.png)
Hymn set to music by Vivaldi Haydn / SAT 8-13-16 / Bandleader whose band was New Orleans Gang / Human member of old tv trio / 1979 film that ends with Peter Sellers walking on water / Horror film remake released on 6/6/06 / Psychic mediators
Saturday, August 13, 2016
Constructor: Patrick Berry
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: Tenzing NORGAY (33D: Hillary's mate) —
Tenzing Norgay OSN GM (/ˈtɛnsɪŋ ˈnɔːrɡeɪ/; 29 May 1914 – 9 May 1986), born Namgyal Wangdi and often referred to as Sherpa Tenzing, was a Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer. Among the most famous mountain climbers in history, he was one of the first two individuals known to reach the summit of Mount Everest, which he accomplished with Edmund Hillary on 29 May 1953. Time named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century. (wikipedia)
• • •
I have said many times, including yesterday, that a gimme at 1-Across usually signals an easy puzzle, and again (again) this was true, even though the gimme in question was just four letters (1A: Player's fee => ANTE). 1-Acrosses give you a whole array of first letters for the initial Downs, so they have tremendous accelerative power. Today, "N" gave me NO U-TURN (2D: Junction injunction), which gave me ANY (32A: Whatever), and that "A" plus the "A" from ANTE was all I needed for ALFALFA (1D: Fodder for dairy cattle). So that corner is pretty much owned only 30 seconds or so into the solve. Coming out of that corner via LUDENS was hard because a. that "S" didn't give me much information, and b. I wasn't sure it *was* an "S" (LUDENZ, maybe!?) (23A: Cough drop brand). So I exited via CARDINAL RED (9D: Deep scarlet shade), which I think I had as ... CARMINIDINE? Which is what happens when you take CARMINE (an actual shade of red) and pump it full of wish-fulfillment steroids (or what happens when one shade of red, CARMINE, and another shade of red, INCARNADINE, love each other very, very much ...). I then got ICEMAN and then got stuck, but immediately got unstuck with PERK (18A: Private jet, maybe), which was obvious to me for some reason, and gave me both SOP and TOKENS. And off I went.
[ICEMAN]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
PS two things: 1. I still don't get how EGOS are [26D: Psychic mediators] and 2. "STAN" is not just an [Eminem song about an obsessed fan] (15D), it is now a (derisive) slang word for the obsessed fan in general. Lowercase. Also, a verb. To "stan" someone is to adore that person unquestioningly and kind of scarily. And now, if you didn't know, you know. (p.p.s. h/t to crossword constructor Kameron Austin Collins, from whom I learned the term, true story) (p.p.p.s. "h/t" means "hat tip" ...)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Save And Share :
97 comments:
Ego mediates the psyche between the id and superego.
I know Eileen Fisher thanks to my wife Jill. I have waited outside of Eileen Fisher stores in many cities while she looked around inside. She was going to do a photographic piece of men waiting outside of Eileen Fisher stores for their wives to emerge.
I loved the Hillary clue. Did not get it until I post-googled. I finished with a misspelling of YESHIVA and TALIASHIRE.
Details are here
So pleasurable. Just what we want from a Patrick Berry puzzle. Am I the only one who loved BSharp?
Like Rex, my very last square was the Y in Norgay and I still didn't get it till I came here. Massive head slap.
@Rex, so nice to see your description of how you tore through @Patrick Berry's puzzle, which included a shoutout to none other than you: B_SHARP. I want to go on record--wearing my chemist hat--as stating that ESTER is good fill, and what's not to love about STABAT_MATER (click on the link to get to the Rossini rendering)?
Just about DNF because I had LOUIEPRIMA crossing a nice Jewish boy from Detroit who is obsessed with Eminem and is named ETAN. Finally figured it out.
16 minutes for me today, which is very fast for a Saturday. Solving on a genuine NY TImes paper, which was absurdly difficult to find here on the upper East Side - I had to walk a mile in steamy 80 degree temps (before 7AM, heat warnings all over the forecast) and check 3 stores to find one selling the paper. Sheesh.
The only hesitation I had in the grid was NORGAY crossing YAP AT because I wasn't sure of the name of Sir Hillary's companion on the historic Everesr climb. And STABAT MATER was a WOE. I was looking at STAB and thought maybe it would be a saint's name, ST. ABartholemew? Too long, never heard of him, just let that one lie for now.
On the other hand, EILEEN FISHER was a gimme. Her clothes have elegant lines but that over-sized, drapey look does not suit me, even in cashmere.
NAIL SALONS took me aback because I misread the clue as "filling" centers. With SALONS in place I was wondering if there was a new term for all-you-can-eat buffets!
Good luck to all at Lollapuzzoola today, and wish me luck back!
Albert Einstein, "DEISTS"? Like he believes in the existence of a God being? I can see why that's a significant fact about him, but I feel the cluing is a bit arbitrary. Like, Winston Churchhill and others, "BATHERS". Or John Denver and others "DRINKERS". It's true, but...
@Teedmn, you've got it! Knock'em dead and have a great time. You already did with the puzzle this morning at 8 minutes! Nice to hear your voice yesterday.
I get it now. The speed solvers like puzzles that do not require...puzzling. This was Monday easy to me and disappointing. Obviously Patrick Berry is a teachers pet and gets an automatic A. No ah ha moments here for me anyway. I want "I don't get a single thing, to wait, maybe this fits, to I give up, to let's have another look, to I can't believe I got it done!" on a Saturday, not, fill in the blanks, top to bottom.
Women of a certain age know EILEENFISHER by osmosis, and over the years she's been a regular advertiser in the NYT Magazine. (Help the Times. Support the Advertisers) Her designs cover a multitude of sins, although I've noticed it helps if those sins come in a tall and thin package. True of so many things it seems.
As usual, PB gives us tough but fair. I might make an exception for STABATMATER. Really? STAB AT MATER? I'd say MATER has suffered enough. Obviously I sat in the back of my ninth grade Latin class.
The others entries had PB smoothness. His cluing can be more fun at times, a la BSHARP, but even when he's playing it straight, there's nobody better.
Not top notch PB but very respectable, I think.
I'm so laid low by the humidity - wasn't planning to blog today. @Rex's EILEEN FISHER rant makes it necessary. I object! She makes beautiful, comfortable, complimentary, well-cut clothes from fabrics with integrity, and for women of most sizes (not for TWEENAGERS). Pricey, tho I often find discounted pieces at The Rack.
Good luck to all puzzlers, and could someone turn down the thermostat before leaving?
Typical Berry experience here with not a lot at first but after slowly chipping away, boom, done.
Hah! Loved the clue for 34A – reminded me of the trouble some of us had recently with Baba Mustafa and what his job was.
The clue for CHARACTERS 35A is excellent.
"Tweensters" before TWEENAGERS. Hi, Rex.
A couple of entries look weird in retrospect. STABAT YAPAT looks like some leader in the news from the Middle EAST. Peace talks stalled as special envoy STABAT YAPAT refused to accept the terms of the latest proposal. Details at eleven.
Can you imagine being in a situation that has a private jet as a PERK? Heck. I'm happy that I have a key to the faculty restroom.
Hey, @Lewis – bet you've seen Being There, huh? And speaking of Asheville (the Biltmore House), I just read that y'all have the best restaurant in NC. Can't remember its name.
Liked that stagger-stack in the middle and also SCREAM over YAP AT, thought the latter doesn't feel like it's done "loudly" but rather pesteringly, right?
Good luck, @ TeedMN!
Nice smooth puz, PB.
Ooof. Maybe one too many daiquiris last night and quite possibly the carnita tacos I couldn't get enough of. I had a real hard time even getting started. I did have ANTE right away but I thought that had to be a trick. Way too easy says I. ALFALFA was penned in ever so lightly and then I remembered LUDENS. OK so that western part was becoming easier. EILEEN FISHER was really my only Yes I Know This for sure. I love her clothing... nice tops that float all over your body.
STABAT MATER...damn damn damn (hi @Aketi)...My sister-in-law sang this hymn all the time. I could pick it out even if Eminem gave it a try, but I couldn't remember it today. I had the S the T and the other T. When I finally got JOB TITLES that little light bulb went off. Brought back some sad memories of a funeral.
On to the south east coast which gave me a mighty fight. I had SAL instead of YUL. YESHIVA YESHIVA YESHIVA. It starts with a Y. OH, YUL. Finished this AM but I did struggle.
CECILIA always breaks my heart...and Patrick Berry breaks my crossword EGOS.
My lament...over too soon! I'm of the generation that could write NORGAY, LUDENS, CECILIA right in, as well as belonging to the sub-groups of admirers of Rossini's STABAT MATER (hi, @George Barany) and noticers of EILEEN FISHER ads. Once I was done wincing at TWEENAGERS, the rest of the center filled itself easily, leaving me with only two ??? spots: maybe Ava for Charleton's co-star...and YAk AT - getting EVEN STEVEN was the the one bright discovery moment.
I liked FUEL TANKER floating on AT SEA and the YESHIVA at cross-purposes with the DEISTS.
We're finishing up a batch of 25 Patrick Berry themeless puzzles in this household so this Saturday flowed fairly well for us. Stalled for a while at the NORGAY and STABATMATTER - they being neighbors cost us some time. But a surprising amount of Saturday gimmes, as Rex mentioned, made this go by Saturday fast.
Berry puzzles are so delightfully clued, aha filled, and -ese free that you don't care about the occasional sin such as new words (TWEENAGERS?) and a some green paint (CARDINALRED). This one was typical - just loved NAIL SALONS, and the nifty factoid on THE OMEN.
Another great movie you've never seen is "Big Night". A flick that may or may not feature LOUIS PRIMA.
If you're considering feeding your dairy cow a lot of ALFALFA be ready for some serious farting. Just sayin'.
Surprising generosity. Shocking, really.
STABAT MATER? Okay, if you say so. I was going with either ST ABAT MATER or STAB AT MATER.
"Being There" was filmed at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC. Been there. (yo,@Lewis). Classic flick.
@Teedmn: take it easy on the rest of the tourney field. They are not used to someone who has worked out extensively with runtz.
fave word: YAPAT.
Thanx, Mr. A- PB1.
M&A
on the road
Thank you, PB1, for aiming what little PPP there is here right between my(aging) eyebrows. Would anyone even as little as ten years younger than me remember Kukla, FRAN and Ollie. FRAN was the only one who wasn't a puppet. I read BEING THERE while I was an Editor at the Literary Guild. Oddly, though I'm a big Simon and Garfunkel fan, I don't remember CECILIA. (I only remember DELIA from Harry Belafonte, as in "Delia's gone/One more round/Delia's gone.") And even though I didn't know that TALIA SHIRE was Coppola's sister, I did know she was Italian, based on "Rocky", so I got her from just the LIA. I've seen TINA Brown on many talk shows. There's an EILEEN FISHER store on the Upper East Side of Manhattan -- at least there was. I first wanted LOUIS Armstrong instead of PRIMA, but he didn't fit -- so I was looking for a rebus at first. When I finally thought of PRIMA, I wrote down PRIMo, which kept me from initially seeing CARDINAL RED.
I got many of the lovely non-PPP answers from just 1-3 letters: NAIL SALONS; EVEN STEVEN; CHARACTERS; NO U TURN. But, believe it or not, I had MI-E at 7D and had to run the alphabet to get MIKE. I guess I haven't had all that many MIKEs attached to my lapel. NORGAY (based on a Hillary clue) was a clever trick in this political season that I never would have known if not for the crosses. A really enjoyable Saturday puzzle that required plenty of thought, but played smooth and fair.
p.s.
@r.alph. Primo new avatar, dude. Downright intergalactic. har.
M&Again
I got Norgay as my first answer, no crosses, but man I just drew a blank on so much of the SE. Took me way too much time! Clearly not in puzzle tournament shape compared to the 8 you put up, Rex.
I opened the paper, saw the constructor's name and all that white space, and shuddered -- but then I reminded myself that you can always solve a PB puzzle if you just keep plugging away.
In this case, the plugging was harder than usual because a) I figured a filing center was a TAX something, so that X was sitting there for way too long; b) EVEN keelEd looked pretty balanced to me, and led to c) far gone for 44D. Also, I couldn't remember EILEEN's last name, even though I've been in her stores many times. (What's with this waiting outside? You're supposed to go into the store with her, so she can try things on and ask you things like "Does this look good on me?" (answer: yes) and "But does it make me look fat?" (no).)
I looked at 33D, said, well, it's not Bill so how about TENZING? Nope, doesn't fit -- it took NAIL SALON to make me see NORGAY, even though I knew his name well.
On the other hand, in another illustration of how solvers' wheelhouses vary, I got STABAT MATER off the S. As for CARDINAL RED, I figured the only reason for putting 'scarlet' in the clue would be because RED was in the answer.
So lots of fun for me, maybe because I didn't find it all that easy.
if you're a woman over 30 you probably know Eileen Fisher very well. Beautiful clothes and beautiful ads.
Hi all! Long time reader, first time commenter here.
This was slower than usual for me, but watching the Olympics and drinking wine don't help with fast solving. I'd agree that this slanted old - STAN was a gimme on my opening pass, but I had to recruit my husband to really crack the puzzle open. Since he's 19 years older than me, most of this was right in his wheelhouse.
Him: You're doing the Saturday? That's hard, I can't help with that.
Me: What about this this this this this?
Him: NORGAY LOUISPRIMA LUDENS TALIASHIRE YUL... Got any more?
After grousing about how I never can remember TALIASHIRE, I sussed out EILEEN FISHER and everything else started to fall. Proud of myself for knowing BEINGTHERE - we had to write an essay about it in high school. STABATMATER was cruel. The southwest corner happened to be where I finished, giggled at BSHARP.
I liked it overall - very clean, if a bit musty and lacking sparkle.
Just wanted to add that I had the pleasure of spending time with @Teedmn yesterday afternoon and evening, as she's in NYC for the Lolla tournament. In addition to being the very nice, very smart person one would expect from reading her comments on the blog, it turns out that she's really talented. She had her IPad with her and she played me several songs that she wrote (both words and music!) and performed (both singing and guitar, along with another band member.) She's such a good singer that my throat closed up with nervousness when I attempted to sing "Leavin' On a Jet Plane" with her. Of course my throat also may have closed up from all the wine I had imbibed up to that point. On the other hand, she had imbibed just as much wine as I had, and her throat didn't close up in the slightest.
But what impressed me much more than her professional-level singing (many, many people can sing quite well) was her professional-level song writing. Having been in the BMI MUsical Theater Workshop with a lot of really talented composers, lyricists, and composer-lyricists, I frankly wasn't expecting all that much when she pulled out her IPad. I was blown away. This gal is really good. Her melodies are compelling and infectious, her harmonies interesting and pleasing; and her words are dense and full of unusual imagery and ideas -- quite off the beaten track. Someone to watch, I'd say.
Cardinal red seems redundant to me. There's one outside my window every morning. Stunningly scarlet. Love Patrick Berry puzzles -- they are always fresh and piquant -- but this one seemed too easy for a Saturday. Raced through it. Forgot about Jane Bennett. Prefer Joan, especially in Scarlet Street! Ta-da! We "stan" you Rex! :)
Best line from Love, Loss, and What I Wore - brilliant Deila and Nora Ephron play. It was a show stopper for those who got it. "When you start wearing Eileen Fisher you might as well say, ‘I give up.'"
Nice breezy puzzle for those of us sweltering in NYC.
The ego mediates the id and the super ego. I think.
I have read, or maybe viewed on YouTube, recently about all the frozen dead bodies one sees when climbing Mt. Everest, It seems that it is too difficult to retrieve them. Perhaps in five thousand years they will be recovered and studied for their artifacts in much the same way as Ötzi, the ICE MAN is being studied now. I'll admit I had NORGA and had to google to get the Y. Yes, I fell into the trap of thinking Tim Kaine at first, good thing he didn't fit. I was also thinking possibly ascHER for EILEEN since I've never heard of her (is her clothing exclusive to NYC?) I resorted to google for FISHER since I hadn't yet settled on FETE over "gala" or "Afro". The rest of the puzzle was a walk in the cake or a piece of park or something.
CHARACTERS surprised me in a nice way. There is a chihuahua who lives two houses down from me now and every time I pass by he will address me loudly and at length from the screened front porch. I had no idea that TALIA SHIRE was Francis Ford Coppola's sister but she became inevitable from the few crossing letters I'd gotten: T__L_A____E. TWEENAGERS is a cute word which I have used in the distant past to describe my step kids when they were in middle school. I was surprised to see it given legitimacy in an NYT puzzle though as I have never seen or heard it elsewhere. I remember watching Kukla, FRAN, and Ollie and always feeling AT SEA with no clue what that show was really about. Shari Lewis and Lambchop also used to confuse me.
NAIL SALON got an, "Oh, isn't that cute," from me but SPA, ASP, ATE, and so on seemed a little too drecky for PB1. Not that I minded them, I was just a little surprised. STABAT MATER jumped into my head off the S. I was surprised it fit but thought it was too easy to be true but crosses confirmed it for me.
It took me rather longer than eight minutes until I got to the SE corner and then it took me a whole hell of a lot longer to finish off that. Still, this was enjoyable solving PB's 214th NYT offering
Whenever I see Patrick Berry I know I have a shot at finishing, we'e just on the same wavelength. Must admit I needed a little Google help in the SW and thought it was Louie Prima so ended up with Etan for Stan.
@George, you loved STABAT_MATER! I did too. Hymns set to music are my favorite kind.
"I got up to wash my face when I come back to bed someone's taken my place"
If this ever happened to you you've been CECILIAED.
Easy-medium for me too with all but the center easy which was partly due to STABAT MATER being a WOE.
Typical smooth PB but with gimmes like LOUIS PRIMA, TALIA SHIRE, THE OMEN, BEING THERE...a tad too easy for a Sat.
@G.Harris, you might have thought it was Louie Prima because it was. Unless you were his mother.
Explanation of ego as a psychic mediator: Freud identified three components of the structure of the psyche, id, ego, superego. The id is the drives, the desires, raw impulse, "I want that, now!" The superego is an internalization of parental values, similar to conscience, often saying, "No, you can't, that's not right!" The ego has an executive function, figures out how to get things done, and mediates between raw desire of the id and no way Jose of the superego, finds actions that might satisfy the id and pacify the superego. Sublimation is one such solution -- no, you can't act like a rutting animal all the time, yes, you can write a poem about love. Other solutions are known as the defenses of the ego, defending against internal conflict, some of which are not such great solutions. If you want to know more, read psychoanalytic texts. Yes, Eileen Fisher is a fashion designer, not haute couture, mainly for middle class budgets. Not a particularly esoteric clue. Thought I had an easy "Ricola" for cough drop brand, so discovering "Ludens", which I also knew but hadn't thought of, took a bit of time. Loved the Stabat Mater! Yes, of course, "carmine" seemed the right beginning, especially with the r-e-d crosses giving red at the end, but, one letter over the line, sweet carmine! Finally got the cardinal, though. Pleasant puzzle! I found it medium-difficult, but enjoyable.
@ QuasiMojo
Think sky blue, lime green, jet black, etc. Might make even a good puzzle theme, unless it's been done before.
How about it, LMS?
It's a historic fact that LOUIS PRIMA was followed on the throne by LOUIS Secunda, and then up to the last one, Louis Sestadecima.
What's not to like about this Berry gem? The only thing that struck me as out of the ordinary for PB was the overabundance of proper names: the aforementioned LOUIS PRIMA, EILEEN, FISHER, Yma SUMAC, TALIA, SHIRE, MIKE, NORGAY, JANE, CECILIA, YUL, ALDA, ALEC, TINA, and even STEVEN.
That wide-open center swath is a marvel to behold for its cleanliness and lack of dreck. I too wondered about the clue-entry relationship for ICEMAN, but "One who cometh" would have been too easy a giveaway for Saturday.
Giovanni Battista Grillo (c.1570/80–1622) was an Italian Renaissance composer and organist, whose Canzon Prima and Canzon Sestadecima illustrates my point nel primo paragrafo.
Enjoy your hot and steamy NYC weekend!
Takes all kinds. After ANTE and therefore ALFALFA, NORGAY was the easiest answer to the puzzle for me. Love and marriage, horse and carriage, Hillary and Tenzing are inseparable for me. One of those rare instances where the "native" employee gets equal billing with the European hero.
CECILIA was the second easiest answer for me. Kind of a risque' song for Simon to write, but I'm sure my daughters are among millions who heard that song over and over as small children.
Didn't remember BEING THERE but got it on crosses. Googled for FISHER, which got me to replace "afro" with FETE. And had to Google for TALIA SHIRE. Though in retrospect I could have got that on crosses too.
Sir Edmund not Sir Hillary
With respect to famous mountaineers I've always had greater respect for the unsung sherpas who carried their bags up the friggin' mountain. To Hillary's everlasting credit he always insisted on Tenzing NORGAY receiving equal credit for the conquest of Everest.
After months of her suspicious looks every time he went for training, Brandon decides to take his mom along to his mixed martial arts class. When they get inside, they are both given a dagger and placed in front of hanging dummies. They get into their protective gear and are told to go at it. The mom with dagger in hand pointing at the dummy, asks: "Brandon, what am I supposed to do with this?" He replies: "Stab it, mother!"
Who hasn't set STABAT MATER to music? Maybe 17.8% of all composers in history, living or dead. Here are three more examples:
Paul Mealor (b.1975)
Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967)
Enjoy your weekend.
Thank you, PB, for restoring my faith in my ability to get one of these late-week puzzles done. I've been struggling for a while now, but your work, as always, was fair while being loaded with decent challenges. Just a beautiful grid offering enough vertical gateways to the more difficult Across solves. Thanks!
Just noticed a correction in The Times. If you like diagramless puzzle, the one on Sunday in the magazine actually starts in the sixth square in the first row, not the fourth as instructed.
@r.alphbunker - Nicely done.
I just spent some time adjacent to the Stanford Sierra Camp and was advised not to wear blue while strolling through the facility. They were the Stanford Indians until 1972, which became the singular CARDINAL, the color not the bird. I once asked an alum what their school colors were, he replied, "RED."
I always cringe when I see Freudian psychoanalytic theory given credence in the NYT puzzle, as it is here with the clue for 26D EGOS, "Psychic mediators". It most often happens with the grid-fill-friendly ANAL. A recent clue for that read "___retentive."
In psychiatry and psychology, Freud fell out of favor in the middle of the last century when his theory of personality repeatedly failed to receive any scientific verification and the practice of psychoanalysis proved to be helpful primarily for the analyst---years of expensive, twice weekly sessions---while doing little if anything to resolve the patient's problems.
If you want to read a standard psychoanalytic text, as @merle suggests, you will have to look in the library section where they keep texts on alchemy and phrenology. If you want to see why it finally, belatedly, got jettisoned from psychiatry/psychology, read Freudian Fraud: The Malignant Effect of Freud's Theory on American Thought and Culture.
One of its many malignancies was its incredibly blatant misogyny. Freud thought the female was morally/ethically inferior to the male because she saw herself as already having been deprived of the more desirable male genitalia---and so developed penis envy---and therefore had no motive to develop a strong conscience. He thought the male developed a conscience and became morally superior to the female when he identified with his father as a defense mechanism to avoid having his genitalia chopped off---fear of castration---in retaliation when his father found out he wanted to have sex with his mother.
Sorry for the rant. But this is just the tip of the malignant iceberg, so I hope you can see why I cringe whenever this long-discredited theory is given continued credence in a prestigious publication like the NYT.
Oh yeah, anybody notice all those ever-so-convenient Ss?
PB (Peanut Butter) smooth! Hu hu!
Is anyone else disappointed that the 'variety puzzles' are not in the nyt magazine this week?
Your critique of Freud was made decades ago by feminist theorists who nevertheless found some value in psychoanalytic theory. Some of Freud's ideas have infiltrated our thinking and become so taken for granted as to be invisible.
There is controversy on whether or not Einstein was a DEIST. Many conclude that, in the end, he was pretty much agnostic - not praying to a higher power, yet not not believing.
That clue made me YAP AT the puzzle.
Also always heard LOUIS PRIMA referred to as LOUIE PRIMA.
Good reminder of the movie, The Big Night.
@Peter P. (1:16 p.m.) --Thank you!!!! But it's like locking the barn after the horse is stolen. I'm halfway through the diagramless (what else is there to do on this scorching, dangerously hot day in NYC?) and I've just run out of room on the West Coast. I knew something was terribly wrong -- and that it wasn't with me -- but what I've done is in ink and I can't change it. I need a whole nother copy of the Magazine and I don't know who in my building gets it who isn't away this weekend. I'm tempted to call the Times and ask them to send a (free) extra copy with tomorrow's delivery. (The Sunday magazine always arrives on Saturday.) Think they'll go along with that? Nah -- I doubt it.
Also @Unknown (1:50): Yes I am annoyed! I'm very very annoyed!
It's fitting that I always post so late; I finish far beyond the ace solvers that hang out here. But once again, I indeed DID finish a Patrick Berry puzzle, knowing from the get-go it would be as much fun as it would be challenging. It seemed to me that the PPP count on this one was a little high, but there you go. My hat's off to any constructor who can give me such a gem of a diversion as this one! (In keeping with yesterday's comments, it felt like a birthday present😊).
@Anoa Bob, great rant even if I don't entirely agree.
@loren -- I did see Being There, and I'm not surprised to hear that Asheville has NC's best restaurant, as there is ELITE love dining here. I did read something about a barbecue place here making it to a national dining magazine's top 50 US restaurants list, and there are so many top tier eateries here. It's one reason so many people visit here.
Unusually low double letter count (4), and, as always, butter smooth rife with ahas. Even the 3-letter answers -- and there weren't all that many -- were anything but ugly. Great clue for CHARACTERS (as Loren has mentioned) but less uber-clever cluing than normal for PB. But so what? Plunging into this puzzle, as with PBs puzzles as usual, was diving into loveliness.
To AliazZ: That's funny.
To Unknown 1:50 PM: I am, although I do have online access.
To Diagramless solvers: If you use the clue to get started, be sure to first read the correction on page 2 of the main section of the paper.
To people only interested in today's puzzle: not much to say, except that Mr. Berry seems to be including more proper nouns in his more recent puzzles.
A great puzzle. Easy where it was easy and hard where it was hard, But fair! See Stig O'Tracey on Dinsdale Piranha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygg2KlicnOQ
He was a cruel man. Vicious but fair
I did not like this puzzle. It was as boring as the movie BEING_THERE.
There was a clear error in the cluing for YAP_AT (Address loudly and at length). As a famous crossword constructor once wrote, "Avoid using words (or forms of words) from the answer in your clue."
The clue for SCREAM (Long-distance call?) rubs me wrong. I think it's because of a SCREAM as a wordless vocalization whereas a call contains words. If you want to call over distance, you might shout but you wouldn't SCREAM. Or, better yet, you could learn how to project your voice properly. I used to play the trumpet regularly, and one of the best pieces of advice that I was ever given was to imagine the sound of my horn pinning a piece of paper to the wall from across the room. That is, avoid a wide a sloppy sound; give your sound focus and purpose.
TWEENAGERS. Inferable, yes; word, no.
The only long answer with any life is EVEN_STEVEN. The rest are boring (NAIL_SALONS, JOB_TITLES, CARDINAL_RED) or dated (LOUIS_PRIMA, TALIA_SHIRE). Okay, STABAT_MATER is interesting, too. I just resent it for the trouble it gave me (along with NORGAY) where they crossed YAP_AT.
I also resent EILEEN_FISHER. When my partner and I moved into our current place, we were happy that the neighborhood had a used book store. Within a few short months, the bookstore closed and an EILEEN_FISHER set up shop in its place. Hooray for gentrification. On the plus side, a different bookstore opened up shop within walking distance just the other month.
I didn't get a smile from any of the clues. The clue for NORGAY (Hillary's mate) was clever: I guessed at once that it referred to Sir Edmund, but that knowledge helped me none.
Eileen Fisher advertised in the NYT magazine for years (support print media!) and was notable for using her company employees as models in very professional looking spreads.
THANK YOU re: YAPAT. I was reading through the comments to see if anyone else noticed this/if I was crazy thinking this was a rule. Glad I'm in the right. Would've saved me minutes off my time.
Thank you @Martin. I was "at sea" over Rex's review. I wanted to say that so that "at sea" may used in conversation for the first time since the first third of the last century. About the same time that Louie Prima's mother called him Louis. The only word this puzzle lacked was "lave."
@Anoa Bob - As a Freshman in a small upstate New York college in the early '60's (just pre-"the revolution") I signed up for the mandatory Psych 101 having heard the new Professor (Dr. Harry K. Wells) was controversial because he was: 1) A Marxist at heart (that was not yet a resume enhancer), and 2) despised Freud.
A few classes into the course he discovered a primer on Freud's work stacked on a pile of books on the desk of one woman students. Dr. Wells grabbed the book, he was fuming, and hurled the thing thru a closed window pane. He calmed himself, promised to reimburse her, and launched into a full hour lecture on the evils of the teachings of Freud. He had our attention. I've never forgotten that lecture.
It was a few months later when I dated said student that I discovered the whole thing was a setup. He'd given her the book after the previous class and asked her to stack it on top of her other books for just that purpose. Heck of showman. Heck of a teacher to - this non-psych major went to his 50th reunion recently and we're still talking about Dr. Wells and that lecture.
I thought it was EVE 'N' ADAM, not EVE 'N' STEVEN.
All right, now that I've got that out of my system:
"Dickie, as Commander in Chief, do you think you could refrain from leaving your balled-up socks lying around the Oval Office?"
"YA, PAT."
Noticed EILEEN SENDS LUDENS, EVEN_STEVEN TWEENAGERS AMEN THE_OMEN TOKENS. In other words, maybe there could've been LESS ENS. EVEN so, the staggerstack had a lot of CHARACTER and the STABAT_MATER was downright Medea-esque. Was also pleasantly reminded of re-parsing some of us used to do in college: doorways were marked "Entrance" and street signs read "No, U Turn". Guess that sort of thing left a lasting mark...
Liked finding LOUIS_PRIMA in the NW; have nothing against TALIA_SHIRE, but that space would've been a sweet spot to put KEELY_SMITH.
A pleasant PB1 solve, but I found it easier than yesterday's
@Anna O, thanks for the compliment. By the way, how's your analysis going? :)
@Mohair, great story. Wish I could have taken a course with Dr. Wells.
@George: Sorry, can't link, but the king of Stabat Maters is Dvorak's.
@Anoa - I meant to ask at the end of my post if you were he, your post could have been his lecture that day.
I Googled just now. Dr. Wells died in 1976 - From his obit - One of his books: “The Failure of Psychoanalysis, From Freud to Fromm.”
@Mohair (5:03) -- Great story. I'm wondering, though, if all Psychology profs are born showmen, because something very similar happened in my Social Psych class sophomore year at college. Mr. Burton (I think his name was) was in the middle of his lecture about the discomfort people feel when people step out of their usual roles. A student jumped up in protest. She didn't agree, she thought his comment was bullshit, she became more and more strident, she became more and more unpleasant. I twisted and squirmed in my seat. She was SO out of line! I'd never seen anything like it. And this was not Berkeley in the '70s either. This was Smith college in the early 1960s. Finally, when I thought I couldn't stand the tension and unpleasantness one more minute, Mr. Burton smiled, walked over to the student, thanked her and shook her hand. She was a plant. It had all been staged. "As I was saying," he continued, "we all tend to get really uncomfortable when people step out of their expected roles."
I mentioned the incident to someone who had taken his course the previous year. "It was better than what you describe last year," she said. "His wife barged into the class and chewed him out really nastily right in front of us for leaving dirty clothes on the floor."
@G. Harris, @AskGina, and @Donna Singmaster - LOUIS maybe pronounced like "Lewis" oft times on this side of the pond, but it would sound more like one of Donald Duck's nephews in the original French, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. My guess is PRIMA's mother used the original pronunciation.
I finished this puzzle and just stared at stabatmater. I wondered if I got something wrong, but the crosses seemed right. "mater" made sense, but what was this "stabat"? St. Abat Mater? "Stab at Mater" > Well, no. I finally went to the internet for confirmation.
Well, I just wrote a huge long story about my experience which Blogger decided to lose somewhere in cyberspace.
Long story short, this was a brilliant puzzle, and I hated every minute of it. DNF, and never had a chance of finishing.
Way too much PPP.
I cheerfully call BS on the clue for 36D.
TWEENAGERS is *not* a word. Just because you can find it on Google doesn't make it one, either.
I'm pleased to see that @Rex and so many others enjoyed the solve and knew many of these answers, but this was an expert-level puzzle. Jeopardy champs don't know half this stuff.
And sadly, I'm not an expert. Better luck tomorrow.
Thank you re: tweenagers. I wasn't enjoying the solve to begin with and that one flat out angered me.
Hope all the Lolo... participants had a great experience.
As usual, terrific PB puzzle - lots of work for lots of return. At least for me never an angry moment.
Had a DNF however despite a good Saturday time which is disappointing. Thought cAVE was a way to flatten, like icebergs or snowmen, and had no idea who NORGAY was, so I pretty much knew my ugly looking NOGAr/rAcAT had no chance in a PB puzzle. And I was correct...about that.
Figured out Norgay with no crosses. My only victory, as Saturday's are generally difficult for me. I googled nothing, which I suppose is a sorta-victory. But I did "clear all errors" a number of times. Which is cheating-lite.
The fact that the proper names and movie references were in OFL's knowledge base made this excellent puzzle. If even a few of these were not, he would have ranted about crossing proper names with other proper names, ie: Talia Shire crossed by Alec, Tina and Fisher.
@Leapfinger, are you still up? I can't tell you how hard I'm laughing at EVE 'N STEVEN. At least they're a "traditional" couple :)
Tall, thin packages full of money are happy at Eileen Fisher. The rest of us admire and wish a designer would take on the challenges of the short normal middle-income women of that certain age. Eileen Fisher or someone else.
The NORGAY clue is now my all-time favorite distractor clue.
This was my best time ever on a Saturday. I do love Berrys.
@Z, very likely you are correct since he was born and died in New Orleans where a French pronounciation would be expected. Louis is my husband's middle name and his French speaking Swiss father called him the French "Louie".
I'm with you, Martin, despite the lovely & fair construction of the grid and dreckless fill. Mostly nonboatfloating. Didn't twig to Sir Edmund till I read Rex. And persuaded myself that Hillary's running mate (what's his name--already!) might have an obscure given name thats been dropped (as in N. Timothy Whatsit...) since rAPAT seemed OK.
So smooth and satisfying that the old-ish pop culture stuff comes across as classic rather than crusty.
Notice that every single female (and we're all of a certain age) knew Eileen Fisher? I was in the store today. I buy pretty much all my clothes there. Not saying you should have known it. But to us ladies, it was a gimme.
Hmmm... last two posts mysteriously never posted. Very easy up to the DNF at POpE/ApOT. I had ALOT originally, but took it out when I took out lOOkAROUND. When I later got SPROUT I put in POPE without a though.
And now my Friday post has posted to this puzzle. Grr.
Anyway, monstrously, brutally challenging for me. Had all but the S and SE after ten minutes. Twenty minutes later, I had not added a single square (well, added a lot but took them back out when nothing worked). Not until I got completely desperate and put in the obviously wrong YAPAT did things open up.
JOBTITLE’S STAT
BSHARP with this PERK, and YUL learn some LESSENS,
it’s a RIOT to hear ANY of ANTE CECILIA’s SCREAMin’
BEINGTHERE URNS you a FETE of an ELITE session,
you’re HIREDON to haul ASHES better than EVENSTEVEN.
AMEN
--- STAN NORGAY
The women saved me today. FRAN gave me ALFALFA, and CECILIA and JANE a lot more. The missus gets me out shopping more than I care to, so EILEEN FISHER was familiar, and of course yeah baby TALIASHIRE. Did not know TINA. Mr. Tenzing NORGAY is crosswordese that everyone should know, surprised at OFL’s stumble there.
Haven’t read comments yet, but the MIKE v. MIC thing is still a poser.
I’ve been in more NAILSALONS in the past 5 years than I had in my entire previous lifetime (which was zero).
In years past I dated a FRAN, a CECILIA and at least two JANEs. FRAN 10 years older and CECELIA 10 years younger and +/- 25 years apart, yet both prolific SCREAMers. FRAN’s word of choice was “Choice!” and CECILIA stuck with the eff word. The JANEs enjoyed just BEINGTHERE. They were all quite the CHARACTERS. I would recommend 25 years between marriages to anyone.
To RECAP, +/- 25 minutes of PB enjoyment during which one must BSHARP.
Late to the party today because I had a couple of brain freezes. I am flatly ashamed (did my brain cAVE? No, it was PAVEd over!) at forgetting BEINGTHERE. And I totally Spoonerized the Sherpa's name, coming out with "tenGAY." Don't ask. It's a (w)itch growing old.
I actually got the corners--after some work--but the center had me staring and staring...and I can't keep on like that; I have to take a break. Put it down, eat some breakfast, etc.
Returning, I had an aha! moment with JANE/JOBTITLES. the hymn was no help at all; I needed every single crossing letter. I had SCArab for the Anubis thing, but then rereading the clue, I decided that an insect, however symbolic, can't be a "device." Once I rubbed that out, things in the middle began to open up. CHARACTERS! Hardest headslap of the year so far. DUH!!!
So in retrospect, way harder for me than it should have been. The proper difficulty is about medium for a Saturday; I was challenged. Easy-medium? N-no. This grid is so squeaky-clean I didn't even bother looking at the byline. I just knew. There are constructors, then there's the ELITE--and over them all, as atop Everest, there's PB1. Many choices for DOD today; I'll pick TINA Fey. She and FRAN Drescher are both hot and funny, but TINA's cuter. I agree with OFL's grade of A- (for rmk BSHARP). Hmm, what's between a birdie and an eagle? A birgle? How about a breakaway 25-yard rush for a red-zone first down?
Once again, like yesterday, longer acrosses and downs did most to make this gettable--and fun, like a Patrick Berry puzzle usually is.
Puzzled longest over the SE, where FISHER, YUL, and DEISTS were last to go.
Not really sure that Einstein explicitly claimed to be a DEIST, though some of his statements about the order and wonder of the universe certainly could be interpreted that way.
Took a while to get Edmond Hillary's Sherpa, NORGAY, revealed by YAPAT, resulting in an aha moment. YESHIVA/YUL also linked up for another enjoyable aha.
Thanks, Mr. Berry.
Diana's tip for the day - spell the names of people and places correctly. Or ANTE up! (You'll pay)
My brain truly ran out of steam in the bottom half. TALIASHIRE was hidden because of above-mentioned misspellings. All I can say is at least I didn't call our favorite Sherpa benGAY.
YAPAT? Really?
Couldn't remember if it was Pitt or Penn in The Aviator. Not that I ever saw the movie.
Still - proud of what I did get. On to my paper's other puzzle.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Despite a certain beigeness, you have to admit the smoothness of Berry puzzles overwhelms those parts where other constructors get hammered. Deists smacks of green paint, even in a beige puzzle. I mean, Einstein was a lot of things, German included, but DEISTS was selected. "Tell me about Einstein, Bilbo", "well, he was a DEIST". Right. Also TWEENAGERS is made up, but if PB makes it up, I guess it passes.
The Hillary/NORGAY connection was great misdirection. For a moment I was thinking that Hillary's mate was NORGAr Kaine (Keane?). But as I was writing in the 'r', it came to me, though I liked rAP AT better than the actual answer.
Never having heard of the designer slowed me down, but those names came from fair crosses, and the rest of the puzzle just flowed. Good for the EGO, too. Nice puzzle.
Just FYI, guys: Ms. Clinton is a two-l Hillary (cue Ogden Nash), while Sir Edmund was a one-l. Close inspection of the impeccably written clue reveals but one. For all the places I WAS thrown off, this was never among them.
@spacecraft--Wikipedia says both are two L's. My syndicated version also has two L's.
Both are two L Hillarys. Too obvious misdirect. Ask the Lama for clarification. Neither straight NORGAY could have convinced me ANY differently.
Dolly Lamba, λ
Donald knew it all along,
so tie him to a pillory,
he won’t spell it wrong,
and says, "Go two ell Hillary."
Shirley Yugest
Can someone explain why SOP is a valid answer for "Pacifier"?
SOP
Do you need free Instagram Likes?
Did you know you can get them ON AUTO-PILOT & TOTALLY FOR FREE by using You Like Hits?
Post a Comment