THEME:expanding letters — familiar phrases containing stand-alone letters have those letters spelled out as words, resulting in wackiness
Theme answers:
BEE STUDENT (18A: Apiarist?)
TEE BILL (29A: Invoice from a souvenir shop?)
DEE FLAT (31A: Terse put-down of Sandra's "Gidget" performance?)
EX FILES (45A: Where to keep divorce papers?)
CUE BERT (47A: Signal Ernie's buddy to step onstage?) (Q*bert is a video game)
GEE STRINGS (59A: "Wow, you have violins!"?)
Word of the Day: LUXOR (16A: City across the Nile from the Valley of the Kings) —
Luxor [...] is a city in Upper (southern) Egypt and the capital of Luxor Governorate. The population numbers 487,896 (2010 estimate), with an area of approximately 416 square kilometres (161 sq mi). // As the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes, Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-air museum", as the ruins of the temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city. Immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the West Bank Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. (wikipedia)
• • •
Right over the plate. Cute little theme, nicely executed. Nothing flashy. Tuesday easy. I give it a bee. This constructor is an old pro, and it's always nice to see her byline—I don't always love her puzzles, but when I see her name, I know I am definitely not going to be getting junk. Puzzle feels hand-made in a good way. Somewhat conservative / old-fashioned in its fill, but polished. Crafted. It's a good look. As usual with easy, early-week puzzles, I was only dimly aware of what the theme was. Because the first few I ran into were all -EE letters, I was surprised / mildly befuddled to come across EX and CUE. This is what happens when you solve fast—the contours of the theme get blurry. I love when the puzzle saves its best themer for last (a very Merl-esque move), and today's did not disappoint. It is rare that the "wacky" clue really lands for me, really makes me laugh, but for some reason the bizarrely ingenuous ["Wow, you have violins!"?] leading to the racy (-sounding) GEE STRINGS really got me. "GEE! STRINGS!" I just love how excited that imaginary kid is (in my head the exclaimer is a kid ... it's just funnier that way). Standing O for that clue. EX FILES and CUE BERT clues also work. The themer clues up top are less interesting. I do think it's kinda bad form to have non-themer Acrosses that are longer than your themer Acrosses (see LOOK HERE, EPISODES), but that's a very minor technical issue.
It is weird how much I get slowed down by very small answers. I've been noticing this happening a lot. Here are all the parts where I "struggled" (I finished in the mid 3s, so I never really struggled):
Wanted BAIT and HOOK before WORM, which, when I got WORM, seemed awfully stupid of me. I mean, "wriggly" is right in the clue, for ****'s sake. Even with the "M" I didn't get MASK for 4D: Lone Ranger accessory. Considered the whole cowboy get-up, but forgot he was a "masked man." Dumb. Didn't know if the [Recycling receptacle] was a CAN or TIN or BIN (again, in retrosepct, this seems obvious, but mid-solve, my brain was not sure). LUXOR was the answer I wanted at first for 16A: City across the Nile from the Valley of the Kings, but I didn't trust it. So I checked crosses. 13D: 17,000-year-old find in France's Lascaux cave is a verrrrrrrry specific clue for something as general as ART. I could see the ART (cave paintings) in question, but ART ... yeah, never woulda thought, w/a clue like that, I'd end up at mere ART. Wanted ROMP for ROUT, which happens precisely Every time I get a clue like 64A: Decisive defeat, in four letters. Ugh. And then there's the worst mistake of all: the one where I wrote in SRS for 44A: Many SAT takers: Abbr., and then couldn't make heads or tails of 44D: Legal authorities (JURISTS). Solving brain says: SAT = SRS, PSAT = JRS. It's a reflex. Never mind that my own daughter is a JR who took the SAT earlier this year. Never mind that *I* took the SAT as a JR. Crossword brain knows what it knows and it knows JRS take *P*SATs. Blargh. Still, I ended up w/ a perfectly Tuesday time. And that final themer ensured that I also ended on a high note.
Had SRS before JRS, as SURISTS seemed legit after a few beers. Would have been a record solve time had I not been an idiot insistent upon SRS being the one's taking SAT's. I call this one Easy, except for that one square at 44.
Did you notice the themers are all rotationally symmetric with each other? I'm willing to forgive the longer words not being themers for that symmetry.
@Lynn Lempel's puzzle, with six(!) theme entries, was just fine, and @Rex's review was pleasantly positive while identifying a few small traps. Don't ask me how, but for a brief moment, I was wondering who Ernie ELS' buddy could be? The clue for EGO, i.e., "Maniacal leader?" brought to mind this article in today's paper of record.
Yeah, nice little puzzle. On the easy side for me given my time. EXFILES was a really cute answer, as was GEESTRINGS. Honestly can't complain about this at all, it's Tuesday fare done really well.
I agree with Rex's uncharacteristically positive review. Loved it, especially "Gee, strings!" though I pictured a fresh-faced, young woman on a first date.
Not sure about TEEBILLS, though. Even after I grokked the theme, it didn't make sense. T? As in T-shirt? That's all I could come up with, but it seems quite a stretch. Or an I missing something?
I'm a fan of theme density so this Thursday did not disappoint. I liked that CUE and EX were included with the EE letters to jazz things up a bit. I did a double take when I realized that.
It was nice to see Katty Kay pictured in Rex's review. I've never seen her anywhere except behind a desk on the nightly BBC World News on PBS. Her arms are nearly as good as Michelle Obama's. The tail end "Kay" doesn't work as a potential themer for me, however.
I would go with the coffee pods if I was using the letter "Kay". Those plastic "kaycups" are so wasteful, however, that they should be confined to puzzle usage only. Until we threw the Keurig away, I used some biodegradable paper pods I found on Amazon.
About as good as one can expect on a Tuesday, especially when OFL corroborates. I guess one could quibble about the fact that the letters don't spell out some secret message, but look at the calendar. Or, maybe they do. Ideas?
I can honestly say I have never received a SEXT message, darn it! Mostly my wife sends me photos of desserts, or of things that need to be fixed around the house, or of empty refrigerator shelves. Oh, I guess those are texts.
Scientific research keeps wanting to make those cave paintings of Lascaux even older than 17,000 years. Evidence of culture and language revolve around ART and burial rituals, which seem to be evident even in Neanderthals, or so I've read.
I remember when the Getty in LA purchased IRISES for an undisclosed amount. That was when the museum was housed in the Villa in Malibu. It created quite a stir at the time. The new Getty in the Sepulveda Pass cost a billion to build, houses more than a billion worth of art, and has an endowment of a few billion. Southern California is an art Mecca. Of the many museum collections in LA, my favorite is the Norton Simon in Pasadena. Park your car a few feet from Rodin's The Burghers of Calais.
Since Shakespeare is trending, Jaques in As You Like It finishes his monologue on the seven ages of man: "Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, SANS teeth, SANS eyes, SANS taste, SANS everything." Crossword folks probably already know that the infant age features "mewling and puking." Enjoy your breakfast.
I'm guessing PARTY as a verb and TOASTY as an adjective were generated contemporaneously. Etymologists?
This Tuesday was so good I actually expected Rex to like it.
Gee, thanks, Lynn.
Owe no. (What Benjamin Franklin advised.) Eye Tarzan. (What the ape man grammarian said.) (I know, I know, the clue is supposed to match the spelling of the first word, but I like that clue. But, if you insist: What Jane did.)
Fun puzzle. After years of seeing A-Line in puzzles I actually Googled it to see what the heck this thing really was. I had to go through two pages of clothing website ads before I got to the Wikipedia definition. All these years I assumed it meant "first class" as in A Team or A list, but no, it just means fitted at the hip and flared at the hem, so the shape kinda looks like an A! The things you learn from solving.
Smart and lively little gem, which LL is very good at making. A nice mix of Tuesday-obvious clues and other clues that engaged the brain. Some nice answers (GLUT, EXEMPLAR, STEEN) and I smiled at the clue for ATE. There is a PULL out and an ATE out, and a mini-theme of double E's (7).
"Maniacal leader" as a clue barely passed the breakfast test.
I liked WORM and REEL IN/PULL. Wonder what you can land in the Coral Sea section of the Pacific Ocean?
@Thomaso808 - Just throw on a couple more Y’s, and 24A could’ve been a themer. “Fonzi interjections.” Hah.
@chefwen, @lg, @jae – I had ”purists” first. Yes, with PURE in the grid.
I agree with the clue for ART. Apologies to @archaeoprof, but I had a ridiculous “Tut” first, vaguely thinking that I hadn’t remembered where they had discovered him. And I’m here to admit that on national TV. (I miss @archaeoprof.)
I noticed LIPS right next to BEE. I bought some lip gloss once that had bee venom in it. Was supposed to plump up your lips. Didn’t work worth a flip. I just put some loose powder on them first now before I put on the gloss.
WALLET – holder for cash, ID, stamps, grocery list from 2013, picture from my son’s first driver’s license, expired insurance cards, expired AAA card, Circle K coffee punch card that I didn’t want but was forced on me, expired Sams Club card, expired Talbots discount card, expired contact/glasses prescriptions, picture cut out of my old driver’s license because I complained to the DMV lady that it was the only good picture I’ve ever taken and she did that for me, earring, mysterious measurements maybe for curtains, mysterious phone number - all coated in a gunky film of loose powder.
Liked EXFILES. Think TEEBILL doesn't fit because the T in tbills is short for Treasury. The other letters stand alone in their respective original phrases. And, also, the clue for that one is a little off. I guess a tee can be a souvenir. Maybe in a pro shop.
Catching up on puzzles and associated blogs, and you'll all be pleased to hear that Rex's blog comment you objected to (about the Mini) seems to have been removed. To me the interesting revelation was that Michael does the Mini.
I really enjoyed the puzzle, but I expected @Rex to pan it. Completely, utterly in my wheelhouse, which normally earns a "stale, dated, fusty" rant from Rex.
I mean, when was the last time you thought about Sandra Dee? or Q-bert? DESI Arnaz?
Lone Ranger, Patti LaBelle, X-Files, Def Leppard, King Kong. The range of the puzzle is basically 1950s-70s.
Looking at 5, 6, and 7 down. Isn't it some sort of Natick violation to stack three proper names together? I had three crosses: TEEBILL, BEESTUDENT, and LOOKHERE. Not enough :-(
What a fun puzzle!!! What with Emeril, stir in the batter and genoa salami...and of course Bee!!! Hand up for not understanding cue Bert...what is a Qbert????
My first reaction was to think of Bach's air on a G String, so I did not giggle when I put it in. Nice puzzle but I found "ex files" a bit of an outlier in terms of the theme. Is "ex" a real word? Or just a shorthand? And anyone who has seen "Gidget" would never describe Sandra Dee's performance as "flat." Maybe "shrill," but not "flat." Unless... :)
Faster than Monday's for me, probably because of fewer longer artist/actor names that I don't recall. Needed crosses for Jan STEEN though. No real aha moments so slightly dull, but not unusual for a Tuesday. Agree with Rex's grade, even though not having his take on GEESTRINGS until I read it here.
The TEEBILL explanations don't seem quite satisfactory. Was thinking first you pay your tee time dues in the golf shop, but that's a pro shop typically. Guess the bill for a souvenir tee-shirt is the right view.
Our Rex has crossed into Geezerville. Childish giggles at the ancient and never used alternative meaning for G-string and not batting an eye at an archaic clue for the former Mrs. Bobby Darin? He's one of us!
Got a kick out of all the theme clues except DEEFLAT - seems strained, doesn't it? Particularly loved CUEBERT; biggest groan on BEESTUDENT.
@Rex's Katty Kay may be the best newsreader out there, but never cared for her much on "Morning Joe" panels. Not much to contribute.
Thanks, @jackj, for Qbert, which I'd never heard either. Once again I'm the outlier, since the oh-so-elementary clues at the top of the puzzle almost made me throw the puzzle across the room. But I hung around. Why? Curiosity was consuming me as to "where to keep divorce papers?" And, by staying, I was rewarded with the wonderful EX FILES. Stayed around for GEE STRINGS, too. The themers were nice enough, but I really do hate early week cluing. Maybe there will be some thinking required tomorrow?
Lots of fun, not much to add. Maybe ELS is too close to the theme, but it didn't bother me going by.
@Rex, a romp is a decisive win, a ROUT is a decisive defeat. Also, one's transitive, the other isn't. Hope this nifty advice pays off in the future!
I'm thinking there must be a joke there about the melancoly Jacques and the old typesetter who ends up 'SANS serif, sans everything,' but I can't think of it.
I'm spending the week at the Boston Early Music Festival; I'll look out for a piece in DEE FLAT, but it's an uncommon key (outside of Chopin,maybe).
@Anon12:27am - That rotational symmetry for the grid and the themers, i.e. if you rotate the puzzle 180° the grid looks the same and the theme answers are in the same spot, is a requirement for most themed puzzles, so hardly remarkable. In the vast majority of puzzles the theme answers are the longest answers, so in this puzzle the expectation would be to have the 8-letter symmetrical answers be themers and the 7-letter answers be fill. I, too, briefly wondered if I was missing a theme element when I noticed that LOOK HERE didn't fit the theme. The 8-letter non-themers isn't a huge deal, but it does niggle at my sense of order and rightness. As I've done more puzzles I've learned to appreciate other forms of symmetry. Occasionally there will be mirror symmetry or 90° rotational symmetry. An interesting, well filled puzzle with 90° rotational symmetry is quite a construction achievement.
While in Boston this week, try to carve out some time for the Matisse exhibit at the MFA. A rare exhibition, pulled together from public and private holdings. Well worth the visit!
The surprising thing about QBert is that once you got to a certain level, something like 18, it did not get any harder. In my college days I was getting good at the game, and one morning I went down to Howie's sub shop at around 11:00, popped a quarter, and began to play.
Three hours later, when I was supposed to leave for a softball game, I was still playing that same quarter. At 4:30 or so, some of the other players showed up, having finished the game. This gave me a chance to go get some 'lunch' while someone else played my quarter for a while.
They were terrible, but another thing about the game is you could build up unlimited extra lives, so although in my 20-minute food break we must have lost 60 lives, I was able to come back and take over with plenty still intact.
Finally called it quits around 9pm. Just walked away from the machine.
OK puzzle. You can always count on whimsy from Ms. Lempel. I liked that WORM LESS GRETA at the top. Considering all the places Van Susteren has been, I'm betting she has been DEEloused more than once. I wonder why the thong was replaced by GEE STRING. I guess they're both the same. I think the Brazilian women invented that thing - they seemed to have invented just about anything that will add/subtract from your body. They even have Brazilian Bum Bum cream which you probably use after your wax job. I saw RUDOLPH dance with Margot Fontaine in Granada. I think they were having secret SEXT affair. I'll now say my CIAOs.
Cute puzzle nicely made. Liked GEE STRINGS most and CUE BERT least (having never heard of Qbert until now). Would have preferred "cue tips" (pointers for stage managers?)
Given the theme, A LINES seems wrong. And the reference to draft dodgers seems off without a historical context since there hasn't been a draft in three decades.
But overall I enjoyed the puzzle. Another Lynn Lempel GEM.
Oh, I really liked this. GEESTRINGS actually made me chuckle. I recognize that it plays to my...ahem...age cohort, with Sandra DEE, GRETA, RUDOLF, etc., but I'll take it. I try not to complain when a puzzle is loaded with rappers, athletes, or media stars, so this is a gift. The only thing that would improve it would be to make it bigger, impossible I know.
EM PRESS = {Newspaper coverage of Bond's boss?}, then?
Fun TuesPuz. As U-sual, the Rodney Dangerfield of vowels got left out, for themer consideration. But, LOOK-HERE, at these suggested EPISODES:
* EWE LOST ME = {Beef for Bo Peep?}. * YEW NEVER CAN TELL = {The conifer forest keeps many a secret?}. * YOU BERRY = {How Tarzan starts a text to PB1?}.
… day-um. U coulda been a contender…
fave hot-crossed moment of desperation: AMTSSS.
EX EM PLAR. Confuses the snot out of M&A.
staff weeject pick: NEE. Looks like it wants to start a themer out there in the margins. NEE DEEP? … thought so.
Great fillins threw-out. Cute theme -- agree, GEE STRINGS is highly primo. Decent U-count. Rodeo. Thanx, Ms. Lempel darlin. PLAR!
BEE STUDENT was nice but that was it for me, themewise. The clues and wacky answers for DEE FLAT & GEESTRINGS sounded somewhere between silly and nonsensical to my ear. Don't do arcade games so CUEBERT was meaningless. And is CUE the way we spell the letter Q? Or does the theme rely on letter homophones rather than letter spellings?
The grid seemed like an EXEMPLAR for an S fest. (9D SSS, a classic POC enabler, could be clued "Sound of a tire going flat". That would also work for SSSS, SSSSS, et al.) I counted 21 Ss, or about 12% of the total letters in the grid. The frequency of the letter S in standard English text is about a 6%. (In Scrabble, the frequency of the S tile is 4%.) So that earns a POC Marked rating for this grid.
@Gill I I sat next to Rudolf on a banquette at the Russian Tea Room one lunch time, so we were nearly touching. I was beyond thrilled. I had seen him perform recently and when he leapt it was as if he was suspended in mid-air, and what an aristocratic flare to that nose!
Thanks, @Rex, for the concept of "crossword brain". I know the feeling. Isn't that how we all got suckered by Howard Barkin's April Fool's joke puzzle? Our crossword brains all said OSLO, OREO, ANTI and ERIE when the puzzle said "uh unh". Stupid crossword brain.
I put in ART with no crosses at 13D but was wary of it - as Rex said, it seemed pretty vague for a specific clue.
BEESTUDENT, EXFILES and GEESTRINGS all stellar in my opinion. Had to make the sRS to JRS switch like many here. Q'Bert was a "what?"
@Gill I & kitshef I'm glad I'm not drinking anything right now that could go up my nose between what GRETA must have done to become WORM LESS and the extended CUE BERT experience. Sound a little like what happened with my sister's dime when we stopped for lunch in a casino on the way home to California from seeing the Grand Canyon. My sister won enough to pay for a hotel room and continue playing the slot machines into the wee hours,
The Lascaux cave is magically beautiful. The depiction of movement and stylistic representation seems impossibly ahead of its time. It makes me want to look at that period of human history on a time line to see what the rest of the world was doing.
The Selective Service System (SSS) is still up and running and almost all men 18-25 who are U.S. citizens or are immigrants living in the U.S. are required to register with Selective Service. Men in the U.S. on student, visitor or diplomatic visas and women are not required to register.
Leno stroll = JAYWALK “Wager!” = YOUBET Look at sheet music = EYETUNES “Take Good Care of My Baby” placard = VEESIGN (Hey, Bobby’s from these parts) “Bad dog!” = GEESPOT Gotta agree that it’s better than a lotta Tuesdays, not exactly an EXEMPLAR; better.
Bonus answers with A-LINES and CIGAR (give the man a cee-gar)?
Anyone ever WIN at the LUXOR in Vegas?
Better off with yeah baby GRETA Garbo than “fresh” (or current) Van Sustern.
One w/o at the oh so common sRS/JRS. This puz was not hard to ENDURE.
A mini sub-theme was present in the form of ALINE, IRE, EDAM, EGRET, EGO, IRISES, USB, OPAL, EXEMPLAR, ENDURE, ATE and CIGAR if you pronounce it like a cowboy.
Agree with all on the cute theme. Once @Rex wrote the word "wacky," I thought he would rant on, but not today. Yeah!
Almost, almost had a Natick in the NW - the massive floater in my eye helped me misread the clue for GLUT - but then it moved out of the way and I finished up.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
.png)
65 comments:
Had SRS before JRS, as SURISTS seemed legit after a few beers. Would have been a record solve time had I not been an idiot insistent upon SRS being the one's taking SAT's. I call this one Easy, except for that one square at 44.
Should have typed sURISTS, my apologies.
Did you notice the themers are all rotationally symmetric with each other? I'm willing to forgive the longer words not being themers for that symmetry.
@Lynn Lempel's puzzle, with six(!) theme entries, was just fine, and @Rex's review was pleasantly positive while identifying a few small traps. Don't ask me how, but for a brief moment, I was wondering who Ernie ELS' buddy could be? The clue for EGO, i.e., "Maniacal leader?" brought to mind this article in today's paper of record.
Yeah, nice little puzzle. On the easy side for me given my time. EXFILES was a really cute answer, as was GEESTRINGS. Honestly can't complain about this at all, it's Tuesday fare done really well.
I agree with Rex's uncharacteristically positive review. Loved it, especially "Gee, strings!" though I pictured a fresh-faced, young woman on a first date.
Not sure about TEEBILLS, though. Even after I grokked the theme, it didn't make sense. T? As in T-shirt? That's all I could come up with, but it seems quite a stretch. Or an I missing something?
They don't get much cuter than this. I've never met a Lynn Lempel puzzle that I did not like.
Like @lg I put in SRS at 44A and never saw my incorrect sURISTS, had to read his post before I realized I finished with a crazy mistake. Silly me.
Oh well! Loved it and laughed at GEESTRINGS, as I'm sure most of us did.
Got the theme early and wondered why TEEtotal wouldn't fit.
I'm a fan of theme density so this Thursday did not disappoint. I liked that CUE and EX were included with the EE letters to jazz things up a bit. I did a double take when I realized that.
It was nice to see Katty Kay pictured in Rex's review. I've never seen her anywhere except behind a desk on the nightly BBC World News on PBS. Her arms are nearly as good as Michelle Obama's. The tail end "Kay" doesn't work as a potential themer for me, however.
I would go with the coffee pods if I was using the letter "Kay". Those plastic "kaycups" are so wasteful, however, that they should be confined to puzzle usage only. Until we threw the Keurig away, I used some biodegradable paper pods I found on Amazon.
Medium for me too and sRS before JRS. A fine Tues., liked it.
About as good as one can expect on a Tuesday, especially when OFL corroborates. I guess one could quibble about the fact that the letters don't spell out some secret message, but look at the calendar. Or, maybe they do. Ideas?
I can honestly say I have never received a SEXT message, darn it! Mostly my wife sends me photos of desserts, or of things that need to be fixed around the house, or of empty refrigerator shelves. Oh, I guess those are texts.
Scientific research keeps wanting to make those cave paintings of Lascaux even older than 17,000 years. Evidence of culture and language revolve around ART and burial rituals, which seem to be evident even in Neanderthals, or so I've read.
I remember when the Getty in LA purchased IRISES for an undisclosed amount. That was when the museum was housed in the Villa in Malibu. It created quite a stir at the time. The new Getty in the Sepulveda Pass cost a billion to build, houses more than a billion worth of art, and has an endowment of a few billion. Southern California is an art Mecca. Of the many museum collections in LA, my favorite is the Norton Simon in Pasadena. Park your car a few feet from Rodin's The Burghers of Calais.
Since Shakespeare is trending, Jaques in As You Like It finishes his monologue on the seven ages of man: "Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion, SANS teeth, SANS eyes, SANS taste, SANS everything." Crossword folks probably already know that the infant age features "mewling and puking." Enjoy your breakfast.
I'm guessing PARTY as a verb and TOASTY as an adjective were generated contemporaneously. Etymologists?
This Tuesday was so good I actually expected Rex to like it.
Gee, thanks, Lynn.
Owe no. (What Benjamin Franklin advised.)
Eye Tarzan. (What the ape man grammarian said.) (I know, I know, the clue is supposed to match the spelling of the first word, but I like that clue. But, if you insist: What Jane did.)
Fun puzzle.
After years of seeing A-Line in puzzles I actually Googled it to see what the heck this thing really was. I had to go through two pages of clothing website ads before I got to the Wikipedia definition. All these years I assumed it meant "first class" as in A Team or A list, but no, it just means fitted at the hip and flared at the hem, so the shape kinda looks like an A! The things you learn from solving.
Smart and lively little gem, which LL is very good at making. A nice mix of Tuesday-obvious clues and other clues that engaged the brain. Some nice answers (GLUT, EXEMPLAR, STEEN) and I smiled at the clue for ATE. There is a PULL out and an ATE out, and a mini-theme of double E's (7).
"Maniacal leader" as a clue barely passed the breakfast test.
I liked WORM and REEL IN/PULL. Wonder what you can land in the Coral Sea section of the Pacific Ocean?
@Thomaso808 - Just throw on a couple more Y’s, and 24A could’ve been a themer. “Fonzi interjections.” Hah.
@chefwen, @lg, @jae – I had ”purists” first. Yes, with PURE in the grid.
I agree with the clue for ART. Apologies to @archaeoprof, but I had a ridiculous “Tut” first, vaguely thinking that I hadn’t remembered where they had discovered him. And I’m here to admit that on national TV. (I miss @archaeoprof.)
I noticed LIPS right next to BEE. I bought some lip gloss once that had bee venom in it. Was supposed to plump up your lips. Didn’t work worth a flip. I just put some loose powder on them first now before I put on the gloss.
WALLET – holder for cash, ID, stamps, grocery list from 2013, picture from my son’s first driver’s license, expired insurance cards, expired AAA card, Circle K coffee punch card that I didn’t want but was forced on me, expired Sams Club card, expired Talbots discount card, expired contact/glasses prescriptions, picture cut out of my old driver’s license because I complained to the DMV lady that it was the only good picture I’ve ever taken and she did that for me, earring, mysterious measurements maybe for curtains, mysterious phone number - all coated in a gunky film of loose powder.
Lynn never, ever disappoints. Very nice.
Liked EXFILES. Think TEEBILL doesn't fit because the T in tbills is short for Treasury. The other letters stand alone in their respective original phrases. And, also, the clue for that one is a little off. I guess a tee can be a souvenir. Maybe in a pro shop.
Catching up on puzzles and associated blogs, and you'll all be pleased to hear that Rex's blog comment you objected to (about the Mini) seems to have been removed. To me the interesting revelation was that Michael does the Mini.
Stalled for a while on the middle letter of ATE, but still fast for me. Very nice puzzle.
I really enjoyed the puzzle, but I expected @Rex to pan it. Completely, utterly in my wheelhouse, which normally earns a "stale, dated, fusty" rant from Rex.
I mean, when was the last time you thought about Sandra Dee? or Q-bert? DESI Arnaz?
Lone Ranger, Patti LaBelle, X-Files, Def Leppard, King Kong. The range of the puzzle is basically 1950s-70s.
Which is just fine with me!
I liked it but I don't understand what "cue bert " means. All of the other theme answers are real things. Guess I'm missing something.
Looking at 5, 6, and 7 down. Isn't it some sort of Natick violation to stack three proper names together? I had three crosses: TEEBILL, BEESTUDENT, and LOOKHERE. Not enough :-(
Help - what org. Is the SSS and why does it worry draft dodgers ?
anon@7:58AM- Qbert is an arcade game; Bert is Ernie's best friend on Sesame St.
What a fun puzzle!!! What with Emeril, stir in the batter and genoa salami...and of course Bee!!! Hand up for not understanding cue Bert...what is a Qbert????
Thinking it was Teashop not Teeshop , guess Tee being a Tee-Shirt is more of a souvenir
My first reaction was to think of Bach's air on a G String, so I did not giggle when I put it in. Nice puzzle but I found "ex files" a bit of an outlier in terms of the theme. Is "ex" a real word? Or just a shorthand? And anyone who has seen "Gidget" would never describe Sandra Dee's performance as "flat." Maybe "shrill," but not "flat." Unless... :)
Perfect for a Tuesday Lovely and enjoyable. Even Rex could not possibly dislike it.
@SouthsideJohnny. Selective Service System which managed the military draft when we had one. Another sort of dated clue.
Agree with all the positive comments but was thrown by EPISODES not being a themer. Disorienting.
Faster than Monday's for me, probably because of fewer longer artist/actor names that I don't recall. Needed crosses for Jan STEEN though. No real aha moments so slightly dull, but not unusual for a Tuesday. Agree with Rex's grade, even though not having his take on GEESTRINGS until I read it here.
The TEEBILL explanations don't seem quite satisfactory. Was thinking first you pay your tee time dues in the golf shop, but that's a pro shop typically. Guess the bill for a souvenir tee-shirt is the right view.
Our Rex has crossed into Geezerville. Childish giggles at the ancient and never used alternative meaning for G-string and not batting an eye at an archaic clue for the former Mrs. Bobby Darin? He's one of us!
Got a kick out of all the theme clues except DEEFLAT - seems strained, doesn't it? Particularly loved CUEBERT; biggest groan on BEESTUDENT.
@Rex's Katty Kay may be the best newsreader out there, but never cared for her much on "Morning Joe" panels. Not much to contribute.
@drum365--
T-bills are Treasury Bills. Short-dated government securities, cousins to the longer-dated a Treasury Bonds.
Lynn Lempel is as reliable as they come in delivering quality...but how great it would have been had Gary Cee constructed this!
Never heard of Qbert, despite being the perfect age, so that one was lost on me. Surprised she didn't go with CUEtips.
No complaints here though -- excellent Tuesday.
Thanks, @jackj, for Qbert, which I'd never heard either. Once again I'm the outlier, since the oh-so-elementary clues at the top of the puzzle almost made me throw the puzzle across the room. But I hung around. Why? Curiosity was consuming me as to "where to keep divorce papers?" And, by staying, I was rewarded with the wonderful EX FILES. Stayed around for GEE STRINGS, too. The themers were nice enough, but I really do hate early week cluing. Maybe there will be some thinking required tomorrow?
Lots of fun, not much to add. Maybe ELS is too close to the theme, but it didn't bother me going by.
@Rex, a romp is a decisive win, a ROUT is a decisive defeat. Also, one's transitive, the other isn't. Hope this nifty advice pays off in the future!
I'm thinking there must be a joke there about the melancoly Jacques and the old typesetter who ends up 'SANS serif, sans everything,' but I can't think of it.
I'm spending the week at the Boston Early Music Festival; I'll look out for a piece in DEE FLAT, but it's an uncommon key (outside of Chopin,maybe).
@Two Ponies, from yesterday. Thanks for the correction re: 'fetlock.' I guess you know your horse parts!
Pretty much what Rex said.
@Anon12:27am - That rotational symmetry for the grid and the themers, i.e. if you rotate the puzzle 180° the grid looks the same and the theme answers are in the same spot, is a requirement for most themed puzzles, so hardly remarkable. In the vast majority of puzzles the theme answers are the longest answers, so in this puzzle the expectation would be to have the 8-letter symmetrical answers be themers and the 7-letter answers be fill. I, too, briefly wondered if I was missing a theme element when I noticed that LOOK HERE didn't fit the theme. The 8-letter non-themers isn't a huge deal, but it does niggle at my sense of order and rightness. As I've done more puzzles I've learned to appreciate other forms of symmetry. Occasionally there will be mirror symmetry or 90° rotational symmetry. An interesting, well filled puzzle with 90° rotational symmetry is quite a construction achievement.
@JBerg --
While in Boston this week, try to carve out some time for the Matisse exhibit at the MFA. A rare exhibition, pulled together from public and private holdings. Well worth the visit!
@JBerg -- Forgot to include this, re the Matisse exhibition.
http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/matisse-in-the-studio
The surprising thing about QBert is that once you got to a certain level, something like 18, it did not get any harder. In my college days I was getting good at the game, and one morning I went down to Howie's sub shop at around 11:00, popped a quarter, and began to play.
Three hours later, when I was supposed to leave for a softball game, I was still playing that same quarter. At 4:30 or so, some of the other players showed up, having finished the game. This gave me a chance to go get some 'lunch' while someone else played my quarter for a while.
They were terrible, but another thing about the game is you could build up unlimited extra lives, so although in my 20-minute food break we must have lost 60 lives, I was able to come back and take over with plenty still intact.
Finally called it quits around 9pm. Just walked away from the machine.
Man, I loved college.
OK puzzle. You can always count on whimsy from Ms. Lempel.
I liked that WORM LESS GRETA at the top. Considering all the places Van Susteren has been, I'm betting she has been DEEloused more than once.
I wonder why the thong was replaced by GEE STRING. I guess they're both the same. I think the Brazilian women invented that thing - they seemed to have invented just about anything that will add/subtract from your body. They even have Brazilian Bum Bum cream which you probably use after your wax job.
I saw RUDOLPH dance with Margot Fontaine in Granada. I think they were having secret SEXT affair.
I'll now say my CIAOs.
Cute puzzle nicely made. Liked GEE STRINGS most and CUE BERT least (having never heard of Qbert until now). Would have preferred "cue tips" (pointers for stage managers?)
Given the theme, A LINES seems wrong. And the reference to draft dodgers seems off without a historical context since there hasn't been a draft in three decades.
But overall I enjoyed the puzzle. Another Lynn Lempel GEM.
Oh, I really liked this. GEESTRINGS actually made me chuckle. I recognize that it plays to my...ahem...age cohort, with Sandra DEE, GRETA, RUDOLF, etc., but I'll take it. I try not to complain when a puzzle is loaded with rappers, athletes, or media stars, so this is a gift. The only thing that would improve it would be to make it bigger, impossible I know.
Thank you, Lynn.
EM PRESS = {Newspaper coverage of Bond's boss?}, then?
Fun TuesPuz. As U-sual, the Rodney Dangerfield of vowels got left out, for themer consideration. But, LOOK-HERE, at these suggested EPISODES:
* EWE LOST ME = {Beef for Bo Peep?}.
* YEW NEVER CAN TELL = {The conifer forest keeps many a secret?}.
* YOU BERRY = {How Tarzan starts a text to PB1?}.
… day-um. U coulda been a contender…
fave hot-crossed moment of desperation: AMTSSS.
EX EM PLAR. Confuses the snot out of M&A.
staff weeject pick: NEE. Looks like it wants to start a themer out there in the margins. NEE DEEP? … thought so.
Great fillins threw-out. Cute theme -- agree, GEE STRINGS is highly primo. Decent U-count. Rodeo.
Thanx, Ms. Lempel darlin. PLAR!
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
BEE STUDENT was nice but that was it for me, themewise. The clues and wacky answers for DEE FLAT & GEESTRINGS sounded somewhere between silly and nonsensical to my ear. Don't do arcade games so CUEBERT was meaningless. And is CUE the way we spell the letter Q? Or does the theme rely on letter homophones rather than letter spellings?
The grid seemed like an EXEMPLAR for an S fest. (9D SSS, a classic POC enabler, could be clued "Sound of a tire going flat". That would also work for SSSS, SSSSS, et al.) I counted 21 Ss, or about 12% of the total letters in the grid. The frequency of the letter S in standard English text is about a 6%. (In Scrabble, the frequency of the S tile is 4%.) So that earns a POC Marked rating for this grid.
@Gill I I sat next to Rudolf on a banquette at the Russian Tea Room one lunch time, so we were nearly touching. I was beyond thrilled. I had seen him perform recently and when he leapt it was as if he was suspended in mid-air, and what an aristocratic flare to that nose!
I'm not sure if I could ever call a puzzle "somewhat conservative / old-fashioned in its fill" when it contains SEXT!
In the 80s there was no draft but I still got a few letters from the SSS gently reminding me I still had to register.
Thanks, @Rex, for the concept of "crossword brain". I know the feeling. Isn't that how we all got suckered by Howard Barkin's April Fool's joke puzzle? Our crossword brains all said OSLO, OREO, ANTI and ERIE when the puzzle said "uh unh". Stupid crossword brain.
I put in ART with no crosses at 13D but was wary of it - as Rex said, it seemed pretty vague for a specific clue.
BEESTUDENT, EXFILES and GEESTRINGS all stellar in my opinion. Had to make the sRS to JRS switch like many here. Q'Bert was a "what?"
Nice Tuesday, Ms. Lempel.
And M&A, great YOU answers. Tarzan, har!
My fastest Tuesday ever in just under 5 minutes. I didn't have any of the hangups that Rex did which is very unusual for me. Fun quick puzzle.
@Gill I & kitshef I'm glad I'm not drinking anything right now that could go up my nose between what GRETA must have done to become WORM LESS and the extended CUE BERT experience. Sound a little like what happened with my sister's dime when we stopped for lunch in a casino on the way home to California from seeing the Grand Canyon. My sister won enough to pay for a hotel room and continue playing the slot machines into the wee hours,
The Lascaux cave is magically beautiful. The depiction of movement and stylistic representation seems impossibly ahead of its time. It makes me want to look at that period of human history on a time line to see what the rest of the world was doing.
The Selective Service System (SSS) is still up and running and almost all men 18-25 who are U.S. citizens or are immigrants living in the U.S. are required to register with Selective Service. Men in the U.S. on student, visitor or diplomatic visas and women are not required to register.
sandra dee was anything but flat ...
"Wow, you have violins!"?/GEE STRINGS has to be one of the best clue/answer combos ever.
Sessions killed it. Stock markets love it.
Never heard of Qbert before today. I don't hang out in arcades. All good, each of us has his own skill set.
Leno stroll = JAYWALK
“Wager!” = YOUBET
Look at sheet music = EYETUNES
“Take Good Care of My Baby” placard = VEESIGN (Hey, Bobby’s from these parts)
“Bad dog!” = GEESPOT
Gotta agree that it’s better than a lotta Tuesdays, not exactly an EXEMPLAR; better.
Bonus answers with A-LINES and CIGAR (give the man a cee-gar)?
Anyone ever WIN at the LUXOR in Vegas?
Better off with yeah baby GRETA Garbo than “fresh” (or current) Van Sustern.
One w/o at the oh so common sRS/JRS. This puz was not hard to ENDURE.
JURIST’S DEEFLAT GEM
If your EXFILES, ENDURE things with SONG and guitars,
PULL on some GEESTRINGS, smoke a TON of CIGARS.
--- RUDOLF STEEN, ATTY.
A mini sub-theme was present in the form of ALINE, IRE, EDAM, EGRET, EGO, IRISES, USB, OPAL, EXEMPLAR, ENDURE, ATE and CIGAR if you pronounce it like a cowboy.
Re: Mini sub-theme: Add EMPRESS to the list I posted above.
Lynn Lempel to the rescue for Tuesday!
Very nice puzzle in all respects. Laughed at a couple themers, and just enjoyed the smooth solve.
Gotta go. Road trip.
Agree with all on the cute theme. Once @Rex wrote the word "wacky," I thought he would rant on, but not today. Yeah!
Almost, almost had a Natick in the NW - the massive floater in my eye helped me misread the clue for GLUT - but then it moved out of the way and I finished up.
GEE!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Simple, fun, and a bit wacky.
DEE may be FLAT, but put her in a GEESTRING and, boy, does she ever have some nice "violins", if that's what you want to call them.
GENOA salami is new to me, and EXFILES is a good one. But who names their kid OPAL these days?
Nice Tuesday work, LL.
Larry Gilstrap 3:04 AM: the dessert photos were sexts.
Post a Comment