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Urban myth debunker / TUE 4-3-12 / Old Volkswagen seven-seater / Feature of gladiator sandal / Mosquito Magnet flypaper
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
CConstructor: Paula Gamache
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: MOVING PARTS (53A: Working components of an engine ... or what the ends of 18-, 23-, 34- and 47-Across are?) — ends of theme answers are anagrams of PARTS
Word of the Day: SNOPES.com (44D: ___.com (urban myth debunker)) —
Snopes.com (/ˈsnoʊps/), officially the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a web site discussing urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other stories of uncertain or questionable origin. It is a well known resource for validating and debunking such stories in American popular culture, receiving 300,000 visits a day.
Snopes is run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, a California couple who met on the alt.folklore.urbannewsgroup. The site is organized by topic and includes a message board where stories and pictures of questionable veracity may be posted. The Mikkelsons founded the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society and were credited as the owners of the site until 2005. (wikipedia)
• • •
Place holder. Seat filler. Not that imaginative, and the first two theme answers are duds, in-the-language-wise. Fill is perfectly adequate. Not much to see (or say) here.
- 18A: Mosquito Magnets and flypaper (INSECT TRAPS)
- 23A: Campers' lightweight cover-ups (NYLON TARPS)
- 34A: Eater of lean, in rhyme (JACK SPRAT)
- 47A: Feature of a gladiator sandal (ANKLE STRAP)
Bullets:
- 17A: Top prize in the Juegos Olímpicos (ORO) — never saw the clue. Would've guessed ORO. Don't know "Juegos" (I'm guessing "Games").
- 40A: Gymgoer's pride (BOD) — such an ugly, '80s word. Melanie Griffith is hot in "Working Girl," but when she says "I've got a mind for business and a BOD for sin," I kind of throw up a little.
- 52A: Modern sight on many an Indian reservation (CASINO) — got this one easily, though I've never been to a reservation CASINO, or any CASINO, now that I think of it. Not my scene / cup of tea / what have you.
- 4D: Source of the headline "World Death Rate Holding Steady at 100 Percent," with "The" ("ONION") — along with SNOPES, another very up-to-date reference.
- 12D: Disney-owned cable news broadcaster of game highlights (ESPNEWS) — reliable go-to channel when Absolutely Nothing was on. Got rid of cable TV and haven't missed it.
- 37D: Bette Midler film loosely based on Janis Joplin's life ("THE ROSE") — I remember this being pretty good. I certainly like the title song. I am in a group called "Screening 1987," which is watching 1987 movies all year long. We watched Bette Midler in "Outrageous Fortune" (with Shelley Long and Peter Coyote and George Carlin). I don't recommend doing the same.
- 38D: Old Volkswagen seven-seater (EUROVAN) — Had the "EU-" and the rest came surprisingly easily. It's a great name. Much better than the TOUAREG or the TIGUAN or whatever the stupid hell they're calling their cars now.
Save And Share :
71 comments:
Hey - the Tuaregs just took over Timbuktu. Let's see the eurovan do something on that order. Wait, I probably shouldn't encourage an German entity to get restarted on taking over soverign nations or cities.
RAPTS just so screems to be a word that it's a shame it isn't. This puzzled needed RAPTS. The rap world needs a performer named RapTS.
I once read somewhere that the Volkswagen Golf was supposed to make Americans think of a warm, fast, southern wind, but that they couldn't call it a Gulf, even though that's the connotation they wanted it to have. I agree the VW names are stupid, especially Touareg. It makes me think of an Australian bushman (aborigine?) which of course is the first thing I think of whenever I want to buy a car.
I have never been to my tribe's CASINO: it's called the Winnavegas Casino in Sloan, Iowa. But once a year we get a few hundred dollars profit sharing just for being members of the tribe. The rest gets plowed back into businesses that provide jobs for people on and off the Rez.
Does anyone know the outcome of the St Paul Library Crossword tourney? @dk? @SethG? @Anklestrap Constancy Movingparts?
I...LOVE...SNOPES.
People wonder how they can be right all the time.The answer is an old skeptics trick.Never weigh in on anything if you dont know for sure what the answer is.They only pick low hanging fruit.If the jury is still out on a topic, they stay mum.
Minnesota Rexites, I finally read the previous day's comments and found the link to the St Paul paper's article (thanks @SethG). Hope they do it again next year.
@Geometricus
The tourney wasn't a tourney, total bust...beer bust, that is...
They served beer in a library...but it was Minnesota, donchaknow.
More of a social, they only let us do the Monday puzzle...top three got to solve Wed on big boards, bigger than the easels they were on, in pencil!
Teams got to solve Tues, top three teams did Thurs!
So 70 of us had paid $15 and got to do a Monday puzzle in 5 minutes and that was that!
Top three were Victor B, mentioned in the article, Andrew Ries another constructor and this gal Amy Ketterling.
The rest of us stood by and wondered what just happened?!
So I rounded up the other constructors, the gal who had come in third, a pal from highschool, the journalist, sethg and his gal and we all went and had a fun sushi dinner.
But the tourney itself wasn't one...very disappointing, but waddayagonnado? Even @dk didn't trek in to see me! Alas, another internet romance (is there a word for that?) bites the dust!
Maybe Sethg will embed the pic as well!
I don't know what to say about this puzzle, but maybe Paula is secretly proposing to someone with the initials AMS (see 2 Down)!
I guess it's SASSY and number two of a four woman streak!
@Acme: Hmmmm, someone will have to organize a real tourney in MN sometime. I would love to attend one to meet other xWord nerds, even if it's just to drink beer in a library. Sorry I missed it.
Medium works for me. Apparently the consensus so far is not to comment. I will respect that.
I always love Paula Gamache's puzzles but this one left me wanting more, kind of a let down from her usual, fine fare.
One write-over at 40A abs before BOD.
I have been to a couple of Indian Casinos (what else is there to do on a cold rainy day in the UP?) Pretty disgusting, I don't know if they still do but they used to allow smoking, pretty bad with their poor ventilation.
Agree with the consensus so far.
I will just add : MEH !!!!!
Have a great day all!
Shanti -
Bob/PurpleGuy
@PurpleGuy - Welcome back! I, for one, have really missed your comments. I am sure many others will reflect my feelings. Don't be such a stranger.
Got all the theme answers, but still scratching my head over TARSI, BARISTA, and SNOPES. Never heard of them. Favorite answer : THE ROSE.
and 1987 was a great year for movies ( off the top of my head : Evil Dead 2, Raising Arizona, Lethal Weapon, Secret of My Success, Beverly Hills Cop 2, The Untouchables, Predator, Robocop, Adventures in Babysitting, Full Metal Jacket, The Living Daylights, The Lost Boys, Dirty Dancing, Baby Boom, Fatal Attraction, Near Dark, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Wall Street, Moonstruck, Empire of the Sun, Broadcast News )
Neat puzzle and love the comment by Anon at 12:23 am (Do you really finish the next day puzzle that soon!) about Touregs at Timbuktu. I had Vanagon for EUROVAN. I owned the former with its air-cooled engine and the vapor lock problems I had in summer endeared the bloody vehicle to me. I thought 62a six-foot runner was perfectly ambiguous to consider emu. I did not think SDS was such a mild "60s sit in group".
No silly proper names that you never have to know or naticks thereof (apologize for the misuse. Just learned that term from y'all.)
Thank you all for me to learn to appreciate the theme instead of headlong completion. MOVINGPARTS was a nice topper to the moving P-A-R-T-S in the key answers.
King Richard III > Act III, scene II
STANLEY: The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
Were jocund, and supposed their state was sure,
And they indeed had no cause to mistrust;
But yet, you see how soon the day o'ercast.
This sudden stag of rancour I misdoubt:
Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward!
What, shall we toward the Tower? the day is spent.
HASTINGS: Come, come, have with you. Wot you what, my lord?
To-day the lords you talk of are beheaded.
LORD STANLEY: They, for their truth, might better wear their heads
Than some that have accused them wear their hats.
But come, my lord, let us away.
[Enter a Pursuivant]
HASTINGS: Go on before; I'll talk with this good fellow.
[Exeunt STANLEY and CATESBY]
How now, sirrah! how goes the world with thee?
Pursuivant: The better that your lordship please to ask.
HASTINGS: I tell thee, man, 'tis better with me now
Than when I met thee last where now we meet:
Then was I going prisoner to the Tower,
By the suggestion of the queen's allies;
But now, I tell thee--keep it to thyself--
This day those enemies are put to death,
And I in better state than e'er I was.
Pursuivant: God hold it, to your honour's good content!
Pretty good Tuesday puzzle. Liked the theme; enough crunchiness to make it more challenging than a Monday: CONSTANCY, EUROVAN were my favorite PHIL. All in, I'd say pretty easy for a Tueday, to me.
A nit: priests, at least Roman Catholic ones, give homilies these days, not sermons; alternate clue for 33A: "British heavy metal band Judas ______"
I do not understand ANT as a six-foot runner. Anyone?
I guess referring to the SNOPES family in Faulkner's novels would be too literary for a Tuesday. (Maybe the Sartorises will even turn up someday.) And this SNOPES ("Snoops") is more timely, I suppose, Faulkner being a pretty difficult read.
@ John V: Ants have six legs (feet) and run quickly.
Yesterday KISSME, today MARRYME. STEAMY!
NYLONTARPS? I do like that PARTS and TARPS rhyme. And TRAPS, SPRAT and STRAP sorta do, too. For what that's worth. I thing MOVING worked better with the VAN that was actually moving through the answers.
I always look forward to Paula's puzzles and will continue to do so.
@Doris: Did not know ants have six legs. Thanks. I have no idea how I did not know that after decades of crossword life.
Not a bad puzzle for a Tuesday. So-so theme. An ant has six feet, okay, but why describe it as running? Good clue for the Onion.
15A evokes a shameful time in US history, sung by Woody Guthrie in Slipknot and Billie Holiday in Strange Fruit.
Stephen Bishop recorded a nice version of 41D On and on.
I seem to have enjoyed this puzzle more than most; also thought it was easy, not medium - even though I had EURObus and STEPdad at first (same misreading as Rex on the latter).
But I may have had an error. At 45D, "Components of scores: Abbr." I wrote PTS, meaning that the score on a scoreboard indiacates how many PoinTS each team has. But I realized later that the reference may have been to a musical score, so that the answer should have been PTS, meaning ParTS. Anyone know which was correct?
I got married in a VW Van with a pop top- just tall enough to stand in. Long STORY... But that association resonated with the puzzle's vibe-- AMAS, ADORING, MARRY ME, PRIEST, ON AND ON, that's a WRAP.
I wish the PROTECTOR were clued as a sheath for nerdy pockets, to avoid any association with MARRY ME...
And Rex, I agree with your reaction to BOD. The sooner it's forgotten...
Andrea, I laughed at the description of the "tourney". But it sounds like you guys found a way to make it fun. And may be you're talking about a "blance" (blog romance)?
Dear Andrea, ADORING you has not "bitten the dust." It was not that I OPTED out of the nerd slap-down or a chance for a STEAMY evening with you. Like an IHOP syrup dispenser I was stuck in place. An internet romance has many MOVINGPARTS and while I strive for CONSTANCY sometimes the best laid plans gang aft agley, An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain.. 😭
This puzzle is a fine Tuesday offering -- not to hard, not to soft... just right. Although NYLONTARPS have gone the way of the T-Bar.
💓💓💓 (3 beating hearts for you know who).
Hey! Do ANTS have feet? Inquiring minds want to know.
Great puzzle! How do people think of these things?
Loved the fresh SNOPES and ONION. If you've never given any of the horoscopes from The ONION a glance, you should. Some of them are wicked funny. The horoscopes and the spot-on pictures they choose for the articles are genius.
@jberg, I too thought it was Easy. The QDI puts it as Easy-Medium.
And I too liked it better than most. I agree that the theme was not that surprising, but I enjoyed the puzzle as a whole. Hardly any junk fill, some really fun entries (Love BARISTA as a word) and some fun clues (e.g. for the ONION). And the little romance embedded amongst the MOVING PARTS...
I just Googled NYLONTARPS and stand corrected. I didn't think they were really a thing and they most definitely are!
I also forgot to mention that this was easy and definitely not one of those "awkward" Tuesdays.
I got really stuck on OSAGE/BIGD...ran the alphabet, went right past G, and tried to make BIRD work. OSAGE could have been practically anything. Other than that this one went down nice and smooth.
Pretty standard fare for the theme but, thankfully, some interesting fill and a hinted alternate theme brighten it up beyond the usual Tuesday nothingness.
OCCUR instead of the signaled ENSUE was a nice start, ditto to the BOD instead of ABS entry and then SNOPES, ONION and BARISTA gave the puzzle a very au courant feel while the thought of a six-legged ANT as a “Six-foot runner?” hinted teasingly of Jurassic Park.
Is the sports theme here again as a sub plot of today’s puzzle? CONSTANCY was a newish, nice way to clue “Faithfulness” and, then, spurred on by that positive trait, things just sashayed into ADORING, PROTECTOR and AMAS while ending in MARRYME which gets STEAMY after an “I do” at WED, all seeming to be promoting that time honored sport, the game of love. (Lots of MOVINGPARTS and TRAPS in that game!)
All in all a bit different kind of solve.
Thanks, Paula.
Pretty easy but @chefwen I too had abs before bod. Guess great chefs think alike.
Have been to the Casinos in Ct. We use to say "going to the Indians today"
Goin' through the Big D and don't mean Dallas
I can't believe what the judge had to tell us
....................................................
When I was a kid we had a VW camper with a pop-up top. We called it Surrey (because of the fringe on top) not EUROVAN.
I'm hoping this theme can be held in abeyance until a constructor comes up with one with either
a) anagrams of words with at least two letters with Scrabble scores of 3+, or
b) anagrams of 7+letter words.
Someone creates a puzzle along the lines of ROTATINGCYLINDER, then I'll be impressed.
captcha: ssecou infiervo - VW's 2013 new models
Did anyone else have JOCK STRAP for 34-Across? Before I looked at the clue, I had J-CK S_RA_. What else could it be. Then I looked at the clue. Damn. Damn. Damn. An A+ answer got turned into a B-.
I can't believe I needed the ant explained to me. Geez.
The clue for the Onion was a good laugh.
Indian casinos are a joke.
Only Vegas is Vegas.
@Rex Working Girl makes me throw up a lot...especially the line you quoted.
how about this for on and on
A little mellow but hey it's Tuesday (not sure what that means!)
Good Day All...
Medium due to general messiness. Based upon previous experience, I would think on A-LITE it would have been much more enjoyable than it was on paper.
It almost seems that puzzles are (at NYT) more designed for that method of solving - more and more as time goes by.
ANT was a bit confusing without the others filled in, as the clue should have read "Six foot runner?" instead of using the phrasal adjective.
Consider:
small animal hospital = a small hospital for animals
small-animal hospital = a hospital for small animals
@dk: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmuseumsliverpool/265895390/
I found this puzzle to be a pleasant solve.
I know an entomologist professor who sometimes starts a new class by forming the class members into groups of three. He asks each group to figure out how to walk like an insect with six legs. That human insect definitely has six feet. Once they figure out how to walk, an interesting challenge would be to try running.
I don't associate SDS so much with teach-ins. I think they were more of a direct action group: demonstrations, sit-ins, etc.
I think homilies and sermons have become pretty synonomous in general usage.
Hand up for falling into the EMU/ANT trap.
Correcting my earlier post
*hyphenated phrasal adjective
@Mel Ott - LOL at the image of you falling into an ANT trap!
Sobered up a bit at the image of you falling into an EMU trap.
A yawner. I agree with Loren, SNOPES and the ONION were the best parts of this. I found it hard to get excited about anagrams of PARTS. It didn't really maintain my interest. Fortunately it was a quick solve and so it was over soon enough.
I agree with those that gave this an easy rating.
@JohnV: you beat me to my only nit as I, too, was going to comment on PRIESTS and sermons.
Baking bread today, got to go.
I'm in the minority today. Very strong for a Tuesday, imo.
Favorite ONION headline, over a photo of three rednecks in lawn chairs drinking beer: "South Postpones Rising Again for Yet Another Year."
As with others, the ANT clue bugs me. (rim shot) Way too forced. How can you tell if an ant is running, walking, jogging, ambling, strolling, sauntering...?
Van's Rocking Motion Discourages Would-Be Knocker
YUMA, AZ—The steady, back-and-forth motions of a 1979 Ford Econoline van sent "a clear message" to local resident Paul Dunne Monday, discouraging him from knocking. "I needed a jump-start for my car, and the closest vehicle was this van," Dunne said. "I was about to knock on the back window, but when I noticed that the van was clearly rocking, I didn't bother." Dunne instead received assistance from an adjacent, non-rocking vehicle.
I personally think of ANTs as scurrying, though I got the right answer.
@ACME: I wonder if @dk was too chicken.......hmmm
Whenever I get a questionable email, I check with Snopes first.
Mini insect theme with ANT, RAW SILK, INSECT TRAPS, TARSI.
So you think Ants Cannot Run?
Competent Tuesday puzzle with a few sparklers and Paula's usual assortment of foreign words.
Loved that Onion clue/answer.
Hope that blogger lets me post this time. Had trouble sinds yesterday morning.
I love SNOPES (both as an answer and website). Although Snopes debunks all sorts of lies and misinformation, it has been accused of being left-leaning (usually by righties who are upset at being proven wrong). There is a competing site that actually identifies as right-leaning but I don't recall its name. IMHO, if a "debunking" website has a stated bias, how can one trust its information?
And speaking of trusting (or not) The ONION is great fun.
Have I mentioned how much I hate Captcha?
Had ABS before BOD and EMU before ANT. Overall, tome, a workmanlike puzzle. Wondering if NYLONTARPS has ever been used in a puzzle before... and don't know how to look it up.
Crazy how the mind works. Saw the clue for ONION with only the N filled in and thought of SNOPES. Wattayouknow? SNOPES was later in the puzzle. I must be in some sort of intuitive crossland somewhere...
Loved the clue for ONION and thought EURObus was correct for a while. It was more of a bus than a van anyway.
I too was thinking it was a small animal theme with RAT, INSECT, ANT and CUR.
@Rudy - Nice find! I didn't say they couldn't run. Just sayin I can't tell. I'll bet they can't saunter though.
@Lewis - never been used before in NYT. You can look up on xwordinfo.com, but you now need to make a donation to use the find function
While I agree on the "meh" consensus for this theme, I thought it was more than made up for by the clever cluing. Loved the clue at 4D, and I enjoyed the misdirection on [Six-foot runner?] An ant has six feet, and what else does it do on them?
I also got thrown by [One of several on a French door]. After the "in Germany" clue a bit above, I was trying to think of things that ordinary doors have several of, that I could then translate into French. Silly me.
@joho: PARTS and TARPS do not rhyme. In a pop song, maybe, but find me a pop song that uses the word "tarps". A real lyricist would never abuse closing consonants like that.
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 8:36, 8:52, 0.97, 47%, Medium
Top 100 solvers
Tue 4:48, 4:35, 1.05, 66%, Medium-Challenging
Meh...some nice clues, but anagrams-as-themes are usually ho-hum for me.
Favorite clue: Gives a darn?
MiNDS or MENDS works...
@foodie - do tell!!
@The redanman - how do you mean the puzzles are designed for A-Lite method of solving??
Rex...i think the fact that you can quote M Griffith in that movie is very significant....and not to get too adult here but she did have a bod for sin
My initial reaction this morning was an Extreme Meh.
But looking at the completed grid, what's to criticize? RRNs? Nope. Olaf/Olav? Nope. 1958 NHL Rookie of the Year? Nope. Wagner's least famous work? Nope. Crossbirds? Nope. Natick? OSAGE/BIG D is as close as we get. OOXTEPLERNON? Nope. Forced Pangram? Nope. Obscure Rap slang whose meaning has changed? Nope.
I'm thinking that a competent, well constructed Tuesday puzzle just doesn't have that je ne sais quoi of tough Saturdays or puzzly Thursdays. So I'm revising my early morning reaction and saying, "Well Done."
Seven refreshes before I got a captcha that I could read. Annoying
Easy did it. Abs before BOD, PROrata before PROBONO. My @Rex your tummy seems upset again. Hi @Purple Guy. Glad to hear from you. Nice point @Tita re MENDS and minds. So long.
How is "mends" "gives a darn?"
@Anon 11:06 - When you darn your socks, you mend them.
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 6:56, 6:50, 1.03, 61%, Medium-Challenging
Tue 8:47, 8:52, 0.99, 55%, Medium
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:39, 3:40, 1.00, 50%, Medium
Tue 4:42, 4:35, 1.03, 63%, Medium-Challenging
(testing)
As the clue STARGAYS started to fill, I had the same knee-jerk reaction of "oh no they didn't". But with some musing, I have to say I think it shows some societal progression. Would love to know what NPH and RM think. Is using Gay as a noun offensive?
Could it be that Paula Gamache puzzles contain secret messages, comments and neologisms?
Vertical:
The "as of now stepmom"
"Marry me (the) Rose"
"Sam's onion ones" (better than Fritos?)
"Use rawsilk"
"Sassy Otto wrap" (keeps food much fresher than saran wrap)
"Trainee Barista"
"On and on ESPNEWS"
"Deposit disgust" (spawned by historically-low interest rates)
Horizontal:
"Oro insect traps" (excellent against six-foot runners)
"Adoring Fritos"
"Neu nylon tarps"
The "Wed. snow priest"
"Slit pane thugs"
The improbable "Probono casino"
and perhaps best of all - the "Steamy IHOP bod".
Or could this be a reaction to a meh Tuesday puzzle on a rainy morning?
Guess I'd better check it out on Snopes...
Had a great 1987 moment there:
"And whatever you do, DON'T say m**********r!"
"Hiya, m**********rs!"
"Hi, Rose!"
Ah, the 80's.
To the puzz. Cute little unpretentious theme, not terribly original but well pulled off. Vertical 7's by three in the corners: nicely done. No junk fill (hey @Rex, like the word or not, she DID have a "BOD for sin!"--and so did her costar Sigourney).
Nothing here to DISGUST me.
Nice cross of AMAS/AMOK (you love wildly). STEAMY!
Easy Tuesday, especially after catching on to the them halfway through. Agreed that ANT and SDS were misclued, but sure stirred up a TON of discussion. As a former member of the bar, I had ATy for 54D. Not sure about ATT. I think its a phone co.
If you haven't heard of NYLONTARPS, you haven't camped in the Pacific NW. Essential piece of equipment.
Capcha: ciatiol nurst. Call from the sick bay of a WA state hospital.
Overall, I thought "easy" might apply although I did have a little more messiness than usual in the NE quadrant due to the instructor at 11d having a student, resulting in a rector delivering the sermon at 33a. Eventually the TRAINEE showed up and produced the PRIEST but by then my grid wasn't a very pretty sight.
@Foodie said to ACM: "And may be you're talking about a "blance" (blog romance)?" I prefer the term "bloro" for reasons I can't quite put my finger on.
@Waxy - nice to see you here! I've shouted out to you in the last couple of days, hoping top coax you to comment - your musings on the puzzle always entertain.
@Diri - thanks. Wasn't on the blog Sun & Mon so missed your coaxing. Will try harder to stay au courant. BTW, captcha sorta describes those of us from Maine & Quebec - eastatic!
As annoying three-letter words go, "meh" is the new "bod".
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