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Beau Geste novelist / WED 7-17-13 / Flee via ladder stereotypically / Carrier name of 1979-97 / Game with Ping Pong like balls
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Constructor: Robyn Weintraub
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: A flower lover's poetic lament — ["ROSES ARE RED / VIOLETS ARE BLUE / POLLEN IS BAD FOR / MY ALLERGIES / ACHOO!"]
Word of the Day: KENO (2D: Game with Ping-Pong-like balls) —
Keno /kiːnoʊ/ is a lottery or bingo gambling game often played at modern casinos, and is also offered as a game in some state lotteries. A traditional live casino keno game uses a circular glass enclosure called a "bubble" containing 80 balls which determine the ball draw result. Each ball is imprinted with a number 1 through 80. During the ball draw, a blower pushes air into the bubble and mixes the balls. A "caller" presses a lever opening a tube, where the balls lift one at a time into a "V" shaped tube called the "rabbit ears". The caller and a "verifier" record each of 20 balls drawn, and the computerized keno system calculates all wagers based on the numbers drawn. (wikipedia)
• • •
All good things must come to a fiery, crashing end. We had a nice long streak of strong puzzles, but this puzzle is unable to keep that streak alive. The play on the "Roses are red ..." rhyme is trite and cloying. Cutesy. Olden in the worst way. From a poetic perspective, it's unbalanced and doesn't scan right. The fill is subpar. Way too many odd partials and common things, no real points of interest. Maybe it's a nostalgia puzzle, or some kind of palate cleanser, or I don't know, but it doesn't feel like it's up to par with the standards of a 21st-century daily. Not one that touts itself as the greatest puzzle in all the land, that's for sure.
Now that I look at the puzzle, I really should've made P.C. WREN the "word of the day." That is the one thing in this easy puzzle that I absolutely did not know (12D: P.C. ___ ("Beau Geste" novelist"))—a real outlier in a puzzle that is otherwise painfully straightforward in its cluing, a la [Brontë heroine] for EYRE (a clue which, by the way, was Completely Missing from the puzzle when I printed it off the web last night—apparently there were issues w/ the diaeresis over the "e" in "Brontë"). I also thought a "posy" was itself a flower, not a thing that contained one (35A: Part of a posy, maybe = DAISY). Otherwise, I had no issues—just methodically filled in answers. I feel bad that this puzzle is being judged against the puzzles that came immediately before it, but that's life in the bigs. I gotta get out of my home office and into my home's one air-conditioned room now. See you tomorrow.
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73 comments:
Very easy Wed. for me. DODO to DOPE was my only erasure. Not that fond of "quote" puzzles and this one did not change my mind. It sounds like an ELEMentary school joke. Not cute, just kinda dumb.
So, meh.
And, for some reason AcrossLite was not working on the NYT site (it was fine when I checked BEQ), so I printed out the PDF and 32d was blank. I see that Rex has explained why. (I prefer to print out in AcrossLike because you can opt for very light black squares.)
Am enjoying CERA in the new Arrested Development episodes.
He's baaaack.
Well, I did learn that Volvo means "I roll" in Latin. That's pretty cool, for a company I've always thought of as...stodgy.
Else, yawn.
We got the EMBALMED part of yesterday's CORPSE. Other than that you know what to expect when ONE is clued as word on a dollar.
that puzzle just sucked plain and simple
If this puzzle was supposed to be a joke....it completely failed.
ACM,
You'd better get in here and say something nice. Hurry. There's a mob forming.
..........................
Captcha: alisatas
Rapper gangstas that have hit the bigtime.
Felt very easy for a Wednesday. Plus, as others have stated, the quote is bland. Just kind of flat. And I completed the first three sections before I got to ACHOO and was like, "this doesn't even rhyme!"
I like OUZO though!
I was disappointed that the flower lover's lament missed the meter and rhyme of the original.
The constructor should have made the last lines of the lament:
POLLEN makes me sneeze ACHOO
When I kept getting “tilt” type messages that Across Lite wouldn’t download the puzzle I reluctantly printed it out in PDF format and grumbled all the way through completion, sorely missing my familiar friend, A/L.
Then, after finishing the puzzle, (mainly by filling the downs), I noticed that the entry UPUP was an across answer and can only say, “For shame!” that such an obvious down entry was missed for the UPUP.
But clearly, everything about Ms. Weintraub’s puzzle was rubbing me the wrong way and it continued through the reveal of the humdrum quote, on through countless commonplace clues and answers, (RHO, OUZO, EBAY, YULE, ESTE, ETAS, SEMIS, YAMS, ONE, etc, etc, etc) and a gaggle of entries that should have played along with the theme and been erased by cruciverbal antihistamines, (DELA, CERA, WREN, REORG, IMNO, ROD as clued, ODOR as clued, etc).
There were a few minor saving graces including EMBALMED (of all things!), OPERETTA, LETMEGO, (because ISAYSO) and, of course, CUDDLED.
Aaaargh, take away Across Lite and my biorhythms go all akimbo!
So, sorry Ms. Weintraub, the xword gremlins made me cranky, but I can at least bid a “bless you” to your ACHOO.
The NYT PDF suckity-suck-sucks. Zero formatting effort.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
This puz had my heart
When I found its 8th U.
Burma Shave.
M&A
Taking poetic license to edit:
"Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Pollen is bad for
My... my... my... achoo!"
As others have noted, what was most irksome about the very uninteresting and hackneyed theme-poem is that the meter is all wrong. If you're going to pun one of the most well-known bits of verse in the language, you need to get everything about it right.
@Questina: Agreed on 23A. Cluing ONE as "word on a dollar" felt below the standards of a Monday NYT puzzle, let alone a Wednesday. I'm not sure it even meets the standards of a USA Today puzzle. I know there's not a lot to be done with a clue for a word like ONE, but still.
Finished this in Tuesday-like time for me. This has been the quickest week of puzzle solving in my personal history that I can recall, as Monday and Tuesday were blazers for me, too.
I had such high hopes at first. Five Us in the second row, including the beautiful doubles in UP UP and UHURA. Another in the third row. But then the puzzle just sputtered out. Only two more the rest of the way. What a letdown.
Just screw all diacritical marks. Just because some foreign language is so stupid that it has the same spelling for different words, why do we have to suffer? The Spanish decided to spell year and butt-hole the same? I don't know what they were thinking, but why bother me with some stupid tilde? Ms. Brontë insists on pronouncing the ë ? Just be like some stupid American girl and make it Brontee or Bronti and leave me the hell alone.
Nasty CROWD so far. Throttle back people. I thought this was a very nice change of pace puzzle with a delightfully whimsical air to it.
The cherry-on-top for me was the ACHOO. I liked it for the same reason others didn't. It totally threw off the symmetrical metrical foot thingy, and gave the theme a touch of farce. Made me chuckle. Really.
I think Wednesday is a tough slot, kinda in a no-person's land, between the easier early-week and the trickier later-week puzzles. This one worked nicely for me.
Jon working his own copy said "whats 11D?" I said "OUZO" he said "I should have known that, I've had my fair share" I replied "maybe that's why you couldn't remember it"
That stuff is lethal, can't get it past my nose.
One write over, same as @jae AGAIN, DOdo before DOPE.
I hate to criticize a puzzle, cuz God knows I couldn't construct one, although, I have never tried. Maybe... But when I laid my pen down my only comment was not favorable. Nuff said.
@anon 12:20
There's only so much I can do... ;)
Um, I know, there isn't ONE baseball clue!
Had hUDDLED before CUDDLED...
Speaks to my singledom...
My EYRE clue was missing and I was secretly hoping that was part of the theme...
DAISY is a bonus answer (because) ISAYSO.
BUDAPEST is gorgeous...never knew till I went there that it is two towns...BUDA and PEST (pronounced PESHT) connected by seven gorgeous bridges.
Never realized about VOLVO... I love that!! That's the way I ROLL...
What can I say...
Getting a puzzle in the NY Times is never something to sneeze at.
Now, LETMEGO!
Well,I'm thankful that acrosslite downloaded for me.How could we appreciate that gems without weak entries to compare them to?I did not know that YMA fcame from PERU,so there's that.Evil could make a joke about TWIN SACK?
Although at times I may sound like I'm 7, I really prefer my puzzles to be a tad more adult.
It did bring back the child-like memories though because I think I spent hours trying to come up with my own "Roses are Red...." romantic poem.
I had an autograph book at about that time and *everyone* started their flowery praises for me that way.
I like EMBALMED close enough to ODOR.
Sometimes I wish I was proven to be a robot.
Wednesday is our ready day, proceeding the set and go go days of Thursday, Friday and Sat. Today's offering does not make it to the starting block.... or even out of the locker room.
* (1 Star)
Been going through SUET by the tub full now that the Grackle family has flocked in.
Hey – I was happy with ELEM and not “elhi. . .”
ROSES, DAISY, IRIS, WREN, SUET in the birdfeeder. . . I’m getting a backyard vibe here. But I have to tell you – when it’s so hot out like it is here, you won’t find me outside. Central air conditioning is one of the single most important things in my life.
VOLVO. POOH. I know a lot of you will disagree.
@Acme – I’m not a Trekkie, so I never easily get any of those former characters. I had “Ohura” and hence “coddled” for CUDDLED. Liked your “huddled!”
On my grid, the 32 DOWN was blank, so I thought the answer EYRE or ("AIR") was genius.
Go figure.
A yam is just the market term for a certain type of sweet potato. (It is also an erroneous term, but don't get me started.) So the 63A clue is basically saying that sweet potatoes are sweeter than sweet potatoes. Hmph.
NE was last to fall. Wanted SIDDLED for 9D, which blocked me for a long time. WREN new to me, too.
Easy for a Wednesday but just fine.
Re: getting the puzzle, my routine in Albany is to download the puzzle from Cruciverb, open it in Acrosslite, print to pdf, email to the hotel printer -- with me, so far? That works fine. Also, the hotel usually gets me the dead tree version before I leave, for reading during lunch. I've gotten to like the PDF via Acrosslite version better.
M&A is in heaven, everyone else so far (except A.B.) grumbly.
Indeed an old-timey solve, more Tuesday than Wednesday. I feel that if it's going to be a quotation or poem puzzle, the quote or verse needs to be strong, and this really wasn't.
There wasn't much grid gruel, and I did like UPUP. Not a wow, but overall, I enjoyed the solve, and that's good enough for me. Thank you Robyn!
I just want to thank OFL for that heart-warming song. Now where did I put my rolling papers?
For just a second I thought the captcha picture was a 42. Would have been the second appearance of the answer to the question. But no, it is a 47. Makes no difference, I'm still doing 42 in binary.
Easy, easy Wednesday, but I also thought the totally different last line was funny.
Posies, in Victorian times and earlier, consisted of fragrant herbs and flowers to keep the gentlewomen from smelling the offensive smells in the street. Daisies don't smell very nice.
Expecting Citizen Kane and getting Jack and Jill is cause for a let down. Not my cuppa, but this is a fine, whimsical Tuesday. Now where's my shot glass?
It took me a little longer than I expected to let go of the idea that a flower lover's lament would start with HE LOVES ME, HE LOVES ME NOT. I should have realized that was impossible from the get-go since LOVE would have been in both the clue and answer.
@jae:
I once got a rejection on a quotation puzzle a few years ago where they told me that the NYT doesn't run them much anymore, so I'm surprised whenever they show up.
I was thrown by "MY" as I thought words like YOU, YOUR, ME, MY weren't allowed. That's why we always end up with the less than stellar ONE. Maybe when it's in a quote it's kosher.
I had DOlt, DOdo, DOPE which made me feel like all three.
@Acme, I didn't see DAISY as a bonus but more like an extra flower that shouldn't have been in the grid. But, as always, I appreciate your positive take!
And, yes, I agree with you, getting a puzzle in the NYT is nothing to sneeze at!
Hi all,
Sorry about the 32 Down clue.There is a new production thingy that is having the kinks ironed out of it as we speak, and due to software limitations, etc. etc., it dropped the clue because it didn’t know how to handle it. Passive aggressive little bastard.
We will be threatening it with a rolled up newspaper today, and hopefully it won’t happen again.
Deb “Sounding Like I Know What I’m Talking About Is 80% Of My Job” Amlen
I liked this better than others, but this puzzle did suffer from comparison to the past few days. The quote was just *there* for me, but I did like some of the fill: ENBALMBED next to DNA TESTS, the VOLVO and UHURA pair are fun.
Magmic app seemed to have handled Brontë just fine, luckily.
Took a sip of OUZO with my Greek FIL last weekend. I hoped that after getting sick on a DOZEN or so in my 20s that I would be able to enjoy the refreshing taste on a hot day. Sadly no.
Easy puzzle except I spelled oozo wrong and didn't know Wren or uhura.
Knew M&A would love the pUzzle when I got 15 across.
Time to make my Pineapple angelfood cake. Yummmm
Lukewarm about the theme but I liked the festive sound of TUXEDO BUDAPEST OPERETTA. Googled and discovered that BUDAPEST has a lovely 1894 OPERETTA Theater.
M&A-
I happened upon a wonderful word that belongs on your "U" word list:
A Hawaiian Petrel is a 'UA 'U.
"and it doesn't matter if you get a couple of extra syllables into a line.."
-Tom Lehrer, "The Folk Song Army"
Really, really easy for a Wednesday - I dashed it off in about 5 minutes while waiting for my wife to be ready to go to the gym.
That Lehrer quotation is from memory, may be off a word or two.
As for the technical stuff, no problems here -- just took the paper out of its plastic bag, opened up the Arts section, and there it was. I need to get a better quill pen, though.
Any puzzle that I can complete is a good one, in my book. So no complaints from me.
Happy to say that, like @Anoa Bob, I had a smile when I found the ACHOO.
But, OMG, maybe my mind is slipping faster than I had realized. Shades of Monday's puzzle, I am shagrined -- no, make that chagrined -- to admit that I had 53 D as SERA before CERA. And I have always enjoyed this young actor's work, so I cannot claim unfamiliarity!
I didn't think this puzzle was all that bad. Maybe a little too easy for a Wed. Are Volvos and Saab's both made in India now? Too bad.
Well, I didn't hate it as much as many of you. I just thought it was pretty easy and kind of boring. I was also minus Miss EYRE's clue and when I saw it had only the R and was tempted to write in zeRo. But I waited and it came with the crosses. Heading back to SoCal tomorrow with the grands, one of whom is running a fever today. Good times.
@notsofast: Neither car is made in India. SAABs aren't made anywhere anymore. Volvo is now owned by a Chinese company, but production remains primarily in Sweden and Belgium. They also have Malaysian and Chinese assembly plants.
Roses are reddish
Violets are bluish
If it weren't for Jesus
We'd all be Jewish.
At least it scans.
Alternate clue for ONE: "I'm no fuel"
@melodious funk...love it!!!
Monday puzzle masquerading as a Wednesday. Worked for me since I had just a few minutes to squeeze it in. Rex is right, some puzzle had to break our lovely streak.
Happy for M&A's U-fest.
Thank you,@ Steve J. I always loved VWs and VOLVOs.
My biggest gripe is that this does not feel like a Wednesday. Theme feels very old-school, but I can imagine people out there enjoying it. Just not me.
Congrats to @Rex for a *very* elegant panning of this puzzle, with the focus pretty much where it should be, imo.
4-Oh is red
Some solvers are blue
Y'all ain't got petrel
Unless U got 'Ua'u.
Burma-Shave.
Noteworthy puz things to note:
* Puz has only 8 weeject candidates. When yer biggest outlier is RHO, the M&A is impressed.
* Not countin DNATESTS, puz has only one abbr. That's ELEM, my dear solver.
* Not countin UPUP, puz has only one partial, with IMNO. This is because UPUP can be used impartially, as in thUmbsUpUp for eight U's.
* Puz has only five or so people names. And one proper bear name.
* Puz has only six or so plurals.
* Puz has a TUXEDO, a VOLVO, and a DOZEN. There's yer formal Swedish scrabbled egg delivery service, right there.
* The poetic theme is dern near one of them paraprosdorkian dealies. Classy. And the ACHOO is sorta like yer Burma-Shave icing on top.
In summation, there ain't a whole lot here to really latch onto and whip around and snarl at. I think 4-Oh is just sore because they didn't have the circles. Not sure what's wrong with the resta y'all. Cheer UpUp. snort.
Neva hoid of no TIE in horse racing.
Aint it called a dead heat?
I knew USAir was gone in 1997 because I just finished today's syndicated puzzle (no 0612). 45D carrier name until 1997.
Roses are red Violets are blue was a gimme for two long acrosses
According to the OED, a POSY is actually a small bunch of flowers, so using it as a clue for daisy is completely acceptable.
I found this puzzle extraordinarily easy for a Wednesday, may have set a record, were I keeping track past Mondays. As a result, I didn't hate is, but there is one thing that bothered me about it: The Wren/Uhura cross calls for pretty darned specific knowledge of two uncommon names and if one didn't know either of them (that "one" would be me), one was SOL. Somehow that didn't seem fair to me. It's one thing to search around for the right word among several choices available, but to come up with Uhura? And for Wren, I tried a vowel progression first, then started with the consonants. Getting it right? Not likely.
PuzzleMom (still proud as punch about Monday's puzzle)
P.S. And, being of an age that remembers well participating in anti-war activities i wanted the flower lovers lament to be something about where have they all gone? Couldn't come up with a phrase from that song that fit the squares, however, so gave it up and waited for a few more squares.
Puzzle Mom
Not a big challenge, but that's fine with me. I'm with whoever said here that any puzzle I finish is a good one. I also agree that this one didn't feel like a Wednesday.
CUDDLED and CODDLED,
BUNDLED and FONDLED.
HANDLED and MEDDLED and
NUZZLED and NESTLED.
These are the ways that I
"got close and comfy".
I guess I liked it more than @Rex because I thought it was a good puzzle with a mildly funny theme (I think of ACHOO as the exclamation point at the end of the rhyme). Fill was so-so, but no complaints. Again, no writeovers (though I contemplated KING at 67A) and no stumbling blocks so I guess it was easy.
@okanaganer – don’t forget about SPOONED
Happy Humpday!
Doing this on IHT, international herald tribune for those that don't travel and always thought puzzles run Mondays to Sundays in difficulty so why this one on wed?
@4-Oh: Know that an overheated house is really nothin to laugh about. Truly hope your situation gets much better, very soon. Now, forgot I ever said that, cuz some of these poor solvers need somethin to brighten UpUp their day...
Luv and CUDDLEs,
M&A
Top Reasons to Have Only One Room with the A/C:
1. Realtor brochure said "central air". Yep. Center room has A/C.
2. Set thermostat to 4-Oh. Outer rooms are fine.
3. Had to cut back after eschewing lucrative New York Times puz gigs.
4. Reaffirms disbelief in Global Warming. But believes Den-al Warming may now exist.
5. Needed a "sweat out the puz and blog" room, to maintain proper level of grouchiness.
6. This deal worked fine in Minneapolis.
7. Keeps family circle real tight, in central room.
8. Only got one room, plus the sweat den closet.
9. Bought into bein told he had lotsa fans.
10. Relief is spelled "C O L D P U Z R E V I E W S"..
p.s. Glad to see that some solvers are warmin upup to the puz, even if not quite a global phenom.
p.p.s.s.
...11. So what's wrong with unconditioned air? Sorta like free-range salmon or organic rutabegas.
I think the joke here is that the rhyme should have been
Pollen is bad for my allergies, too.
Which scans OK.
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation of my method and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak to my method):
All solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Wed 7:44, 9:43, 0.80, 8%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Wed 4:58, 5:36, 0.89, 19%, Easy
I like easy puzzles. So there.
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation and my 10/15/2012 post for an explanation of a tweak I've made to my method. 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 5:43, 6:09, 0.93, 18%, Easy
Tue 6:51, 8:13, 0.83, 7%, Easy
Wed 7:39, 9:43, 0.79, 8%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:32, 3:46, 0.94, 18%, Easy
Tue 4:09, 4:57, 0.84, 4%, Easy (8th lowest ratio of 189 Tuesdays)
Wed 4:44, 5:36, 0.84, 11%, Easy
I don't time my puzzles, but this seemed easier than the typical Monday. Almost nothing required thought let alone crosses.
I expected the ACHOO to show up in part 4 of the lament, not noticing till later the clue for 68a. OFL is right: it doesn't scan well, given that ACHOO must be included in the line to rhyme with BLUE.
Cute. Jejune but cute. I'm not a big fan of quotations running through a crossword; let's leave those to acrostics, where they belong. I applaud the relative lack of them so far, and hope Mr. Shortz redoubles his efforts to keep them out of the Times in the future.
But I didn't think this was all weak. Lots of nice fill. How can you not like TUXEDO, e.g.? Easy as a Monday, though I balked at the frizz-TAMED connection. I guess it would help to be a woman.
This puzzle has been brought to you by the letters U and V. I bet that's why it slid through.
Oh, heck. This wasn't all that bad. To be sure, if the poem scanned, and was truly funny, then all would be well. All three this week have been easy, though, so I'm wondering how Th-Fr-Sat will stack up. Hopefully they'll be up to the standards of a 21st century paper that claims to have the finest puzzle in the land.+
Only know Star Trek from puzzles, but since R was the only letter that made sense in Mr. WREN's name, I went with it. So DF. Did have to replace nestLED and briefly toyed with inquESTS for the court room thing, but not for long. Most fun with this puzzle were the clever blogger comments, particularly MandA.
'@Diri: appreciate that you always seem to know the answer to my questions, and make them seem less dumb than they generally are!
Got the ROSES and VIOLETS parts of the quote quickly and thought it was going to be too easy, then realized I had no idea where the rest of it was going so the rest seemed more "Wednesdayish". SeEd before SUET was easily fixed, and I inexplicably wanted UHURu to be the lieutenant under Kirk (they might have reworded that clue, btw).
@rain forest - be careful what you wish for.
@DMG - Well *google* always knows the answers to your questions, and you know what they say about "dumb questions". Learning stuff from the puzzle and comments is one of my favorite things.
What @Spacecraft said about quotations running through a puz. I groaned when I saw today's "theme." Very bush league.
Monday easy.
In the realtime department, @jackj informed "u" lover @M&A that an Hawaiian Petrel is a 'UA 'U. Let me add that a marlin is an 'AU."
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