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Old frozen dinner brand / SUN 7-19-15 / Rodin sculpture of couple / Physics particles named after Jame Joyce coinage / Staple of fur trade in 1700s-1800sOhio senagtor who was one of JFK's eight Profiles in Courage
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Constructor: Tom McCoy
Relative difficulty: Too hard
THEME: Abbreviate one word in each theme entry and see what happens
Word of the Day:
PAULIE -- Paulie is a 1998 Germany/American adventure fantasy film about a disobedient bird named Paulie, starring Tony Shalhoub, Gena Rowlands, Hallie Eisenberg, and Jay Mohr. Mohr performs the voice of Paulie and also plays a minor on-screen character.
• • •
Matt Gaffney here, filling for Rex this week. Apologies right off the bat for the late post; despite Rex checking in with me yesterday, I still managed to forget that my blogging duties began today. But we're rolling now and I'll be punctual with my posts for the rest of the week. But note that I've run into some technical difficulties, too -- Blogger isn't letting me overwrite Rex's original post for some reason, so we've got two posts today. We'll try to merge them at some point. I'm the worst substitute crossword blogger in recorded history thus far.
Theme answers:
- FIRST PERSON SING (23A: "Belt it out, Adam!"?)
- DON'T GIVE AN IN (38A: "I forbid you from providing special access"?)
- POP DENSITY (42A: Your father's blockheadedneses?)
- TURN OF THE CENT (66A: Coin flip with a penny?)
- APT COMPLEX (92A: Emotional problem that is surprisingly fitting?)
- CUT QUITE A FIG (94A: Prepared some amazing Mediterranean fruit?)
- LOOK OUT FOR NO ONE (112A: Do a bad job as a watchman?)
- Too subtle for me -- I had to read another crossword blog to understand the theme. Not a good sign! You abbreviate one word in each entry and wackiness ensues, it turns out.
- Is "cent." the right abbr. for "century"? I think of "cen." or just "c." for that. The others make sense in retrospect, but the theme entries weren't very entertaining and the frustration of not grokking what was going on made for a rather joyless solve.
- The fill sported a lot of nice multiword entries: AND SUCH, TAKE TWO, NAME ONE!, SNEAK OUT, TOO TRUE, PINCH HIT, FAR LEFT, AM I LATE? HANG IN THERE balanced symmetrically by I'M OUTTA HERE, PREY ON, and ALL IS LOST.
- I do letter grades when I PINCH HIT for Rex, and this one gets a C-. Theme didn't do it for me. The constructor is very talented, though -- he won my Crossword of the Month for another Times puzzle last November.
PS Rex's ultra-brief post from earlier in the a.m. is HERE.
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68 comments:
What's goin' on here, blog-wise? All the comments made so far, including mine, have vanished into thin air! Where ARE they?
Welcome @ Matt Gaffney. Always good when you sub for @Rex. This truly was meh. I'm not so sure I get it yet. As you stated, there was some good fill. Despite what lies ahead, I'm sure I'll enjoy your posts this week.
This was an annoying bear of a Sunday. It took forever because the theme just seemed bizarre to me. I thought we were shortening the last word, but that doesn't seem to work for APTCOMPLEX or LOOKOUTFORNOONE. I guess I've missed the point and I'm not clearer after reading Matt's write up.
Nancy -- sorry, technical difficulties here today. Rex's original post is still on the blog below mine; for some reason Blogger isn't letting me overwrite Rex's post. But we'll figure it out.
I guess I am in the loyal opposition today. Loved the theme. Forty five minutes of fun.
But, I still don't see LOOKOUTFORNOONE. as part of the theme.
A full grade higher than Mr. Gafney: B+
I liked this one alot, and give it an A. I had a bit of difficulty with 65 down, I first had "out of here "instead of "I'm outta here" which screwed me up a little. No is short for number...
I liked this one alot, and give it an A. I had a bit of difficulty with 65 down, I first had "out of here "instead of "I'm outta here" which screwed me up a little. No is short for number...
Joyless, but finally got "look out for no one" - "look out for number one."
I tend to read the paper before I work the puzzle so the amazing disappearance put's me at an unprecedented high part in the list! I had a DNF due to my inability to see APTCOMPLEX because I had a confident TEST and FITS so that area was hopelessly goobered and I gave up because NTUPLE...um...not a word in my personal brain dictionary.
Yes, too hard for me but I liked the challenge and it seems there were a few well placed clue/answers that could get you off the track, ie I had Wrangler JEAN, then it took me awhile to see the PREY versus PRAY...the old domino FUBAR effect. Enjoyably frustrating in my opinion.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that, when it comes to "Lord of the Rings", variants of elf are not used as the characters are Elves not Elfs. One wouldn't refer to the characters as "elfin" but "Elven". That screwed me up for awhile in the SW.
Liked the symmetry of HANGINTHERE and IMOUTTAHERE.
Don't like that some of the wacky phrases are not interesting phrases.
And I still don't know how to un-abbreviate the last one... LOOKOUTFORNOONE?
Started out promising...the clue and answer for FIRSTPERSONSING.
But it's a beautiful day here on Cape Cod Bay, so I'll be otherwise occupied today!
Or SE, rather. Not enough coffee yet.
I give it a B+, but I am a uselessy easy grader.
I had an unsatisfying number of crossouts including ANDSoon instead of ANDSUCH and NTabLE instead of NTUPLE, whatever that is, but the worst was "JEan" instead of "JEEP." Don't tell the guys in the Jeep Wrangler Forum, whatever you do; I would never live it down.
@Jim Walker: LOOKOUTFORNOONE is thematic in that "NO" is short for "number," as in "look out for number one."
Or as the Deadheads like to say, "We can share what we got of yours."
Thanks @KenW...
holy inconsistency, batman!
Nope too obscure to enjoy but slogged on to finish
Hey All !
Quite a mixed feeling on this one. Some themers good, some made no sense. LOOK OUT FOR NO ONE... short for ??. APT COMPLEX, hmm, short for Apartment Complex? Odd. POP DENSITY, POPulation DENSITY, I presume? The good ones were FIRST PERSON SING(ular), DON'T GIVE AN IN(ch), TURN OF THE CENT(ury). The CUT QUITE A FIG(ure?) seemed iffish also. Another thing (I sound like a complainer, eh?) is way too many OUT answers. IM OUTTA HERE, SNEAK OUT, LOOK OUT, THIN OUT, themer LOOK OUT. Helps M&A's U count, but inelegant. Also three UPs, two crossing! TUNING UP, TRUSS UP, STEPS UP. Had I submitted this, it would have been a big fat UP and OUT no. Just sayin.
JANE ROE a non-thing, it's JANE DOE. SIDE ON as like a profile picture? Huh? SIDE ON?? Maybe SIDE view... Never know if it's LYS or LIS. We have OTT cuddled up to OTTER. There are a lot of good answers in here, just too much oddness to overlook. Nice to see ARAL SEA in full. HARRUMPHS nice (thought it was one R), BITTERER wonky.
One writeover (two technically, if you cpunt JANE R(?)OE), had dunG for the beetle til almost the end.
After all that complaining, you'd think I didn't like this puz. But it was actually ok. Just, off. Filled in steadily, SW, NW, NE, SE. To end on a light note, does Pepe LePew order from LE MENU?
PSHAW
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm still trying to figure this "beaut" out... am not enjoying it.
@GPO... Me too for JEan!
This spring I was in St. Nectaire, France. A JEEP convention descended on the tiny town...they would NOT have appreciated that mistake...!
@roo monster. Ever hear of Roe vs. Wade?
@roo, See (Jane) Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court decision of 1973.
@Roo, think Roe v. Wade
@Ludy, hahaha!
Some of us are leaving comments after the second Gaffney post. Very confusing!
It looks like I was the last of 30 folks to comment after that second Gaffney post. Oh well.
Hi, @Hartley!
(Note - I'm referring to people, like myself, who have posts below.)
This played easy medium for me, and like @Carola, I enjoyed the out-of-the-ordinary theme.
@NCA President –two-word entries please me. Go figure, huh? But did you notice the four OUTs – I'M OUTTA HERE, THIN OUT, LOOK OUT, SNEAK OUT?
As usual, I put in dung before STAG. Heads-up – clip may not pass some people's breakfast test. Late "coprophage" yesterday ties in with this, too.
How bout POLO, NO-NO, SO SO and their eye-rhyme, DO TO?
And am I the only one who put in "jean" for JEEP first?
@Lewis, @Billy C – PLOW – it drives through the driven snow? That's what I thought, too. ( Also – Right after I switched from a true keyboard on my phone to touch-screen texting, my daughter texted me that she was gonna watch a movie at a friend's and would be home by 11pm. I texted back what I thought was "okie dokie," but what she received was simply the word PLOW. I hadn't even known I had been auto-corrected.)
Really liked the clue for GATE. How cool that part of a proper noun has become a full-fledged affix in our language? I bet there are more examples, but the only other affix I can think of that comes from a proper noun is Mc – McJob, McMansion…
This is a little different from taking an existing suffix tacking it on everywhere: Despite the deplorgasm that so many experience while solving puzzles, this solvaholic finds most themes screwylicious. Whatever the redirected affix, I'm a lexichangeaphile, to be sure. @Lewis, some people become bitterer and bitterer at our ever-morphing language, but I've never met an adjective I wouldn't tack an ER on the end of. David Sedaris does it here:
The Deavers' errant pit bull, Cass,
Bit the postman on the ass.
Her lower teeth destroyed his sphincter,
Now his walk's a bit distincter.
HEINOUS is a great word. Again, I give you David Sedaris: (Another ick-factor heads-up here)
Each night, old Bowser licks his balls,
Then falls asleep till nature calls.
He poops a stool, then, though it's heinous,
Bends back down and licks his anus.
AMILATE looks like a verb. Wait! Don't fold in those egg whites! I haven't amilated them yet!
I bet coming up with themers was tough. I played around with a similar theme once, using state abbreviations (GASPED, AL) but got nowhere fast. That's why Tom has had ntuple NYT puzzles and I haven't.
There are probably other entries in today's grid that, if you squint your eyes, could work as themers -
"Government annoyances?" ADM IRES.
"IVF, Braxton Hicks, APGAR?" OB ESE
As @jae puts it: liked it.
This was hard for me, too, and it took forever to figure out the theme even after I completed the puzzle. Finally got it with APT. COMPLEX.
Clever idea but the themer phrases are less than stellar and the abbreviations iffy. Didn't like the repetition in the fill, such as steps UP and truss UP, and still don't understand how DEUCE comes between ads.
Favorite themer: CUT QUITE A FIG.
Least favorite answer: NTUPLE
ROE v Wade, hmm, sounds familiar... :-)
Always thought (or apparently never knew) that ROE was a real name, not an anonymous. Thanks to all for the slap upside the head. Now where's my 1974 Encyclopedia!
I was trying to sub for Rex (not really :-)) on my rant post. Still left an odd taste in the mouth, as it were.
Just noticed DEMOTED above EMOTE.
RUE, RooMonster
Everyone give @Roo a bit of a break! The designation Jane Roe is not usually used and in that case I believe she was not Doe was to prevent confusion in the affiliated Doe v. Bolton case. Usually the reference is to John and Jane Doe. With that said, I liked the answer/clue simply because it was a bit of an outlier.
I found myself thinking very Rexically about the theme on this one.
I kept thinking there should have been something more to the theme--or at least something that worked consistently for all the theme answers: Abbreviation in the last word? Usually, but not always. Real abbreviation or just truncated version of a word in the familiar phrase? Usually, but not always. Abbreviation of the most important word in the familiar phrase? Usually, but not always.
This is one of those rare occasions that the comments here mirror the comments on Wordplay, equally divided between love and hate. So the constructor deserves some credit for that, not an easy task.
I might have enjoyed it more had I realized that the first two theme entries were abbreviations instead of truncated words. I suspect I am not alone and this misdirection might account for a lot of the displeasure.
But I really get tired of these themes that WS seems to enjoy so much on Sunday. Unfunny puns are even worse than corny puns. And the fill did not make up for it. Good fill ordinary and a lot of repeats, so overall the fill was less than stellar. I kept wanting to find out who NOONE was so I could learn why nobody wanted to look out for him but Google didn't help....
JFC
har. Too Day-um Easy, Amilate Gaffneymeister!
Got the theme semi-immediately, off FIRSTPERSONSING. Clever. Boundless possibilities. Two bad only
7 themers would fit. Shoulda made it a 31x31 grid, and cram in some more stuff. Might even squeeze in NONORAIN, then.
Just one themer sample, from the 31x31 version …
* NOTANOZOFFAT = {The Wiz stays in primo shape?}
A little under par, ISAO? M&A'll try one more, then …
* SECOFDEFENSE = {Amount of ping-pong resistance M&A could offer The Shortzmeister?}
*** 17 U's! ***
OOO! YESYES!
NAAN NAAN NAAN NAAN, NAAN NAAN NAAN NAAN, NAAN NAAN NAAN NAAN, GOO-OODBYE!
M&A
** Krozel-esque gruntz **
Heads up y'all, because appended to Rex's short review are a bunch of comments, among them a great Matt Esquared episode from @'mericans in Paris.
I didn't consult Dr. Google until I had filled in every square. Then I just had to find out if NTUPLE is a Thing. Turns out it is, and some math guys are very fond of tuples.
This is a puzzle I like much better now than I did while I was solving it, because I had no idea that some of the abbreviations were in the middle, not the end. I solved it by just plugging ahead until it was done. The SE was last, and (for me) the hardest corner. I wanted "bellies" for CENTRES. Figuring that out gave me AMARANTH and I was done.
So I'll give this a B+
p.s.
Note how M&A dast not bring up this themer for a vote…
* M&AANDPAKETTLE. Sounds like an Inquirer headline. False, of course.
Did I mention 17 U's?!! Paradisiacal, dude.
M&A
I might as well discuss Doe and Roe. In the olden days in England, John Doe was constantly suing Richard Roe. Roe would reply that it was really PAULIE plaintiff who was at fault, and Mr. Plaintiff would then countersue Danny Defendant. At which point, Doe and Roe dropped out of the case, which now became Plaintiff v. Defendant.
At least that's how I think it worked. The whole idea was to get the case out of the Court of Common Pleas and into the Court of Kings Bench. Common Pleas dealt with contracts and debt collection, while Kings Bench dealt with crimes and torts.
"John Doe" is used in California and many states to denote a defendant whose identity is not known. For instance Plaintiff sues Defendant, the driver of the car who ran him down. Plaintiff then asks Defendant, "were you employed when your car hit me? If Defendant says, "yes, I was on an errand for my company, Gotbux, Inc." then Plaintiff amends his complaint to substitute Gogbox for Doe 1, and looks forward to a much bigger payday. "Jane Doe" is most commonly used as the name of the victim of a sexual assault -- the defendant knows Doe's real name, of course, as do the judge and D.A., but the jury, usually, is not told her name, and she is referred to simply as "Jane Doe".
You occasionally do see "Richard Roe", and, yes, one of the plaintiffs in Roe v. Wade was referred to as "Roe" so her true name would be kept out of the news reports.
Lord, today had me nuts too! No fun Sunday!
This was a long slog but I enjoyed it. Had to come here to learn how LOOK OUT FOR NO ONE fit in.
Mostly easy for me, the exception being the PAULIE, APT COMPLEX, N TUPLE, FIES...area. Didn't know the movie, was iffy about the flower, had @Indypuzzler FIts and TEsT before FIES and TEXT...so a fair amount of staring occurred.
Add me to JEan before JEEP.
And, it also took a while for me to see the abbrev. thing.
So, solid if unremarkable Sun. I'm adding my liked it to @lms.
Since I figured it was just dropping the ending, I assumed LOOK OUT FOR NO ONE else; eventually I realized there were interior changes so it all worked out. I was genuinely surprised that JFK would be admiring of TAFT, until I remembered that McCarthy was a family friend & JFK lacked the "courage" to ever come out against him; another example of how we forget the frailties of the dead. De mortuus nihil nisi bonum. I liked this one, as I have liked the work of the real McCoy in the past.
"Look out for no. (number) one".
No joy in this random truncations. I'll be on the LOOKOUT for Tom McCoy's next CONTRIBU.
This one was unique for me - solving fine and then grinding to a halt. I agree with all comments - love and hate. This one was eating up time like no other - and the "leave it and come back later" strategy did help somewhat. But I was totally stymied at the 88D flower and APT COMPLEX. It was a DNF right around there.
Interestingly, I am a 98A - deaf person who uses speech and lipreading (and two cochlear implants!) Just click on my name or Google me for more fun stuff.
To read the preponderance of the comments that occurred prior to 11 a.m. or so, click on Matt Gaffney's last paragraph, appearing after his signature, that says: "P.S. For earlier comments from Rex's brief comments, click HERE." These are comments filled with pearly words of wisdom (including mine) that you would be deeply distressed to miss. :)
Been reading Rex for a while now, and I'm surprised how many people didn't like this one. I was well on my way to a DNF until I got the theme, which I liked a lot! The wackiness is creative, not just a series of tired puns. Great stuff. Just in case anyone's still confused: POP/population density; FIRST PERSON SING/singular; DON'T GIVE AN IN/inch; TURN OF THE CENT/century; APT/apartment COMPLEX; CUT QUITE A FIG/figure; LOOK OUT FOR NO/number ONE.
@old timer
Thanks for the advertisement! My original posting of the Matt Esquare episode was unusually long, so I won't take up more space reposting it here.
So, if anybody wants to read it, click on the link at the end of Matt Gaffney's posting. It starts at 11:18 AM.
I didn't suss the theme as well. It took me a full 15 minutes longer than normal and I had to cheat to do that! That leads to a big thumbs down for me.
@Joseph Michael (12:12): Think tennis: Ad in, DEUCE, Ad out. Or vice versa.
How cool is this? Two reviews, one by @Rex and one by @Matt, and two sets of comments. Now if the positive comments were directed to one and the negative ones to the other, all disagreement would go away. What a dire outlook!
Been gone all day so late to the party.
This was harder than usual for me because the abbreviated words jumped around in the theme answers.
My funniest initial mistake: I thought ISAO was aSAO and guessed at STAr so ended up with CUTQUITEAFar and said, "that can't be right..."
I wish the theme answers were funnier but this is a clever concept and definitely different so I end up in the "like" column.
Still kinda scratching our heads about the theme, I think, kinda. But we finished it with medium difficulty (guessing the U cross in PAULIE and the unknown math phrase) while peeking often at a thoroughly enjoyable British Open (ISAO a gimme in this house).
Profiles in Courage. Still chuckle how Ted Kennedy attacked Gerald Ford for pardoning Nixon during the '76 campaign, helping win the election for Carter. Then Ted handed Ford the Kennedy family Profile in Courage award 25 years later for that very same pardon. Politics.
@M&A, must be the sUN at the beach that has diminished my coUNting ability today becaUse It took me a while to find the 17 visible U's, bUt U didn't coUnt the five U's that were left oUt by the abbreviations which would have made it 22.
LOKOUTFORNOONE as the shortened form
of look out for number one does not
follow the format of the other answers where letters were left off of common
phrases.
Example:TURN OF THE CENTURY. Remove
URY to get TURN OF THE CENT.
Plural of "sternum" is either "sterni" (if masculine noun) or "sternae" (if feminine)
If masc: sternus, sterni
If fem: sterna, sternae
If NEUT: sternum,sterna
As it happens....
@ANON B, the format isn't just a matter of leaving letters off; it's a question of substituting a word's actual abbreviation. Just as the abbrev for 'apartment' is APT, the abbrev for 'number' is No.
M&A gave another good example in a phrase where he substituted OZ for 'ounce'.
i liked it a lot. Having the theme not be completely mechanical made it more interesting figure out the answers. That's a *good* thing, folks. :D
Found several clever clues, for PLOW, TUNINGUP, DEUCE, and RUNE. And i liked the first and last theme answers a lot.
Excellent review Matt. Concise and spot-on.
I gave this one a D+ ... but I can live with your C-.
Really late to comment today even though I did the puzzle QUITE early. I couldn't tell you if it was easy or hard because I was solving in AcrossLite on a non--internet-connected dock in WI with a Rottweiler puppy jumping on me at any given moment. Relatively distracted.
Got the first themer at POP DENSITY. Hmmm, LOPped off 'ulation'. Next up (had to change 1D from SorT to SIFT to get FIRST), hmmm, LOPped off 'ular' from SINGular. So now I'm seeing a pattern - cut the word off before the "U" (and I'm thinking @Aketi was on my wavelength also). I get to DON'T GIVE AN IN and I'm thinking, "Outlier, this won't go well with the blog crowd or @Rex."
CUT QUITE A FIG, it is LOPped after the U, TURN OF THE CENT, again LOPped off at the U. I'm explaining to the puppy's owner how ticked people will be with the inconsistency of 38A, quelle horreur!. Finally getting LOOKING OUT FOR NO. ONE let me see my misinterpretation.
Hand up for JEan before JEEP. The aha of CRUST let me see that 'Target for food' had nothing to do with the Target corporation unless one is a cynic :-).
I liked NTUPLE crossing PLEX, making me think of the Nth screen of a Cineplex. Saw, liked EMOTE under DEMOTED, as did others. And with not being online for most of the day, enjoyed wondering if everyone else was at the lake today, with only 38 comments. Then when I finally rejoined the plugged-in world, the update showed me the post by @Matt Gaffney with the next set of comments. A happy state of confusion with a new Matt Esquare saga and M&A's OZ theme suggestion.
Thanks, TM and WS.
Took me two days to "finish" this one. I was really looking forward to a @Rex rant with all those OUTs, INs and UPs. I didn't have time yesterday to get all the way through since it was such a slog. The middle really did me in. Slice instead of CRUST just messed up that whole area along with the WOE of NTUPLE. Also wanted the theme to be missing letters at end so had badCOMPLEX(ion).
Loved HARRUMPHS and PSHAW.
MGM
Pretty easy overall, with major tie-up in the TAFT/FIES/APTCOMPLEX crosses, which I was finished with unabashed guessing.
No one arrives breathless at a meeting and says AMILATE. They know darn well they are late (or not), and say sorryImLATE (or phew! made it) as appropriate. You say AMILATE when you arrive at what you believe to be the correct time, or even early, and realize that everyone else is already there and it looks like they started without you.
ANDSoon before ANDSUCH, omAnI before IRAQI, tritE before STALE, TUNINGin before TUNINGUP, SidleOUT before SNEAKOUT, CENTerS before CENTRES (and shame on me for that one).
NEIL, EMOTE HARD, ANDSUCH
LETUS ASSUME you’ll NEED to HANGINTHERE a LOT after THEKISS,
it’s UNWISE to SNEAKOUT, just NAMEONE thing you’ll DOTO your miss.
TOOTRUE, ALLISLOST if you heed ANY HEINOUS, NONO moralist.
So CONSOLE her and ask if she ADMIRES a better than SOSO ORALIST.
--- PAULIE STERNA
Talk about spilled write-over ink, I might have to get a new pen. Didn’t really dig the concept, maybe that’s just me? Not that the puz was HEINOUS, but it was hard enough without the abbreviation thing going on.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: there is no TAR in road building components, we would all hate the result if there were. Asphalt cement is not TAR.
Anyone remember “F Troop”? Wrangler was a Jane, but with JANEROE already there it must be JEan, right? Nope, forgot about the JEEP, though I know guys who own them.
DYAN Cannon, everlasting yeah baby. Cheri OTERI, humorous yeah baby.
Can’t really disagree with the “too hard” rating, it took a LOT of time and ink to complete. IMOUTTAHERE.
OOO, I forgot to mention POLO SOSO NONO DOTO, TAKETWO Os and call me in the morning.
Took me a while but finally sussed it out at TURNOFTHECENT. Actually I kind of found it quite enjoyable.
Its 7/26/15, we get it a week late here.
This was the toughest Sunday in my memory. Some tough clueing, like 74 down. Never got 92 across.
Late to write. Was confused earlier with Rex's post. Decided to check in again and voila!
@Rondo- As an owner of a rubicon wrangler, and wearer of Levi's, JEEP filled in immediately. Though my husband drives it. It's like 20 feet high! Cute to see him climb up
with his suit on and brief case while off to work. Oh, the Jeep world....:)
This puzzle gave me a headache. First person sing(ular)? Cut quite a fig(ure)? I must be missing something. I get the apartment complex, look out for number one (after coming here) but still, huh?
Tommarrow I will be a genius:)
Roe v Wade would say otherwise.
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