"Keep Current" May 2, 2025

[JerryF]

I also missed the "falling" missing letters. Opted for "falls" over "river" because the puzzle asked for a PLACE name. Found it hard to think of a river as a place.

[The XWord Rabbit]

Perhaps not so surprisingly, this is now the sixth week without a nominee, a record since your Rabbit began evaluating your sorry tales in August 2022.

Mr. Gaffney’s “Keep Current” puzzle caused an immediate rush to the shore, as each of 7 rivers in the grid had its final letter fall into the line underneath. Those letters spelled NIAGARA, from which solvers were to infer the addition of FALLS in the answer.

Your Rabbit is growing accustomed to this state of affairs. In fact, he predicted it innocently enough an hour after the puzzle premiered, requesting videos of “popular music played on unpopular instruments” to substitute for any lack of entertainment value in critiquing your stories.

It unleashed an avalanche of responses – more than your Rabbit ever dreamed. Most of them he was unfamiliar with. They were quirky, outlandish, remarkable, awful – but most of all, wonderful and funny. So many to thank here: steveb, sharkicicles, Georgeall, Flying_Burrito, NuYear68, DrTom, SamKat9, Jeffrey, KayW, SewYoung, vandono and Cindy N. Particularly noteworthy: FKelly, Bob cruise director, Joe Ross, Relic and Hunter X. Your suggestions have been noted and may be used in future posts. (Rest assured, credit will be given to you as well.)

As to this week’s puzzle, your Rabbit had planned on ending today’s post with the video of the Three Stooges “Niagara Falls” routine, but Cindy N already beat him to it. (Are you angling for the Rabbit’s job, Cindy? Be forewarned, it only pays in self-satisfaction.) For those non-Stooge fans, here’s a bit of explanation:

“Niagara Falls” is the best-known version of the “Slowly I Turned” old vaudeville sketch in which a character meets a stranger and relates a story of betrayal during which a name or city sends him into a violent outburst. The routine inevitably builds, as the bewildered listener innocently repeats the trigger word, sending the unbalanced storyteller into an escalating rage, hitting or strangling the victim in the process. Hilarity ensues. There’s also a “You Tube” video of Abbott & Costello performing it with Errol Flynn of all people, but the Rabbit will spare you.

Instead, he will use this opportunity to explain his unapologetic fondness for musical performers not so appreciated in 2025 (yes, that means Carmen Miranda, Spike Jones, Leon Redbone and a goodly number of others you are yet to hear.) Rather than bore you with his own editorializing he will turn things over to Andy Rooney who addressed this very subject in 2010. Enjoy – and hope to see you next week with a few nominees.

[MikeMillerwsj]

The contest answer is NIAGARA FALLS. Each of the grid’s seven theme rivers has its final letter falling down a row: YUKON, MIAMI, SUSQUEHANNA, MEKONG, BRAHMAPUTRA, TIBER and VOLGA. Those fallen letters spell NIAGARA, suggesting the contest answer.

Very clever puzzle this week -- we confess we noticed the rivers were missing the last letter but didn't see the extra twist that the last letter had fallen down a row. We had a great turnout: 2,479 entries, an impressive 94% correct. Other guesses included NIAGARA RIVER (65), just NIAGARA (20), FALLING WATER (3), and NEW YORK STATE (2).

Congrats to this week's winner: Rob Sicker of Aurora, Ohio!

[ship4u]

"Congrats to this week's winner: Rob Sicker of Aurora, Ohio!"

The mug is getting closer! Aurora is less than 1/2 hour away!

[ron]

I'll just add that I missed the boat entirely this week as we were traveling. But I avoided spoilers and did solve and get the Meta this afternoon.

[Tom Shea]

I have always felt that a vehicle should serve 2 purposes.

The first is to get you from place to place.

The second is to put a smile on your face!

But can you haul 4X8 sheets of plywood or go to the dump in that spiffy car?

4 doors?!?

Well it IS a very nice volkswagen.

[Hank37]

Fairly Peloponnesie trip to shore this week, with confirmation from the Zoom chat. Once the grid was solved, the path to shore was clear.