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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: FEEL LIKE A FOOL (33A: Regret some stupidity ... with a hint to this puzzle's theme) - common expressions with FEEL or FOOL have their vowels reversed, resulting in ridiculous phrases, which are then clued
This felt much more like a Wednesday than a Tuesday puzzle, but I'm not complaining, as the puzzle is really first-rate. Haven't seen Manny Nosowsky's name on a puzzle for a while - it's good to see Will
bring out (one of) the best to handle a special "holiday" puzzle (is April Fool's Day considered a "holiday" if no one gets off work?). I rated the puzzle "Medium-Challenging," but that's more from a speed perspective (at least for me). It's entirely doable - there were just a number of snags that kept me from flying through the puzzle in my normal Tuesday time. The theme phrases themselves tended to be what held me back, as only a couple of them came easily. I had the most trouble with 23D, FOOLING OKAY, as FEELING OKAY does not seem like a strong self-standing phrase. FEELING GOOD or FEELING FINE = much more in-the-language. But no matter. Look at the great effect you get with that OKAY - it's an anagram of its neighbor on the other side of the black squares: KAYO (51D: Bout-ending slug). Nice.Theme answers:
- 16A: Nitwit's swoon? (fool faint)
- 8D: Vibes not being picked up by anyone? (nobody's feel)
- 23D: Doing credible work as a magician? (fooling okay)
- 54A: Spring in the air? (April feel)
It's especially clever that the E's go to O's as often as the O's go to E's in this puzzle. You also get some exciting long-answer action in the NW and SE, as well as fairly open NE and SW corners (which ups the level of difficulty somewhat). Add to that high-end words like MIASMA (40D: Bad atmosphere) and BILGE (18A: Nonsense, slangily) and QUIRE (5D: Paper quantity), and you have a more-exciting-than-average Tuesday puzzle. Tuesdays are the puzzles I malign most often, so this Manny Nosowsky puzzle is a real treat.Take note:
- 39D: Belly part (navel)
- 6D: Type of 39-Down (innie) - nice, though INNIE more aptly describes a BELLY BUTTON - NAVEL is a bit formal here.
- 1A: Dress shirt closer (stud) - I stared at this for five seconds or so trying to picture a dress shirt. Then I heard Olivia Newton-John say "Tell me about it, STUD" ("Grease"). She talks to me sometimes.
- 4D: "Excellent!," in slang (def) - I will never stop loving seeing DEF in the puzzle. I especially like how it's clued via "excellent," when I'm pretty sure that the group of people who would say "Excellent!" and the group that would say "Def!" are almost entirely non-overlapping. Perhaps someone can draw a Venn diagram for illustration purposes.
- 5A: Four times a day, on an Rx (QID) - Latin helped. I've seen BID and TID, but not QID.
- 25A: Kind of eyes (goo goo) - had GOOGLE and/or GOOGLY in there for a bit.
- 14A: Acapulco article (una) - very basic, yet I blanked on it at first ... and second.
- 38A: Watergate hearings chairman Sam (Ervin) - I was too young. Plus, even when I could see it was some kind of ERVIN, I initially opted for the other kind: IRVIN.
- 40A: Univ. where "Good Will Hunting" is set (M.I.T.) - now that I think of it, of course that movie was set in / around Boston, but as I was solving, MIT was the only 3-letter Univ. in my head, so I just threw it down.
- 50A: Vinegar: Prefix (aceto-) - my first clue that the FINE part of FOOLING FINE was wrong. How could a prefix end in "F"?
- 51A: Pre-remote channel changer (knob) - With the exception of a couple years of early-90s cable, the KNOB was my "channel changer" until 1999. Sad.
- 59A: Analyze the composition of (assay) - "Why won't ASSESS fit? ... oh, because it's wrong? I see."
16D: Red River city (Fargo) - never saw this clue, thankfully. RED RIVER sounds way more Western (as in Texas / oater western) than it does North Dakotan. Not sure why. Isn't there an OATER called "Red River?" Aha, no wonder. It's a Howard Hawks western, starring John Wayne, set, at least in part, in Texas. I feel better now.
- 17D: Houston hockey player (Aero) - gets more crossword play than any minor league team in any sport, ever. I think.
- 24D: Mozart's "Madamina," e.g. (aria) - one of many basic crossword words dressed up in fancy clothing today. See also ERIE, LEIS, and ATRIA.
- 35D: Push too hard, as an argument (oversell) - really like this. It's risky, but it works. Plus, it rhymes with its parallel neighbor, LIVE WELL (36D: Have it good).
- 52D: Mennen shaving brand (Afta) - AFTA is like fool's gold, in that it looks like what I want (ATRA), but isn't.
Got QUIRE and MIASMA only through crosses so the "fool I pity" (sorry Mr. T) is me.
ReplyDeleteThe ERVIN clue reminded me of sitting in my back yard in DC watching the hearings at the tender age of 19. "Perhaps they should reconvene," opined Tom.
very cool puzzle, but i agree it felt more like a wednesday. QUIRE and QID treated me okay, but i didn't pick up on any of the theme answers until late, and didn't get much traction overall until i hit the NE.
ReplyDeletei stared at 41D a long time, thinking, "where is the rest of this clue?" eventually i got all the crosses, came back and looked at it, and thought, "oh." it was very clever.
the first time i tried to write a crossword puzzle, the grid had AEROS. i clued it as "Akron batsmen." can it really be true that a minor-league hockey is better-known than a minor-league baseball team of the same name? (and the akron aeros are AA, not some rookie-level team.)
checking on xwordinfo, i see that AEROS has been clued with hockey four times and baseball once; AERO has been clue with houston twice (including today) and akron once (and "prefix with ___" countless times). and good grief, the houston aeros are now defunct! that's insane.
xwordinfo also reveals that QID has been in the puzzle three times in the last dozen years, all three times courtesy of manny nosowsky. is he a doctor? my wife, who is a med student, informs me that they can't use QID any more because it looks too similar to QD (once a day) and patients were inadvertently overdosing by a factor of four... especially as doctors have notoriously terrible handwriting.
Well, I paid today for being proud of my speed from yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI just plain blanked in the SW. Formed a C with MIT MIASMA ASSAY but it took forever to fill in the rest.
I had no problem coming up with the theme, which I did early, but at 23D , the magician part of the clue threw me.
I felt sluggish today but managed to bring it in under 10 minutes.
Ah, the sin of hubris.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHere goes the opera fan again: "Madamina" is one of the highlights for the singer who portrays Don Giovanni's servant, Leporello, in Don Giovanni. He tries to console one of the Don's exes by pulling out a notebook in which he kept tallies of the Don's conquests across countries: 640 in Italy, 231 in Germany, 100 in France, 91 in Turkey (of all places!) and 1003 already in Spain--impressive numbers by any standards.
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle that I managed to solve at a steady clip--medium sounds about right.
I was very slow in solving this last night and agree it was step up from a normal Tuesday, which keeps me from FEEL(ing)LIKEAFOOL. Maybe because I was out late or not thinking April Fool's Day, I had to get almost everything from the crosses on the themed answers. SW came last with me trying to fit tests (a good bottom fill word) and working on a quotation mark for 41D.
ReplyDeleteI had two different stints in Houston and vote for it over Akron anytime, but thanks joon for the info. I also had some thoughts about certain fools and the Geneva conventions, but I can let it go since I see an end to the foolery coming.
Happy April Fool's Day. Oh, It is my birthday so I can report that April Fool's Day originated in France and came about when the king moved the beginning of the year from the Astrological start (Aires being the first sign) to January 1st. The uninformed were teased for celebrating the new year on the wrong day and were called fools. Pices came at the end of the year and so a fish was part of the celebration. All of the chocolate shops in Paris are selling chocolate fish today.
41D was a teaser. Thought it meant "ditto" from 40D as in another word for "Bad atmosphere." Don't mind getting fooled today. Fun puzzle all in all.
ReplyDelete@phillysolver: Happy birthday! I wonder if being born that day is a blessing or a curse (i.t. of gifts received, I mean)
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, PhillySolver!
ReplyDeleteOutside of the U.S., Aeros are candy bars. In lieu of crunchies or nuts, they contain air bubbles, which is kind of a ripoff if you think about it. The mint Aero's shocking green innards are a kick, though.
Didn't care for this one. Most of the theme answers felt too klunky in their altered states and weren't all the interesting in their unaltered form.
ReplyDeleteOh well. Definitely more challenging than a typical Tuesday.
I have several comments today.
ReplyDeleteFirst, I predict a third week of beating my Tues. time on Wed. I read more than half the clues before I felt confident enough to fill in letters. I had to finally figure out the theme to complete the last section. And still it wasn't all that hard, and quite enjoyable. Nicely done!
Red River: I was also stuck in TX (Literally and figuratively). Since I live here, and the Red forms the TX/OK border, I never imagined Fargo until I had three or four letters.
AERO: Houston has a hockey team?
MIT: I made a guess at how to abbreviate Harvard (HAR) and it took me awhile to get the downs as a result.
Steven Segal: I hope you are really going to take the suggestion from these comments (yesterday?) and work him into each day's entry. I am wondering today if he is supposed to relate to MIASMA or BILGE.
*ID: I hate these. I rarely take prescriptions and when I do I read the bottle, not the abbreviation on the scrip. I always have to hope for crosses to figure them out (well, the ID part sticks with me now, but the first letter, not so much).
My time stank, but I would welcome more puzzles like this one.
Oh, I just recalled a video with a reference to being fooled. The clip is just a minute long, but the Foolish statement comes at the end...here you go...
ReplyDeleteAccidental tongue slips
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ux3DKxxFoM
With Chris Isaak yesterday and Fargo today (also John Deeres), feels like a week of shoutouts to puzzlegirl.
ReplyDeleteI liked this puzzle, although I did not get QID or Quire.
I've never seen KO spelled out "Kayo" and I don't think I like it.
Happy Birthday Philly! Really enjoy your additions to the blog. I'm surprised that chocolate fish are involved in the tradition of the day, yet See's, Nestles, Mars, etc. haven't seized upon an excuse to mass produce les petits poissons for the American market. More chocolate fish!
ReplyDeleteI flew through this puzzle. Classic fun from Manny. My only twitch was having googly eyes for a moment. Sang the Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes" the whole time. Boy could Michael MacDonald belt out a tune. He wrote that one with Kenny Loggins.
Quire was a new vocab word for me. I see it's defined as four sheets of paper folded over to form eight leaves, or 24 or 25 sheets of paper (1/20th of a ream) or any number of sheets of paper or parchment folded within one another.
I'm trying to think of an April Fool's prank to play on my staff of clinical scientists. Anybody??
Rikki:
ReplyDeleteI remember a movie (I think it was Steve Martin) where a doctor convinced his underlings to do a urine test by tasting. His sample was lemonade or similar, of course. I'm not suggesting you actually get someone to drink urine, but you might have fun making them think you did.
No, wait, he dipped his finger in and tasted, and switched fingers before putting it in his mouth. You get the idea.
ReplyDeleteSo, what was the great Indy 500 flaw of yesterday? You're not a Davidson fan are you?
ReplyDeleteAnd one loud and angry voice for NO STEVEN SEAGAL. Leave that wife beating lying fraud out of here.
I just wasn't expecting a theme on a Tuesday, so it took me a while to think to look for a theme. Maybe I haven't been doing puzzles long enough, but aren't Tuesdays usually themeless? Is this WS's way of rescuing the Tuesday puzzle from its usual identity problems?
ReplyDeleteI am surprised that you praised this puzzle, Rex. I found it inelegant in both its theme and its fill. Particularly unhappy w/ KAYO as an abbreviation for knockout. I was hoping that this would become acceptable when I saw the OKAY symmetry and was thinking this might be part of the theme. It wasn't. Clunky puzzle, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Philly! I appreciate the brief history of this date. To add to the occasion let me share that it was on this date that my husband proposed! It's now been 30 years so I guess he wasn't joking (and hopefully isn't fooling around!!!).
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed today's puzzle, even though the theme never quite gelled, it was full of fresh fill an step above for a Tuesday. Decent (8 minute) time to boot.
Yes, this was an [antifanity] fun puzzle, though not the out-of-the-box April Feel's special I was looking froward to. I suppose it's particularly tough to construct such a puzzle at Tuesday level (and yes, today's was on the hard side for Tuesday).
ReplyDelete23D: My first attempt was FOOLING WELL. Turns out I needed that WELL for 36D (where the rhyme with 35D also makes for a 2x2 square of L's in the SE corner). Prefixes that end with F? Well there's self-, but that doesn't have to be clued as a prefix, and anyhow SELF is a letter too short for 50A (and has nothing to do with vinegar).
Apropos Steven Seagal: have we ever had 31D:UKE (or TORI for that matter) clued via Japanese martial arts? I don't remember seeing that even on a Saturday puzzle.
NDE
Fargo's Red River is sometimes called the Red River of the North to distinguish it from the cowboy river. If flows northward along the Minnesota/North Dakota border to Lake Winnipeg.
ReplyDeletehow does the picture of Steven Segal tie into todays puzzle?
ReplyDeletemike, see 1A
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite words is MIASMA, shades of Hamlet seeing his father's ghost through noxious mist! I also had ATRIA in the SW -- took it out and put it back -- finally seeing ASSAY and FEELING OKAY, not fine! I didn't even notice the INCHES answer to the "ditto" clue until reaching the blog this morning, just went to bed happy.... sure all was correct at that point.
ReplyDeleteWell, no -- I'd forgotten to change UNO to UNA, so there was a Dote instead of a DATE! Egads, April Fool....
However, ERVIN brought back memories of being glued to a portable radio for weeks while on a Cape Cod beach with very small children, not wanting to miss a word of those historic hearings. Everyone around us probably thought I was nuts, but we lived in DC at the time and couldn't give up the drama for a second. My then husband was part of a ten-year review of the Navy near Woods Hole, so we spent the summer there courtesy of the US. However, he couldn't talk about his daily work, and when done with the review and write-up, the group could not even read what they'd written because it then became Classified! Funny life... but the system worked then.
Of all the appalling things done by the current Bush, including deep-sixing the GENEVA conventions, the deliberate outing of the CIA agent brought on the deepest gut-wrench to me. Anyone who lived inside the Beltway knew that one said only "I work for the government", never anything more specific to friends and neighbors. The despotic Decider from Texas has cost us more than thousands of lives, trillions of dollars, and total loss of international esteem -- he and Cheney and cohorts have lost us a generation of loyal and dedicated public servants.
∑;(
I also found this more of a Wednesday. In fact, this took me longer than last Wednesday, but a fair chunk of time was spent working up to committing to the "Q" in the QID/QUIRE crossing. Like Rex I knew BID and TID but not QID and had never seen QUIRE before. I did like the puzzle but a number of missteps (e.g.TENDEDTO for TOOKNOTE, LIVEHIGH for LIVEWELL), in addition to the Q, made it slow going. I also hesitated at MIASMA because it didn't seem like a Tues. word.
ReplyDeleteHappy BD philly and thanks for the April 1 background, its good to learn something knew each day!
Rex et al,
ReplyDeleteI also liked the theme but struggled with some of the clunkier ones. For instance, for 16A, "Nitwit's swoon," I wanted the answer to be FOOL'S FAINT which, of course, doesn't fit. A more correct clue would have been "Nitwit soon."
Similarly, 8D should really have been NOBODY'S FEELING, i.e. nobdy is feeling the vibes. The noun-phrase NOBODY'S FEEL implies, no one has a feel, but for what?
Could've sworn "Good Will Hunting" was at Harvard...
ReplyDeleteIsn't Kayo a brand of syrup?... No, Karo that's what it is. Corn syrup. NAVEL is too formal for INNIE? I guess you're right, Rex. It would need to be INWARD or OUTWARD to coincide with the formalness of NAVEL. I have an inward.
sandy -- the pattern with the nyt is themed puzzles monday through thursday, and themeless on friday and saturday. with a *big* themed puzzle on sunday.
ReplyDelete*really* enjoyed today's.
no foolin'!!
;-)
janie
I'm with alex on this one. The theme was a creative idea and of course a topical one, but I didn't like the actual theme entries. They were much too awkward, especially FOOLINGOKAY (as touched upon by Rex).
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday Phillysolver! Hope you will not be fooled too much. My husband woke me with the words: "Hillary has pulled out of the race!", then thankfully saying "April fools!".
ReplyDeleteTough puzzle for a Tuesday, but I got to enjoy it a little longer. I guess if we accept okay we have to accept kayo.
I agree with Alex and damon g.
ReplyDeleteThe theme was clever, but the resulting answers just felt. . . off somehow. I think I sort of felt dissapointed somehow that they weren't more clever.
I got held up in the north b/c I had not heard of QUIRE or QID. Also got hung up in the SW because the first answer I put down in that area was ITALIC for 41D instead of INCHES. That threw me for awhile because I stubbornly refused to let ITALIC go, even when I realized that AT RAGS didn't make sense.
Cheers,
Ronathan :-)
Thank you all for your good wishes. I have certainly endured many references to the date of my birth, but all taken in fun.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 1950's the BBC announced a new methodology of fighting and finally eradicating the spaghetti tree bore making it possible to start exporting the trees. They showed a tree being harvested. The BBC tries one stunt a year, but this one is considered their most famous and fooled the most people.
Watch out for what you are told today!
Oh, also add me to the chorus of people who REALLY don't like "KAYO" instead of "KO". Wouldn't it be the same thing as writing, say, "OHTEE" for "OT"? That's just dumb.
ReplyDeleteAnd I can't tell you how long I sat staring at 17D, listing the names of all the NHL teams, and convincing myself that, no, none of them were in Houston and that I wasn't crazy or forgetting anyone. Took me awhile to realize it must be a minor league team and resigned myself to get it on crosses.
-ronathan
KAYO haters, check it out: It's in the dictionary. It's both a noun (boxing knockout) and a verb (to knock out, in sports; to put out of commission, in more general slang). I kayoed this puzzle, but in more of a Wednesdayish amount of time.
ReplyDeleteSo we have a birthday and a proposal anniversary; for me, this is my wedding anniversary. A long time ago. And our friends and relatives don't forget our anniversary.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Houston Aeros are now a minor league team (the AHL), they were most noted for being part of the now defunct World Hockey League (WHL), which competed with the NHL for a time, and, at one time, featured Gordie Howe playing with his two sons.
Here are some Venn diagrams; the sixth illustrates the non-overlapping sets Rex mentioned.
http://cs.uni.edu/~campbell/stat/venn.html
@orange
ReplyDeleteOK, OK, I'll concede the KAYO thing. Still doesn't seem right to me, but who am I to argue with the dictionary?
BTW, who is Uncle MILTIE (10D)? I don't think I've heard of this guy before, and imagine he must be way before my time.
-ronathan
11:37 AM ArtLvr said...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jayson Blair.
ronathan-
ReplyDeleteUncle Miltie was Milton Berle, AKA Mister Television.
KAYO was the name of the little boy who slept in a bureau drawer in the Joe Palooka comic strip. He always wore a derby hat, as I recall.
ReplyDeletehappy birthday philly solver. Had I known I would have baked you a cake
ReplyDelete@joon 8:58 re:medicine labels no longer using QID
ReplyDeleteJoon or Somebody who knows: What is the abbreviation now for four times a day?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY phillysolver!!!
ReplyDeleteMany happy returns.
Jerry
Manny is indeed a doctor and you can read all about him in a nice write up on Wikipedia that Michael Blake wrote (Will calls Manny "a National Treasure").
ReplyDeleteMichael also wrote one about Merl and is trying to give wonderful constructors more exposure.
As for the whole Tu/Wed it probably was originally geared for a Wednesday, but maybe Will couldn't wait a year.
I had an idea for the Ides of March but it was more a Thursday level and Peter G of the Sun told me to remind him in 2011 when March 15th falls on a Thursday and he wasn't kidding!
Oy, I should live so long!
Speaking of which, did anyone else have Uncle Martin (from "My Favorite Martian") at first?
And if Rex is too young to remember Sam Ervin, perhaps we are lucky he is also too young to remember what Uncle Miltie was really the most famous for in Hollywood!
Happy b-day, Philly! Happy anniversary to Eugene!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a fun, challenging puzzle. I even knew QID but didn't write it in because wtf is a QUIRE? (Well, now I know- thanks Rikki!) BTW, I never got the "no QID" memo. Fortunately, not many meds have 4x/day dosing any more (very inconvenient to try to remember something four times a day unless you're in a hospital). Another medical abbreviation to remember: QOD- every other day.
I did think the theme was interesting. At first the theme answers seemed a bit forced but then when I thought about them, they gelled very nicely. Count me as an anti-KAYO person (it was pretty cool about its being an anagram of OKAY, though). There are too many PURISTs here, I think! ;)
I knew about Sam Ervin not from the hearings but from an American Express commercial he was in a few years later. My dad then explained to me who he was.
Finally, was I the only one who considered what seems to be one of Rex's favorite words, "parse", for 59A. ASSAY?
ps Besides MARTIN/MILTIE, I also fell for GOOGLY/GOOGOO, ATRA/AFTA, OTOE/ERIE and tried AORTI for ATRIA which I'm pretty sure doesn't even exist!
ReplyDeleteThe worst part was BOTH NEICES and NIECES looked wrong to me, despite "I before E" and the fact that my niece is so nice!
MIASMA was an SAT vocab word circa 1975 and to this day I remember it as "My asthma,I can't breathe in this poisonous atmosphere!" which is the mnemonic I used at the time.
Phillysolver, thanks for sticking up for Houston, the greatest city in Harris county and home to the best taco truck in the world (I-10 and Durham!)
ReplyDeleteTreedweller, good to hear from somebody else on this board from God's country. I suspected as much but have always followed my daddy's rule that it's bad manners to ask a man where he's from: If he's from Texas, he'll tell you, and if he's not, you'll just embarrass him.
I mentioned in an earlier post for a puzzle in which the Aeros appeared that I used to work for a law firm that represented the team. Every once in a while there'd be a firm-wide email that the client was graciously providing tickets to tonight's game. We'd all hide under our desks when the managing partner came around looking for associates to fill the seats.
I guess instead of theme I should have said gimmick - I was thinking after I wrote, that of course early week puzzles have themes, but they don't usually involve this level of gimmicky-ness, where you actually have to play around with the words. Is there a "rule" on this?
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this puzzle. Theme was good, but the fill around it was great. Love the wide open construction.
ReplyDeleteMy biggest flap came when I had OWEN instead of GWEN and wound up with GOOOOO for the eyes clue. Briefly thought it was an answer similar to the BRRRRR types seen every once in a while.
i was getting the fool and feel parts of the puzzle. as far as the center of the puzzle went, i got "FEEL LIKE AN ASS". this, of course, went nowhere as i went along.
ReplyDelete3:23 PM andreacarlamichaels said...
ReplyDelete"And if Rex is too young to remember Sam Ervin, perhaps we are lucky he is also too young to remember what Uncle Miltie was really the most famous for in Hollywood!"
...Just take out enough to win.
Rex: I knew it was a tall order to try and stick Mr. Seagal in the puzzle, but I also knew you were the only one up to the task. God, did that me laugh. I knew that I wanted him, I just didn't know that I needed him.
ReplyDeleteConstructors please let me see "cave" clued by this album rather than that hack Plato.
@andreacarlamichaels: "I had an idea for the Ides of March but it was more a Thursday level and Peter G of the Sun told me to remind him in 2011 when March 15th falls on a Thursday and he wasn't kidding!"
ReplyDeleteI have an accepted puzzle with NYT which Will dubbed "a mean one". He could use it for an April Fool's on a Saturday. Given how the years leap in, that's 2017!!
Maybe he will just use it on a Thursday when he is feeling mean?! :-)
Ashish
Could someone please explain STUD? Even with Rex's description I'm not getting it.
ReplyDelete@rob
ReplyDeleteevery tuxedo I've ever rented has had button holes but no buttons. instead, they've come with studs. which act as buttons much like cufflinks. but what do I know, I'm ignorant and young...
@rob: Lucky you: it seems you do not need to wear a dress shirt with a stiff front that has to be fastened by studs (little metal thingies) b/c buttons would not work.
ReplyDeletethanks markus and ulrich... so i guess they are sorta like cuff links but for the front of the shirt... now i remember prom night!
ReplyDeleteI share the KAYO grumbles, dictionarable or not, and will add a gripe about ANGERS, which really doesn't clue well to RAGES. I can rage at Rex for the puzzle rantings I do not share, but I cannot anger him (or at him), and if I am in a rage, I am not also in an anger.
ReplyDeleteBut still, I liked the puzzle, which I considered perfect Wednesday material.
God bless you, Andrea, for admitting you had AORTI at first. I did too, and man did I feel dumb when I figured out it was Wrong.
ReplyDeleteI guess the Red River evokes Texas to folks who didn't grow up on the south side of Fargo east of 4th Street (which is about as close to the Red River as you can get without getting wet). Happy to see my hometown in the puzzle. But it had me singing "I'm the Happiest Girl in the Whole USA" for half the day. (It was a Damn Yankees song the other half).
Maybe a bit harder than most Tuesdays, but really a nice puzzle. Whenever I see the name "Manny Nosowsky," I know that the puzzle will be both enjoyable and fair.
ReplyDelete"kayo" strikes as completely normal usage -- if perhaps a bit dated.
Cea: I suspect angers and rages are both meant to be plural nouns rather than verbs. Do people have angers, though? They can fly into rages, sure. But angers?
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of ANGERS- if there's a word like that, with many cluing options, why force things? (Especially on a Tuesday?)
ReplyDeleteMaybe you'd all feel better about Kayo if you knew it is (was?) a brand of chocolate soda pop. Don't know if it is still made, but I think it was when I was in my teens and 20s. -- Barb in Chicago
ReplyDelete@Treedweller, thanks for the suggestion. Turns out one of the scientists got me. She came out of the lab and said that one of the techs saw a huge rat. I momentarily pictured it gnawing through one of our spanking new machines. But then I remembered the date. Phew! BTW, I've been parsing your name as treed weller.
ReplyDeleteI'm not liking angers/rages. I do like chocolate soda. Yoohoo!
Really enjoyed this puzzle. And 6 weeks into the future, I didn't get the April 1st theme connection until 54A. APRIL FEEL emerged - then looked under the printed grid and saw "No. 0401". Arrgggh! From now on, vow to look there first for clues from the past.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, this was a crisp, fun, challenging puzzle far better than most Tuesday fare.
I, too, FEEL LIKE A FOOL because I had the puzzle nearly solved before noticing it was No. 0401 (I live in Syndicationville so it's May 13 here).
ReplyDeleteOnce I noticed the April 1 date on the puzzle I confidently put APRIL FOOL for 54A "Spring in the air?" which made the crosses especially difficult (eventually corrected). D'oh!