Constructor: Milo Beckman
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: ARROW — circles form an arrow and contain the letters in ARROW.
Note reads:
"The circled letters in this puzzle, when read in the correct order, spell the name of a shape. The four unclued answers are common three-word phrases usually accompanied by this shape."
Word of the Day: ART ROONEY (
21A: Founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers) —
Arthur Joseph "Art" Rooney, Sr. (January 27, 1901 – August 25, 1988), often referred to as "The Chief", was the founding owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers American football franchise in the National Football League. (wikipedia)
• • •
This is a nice little puzzle. Everything makes sense—all the theme answers are real and the circles form the shape they spell out. Simple, neat, good. I was mildly annoyed at the [see note] clues, mainly because I had already started the timer and my printout did not have the note on it, so I had to stop the timer, open the file again, find the note, read it, then restart the timer. So now it seems like there should be an asterisk next to my (fastish) time. But this is not a problem with the puzzle per se; just a problem with my software (not printing the damn note right on the printout), and with my obsessive need to track my on-paper solving times in a spread sheet. I had only a few stumbles—wrote in ADANTE for
ADAGIO (I was probably thinking ANDANTE, which means "in a moderately slow tempo," but faster than
ADAGIO) (
4D: A little faster than largo). Did not know
ART ROONEY, though the name sounds familiarish in retrospect. Completely blanked on
PLATH, as that title (
53D: "The Colossus and Other Poems" poet) is not one I remember. And for some reason I really had trouble coming up with the first word in
USE OTHER DOOR. First tried THE OTHER DOOR (!?), and when the "E" worked I thought, "that can
not be right." And it wasn't.
Theme answers:
- YOU ARE HERE
- USE OTHER DOOR
- I'M WITH STUPID
- THIS SIDE UP
I remembered the crosswordy
MACAU, but not how to spell it (MACAO at first pass) (
45A: Asian gambling mecca). Had trouble coming up with "
ICE" (
5D: Word repeated before "Baby" in a hip-hop title) because Salt-'n'-Pepa's "Push It" (with its "OOH baby baby, b-baby baby, OOH baby baby etc.") kept running brain interference. Threw down
ODER on reflex (
7D: River separating Germany and Poland); had the "OD-," saw "river," added the "ER." I wouldn't know more than a small handful of European rivers were it not for crosswords. I never like seeing
EN AMI, which feels sad and desperate (
29D: As a friend, to François), but there are so few sour patches today that I wasn't bothered much by the answer today at all. Not much to gripe about today. But there's always
TOMORROW (10D: Day when procrastination ends, supposedly).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
.png)
70 comments:
I spent an hour today with someone wearing an "I'm with stupid" tee shirt, with the arrow pointing up. Apparantly a joke 50th birthday present, or so he said. About 5 minutes into the meeting I was in awe of both this man's self awareness and courage to put that out there.
I'm a MACAO guy myself. That's the way I learned it, and I resent having to learn the new and improved spelling.
Well, there were some interesting Tues. words. AHOY URBS! PANTS WRETCH ODER. HAHA, WHIP SULU. Oh wait, there's PLATH - the acknowledged Queen of Sorrow.
I drew in my arrow and it looks like a hangman's noose. I've only seen IM WITH STUPID on a tee shirt so I really became confused.
I guess this is simple but I wish my drawn in blue ink arrow looked like one.
I think it's additionally clever that the YOU ARE HERE arrow points down and the THIS SIDE UP arrow points up. I'll just assume the OTHER DOOR and STUPID person are on opposite sides!
Medium for me. Kinda cute with a hint of zip...IMWITHSTUPID. Didn't read the note but I'm not sure it would have hastened the process.
Only erasure was ABRA for TADA.
I've been playing a lot of poker with the grandkids lately so the "Pair of..." clues took some crosses to rule out cards.
Yes, didn't have note on my print out, so thought it was gonna be "sign o' the times" or some such...
Love that the arrows do indeed go up, down, left, right...extra dollop of elegance, along with being able to draw it in order! Nice!
I misspelled MACAw! But that's a bird of a different feather! And i remember a time when UTERI wasn't "encouraged" to be in an early week puzzle.
I will NEVER get used to 9 letter horizontal phrases not being part of the theme...but there is probably no arrow associated with ARTROONEY whoever he is!
(Glad this wasn't timed...because that is one of those overly sports things that gives a big leg up to most male contestants)
Anyway, nice solid puzzle, arrow definitely hit the bullseye!
I love the name MILO BECKMAN, sounds straight out of Catch-22.
So everyone is buying I'm as 'one word'? No big deal except the note went out of its way to say each answer was '3 words'.
Really didn't like the 'I'm with stupid' bit, kinda low brow and unfunny (if clued to include South Park I would have been happier)
I live in SE Asia so Macau was actually a gimme.
Didn't ever see that 5d turned into 'ice' that's a Great clue
I dunno, maybe I enjoyed yesterday's so much, this one just left me hanging...
May i add, @rex, that i loved the Salt n Pepa video and everyone under 30 should study every single aspect of this video in case they ever have to recreate the 80s...from lyrics to hair to dance moves to jackets...I mean everything!!!!
That cassette (yes, cassette) was one of the few things I took as a memento from my friend Chris who didn't quite make it thru the 90s, which I don't know what he would have thought of them anyway...
Fantastic Tuesday puzzle. Love the fact that THIS SIDE UP is on the bottom. Adds a zany factor, as if the puzzle was printed upside down.
The only clue that made me squint a bit was "Magician's word." I guess ta-da is technically an interjection, like "aha!" It seems more like an utterance than a word. I do not think you can use it in Scrabble, though you can use "aha" and "oho." ....
If it is hyphenated, is it a word or a phrase? Or is it a compound word, like "two-tone" or "red-eye."
Anyway, it was a magical puzzle. Thanks Milo.
Can someone explain 26D clue and answer:
City, to Cicero (URBS)
Kinda liked this puzzle. Sorta easyish. Only eyesores were the 2 Pair of (blank) clues. Just a bad attempt at being cute with the clues that fell flat. Otherwise not bad.
Very clever puzzle, good Tuesday! After getting PLA.. I wrote in Plato without checking the clue, so had to erase...
A nice idea, nicely executed.
Tuesday's don't get much better than this.
JD
I do not know what to say. I think it is as my puzzle mother said: "if you hang with a bad puzzle day -- some may think you are a bad puzzle as well."
Perhaps PJ Harvey sums it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aah5LIvMwmk
Did think this was a shout out to our dear leader as we have his favorite restaurant and an ethnic reference to his charming spouse.
🍢🍢 (2 Odens) Never met a parade I could not rain on.
Existential question: What if I am a robot?
I'm no Steeler fan, but got ART ROONEY immediately
Nice Tuesday puzzle
This puzzle is way too good for a Tuesday. More like this and Tuesday's reputation will be ruined.
@DK - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Shocked, shocked, that @Rex didn't pounce all over THISSIDEUP.
THIS END UP is what boxes say - a SIDE is - well - a SIDE a SIDE - and therefore, must be on the side, and never, ever, UP (or down).
MACAo here too. Had cousins living there for a while, and visited them, before the handover back to China.
Fun puzzle - missed that the circles drew out the shape.
What @Rex and others said abt MACAO/U
UTERI? Really? Wanted OTERI; isn't that a commedienne?
PLATH is okay 'cause the crosses were trivial. Nice indirection @ 58D-->ESPN.
ARTROONEY completely new to me, but saved by the crosses.
Sure, easy/medium, I suppose.
I, too, miassed the shape of the circled squares, so was expecting a rant about random circles. I got Art Rooney pretty easily, though I have no idea why - guess there aren't that many surnames starting ROO.
Other than Staged before SUPPER for 51A, "Many a campaign event," this one was fun - and I have certainly see boxes that say "this side up" on them.
@Anonymous 4:47, Cicero spoke Latin, and URBS is the Latin word for city.
I like the pairs of PANTS and SOCKS, but I'd never call an Oriental carpet a RUG. Guess you can, though.
urbs, urbis: Latin for "city." The word from which we get "urban," "urbane," etc.
HAHA, TADA ... fun puzzle! My favorite Tuesday in a while.
The theme is really tight and totally fresh, the grid clean and the circles forming an arrow icing on the cake.
Rooney Mara of "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" is ARTROONEY'S granddaughter I think.
Seeing SOCKS and PANTS together is cute.
Loved CHIPAWAY, ILLATEASE, USEDTO and, for some odd reason, WRETCH.
Terrific Tuesday, Milo Beckman!!!
For those whose browser did not display @dk's oden symbol here is what an oden looks like:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1F300.pdf
Look for the square labeled 1F362 (it is in the second row, seventh column).
I have no idea why this character made it into Unicode.
Wikipedia says that an oden is "a Japanese winter dish consisting of several ingredients such as boiled eggs, daikon radish, konnyaku, and processed fish cakes stewed in a light, soy-flavoured dashi broth."
I does not show it skewered on a stick.
2 for 2 this week! This was a really fun Tuesday puzzle with a cute, twisty, but easy theme. A few seconds added to my time for having no overt clues for the themers, but all 4 were easily gettable with a few crosses, and the revealer brought it all together at the end, the way it should in an early week puzzle.
Really liked the procrastination clue for 10D - TOMORROW, and another big aid was knowing the Pittsburgh Steelers owner right off the bat.
This was a super, quasi-themeless crossword that Milo gussied up with circles, four non-clue clues and a Gorski-ish ARROW and by adding such lexical lipstick to the puzzle he made it a bona fide, solver certified Tuesday delight, something we aren’t used to around here. What a clever bit of construction!
The themeless “theme” answers were spot on, lacking only the obvious ONEWAYSTREET, which is no loss as it is replaced by the light touch of IMWITHSTUPID, a nice trade off as a reminder of dorky t-shirts and too cutesy cartoons.
The bulk of the answers were generally Tuesday level, familiar to all but nicely clued, like DITCHED for getting “dumped” instead of DITCH dug for drainage and TOMORROW, which avoided the obligatory “Annie” reference and, even one of our most familiar answers, ESPN, was nicely couched as a possible Merv Griffin wannabe game show.
The clue for SUSHI was a little bit confusing since I thought its devotees ate it only with their fingers, never with chopsticks but, at least for me, it matters not, since I don’t eat the stuff, never have done so, never will do so and here in coastal Massachusetts we commonly refer to it as “BAIT”.
Thanks, Milo, for a very special puzzle!
As @jberg and @Glimmerglass point out, the urbs is the city. The suburbs (lit. "below the city") is the area just outside the city proper. Originally "suburbs" was a singular noun, but once it became a common part of the English language the final "s" proved irresistible, and a plual noun it inexorably became, followed in due course by the back-formation "suburb", meaning a particular place within the suburbs.
Would have been better without the instruction clue. I looked at the puzzle before the clue and immediately recognized that the circles seemed to form an arrow. Given that Tuesday clues are so easy, it would have been much more fun to figure out what was going on without the clue.
Only 2 googles: ART ROONEY and SULU. The rest I either knew, or was able to get with the crosses.
En ami is a perfectly good French phrase: no reason to feel iffy about it.
I always try to ignore circles in puzzles unless I can see that they are essential to solving. Got the whole thing then looked at the circles. Made sense. OK puzzle.
Our neighborhood is cleaning up after a tremendous storm. We had to pay big bucks to get our power on. The sound of the chain saw is heard in the land.
@Tita - This side up is in the language. About 40 years ago I bought a case of Australian wine back when it was hard to find in the US. I decided that some Aussie had a warped sense of humor, since the carton said: "This side up. Open other end." Neat trick if you can do it!
Needed crosses for PLATH, not in my mainstream. Silly me, thought it might be word O'Day. ART ROONEY? seriously ... WOD?
Epic day as both Anatomic Clues were correct for once!
Did without getting the "Note" agree faster with, but more fun without.
@joho
Rooney Mara is NY Giants original owner Wellington Mara's granddaughter. Wellington & ART ROONEY were founders of the NFL, very good friends and she was named after him.
Not big on French, so never saw EN AMI before. Interesting that it's the opposite of its English phonetical, enemy.
@Joho and @JC66
It's Rooney Mara's birthday today. Rooney Mara
Funny, I heard it on NPR this morning and thought it was an unusual thing to reference especially at 5:00 am but now we may know why...
Good day all! Oh and I liked 58D.
Fun puzzle. Got arrow right away. Loved I'm with stupid.
I too eat sushi with my fingers..no chop stix.
What @Z and @Jakarta Dan said.
Liked SOFA over ABED.
Way to go, Milo!
Rooney Mara is descended from the patriarchs of both the Steelers (ROONEY) and the NY Giants (Mara). Hence the name. I knew she was the grand-daughter of longtime Giants owner Wellington Mara, but I had to check Wikipedia for further details:
According to that site her father is a Mara, her mother a Rooney. She is the great grand-daughter of both founding fathers Art Rooney and Tim Mara.
Liked this very much. I never commented on yesterday's, but it was one of my favorite Mondays in some time. So far, the early part of the week has been unusually strong.
@Travis: Sure, "I'M" is one word. That's what a contraction is: a single word that stands in the place of multiple words.
Firly easy. Smiled at theme answers. Saw arrow. MACAo, UTERe, poem before TALE. One thing fixed another. ROONEY suggested by ROO then from the downs. Wanted abra but AMINO said no. Nice rewarding Tuesday puzzle.
@tita: We say that there are are four "sides" to a square and that a box has six "sides." We even say that a piece of paper has two "sides." In this usage, orientation has nothing to do with whether one of these planes is considered a "side."
Like @Rex, I had “adante,” and unlike @Rex, I dug my heels in and didn’t change it until the bitter end. That slip, coupled with my careless misspelling of TOMORROW, (I had “tomoorow”) seriously messed me up for a while.
Loved the cluing for ESPN and TALE. I bet if BEQ had clued 49 down, it would have been, “The tenth word of ‘Amazing Grace.’” (At ArtLvr – I have made practically no headway on his yesterday – I’m impressed that you dispatched it so quickly!)
Because of the Latin plural for UTERI, I had ULNAe for a while.
At jackj – you can eat sushi for the rest of your life and never eat raw fish; sushi doesn’t necessarily involve “sashimi,” which is what I imagine you’re loath to try. You should give some rawfishless sushi a shot – it’s good!
This is a charmer of a puzzle, although it made me feel profoundly dislocated, in time and place: URBS and MACAU were gimmies, but had to google to find out what the hell "I'm with stupid" had to do with anything, let alone an arrow. Obviously, I have been going to the wrong places for a long time...
Me too for SUSHI as a finger food.
Was underwhelmed by most of the circles being crammed up in one area. Why? Then I noticed that if you do an A-R-R-O-W connect the dots, you basically "draw" an arrow, pointing to Milo. Wow. Outstanding, dude. thUmbswayUp.
Like that the constructors are going for the extra U's so far this week.
When I was living in Japan, they always supplied chopsticks with the sushi. You need them to stir some wasabi and soy sauce together and then dip your sushi into it.
I'm surprised that no one noticed that the arrangement of the circles actually portrays the Orion The Hunter constellation, complete with bow, arrow and shield. Can't quite make out the motto on the shield, though. It's Greek to me.
I think I might start taking bets on whether the answers to the October meta-puzzle will remain on the NYT puzzle page for a full year.
After reading the high praise for this puzzle, I went back and looked REAL hard. I usually don't like notes for my to-do-list but in this case, and after finishing with a big huh, I thought it would have helped me like it better.
Today ya'll can wear a T that says IM WITH STUPID and point it at me.
I don't like the SUSHI filled with California ingredient i.e. avocado, cream cheese and essentially any filling that sounds like a taco. On the other hand, Sashimi is the food of Gods as far as I'm concerned. Chopsticks are needed for your wasabi stir....
Great puzzle. Thanks Milo for nice finish to my lunch hour. Hand up for MACAO and ABRA.
For 26A, there is not always an arrow on the sign because usually there are only 2 doors in an entryway. Not that I say the answer is invalid, only that another answer should have been used (onewaystreet doesn't fit though).
@Tita – in total agreement with END vs. SIDE issue at 64A. THIS END UP is the proper usage.
@Dan, @ACME – I don’t see any other arrows other than the one created by the circled squares (I have the print edition of the Times) and it points up towards the NE corner.
@joho 8:05 – Rooney Mara is the granddaughter of the, deceased, NY Giants owner Wellington Mara. But he was not a founder of the Giants – his father Tim was.
Loved it. Tight theme and interesting fill.
@acme, I'm guessing the two 9-letter acrosses aren't theme answers because they contain circles. It would have been a tall order (as if it weren't already) to have them be theme answers, AND with the 'arrow' letters in the correct positions.
Liked this one a lot, and then was pleased to see @Rex liked it too. I guess I am learning what makes a puzzle "fresh." This is the first time in a long time I've been able to look at the puzzle early enough to make commenting seem worthwhile, so I want to ask something that's been bugging me for a while...I think of Googling as "cheating," i.e., it means I DTF. But a lot of Rexites seem to casually mention googling and then finishing. What do others think about this? When I cheat, I come here! Much more fun than googling.
Man, I thought SOMEBODY before me would post something derisive about the notion that "ICE ICE Baby" is hip-hop. That's like have the clue [Jewelry], and the answer turns out to be ZIRCONIUM.
@swimslikeafish- your question comes up periodically. I think the consensus on whether or not googling is cheating is, "whether you think it is or you think it isn't, you are right."
@AnoaBob, jae - When I was in Japan, I saw sushi eaten both ways.
@Gill I.P. - I'm with you on no cream cheese in sushi, but I'm afraid I've crossed over to the dark side as far as are concerned those surely-these-are-American-inventions rolls and their weird names like Dragon Roll. . .Love'em! (As long as there's no cream cheese)
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation of my method):
All solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Tue 8:30, 8:52, 0.96, 43%, Medium
Top 100 solvers
Tue 4:41, 4:35, 1.02, 62%, Medium-Challenging
@Loren: you don't like cream cheese, how do you feel about mayo? I've seen that popping up in otherwise perfectly fine Japanese restaurants the last couple of years.
@mac - I love cream cheese, just not on sushi.
At Carolina when I was studying Japanese, Higuchi Sen Sei would throw Te Maki Zushi parties - where you would make your own sushi rolls in shiso (sp?) leaves. Mayonnaise was always among the choices. I tell you, sushi wrapped in a shiso leaf with mayo squirted in for good measure. . .so good you just want to turn around and slap someone.
Not to be overly picky, but Sulu wasn't the original helmsman on Star Trek...they made some weird pilot with Peter Duryea playing Jose Tyler as helmsman. That's the episode where Christopher Pike played the captain and Majel Barrett played Number One.
Otherwise the puzz was fine by me, if only a little pointed.
@Tita (and others): who's to say that THIS SIDE UP refers to a box? My microwave popcorn bag has THIS SIDE UP printed on one side.
Best Tuesday puzzle in a long time.
I knew ART ROONEY right away.
Liked it Easy.
Nigiri sushi (your usual) and makisushi (roll)in Japan, as others have pointed out, may be eaten either way. Chirashi (scattered) sushi (several pieces on a single large bed of rice on a special plate) pretty much needs chopsticks.
Faced with 34A _OCKS for "Pair of_____" I came up with a couple of definitely non-Gray Lady answers before SOCKS. Actually wrote ROCKS, then rethought.
Thanks, Mr. Beckman.
Oh, and I just noticed that my bag of frozen broccoli in cheese sauce (which I just put into the microwave) has THIS SIDE UP with an arrow.
I don't use the microwave all that much. Not really.
Good to enjoy today’s puzzle. Thanks, Milo Beckman. It’s always hard for me to get the theme.
Thanks, Loren, for explaining this morning how the circles related to the “arrow” theme.
Had a problem with URBS, ENAMI, and PLATH, but I was able ultimately get them with the crosses.
Great puzzle, lots of fun. Looking forward to next Monday and Tuesday.
@swimslikeafish...cheating? Sure. But outside of ACPT, who cares! I call it a DNF if I have to google. Learning something useful or cool is part of why I like to do puzzles.
@loren - loved your foodie tour de force from yesterday!
@Jen - I stand corrected!
@jackj - equating Sushi to bait - funnny! I'm mostly grateful for fire when it comes to meat...but if I'm with someone who knows their sushi, I will partake. Just don't ask me to make a whole meal of it.
Ah back from my golf trip. Work is just no fun sometimes especially after a vacation.
Loved this on and was reminded of one of my favorite comics. Had a picture of a man pushing a stroller with a shirt that read I'M WITH STUPID and the arrow pointing down.
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.
All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 6:37, 6:49, 0.97, 39%, Easy-Medium
Tue 8:34, 8:52, 0.97, 46%, Medium
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:38, 3:40, 0.99, 49%, Medium
Tue 4:27, 4:35, 0.97, 46%, Medium
Stupis question, but I never saw the Note that went this puzzle. I use across light. Where can I find it?
@kristi ... Click or hover over the notepad-like icon to the right of the date above the puzzle.
Weird that the "only two Googles" for some (ARTROONEY and SULU) were my two "gimmiest" gimmes. I guess certain brains are complementary.
This was a lot of fun today, and the fill was, IMO, superior. The partial IMET comes closest to the "Oh, no!" factor, but after all, since Mr. Vargas switched to Sanka, I'll "have a heart."
A rare Tuesday post from me. Thought this was neat, clean, fun and easy and my puzzle was error/correction-free!
I'm happy to report my newspaper DID publish the "Note" on this, as well as the last puzzle which had one, so things have improved here in that respect.
I left Macao/u to be revealed by the crosses, since I've seen both spellings.
Oh! Shout out to Abe Vigoda (from Sunday). LOVE your work, especially on "Barney Miller".
My Syndiland puzzles puzzles never show accompanying notes. Usually not a concern, but mildly annoying at first when so many clues referred to one. But the puzzle turned out to be a breeze. Even the unknown sports figure just fell into place. It wasn't until I parsed the circles that the arrow showed up! Still only see one, tho.
PLATo produced my only writeover; never heard of PLATH but ASHY seemed like the only plausible for the volcanic fallout.
I've held the puzzle at different angles, turned it upside down and even tried changing my focus like you do with those "magic picture" books and I still see only the one arrow. Does eating too much SUSHI make you hallucinate, I wonder?
If YOUAREHERE, where am I?
@Swims like a fish, you and I ascribe to the same code of ethics where Googling to solve a puzzle is concerned. IMHO, any square unfilled by your own knowledge or the crosses when you're done is an error. I include asking others in the vicinity for their opinion to be "cheating", as well. It's just you and the puzzle, and we'll see who wins.
@Dirigonzo, I only found one arrow too, pointing to the NE corner. Dunno about the sushi re: hallucinations -- too many hours of Parasitology in college was a raw fish turn-off.
Post a Comment