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Rock drummer whose last name is same as his band / MON 7-1-19 / Paul who played Crocodile Dundee / Falsett-voiced Muppet
Monday, July 1, 2019
Constructor: Damon Gulczynski
Relative difficulty: Medium (felt easy, but 3:04 is pretty Medium)
Theme answers:
- HARUM SCARUM (double RUM) (17A: Devil-may-care)
- HEAR YE, HEAR YE! (double RYE) (24A: Town crier's cry)
- ALEX VAN HALEN (double ALE) (?) (51:A Rock drummer whose last name is the same as his band)
- LOGGING INTO (double GIN) (62A: Accessing, as a password-restricted website)
Alexander Arthur van Halen (born May 8, 1953 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch American musician who is the drummer and co-founder of the hard rock band Van Halen. The band was formed in 1974 by Alex Van Halen; his younger brother, Eddie Van Halen; David Lee Roth; and Michael Anthony. Warner Brothers signed the band in 1977, and its debut album was released in 1978. Alex and Eddie Van Halen are the only members of Van Halen who have been in the band throughout its existence. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were a few minor hiccups along the way. Confused my Seminoles with my Sooners and wrote in OSU at 9D: The Seminoles of the A.C.C. (FSU). Assumed 34D: Of the highest quality would be a superlative (i.e. something ending -EST) and so took Forever to turn up DELUXE, which was harder to turn up than it might've been because wait what there's an *ALEX* VAN HALEN now? Really could've used that "X." In fact, didn't get DELUXE until I got that "X." Do people still use DSL? I looked at 35A: Broadband letters and honestly the clue just didn't compute, and when I got the "D" it still didn't compute, and when I got D-L the non-computing continued, so I let ELSA bail me out and I moved on. I did manage to remember Paul HOGAN, though, so I'm pretty chuffed about that. OK, that's enough of that.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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72 comments:
A fine Monday. Pretty easy.
I like most of Van Halen's earlier stuff (pre-Sammy Hagar) but never knew the Van Halen's were Dutch. Diamond Dave was da bomb.
Is the IRONY LEDGE where Romeo met his fate?
Liked it. Had fun.
CAMO HDTVS
Mark, in Mickey's North 40
Still have no idea how Rex does the puz in 3 minutes. You'd think that simply typing answers would take that long.
Anyhow, had to agree about DSL. Does anyone still use that now that we have internet from the cable company?
Biggest complaint would be NOSIREEBOB. Both in terms of, does anyone say that, and really that's how you spell it?
BETTE gets clued with a 30-year-old movie. I grokked it, but wondered how many others did. But then again, it's been about the same amount of time Paul HOGAN since was throwing a extra shrimp on the barbee for tourists.
Medium. Smooth and clever, liked it. Same issues getting out of the NW that @Rex had.
Not sure why ULCERS rates a ?
I really thought I had something wrong when ALE came around. I have double fisted (held two beers at once)—especially in college—but I have never double aled.
You also confused your Sooners with your Cowboys since OSU is Oklahoma State and OU is Oklahoma.
When I see “make mine a double” I think of “Flu Song” on Firesign Theatre pals Proctor and Bergman LP “Give Us a Break”. I think it’s Peter Bergman singing, as Mister Phil Time at “Buddy DeMort's Lizard Lounge in beautiful Las Vegas”. At the end of the song he says “"Okay, thank you very much. I'll go get my shot right now - make it a double!" Funny album.
A fine, boozy, Monday puzzle that I enjoyed. Don’t think I’ve ever had RYE, can’t get GIN past my nose, but RUM and ALE are just fine.
Only hang up was at 39A where I started putting MAKE Me A DOUBLE and ended up with extra squares.. Wite Out to the rescue.
A fun start to the week.
The Sooners would be just OU. OSU is the Cowboys (Oklahoma State), or maybe the Buckeyes (Ohio State). Or the Beavers (Oregon State)
The Sooners are from OU. The Cowboys are from OSU, a far superior institution.
Took me around 8 Rexes this morning. OOF. Cleared it and then handed the iPad over to Mrs. 'mericans just in time before she headed out the door to catch the early train to Frankfurt.
Nice write-up by OFL. I, too, struggled with the same issues as he did in the NW, and then did not get DELUX until the X appeared. Also couldn't recall the name of Lerner's partner. Hart (his first collaborator) for some reason was the only name that would come to me. Also had GrabS before GLOMS.
I didn't find the theme answers scintillating, but -- hey -- it's a Monday.
One of the answers I hesitated on was LAKE GENEVA. The local name of that body of water is actually Lac Léman, which is itself a place-name pléonasme as both words mean LAKE, respectively in French and Indo-European. Surrounded by francophones, appropriately, it's in the shape of a croissant. Some famous events that took place on or near the lake: During the cold, wet summer of 1816, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in a house near the lake's northern shore. In 1826, Daniel Colladon (Swiss) and Charles Sturm (French) used the lake to measure the speed of sound in water (1435 meters per second, in case you were wondering). And a century and a half later, the rock band Deep Purple wrote Smoke on the Water following their witnessing of a conflagration at the Casino de Montreux en 1971:
We all came out to Montreux
On the Lake Geneva shoreline
To make records with a mobile ...
The view of the lake and the Alps beyond from the UN and World Trade Organization buildings in Geneva is so beautiful and mesmerising that most people working for those organisations who are lucky enough to have offices on the south side have their desks turned away from the window, both so they can concentrate and to mitigate the envy of colleagues -- not that there is much work going on these days at the WTO, thanks to the current U.S. administration's hostility towards the organization.
I had a mini HAHA when I started my solve with the string of five consonants with the string of five vowels underneath. Can’t help but think about the potential consequences if one drank that particular combo of DOUBLEs with GUSTO.
Terrific reveal, MAKE MINE A DOUBLE. I’m reminded of all the doubled that Darrin Stevens had back in the day.
I had the same thought for ALE, that it was a bit of an outlier. There is a boilermaker, a shot of liquor dropped into a mug of beer, which I imagine could lead to quite a busy night of mischief.
Rex – I’m assuming that you just couldn’t see the HA HA answer but that you do use it in clarifying stuff like You mean funny odd or funny ha ha? I loved that clue.
@Robin – I use NO SIREE BOB all the time. I usually give it my best midwestern accent, and I have no idea why. So the BOB’s vowel is somewhere between bob and bab.
@jae – I had the same thought about ULCERS’s clue’s question mark. I decided that bellyache most often means to complain, so. . .
Speaking of bellyaching. We have this vestige of English right under our nose – HEAR YE, HEAR YE – where we all can see that this pronoun YE has disappeared. It used to be a second person plural pronoun - basically, the y’all for men running with swords wearing tights and puffy shirts. All you people who smack my hand for misusing lay or infer see this, right? Ye see that our language changes? I’m sure you don’t have a problem with YE dropping out so that everyone uses some form of you. Why can’t other things change, too? Why can’t decimate mean wipe out more than just ten percent (seriously?!). The only thing I can figure is that you see that language changes, but now that you’re here on earth, it’s not allowed to change anymore.
(FYI – the YE in things like “YE OLDE OPEL REPAIR SHOPPE” was just moderner people misunderstanding the word YE. I think. I don’t think YE was ever a determiner back in its heyday. But I totally could be wrong on this I did theoretical linguistics not historical linguistics I have places to go people to see this morning I’m not gonna look it up sorry.)
This is my go-to HEAR YE, HEAR YE for school.
Yo. DJG – nice job. PUT ON ICE embeds tonic. I couldn’t do anything with it, though.
Things were going smoothly until I got to ale. That does not fit the theme and spoiled it for me. I suppose if the basis of your theme is a three-letter alcohol then your choices are limited.
Also, gusto for elan?
Thanks for the lyrics @merican. All this time I never knew that line "Lake Geneva shoreline" even though I've heard the song a million times.
If you live in northeast NY and some other rural places in America, DSL is still very much a real thing. We only got fiber optic last year! Great puzzle.
This was pitched just right for a Monday NYT puzzle. Not embarrassingly easy, with words like ASADA, DONEE, AGAR, GLOMS, and even SVELTE, but gettable even for a tyro, IMO. Several clues that weren't dead-on obvious. A theme with a bit of wit to instill the concept of "clever theme", along with circles to help see the theme (it would have been cool without circles, but then in would have been too hard for Monday, and, at 78 words, I don't think that even with tougher cluing it would have worked for a Wednesday). Finally, a grid sans junk and with some interesting answers -- that is, an exemplar of quality in a puzzle.
Had the same thought on ALE, but you can “double fist” beer, so it can work, just not as an “order” per se. Definitely felt a little challenging for a Monday, but nothing too crazy.
Smooth as a single malt. My birthday today, but no age group change, so no big deal.
My father always used to distinguish between "Funny HA HA' and "Funny Foolish." I prefer this to "Funny ODD" (Hi, LMS) both on grounds of scansion and alliteration.
@chefwen: Do you really use Wite Out on crosswords? Why not a pencil with eraser? You must have a real hard time on Sundays. Or maybe you don't solve on paper, and the "Wite Out" is metaphorical. But don't apps like Across Lite use a pencil and an eraser as metaphors?
HDTVS (no vowel) over AEIOU (no consonant) is pretty cheeky. lONEr crossing ONE ditto.
Surprised Rex was not more testy about the double ALE.
Clue for HEM is an example of what I call a false Monday clue. We all fly through it without a thought, because we’ve seen it a dozen times. But for a real puzzle rookie, it will cause problems. So to us, it looks like a Monday clue – but those people we try to talk into doing a Monday, it’s discouraging. OPEL is similar. Pretty easy for the veteran solver, impossible for the rookie. What I’m saying is, to me, this felt like an easy Monday. But if Monday is ‘rookie’ day, it belonged on a Tuesday.
There is no such thing as a "double" of ale.
where is Annabel??? It's the first Monday of the month!!!
@Johnny Whirlwind: "There is no such thing as a 'double' of ale."
Don't drunken sailors respond to their officers with "ALE-ALE, sir!"?
I don’t like circles in my puzzles, even more so on a Monday. This started out hard (for a Monday) and then got super fast. Overall, I actually enjoyed it and didn’t end up hating the circles too much. And I saw almost no junk fill, which is pretty nifty. Good Monday, despite the circles. And following the puzzle’s theme, I’ll have another.
No Annabel Monday?
Neat! I especially enjoyed the DOUBLE aspect of the first two rhyming and repeating two-part phrases.
I also hesitated in the NW, too uncertain of HDTVS x HAHA to commit and thus needing to circle back around to that corner.
Otherwise - easy, except for a dopey DNF at ALEX VAN gALEN (never checked the cross).
@Robin, I don't have a TV so go online via DSL (at least I think that's what ATT is offering).
Nothing like a spirited Monday puzzle.
Speaking of which...@Rex's wife and I share a taste in booze. My go-to cocktail is 2.5oz RYE or bourbon, 0.5oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur, 0.5oz dry vermouth, 3 dashes Angostura bitters, orange peel garnish. Et voila -- perfection.
Nice to see ALEXVANHALEN in here. From 1978-84, he and his bandmates were phenomenal. Then DLR left, Sammy came aboard, and I lost interest.
Cluing LONER with Recluse seems a little harsh.
Great job, Damon -- have a drink on me!
HEAR YE, HEAR YE, HEAR YE,
I am eager to proclaim
That today I love the circles
Which I normally defame.
For you've filled them full of liquor.
Better yet, you've filled them twice!!
So today I've learned my lesson:
Tiny circles can be nice.
He liked it! Hey Rexy!
@‘merican’s riff reminded me that the “water” in Smoke on the Water is LAKE GENEVA.
This was tough for a Monday here. I can’t decide if I think that opening salvo is “cheeky” (Hi @kitshef) or sub-optimal. Seeing “sometimes Y” in the clue seemed a little too precious, a little too inside baseball, for my taste. Also, several comments already reinforce my issue with 1D. the clue is “______ funny” but I feel as though it should have been “Funny ______.” Overall I really enjoyed this puzzle, but the nits itch.
Hey, do the Sooners of OSU order a DOUBLE of ALE? Inquiring minds don’t want to know. (How many won’t get the joke and correct my error?)
There are definitely beers called "double ales". Most often you'll see it as a double or 2x IPA, though I'm pretty sure other styles of ales can be brewed as doubles. (Quick googling shows that a the "dubbel" in Belgian dubbel, means double, and that's certainly a common Belgian style). They tend to be higher alcohol content, though I'm no expert on brewing, so I don't know what makes it a double. It's definitely not the same concept of doubling the quantity that is poured, but I'm not that that picky about my themes. So, I thought it was fine.
Sammy is almost 57A.
Never noticed sequential vowels in fAcEtIOUs ; thanks LMS.
Well, somebody has to be a bit negative here. The thing is, ALEX VAN HALEN and the brilliant LOGGING INTO get their double drinks out of totally unrelated phrases, which is great. but HARUM SCARUM and HEAR YE HEAR YE get them out of phrases that are doubled already. I know it's a tight constraint, but I'd like to see them all unrelated.
A more minor quibble is that I think HEAR YE HEAR YE is what bailiffs cry to open a session of court; town criers are more like "Ten o'clock and all's well."
The circles do make it too easy once you get the idea, since filling in one circle gives you another one free- but maybe that's good on a Monday.
OTOH, the long downs are fine, and GLOMS is a great word.
Sara Nies and Lynn Lempl have created a really fun puzzle today
on the McMeel puzzle website. Not to be missed...
PS re vowels: ...and sometimes could add Y as in fAcEtIOUslY !!
You might order a double India pale ale, and it has a higher alcohol content. Also HAHA OOF BETTE and HEARYEHEARYE ( being a double double) add to the theme. A hardy hearty Monday quaff.
@Robin and @Rex, regarding DSL, yes, that’s what AT&T offers, (hi, @Carola) at least in the many places where their fiber optic system is not available. It’s slow compared to cable, but good enough to kind of support streaming video services. “Without much buffering”, according to my daughter.
@LMS, I thought (and Wikipedia backs me up) the “Ye Olde Pizza Parlor” anachronism was not just an attempt to be cute but a misreading of Old English. The word “the”, pronounced as we pronounce it, was written with the now-discarded letter “thorn” instead of the digraph “th”. The thorn looks like a letter “p” with the bowl in the middle instead of the top of the line, but when written in blackletter it looked kind of like a fancy “y” — ye = “ye”. It should still be pronounced “the”, but I’ve also read that “olde” should be pronounced “old”, and that would just spoil all the fun. “The Old Pizza Parlor” sounds like they haven’t discovered cauliflower crusts, and aren’t about to.
Had none of the problems encountered by Rex yet still took me so much longer. Only write over was the US to US of A. @Nancy Enjoyed your poem.
As for yesterday's Spelling Bee, oops; only 5 3 point answers. I guess my internal editor was still asleep.
Only hiccough today was double ale. Double IPA is a thing.
I PAY ON MY IPAD, but you probably wouldn't order a double IPA that way although...
Friend, I'd like an IPA, Me, Make mine a double. Nah.
Skewed elderly again, Beaches, Dundee, DSL (high speed? HA), Lerner and Loewe, Van Halen
@OFL:
Do people still use DSL?
well, have you forgotten all those adverts for sat internet?? for those in deep rural Red States it's either that or, if your lucky, the teleco's DSL service. they only get Fox News on DSL, so that explains Trump's winning the throne.
My five favorite clues from last week:
1. Printed slips (5)
2. Tipping point? (9)
3. Suits, briefs, etc. (8)
4. Is a willing participant? (8)
5. A cobbler might use one (6)
TYPOS
COAT CHECK
MENS WEAR
INHERITS
PIE PAN
oh, and oddly enough, cable TeeVee was invented in Fly Over Country in the early 50s where small towns were too far from cities to get reception. these companies put giant antennas on giant towers (mostly to create a line-of-sight signal path), rigged up appropriate amps, and sent the signals over wires to farmers and such. left behind again.
Almost a minute over my Monday average. Right out of the blocks I stumbled by guessing HIRES for 1A. HAHA and SUM quickly corrected the situation but that kind of delay kept cropping up. The fill had more resistance than your average Monday. That didn't surprise me as this constructor puts out above average puzzles.
Hey All !
Damn, Rex, you must'nt had been a VAN HALEN fan. Everyone knows ALEX is the drummer, and Eddie's brother.
And a bit of a nit, quite a few Abbrs. that I thought Rex would wig out about, especially since there's 3 in the first 4 Acrosses. The list:
HDTVS - USOFA - AEIOU - DQS - DSL - FSU - ASAP.
Got a chuckle out of OffTheGrid 9:14 post of AGAR almost HAGAR. And, we have NOON close to the NOONE we've had lately.
Did like this DOUBLE drinking puz. NO ONE (har) has said the GIN GIN themer is the only one that's together.
HARUM SCARUM is a weird word. It seems like it means something scary instead of devil-may-care. SVELTE is a cool word. Is that Swedish in origin? GLOMS another neat word.
Why not clue HOGAN as Hulk's last name? Or would that be a WedsPuz or later clue?
SEAMY TREAT
RooMonster
DarrinV
Totally agree with all the positive comments. This was a terrific puzzle. Delightfully clever revealer, no junk, four well conceived themers, ALE notwithstanding. A wonderful way to start the week. Agree with everything @Lewis said. Also appreciate his weekly five favorite clues. Embarrassed that I invariably will struggle to remember one or two each week, even though I have done all the puzzles.
Two surprises. Was glad Rex did the write up today instead of Annabel. Was sure he would send this back to the drawing board because of ALE. The traditional " non-starter" "just does not work" rant. Happy he liked the puzzle. Second, thought Jeff Chen would give it his POW. Maybe did not because he had a similar idea which he rejected because of ALE. Interesting column from him today. Also means that at least in his opinion we have an even better puzzle coming this week. Maybe Patrick Berry will return!
@David, continuing previous days' comments about Spelling Bee, are you referring to the SB in the NYT? If not, where is it available? I'm curious about the 3-point answers. Thanks.
Had a rough time with this one, as it was idiom-heavy which was challenging for this non-native American English speaker...
Had never heard of HARUM SCARUM and couldn’t retrieve the BOB part of NO SIREE BOB from my memory, though I think I’ve heard of it before. Struggled with IOTA, especially because I was convinced the revealer would be starting with MAKE ME... which was totally wrong.
SEAMY, GLOMS and BOT threw me off enough that it was hard to get to the longer phrases I was unfamiliar with. But all in all a fun puzzle!
@Robin --- I agree, those insanely fast times freak me out too. A good Monday for me is 8 or 9 minutes and a Saturday is more like an hour. But I'm a mortal. I frequent this blog for masochistic reasons I guess.
Alex, Eddie's older brother, has been the drummer in the band since its founding. Both are native Dutchmen. Interesting because both were reputed to be world-class boozers. Sammy Hagar, in his autobiography "Red," discussed early in the book how boozed up both brothers were when they first interviewed him to be David Lee Roth's replacement.
I do cavil about "ale." If all other themers are hard liquor, that one seems like a cheat. Both "hearyehearye" and "logginginto" (rather than "loggingin") also seem like cheats, the first because it simply repeats a phrase in the answer and the second because it is uncommon compared to "log in" or "log on." To quote another classic rock line, the constructor should have a good reason for taking the easy way out.
Finally, on the subject of classic rock, is there any Boomer who solves this puzzle who doesn't mentally hear the riff from Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water" when she/he/they encounters/encounter the words "Lake Geneva"?
Everyone has pointed out the viability of a Double IPA, so just nodding in agreement here. Any of them I have tried have been delicious but a sa bar order they tend to come in nothing larger than a 12 oz. size, because of the high ABV. Of course you could always order another, which would make a double double IPA.
DSL is alive and well in our little part of the world, and it's not Trump country either. The town is currently doing a "pole inventory" as a preliminary for running fiber optic cable all over the place. I could start streaming videos on my smart phone when that happens, if I had a smart phone.
Yay for NOSIREEBOB. Some time ago myself and the three good friends I played tennis with all decided to be Bobs--we are Scoop Bob, Killer Bob, Frog Bob, and me, Coach Bob. Still calling each other Bob which causes confusion in some folks and happiness in ourselves.
Heck of a nice Monday, DG. Thanks for the fun.
@pablo:
The town is currently doing a "pole inventory" as a preliminary for running fiber optic cable all over the place.
Your lucky. So far. Right wing states, most Red but not all, have been passing laws prohibiting governments from supplying innterTubes services. They so like unregulated monopolies.
Yes, there are Double IPAs (aka Imperial IPAs), but it's slightly out of place (i.e. not entirely analogous) with the other themers (with gin, rye, and rum, you could say "make mine a double" after ordering it but you wouldn't with an ale, except in perhaps a contrived situation.) But, regardless, I'm willing to give it a pass, as it's close enough for government work. And I also don't look at themed clues, especially circled ones, on Mondays as that just slows me down and isn't really all that helpful to me.
This one finished a bit faster than my average Monday (8 min my average, this one clocked in under 7 min.) DSL use is still pretty darned common out here in Chicago. I'm on cable, but it's pretty pricey. Many of my neighbors just use ATT DSL because it's a lot cheaper (and AT&T Fiber hasn't gotten to our neighborhood yet. I think only a few neighborhoods in Chicago have it.) So, yeah, DSL alive and well.
Hi, thirty-something daily silver here... WTF is “HARUM SCARUM”?!? I’ve never heard of that one... I’m surprised Rex didn’t mention it in his review. And on a Monday? Gimme a break.
Nancy liked a puzzle! Rex had nothing mean to say! Will wonders ever cease.
Like Rex, I whizzed through it, but my time was average. Not sure where I got slowed down besides putting in VOiCe (grumpily) instead of VOUCH.
My first-cousin once removed used to serve a drink when on vacation in Vermont that he called a Montpelier which was a Manhattan with maple syrup instead of vermouth, and he definitely skipped the cherry. Very tasty.
I liked HARUM SCARUM, but admit it's old fashioned. I don't think HEM is unfair for a Monday. You want beginners to learn some of the wordplay clues and the downs were all very gettable.
If you waant to do a terrific puzzle try last Saturday's Wall Street Journal puzzle.
With HAReMSCAReM in the grid, I thought the circles were going to be sleep-related. I can VOUCH that I changed to U fairly quickly.
Nice Monday, Damon, and a bit tougher than the average Monday, which I appreciate.
You're
I’m clapping for you, @Nancy.
This was quite a nice Monday. I liked HARUMSCARUM and I’m old enough to remember when it was a common adjective. I only knew Eddie VANHALEN because he married Valerie Bertinelli who gained a ton of weight and then lost it for what must have been “a nice chunk of change” in advertising dollars. Now she cooks on HDTV and mustn’t eat any of it. ALEX was a guess off the X. I use GLOMS more often than NOSIREEBOB but both are in my vocab, although never in a Midwestern accent.
@Nancy
Brava! Great poem.
Four themers and a grid-spannin revealer, and the puzgrid fill is still cleaner than snot. Works for m&e, even tho I'm normally more partial to a little desperation in my weird fill preferences. Primo constructioneerin job. GNAT bad at all.
staff weeject pick: RUM(rum). Honrable mention to debut-wordlet DQS, tho. (DisQualifieS, I assume -- or possibly DairyQueenS, I reckon.)
Theme was kinda transparent, thanx to The Circles. Agree with others, that makin an ALE "a double" would be quite an interestin challenge for a barkeep. But, hey -- there ain't many VODKA+VODKA themer phrases, so whaddayah gonna do.
fave moo(moo) eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Quintet followed by "…and sometimesY"} = AEIOU.
fave fillins included: DELUXE. LAWFUL. NOSIREEBOB. SVELTE.
Thanx, Mr. Gulczynski. hic(hic)
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
No SOTS or DTS to be found anywhere. How ironic.
Not a pleasant solve if you were hungover all day Sunday, I'd wager. But a nicely distilled Monday quaff nonetheless.
Today's earworm:
"A Whiter Shade Of Pale Ale" by Procol Harum Scarum
@joddipinto -- Hah! Great earworm!
@OffTheGrid 11:38 -- Yes, @David meant the Spelling Bee puzzle in the NYT Magazine section. The answers are printed the same day so you can find them in the magazine.
@Ellen S - First @LMS with her “language changes” and now you with, EGAD, letters change, too. Pass the smelling salts.
@LMS 5:52 and others:
"Ye" was never intended to be pronounced "yee".
For an explanation as to how "the" came to be "ye", see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorn_(letter)#English
Where I come from, DSL is not broadband, and never was. It's what the carriers called broadband as part of their many-decades dragging of feet when it comes to adequately provisioning the last mile. The US is at best a developing nation when it comes to its communication infrastructure.
@DigitalDan:
The US is at best a developing nation when it comes to its communication infrastructure.
You can thank your local, state, and Federal politicians. They decided years ago that the innterTubes is merely a consumer discretionary spend, not a common good. May be in the time of bulletin boards it was. Not so much now. The other 1st (and 2nd and some 3rd) countries see it as a social good and provide it as such. Not always direct from the Damn Gummint, of course. But a monopoly is a monopoly; the only question is whether to regulate a private producer or do it directly. Where I live, the town provides the water and sewer pipes.
The only word worse than DONEE is the HR-invented term “Mentee”
Regarding Patrick Berry, 3 of the 9 June New Yorker puzzles were constructed by him. First up for July is KAC.
Scrumptiously clean????????????? Wh--what puzzle did you DO??? First line: an abbr. of all consonants (ulp), necessitating a five-vowel string (I FEEL sick)--and we follow this up with? USOFA (Barf bag, quick!!)! No, no, no, people. USOFA sounds like a college where you learn how to be a couch potato. When is the last time you heard the chant USOFA! USOFA! USOFA!?? Get this abomination out of my sight. And you call this, what now? Scrumptiously clean????????????????????
The "DOUBLE-ALE" point is well taken. Props given where due: LOG-GIN-GIN-TO is brilliant, you might say the showpiece of this work. Otherwise the theme is not that special, circles and all. As to the SEAMY fill, it's enough to give a man ULCERS (though its sister word CAVITY creates an aliment mini-theme). BETTE Midler--or Davis if you prefer--is DOD. IRONY is mis-clued: it certainly doesn't have to be HAHA-funny.
A few DELUXE things to like here, but scrumptiously clean? NOSIREEBOB! MAKEMINEADOUBLE-bogey. Hey, you asked for it.
SUM DELUXE IRONY
LEST ye won’t HEARYE, HEARYE –
ONE FLING will at LEAST find some trouble,
so TREAT me as a DONEE,
here’s the DEAL: please MAKEMINEADOUBLE.
--- REV. ALEC ALAN HOGAN
When 3 of the first four are HDTVS USOFA and AEIOU, well, that’s not quality in my book. And the double ALE fail. OFL calls it ‘scrumptiously clean’ and @Lewis says it’s ‘sans junk’ and an ‘exemplar’? Who’s pullin’ whose leg now?
Another missed opportunity for HAHA Clinton-Dix. One of the best sports names ever.
Wasn’t HARUM SCARUM an Elvis movie? Let’s take a look. . . Yup. 1965.
Yup. Multi-talented BETTE. Yeah baby.
No prob to finish, but let’s acknowledge the shortcomings.
A right-on Monday with a little bite.
The DOUBLEd drinks revealer worked nicely except for the ALE...ALE, maybe, but the very talented ALEXVANHALEN made it seem okay. He's sorta SVELTE, too, isn't he? Anyhow, that's a good word.
Liked NOSIREEBOB. (He's my brother.)
Nice work by DG.
Yes - remember folks, it's Monday. Newbies need to learn Crosswordese as well, you know.
That said, it did have a touch of a bite for Monday, and a clear theme and reveal. What ho, Jeeves!
Diana, LIW
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