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Eponymous physicist Ernst / WED 3-13-19 / Mythical figure known for ribaldry / Legendary Manhattan music club / Lineage-based women's grp
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
Constructor: Jeffrey Wechsler
Relative difficulty: Medium (oversized 16x15 grid, 4:46)
Theme answers:
- There are none besides the revealer ... :/
Auriga is one of the 88 modern constellations; it was among the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century astronomer Ptolemy. Located north of the celestial equator, its name is the Latin word for “the charioteer”, associating it with various mythological beings, including Erichthonius and Myrtilus. Auriga is most prominent during winter evenings in the northern Hemisphere, along with the five other constellations that have stars in the Winter Hexagon asterism. Because of its northern declination, Auriga is only visible in its entirety as far as 34° south; for observers farther south it lies partially or fully below the horizon. A large constellation, with an area of 657 square degrees, it is half the size of the largest constellation, Hydra. (wikipedia)
• • •
Last thing: really? ASSAD *and* ALEPPO, the most notable site of his many war crimes?? (10A: Longtime Syrian leader + 56D: City under siege from 2012 to '16). And ALEPPO is crossed by PELT? And your ALEPPO clue emphasizes the brutality without naming ASSAD. The *one* time I would have actually *appreciated* a (finger-pointing) cross-reference! I'd rather never see ASSAD, but if I have to, maybe don't emphasize the war crimes content so much. Not like the NE corner is so great (I mean, AURIGA? IBEAM? SSS?). You could probably refill it all kinds of ways. All kinds of ASSAD-less ways. ALEPPO is great. Ditch ASSAD, and the puzzle all of a sudden becomes *far* less of a downer. OK bye.
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104 comments:
Cool use of OBLIQUE REFERENCE. And 31 squares had to work not two ways, but three ways. And AND... THESAURUS crosses the reveal! This had to be really tough to pull off.
"No Doz" before NOTES. Oops.
"nucs" before NUKES ;-)
TOME - sly little, well, not an Easter egg, but maybe a Palm Sunday egg.
To that end, a couple of tweaks, and Jeffrey could have slipped OED in diagonally right under the LMA of ALMANAC (SWEAT becomes STEAD, AURIGA becomes ALPACA and a few other changes. But I've heard that Will doesn't like Easter eggs, so maybe that'd be too clever by half. I would have whooped, though. The OED is inarguable proof that language is constantly changing. (Or not changing: I just looked in mine and found it’s (with apostrophe) as a possessive pronoun in the early 1600s and the singular they in the mid 1500s. I swear. Think about that next time you want to go all grammando on someone.)
FCC - I just saw this clip yesterday and cheered. It’s long - almost 18 minutes - but the rage I feel at the bajillion times my cell phone rings during the day... you go John Oliver.
Listen. I just want to get this out there ahead of any kind of trouble. I managed to get accepted into grad school at UNC-Chapel Hill to get my masters in linguistics, but since my test scores were mediocre at best, I have always smelled a rat about getting in. Now to make a difficult call to Mom and Dad to see if they pulled some strings...
This puzzle had an erudite vibe through and through, IMO, from the reference works to the literature, opera, mythology, and classical music references. Even [Studying aid] fit in with the feel along with the lesser-known constellation, and there's even a backward ELIOT. The scholarly vibe provided a counterpoint to the hip/current feel of many NYT puzzles (and I love both kinds of puzzles). But somehow, and ironically, the staid feel of this puzzle felt fresh and delightful.
The three northern sections look like islands, which are generally frowned upon in puzzles, but the theme answers provided the needed connection and made it okay, I believe. After I got DICTIONARY and ALMANAC, I threw in THESAURUS with no letters filled in and to my joy, found that it worked. I did notice the backward BUTS to go with the clue [Butts], and TOME as TO ME is a DOOK.
The black squares make a lovely smiley face, exactly how this puzzle made me feel inside. Thank you, Sir Jeffrey.
After the solve I kept. wondering how THEY was a place to swim. Finally I parsed it, and that was a pretty good "Aha" moment.
6D is APHID or APHIS
25A is ITS or ITD
Kind of annoying.
@LMS. Congratulations. Based on your love of the language I do not doubt that the acceptance was based on merit and not unwanted parental infusion slash intrusion😀
Way to go!👏
Oops! KRONEs didn’t cut it, but I left it in too long. Dumb and dumber.
Despite being preceded by “Dictionary” and “Almanac,” my brain could not read THESAURUS. I kept trying to figure out what the hell kind of reference The “SAW-rooze” was. Oblique, indeed.
Rex comments that the grid is "horribly segmented", and that he "never felt like there was a proper theme". I think those two facts are related. If you used the theme, that gave you an extra avenue into the more isolated areas.
So I never noticed the segemented-ness of the grid, as DICTIONARY gets you into the NW, ALMANAC to the N, and ATLAS to the NE.
Overall, very enjoyable. Not a fan of INMOST (always heard INnerMOST).
Interesting mini-theme, with ROUE, OGRE, CLOD, SATYR, ASSAD, and OAF.
This was a GREAT Wednesday puzzle. The circled themers sliced all the way through the "horribly segmented" grid as they should have and they were the key to the solve. They weren't even that hard to get if you had a few letters, and then that big revealer opened up the bottom. I don't know what Rex and his Twitter sycophants are moaning about.
Two submarine references in here with LEAGUE (as in the Captain Nemo kind) and NUKES so I got triggered with some good flashbacks. I served on one of them there atomic submarines that carried the bomb, although I was an engineer not a weaponette. I shoveled Uranium into the reactor core, and made six long patrols up in the Arctic. There was a discussion of PANIC ATTACKS the other day, and while we're not having a contest I'm pretty sure that my panic attacks are probably better than most other people's panic attacks.
Rex claims he doesn't read the comments but I guarantee that he does. He can't not read them.
I have the flu or the clap or something and I'm doped up on prescription cough syrup with codeine (aka Purple Drank!) and it's a pretty nice ride. Years ago I got Percodan after my wisdom teeth got pulled and this is almost as good.
"IT'S be my pleasure"? :)
I don't understand why TNG didn't have an abbreviation indicator in the clue.
I loved the concept and all those oblique reference books, but Auriga crossing TMG was a total Natick for me.
This puzzle is exactly what I want in the experience of a crossword. Every answer was a tiny little achievement. Auriga, Ibeam (I started with steel, but aren't they all), Aleppo and Pelt, Assad, Oh No, Oblique Reference. Intelligent, current, challenging in small ways.
Nice one. To me was definitely a dook and a good hidden theme answer.
Plenty of tough clues that put some meat on the bones today.
Inmost was strange. I considered iciest first but that didn't seem likely. The constellation was an unknown. I guess astronomy is not my strong suit.
@ LMS, Are you really applying to grad school or just illustrating the current higher education kerfuffle?
Agree with @ Lewis' review. I filled in thesaurus with no crosses too.
@ JOHN X, Enjoy your buzz!
I expected Rex to hate hate hate this. I’ll never figure him out.
@LMS: nice. @JJ: Me too. @JOHN X: Hope you feel better.
DORMS over BEER crossing SATYR across from STASH. These are the Easter eggs of which dreams are made. Or were, once.
I like to find the reference section in old book stores, usually off in a forgotten corner somewhere, and swim in accidental volume-size discoveries: Botanical Latin, Cowboy idioms, atlases full of SSRs, a facsimile of Caxton's first 15th c. try at French-English dictionary, timelines of history, etc. OBLIQUE REFERENCES describes it well. Fun.
Normally puzzle construction doesn't wow me; only the solving experience does. But this, I must say, is a really nifty bit of construction -- and the revealer is perfect. And actually, the theme was not completely irrelevant to my solve: It helped me get CBGB.
I had GRAY whALE before GRAY SCALE. Anyone else? (Google's not accepting GRAY SCALE, btw.) And I've never heard of it.
ONE ALL TIE for 1-1 seems like a redundancy. I think there may be a specific DICTIONARY term for it but I'm blanking on it right now.
Re: SLICED (53D). You're not describing my golf shots, surely. (I'm a tennis player who very occasionally *plays* golf.) But I thought the clue should have read: "Like ALL golf shots and most bread." But the torture doesn't go on forever. Once I've strayed more than one fairway to the right, my talented golfer brother will always tell me to pick up.
THEY = THE Y. And they just built a new one near me. Duh.
If Rex doesn't like doing small 4x4 or 6x6 grids, he must hate doing those mini puzzles that proliferate on the NYT site. This puzzle just felt like I was doing several of those puzzles...which I do regularly as a warm up...so I was used to it and hardly noticed.
I used THESAURUS to pre-fill a bunch of squares ahead of time. I don't know if that actually helped me, but it was a head start based on the "theme."
A couple of misdirects that I actually liked: INMOST (and prefilled in ---EST as I am wont to do because of the comparative wording of the clue) and FEET (I prefilled the S at the end because of the plural clue).
This was, for me, a solidly Wednesday level puzzle. Not too easy, not too hard. The NE was the big equalizing challenge to the rest of the relatively easy puzzle.
Very impressive construction, but it felt like a slog. I can't say WHATABORE, but this did feel like a ONEALLTIE -- not quite satisfying.
AURIGA and VERSO? Um, okay.
Errata: uHoh for OHNO, Copa for CBGB, odEssa for ALEPPO.
Here's my overreaction for the day: I hate hate hate the clue for THEY. I get that constructors and editors are trying to inject some difficulty and originality into clues, and I'm all for it. But why take a perfectly normal word and parse it into something forced? Just because you can? Smacks of gimmickry for gimmickry's sake. Like I said, an overreaction, but it annoyed me.
I tried to make sense of the circled letters early on, but couldn't make sense of the letters I had, so I forgot about them. Didn't even think to look at them again until I came here and remembered "Oh yeah, there was a theme". It was quite clever, and would have speeded things up if I had caught on to it. Nice puzzle.
Note to LMS: If Mom and Dad used some connections to help you ... well, that's life. We all want to help our kids and the "who ya knows" of life are important. Paying bribes is a whole different ball game. And UNC should be proud that you are one of its graduates; your time at Chapel Hill was a plus for both you and the school.
Auriga plus tng equals Natick for me!
I anticipated OFL's negative reaction to this, and anticipated reacting negatively to it, as is almost always the case. He often whines about certain fill as being non-PC, f'rinstance NAZI. However, when I got to his ASSAD reference, I gotta admit that I had to fall in line with him. Also he has kinda a fair point about the highly-segmented top.
I got the top three diagonals, and when I got to "Rare dice throws" => Twos, the leading T gave me Thesaurus right away,, pleasing myself with my perspicacity ... Until I came here and saw that others got it with no fill. Gr-R-R-R!!! :-)
Anyway, a fun puzzle for me.
You call that “write-up” short? Or Shortz?
It will be interesting to see what happens with the SSS in light of this court decision: https://www.npr.org/2019/03/01/699481953/court-ruling-renews-debate-on-women-and-the-draft
This was a nice Wednesday puzzle. I’m on the West coast this week and enjoy having the puzzle available at 7 PM. Happy Hump Day!
41 & 51 across were WTF naticks for this west coaster. I’m with Rex and Sir Hillary on this one: MEH! Or maybe I should just say 34 down.
SLICED bread: I suppose everybody slices it eventually, but having it originate that way is surely peculiarly American? Where in the world, by the way, did the expression 'Greatest things since SLICED bread' come from? I suppose it speeds up making lunch by about 20 seconds.
@LMS, thanks for the morning chuckle. But are you just getting in to that school or was that an oblique past tense reference? Judging by your photo that you posted a while back, I can’t make an educated guess either way. Kudos to the constructor. Rich, solid puzzle with lots of clever sneaky moments. And a spectacular grid. I particularly loved the contextual inclusion of and clue for VERSO. The clue that threw me was the one about the lizard. All I could think of was Eye of Newt and thought it must be part of a witch’s recipe. What an OAF am I. @Nancy I think Grayscale is a camera term, in photography editing. Quibbles: I don’t think of Brie as a “spread.” It’s a cheese. A spread is processed cheese, isn’t it? I’m no Julia Child but that one smelled funny to me. And One Tie All was odd sounding. Do people really say that? I haven’t played sports other than bowling, which I learned the hard way, is not a stepping stone to a Rhodes scholarship. Perhaps SELES would know it better but then she rarely tied anyone, right? It takes special courage and confidence to put in “What a Bore” in your puzzle. This wasn’t one at all. Thank you Mr. Wechsler for a fun Wednesday.
Thanks LMS - I believe your cheerful, interesting approach to reviewing the puzzle is becoming contagious. Not up top mind you, but with the everyday people. Keep up the good work.
59A
Places where streams flow (as in the thoughts of the members of my family)
Strong Wed puz. Completed, but never saw DICTIONARY or THESAURUS til came here. Excellent construction, way above my pay grade.
New here; please tell me what a DOOK is. I like the word and would like to use it appropriately.
Good one, @Loren. Brings the term "Helicopter Parent" to new heights.....Glad the name Felicity didn't appear here. ITD be my pleasure to get into the fray.
I really loved this puzzle. The three minis on top were the icing. I alway lick it first. The cake itself can be moist or dry. This time, it was moist and delightful.
I did put my fork down at the west coast. Couldn't remember CBGB and I wouldn't know Carly Jepsen's middle name even if Ryan SEACREST was dating her. Another one bites the dust? Had to do my GOMCAWA (get off my chair and walk away) a couple of times before I saw the super BARTENDED clue.
I did an ink etching of Bacchus and SATYR that I proudly display in the living room. Both are fun to look at. And here he crosses BEER although his favorite imbibement was vino.
I think what I like the most about this is that Jeffrey did have lots of constraints but nothing seemed forced and even the peanuts holding it together weren't bad. Nary a frown to be had.
I think ASSAD was in UTERO preparing to be a RULER. TACIT CLOD OGRE ROUE OAF of ALEPPO.
DAR ITD TNG SSS UNO OAF
Yep, just a little grid strain. I wonder if the constructor played around with different slants because I, too, found that choppy north annoying to solve. Would having the REFERENCE works coming out of each corner at a slant have made the grid easier to fill? Or strained it even more? Having 75% of the themers in the north seems like it raises the challenge of filling the grid to me.
Puzzle of the day, you have a half million to spend on criminal activity, why not just give it directly to the school? Seems to me such a donation would cause most admission offices to look favorably on an offspring’s application.
@Leslie - DOOK and TOAT and even GOAT are shorthand for answers that puzzle a solver because one parsed the answer wrong. Do OK, To a T, and Go At have all befuddled one or all of us at some time or other. Not realizing that THEY is actually THE Y is a perfect example.
@Wm. C. "perspicacity" Nice!
ONE ALL TIE
Did some of you solve on a format that did not have circles in the grid for the theme answers?
DIC and ALMA were my clues to the OBLIQUE REFERENCES that caused me to abandon the crosses and downs until I finished the diagonals.
THE Y caused me to ponder THE SAURUS. Would adding another SAURUS cause it to be THE SAURs like THE Tyrannosaurus becoming Tyrannosaurs. Or would it be THE SAURi or the THE SAURUSes or THE SAURopodes? @lms, I’m not capable of going grammando since I have managed to escape ever taking a classs in Latin or English grammar. I was actually very pleased that the Bantu language I learned had an opt out way of pluralization for dummies. They had ten different ways of pluralizing nouns, but you could cheat and use the most utilized way of pluralizing most nouns and no one cared.
One all TIE IS redunantly unessentially useless. Wink.
@GILL (10:25) -- Wow!!!! An ink etching of Bacchus and SATYR is nothing to sneeze at. No rank amateur artist would even attempt such a thing. You must be really talented, GILL. I mean really talented! Since you're one of those people, like @LMS and @Hartley, who knows how to change your avatar, can you possibly put that etching up for all of us to see. Or, if you're feeling unduly retiring, send it to me in a private email? Many thanks.
@Quasi (10:12). Funny bowling comment. Too bad it didn't earn you a scholarship. What you should have done instead was grafted your head onto a crew team photograph. Oh, wait, you couldn't have. We didn't have Photoshopping back in the day.
Everyone is having a lot of fun on the blog today with the college entrance fraud scandal, but it really speaks volumes about where the country is at. If Diogenes were brought back from the dead right now, he'd take one look and run right back to his crypt as fast as his legs could carry him.
I couldn’t agree more!
@Nancy, I have never SLICED playing golf because I restrict my attempts to the mini version. Otherwise I would be a hazard to myself and others just like when my Dad attempted to show me how to shoot clay pigeons. He quickly realized It was a lost cause. I do not do well with anything involving small objects flying through the air. I can, however, roll a bowling ball and putt short distances without causing damage.
The black squares reminded me of a tictactoe grid more than a face. I found it to be a very slow solving Wednesday puzzle. Was expecting difficulties this week because of the easy Monday. But the first third went really slowly last night and the rest went better this morning. I guess my brain was tired. Or maybe not.
Once in while little boxed off sections don't really bother me and can be fun. Liked those helpful diagonals. Liked the RAE MAE symmetry which I did not get because I knew what GRAYSCALE was (256 shades of gray - lets hope that franchise doesn't last that long) but not how to spell. GREY.
Don't know if a DOOK is spozed to be automatically bad, but if THE Y is one... well, I liked it.
Did not know UNO (are they good?) nor TOILE but worked them out. In retrospect, it's a good puzzle. And I appreciate the minitheme mentioned above.
IT'D sounds awkward, harsh and unpleasurable to me in that particular phrase but I guess it'd be used by some anyhow.
Kinda liked that THEY clue.
Cool E-W grid symmetry. Big grid, 82 words, lotsa circles. All good. Theme mcguffin was so-so, on our house's meter. Did get a lotta help from the theme in the solvequest, tho. Sooo … ok.
AUR?GA/?BEAM crossin was slightly tense. CBGB was news to m&e. INMOST briefly falsely activated my rebus siren. Otherwise, pretty smoooth stuff, considerin the three-way stresses that @RP mentioned.
staff weeject pick: SSS. Semi-rare triple-letter weeject meat. Only 10 candidates today, inspite of the largish grid.
Thanx for the oblique fun, Mr. Wechsler.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
p.s. re: Hallmark Mystery -- woulda thought the Shortzmeister would also show up at the tournament. Did M&A miss somethin?
**gruntz**
What an absolute joy! You have all extolled it’s virtues, so I won’t, but the multiple levels of skill required to pull this off just gobsmack me. Two days in a row with wonderful solving experiences. The only carp is ITD. I do. It ever say that and certainly would not write it, but a constructor must make choices and if that is the weakest point in this sparkling effort, so be it.
CONGRATS @LMS!!! 🎉 I know you will knock it out of the park. My husband had planned to try to get his doctorate at Chapel Hill, but my unplanned and horribly high risk pregnancy kept him here at OU. He said to his dying day that he had no regrets because our daughter gave him more joy than any degree. He was the best dad ever.
The constructor really outdid himself at 42D. He has "say" AND "?". Do they cancel each other?
BTW, I loved solving this neat puzzle.
@LMS - i’ve noticed your trend of posting a positive spin on the puzzle and pointing out some of the more subtle complexities in construction. I appreciate that as I’m sure that the constructors do as well. Even with the puzzle I don’t like or had particular trouble with, I always try to tread lightly with any criticism. After all, I have never created a crossword in my life and even a basic one good enough for publication is way above my pay grade. Also I watched the video clip and wanted to say it is spot on. I wish someone would publish the personal cell numbers of those public officials (the goobers) who are in charge so we could all bombard them daily with our complaints. If only there was a way .... sorry, my cellphone’s ringing, gotta go.
I liked this a lot. I caught the trick with -ICTION—-, filled in the missing letters and went looking for the other OBLIQUE REFERENCES. So this went quickly. My sole holdup was at VERSA. I had EsSA at first and it took a while for me to dredge the correction from the nether regions of my brain.
I may have to quit reading Rex; I saw ASSAD and ALEPPO and knew he'd have a hissy fit. I'd prefer to not have him in my head while I solve.
JohnX, I'm willing to conceed the panic attack crown to you. I've had one and recovered in ten minutes; I imagine yours are epic. Enjoy the buzz.
Ryley dog passed his Canine Good Citizen test yesterday, in case anyone's keeping score. It was not pretty but he now has letters to add to the end of his name as well as the beginning. Ch. Poker Flat Winter Soldier, CGC. It’s a start.
p.p.s.s.
yo, @Muse - congratz, darlin!
@John X - flu sucks -- drink boatloads of water & we hope U get better soon. Meanwhile, try not to sneeze directly on the comments.
GRAYSCALE, BARTENDED, WHATABORE were enjoyable longballs, in today's Leanin Library of Pisa puz.
M&Also
@Nancy, I’m not sure that there has been an escalation in the attempts to gain the system for college entrance. When I went to UC Davis in the 70s it was an open secret that the Dean of the Med School had his own list of friends whose kids got a free pass. I think the methods of gaining the system have expanded and become more expensive. They also have become more traceable.
Then there is the arms race of sending out applications to more and more colleges. I applied to one school for undergrad, three schools for my masters and one school for my doctorate. 40 years later my son was encouraged to apply to 10 universities and would have done so if he hadn’t been accepted for early decision. When all the students are applying to more schools the acceptance rates appear lower than they would be if all the students applied to fewer schools. So the lower acceptance rates cause parents to panic.
Of course if your kid grows up in New York and you are privileged enough to be able to be involved in the process (or cursed depending on how you look at it), you aren’t nearly as worried because you have been through the process so many times before your kid applies to college that college applications seem like a walk in the park. I’m a little hazy on the count but I think we visited 7 schools for nursery school, 18 schools for elementary school (not my choice, my husband went overboard and deluded himself into thinking private schools were an option), 6 schools for middle school, and 15 schools for high school (again, not my choice but the middle school counselors were overachievers and were not too pleased when I balked at visiting the 15th school). I can’t remember how many schools we actually applied to. Apart from nursery school which wasn’t public, our son always got into the public school of his choice. I swear I could repeat back the same three questions that parents repeat over and over again at each stage of the school tours. If I were to be forced into doing it all over again I would bring a camp chair and a flask of an intoxicating beverage while waiting in line for the tours. By the time we hit the college application process I was able to ask the unique questions that the poor recruiters had never heard before and brought a smile to their faces, such as what would they recommend as the bes place to eat after a tour at their school.
And don’t even get me started about the so called holistic application process which is an ever increasing escalation of more and more asssessments to the point that one high school required grades, standardized test score, attendance records, an essay, a portfolio, letters of recommendation, a second on the spot essay while waiting for the finale of the interview. 8 frigging asssessment tools. Think of the person hours involved in generating all that paper work. The interview was actually a competition between three kids who were interviewed simultaneously. You cannot convince me that that number is assessments adds anything to the process. From what I saw of that process it was exceedingly biased and exclusionary of the bright kids who didn’t have parents that could support them through the process.
Easy-medium except for Copa before CBGB. I tried to make Copa work for more nanoseconds (hi m&a) than I care to contemplate.
The rest was cake except for recto before VERSO which I abandon faster than you can say nanosecond.
Pretty smooth, the symmetrical RAE MAE was nice.
Kinda cute, liked it.
It was lots of fun getting the slanted references, and fortunately I remembered to count the squares before calling them 'veiled' OBLIQUE was so much better, so that was another moment of joy.
@Loren, loved your avatar -- I assumed you made it up, but I did a search anyway and discovered they were a real family, and the fish is because their feudal holding was a fishery -- "consisting mainly of EELS!" We should be seeing them more as a clue. (From HouseofNames.com)
@Nancy, you may have to leave out the space in grayscale -- at least, that worked for me.
@Gill, I bet we'd all enjoy seeing an image of that etching! Maybe not as an avatar, though, those images are too small. You could put it online and post a link, maybe.
My memory's hazy (hey, I'm 75, whaddaya want?), but I believe Loren's in a PhD program now. Even more sure she's joking about the suspected bribe. In fact, in my experience, if a story by @Loren doesn't move you to tears, it's probably a joke. Except the one about running through the lunchroom in a guerilla suit, that one I believe completely.
OK, I've got a Google account and am logged in, but I'm getting photo quizzes most (not all) days from Captcha. I'm hoping because my computer is down here in Florida, rather than home in Massachusetts, but it sure is annoying.
Wow, all we had to do was go to the school in our neighborhood. Your geography determined your school. Pre-school? There was no such thing yet by the time I started kindergarten I knew how to read and could write in cursive. I guess my "just a house wife" mother did a pretty good job.
THEY (The Y) killed me.
Dumbest IDEA so far this year for me - at 22A, I misread the clue as "Patient preceder". The only prefix I could think of for patient was IMPA - OH NO? Oh yeah. I was so impatient, I was stuttering. But 7D wasn't going to be _LOm so I rethought that section. Still, the mind reels. And after I was feeling so smug today when I was reading a column in the NYT and saw "The winner of the 2020 election, whether Trump or someone else, is going to pay for the way Trump has allowed our traditional alliances to whither" and laughed at the error. Now I'm just going off in the corner to whither and cry.
Okay, not really, since I did fix my idiocy. I liked Mercury being described as INMOST (in one of the INMOST sections of the grid) rather than being defined by its size. I liked the clue for BARTENDER at 42D and I loved the THEY dook of 54A.
Thanks, Jeffrey - my enjoyment of this puzzle wasn't oblique in the least.
Please. What is an Easter egg in a crossword puzzle?
@Aketi. Dear god, that sounds like hell. Here in the hinterlands, we don't have those kinds of choices, but my kids got into universities of their choice and have done very well. This stuff sounds nuts to me.
Trust OFL to omit the dozens of criticisms I'm sure he had about the puzzle and go off on sidetracks about SEACREST and ASSAD and ALEPPO. How could he let the green-paint ONEALLTIE go scot free, or TOME as clued, or the awful crosswordese (ORB is getting high on that list)?
@LMS. If what worries you is getting in to UNC despite a bad score on the GRE, I doubt anyone was bribed to get you into grad school. I suppose you had quite a few A's as an undergrad, and if you had to write something in order to apply, or better yet submit samples of your writing, anyone who looked at your talent in that department, as we here all get to do, would haul out the old ADMIT stamp with nary a second thought.
Hey All !
Had my one-letter DNF today, which always aggravates me, but the one I had made me LOL. NUdES for NUKES! Ha! Was thinking of signs I see at Car Shows, "Unless your NUDE, don't touch my car!", so No NUdES!
ROUE, sounds like ROO, though I'm not one (a ROUE, that is, at least I believe I'm not!) Other odd words today (or odd letter placement), TOILE, SATYR, TSAR, DAR, CBGB, ODED.
Oversized grid, and still only TWOs F's.
"T, HEY! THEY saw you at THE Y. Did you DOOK there?" (Scene) Har.
BEER STASH
RooMonster
DarrinV
@jae - rEctO/VERSO was one of these aver/avow minor/major pairs for me. Fill in the letters you're sure of and come back for the rest. At some point, after years of that, I realized that 'recto' and 'right' both begin with an 'r'.
@Z Thanks!
Just for you, @Nancy I shall remove my two faces of Lolita and replace her with my rendition of SATYR drinking of the wine and Bacchus looking amused at the debauchery. I drew this many moons ago and no one really likes it but me. Hah!
@Aketi: Wow. You must be glad you only have one child?
As far as university is concerned. I went The University of Madrid. Anybody could get in and it was free. I wanted to get into Bellas Arte department but I flunked the test. In order to get into the prestigious Art School, you had to submit a life sized charcoal of Michhelangelo's "David." It was done at University in front of a panel of so called "experts." You had one week to do your charcoal and then watch as every single drawing was put on the floor and 5 "professional" artists chose who was to enter that facultad. Talk about flop sweat! All the charcoals looked exactly alike - how to choose. Only 5 slots open out of the 300 students applying. Well, of course we knew who'd get in. If your tio was named Agostino and rich, or if you were close to Franco or knew the queen of yada yada and if you knew how to grease palms, you got in. Problem solved. At least I continued in "Filosofia" and learned all about Unamuno.
Thank you NYU and The San Francisco Art Institute for allowing humble and very poor me, into your fabulous schools.
I sincerely hope the palm greasers and takers of today end up in the pokey.
@jberg
Have you tried hitting "Publish Your Comment" without checking the "I'm not a robot"box?
Works for me.
The theme played a very small part in my solving experience. I had the first three themers filled in and it was only when I got down to the revealer that I bothered to look back and see what the theme was. Doing that only allowed me to automatically enter the RUS at the end of THESAURUS. Given how easy that south center section was I'd have saved myself some time by just continuing to ignore the theme and stick with the fill.
Printing the puzzle out I was dreading another corny/puny theme. Even though I almost completely ignored it while solving the theme did turn out to be a pleasant surprise.
It's been mentioned before (in a previous puzzle) but any time you're dealing with a fabric clue for a five space entry such as 26D, depending on which letters you get first TOILE is not to be confused with MOIRE, VOILE, TULLE, TWILL or LISLE. It was a good thing that lTD, UNO, LEAGUE and SEACREST we're all easy.
Once again I didn't notice that this was a 16 wide grid. That helps explain why it came in at a Thursday time. Mostly the extra time came from the resistance I initially encountered by starting in the NE and then getting from there into the center and the SE. The fill, up to that point, was engaging enough that I forgot all about the theme. Once I got past those initial sticking points the fill went in too fast to bother with the theme until the end. That as I said
was just to see what it was.
Over all an above average Wednesday solve.
I enjoyed this one because it was the right level of difficulty for me. I never thought of a VALE as having to do with streams. Never noticed it was similar to valley either, silly me. I didn't associate DROSS with metal waste, specifically, either.
I came here today bc I couldn't understand THEY. Glad I put it in without understanding it. Thanks for the explanations.
I feel uneasy about using ODED casually when drug deaths are such a problem and so traumatizing for the surviving family. I'm not offended, just suggesting it as something to think about.
I join the chorus of praise for this one. Dynamite execturion, wonderful reveal, and an overall erudite sheen. Personal bonus: the satisfaction of writing in AURIGA, a crossword puzzle offering the only opportunity I'm likely to have to use the word. I liked SEACREST flanked by MAE and RAE.
@Loren, thanks for pointing out the TOME. As for the OED, the bottom right corner comes very close.
I had Copa instead of CBGB for the longest time. This despite the fact that I know it very well: when I was in the east village last summer I made a point of making a short pilgrimage to the former CBGB site, now a clothing store. Ugh
But that’s on me, and this is a very nifty puzzle. I got the trick pretty quick which helped a lot. I didn’t even notice the segmentation Rex complains about. Not important to my solving experience. AURIGA was new to me, but gettable.
@GILL I like it mucho!
I still don’t understand they.
@gamma
THE Ymca
I think the NYT crossword commentator, Deb Amlen, of Wordplay, today has “recto” and “verso” exactly backwards...but I dunno how to communicate with her. Am I mistaken?
@Nancy 11:09, @Gill is that good, I have proof. She sent a drawing of me (ha ha) dancing on a tabletop wearing a grass skirt after consuming SAKE. I still have it.
@kitshef - Thanks for the recto/verso tip.
@GILL I, I could never imagine applying to an art school, let alone the Bellas Arte Department. Way too intimidating. I feel for students who audition at schools and universities for the performing arts too. Just that much more pressure.
Between my son figuring our how climb up ladders to slides and our window panes when he was only 9 months old and the application process for nursery school I concluded one child was enough. The applications for elementary, middle, and high school only validated my earlier decision.
@GILL did me the very great honor of emailing me a larger photo of her etching, and if you think it looks good small, it looks even better blown up. I envy you, @chefwen, having a portrait that was done of you. I'm sure it's quite lovely. Wish GILL had done one of me. Well, if she ever gets to NYC...
As I told you in my email, @GILL, I really think you should take up painting again. You told me some of the reasons that you don't anymore, and I'm sympathetic and all, but what if Cezanne had had similar excuses? Or Monet? Or Degas? Promise you'll think about it. OK?
it's "the y" as in "the ymca." took me a while too!
Dude, CBGB
Congratulations to @Nancy on a superb first (of many, I hope) published xword. And a hat-tip to guest blogger Brian for finding the photo of the best looking DeSoto ever made (most were ghastly, chrome-laden, beasts).
i know i'm going to sound like a lunatic, but did any other phish fans raise an eyebrow a couple times while solving this puzzle. you have STASH, mercury in a clue, as well as lizard(I know it's a stretch because it wasn't plural). then, "let's get the show on the road" from ac/dc bag as a clue, and also their first show was at a ROTC dorm which is also an answer.
My dictionary/theasurus/atlas/almanac references obliquely refer to "reata" not "riata" for vaquero's item (rope).
Wait. This puzzle's theme is "thesaurus"and "neat" was clued as "well organized"? Those are in no wise synonymous. My husband is a tour guide. Can organize travel like nobody's business. But is he neat? No. Frowny face.
How is they a place to swim
It's not the speed, it's the ability to achieve optimal structural integrity for a sandwich. Only the most topgun badass hand slicers can consistently carve off bread slices that are not so thick as to overpower the filling and not so thin as to fall apart under the stress of the mustard and mayo. I myself tend to create slices that incorporate both of these flaws in a single slice.
The Y. As in YMCA
The theme IS dense. I don't know why you "can't count" the circled words just because they don't have clues attached. All those letters have to be in place for this to work. As such, it's a virtual tour de force--though it forced some wacky fill.
35-down--both clue and answer--is stupid. If the score is ONEALL there's no need to add "TIE;" duh! The whole thing should have been replaced.
I did not know that Mr. SEACREST was ever accused of S.H.; these days, who hasn't been? But trust and believe, if there was any truth to it, DOD Kelly Ripa wouldn't have let him come within ten blocks of the studio, let alone share a stage with him.
I give props to the theme & execution, not so much for the rest. Par.
Isn’t 35 down a dook? Neckwear of 49 down?
I think having LMS and Lewis making the first two posts set the tone for a fun and pleasant run of comments. Thought I was going to dnf, but no, it all fell together instead of apart and the baffling night club name was cinched by the trick. Only change was OHoh to OHNO.
One can get into trouble confusing Max Ernst and Ernst Mach when considering Arts and hard sciences.
Having BAR"hopped" instead of TENDED for quite a while (quite a while indeed) made that SE corner a mess. I finally figured out that REFERENCES just had to go across, FEET were "dogs," and then it soon fell into place. Not being sure of the spelling for ALEPPO (two Ls anyone) did not help one UNO bit. Need to take a walk to clear my thick head.
Is it me, or is there a SWEAT theme this week? (Forgot to mention my favorite flop sweat scene recently - Albert Brooks on camera in Broadcast News, wetting down the weekend report.)
Diana, Lade-in-Waiting for Crosswords
TACIT ACTS
INMOST BEER LEAGUEs THEY score,
THE HOME team SEESTO it, THEY try.
But how DROSS, WHATABORE,
when THE END’S a ONEALLTIE.
--- MAE SEACREST
Neat slants on the OBLIQUE REFERENCEs, and the revealer was a good one.
Mostly easy until the elongated SE corner toughened up with the fill: LBGB (needed the G in GRAY), Carly RAE (don't know her), and VALES (wanted dALES, but needed the V in VERSO cross). Got'em all with a bit of guesswork.
But far, far away, a black hole (adjacent square) swallowed up (or down) the G in the TNG/AURIGA cross. I'm not a Treki, and astrology is not my thing.
Otherwise, enjoyed the trip through this one. Nice work.
Everybody on the extremes of both the right and left have their torches and pitchforks ready for use at a moment’s notice. Just because someone has been *accused* does not make them guilty. And I’m tired of pitchfork nation assuming they are. Stop it! Rant over.
The REFERENCE works were certainly OBLIQUE, and at times helpful. NOdoz before NOTES. I got ahead of myself again and without reading the clue filled in WHATsmORE instead of WHATABORE. Gotta stop doing that.
Carly RAE Jepsen hands down a yeah baby. Call Me Maybe? (2012, couldn’t miss it)
OK puz, but wondering, why the need to parse it into THE_Y?
Quite the slant to this puzzle. I encountered the run of circles on the West side first, and saw THE -AUR and left it, went up to the top and got DICTIONARY and ALMANAC, then the revealer, and went D'oh! Not THE-something at all.
Never did find out what @LMS was on about with the "Easter egg" reference, but the entire North was pretty easy regardless.
So, the theme was carried out with aplomb with little effect on the fill, to my eyes, and some nice clue/answer combos. THE Y was great, but though I got BRIE, I couldn't reconcile it with its clue. Oops, now I do. Never mind.
Decent Tuesday puzzle.
@Crimson Devil 5:27 PM, the clue for 59 down was pages 2, 4 or 6. Page 1 is generally on the right (pages 1 and 2 are on the same piece of paper, not facing each other), so the even numbers are on the left, which is verso. So the clue is correct.
@Fellow (is there a feminine term for this?) syndies:
I think we should exchange more comments among each other just to make this part of the blog more fun and interesting for all of us. The realtimers occupy another universe. We might be few, but maybe we could mix it up a bit more among ourselves?
I'm not sure, but it's a thought that occurs to me from time to time.
@Lefty - I'm with you. Whilst I do appreciate the Synders' comments regarding Futurelanders' posts, I really love it when we speak quietly amongst ourselves. Or even not so quietly. I do try to respond to Synders, especially when we have a question.
Lady Di
Woman of Many Names
PS - In grad school I had a fellowship, thus I've been a fellow before.
@Diana --
Thanks for your response.
P.S. l think "fellow", as in fellowship, is sexist.
@leftcoastTAM, @Lady Di, and all other syndies: I think it is a good idea to converse out here in the garage away from the main party in the house. We did this for awhile when @Dirigonzo was one of us, and I've occasionally referred to other Syndie comments, but I see merit in the effort.
How about "Syndie colleagues". I know @Lady Di likes "synders", but I think "syndies" is more respectful, less aggressive, Har.
@Crimson Devil: You're right -- Deb A. mixed up "recto" and "verso." (She wrote: The right-hand, or even-numbered, pages of a book are known as VERSO, and the left-hand, or odd-numbered, pages are called recto.) Very good catch.
I don't know whether this email address is still valid, but (per an archived piece on Gawker) in 2012 someone sent a correction, by email, to nytnews(at)nytimes(dot)com -- subj. line "Crossword Puzzle Correction" -- and it was forwarded to Shortz.
@Whatsername @LMS I know that you probably won't see this (I'm a syndie solver, chiming in 6 weeks later), but just in case: Thanks for making a point of noting what's good-great-excellent about a puzzle and for noting that constructing is *difficult*. (I started a few months ago; have sent out two --one accepted by a small publication, one rejected. I find myself paralyzed about sending out a 3rd, because I can hear the negative comments as I struggle against grid constraints that make it impossible to improve certain parts of the puzzle.)
Anyway, thanks for the gentle and indirect reminder that seeing and remarking upon the pluses, not just the minuses, is a good way to proceed.
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