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"Star Wars" queen / MON 11-6-2017 / Polite plea to a parent / Race of people in "The Time Machine" / Washington's ____ Sound / Unit of work
Monday, November 6, 2017
BOO! It's Annabel Monday again!
Constructor: BENJAMIN LAURING AND MAX LAURING
Relative difficulty: EASY
THEME: PART ANIMAL — Theme answers consisted of an animal and a body part.
Theme answers:
- RAT TAIL (15A: *Out-of-vogue hairstyle akin to a mullet)
- HARE BRAIN (17D: *Foolish sort)
- BEES KNEES (22D: *Really something, with "the")
- PIGEON TOES (27A: *Condition with feet turned inward)
- PIGGY BACK (32A: *How a tot rides on someone's shoulders)
- SNAKE EYES (37A: *Two ones, in dice)
- PART ANIMAL (48A: Like a centaur or faun...or a hint to each of this puzzle's starred clues)
- DOG EARS (60A: *Signs of a much-used book)
Word of the Day: OLIO (55D: Miscellany) —
2a :a miscellaneous mixture :hodgepodge
- … an incredible bourgeois olio of fancy stonework, stained glass, and light-opera staircases …
- —R. H. Rovere
b :a miscellaneous collection (as of literary or musical selections)
This olio of broadsides, speeches, letters, poems, and other documents … —S. R. Slaton
(Merriam-Webster)
• • •
 |
| I do still look cool right? |
Anyway, enough talking about stuff that happened an entire week ago! This puzzle was pretty good. The fill was actually some of the best I've seen in a while - ERG, ELOI, PLAT and some fun stuff with suffixes. And the constructors were pretty light on pop culture references for once! Having to make a million guesses about which obscure soap opera star a given clue refers to is always one of my least favorite parts of the puzzle, honestly, so getting a break from that is refreshing. I didn't really get stuck anywhere, except for having PIGEON FOOT for PIGEON TOES for an embarrassing amount of time.
I literally just got that the theme is PART ANIMAL because it contains both a body part and an animal. I had HALF ANIMAL there for a long time and I didn't quite get the double meaning. I guess that's pretty clever? Also, there sure were a ton of theme clues this time! Anyway, fauns are cool. I haven't read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for about a million years but Mr. Tumnus is definitely the best part of that book. I like his umbrella.
Bullets:
- DOG EARS (60A: Signs of a much-used book) — Not to be a nerd or anything but, nooooooo! Don't do this to books! It's better than leaving them face down but it's not good to leave creases in the pages forever! I usually just use a random discarded clothing tag or something as a bookmark because I'm too lazy to find my bajillion actual bookmarks. ...Actually, I guess I get dog-earing a book if you know it's something you're going to read a lot of times and you want to save your favorite parts. I dunno. Different strokes for different folks?
- ENGAGE (64A: Have the attention of) — Speaking of being a nerd, I personally would have clued this very differently...
- YANKEES (40D: Team with the most World Series Victories (27)) — Argh! I'm in Boston! We don't talk about that here!!!! Even the "(27)" in the clue seems like it just rubs it in. Rude!
- REEBOK (54A: Nike competitor) — "Are those Reebok or Nike?"
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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109 comments:
ELOI seems to be in the puzzle once a month. I daresay most people remember it from the puzzle, not from The Time Machine.
After so many super old-fashioned answers I was glad to see Ctrl-ALT-Del. That really spoke to me.
Ando: When I see ELOI I picture Yvette Mimieux and not crossword puzzle usage. I live in San Francisco and each Tuesday at noon there is a siren test of the outdoor warning system. It always reminds me of the call of the Morlocks.
EGGO had me wanting some cluing using Eleven from Stranger Things.
Can we get acne back and lose ELOI? I probably should be careful what I wish for...
Congrats to Matt and Ben or their debut! This was a fun, easy Monday puzzle.
@chefwen, big change to the routine, yeah? Just part of the price to pay to live in paradise!
This year is flying by, thank goodness! But, where are we headed? Point being, Annabel as OFL for today, caught me unaware, and it comes as a pleasant surprise. Youth will be served. Halloween is a big deal, and getting bigger in this neighborhood. Out of curiosity, did anyone go to a costume party that included a smutty French maid? Asking for a friend. The times they are a changin'.
"Star Wars" is the constructors' gift that keeps on giving. Thank goodness that TIRADE crosses fairly. Otherwise, I'm crying foul.
My roommate is a long-time fashionista and devours fashion magazines. She consumes them and DOG EARS the heck out of them, memorizes every look, and then donates them to the Borrego Springs Library. Annabel is right on with her promotion of book marks. For library books, I use the checkout receipt, but my special volumes merit special bookmarks. I'm certain book nerds have stories.
I'll go first. My favorite librarian gave me a personalized handmade bookmark with an epigram on the back from Dr. Seuss: "Unless someone like you cares a whole, awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." We are in San Diego County, after all.
Annabel, I’m with you on dogearing a book. I won’t even dog ear a paperback that I plan on leaving wherever I finish it when traveling. One of the many things my father taught me was to respect books.
Super easy Monday puzzle. Only write over was COULD I over please. Please, didn’t get me one down out of it. BZZZT!
@Thomaso808 - Cocktails and dinner one hour off, big adjustment, but I’ll deal with it.
Annabel, thanks for the great blog post, and for the "Are those Reebok or Nike? [sic]" video, which is hilarious. Misheard lyrics are fun.
They might make a good Sunday puzzle theme, but most would still have to be partials to fit.
For example, "Excuse me, while I kiss this guy," which Jimi Hendrix did not sing, is more than 21 letters, and shortening it to "WHILEIKISSTHISGUY" makes it a lot less fun, somehow.
The best part about Rex having the day off—aside from Annabel’s fun commentary—is that we weren’t subjected to a political diatribe over the Chick-Fil-A clue.
A debut! They’re brothers, no doubt. Nice Monday diversion on this very rainy day.
Dense theme action – and two across themers cross a down themer TWICE. Twice. AND THOSE TWO TRIPLETS ARE STACKED. IN TWO PLACES. Jeez Louise. Cool.
I actually had a dnf because I put in “cat tail” instead of RAT TAIL and didn’t check the cross. No biggie.
Thanks, Annabel.
Max, Benjamin – congrats and enjoy the limelight today. Impressive construction, fun theme.
I'M AN AGE??? Huh?
@mmorgan 4:11 AM
I believe the answer is I'M A NAGE, from the Hungarian/Magyar naget, meaning an industrious worker or literally "man (person) of many simultaneous skillsets at the fore."
Eight theme answers in symmetry, and two times a theme answer crosses another two -- impressive construction. Cute theme, combining human and animal, just right for Monday. I'll count TAIL as a human body part (as the other theme answers have) because in yoga we call the tailbone the "tail" all the time, and trust me, we talk about the tailbone all the time. I like the seven double E's, the LSD/NEURONS cross, and the lovely unusual-for-Monday clever NEURONS clue.
Congratulations you two on the debut, and it's always refreshing to have Annabel's uplifting take.
The Upper-world people might once have been the favoured aristocracy, and the Morlocks their mechanical servants: but that had long since passed away. The two species that had resulted from the evolution of man were sliding down towards, or had already arrived at, an altogether new relationship. The Eloi, like the Carolingian kings, had decayed to a mere beautiful futility. They still possessed the earth on sufferance: since the Morlocks, subterranean for innumerable generations, had come at last to find the daylit surface intolerable. And the Morlocks made their garments, I inferred, and maintained them in their habitual needs, perhaps through the survival of an old habit of service. They did it as a standing horse paws with his foot, or as a man enjoys killing animals in sport: because ancient and departed necessities had impressed it on the organism. But, clearly, the old order was already in part reversed. The Nemesis of the delicate ones was creeping on apace. Ages ago, thousands of generations ago, man had thrust his brother man out of the ease and the sunshine. And now that brother was coming back changed! Already the Eloi had begun to learn one old lesson anew. They were becoming reacquainted with Fear. And suddenly there came into my head the memory of the meat I had seen in the Under-world.
Chik-Fil-A sandwich and a Dr Pepper. It just doesn't get any better than that.
For me, Chik-Fil-A always leaves that sour aftertaste of narrow minded bigotry.
Great debut, fun puzzle to solve. Andrea gave us a good lesson here one day on the ins and outs of constructing a good Monday puzzle and I think these guys nailed it.
44D is "I manage". @ mmorgan and @ Prof. Johnson must be kidding around.
That Star Wars character was a total unknown but not a problem.
Tent peg? My tents have stakes.
Well, this morning I'm too upset to comment on puz. Sorry, Annabel.
Another mass shooting. What the fuck is wrong with these people? Why do you want to take out innocent people? At a church, no less. If you want to kill yourself, go ahead and do it. But DON'T take others with your retarded ass. If you kill yourself, you'll be mourned, people will feel sympathy for you and your family. But if you're an assfuck and take innocent people with you, then you'll be vilified for eternity.
Yet these cocksuckers keep doing it. Cowards. I bet that pussy couldn't hold his own in a fight. Anyone can use guns.
We've all been in a desperate place, or desperate times, but we work through it, and continue on with our lives. What gives these sons-of-a-whore the right to do this?
Furious.
RooMonster
DarrinV
There's so much hypersensitivity and intolerance from people who consider themselves tolerant.
Sick!
I know! We're supposed to love and respect people for hating and disrespecting others! It's in the Bible! Right next to hating non-Christians, immigrants (Christian and non-Christian), and women in the workplace!
Without a doubt, the easiest NYT puzzle I’ve ever seen. Difficulty on my standard scale of zero (average NY Times Monday) to six (The Guardian) is negative 1.38. Only minor hiccup: like Annabel, I had PIGEON fOot at one point. Also duck footEd, PIGEON feEt, and PIGEON TOEd.
Cool theme.
Cmon @ Roo, Of course it's horrible. No one disagrees. Can I still have a few minutes away from the madness? If you are too upset then keep it to yourself. That goes for the rest of you too.
Fun puzzle... and they included BEE!!! . I have always heard it called pigeon toed!!!
Thanks for the great write up Anabel!!!
@mmorgan it's I MANAGE
Easy puzzle and thanks for the CS Lewis reference! Loved those books as a kid. My only gripe is that RAT TAIL is an outlier as all the other body parts are things that humans have. Or am I being too much like Rex in that complaint?
I share your sentiment, RooMonster. Unfortunately, the success of the Trump campaign style has emboldered these people. Trump was able to behave in a boorish manner yet not suffer the consequences, so now these people they too can behave however they want. They seem to believe that our permissive society now allows people to express their emotions be becoming mass murderers. And it is simple enough to amass sufficient firearms and ammunition to fulfill any evil desires that lurk in the recesses of the mind.
I am disturbed by such activity, but I am probably more disturbed that politicians who refuse to take appropriate (and constitutional) action to help prevent such events are continually reelected. (Indeed, some who supported reasonable ways to stem the ease and frequency of these events have been voted out of office.) I shudder to think that the majority of people in this country (perhaps unwittingly) support this type of activity by continually electing politicians who not only refuse to respond properly but who thwart any who try to attack the problem. Even though this is not normally a forum to write about such issues, thank you for doing so.
Less importantly, it's nice when new constructors debut with such ambitious puzzles.I do expect and accept a fairly high level of crosswordese in a Monday puzzle, and there was enough of that in today's puzzle. But I for one could ignore that type of fill because the rest of the puzzle was in my opinion more interesting than most Monday puzzles. Hopefully, these brothers will never lose their desire to construct such ambitious puzzles.
chebea said: "I have always heard it called pigeon toed!!!"
I think you are correct and PIGEON TOES is incorrect because the disorder is not a disorder of the toes. A person doesn't have pigeon toes; a person is pigeon toed.
I'll second the request that people do their venting and politicking somewhere else. There's lots of places for it.
Terrific Monday. Fun, dense theme, and for me, there were some erasures, which almost never happens on a Monday CHOOSE before CALL IT at 12D. ALT enabled me to correct that immediately. But I was getting D--- for ELIE Wiesel at 39A, which was driving me crazy. That's because I had BIRDBRAIN at 17D, and I was so sure it was right. Finally the crosses enabled me to change to HAREBRAIN and I was done. I didn't realize this was a debut, but it was a very nice one. Many here called it "easy", and that it was, but I didn't think it was especially easy for a Monday.
BTW, as I was looking at my half-completed grid, mid-solve, I realized that I'd filled in the entire left side, leaving the right side white as snow. Meaning that I don't solve in order of the Acrosses at all, as I said I did last week. I solve in the order my momentum takes me. I'd really never thought about it before, but now I know.
For a debut and a Monday very impressive number of themers, grid layout and with minimum junk. Very few proper names. Cute use of each half of the theme answers having relevance. Agree very easy but I did not think out of place. Congrats on a fine debut.
Rex would have carped about the mistake in PIGEON TOES, and that the themers are inconsistent because the colloquial PIGGY, rather than PIG, is out of place. And a Piggy Back is not even part of a piggy, since it implies an action, or activity, not a BODY PART. Furthermore, it is not derived from our porcine friends at all, but is a longstanding bastardization of the words "pick-a-pack."
@abalani500 -- Re "TAIL", see my earlier post.
The haters may hate, but y’all should know that not only do I dog-eat pages, sometimes I also take my books to the beach (and get them full of sand), and I underline passages to refer back to them months later, and - horror - sometimes, when I fall asleep reading, I wake up in the middle of the night and realize I have mashed the spine of my book under my pillow.
Or other snarky comments
Not only do I dog-ear books and underline them (books I own, of course, never borrowed ones) but I have several books that had been my parents, where they had underlined and dog-eared them. And I cherish them. I love seeing what my father got so excited about, many many years ago.
Just a question: are Bees and Snakes animals?
Loved this puzzle with animals and their parts. Cute!
Yes, PIGEONTOEd is right, and thanks @Joe Welling for explaining why. But I forgive it.
There's also a PIG in that clue.
And there's that REBOK too.
@cash po'...great post.
Thanks Annabel.
Thanks to the Laurings.
I fell asleep reading the other night, dropped my Kindle, awakened when I heard it hit the corner of the nightstand, and looked down to see a crack in the screen with a brilliant bolt of light shining through. I have to hold my hand over the crack not to be blinded by the light as I read. A slightly crumpled or dogeared page would have been far preferable and I could have lived with the guilt.
Great Monday, guys! I have only one question. All the themers make perfect sense, but do BEES actually have KNEES? I know I do because they remind me every time it rains.
This BEE has knees
Cool that the DOGEARS bought a full page ad in the Houston paper congratulating the Astros for winning the World Series.
Nice write-up, Annabel, but your snarky comment about fresh fill makes me feel that @Rex has started to influence you. I loved it, though.
Although nobody ever says it, I figured that if you are pigeon-toed (as my brother was), then you have PIGEON TOES. Close enough for crosswords, anyway. OTOH, having BEE'S in the possessive as an outlier bothered me. I'd have thought it was OK if 15A had been RAT'a ass.
But mostly, I'm just grooving on the idea that RAINS are "monsoon events." Imagine the dialogue:
"How was the hurricane?"
"Not too bad, but we did have a few wind events."
Also, what did Tarzan say when someone referred to him as a boy?
I MAN AGE!!
A very nice Monday indeed. Annabel, thank you for pointing out the body PART part :) BEES KNEES made me wonder why for cats we talk about their meow or pajamas.
Where was EKG as per the write-up?
@Anonymous - whoops!!! I meant ERG! Thanks for catching that, let me go fix it.
@jberg -- What did the person who was home on the range say?
I MAN A G.E.
For an easy Monday I was surprised at how many mistakes I had to correct. Like others I had CHOICE/CALLIT, CAT/RAT, TOED/TOES and BIRD/HARE. In addition I had a problem I would imagine few others did. I read the 18A clue and completely blanked on ALT. Only with _LT did it come back to me.
AMIDALA is the one unknown in the whole puzzle. For some reason the search clues feature of xwordinfo comes back with a 0 result when you type in Star Wars. You type in Hamlet and you get all the clues and answers related to that play. The same is true of Macbeth. It would be great to have all the Star Wars answers all in one list as I don't know those movies and they're heavily referenced.
Has anyone else noticed that @jae has suddenly stopped commenting?
Right on, @Roo. As Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good peple to do nothing." Sorry, Susie. Roo was expressing what at least I have been feeling.
Best (only?) use of "pigeon toed" in a popular song: Sheb Wooley's "pigeon-toed, under-growed flyin' purple people eater." Classic.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DL1ZH0Ke92A
Nice to see a young person praise the lack of obscure pop culture clues, which Rex seems to think make a puzzle "modern." I wish Annabel reviewed more often.
@Wm C. - Yes, bees and snakes are animals. You may be thinking of mammals, which is a subset of animals. But then I'm wondering why you didn't ask about pigeons, which are, like snakes and bees, animals but not mammals.
Lotsa animals and lotsa parts. staff weeject pick: Elephant + INE. Honrable mention to chick-A-part FIL. Oh … and to Caesar-part EAN. har, Caesar! … U animal!
Nice dog-ear shady-square-designs in the NW and SE corners.
@Roo: yep. Bring it. Been there, bemoaned that.
@Blu'Bel: Primo writeup, darlin. Great bullets, and much-appreciated praise for good ol' weeject minion ERG. Whose blood got spattered on the "BOOO" poster? Perhaps it came from an English Lit prof who was attemptin to red-pen mark-off for that there spellin of "boo"?
Are Max and Ben brothers? A law firm? Anyhoo, they got themselves a nice lil debut effort, here. fave FIL-ins: PLAT (yo, @Blu'Bel). STRUDEL. SILENTP. TBALL. FORSALE. REEBOK. IMANAGE-a-COTTAGE.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {What X equals in Roman numerals} = TEN. Random Roman clues! Excellent twist.
[Help Desk bonus insert: @WmC - yep. Snakes and bees is animals. This is mainly becuz yer other two choices is vegetable & mineral.]
RAT. PIGEON. PIGGY. SNAKE. DOG. BEES. HARE. Interestin mix. Got one children's version animal, and one plural animal in there. Slight desperate scruffiness. Like. Are there any iconic pop phrases that involve AMOEBAE parts? That woulda been extra cool.
Thanx, Lauring parts. Fun, easy solvequest. Do some more.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
@pmdm 7:49
More like TDS, as all of the mass murderers, with the exception of Dylann Roof, were proggies and/or Moslems.
Again with the Star Wars. Grrr.
Re bookmarks. My favs are paint sample strips from hardware/big box stores. You could even color code your book marks - purple pallet for heavy drama, yellow for fun read, etc. etc. I use them not only for where I left off but also to mark passages - sometimes more than one per tome.
As I was doing this, all I could think of was how Micheal was going to rip it for not using the correct animal/parts combinations. He always has such better ones than these lowly constructors.
So what a pleasant surprise to have Annabel doing the critique. Like a ray of sunshine in a ice storm of pomposity.
Does anyone else wonder how #notmyfearlessleader would have ripped this one?
I liked it a lot and felt it was a really good Monday.
I never DOGEAR my books. But when I first overcame my nail-biting habit in my teens, I would stick my now very long fingernails through the margins because it was such a novelty to have long nails. Every once in a while, I come across a book with half-moon slits in the pages. I have also fallen asleep in the bathtub and dropped more than one paperback in the water. And there are the two times I left books face down on the hearth of our gas-burning fireplace, only to come back to find the glue had melted and I now had a looseleaf book. I guess I'm a bit hard on my library.
Nice clue for NEURONS, 38D. I always think of AMygDALA (another near-BRAIN answer?) when I think of Queen AMIDALA.
I know someone in Syndiland who will be very unhappy with the answer to 36A (hi @rondo!).
Great debut, Max and Benjamin, congratulations!
Yes the Yankees have won 27 world series, the most in baseball! Did you know that 27 championships is the most any professional sports team has won in the whole wide world? Now, that is impressive! Onto 28 in 2018!!
I'm with @mmorgan and @jberg. The puzzle went easily, but I couldn't wrap my brain around "Imanage" even after a minute of staring. First thought: I'm an age, i.e. I'm of an age or I'm of age? Second thought: Neanderthal--I, man, age! I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
Always love your exuberance and positivity, Annabel. It’s nice to hear from someone who exudes the joy of crosswords, even the easy ones. That outlook will bring you a happy and healthier life! Thank you!
@SuziQ, I was planning to say if you want to join a conversation so you can tell the other participants what they are allowed to talk about, you are in the wrong country. But then on a blog comment stream like this one normal cries of community pain inevitably lead to accusations of politicking ( murder is politics? Huh?) and sooner or later some bozo like Anon @12:05 makes a statement that is utterly un-grounded in fact, and off we go. So, I can also see your point.
This was a fun puzzle, for all the reasons already mentioned. Took longer than usual, but that was because my daughter did it with me, which was really fun. I envy those of you who always puzz with partners.
@Evil, DOGEARS... har! Thanks.
@puzzlehoarder 10:37 - I entered Star Wars into the search field for "search clues" at xwordinfo.com and immediately a list of 293 items appeared. Can't see why it wouldn't give you the same list.
Say Hey, Rex, Old Top! "Easy for you, difficult for me"
Was Topo Gigio before your time?
unless you're the chicken
hear, hear...thanks, A...
no wonder there's pages missing in this book... 😬
not flora
@BarbieBarbie
Bozo???
Devin Kelley--leftist
Sayfullo Saipov--leftist, Moslem
James Hodgkinson--leftist
Stephen Paddock--leftist
Nidal Hassan--leftist, Moslem
Aaron Alexis--leftist
Seung-Hui Cho--leftist
James Holmes--leftist
Amy Bishop--leftist
Andrew Stack--leftist
James J. Lee--leftist
Jared Loughner--leftist
Harris and Klebold--leftist families
Karl Halverson Pierson--leftist
Tsarnaev brothers--Moslems
Oh, BTW, Lee Harvey Oswald--leftist
John Wilkes Booth--leftist
So@BarbieBarbie, let me guess--you live in a hive in either the I-5 or I-95 corridor.
interesting focus, David... why not focus on the puzzle and suggest that monkey's eyrbrows be included...?
sometimes, I use my NYT crossword pencil...😬
Amen, Annabel! I envy your headstart and your enthusiasm. 😀
i don't think you're a bozo, A... i do think the heart of the problem runs deeper... and that pointing fingers doesn't solve the problem... why as a species we feel the need for guns and atomic bombs and whatever the next invention is... Gandhi, Allende, and Kennedy are part of a list, too... sorry about the diatribe... back to the puzzle... is there part of us
that does't behave like an animal...? like bare sole?
@Anon 2:10 -- if you include the pre-Shortz era it pulls up 359 items.
@Shelby Glidden -- Everyone is assuming that you're solving on some sort of device that impels you to write many, many, many, many posts every day, answering different people individually in a many, many, many separate comments. I have no idea why you're doing what you're doing, but can you do us all a favor: look at what you've done (so far) today between 3:55 and 4:29 on an actual computer screen and compare what you've done to the way everyone else here comments. See how annoying it is. And then stop it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Anon 2:10 and @puzzlehoarder 10:37 -- sorry, I meant to include puzzlehoarder in on my 4:59 observation.
@Hartley 70, having dropped my Kindle upon falling asleep one too many times, I bought a hand strap for it. There's a piece that sticks on the back of the Kindle with a Velcro patch, and the loop for your hand Velcros on to the patch in whatever position you find comfortable. You'll wake up with the thing secured to your hand, but at least it's not broken.
Sorry, Late to the party, but something bothers me here.
First off, great puzzle for a Monday.
Roo Monster, your use of the term: "What gives these sons-of-a-whore the right to do this? "puts you in the Harvey Weinstein category.
Are you a parent?
To denigrate the killers parents (specifically the mother) in sexist terms does not advance the discussion but shows your colors in a less than respectable manner.
Anon@4:13, your cherry-picking reminds me of the soft scientists who look at FMRI data, realize it’s too much to analyze for actual patterns, and throw their lot in with the apopheniacs so they can get their next grant. The annual number of mass killings in this country alone in a single year far exceeds the 17 you have picked from multiple years and locations. Your “pattern” is noise.
I have two residences, one east and one mid. A large chunk of my family farms. Everyone hunts. We vote all colors on the map. Nobody is too fearful to use an identifying label on a blog comment. We’re all good at analyzing complete sets of data objectively. We don’t let broadcasters tell us what to think. Especially the ones who yell. Any more you want to know?
I realize it is a bitter pill to swallow but @Anon 4:13 is correct.
It's also not right-wingers assaulting veterans waving flags while hiding behind masks. Objective analysis?
I’m always glad to finish without help. I don’t care that it’s easy . Thanks for a fun puzzle
Sorry everybody for the curse filled tirade before. I just get so upset that that seems the best syntax to express how disgusting I find these individuals (Not going to use "people", because that would imply they are actual humans, with feelings).
But this apology is just for the language, not for the feelings.
@mooretep 5:38
Maybe. How about (Monty Python line, in case you wondered)
"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries!"
RooMonster
If anybody had bothered to check, they might have learned that both of Anon annoyer's posts are direct quotes from Alex Jones. Might as well respond to Alex Jones, you'll have as much luck.
Annabel- your selection of videos for the write up are priceless! Enjoyable puzzle!
You probably won't see it at this point, but mega-thanks to those,who helped me get through my I'M AN AGE/I MANAGE blindspot/dilemma. I'd like to think that I can attribute it to the fact that I was on an airplane at the time, but one can't be sure.
And thanks especially also to @Prof Johnson -- however, Nem bezelek magyarul. ;-)
@ Anonymous said...
I'll second the request that people do their venting and politicking somewhere else. There's lots of places for it.
I am a newspaper publisher who is fed up with people complaining about being exposed to things they don't want to read. Not reading it is your option, but stop expecting people not to make comments that you don't approve of. If you don't have the reading skills to disseminate information quickly, work to improve them or stop reading altogether. No one will miss you. We used to refer to this as "growing up."
Late today but wanted to thank Annabel for the Start Trek video, which led me to more funny videos. I ALSO thought of STNG upon seeing "Engage!" And I for one appreciate to make us smile .....
:-D
@Newspaperguy
I'm the anonymous who posted that and you can kiss my ass. This is a crossword blog not an open forum so shut up. What I say goes and don't forget it little boy.
I'm glad others have pointed out that the 'condition' of having inward-pointing feet is called "pigeon toed;" the person suffering it has pigeon toes.
As for all the other diatribe out there, let's not forget, gun violence in America kills more people, every year, than all the terrorist attacks put together. That's not a political position, it's a fact.
Being originally from Boston myself... I think a better clue for YANKEES would have been, "Team with the most World Series losses. (13)" My favorite aspect of that fact is, you could have a list of "Ten Best World Series of All Time," and in every single one of them, the Yankees would lose.
As @Teedmn noted, what in TAR-nation will @Rondo say?
Lady Di
COULDI LIE?
With their PIGEONTOES and HAREBRAINs
IMANAGEd to say the new ERA YANKEES are banal.
NOTHING ENGAGEd nor ANGERED their fans
more than to ORATE a TIRADE and CALLIT TBALL.
--- SGT. EDISON “SNAKEEYES” AMIDALA
Fine but nothing special. Okay for a Monday. But you have to give the young Lauring brothers credit for their debut NYT puzzle. The oldest of the two, Max, is a senior at Yale which explains the shoutout at 13A...
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/05/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2017-11-06.html?_r=0
TIRADE: My green Pilot G2 circled 9d for yeah baby Natalie Portman who portrayed Padme AMIDALA. That same pen also made the largest, greenest, darkest X ever through the 36a clue for which the Lauring boys seem to want an answer of TAR. Stop it already!!! You Lauring boys have the opportunity to never make this grievous mistake ever again, and correct it for other constructors or editors you may meet. There is no gooey TAR in or on your road, or anyone else’s. IMANAGE to stay civil, though I’m ANGERED, because this is your debut. Never again CALLIT TAR!!!!. Wrong, wrong, wrong!! In this case the constructors and HAREBRAINEd editors have a DNF. End of TIRADE.
COULDI also mention TEN TENN? And the 22 threes?
This morning’s Red Bull is catching up with me, I gotta go take a SILENTP.
Well, SOMEBODY has to don the curmudgeon's hat. My impression was: guys, don't give up your day job. COULDI put up with SILENTP? But put it in with the worn-OUT stuff like ELI, ELIE and ELOI and the Maleskan OLIO, and two too many AGEs--two of them crossing!--and you have a collection that demands a huge payoff...but there is none. ANIMALPART expressions are a dime a dozen: CATTAIL, LIONHEART, TIGERLILY--and I haven't even left the felines. Also we have another animal--REEBOK--all by itself. Maybe we could invent a dish called REEBOKCHOI.
Then for some reason the sevens directly across from the theme sevens are NOT themed--but they do sum up what these constructors have for me today: NOTHING FORSALE. Bogey--and I'm being kind.
Twas a Monday. With a theme. Required a bit more thought than Mondays often do. So I thought it was fine. Small fill doesn't bother me, especially when I read that these two brothers created the grid by hand.
45 years ago (and 35 pounds ago) I used to go into NYC for dance classes. Usually through the Port Authority (of NY and NJ) and on to the subway underneath it. I had to run thru the subway tunnels on my way back to catch a bus at a decent time. So awaking today to news of a bombing brought back many memories. Back then, my greatest concern was the gauntlet of panhandlers, and seedy 42nd Street.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Sanity
Maybe saving this one from Monday obscurity was that the theme worked both ways: ANIMALPART and PART ANIMAL. The poor REEBOK was left out in the cold.
(It is CHIC-A-FIL isn't it? My local newspaper clues it Chic-__-A.)
Hey @Rondo, I need a question answered. I often see a guy from the city spraying black stuff from a long steel tube into cracks in the asphalt to smooth out the road. You say this isn't TAR, and I believe you, but what in TARnation is it?
You gotta go easy on a Monday, even if it is this easy, especially a debut by two young brothers. I know my two sons couldn't collaborate on a one-car funeral, let alone a crossword puzzle.
I thought this was OK, given the above factors, and it did allow the solver to use acrosses only which has the added feature of finding out what the downs were while reading the comments. Kind of like seeing the puzzle twice. @Spacey - how about a saving par on a wobbly two-foot putt that circles the cup before falling in? I've had a lot of those.
Okay, it's Chick-fil-A, as in Chicken filet. (And for all this time, I've been seeing...., and I'm not dyslexic.)
I have sex daily. I mean, I have dyslexia.
@rainy - The recommended sealant for clean and seal (blowing out with compressed air and spraying in sealant) consists of asphalt and crumb rubber blended together by the manufacturer to produce a homogeneous mixture, when melted, the sealer does not separate or settle, and provides uniform consistency suitable for filling joints and cracks without inclusion of large air holes or discontinuities.
Please don’t CALLIT TAR. Thanks.
@rainy - your city guys may be using a more simple polymer infused water/asphalt emulsion. When they spray it down you might see what looks like soap bubbles on the surface of the road. The water will evaporate, leaving only the treated asphalt in the crack and a couple inches either side.
@Rondo - the word TAR will never escape my lips again - promise. I'll be the bearer of truth whenever road paving is the topic of any discussion. "Rondo says...".
Thanks.
Speaking of tar, does anyone remember Black Cat bubble gum?
@rondo--Sorry, but would you run that by me again?
@fogman--Good one!
@fogman 3:08--referring to that earlier post. Impressive.
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