"Sounds Delicious" - July 29, 2022

[JeanneC]

Congrats to those who solved!
I shall now seek out the MMM and wait patiently for Thursday at 4:00pm.

[Dr Pepper]

I have to agree with the OP. There was nothing indicating it was Italian food.

I looked to the last across answer for a clue. M-W says, "The meaning of SESTET is a stanza or a poem of six lines; specifically : the last six lines of an Italian sonnet." So there was a subtle hint. Or maybe not

[Joe Ross]

Are the rhymes a bit on the impure side? Perhaps. Rhymes often are. You say orange, I say door hinge.

I was taught in elementary school that nothing rhymes with orange. A close failure is porridge.

I was taught that, too, but I've since learned otherwise:

"What rhymes with orange?

Orange rhymes with Blorenge (a mountain in Wales) and sporange (a technical word for a sac where spores are made)."

https://www.dictionary.com/e/rhyme-with-orange/

I'm a 'door hinge' fan. Close enough IRL & for this puzzle.

[boharr]

I was taught in elementary school that nothing rhymes with orange. A close failure is porridge.

I was taught that, too, but I've since learned otherwise:

"What rhymes with orange?

Orange rhymes with Blorenge (a mountain in Wales) and sporange (a technical word for a sac where spores are made)."

https://www.dictionary.com/e/rhyme-with-orange/

I'm a 'door hinge' fan. Close enough IRL & for this puzzle.

Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange glad I didn’t say banana?

[Bonnibel]

I was also looking at rhyming words but not phrases... my mistake! TONY BALONEY, JELLY BELLY, etc. As usual I was far too literal and unable to unscrew my brain (and open my ears) enough to see & hear past the grid.

Although I've been doing these for quite a while now, with this one I feel like a newbie. I may not love this meta but again, kudos to the solvers!

[GTIJohnny]

I had no problem with "Water You Looking For", which involved a similar rhyme mechanism from a month or so back. This one, even with me correctly identifying the mechanism again, stumped me.

My Zoom partners literally had to provide a pasta answer to one of the theme answers for me to understand.

Very strange how the mind works.

[Flying_Burrito]

The mug is coming to GA this week! Five days of Italian food starting with tagliatelle ai funghi tonight (in Northern Italy we call them tagliatelle; in southern Italy they are called Fettuccine).and abundant Barolo red wine.

Go Dawgs

[MajordomoTom]

I had a different Italian "spin" - the last one Savvy Goalie was making me think of zabaglione.

which ... didn't work very well with the rest.

[JetStream]

wow, another one way over my head. Congrats to the solvers.
I knew it would be hard when there were only 12 pages....

[Wendy Walker]

Dick Cavett once asked Stephen Sondheim for a rhyme for "orange." His answer? "An orange or / a porringer."

[dot]

AGNOLOTTI was new to me. I had to back-solve that one after first getting to FLMVOR using MANICOTTI.

This was us, except we got stuck at "FLMVOR" and decided we must be going down the wrong rabbit hole. D'oh! :facepalm:

[michaelm]

AGNOLOTTI was new to me. I had to back-solve that one after first getting to FLMVOR using MANICOTTI.

This was us, except we got stuck at "FLMVOR" and decided we must be going down the wrong rabbit hole. D'oh! :facepalm:

There was no way I was backing out of the FLMVOR rabbit hole.
Matt Gaffney would never have sent us down there accidentally, right?

[woozy]

No....

Just no. I know I should not be critical but this is the first meta I've seen that just should never have been published.

I got that Dread a genie sounded like fettuccine and the rest (except for shore dough) all sounded vaguely like Italian foods. Zing Meanie sounded a little bit like zucchini not close enough to be an acceptable rhyme. I figured they could be pastas but I couldn't come up with any pastas to resemble anything other the fettuccine. Admitted I never heard of agnolotti but I tried to find things that matched vermicelli, orzo, and ravioli but couldn't find anything that sounded like those.


I took out my cell phone I'd tried slurring into it's voice recognition in hope that it would recognize something I didn't. It didn't.

[ReB]

Based on the title, I was looking for rhymes but just couldn't make the connection with pastas. Though I did find some other interesting food suggestions: BREAD, ZINGER [tea], JELLY, SOURDOUGH, SAVORY AIOLI. Tonya zloty though was a complete baffler.

[femullen]

A team effort was required here at Equipe Canuck, because I had never heard of agnolotti, vermicelli (thought that's something whalers harvested in the days of sail), or orzo. That's why I team up with The Smarter Half. I had SHORE DOUGH as BORDEAU for the longest time until she told me, "Dad, get a list of pastas off the web. There's more out there than spaghetti and macaroni."

[ship4u]

I understand why some thought this meta to be distasteful. But, if you think about it, Matt Gaffney produces puzzle after puzzle each week and you have to admire his creative ability and desire to stretch the boundaries. Thankfully, we have this group to bounce ideas around and to offer direction.

Thanks to a muggle friend, we focused in the right direction. I saw LINGUINI first and Cynthia saw FETTUCINI and suggested that all of the answers might be pasta. RAVIOLI came next and it was clear that the numbers in parentheses were indicating the number of letters in the answers. That helped solve ORZO. With FL_VOR created, we back solved to obtain the A with a pasta we had never heard of, thanks to google. But, Matt typically presents a challenge once he assumes you have the mechanism.

[LadyBird]

Bob--I am with Isaac--back at #73.

We found bat #5 at lunchtime today. At the release.

You deserve a mug this week just for catching all those bats!

I wish! Unfortunately, this was a KAS 5 for me. Even if the family reunion (and bat hunts) hadn't kept me busy, I don't think that I would have gotten this. My rabbit holes were many: GeraniUM = YUM; DREAD = BREAD, ZING = chef MING. All sorts of food-related things--but no pasta.

[LadyBird]

Bob--I am with Isaac--back at #73.

We found bat #5 at lunchtime today. At the release.

IMG_1026.jpg

@LadyBird I am not sure how you are catching the bats but a very effective way is to have a tennis racket, and open the door to the room where the bat is. The bat will fly toward the door but will not see the strings on the tennis racket and you can gently whack him on the head. He drops to the floor and you can escort him out. He will have a headache but will recover.

By the way, the bats eat tons of mosquitos.

The only sporting equipment at the VRBO was a set of croquet mallets That and the bean bags that we brought for cornhole. So we had to improvise a bit: putting a trashcan over one crawling on the floor toward me; throwing a towel over another one on the floor; grabbing one with a towel that was on a shelf; using a net for one hanging from a ceiling vent; and putting a skillet over one fluttering around in a decorative tin.

There were also plenty of bats outside. And there weren't many mosquitoes. Guess that was the silver lining.

[MajordomoTom]

Zing Meanie >>> Bing Cherry in my ear worm.

[mheberlingx100]

Medical Student:
Isn't it true that Darwin preserved a piece of vermicelli in a glass case until, by some extrordinary means, it actually began to move with voluntary motion?
Dr. Frederick Frankenstein:
Are you speaking of the worm or the spaghetti?