SAG's partner / SUN 10-27-13 / One White of rock's White Stripes / Etched computer component / Primitive radio receiver / British novelist Anthony

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Constructor: Brendan Emmett Quigley

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: "Who's Left?" — five men's and five women's names run backwards (i.e. to the 'left') inside theme answers

Theme answers:
  • 2A: McMansion's storage (THREE-CAR GARAGE)
  • 37A: Attack on sacred custom (LÈSE-MAJESTÈ)
  • 39A: Dotty? (PIXELATED)
  • 50A: Piece of road construction equipment (CONCRETE PUMP)
  • 67A: Lot (FAIR AMOUNT)
  • 69A: Badgering (HARASSMENT)
  • 80A: What the Red Baron engaged in (AERIAL COMBAT)
  • 91A: Generally speaking (ON AVERAGE)
  • 96A: Famous (WIDELY KNOWN)
  • 113: They may keep you on your toes (BALLET SLIPPERS)
Word of the Day: COHERER (2D: Primitive radio receiver) —
The coherer is a primitive form of radio signal detector used in the first radio receivers during the wireless telegraphy era at the beginning of the 20th century. Invented around 1890 by French scientist Édouard Branly, it consists of a tube or capsule containing two electrodes spaced a small distance apart, with metal filings in the space between them. When a radio frequency signal is applied to the device, the initial high resistance of the filings reduces, allowing an electric current to flow through it. The coherer was a key enabling technology for radio, and was the first device used to detect radio signals in practical spark gap transmitter wireless telegraphy. It became the basis for radio reception around 1900, and remained in widespread use for about ten years. It was superseded by more sensitive electrolytic and crystal detectors and became obsolete, although in the 1950s a coherer was briefly used in at least one radio-controlled toy. (wikipedia)
• • •

Well made but strange. I thought there must be something more to the names than just ... names. But no. Makes the whole enterprise feel very void of context. The title doesn't really mean much on its own, as a self-standing phrase, so I'm not really sure what to think. The grid is solid, occasionally entertaining, but this doesn't have the usual zing I've come to associate with BEQ's puzzles. His NYT stuff, when it appears, always feels a bit ... on leash. I know that a lot of these clues were changed. Tamed. Neutered. Sometimes you can see something Quigleyesque sneak through, but otherwise his puzzles have to be, let's say, mainstreamed (in case you didn't already know, BEQ has his own site where he publishes a couple of independent puzzles every week—well worth checking out). He also has a band:


I have never heard of either PC BOARD (1A: Etched computer component) or COHERER, so that NW was, uh, interesting. Never heard of CONCRETE PUMP, either, and briefly imagined that the piece of road construction equipment was a CONCRETE BUMP. Seemed plausible-ish. Only other never-heard-of was AFTRA, and to be fair, I've probably *heard* of it, somewhere, some time, but it doesn't mean I could define it (I can't) (American Federation of Television and Radio Arts—sometimes I can be bothered to look things up!) (62D: SAG's partner). My favorite answer, in that it is the loopiest, most roll-your-own, most desperately creative thing in the grid, is PREWWI (13D: Like the time of Franz Ferdinand's reign). The more you stare at it, the awesomer it looks. See also ISAOAOKI, which is not in any way made-up; it's just that you rarely see it (in xwords) all complete and laid out like that, with the insane double-consecutive "AO." Nothing else in the grid really catches my fancy, except MIAOWS, which is by far the fancier spelling of that "word."

I thought LANNY was a LONNY (72A: Lawyer Davis who served in the Cinton and Bush administrations). Had trouble picking up IMMORTAL for a while (ironically, that word can be parsed "I'M MORTAL") (31D: Any Mount Olympus dweller). Not much else here to gawk at.

See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

75 comments:

dislocation 12:14 AM  

Salads? Let's go to the salads bar. Yuck.
Not up to BQ's standards.

Steve J 12:15 AM  

Themeless Sunday, in reality. Which was a nice twist. But I really, really wanted the names to be connected somehow. For quite a while I kept searching for a link and finally gave up.

Agreed that this felt a little bit tamed compared to BEQ's own stuff, but I thought it still had lots of zip, unique fill (over at Xwordinfo, Jeff Chen counts 12 entries that are new to the NYT) and clever cluing. And I enjoyed pulling this all together, which is a big challenge with the big Sunday grids.

Favorites: PIXELATED, AERIAL COMBAT, UP HERE.

Least favorite: PRE WW I and its clue; Franz Ferdinand was the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. He no more had a reign than Prince Charles has a reign.

Had a hard time with the SW corner, managing only to cross NEPALI and TAMALE for the longest time. Didn't help that I had RIGA instead of KIEV. Finally spotted that REER couldn't be anything, corrected that, and things fell together. Otherwise, things fell into place pretty quickly for me. Enjoyable Sunday.

Pete 12:21 AM  

Man, this was painful. The only thing that saved it was that I thought all the names were of members of the Von Trapp family. They're not.

JFC 12:31 AM  

This is not a bad puzzle. It's just not a good Sunday puzzle. Maybe for a Wednesday with an expanded grid this works.

I loved the way the World Series game ended tonight....

JFC

August West 12:42 AM  

He said, "Boner."

Huh huh.

MikeM 1:30 AM  

I thought it was tough in spots. I flewaround early and thought I'd nail it without stopping. Not meant to be. I stubbornly kept WRINGout in the NE corner for way too long. And somehow thought Helmut Oleg was a name and that Santa MarIno was a place. untangled the mess (I do the puzzle in ballpoint) LESEMAJESTE I never heard of and had MAJESTy first until PEYOTE straightened that out. i picked up on the names and JAMES PETER ALEX and MARIA helped me. MIAOWS i did not like. C'mon. Thought 105 A was clever "Jordan feature" though I think we had it before. Well I finished in 2 sittings and did not break ANY records, but, damn, it was fun. THANKS BEQ. I love your puzzles btw, maybe because we both are Irish

Anonymous 1:46 AM  

PC = printed circuit

chefwen 2:20 AM  

My heart sank when I saw BEQ as the constructor. We have always been on separate planes. This one was the exception, we flew through this like nobodies business. Still don't quite understand what the backward names had to do with it all. I did one of those teenage things and said "whateveh", just happy to finish without outside help.

Last to fall was 13D where I had PREWar, finally yelled DONE when I changed it to PREWWI.

Satisfying Sunday, I think I can finally say that "I get BEQ". Hoo Rah!

John Child 2:34 AM  

Hard puzzle for me, but that's what I expect from BEQ. Actually... I expect a DNF from a BEQ puzzle. I'm never in the same wheelhouse / league / universe.

Are random names, backwards, really a theme? More like showy constructerbation just to add difficulty to making a themeless Sunday. Added nothing at all to the pleasure of solving for me.

I stared forever at Oregon and points east. PREWWI, PRELIM and PREP are abbreviations with no indication of that in the clues. I see by looking it up that LESE MAJESTE can relate to custom, but every source's first and second definitions are about a person or a government. If the PEYOTE clue had said "in a desert" I would have seen it much sooner. Etc., etc. Same as it ever was with a BEQ puzzle. Happy to finish successfully, albeit 50% slower than a usual Sunday.

Davis 2:41 AM  

I went with coYOTE before PEYOTE--the classic Johnny Cash cameo on The Simpsons somehow came to mind there.

George Barany 2:50 AM  

@Rex wrote: "The grid is solid, occasionally entertaining, but this doesn't have the usual zing I've come to associate with BEQ's puzzles." That sure sounds to me like a LEFT_HANDED_COMPLIMENT.

Yesterday, I alerted readers of this blog about a 19x19 puzzle dedicated to one of your own. Well over 200 of you visited the site: http://tinyurl.com/oct27birthpuz and several of you even commented on it. Today, Sunday October 27, is the actual birthday of the puzzle's honoree, and to reiterate, no special inside information about him is required to solve it. Once done, you may be inspired to go back to the aforementioned webpage and click on a link that takes you to the honoree's biosketch, and from there you could have additional fun following further links to some of the puzzles that our birthday boy has coauthored. If you want to send him felicitations and do not already know how to reach him, please e-mail me: barany@umn.edu and I will collate your sentiments and pass them along.

paulsfo 5:16 AM  

It was hard for me. I was surprised that I had no errors because I didn't think that COHERER could possibly be right.
While I am always annoyed by people complaining that the theme answers weren't perfectly consistent (it's the English language, for God's sake!) I must agree that having the theme answers mean *nothing* was a big disappointment. :(

GILL I. 6:16 AM  

Wow. Names. A bunch of them. Spelled backwards. What's for dessert?

Carola 6:30 AM  

Like others who've posted, for me BEQ = a likely DNF, and that was true today. I'd written in MAJESTy before I had the LESE part and never went back to look at it. Hopefully I would have seen the PEYOTE cross if I had. But, of all things, the answer I didn't correct was aNT instead of TNT - even though an ant builds hills instead of leveling them. Ah, well.

The puzzle also struck me as being themeless, in that the names seemed random, but the theme did help me get ELYK, NAVE, and HARAS and thus made the bottom half go a little faster. Overall an enjoyable challenge.

Bob Kerfuffle 6:43 AM  

Re: 31 D, GREEK GOD has the same number of letters as IMMORTAL, but didn't enter it.

Rex said it all.

chefbea 7:45 AM  

Did this last night while watching the Cards!! I too tried to associate all the names. When I got Alex..thought maybe that are all game show hosts..but no.

Not my favorite puzzle.

Unknown 8:16 AM  

A bunch of names spelled backwards and that's it? On a Sunday? And it's a BEQ? I am DEYONNA.

MetaRex 8:40 AM  

Somewhere BEQ is smiling at the failure of Will and all the rest of us to figure out the meta answer that ties all the names together :) Betcha it has something to do w/ PEYOTE MIAOWS...

AliasZ 8:44 AM  

@Rex, PC in this context does not mean "politically correct." You must have heard of printed circuit boards. Also, you must have enjoyed being mentioned at 29D.

@Bob Kerfuffle, I did...

@SteveJ, you are absolutely correct, Franz Ferdinand never ruled. In fact, he was third in line to inherit the throne from Franz Josef I. Upon the suicide (in 1889) of Archduke Rudolph, the only son of Franz Josef, next in line was Karl Ludwig, younger brother of F.J., who immediately renounced the throne in favor of his son, Franz Ferdinand, who then became heir presumptive.

BEQ himself says at Xwordinfo: "it's a themed themeless Sunday-sized puzzle," so it's up to us to decide if it was too light for a Sunday or not. I agree with @JFC.

For me, 10 "theme" entries of dubitable value created too many restrictions in the grid, resulting in 40 threes -- way too many even for a 21x21 -- including gems like AHL, ABA, NFL, ATA, ATE, AYE, LEE, LYE, LIE etc. Yuck.

I would've liked it more if, even while the backward-spelled names had no connection to each other at all, the phrases containing those names had a common theme of their own. I kept looking for one. The way it is, it's just a bloated Tuesday puzzle.

Here is the brief third movement of MAHLER's Das Lied von der Erde sung by tenor René Kollo, with the Israel Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Scarab 9:03 AM  

I didn't have any objection to the reversed names as the theme, and they helped me get a handle on things like LESE MAJESTE. But this was slow for me. I think it was me and not the puzzle, because when I got up and changed rooms, I suddenly had breakthroughs in all of the areas where I was stuck.

I solve on Magmic. When I first checked the puzzle and found there was something wrong, I checked all the proper noun trivia where I had guessed and it was all right. I ended up reading entry by entry and found cLEOLE, caused by my error of PCB cARD.

Unknown 10:02 AM  

Med/Chal Sun. for me. Slow-going all the way through, but no real hang-ups. Fun solve. I agree with Steve J - essentially a themeless. I pondered possible connections between the names, asked my wife, then finally came here to find I was searching for something that didn't exist.

I almost fell for GREEK GOD at 31D but waited until the crosses gave me the right answer. No doubt that saved me from trouble later on.

Lots of sports leagues: AHL, ABA, PGA, NFL

I hesitated at JAW for boxer's target. I thought it should have indicated 'sometimes'. But maybe I'm just a bit too picky on that.

Joe The Juggler 10:22 AM  

I liked how you did TEST PREP first, the took the LSAT before getting into the ABA.

Joe The Juggler 10:24 AM  

"Lots of sports leagues: AHL, ABA, PGA, NFL"

ABA is the American Bar Association, not a sports league. In fact, some would say not even a sporting association!

Z 10:28 AM  

I, too, am a greek god. And swath before SWARD. And emi before rca before MCA. Yeah, the LÈSE MAJESTÈ region was tough for me.

I can't believe everyone didn't realize immediately that these are the first names of the leadership of the American Socialist Party. Hey, I just made it up on a blog so it must be true.

Beer Rating: PBR- a hip beer because it is a hip beer, even though it is really just another pilsener brewed with corn.

Z 10:35 AM  

@Joe the Juggler - The long defunct American Basketball Association also fits the clue.

BTW Cardinal/Sox fans - Jim Joyce is a class act and generally good umpire who made the right call at a tough time to make that call. This call was far better than the one he made on June 2, 2010.

John V 10:50 AM  

A fairly hard, lite-theme Sunday that seems to fit what Will said he was looking for in his Crucuverb note of some months back. Save for the final R of COHERER, got it okay, a happy thing as I typically get killed be BEQ.

chefbea 11:14 AM  

Everyone see the food article in the magazine section today??? I'll give you a hint...it's red.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/10/27/magazine/27-bittman-beets.html?ref=magazine&_r=0

joho 11:17 AM  

I'm with @paulsfo with his comment: I must agree that having the theme answers mean *nothing* was a big disappointment. :(

In fact, my husband asked me if I were enjoying the puzzle as I was solving and my answer was, "Well, so far I just have a bunch of names going backwards. There must be some big connection that I just don't see yet. If I get to that big AHA I'll let you know."

YRS,
YLETINIFED DETNOIPPASID

Anonymous 11:40 AM  

Williamsburg clique.

baja 11:48 AM  

Really liked the well known pre wwi pixelated concrete pump. BUT random backward names - Meh

Anonymous 11:51 AM  

Grace does spoken word. James is a brewer. Alex: cellist. Peter: runs food coop. Maria: poet/designer. Sarah: dancer. Claire: singer. Kyle: futurist. Evan: enigma. Stella: bartender. All of them committed socialists. And all friends of BEQ.

Struggling Waiter 11:54 AM  

Its the "American Federation of Television and Radio Artists" (not Arts)

SAG = Screen Actor's Guild

One is for TV/Radio, the other for Film.

FearlessKim 12:03 PM  

After too many weeks of trying and failing to solve Matt Gaffney's metas, I stand with MetaRex: there's just *gotta* be a meta-theme that we haven't grokked! That would certainly be par for the course for this solver!

Liked UPHERE, PREWWI (my biggest holdup in the NE was my reluctance to consider the possibility of two Ws side-by-side), MIAOWS, FRO, ISAOAOKI. Enjoyed the misdirect of "Jordan feature" (desert? Nope. Herodium? Wadi Musa? Nope and nope)

IMBEAT. Up too late with a performance that ended just in time to catch the last inning-and-a-half of that crazy baseball game. That last play! and the umpire's call! The most astonishing and improbable baseball I've ever seen.

Bill in FL 12:04 PM  

Anonymous@11:51 : is that inside information, a guess, or a joke?

Norm 12:31 PM  

Even if Anonymous@11:52 knows what s/he is talking about, this puzzle was still a big DUD.

Anonymous 12:40 PM  

Anon@11:52 makes sense-
Who's LEFT = Socialists?

Unknown 1:11 PM  

Stupid, stupid, STUPID theme.

Joe in Montreal 1:22 PM  

A SEE is not a religious office but a domain of authority of the one fulfilling the office.

Yeah, I wasted time looking to the left of the names, putting the names together, etc.

Joe in Montreal 1:23 PM  

A SEE is not a religious office but a domain of authority of the one fulfilling the office.

Yeah, I wasted time looking to the left of the names, putting the names together, etc.

jae 1:37 PM  

Didn't post last night because I was determined to figure out the theme before commenting. Best I could come up with is famous left-handed people...PETER Frampton, ALEX Trebek?...only to find out it was a big Emily Litella. So, I'm with the somewhat disappointed/meh crowd.

This was easy-medium for me probably because I've been doing BEQ's puzzle ever since he started his web site. Only WOE was the word of the day. The good news is that tomorrow we get a tough undiluted BEQ.

onthelam 2:01 PM  

The first name I figured out was "Sarah", which was on the right side of the grid, and with the "who's left" title, I started looking for a political meaning: are the people on the right on the left, and left right? Looking for some connection, and then...nothing. Not satisfying at all....

Anonymous 2:17 PM  

Williamsburg clique! BEQ met them in August in McCarren Park , where they were doing a political riff on "The NeverEnding Story." He was a bit turned off at first. but was charmed by Alex and Claire's duet, "Class is a Dragon," and Evan, a crossword addict, recognized them. The rest is now history.

Anonymous 2:18 PM  

recognized HIM (BEQ.)

Bill in FL 2:25 PM  

Anonymous@2:17 : I still can't pick up your tone, but it's plausible to believe this puzzle was a coded tribute to friends. Nothing else makes sense for a BEQ construction.

GILL I. 4:27 PM  

Am I the only one getting all this voodooo crap from follow up comments? It's getting worse...@Rex can you do something?????

Anonymous 4:56 PM  

Gill, be afraid. Be very afraid . . .

mac 5:04 PM  

Easy-medium for me, but I cannot believe the backward names are there are to it. I thought of the kids of the "Sound of Music", the Simpson's characters, then crossword people. Even Rex is in there, although not backward.

Hand up for Greek gods. Loved Pre WW I too, not so much AT CAMP crossing AT A.

Hope we get the answer to our question.

Steve J 5:28 PM  

@mac: There is no answer, at least in terms of connections of names. They're just names. BEQ says so himself over at Xwordinfo.

@Gill I.P.: No voodoo or crap from comments here. What exactly are you seeing?

Adrienne 5:44 PM  

Finished most of the puzzle and thought, I can't wait to look up what the theme was, besides common names backwards ( and last week the last long theme answer was backwards)...only to discover that that was it....worst theme I have ever seen on a Sunday.

sanfranman59 6:06 PM  

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 6:13, 6:07, 1.02, 61%, Medium-Challenging
Tue 7:14, 8:15, 0.88, 15%, Easy
Wed 13:48, 9:44, 1.42, 97%, Challenging (6th highest ratio of 198 Wednesdays)
Thu 11:33, 16:30, 0.70, 7%, Easy
Fri 24:47, 18:08, 1.37, 97%, Challenging (8th highest ratio of 200 Fridays)
Sat no data
Sun 32:30, 27:42, 1.17, 82%, Challenging

Top 100 solvers

Mon 3:43, 3:46, 0.99, 38%, Easy-Medium
Tue 4:24, 5:09, 0.85, 6%, Easy
Wed 7:39, 5:37, 1.36, 98%, Challenging (5th highest ratio of 198 Wednesdays)
Thu 6:58, 9:27, 0.74, 8%, Easy
Fri 15:21, 10:21, 1.48, 97%, Challenging (7th highest ratio of 200 Fridays)
Sat no data
Sun 21:49, 19:20, 1.13, 75%, Medium-Challenging

Unknown 6:08 PM  

@Joe the Juggler - Z hit it on the nose. I was referring to the American Basketball Association. Picture DrJ with the 87A and the red, white, and blue ball - that was the ABA. Of course the Amer Bar Assoc works too.

Steve in Natick 6:37 PM  

Delighted to find my decision to pass on latest BEQ abomination validated here. Strictly a novice puzzler, mostly NYTimes Sunday paper only, and I have learned the hard way not to waste beautiful Sundays on obtuse nonsense themes and obscure fill from the one and only BEQ. Happy to be starting a DNS category to go along with virtually all other BEQ DNFs. Perhaps I am reading too much into many of these comments (which seem a bit "on a leash" to me, as Rex uses the phrase in a different context), but I feel kindred spirits to my BEQ puzzle antipathy where I once felt lost in the wilderness. Thank you John Child, Tim Murphy, and others.

And thank you Z. Such a special delight to come here and see a reference to MLB umpire Jim Joyce, making a gutsy call (the right one) to end a world series game under intense, intense national spot light last night. Almost as professional and classy as his admission of mistake following the events of June 2, 2010. There should be a special room in Cooperstown for Armando Gallarago and Jim Joyce and those who personify the very best in professional sportsmanship.

All in all, a delightful day here in Naticksville, with the beautiful fall weather, a great Patriots character win, and hope springing eternal for our Sox tonight.

chefbea 7:33 PM  

@Steve in Natick...sorry...go Cards!!

GILL I. 7:44 PM  

@Steve J..When I click on to my E-mail - all with a "Rex new comment" follow up - I get several messages telling me that I can get my ex back as long as I buy a cream or that I need a face lift or better yet that I will be happy if I find a husband that will please me!!! Please tell me I'm not the only one.....

Anonymous 7:45 PM  

I don't see any complaints/confusion about: Graf spee : gaffe boner : jordon feature space jam : second It.s Ens : I don't get any of those. Deduced them but don't understand. And miaow is such a cheat.

Bob Kerfuffle 8:18 PM  

The Graf Spee was a very famous German battleship in WWII.

Gaffe and boner both mean a silly mistake.

A second lieutenatnt in the Army is equivalent in rank to an ensign in the Navy.

And how far into a comment must anyone read to see that it is an ad for Dr. Mojo? Just skip down to the next comment.

Anonymous 9:50 PM  

For two years I have quietly sat back, in awe of the profound writings of the Rexettes. I finally have a comment which has not already been said. I thought that the theme was people who were "left behind"; survived when other did not, or were taken away. Blanche taken to the Mental Hospital..leaving Stella. Kenny from South Park always dies leaving Kyle or any of the other boys...
Claire

Z 10:02 PM  

@claire - Awe? Welcome and hope you join the fun again.

@Gill I P - Après Rex le deluge. It has been nuts lately. The syndicated folks have been going nuts with the recent rash. So many of the "testimonies" seem to be about getting about an Ex? I am just so pleased to know that they are all real people since we know the captchas keep out the 'bots. 42!

@Bob Kerfuffle - you forgot to mention that Space Jam was a movie feature that starred Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan. His acting was even worse than his hitting.

jberg 11:22 PM  

I spent the weekend in Newark, Delaware at my wife's high school reunion; the hotel had USA Today and the Wall Street Journal, but no NYT. Fortunately, I had forgotten to suspend my home delivery, so the papers were waiting for me tonight, and I did both Saturday and Sunday this evening. I didn't mind the light theme on this one, and it had many bright spots -- it seemed a bit of a slog to me, but I think that was me after hours of driving.

No one seems to be pointing out that Crystal will fit for COHERER, so you really have to know your radio history there.

Not much more to say. I wish Evil Doug was here to comment on 78A, though.

Steve J 12:05 AM  

@Anon 7.45: There probably aren't complaints about those as they're all fair and/or pretty widely known. Others have already pointed out what Graf Spee, Space Jam, gaffe/boner and the equivalent ranks in the Navy and Army. Also, all easily googleable.

As far as MIAOW: It's the standard British spelling of the sound a cat makes. I do think the clue should have had something indicating that a British variant was called for, but those sorts of hints seem to be less common of late.

@Gill I.P.: I'm guessing that the email updates include posts as soon as they're posted, but they're getting deleted on the site here quickly. I haven't seen anything giving me tips on getting my ex back.

@Z: Agreed that Joyce is a class act. It was a shame he got the call wrong that ruined Galarraga's perfect game, but it took a lot of guts (a different word would be used were I in an untamed BEQ puzzle) to admit he messed it up. And he did get the call right last night.

ZenMonkey 12:37 AM  

On a totally personal level, I enjoyed 117A ("Words said before a kiss") much more today than usual for that type of fill. Even though we didn't literally say IDO -- I said something in Hebrew and he said something in English -- my husband and I were married six years ago today. And we went back to the place today to reenact that kiss.

Di 8:23 AM  

I felt sure the names were going to be characters from Twilight or One Tree Hill or Pretty Little Liars so I kep grilling my 20 year old daughter, the YA pop culture queen. She will be relieved to know there is no rhyme or reason.

Anonymous 10:36 AM  

61A: Maximilian, Graf Von Spee, was also a famous German admiral of WW1. The victor of the Battle of Coronel, he was the loser at the Battle of the Falklands, where he was killed.

Jeff 2:05 PM  

Check wikipedia, but Sony does NOT make Vizio

Jeff

otto 4:17 PM  

PreWWI is an abbreviation. No abbreviations in the clue. Flag on the play.

Anonymous 4:59 PM  

Not Vizio---Vaio

MissPriss58 9:27 PM  

I so wish this were the theme:
According to the American Conservative Union, the following 19 Senators compiled the most left-wing voting record in 2011. These scores are based on 20 separate votes that were taken by the U.S. Senate in 2011. A score of 0.00 indicates that the senator voted against the conservative position in each of these 20 votes (in a few instances, the senator did not cast a vote).

Alaska Democrat Mark Begich - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.33)

California Democrat Barbara Boxer - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 2.75)

Delaware Democrat Chris Coons - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 0.00)

Hawaii Democrat Daniel Akaka - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 6.38) [retiring after this year]

Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.70)

Maryland Democrat Barbara Mikulski - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.42)

Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.05) [running for reelection this year]

Michigan Democrat Carl Levin - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 6.18)

Michigan Democrat Debbie Stabenow - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 7.64) [running for reelection this year]

Minnesota Democrat Al Franken - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 0.00)

Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 7.20) [running for reelection this year]

Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 14.60) [running for reelection this year]

Nevada Democrat Harry Reid - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 17.28)

New York Democrat Chuck Schumer - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.35)

Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 7.36) [running for reelection this year]

Pennsylvania Democrat Bob Casey - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.65) [running for reelection this year]

Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 5.70)

Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 1.60) [running for reelection this year]

West Virginia Democrat Jay Rockefeller - Score of 0.0 in 2011 (Lifetime rating of 8.40)

It's interesting to note that each of these 19 senators had a voting record in 2011 that was more left-wing than the voting record of avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, the Independent senator from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats. Senator Sanders received a score of 5.00 from the ACU in 2011, with a lifetime rating of 6.52.

spacecraft 11:46 AM  

Was rackin' my brain for some connection that pulls these names together. I really expected to come here and find that--oh, they're the names of such-and-such a band, or whatever. No? They're just...names? Oh. Okay, I guess. Gee, they read backward. Whoop-de-doo.

Curiously, my first two gimmes were SPEE and SMEE. As seems to be the case more and more often now, I found the NW--most folks' usual starting point--to be the most resistant. It didn't help that my SWARD was at first a SWAle, or that even with all but two (!) letters in place it took me forever to see IMMORTAL. Like many others, I shrugged when COHERER appeared via crosses. Good WOD, 'cause I never heard of it.

I don't get the clue for THREECARGARAGE: "McMansion's storage." So, what...does Ronald McDonald have three clown cars??? Another curious clue was "Lot" for FAIRAMOUNT. I suppose that might be one meaning of "lot," sort of back-formed from "allot," but yikes. That's one tough clue. Is it my "lot" in life to wrestle with stuff like this?

By the way, what's MONICA doing in there, all by herself--and reading left-to-right? Who snuck her in?

Dirigonzo 3:54 PM  

@spacecraft - "McMansions are those overly large houses favored by well-to-do yuppies who are too "rich" to live in a ranch house but can't afford a real mansion; they usually have a 3-car garage for the Beemer/Benz, Escalade and maybe a Jag or 'Vette. Since they accumulate way too much stuff for even their 15 rooms to hold I presume some of it winds up stored in the garage. Come to think of it, I have a FAIRAMOUNT of junk in my own two-car garage, but that's OK because I have only 1 car.

OWS: LeNNY/MeHLER.

Solving in Seattle 4:48 PM  

And all of you couldn't figure out the theme? It's as plain as the nose on your face -- they're all Hall of Fame left tackles (including MONICA). SHEESH! Didn't even know the Quigster was a football fan.

Nice try @Z with Socialists; also whoever thought they were famous left-handers.

I've stayed at the FAIRAMOUNT hotel in S.F. Great bar there.

Capcha: DCcompa. Whata politicos getta atta capitol restaurantas.

Z 7:30 PM  

@SiS - It is a well-known fact that all left-tackles are socialists because of the need to have their quarterbacks' backs. Right tackles, on the other hand, tend to be either Randian or followers of the Dalai Lama, whichever one is is the 800 year-old dildo collecting demi-god.*





*That right tackle line will make sense next week, or you can look up serial comma in Wikipedia now. Thanks @Bob Kerfuffle

Anonymous 1:09 AM  

Anonymous 11:51 AM
"Grace does spoken word. James is a brewer. Alex: cellist. Peter: runs food coop. Maria: poet/designer. Sarah: dancer. Claire: singer. Kyle: futurist. Evan: enigma. Stella: bartender."

I see...they're the ones in the bomb shelter, left behind to repopulate the earth. I mean, you gotta have a bartender, right?

Anonymous 9:40 PM  

And some left tackles are bullies.

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Prune 9:59 PM  

I was all but Natcked at LE_EM_ JESTE (that's how I parsed it). I ran the alphabet to get MACED, and finally finished the puzzle. I've never heard of the term being used for a custom, let alone a sacred one: it's always a crime against the office of the sovereign. You can stretch a tertiary definition somewhat, but it still must be a custom that is tied directly to the sovereign entity.

The clue for PC BOARD simply sucks; it's on the order of "Man's name", or "I'm going to punch you in the _____, Will Shortz!" Virtually every component essential to a computer is etched at some point in its manufacturing process. The boards are etched less than most. The clue is misleading (not a fatal shortcoming), and simply weak (gaaaacckk!).

This theme might play on a Monday, but that's the limit. Putting this weak theme with some dastardly clues is just ... it felt like eating a meal prepared by a cordon-bleu chef, but with the cheapest available ingredients.

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