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Rod-shaped bacterium / MON 7-17-17 / Brand of sheepskin boots / Annoying feature of online stream
Monday, July 17, 2017
Constructor: Tom McCoy
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: ODDS AND ENDS (55A: Miscellany ... or a description of the final words in 15-, 23-, 30-, 38- and 43-Across) — final words of themers are both odds (i.e. odd numbers) and ends (ends of their respective answers)
Theme answers:
- AIR FORCE ONE (15A: President's plane)
- STRIKE THREE (23A: Cry before "You're out!")
- GIMME FIVE (30A: "Up top!")
- GAME SEVEN (38A: Conclusion of a close World Series)
- ON CLOUD NINE (43A: Ecstatic)
São Tomé and Príncipe (/ˌsaʊ təˈmeɪ ən ˈprɪnsᵻpə/ SOW-tə-MAY-ən PRIN-si-pə or /ˈprɪnsᵻpeɪ/ PRIN-si-pay;[7] Portuguese: [sɐ̃w tuˈmɛ i ˈpɾĩsɨpɨ]), officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two archipelagos around the two main islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about 140 kilometres (87 miles) apart and about 250 and 225 kilometres (155 and 140 miles), respectively, off the northwestern coast of Gabon. // The islands were uninhabited until their discovery by Portuguese explorers in the 15th century. Gradually colonized and settled by the Portuguese throughout the 16th century, they collectively served as a vital commercial and trade center for the Atlantic slave trade. The rich volcanic soil and close proximity to the equator made São Tomé and Príncipe ideal for sugar cultivation, followed later by cash crops such as coffee and cocoa; the lucrative plantation economy was heavily dependent upon imported African slaves. Cycles of social unrest and economic instability throughout the 19th and 20th centuries culminated in peaceful independence in 1975. São Tomé and Príncipe has since remained one of Africa's most stable and democratic countries. // With a population of 192,993 (2013 Census), São Tomé and Príncipe is the second-smallest African country after Seychelles, as well as the smallest Portuguese-speaking country. Its people are predominantly of African and mestiço descent, with most practising Roman Catholicism. The legacy of Portuguese rule is also visible in the country's culture, customs, and music, which fuse European and African influences.
• • •
This is an exemplary little Monday. Full of mainstream, gettable, common answers. Not overly reliant on crosswordese or abbrs. or partials or other nonsense. And the theme—makes sense! The revealer reveals! Wordplay! Accurate wordplay! Hurrah. The numbers go in order, of course; I want to call that "elegant," but I think it's actually necessary ... although some variant with answers like "HEY NINETEEN" and "FRESHMAN FIFTEEN" (15!) could've been interesting. Anyway, this puzzle will not blow your mind, but it is a very fine example of what a Monday should be: easy, accessible, smooth, quirky, fun. Tom! Nice work, Tom.
I really gotta remember not to look at Twitter until I've finished the puzzle because even though people don't usually spoil it outright, I don't like seeing people's posted times. Gets in my head. Sets up expectations. Ruins the experience. This is a bit like how I feel about books I read or movies I see—the less I know going in, the happier I am. Clean slate! Anyway, I looked at Twitter and saw someone posted a personal record time, so I thought "crap, that means I'm gonna trip all over myself solving this thing." But I didn't. Solve felt choppy, for sure, but I came in a good 10-15 seconds under my Monday average (so ... in the low 2:40s). And that's despite confidently filling in a completely wrong second half of the answer at 29D: Means of tracking workers' hours. Went with TIME CLOCK, perhaps because they are a part of local business history here in Binghamton, NY: "1889: Harlow E. Bundy and Willard L. Bundy incorporate the Bundy Manufacturing Company in Binghamton, New York, the first time recording company in the world, to produce time clocks" (wikipedia). UNSNAG was the only iffy part of the puzzle for me (42D: Release from being caught on a nail, say), but I *guess* it's a word, so OK. Overall, a nice treat to tide us over until Wednesday (since Tuesday will inevitably be a disaster).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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68 comments:
Medium for me. Solid Monday with an ambitious theme (odd single digit numbers in order), liked it a lot!
New personal record for me! Agreed with Rex - enjoyed this little theme which was new (to me).
New Monday record for me by almost a full minute. It was easy (for me) and flowed very well.
I look forward to a Tom McCoy puzzle, but this one didn't grab my interest. I thought the theme was appropriate and nicely done, but the cluing was just a bit too easy, even for a Monday. Today I'm surprised to see that I'm more critical than @Rex. I'm want to see more sparkle, even on Monday.
Yep – perfect themers, perfect reveal.
I really liked the HIT OR MISS/STRIKE THREE cross.
Three clues caught my eye:
1. I didn’t study a lot of semantics, but I keep going back and looking at the clue for 46D and thinking of the nature of verbs like smell:
The nose smells.
The garbage smells.
That bee stings.
My eye stings.
His dog bites.
That movie bites.
2. When I hear “dance MOVE,” I always get this mental image of a guy (always a guy) out there, top teeth biting lower lip, head bopping, coming across very differently from how he thinks he's coming across.
3. “Wrestling for 400-pounders” – Back in the ‘80s, my aunt arrived early for a wedding just so she could get an aisle seat, and shortly before the ceremony started, her two friends showed up (all three, mysteriously, in pretty much the same dress, same size, different pastel colors). When Bethie S. hissed at her to slide over, my aunt held her ground, but it was touch-and-go there for a minute.
Tom McCoy – I couldn’t agree more with Rex – this is the Little Black Dress of a Monday puzzle. Well done.
I liked this Monday effort, as did OFL. ODD-ball theory: the puzzles are not getting easier, we're all just getting smarter, GIMME FIVE! I was hoping for OCEAN'S ELEVEN, but, alas, we ran out of grid. Remember when you first began solving and ran into ELAN? Try throwing that around in conversation at the gym.
I admire constructors, and would like to help. How about a theme featuring shore birds: a TERNS for the WORSTS, darn plurals. Or shore birds and luncheon meat: a TERN for the Wurst? Hi, @David Brooks. I cringe when folks post negative stuff about constructors, and when I nit pick it's about a part of the actual puzzle. I began solving in the Santa Ana Register, now the OC Register, and they never posted a by-line for the syndicated NYT Puzzle. Do they now? I assumed all the puzzles were ginned up by Shortz in his book-lined study.
Was ADELE's song really from 2015? Tempus fugit. That tune was ubiquitous, for good reason, IMO. While I'm opining, UGG boots, not very flattering.
I grew up reading LIFE Magazine and learned a lot about the world and popular culture. The last page was entitled Miscellany featuring a fascinating photograph and a descriptive caption. Like a dessert. Check it out!
This was a great Monday. I am always telling my would-be solver friends, "just keep working the Mondays" hoping the easy ones keep coming. This puzzle delivered. Even ENT was clued accessibly, as in differENT. Very nice. To a new solver, the clue "Like some library books and babies" DUE is just perfect. The clue for 53D puts the hyphen in "Force-ful" plus a "?" to give a huge help to JEDI. 12A "Swim meet coverage?" had enough crosses for anyone to get a grin out of SPEEDO. 1A "Building material for the first little pig" has got to be the most accessible entry in history -- Oh, Oh, I know that!
For me, it's not possible to have a Monday that's too easy. I'm definitely sending this one to my kids.
I really liked the theme with the five one digit primes in order. That was cool. The revealer was just ok. But over all a very good Monday entry.
Pretty darn easy, it's Monday! Learning moment was at 39D, thank you crosses, so this did have its moments.
Great puzzle for a beginner, I'll have to save it for my neighbor's son who wants me to give him a couple of beginners lessons when he visits next month. He'll love it.
Puzzle Partner was pissed, he thought he was going to beat me time wise, but I edged him out by a minute. Better luck next time Big Boy.
@Nancy, good comment late yesterday that STIVES was not a nursery rhyme, but instead was a riddle. That makes a big difference! Thousands of DNFs could have been avoided! I'm serious about that. Feigned Outrage!
@Nancy I do think that was a good observation. I am mocking the anonymice.
Delicious irony: TIME CARDS and Michael's TIME Clock--those oppressive symbols of management's boot on the throat of workers down to the gnat's ass minute (and I've punched one in summer jobs, so I know about racing to beat the clock lest I lose pay and suffer the master's lecture)--and Michael feeling the pressure of posted times as he sprints to beat his own. And the machines were invented right there in Binghamton? Too funny!
Yes, I know, the decision to time oneself vs. casually savoring crosswords is a matter of choice, so God bless you clock-watchers. But I'll never understand the self-imposed pressure of beating the clock on a pleasant mental pastime, when that time pressure is universally despised if imposed upon us....
Something very satisfying about the JUDO/JEDI cross...
And I loved the baby/library book clue.
I wish there were an entire puzzle of those kind of clues!!!!
Well done, Tom McCoy!!
Hope you're ONCLOUDNINE today as the accolades pour in!
@LarryGilstrap
I love the OCEANSELEVEN continuation!!!
I must agree. Will Shortz did a fine job here, as always.
While this cleverly-themed, clean, zippy puzzle elicited a grateful smile, the cross of the wedding vow and HIT OR MISS elicited a "yep" and a sigh.
@Evil, har. And arguably the clock is more bootlike than the card. Though it gave us some pretty good sheepdog/wolf cartoons. We still use (electronic) cards where I work, my guess is mostly for OSHA documentation.
I use the puzz-clock afterward to see how "normal" (for me) the solve was. Once in awhile the solve time argues with the feeling I get from the puzzle, and then I can mull over that for a couple of nanoseconds.
This puzzle was wonderful. Lots of ELAN. (Can anyone tell me the difference between ELAN and ECLAT?)
Did anyone already make a big deal out of the constructor putting all the ODDS at the ENDS of the themers? So much fun.
Anybody notice the Queen Mary crossword-crossing ad in yesterday's paper? I'm trying to imagine it. First dinner seating, people like Rex. Dessert served 5 min 20 seconds after the appetizer. And the menu... You'd have to cross the ingredients, of course.
@LMS. Old joke: "Our goat had his nose cut off by the baler."
"How awful! How'd he smell?"
"Terrible!"
Loved it except, at the very end, for GEICO.
As for STIVES I had no idea it was St Ives. I just thought it was some place in that "slithy toths" poem. lol. Thanks to everyone for the elucidations!
Wait Freshman Fifteen ? You shouldn't stigmatize young women you sexist pig. Not to mention Hey Nineteen, a song about a middle age guy hitting on a college girl. Eww.
Haha, got stuck on the LATEX last night because I was thinking about boxing gloves
@Nancy, your comment late yesterday described my reaction to the so called nursery rhyme. I, however, actually enjoy the dirty drink you hate but I promise I won't try buy you one of those at the boathouse.
@Evil, good one. That's exactly why I run my own business and why I savor the slow two cappuccino solves on Sundays, although yesterday's was only a cappuccino and a half.
.
Fun easy Monday puzzle...though I've never heard of Sao Tome. Learned something new!!
Yes, easy. Yes, a really well made puzzle, perfect for a Monday. Although I did carelessly DNF at GEIkO/RUNIk. Did not know the former (I guess they need to advertise more) and didn't check the cross.
Had to solve one-eyed thanks to a yellow-jacket sting just below my right eyebrow that has caused that eye to swell shut, so yes @Loren Muse Smith a wasp stings and now as a result my eye stings.
Agreed on the puzzle.
I probably shared this story before, but @Evil Doug's soliloquy on clock slavery reminded me of it. I was car-pooling from Detroit to Ann Arbor for winter league with some guys who were working for different tech start-ups. As will happen on a Friday night after a long week at work, the discussion turned to bitching about the sloth of co-workers. Both these fine 20-somethings viewed themselves as epitomes of work ethic because they made sure to be to the office before the clock chimed 10. I didn't say a thing.
@Anonymous 6:53 - Why would you think "freshmen fifteen" refers only to women? Especially considering the term explicitly mentions "men."
I'll join the throng in appreciation of Tom McCoy's Monday dandy. Just what a Monday oughta be, nicely done.
Not taking a thing away from McCoy's gem, but this was certainly the most positive @Rex review I can remember. Five'll get ya ten he watched "Shane" on TCM last night just before he did the puzzle. Jean Arthur and lotsa good and loyal dogs, Rex was ripe for the pickin'.
Pleasant and easy, with no junk. Like kitshef, I had GEIkO at first, but I corrected when I saw RUNIk, which I knew was wrong. I'm never ON CLOUD NINE about a Monday puzzle that's this easy, but I SEE why others have praised it. And not every clue was on the NOSE, for which I'm grateful.
@Z- Because it does and you can be as smug as you like but you know it too.
I'm so glad 5D wasn't WORSER.
Just a fine Monday.
My office had TIME CARDS. The company put them in because of over-time pay issues. There were employees who made more money by putting in extra un-needed hours than their regular pay checks.
THG...Again!
I am doink puzzle for better English, but I am not gettink joke. Is odd numbers? Oh for Please sake do not make numbers into puzzle. Is beink so newbie this designer. Such arrogance he has.
Hey All !
Agree with the easy crowd. However, still had two writeovers, mAc-HAM, Cad-CUR. A couple of cheater squares in here, bottom middle one could've been @Anoa Bob's S, but then the symmetric top one would involve a re-do of that section.
Nice to have the ODDS in order. I've said before, I'm a fan of lots of themers, we get 6 in this one (odd . . . Get it?). And they are all "in the language" phrases.
So good MonPuz. No UGGs here.
I SEE a VEE EEL
RooMonster
DarrinV
@kitshef, a yellow jacket sting under your eyebrow? Not to revel in someone else's pain, but, that sounds awesome in a - glad it didn't happen to me but I'd sure like to see it - way. Maybe you can put a poultice on it, or some aloe. I heard somewhere that stuff works wonders. Anyway, hope you'll be back ONCLOUDNINE soon.
Another hand up for liking this puzzle and the simple elegance of the theme. A lazier constructor might have tossed in random odd numbers, but this one chose to present a sequence of ODDS and then place them in the appropriate order in the grid.
Too bad the expression isn't "odds at ends," since that would have made for a stronger revealer, but sometimes the universe just isn't that cooperative.
While UNSNAG did elicit an UGG, the fill is generally solid in spite of the limitations imposed by the theme. Liked SPEEDO, MOXIE, HIT OR MISS, CHAFING, RUNIC, TIME CARDS, and more.
Proof that Monday doesn't have to be the WORST day of the week. GIMME FIVE, Tom, and thanks for a NEATO start to the week.
@LMS, re funny verb usage, a story about James Thurber had him ordering a family portion at a restaurant and asking the waiter, "How many does it eat?" - as analogous to a train where you'd ask a conductor about a sleeping compartment, "How many does it sleep?"
My experience paralleled @Rex's, right down to the TIMEclock and UNSNAG. Fast and fun puzzle.
@BarbieBarbie, I think to do something with ELAN is to do it stylishly/with spirit, while eclat means you attract a lot of attention.
27A made me think of OJ Simpson, but isotoner wouldn't fit.
Agree - very nicely done. I thought the reveal was delightfully simple and perfect.
Do-over mAc before HAM and cheese.
Liked the feisty MOXIE sharing the grid with suave ELAN.
Easy & enjoyable
Real odd theme. Like. Also, it was Meet DEMI Lovato Day. She seems mighty nice; hope the Show Biz treats her good.
Got yer weeject stacks goin in the NE, SW, and dead center. staff pick: INA (gadda-da-vida).
fave IC-word: RUNIC. fave do-over-word: UNSNAG.
fave fillins: HITORMISS. WORSTS. JUDO-JEDI. MOXIE. TEX-LATEX.
moo-cow eazy-Est MonPuz clue: {What rolling stones don't gather} = MOSS. M&A notes that some ?-clues are startin to sneak into the MonPuz. Feist. Good. {Force-ful characters} = JEDI was extra-churce.
Other noteworthy MonPuz clues of interest: {Mmm-hmm, mmm-hmm} = M&A eats cinnamon roll, looks for another ... eats cinnamon roll, looks for another …
{6 or so, for first graders} = would except either 5 or 7, as yer answer.
Thanx, Mr. McCoy. Fun way to fire-up a week. [But, @RP: har. Give the day-um TuesPuz constructioneer a lil benefit of some doubt, dude. Advance-think "cloud nine", not "strike three". Etc. Better for the digestion.]
Masked & Anonymo5Us (odd U-count, too boot!)
3:03 to fill it, :39 to figure out I'd put in mac instead of HAM.
@Gill I --
Speaking of tine clocks and overtime --
While in college in 1966 I had a summer job with Raytheon, who had a contract to build densely-packed electronics modules for NASA. Turns out that the assemblers made several errors (wrong resistors, reversed diodes and capacitors, etc.) in each. My job was to qualify the modules, none of which got through first-level tests before needing incorrect component identification and replacement.
The contract was well behind schedule, so (since I was by far the most productive of the techs, the others having no education in electronics design), the boss told me to work as many hours as I was able. Turns out I averaged over 100 hours per week (and that was with a law that required me to take every-other Sunday off), with a base pay of $5/hr, which was doubled by Massachusetts law for the ENTIRE number of hours for any week in which more than 80 hours were worked.
Overall, I earned about $11,000 ($8,000 after-tax) that summer, when full-rate tuition at MIT was $1,600/year. I paid the year's tuition, paid off past years' loans, bought a new Triumph TR-3 sports car, and still had more than I could spend in my senior year. Life was good!
By comparison, after graduation I took a full-time job at MIT's Intrumentation Lab with a draft-deferment (the alternative for healthy young men in '67 wasn't good) at a pay rate of $$9,000/year. Less than I made in 10 weeks a year earlier, but what the heck, life was still good!
As a PS, the English made poor cars back then, and my TR-3 spent most of its time in the repair garage. Whe I graduated, I sold it and bought a new Chevy Impala. Kind of an ugly car, but it never broke down in the several years I owned it.
As for the puzzle, I struggled with the southeast corner, and after finishing it with verticals, I was skeptical of my fill, because I got stuck with thinking ODD in the singular and couldn't decode ODD SAND ENDS for the life of me! Hm-m-mph!
p.s.
Yowch. Real sorry about yer eye, @kitshef. Hope U can get to seein both sides of the puz again, mucho pronto.
M&A Eye Don't Like Wasps Desk
I don't like mondays; puzzle is always over too quickly and that generally leads to me disliking the poor puzzle, simply because it's a Monday puzzle. And so it goes with this one even though it's all the good things people have said about it.
As is typical of these easy days, I had a DNF because I simply could not see my mistake at RUNIk/GEIkO. The K in GEIkO looked ODD but I was pretty sure of RUNIk, so another one of those days when an elegant, easy least puzzle eats my shirts.
Assuming the Russian commenter is real, I'm very impressed. I'm learning German and cannot imagine doing any crossword puzzle in that language (or in French, a language which I know un peu mieux).
Thanks, Mr. McCoy.
Easy peasy puzzle. Sheesh!
@Moly Shu. I'm mildly allergic to aloe, so that one's right out. I'll send you a pic off-board (will have to be tonight as no camera with me here).
@loren M. Smith
You probably think of a man, always a man biting his lower lip while dancing etc, because it's not your thought. It was Nora Ehpron's in her screenplay for When Harry Met Sally. You're describing, poorly compared with her genius, to what the movie called the white man's overbite.
@Z,
Oh, don't be coy. The freshman 15 was all about women and their appearance. To pretend otherwise does you feminists a disservice. How else would the patriarchy of college campuses oppress the gals. Squirrel! or beaver!!!
@Wm C....Your story made me laugh...I might have kept the TR3 though, especially if it was red.
The so-called evil TIME CARD saved my bank account bacon on several occasions. One of my fly-by-night jobs in San Francisco was as an import/export Mgr. The bills of lading for some South American countries had to be prepared in triplicate and you could not have A SINGLE error in the document. The only way I could laboriously type the information was one tiny word by one and I needed complete silence. The documents cost about $10.00 dollars each and I couldn't afford to make one mistake. So, I'd come in on my precious Saturdays and sometime Sundays. My stingy boss kinda said "too bad, so sad, after all, we threw in a Mgr. title so your not entitled to overtime."
I took my nicely preserved TIME CARDS with me to my very first trip to Small Claims Court and I won the $175.00 he owed me. Oh, I did this after I quit or he probably would have fired me!
Good gravy....I'm beginning to hate my new computer and his damn auto-correct. Why does he think he knows better than I do?
It's mangos not man goes. It's barbed wire not bobbed wire (where did that come from?) and I certainly know the difference between your and you're.
SWEETIE...
SUMO - My husband and I have caught a few classic James Bond pics - mostly with Roger Moore as Bond - this past week. In one ("Man with the Golden Gun" I believe), Bond has an encounter with a SUMO wrestler. He gets out of the death hug the wrestler has him in by giving him a SUMO wedgie. Those movies are super lame. I was only watching peripherally, trying to read instead, but it was really hard to ignore.
I liked seeing GIMME FIVE over MOVES for some reason. And the extended VEE-EEL of 33- and 34-D.
I sighed to myself today as I printed out the puzzle; Mondays can be so boring and it doesn't seem right to wish the week away just so I can get to the Friday/Saturday puzzles. But this puzzle was as nice a Monday as it gets so thanks, Tom McCoy.
Easy and well done, yes. Good 'un for a Monday. @kitshef. Yikes! A yellow jacket sting near your eye! I know the old "it coulda been worse" doesn't ease your discomfort, but ... Clearing brush with my dad years ago, I was terrified when he came tearing through a thicket like a madman, holding both hands to his head and screaming. I'd never seen my old man, a tough Marine veteran, show such reaction to pain. We rushed him to a doctor, who extracted a yellow jacket from his ear canal, which he said had been stung at least three times. To this day, I skeedaddle when I see one. I hope you have a swift recovery.
@Gill I (1:05) - Yeah, sure, it was the computer, sure. And did the dog eat your homework?
Sub 5 for the first time ever! Only got hung up on HAM (__ and cheese), went with MAC doing the acrosses, fixed during the downs. Good puzzle, too.
@Mohair. I'm going to consider whacking you with wet fennel fronds.
Yeah, there's something about going back and re-reading what you wrote and wondering what libation you were into at the time and blaming it on the dog...;-)
Really enjoyed today's puzzle--thanks, Tom McCoy.
I don't have a clue about why "freshman fifteen" should or shouldn't refer to women. What the heck are you talking about?
My wife has (what I consider to be) an irrational fear of wasps. The first wasp of spring is cause for extreme stress for her. Good thing we have MANY cans of Black Flag "flying animal killer."
And yet, she is the only person I know who ever has had a wasp fly into her shirt pocket. It's almost as if she attracts the darn things.
@kitchef and @Joe Bleaux, my brother once knocked on yellow jacket's nest down on a dare. He was maybe 6 at the time. I don't think I've ever heard someone scream so loud or run so fast ever in my life. My mother pretty much coated him in baking soda and bandaged his skinned knees. Yellow jackets are every bit as bad as wasps. @Kitcehf, hope your eye feels better soon.
Just noticed that yesterday's STRAW would come in handy for most of yesterday's themers.
@ Loren Muse Smith,
I Googled white man's overbite When Harry Met Sally.
Do you plagiarize your puzzles too, or is just your "thoughts"?
Billy Crystal
@Billy anon, huh? Thought she did reference Nora Ephron.
Not to be pedantic, all, but I believe yellowjackets are closer to hornets than wasps. Which is even ouchier. @kitshef, my sympathy.
@ Barbie,
Huh yourself. Some jackoff anon called her out earlier.
I checked, little believing the claim.
Turns out jackoff anonyoumouse was right.
It's a lift. And uncredited. PERIROD.
Billyou and Meg and Nora
I found this dull, maybe because the theme answers were so obvious.
@foxaroni- you seem like a nice person, albeit a little slow, do I'll explain it for you. The "freshman fifteen" refers, and always has referred to young women going away to college. It has never referred to young men. Your welcome.
so not do , you're not your, next time I'll proofread. Goodnight
@anon, nope, you're right, it was someone else who credited Ephron.
@Barbiebarbie. Well, common names can be tricky (e.g. bullrushes are not rushes, but sedges), but in this case it was almost surely an Eastern yellowjacket, which is a wasp. And in general, hornets are a sub-category of wasps (all hornets are wasps, but not all wasps are hornets).
As of this evening, I can see out of both eyes.
Anon@9:32 - you may have always used freshman fifteen to refer to women, but your experience is not universal. I hear it applied to all freshmen.
@Anonymous douche bags - @loren was talking about a mental image she gets when she hears "dance moves." She made no claim that this was an original thought, just that that image comes to her mind. It is extremely well documented that memory for the source of information stored in long term memory is often lost or more difficult to access. It's the "Yeah, that sounds familiar, but I have no idea why" phenomena (Google it douche bags).
I think I'm going to take that click on "anonymous" and make it disappear advice.
Eat more chicken, you can remember where it comes from.
STRAW MEN DIDN’T GIMMEFIVE
It’s GAMESEVEN, bottom NINE,
and I’VE got to HITORMISS, ISEE.
The curveball MOVES and it’s all MINE.
The WORST’S that it’s STRIKETHREE.
--- DREW SAOTOME
Well, I guess I have to be CLOUD ONE in this sunny sky of praise. I thought the theme was boring; half of it was baseball-oriented but that appears to be coincidence. And then there's the elephant in the room: SAOTOME. That little isle, charming though it may be, has NO place in a Monday grid. Worse (take note: let alone the horrible WORSTS, "worst" is actually a variant that has come into common use: the proper progression is bad, worse, worse. Look it up.), this outlying islet is immersed in a sea of ridiculous gimmes.
Cluttered with PPPs and awkward partials, the fill is certainly nothing to sing about. Most surprising of all is OFL's reaction: tell me he and McCoy aren't best buds. Despite the appearance of DOD DEMI (either one), I didn't like this one and it gets a bogey. Sorry.
Easiest one I've done in a long time. Easy even for a Monday. Fun puzzle to solve with the only slight snag was thinking of ODDSANDsoDS before ODDSANDENDS. I guess putting in new grass in the backyard gave me a wee bit of a soddened mind. Odd, don't you think?
Certainly an ODD theme (har), all the way to the END. Maybe next Monday we can shoot for twomintsinONE, THREEamigos, hawaiiFIVEo, seveneleven, and luckythirteen; that puz would be prime. Maybe it’s been done.
I wonder how the mileage is racking up on AIRFORCEONE these days.
One-time SWEETIE DEMI Lovato can get a yeah baby, but why try to resemble a singing version of a Kardashian?
Well, the ODDS were at the ENDS so it’s all legit. Not fawning over it like some, but too good to say “UGG”.
Late to the show as a syndy, but noone seemed to explain that "freshmen fifteen" (not even in the puzzle!) refers to the fifteen pounds freshmen put on in their first college year.
I've been watching the eclipse occur here in Vancouver, not watching the sun of course, by looking at the images on the ground of the sun as it shines through the leaves. Normally little round shapes, I'm seeing cute semi-circles as they get thinner and thinner. It's only 85% total, so it's not dark, but definitely not as bright as usual. Cool.
Liked the puzzle. Doing only acrosses and not paying attention to a possible theme, I plunked down "Over the moon" at 43A without any crosses, so that was a massive write-over, easily done. Other than that, nice theme with a perfect revealer, and it is starting to lighten up out there as the moon continues to move away from the sun.
I've been hanging out with the wrong crowd, wrote in "odds and sods" instead of ODDSANDENDS, which threw off the down answers and made me dnf on a Monday. The real answer was obviously a lot more appropriate on all counts.
Solved it in 11 minutes. It has a easy to guess theme once you notice the number pattern.
Mark
Total eclipse morning here (Salem, Oregon). Truly awesome.
Good theme and a couple of nice misdirects in the SE corner.
Favorite entries: GIMMEFIVE, ONCLOUDNINE (eclipse related).
Outlier: SAOTOME.
Nice work, Mr. McCoy.
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