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Relative difficulty: Ultra-Easy (2:29 might be my NYT record ... I should know this ... never been sub 2:20, I don't think ... maybe I'd done 2:27 before ... anyway, lightning fast, for me)
THEME: HEADS WILL ROLL (37A: "Someone's gonna pay" ... or a statement about 17-, 24-, 51- and 60-Across) — the "heads" (i.e. first words) of each themer can precede "roll"
[NOTE: it has been suggested to me that the first words are also "heads" (i.e. Egghead, barrelhead, etc.), which would make the theme really interesting, but ... "loghead" isn't a thing, I don't think. "Loggerhead," yes, but if you google "loghead," google asks you if you meant "loggerhead" ... so I think the fact that egghead, barrelhead, and drumhead work is a weird coincidence]
Theme answers:
- EGG HUNTS (17A: Easter Day activities)
- BARREL RACE (24A: Competition in a rodeo ring)
- DRUMSTICKS (51A: Legs at KFC)
- LOG CABIN (60A: Early home for Lincoln)
Word of the Day: Alex and ANI (65A: Alex and ___ (jewelry retailer)) —
Alex and Ani is an American retailer and producer of jewelry located in Cranston, Rhode Island. // The firm was founded in 2004 by Carolyn Rafaelian. The name comes from a combination of the first names of Rafaelian's two daughters. The company originally stated that they wanted to produce "bangle bracelets, necklaces, earrings and rings that adorn the body, enlighten the mind, and empower the spirit". The company first manufactured its jewelry in a factory that was founded by Rafaelian's father in 1966 and all materials are made in America. The first retail Alex and Ani store opened in Newport in 2009, and in addition to the stand-alone stores, the jewelry was sold through national departments stores . In 2010 Giovanni Feroce joined the company as CEO and drove the company's expansion, increasing the sales total for the year by more than 20 times its previous annual total. In 2015, Harlan Kent became the new president of the company. The company also expanded into Japan. In 2015 the firm launched its first mobile app, which was downloaded 80,000 times in its first three weeks. In addition to serving as a mobile sales platform, DigiDay wrote that, "Alex and Ani’s lifestyle content, like motivational quotes and articles that explore the meanings behind different bracelet charms, takes center stage in the app." (wikipedia)
• • •
The theme answers were dull compared to all the 7+-letter Downs, which seems rather unfortunate, given How Many "rolls" there are out there in the world. Your Californias, your tunas, your dinners, your sweets, jellys, kaisers, Parker Houses, onions, your pick ands ... oh well. It's a pretty Greek puzzle today, with with both AEGEAN and ATHENS in there. Oooh, there's even Keats' "ODE on a Grecian Urn" (11D). Interesting. AMY Schumer was featured in the NYT Book Review interview just yesterday (well, today, as I'm writing this), and though I would've gotten her easily anyway, she was fresh on my mind. Wanted 39D: Key's partner (LOCK) to be PEELE, but it didn't fit. Not much more to say. Fine, fun, done.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Not that easy for me, right in my medium-challenging time. I did note that REX gets a lump of COAL.
ReplyDeleteINBORN is not a favorite word of mine, and GO TEM is missing an A, otherwise, a nice little Monday.
I found that one really easy... I got 6.28 when usually I'm just aiming for less than 10 on a Monday (I don't time myself but the app does :D)... and that was while cuddling a clingy 3 year old...
ReplyDeleteDidn't even really take in many of the clues since they were solved by the other direction.
@Z, I read d=it as "GOT 'EM". :-)
L
Easy for me too (@Z my times are usually very close to yours...I'm wondering where you got hung up?). Some fine long downs, reasonable Mon. theme, liked it.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting reading about the United States MOTTO, which I remembered as "E Pluribus Unum." "One nation indivisible" seemed trustworthy enough to the founding fathers and many other great leaders to follow, but the Fifties took care of that. I guess the CREATOR wanted to leave us the task of developing a "more perfect Union," a mission still in progress. I assume "head" or "race" following MAIDEN would have been more Thursday. Ever hear of a woman who bought a big truck, a horse trailer with living accommodations, kissed the husband and kids "adieu," and hit the BARREL RACE circuit? I have.
ReplyDeleteLEGO is never pluralized... It's always LEGO... At least that s what this very adamant blogger sez... https://community.lego.com/t5/LEGO-General/The-plural-of-LEGO-is-not-LEGOs/td-p/7769242
ReplyDeleteAren't egghead, barrelhead, drumhead, and loghead things too?
ReplyDelete'...Don't think the "WILL" part really works...'
ReplyDeleteWe get it, Rex: you don't like Will!
Actually, I'm probably thinking about loggerheads.
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ReplyDeleteWow, @Rex, 2:29 on @Sam Trabucco's Monday puzzle! I couldn't achieve that sort of time even if it was one of my own puzzles and I had the answer key in front of me.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help smiling to see the singular AMY (Schumer) make an appearance today, after yesterday's discussion of plural (or maybe possessive) AMYS. In addition, @REX appears today. Is @Sam shouting OUT to crossword bloggers? And what's this, "___ acid" yesterday to clue BORIC, "Boric ___" today to clue ACID?
Today's unusual ANI clue was hardly noticeable, with all of the easy material around it. We see both BLTS and PBJ sandwiches in the fill, and God shows up in clues for both MOTTO and CREATOR. Our gay friends not only get OUT, but there's also LOG_CABIN, an adjective for gay members of party whose current standard-bearer is using the word RIG a lot, with respect to the upcoming election. TOO_BAD!
If I take the reveal on its face value, then EGG, BARREL & LOG fit the theme perfectly because they all WILL ROLL. DRUM, however, seems to be an outlier. I can play a DRUM ROLL on a DRUM but I wouldn't say the DRUM itself WILL ROLL. Better theme candidates, methinks, would be phrases starting with words like "ball', "marble", "wheel", etc.
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ReplyDeleteRex,– hah! I spent a while thinking about the transitive/intransitive deal because of the WILL in the reveal. I think that's what you were getting at? And then I just thought, "Who cares?" The reveal is, like you say, - vivid and colloquial with zing and zazz. So, @Anoa Bob – I see your point, but I like the set Sam chose.
ReplyDeleteBoy, I know the one @M&A was hoping for.
Loved the clue for 4A OVAL. Reminds me of the joke, "What did the zero say to the eight?" … "Nice belt."
I missed ANI, but am happy to see it's not clued as something a Wheel of Fortune contestant shouts that they would like to buy. Could be clued as the start of a cheer for some sports team. Gimme AN I…!
AIOLI/TOO BAD. Ever sat next to someone at a conference who ate enough AIOLI at lunch to sink a ship and then leaned in to whisper stuff to you for the rest of the day? Makes for a long afternoon.
Even though I know better, I always want to spell REIN IN as reign in. And then when I see the bajillion other people who do spell it that way, I'm quietly pleased and relieved it wasn't me. Guess I should come clean here and admit I thought it was "Ode to a Grecian Urn." Oops.
@Token Millenial – depending on when you husband started trying USA Today puzzles, he may well have been solving some NYT puzzles and not known it.
Got a kick out of EMINEM, LEGOS, and LOG CABIN sharing the grid. He recently competed in a LEGO contest and built a nifty little cabin. Go figure, right?
I really really like Sam's spin on HEADS WILL ROLL.
Darn good MonPuz. Even tho it opted to hold the CINNAMON roll. (yo, @muse). Kinda like how the real long down answers are more central in the grid, than usual. A little different feel. Nothing real entertainin, desperation-wise ... when EXT and ANI are yer top two desperate weejects, and AFEW LTRS is as funky as it gets, U got a pretty solid grid.
ReplyDeleteNice 6-stacks, in all the corners. A 13-long center themer seems to only encourage that kinda thing, I reckon.
Thanx, Mr. Trabucco. Nice roller derby.
M&A
I was looking for puzzle answers to which ROLL could also follow, and had no success, but the search gave me a couple of smiles, with REX ROLL and RIG ROLL (both of which remind me of rick roll), COAL ROLL (which nicely rolls, as it were, off the tongue), and LOCK and ROLL (robot-style dancing to a driving beat).
ReplyDeleteAn excellent puzzle for people new to crosswords, giving them confidence to keep at it. The grid is spotless, and the theme is a good introduction to themes. I don't think that many beginners will feel in over their heads. In fact, this puzzle has an INN under one's HEAD.
ReplyDeleteA rather gruesome theme for an innocent Monday. In the Roman Catholic tradition, today is the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Also, exactly 978 years ago today St. Stephen, the first King of Hungary, died in Esztergom (Aug. 15, 1038).
Yet in today's NYT crossword puzzle we are warned that HEADS WILL ROLL. This turn of phrase probably originated as a rather graphic metaphor from the days of the guillotine, not realizing that the brutal practice will enjoy a resurgence in the 21st century, and it is as alive and well today as it was back in its heyday. Just this morning I came across this BBC News article as a reminder of the age we live in, and it put this theme thingy into an entirely different light.
As to @Rex's argument about all the missing possibilities of rolls, I appreciated the fact that all of them were verbs as suggested by the rolling heads.
Now I'll just TIPTOE on out of here.
Instead of 27D (former) Big product of Kentucky, Will could have worked in his beloved Obama with "Obama's war on ____". COAL. Still he did manage a PC plug for Openly gay. OUT. Oh, I'm so CISGENDERIST.
ReplyDeleteVery easy, which was a nice break as I worked it immediately after Saturday's brutal puzzle as I catch up from the weekend. Liked a lot of things but definitely not OHO for What a surprise! or GOTEM for They're mine now! Neither of those works.
ReplyDeleteThree overwrites: Ooh before OHO (Ooh is vastly superior), BARRELRoll before BARRELRACE (and wondering why 'roll' was permitted twice), and nebrAska before LOGCABIN (no excuse).
Today's time was my all time best too. 4:13. Usually when I start to breeze through these kinds of puzzles, there is that one corner that holds me up. Not today. I just filled it in like I knew what I was doing. The theme wasn't even on my radar.
ReplyDeleteNo write overs either. I was suspicious of EGGHUNTS. There is something wrong with that answer. I think I always include Easter in front of that. There are no other times of the year where you hunt eggs...and the event is called an "Easter Egg Hunt." I dunno. Green paint? Partial? Gratuitous?
Easy peasy though.
Too easy for my tastes, even for a Monday. Even an easy NYT puzzle has a tasty nugget or two that are new or unusual. Except for GOT 'EM, which I thought was of doubtful ancestry, this was a quick drink of water. It took only as long as it took to write the answers
ReplyDeleteI agree...very easy. I do not time myself but finished before I finished my cup of coffee. Had a hard time parsing Stelmo!!! Then it dawned on me. Time to have a roll for breakfast!!
ReplyDeleteWith the exception of the plain awful GOTEM, I thought this was a breezy, colloquial puzzle with no junk. Yes, it's also very easy. So, give this lively constructor a Friday or Saturday, and let's see if he's able to challenge us.
ReplyDeleteI may be a bit of a tenderfoot, but I didn't really get BARREL RACE at 24A. I thought all rodeo events had to have at least one horse or one bull or one cow or one lasso.
Easy enough, but I managed to put in BullRiding before BARREL RACE, and ENough said before END OF STORY, so that slowed me down a bit. @kitshef, I wanted OHh at 61D myself, thought that captured the sense of surprise better.
ReplyDelete@Nancy, there are horses in a BARREL RACE. The barrels themselves just sit there, but they are laid out in kind of a giant slalom for horse and rider to loop around.
I had more to say, but everyone else beat me to it.
Oh yeah -- @LMS the way to remember that "on" is that it's a pun. The poem is about the urn, but the urn itself has a work of art on it that is equivalent to an ode in its timeless beauty.
Did anyone else notice the rhyming scheme, here? We've got Mama/PAPA, EENIE/meenie, MOD squad, GAL pal...
ReplyDeleteIt may not have even been intentional, but it stuck out to me given a smaller puzzle.
Thanks, @jberg. Obviously, I am a tenderfoot.
ReplyDeleteA loghead *IS* a thing.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.plant-pot.co.uk/acatalog/Wizard_Log_Heads_.html (inter alia).
@LorenMuseSmith, lol. Yes, I've had the same experience. Too often! @Nancy, I thought a barrel race was what all those frisky clowns do at a rodeo. Haha. Guess I learned something today. Not quite as fast as OFL but definitely a quick dash this Monday. Made me feel like Usain Bolt!
ReplyDelete"What to get an E for"? For upholding linguistic standards, I give an F for effort.
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ReplyDeleteHey, I understand that Monday's are supposed to be easy. In order to recruit novices, or to sell papers to the inarticulate, I guess.
But this one was just ridiculous, as though the toughness standard was for sixth-graders. C'mon put a LITTLE push-back in Monday puzzles, Mr. Shortz!
I think this might be the easiest Monday I've seen. I didn't look at half the clues and still got the solve sound on my phone, although, believe me, I'm nowhere near Rex's solve time!
ReplyDeleteProps for the theme. It was more than cute enough for Monday. I stumbled for a second at roll/RACE.
Amy's organic marguerita (or does it have an h?) pizza is what I dig out of the freezer if there is nothing in the fridge for lunch. It hits the spot every time. My advice is don't microwave.
Well the distaff side of the household zipped through this thing while I slaved over a couple of over-easy eggs. She tells me it was easy, clean, and lots of fun. Looks like Rex and y'all pretty much agree.
ReplyDeleteMany years back I might have made @Nancy's mistake with BARRELRACE. This semi-"slicker" (suburban brat) thought rodeo the dumbest thing out there. But several years back I went to work long distance for a Denver bank. At one of our quarterly meetings at headquarters I was dragged kicking and screaming to a rodeo. Absolutely enjoyed, and have attended many since.
STELMO - I was a kid when I watched Gregory Peck as Ahab put out St. Elmo's fire with his bare hands in "Moby Dick" as he mesmerized the crew on the Pequod and galvanized them behind him in his quest for the white whale. Chills up and down the preteen spine. Today's action flicks got nothin' on that.
@Laura the Kiwi - Way to bring a guy down. Now, can I interest you in a pet DOOK, TOAT, or GOAT?
ReplyDelete@jae - Not really sure where I slowed, so I'm gonna blame the two pints of beer and solving late at night instead of the morning.
Meanwhile, over on Twitter I ran into a thread between Ultimate Frisbee players on the proper use of "decimate." At least one of the players was ruing the lowered status of Prescriptivists. I refrained from tossing in "Descriptivists rule" out of politeness.
Slower than average for me. I usually do Monday puzzles in about 5 minutes. This one took more than 8.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteIM NEXT! :-)
AoiLI only writeover. Otherwise pretty easy. Finished in .58 seconds, a new record! :-P Kidding, kidding. I know speed solvers love speed solving, but I'm the type of solver who likes to read every clue, and actually don't like when things auto-fill. Each their own, and all that.
Long Downs were nice. Lack of dreck also nice. Clue on INBORN seems odd. Got a PBJ and a BLT today. Yum. Liked GOT EM, HOTSEAT, ME TOO and a few others. Here's one for M&A, CINNAMON SCHNAPPS. 16 letters, but oh well. :-) TOO BAD the revealer is kinda gruesome, like @AliasZ said. But made for a good puz?
END OF STORY
RooMonster
DarrinV
I liked today's puzzle...easy and mostly clean. I would have loved Rickroll, though!
ReplyDeleteJust like @jberg, I had Bull riding before BARRELROLL. And a big smile for @Nancy for the thought of BARRELs RACing around inside the rodeo ring (do you say rodeeeo or radayo?).
ReplyDeleteApparently @NCA Prez has little if any rural experience. Anyone who has free range chickens will go on a daily EGG HUNT because chickens that don't return nightly to the hen house are apt to lay their EGGs anywhere. Even in the hen house it's a bit of a HUNT through the roosting boxes to see if any EGGs have been laid.
Mr. Trabucco set out to create a puzzle that would encourage new solvers to keep at it by making this puzzle as easy as possible with as little obscurity as possible and with the easiest crosses as possible to make sure that folks like @Rex could get through this in 2:29 and a newbie could get through it at all. Jeff Chen thinks he did an excellent job and gave it the POW. I hope that doesn't bode ill for tomorrow's through Saturday's puzzles.
Very nice Monday puzzle. Clever theme with clean fill. Yes, it required little EFFORT, but it's in keeping with the Monday tradition.
ReplyDeleteAm reminded of a gay friend in San Francisco who was OUT and used to wear a teeshirt that said: "The FAMILY TREE stops here."
About an average Monday for me. Finished in under two seconds. Ho hum. Otherwise, as I like to point out here, I'm a very, very smart person.
ReplyDeleteIf any NYT crossword ever takes me more than, say, 17 seconds, I WILL probably mess my SHORTS.
Easy but good Monday, end of story.
ReplyDelete9 minutes here. I was held up by the need to do an across to guess the down and vice-versa. But definitely a Monday time. Answers like STELMO were not absolute gimmes, and the revealer needed many letters from the down answers for me to get it.
ReplyDeleteLEGOS (plural) is the term used by those who play with them, and by their parents, who tell the kids to pic up their LEGOS. What the LEGO company thinks has little to do with actual usage.
The major weakness in the puzzle is precisely that there is (almost) no such thing as a LOG HEAD. You got your DRUM heads, your BARREL heads and your EGG heads, but the only LOG head is a kind of snapping turtle.
Very easy, no sticking points at all. Okay theme, but amusement value low - clues a little too straightforward. No wit, no smiles.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very nice Monday puzzle. I interpreted the revealer as the 'heads' being the first word of the theme answers. I think that makes 'will' work.
ReplyDelete@jberg: Thanks for the explanation on the titling of Ode On... I never understood why it was titled that way. Live and learn.
A record fast time for me and @rex, I had Yeah Yeah Yeahs in my head and finished before the song was over!
ReplyDeleteThis took me less than my average Monday but no records were broken. My toughest spot was @Rex's, with GOT 'EM not quite meshing with the clue, for me, and putting USPS in at 40D before the CREATOR moved me to change it.
ReplyDeleteWhy will I never attain tournament speeds in solving puzzles? Because when I try to solve fast by just glancing at the clues, an S_L_ and a peripheral look to see "estate" in 67A's clue gives me SaLe and I end up having to read the whole thing after all.
A puzzle that meets all the requirements of a satisfactory Monday, nice one, Mr. Trabucco.
i hate it
ReplyDeleteHealthiest Human Foods For Dogs
A pleasant Monday!
ReplyDelete"Inborn" always calls up Pinafore. As it does to other tars of the sea in this StarTrek scene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_kXyLMWdqw
A British tar is a soaring soul
As free as a mountain bird
His energetic fist should be ready to resist
A dictatorial word
His nose should pant and his lip should curl
His cheeks should flame and his brow should furl
His bosom should heave and his heart should glow
And his fist be ever ready for a knock-down blow
His eyes should flash with an INBORN fire
His brow with scorn be wrung
He never should bow down to a domineering frown
Or the tang of a tyrant tongue
His foot should stamp and his throat should growl
His hair should curl and his face should scowl
His eyes should flash and his breast protrude
And this should be his customary attitude
@Z - That'll do it.
ReplyDeleteReasonably safe to assume that Sam Trabucco was on a ROLL with this Monday TREAT, and may the good times continue to roll again real soon, with Sam on the drums, as it seems he's a BARREL!
ReplyDelete@ Z ;-) Yeah sorry 'bout that ;-)
ReplyDeleteI'm all good for GO ATs though... I'm feeding 3 of them by bottle at the moment ;-)
L
Larry Gilstrap said
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting reading about the United States MOTTO, which I remembered as "E Pluribus Unum." "One nation indivisible"
It means "out of many, one"--not quite the same as "one nation indivisible."
For God's sake Rex, it's not eggHEAD, remember, heads will ROLL!
ReplyDeleteIt's egg ROLL, barrel ROLL, drum ROLL, and log ROLL!
- Billy
@Billy - A latecomer may be forgiven for not knowing that the "note" at the start of the post was a recent addendum, except for its parenthetical nature, the fact that it begins with "NOTE:.., and the fact that it dismisses the notion that it's EGGHEAD...
ReplyDeleteReading past the note, you will see an extensive discussion about how it is, in fact, a puzzle about ROLL
In discussing two separate answer words from this puzzle with a friend, I was led to the same webpage.
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1: What's purple and commutes?
Question 2: What's the integral of 1/cabin with respect to cabin?
I'll wait a reasonable interval, and then post the answers.
You may also enjoy Complex Fruits, by my friend @Christopher Adams.
touché
ReplyDelete- Billy
SOLD ONESELF
ReplyDeleteAMY ENJOYS AFEW HOURs of ONLINE datin’,
but HEADSWILLROLL if the FINER EFFORTs are fadin’.
TOOBAD the HOTSEAT don’t phase her,
that GAL’s a TREAT for who LASER,
and IMNEXT INN line to take OUT that MAIDEN.
--- REX VAN GAGGLE
I was sure, as soon as I saw 57-across, that we'd see a clip of Tiny Tim amid tulips. Oh well. This is a nifty little week-starter that doesn't try to do too much. It contains two of my favorite sandwiches--three if you count EGG. Add a couple of yummy DRUMSTICKs and top it all off with some LOGCABIN syrup...geez, now I'm not even hungry!
ReplyDeleteThis reporter ENJOYS today's offering, complete with DOD AMY Schumer. The uber-obscure clue for ANI is among A(very)FEW distractions; birdie. ENDOFSTORY.
I did this one in 1:36, left-handed, with one eye closed while driving to work. Now that’s an EFFORT. Of course NONE of that is true. Funny to have both REX and WILL in the same puz.
ReplyDeleteEMINEM (in 8d, BTW) a gimme having seen the flick 8 Mile. Actually drove 8 Mile Road on purpose about 5 years ago (lotsa liquor stores and gentlemen’s clubs) and ventured off into the neighborhoods near it. Many burned out shells of houses. Got OUT quickly, it was just TOOBAD.
Another unusual way to clue ANI, that GAL will always be righteous yeah baby DiFranco in my book, quite the MAIDEN. Never heard of Alex and ANI. I’ll pass on AMY Schumer; tried to watch Trainwreck, quit halfway through, unfunny, uninteresting, yawn.
This was alright for a Mon-puz. Smoke ‘em if you’ve GOTEM. OUT.
Solid, easy Monday with a nicely done theme.
ReplyDeleteHad HOTspot before HOTSEAT; Alex and ANI are new to me; and paused over ROMANIA vs. RUmania spelling. Think I've got it now.
I don't keep time, but this one move along well enough.
Very Monday, Monday. Only AMI and STELMO needed crosses. Googled stelmo to find out it's St. Elmo. So, learned that.
ReplyDeleteMiss Manners and the comics will round out my morning. Hmm, that sounds like a bad band name.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
I suppose that if you like to time yourself, and possibly achieve a PB, no J, this would be the puzzle to do it.
ReplyDeleteI think I was sensing the theme ahead of time by wanting to write in BARREL Roll before the real answer.
Pretty clear that this was an easy, cute puzzle. About perfect for a Monday.
Liked it.
-rain forest (half ROMANIAn, formerly half RuMANIAn)
@BS, Just caught your Saturday line "Go two ell Hillary". Priceless!
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