.png)
Orphan girl in Byron's Don Juan / SUN 7-24-11 / Northernmost borough of London / Vast in verse / Noted 1991 Harvard law grad
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Constructor: Kurt Mueller
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: "Nine of Diamonds" — nine baseball phrases, which are clued as wacky non-baseball phrases (baseball is played on a diamond—hence the puzzle title)
Word of the Day: IDEOGRAM (84D: Emoticon, e.g.) —
An ideogram or ideograph (from Greek ἰδέα idea "idea" + γράφω grafo "to write") is a graphic symbol that represents an idea or concept. Some ideograms are comprehensible only by familiarity with prior convention; others convey their meaning through pictorial resemblance to a physical object, and thus may also be referred to as pictograms. (wikipedia)
• • •
Once again it's hot and once again I'm tired (more so), so this time the write-up really will be short. This puzzle should break hard, difficulty-wise, depending on whether you're a baseball fan or not. Once I caught onto the theme, I needed only a cross or two to get most of the remaining theme answers.
Not much challenge. In fact, I finished this in 7:35, which is about a minute and a half faster than my previous NYT Sunday record. That ENFIELD (77A: Northernmost borough of London)/ NGO (78D: Vietnam's ___ Dinh Diem) section gave me a little fright (don't know either), but the fill and cluing elsewhere were a cinch. I barely noticed most of the theme answers, so my attention went more to the fill. There wasn't a lot to love—IDEOGRAM and RUBS IT IN (51D: Adds insult to injury, say) are OK, but otherwise, not much stands out. STOOP TO (82D: Reach at a lower level) is awkward as a stand-alone phrase; SPEWERS would be unfortunate in the singular—it's worse in the plural (24D: Some volcanoes); and CCC is just ... I don't know what (62D: Junk bond rating). But aside from an ENORM (77D: Vast, in verse) here and a NOSER there (91A: Brown-___) , everything seemed fine. Forgettable, adequate, fine. The theme concept is kind of cute—I just wish there'd been more resistance in this thing.Theme answers:
- 23A: Cuts in a cardboard container? (BOX SCORES)
- 31A: Yelled initially? (CALLED OUT AT FIRST)
44A: So-so formal dance? (FAIR BALL)- 46A: Went far too slowly during the 10K? (WALKED IN A RUN)
- 63A: Piece of black-market playground equipment (SWING FOR THE FENCES)
- 83A: Wool or cotton purchase request? (BATTING ORDER)
- 85A: Disgusting advice? (FOUL TIPS)
- 98A: Whiskey bottle dregs? (BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH)
- 113A: Nobleman after a banquet? (FULL COUNT)
Bullets:
- 37A: 26 of the 44 U.S. presidents: Abbr. (ATTYS.) — interesting stat, but that doesn't quite make up for the ugliness of ATTYS.
- 58A: Arizona is the only state to have one (ZEE) — fantastic clue.
- 107A: Coporate shake-up, for short (REORG) — one of my least favorite crosswordisms, but I used it once, so I can't complain too much.
- 114A: Rita Hayworth's femme fatale title role of 1946 ("GILDA") — an early and important movie in the film noir canon.
- 118A: Toothpaste brand once advertised as having the secret ingredient GL-70 (GLEEM) — guessed it off the "M" but had no idea about the advertising claim.
- 13D: Orphan girl in Byron's Don Juan (LEILA) — yuck. Make it Ali or don't make it at all.
- 99D: Noted 1991 Harvard Law grad (OBAMA) — see ATTYS., above
- 2D: Perform Hawaiian music, say (CROON) — I was utterly unaware that Hawaiian music had anything to do with crooning.
- 98D: Confederate general who won at Chickamauga (BRAGG) — must be the guy the Fort is named after. The only BRAGG I know (very well) is Billy:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Save And Share :
61 comments:
Sunday record for me, too -- spoiled by an error at STRIDa/GLEaM. Did not know the toothpaste had an odd spelling and thought perhaps STRIDa was one of many special horse-racing terms I didn't know. Drat.
Being a baseball fan, I raced through the theme entries. I've heard the BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH joke many times before. Probably the best theme answer was SWING FOR THE FENCES, since the clue misdirects you to think about stolen bases. Not an amazing Sunday puzzle, but easy enough that it wasn't a Sunday slog either.
Anyone else notice that today's tax LOOPHOLE appears in almost exactly the same spot in the grid as the fraudulent TAX RETURN in Saturday's puzzle? If I'm the IRS, I look closely at Mr. Shortz's filings next year.
I'm no kind of baseball fan, but I got the theme early and had no trouble with the entries - except I did wonder whether FIFTH shouldn't have been ninth, and carelessly started with FoulBALL even though I already had FOULTIPS.
Found the whole thing rather uninteresting, and would add ENNE, ORISON, ATEAT and YEST to Rex's list of unlovables. Also had tam before FEZ. Should I be embarassed by never having heard of Sholem Asch (or is it the other way round?).
Sholem Asch is a long-dead Yiddish author from Poland. If I were not well versed in Jewish history I would be clueless (answerless?)
Profphil
Hit this one out of the ballpark. Kept telling myself to slow down and save something for "wine time" out on the lanai. Finished about three hours before cocktail hour and had to resort to the LA Times crossword to keep me entertained.
Favorite was WALKED IN A RUN and only write over was at 112A where I had A DAmN before SHIRTS 95D sent me back to the straight and narrow.
A fun and easy Sunday puzzle, thank you Mr. Mueller.
Yup, easy-breezy Sun. Only write overs were TAM for FEZ and NOW for FOR (79d). Pretty much what a mid-summer Sun. should be. Not great but "in the ball park."
I'm no sports fan, but all the theme answers were very much in the language, no problem at all.
Was hoping that 77 A would somehow turn out to be INFIELD.
@thursdaysd - Yes, it is the other way round: Sholem Asch should be embarrassed by never having heard of you. ;>))
Easy. Maybe a record Sunday time, if I kept track of time. Never heard anyone say a horse race was won "by a STRIDE." Nose. Neck. Not Stride. One does say that a runner was out at first by a stride. No problem; I remembered GLEEM. Seems to me it was just Crest in a different tube. There was a Spanish-language TV ad that ended ". . . con Gleem!"). The theme was too easy. The wacky clue for SWING FOR THE FENCES was a bit off. It would have to be "Swing from the fences." There was an old joke about women drinking at a ball game that ended, ". . .the bags were loaded at the bottom of the fifth." I just report 'em.
I agree. A very easy puzzle. Now what do I do the rest of the day? Swelter in the heat.
@chefwen my favorite also=walked in a run.
Why is side in a pickup game..shirts?
@Chefbea: Shirts and skins are sides in a pickup basketball game. As a chubby kid in school, I lived in dread of being assigned to the skins team!
. . . or as some comedian said, "Our gym teacher had us divide up for basketball into skins and shorts."
If you're a baseball fan, you have to be disappointed in the selection of the theme entries which make it clear that this is no tribute crossword.
CALLEDOUTATFIRST, WALKEDINARUN, BOTTOMOFTHEFIFTH, FOULTIPS and SWINGFORTHEFENCES (usually said when the player at bat has almost comically taken a bodacious swing at the ball and missed). BORING!!
This puzzle is an insult to America's Pastime; a concoction to suit only the punster crowd, not we baseball lovers.
Game called on account of rain.
I had a slow start until the force was with me. From LUKE I worked down to FOULTIPS, got the theme, and it was all easy breezy until the Coral/Canada section. Heel has a negative connotation that made RASCAL hard for me to see. No idea about ORISON and not familiar with this meaning of INANE. I probably spent as much time on this little section as the whole rest of the puzzle.
Only 81˚ this morning and the humidity is down a little, so solving this on my "lanai" over coffee was a pleasant Sunday morning.
@glimmerglass
I take it as where the fences play [during their breaks], thus clued OK for me.
@jackj
As a non-lover of baseball [but realize some are], I'm glad they went for the broader audience ;-)
One of my best Sunday times made me like this one a lot.
P>G>
What's wrong with SUICIDESQUEEZE?
Yes, 77A:ENFIELD probably started out as a bonus theme entry "infield", as with the clues for 105D:ERNIE (whoever that was) and 10A:STATS.
If I remember right, the use of "score" for both "count" and "cut" (exploited in 23A:BOX_SCORES), and for that number "twenty", is not coincidental: the two numerical uses of "score" originate in keeping track of a running total with scratches on some board or tree-trunk or whatever.
@JackJ: That's exactly what those of us who are not b*seball fans can be thankful for.
Of course 112A:A_DAMN is not the only way to fill in that blank, even considering that this is a family puzzle (DARN, WHIT) — though 91A:NOSER does suggest one of the off-color alternatives. Will Shortz regards that origin of "brown-noser" as obscure enough not to disqualify the phrase (cf. the SCUMBAG controversy of a while back), but evidently still won't clue 69D:SOB as BEQ or the Onion would...
NDE
@Z, I too, don't think of a RASCAL as being a heel. Heels are mean and nasty. One of my favorite lines is, "Time wounds all heels." (Truer words could not have been spoken by my ex-husband.)
I enjoyed the baseball theme. It's really summery. It was easy, too, which is about all I can handle in this extreme heat. Now, actually being at a baseball game would be excruiating.
@Glimmerglass, you should be ashamed of yourself! :)
Thank you, Jurt Mueller, for contributing to my Sunday morning pastime!
I'm in agreement that one need not be a baseball fan to get these theme entries. I'm not, but they were all in the language enough for me to ferret them out rather easily.
My first time through, doing acrosses only (I have to stop being so OCD about crosswords) I wasn't sure of a single answer. When I started on downs, I began to soar. Finished the bottom first, and then the top fell smoothly. All in all, a fun Sunday morning, not as challenging as many, but fun.
One question: Why is "something on a hog?" WART? Do hogs have warts? I've never seen a hog with warts, but if indeed they exist, why is there a question mark? Or is this clue a reference to Harry Potter's school of wizardry?
About grammar, I'll give away my age if I report remembering the uproar caused by "Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should." All sorts of language purists (I don't mean that in a negative way; I'm one myself) made their unhappiness known; it should have been "Winston tastes good AS a cigarette should." Ah, for the good old days when people cared about such things.
So, Rex, this retired-after-38-years English teacher is just delighted that you pointed out the difference between "fewer" and "less." It brought back memories of my years at U of M working with a professor who caught every single error I made--including the confusion between "fewer" and "less." He made a grammarian out of me.
Ah, yes, good times.
@Norm from yesterday: Thanks! You made my day. (It obviously doesn't take much!)
There is an animal called a WARTHOG.My hawaiians CHANTED!And for some reason had not caught the connection between the french first lady and our own ACME-so I had a little trouble in alaska but the theme answers did not take special knowledge and nothing was very obscure!familiar with "SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER" call it a solid effort
Oh come now. It would hardly sound natural in that commercial for that kid to say "yeah, but I got FEWER cavities than you." They were going for common usage. Personally, I cringe at going into a line labeled "7 items or less" but ya gotta live in the world.
But of course, only in AdWorld of that era would a 13-year-old be bragging to his friend about his dental hygiene.
I don't like Don Ho, but he was the famous Hawaiian crooner. Only a small subset of Hawaiian music, but likely what the clue aims for.
@Ruth - How do you know that until that GLEEM commercial people everywhere used fewer vs less correctly, and that this commercial started it all? It could be that one copywriter was responsible for the demise of the English lanugage?
I did enjoy the 44-across and 85-across mirror of being fair and foul, respectively. Also the aster/astor twins.
Was this a debut puzzle? If so, congratulations. Found it to be very easy, though no record for me at 16:04. But then, I wasn't rushing. It's Sunday. I'm off.
As for the baseball theme, ho hum. Worked yesterday, so on to yesterday's puzzle.
Not a huge baseball fan, but these answers came easily. The totally non-sports people would have complained if it were too hard, so this was a Sunday puzzle for all.
When I think Hawaiian music, I think the crosswordese ukes, so pluck was my first choice instead of croon.
The outside thermometer in the car shows the temps way too low, I realised. Amazing how much better I felt when it said 80.
@joho: nice puzzle word, Jurt!
OK,I'm bummed when people use "hopefully" incorrectly; and "good" as an adverb instead of "well," or leave the "ly's" off, like in "His curve ball is breaking SHARP today;" but what's the issue with "fewer" and "less." (My engineering degree only had five hours of English....lol)
I started this puzzle late last night on settling down for bed after seeing the Dodgers squeak out a victory over the Washington Nationals. I'm a casual baseball fan, but I really do like attending a couple of times each summer. Unfortunately, the owners' messy divorce and mismanagement of team assets has demoralized everyone. Didn't think that the boys in blue would be able to pull it out; they gave up three runs in the disastrous first inning, and six by the end of the third (though they had managed to score five runs themselves by then).
To their credit the team did not give up, held the Nats scoreless for the rest of the game, tied it up in the seventh, and scored the thrilling winning run at the end of the ninth.
So this was a great puzzle to come home to. Thanks, Mr. Mueller!
If you can count it (e.g. balls, raccoons, wives), it's "fewer"; if not (e.g. pudding, love) it's "less."
For the record, I don't *really* expect kids to appreciate the distinction, and am 100% against correcting anyone's spoken English, ever.
Yes, YEST. is really ugly. Beyond that, no complaints about this easy solve celebrating summer's game in the dog days of the season. Thanks, Mr. Mueller, no need to heat up the brain this Sunday.
Hardly any erasures on my paper solve: tam before FEZ, guT before PIT, and exit before DOOR. Also a little smeared where I squeezed in both Che and MAO to see who it was.
Would have been nice to see 94D clued via Etta James, but perhaps that would have been more obscure and spoiled the overall ease. Much as PIN ON is clued to be an ugly partial instead of the Southwestern pine tree.
Really like the clue for LUKE!
@Rex, I think there is an exception for (gently) correcting your own children's grammar and pronunciation, in private.
I wonder if part of the reason that "less" and "fewer" get confused is that they share the same antonym, "more."
I really enjoyed this one, mostly because it was so smooth. Had the theme on the second theme answer and filled in better than half of them right away. Would have been a record time had I not had SLANDER for "Slight". Not knowing the author's name on the cross, took me forever to find my only error.
Too easy for my taste for a Sunday puzzle.
How could he have left out SWITCHHITTER?
Oops! I sounded like one of those old prunish English teachers. That professor of mine corrected my written English. I agree completely that one should never correct another's spoken English.
My son, however, often points out that his father and I did him a huge disservice by both being English teachers. As an adult he says it with a smile--when we were "gently" correcting the adolescent him in private, I'm not so sure he was smiling.
Never corrected daughter's grammar, gently or otherwise. Modeling works. Correcting annoys (at best).
rp
Good summer theme to go along with the pleasant drop in temperature. I liked the way several of the theme answers required slight differences in emphasis to be understood both ways. But then again, I liked PRO-VOL. ONE, so I guess I'm squarely in the punster crowd.
Congrats. A Sunday debut is impressive!
If there wer fewer comments there would be less chatter.
Loved this puzzle, loved the write-up, and love the comments, esp those of Autoerotic and George Michael, who must be the same person.
I have two young kids, and I have no problem correcting their grammer - "I should have went," "Mom was talking to Sally and I" are two errors that make my skin crawl. I have little restraint when it comes to correcting my children, or even colleagues, who don't use English good. See - doesn't that make you NUTS??
hey batter swing batter swing - now ther's some chatter for you, anon 4:39.
i love baseball (go Braves!) and i liked this puzzle, immediately glomming on to the gimmick (somewhat rare for me) so that i skipped through the theme answers and then everything else with relative ease.
love WAH, WALKEDINARUN, and Billy BRAGG. Would like to see LAYLA before i see LEILA again.
@CoolPapaD - Would refrain from posting this except for the content of your remarks - Did you by any chance mean "grammar"?
Maybe he did mean "grammer". She has her lapses. On the other hand, gramper's speech is always impeccable. :)
@Nutso - OUCH, but you are correct! I never mentioned anything about spelling, however, and am painfully aware of my deficiencies in this area. I don't get nearly as upset about spelling issues as I do with spoken grammatical errors - maybe I shood, but I don't. Your point is well-taken, and I appreciate your input!
@CoolPapaD ... incredibly smart people can't spell worth beans. No worries. I'm happy you can speak intelligently. And that you correct, or teach, your kids. My mom, who was a teacher, corrected me and it really helped. Especially with "me" and "I."
Just curious - two different comments referred to "Jurt" Mueller, too many to assume it's a typo - but my paper clearly says "Kurt." Is the online version different?
I had the tam for FEZ writeover, and exit for DOOR, but all in all pretty easy.
As for 63A, you can but a hot swing from the fences, but you can also steal a swing and destine it for the fences, so the clue is OK (although the act is not).
@jberg ... evidently I'm a good speller who can't type very well. I should have congratulated Kurt, not Jurt.
A jurt is an old crosswordese word for hut or nomadic dwelling. I think that what @mac was kidding me about.
3 and out.
12D Really bugged - ATE AT? Or what? Please explain, and this better be good. :)
@nycscott - His comment ate at me all day until I decided to do something about it.
@joho That would be a yurt you're talking about. Or,
@yoho Thate would be a jurt jou're talking about.
Speaking of General Bragg, there are distant relatives of the man living within 10 miles of you. Made that one a gimme for me. I'll say no more to save their privacy!
Saw the title and knew this was going to be right up my (power) alley. Sure enough, a completed Sunday with only one write-over (briefly had FOUL LINE before I remembered that I already had NAPA in my head. FOUL POLE would have been more fun there with similar cluing.
@Noam D. Elkies 10:49 AM
Yes, 77A:ENFIELD probably started out as a bonus theme entry "infield", as with the clues for 105D:ERNIE (whoever that was) and 10A:STATS.
Too bad George Wendt hasn't written "I, NORM" yet. More subtly theme related is 112a, which happens to be the name of the shortstop in this famous Abbot & Costello routine.
Chiming in from syndication.
Hi Dirigonzo, NARB and the rest. I miss you syndies but husband bought me a subscription and I feel honor bound.
When I saw the theme was baseball I went uh oh....Turns out this was quite easy and lots of fun for me. Particularly liked BOTTOM OF THE FIFTH....I've met him many times!
Speaking of grammar - my grandmother and my mother were both English teachers. I grew up speakiing Spanish before being "forced" to learn English. My written English and pronounciations were pretty bad (and still are) and so, I'm thankful for the corrections which were always done discretely.
Off to the last day of the State Fair were we will eat disgusting food and thoroughly enjoy it.
Happy Sunday all.
I guess I'm the only one who for a brief moment thought Arizona might be the only state to have a State Zoo? I hate it when I step into obvious traps like that.
Hear no ..., see no ..., speak no ... reminds me, Evil Doug hasn't been around much lately (in syndicated time) - I kind of miss his caustic comments.
@Hazel's comment reminded me that when I learned to play baseball in Little League (a loooooonnnnnng time ago) the coaches were always telling us to "keep up the chatter" when we were in the field - do they still do that? Most of the fielders now seem to be just standing around quietly, and maybe spitting, like they're bored.
@Gill I.P. - so nice of you to come back for a visit! I always enjoy your comments when I come here long after you've left the room, so it's nice to get a shout out from you in syndi-time.
Just did this one in Syndication and found it quite easy, as well.
Had an issue with the third box at the top, though. Although being a Canuck (and knowing my Canadian history), I couldn't bring myself to fill in 9d properly, as the Dominion of Canada did not exist until 1867.
Also didn't help that I was confusing nisei with issei.
Five weeks behind in Bend, OR here. The Oregonian (Portland newspaper) had this puzzle's title "T Mobile" ... yes, last week's puzzle title! This confused me for a while ... But I rallied and finished in one hour, which is good for me on Sunday!
Life-long baseball fan, but today not so much since the Rockies unloaded Ubaldo to the Indians for a handful of beads. Or, hopefully, diamonds in the rough.
Like Z (or is it Zee?), I spent more time in the pink Canadian north than the rest of the puzzle. Otherwise, right over the plate and in the wheelhouse.
"Let's play two." -- ERNIE Banks
BTW, somewhere there must be a graveyard or even a museum for all those bulls#*t secret ingredients that admen have come up with over the years.
Am I the only one who confidently wrote in JENGA instead of SPLAT? Also wrote in DAMN instead of DARN, thinking to myself as I did so that, while Will (almost?) never lets a damn through, today would be the day he finally allowed the puzzle to talk like regular folks.
Completely off-topic, I noticed several commenters lamenting the hot weather (now five weeks back). Here in Colorado, it's still hot as Hades. We've been running ten to twenty degrees hotter than the San Fernando valley every day for the past six weeks or more. Ugh.
@Cary in Boulder - Zee at home. Zed if I head south to Canada.
Z
NISEI is from Japanese "ni" meaning two, hence a second generation Japanese-American. Issei (from "ichi" meaning one) is someone born in Japan and moved to the U.S.
Hand up for ZOO, which I naturally thought was the 3-letter Z-word that only Arizona had. Only when the downs wouldn't jell did I get the "aha" of ZEE. I agree this was a really great clue.
It's a shame our resident baseball aficionado didn't approve of those terms. Perhaps it's because some of them reflect a certain level of ineptitude at the sport. What fan hasn't booed a pitcher from his own team who WALKEDINARUN? And it could even be right to SWINGFORTHEFENCES if one's team needs a home run to catch up. I liked FAIRBALL and FOULTIPS appearing at mirror positions in the grid. I did not like ENORM, PINON, or NOSER, in addition to some of the other fill.
Captcha=trines: as in strikes yer out, outs per inning, or those trines of trines--players per side and innings per game.
In from syndication-land:
This puzzle kept me agreeably entertained while I recuperate from a cold and lost voice. I find this especially irritating since I can't record for LibriVox.org. I'm improving, but I had a backlog of crosswords because I can't stand reading smallish print when I have a sinus headache.
The one thing that stands out for me is the use of one of my absolutely favorite films to clue the surname of Peter O'TOOLE. The Ruling Class is a riotously funny and surrealist satire on the English class system originally written for the stage by Peter Barnes. You can catch the film version online if you have Netflix.
Here's a set of clips from the film.
Somewhat surprised no one mentioned that the playing card nine of diamonds is known as the Curse of Scotland. (See http://www.rampantscotland.com/know/blknow_curse.htm)
Of course, it doesn't connect to the puzzle.
My first post at this site. I enjoy reading the comments from others. Read Rex Parker's article, about how websites like his take the solitariness out of doing crosswords. Its true and a way to share a fun way to pass the time. I don't usually consider any puzzles easy, and if I didn't have google probably could never really finish one.
However, I always learn a lot, challenges my mind and does put me in a sort of mood, baseball, growing up in Queens, the transistor radios of the 1970's, The Mets, the drone of the announcer, a little wire antenna. :)
Catching up on Sunday crosswords, so obviously not a fanatic, but our newspaper totally messed up this crossword. They gave the theme as T Mobile and had random words in the clues in bold type. I spent way too much time trying to tie it all together. The correct title would have really helped.
Post a Comment