" I Made You a Pair of Shorts" September 9, 2022

[hoover]

Ugh, that was going to be my other Hail Mary.
The Charleses that I know go by Chas, Charlie, and Chuck (x2).
I guess I never thought about where the name Chip comes from; the only ones I can remember encountering are Chip'n'Dale and one of My Three Sons.
If I had thought about Chip, I probably would have thought it was like Trey only for II instead of III, like a chip off the old block.

[Tina]

Wow I really thought I was right with Chip Sansom. I have never heard of Chip as a nickname for Charles. I have only known it as a general-purpose nickname for any guy, often one named after his father ("chip off the old block.") Born Loser has been around for 50 years. Chip Sansom's real name is Arthur. He took over the strip from his dad, also named Arthur. This was confirmation for me. I'm very surprised to be wrong.

[Jeremy Smith]

Nope! Any Chip I've ever known in my life had the same first name as his father, (and none were named Charles) as in "a 'Chip' off the old block." I wound up submitting Walt Disney, as in Chip 'n' Dale.

[SewYoung]

"Chip" for Charles; who knew
I was never getting this
Better luck next time

[hcbirker]

Chip and Dale came to mind with 32 A being "chair" like a Chippendale chair.

[Tina]

Well bummer. I got some assistance to confirm I needed to go further with the names and submitted Matt Groenig, since each of those names is a character on the Simpsons and I was reminded that Bart said "Eat my SHORTS!" Unfortunately, I messed up on the names and went with
ZACK/MARGE/TONY/ABE/JACK. Sigh/

This is my favorite wrong answer ever.

[Plymouthrock]

I did come up with Ike and IKEA but then could only get peggy for Margaret so that stopped me in my tracks. Then down into the hole I went -
I thought 4 plus 5 was hugely signicant. When I counted nine letters for each of the five people I got the word manic which was the answer for over caffeinated. So I took the name over the word manic which was Abraham Lincoln.
I counted 4th letter then fifth letter then ninth letter from
There and got A H N. Then I “made a pair of shorts” adding two more letters A and N and got Hanna!!!!!
Looking for Gofer to get me back to the boat.

[Efox999]

Wow I really thought I was right with Chip Sansom. I have never heard of Chip as a nickname for Charles. I have only known it as a general-purpose nickname for any guy, often one named after his father ("chip off the old block.") Born Loser has been around for 50 years. Chip Sansom's real name is Arthur. He took over the strip from his dad, also named Arthur. This was confirmation for me. I'm very surprised to be wrong.

Great minds think alike!! We deserve to be in the mug pool...

[OliviaL]

I submitted CHIPS. I missed the step with the last initial being part of the solve. I debated submitting Charles Schulz or Charles Addams, but I got stuck since their nicknames were Sparky and Chas. Realizing that the S was the last initial and not part of the nickname would’ve helped me seal the deal!

[ZooAnimalsOnWheels]

I got there eventually, but what really distracted me was "prairie lawyer" in the Lincoln clue. It makes sense for the other four theme clues to include titles, which are placed in quotes. But there are a million ways to clue Lincoln that don't involve quotes, so I focused too much on the quotes. There are five down clues that are entirely in quotations, and two of their short answers also appear in the long themers (paired?): ME TOO in MARGARET ATWOOD, and BAH in ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Well, that didn't work with the other three, but I remained fixated on those clues for far too long.

The other distraction was working off of the fact we were looking for a cartoonist: LINCOLN has INC -> INK, and SPENCER has PENC -> PENCIL. And you even have MARGARET ATWOOD -> TAT(t)OO. OK, it's a stretch.

I had to be nudged back to looking only at the themers to reconsider nicknames, which I had dismissed earlier because I blanked on 'Jack' and 'Ike'.

[mydogsam]

I got the right answer without solving the puzzle but I wouldn't consider it a rabbit hole. I submitted Charles Schulz as the answer but only because he was someone famous who was in the news recently. It was strictly a hail mary pass. The news to me is that the USPS is issuing a sheet of stamps with a range of characters from the Peanuts series at the end of September to celebrate his birthday. I collect them and have been looking forward to this particular issue. What is strangest of all is that almost the exact same thing happened months ago when Betty White passed away and was in the news and the answer to that puzzle seemed to fit. I guessed that one correctly too without solving the meta.

[Mister Squawk]

I got to the answer very quickly, but then spent a long time looking for the second short (I’VE GOT A PAIR OF SHORTS FOR YOU). I finally gave up, rationalized that CHIP was short for CHARLES and S was short for SCHULZ. Oh, and Charlie Brown always wore a pair of shorts.

(You can see abortive attempts to put together grid answers DIANA with clues DIfranco etc.)

Unsatisfying.

[woozy]

Shenanigans. Even if CHIP is a nickname for Charles (I've never heard of that), mechanism was CHIPS which is not. Further CHARLES SCHULZ never want by it and his nickname is SPARKY. Friday I did a google search on cartoonists named CHIP and there were mainly three. Chip Dunham (whose name is Robert; not Charles) who does the strip Overboard. Political cartoonist Chip Bok (whose real name is Arthur), Chip Sullivan and a few others.

[sharkicicles]

I didn’t mind not getting this one as I think it’s one of the rare clunkers. Never heard of “chip” as short for Charles.

[Bonnibel]

I can't believe I really got it! Was not easy for me.

I thought about it long and hard though, since Chuck Jones created Merrie Melodies & Looney Toons (a PAIR of shorts), but I could not make the S in CHIPS work for him. And his nickname is already Chuck. And he is best known as an animator, while Schulz is known as a cartoonist. Therefore, I decided that Charles Schulz had to be the answer. And, after all, Charlie Brown wears shorts. And of course, the whole short/nickname thing.

I cannot believe I was correct! This makes up for many rabbit holes where I have lost my way.

Cheers everyone!

[MatthewB]

I don't know that I would've gotten it but I had the wrong nicknames for Isaac ...Izzy ..and Margaret...Maggie so I never got to the last name initials. And Chip as a nickname for Charles? New to me. I wonder how many correct answers were just guesses since Schultz is the most obvious name.

[Joe Ross]

Wikipedia list of "Chip" as a nickname:

• Raymond Chip Ambres (born 1979), American baseball player

• Willis Chip Arndt (born 1966), American gay activist and reality show winner

• Charles Chip Babcock (born 1949), American attorney

• William Chip Banks (born 1959), American football player

• Charles Chip Beall (born 1948), American television host

• Charles Chip Beck (born 1956), American golfer

• John Chip Berlet (born 1949), American investigative journalist and photojournalist

• Charles E. Bohlen (1904–1974), American diplomat

• Arthur Chip Bok (born 1952), American editorial cartoonist

• Earl Chip Brian (born 1970), American financial services, information technology, and construction entrepreneur

• Harry Chip Caray (born 1965), American sports announcer

• James "Chip" Carter, son of former US President Jimmy Carter

• Frank Chip Cipolla (1926–1994), American sports announcer

• Thomas Chip Coulter (born 1945), American baseball player

• Raymond Chip Cravaack (born 1959), American politician and former US Navy pilot

• Rudolph Chip Damiani (1945–2014), American drummer

• Louis Chip Davis (born 1947), American musician and composer

• John Chip Dicks (born 1951), American politician and lobbyist

• Robert Chip Dunham, American cartoonist

• Arthur Chip Engelland (born 1961), American basketball player and coach

• Charles Esten (born 1965), American comedian, actor and singer

• Laverne Chip Fields (born 1951), American singer, actress and television director

• Francis Chip Flaherty, American film producer, publisher, and executive at SkyPath Media

• Floyd Chip Ganassi (born 1958), American former racecar driver and current racecar owner

• David Chip Glass (born 1971), American baseball player

• Charles Chip Goodyear (born 1958), American businessman and member of the Goodyear family

• Cornelius Warren 'C. W.' Grafton (1909–1982), American crime novelist and father of Sue Grafton

• Walter Chip Hale (born 1964), American baseball player and coach

• Lee Chip Hanauer (born 1954), American motorboat racer

• Len "Chip" Hawkes, bassist in The Tremeloes and father of Chesney Hawkes

• William Chip Healy (1947–2019), American football player

• Ralph Chip Ingram (born 1954), Christian pastor, author, and orator

• Charles Chip Jett (born 1974), American professional poker player

• George Chip Johannessen, American TV producer, writer and editor

• Charles Chip Kelly (born 1963), American football coach

• Charles Chip Kidd (born 1964), American graphic designer, author and editor

• John Chip Lohmiller (born 1966), American football player

• Alfred C. Marble Jr. (1936–2017), American Episcopal bishop

• Edward Chip Monck (born 1939), American lighting designer and master of ceremonies at the 1969 Woodstock Festival

• Charles Chip Mosher (1947-2021), American columnist, novelist, actor

• Phillip Chip Myers (1945–1999), American football player

• Charles Chip Pashayan (born 1941), American politician

• Charles Chip Peterson (born 1987), American long-distance swimmer

• Charles Chip Pickering (born 1963), American politician

• David Chip Reese (1951–2007), American poker player

• L. W. Robert Jr. (1889–1976), college athlete, engineer and government official

• William Chip Rogers (born 1968), American former politician

• Dale Chip Rosenbloom (born 1964), American filmmaker, director and producer, co-owner and Vice Chairman of the St. Louis Rams football franchise

• Charles Chip Roy (born 1972), American politician

• Joseph Chip Skowron, American financier and convicted fraudster

• Jerome Chip Zien (born 1947), American stage and television actor

This list is not close to exhaustive and is a small sample size, in fact, but 14 of 51 listed "Chips" have the given name "Charles" or more than 1 in 4. None listed are "Christopher."

[Berto]

I had Ike, Tony, Abe, and Jack… but got totally distracted b/c Margaret Atwood’s nickname is PEGGY!!!
Failed to see Ike+A, Tony+A, Jack+S in clues - but did throw out a Hail Mary of ADAMS (w/o a clue how the D and M were derived…)

[clonefitz]

Some of my rabbit holes:

1. I thought the title was a cryptic: I MADE YOU A PAIR OF SHORTS From this, I figured YOU="U" and A PAIR OF SHORTS = "SS". I thought "SEUSS"! Also saw many words from SEUSS titles hidden in grid: SAM, HAM, POP, RED, TWO, OH, AND. I couldn't find EGGS, but OVA spanned two answers. But could find nothing definitive.

2. Asimov wrote about LASERS, Atwood's work was sometimes PLATONISTIC, Lincoln was an ATTORNEY. I was looking for similar crossing answers for SPENCER and ANDERSON.

3. I tried highlighting letters from the grid that could be used to spell different cartoon characters' names to see if that would actually produce an image of that character.

4. Three of the two letter initials appeared as the first and last letters of three letters answers, ie: JOHNSPENCER - JUS, ANTHONYANDERSON - ATA, ISAACASIMOV - IPA.

5. Along those same lines, and most tragically, I noted that those same two letter initials appeared as the first and last letters of the first words of some of the clues: JOHNSPENCER - Jacks, ABRAHAM LINCOLN - Abel, ISAACASIMOV - IKEA, MARGARETATWOOD - Mega, but could not find one for ANTHONYANDERSON, so I abandoned this train of thought without seeing what should have been obvious, that is that the nicknames were involved and that I needed to change ANTHONY to Tony to get Tonya. So close!

[Jace54]

I also never knew that Chip is a nickname for Charles, but two Google searches got me to the answer:

Search 1: “Cartoonist chips” returned several unsatisfying cartoonists named Chip. Then it hit me to apply the mechanism again and focus on a full name for Chip.

Search 2: “what is chip a nickname for” returned Charles as the first listed name. Charles Schulz was the clear answer after seeing that.

A great meta from Matt!