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Old name for Tokyo / MON 4-7-14 / San Diego baseballer / Canals Michigan/Ontario separator / First Arabic letter
Monday, April 7, 2014
Constructor: Douglas Taillon
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (**for a Monday**)
THEME: 2 — lots of two-related stuff, plus a 2-ish image in the center of the grid (made out of black squares)
Theme answers:
- 16A: High-stakes wager (DOUBLE OR NOTHING)
- 59A: Boeing 767, for one (TWIN-ENGINE PLANE)
- 13D: More, at a meal (SECOND HELPING)
- 14D: Someone who's so nice you almost want to smack him (GOODY TWO SHOES) (this clue is insane; excessive niceness is Not what's behind this term. No reasonable person wants to "smack" another person simply for being nice. The clue misses the essential smugness / unctuousness required to invite smacking)
- 28A: See 68-Across
- 68A: One of a couple for the Roman god JANUS (FACE)
- 45A: One of a couple in a 767 (AISLE)
In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus (Latin: Ianus, pronounced [ˈiaː.nus]) is the god of beginnings and transitions, thence also of gates, doors, passages, endings and time. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. The Romans named the month of January (Ianuarius) in his honor. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were exactly three places during the solve where I either faltered or had to think a little bit. First, right away, at 1-Across. Wanted DYAD for [Couple]. A reasonable answer, it turns out. Then at 39D: Split with an ax I had the "C" and wrote in CHOP UP instead of the correct CLEAVE. Lastly, I didn't quite grasp what [One of a couple in a 767] was going for, so had to fall back on the crosses until it became clear. Otherwise, I was pretty much filling in answers as fast as I could read the clues.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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70 comments:
Themes have become pretty much beside the point for me on Mondays. It's rare that I ever notice them until I'm done solving and go back and see what the theme was. So the somewhat random nature of this one had no effect on me whatsoever. I just appreciated that it provided a few really good entries, like DOUBLE OR NOTHING and GOODY TWO SHOES.
Fill was nicely clean, and there were some nice answers outside the theme, like SWOONED, ANARCHY and TUSSLE. Got tripped up by having ALeF instead of ALIF, which gave me a new species of bird, the eBIS. Other than that, this was typically Monday-quick and -easy.
Medium for me mostly because I went through kilo and meGA before GIGA. The rest went quickly for a Mon., although I had to fill in 28a before I could finish as I have yet to commit to memory Arabic letters (really, on a Mon.?).
Lotsa theme stuff and a smooth grid, liked it.
CLEAVE is a JANUS word, a word that is its own antonym. Just a bonus? I don't see any others. Lots of long answers for an early-week puzzle, plus a couple of late-week answers, ALIF and ANOUKE. good fun: two thumbs up here.
Cute Monday puzzle, put me in the "liked it" column. I can never remember Mr. LaBeouf's first name, I really want it to be SHeA, so my 767 had AeSLEs. An easy fix and my only write-over.
Really liked Patrick Berry's Sunday puzzle, but I was suffering from a head cold that I could have sold to science and didn't have the energy to comment. Much better today, thank the Puzzle Gods.
I found the puzzle medium. Disjointed would be how I describe it. The doubles in the corners except face and the random long theme entries with no connection distracted me from enjoying it. Agree with @Jae about ALIF, and I'll add AQABA and RUNIC. JANUS also seems suspect for a Monday, I don't think I've ever heard of this particular Roman God. The fill was good but the theme randomness just kept nagging at me. I thought maybe I had missed something and would come here to be enlightened. Guess not.
I loved seeing the title of the next Ayn Rand parody - ANARCHY SWOONED.
How can a constructor fail to make reference to Derek (#2) Meter on the occasion of the Yankees home opener????
Sorry - Jeter
I'm getting too fussy -- bothered me to have three long theme answers starting with a two-word, with two in the middle of the fourth instead. But really, I enjoyed it -- liked the picture, liked all the theme words, liked AQABA, liked getting it over with quickly.
Really don't like hearing there was a Patrick Berry Sunday, when my hotel for some reason delivered the Washington Post instead of the Times. I'll be glad to get back home!
I thought the review was like having double fudge cookies and complaining that they aren't oreos.
A giant 2 to clue everyone in to what is going on, two words in each corner (yes JANUS' two FACEs count as a "two" word),two great 15s and two great 13s on a Monday, and a bonus TOO at 21A. What's not to love? {Horshack voice}Maybe it should have run on Ground Hog Day{/Horshack voice}?
Beer-Rating - Two Brothers Brewing's Cane & Ebel
I had to read @Rex two times before I could really understand his write-up.
I'm with @Z. Thought this was super duper fun and tres clever.
Good job Douglas.
The two long vertical theme answers could be considered a Roman II if you're feeling generous. Funny, I didn't notice that the black squares in the center looked two-ish.
Also agree with @Z....there's a lot of theme stuff jammed in2 this Monday puzzle.
Liked the puzzle but didn't realize the four corners were 2-related tip Rex explained.
R.I.P. Mickey Rooney
Anyone else take issue with the SE? I didn't get IBIS right away, which made ALIF / AQABA / MEESE quite the frustrating trio.
Not an overly complicated theme, perfect for a Monday. The twin concept is cute, and it opens the floodgates to a plethora of 2-related references. It's like the Bible code: if you look hard enough, you'll find them.
The visual "2" divides the grid into 2 hemispheres in the middle, and ANNO + TUSSLE contain 2 of the same consonants in their middle. Then there are 2 ha's in HAHA, 2 R's in ERR, 2 E's in ESE and 2 O's in SNOOZE, SOO and SWOONED. We have 2 shoulders to SHRUG with, 2 glutei (BUNS) every time we used a chair and SAT, and the males of all mammals have 2 62-downs. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah, you need at least 2 LEGOs to build anything, and one palmate-antlered beast is a "moose" but 2 of them are MEESE. And the pièce de résistance: the entire grid is 2 dimensional.
But seriously folks, this is a terrific NYT debut by Douglas Taillon, exemplary fill quality with nary a groaner in it, ROBT, INA, ESE and EDO notwithstanding. I hope we'll see more of his work.
Outside the duality of the theme, I enjoyed the JANUS / GENUS / ONUS trio, ANARCHY, ALIF, AQABA, OPAQUE, RUNIC, and it was fun to see ANOUK Aimée after a long absence.
Speaking of DYADS, here are 6 of the 44 Duos for Two Violins by Béla Bartók.
Happy Monday!
The southeast corner definitely tripped me up. Took a while to parse everything out.
Cute theme and very dense. Would have been cool to see 'twin ion engine' in the grid, but that would have taken some reconstruction.
Nice job.
I suppose you could throw in a couple of hot dog BUNS and a CLEAVE is what I wrote in the margin.
Lots and lots of theme makes this Monday twice as interesting as some even if it does seem a bit disjointed. LOL @Rex: PAIR, DUAL, DYAD ... FACE! Actually I would have like the phrase TWOFACED over JANUS/FACE.
Congratulations on your debut, Douglas Taillon, it is a big deal! Go celebrate with a double-dipped cone!
Don't know how, but I scratched at YeP/CLEeVE. Errant key stroke? 17:46 includes time to hunt down the error. (George Cleeve was Portland ME's founder)
This Monday was plenty easy, but there were some toughish get-by-cross-only clues so I'd call it medium challenging for a Monday. Tokyo=EDO, ALIF, SOO canal are rarely-used proper names/foreign words & needed all crosses. Needing substantial crosses: JANUS FACE YENTA AISLE TROUPE. Even DRS had ambiguity as I considered MDS and DOS for a bit. Also, AWRY=wonky? OK. But not on a Monday.
Oh the shame of it! Done in on a Monday. Looked at "Got my two shoes" for a while and decided It must be some arcane phrase from Louisiana or perhaps North Dakota. Egad!
Despite the apparent dislike for them, I would have found this eminently satisfying if the constructor could have squeezed an X in there to make it a panagram. Very nice, tight puzzle with almost zero garbage. Sometimes I do puzzles like this, and then read the writeups and comments and think people are just complaining for the sake of complaining. A great, easy start to the week :)
HA! not 2 but 🌕🌕🌕 (3 Moons)
A lot-o-twos. Sadly I messed up my own grid by mispelling eISLE . I thought ReH might be a cheer with a SHRUG…. then the lights came and they spelled EKE-A-ERR.
Latest joke for your kids. Say the following four words quickly in the order written:
ICE
BANK
MICE
ELF
Then ask what ever lame parental question you want. I have been using: Were you a bad ?
I hope to see more puzzles of this quality from Douglas Taillon. Enjoyed the well-executed, pervasive "two" theme w/ Monday-level clues. Every response was gettable w/ nary a TUSSLE.
Thanks, DT and WS.
Really liked this one--easy Monday yet little Monday dreck. Very well done, Mr. Taillon.
Twice the fun of a typical Monday!
But I agree with @Casco Kid, Wonky = AWRY was totally new to me. I was amused, just before composing this post, to look up WONKY in one of the online dictionaries. Note this definition and example sentences:
WONKY
British : unsteady, shaky
chiefly British : awry, wrong
Examples of WONKY
He is a wonky bureaucrat in the State Department.
She enjoys reading about tax law and other wonky stuff.
He has a wonky knee.
But, hey! The first two of these obviously refer to the meaning of WONKY as pertaining to a person who is deeply involved in the details of policy, etc., and is at least mildly pejorative. Nothing to do with being AWRY except in the vaguest sense.
So the puzzle is correct, though obscure, while (Oh, horrors! Could it be?) the online dictionary misses the mark.
Can't understand why so many liked it. The clues were almost entirely straight definitions. Very little puzzling required.
2 thUmbsUp.
Impressive debut.
Ten themers.
Grid art.
Double digit U-count.
Obvious request to the constructioneer: SECONDHELPING, please.
fave weeject: DAH. Better clue: Had to be inserted upside-down??
Don't believe I've liked a MonPuz this much in quite a spell. It was twice the fun.
M&A
Solid, easy-medium Monday. Like @Steve J, I barely noticed the theme. On reeexamination I quite like it. Two-related clue/answer pairs in all four corners. Cute, though if all four had the duality in the answer it would have been neater. FACE IMO seems out of place.
Agree GOODY TWO SHOES isn't well clued.
Had gOwn for 23A at first, ALeF for 58D. Both easily fixed via crosses.
Thanks, Mr. Taillon. Nice debut.
I thought this was an unusually fine Monday. Nice theme answers, with their layout also theme-related in a two A and two D pattern. PADRE and STUD could be another PAIR. Also liked RUSTIC-RUNIC and AT NO crossing a clue about "elements."
@John Child - Thanks for the reminder about the DOUBLE meaning of CLEAVE.
@Douglas Taillon - nice to read here that this was your debut. I look forward to more.
Fun little Monday puzzle with theme answers hiding all over the place. One write-over at ole/rah, haha.
Dare we say this is a pangram?
I, too, thought that GOODY TWO SHOES was oddly clued, but I don't object as much as others. GTSs ARE nice, too (two?) nice, treacly nice, so nice you want to smack them. They are also santimonious pr***s but I think the clue worked.
I liked the puzzle a lot, especially since I actually caught the 'two' references that littered the grid. I love the JANUS clue. Missed the 2 in the center, but still. Nice debut.
@dk. Thanks for the joke. The grands will love it!
Mistress mayoress complained that the pottage was cold.
'And all long of your fiddle-faddle.'quote she.
'Why then, GOODY TWO SHOES, what if it be?
Hold you, if you can, your tittle-tattle, quote he.....
Oops, no X.
p.s.
Pretty unusual, that the four longest themers crisscross one another. You'd kinda think that might be almost impossible to pull off. Had a patio project like that, once... Had to make a branch path come round a bend and connect up with the main spread, when layin patio brick. Happened to come out perfect, even matchin the alternatin brick pattern. Onlooker's comment: "U live in a tree, dude".
But eye dye grass.
M&A
Went to school in London for a semester, one of my essays was graded as having "good schematics but substantiate arguments are a bit wonky in parts."
Loved all the duets in this puzzle, the two long across themers and the two long down themers, like II and = ! I think @AliasZ found everything, and more. Nice trainer puzzle to cut one's teeth on. EDO makes a fine chew toy, for example, @Casco Kid. Store it in the file next to obi. Off to work, about which I have two conflicting URGEs...
Yup, as soon as I see that Z and Q on a Monday, I start looking for that pangram...but not today.
Like many, I was flying through the clues to fast to notice the theme until afterwards, and liked all the sprinkling of 2 references. I leaned of JANUS in HS Latin class. Loved the ANARCHY entry and the SWOONED/SNOOZE cross.
I think I almost have the AQABA entry cemented in my brain, but I may still need to a couple more puzzles to confirm.
Lots of Brits in my small town (next to the GM Proving grounds, I think that's why?) so I have become well versed in words like "wonky", used in the AWRY sense.
Fun Monday, put up a bit of a fight!
@Mathguy--That's how Mondays are supposed to be clued.
I had a writeover--"Alef" for ALIF. Have to commit that one to memory.
No problem with wonky for AWRY--but my wife is English and I watch tons of British TV. Didn't even think that it might be a problem for others.
Now I have the Adam Ant earworm: "Two shoes two shoes goody goody two shoes.
Don't drink don't smoke.
What do you do?"
@Rex, you really lost me today. 1. I have no clue what you are talking about. 2. I think you are being excessively nit-picky about whatever it is you are talking about.
JFC
The more I think about it the more I appreciate what I called "disjointed" in my past post. The theme is dense and shows up unexpectedly all over the place including in the clues.
Keeps you on your two toes! The more I look at it the more I like it!
p.p.s.s.
Quad stacker, here:
www.xwordinfo.com/Solve?id=578&id2=178
Fits in with today's puz, as it has two-bit answers.
M&A
I learned today that speed solvers need skills beyond general knowledge and crossword experience. Wife is away so I tried solving online. Lost maybe 15 to 45 seconds because I had RUNes for RUNIC - but crosses corrected that - the rest of the puzzle filled pretty much on sight. However I took over 11 minutes! 3 to 4 times more than the faster group.
On "Jeopardy" a quick thumb is as important as a ton of trivia knowledge - I guess typing skills (I can type like a bandit, btw) and a different pattern of solving must needs be a part of the tool kit for the speed freaks.
I now think my theory as to why speed solvers tend to dislike "stacks" holds a ton of water. Triple and Quad stacks require a different type of thinking (parsing another's wit) that is not at all conducive to speed.
Anyhow, I've now set myself a nice low bar, next time my wife is out of town I'll try this again.
OMG, Easy Peasy.
@Buck. I think we can blame Shortz for that. The constructor usually doesn't know when a puzzle will be published, but the editor sure does. Could have been easily fixed, too. 28 D could have been clued as Derek Jeter's has a #2 on it.
@JFC I don't know if you meant it to be so, but your comment was one of the most humorous I've seen in a long time.
@mohair-- I'm a speed solver, but like many others, I appreciate a difficult puzzle that requires me to think. I'm not into puzzles just to prove my reflexes. I think you'll find that speed-solvers' times on stacked puzzles are just as fast, relatively, as they are on other puzzles. They take everybody longer.
The reason @Rex and many others don't like stacked puzzles is because of the (necessary) compromises in fill quality in order to achieve the stacks. I don't mind as long as the entries make consistent sense with the clues. But I think that most solvers want fresh, fun phrases and words, and you can only get a limited amount of those into a puzzle with as many fill constraints as a double quad stack puzzle.
SOO/TOO/WHO
LEGO/ANNO/ZERO
Maybe the puzzle wasn't 100% consistent but it had spark. Good one!
The south east corner -- UGH! I zipped through this puzzle feeling very self satisfied until the Arab port and Viking language and Janus Pair (all I could conger was a cover of a mystery book with two guns) stumped me. SO FRUSTRATING!
But otherwise, liked the puzzle. Am a plane nut, so enjoyed all the Boeing arcana.
*conjure*
@chelseadweller - EEL lovers are hard put around here so a good thing you corrected that.
@M&A - This time, before clicking the link, I pledged to stick with the puzzle, no cheating, and work it out even if it took an hour (I'm putting off finishing my tax returns.)
Imagine my surprise when I finished in 2 min 33 sec. I ascribe this to the constructor using almost all Real Words!
As always, thank you.
@BobK. Regional champ contender's time. M&Amazed
@M & Awesome:
Did your puzzle posted above. Liked the clues for 11 across, 5 down, and 12 down. LOVED the clue for 7 down, made me chuckle.
Like @BobK I thought this was your easiest and smoothest puz yet (took me less than 45 seconds). Be careful or you're gonna turn into a normal constructor soon!
M&A: that was a sweet little tune I got after finishing the puzzle! I like this size.
@benko - Thanks for the input, point well-taken on stacks. Although Rex complained about the most recent M.A.S. stacks and the fill seemed no worse than any other puzzle.
Anyhow - There must be some solving mechanism I don't understand - I'm a good and accurate typist and this morning's puzzle was easy as they get (mostly I keyed in answers as soon as I read the clue), and yet it took me 11 minutes. I'll try again next week, maybe I just lack experience.
@ Mohair Sam - You may be thinking more than you realize. I am a lousy typist and a Monday typically takes me 5-ish minutes.
Good typist/solvers, I understand, can solve one clue and be figuring out the next while typing the first one in. But not I......
@mohair- Experience is certainly part of it. I'm a fast typist, but inaccurate--I'm always going back to correct myself. people who learned to read music seem to have an advantage as far as what @retired chemist is talking about, being able to type/write and read at the same time. I started my music studies at age six and it seems to help having that skill as second nature.
I just want to correct the often common misconception that speed solvers are some kind of unfeeling robots who just spit out answer after answer without thinking. (Well, sometimes on a dumb Monday...) This is certainly not my experience nor that of other (better) speed solvers I have talked to. If anything, the best solvers seem to think about puzzles quite a lot of the time.
@Benko and retired chemist. Thanks again for the input. I know that when I think the answer I type it, but I do not look ahead - must be a learned skill. Studied piano long enough to know that eventually the chords came without thought - guess I've got to learn the same with speed solving. The ten thousand hour theory. Or Maybe my wife and I should stay on the pen and ink slow boat!
Perhaps one of the best Monday puzzles ever. I'm not used to playful creativity on a Monday, yet these clues were unexpectedly fun. Well done and challenging for a Monday. It took me a full 6 minutes. Great job Douglas Taillon and Will Shortz.
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 5:45, 6:12, 0.93, 16%, Easy
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:46, 3:58, 0.95, 21%, Easy-Medium
Easy but lots of fun to write such long answers on a Monday. Felt clean and contemporary to me, which, considering the '70s and '80s dreck posing as pop culture that is too often served up at the NYT xword, is a win, imho.
Am I the only one who found that about 40% of the fill was insultingly easy? Mere synonyms, definitions, or the most obvious "fill in the blanks imaginable".? I felt like I was doing a puzzle for a fourth grader and it made me feel cheap.
Anno domini
Spider's production
You're soo funny
Used a chair
Medical practitioners
Female deer
Futures opposite
A sleeve covers it
Zip deeds Dahl
Droop
Something to whistle
One minus one
Stainless steel
Pecan or cashew
Allí in a days work
Nap. Etc etc etc
Come on guys! Any one else felt like shooting fish in a barrel?
When someone writes an piece of writing he/she retains
the plan of a user in his/her brain that how a user can understand it.
Therefore that's why this article is amazing. Thanks!
My web site what causes the northern lights
Play Snail Bob 3 Online
Well well, we have a SECONDHELPING of yesterday's theme. Never noticed the "2" formation of center black squares till coming here. That elevates this debut (!) to a higher PLANE.
When DudleyDoright wouldn't fit at 14d, I had my first gimme themer. And just how would you define Mr. SHOES--in a clue-sized sentence? The one given is as good as any.
Never flew on a 767; was surprised that it has 2 AISLEs--and also that it has only 2 ENGINEs. They must be monsters.
Theme density and grid choppiness make for fill dreckity; no surprise there. I still wince every time I have to write EKE, that one-clue-and-one-clue-only piece of hackneydom. Still, this is better than most Mondays--and WAY better than most debuts. WTG Doug!
Two PAIR--but then I was only dealt 6 cards.
I'm a newbie at the NY puzzle - difficult for a Monday! The goodytwoshoes...
A good Monday. The only possibly obscure name, MEESE, had to be a given for anyone who lived in the San Diego area at the time. The local papers positively swooned over a "local" being elevated to such a high position. But, I also seem to recall there was some sort of trouble about his tenure. At any rate, the name sticks.
Loved GOODYTWOSHOES. Haven't heard it in years, but it was a common put-down by my Mother. WONKY was also a favorite of hers, maybe came from being raised in Canada by English parents?
Two pairs, 9's and 6's.
I believe that they only made 737s in a narrow body style. We fly them all the time in Alaska and I have never seen one with two aisles. They are typically partitioned of with cargo in front and passengers in the back but still only one aisle.
Tony Vita
Anchorage, AK
@Tony Vita - Sorry, I am having trouble understanding the point of your comment. The 737 does indeed have only one aisle, but the puzzle asks about the 767, which is a two aisle plane.
Sorry to have missed a PB yesterday. Down and out with a killer cold.
Had SECONDSplease as only write over before crosses made HELPING appear.
I never notice if a puz is a pandemic, but thought this one might be. Nixed by no x.
Nice debut puz Doug. Encore.
One pair. Oh, hold it, it's a flush!
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