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Dickens' scheming clerk / WED 9-17-14 / Original Veronica Mars airer / Literary hybrid / Drink made with Jameson / Gender-bending role for Barbra Streisand
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel and Don Gagliardo
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: POLLINATION (62: Job done by the insects seen above the circled words in 17-, 26- and 50-Across) — grid features three flowers (IRIS, ASTER, ROSE) and a "BEE" atop each one:
Theme answers:
- IRISH COFFEE (17A: Drink made with Jameson, maybe)
- YES, MASTER (26A: Genie's reply)
- PROSE POEM (50A: Literary hybrid)
Pogo is the title and central character of a long-running daily American comic strip, created by cartoonist Walt Kelly (1913–1973) and distributed by the Post-Hall Syndicate. Set in theOkefenokee Swamp of the southeastern United States, the strip often engaged in social and political satire through the adventures of its anthropomorphic funny animal characters.Pogo combined both sophisticated wit and slapstick physical comedy in a heady mix ofallegory, Irish poetry, literary whimsy, puns and wordplay, lushly detailed artwork and broadburlesque humor. The same series of strips can be enjoyed on different levels by both young children and savvy adults. The strip earned Kelly a Reuben Award in 1951. (wikipedia)
• • •
SWEET TALK was also the hardest thing for me to see. I did most of this puzzle at a Monday pace, but that NE corner held me up a bit because I couldn't see either of those long Downs for a bit. Had AMS (?) for 16A: Like early morning hours (WEE) (pro tip: when the clue clearly calls for an adjective, try an adjective). Never heard of Fort Donelson National Battlefield, so TENNESSEE had to come from crosses. Forgot there was a PETER Farrelly. And worst of all, had Mountain DEW *and* had never (ever) heard of "mountain ASH." I assume it's a … tree? Yes! "Mountain ash is a name used for several trees, none of immediate relation" (wikipedia). Useful! So there was a little struggle up there. The rest of the puzzle put up no resistance, except Miss ELLIE (51D: "Dallas" matriarch). She was a little ornery. Got her confused with a cow there for a bit (ELSIE).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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65 comments:
BEEs on top of flowers, got it, nice theme, but not a lot of it. Can't decide if that's a plus or minus. CAMBRIDGE fav entry. PROSEPOEM is new to me, what is it? A poem without meter, or one that doesn't rhyme, or both, or something else. Sure I could google it, but I'd rather check back here and learn.
OOO (3 mOOOns)
Very cute puzzled. Sued for SUES was the only do over.
Thought of you Rex as I touched in PROSEPOEM. Fill an English major would enjoy.
Greetings from a nondescript building near our Nation's capital.
Hey All!
Wow, I guess it was a late post from Rex. There's no comments!
Nice puz, it did have quite a bit of double-letter fill, however. I counted 23 answers with that! Even a triple! MMM. Like Rex, I was HOSED in the NE for a while, had ams for WEE, dew for ASH, and help for PLEA, so that corner took some time. Luckily thought of the Fort as a civil war place, so sussed out TN. Last section to fill.
Some writeovers, rEtypE for DELETE
whisky for COFFEE.
And what's up with ROLEO?? Are we making up words now? Are all outlier sports not (something)-EO? Is that like all political scandals- Gate?
RooMonster
DarrinV
Some poems are just satin ribbons on an empty box, while prose may gargle a brilliant thought. A prose poem lets its guests decide.
Factoid: EERO Saarinen is known for creating the "tulip" or "pedestal" chair, as well as the St. Louis Gateway Arch.
Quotoid: Life is like an onion. You PEEL it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep. -- Carl Sandburg
It felt easy for a Wednesday. Haven't thought about Ms. Eloise for a long time, so a nice wake up in the brain. I like how the BEEs hover above the circled flowers.
Interesting... (or not)... every B begins a down word (BALL, BRIDGE, BIRD). Would have liked some more difficult cluing. Never heard of ROLEO, but I like it, and a week or two a go there were a couple of ROADEOs. And I like HOSED smack dab in the middle, for some reason.
The BEEs buzzing around the hidden IRIS, ASTER and ROSE in the MEADOW are absolutely delightful ... making for this most charming puzzle!
Loved YESMASTER and SWEETTALK crossing each other.
Recently we've had EYESOCKET, EYELID and today EYEBALL ... yesterday EYED.
This reminds of Loren and Jeff's SNAKESONAPLANE puzzle only the BEEs aren't as scary as the ASPs!
Beautifully done, Zhouqin and Don ... sweet!
What a fun Wednesday...nice long downs, pretty flowers, and BEEs buzzing. Never noticed the BEEs until I got to the POLLINATION reveal. Clever!
Liked it. Played medium for us probably because I wrote CAMBRIDGE in the wrong space (34d) and 4 of the letters were still correct! Hence it took a little while to straighten that out.
We couldn't remember Miss ELLIE for the longest time, and thought it should be rolleo, not ROLEO.
@Rex - When you're late we're good with a "Dog ate . . ." type of excuse. No need to elaborate.
The WAG / AFTA / POGO got me snagged enough to start thinking how I'd re-write the SE. Maybe slam some pogs in there instead ;)
@Mohair Sam, I think @Rex was bragging, not apologizing!
As for ROLEO - most Google hits are for a massage machine, but you do get a redirection to the Wikipedia entry for log-rolling. Don't think anyone really calls it that, except maybe on TV. When I was young (I've seen it, not done it!) we called it birling.
I liked the puzzle except for the partials. I actually wanted Mountain top at first. And bed of RICE? Is that comfortable, or some kind of therapeutic thing? Or something other food is served on, like tekka-don? Fortunately, neither roses nor nails would fit.
@Lewis, not to mention the TWA terminal at JFK, maybe EERO's best-known work.
My only real problem, though, is that the last BEE is nestled inside of another insect. Wasps do that, but not bees.
This was a charming Wednesday solve - seems I could do no wrong. Even the names I didn't know were filled in easily by the crosses. And I even knew Mountain ASH - proving once again, that with the right assortment of clues, I can feel quite brilliant!
Appreciated the BEE theme, esp. as the Summer comes to a close and I have begun to transition the garden annuals from warm weather plantings to Fall mums, kale and pansies. There are still plenty of POLLINATors buzzing around the yard despite the cooler temps. this week in the mid-Atlantic.
Best of all, I treated the puzz. as an homage to the late, great Joan Rivers, whose fashion and marketing acumen brought in over a billion dollars in sales at QVC over 24+ years. My favorite jewelry creation of hers was the bumbleBEE pin. She always related the reason for its creation: aerodynamically, the creature should not be able to fly, but it overcomes all obstacles and takes to the sky anyhow. Moral of the story: mind over matter should be our mantra in this life. RIP, Joan.
Thanks, ZB, DG and WS
Ugh. That big fat BEETLE atop the ROSE spoiled the bouquet for me. Had to bring in my Tunnel Vision-o-lator to tune out the BEET and the BEENE also. Quite a vegetative olio of a centerpiece!
Good theme entries and long fill, but I was RE-REDOSED over and over with ATE, AFTA, EDA (classic horror story writer), EERO, ENT, ESO, MMM (!), NEE, OKED (again), OLE, SNEE, SSE, and STP. It was almost to LOL, if done on porpoise, but taken straight, made this a bit of ECCE ORDEAL.
Liked the BEEF TERI, disappointed no YAKI.
Oh well. HE LOTS, she wives.
I'm off to the salt mines.
Yes, charming puzzle. Maybe a little easy for a Wednesday?
I could hear Barbara Eden's voice at "Yes Master".
Nice, restaurant week. Enjoy!
What sort of raging misogony went into the clue for 52D, and who's responsible for that offense? When you're in the midst of a sexual encounter, have been a gentleman and dutifully prepared your partner for the actual sex act, you never, I repeat, never refer to the woman as a turkey.
People are up in arms about the NFL, what about the crossword puzzle cartel?
Oh, and I heard somewhere that John Donne was a famous PROSEPOEM author.
Batter my heart, three-personed Guy!!!
Batter, dip in EGG, and deep-frEYE.
Maybe I'm still just a WEE bit grumpy over the Tigers losing last night (WHY ARE YOU DIVING!?!?!?!), but this didn't do it for me. It seemed like Old Crosswordese Morning to me. We've got our SNEE and our HEEP and our EERO and our NEE and our STP and our UPN and our EDA and our EEL hiding is Mrs. PEEL and our ESL and our HELOT and our EERIE and our DSL and then, for novelty's sake, we get REDOSE.
I will admit that the BEEs hovering over the flowers is cute, and the longish downs are good. And if Carrera had let that fall for a single rather than try to be a hero and cost us a game I'd probably like this puzzle fine and I would have barely noticed the dreck. Not that I'm bitter....
A PROSE POEM looks like a paragraph and is a poem only because the writer says it is. The form was popular in the '60s and '70s. As an English teacher, I found it a useful way to get kids to write short, intense reflections -- what might in other years been called journal entries. One doesn't see the oxymoronic term much anymore. ROLEO (a log-rolling contest, perhaps along with other woodsmen's skills) is often in xwords, notably the syndicated one in the Boston Globe.
So Is this a puzzle for ME?? My friends call me Queen Bee. I solo wanted beet to appear .
A fun puzzle . Didn't get 41 across....but now I do.
@Z -- don't fret, you still owe Nathan $16mil next year! (Need any more ex-Ranger relievers?)
Very fast Wednesday, but enjoyable. I have heard of "ROLEO's" before, back in the old days of only 3 TV networks, they use to show "woodsman" competitions on Wide World of Sports" some Saturday afternoons. They called those "Roleo's."
A SWEET theme. I liked the idea of "ECCE! - there are BEEs over those flowers." And the stately ASH and ELM joining the smaller flora and the MEADOW.
Like @Z, I had similar thoughts about the HEEP of crossword creakers; when I got to HELOT, I wondered if we'd also see an esne. But in the end, I went with MMM - the theme answers and longer Downs are just so good.
Interesting array of comments this morning for the puzzle from C.C. (her nickname elsewhere) and Don G., who I understand co-constructed this puzzle 2 years ago. Mountain ASH was a gimme for this city person in exile, since our first-tier suburban neighborhood was full of these beautiful but fragile trees when we moved in some 25 years ago, but they have all since succumbed.
First attempt at a rewrite! I'd change the SE to:
LOST -> LOKI
SNEE -> KNEE
AFTA -> ASIA
FORAY -> SPRAY
WAG -> WAR
OKED -> EKED
POGO -> PERP
..becomes much easier this way, though. POGO was tough because of the clue, and AFTA just stumped me.
Similar reaction to @Z's (although not with any anguish about the Tigers). The theme's cute, but the overall puzzle just wasn't that engaging for me. I'M EASY, EYEBALL and SWEET TALK were nice, but otherwise nothing really sang, and there was an excess of crosswordese. Firmly middling.
I thought POGO was clued perfectly. Liked about everything else everybody else did. This was an easy solve, but I'll bet it was hard to construct with the BEES over the flowers.
Downright bucolic! I hope there's some honey in the offing! 46 E's!
In yesterday's puzzle, I commented on the number of O's in the construction. @Anonymous 8:53am said something along the lines of "You should check out the NYT puzzle of June 19, 2012 by Steve Riley: it had nothing but O's -- 69 of them."
I did that puzzle yesterday afternoon and enjoyed it (it was also fun to read The Rexster's write-up of that puzzle).
Question for the group: are there other recent (5 years) NYT puzzles that have been constructed using only one vowel?
My favorite vowel is E and I counted 43 of them last night because I was bored waiting up for @Rex....
Well I guess I'd call this another cheek pincher. Cute about sums it up for me.
Anyone who has ever had a good IRISH COFFEE probably remembers where they drank it. My first time...in London...I was 20, by myself, staying in a boutique hotel off of Kensington. I had just finished lunch and my waiter (dressed to the nines) asked me if I wanted an IRISH. He was all show and very flamboyant as he poured the thick cream over an inverted spoon into a glass of coffee. I might have ordered several more just to see him fuss over me.
I'd say YENTL was my favorite word here. I just saw Barbra the other night on Jimmy Fallon. She's da bomb....Still has those fantastic pipes!
It's BEENE fun!
Oh, COME ON. The center of this puzzle was nonsense. And HELOTS? SNEE?
Also, suffers from trying to be too clever with the cluing.
@Whirrly Wackster
Check out xwordinfo.com to answer all your questions! It has a very large selection of NYT's from a long time ago. It's also broke down into various types of puzzles. Worth the price of admition, I think.
RooMonster
Loved this Wednesday one...very sweet and girly. I too didn't see the bees until POLLINATION. I got a kick out of MMM. PROSEPOEM and FORAY pleased me and SWEETTALK was the bomb!
Rudolph, the REDOSE reindeer
Had an EERIE ROLEO,
And if you EERO PREEN him,
You would ECCE SSE DEFOE.
All of the OKED reindeer
LOL-ed and called him ELOISE,
They NEE WEE let OLE Rudolph
Enjoy a really healthy SNEE's.
It was AFTA Christmas, STEEPED,
That Rudolph came to SHEET.
Too much IRISH COFFEE will
Make the YENTL's nose [DELETE].
Then all the reindeer loved him,
SWEET TALKed him in TENNESSEE,
Rudolph the REDOSED reindeer,
Got his worth from "I'M EASY!"
@jberg - Oh, I'm sure you're right there. Rex is not often late, but when he is we often get an excuse that involves a little bragging. I'm more curious about the days when he's late and makes no "oops" comment at all.
I guess I'm the only one who really wanted YourubbEd? for YESMASTER. Of course, crosses ended that idea in short order...
Hand up for not liking REDOSE. I had a whold lotta blank space in the NE for the longest time. Needed crosses to decide ENT or orc. Finally chucked one in and then then other to see if my eye could make out anything useful. That worked to allow me to finish up this fun puzzle.
Loved 17A. IRISH COFFEE is the drink of choce at our house in the winter though we use Bushmills. I'm from the Bay Area which claims to be the originator of IRISH COFFEE. I know of several bars that claim that distinction. My favorite is a place down by the bay in Berkeley, Brennen's where they always top theirs with freshly made whipped cream, as do we.
PROSE POEM is most assuredly a thing. some of the earliest proponents were Baudelaire and Rimbaud. It migrated around the European languages and eventually arrived in America where even Poe took it up. It is still enjoying a degree of popularity with magazines and journals devoted to the art.
Yep, a real cheek-tweaker of a theme. All it might have lacked was a bonnet to hide in. Or is that asking too much? I had mountain Air before ASH. I'm not much of a soda drinker especially not Mountain Dew. but I used to enjoy the mountain air in the Sierra Nevada when I was a boy. BTW, if you miss the real Coca Cola, find the ones imported from Mexico, they're made with sugar and taste the way Coke used to before HFCS.
We serve stir-fry and a variety of crock pot dishes on a bed of RICE. Now I'm looking forward to dinner.
Fun puzzle CC and DG!
@ Numinous
I've been to the "Buena Vista" in Fisherman's Wharf a few times -- they claim to have had the first Irish Coffee. They ARE good!
@Alias Z: Brilliant!
Shannon Airport. Served to a bunch of cold tired Americans. Buena Vista lays claims to bringing it to the USofA.
Easy for me too. Only erasure was eSE to SSE.
Arcane rock and roll trivia alert: The intro to Fun Fun Fun was borrowed from Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode which Berry borrowed from Louis Jordan's "Ain't That Just Like a Woman". It also shows up on Berry's Roll Over Beethoven which The Beatles covered.
Clever and fun and a bit BEQesque. The BEEs were a nice touch. Liked it!
The "Buena Vista" also has a killer Ramos Gin Fizz which started the brunch then ended with a perfect Irish Coffee. Aaaah the memories.
I concur! (See? This goes out to the Anonymeece who called out AliasZ for plagerism. Told you he was creative!)
RooMonster
Cute theme idea. Especially liked them havin the editor pollinate the rose, in 5-Across.
Nothing long in the Across fill except yer 4 themers. This means we will either be treated to some long Down fill, or there will be 84 words in the grid.
And here's my thUmbsUp moment: Not only do we get the long Down fill, we get double-stacked 9-ers. Now we're talkin. This opens the door wide for some great weejects to fly in.
fave weejects:
* MMM. There is something extra-satisfyin about the triple-letter weeject that can also be a R.R.N.
* ENT. Gigantic tree trained to treat sinus disorders.
* EDA. I am moved here to wonder, about the collection of vowel+consonant+vowel weejects. What percentage of them are acceptable crossword fill? Gotta be pretty high, if EDA can get in. I'd hafta say 74.9%.
* ESL. Creative abbreviation. More, please. It's time for the crossword committee to approve RRN. Also SBD. Loosen up. Let the desperation shine down upon us.
BEE good,
M&A
Extremely easy(you already know that).
Creative positioning of BEE.
Thought maybe Aunt Bee would make an appearance until I saw theme.
CrosswordEASE--- helot,Eda, snee.
Should have been a Monday.
Thanks ZB and DG.
@Roomonster
Thanks for the lead. Looks like a treasure-house of info.
Here is a lovely piece titled Papillon, Op. 77 by Gabriel FORAY, perfect for our POLLINATION theme today.
As you were.
Jameson is a fine Irish whiskey, but, like @Numinous, I prefer Old Bushmills.
When I was bartending in the 70's (grad school) in Knoxville, TENNESSEE, I would fortify myself for the Friday afternoon happy hour stampede with a large cup of IRISH COFFEE made with a shot of Bushmills, a shot of Tia Maria, and a splash of cream. Then I was ready to sling some drinks.
@AliZ
lol, TENNEZZEE!
People, if you have nothing snarky to say, don't say anything at all.
I made the Mountain Dew mistake too, but corrected when I remembered that the tree in my backyard which we call a dogberry is sometimes called a mountain ash.
Am I the only one who starts singing Mr Bean's theme music when I see ECCE? (Ecce homo qui est farbo, if I recall correctly).
Check out Slim Harpo "I'm a King Bee"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLvm11MAaM
I remember the heyday of Irish Coffee in San Francisco in the sixties. The bartender at the Buena Vista Cafe would set up about 30 of the tulip glasses on the rear tray of the bar and then fill them up assembly-line style. A sugar cube, coffee, a shot of Irish whisky, a spoonful of whipped cream. I'm pretty sure they didn't use good stuff like Jamesons or Bushmills.
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 8:57, 9:30, 0.94, 37%, Easy-Medium
Top 100 solvers
Wed 6:08, 6:08, 1.00, 49%, Medium
@Ludyjynn: thanks for the Joan Rivers/bee story.
I thought the theme was cute, but I was surprised there weren't more theme answers. Seemed to be a Monday-level puzzle to me.
As a beekeeper, I love to talk bees. This year looks to be a good year for honey; we need to make sure that we keep enough for ourselves & don't gift it all away!
About this time each year, I educate people on how ragweed is largely responsible for their allergies, NOT goldenrod.
Here's a paragraph taken from Wikipedia: "Goldenrod is often unfairly blamed for causing hay fever in humans. The pollen causing these allergy problems is mainly produced by ragweed (Ambrosia sp.), blooming at the same time as the goldenrod, but is wind-pollinated. Goldenrod pollen is too heavy and sticky to be blown far from the flowers, and is thus mainly pollinated by insects."
@JenCT - The BEE is sacred to Athena.
ALso had "dew" before ASH, and "ams" before WEE. Otherwise, easy for Wednesday.
Amen to the Buena Vista. One of the great brekky places in The City. Two others imho are Sears off Union Square & Cafe For All Seasons in The Sunset. Absolutely knock out quality at all three, tho I'm partial to Sears for their great dollar-size pancakes.
Best,
john
@john towel: Cafe For All Season is now Trattoria Vittorio, a good Italian restaurant, not open for breakfast. I haven't been to the Buena Vista for years.
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 6:03, 6:03, 1.00, 49%, Medium
Tue 7:06, 7:50, 0.91, 22%, Easy-Medium
Wed 8:54, 9:30, 0.94, 35%, Easy-Medium
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:48, 3:57, 0.96, 24%, Easy-Medium
Tue 4:50, 5:21, 0.90, 15%, Easy
Wed 6:01, 6:08, 0.98, 43%, Medium
@john towle and @mathguy: Buena Vista is the only reason to ever go anywhere near Fisherman's Wharf. They still have the long line of glasses ready to go for Irish coffees.
For breakfast, my first choice remains Brenda's French Soul Food. Best southern breakfast you'll find outside the South.
Very easy and quickly done. But I must say it took a lot of thought and planning on the constructor's part so I give this one an A+
Thanks Mr. Burnikel.
Ron Diego, La Mesa, CA
Foursquare with OFL on this one; the NE--and for a while, the center--put up enough resistance to move it into "easy-medium" territory for me.
I liked the BEEs buzzing above the themers. Though it is relatively sparse, the theme with attendant POLLINATors is fairly restrictive IMO, so I thought they did a pretty good job on the fill. I'll give it a...wait for it...BEE+!
10364. I've been HOSED.
Cute puzzle, though I originally looked for the revealer to have something to do with honey! Got slowed down in the center, wanting SEndTO, but eventually it all worked out when I finally put HOSED where HOaxED wouldn't fit. A Wednesday this easy puts me in fear of the rest of the week....
Several unreadable Captchas, and then 3006!
I was sure "poker ploy" would be bluff but it ISNT. It's always nice to see a reference to one of my dogs in the grid, today the yellow lab ELLIE was the featured pet. Fairpoint Communication workers are on strike here in New England; since I get my DSL through them I'm hoping for an early settlement before service disruptions start.
At first glance I thought I had 6003but closer inspection revealed the first digit to be an 8 - bummer.
BEEs are in trouble in North America and there has to bee a solution or our crops won't have necessary POLLINATION and we'll all be HOSED.
IRISHCOFFEE is a treat at the Buena Vista in San Francisco where it was invented. I bet there were a few consumed last night during the opening game of the World Series.
Loved seeing TERI Hatcher (a bay area girl). Given the chance, I would EYEBALL and SWEETTALK her and tell her IMEASY.
166 - bah.
Woohoo!! Beezed through!
Came out smellin like a rose!
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