How Does Your Garden Grow?

Today's puzzle by Gail Grabowski, called "Garden Shopping" is perfect for the season!


20A: Bright tubular lights (NEON BULBS). This history of the neon sign dates back to 1675! A French Astronomer named Jean Picard discovered a faint glow in a mercury barometer tube. There is no where that neon signs are more prominent than my hometown of New York City. There is even a digital guide in the works that will show the 100 greatest lights of Broadway and beyond. It's called Project Neon. Below is image of Times Square with vintage neon signs. My guess is that it's from the 1950s.

 

Here are the neon lights of Times Square during the early years of the 21st century. Ugly, isn't it?

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41A: Consumer product factories (PACKAGING PLANTS).  I associate packing plants most with meatpacking. Meatpacking plants were once very big in New York City and Chicago. The Meatpacking District in NYC has now been overrun by overpriced designer boutiques and pretentious restaurants. Many of the old-time meatpacking plants first moved to the mid-western Corn Belt states. However, in recent years, they have moved to the Great Plains and the Southeast.


As far as packaging of other consumer goods is concerned, many of the old-time plants first lost many employees to automation. Now, several plants in the U.S. are closing and sending their operations to foreign countries to save money. A very sad state of affairs. 


62A: Shape-saver footwear inserts (SHOE TREES). I think my dad still uses shoe trees. It's supposed to preserve the shape of the shoe. My dad buys the higher-quality wood shoe trees, which controls odor and absorbs moisture. 


I just heard about a fairly new x-word puzzle book that's supposed to have lots of pop culture references. I'll have to check out Word--144 crossword puzzles that prove it's hip to be square. The book is by constructor Natan Last, a Brown junior who had his first NYT puzzle published when he was just 17! Sounds like a nice alternative to the mundane "crosswordese" that you find in most papers.


It's back to the gym tomorrow after taking off for a few days. I'm on vacation this week and so far I'm bored to tears. It can't get any worse from here.


Till tomorrow. . . .


Signing off,
The Puzzlechick