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Relative difficulty: Easy-MediumTHEME: "CUT THAT OUT!" (63A: "Stop!" ... or what you do to 18-, 24-, 40- and 54-Across) - theme answers are all things you cut out
Word of the day: SCHMO (16A: Any old jerk) - A stupid or obnoxious person. [From Yiddish shmok, penis, fool. See schmuck.] (answers.com)
A rather lumpy Monday. Not one of my favorite Lynn Lempel efforts, primarily because the theme answers are kind of lifeless and arbitrary.
They could all easily be other phrases, which is to say that none of them is really capable of standing on its own very well. QUILT PIECE might survive in a non-themed environment, but the rest are just ... phrases. To be fair, "CUT THAT OUT!" really does tie the whole thing together very nicely - when I hit that answer, I thought "Well, that saved the puzzle from being a disaster." But only just. There's impressive theme density, and four long Downs, but other than that, very little interest here.Theme answers:
- 18A: Cloth square for a bedcover (quilt piece)
- 24A: Figure fashioned from dough (cookie shape) - !?
- 40A: Clothing with tabs (paper doll outfit)
- 54A: Retailer's enticement (store coupon)
The only even slightly thorny place in the puzzle was right around the intersection of OLMEC (47A: Early Mexican) and REMS (41D: Radiation units). Of all your early Mexicans, OLMEC is perhaps the rarest, grid-wise - third place behind AZTEC and MAYAN. And REMS (41D: Radiation units) ... I know R.E.M. (both the abbreviation and the band), but I wanted RADS here. RADS is something, right? Yes! The "US Military Dictionary" says that a RAD is "a unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation." OK, I feel a little better for wanting it. Speaking of the military, my wife and I watched "On the Town" tonight, the COMDEN and Green (!?!?!) musical that opens with Sinatra and Gene Kelly and that other guy singing "New York, New York." A ton of fun, and gay in every possible meaning of the word.Bullets:
- 37A: Quick barber jobs (trims) - I tanked a puzzle today because I had TRIMS for [Edges] when the answer was BRIMS. I should have known that TIAFRA was not a real place, but I didn't have it all filled in when I opted for TRIMS, and I never went back and double-checked things - that'll kill you.
- 59A: Met singer Pinza (Ezio) - seriously, what will it take for me to remember this guy's name. Once again, ENIO. Is that anybody's name. Morricone spells his name ENNIO.
- 62A: Pop heroes (idols) - perhaps the best part about solving this puzzle tonight was filling in this answer and realizing that my shuffling iTunes was at that very moment playing "Eyes Without a Face" by Billy IDOL.
- 68A: Home of the Minotaur's labyrinth (Crete) - Daedalus made the labyrinth. Strangely, he also made the cow costume that got the Minotaur's mom (Pasiphae) knocked up by a bull in the first place. Talented guy, Daedalus.
- 48D: Sicily's erupter (Etna) - hey look, "erupter" is a word now.
- 71A: "The Lion and the Mouse" storyteller (Aesop) - surely there is a "Tom & Jerry" variation on this story ... hmm, can't find one, so here's a retelling from "Sesame Street."
- 72A: Roald who created Willy (Dahl) - Willy Wonka (and the chocolate factory, and the glass elevator ... important books of my childhood).
- 9D: Spinoff of CBS's "JAG" ("NCIS") - this is like a constructor's Get Out of Jail Free Card, this answer.
- 10D: Determinant of a "Best if used by" date (shelf life) - by far my favorite answer of the day.
- 43D: Grp. with clout at the gas pump (OPEC) - I'm imagining a bunch of robed emirs standing outside my local Gulf station deciding who gets gas and who doesn't.
- 14D: Russian fish delicacy (smoked eel) - this was changed from some kind of sushi bar clue. Wife still didn't like the clue. She tried STURGEON here but couldn't get it to fit.
- 5D: Singer Rawls or Reed (Lou) - I've played Rawls before, so here's Reed: "Sweet Jane" (video quality is terrible, but this clip's got a Cavett intro, so I'm using it):
- 36D: Airline whose name is consecutive letters of the alphabet (KLM) - probably the best "consecutive letter" clue / answer I've seen. Not normally a fan of the letter runs.
- 56D: Locales for ducks (ponds) - "Locales" seems oddly highfalutin' for places ducks hang out.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
This was a tough Mon. for me because of my solving approach. I use AcrossLite on Mon. & Tues. and time myself. The rest of the week I do it on paper and don’t worry about time. Based on an Orange tip, I go through the puzzle acrosses first using the enter key to move around the puzzle. This can give you a pretty good time IF you don’t make any errors. Today I had QUILTPATCH, ALOT, IGLOO, and AZTEC plus a couple of misspellings and misread, all of which killed any chance at a good time. Oh, I also needed to ask my bride about OLEMEC as I was blocked on RADS which I knew wouldn’t work. That said, I liked the puzzle more than Rex. It seemed lite on crosswordese with some unusual long fill and IMOO a cute theme.
ReplyDeleteIn the online applet version 14D is clued as "sushi bar delicacy". Not sure which clue I like better.
ReplyDeleteQuilt, cookies, paper dolls, coupon are too similar/domestic -- could have used more variety there. OPEC isn't having much clout at my pump. Maybe in Nyc.
ReplyDeleteDidn't like it.
ReplyDeleteQUILTPIECE and COOKIESHAPE - double !?
Also OLMEC, LOEWE, and the opera singer - are they really Monday material? Drawing on the "learned it through crosswords" database so early in the week seems wrong.
Meh. The long answers weren't especially interesting. As Rex said, good theme density, especially for a Monday, but it sacrificed the chance for interesting fill. SMOKEDEEL was the most interesting thing in the puzzle, but the "Russian" clue didn't feel Monday at all to me.
ReplyDelete@Hazel, over at my blog I singled out EZIO, OLMEC, LOEWE, and SMOKED EEL (with the sushi clue) as being beyond Monday level. The Russian fish clue is...what, Saturday level?
ReplyDeleteThis would seem to fit Will's description of an
ReplyDelete"easy,breezy" puzzle.
Interesting that egad should show up again.
Wasn't there another clue about Crete recently ?
King Minos ?
My last letter in the puzzle was the "m" in the cross of REM/OLMEC. Felt the same as Rex.
Nothing overly exciting about the fill.
@Rex- don't know if your explanation(definition?) for schmo would pass the sensors !
I appreciate LOU Reed more and more as I get older. He just got married to Laurie Anderson last year, which is interesting if you know anything about him.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that middle aged people doing the puzzle in the 60's felt the same way when the Beatles showed up as I do when NSYNC does?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the b-day wishes yesterday. I had great sushi. No eel though. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
@Doug,
ReplyDeleteA few weeks after 9/11 the NYT's Magazine was devoted to responses in prose, photos, art, etc.
Lou Reed's piece made me weep.
The film On The Town (1949) which Rex references in his writeup has its pleasures, but unfortunately lacks almost all the Leonard Bernstein, Betty Comden, and Adolph Green score which made the Broadway original (1944) such a treat. The well known "New York, New York" number, "Come Up To My Place," and a bit of "I Feel Like I'm Not Out of Bed Yet" survive, but the remainder of the film's six inferior songs were penned by Roger Edens (working with Comden and Green who also revised their Broadway libretto for Hollywood). Bernstein's contributions were apparently considered too highbrow and lacking sufficient melody for Hollywood, although a good deal of his ballet music survives in the film. So while this movie lacks much of the musical excitement of Broadway, it does offer the very young and fresh Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra plus some really spectacular footage, shot on location in Manhattan. All told, not a bad introduction to Comden and Green's work.
ReplyDeleteAlas, has the work of Lerner and Loewe been so forgotten that Fritz Loewe is no longer considered a Monday level clue? Nobody remembers My Fair Lady, Brigadoon, Camelot, or Gigi?
It's hard to imagine now, but there was a time when this was America's popular music. That's probably why some NYT puzzle writers think "Broadway is the center of the universe" as Rex would say. It's not of course, it never was really, but there was a time (perhaps well into the 1960s) when theatre-going was considered essential and Broadway was considered to be America's national stage. Musical drama was mainstream and people actually sang these songs. You couldn't go anywhere in 1956 without hearing the songs from My Fair Lady; the airwaves were saturated with them. And there is a reason that the musical show Camelot was so widely known that Jackie Kennedy could reference it after her husband's assassination and everybody knew what she was talking about.
I bring this up, not because I'm pining for another era, but rather to illustrate the cultural centricity that Broadway once enjoyed in American culture. I think it helps to explain why the NYT puzzle continues to feature clues which reference Broadway's past (and present) -- it is an important history and an intelligent, sophisticated, literate one at that.
I've learned a ton about pop music, rap, sports, and history from working the NYT crossword puzzle and I'd like to think I'm a better person from what I've learned; so it's nice to be reminded of the occasional Broadway song, show, or composer. If it's too arcane for some, just relax guys and remember: it's only a play.
I agree with RP - it's a Nike puzzle - "Just do it." Very little to think about.
ReplyDeleteTried AZTEC @ 47A. Because I had been trying the acrosses straight through, I decided the Z couldn't be right. 14D would be SMOKED _EZ - FEZ? PEZ? No, despite the fascinating images thereby conjured up. The obvious EEL then dredged up OLMEC.
Those of a certain demographic (read: baby boomer girls), check out the Betsy McCall paper dolls! I used to wait impatiently each month for my granny's copy of McCall's to arrive; I kept all the OUTFITS in a cigar box.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the thorniest part of this puzzle is at the crossing of OLMEC/REMS.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting part of the puzzle is @Doug's comment regarding the marriage of Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson.
I did not like COOKIESHAPE and QUILTPIECE.
Is it Tuesday yet?
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ReplyDeleteDid Cavett have to dis accountants in his intro? I not feeling any love today.
ReplyDeleteI'm coming to New York, New York a day early for the ACPT. Do I have time to see all the stuff that they saw in the clip?
The puzzle - I'm with joho. Is it Tuesday yet?
Come, come, Rex. Don't you know I am always asking my farmercist if he would like to enjoy his bread and wine down by the ducks' locale?
ReplyDeleteRe: 14D
ReplyDeleteDead tree version also clued as sushi ...
IMHO eel not a noted (if at all) Russian delicacy ---
Eel more associated with sushi (especially on Mondays), but raw, unlikely smoked.
Don't like either cluing.
BTW: Trivia, Sushi refers to the rice, the other things are the "toppings" :-)
.../Glitch
I got one letter wrong. I just didn't care enough to come up with a really good guess for the OLMEC/REMS crossing. Oh well.
ReplyDelete@Rex: I had the Exact Same visual for the OPEC clue.
I like seeing OLDIE clued as "Hit from Grandpa's day." Seems I did a puzzle recently where it was clued in such a way that it referred to the music I listen to. Harsh.
This morning I get to say those sweet words, this was easy. (But I think KLM was too easy even for a newbie.) Nevertheless, it reminded me of things I love/d. I remember cutting out and dressing paper dolls for hours on end. I love Ansel Adams; his pictures never age. I live in Michigan and have begun to take the Great Lakes for granted, the way we do with things we love. And I love CSI shows, even though NCIS is my least favorite. Nice way to start the day.
ReplyDelete@Greene: I couldn't have said it better. I also love how "helluva town" becomes "wonderful town" in the movie version. That's a whole different Bernstein/Comden/Green musical!
ReplyDeleteThe M was also my last letter, sort of an educated guess.
ReplyDeleteI have the paper version, which had sushi bar delicacy as a clue, and when smoked showed up I was convinced it would be egg (those marbly brownish eggs), I think the eel is either raw or cooked. Didn't know about the Russians, but in Holland we love our smoked eel.
@SCOTUS addict: ditto with the Lou Reed words.
@Orange - It's an honor to be on the same wavelength as you!!
ReplyDeleteI agree also with you on the smoked eel - I think because it was a down, I could figure it out on crosses after the first pass so I didn't pay any attention to it. The 3 that I mentioned were memorable to me because they just screamed WHAT???
Concerning 41D:
ReplyDeleteRAD = Radiation Absorbed Dose
REM = Roentgen Equivlant Man
They are not identical but either one could be an appropriate answer for "Radiation Units"
Unagi
ReplyDelete(Smoked and Cooked Freshwater Eel)
Unagi is delicious teriyaki smoked freshwater eel.
That smoked eel is used in the caterpillar sushi--yum.
@wendy and Anne
Paper dolls! A favorite of us little girl fashionistas. Back in the day.
I think quilt block is the more commonly used terminology. You might have a pieced quilt but QUILT PIECE seems awkward to me.
I was in love with the little girl and old-timey theme answers until I got to store coupon -- which blew my idea of a good theme. A second theme that blew apart with the store coupon was woodworking: cut, shape, piece. Both of the "found" themes went nicely with the homemade jam on my homemade bread and my morning coffee on this picturesque winter day in Michigan. (But now it is off to work.)
ReplyDeleteI'm with Wendy, Anne and SantaFeFran on the memories.
@santafefran, I agree; "quilt block" is what is heard at quilting bees around here, anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhat a homespun puzzle!
Boring, with lots of places to go wrong.
ReplyDeleteI had MAUL instead of MAIM for "Injure severely" and ICONS instead of IDOLS for "Pop heroes" and ALOT instead of SLEW for "Whole bunch".
Avoided AZTEC and a couple others previously mentioned only since I already had some crosses that prevented that answer.
I second the "meh" reaction.
Quibble: shouldn't 63A be OR not AND to make the answer THAT not THEM?
ReplyDeleteI liked the puzzle better than most of you, but only because I've been sick enough the last few days to barely look at the puzzles. I didn't even finish Sunday. Don't know if it was a dog or if I just felt too bad to care.
ReplyDeleteLike everybody else, I wanted rads. Also never knew there was a connection between Russians & smoked eel.
Quilt piece, and I'm an on again, off again, quilter, is okay because that is what is cut out. A block is pieced.
Cookie shape though. Seriously? That's just silly.
A few years back there was a review of sorts of On the Town (Broadway Version.) It had Tyne Daley and some other talented people whose names I can't quite retrieve singing with Comden and Green talking about it between the songs. I saw it on PBS, don't remember if it was made for that purpose or it ran on Broadway. It was very good.
This puzzle left my socks firmly on my feet, though any puzzle which gets Lou Reed face time has something going for it.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Lou Reed making one cry, try this. Made me cry. And want to jump off a bridge.
@Greene
ReplyDeleteCould not agree more. My beloved father taught me to love all the old Broadway musicals (his icons were Rodgers and Hammerstein). I am happy to say that the love continues for my 22 year old daughter. Her ipod contains all the typical music of her generation as well as old Broadway showtunes and even a little Italian opera (her grandfather's second favorite.
i agree with dsf, theme answers were too similar...i can picture my daughter or my mother sitting at the kitchen table working on any of these 4 things. puzzle was SOSO.
ReplyDeleteWorst answer: COOKIE SHAPE!!! very disturbing to me
Best answer: AROD...my favorite team, but my least fave player...Mr. May!
Didn't care for this in any way, shape or form. My Monday Times (home delivered) also had Sushi in the clue. This is much better than Russian for a Monday. But let's remember that Russian for a Thursday.
ReplyDelete@anonymous It took a while to figure out what you meant (probably my denseness) but once I did, I agreed.
@jimmy d Mr.May??? Come on. In his 2 odd numbered seasons with the greatest franchise in all of sports history, he has won 2 AL MVP's. Let's just call him Mr. Odd Number Year.lol
ReplyDeleteMeh.
ReplyDeleteI can live with QUILTPIECE, since it is, at least, the thing being "cut out." But a COOKIESHAPE is not the thing being cut out. A COOKIE is being cut out! I could cut out a QUILTPIECESHAPE or even a PAPERDOLLOUTFITSHAPE. The SHAPE part just really ruins 24A for me. Perhaps SUGARCOOKIE could have worked.
The rest of the fill was pretty good. Bogged down for a moment in the NE. Bring on Tuesday...
@Humorless and SCOTUS: Thanks for those links. Lou and Luciano doing Perfect Day, what a match. Lou looked a little nervous singing next to what would inevitably be an on-key performance!
ReplyDelete@Steve in Boston: I agree 100%. New York is a "helluva town" and Wonderful Town is a helluva good show.
ReplyDelete@Chorister: You have an amazing memory. The performance you recall was a concert version of On the Town (Broadway version)which was taped for broadcast and video release by Deutsche Grammophon back in 1992. It indeed featured Tyne Daily as Hildy and included a crossover cast of theatre folk and opera stars. Comden and Green were on hand to narrate and perform a bit. They originally wrote the parts of Claire and Ozzie for themselves and played them back in 1944. The show itself has been revived on Broadway twice (1971 and 1998).
@dbg: My daughter is the same way. Her iPod is an encyclopedia of pop music from the Beatles all the way through to garage bands that were just formed yesterday. Mixed in there is a pile of theatre stuff, mostly from shows that I took her to see over the years. No opera for her, thank you very much.
I would have thought that Toltec would have been third on the ancient Mexicans list. (Not counting the fact it has six letters.) But Toltec has been used only four times per Jim's xwordinfo, and OLMEC has been used six times. Plus Toltec is a Weds/Thurs word.
ReplyDeleteMore fun radiation info: The REM is supposed to account for the tissue absorbing the radiation as well as the physical radiation. It's counterpart in the SI world is the sievert (Sv). The rad has been replaced in SI by the gray unit (Gy) and measures only the physical radiation. Both are measured in J/kg.
In the times digest that I get in my in box every day the clue was Russian fish delicacy.
ReplyDeleteAs for figure fashioned from dough - I wanted Poppin fresh and it fit!! He certainly is made out of dough
Very easy puzzle. I knew rem. Never heard of olmec
@Lou Reed lovers, Lou Reed and Pavorotti is good voodoo!
ReplyDelete@ChefBea, agree poppinfresh would have been fabulous.
I disagree w/ all the discontents on the list, as well as w/ Rex. I liked the puzzle for a Monday except for the non-phrase "Cookie shape".
ReplyDeleteIt was an unusual idea and well executed, and the long downs showed some nice variety. Well done, Lynn.
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ReplyDeleteAlso got turned off by COOKIE SHAPE, maybe because I tend to naturally equate figures with being human-like (though they don't necessarily need to be) so I kept thinking "gingerbread men doesn't fit."
ReplyDeleteThe "russian" in acrosslite threw me for a second on SMOKED EEL, I think that the sushi reference in the online version would've helped, I love unagi.
And ... for some reason I really wanted "sniff test" for SHELF LIFE. Although then I suppose the clue should have been "Expiration date verifier." The acrosses set me straight on that one!
@Doug, @SCOTUS - Come on, the man who gave us Venus in Furs, Heroin, Sweet Jane singing what might as well be the theme song from Mr Roger's neighborhood? Way bad hoodoo.
ReplyDeleteI was confused about this one as the theme entries did not seem to be "in the language" and COOKIESHAPE and QUILTPIECE seemed to be words that fit the theme more than anything else.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I really liked the long downs. I don't know from Russian but SMOKEDEEL was easy enough to infer from crosses.
I don't know about too hard for Monday but I knew OLMEC from sophomore year history and radiation clues usually means either REMS or RADS (if short) or ROENTGEN otherwise.
I don't think this was Ms. Lempel's best day but it was a solid effort.
I'll have to join the minority in saying I enjoyed the puzzle and wish more Monday offerings were at this level of chewiness -- not very easy to accomplish. It has a fresh theme and lots of theme material, a great kicker entry, and if COOKIE SHAPE is the weakest link, that's not so bad. Didn't heart the ART STUDIO clue, did heart SMOKED EEL (sushi bar clue).
ReplyDelete--JD
Thank you Rex for Lou Reed's Sweet Jane video link--my favorite Lou Reed song. I was actually hoping that you'd have one as I penciled in LOU. That, and the additional Reed link posted in the comments were the high points of the puzzle for me. Anyway, I guess I fall on the majority side with my feeling of meh for this puzzle. And COOKIE SHAPE? Come on...
ReplyDeleteSomeday it'll be a bunch of good ol' boys in John Deere caps and coveralls standing outside the Oasis Supermarket deciding who gets food and who doesn't.
ReplyDeleteEvil
Just listened to the Idol song posted by Rex. Make that the second high point of this puzzle. It took me back to the lab in grad school days. Speaking of coincidences--I turned on the Weather Station last night and the first news blurb up was video footage of MINOT and its snowww...
ReplyDeleteAs for many of you, the M was my last letter. Sort of an educated guess: it rang a faint bell on both words.
ReplyDeleteBunch of mistakes before I got there, though: had QUILTPATCH for a while, which led me to hazard that Lindsey Lohan was Lerner's partner (hey, I had no idea what the clue was talking about). Also put STAR in rather hastily for be in a game/band, which led me to RAILAT instead of YELLAT. Eventually managed to straighten it all out, after marking up the crossword with an embarrassing number of crossouts for Monday.
On Saturday, I was celebrating finishing a Klahn Saturday.
ReplyDeleteOn Monday, I was hard staring and wimpering at the REMS and OLMEC crossing. Worse yet, it was in front of co-workers. Such is CrossWorld
What's happening to my week already? It's 72 degrees with a warm wind in the SF Bay Area so surrealism is a possible theme for sure.
Rex: In case you haven't heard, Laura Linney, puzzle denizen and our favorite actress, is featured on the Actor's Studio on Bravo this week.
Not sure if anyone mentioned this, but COOKIE SHAPE is not a thing you cut out. Maybe in France?
ReplyDeleteLOKI!
Depending on which cookie CUTTER you use will determine what SHAPE the cookie will be, I have no problem with that clue. I did have a problem with rems, wanted rads. Also had quilt patch and igloo but overall enjoyed the puzzle and agree with an earlier comment on its chewiness.
ReplyDeleteI thought the puzzle was fairly easy, but when I checked my solution, I found I made a fatal error. In the SW, I had the "H" and "P" for 64D, and figured "HIP" was cool in the '40s (in my defense, the '40s was even before my parent's time). Which made 68A "Creti", which I figured was a Greek/Italian translation of Crete. Obviously, not right, and "Hep" is much more '40ish. For the Russian delicacy, I filled in the "smoked" part very quickly, but let the crosses fill in "eel", at which point I said, "hmm, doesn't sound good to me, but okay."
ReplyDeleteWendy, thank you for the Besty McCall clippings. I always used to cut carelessly and thus the clothes couldn't be saved in a cigar box or anywhere else. Do children still play with paper dolls?
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! As chefwen said, COOKIE SHAPES are created by cookie cutters, and therefore this clue is perfectly suitable. Haven't any of you denigrators ever used cookie cutters or even heard of them?
ReplyDeleteExtremely easy Monday puzzle, and enjoyable.
Since the ones who liked this puzzle are a tiny minority, they need all the moral support they need, and I'm willing to give it to them herewith.
ReplyDeleteI don't get the gripe about shapes: Of course, you can cut out shapes, e.g. by first drawing them and then cutting them out. Or consider this: "cookie-cutter" is the proverbial expression for "same shape".
@purple guy: I've sent you by now 4 e-mail messages w/o getting a reply--I think there is something wrong with your service.
@blanche of course I've heard of cookie cutters!!! Want to see a huge collection of them? C'mon over
ReplyDeletePeculiar... I found this to be an excellent Monday puzzle. Fun to solve, with little twists in the theme answers (well, except for STORE COUPON), long and interesting verticals, hardly any abbrvs. or silly acronyms, SEXY OLMEC KEPT IDOLS? CUT THAT OUT, INDY. What are you all Meh!ing about?
ReplyDeleteIs the reference to Lou Reed's walk on the wild side? Didn't Laurie Anderson also dwell among those trodden ways?
@PurpleGuy: Y'know, Ulrich's e-mail address can be found on his Blogger profile page, accessible by clicking his name atop his comment. Maybe you should send him an e-mail and he can reply--if his notes have been getting blocked by your spam filter, you should also add his e-mail address to your contacts.
ReplyDelete@Ulrich- I've sent you an e-Mail also.
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand the hang up.
I apologize profusely for the "gremlin"in my machine.
My e-mail address: robertjcain@earthlink.net
Thank you for your help, and
I'll keep on trying!!
To the rest of you, keep on talking
among yourselves!!
@Orange- thank you. I did send Ulrich a separate e-Mail.
ReplyDeleteI have also turned off my spam filter.
At this point, I'm ready to shoot myself, and/or take
an ax(axe?)tomy computer.
Maybe a Medieval poleaxe ?????
@Ulrich-with some sleuthing.
ReplyDeletediscovered that your e-Mail domain was
listed as a spam.
As we speak(write?) I have corrected same !
SHNOOK now SCHMO. Suddenly everyone is Jewish!
ReplyDeleteNot sure Ms Lempel would have used it had she known the derivation...
but I liked that today's puzzle was decidedly feminine...
Now Cut that Out reminds me of Jack Benny...
@Greene
Ohmygod, I know the original (ADOLPH!!) Green is long gone, and Betty Comden died a couple of years ago, but maybe you could team up with her daughter Susanna and be the new Comden and Greene!
Helluva/Wonderful comment today!
OLMEC by REMS went like snap- had no problem there.
ReplyDeletehad COOLMILLION for COOKIESHAPE- "figure fashioned from dough".. but that resolved quickly enough..
very much liked SMOKEDEEL, though now a bit miffed that I didn't get the russian version..
only problem was QUILTPIECE(?), SCHMO, and NCIS.
I would think that "quiltpiece" was a way of saying "quilt" to emphasize that it is a piece of craft, or art. I don't think that quilts are comprised of "Quiltpieces"
I would think that schmo is too vulgar for the NYT
and I don't know ncis from ncsi or nc-17.
What is the deal with Ezio? Good to see
ReplyDeleteRex has same brain cloud. Happy week, you
puzzlers, kings and queens of Pen &
Pencil (and Google).
There are different types of sushi that do not have rice. It depends on the sushi chef. I do not eat most sushi because of the wrapper called nori, but not all sushi use nori, depends on the chef. Unagi can be smoked or raw, depending on the chef. Having lived in Japan most of my life and having a Japanese wife, i can't say, I have seen it all, but at 55, I have seen alot.
ReplyDeleteI'm a serious quilter. Quilts are usually made up of blocks, which are usually made up of pieces. The clue was fine. I'll add that the "quilting" specifically refers to the stitching that holds the layers together.
ReplyDeleteI know Olmec because I like to watch "Legends of the Hidden Temple" with my kids. It's a game show where teams of kids have to answer questions about history read by a giant fake stone Mayan Temple face named "Olmec."