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Relative difficulty: Who am I to say really?
THEME: "Look on the Bright Side!" — When you get to the end of the allotted space while filling in the theme answers, there's NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP.
Hello, everybody, and happy Sunday. It's PuzzleGirl filling in again today while Rex is off at the Crosswords L.A. tournament hanging out with Andrea Carla Michaels, Tyler Hinman, Doug Peterson, John Beck and many other awesome puzzle people including, of course, the lovely and talented Elissa Grossman who makes the whole thing possible. So jealous! I went last year and had a blast, but just wasn't able to make it this time around. It's entirely possible I'll pout my way through this write-up. You have been warned. 
(Speaking of all the people who are at the tournament, did anyone tell Kevin Der about it. He lives out there and last year I was all, "Where were you last weekend?" and he was all, "What are you talking about?" Did anyone remember to tell him about it this year?!)Here's the thing. Those of you who know me know that I don't like Sunday puzzles. They're just too damn big. For some reason, a 21x21 (or bigger) is very difficult for me to enjoy. I just feel like I'm slogging through it and when I get to the end I typically feel more relieved than anything else. So, sometime in the past year Doug Peterson and I started solving the Sunday puzzle together. Have you ever noticed the "Solve With a Friend!" link on the New York Times puzzle page? Well that allows you, surprisingly, to solve the puzzle with a friend.
So that's what we do. To make it more fun, one of us solves the acrosses and the other solves the downs. We try to stay in the same area of the puzzle and work our way around as smoothly as we can. It's pretty fun. So, when Rex was looking for a sub for today's puzzle I volunteered thinking that Doug and I could solve it together and then I would blog the acrosses and he would blog the downs. Funny, right? Yeah, except I forgot Doug was at the tournament too. So you're stuck with me. The one who doesn't like Sunday puzzles. Have I listed the theme answers yet? No? Well, let's get that out of the way.Theme answers:
- 22A: *Most awful thing you could imagine (WORST NIGHTMARE COME TRU[E]).
- 36A: *Destination of 1911 (THE SOUTH POL[E]).
- 46A: *First rung on a ladder (ENTRY-LEVEL JO[B]).
- 64A: *Dunce's place (BOTTOM OF THE CLAS[S]).
- 83A: *Destitution (ABJECT POVERT[Y]).
- 93A: *Coldest point (ABSOLUTE ZER[O]).
- 110A: Optimist's phrase under adverse circumstances ... or a hint to completing the answers to the six starred clues (THERE'S NOWHERE TO GO BUT U[P]).
This is a clever theme. I figured out pretty quickly that there was literally NOWHERE TO GO BUT UP at the end of each theme answer, but I didn't realize until I had a few theme answers in place that the answer phrases represent starting points from which there's really only one way to go. And that's up. Unless that wasn't clear. ENTRY-LEVEL JOB? Yep, you can only go up from there. ABJECT POVERTY? Totally depressing, but yeah, up up up. This makes the puzzle much more appealing than if the theme answers were just random phrases with the last letter atop the second-to-last letter. I'm never happy when I finish a puzzle, review the theme and then ask "But, um … why?" Didn't happen with this one so even though it's Sunday, I'm more inclined to like this one than to dislike it. I'm sure Xan is so relieved.
There were a couple things in this grid that I just flat-out didn't know, most notably WAT and KAABA (22D: Buddhist temple / Most sacred building in Islam). With [41A: Where lavalava skirts are worn] and [55D: Hinny's mother], on the other hand, it was words in the clues that tripped me up. A lavalava skirt is a SAMOAn article of clothing similar to a pareo or sarong, and a hinny is the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey (or ASS). So there you go.Clues that made me chuckle today include:
- 19A: 21, at a casino, say (AGE LIMIT).
- 67A: It may have a cross to bear (STEEPLE).
- 78A: Doctor whose patients never pay the bills (VET).
- 96A: Burger King vis-à-vis McDonald's, fittingly (ARCHRIVAL).
LOSER for [30D: #2 or #3, say] also made me laugh. Not because it's inherently funny but because PuzzleHusband and I sometimes like to act like we're asshole competitive parents yelling at our kids that "Second place is first loser!" (Please note: We have never actually yelled that at our kids.)Highlights for me today include:
- 52A: Hits and runs? (LOOTS) and 54A: Hits or runs (STAT). Sometimes I don't like the "running joke" kind of clues, but this one struck me as amusing.
- 75A: ___ Stix (powdered candy brand) (PIXY). Memories!
- 81A: 52 semanas (AÑO). No comment.
- 116A: Like stars on a clear night (AGLIMMER). I tried ATWINKLE first.
- 3D: Surprise birthday parties often involve them (RUSES). It just occurred to me just now that I don't believe I've ever been involved in a surprise birthday party. Ever. Is that weird?
- 47D: Dates determined by the lunisolar calendar (EASTERS). I'll tell you what does surprise me every year though: EASTER. Not being Christian, it's not something that I ever really think about. Usually what happens is that at some point in March or April I'll be talking to someone about an upcoming event and they'll say something like, "So, the weekend after Easter then?" And I'll stammer a little and try to act like I know when Easter is. That annual conversation was actually pretty funny this year. Someone at my new job asked me when my birthday was so she could put it on the office calendar and when I told her, her eyes lit up and she said, "Oh! You're birthday is on Easter!" Seriously, I had no idea until that very moment.
Love, PuzzleGirl
[Follow PuzzleGirl on Twitter] [Oh, and if you solve the L.A. Time puzzle on a regular basis, I'd love to have you join us over at L.A. Crossword Confidential.]
Hope you had a happy birthday. And a happy Easter. On the same day.
ReplyDeleteEaster, a Christian holiday, is the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring Equinox. Easy, right?!
ReplyDelete@Puzzle Girl - I know that you are in the weeds but still have time to fill in with a wonderful write up, I loved it as I did the puzzle. Took me a while, cuz it really is BIG. Caught onto the "trick" at 36A and it was very helpful.
ReplyDelete32A I NEED HELP, is a statement from me on Fridays and Saturdays, but not this week.
Looking forward to reports from the LA tournament and hopeful for some pictures.
I am not Adam, I'm chefwen!!!!!
ReplyDelete[Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF]
ReplyDeleteFALSTAFF: Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
PRINCE HENRY: Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack
and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon
benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to
demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the
day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes
capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the
signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself
a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no
reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand
the time of the day.
FALSTAFF: Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take
purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not
by Phoebus, he,'that wandering knight so fair.' And,
I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God
save thy grace,--majesty I should say, for grace
thou wilt have none,--
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up, Puzzle Girl, and you articulated my thoughts exactly on the well-constructed double-layering of the theme. Most appealing, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't hold back a laugh upon seeing the clue to 95D ("Legs" band, 1984) because it was only a few years later that, improbably, I accepted an invitation to a ZZtop concert. And once you've seen them open with that song (after descending onto the stage in an open-top Cadillac through a dry-ice induced cloud), you never forget it.
I could kick myself for not pre-registering for the L.A. Tourny, but it looks like I can still sign up at the door. If true, I hope to see Rex and other crossword luminaries at LMU May Day morning. Good luck to you all!
Easy, amusing, and, after PG pointed out the double theme meaning, even more clever than I first thought. Nice Sun. Xan.
ReplyDeleteClever, logically consistent, seven theme entries, but my reaction was one of disappointment. After the gimmick became clear the first time, I was overwhelmed with "That's all there is to it?"
ReplyDeleteOne write-over at 93 D, Settle a score, had EVEN UP before AVENGE.
My guess for the "no comment" regarding 81A: 52 semanas (AÑO) is the missing tilde over the "n" in 68D - TINEAR ... which means that we are stuck w/ "ANO"... which does not mean "YEAR" in Spanish, but rather something that may not be suitable for a Sunday puzzle...but which always makes me chuckle too... but hey "ASS" got worked in there today, legit! :->
ReplyDeleteCute. I liked this very much. I didn't notice that the missing letter was right in front of my nose (just above the last letter in the answer) until I got all the way to the discloser (which should also have an asterisk). I never noticed that all the answers were examples of the theme until PG pointed it out. Nice on two levels! I liked many of the clues, such as the ones PG mentioned and 1A, 91A, 82D -- all of which made me double-clutch. I guess this is an easy/medium puzzle, but it's elegant.
ReplyDeleteNice write-up, @PuzzleGirl!
ReplyDeleteI have a complicated relationship with this puzzle.
In my first pass, the whole north was full of big holes,so I headed south, where things filled in quickly. (Then, I went back up north and everything pretty much fell in soon enough.)
First theme answer I got was THERESNOWHERETOGOBUTUP, which led me to think that the literal UP (with the P above the U) was some explicit directional pattern that would be echoed in some way in all the others. That was not to be -- the others (I thought) just added the final letter above the penultimate with no directional clue -- e.g., I first thought that the OVER in ABJECTPOVERTY was going to be a relevant direction. It wasn't. So I concluded that the puzzle was somewhat less ingenious than I'd first assumed -- even though the answer for 100A really does reveal what needs to be done (literally) for the other theme answers.
But not till I got here did it dawn on me that each theme answer represented a condition and location or situation from which there was no where to go but up, not the random phrases I'd assumed. To which I say "Bravo and Thank you!" to Xan and "Duh!" to myself.
Much some great stuff here. Loved especially ARCH RIVAL, along with the clue for TIN EAR (Noted weakness?, 68D), and BARGAIN for 'Steal' at 6B.
The dunce may be at the BOTTOMOFTHECLASS (64A), but didn't he (usually he) have to sit in the front? I finally gave up trying to make the front fit (at the time I thought the theme answers were random phrases).
Finished with two errors: WAc/cEES at 22D/28A (partly a guess, but I should have thought of Angkor Wat), and I guessed wrong at the ESSi/KiABA cross(82A/77D). I should know more Italian than I do, but clearly I need to do better with Buddhist temples and sacred Islamic buildings.
@PuzzleGirl: laughed out loud at your LOSER comments.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the puzzle; got the theme at ABSOLUTEZERO.
9D GLAM didn't come to me for a while; was thinking HAIR.
Finished with one mistake: PIXI instead of PIXY.
But not till I got here did it dawn on me that each theme answer represented a condition and location or situation from which there was no where to go but up, not the random phrases I'd assumed. To which I say "Bravo and Thank you!" to Xan and "Duh!" to myself.
ReplyDeleteApparently I am mmorgan, because I had the same experience. Makes me love the puzzle that much more!
Wanted "archenemy" for ARCH RIVAL, and "purloin" for BARGAIN, but other than that it was a pretty smooth solve.
I was at my WITSEND for most of the solve not figuring out the trick until the reveal. With TRU at the end of 22A I was thinking, what has the play TRU got to do with this? And the JO at the end of 46A, what? What have I got to do with this?
ReplyDeleteLoved the clue for ARCHRIVAL. Especially loved that the phrases are actually situations that describe the gimmick.
Brilliant Sunday puzzle, Xan, thank you!
(@chefwen, Blogger is really erratic. I never know from day to day if it'll work but at least it doesn't call me Adam!)
I liked this puzzle despite the fact that I did not get the gimmick until just about the very last clue. D'oh!
ReplyDeleteA cute gimmick, needing to look "up" to finish the phrase but then, on further reflection, realizing that each instance cited is the absolute pits, makes the pay-off phrase THERESNOWHERETOGOBUTU(P), also a wonderful, unexpected, poignant ray of hope.
ReplyDeleteRight at the start it was clear, with the cutesy answer of STRAP and the wonderful misdirect for COUSIN just beneath, that this was a puzzle where the constructor had given some serious thought to its content.
Thanks, Xan!
Pretty easy. I just filled in the theme answers trusting that at some point it would all become clear, which it did. Had legal age for AGE LIMIT for a time but that resolved itself over oatmeal and second cup of coffee.
ReplyDeleteThanks for hosting, PG. Happy belated birthday. Hint: when the Cadbury Creme Eggs appear near the grocery checkout, Easter is coming. :)
Always Look On The Bright Side of Life.
ReplyDeleteFairly easy puzzle. Never got the theme til I came here. Thought a letter was dropped from each answer and then I tried to make a word out of the letters.Loved Town house alternative, Naan cooker and plat du jour.
ReplyDeleteI wrote out the last letter on the end, thinking it would spell something. But POYSBEE never came around.
ReplyDeleteDenise Ann - easy for the West. The East complicates it with the Julian Calendar, "official" Paschal Equinox instead of observed.
@When your chewing-Thanks awfully one of my favs!Really loved this puzzle!! also had atwinkle at first and also DOLE for 72 down otherwise I was seriosly in the groove which I maintain is why I didn't see the secondary theme connotations!!but my favorite clue I think was 98 across!!Thank you Van encore! encore!
ReplyDeleteAgree with everyone on the cool, double-level theme here, well explicated by P.G. Congrats to Xan.
ReplyDeleteI liked SLOP with STY, and RITZ with the PIERRE.
P.G.: We moved last fall so you have our sympathies. Taking a long time to unpack is normal (according to my therapist).
Nice puzzle; good double theme. XAN seems like he(?) could appear as a name in a puzzle at some point.
ReplyDeleteWAT was one of the last words I got, although I eventually did think of Angkor Wat; I guess I never realized what "wat" meant in there.
Not being a dog person, I have never heard of LITTER MATE.
Liked the puzzle - pretty easy, but fun. Did anyone notice the crossing of COUSIN (17A) with NIECE (18D)?
ReplyDeleteThis seemed very easy to me. I almost never finish a Sunday in one sitting, and this one, I did finish easily before my tea was fully cold! WAT was the one surprise/error. Now I know!
ReplyDeleteI did get the theme during the solving, but PuzzleGirl's explanation increased my respect for its depth. Thanks!
What a solid, smooth, thoughtful puzzle! Not a Sunday lover either, but this one was enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteHope the LA tournament is fun for all the blogfriends.
@PG: keep an eye out for the peeps.
Having moved 20 times in my life, I've developed a system that works for me: I don't stop until all the boxes are empty and the moving company picks them up.
It never got easy, even after all the practise.
I admit to being slightly disappointed with this. It's a great theme, but only one letter up? Given that the theme entries were pretty arbitrary, I feel like they could have gone further up. I'm always amazed when I do a "Marching Bands" style puzzle how many parts/combos of words read well forwards and backwards. That being said, I still enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteGeorgeous puzzle, Xan.
ReplyDeleteThanx!
After 3 days away from a computer, I just commented on Friday and Saturday, and am now back up to date. Easy, and less boring, for a Sunday. @PG, when someone assumes you know the date of Easter, you can ask them if they mean Western or Orthodox, since they're usually different - in which case, how could anyone expect you to keep track?
ReplyDeleteThe theme was slow to dawn on me. At first I thought the single letter missing at the end of each would combine with the other missing letters to spell something bright; then, with the revealer, I caught on that you had to go up at the end. By then, I had filled in all those letters anyway, but it was nice to see that I had them right.
It was only when I came here that I realized that all the theme answers fit the last one, which was really nice to discover. I also liked it that the revealer was a long theme answer - not so common.
Hd ALARIC instead of ATTILA for 45D (he sacked Rome in the 4th century, I would have guessed Attila was later), and no idea about 117A, so I guessed PIERCE instead of PIERRE - but it is the New York Times, so I guess it's not really a Natick.
Way back when, when doing the NYT puzzle required someone to have actually bought a newspaper, and no one knew or cared who constructed them, or knew what a pangram was - in other words - when I was young and the grass was greener and the beer was stronger and the girls friendlier ... the Sunday puzzle was always a group affair. It would be spread out on the kitchen table or on the backyard picnic table and everyone would chip in something and eventually it would get done (or occasionally not get done.) I suspect that like bowling, this kind of group activity is no longer so common. Too bad! (I just finished the puzzle a few moments ago, alas, alone.)
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved the puzzle - great theme concept, well executed. More from 15 please (15 = XV).
ReplyDelete@PG - As jberg indicated, in part, the date of Easter is quite complex. I never know when Easter is; you know, like sometime in March or April right? But my mother's birthday is also 24 April and I have never associated her birthday with April.
ReplyDeleteSo I went to my Unabridged Internet and found that Easter can fall on something like 35 different days! This is the only year in her lifetime that Easter has or will fall on her birthday. It will next happen in 2095, and I believe that is by the Gregorian calendar, but it is mind numbingly complex.
@PG - Oops ...her birthday with Easter:))
ReplyDeleteCheer up - nominal Christians like me (and, surely,many real ones) usually don't have the foggiest when Easter is.
ReplyDeleteA fun puzzle. I got it all without recourse to 110A,by just assuming that the last letters of the theme answers were omitted for a reason I would find out later. And, of course, I did. Very minor quibble: shouldn't the clue for 110 A have an asterisk?
Tried BESO for 41D, guessing the 2012 Olympics were in a Spanish speaking country. Then 34D appeared.....
9D was SCAT - nope, not even close per Wikipedia. And putting in an S, assuming 8D was a simple plural, slowed me down in Minnesota. But all in all I found this one rather easy.
Thanks, Xan.
Didn't realize until I got here that the concepts had nowhere to go but up just like the words themselves. Once I saw that, this went from a very good puzzle to a great one. I share PuzzleGirl's distaste for Sunday's, and I'm starting to realize that although I like my 15x15 grids challenging, I like my 21x21 grids on the easier side. Lively theme entries and amusing fill, that's what I want on my Sundays. In other words, this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteBizarrely, my one error today was the inverse of yesterday, when I had an a Y instead of an I (STYES/ELYA instead of STIES/ELIA). Today my only mistake was an I instead of a Y (PIXI/BEI instead of PIXY/BEY). Weird.
I enjoyed this puzzle although it was relatively easy. The Sunday puzzle is pretty much the ONLY one I do. I like the cleverness of the theme and it has a sentimental value as my mother, my sister, my wife and I used to work it together. But, as in BigSteve46's case, I now do it alone. My wife and sister have passed and my mother finds it too challenging at her advanced age.
ReplyDeleteXanq very much. The week has nowhere to go but down. 69D was my only head scratcher. Never having heard of those stix or the Old Wives' play, I guessed PIcY and kEELE and assumed that tamed tigers somehow gave us EcOTICkETS -- citations for taming tigers, mebbe? Lovely commentary puz girl. Come back soon.
ReplyDeleteI like the Sunday puzzles, especially when there is a fine theme like this one. A lot of good longer non-theme answers too: EXOTIC PETS, TIN EAR (I have one), FAWCETT, ANTEATER, and several others already mentioned. However, SEETHRU is kinda ugly. Enjoyed your write-up, PG.
ReplyDeleteI did have a DNF: got ROAnS stuck in mind as horses running shoulder to shoulder at 91A, so could not see SLED at all. I should have stopped, and come back instead of clicking on Reveal.
I was happy to hear ZZTOP at the TOY SHOP, instead of some contemporary SLOP; the PIXY doll I sought was AT THE TOP of the display.
Puzzle Girl:
ReplyDeleteEarly in the write-up you asked
if you had listed the theme answers
yet, and proceded to list them. Actually you had done even better by coloring in the theme answers in the grid.
Easter falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox - or so I've heard. It's a "moveable feast."
ReplyDelete@joho - I guessed that you were having similar problems when you kept showing up without your dog, let's see if mine shows up now unless Adam took him for a walk.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle. Really stumped me at the start but ultimately managed to solve it from the bottom up in my usual time of around 40 mins.
ReplyDeleteTwo miscrossonyms up til the last minute: AGLITTER instead of AGLIMMER and ACE LIMIT instead of AGE LIMIT, which made a lot more sense.
Beauty parts of this puzzle were both the double-layered theme and the lack of tired fill except for perennial crossworld stars Orr and Apu.
@bigsteve46: Nice nostalgia. When I began doing the Sunday it was with/against another guy who lived in the same house. We thought, as do a lot of people still, that the Sunday Times was the toughest puzzle around. When I would complete it in one DAY I was way ahead of the game. Question for the old-timers: was Friday/Saturday tougher than Sunday even in the Maleska days? I solved back then, but never paid attention.
ReplyDeleteFinished at 2:30 p.m. after stopping and starting. Went for brunch with friends. One Natick ESSe/KeABA best guess. Like @chefwen and others tried to make a word of "missing" letters. Hoped for a rebus. Got it with the hint. Did not see the deeper sense till Puzzle Girl explained. Good job PG. Belated birthday greetings.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to put Passover in before Easter because the plural misled me. Passover is a week and Easter is a Sunday though it's also a season.
Kept at it; happy to finish. Glad you got your blue name back @chefwen. Courage @BigStu46 you have us. And I have you all. Here's to a good week with fun tales of the L.A. Tournament.
@MO7S: you have us now to do the puzzle with! We're here every day.
ReplyDelete@MO7S, I'm with @mac ... do the puzzle with us!
ReplyDeleteJust hearing reports that Bin Laden is dead. Seems to be true.
ReplyDeleteThe world's a better place.
ReplyDeleteLovely, lively puzzle today. I must confess that, like @chefbea and @jberg, I did not realize that the last letter of the phrase turned upward, and instead expected them to spell something. I had to come here to PG's delightful write-up in order to see the physical 'ups' as well as the conceptual 'ups.' Plus all those lovely UP pix. @BobK, I can't think how this would make you ask "is that all there is?"
ReplyDeleteI read PG's comment about their family LOSER joke to my 13-year-old and she laughed as hard as I did. I admire that PG has any sense of humor at all left after moving all week, including having to move on her birthday. I love the colors in the grid to highlight the theme answers, too.
Love the @Bard contribution.
Late to the party but had to say this was a wonderful puzzle, best Sunday in a long time. Did anyone see that ARCHRIVAL(S) would have fit the gimmick had it been clued slightly differently? It doesn't fit the theme though, unless you believe that McDonalds and BKing are the bottom of the barrel, foodwise!
ReplyDelete@BigSteve - don't be so sure! I didn't get into crosswords until I started a job where a lot of people had morning coffee/tea together and solved the NYT crossword puzzles around the break table. Now I can do the puzzles myself, but I miss the group puzzle solving (I'm in a new job again).
ReplyDeleteDo you really say, "I was all" and "He was all" or was that just for effect?
ReplyDeleteSyndi-solved this with my non-EXOTICPETS. The appearance of two celebrity canines and their VET in the grid made my LITTERMATE Labs very happy. They are not much help solving the puzzle but they provide lots of moral support and always wag their tails when I have an audible "aha" moment. (If they hear me I'm not talking to myself, right?)
ReplyDeleteA better than average Sunday puzzle. Made me smile instead of groan. Northeast flummoxed me until I had a third cup of coffee. Then it just all fell into place. As for group puzzling, that's a tradition at the Daily Grind in Stillwater MN. Has been for a long time. Hope it never ends.
ReplyDeletejust finished the syndicated puzzle. Happy Mother's Day, finished the puzzle in one sitting while watching the Mavericks beat up on the Lakers. And I enjoyed the theme and "up" construction of the answers. Good fun.
ReplyDelete