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Historic pueblo near Albuquerque / FRI 10-6-17 / Enfant terrible of children's literature / Catch 22 pilot who repeatedly crashes
Friday, October 6, 2017
Constructor: Patrick Berry
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: ACOMA (29D: Historic pueblo near Albuquerque) —
Acoma Pueblo (/ˈækəmə/; Western Keresan: ʔáák’u [ʔɑ́ːk'ù]; Zuni: Hakukya; Navajo: Haak’oh) is a Native American pueblo approximately 60 miles (97 km) west of Albuquerque, New Mexico in the United States. Three villages make up Acoma Pueblo: Sky City (Old Acoma), Acomita, and Mcartys. The Acoma Pueblo tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity. The historical land of Acoma Pueblo totaled roughly 5,000,000 acres (2,000,000 ha). The community retains only 10% of this land, making up the Acoma Indian Reservation. Acoma Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark.
According to the 2010 United States Census, 4,989 people identified as Acoma. The Acoma have continuously occupied the area for more than 800 years, making this one of the oldest continuously inhabited communities in the United States (along with Hopi pueblos). Acoma tribal traditions estimate that they have lived in the village for more than two thousand years. (wikipedia)
• • •
Old names get a little out of control in the south. Any puzzle with MOREY Amsterdam (34A: Amsterdam of "The Dick Van Dyke Show") over Vice President DAWES (36A: Coolidge's vice president) crossing JULES from a 23-year-old movie is still busy prepping for Y2K. Had no idea what ACOMA was. Probably seen it before, but certainly couldn't remember. Never ever think of "philosophy" as SOCIAL STUDIES (which is a term I only hear used in relation to middle and high school civics courses), so the SOCIAL part was rough, just as the ACCOUNT part of ACCOUNT HOLDER was rough (32A: Recipient of blank checks). But that makes just two real rough patches. The rest was smooth sailing. And as I say, the grid is pretty impeccable (TINA'S not withstanding). It just ... doesn't want kids on its lawn. Part of me understands. Speaking of kids, I gotta go pick up mine. See ya.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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126 comments:
I'm a psychologist, not a philosopher, but I don't think that most philosophers would consider their discipline to be included in the category "social studies."
Easy-medium for me too mostly because I got slightly hung up in NW with drone before caste and then CATtAIl before HAIR. The rest was very easy because I'm old enough (i.e. a boomer) to remember BARBARA JORDAN, MOREY, and LEO FENDER.
ACOMA was a WOE. A better clue might be "What is the result of a week of boring crosswords?"
I'm with @Rex and Jeff Chen on this one, but I did like it.
Faster by 25% from my usual Friday time. Only a little after 9 on the left coast...now what do I do?
Definitely skewed old, although I got VAPED immediately. Strange to see someone vaping from an open car window. Looks like the train just let off some steam.
At least CREED is a contemporary ref, and liked the clue for REDAPPLE. Got FENDER right away from FOP. Finished it off in the SE corner and couldn’t believe it was over.
This took almost exactly as long as yesterday's puzzle which means it gave more resistance than I was expecting from a PB1. The corners were easy to fill in. I created a bit of a road block for myself in the middle with an ALAMO/ACOMA write over. Filling in the SW corner quickly fixed that.
My one other write over was PARDON/PAROLE in the NE which was not hard to work around. This constructor never looks to challenge.
I get Rex's sort-of-complaint about the old-timey feel. But god this was a smooth and fun solve. Whatever baggage might come with it, a Patrick Berry Friday is pretty much my apex of crosswords. I won't ask for anything more than this.
Do you really think she’ll pull through? Girlfriend in A COMA, I know, I know it’s serious.
Sort of agree with @Rex on this one. It's definitely PB smooth. But it's not as interesting or as challenging as many of his puzzles. I was able to work my way around clockwise after sneezing my head off while putting in 1A. I knew the name MOREY Amsterdam somehow, although I never watched the '60's show he appeared in. Wasn't sure of the spelling, but good old JULES set me straight. I have watched Pulp Fiction scores of times and still enjoy it. I give high marks for the misdirecting clue on ADA. A very satisfying Friday for me.
Rex, please don't tell me that you teach college English and have never read "Catch 22," because that's what I inferred from your review. Let's look at some of these "old" answers, shall we?
ORR is a key character character in what is considered one of the greatest American novels of all time, not obscure crosswordese. Anyone doing a Friday NYT puzzle should be expected to know this answer;
MOREY Amsterdam is in one of the most famous openings in television history, which has a syndication history rivalling "I Love Lucy" and is an internet meme. The announcer even says his name;
JULES is a character from a cinema classic that is named in the clue. Could have been a Truffaut clue for an even older film and still been solid Friday material;
DAWES, Charles G., was a U.S. Vice President. There's only been 48 of them. Once again, solid Friday material and easily inferred from the crosses. Do you like pop culture, Rex? Charles Dawes co-wrote a song that has been covered by Van Morrison, Isaac Hayes, Elton John, Cliff Richard, and Nat King Cole among many others. He's the only Vice President credited with a Number 1 pop hit, and Dawes and Bob Dylan are the only two people in history to have both a Number 1 hit and a Nobel Prize! Did you know that? Of course you didn't.
All of the above is solid Friday material, and if someone under 40 can't get these then maybe they should stick to the Junior Jumble.
Very smooth and easy Friday. I didn't check the constructor until I had finished and had my usual smile when I saw his name. It's always a pleasure to meet again.
I tried Dewey before DAWES even though I was sure he'd be too young.
ACOMA was completely unknown to me.
OFL gushes with the never not smooth accolade. Well, I'm gonna torch this Friday effort. That JULES/ DAWES square drove me nuts for a few seconds. I do one puzzle a day, but today I did three. Thanks for the workout in those isolated corners. I give up! Very nice Friday puzzle with those big old semi-spanners. Three letter fill happens, but when I see so few, I'm happy.
Maybe a bridge too far, but SOCIAL STUDIES cover a very large tent. When I entered Cal Poly, Pomona out of high school, my goal was to receive a B.S. in Language Arts. They gave no B.A.s at that time.
I have lived and worked in Orange County for many years and Orange is the birthplace of MARIE Callender's restaurants. The original sat on Tustin Ave, in Orange, but my phone tells me it is defunct, but the chain exists. I like pie. Particularly their chicken pot pie. Caution: peas get hot and stay hot. I never go to DENNY'S, and have never heard of Bob Evans. I've heard of Dale Evans, apropos of nothing. LEO FENDER worked developing electric guitars not far from there. I bet he ate at MARIE's, as did most of us.
My Queen of Heaven in the Iliad had to be LEDA, which in retrospect indicates that I have never read the Iliad. HERA had a hand-full with that King of Heaven.
Great puzzle! I’m a Gen-Xer – the baby of the family – so I tend to skew 10-15 years older on general knowledge. I enjoyed this very much.
If you ever get the chance, go to Acoma. It’s roughly 90 minutes west of Albuquerque The photography fee is worth the $10 (or so). It’s definitely a worthwhile experience.
An easy Friday but a good one. Who cares if it skews old? Does every puzzle now require a quota of modern slang and rappers in order to meet Rex's approval?
Philosophy is not generally considered part of social studies. It’s one of the humanities. Definitely a flawed clue.
A very enjoyable classic PB1 puzzle, though maybe on the easier side, since I sussed out about a dozen answers on the first pass instead of my usual one or two. I love the long fills that are common phrases such as ATRANDOM, ACCOUNTHOLDER, REDAPPLE, SEEMTOBE, etc. that are so hard to guess at first but with a few crosses can be gotten. Similarly, the not so common fills such as, for me, BARBARAJORDAN, ACOMO, and ELOISE can be worked out with crosses. What a great solving experience!
I took my future bride on many, many dates to MARIE Callenders in Pasadena, CA, including one dinner for free, plus a free pie, when she found a dead cockroach staring up at her in the spaghetti! Marie Callenders is Southern California. Bob Evans is East and Midwest. I think DENNYS is everywhere -- I've even eaten there in Guam.
@Johnny, pretty interesting trivia there about DAWES and I enjoyed listening to a couple of YouTube versions of his song, but to be fair to the under-40 solvers (I'm well over 40), I believe most solvers under 90 would not know DAWES and would need the crosses to get it.
Sometimes it’s a pleasure to read these comments...and sometimes it’s not. @Johnny, I hold a B.S. and two M.A.s and I do the NYT puzzle every day, but I had no idea on almost every single proper noun in this puzzle. My degrees are in Biology and Chemistry so no, I did not remember the name Orr from a book I last read in high school. So according to you I shouldn’t do the Friday puzzle? And if I don’t know the name of every VP I should...what was it? Stick to the junior jumble? Aren’t you sweet?!
I finished the puzzle anyway, but I’m with Rex—this skewed too old for me so it was guess work at the end.
Man that Junior Jumble is tough today.
When I'm solving a crossword, I do not care at all about proper nouns. If you cross two proper nouns, as far as I'm concerned, that's the free bingo space. That's instantly to Google because I can't be bothered. I'm not from this country, so I don't know half the names you put in your grids. Never heard of DAWES or BARBARAJORDAN before, and crossing those with JULES and ROBERTALTMAN just triggered my "I don't care" reflex. As soon as I had the rest of the puzzle solved, straight to Google.
The rest of the puzzle was pretty straightforward, though. In fact, aside from the obscure names crossing obscure names, I'd call this a very easy Friday. Felt more like a Wednesday.
@JAE, good one on ACOMA. My morning giggle.
Easy for me until I got stuck in the SE, wanting BUNGEE, FERNS, all kinds of things that weren't there. I did throw down ASLAN right away, but then deleted it to make way for a bunch of wrong stuff. Sheeeeez.
I agree with those who like this puzzle. It felt fun, even though it went by too quickly.
@Frank, putting ACOMA on my list. Thanks.
@Anon 5:52, go one click further in your Googling and read about BARBARAJORDAN. Part of the fabric of America.
Johnny is that guy from Good Will Hunting who didn't get Minnie Driver's phone number.
ACOMA/SHAMS Natick for me. Bummer! :-( ))
I found this puzzle too easy and finished in about half the time. I remembered Morey from watching old reruns of the Mary Tyler Moore show. I think this did skew toward the Baby Boomers (I am at the tail end of that genereation). I remember Barbara Jordan best for her voice. She worked on losing her regional accent and spoke in a very Queen-of-England way (not British, but how people of the upper class would speak). I always thought it was interesting listening to her even though we did not share the same brand of politics. I had Robert Redman for Altman and briefly thought Dennis (the Menace) was the enfant terrible. I was briefly stuck at 'violas' as I don't really consider them a section---the section would be 'strings' in my thinking. Clues should have been trickier but I think the abundance of names will trip up some people.
Very fast solve without being easy. I sweated over the SE corner until I let go of “bungees”. ASLAN took me too long.
Loved this and my fastest Friday ever. I always have trouble with proper names, and when they cross it is often a guess. Google means a DNF in my rules so while this was fast, it was great to finish.
I must be on Berry's wavelength since CATHAIR was right, and then METEOR SHOWER went in with just the T from ETSEQ, and REDAPPLE with just the R. Only thing I know about guitars is from watching Antiques Roadshow so I guessed right on the FENDER part but had put in LEs which took a bit to get out. That was my last section.
I had OrDER for a bit since I didn't know JULES, and thought the checks were going to be a some kind of reorder, but didn't take much to see HOLDER when I started on the West.
MOREY and ROBERTALTMAN were guessable but I don't keep track of directors and character names.
This was fun and fast and all gettable even when I didn't know the answers. Thanks Patrick Berry!
I usually enjoy PB puzzles but when a third of my grid is a tangle of proper names it means I'm being denied the Friday fun I was expecting.
To paint my horse again - redapple?
@ Johnny 1:41, you're kind of a prick.
When you know it’s Patrick Berry, you know it will be a fair test, so if you have BHA_S and AER_ crossing ACO_ _, you know you have an error, rather than the constructor using crossing obscurities.
Too easy again, but I can put up with that for such a well-lubricated work. Though ET SEn/IRAn seems like a potential Natick for the non-geographical.
The Dick Van Dyke show had a Marie, a Mary, a Morey, and a Moore among the regular cast (two of those being the same person).
I guess I'm the right age for PB--too old to be a baby boomer--so anything after the '50s is not "my generation." I remember the DVD show very well, but it took me three tries to spell MOREY. Loved the puzzle, even though the DAWES I remember rode with Paul Revere. Knowledge is just knowledge--it doesn't really matter where it comes from or how one acquired it. Nice to see BARBARA JORDAN's name again-- one of my heroes.
Not enough proper names for me. I admire a puzzle with a lot of arcane proper names.
I have to agree with Rex again DAMMIT! Puzzle definitely a breeze for a boomer. Very very easy if you are over 60. Patrick even threw in Boca Raton for the geriatric crowd. Puzzle was like drinking a glass of prune juice - nothinG to slow you down once you got going. Let's hope for scintillating Saturday and Sunday !
I always thought philosophy was part of social studies. For that matter, I thought the humanities were.
That is: social studies includes humanities, which includes philosophy, so by the transitive property of inclusion, social studies includes philosophy. Time to hit Google.
@ Jo... Johnny has an MS in BS. Nothing wrong with your comments. Puzzle skewed to boomers right in my sweet spot
I think of ADA as an acronym, not an abbreviation.
Another missed opportunity to strike a blow for feminism by cluing ADA as "Computer programming pioneer Lovelace." This time on a Friday! Just a few days ago, this issue came up with a retrospective reference to Rex's first New York Times puzzle (originally published on a Tuesday).
It took me a good couple of minutes to get the Girlfriend in a Coma reference. Ha! Now that I have Morrissey in my head I'm sufficiently depressed and prepared for the inevitable (my beloved Nats blowing the NLDS).
"Within the school program, social studies provides coordinated, systematic study drawing upon such disciplines as anthropology, archaeology, economics, geography, history, law, PHILOSOPHY, political science, psychology, religion, and sociology, as well as appropriate content from the humanities, mathematics, and natural sciences." -- from the National Council for the Social Studies. Emphasis mine.
How marvelous to wake up and find a Patrick Berry puzzle waiting for me to tackle. I appreciate his finesse with the language and his elegant clueing. His grids are a pleasure to complete. Very rarely are they full of pop references or attempts to be au courant. He has standards and represents the way the NYT puzzle used to be most of the time. The editors there would do well to hire him more often.
That said, I can see how some might complain about the old-fashioned feeling of this particular effort. Citing ELOISE certainly skews old but her books are still in print and very popular with young people. She is timeless. (Although the Plaza where she resided has become a mere memory in its current state, thanks in part to the Donald.) The one obvious nod to hipness here, VAPED, makes perfect sense to me as an answer to SMOKED. It's what people say now, Rex, especially when they are smoking something stronger than Marlboros (would you consider those old hat as well?) I suspect Mr. Berry was playing with us a bit, being deliberately nostalgic, reminding us of the good old days. God knows we need them!
Barbara Jordan was a brilliant speaker. Her accent seemed very authentic to me. One of the comments above reminds me of a debate between William F. Buckley and James Baldwin. Buckley tried to insult Baldwin by making fun of his phony patrician accent. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
As smooth and enjoyable as the the glass of cream sherry I had while doing it. Had RANDOMly before ATRANDOM; and a bit of resistance in the SE corner. Other than that, very easy for my fastest Friday solve (I’m GenX/Geneartion Jones). Thanks, PB1.
I love PB's work but this one was a yawner.
It was very clean of course. Only six Terrible Threes and the only glue I noticed was ADA and ACOMA. But only six red plusses in the margin and that was being generous. That's an early-week number.
I don't like PUTON for "Pretense." I can't think of a sentence where PUTON is used as a noun.
Reading Jeff Chen, I guess that PB put this one together as an exercise in using a lot of long entries. Fun for him, not for me.
Right on, Johnny. Totally agree with you.
Beautiful.
Skewing old, indeed. One of the attributes of an educated mind is knowing about the past.
Would my kids know about Morey Amsterdam and Dawes? (Or, for that matter, that the Queen of Heaven was Hera?) No, but one of the joys of puzzling is having those words pop into your mind via crossings.
"Berry has zero interest in having his puzzles be current." Good for him. I like the variety. Sometimes we get puzzles filled with current clues/answers and others less so. What's the problem ? BTW vaped is current and was fairly clued. Dumb rant on that one. Agree too easy for Friday.
I opened the newspaper, saw the grid layout and knew it was Patrick Berry without having to look at his name. No one does long central entries like he does. And my spirits soared -- nothing like a PB1 Friday to propel me into the weekend.
Alas, it was a short ride, because there was absolutely no resistance in this one. I didn't mind the "oldish" cultural references -- I'm technically a Boomer, but barely. What I did mind was the oh-so-toothless cluing.
I'm beginning to think that PB1's NYT submissions are the equivalent of smooth jazz -- impeccable production values, top-notch craftsmanship and designed to please, but utterly without an edge of any kind. They almost feel corporate. This stands in contrast to his variety puzzle work (such as in the WSJ) which brims with sizzle. His occasional meta-crosswords are also wonderfully inventive.
Still, I marvel at the quality of his work, so thumbs up.
Behind an eminence front.
Eminence front, it's a PUTON.
@Sir Hillary, great comparison to smooth jazz.
@Sir Hillary (8:27): You put my feelings into words beautifully. The two faces of Patrick Berry.
"Berry's puzzles are never not smooth. A three-stack of 12s crossing another three-stack of 12s, with all involved answers rock solid—impressive."
So said OFL.
Rex should have ended his review there. His complaint about the supposedly old cultural frame of reference does not carry much water with me.
Had 2 naticks. One at the crossing of SHAgs and ACOgA. The other at LEO hENDER and hOP.
I, too, didn't notice Berry's byline until I was far into the puzzle, and I was surprised by all the proper names from this constructor. ACOMA was unknown to me, as were DENNY'S (as clued) and JULES. But like Glimmerglass, I was delighted to see BARBARA JORDAN -- also one of my heroes -- and I filled her in with almost no crosses. Liked the ROBERT ALTMAN quote clue and had no trouble with SOCIAL STUDIES, though I have also always thought of Philosophy as one of the Humanities, It was so labelled at my college. In sum, a pretty easy Friday and a pretty easy PB, but one that required all my attention. I enjoyed it.
@GILL -- Haven't had a chance to respond to your thoughtful,interesting, and revealing comment of two days ago, but when the weekend arrives and I'm able to spend time in my apartment again, I'll email you about it.
i thought this one was pretty easy EXCEPT for all the proper names. I didn't know Barbara JORDAN, thought MOR[T]Y looked good enough, didn't remember JULES, had a really had time with PAROLE (had parade) which I knew was wrong but still couldn't come up with LEO...
A big DNF for me. Too many mistakes brought on by too many proper names. Otherwise, a quick, enjoyable solve.
What were the odds that “the humanities” fit perfectly into 31A “history, philosophy, and so on” clue? Once Barbara Jordan (one of the best speaking voices I’ve ever heard) and Boca Raton filled the grid, along with Prius, I finally could “let go” of the humanities in favor of social studies and the rest of the puzzle collapsed on schedule. Letting go of a proposed solution to any problem or puzzle, when that “solution” is not working, is often difficult - reminded me of the “Banana Trap” analogy so artfully written about in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...one of the best non-fiction excursions into philosophy and life I’ve ever read. This was a fun puzzle; mutton made me laugh thinking about Jerry hiding mutton in napkins in a failed attempt to “eat like a man”.
Yawn...scratch, scratch. Everyone is wearing bell bottoms at the cocktail party.
My first entry was FOP - a word I hadn't seen in ages. Then got ARREST and PAROLE and that whole section was done. That's how it went for me. One little oldish word and the rest just fit in its proper slot. Nothing really gave me pause and nothing really made me smile or go aha. Not that you need to with every puzzle, but I like to. Oh, I did smile at my favorite CUBAN mojito. I love those things. I'm really good at making them - y'all are invited...
I got DENNYS from the downs but I've never heard of Bob Evans. Laughed at your Dale Evans, @Larry G.. DENNYS has a really good tuna melt. I also like their Club Sandwich because I love those things and you can't really screw it up unless you burn the bread and the bacon.
I studied at the Facultad de Filosofia y Letras at the University of Madrid. When I came to the states, I was told my degree was in Humanities. I was cool with that. Sounds better than my high school SOCIAL STUDIES.
Am in agreement with @Rex today. Maybe PB did this in his sleep. Maybe he submitted this 10 years ago. Only he knows the truth.
I still have my very very old ZIPPO that my dad gave me. He carried it around during WWII.
@Nancy...Always a pleasure with you. I'm picturing you at the Park. Hope the weather is nice.
Wow - probably my fastest Friday ever. And PPP-heavy puzzles usually are my bane.
Knew MOREY cause I watched the show as a kid.
Knew
CATH AIR could be the streamlined name for Cathay Pacific. (Anyone else have dAnders there first?
Now is the season of CATs retaining more of their HAIR. Which means that I have about a 10% reduction of dust bunnies I need to chase around the house.
Hey wait a minute - do CATs have HAIR? Mine have fur. What IS the difference anyway?
@Sir Hillary - Smooth jazz indeed - well said.
Way too easy for a Friday, we're PB's target demo if OFL is correct, so we flew through (metaphorically listening to smooth jazz). Surprised an English professor thinks he should know ORR as clued only because it's "crosswordese". Surprisingly few misdirects today for a PB puzzle.
Since nobody seems to want to tell us the song, I looked it up. Musician/Banker DAWES wrote Melody in A Major long before he became Vice President. The melody was borrowed in the 1950's for the Tommy Edwards hit "It's All in the Game" which has been covered by many rock icons over the years.
@Quasimojo (8:07) - What a memory jog. I remember the Buckley/Baldwin debate and I remember having the same exact reaction to Buckley's insult.
@Theodore Stamos (4:19) Yes
@Gill I - Regarding your post to Nancy from two days ago - Well put, only people who have lived without our freedoms truly appreciate them. It's bad, we gotta make it better, but don't be so quick to run away.
Lalala, love to see a PB anytime, anywhere, anyway. BTW: DS is a young, clever and sophisticated constructor who also doesn't wallow in over-much pop culture. What a relief!
BARBARA JORDAN - if you don't know of her, you've missed a terrific American SOCIAL STUDIES lesson. As Uma Thurman famously said in 'Pulp Fiction' - Ketchup!
Just found a Scientific American interview. HAIR and fur are the same thing. It's only in usage that they are different.
Whiskers, beards, quills, even the scales on our crossword-friendly creature the pangolin are all modifications of HAIR.
Social studies is the study of human culture. Philosophy is a part of culture. Case closed,
@Johnny: thanks for the Dawes history--I knew that clue immediately, but your info made me look up more about him. This led me to the realization that the "Dawes House" in my hometown is his house! I knew the two names, but I hadn't put them together. I should go visit the Evanston Historical Society there.
I thought "Morey" was a stretch--I barely pulled this out from my parents watching Dick Van Dyke as a kid--but the crosses were completely fair. Great puzzle.
Huge thumbs up for the Smiths reference!
Two African Americans, three or four women, and Rex is still unhappy. And, BTW, I'm willing to bet that the majority of NYT puzzle solvers ARE boomers. WHITE boomers. White MALE boomers. And more of them than you think probably voted for Trump.
Very easy for a Friday, albeit I had to guess at the "SHAMS" cross with "ACOMA." I guessed right.
Dear Anonymous at 5:52. You wrote,
"I'd call this a very easy Friday. Felt more like a Wednesday."
Newsflash:They're all easy if you Google the proper nouns. If you want it even easier, Google other parts of speech too.
Pretty much agree with Rex on all points. No further proof of second decade of the new millennium deafness than the VAPED clue. Three seconds with Uncle Google will tell you vaping is very specifically not smoking. What does it say about me that I got the clue answer quickly because I now expect a certain stodginess in this puzzle? (rhetorical question people)
I do wonder if the criticism is properly leveled at PB, though. If things you do elsewhere are different than the things published here maybe it’s the venue, not the constructor.
I see the Social Studies issue has been cleared up. I blame lazy junior high/middle school administrators with their lame course titles for the common misperception of what “Social Studies” encompasses, and the clue writer/editor for using that misperception against the solver.
@anonymous6:04 - I laughed and it was audible.
@jofried - I’m with you. Of literary characters ASLAN has more cultural currency in 2017 than ORR. As far as WWII novels go, Heller always struck me as a piker compared to Vonnegut and I wonder if anyone spends academic energy on it anymore. But those are pretty meaningless musings. The amount I know is always a minuscule portion of what there is to know and anyone who says “everyone should know x” is full of it. I suspect the real reason we got the Catch-22 clue is that it’s more “Friday” than a hockey player clue. ORR is the Yma Sumac of literary clues.
@anon7:57 - As I learned here long ago, ADA is an initialism, not an acronym. Both are abbreviations in the broadest sense of the word. Again, the clue writer/editor is using the solvers awareness of a narrower meaning against them.
BTW - The Proper noun count isn’t all that high. I think the reason it seems high is that two of them are crossing 12’s, taking up a relatively large chunk of squares.
This was smooooooth, with answers just sliding in on well-oiled castors, soundlessly, eliciting an occasional "Ahh" from me. What I appreciate are the places that made me smile — METEOR SHOWER, ACOMA, BARBARA JORDAN, ORR — and no FLANKING , or NAM to turn my smile upside down. I've never seen "Pulp Fiction" so I needed the crosses, and I wasn't going to drop in HERA or DAWES without help, but it all cane together very quickly. Generally PB and I live on different planets; today we were hometown buds.
ACOMA is amazing. It's located on top of a 300 ft Mesa and is one of, if not the, oldest continuously inhabited settlement in the US. Lots of legends surround the Pueblo as it was old when the Spanish rode up from the south, saw its mica-covered windows glittering in the reflection of the setting son, and thought they'd found the legendary city of gold. The missionaries took over the place and forced the local puebloans to cut down trees on a mountain 40 miles away and carry them — without letting them touch the ground — to the Pueblo where they built a church. Church is still there, haunting the view to the south.
Best time to visit is on a feast day when tours are suspended and the locals gather to celebrate Pueblo fashion with dancing, singing, drumming, and socializing. I was there on Governors Day, a blustery day in February when the sand born on the wind scrubbed my face raw, and the experience convinced me of the evil of Native Americans as sport mascots. I was standing in the back of the crowd, watching various troupes of dancers emerge from the crowd in their ceremonial garb, solemning chant, drum, and dance, and then melt away as the next group took their place. I watched one elderly man in particular, clad in traditional leather pants, vest, head gear, as he creaked down a side road, his frayed jeans and ragged tennis shoes exposing his poverty. My PhD is from the University of Illinois; I never stood for Chief Illiniwek again.
Mr. Berry, thank you for reviving that special day.
Have always enjoyed and finished a PB puzzle. Also consider myself a political junkie and greatly admire Rep. Jordan. So it is with great embarrassment I must confess that I somehow wrote in Barbara Morgan, which messed up Jules and Fender (names I did not know) and thus, had a very disappointing dnf.
Maybe I'm getting better but it seems like the puzzles have been easy this last week or so. Usually a Friday will take me a solid hour or longer but that last two Fridays averaged 25 minutes?
I enjoyed this puzzle, regardless of the ease or the "trending old" comments. What's the average age of people doing the NYT? I would guess mid/upper 40s, which is trending old in itself. That being said I imagine about .0005% of the under 40 population has ever seen an entire episode of the Dick Van Dyke show.
I'm 47 and I don't think I could name any VP's before AGNEW.
Always get a good snort, from a PB1 grid. A pleasure to see all the entries beamin proudly, wearin their new-found Patrick Berry Usage Immunities. Hearty congratz to CATHAIR, et al.
Cute grid. Has the extended themeless jaws of shady squares. Also has only 64 words, which spells trouble for the pool of available weeject entries. staff weeject pick = ADA. ADA had a downright tubular clue.
@RP: U say this FriPuz skewed olde?!!? M&A sez it skews all over the place, from VAPES and CREED and TREND to HERA and DAWES and MOREY. Most of the stuff, like ATEIN and SCOREPAD and CATHAIR, just seemed out there in the age-neutral zone, to m&e.
Thanx for the feisty but fair fun, PB1.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
Isn't it great that Patrick Berry doesn't suck up to people like Rex who want their puzzles to be "current." No obscure rappers or sitcom stars. Just solid general knowledge that any educated person should know or be able to infer from the crosses. My only complaint about this puzzle was that it was over too soon.
I'm late, so I haven't read all the comments. I've been in ACOMA, and bought some of their distinctive pottery -- otherwise this might have been tough. ATE IN is crossword cliche, but otherwise a beautiful puzzle.
This old guy enjoyed it, as I expected when I saw PB's name, top right. I made two good decisions: IRAQ rather than IRAn, and SHAMS instead of SHAgS. They were semi-guesses because the crosses, ETSEQ and ACOMA, were unfamiliar. I agree with Rex about the out of the past nature of the puzzle, but, other than the two examples cited, Berry provided ways to get to the finish line. I liked the LEOFENDER answer just because it was a guitar giant other than the immortal Les Paul in a puzzle. Twenty minutes, well spent.
🎵 Oh, gimme dat ol' time PB
gimme dat ol' time PB,
gimme day ol' time PB,
he's good enough for me
How timely to see JULES in the puzzle. Just yesterday, as I was reading comments that were grousing about the puzzle getting into cultural areas that the commenter didn't know and didn't care to know, I couldn't help but recall the scene in Pulp Fiction when JULES and Vincent are talking about the boss's wife Mia:
JULES: I think her biggest deal was she starred in a pilot.
Vincent: Pilot? What's a pilot?
JULES: Well, you know the shows on TV?
Vincent: I don't watch TV.
JULES: [Sarcastically] Yeah, but, you are aware that there's an invention called television, and on this invention they show shows, right?
Vincent: Yeah.
My point being, comments like "I don't know [rap/sports/movies/pop music] and I could care less about it" make the commenter look like Vincent, a little full of themselves for being above what they see as the baser elements of our culture.
Thanks for the addendum to this post in yesterday's comments. I was hearing the Twilight Zone theme for a couple of seconds there.
Writeovers:
"seem true" before SEEMTOBE
"rose" before POSY.
Taken on faith: ADA. Just now figured out the tube contains toothpaste and the ADA approved the contents.
I thought BARBARA JORDAN was likely to be our first black President and our first woman president. She was wonderful and impressive. Sadly, her health cut short her career and denied Bill Clinton the opportunity to name her to the Supreme Court.
Shout out to ACOMA. My father drove me there when I was nine. Beautiful settlement on a mesa. Got a number of potteries... all but one broken ;(
BARBARA JORDAN caused a log-jam after a speedy northern hemisphere solve. But VAPE is a *modern* way to smoke marijuana as well as a modern way to *not* smoke tobacco-substitutes. Things that taste like Fruity Pebbles and Cap'n Crunch.
My first DNF in three weeks on SHAMS/ACOMA. Never heard of the latter, and maybe saw the former with that definition, but could not recall. Wish it had been clued "Phonies." Nevertheless, enjoyed the puzzle, remember Barbara Jordan and Morey Amsterdam (although I spelled it MAURY at first). I don't like movie character clues; I saw Pulp Fiction, but couldn't name any of the characters. Never seen ETSEQ before, or Tony n Tinas, but in a Berry puzzle, the obscurities (to me) are almost always discernible. Read "Catch 22 " more than once, but could only remember Yossarian, Major Major Major, and Lt. Scheisskopf. But I guess "Bruin Bobby" has been used too frequently.
I considered "Acoma" and "Shams," before guessing otherwise, but reasoned that "Acoma" could have been clued with reference to a coma, and "shams" as fakes or phonies, or imitations, and there went my winning streak.
When I am vacationing out of NY, I seldom do the puzzles. Then when I get back, I often do very poorly for a while. I wonder how many others find that food performance requires daily participation? Yesterday there was a cross of NAS with ANNA that could have been NES and Anne for all I knew. Two completely unfamiliar pop culture references. But doing the puzzle every day, NAS pops up from time to time, so I got it.
Well said! Thank you!
All this fuss about skewing old is just pure ageist. I'm 75 years old, and when I do the NY Times crossword puzzle, I get many cultural references that are contemporary, 20th century, 19th century, 18th century, ancient Greek and Roman. I assume I would get prehistoric references also. An educated, cultured person who remains embedded in today's world will get a range of references.
I easily got vaped, and the vapid "Tony n' Tina's Wedding", and Hera (that's ancient Greek culture, children!), and Eloise, and Morey, and Iraq (where the Tigris and Euphrates meet, ancient and contemporary, a geological fact, with world history significance).
How old is mutton chops? Mutton chops as in facial hair? Not very contemporary, and certainly not sported by fashionistas during my lifetime. Mutton chops as in food? Most English speakers are familiar with lamb chops. We don't generally find mutton chops in our supermarkets, though, nor did we when I was a child. Nonetheless, if we read -- we do read, don't we? -- we come across both meanings in English language literature. Well, maybe not 20th century - 21st century literature, but, nonetheless, in earlier literature. We don't have to have seen mutton chops facial hair on dudes in the street, nor on restaurant menus, to have come across the words referencing both meanings.
Barn as a venue for dances -- well, barns aren't discos, but so what! People don't go to taxi dance halls either, but taxi dime-a-dance employees would be a swell clue for taxi as an answer. Do people still go to discos? Or raves? And yet, every now and then, folk music groups, square dance fans, actually still hold a barn dance.
Answers that are not in my wheelhouse included Denny's -- what's Denny's? -- fast food place? -- but I got it from the crosses. Same with the Sylvester Stallone movie, "Creed". Never heard of it. Answers that were initially a puzzlement included violas. When I think of orchestra sections, I think of larger groupings, such as strings, brass, winds, percussion, not groups of single instruments. Violas fell into place with crosses -- including vaped, of course!
Fun cluing: Delicious item, answer, red apple. Yup.
All in all, enjoyable puzzle. I look forward to another Patrick Berry soon. And I hope Rex learns that all the throwing shade on "old" is pure ageism.
The Syndilanders will be solving their own PB1 puzzle today. I usually visit and read my own comment to refresh my memory of the puzzle so I can follow the Syndi comments. Five weeks ago I wrote in response to @Rex's then complaints of PB1 skewing old, "Classic is how I would dub his puzzles, not old or outdated." I still stand by it.
Definitely not a hard Friday puzzle. My writeover in the SW was "psi" for ADA (the PSI abbr. is on the bicycle tire, not the "tube", duh) and in the SE was "baDAPPLE" before RED APPLE due to having read the clue for 48A and thinking it belonged at 49A. I did give a little "huh?" because surely "Enfant terrible of children's literature" was looking for a specific name and I wasn't coming up with any book characters named Bad Apple. Ahem.
I like SEEM TO BE under AT RANDOM. CAT HAIR had me looking for milkweed or some such, with its "fluff" description. And just who is "Bob Evans" anyway? (Rhetorical question, I'm sure Google can tell me).
Thanks, Patrick Berry, for another fine Friday.
A most enjoyable grid ramble, with the bonus of a pause midway to remember the redoubtable BARBARA JORDAN and her wonderful voice. I hesitated at one fork in the path: DAWES or hAWES? (interference from Smoot-Hawley, I guess) and went astray at AbashED x spf (letters on a tube of sunscreen) until BOCA RATON materialzed and set me back on course. I liked ARREST immediately leading to PAROLE.
@jae, I love your take on ACOMA!
@OISK, yes, after a recent two weeks of puzzle-less travel, I felt like I was in crossword kindergarten when I got home and started in again.
Oops. My long long response has a word inserted in the wrong place in a sentence. The sentence should read, "but dime-a-dance employees would be a swell clue for taxi", not taxi dime-a-dance employees". That taxi sneaked in where it didn't belong.
Truly appreciated the Barbara Jordan clue and answer, and the Leo Fender clue and answer.
Went down smooth as a good cocktail
@ Blackbird,
I agree. Thanks for your thoughts.
@Questinia...I'm a pottery-coholic collector. We're going to Albuquerque on the 14th. Guess where we will be visiting? Can't wait to spend our hard earned money on their beautifully crafted art work.
@OISK..if I go only two days without doing the puzzle, I forget what an EEL is. IDO indeed.
I definitely thought Smoked was OWNED or even PWNED or PONED. Now those would be much more modern! VILLAS was too easy so it all fell into place.
Hey All !
Just to throw in my 2¢, liked this PB1 FriPuz. Smooth, like a freshly shorn cheek. (On the face, ya pervs :-P).
Rex's comment on the "Crossing 12's" has me perplexed, though. The Acrosses are 13's, and the Downs are 12-14-12. Did he just whittle it down for some reason? Least common denominator? (I know, math whizzes, that not what that term means...)
Held up for a bit on 21D, had SEinor____ (sp?), but after getting SE corner's ECT, saw it could've been ELECT, so changed to SENATOR, then was able to finish in a HERA. Har.
Fun stack in NEish. Fancy dressers all guy dance? FOP MENS TANGO.
Also, where is the proper place for MUTTON ENDS? That wouldn't be a freshly shorn cheek!
ZIPPO CZAR
RooMonster
DarrinV
ACOMA was an unexpected and very rare 'given' for me, since I live in Albuquerque. We are surrounded by pueblos, but ACOMA was the only one that fit, so not a 'woe' or a 'coma' for me at all. Some of the most beautiful pottery in the world (ever) came from there. Still does.
Tried my best to fit, 'Humanities' into 31A somehow/where to no avail as well - not exactly 'SOCIAL STUDIES' as we know them today.
Knew it was 'MOREY' but initially spelled it, 'MaurY' - oops.
@Irene 8:19 AM said:
"One of the attributes of an educated mind is knowing about the past.
Would my kids know about Morey Amsterdam and Dawes? (Or, for that matter, that the Queen of Heaven was Hera?) No, but one of the joys of puzzling is having those words pop into your mind via crossings."
You said it girl, I wouldn't change a word, nor would I add even one.
From a constructor’s point of view, proper names often provide unusual vowel/consanant patterns that facilitate a smooth grid. It is unfortunate that MOREY crosses JULES, but changing one means basically changing most of the other fill.
Rather see that than partials and crosswordese.
Had PWNED first instead of VAPED. That would have been nice but like ACL I don’t think Will allows it...though LMAO made it last week.
Pretty easy for me. I'm one week short of 60, FWIW.
And if you want to see a puzzle that skews old, look for the one in the American Airlines in-flight mag this month, which I did on the plane this morning. I don't remember any of the specifics (I'll try to bring the puzzle with me from the return flight on Sunday) but as I was doing it (before I did the NYT) I thought, boy if you thought those skewed old, wait until you see this!
I think my late night West Coast humor came across as far snarkier and mean than I ever intended.
However, I stand by my conviction that genrral knowledge is not age specific. All of the examples cited were "gettable;" they were neither naticks nor WOEs, to use the parlance of our times. I don't know who Coolidge's VP is off the top of my head, but DAWES is a name that is out there and knowable (plus when Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize THIS YEAR his name came up). I didn't mean you had to know ORR, but on a Friday you should be able to get it.
Don't pander to younger solvers by limiting the fair use knowledge base of the puzzle, because that's kind of offensive. It's as if you are tacitly implying that they are too stupid to know of anything before 1990. That leaves out Shakespeare and Chaucer and Babe Ruth and Frank Sinatra and Led Zeppelin and Valentina Tereshkova and James Watt and a whole lot more you get the picture.
And every new generation should be introduced to MOREY Amsterdam, The Human Joke Machine aka Buddy Sorrell.
Easy, and yeah, a little bland for a Patrick Berry submission.
Although the clue for VIOLAS totally cracked me up. It might as well have read "Most boring orchestra section."
@ Johnny 5:38,
That's much better and you are right about the pandering.
@johnny, I liked both messages and agree. Maybe it's the difference between seeing how fast you can fill everything in versus a test of what you can drag out of a 70 year old brain.
@ Joe Dipinto, OUCH! That's gonna hurt some feelings. Playing my namesake meant backing up other instruments a lot of the time. But bear in mind that the power and enjoyment of an orchestra or band comes from the merging of the many instruments, except during solos.
@Trombone Tom 7:22 PM
Couldn't agree more - nothing at all boring about using harmonies to create the amazing overtones that happen when the 'pitch' is perfect.
Trombone Tom -- I'm with you, perhaps my intent didn't come across, it was an attempt at sarcasm. I don't think the viola, or the trombone, or any other instrument, is boring, whether in an orchestral context or not. (J.J. Johnson? Curtis Fuller?) I just felt the clue suggested a stereotype of the viola as being secondary and not worth paying attention to.
Rex,
Here's my theory. The xword is a great profit center for the NYT. Somehow, The NYT has the demos on the xword. Skewing older to very old might be an expectation. Keeping subscribers happy when the business produces profits is the job of a product manager. Not that the NYT may use the title, but cares.
And so skewing older (and I am 83) keeps some significant portion of the paying subscribers happy. True, some of the answers may be people/events I heard about from my parents. Even Clara Bow clues seem dated to me. I also do the LAT xword ... many of the same constructors but my feel is the cluing may be younger and more show biz oriented.
But if my theory is right, think about it from a business point of view. If you are paying for the xword and you don't like it, don't subscribe. Find a xword you do like.
I didn't think the puzzle skewed 'old' at all. I mean, sure, there were things I didn't know and had to guess/work at, but I just assume that's the point of a Friday puzzle. I like puzzles where I learn about people and things that I don't come across in my daily life.
Bob had a #1 hit?
I thought Rex just likes bad music. 😬
Johnny, thanks for your smug, condescending post. Perhaps I should banish myself to the "Junior Jumble" because, heavens above, I didn't know that someone who does 65 years ago was a veep. I have no issues with the puzzle: it was a good one which stumped me. Your insulting post, however, is most unwelcome.
"died", not "does"
LOLOL
@6:38 ACOMA/SHAMS not really a natick since shams isn’t a proper noun
@8:59 same, FOP is common term
Violas clue a little off, but gettable. Violas can play harmony in the form of double stops, but I think of instruments like pianos or guitars as harmony instruments. I get that they are typically not given the melody - very enjoyable when this much-maligned instrument does get it.
To me, rappers have become crosswordese - are people really getting DRE and NAS or B.I.G. because they listen to this genre any more than the know OTT or ORR because they are very longtime sports fans?
It is always interesting to see which things trip people up - things obvious to me get most of the comments and things I never heard of seem to be fill-ins for others. As my mom used to say about test questions - “easy if you know it, almost impossible if you don’t”
Tom, you really need to watch some Dick Van Dyke Show. Really.
Got to admit I loved Johnny's comment.
@abalani500 — Agreed! I have an advanced degree in English, but I would never teach Catch 22 in a modern literature course: too many other important, diverse, and masterful authors to choose from. I am no Rex (or even very good), but I can usually finish a Friday in 20-30 minutes (including this one), but there’s less joy in a puzzle that merely tests your knowledge of “trivia” that feels dated than in one that is cleverly clued and playful. (No need for insufferable “Junior Jumble” comments.)
My best ever Friday, well under 10 mins. I guess the "old-fashioned" grid works for this Gen X-er. Great not to have to deal with any damn rappers for a change.
From the 4th greatest Xword puzzle solver in the MN Xword Puz Tourney, Amateur Division:
@albani500 and first post from @Two Ponies - you can both get off my lawn.
@Johnny's first post was one of the most insightful I have ever seen on this forum (and that goes back almost to the beginning) and his second post is almost as good. I just wish @evil doug would have posted today, I almost always agree with him, too.
Let's just make BARBARAJORDAN today's yeah baby for all of her accomplishments.
Some of you supposed literati need to widen your scope ORR stop complaining. Rant over. Absolutely no write-overs today in a brilliant puz. ASLONGAS PB1 constructs, I will be a fan.
There was plenty of stuff I had no knowledge of in this one but the crosses got me to the finish line. Sometimes I DNF Fridays, so I guess this one was on the easy side for me.
Bob Dylan never had a number one hit on the Billboard charts but he came close a couple of times.
TREND ENDS ZIPPO
They can ARREST me ATRANDOM since I was PUTON PAROLE,
ASLONGAS IDO not hand 'em the JULES and DOE that I stole.
--- ELOISE BOIS
Like Rondo, I took a peek at some of the comments above. People sure get passionate about their puzzles. They SEEMTOBE contracting Rex's chronic crankiness.
that's ELOISE BOISE
must prufe REEDS
The #1 hit By DAWES mentioned by @johnny is "It's All in the Game." Back when it came out, my Mom told me it was written by a veep, and I didn't believe her. Sorry, Mom (glancing upward).
Well, we have a couple of people who obviously excelled at SOCIALSTUDIES: DAWES and BARBARAJORDAN--to say nothing of ROPBERTALTMAN or anyone who was a SENATORELECT. And while Ms. JORDAN certainly deserves yeah baby status, the DOD sash goes to VIOLA Davis.
I don't know that I would consider DENNYS a rival of BOB Evans, exactly, except that they're both restaurants. Can't picture people going, "Let's see, Bob Evans or Denny's?", though. My only unknown was ACOMA, so that's where I finished up. Did so quite easily, I must say. Smooth as melted butter, as usual for PB1. Birdie.
PPS - Can somebody please explain the answer to 45D, TIN (Corrosion-resistant coating)? In my experience, TIN has always been something that rusts very easily - e.g. rusty TIN cans.
From Charles G. DAWES Wikipedia page:
DAWES is the only vice president to be credited with a No. 1 pop hit.
DAWES and Sonny Bono are the only people credited with a No. 1 pop hit who were also members of the United States Senate or House of Representatives. DAWES and Bob Dylan are the only persons credited with a No. 1 pop hit to have also won a Nobel Prize.
HOWEVER:
While the Bob Dylan Wikipedia dicography page shows he has had multiple #1 *albums*, he has had 2 *singles* reach #2 and none made #1.
MEANWHILE:
The band DAWES has had 3 albums in the top ten in the U.S. Rock (not pop) charts and two of those also reached #1 in the U.S. Folk charts, of all places.
Now you know as much about DAWES and Dylan in the charts as I do.
From the 35th greatest Xword puzzle solver in the MN Xword Puz Tourney, Amateur Division. I can still remember the great whooshing sound when @Rondo and then @Teedmn, within seconds of each other, would jump out of their chairs after five minuets or less. I sat in between them and was almost knocked over. (Of course, they knew the Minnesota towns theme that I didn't even see. Hi there, Edina old pal.)
I agree that CLASSIC material is always fair game for a puzzle. It used to be we had 3 TV channels, and everyone had the same PPP references. They've been passed down in our culture as well as "one if by land and two if by sea." Or Greek myths and Bible stories. Adam and Eve are frequent visitors to the crossworld. Just yesterday I read an article about a new Rose Marie movie, and there was old MORELY along with the rest of the cast from DVDyke.
Today's pop culture is spread out over 100's of TV and radio channels, social media, and endless online venues. I may be aware of it due to advertising and "people" columns, but no one can see/hear/read it all. So whilst I've seen bits of Frozen, Game of Thrones has no appeal to me. I watched part of a Harry POtter movie on a plane once, but turned it off. On a plane.
So here' a POSY for PB's offering today. Smooth as ever...
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Hmm. This guy DAWES turns out to be quite remarkable, unlike DEWEY, whom I originally thought was the answer to the Coolidge VP. That and CATtAIl were my two write-overs in this excellent puzzle.
In a well-constructed puzzle like this one, the several proper names which I don't know are discovered via crosses which I do know. I don't know if this is a PB trademark, but it often happens in his puzzles.
Smooth (as always) and wide-ranging in subject matter, sensitivity to the solver, and tight, dreck-free fill are always appreciated.
Love VIOLA Davis.
Dylan, like Dawes, had a #1 hit as a songwriter. Dylan's was "Mr. Tambourine Man," recorded by the Byrds. (Also, Dylan performed on a #1 hit as a member of USA for Africa, "We Are the World."
Jimi Hendrix' album Electric Ladyland went to Billboard's #1 and included Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower".
That's my 2 cents
And @Diana, you know I love you. And @teedmn. I will be duly humbled next tourney.
My only quibble is crossing an obscure and unknown (to me) Latin abbreviation with either IRAQ or IRAn. My coin flipped to Q, so cool, but had that turned out to be an N, I could only have shrugged and said, “sure, whatever.”
Otherwise, a great, solid, junk-free and entertaining puzzle. Slightly easy for a Friday but still a nice brain workout, and further affirmation that Patrick Berry is the one true king of Crossworld!
@Rondo - your comment is a reminder of another debt we own to OFL - the friendships we make on this blog. Some are blog friends, some, like you and @Teed, get to meet each other and tour the lovely St. Paul - we even get to see the famous James Hill cat video.
We also meet friends at tourneys - like @Kathy of the Tower, George Baraney, CC (the constructor). At ACPT I met many more - Larry G, LMS, Tita, Nancy - so many others. People who remember lines like "I just fed the lions, Tom said off-handedly."
Gotta run - Mr. W awaits our daily walk. See you after I take the deLorean to today.
Lady Di
I had a clean and for me fairly quick solve. Still laughing at 'still prepping for Y2K.'
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