"Who Says?" - January 3, 2020

[Laura M]

I submitted "TED Talks" because that's what I always hear, but later thought that the answer might be "TEDx Talks" since that's what I found on YouTube. "TED Talks" works with the theme of Teds saying things, but with "TEDx Talks," the "x" could stand for any of the different last names, so I thought that could be a better answer. I suspected that either answer would be acceptable though.

[Kris Zacharias]

Has it occurred to anyone else that the actor Ted Lange played Isaac on the Love Boat?

[MarkL]

Well I for one was glad it was not the dreaded "Pageant" puzzle but everyone had me worried! It was relatively easy given some of the ones we have had lately (and that I have missed by a mile) but I actually though that the CLOSEQUOTE was a hint to the answer as opposed to a red herring. After I saw all the TEDS and knowing that a close quote comes at the end of something someone said I immediately exclaimed (loud enough for my wife to say "What"), "TED TALKS" (where Talks of course was a verb not a noun).

As an aside, did you ever have one of those moments when you looked at something and said "hey is that spelled right?" I just did a triple take on Talks which just looks wrong, but is of course correct. My spell check did not flag me, but that has happened before with disastrous consequences, just a commentary on this odd language of ours.

At any rate, I am delighted that I am at 100% for 2020, that is sure to change but I'll enjoy it while I can. Hopefully I'll be able to do this Friday's without an eye patch on since, luckily after I did the puzzle, this weekend I managed to poke myself in the eye with a car door (yep strange I know, but with some effort I managed to accomplish it) and spent Saturday in an Urgent eye-care center. Perhaps Matt will grace me with a Pirate puzzle?

The pirate look is very fashionable in Tampa this time of year! Gasparilla is Jan 25th! Hope you have a speedy recovery.

[ky-mike]

So, who had not heard of this series prior to the puzzle? We had friends staying with us this past week and we introduced them to the meta puzzle. Neither one had previously heard of TED talks. This seemed odd to me, but I know that we all live in different worlds together.

[DrTom]

Well I for one was glad it was not the dreaded "Pageant" puzzle but everyone had me worried! It was relatively easy given some of the ones we have had lately (and that I have missed by a mile) but I actually though that the CLOSEQUOTE was a hint to the answer as opposed to a red herring. After I saw all the TEDS and knowing that a close quote comes at the end of something someone said I immediately exclaimed (loud enough for my wife to say "What"), "TED TALKS" (where Talks of course was a verb not a noun).

As an aside, did you ever have one of those moments when you looked at something and said "hey is that spelled right?" I just did a triple take on Talks which just looks wrong, but is of course correct. My spell check did not flag me, but that has happened before with disastrous consequences, just a commentary on this odd language of ours.

At any rate, I am delighted that I am at 100% for 2020, that is sure to change but I'll enjoy it while I can. Hopefully I'll be able to do this Friday's without an eye patch on since, luckily after I did the puzzle, this weekend I managed to poke myself in the eye with a car door (yep strange I know, but with some effort I managed to accomplish it) and spent Saturday in an Urgent eye-care center. Perhaps Matt will grace me with a Pirate puzzle?

The pirate look is very fashionable in Tampa this time of year! Gasparilla is Jan 25th! Hope you have a speedy recovery.

OK then, in deference to all the Pirates, and wearing my new look as a badge of honor (on Saturday it would have been a Red Badge of Stupidity) please note my new Avatar

[BarbaraK]

Did you know there’s a YouTube series called “Ted Says”? That’s the first thing I googled, because of the title, so that’s the first thing I found.

It’s a kid show and Matt has a kid, so maybe?
It’s got about 800 subscribers, so doesn’t seem likely that’s what he’s going for.

Fortunately I stepped back from that abyss and remembered Ted Talks.

[Bob cruise director]

Did you know there’s a YouTube series called “Ted Says”? That’s the first thing I googled, because of the title, so that’s the first thing I found.

It’s a kid show and Matt has a kid, so maybe?
It’s got about 800 subscribers, so doesn’t seem likely that’s what he’s going for.

Fortunately I stepped back from that abyss and remembered Ted Talks.

One of the problems I had with this contest is that there was nothing that uniquely led to the answer as is normally the case. Getting the "TED" part was easy but there was nothing that I could find that uniquely directed you towards or away from any of the other variants which have been discussed here.

It will be interesting to see what the WSJ allows. From the standpoint of the winner, if the first name they drew had Ted Talks, then the rest was academic. However if the first one they drew was one of the others, they might have had a discussion. We will see but maybe Only The Shadow Knows.

[DBMiller]

Did you know there’s a YouTube series called “Ted Says”? That’s the first thing I googled, because of the title, so that’s the first thing I found.

It’s a kid show and Matt has a kid, so maybe?
It’s got about 800 subscribers, so doesn’t seem likely that’s what he’s going for.

Fortunately I stepped back from that abyss and remembered Ted Talks.

One of the problems I had with this contest is that there was nothing that uniquely led to the answer as is normally the case. Getting the "TED" part was easy but there was nothing that I could find that uniquely directed you towards or away from any of the other variants which have been discussed here.

It will be interesting to see what the WSJ allows. From the standpoint of the winner, if the first name they drew had Ted Talks, then the rest was academic. However if the first one they drew was one of the others, they might have had a discussion. We will see but maybe Only The Shadow Knows.

I have to disagree. The "says" part of the title, plus the quotes attributed to each of the Teds - To me 100% implied the "talks" portion of the meta.

[Scott M]

Did you know there’s a YouTube series called “Ted Says”? That’s the first thing I googled, because of the title, so that’s the first thing I found.

It’s a kid show and Matt has a kid, so maybe?
It’s got about 800 subscribers, so doesn’t seem likely that’s what he’s going for.

Fortunately I stepped back from that abyss and remembered Ted Talks.

One of the problems I had with this contest is that there was nothing that uniquely led to the answer as is normally the case. Getting the "TED" part was easy but there was nothing that I could find that uniquely directed you towards or away from any of the other variants which have been discussed here.

It will be interesting to see what the WSJ allows. From the standpoint of the winner, if the first name they drew had Ted Talks, then the rest was academic. However if the first one they drew was one of the others, they might have had a discussion. We will see but maybe Only The Shadow Knows.

I think the "Who Says?" title addresses both these issues. With "Says" in the title, that word can't (by the ancient and venerable rules of crossword puzzle-dom) be in the answer. And it also leads you to the "Talks" in the correct answer.

[dsbened]

I don't understand 44D. Why is "Having zero native speakers" defined as "Dead"?

[ron]

I don't understand 44D. Why is "Having zero native speakers" defined as "Dead"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death

"In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker."

[dsbened]

TY, Ron, for explaining the answer!

[Colin]

Oh boy! I thought that with two quotes per theme clue, each from a Ted (aka Edward or Ed) then the answer had to be the channel “TED-Ed” which is a TED’s education initiative on YouTube. You see... a Ted and an Ed for each theme answer!
No? Just me? Really?

[ky-mike]

Oh boy! I thought that with two quotes per theme clue, each from a Ted (aka Edward or Ed) then the answer had to be the channel “TED-Ed” which is a TED’s education initiative on YouTube. You see... a Ted and an Ed for each theme answer!
No? Just me? Really?

I am familiar with TED talks, but not the other TED channels. We easily could have been "pageanted" had Matt chosen a different TED series.

[pookie]

Has it occurred to anyone else that the actor Ted Lange played Isaac on the Love Boat?

ROTFLMAO. Best answer yet!

[Dplass]

I'm ashore too.

Welcome. I see you have 5 posts but somehow I have not seen you in my muggles list. Either way, we are glad you are here. Good luck winning the mug

Mostly been in the PGWCC forum

[DrTom]

Did you know there’s a YouTube series called “Ted Says”? That’s the first thing I googled, because of the title, so that’s the first thing I found.

It’s a kid show and Matt has a kid, so maybe?
It’s got about 800 subscribers, so doesn’t seem likely that’s what he’s going for.

Fortunately I stepped back from that abyss and remembered Ted Talks.

One of the problems I had with this contest is that there was nothing that uniquely led to the answer as is normally the case. Getting the "TED" part was easy but there was nothing that I could find that uniquely directed you towards or away from any of the other variants which have been discussed here.

It will be interesting to see what the WSJ allows. From the standpoint of the winner, if the first name they drew had Ted Talks, then the rest was academic. However if the first one they drew was one of the others, they might have had a discussion. We will see but maybe Only The Shadow Knows.

Has the winner of this beaut of a pageant been determined? I have seen nothing talked about (TED or otherwise) yet? Is it me, Oh I so practiced my Golden Glob award (different from the Golden Globe in that it is amorphous and one must try to figure out from subtle clues what it really is) speech. I don't even care if Ricky Gervais makes fun of me!!!

[KayW]

I don't understand 44D. Why is "Having zero native speakers" defined as "Dead"?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_death

"In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker."

This reminds me of a poem I remember from my high school days (even though I never studied Latin):

Latin is a dead language
Dead as dead can be
First it killed the Romans
Now it's killing me

[Joe Ross]

Latin is a dead language
Dead as dead can be
First it killed the Romans
Now it's killing me

Having studied Latin for 3 years, THIS SCENE is one of the reasons Life of Brian makes my Top Ten Movies list.

[Inca]

Did you know there’s a YouTube series called “Ted Says”? That’s the first thing I googled, because of the title, so that’s the first thing I found.

It’s a kid show and Matt has a kid, so maybe?
It’s got about 800 subscribers, so doesn’t seem likely that’s what he’s going for.

Fortunately I stepped back from that abyss and remembered Ted Talks.

One of the problems I had with this contest is that there was nothing that uniquely led to the answer as is normally the case. Getting the "TED" part was easy but there was nothing that I could find that uniquely directed you towards or away from any of the other variants which have been discussed here.

It will be interesting to see what the WSJ allows. From the standpoint of the winner, if the first name they drew had Ted Talks, then the rest was academic. However if the first one they drew was one of the others, they might have had a discussion. We will see but maybe Only The Shadow Knows.

Has the winner of this beaut of a pageant been determined? I have seen nothing talked about (TED or otherwise) yet? Is it me, Oh I so practiced my Golden Glob award (different from the Golden Globe in that it is amorphous and one must try to figure out from subtle clues what it really is) speech. I don't even care if Ricky Gervais makes fun of me!!!

No winner announced yet? Maybe it really was a pageant and NO ONE got it right (I know, I know that the answer was published....just saying)