1960s sitcom set in 1860s / SUN 1-22-17 / Grammy winning drummer Lyne Carrington / Piano dueler with Donald in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Constructor:Dan Schoenholz
Relative difficulty:Easy
THEME: "Mishmash" — familiar phrase ends in a word which is then repeated with a vowel change, creating a kind of sing-songy nonsense phrase that gets a "?" clue:
Theme answers:
POWDERED-WIG WAG (23A: Witty British judge?)
JOINED-AT-THE-HIP HOP (38A: Three-legged race, e.g.?)
FINGERTIP TOP (55A: Nail?)
"OF THEE I SING" SONG (66A: "America"?)
LET HER RIP RAP (81A: Grant a girl permission to dis Drake?)
NEW YORK KNICK KNACK (98A: Ability to score at Madison Square Garden, e.g.?) (whoever clued this has not seen the Knicks play lately)
TRIPLE FLIP FLOP (117A: Diving disaster?)
Word of the Day:RIPRAP(81A) —
Riprap, as rip rap, rip-rap, shot rock, rock armour or rubble, is rock or other material used to armorshorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against scour and water or ice erosion. It is made from a variety of rock types, commonly granite or limestone, and occasionally concrete rubble from building and paving demolition. It can be used on any waterway or water containment where there is potential for water erosion. (wikipedia)
• • •
I don't have the inclination to deal too much with this inanity today. I'm still filled with hope and optimism after seeing the Women's marches all over the world today, and I'm not gonna let this puzzle get me down. I'd never heard of WIGWAG or RIPRAP, but they both appear to be things, so all the ping-pong ding-dong clip-clop endings are real things, hurrah. The whole thing didn't feel clever so much as awkward. I kept having to think about how the phrase worked, exactly. None of them ever seemed funny. Luckily, the puzzle was so easy that I didn't have time to dwell much on how sub-entertaining it was. Finished in well under 9, which is down near record territory for me on a Sunday. Is my fingernail the top of my fingertip? That seems ... wrong. Directionally wrong. The finger tip is the end. It has no top. I guess the nail is on "top" of my finger, in a way, but the lack of spot-on-itude there (and elsewhere) was irksome. It's "let 'er rip"; the idea anyone's saying that "h" is pretty hilarious. A very enthusiastic elocution coach, perhaps. You don't "hop" in a three-legged race, do you? The "third" leg consists of two legs moving as one, but not ... hopping. What is a triple flip? I am guessing it is a thing where you flip three times, but it's hardly a snappy diving phrase, like a pike or a tuck. There is no "flip" in Olympic diving. Somersaults are involved, but ... you see, all these phrases just feel off. Like carob. It's not chocolate. You can fool some rube who wants to be fooled, but I like chocolate, and you can't fool me.
I had MALT for ICEE (5D: Drink commonly served with a spoon straw) and I did not know COPs were called [Bluecoat]s. I was thinking it was some Revolutionary counterpart to the Redcoat. Beyond those initial hiccups, I don't remember any resistance whatsoever. Fill isn't terrible. It just is. I need to get back to drinking and watching TCM now. Bye.
Thanks, @Rex, for your review of @Dan Schoenholz's puzzle. You're right about it being easy, but then again, I may have been influenced by my own constructing experiences--without providing outright spoilers, let me just refer those who might be interested to USA Today offerings of December 1, 2016 ("I/O Switch") and January 17, 2017 ("E-Car Wreck")--easily found on-line, or contact me off-Rex if you want pdf versions.
I still remember the Knicks championship teams, with Reed, Frazier, Bradley, DeBusschere, Barnett, Lucas, Monroe, Jackson ... sad to realize how far the franchise has fallen. There were several further sports-centric fill or clues today, of which EL_TRAIN clued as "What Cubs fans get carried away by?" really amused me.
Today, CCS "Keeps in the loop, in a way," yesterday, CCED "Looped in, in a way," and two Sundays ago, BCCS "Loops in, in a way." Today, AGILE "Like cats, typically," yesterday CAT_LIKE_REFLEXES "They result in very fast response times." I do that too, when I teach chemistry--reuse quiz questions with only slight variations until the correct answer finally sinks in for the students.
This one tickled my fancy - clever concept and just the right dose of zaniness. My favorite was the NEW YORK KNICK KNACK, with POWDERED WIG WAG a close second.
Aw, c’mon, Rex. I couldn’t disagree more. When I got my first themer, JOINED AT THE HIP HOP, I was delighted. That alone was worth the price of admission.
Next was OF THEE I SING SONG. “Sub-entertaining.” Hmm. Not for this solver. I absolutely loved this. I’ve never had a TRIPLE FLIP FLOP, but boy once in Chattanooga I had a double flip flop. Almost nailed it, but in the end, it was ugly and painful. (And “Olympic” wasn’t part of the clue. Maybe they don’t say FLIP at the Olympics. But it’s sure what we regular people do off the board; it’s not carob-ish for me.)
I took a break to put a pork shoulder in the slow cooker and came up with NEW YORK KNICK KNACK on my own. And then there it was. And look at those two sets of double K’s. Be still my beating heart.
“Kitatsugi” before RED CAVIAR.
@Theodore Stamos – I almost wrote in “asap” before ASST.
Liked CHEN crossing GEEZER. HAH. Hey, Jeff!
Biggest mistake was “idol/Dale” 107A/108D. But “Yalkee”… well. That was easy enough to fix. And of course we “Leone, Ursa” guys this morning will be legion. Oh, and my atheist at first lacked a “diety.” Yup – misspelled and everything.
I don’t think there are many other possibilities here. Video clip clop? Bar chit chat? Meh.
@George – thank you, as always, for your interesting and classy comments. You’re a big asset here in Rexville, where we discuss not only the puzzle but also stuff the day’s fare makes us think of. Sure, it’s nice to see that others made the same mistakes, but it’s really, really fun to follow all the interesting little side roads people take. Like today – more WINE talk? @NCA – the mother of a guy I dated used to put sweet-n-low in her wine.
Dan – terrific idea and lots of fun. And those downs PEG BOARD, STRAW POLLS, WINGSPAN, LENGTHWISE, RED CAVIAR… excellent! I’m with @jae, @chefwen, @Carola, et al who liked it.
Oh, and I was just kidding about “kitatsugi.” It’s not a word; I just made it up.
* I got tricked on the clues for SEW and NEE -- and I love being tricked. * The middle theme answer seems like an outlier in that the first word, SING is the only theme answer first word without the short i. * I wanted Jib Jab in there somewhere. * MAdman for MANIAC held me up, as did OWNup for OWNIT. * Very nice cross of GEEZER and NINETY. * Learned a nice fact about the Amazon River.
Proud of my little town of Asheville, NC, with a population of around 80,000, and 7,000 - 10,000 showing up for yesterday's march. The world yesterday put a little Hope And Change feeling into my heart, and man, did that feel good.
I am not a "disgrace to women" because I don't support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class citizen" because I am a woman. I do not feel my voice is "not heard" because I am a woman. I do not feel I am not provided opportunities in this life or in America because I am a woman. I do not feel that I "don't have control of my body or choices" because I am a woman. I do not feel like I am " not respected or undermined" because I am a woman. I AM a woman. I can make my own choices. I can speak and be heard. I can VOTE. I can work if I want. I control my body. I can defend myself. I can defend my family. There is nothing stopping me to do anything in this world but MYSELF. I do not blame my circumstances or problems on anything other than my own choices or even that sometimes in life, we don't always get what we want. I take responsibility for myself. I am a mother, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a friend. I am not held back in life but only by the walls I choose to not go over which is a personal choice. Quit blaming. Take responsibility. If you want to speak, do so. But do not expect for me, a woman, to take you seriously wearing a pink va-jay-jay hat on your head and screaming profanities and bashing men. If you have beliefs, and speak to me in a kind matter, I will listen. But do not expect for me to change my beliefs to suit yours. Respect goes both ways. If you want to impress me, especially in regards to women, then speak on the real injustices and tragedies that affect women in foreign countries that do not that the opportunity or means to have their voices heard. Saudi Arabia, women can't drive, no rights and must always be covered. China and India, infantcide of baby girls. Afghanistan, unequal education rights. Democratic Republic of Congo, where rapes are brutal and women are left to die, or HIV infected and left to care for children alone. Mali, where women can not escape the torture of genital mutilation. Pakistan, in tribal areas where women are gang raped to pay for men's crime. Guatemala, the impoverished female underclass of Guatemala faces domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages. And that's just a few examples. So when women get together in AMERICA and whine they don't have equal rights and march in their clean clothes, after eating a hearty breakfast, and it's like a vacation away that they have paid for to get there... This WOMAN does not support it.
Can tedium be fun? Can anything that makes you think New York Knick Knack be bad? Does sticking with Let Her Dis Dap for so long because I thought that might be this Drake fella's first name make me stubborn or just plain silly?
I loved this puzzle, warts and all, and I feel some sort of little joy that I finished it.
But the spreadsheet, the spreadsheet makes me feel hopeful again. Thanks @Carola.
As long as we are thanking @George Barany for his daily comments, I'd like to get in on that. I really, really appreciate hearing consistently positive input from another constructor every day. I'm not trying to discount @Rex, because I've been coming to this blog everyday for years, and I've learned so much about the constructing process and crosswords in general here, and I sincerely appreciate that, but the constantly sour, bitter tone can be a bit off-putting; it's just refreshing to hear from somebody who actually enjoys doing the NYT crossword as a counterpart. Again, @Rex, please know that I love your blog (and I agree with your politics), and thank you also for everything you do.
fun puzzle. Got flip flop first and the rest was easy. Hand up for malt before iced. Now I want to sing...knick knack paddy whack, give a dog a bone...etc etc.
I'm with @Rex on this one. Just didn't do it for me. I think the AGA/ANA and LAO/RAO had something to do with it. Nice dig at the Knicks too. @Evil, thanks in advance. I'll surely be entertained all day now. Here we go......
If you really, really like crosswords you should consider joining @George Barany's Friends group. Members include some of the best constructors n the business, up-and-coming constructors, aspiring constructors, and those who just love puzzles. Write to George for more information.
A "meh" puzzle. There wasn't any zing, zip or pizzaz. Nor were there any fun a-ha moments. Also, I refuse to look favorably upon any puzzle containing ERIEPA.
I'm with LMS. I thought every one of the themers was clever. I especially liked the twist on KNICK-KNACK and HIP HOP. @Rex: both RIP-RAP (though I've seen it RIP WRAP) and WIG WAG are very familiar to this old codger. I'm a bit put off by your being so caught up in the news that you can't fairly judge a puzzle. Almost the only thing I agree with in your blog today is that the puzzle is easy. Every other judgment I found not only wrong but ignorant and/or silly.
Not easy for me, I guess I'm on another track; while it was not too difficult once I got the theme, there were way too many TRIVIAl references and it took me a long time to make a dent. I guess I don't pay enough attention to tv shows or sports ... although I am old enough to remember FTroop :-D
I believe the constructor has confused, or mishmashed, the two dumb races performed at family fun days. You run in a 3-legged race. You hop in a sack race. The answer is dumb.
Also, I'm with Kristin Stewart (assuming that quote is true). I keep hearing it referred to as the Million Woman March by participants. To compare a woman's struggles today to those of an African-American's in the '60s is distasteful, inaccurate and disrespectful.
@evil doug: source please? i can't find any reference anywhere on the internet that cites kristen stewart as having said that. it appears to have originated with a facebook post that has been deleted. link please.
Easy-peasey. "Let her rip rap" is a verb-phrase and all the other ones are noun-phrases (I'm a chemist who no longer knows the right way to put that). I'm not sure why there's a long quote from Kristen Stewart in the middle of this blog? Did this puzzle remind someone of YA literature?
@merican in Paris -- Drake is a current rap artist.
Whether riprap is a thing or not doesn't seem particularly relevant to me. As I was solving it was only the vowel change I was keying on. It's a bonus to hear assurances that they were all of the familiar "tiptop" variety, though.
Don't think things like "bee bop" and seesaw really work here...
it appears there is NO source existing for this quote...but it has spread among conservatives like wildfire...shocking.
I'm calling shenanigans on the source and say, given the BS contained in it, it's very likely to have been written by a man. we can't know until you enlighten us with your source. or maybe meryl streep said it? jane fonda? did you pick kristen stewart because you figured it was just low enough on the radar that it would seem plausible? kristen stewart is an outspoken lesbian who very much understands women's issues.
but you're a man. and you're an idiot. an old bag of wind who is nothing more than a troll. "evil" as part of your name? that says it all. you're just a pain in the ass pretending to be something you're not. my guess is you were kicked around as a kid on the playground and now you're trying to get even.
@anonymous 8:41 - huh, that's just what 1960s chauvinist 'radical' men preached. Old, old, old. Check out what Kathleen Cleaver and Angela Davis had to say about that.
still waiting, doughie. back up your claim or get out. you can't just post sh*t here and get away with it. if you're posting inflammatory stuff that isn't true or that you refuse to back up, then you're admitting to us all that you're nothing more than a troll...and not even very good at it.
I agree completely with @Rex today - on carob never fooling me into thinking it is chocolate. And the awesomeness of the marches yesterday, but nothing about the puzzle.
This was hard for me. Using @r.alphbunker's randomization, I had so many plausible (to me) errors that it took me 46 minutes to find and iron them out.
With so many errors, the answer to "World's most voluminous river" ends up looking like AhAZ_e, which had me thinking of "Yangtze" but never AMAZON. Et CETERA, et CETERA.
I loved the themers JOINED AT THE HIP HOP and OF THEE I SING SONG, especially the latter.
And @Carola, thanks for the RAW DATA. I was proud to be one of the 90,000-100,000 in St. Paul. (The data sheet should not have Minneapolis tacked on there - we weren't even close to Mpls.)
I thought the puzzle was rather clever and enjoyed the play on words. It was fun if you don't nitpick it too much. I have never seen too many people run in a 3-legged race. Yes, they don't really hop----it is more like they stumble, limp, skip, or something similar. This is a crossword so it is ok to take some liberties. I do agree that Erie, PA should not have shown up again and I am surprised that OFL didn't go off on a rant about that. I always thought I had learned about Hernando Cortez but obviously don't remember my eighth grade history well.
Kristen Stewart is a very, very smart girl and I just don't see her speaking like that, at all. By the way, here's where she was on Saturday: http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/sundance-womens-march-donald-trump
For all I know, Andrea, Kristen could have been learning at the feet of that brilliant orator, Miley Cyrus, or plotting with Madonna to blow up the White House. But Kristin wasn't....
Don't feed the trolls posting non-crossword stuff9:52 AM
The post clearly references "Kristin Stewart." Kristin with an "I." A quick search of "I am not a "disgrace to women" because I don't support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class citizen" because I am a woman" shows it is flying around the internet and is basically unattributed.
Perhaps the misspelling by ED was intentional to rope in the responses.
ONE-O' CAT is a contraction of One Old Cat, a bat-and-ball game, basically baseball with only one base.
Learned about RIPRAP 20+ years ago when a bridge on the NYS Thruway over Schoharie Creek failed, as inadquate riprap allowed the spring floods to undermine the bridge pillars in the creek bed. I had crossed that bridge about two weeks before.
A fun puzzle with cluing clever enough to keep it interesting. More headslaps than aha moments, but light, fun heads slaps.
Riprap, "loose stone used to form a foundation for a breakwater or other structure," is a thing. Find a levee, look at the "toe," and there you'll find some.
ladies and gentlemen, what more evidence do we need? doug is a troll. he posts solely to clutter up an otherwise pleasant blog and comments section. he has no other purpose than to be an asshat.
doug, (may i call you doug?), you are the problem here. you and your ilk are the ones who make it all an unpleasant experience. you don't post for the purpose of conversation, you post for the purpose of stirring up trouble. you make it difficult to scan through the comments without seeing yet another of your posts that are placed only for agitation. like a small child seeking attention.
given this recent post of yours, it is clear you aren't here to chat, or converse, or even to achieve anything other than being an ass. and quite honestly, that is not a good reason to post here.
you are a troll. you are a simple minded, probably overweight aging white man who doesn't have anything else to do but garner some attention by posting here and getting your rocks off. what a sad little man you are. what a pitiful waste for what is probably an otherwise good body.
get lost, chump. the jig is up. we know what you're about...and all the spell checking or name calling in the world won't take away the fact that you're only purpose here is to agitate and contribute nothing of substance. you left here once before...now it's time for you to make your final exit. why not be a man for a change and try to maintain whatever dignity you have left?
don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya...
Sorry @Evil Doug, but even after telling my search engine to eliminate all the Kristen hits all I saw were a few linkedin hits and then lots of Kristen Stewart stuff. Not that I care a whole lot, but my guess is that Bannon wrote it.* It does seems fairly likely that whoever actually wrote this wanted people to believe it was Kristen.
@Anonymous - In a democracy the solution to speech you disagree with is more speech. You may notice I disagree with @Evil Doug a lot. That doesn't make him a "troll." By posting anonymously you are actually closer to the typical example. I'm sympathetic to your frustration, but not to the way you choose to express it.
I thought this announcement might interest people.
*In these fraught emotional times I still feel the need to point out when a quip is a joke, not to be taken seriously. So, no, I don't think Bannon wrote the quote.
Today's puzzle was relatively easy and fun. 'Hernando' is how I too remember that explorer from grade school, but Hernan is probably a variant. After working on a book of old Sunday NYT puzzles, I must agree with several comments in the past several months that recent puzzles are relatively easy. The puzzles in the old book are from 2011-12 and seem to be more difficult than the current crop.
Easy to medium for me, but consistently fun. What's not to love about JOINED AT THE HIPHOP (perfect clue, btw), TRIPLE FLIPFLOP, and POWDERED WIGWAG? But my absolute favorite, considering how really badly the average person sings the National Anthem, is OF THEE I SINGSONG. (Think it should have been clued by that song and not by "America" -- a song that almost everyone can sing.) At any rate, an amusing and enjoyable puzzle.
Hmmm...several bits of confusion. As @noreen just said, I always thought it was HERNANdo Cortes (or Anglicized, Cortez). The Wikipedia entry is for HERNAN but it says that Cortes himself used Hernando.
As several others have mentioned, I confidently wrote in ONE o CAT as I thought that was more common. Mr. Google isn't any help here as it counts other usages, even when "one a'cat" is in quotes, such as "I have two pets, one a cat and one a dog."
My confusion, I thought 71A the Indian spice was actually spelled like the wine MArSALA.
Last but not least, 111 is clued with the abbr. Mrs. but FRAU is not an abbreviation.
Actually, Fraulein is an unmarried woman. Frau, as the clue indicates is a married woman. I.e., unless there is some kind of pun/joke that my dim brain is missing; (can't get my phone to print the umlaut over Fraulein);
Very EZ but liked it more than Rex. Liked cluing for NAIL and EL TRAIN, although in NYC there was an "L" train . One of my favorite college basketball players was Lionel "L Train" Simmons from Lasalle U. Thanks DS
I'm with @Loren; especially JOINED AT THE HIP HOP was hilarious. So was the KNICK KNACK, once I saw that it had to be ACK, not ACH.
The march yesterday was exciting in so many ways -- 175,000 people here in Boston, none of whom was demanding that anyone else go without breakfast. One of the small excitements, which brought tears to my eyes, was when people started singing The Star Spangled Banner the OF THEE IS SING SONG. Too many people on the left have been unwilling to claim America's wonderful multiethnic and revolutionary heritage -- it's time we got over that.
As for RIP RAP, you can't grow up on the Great Lakes without knowing that. Anyone with shoreline property has to put some down or see their yard washed away. I think it's also a sewing thing, though -- a strip of zig-zag cloth tape you sew on to reinforce a hem. I bet they have a bunch of it at the KITATSUGI factory.
'OF THEE I SING, baby Summer, autumn, winter, spring, baby. You`re my silver lining, You`re my sky of blue There`s a lovelight shining Just because of you.'
Gershwin. Sigh. And Ella sings it swell on Youtube.
@Z: i've said what i needed to say. nothing more to say.
as for you "disagreeing" with doug, whatever. i just don't see disagreeing with a troll as disagreement, since nothing he has EVER posted has been particularly thoughtful or in any way rational that would invite true "disagreement." you don't disagree with trolls...you tolerate them. and by "tolerating" them, you enable them to continue their BS. so, to each his own, i guess. so long as you all tolerate doug and embrace him, you are just enabling him to go on posting incendiary posts which makes it sh*t for everyone else.
as for me posting anonymously, that's funny because many of the trolls here insist that we ALL post anonymously even if you have a screen name.
I'm pretty sure Fraulein is "Miss" and Frau is "Mrs." "Frau"is abbreviated "Fr."---? Me too on Hernando. It's a new learning that his actual name was "Hernan." But, unhappily, I'm not an ABBA fan and now I have a "Fernando" earworm for the day. Arghhh.
I'm happy we see a variety of viewpoints on the blog and that it's OK to digress once in awhile to express them. And if we don't like to feel bullied by someone's chosen language, or user name, all we have to do is click on their thumbnail and see their bio for some insight. Life can be frustrating.
Hey All ! Rex, "9 minutes". Wow. Me, 59 minutes, if lucky.
Liked the rhyminess of this puz. WIGWAG a new one on me, but the rest were cool. And it seems everyone missed the "third" part of answers, in that the rhymer completed the clue. Maybe some caught it, Rex tried to explain it a bit. More posts here are now political and posters calling posters jerks rather than puz related. Oh well, I'm sure Rex will go back to moderation soon.
No RRNs, eels, or asses, but an I BAR! ONE A CAT new to me. Like the top row COSMIC STARES. AMAZON clue could've ended 'retailer' instead of river. :-)
I find it hard to believe that @Evil D would knowingly post a faux Kristen Stewart. It's hard to argue with that post's proposition that first-world women are much much better off than those living in almost every other country. (BTW, the list forgot to include India's bride-burning and the use of ultrasounds for prenatal selective reduction of females. It's all very rational; sons bring dowries into the family, while daughters cost them.)
Still and all, I don't think the 1/21/17 assemblies' intent was to bemoan second-class citizenship and generalized down-troddenness, but rather to reject how the current presidency is shaping up, what it has done, and purportedly intends to do. Perhaps, for some, to stand with John Lewis. I can't speak for even one person other than myself, of course, so if I'm interpreting or projecting too much, sorry for that.
Re the puzzle: Fine little diversion and I always enjoy a bowl of WANTON soup. We just had a spate of lecterns and podia, which may well have come from a store called Cosa ROSTRA.
Only troublespot was in parsing ForT ROOP, and in thinking cats ALOOF before AGILE, I must have been kipling The Cat That Walked By Himself
Which reminds me to thank @foxaroni, @Dr Lee77, @Sailor Steve and (of course :D) @Z for catching me up on my Asimovian foray the other day, y'all reminded me that things are Seldon what they seem.
Today's theme had great rhythm, and I also got my biggest KicK out of the KK-KK-K KNICKKNACK. @Rex, for sure, the nail is on the TOP of the FINGERTIP, as convention commonly has the dorsum 'on top'. Mostly, it was the theme's clippety-clop made it tip-top. Not to mention the CHENg and Eng JOINED AT THE HIPHOP.
Here's another possibility: Rolex for a buck? - DEERTICKTOCK
The Kristin Stewart quote (if that's who really wrote it) to me speaks even more to the necessity of the women's marches. Of course American and most Western women don't have the worries that third-world women have. All the more reason for us, with our resources and histories, to continue to fight for all women in all countries and be sure we, who have made so much progress (remember when we couldn't vote? buy things on credit? obtain contraception?) don't start sliding backwards.
Apologies to the constructor for all of the comments here that have nothing to do with the crossword you worked so hard to construct.
Liked your sense of humor and enjoyed figuring out the word play. Especially liked "OF THEE I SING" SONG and LET HER RIP RAP. As a Chicago boy, I also dug the clue for EL TRAIN.
I didn't find this one easy. Took longer to open up the pattern of the clues than it should have, but not having any idea what RIPRAP and WIGWAG were didn't really help.
Have never seen ONEACAT (definitely not that spelling, anyway), and I guess I'm too young for FTROOP (and I watched a lot of syndicated shows growing up).
Is the cluing on 66A even precise? It's a song title, and we get a lyric from it. Doesn't seem like rule-following to me. (Didn't help that I had West Side Story in my head.)
Fell into a lot of traps. LeonE before MADRE, cOWS before SOWS, unI before TRI, ScARFS before SNARFS, ursA before ASIA.
I'm surprised Rex isn't more upset with the fill. LAO, LOA, SEM, ATWT(?!), SUI, ACK, ISL, ETAT, SOU. Surely there was a better clue for LOT ("Poland's main airline"). Is SEGA still a "gaming giant"? And really, Rex, no complaint for ERIEPA?
With the lackluster theme, I just can't justify this poor fill.
"Ding Dong! The Witch is dead. Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!" -- Dorothy, and the Munchkins
One of the easiest Sundays ever. I started my solving -- as I always do -- at 1A, all acrosses first, then all downs starting at 1D. When I entered PTA at 121D, the entire puzzle was complete and correct, no re-checking, no corrections ---> happy tune. Bim, bam, booom.
@GB, you beat me to the pinch-punch with your kit-kat-like reflexes on the CCS/CCED echo from yesterday.
Regarding MISHMASH, it reminded me of the way I learned to love puns as a kid, playfully changing the last syllables of nursery rhymes and poems in a zig-zag fashion. Innocent, fun, unpretentious language-appreciation game as a kid, rather boring as a Sunday NYT puzzle theme.
However, it's a perfect excuse to present the joyous Tritsch-Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss II, a remarkable tone painting of laughter.
@ED - I just love how talented, beautiful, skinny, white women who have achieved success in essentially vacuous careers which stress all four attributes attribute their success to only one of those attributes, talent. I take their comments about the privilege they have been afforded by their success seriously, very seriously.
To recap: K. Stewart did not pen the quote above. It is a post found on a facebook page that has since been deleted or closed. all that exists currently is this remnant floating around solely on conservative websites. K. Stewart was only mentioned here...in this blog...by E. Doug. No celebrity has taken credit for saying it, writing it, or posting it anywhere.
the fact that many of you are still talking about K. Stewart or even given any kind of credibility to this quote that may or may not have even been written by a woman is evidence of E. Doug's trolling.
and no, he doesn't get to win because I am calling him out. i am calling him out so that you will all see that he isn't contributing at all to the conversation and should, out of respect to the rest of us, leave.
i tell you what...i'll leave when he does. until then, i will continue to call him out for stirring the pot for the sake of sitting and home and celebrating with another bag of cheetos.
Isn't there supposed to be a 3 post per day limit on this blog? Say what you need to say, but do it in 3 posts then stop. Maybe time to REVISIT some of the blog 'rules'?
Total slog. Not amused at all. And there is no such thing as ONEACAT. Nice misdirect for SEW, though, and how many confidently wrote in "Chi" before CIN?
"To recap: K. Stewart did not pen the quote above."
False.
"It is a post found on a facebook page that has since been deleted or closed."
False, again.
"No celebrity has taken credit for saying it, writing it, or posting it anywhere."
*That's* true. She's no celebrity. Just a normal woman from the basket of deplorables. Your presumption - - that celebrity somehow enhances credibility -- is patently false. Of course, your own credibility has pretty much evaporated today, too....
Thank God for regular posters like Evil Doug and Moly Shu who keep this board from becoming an echo chamber for the hard core left. Especially since they do so without hiding behind an alias or anonymous screen name.
Once the initial comment of, "Oh, and I had a great walk yesterday with around 40,000 of my closest friends." was made by regular poster jae, the subject was fair game!
The best comment regarding the ensuing discussion up until the 11:53am post, was definitely provided by Leapfinger at 11:24am. She has always been one of the top "Class Acts" on this board. I agree with her defense of Evil Doug. He may have been duped by some Facebook post or such, and executed a "cut and paste" but his info is usually solid. As for the content of the post attributed to Kristen Stewart, I can't see anything there that would be offensive to women? Certainly nothing that would lead to the vitriolic ad hominem attacks unleashed by @anonymous starting at 9:05am.
Regarding those attacks, the poster uses an alias, then has the chutzpah to call the possessor of a blue screen user name a troll? That would be laughable were it not so pathetic! Thanks Doug! You made my day. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a liberal head explode with so much rage and hatred.
Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, white, black, left, right, up, down. To quote W.C. Fields: "I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally." Ha! :-)
To quote another saying, "Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!"
@Doug...I'm not even sure why you posted the K Stewart story but since it is out, let me add my thoughts. The Women's March on Washington wasn't just about equal rights for women. Thousands felt targeted by the president during his 2016 campaign. Latinos, LGBTQ Americans, survivors of sexual assault, people with disabilities - he excoriated them all. The march was a triumph for ALL the people. If only he will listen. I loved this puzzle...it made me laugh at every single theme. POWDERED WIGWAG conjures up an image of those unwashed ugly gray wrinkly things barristers plopped on their heads. Good job dapper Dan....
I must challenge the ONO clue (Only woman to sing lead vocals on a Beatles song). Despite the answer being obvious, Ono sang the word "birthday", the line "not when he looked so fierce", and whatever zibbering transpired on 'Revolution 9' and 'What's the New Mary Jane'. Vocals, yes. Lead, hardly. Don't mean to be pedantic here - I have too many Beatlemaniac friends.
Easy-ish puzzle for me too, which is fine! Wasn't crazy about the theme at first but I warmed up to it, RIPRAP's still murky. Got a little stuck around ANA/APT/ADOPT, I happily remembered ALIENEE this time, ETAT (Californie) was tricky but gettable. Generally enjoyed the cluing - I can understand Rex and others wanting more on Sunday.
Unlike some others, I don't mind on-topic posts interspersed with clear and concise political opinion or even fervor at this important time - but that huge and obviously fraudulent block of text is garbage and unwelcome.
I noticed the review to yesterday's puzzle was actually a review of the puzzle and nothing else. The comments followed in a similar vein with the occasional detour such as the one on that terrific New Yorker article. It seems that is when this blog is most enjoyable. When the review brings up a political event, or objects to a politically incorrect clue or answer, the comments section tends to move away from the puzzle as the main focus and is less enjoyable, for me at least.
I have a neighbor from South America (Peru, I think, but maybe Argentina) who uses a traditional silver spoon / straw device to drink the yerba tea called mate. I was so proud to be able to plunk that in confidently at 5 Down.
Lose the politics ... blog is about the puzzle or politics, not both. Especially lose Evil Doug for good and all. My enjoyment of puzzled-related commentary has been compromised, maybe fatally. You had a good thing - but let it go bad.
I enjoyed the puzzle much more than some people here, and I thought the theme answers were fun (hi, @LMS). It played medium for me, though. It took me a while to see what was going on with the theme, I'm embarrassed to admit, and a stupid typo took a long time to uncover.
I don't agree with much that @Evil Doug says, but he does post here often enough and talks about the puzzle consistently enough that he deserves not to be lumped in with the guy who thinks he's clever for calling people snowflakes in fifty posts a day.
Having said that, his whole silly original post was just an attempt to distract from the embarrassing reality that twice as many people showed up to protest Trump as showed up to support him. And that's not to mention the inanity that followed involving charges of doctored photos and biased journalists and "alternative facts" (also known as lies) being offered by the press secretary in his first day on the job.
If Evil Doug wants to go down the rabbit hole, let him. You don't have to follow.
Pretty mundane puzzle for me; one issue is there not enough snap to what should be groan-inducing theme answers. Another is that there are too many short, trivial crosswordese answers as others have pointed out. It would also be nice to struggle a little with a Sunday puzzle.
The battle over the women's March in the blog today is unfortunate. Evil Doug, I fail to understand why you waste your time arguing over the attribution of a quote. Why not just say where you got the quote from (as you did) and ignore personal attacks on you? Whether it has been taken down is entirely irrelevant. (That should serve as a warning to those who post to think twice before posting.) Responding to personal attacks is inevitably going to be taken as an incentive to attack you again.
Both the left and the right in the heat of the divisiveness that the country seems destined to be embroiled in for the length of the current administration have degenerated into name calling that is conducive to nothing in the way of progress or conciliation. And I am not exempting/excusing myself from, at times, getting involved in this distressing trend. But, here is the problem.
Our current President, Mr. Trump, has for many years been unable to talk or write about almost anything that anyone else does or says that he disagrees with (even if the thing written or said is not about him but, especially if it is) without launching a personal attack on the writer or speaker of the point he does not agree with. E.g., when Obamacare was passed into law, it's constitutionality was ruled on by the Supreme Court. Justice Roberts wrote that it was constitutional. Mr. Trump promptly announced that Justice Roberts is an: 'absolute loser'. More recently, Trump declared that Meryl Streep is overrated. It is just not within his persona to try to logically and rationally refute the positions taken against his ideology or criticisms of what he says or does. He apparently feels compelled to launch an ad hominem attack on the person he does not agree with. And that methodology has spread like a cancer in the current times. If that is how Trump is going to play it, it is very difficult for his followers or his opponents to stop the unleashing of their ire. You have to fight fire with fire, right?
Please let's all stop falling into that sinkhole. While I don't agree, for example, with Evil Doug's quotation/assessment of women's rights in this country (the standard that Hillary Clinton was held to during the presidential campaign seemed to me to be a clearly different and way higher one than Mr. Trump), that doesn't make ED a bad person or a moron or any other perjorative term you can think of for believing American women are doing pretty well in terms of rights particularly when compared to women in the rest of the world.
So, how about we all work on making the blog a place for civilized discussion and a little cameraderie.
I hope I don't break my ankle getting off the soapbox.
Had the puzzle slotted as a time killer for the drive home from DC today, but alas too quickly solved. Back to posting pics from the march. Be as political as you want Rex, us progressive solvers thank you
40 down Alternative to Cinemax is TMC. I've heard of AMC and TCM, but I had no idea there was a TMC... Tricky!
Almost couldn't finish, but guessed correctly at the cross between LOT and ROSTRA. Once it was there, though, ROSTRA felt right and vaguely familiar. Probably from grade 10 history.
I got the whole FLIPFLOP mishmash idea and thought it was . . .well . . . cute. I thought that if this is what we're going with today, so be it. I had to think about the three-legged race and hopping. The clue kinda sorta works for a combination of sack races and three-legged races. What it put into my head was a sort of jumble of pictures of both races. I'm not RIPping the clue here, I'm just commenting on the muddled image it produced.
In spite of reading through all NINETY some clues, not a whole lot about this puzzle sticks in my head. I found it easy enoough, I guess but nothing in it inspired me in any way. I really did think that @Rex would RIP this a new one. In a way, I suppose he did by not giving it much attention. I guess he just didn't see FINGERTIP TOP the way I did. I put my hand flat on the table by my keyboard and there it is, right on the TOP of my FINGER and right down by the TIP. POWDERED WIG WAG got me thiinking about whatever I know or don't about English courts of law. I'm not sure there would be many WAGs on the bench as my impression is that English courts are all very stiff upper lip and all that.
I knew a judge once who tells of a time when he was assuring a defendant that he should not worry about some perjury involved in his testimony by announcing that the court was aware that murder might well lead to lying. Apparently he had to bang his gavel and call for order to silence the laughter and tittering.
Sometimes @Evil Doug pisses me off but he is part of the "family" and I respect his right to be here and say what he wants. Sometimes I even heartily agree with him. I believe there is value in seeing viewpoints that differ from my own. They help me to keep perspective. It is so easy for a person to believe that his or her opinion is the only one possible. Sadly, for some, having that threatened creates conflict and agression. I believe that it is easier to say that one disagrees without calling the person with whom one disagrees a name or insisting they should crawl into a hole and die.
By the way, I thought it was pretty cool that 30 women marched in Antarctica. They weren't marching to protect their pussies, they were marching to protect the penguins and seals and all the other animals who will be threatened by climate change. They didn't march for very long as they wanted to limit their footprint on the ground. I don't like cold weather but If I could, I would have been there with them.
What on earth is going on on the blog today? Who the bleep is Kristen Stewart? Did she say what @Evil says she said? Did she say something different? Does @Evil agree with what she said? Does @Evil agree with what she didn't say? Which would I agree with -- what @Evil says she said or what she actually did say -- assuming they're not the same thing? Should I remotely care? Should you?
I gather this all has something to do with the Women's March yesterday. I know a lot more about the march than I know about Kristen Stewart. (Actually I know nothing whatsoever about Kristen Stewart). I do, however, know Gloria Steinem, and I applaud everyone in every city who, as she said, dared to "put their bodies where their beliefs are". Congrats to the many, many, many millions of you.
FWIW -- ONEOCAT has appeared 8 times in the Shortz era, and never in the pre-shortz era. ONEACAT has appeared 4 times in the Shortz era and 4 times in the pre-shortz era.
Fun late night solving with my resident novice Sunday solitary solver. Her solving skills are increasing and so is her ability to control her tendency to resort to petulance. Well, nobody reads this anyway.
When I see MANTLE, I see #7 "The Commerce Comet." My older brother idolized him, so I grew up during his career. We lived in a town nestled up against the Sierra Madre Mountains east of Pasadena.
Early on in life, I learned that if I could imitate one of the comedy routines I had heard on a Warner Bros. record, "Looney Tunes," I would become wildly popular. It worked, until my voice lowered. DAFFY claims he "Made a three-point landing; on my two knees and on my nose."
INANITY? AWKWARD? SUB ENTERTAININ? GET BACK TO DRINKIN? Wow.
Now, for some alternative facts…
Must take zillions of nanoseconds to build a solid, fun, ginormous puz like this puppy. Constructor Dan no doubt spent lotsa extra time holed up, cleanin up every darn splatz of loose fill, instead of goin out in his yard and/or enjoyin life with normal people. And what does he get? Downer write-up stuff like "lack of spot-on-itude"? Oh, and that there thousand moneybucks, of course.
And yet, I reckon @RP woulda brightened up the write-up considerable, if there'd been a themer like: * UNITEDHUBBUB, or * DRAINTHESUMPPUMP, or * PLEASINGLYPLUMPTRUMP. These woulda helped remedy the alarminly lopsided 1-scrabble-point letter count string of: A=45,E=45,I=30,L=17,N=27,O=28,R=24,S=23,T=24,U=4. Typical U-respect. Shoot, the inaUgUration practically had a better headcount, than that ...
@Lewis, thank you for pulling us back into the puzzle.
Let's stay on topic that's germane To puzzles this fin de SEMAINE. My hairline begins to recede At an accelerated rate When anyone tries to RESEED The germs of insidious hate.
Evil Doug is a dumbass. He quotes who he thinks is Kristen Stewart, gets called on the fact that Kristen Stewart didn't say that, and then reflexively leans on the alternate spelling to redirect criticism to people who called him on his bullshit.
The fact that he posts here to do that intentionally (to have "fun" in his words) should be to he him banned. Seriously, who does this besides a 10year old boy?
And why should any of us have to put up with it? Why should any of us have to 90% of the time ignore him? Today's post is a prime example of intentionally trolling. He's an ass and it's ok to call him that. He needs to leave like the other anon said above.
This may be the Internet, but on other sites he'd have been banned a long time ago. And it isn't because we disagree, it's because he has nothing to say except bullshit. He admits himself.
Okay,we get it, you hate evil doug. Time to give it a rest because its pretty obvious that you are not gonna change a lot of regular poster's minds here. Doug has played you like a Stradivarius all day long, and yet you keep insisting on yet one more rendition of Tempo di ciaccona. Even the most talented musicians understand what "rest" means on a score.
He may be evil doug to you, but he' OUR evil doug!
@anon 6:47 Trump has given everyone a green light to behave, say, react, comment, etc. in any way one pleases without regard for others. Why should we hold fellow Americans in this great nation, much less on this blog, to a higher stanadard than the pompous narcissist currently residing in the White House? Not a fan of evil Doug, but nothing he writes could ever be more incindiery than Trump.
Love your site. On the WigWag comment. In Britain a wit is often called a Wag. I got hung up on a blue coat as well, looking for some historic soldier as well.
@evil It is quite a logic flaw to say a March against problem A should be berated because a problem B exists, one which has a common element, women, but nothing else to support your rebuke.
People have an active agression with your claim because it is not just a misunderstanding of problem A, it is a ill disguised support of problem A and an ill disguised attempt to degrade opposition to it.
Almost a minute off my best time for tomorrow's puzzle. Here's hoping for a "challenging" from Rex.
I'm not asking, just observing, I've no idea what a "snowflake" is supposed to be, why it's an insult, or why both ends of the spectrum throw it around at the other end. Change that, there is very clearly an implied "fuck you" before every use of it these days. BTW - That link I posted earlier was to the AVCX announcing that proceeds from this week's puzzle will go to Planned Parenthood.
Diane, lighten up. Here's a guy who does this 365 a year (save a few breaks) for how many years? You can't expect him to ignore his humanity and ideas - after all, that's what makes the blog fun. Maybe instead say THANKS YOU for your dedication! Perhaps you should go for a walk, get some fresh air, maybe with a few hundred thousand of your friends. I did this weekend and it was very refreshing.
Well, @Gill asked me if I had read the comments yet, and I hadn't. Now I have. Yipes. So about 12 hours ago, 7:10am, or 14 hours from the most recent post, @Evil Doug posted a quote attributed to one "Kristin" Stewart and some anonymous or mice laid into him, and he gently (gently for @ED, anyway) suggested that the attackers couldn't spell, but nobody caught on. A measly two hours later (9:14am), @Z provided a link to an interview with KRISTEN Stewart, the actor, who enthusiastically said she was going to be in the march.
Thereafter, Doug pointed out that he hadn't said "Kristen", and it all should have stopped at that point. He wasn't providing "alternative facts", he had set a trap, we fell in, after this read more carefully! But no, for the next 12 hours the sniping about misquoting "Kristen" Stewart continued.
When I was a kid, my father used to quiz us: how is the capital of Kentucky pronounced, is it "Louey-ville" or "Lewis-ville" and my sister and I quickly learned to say "neither, it's Frankfort" or our father, who would have liked @Evil, I think, would despair of our ever becoming educated, capable adults.
I think the moral of @Evil's stunt should be, for us, if you're going to fact-check, make sure you have your own facts straight. And if there really is a Kristin Stewart, don't worry about it. Wait until she can't get a Pap smea or even a flu shot. She'll come around. (And maybe not even then. In Studs Terkel's "Hard Times", the collection of interviews about the Great Depression, there were some people who said they never noticed a problem, they never saw any poverty or breadlines. Not much you can do about people like that except move on. They live in an alternate reality, where "alternate facts" prevail. The problem is only when they're in charge.
At least on this blog people are talking politics. Who the hell cares about crosswords anymore? I can't stand them anymore, seriously. I can do a mini every once in a while but it just seems pointless. And thank God people are calling out @EvilDoug finally for being an unpleasant troll who exists only to create disruption. Hs always been an asshole and I hate how people here fawn over him like he's some great contrarian.
George Barany: You forgot two of my favorite players from the 1969-1970 team who, incredibly, played on the same high school team that won the 1964 Ohio state championship, Dayton Belmont. They are Don May and Bill Hosket Jr. who went their separate ways after high school, the former to the University of Dayton where his team lost to the same University of Kentucky team in the semifinals that later lost to UTEP in the 1966 finals (they lost to UCLA and Lew Alcindor the following year) and Hosket attending The Ohio State University, before being reunited with the Knicks. Great memories.
Dina Leygerman, 2017: You Are Not Equal. I'm Sorry.
Say Thank You Say thank you. Say thank you to the women who gave you a voice. Say thank you to the women who were arrested and imprisoned and beaten and gassed for you to have a voice. Say thank you to the women who refused to back down, to the women who fought tirelessly to give you a voice. Say thank you to the women who put their lives on hold, who –lucky for you — did not have “better things to do” than to march and protest and rally for your voice. So you don’t feel like a “second class citizen.” So you get to feel “equal.” Thank Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul for your right to vote. Thank Elizabeth Stanton for your right to work. Thank Maud Wood Park for your prenatal care and your identity outside of your husband. Thank Rose Schneiderman for your humane working conditions. Thank Eleanor Roosevelt and Molly Dewson for your ability to work in politics and affect policy. Thank Margaret Sanger for your legal birth control. Thank Carol Downer for your reproductive healthcare rights. Thank Margaret Fuller for your equal education. Thank Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Shannon Turner, Gloria Steinem, Zelda Kingoff Nordlinger, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Malika Saada Saar, Wagatwe Wanjuki, Ida B. Wells, Malala Yousafzai. Thank your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother who did not have half of the rights you have now. You can make your own choices, speak and be heard, vote, work, control your body, defend yourself, defend your family, because of the women who marched. You did nothing to earn those rights. You were born into those rights. You did nothing, but you reap the benefits of women, strong women, women who fought misogyny and pushed through patriarchy and fought for you. And you sit on your pedestal, a pedestal you are fortunate enough to have, and type. A keyboard warrior. A fighter for complacency. An acceptor of what you were given. A denier of facts. Wrapped up in your delusion of equality.
See the rest at: https://medium.com/bigger-picture/about-your-poem-1f26a7585a6f#.9ohn4yqyz
Uh-oh. As my dad used to say: "Shut the doors! They're comin' through the windows! Shut the windows! They're comin' through the doors!" A code shouter and a femrant. Can spellcasters be far behind? (Uh, yap, my dad was weird. Pleasantly so, though.)
To the puz. If you look up the word "slog" in the dictionary, you should find a picture of today's grid. The theme tries to be clever but doesn't make it. But it's the fill! Yikes, call Waste Management!
Plus, I agree with OFL that some of the clues are off. Re the TRIPLEFLIP thing: there IS one--but it's in ice skating, not diving! That entry was, indeed, a FLOP.
Were I to start enumerating all the fill trash, I'd be here forever. For DOD I nominate JANE Seymour. Glad this is over. Bogey.
Lotsa options to answer Sierra __, __ lateral, __ Minor, Mauna __. I was one for four with MADRE, probably best to just put in the letters common to the other possibilities. Thought NEWYORKKNICKKNACK was the best themer. RIPRAP is oh so common in civil engineering/construction. I was DONEIN a reasonable amount of time.
Seems to me OFL opened the door to all the commotion above. Is anyone INSHOCK as to what that stirred up? ACK!
@Anon 10:55 above – FRAU (frow) is not an abbreviation for Fräulein (froy-line) and has no umlaut. A Fräulein is single woman and if memory serves is referred to in the neuter gender with the article “das” rather than the feminine “die”. Make of that what you will. ICH bin keine Berliner.
So it may be considered TACKY to name a yeah baby, but I ALLEGE both ANA Ortiz and Julie CHEN fit the bill. MEGAN Mullally’s character in Will and Grace is what led to Two Broke Girls, IMO. Thumbs down to all of that.
IMOK with the Sun-puz when it doesn’t jam multi-letters into one square, even if some of the clues kinda did a crappie FLIPFLOP. (TRIVIA points for you if you know what a crappie FLOP is.)
I was done with this in a surprisingly short time; hence, not a slog. I hee-heed at some of the themers while noting that a TRIPLE FLIP exists in ice-skating, but possibly not in diving. And yes @Rondo, I know what a crappie flop is, though I've never been tased. Yet.
POWDERED WIG WAG gave me a chuckle and that put me in a good mood to finish the puzzle. Yes, there was crossword-ese, but it only helped in getting the themers.
As for the elephant in the room, I don't know why @evil doug felt it appropriate to publish someone's personal opinion about womens' issues. I also don't know why so many rose to the bait. Kind of interesting, like a 10-car smash-up.
I liked the theme and title (revealer), MISHMASH, which made this an easier Sunday than usual.
Most of the PAUSEs due mostly to PPPs like FTROOP, HERNAN in the NE and to a couple of crosses like DAFFY/ATWT (wanted ATNO) in the middle South. Nice chuckle from cluing of OGLE (by TSA agents, maybe?)
Thought ONEACAT had appeared as ONEOCAT in previous puzzles.
Yes, an easy late Sunday afternoon. Appreciated it.
Fun puzzle. My favorite of the themers was the center one: "of thee I sing" Seemed as if some commenters didn't actually get it. There was mention of the national anthem and something else, forget what, that was off track. The song "America" (not our national anthem) has the line ( after "Sweet land of liberty") "Of thee I sing" So it IS the Of thee I sing song. IMO most amusing, in a sort of goofy way.
My first theme answer was powdered wig wag and I liked it, but now can't think what wig wag means or is. All the rest of the word pairs were familiar. It seems familiar, but why? Does anyone know.
@Evil doug. I remember postings from you years back that were sometime lewd and sometimes sour, but always about the puzzle. That was more fun.
Ok I'm finishing late here on the west coast. Snarf? For wolf (down) 96 down? I had scarf. Never in my life have I heard or read snarf as in "snarf down food." In fact, snarf, just when have I ever seen that word? Argh. Maybe too tired but this really bugs me.
If you're going to issue a personal attack, put your name on it. Just sayin'.
But actually, there are places for soap boxes. This seemed to be a puzzle blog, and as a user, I'd prefer to see it kept to that. Off-topic comments kept to maybe one short sentence, an aside, not the meat of the posting. And reading personal attacks is not what many of us came here to do. Me, I'm looking to see what I missed about the puzzle, or if it really was as hard as it seemed for me. Usually. This one was easy for me; I wanted to see if others enjoyed it.
I see that I just said what Anonymous 10:23PM already just said. Oh well, I've typed it already, am posting it anyway.
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Easy for me too. Unlike @Rex I found this clever and amusing, liked it.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I had a great walk yesterday with around 40,000 of my closest friends.
I thought it was One O Cat, not One A Cat. That messed me up, I knew MADRE at 4D, but I had that O in there. ???
ReplyDeleteCute puzzle that I enjoyed a lot.
JOINED AT THE HIP HOP being a favorite.
I think it IS one o cat. It's a truncated form of one old cat.
DeleteAfter completing I Googled one-a-cat and only got one-o-cat, something I had to erase in favor of "Madre." ??
DeleteThanks, @Rex, for your review of @Dan Schoenholz's puzzle. You're right about it being easy, but then again, I may have been influenced by my own constructing experiences--without providing outright spoilers, let me just refer those who might be interested to USA Today offerings of December 1, 2016 ("I/O Switch") and January 17, 2017 ("E-Car Wreck")--easily found on-line, or contact me off-Rex if you want pdf versions.
ReplyDeleteI still remember the Knicks championship teams, with Reed, Frazier, Bradley, DeBusschere, Barnett, Lucas, Monroe, Jackson ... sad to realize how far the franchise has fallen. There were several further sports-centric fill or clues today, of which EL_TRAIN clued as "What Cubs fans get carried away by?" really amused me.
Today, CCS "Keeps in the loop, in a way," yesterday, CCED "Looped in, in a way," and two Sundays ago, BCCS "Loops in, in a way." Today, AGILE "Like cats, typically," yesterday CAT_LIKE_REFLEXES "They result in very fast response times." I do that too, when I teach chemistry--reuse quiz questions with only slight variations until the correct answer finally sinks in for the students.
This one tickled my fancy - clever concept and just the right dose of zaniness. My favorite was the NEW YORK KNICK KNACK, with POWDERED WIG WAG a close second.
ReplyDeleteRe: RAW DATA - I enjoyed poring over this spreadsheet.
Had ASAP instead of ASST which made TOASTERS hard to see for me. Other than, a reasonably easy Sunday. Not bad, imo.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone remember laughter?
ReplyDeleteIs there a bustle in your hedgerow?
DeleteThis puzzle did not elicit even a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteI solved this puzzle under the influence of a powerful hallucinogenic drug.
Never have the words had such meaning.
An easy one. Like Rex, "wig wag" and "rip rap" are foreign to me. Soccer over the MSG themed clue threw me off.. I originally had hockey.
ReplyDeleteAw, c’mon, Rex. I couldn’t disagree more. When I got my first themer, JOINED AT THE HIP HOP, I was delighted. That alone was worth the price of admission.
ReplyDeleteNext was OF THEE I SING SONG. “Sub-entertaining.” Hmm. Not for this solver. I absolutely loved this. I’ve never had a TRIPLE FLIP FLOP, but boy once in Chattanooga I had a double flip flop. Almost nailed it, but in the end, it was ugly and painful. (And “Olympic” wasn’t part of the clue. Maybe they don’t say FLIP at the Olympics. But it’s sure what we regular people do off the board; it’s not carob-ish for me.)
I took a break to put a pork shoulder in the slow cooker and came up with NEW YORK KNICK KNACK on my own. And then there it was. And look at those two sets of double K’s. Be still my beating heart.
“Kitatsugi” before RED CAVIAR.
@Theodore Stamos – I almost wrote in “asap” before ASST.
Liked CHEN crossing GEEZER. HAH. Hey, Jeff!
Biggest mistake was “idol/Dale” 107A/108D. But “Yalkee”… well. That was easy enough to fix. And of course we “Leone, Ursa” guys this morning will be legion.
Oh, and my atheist at first lacked a “diety.” Yup – misspelled and everything.
I don’t think there are many other possibilities here. Video clip clop? Bar chit chat? Meh.
@George – thank you, as always, for your interesting and classy comments. You’re a big asset here in Rexville, where we discuss not only the puzzle but also stuff the day’s fare makes us think of. Sure, it’s nice to see that others made the same mistakes, but it’s really, really fun to follow all the interesting little side roads people take. Like today – more WINE talk? @NCA – the mother of a guy I dated used to put sweet-n-low in her wine.
Dan – terrific idea and lots of fun. And those downs PEG BOARD, STRAW POLLS, WINGSPAN, LENGTHWISE, RED CAVIAR… excellent! I’m with @jae, @chefwen, @Carola, et al who liked it.
Oh, and I was just kidding about “kitatsugi.” It’s not a word; I just made it up.
Thank you for sharing that spreadsheet @carola, it's just what I was looking for.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete* I got tricked on the clues for SEW and NEE -- and I love being tricked.
ReplyDelete* The middle theme answer seems like an outlier in that the first word, SING is the only theme answer first word without the short i.
* I wanted Jib Jab in there somewhere.
* MAdman for MANIAC held me up, as did OWNup for OWNIT.
* Very nice cross of GEEZER and NINETY.
* Learned a nice fact about the Amazon River.
Proud of my little town of Asheville, NC, with a population of around 80,000, and 7,000 - 10,000 showing up for yesterday's march. The world yesterday put a little Hope And Change feeling into my heart, and man, did that feel good.
From Kristin Stewart:
ReplyDeleteI am not a "disgrace to women" because I don't support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class citizen" because I am a woman. I do not feel my voice is "not heard" because I am a woman. I do not feel I am not provided opportunities in this life or in America because I am a woman. I do not feel that I "don't have control of my body or choices" because I am a woman. I do not feel like I am " not respected or undermined" because I am a woman.
I AM a woman.
I can make my own choices.
I can speak and be heard.
I can VOTE.
I can work if I want.
I control my body.
I can defend myself.
I can defend my family.
There is nothing stopping me to do anything in this world but MYSELF.
I do not blame my circumstances or problems on anything other than my own choices or even that sometimes in life, we don't always get what we want. I take responsibility for myself.
I am a mother, a daughter, a wife, a sister, a friend. I am not held back in life but only by the walls I choose to not go over which is a personal choice.
Quit blaming.
Take responsibility.
If you want to speak, do so. But do not expect for me, a woman, to take you seriously wearing a pink va-jay-jay hat on your head and screaming profanities and bashing men.
If you have beliefs, and speak to me in a kind matter, I will listen. But do not expect for me to change my beliefs to suit yours. Respect goes both ways.
If you want to impress me, especially in regards to women, then speak on the real injustices and tragedies that affect women in foreign countries that do not that the opportunity or means to have their voices heard.
Saudi Arabia, women can't drive, no rights and must always be covered.
China and India, infantcide of baby girls.
Afghanistan, unequal education rights.
Democratic Republic of Congo, where rapes are brutal and women are left to die, or HIV infected and left to care for children alone.
Mali, where women can not escape the torture of genital mutilation.
Pakistan, in tribal areas where women are gang raped to pay for men's crime.
Guatemala, the impoverished female underclass of Guatemala faces domestic violence, rape and the second-highest rate of HIV/AIDS after sub-Saharan Africa. An epidemic of gruesome unsolved murders has left hundreds of women dead, some of their bodies left with hate messages.
And that's just a few examples.
So when women get together in AMERICA and whine they don't have equal rights and march in their clean clothes, after eating a hearty breakfast, and it's like a vacation away that they have paid for to get there...
This WOMAN does not support it.
AMEN!! Thank you for making these points. They are spot on!
DeleteCan tedium be fun? Can anything that makes you think New York Knick Knack be bad? Does sticking with Let Her Dis Dap for so long because I thought that might be this Drake fella's first name make me stubborn or just plain silly?
ReplyDeleteI loved this puzzle, warts and all, and I feel some sort of little joy that I finished it.
But the spreadsheet, the spreadsheet makes me feel hopeful again. Thanks @Carola.
As long as we are thanking @George Barany for his daily comments, I'd like to get in on that. I really, really appreciate hearing consistently positive input from another constructor every day. I'm not trying to discount @Rex, because I've been coming to this blog everyday for years, and I've learned so much about the constructing process and crosswords in general here, and I sincerely appreciate that, but the constantly sour, bitter tone can be a bit off-putting; it's just refreshing to hear from somebody who actually enjoys doing the NYT crossword as a counterpart. Again, @Rex, please know that I love your blog (and I agree with your politics), and thank you also for everything you do.
ReplyDeleteI liked it OK. Completed it reasonably quickly with no Google checks, though ONEACAT was a guess. Originally entered "crickeT".
ReplyDeleteYes, the reduplicative theme was simple, but had me guessing. Here are some other possibilities:
BUMBLE BEE BOP (Garden buzz?)
LADYBUG BEAR (VW-driving circus animal?)
HAIR-CLIP CLOP (Batgirl's surprise punch?)
POST-NASAL DRIP DROP (Kleenex catch?)
HOLY SEE-SAW (Vatican prevarication?)
Didn't really get LIT HER RIP RAP as an answer to "Grant a girl permission to dis [Sir Francis] Drake?"
Et CETERA.
fun puzzle. Got flip flop first and the rest was easy. Hand up for malt before iced. Now I want to sing...knick knack paddy whack, give a dog a bone...etc etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @Rex on this one. Just didn't do it for me. I think the AGA/ANA and LAO/RAO had something to do with it. Nice dig at the Knicks too.
ReplyDelete@Evil, thanks in advance. I'll surely be entertained all day now. Here we go......
If you really, really like crosswords you should consider joining @George Barany's Friends group. Members include some of the best constructors n the business, up-and-coming constructors, aspiring constructors, and those who just love puzzles. Write to George for more information.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info
DeleteA "meh" puzzle. There wasn't any zing, zip or pizzaz. Nor were there any fun a-ha moments. Also, I refuse to look favorably upon any puzzle containing ERIEPA.
ReplyDeleteI'm with LMS. I thought every one of the themers was clever. I especially liked the twist on KNICK-KNACK and HIP HOP. @Rex: both RIP-RAP (though I've seen it RIP WRAP) and WIG WAG are very familiar to this old codger. I'm a bit put off by your being so caught up in the news that you can't fairly judge a puzzle. Almost the only thing I agree with in your blog today is that the puzzle is easy. Every other judgment I found not only wrong but ignorant and/or silly.
ReplyDeleteNot easy for me, I guess I'm on another track; while it was not too difficult once I got the theme, there were way too many TRIVIAl references and it took me a long time to make a dent. I guess I don't pay enough attention to tv shows or sports ... although I am old enough to remember FTroop :-D
ReplyDeleteI believe the constructor has confused, or mishmashed, the two dumb races performed at family fun days. You run in a 3-legged race. You hop in a sack race. The answer is dumb.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm with Kristin Stewart (assuming that quote is true). I keep hearing it referred to as the Million Woman March by participants. To compare a woman's struggles today to those of an African-American's in the '60s is distasteful, inaccurate and disrespectful.
Once I got it into the slip-stream, it was puzzle-icious. Thanks, Mr. DS.
ReplyDeleteFav of the day - all of 'em all.
@'mericans - hee haw! I think a big BUG BEAR is what @evil sent today. Or is that redundant? Let 'er rip, Rap!
Thanks for the stats, @Carola. I don't march anymore, but my heart and mind were surely there.
@evil doug: source please? i can't find any reference anywhere on the internet that cites kristen stewart as having said that. it appears to have originated with a facebook post that has been deleted. link please.
ReplyDeleteA question for evil doug and Kristen Stewart - can you please enlighten me as to what your harangue as to do with crossword puzzles ?
ReplyDeleteEasy-peasey. "Let her rip rap" is a verb-phrase and all the other ones are noun-phrases (I'm a chemist who no longer knows the right way to put that). I'm not sure why there's a long quote from Kristen Stewart in the middle of this blog? Did this puzzle remind someone of YA literature?
ReplyDeleteThe Captcha's not working.
@merican in Paris -- Drake is a current rap artist.
ReplyDeleteWhether riprap is a thing or not doesn't seem particularly relevant to me. As I was solving it was only the vowel change I was keying on. It's a bonus to hear assurances that they were all of the familiar "tiptop" variety, though.
Don't think things like "bee bop" and seesaw really work here...
waiting for the link, dougie boy.
ReplyDeleteit appears there is NO source existing for this quote...but it has spread among conservatives like wildfire...shocking.
I'm calling shenanigans on the source and say, given the BS contained in it, it's very likely to have been written by a man. we can't know until you enlighten us with your source. or maybe meryl streep said it? jane fonda? did you pick kristen stewart because you figured it was just low enough on the radar that it would seem plausible? kristen stewart is an outspoken lesbian who very much understands women's issues.
but you're a man. and you're an idiot. an old bag of wind who is nothing more than a troll. "evil" as part of your name? that says it all. you're just a pain in the ass pretending to be something you're not. my guess is you were kicked around as a kid on the playground and now you're trying to get even.
get lost.
Or maybe, moron, you can't spell...
ReplyDeleteRIPRAP is a common thing out here in the sticks where mud can swallow a monster truck whole. But I didn't get the connection with DRAKE.
ReplyDeleteThat said, a neighbor and I held our own 6 mile "Women's march" - At 2 strong, that's about 1/5 of our local population.
@anonymous 8:41 - huh, that's just what 1960s chauvinist 'radical' men preached. Old, old, old. Check out what Kathleen Cleaver and Angela Davis had to say about that.
ReplyDelete@Evil Doug - This Kristen Stewart?
ReplyDeleteLiked it more than Rex. The puzzle, too.
@LMS - AKA the Yang to Rex's Yin.
That's excellent !
DeleteThanks
C'mon, Z. I don't expect much from the anonymous clown, but I thought your attention to detail would be a little sharper than that....
Deletestill waiting, doughie. back up your claim or get out. you can't just post sh*t here and get away with it. if you're posting inflammatory stuff that isn't true or that you refuse to back up, then you're admitting to us all that you're nothing more than a troll...and not even very good at it.
ReplyDeleteHand up for amusement and pleasant solve, and for leonE before MADRE.
ReplyDeletePost-solve, wasted a good ten minutes trying to figure out what A-NINETY meant. When the penny dropped, felt like a dolt.
Addition to the 'never again' list - ONEACAT and its variants.
Be careful of that SOUAGE in the SW.
I agree completely with @Rex today - on carob never fooling me into thinking it is chocolate. And the awesomeness of the marches yesterday, but nothing about the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis was hard for me. Using @r.alphbunker's randomization, I had so many plausible (to me) errors that it took me 46 minutes to find and iron them out.
leone>MADRE
Cle>CIN
ATno>ATWT
faiTh>PIETY
sho>hbo>TMC
doubLE>TRIPLE
legatEE>ALIENEE
LOll>LOAF
aRcheS>CRYPTS
drinkER>TOASTER
cop to>OWN IT
soda>ICEE
With so many errors, the answer to "World's most voluminous river" ends up looking like AhAZ_e, which had me thinking of "Yangtze" but never AMAZON. Et CETERA, et CETERA.
I loved the themers JOINED AT THE HIP HOP and OF THEE I SING SONG, especially the latter.
And @Carola, thanks for the RAW DATA. I was proud to be one of the 90,000-100,000 in St. Paul. (The data sheet should not have Minneapolis tacked on there - we weren't even close to Mpls.)
You can see the red ink run around my grid here
Thanks, Dan Schoenholz.
I thought the puzzle was rather clever and enjoyed the play on words. It was fun if you don't nitpick it too much. I have never seen too many people run in a 3-legged race. Yes, they don't really hop----it is more like they stumble, limp, skip, or something similar. This is a crossword so it is ok to take some liberties. I do agree that Erie, PA should not have shown up again and I am surprised that OFL didn't go off on a rant about that. I always thought I had learned about Hernando Cortez but obviously don't remember my eighth grade history well.
ReplyDeleteKristen Stewart is a very, very smart girl and I just don't see her speaking like that, at all.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, here's where she was on Saturday:
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/01/sundance-womens-march-donald-trump
For all I know, Andrea, Kristen could have been learning at the feet of that brilliant orator, Miley Cyrus, or plotting with Madonna to blow up the White House. But Kristin wasn't....
DeleteThe post clearly references "Kristin Stewart." Kristin with an "I." A quick search of "I am not a "disgrace to women" because I don't support the women's march. I do not feel I am a "second class citizen" because I am a woman" shows it is flying around the internet and is basically unattributed.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the misspelling by ED was intentional to rope in the responses.
I believe @evil Doug was quoting Kristin not Kristen. Or not.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle and easy, I guess, although it took me an hour to solve. I'm in no hurry on Sunday mornings.
ReplyDeleteA TRIPLE FLIP is a figure skating jump.
ReplyDeleteONE-O' CAT is a contraction of One Old Cat, a bat-and-ball game, basically baseball with only one base.
Learned about RIPRAP 20+ years ago when a bridge on the NYS Thruway over Schoharie Creek failed, as inadquate riprap allowed the spring floods to undermine the bridge pillars in the creek bed. I had crossed that bridge about two weeks before.
A fun puzzle with cluing clever enough to keep it interesting. More headslaps than aha moments, but light, fun heads slaps.
ReplyDeleteRiprap, "loose stone used to form a foundation for a breakwater or other structure," is a thing. Find a levee, look at the "toe," and there you'll find some.
so doug, no citing?
ReplyDeleteladies and gentlemen, what more evidence do we need? doug is a troll. he posts solely to clutter up an otherwise pleasant blog and comments section. he has no other purpose than to be an asshat.
doug, (may i call you doug?), you are the problem here. you and your ilk are the ones who make it all an unpleasant experience. you don't post for the purpose of conversation, you post for the purpose of stirring up trouble. you make it difficult to scan through the comments without seeing yet another of your posts that are placed only for agitation. like a small child seeking attention.
given this recent post of yours, it is clear you aren't here to chat, or converse, or even to achieve anything other than being an ass. and quite honestly, that is not a good reason to post here.
you are a troll. you are a simple minded, probably overweight aging white man who doesn't have anything else to do but garner some attention by posting here and getting your rocks off. what a sad little man you are. what a pitiful waste for what is probably an otherwise good body.
get lost, chump. the jig is up. we know what you're about...and all the spell checking or name calling in the world won't take away the fact that you're only purpose here is to agitate and contribute nothing of substance. you left here once before...now it's time for you to make your final exit. why not be a man for a change and try to maintain whatever dignity you have left?
don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya...
Easy puzzle. Never heard of Kristin Stewart, but she makes sense.
ReplyDeleteNot a fan of Trump but it sure seems to me that he made just as many insensitive comments about men as he did about women.
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious the quote isn't from the actress. He's just playing you people. Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteSorry @Evil Doug, but even after telling my search engine to eliminate all the Kristen hits all I saw were a few linkedin hits and then lots of Kristen Stewart stuff. Not that I care a whole lot, but my guess is that Bannon wrote it.* It does seems fairly likely that whoever actually wrote this wanted people to believe it was Kristen.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous - In a democracy the solution to speech you disagree with is more speech. You may notice I disagree with @Evil Doug a lot. That doesn't make him a "troll." By posting anonymously you are actually closer to the typical example. I'm sympathetic to your frustration, but not to the way you choose to express it.
I thought this announcement might interest people.
*In these fraught emotional times I still feel the need to point out when a quip is a joke, not to be taken seriously. So, no, I don't think Bannon wrote the quote.
Aw @evil, say it ain't so. You're name- calling now? Evil is entertaining. Rude is a whole other ball game.
ReplyDeleteBtw, how'd ya like the puzzle.
Today's puzzle was relatively easy and fun. 'Hernando' is how I too remember that explorer from grade school, but Hernan is probably a variant. After working on a book of old Sunday NYT puzzles, I must agree with several comments in the past several months that recent puzzles are relatively easy. The puzzles in the old book are from 2011-12 and seem to be more difficult than the current crop.
ReplyDeleteEasy to medium for me, but consistently fun. What's not to love about JOINED AT THE HIPHOP (perfect clue, btw), TRIPLE FLIPFLOP, and POWDERED WIGWAG? But my absolute favorite, considering how really badly the average person sings the National Anthem, is OF THEE I SINGSONG. (Think it should have been clued by that song and not by "America" -- a song that almost everyone can sing.) At any rate, an amusing and enjoyable puzzle.
ReplyDelete@Nancy: I'd vote for "This Land Is Your Land."
ReplyDeleteHmmm...several bits of confusion. As @noreen just said, I always thought it was HERNANdo Cortes (or Anglicized, Cortez). The Wikipedia entry is for HERNAN but it says that Cortes himself used Hernando.
ReplyDeleteAs several others have mentioned, I confidently wrote in ONE o CAT as I thought that was more common. Mr. Google isn't any help here as it counts other usages, even when "one a'cat" is in quotes, such as "I have two pets, one a cat and one a dog."
My confusion, I thought 71A the Indian spice was actually spelled like the wine MArSALA.
Last but not least, 111 is clued with the abbr. Mrs. but FRAU is not an abbreviation.
Otherwise, fun as usual, thanks Rex!
ReplyDeleteWe have rip-rap around the many ponds abutting our golf courses here in Florida. In addition to stabilizing the banks, it keeps the gators out.
Frau is an abbreviation of Fräulein
ReplyDeleteActually, Fraulein is an unmarried woman. Frau, as the clue indicates is a married woman. I.e., unless there is some kind of pun/joke that my dim brain is missing; (can't get my phone to print the umlaut over Fraulein);
DeleteVery EZ but liked it more than Rex.
ReplyDeleteLiked cluing for NAIL and EL TRAIN, although in NYC there was an "L" train .
One of my favorite college basketball players was Lionel "L Train" Simmons from Lasalle U.
Thanks DS
I'm with @Loren; especially JOINED AT THE HIP HOP was hilarious. So was the KNICK KNACK, once I saw that it had to be ACK, not ACH.
ReplyDeleteThe march yesterday was exciting in so many ways -- 175,000 people here in Boston, none of whom was demanding that anyone else go without breakfast. One of the small excitements, which brought tears to my eyes, was when people started singing The Star Spangled Banner the OF THEE IS SING SONG. Too many people on the left have been unwilling to claim America's wonderful multiethnic and revolutionary heritage -- it's time we got over that.
As for RIP RAP, you can't grow up on the Great Lakes without knowing that. Anyone with shoreline property has to put some down or see their yard washed away. I think it's also a sewing thing, though -- a strip of zig-zag cloth tape you sew on to reinforce a hem. I bet they have a bunch of it at the KITATSUGI factory.
'OF THEE I SING, baby
ReplyDeleteSummer, autumn, winter, spring, baby.
You`re my silver lining,
You`re my sky of blue
There`s a lovelight shining
Just because of you.'
Gershwin. Sigh. And Ella sings it swell on Youtube.
@Z: i've said what i needed to say. nothing more to say.
ReplyDeleteas for you "disagreeing" with doug, whatever. i just don't see disagreeing with a troll as disagreement, since nothing he has EVER posted has been particularly thoughtful or in any way rational that would invite true "disagreement." you don't disagree with trolls...you tolerate them. and by "tolerating" them, you enable them to continue their BS. so, to each his own, i guess. so long as you all tolerate doug and embrace him, you are just enabling him to go on posting incendiary posts which makes it sh*t for everyone else.
as for me posting anonymously, that's funny because many of the trolls here insist that we ALL post anonymously even if you have a screen name.
have fun!
Somebody pleez explain the meaning of A Ninety. Thanks
ReplyDelete90 percent as an A- on a grading scale, I guess. But not in my classes. Barely a B+.
DeleteWhy anyone cares about the political opinions of celebrities is beyond me.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure Fraulein is "Miss" and Frau is "Mrs." "Frau"is abbreviated "Fr."---?
ReplyDeleteMe too on Hernando. It's a new learning that his actual name was "Hernan." But, unhappily, I'm not an ABBA fan and now I have a "Fernando" earworm for the day. Arghhh.
I'm happy we see a variety of viewpoints on the blog and that it's OK to digress once in awhile to express them. And if we don't like to feel bullied by someone's chosen language, or user name, all we have to do is click on their thumbnail and see their bio for some insight. Life can be frustrating.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteRex, "9 minutes". Wow. Me, 59 minutes, if lucky.
Liked the rhyminess of this puz. WIGWAG a new one on me, but the rest were cool. And it seems everyone missed the "third" part of answers, in that the rhymer completed the clue. Maybe some caught it, Rex tried to explain it a bit. More posts here are now political and posters calling posters jerks rather than puz related. Oh well, I'm sure Rex will go back to moderation soon.
Writeovers, nano-ASap-ASST, eweS-cOWS-SOWS, faiTh-proof-PIETY, MAdmAn-MANIAC, ATno-ATWT, unI-TRI, ScARF-SNARF, REValue-REVISIT.
No RRNs, eels, or asses, but an I BAR! ONE A CAT new to me. Like the top row COSMIC STARES. AMAZON clue could've ended 'retailer' instead of river. :-)
DAFFY TRIVIA
RooMonster
DarrinV
I find it hard to believe that @Evil D would knowingly post a faux Kristen Stewart.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to argue with that post's proposition that first-world women are much much better off than those living in almost every other country. (BTW, the list forgot to include India's bride-burning and the use of ultrasounds for prenatal selective reduction of females. It's all very rational; sons bring dowries into the family, while daughters cost them.)
Still and all, I don't think the 1/21/17 assemblies' intent was to bemoan second-class citizenship and generalized down-troddenness, but rather to reject how the current presidency is shaping up, what it has done, and purportedly intends to do. Perhaps, for some, to stand with John Lewis. I can't speak for even one person other than myself, of course, so if I'm interpreting or projecting too much, sorry for that.
Re the puzzle: Fine little diversion and I always enjoy a bowl of WANTON soup. We just had a spate of lecterns and podia, which may well have come from a store called Cosa ROSTRA.
Only troublespot was in parsing ForT ROOP, and in thinking cats ALOOF before AGILE, I must have been kipling The Cat That Walked By Himself
Which reminds me to thank @foxaroni, @Dr Lee77, @Sailor Steve and (of course :D)
@Z for catching me up on my Asimovian foray the other day, y'all reminded me that things are Seldon what they seem.
Today's theme had great rhythm, and I also got my biggest KicK out of the KK-KK-K KNICKKNACK. @Rex, for sure, the nail is on the TOP of the FINGERTIP, as convention commonly has the dorsum 'on top'. Mostly, it was the theme's clippety-clop made it tip-top. Not to mention the CHENg and Eng JOINED AT THE HIPHOP.
Here's another possibility:
Rolex for a buck? - DEERTICKTOCK
Enjoy the weekend
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ReplyDelete@Linda, the clue is actually "A minus." Which is a score of ninety, or could be.
ReplyDeleteThe Kristin Stewart quote (if that's who really wrote it) to me speaks even more to the necessity of the women's marches. Of course American and most Western women don't have the worries that third-world women have. All the more reason for us, with our resources and histories, to continue to fight for all women in all countries and be sure we, who have made so much progress (remember when we couldn't vote? buy things on credit? obtain contraception?) don't start sliding backwards.
ReplyDeleteAre those who bought into Rush and Fox lost forever? At least, @evil is honest enough to OWNIT.
ReplyDeleteCorny is one thing, outright childishness is another. C'mon Will, won't you right this ship before we all start jumping?
ReplyDeleteApologies to the constructor for all of the comments here that have nothing to do with the crossword you worked so hard to construct.
ReplyDeleteLiked your sense of humor and enjoyed figuring out the word play. Especially liked "OF THEE I SING" SONG and LET HER RIP RAP. As a Chicago boy, I also dug the clue for EL TRAIN.
Rock on.
Better clue for TRIPLEFLIPFLOP would have been "Sign of an indecisive politician."
ReplyDeleteIt was easy but it sucked. The jokes were not funny. It was irritating. Thank you for reading my opinions on this website.
ReplyDeleteI didn't find this one easy. Took longer to open up the pattern of the clues than it should have, but not having any idea what RIPRAP and WIGWAG were didn't really help.
ReplyDeleteHave never seen ONEACAT (definitely not that spelling, anyway), and I guess I'm too young for FTROOP (and I watched a lot of syndicated shows growing up).
Is the cluing on 66A even precise? It's a song title, and we get a lyric from it. Doesn't seem like rule-following to me. (Didn't help that I had West Side Story in my head.)
Fell into a lot of traps. LeonE before MADRE, cOWS before SOWS, unI before TRI, ScARFS before SNARFS, ursA before ASIA.
I'm surprised Rex isn't more upset with the fill. LAO, LOA, SEM, ATWT(?!), SUI, ACK, ISL, ETAT, SOU. Surely there was a better clue for LOT ("Poland's main airline"). Is SEGA still a "gaming giant"? And really, Rex, no complaint for ERIEPA?
With the lackluster theme, I just can't justify this poor fill.
ReplyDelete"Ding Dong! The Witch is dead.
Which old Witch? The Wicked Witch!"
-- Dorothy, and the Munchkins
One of the easiest Sundays ever. I started my solving -- as I always do -- at 1A, all acrosses first, then all downs starting at 1D. When I entered PTA at 121D, the entire puzzle was complete and correct, no re-checking, no corrections ---> happy tune. Bim, bam, booom.
@GB, you beat me to the pinch-punch with your kit-kat-like reflexes on the CCS/CCED echo from yesterday.
Regarding MISHMASH, it reminded me of the way I learned to love puns as a kid, playfully changing the last syllables of nursery rhymes and poems in a zig-zag fashion. Innocent, fun, unpretentious language-appreciation game as a kid, rather boring as a Sunday NYT puzzle theme.
However, it's a perfect excuse to present the joyous Tritsch-Tratsch Polka by Johann Strauss II, a remarkable tone painting of laughter.
Enjoy!
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ReplyDelete@ED - I just love how talented, beautiful, skinny, white women who have achieved success in essentially vacuous careers which stress all four attributes attribute their success to only one of those attributes, talent. I take their comments about the privilege they have been afforded by their success seriously, very seriously.
ReplyDeleteTo recap: K. Stewart did not pen the quote above. It is a post found on a facebook page that has since been deleted or closed. all that exists currently is this remnant floating around solely on conservative websites. K. Stewart was only mentioned here...in this blog...by E. Doug. No celebrity has taken credit for saying it, writing it, or posting it anywhere.
ReplyDeletethe fact that many of you are still talking about K. Stewart or even given any kind of credibility to this quote that may or may not have even been written by a woman is evidence of E. Doug's trolling.
and no, he doesn't get to win because I am calling him out. i am calling him out so that you will all see that he isn't contributing at all to the conversation and should, out of respect to the rest of us, leave.
i tell you what...i'll leave when he does. until then, i will continue to call him out for stirring the pot for the sake of sitting and home and celebrating with another bag of cheetos.
Isn't there supposed to be a 3 post per day limit on this blog? Say what you need to say, but do it in 3 posts then stop. Maybe time to REVISIT some of the blog 'rules'?
DeleteTotal slog. Not amused at all. And there is no such thing as ONEACAT. Nice misdirect for SEW, though, and how many confidently wrote in "Chi" before CIN?
ReplyDelete"To recap: K. Stewart did not pen the quote above."
ReplyDeleteFalse.
"It is a post found on a facebook page that has since been deleted or closed."
False, again.
"No celebrity has taken credit for saying it, writing it, or posting it anywhere."
*That's* true. She's no celebrity. Just a normal woman from the basket of deplorables. Your presumption - - that celebrity somehow enhances credibility -- is patently false. Of course, your own credibility has pretty much evaporated today, too....
Three posts only???? (My second.)
Delete
ReplyDeleteThank God for regular posters like Evil Doug and Moly Shu who keep this board from becoming an echo chamber for the hard core left. Especially since they do so without hiding behind an alias or anonymous screen name.
Once the initial comment of, "Oh, and I had a great walk yesterday with around 40,000 of my closest friends." was made by regular poster jae, the subject was fair game!
The best comment regarding the ensuing discussion up until the 11:53am post, was definitely provided by Leapfinger at 11:24am. She has always been one of the top "Class Acts" on this board. I agree with her defense of Evil Doug. He may have been duped by some Facebook post or such, and executed a "cut and paste" but his info is usually solid. As for the content of the post attributed to Kristen Stewart, I can't see anything there that would be offensive to women? Certainly nothing that would lead to the vitriolic ad hominem attacks unleashed by @anonymous starting at 9:05am.
Regarding those attacks, the poster uses an alias, then has the chutzpah to call the possessor of a blue screen user name a troll? That would be laughable were it not so pathetic! Thanks Doug! You made my day. Nothing makes me happier than seeing a liberal head explode with so much rage and hatred.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI may not always agree with @evil, but IMHO he's a valued member of the commentariat; definitely not a troll.
Republican, Democrat, conservative, liberal, white, black, left, right, up, down. To quote W.C. Fields:
ReplyDelete"I am free of all prejudices. I hate everyone equally." Ha! :-)
To quote another saying, "Stick that in your pipe and smoke it!"
Just (causing trouble)
RooMonster
@Doug...I'm not even sure why you posted the K Stewart story but since it is out, let me add my thoughts. The Women's March on Washington wasn't just about equal rights for women. Thousands felt targeted by the president during his 2016 campaign. Latinos, LGBTQ Americans, survivors of sexual assault, people with disabilities - he excoriated them all. The march was a triumph for ALL the people. If only he will listen.
ReplyDeleteI loved this puzzle...it made me laugh at every single theme. POWDERED WIGWAG conjures up an image of those unwashed ugly gray wrinkly things barristers plopped on their heads.
Good job dapper Dan....
Gill,
DeleteMichael felt the need to open the door instead of sticking to the puzzle, a couple posters walked through it, so... Why not? Looked like fun!
I must challenge the ONO clue (Only woman to sing lead vocals on a Beatles song). Despite the answer being obvious, Ono sang the word "birthday", the line "not when he looked so fierce", and whatever zibbering transpired on 'Revolution 9' and 'What's the New Mary Jane'. Vocals, yes. Lead, hardly. Don't mean to be pedantic here - I have too many Beatlemaniac friends.
ReplyDeleteEasy-ish puzzle for me too, which is fine! Wasn't crazy about the theme at first but I warmed up to it, RIPRAP's still murky. Got a little stuck around ANA/APT/ADOPT, I happily remembered ALIENEE this time, ETAT (Californie) was tricky but gettable. Generally enjoyed the cluing - I can understand Rex and others wanting more on Sunday.
Unlike some others, I don't mind on-topic posts interspersed with clear and concise political opinion or even fervor at this important time - but that huge and obviously fraudulent block of text is garbage and unwelcome.
I noticed the review to yesterday's puzzle was actually a review of the puzzle and nothing else. The comments followed in a similar vein with the occasional detour such as the one on that terrific New Yorker article. It seems that is when this blog is most enjoyable. When the review brings up a political event, or objects to a politically incorrect clue or answer, the comments section tends to move away from the puzzle as the main focus and is less enjoyable, for me at least.
ReplyDeleteI have a neighbor from South America (Peru, I think, but maybe Argentina) who uses a traditional silver spoon / straw device to drink the yerba tea called mate. I was so proud to be able to plunk that in confidently at 5 Down.
ReplyDeleteLose the politics ... blog is about the puzzle or politics, not both. Especially lose Evil Doug for good and all. My enjoyment of puzzled-related commentary has been compromised, maybe fatally. You had a good thing - but let it go bad.
ReplyDeleteWell, @Doug is right. @Rex opened the door and I got to comment on how wonderful I thought the March idea was....Viva America...OF THEE I SING SONG.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the puzzle much more than some people here, and I thought the theme answers were fun (hi, @LMS). It played medium for me, though. It took me a while to see what was going on with the theme, I'm embarrassed to admit, and a stupid typo took a long time to uncover.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree with much that @Evil Doug says, but he does post here often enough and talks about the puzzle consistently enough that he deserves not to be lumped in with the guy who thinks he's clever for calling people snowflakes in fifty posts a day.
Having said that, his whole silly original post was just an attempt to distract from the embarrassing reality that twice as many people showed up to protest Trump as showed up to support him. And that's not to mention the inanity that followed involving charges of doctored photos and biased journalists and "alternative facts" (also known as lies) being offered by the press secretary in his first day on the job.
If Evil Doug wants to go down the rabbit hole, let him. You don't have to follow.
So "your" Kristin Stewart is.....who? A random angry woman? A figment of your imagination?
ReplyDeletePretty mundane puzzle for me; one issue is there not enough snap to what should be groan-inducing theme answers. Another is that there are too many short, trivial crosswordese answers as others have pointed out. It would also be nice to struggle a little with a Sunday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThe battle over the women's March in the blog today is unfortunate. Evil Doug, I fail to understand why you waste your time arguing over the attribution of a quote. Why not just say where you got the quote from (as you did) and ignore personal attacks on you? Whether it has been taken down is entirely irrelevant. (That should serve as a warning to those who post to think twice before posting.) Responding to personal attacks is inevitably going to be taken as an incentive to attack you again.
Both the left and the right in the heat of the divisiveness that the country seems destined to be embroiled in for the length of the current administration have degenerated into name calling that is conducive to nothing in the way of progress or conciliation. And I am not exempting/excusing myself from, at times, getting involved in this distressing trend. But, here is the problem.
Our current President, Mr. Trump, has for many years been unable to talk or write about almost anything that anyone else does or says that he disagrees with (even if the thing written or said is not about him but, especially if it is) without launching a personal attack on the writer or speaker of the point he does not agree with. E.g., when Obamacare was passed into law, it's constitutionality was ruled on by the Supreme Court. Justice Roberts wrote that it was constitutional. Mr. Trump promptly announced that Justice Roberts is an: 'absolute loser'. More recently, Trump declared that Meryl Streep is overrated. It is just not within his persona to try to logically and rationally refute the positions taken against his ideology or criticisms of what he says or does. He apparently feels compelled to launch an ad hominem attack on the person he does not agree with. And that methodology has spread like a cancer in the current times. If that is how Trump is going to play it, it is very difficult for his followers or his opponents to stop the unleashing of their ire. You have to fight fire with fire, right?
Please let's all stop falling into that sinkhole. While I don't agree, for example, with Evil Doug's quotation/assessment of women's rights in this country (the standard that Hillary Clinton was held to during the presidential campaign seemed to me to be a clearly different and way higher one than Mr. Trump), that doesn't make ED a bad person or a moron or any other perjorative term you can think of for believing American women are doing pretty well in terms of rights particularly when compared to women in the rest of the world.
So, how about we all work on making the blog a place for civilized discussion and a little cameraderie.
I hope I don't break my ankle getting off the soapbox.
ah so, Doug has resorted to the new trump strategy of "alternate facts." nice.
ReplyDeletedougie darling, put down the oreos for a second, brush the crumbs off your large shelf of a tummy, and come up with a link that proves your point.
you won't, of course, because you can't.
it is nice to see that some folks here see through the crap that this guy comes up with.
Had the puzzle slotted as a time killer for the drive home from DC today, but alas too quickly solved. Back to posting pics from the march. Be as political as you want Rex, us progressive solvers thank you
ReplyDelete40 down Alternative to Cinemax is TMC. I've heard of AMC and TCM, but I had no idea there was a TMC... Tricky!
ReplyDeleteAlmost couldn't finish, but guessed correctly at the cross between LOT and ROSTRA. Once it was there, though, ROSTRA felt right and vaguely familiar. Probably from grade 10 history.
I got the whole FLIPFLOP mishmash idea and thought it was . . .well . . . cute. I thought that if this is what we're going with today, so be it. I had to think about the three-legged race and hopping. The clue kinda sorta works for a combination of sack races and three-legged races. What it put into my head was a sort of jumble of pictures of both races. I'm not RIPping the clue here, I'm just commenting on the muddled image it produced.
ReplyDeleteIn spite of reading through all NINETY some clues, not a whole lot about this puzzle sticks in my head. I found it easy enoough, I guess but nothing in it inspired me in any way. I really did think that @Rex would RIP this a new one. In a way, I suppose he did by not giving it much attention. I guess he just didn't see FINGERTIP TOP the way I did. I put my hand flat on the table by my keyboard and there it is, right on the TOP of my FINGER and right down by the TIP. POWDERED WIG WAG got me thiinking about whatever I know or don't about English courts of law. I'm not sure there would be many WAGs on the bench as my impression is that English courts are all very stiff upper lip and all that.
I knew a judge once who tells of a time when he was assuring a defendant that he should not worry about some perjury involved in his testimony by announcing that the court was aware that murder might well lead to lying. Apparently he had to bang his gavel and call for order to silence the laughter and tittering.
Sometimes @Evil Doug pisses me off but he is part of the "family" and I respect his right to be here and say what he wants. Sometimes I even heartily agree with him. I believe there is value in seeing viewpoints that differ from my own. They help me to keep perspective. It is so easy for a person to believe that his or her opinion is the only one possible. Sadly, for some, having that threatened creates conflict and agression. I believe that it is easier to say that one disagrees without calling the person with whom one disagrees a name or insisting they should crawl into a hole and die.
By the way, I thought it was pretty cool that 30 women marched in Antarctica. They weren't marching to protect their pussies, they were marching to protect the penguins and seals and all the other animals who will be threatened by climate change. They didn't march for very long as they wanted to limit their footprint on the ground. I don't like cold weather but If I could, I would have been there with them.
What on earth is going on on the blog today?
ReplyDeleteWho the bleep is Kristen Stewart?
Did she say what @Evil says she said?
Did she say something different?
Does @Evil agree with what she said?
Does @Evil agree with what she didn't say?
Which would I agree with -- what @Evil says she said or what she actually did say -- assuming they're not the same thing?
Should I remotely care? Should you?
I gather this all has something to do with the Women's March yesterday. I know a lot more about the march than I know about Kristen Stewart. (Actually I know nothing whatsoever about Kristen Stewart). I do, however, know Gloria Steinem, and I applaud everyone in every city who, as she said, dared to "put their bodies where their beliefs are". Congrats to the many, many, many millions of you.
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ReplyDeleteJust ignore @evildoug. He's not exactly a troll, but he's definitely an ogre -- or maybe an orc -- who thrives on attention. Yawn.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't feed the ogre--er, orc. Whatever.
DeleteYou don't need to feed Doughie...he eats plenty of cheetos and BBQ corn nuts on his own. Trolls love their cheetos and BBQ corn nuts.
DeleteFWIW -- ONEOCAT has appeared 8 times in the Shortz era, and never in the pre-shortz era. ONEACAT has appeared 4 times in the Shortz era and 4 times in the pre-shortz era.
ReplyDeleteAccording to posters, I'm a snowflake. This snowflake became part of a blizzard.
ReplyDeleteKeep calling me a snowflake, I love it.
Fun late night solving with my resident novice Sunday solitary solver. Her solving skills are increasing and so is her ability to control her tendency to resort to petulance. Well, nobody reads this anyway.
ReplyDeleteWhen I see MANTLE, I see #7 "The Commerce Comet." My older brother idolized him, so I grew up during his career. We lived in a town nestled up against the Sierra Madre Mountains east of Pasadena.
Early on in life, I learned that if I could imitate one of the comedy routines I had heard on a Warner Bros. record, "Looney Tunes," I would become wildly popular. It worked, until my voice lowered. DAFFY claims he "Made a three-point landing; on my two knees and on my nose."
INANITY? AWKWARD? SUB ENTERTAININ? GET BACK TO DRINKIN? Wow.
ReplyDeleteNow, for some alternative facts…
Must take zillions of nanoseconds to build a solid, fun, ginormous puz like this puppy. Constructor Dan no doubt spent lotsa extra time holed up, cleanin up every darn splatz of loose fill, instead of goin out in his yard and/or enjoyin life with normal people. And what does he get? Downer write-up stuff like "lack of spot-on-itude"? Oh, and that there thousand moneybucks, of course.
And yet, I reckon @RP woulda brightened up the write-up considerable, if there'd been a themer like:
* UNITEDHUBBUB, or
* DRAINTHESUMPPUMP, or
* PLEASINGLYPLUMPTRUMP.
These woulda helped remedy the alarminly lopsided 1-scrabble-point letter count string of: A=45,E=45,I=30,L=17,N=27,O=28,R=24,S=23,T=24,U=4. Typical U-respect. Shoot, the inaUgUration practically had a better headcount, than that ...
@RP: Nice autographed 45rpm pic. (yo, @Hunter)
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
ReplyDelete@Lewis, thank you for pulling us back into the puzzle.
Let's stay on topic that's germane
To puzzles this fin de SEMAINE.
My hairline begins to recede
At an accelerated rate
When anyone tries to RESEED
The germs of insidious hate.
@ M&A
ReplyDeleteHa, I saw what you did, there (splatz).
I enjoyed the puzzle, though not as fun as last Sunday's.
ReplyDelete@Carola, thanks for the link.
@Leapfinger, well said.
Yesterday was a very good day for millions of us individually but more importantly for our nation and indeed the planet.
Oh, although we are far apart politically, I kinda like having @evil doug around on this blog.
Evil Doug is a dumbass. He quotes who he thinks is Kristen Stewart, gets called on the fact that Kristen Stewart didn't say that, and then reflexively leans on the alternate spelling to redirect criticism to people who called him on his bullshit.
ReplyDeletePathetically transparent.
If Dougie really is evil
ReplyDeleteJust like a cotton boll weevil
Yet still folks take heart
Every man plays his part
Even those who are bad at retrieval.
Don't get mad at ED just because he engaged in a type of "rickrolling."
ReplyDeleteThis is the internet. People reacted just like he wanted.
The fact that he posts here to do that intentionally (to have "fun" in his words) should be to he him banned. Seriously, who does this besides a 10year old boy?
DeleteAnd why should any of us have to put up with it? Why should any of us have to 90% of the time ignore him? Today's post is a prime example of intentionally trolling. He's an ass and it's ok to call him that. He needs to leave like the other anon said above.
This may be the Internet, but on other sites he'd have been banned a long time ago. And it isn't because we disagree, it's because he has nothing to say except bullshit. He admits himself.
I 100% agree with Crane Poole. Yoko ONO never sang LEAD on a Beatles song...not pedantic at all...spot on!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 7:38 pm:
ReplyDeleteOkay,we get it, you hate evil doug. Time to give it a rest because its pretty obvious that you are not gonna change a lot of regular poster's minds here. Doug has played you like a Stradivarius all day long, and yet you keep insisting on yet one more rendition of Tempo di ciaccona. Even the most talented musicians understand what "rest" means on a score.
He may be evil doug to you, but he' OUR evil doug!
@anon 6:47
ReplyDeleteTrump has given everyone a green light to behave, say, react, comment, etc. in any way one pleases without regard for others. Why should we hold fellow Americans in this great nation, much less on this blog, to a higher stanadard than the pompous narcissist currently residing in the White House? Not a fan of evil Doug, but nothing he writes could ever be more incindiery than Trump.
Love your site. On the WigWag comment. In Britain a wit is often called a Wag. I got hung up on a blue coat as well, looking for some historic soldier as well.
ReplyDeleteTo the comment at 7:53 a.m. Good call.
ReplyDeleteThis has been an amazing day. I can't wait for tomorrow!
ReplyDelete@evil
ReplyDeleteIt is quite a logic flaw to say a March against problem A should be berated because a problem B exists, one which has a common element, women, but nothing else to support your rebuke.
People have an active agression with your claim because it is not just a misunderstanding of problem A, it is a ill disguised support of problem A and an ill disguised attempt to degrade opposition to it.
Almost a minute off my best time for tomorrow's puzzle. Here's hoping for a "challenging" from Rex.
ReplyDeleteI'm not asking, just observing, I've no idea what a "snowflake" is supposed to be, why it's an insult, or why both ends of the spectrum throw it around at the other end. Change that, there is very clearly an implied "fuck you" before every use of it these days. BTW - That link I posted earlier was to the AVCX announcing that proceeds from this week's puzzle will go to Planned Parenthood.
Rex, you can't seem to go a week without making some political crack. I go on this site to check my answers, not to hear your snarky views.
ReplyDeleteDiane, lighten up. Here's a guy who does this 365 a year (save a few breaks) for how many years? You can't expect him to ignore his humanity and ideas - after all, that's what makes the blog fun. Maybe instead say THANKS YOU for your dedication! Perhaps you should go for a walk, get some fresh air, maybe with a few hundred thousand of your friends. I did this weekend and it was very refreshing.
ReplyDeleteOh, and the puzzle? Meh.
Well, @Gill asked me if I had read the comments yet, and I hadn't. Now I have. Yipes. So about 12 hours ago, 7:10am, or 14 hours from the most recent post, @Evil Doug posted a quote attributed to one "Kristin" Stewart and some anonymous or mice laid into him, and he gently (gently for @ED, anyway) suggested that the attackers couldn't spell, but nobody caught on. A measly two hours later (9:14am), @Z provided a link to an interview with KRISTEN Stewart, the actor, who enthusiastically said she was going to be in the march.
ReplyDeleteThereafter, Doug pointed out that he hadn't said "Kristen", and it all should have stopped at that point. He wasn't providing "alternative facts", he had set a trap, we fell in, after this read more carefully! But no, for the next 12 hours the sniping about misquoting "Kristen" Stewart continued.
When I was a kid, my father used to quiz us: how is the capital of Kentucky pronounced, is it "Louey-ville" or "Lewis-ville" and my sister and I quickly learned to say "neither, it's Frankfort" or our father, who would have liked @Evil, I think, would despair of our ever becoming educated, capable adults.
I think the moral of @Evil's stunt should be, for us, if you're going to fact-check, make sure you have your own facts straight. And if there really is a Kristin Stewart, don't worry about it. Wait until she can't get a Pap smea or even a flu shot. She'll come around. (And maybe not even then. In Studs Terkel's "Hard Times", the collection of interviews about the Great Depression, there were some people who said they never noticed a problem, they never saw any poverty or breadlines. Not much you can do about people like that except move on. They live in an alternate reality, where "alternate facts" prevail. The problem is only when they're in charge.
Anonymous,your virtue signaling is so cliched.I feel your pain.The Supreme Court is gone for a generation.Happy marching!
ReplyDeleteAt least on this blog people are talking politics. Who the hell cares about crosswords anymore? I can't stand them anymore, seriously. I can do a mini every once in a while but it just seems pointless.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank God people are calling out @EvilDoug finally for being an unpleasant troll who exists only to create disruption. Hs always been an asshole and I hate how people here fawn over him like he's some great contrarian.
George Barany: You forgot two of my favorite players from the 1969-1970 team who, incredibly, played on the same high school team that won the 1964 Ohio state championship, Dayton Belmont. They are Don May and Bill Hosket Jr. who went their separate ways after high school, the former to the University of Dayton where his team lost to the same University of Kentucky team in the semifinals that later lost to UTEP in the 1966 finals (they lost to UCLA and Lew Alcindor the following year) and Hosket attending The Ohio State University, before being reunited with the Knicks. Great memories.
ReplyDelete@Carola - thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteNewbie here. Can someone please explain why Lateral opening? is TRI and They're dubbed is SIRS?
ReplyDeleteAs for the strip of zig-zag cloth tape you sew on to reinforce a hem, that's rick-rack, not RIP RAP.
@anon 5:59 am it;s trilateral. and I dub you Sir Charles
ReplyDeleteAnyone else think @Gilang B and @خرید vpn are using this site as a drop box?
ReplyDeletephishing expedition
ReplyDeletehopefully Podesta doesn't read this blog password lol
ReplyDelete81 across: Drake is a Canadian singer and "rapper".
ReplyDeleteSo (grant a girl permission) is (let her rip)
and (dis Drake) is (rap)
etc.
Dina Leygerman, 2017: You Are Not Equal. I'm Sorry.
ReplyDeleteSay Thank You
Say thank you. Say thank you to the women who gave you a voice. Say thank you to the women who were arrested and imprisoned and beaten and gassed for you to have a voice. Say thank you to the women who refused to back down, to the women who fought tirelessly to give you a voice. Say thank you to the women who put their lives on hold, who –lucky for you — did not have “better things to do” than to march and protest and rally for your voice. So you don’t feel like a “second class citizen.” So you get to feel “equal.”
Thank Susan B. Anthony and Alice Paul for your right to vote.
Thank Elizabeth Stanton for your right to work.
Thank Maud Wood Park for your prenatal care and your identity outside of your husband.
Thank Rose Schneiderman for your humane working conditions.
Thank Eleanor Roosevelt and Molly Dewson for your ability to work in politics and affect policy.
Thank Margaret Sanger for your legal birth control.
Thank Carol Downer for your reproductive healthcare rights.
Thank Margaret Fuller for your equal education.
Thank Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Shannon Turner, Gloria Steinem, Zelda Kingoff Nordlinger, Rosa Parks, Angela Davis, Malika Saada Saar, Wagatwe Wanjuki, Ida B. Wells, Malala Yousafzai. Thank your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother who did not have half of the rights you have now.
You can make your own choices, speak and be heard, vote, work, control your body, defend yourself, defend your family, because of the women who marched. You did nothing to earn those rights. You were born into those rights. You did nothing, but you reap the benefits of women, strong women, women who fought misogyny and pushed through patriarchy and fought for you. And you sit on your pedestal, a pedestal you are fortunate enough to have, and type. A keyboard warrior. A fighter for complacency. An acceptor of what you were given. A denier of facts. Wrapped up in your delusion of equality.
See the rest at: https://medium.com/bigger-picture/about-your-poem-1f26a7585a6f#.9ohn4yqyz
DONEIN, EASEOUT
ReplyDeleteICEE you ALLEGE that we NECKED,
I’m INSHOCK you’re such a WINEr,
I’ll OWNIT with WANTON respect
when I REVISIT your ANGINA.
--- ROSTRA SEMAINE (NEE MASALA)
Uh-oh. As my dad used to say: "Shut the doors! They're comin' through the windows! Shut the windows! They're comin' through the doors!" A code shouter and a femrant. Can spellcasters be far behind? (Uh, yap, my dad was weird. Pleasantly so, though.)
ReplyDeleteTo the puz. If you look up the word "slog" in the dictionary, you should find a picture of today's grid. The theme tries to be clever but doesn't make it. But it's the fill! Yikes, call Waste Management!
Plus, I agree with OFL that some of the clues are off. Re the TRIPLEFLIP thing: there IS one--but it's in ice skating, not diving! That entry was, indeed, a FLOP.
Were I to start enumerating all the fill trash, I'd be here forever. For DOD I nominate JANE Seymour. Glad this is over. Bogey.
Lotsa options to answer Sierra __, __ lateral, __ Minor, Mauna __. I was one for four with MADRE, probably best to just put in the letters common to the other possibilities. Thought NEWYORKKNICKKNACK was the best themer. RIPRAP is oh so common in civil engineering/construction. I was DONEIN a reasonable amount of time.
ReplyDeleteSeems to me OFL opened the door to all the commotion above. Is anyone INSHOCK as to what that stirred up? ACK!
@Anon 10:55 above – FRAU (frow) is not an abbreviation for Fräulein (froy-line) and has no umlaut. A Fräulein is single woman and if memory serves is referred to in the neuter gender with the article “das” rather than the feminine “die”. Make of that what you will. ICH bin keine Berliner.
So it may be considered TACKY to name a yeah baby, but I ALLEGE both ANA Ortiz and Julie CHEN fit the bill. MEGAN Mullally’s character in Will and Grace is what led to Two Broke Girls, IMO. Thumbs down to all of that.
IMOK with the Sun-puz when it doesn’t jam multi-letters into one square, even if some of the clues kinda did a crappie FLIPFLOP. (TRIVIA points for you if you know what a crappie FLOP is.)
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ReplyDeleteI was done with this in a surprisingly short time; hence, not a slog. I hee-heed at some of the themers while noting that a TRIPLE FLIP exists in ice-skating, but possibly not in diving. And yes @Rondo, I know what a crappie flop is, though I've never been tased. Yet.
ReplyDeletePOWDERED WIG WAG gave me a chuckle and that put me in a good mood to finish the puzzle. Yes, there was crossword-ese, but it only helped in getting the themers.
As for the elephant in the room, I don't know why @evil doug felt it appropriate to publish someone's personal opinion about womens' issues. I also don't know why so many rose to the bait. Kind of interesting, like a 10-car smash-up.
I enjoyed the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHope that's not an "alternative fact". We USED to call those something else. Misstatements if not on purpose, lies otherwise.
I was having trouble with a bunch of unknown PPP - sports and TV will never be my forte. ONEACAT? INcome vs. INFLOW.
ReplyDeleteThen I was actually relieved when I got one of the (lower level) themers - they helped me fill this in.
So not fun - then fun. Glad the fun came last.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswrds
I liked the theme and title (revealer), MISHMASH, which made this an easier Sunday than usual.
ReplyDeleteMost of the PAUSEs due mostly to PPPs like FTROOP, HERNAN in the NE and to a couple of crosses like DAFFY/ATWT (wanted ATNO) in the middle South. Nice chuckle from cluing of OGLE (by TSA agents, maybe?)
Thought ONEACAT had appeared as ONEOCAT in previous puzzles.
Yes, an easy late Sunday afternoon. Appreciated it.
Fun puzzle.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite of the themers was the center one: "of thee I sing"
Seemed as if some commenters didn't actually get it. There was mention of the national anthem and something else, forget what, that was off track. The song "America" (not our national anthem) has the line ( after "Sweet land of liberty") "Of thee I sing"
So it IS the Of thee I sing song. IMO most amusing, in a sort of goofy way.
My first theme answer was powdered wig wag and I liked it, but now can't think what wig wag means or is. All the rest of the word pairs were familiar. It seems familiar, but why? Does anyone know.
@Evil doug. I remember postings from you years back that were sometime lewd and sometimes sour, but always about the puzzle. That was more fun.
Ok I'm finishing late here on the west coast. Snarf? For wolf (down) 96 down? I had scarf. Never in my life have I heard or read snarf as in "snarf down food." In fact, snarf, just when have I ever seen that word? Argh. Maybe too tired but this really bugs me.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy this blog for crossword discussion.
ReplyDeleteI run a large community website for which the primary topic is non political.
I have a strict "no politics" rule in the comment section.
The comments to this NYT Sunday puzzle clearly show why Rex should Institute such a rule here.
I am very politically involved. I keep my political comments to appropriate forums. This one is supposed to be about crossword puzzles.
Let's keep it that way.
If you're going to issue a personal attack, put your name on it. Just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteBut actually, there are places for soap boxes. This seemed to be a puzzle blog, and as a user, I'd prefer to see it kept to that. Off-topic comments kept to maybe one short sentence, an aside, not the meat of the posting. And reading personal attacks is not what many of us came here to do. Me, I'm looking to see what I missed about the puzzle, or if it really was as hard as it seemed for me. Usually. This one was easy for me; I wanted to see if others enjoyed it.
I see that I just said what Anonymous 10:23PM already just said. Oh well, I've typed it already, am posting it anyway.
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