalie Portman Was Told That She Was Working With Patty Jenkins On The Movie But When Patty Dropped Out Of Directing The Movie And They Were Passed To Game Of Thrones Director Alan Taylor, Natalie Was Pissed And Didn't Want To Do The Picture...

However, Being Under Contract She Had To Do It...

But After The Picture Was Done Filming, They Asked Her To Come Back To Do The End Credits Scene And Natalie Said Screw You To Marvel So, Instead Marvel Got Hemsworth's Fast And Furious Wife In A Brown Wig...

This Movie Is...Okay....

While Not The Best Entry In The Thor Movies, I Wasn't Bored, The Action Scenes Were Good And Both Hemsworth And Hiddleston Did Great, I Thought Kat Dennings Was Funny At Times (Despite People Believing Her To Be Again, The Jar Jar Binks Of The Thor Movies And I'm Glad They're Bringing Her Back For The WandaVision Show On Disney +) And Some Of The Other Actors Like Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo And Jaimie Alexander Did Good In Their Roles....

But Again Like Iron Man 3 The Problem Is The Bad Guy...

Where On The Mandarin They Royally F-ed Up, This Villain Is Boring And Doesn't Have Enough Character Development With Him To Even Give A Crap About What He's After But Aside From That, I Say See This Movie...

Till Next Time, This Is Duke, Signing Off...

[myepisodecalendar]

Jeopardy! Season 2018 - Episode 180: TBA, Erik Agard, Herschel Purvis AirDate: October 19th, 2018, 07:00 PM

[newstrendingzone]

Author: BY DEB AMLEN - Publish Date: December 25, 2020 at 10:00AM

Erik Agard collaborates with Wendy L. Brandes, who makes her New York Times Crossword debut.

[transmutationisms]

hey! i saw all the crossword stuff and wanted to ask if there are any other crosswords you like besides nyt/new yorker. thanks!

hi! so, the closest you'll get to nyt is the washington post and wall street journal puzzles; these are generally drawing from roughly the same knowledge base, though i find their clueing tends to be a bit straighter and less creative (new yorker's knowledge base skews a little more toward arts and academic theory, though this depends heavily on who the constructor is on any given day). the usatoday puzzle tends easy (meaning lots of straight clues; usually about the difficulty of an nyt monday) but it's also become much more interesting since erik agard took over as their puzzle editor: he's really pushed to move beyond the usual stodgy newspaper knowledge base, so although that puzzle doesn't scratch the same itch as, like, an nyt saturday, i do still really like it. i also love the black crossword, which is a free daily mini that places emphasis on terms and clues from across the black diaspora, and there are some free online puzzles that are pretty good: brendan emmett quigley posts a themeless one on mondays and a themed one on thursdays, and there's merl reagle's archive, which posts a sunday puzzle once a week.

but! puzzle preferences are highly individual so it's always worth poking around to see what you like. this is a good list of puzzles you can try out; you might also find that you really like certain constructors, and just follow their work (i love erik agard and anna shechtman, eg).

[wazafam]

By BY DEB AMLEN from Crosswords & Games in the New York Times-https://ift.tt/3hhh6GN Erik Agard collaborates with Wendy L. Brandes, who makes her New York Times Crossword debut. A Perfect Score … or Half of One New York Times

[breakingbuzz]

Not on Time, but That’s OK

By BY DEB AMLEN Caitlin Reid and Erik Agard finally arrive to open our solving weekend. Published: September 11, 2020 at 03:00AM from NYT Crosswords & Games https://ift.tt/3iw4DyI via

[shadowybouquetnacho1233]

Not on Time, but That’s OK

By BY DEB AMLEN Caitlin Reid and Erik Agard finally arrive to open our solving weekend. Published: September 10, 2020 at 07:00PM from NYT Crosswords & Games https://ift.tt/3iw4DyI via Funny Dog Video 2020

[puzzlenation]

The Robots Have Come For Our Crosswords!

In today's blog post, we ponder the horrifying ramifications of Dr. Fill's performance at the latest American Crossword Puzzle Tournament!

Well, it was bound to happen. We’ve seen it in chess, and Go, and Scrabble. Now, crosswords are the latest pastime to fall to the inevitable machine takeover of civilization. Okay, I’m being a tad hyperbolic here. Robots aren’t snatching crossword puzzles out of peoples’ hands and solving them, after all. But we have reached a peculiar milestone in AI and crossword history: a computer program won…

[kiwibest]

What the Heck Is That?

The Saturday, April 11 puzzle by Erik Agard and Wyna Liu was difficult for many solvers, but one of the clues that tripped people up the most was “Rectangle on a staff” (A rectangle? On what kind of staff?). The answer was WHOLE REST, and the “staff” is a musical one. from Pocket https://ift.tt/3cggOMQ via IFTTT

[izayoi1242]

Props

By BY CAITLIN LOVINGER Erik Agard and Wyna Liu get us good in their Saturday collaboration. Published: April 11, 2020 at 10:40AM from NYT Crosswords & Games https://ift.tt/2y26MjE via IFTTT

[outsidetheknow]

Yellowstone Attraction by BY DEB AMLEN

Yellowstone Attraction by BY DEB AMLEN

By BY DEB AMLEN

Erik Agard and Jeff Chen blast off and then drop to the ground.

Published: January 16, 2020 at 04:00PM

from NYT Crosswords & Games https://ift.tt/35VJo2n via IFTTT