Monday, April 16, 2012

Spelling clarification that Aziz might use twice / MON 4-16-12 / Common marmalade ingredient / Cartoondom's Deputy / Biblical kingdom east of Dead Sea

Constructor: Lynn Lempel

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: Foodies — two-word idiomatic expressions for types of people, where the second word is a kind of food

Word of the Day: MATZOH (29A: Bread eaten during Passover) —
n., pl., -zos, also -zohs (müt'səz, -sōs') or -zot or -zoth (mät-sôt').
A brittle, flat piece of unleavened bread, eaten especially during Passover.


[Yiddish matse, from Hebrew maṣṣâ.]


Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/matzo#ixzz1s9MJxvKj
• • •

This grid is great. I don't think the theme is as tight as it could be, but I also don't care. Interesting theme answers, cool long Downs, no real groaners—all the makings of a decent Monday. I object slightly to HUMAN PRETZEL, since a. it applies to very few people (primarily contortionists; b. it applies to a person only when he/she is *doing* a very particular thing (unlike all the others); c. answer relies on a *literal* connection between food and person in a way that none of the others do; d. it's got HUMAN in it, thus forcing food-human connection in a way that none of the others do. Also the clue on SWEETIE PIE is terrible. The phrase [Precious sort] implies a *kind* of person who is "precious" in the sense of having affected mannerisms. Something about "sort" just feels wrong. That phrase calls more for [Lovable person]; or else ["Sugar"] or ["Hon"] or ["Darlin'"]. I see now that "sort" is in every theme clue (ugh), so I guess if I really wanted to keep that theme link in the clues (I wouldn't), I'd've gone with [Lovable sort].


Theme answers:
  • 17A: Sexy sort (STUD MUFFIN)
  • 23A: Influential sort (BIG ENCHILADA)
  • 39A: Amiable sort (GOOD EGG)
  • 50A: Supple sort (HUMAN PRETZEL)
  • 59A: Precious sort (SWEETIE PIE)
This took me slightly longer than my average Monday, but only slightly, and that slowness was largely self-inflicted. I hedged at MATZOH, thinking there might be a billion ways to spell it (there are only a couple), and then I wrote in WIPED at 37A: Tired (WEARY), mostly because that is the phrase my wife uses—so much so that it's kind of a household joke. Then (less surprisingly) I wrote in ACHE for PINE (45A: Yearn (for)). I knew that area was a wreck, so rather than try to fix it immediately, I relied on the middle and ends of the long Downs to bail me out—once I had ZEBRA and -GE RIND, the front ends were very gettable and the mistakes I'd made ironed themselves out.


Bullets:
  • 1A: Yankee's crosstown rival (MET) — balked at this one. Instinctively wanted BOS or SOX because, honestly, when was the last time you could consider the METs a real "rival" to the Yankees? 2000?
  • 1D: Reader's notes alongside the text (MARGINALIA) — great word. I love finding MARGINALIA in my old books. Weird to see what people think is important.
  • 30D: Spelling clarification that Aziz might use twice (Z AS IN ZEBRA) — insane, and easily the best thing about the grid. Coincidentally, I had just been looking at a picture of Aziz Ansari at Coachella on Buzzfeed's Facebook page (That is a sentence that just five years ago would have made absolutely no sense to me, and probably makes only partial sense to millions of people still).
  • 13D: Biblical kingdom east of the Dead Sea (MOAB) — never saw the clue. Always thought it was weird this place didn't rhyme with "lobe."
  • 31D: Common marmalade ingredient (ORANGE RIND) — we've eaten our way through the chocolate chip cookies this weekend, so I might have to make do with marmalade on toast for dessert tonight. Worse things have happened.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

75 comments:

  1. I loved it! So cool to see two topics I think about-- human traits and food, combined in this theme!

    Rex, I had exactly the same, very mild reservations about HUMAN PRETZEL. And I think SWEETIE PIE should have simply been "lovable sort".

    STUD MUFFIN!!!!! It's a great expression!

    I found it easy for a Monday.

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  2. The odd way this puzzle was broken up made it tough for me navigate quickly.Ended up with a challenging time.
    Loved the Morrissey song, he is on a short list of 80s bands that never stopped making good stuff even though they fell out of the limelight.That list includes
    XTC
    They Might be Giants
    ...

    That is all.

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  3. Should 10D CAFE and 31D ORANGE RIND be theme adjuncts? Nice balance between STUD MUFFIN and SWEETIE PIE.

    30D Z AS IN ZEBRA is pretty snazzy, as are most of Ms Lempel's offerings.

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  4. Easy for me but it doesn't look easy looking back on it... HELOT,MARGINALIA, PITEIOUS... The different sorts theme was OK but the grid was very smooth.  Zippiest answer = ZASIN... of course!   Excellent Mon.!

    And, me too for ACHE at first.

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  5. What fun! And those pairs of 10s going down – terrific. Liked MARGINALIA, Z AS IN ZEBRA, and LEG UP. And of course who couldn’t like STUD MUFFIN and BIG ENCHILADA?
    Hand up, @Rex and @jae for “ache” before PINE.

    When I had “finished,” I kept staring at NErDLE, the reason being, “nerdle” is a real word for me. Our high school chess club ended up with its own vocabulary akin to Rexville’s “natick,”” malapop,” etc. A “humpty,” mysteriously, was a weak player, and I was, ahem, queen humpty for sure. “Nerdle” was a verb that described the action of aimlessly, annoyingly, amateurishly chasing an opponent’s advanced piece around with your pawns. I could nerdle with the best of them.

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  6. Agate Cleo Marginalia1:48 AM

    LOVED IT!!!!

    some craziness, first square black, HELOT ?!?
    MARGINALIA, the tricky OOLALA sans H.

    Ayway, she had me at STUDMUFFIN.

    That Lynn Lempel, such a HOT TOMATO!

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  7. I'm full!!!

    Never been a STUD but I am certainly the leading MUFFIN lady on this here rock.

    Z AS IN ZEBRA fooled my for a while until I pictured it horizontally, all I kept seeing was ZASIN something. That was my big DUH moment.

    Fun puzzle filled with tasty little morsels.

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  8. Hmmm maybe HOT TOMATO sounds sexist.
    That Lynn Lempel is one SMART COOKIE!

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  9. Anonymous5:07 AM

    Puzzle made me hungry
    I liked Z AS IN ZEBRA
    and the James Bond movie reference
    Diamonds ARE Forever

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  10. Really too easy, no challenge anywhere. Fun theme but noMidass, for me.

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  11. Everything a Monday should be. Nice theme, long fill that sparkles, and nary a Leo or RRN or Olaf to be seen.

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  12. I'm off to an appointment so this must be quick ... LOVED it!

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  13. Much mo' bettah than the average Monday---or even than some recent midweek puzzles. Much obliged, Lynn.

    All sorts of tangible treats with vivid and lively imagery. From matzoh to muffins, marmalade to marginalia, ice cream parlors to pretzels, good eggs to enchiladas, orange rind to jams, Moab to Saudi, Aziz to El Al, eek to ooh la la.

    Remember, kids: Testees are not testes....

    Evil

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  14. Burp!

    Liked SAP atop PINE and OOLALA atop STUDMUFFIN… EEK!

    🍲🍲🍲🍲 (4 Pots of food)

    or

    🌟🌟🌟🌟 (4 Stars) Back up as sometimes the emoji do not work the way they should.

    Snow today in WI

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  15. Don't be fooled, kids. With that ellipses, ED is really hoping you're thinking about his testes. Just say no.

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  16. @Rex - count me among the million who regularly have to say "ZASINzebra"...so of course loved this entry!
    (Though I only have to say it once/per...if that's what you mean by 'partial' sense...)

    Notice too that HUMANPRETZEL ends at LYE - the crucial "secret" in making a pretzel a pretzel...

    Really fun Monday - loved it Ms. Lempel!
    I'm off to make a batch of PRETZEL bread now!

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  17. Deb,

    You trying to save my testes for yourself? Give the other kids a break.

    Besides, I had a vasectomy nearly 30 years ago---I think they were using chisels and sledge hammers back then. My testes are already 'just saying no'....

    Evil
    And that doesn't mean I can't still be a stud-muffin---or at least a muffin.

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  18. As Andrea came up with additional examples, it made me think that English does this fairly often--using food to describe people. Is this true in other languages? I mean I know that the French can call someone "mon chou" but I can't recall many expression to describe people's traits...and I can't think of any in Arabic. There's "sweet like sugar" but not calling someone sugar...

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  19. Nothing SAD about this one, I loved it. Got the theme with GOOD EGG, and that did it. I wanted 50A to be some kind of eEL at first, but Z AS IN ZEBRA was obvious, and that took care of that. One writeover, ORANGE peel before RIND. Great puzzle.

    Now I'm getting out of here - don't want to come between Evil and Deb.

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  20. @foodie - OH NO! "Mon petit chou" is, I think, "my little Brussels sprout!" Anyone else - it's been thirty years since I've spoken serious French.

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  21. Lawprof8:45 AM

    BIG ENCHILADA? I don't think so. Big Cheese, maybe. Or The Whole Enchilada. This is an example of conflated metaphors or similies, e.g., bleeding like a wet hen.

    Otherwise a very satisfying Monday.

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  22. If the James Beard Awards had a category for Best Use of Food in a Crossword, Lynn’s puzzle would be a shoo-in for a nomination. What a lively feast she has prepared for us in what is one of the most satisfying Monday creations in many a moon.

    Even before the theme rears its head we are treated to two delightful, if rarely seen, (but still Monday acceptable), clues, MARGINALIA and ENGAGEMENT, signaling that the Queen of the Monday Puzzle, Lynn Lempel is in charge and in the constructor’s seat.

    When the theme entries do show up, with STUDMUFFIN giddily leading the way, things become lively as Lynn does a pretty good impersonation of Julia Child as we are waltzed down the grid through BIGENCHILADA, et al, to a dessert of SWEETIEPIE, with a non-theme side dish of MATZOH giving us something to nibble along the way (but, which, cough, cough, reminds us that no one brought anything to drink).

    Finally, a rather strange non-theme entry forces us to ask, is Lynn suggesting a title for Sue Grafton’s last installment in the Kinsey Millhone mystery series with Z AS IN ZEBRA? Oh wow, the long reach of a Queen Bee!

    Thanks, Lynn for what may be your all time best Monday yet.

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  23. Anonymous8:52 AM

    Lawprof, enchiladas can be big as well.

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  24. @loren - Chou = cabbage. Chou de Bruxelles = Brussel sprout.

    Hmm...Portuguese has cabeça de atum, or tunahead - used whenever someone forgets something important, like car keys or cell phone...my Mom calls me this alot.
    And people from Lisbon are called "Alfacinhos" - little lettuces...

    Would love to find more of these - good question, @foodie!

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  25. Did gladiators wear togas? I thought they were for the upper crust--yet another food related description. I thought this was a pleasant and easy Monday and I really appreciated the long downs and theme answers. Thanks, Lynn.

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  26. orangeblossomspecial9:09 AM

    Here's a cute 20s recording appropriate for 39A. It makes me laugh every time I hear it, and the key phrase is at the very end:
    EGGs it!


    In a similar vein, here's Paul Whiteman doing 'Moonlight on the Ganges', my little
    HINDU (42A).

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  27. What a yummy puzzle!!! Good enough to eat, and easy as well. Nice to have the extra food - orange rind and matzoh.

    When my daughter in Italy comes on line I'll ask her about food sayings.

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  28. Seems as if there might be a good story behind this puzzle - maybe Lynn Lempel MET an ASS of a STUD MUFFIN who thought he was a BIG ENCHILADA and tried some WEARY pickup lines which made her LEERY of him, eventually leading to a SWAT on TOP of his head...etc.

    Fun, easy Monday.

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  29. Kevin9:59 AM

    Am I the only one who objects to 7-Across? The little girls of one's aunts are not NIECES. They are one's cousins. NIECES would describe the little girls of one's siblings, not aunts. From whose perspective was this clue written?

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  30. Mel Ott10:22 AM

    From the Nixon tape transcripts 3/27/73:

    PRESIDENT: Mitchell, you see, is never, never going to go in and admit perjury. I mean you can uh, talk about immunity and all the rest, but he’s never going to do that.
    HALDEMAN: They won’t give him immunity anyway, I wouldn’t think, unless they figure they could get you. He is as high up as they’ve been.
    EHRLICHMAN: He’s the big Enchilada.

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  31. "The term 'stud muffin' originated when one day a baker was baking a dozen muffins and accidently dropped an earring stud into the muffins and that's when the baker found his crucial error and yelled out after the good-looking man "HEY!! STUD MUFFIN"! At that time there was a lot of women in the bakery who had witnesses this. The term soon came into everyday language and eventually 'stud-muffin' became widespread."
    Author unknown...
    Fun, playful puzzle with words that I like to say. GOOD EGG sounds so British and I'll have to look up where that came from.
    Thank you Ms Lempel for a nice bouncy Monday.

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  32. As I could did not understand why Aziz Ansari's name was invoked for ZASINZEBRA. and he is the one of the few South Asians on TV, I thought I will drop in a few food references in Indian languages (>20 official one, BTW).

    If one is a "Tamater" (Hindi for tomato) then he is a simpleton. If one is described as an "Aloo" (Hindi for potato) then for obvious reasons he is portly and lazy. "Masala Dosa" is a crepe-like dish found in the South and is sometimes used to describe-- well a gril who looks crunchy.

    And of course in keeping with ED's reference to testes, "Gurda Kapura" is not only a tasty Goat dish of the same in Punjab and in Pakistan, but is sometimes a a veiled reference of what can be done to your testicles.

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  33. Nice to see I'm not the only person who sometimes eats toast for dessert.

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  34. Loved every bite of this one.

    And how about those 10-letter side-by-sides at 1&2D and 30&31D!

    @Foodie: are those expressions English, or American?

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  35. Lindsay11:19 AM

    Very nice. Cute theme, substantial & entertaining downs. What everyone else is saying.

    One writeover at MATZOs, but easy to fix.

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  36. @loren...quelle gaffe! "chou" is also "cream puff"...
    So "mon petit chou" would (usually) mean "my little cream puf"...
    Ooh la la!

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  37. @foodie: How about une bonne pâte?

    If I can't get past the captchas, maybe I AM a robot.

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  38. And in Russian a confused person has "kasha in his head". Kasha in fact appears in many idioms.

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  39. Felt so confident used pen without erasing ability. Really enjoyed the long downs. Okay on PINE because the IN were already in place. I, too, paused at NIECES. A lovely contrast from being totally at sea yesterday. Thank you Lynn Lempel.

    I was (and am) always cold. My Mother called me the frozen turnip.

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  40. @Tita and @ Loren: Well, when I took French in High School, a gazillion years ago, we were told "mon petit chou" meant "my little cabbage head." In Brooklyn saying a person was a cream puff meant soft, a pushover, cowardly. Putting the my in front seems to make quite a difference. Ain't slang grand?

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  41. A as in ACME12:30 PM

    @ahhh, Sparky, my little frozen turnip!
    This is fun! Again, what every Monday should be! Total puzzle envy here...
    I wonder if Couch Potato fits into this category, tho these seem to all be positive endearments.

    (Well, not so much HUMAN PRETZEL...
    Thus, I agree that it's somewhat of an outlier.)

    Hmmm, in French, I always heard "mon petit chou chou".

    That Z AS In ZEBRA is one snaZZy answer!
    Am I the only one who didn't know HELOT? Is the T silent?
    Seriously, this puzzle had me at HELOT.

    @Rex was right tho, there ARE tons of ways to spell MATZOH, at least in Scrabble:
    MATZOH is also acceptable as MATZA, MATZAH, MATZO, MATSAH (But not MATSA!)
    Plus unusual plurals MATZOTH, MATZOT and MATZOS, MATZAS and MATZAHS, MATSAHS)
    (11 is the new billion!)

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  42. Masked and Anonymo7Us12:48 PM

    Wanted BUTTERBALL and TURKEYNECK. Then I thought it over, and decided this puz was much better off, as is. thUmbsUp.

    Liked the two black corner squares, and the up-down 10s. Made things funkier, feistier and funner. But no tough cookie.

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  43. lawprof1:01 PM

    Hey, Mel Ott at 10:22. The fact that John Erlichman says it doesn't make it right. In fact...

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  44. @Tita - you're right - There I was being miss hot dog, showing off my knowledge of French. I remember now that "chou" is cabbage. Thanks for the correction, and no sour grapes! ;-) You’re a peach.

    @Sparky - funny about "cream puff."

    @Andrea - you're a smart cookie and a hot tamale!

    @Dad - admit it - I'm the apple of your eye.

    @Gill I.P. - I was totally falling for the origin story when I realized it has to be a bunch of baloney, right?

    @Evil – lest you begin to think you’re just chopped liver, -too funny about the TESTEES comment. You’re nuts!

    Man, all the food idioms. This is bananas! I don’t want to be too cheesy, but today takes the cake.

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  45. Loved it. The weekenders were fun, too. I'm off for a few days, probably returning sometime next week. Hold down the fort, all you STUD MUFFINs and SWEETIE PIEs, and of course Rex, our BIG ENCHILADA!!

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  46. Anonymous1:40 PM

    mon petit chou - my littl cabbage - profiterole/cream puff pastry - choux

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  47. efrex1:43 PM

    What a treat from Miss Lempel. Finished in near-record time, with smiles galore. The five theme answers alone would've made for an acceptable Monday, but those long downs just put the icing on the cake.

    Oh, and no mocking my METs, y'hear?

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  48. I always feel good to see Monday’s puzzle roll around. Had a bit of a problem in the SE when I had “pitiful” instead of PITEOUS. Once I corrected that, that corner opened up.

    If not for the crosses, I’d still be working on Z AS IN ZEBRA.
    After reading what Rex said and the fact that he called today’s a medium, well, I feel pleased as "punch" with myself.

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  49. Just brought big smiles to everyone's faces today, did you, you honey bun Lynn...

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  50. Larousse Gastronomique2:24 PM

    @Anon @ 1:40 - see page 262 chorizo - chouquette...
    Chou - a small sweet or savory bun.

    nb - un chou, deux choux

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  51. Great Monday!
    Loved waking up with a stud muffin who's, btw, my sweetie pie.

    What is a zasin zebra, I wondered briefly...Oh.

    Au revoir mes petits choux!

    Pierre

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  52. 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)

    Mon 6:29, 6:49, 0.95, 29%, Easy-Medium

    Top 100 solvers

    Mon 3:41, 3:40, 1.01, 55%, Medium

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  53. Spoke to my "Italian" daughter and she couldn't think of any Italian food to add to this conversation

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  54. Parrothead3:25 PM

    Why couldn't MARGINALIA have been MARGARITAS?

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  55. Everyone seems to have overlooked the JAMS at 33A as another extra on the menu. I just made some the other day with the last of the blueberries in my freezer, and hope the crop in my backyard will be as plentiful this year... 88 degrees in Albany NY today, wow!

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  56. It's very gold in Hamburg, 90 degrees in Connecticut!

    Love the food banter and the puzzle. Aunt's little girls are cousins to me, too.

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  57. @Loren - not only a bunch of baloney but half the sandwich was short of a picnic.
    @chefbea: My closest friend's husband always would say to me "ciao cipollina" or see you later little onion... never sure what to make of that one.
    In Cuba it's always "corazon de melon."

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  58. There's a Mother-Daughter Aunt-NIECE model in genetics; maybe that's what the clue/answer refers to?

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  59. Sometimes hoofbeats are from horses6:11 PM

    Or, there's a chance that a woman doesn't have any children of her own and calls her NIECES her 'little girls'.

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  60. Aunt's little girls are NIECES. YOUR aunt's little girls are your cousins or STILL her nieces. What's the problem?

    Other than CHALLA for MATZOH and AGGIE for AGATE I was writeover free. Don't actually know if CHALLA fits the 29A clue - can anyone enlighten me?

    Easy here. Thanks, Ms. Lempel.

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  61. @retired chemist: my problem was overthinking the clue! LOL

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  62. @retired_chemist - The bread eaten during Passover must be unleavened. Chalah is not unleavened and would not be acceptable for the Passover period. Matzoh is made only with flour and water.

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  63. Anonymous8:47 PM

    RetiredChemist wrote this: "Aunt's little girls are NIECES. YOUR aunt's little girls are your cousins or STILL her nieces. What's the problem?"

    That is not true. An aunt's own children are not nieces to the aunt (they are her daughters) and are not nieces from the viewpoint of the person for whom she is an aunt (they are his cousins).

    Think of this: My name is Kevin, and I have an aunt named Annie. Annie has a child named Carrie. Who in that scenario would be able to describe Carrie as his or her niece? No one.

    You might say that her children are the nieces of my dad, but then Annie is no longer an aunt, but a sister.

    The only way this makes any sense is if you completely throw out the meaning of aunt and niece. You might ask well say, "Aunts' little girls" and key the answer as PLAYMATES since they could serve that role in relation to someone who is not even part of the clue.

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  64. 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

    Top 100 solvers

    Mon 3:38, 3:40, 0.99, 49%, Medium

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  65. Andreazz carlazz michaelzz11:17 PM

    I'm my Uncle Lenny's "little girl"...his NIECE.
    Enuf!

    In a moment of synchronicity, for those who don't get to the puzzle till late in the day, Jeopardy! Had a category "two ZZs".
    I don't remember all of them, but they had BLIZZARD, BUZZARD, MUZZLE, LIZZIE and ?
    I know there's been a puZZle or two about this, but I'd like to try one, foshiZZle.

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  66. Anonymous10:22 PM

    Andreazz - The clue, though, was literal. It didn't ask about an aunt's "little girl" and end with a question mark. If you interpret the clue as asking for someone whose nickname is "little girl," then the AUNT part of the clue is completely meaningless. You might as well have a clue that says, "Co-worker's cookie" and have the answer as "GODDAUGHTER." That would make as much sense.

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  67. Ginger2:21 PM

    Interesting that there were only 67PT posts (until now in Syndieland). So I'm thinking, the better the puzzle, the less there is to say about it. Or, another way, a puzzle that engenders snarky comments inspires many posts.

    Or Think I'll go and make some lunch.....

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  68. DMGrandma2:45 PM

    Neat puzzle, only one write-over. Wanted my precious sort to be a SWEETHEART, but crosses solved that.
    My robot words sound like we should eat this food laden puzzle: ftweble edSupp

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  69. Twp things:

    First, I immediately put in MARGIN at 1d, then had to stop because I realized the rest of my answer, notes, was in the clue. It's a good thing the crosses produced ALIA because I don't think it would have occurred to me naturally. My problem, not the puzzle's.

    As I looked at the name of the constructor I realized her initials are (oh so obviously) LL, so maybe Lynn Lempel's puzzles are the centennial tribute to LL Bean that I have been clamoring for. Well, probably not, but I think I'll consider them to be anyway.

    One more thing: my only problem with NIECES was remembering whether it was IE or ei - of course I could have checked the crosses to find out, but what's the fun in that?

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  70. Also had achE before PINE. ZASINZEBRA was a zany fill. Not sure I've heard of a BIGENCHILADA in the context of an "Influential sort" before. Wrote PITiOUS, thus had LiERY. Wish I could spell. Liked IDO crossing SWEETIEPIE.

    Shout out to @Diri's state in 13A.

    Capcha: axperpa urvilite. Latin for "skateboarding delinquent."

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  71. @SiS - Ouch! I'm not sure which pun is worse, the "MANE" thing or the captcha interpretation. Keep up the good work!

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  72. @Diri, didn't I mention I can't spell?

    Capcha: oeGlowe mplonga. Something I was once diagnosed for by the center for tropical diseases.

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  73. Spacecraft8:24 PM

    A decent entry. Heard of "the whole enchilada," but not the "BIG" one (Elizabeth!). That seems a bit awkward. So does 30d, but the Z crossings are first-rate and so they save it. Pretty clean fill; I guess my enjoyment might be enhanced with late-week cluing.

    PRETZEL being a godd ol' Pennsylvania Dutch invention--and word--not often seen in crosswords (travel to Manheim and see where it was born), and Terri GARR (OOLALA!) make this grid thumbs-up with me.

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  74. @Spacecraft - what was your problem with 30d? That was one of the highlights of the puzzle for me! Glad to learn about PRETZEL, though. And IOU bigtime for reminding me tht Teri GARR was in the grid - OOLALA for sure!

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