THEME: DEVIOUS (45D: Tricky ... or a tricky description of 18-, 29-, 36-, 48- and 59-Across) — two-word answers where first word starts with "D" and second with "V" (get it? wordplay!)
Theme answers:
DEATH VALLEY (18A: Lowest point for Americans?)
DODGE VIPER (29A: American-made sports car with a V-10 engine)
DEEP VOICE (36A: Bass, e.g.)
DARTH VADER (48A: Film character who says "Give yourself to the dark side")
DEMO VERSION (59A: Prototype, maybe)
Word of the Day: ORONYMS (46D: Words and phrases that sound approximately alike, like "ice scream" and "I scream") —
A word or phrase that sounds the same as another word or phrase.
D + V ... DEE VEE-ous ... Sure, OK. It's a very thin concept that feels like it belongs on a Monday, but it's a cutesy bit of wordplay that functions as an acceptably playful little revealer, so fine. Totally inoffensive at a minimum, clever if you're being very generous. The theme answers aren't terribly interesting, as they are simply D.V. phrases that fit symmetrically into the grid (not like there are a ton of good ones to choose from), but the mid-length fill (the 7s in the corners) are decent. Varied, colloquial, unforced. I enjoyed "I'LL BITE," "SAY WHEN, ADOPT ME, etc. But honestly the only thing I remembered about the puzzle when I'd finished, the only part that made itself felt in any way, was the SE corner, where a. I figured out the theme via DEVIOUS, and b. I ran into ORONYMS, a word so wildly out of place on a Tuesday that I had to check all the crosses just to make sure I hadn't screwed something up. If you thought maybe 53A: From the beginning: Lat. was DE NOVA ... well, you might've had a small problem there, especially if you (as seems quite possible) didn't know what ORONYMS were. The word was so strange that I thought for sure it had something to do with the theme (which I hadn't bothered to try to figure out yet). If DEVIOUS hadn't been right next door, I might've persisted in that mistaken thought for a while (seems a better physical location for a revealer than the one occupied by DEVIOUS, frankly).
Only hold-ups, besides ORONYMS was NO CAN DO, which I had to shoot through with crosses before I recognized it (3D: "Sorry, Charlie!"), and then EVIE (26D: ___ Wilcox, daughter in E. M. Forster's "Howard's End"). I read "Howard's End" several years ago, but remember very little about it—certainly none of the character names. I wrote in BEDEW before BLEAR (65A: Dim with tears). Perhaps one day I will run into this puzzle's evil twin, ODIOUS. Peace OATOTT OUT!
On the easy side. I noticed the theme of Ds and Vs long before I figured out the revealer. That made the revealer kind of a little mini Aha, which was fun.
@Rex: yeah, but it isn’t DE NOVa. It’s DE NOVO. A person might think the common Latin phrase is “quid pro qua,” too, but that person would be wrong. I once had a linguistics prof who kept using the phrase “sort of a priori,” which I loved. People do say and write these things, so they’re fair.
A nice Tuesday. Even with the theme I needed crosses to get the first and last theme entries. The geographical one should have been obvious.
We have ILLBITE over ADOPTME. Kind of a mixed message there. That lower right corner had a non theme D/V entry crossing the revealer. DENOVO's opposite is just plain old ORNATE. Maybe that's why it crosses INERROR and NOCANDO.
Read the constructor's notes today. Apparently he follows this blog. Congratulations to @lms on her upcoming puzzle with him at 42D
I for one thought the puzzle was adorbs. I love me some dadbods. Overall I just liked the fill more than usual. Felt less old. Coming from a 52 yo that is saying something.
FWIW, solved this last Saturday at the Westport Library tournament. The entire green room discussion was about ORONYMS (and that every solver started with ADO at 1A). It was interesting to hear Will Shortz admit that it was a new word to him.
LIMA may be the capital of Peru but is not in the Andes. LIMA is 557 feet above sea level. Peru has jungles too. Would it be correct to clue it as “jungle capital”? La Paz is in the Andes at 11,942 feet above sea level but Sucre is tha capital of Bolivia.
This just seemed shallow and lazy. All of those casual conversational answers along with slang terms (I guess I'll just have to get used to adorbs)make for a very boring puzzle. Save up crossing use up? As I said, lazy. As everyone has said and will say, oronyms is the only redeeming word.
Don't we usually see ab ova not de novo? If Mt. Etna is the logo why is it spelled Aetna? How long will it take for someone to object to the sexist clue for dad bods?
Remember the canned tuna commercial that said Sorry Charlie? I could never understand why Charlie the Tuna was suicidal.
I think 15A is not an axiom but a theorem. I mean, you could make it an axiom in some system, but then you could make any statement an axiom. In our algebra, it’s a theorem. Anyhoo, I went with LOGIC there and I refuse to change it, so RLD, AOE, BGAS, BITH and ICHERE are henceforth words.
Other than that, didn’t like the puzzle. Too many phrases: IN ERROR, NO CAN DO, ADOPT ME, ILL BITE, SAY WHEN, IM HERE, USE UP, I HOPE SO, SAVED UP. Then add in ADORBS, DAD BODS, SORTA and two dang car trivia clues and you’ve lost me.
IOUs twice in matter of days (though more of an Easter egg today) are no coincidence. It suggests that we borrow Sunday's themer (Y = VI) and combine it with today's revealer (DEVIOUS) to get Y = VI (DEV)(IOUS). We then drop the catalyst and are left with the more elegant Y = VI (DEV).
Then we just walk it through the balancing part. By the commutative property, the E substitutes for Y. So: E = V squared (I)(D). One assumes that "I" is a euphemism for the square root of -1, an imaginary number. Therefore, energy (E) is the product of density (D) times an imaginary velocity (V) squared: E = D(IV squared).
Not surprisingly, this rings more of Maleska than Shortz. But it does explain how the the 2017 Oscars are in 2018.
This was fine. Played an normal Tuesday for me. Nothing remarkable and nothing horrible. Solid fare. A meat and potatoes dinner.
@Mike in Mountain View .. "By the way,imagine the fun revealer possibilities if today's puzzle theme were reversed." Yes! Exactly where my head went at 5:45 on a Tuesday morning. Revealer clue: "STDs, or an infectious description of ... "
It's true that, in the context of the Real Numbers, the transitive property can be a theorem. But it is more broadly an axiom of the theory of partially ordered sets, so from a modern mathematical perspective AXIOM is probably correct.
I liked AXIOM next to RABBI, and the almost-adjacent DEEP VOICE and DARTH VADER was nice. Also, if "D-V-ous" were a thing, wouldn't it and DEVIOUS be ORONYMS? That was my interpretation, anyway.
Can't believe no one picked up on the DEATHVALLEY (18 across) crossing CLEMSON (12 down) - according to Sports Illustrated, entry of the football team into the stadium is among the most exciting moments in college football.
Dearth Vader is fast becoming a crossword cliche. At least three time in last three months. How about Chewbacca or Darth Sidious or something else? Played easy for A Tuesday. Now am anxiously waiting to hear from @LMS because she apparently inspired the puzzle or so the constructor says as over xword info.
Rex, good column today. Especially liked the line that "odious" is the evil twin of DEVIOUS.
Not one of Bruce Haight's better efforts. Twenty Terrible Threes (too many). But enough good stuff to compensate. AXIOM (rarely a theorem in my experience), DODGEVIPER, clue for DARTHVADER, ORONYM.
If Rex had trashed this ouzzle, I was going to remark oronymically "Take a nice cold shower."
Thought the puzzle on the whole was D-lightful. Took me about the same time as yesterday, but had to spend seven minutes checking for an error before I got the happy pencil. Hands up for entering DE NOVa, which was what I finally had to change. Also thought that DE MOVER SION might be an ORONYM.
Lots of other write-overs: proOf > AXIOM, gothic > ORNATE, bADBOyS > DADBODS, etc. Hesitated on REDDISH. Clunker indeed.
@Puzzled Peter (from Monday at 4:47 PM): Thank you for the correction. As you wrote, tomalley is the a digestive gland of a lobster -- SORTA like a liver and a pancreas combined (known to marine biologists as the hepatopancreas in other arthropods). And the roe are called coral.
So, I stand corrected: I was IN ERROR. Serves me right to simply repeat what I was told by my father at the age of five, and not to verify. It took me a long time to come to the realization that my DAD -- bless his soul -- was prone to fractured facts. One he oft repeated was some "fact" attributed to Albert Einstein, along the lines of, "If the honeybee disappeared, we'd all starve." (My DAD was an amateur beekeeper.) Eventually, once I thought about it, I pointed out that: (a) Albert Einstein was a physicist, not a biologist; and (b) huge segments of our agriculture, such as grass for grazers, corn, wheat, and rice, do not depend on pollination by honeybees. One thing I didn't point out, as it would have been regarded as heresy by my DAD, is that the honeybee is an exotic species in the Americas, and that there are lots of bumblebees and solitary bees that are also pollinators, and whose numbers would improve if honeybees disappeared (not that I wish them that fate). Earthworms were also introduced to the Americas by Europeans, fundamentally changing the ecosystem of North America's temperate forests.
If I had done this one on paper I would have had a DNF because I put in BRAY for CROW and had YAG which I assumed was onomatopoeia for "Gag me with a Spoon." But I fixed it when I did not get the closing bell. (Which reminds me, looks like Wall Street got the DOSE yesterday. Well, it is a VD theme...
@Two Ponies got it exactly right. Shallow and lazy...I thought that exactly as I worked it. OTT, OAT, RSVPS, AÑO, ESS. I thought, hmm...didn’t put too much effort into polishing to get a cleaner grid. That’s how you get ORONYMS.
Norton Security is the another name of the most recent and upgraded security programming suite ready to take a shot at countless like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS and numerous others. http://www.nortonsetup-norton.com
I always love Bruce’s themes ‘cause so many times they manipulate letters. Yeah – I was praising another of his puzzles with some letter shenanigans and was running my mouth here, offering other possible themes. Well. Darned if he didn’t email me and, well, the rest they say and all that. (Reason number 4 to include your email in your profile: some fancy schmancy constructor may email you. Hi, @Andrea!)
Speaking of ACME, this one reminds me of that Sunday puzzle by ACME and Da Feyer- the title was “Puzzle Envy,” but “Envious” works this way, too. They had entries like NIGHT VISION and NIA VARDALOS.
This is where my mother-in-law adopter Tucker. I’ve shared this here before, but it always cheers me up. Wake County Animal Shelter
ADORBS. Haven’t heard that one out in the wild yet. What’s next?
The Honorbs Judge Vic Fleming Oh my God – she’s so insufferbs.
ORONYMS are such a hoot...
nude eel (makes you wanna revisit new direction…) stuff he nose, dairy air.
Those are all findable on the internet. I think I may have invented one – see my avatar. If someone did beat me to it, I’m still claiming it.
Bruce – I’m impressed with how this idea played out. Well done! (I guess you did have DOUBLE VISION on your list at first…probably couldn’t find a symmetrical partner?)
I thought this was one of Haight’s better efforts. More letter play than word play, but I thought the rest of the puzzle redeemed the simple theme. I’d go with more Mondayish, but that’s not Haight’s fault.
@Aketi - You’ve got me pondering the difference between “in the Andes” and “Andean.” Peru is definitely an Andean country and Lima is it’s capital, so the clue is okay, I think, since Lima is the capital of a region of the Andes. Not that I considered this as I solved since I just translated the clue to “four letter South American city.”
@kitshef - AXIOMs are used to prove theorems, theorems can be proved from AXIOMs. Properties seem pretty AXIOMatic to me, but feel free to share the proof of the transitive property and prove me (and Shortz) wrong.
I wonder if we’ll get a stock market update today. Not that I think any Trump policy has had any time to actually impact the market for good or ill, yet, I just wonder if trumpkins are capable of any level of intellectual consistency.
It's only Tuesday, and I just learned a great new word: ORONYMS. Can't believe I've never heard it before, but I haven't. Thank you, Bruce.
When someone says SAY WHEN to you, have you ever been tempted to say "Never"?
So now we have "virtual pets" (44D). Is anything in our world real anymore? I'll tell you where I'd like to see "virtual pets." On airplanes, that's where. So we won't have to fly with Pretty Peter the "Therapy Peacock", or whatever his/her name is.
DARTH VADER and DAD BODS. Two things I'd never heard of until I did NYT crosswords. DARTH, I gather from a zillion puzzles, is the very epitome of Evil, but I have no idea what he looks like or exactly what it is he does.
ECARDS: To the person I sent one to yesterday -- By the time you eliminate the ones that cost money and/or require registration or membership (sometimes you don't find that out until you've selected something you really like) and by the time you eliminate the ones that make loud, weird, extremely unpleasant, and sometimes downright alarming noises, there's not a lot of choice left. I did the best I could.
An enjoyable Tuesday. The theme is a great big nothing, but it didn't matter in the least.
Pretty darn good puzzle for a Tuesday. Brought to mind an obscure term from science boronym, things that sound 5B-ish. And comments from some of this blog's loons on all sides, on all sides! Moronym.
Nothing wrong with this one. To those complaining about short crosswordese -- um, it's in every single puzzle ever. The only question is whether there is too much of it. In my opinion, today the answer is no.
Nine of the twelve 7's in the corners are multiple words. Some people hate that, but I love it.
My only nose-wrinkle while solving was at USEUP crossing SAVEDUP. Now that others have raised it here, I'm with those who believe the clue for LIMA doesn't work.
Not a Trumpkin but anyone who knows anything about the equity market knows that tax reform, particularly the lowering of the Corporate Tax rate, contributed to the rally in stocks. Some people are blinded by hate. Why they speak of something which they obviously know nothing is curious.
This may seem like nitpicking, but 34A is a misleading clue if you know something about the geography of Peru. Lima is a coastal city--it is specifically the NON-Andean capital of Peru. The city that is regarded as the Andean (and former Inca) capital is Cuzco.
I'm not sure if this is an ORONYM or not but if you want to really laugh and I mean it, go to Google and type in Mariah Carey song on Bulgarian Idol. "Ken Lee." I lost my notes on how to embed a YouTube - damn. Anyway, it's incredibly funny. For dreaded Tuesday, I enjoyed this puzzle. Mr. Haight always knows how to play with his puzzles. I know many don't like the ILL BITE NO CAN DO I HOPE SO types, but I find them amusing. ECARD. @Nancy...you're ADORBS. @jberg, @JC66 you two are also ADORBS. thought of you last night, @JC66 sipping a glass of Talisker.... Cheers! Still alive and still celebrating. What more can one ask for?
Stymied and almost DNF because I did not know DODGE VIPER and needed to find ORNATE to get it. Should have thought more about the revealer. Which is hilarious! Saw Haight and figured OFL would pan it. He didn't really, but the one huge flaw I think was USEUP crossing SAVEDUP.
LIMA is certainly the capital of an Andean country though it is as I recall near the coast. "Una noche obscura en Lima" was the first book I was assigned to read in Spanish class, When I found myself reading it for pleasure, I realized I was good at modern languages (though terrible in Latin).
After DEATH VALLEY and DODGE VIPER, I was hoping for a D-V-related "ways to die" theme. So, DEEP VOICE was a disappointment on that score (also on the "green paint" score), but DARTH VADER revived my good spirits: I especially like his chokehold-from-afar method - DEVIOUS!
@puzzlehoarder, thanks for pointing out I'LL BITE + ADOPT ME! We also have the CAVE of CAVE canem.
Hey All ! ADORBS! Again... Makes me SORTA BLEARy eyed. It'll be nice when that's USEdUP. My DADBOD is fat SAVED UP!
Puz was Tuesday good. Wasn't IN HD good, but IMHERE and liked the solve. A SORTA segmented grid, but enjoyed the open corners.
Never write in either ADO or DIN when I see that "commotion" clue. I wait on crosses. Like the Mauna ___ clue. Write in the __A, wait on crosses. You're not gonna trap me! :-)
"Properties seem pretty AXIOMatic to me, but feel free to share the proof of the transitive property and prove me (and Shortz) wrong."
a>b is defined as a=b+n for some positive n. So a=b+n, b=c+m, substitute to get a=c+m+n, m+n is positive so a>c. Extremely elementary proof. Probably one of the first that kids learning number theory do.
Lima and axiom are clued wrong, and I did not finish because I had "bray" for "brag" and just figured "well, if it's in square brackets then who the hell knows if it's a real word so I guess yag could be something somebody says"
As I did this I was thinking “Rex is gonna hate this one.” Usually Tuesdays are themeless and the themed ones rile him up enough without throwing one at him when he doesn’t expect it. Not to mention the imbalance of the fill, where some was almost beyond the banality of a typical Monday and some was creeping towards much later in the week.
I have to applaud Rex’s efforts at finding the positives, because this is the type of puzzle he generally rips to shreds. It made me smile, both with pleasure and (confession) a little amusement.
For me? It was a’ight. Do the kids still say that? “A’ight?” I’ll stick with my old lady -ish. “Meh.”
The previous Bruce Haight puzzle suffered from a meh fill and theme, this one makes improvements in both departments. A good Tuesday affair.
7-letter corner stacks are risky. If they're blah, then your whole puzzle is wasted because the rest is filled with short answers. Those corners are neatly done in this puzzle. DADBODS, NOCANDO, ILLBITE, VOTERID are fresh entries in Crossworld and relevant in current language. That's very good. Potentially the most problematic answer, namely ORONYMS, was crossed fairly. Also, ADORBS! OTOE OTT ANS are the most offensive answers, but the rest of the Croswordistan residents in this puzzle are OK. The SAVEDUP/USEUP crossing is not optimal though, I have to say.
The theme also worked for me. DEVIOUS pun was a bit pushing it, but then again at least it tried. It wasn't like "Here are some DV answers, enjoy!" I appreciate the thought.
Let me get this straight. All of you Trump haters don't care what horrible things happen as long as you get to feel good about blaming Trump whether he is responsible or not? I just want to make sure I understand your priorities.
I enjoyed it—graceful puzzle. I liked that all the disparate theme answers had the same dark “flavor,” except for DEMOVERSION. That and the REDDISH clue were my only disappointments.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?. These are the kinds of things my Dad found very clever and left me scratching my head as a kid (along with the "black and white and read all over" newspaper.) Apparently I was easily confused and he was easily amused. Speaking of which, there's a great scene in the movie, "The Good Lie" where a trio of guys freshly transplanted to the US from Sudan discover the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke. It had me laughing out loud at that old chestnut.
Oral, orate, ORaNYM, 'nuff said.
Thanks, Bruce Haight, (and @LMS) for a fun Tuesday.
@Two Ponies, I hate Trump. so long as I got my vodka, benzos, and weed, and my disability checks arrive on time each month, I could give two shits what else happens.
I'd say @Loren is getting closer to lunch with Bruce, girlfriends. Perhaps we could all "Dine Vicariously".
This was a fast solve and my last entry was to change DENOVa to DENOVO, completing the puzzle stumper, ORONYMS. I appreciate learning a new word on Monday or Tuesday. I liked the theme and the DEVIOUS revealer. There was a good mix of answers in the vernacular. I personally Haight ADORBS and am patiently waiting for it to follow fab into oblivion.
Good fun Tuesday puz. Thanks, Mr. Haight. @John Deuel, yes, it shoulda been "ice cream." It was a rare genuine mistake in a clue. I'm surprised it got past Mr. Shortz, but what's the saying? Even the great Homer nods (or something like that)?
@Kimberly 12:12 Tuesdays in the NYT puzzles are Always themed. More precisely, Monday-Thursdau in NYT puzzles are Always themed. Friday-Saturday in NYT are themeless. Sunday in NYT is themed and oversized.
@Two Ponies 12:16 It's not good when the economy falters for anyone. But all the Trump lovers who were bragging their asses off when the Stick Market kept rising, were 1) delusional, and 2) hot air blowing morons who think they know everything. So hating Trump for flailing is awesome as payback for those ignoramuses. Tanking economy sucks. But those blind Republicans are blaming Democrats, you know, because nothing is ever their fault.
@ Yargh 1:59pm Oh you mean like how the Dems were still blaming stuff on Bush six years into Obama’s presidency (coz, you know, Obama never did anything wrong). Furthermore, short term stock market gyrations do not a faltering economy make. Let’s see: wage growth, low unemployment, subdued inflation...yeah, things really suck!
I'm always happy to learn a new word - and I was pretty sure it was DENOVO though I wrote DENOVa and thought, no that looks wrong almost right away. I liked this puzzle a lot and was particularly grateful not to have too many sports teams or music clues. Got briefly hung up by ADO at the top, but the downs cleared that up and then I got a second chance to put it in Woohoo!
@two ponies. I hope Trump's opponents aren't rejoicing in bad news or awful events. But can I point out that Mr. Trump routinely takes credit for anything good that happens, regardless of his role in making it happen so it’s a tad hypocritical to protest when people blame him if things go south. Personally, I'm a fan of fact. I'd be lots happier if that were the case with this administration as well as those opponents who have only a slight acquaintance with the truth.
The other day I took the dog for her early morning walk in subzero weather. I got basck in bed afterward, and as soon as my wife felt my hands she emitted an ICE SCREAM --so I thought that particular ORONYM was correct.
@Aketi, FWIW I think Bolivia has two capitals -- still one fewer than South Africa.
This puzzle was a classic case of saved by the revealer -- as several have noted, the theme seemed kind of dull, but the revealer elevated it. Aside from that, I have no more to say.
Except that my step-daughter says ADORBS all the time -- or at least, she texts it all the time.
The market appears to be up 360 points just now ( 3:23). When Obama was President I was very happy that the market went up. With Trump I am very happy that the market is up. I sense among some people, however, a highly inappropriate "schadenfreude" over the crash of the past two days. My pension, like those of millions of middle class retirees, is heavily invested. The "Trump Rally" increased my pension funds by about 20 %. The "Obama rally" was even better, but that was over 8 years, not just one.
This was a nice puzzle, but I was very nervous at the denovo - Oronyms cross. Could it be de nova and oranyms. (from "oral") ? I got it right, avoiding the annoyance of DNF on two consecutive Tuesdays - the last one which I will Elwes remember.
@ Yargh 1:59pm Oh, you mean like how the Dems were still blaming Bush for stuff six years into the Obama presidency (coz, you know, Obama never did anything wrong). Furthermore, short term market gyrations do not a “faltering economy” make. Let’s see; wages are rising; unemployment is low; inflation is subdued. Things really suck.
@Thomaso808 -- the song "Danny Boy" uses the melody of is called "Londonderry Air".
My brain just wasn't happening with this puzzle. For some reason I just could not see GAG, kept wanting GAH! so then I had DODH...and couldn't figure out how to fix it. Then when I filled in the letters of DEMO VERSION I could not for the life of me see those two words, but then I "realized" that backwards the answer reads NO IS REMOVED (except that it doesn't in fact read that) so I thought there was some weird reversal thing going on. Things eventually snapped into place, but uyy.
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 1/2/2018 post for an explanation of my method. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio & percentage, the higher my solve time was relative to my norm for that day of the week.
@ 'Mericans in Paris, I'm going over my limit but if you are still reading I had to thank you about the tidbit re: earthworms. I followed up on it and I still am astounded. That is amazing. I had no idea.
What's worse than talking politics? Talking economics! Not that I'll let that stop me. You've been warned.
There is no stock market "Trump Rally" as a result of the tax cut (unless you think a rally that started in October 2011 was based on a cut that didn't go into effect for 6+ years). The positive effect of the ACA on the economy is reflected in this rally, but can hardly be cited as the cause any more than saying romantic music causes pregnancy. Sure, it can be a factor but it is a lot more complicated than that (and good public policy does not guarantee improved stock markets). At best one can argue that the ACA has had a positive impact on the economy and this economic health has been reflected to a degree in the stock markets. Markets (stock, tulips, bitcoin) are noted for their unpredictably in the short term and susceptibility to crashes. Governments in general and Presidents in particular have minimal impact on any market in the short run, although good policy can promote (not guarantee) relative stability in the long run. What we do know from experience (do the years 1929 and 2008 ring a bell) is that laissez-faire policies promote a gambling mentality in the market and can lead to major crashes and loss of wealth (although only a fool would try to predict when a crash will happen). Generally speaking, stock market value is independent of the over-all economy, but crashes can have significant consequences that require major government intervention to recover from in a shorter time frame.
TL;DR? I am guilty of schadenfreude, but not at the market loss but at the trumpkins who tried to take credit for something Trump had nothing to do with and so now must reasonably assume blame for something Trump had nothing to do with. Of course, I see Hannity is blaming Obama. Stupid people are sure to believe him.
@Alex Wright - Uh... It looks like you took an axiom and tried to make it look like a proof. Specifically, how does A+N>B+M>C differ from A>B>C> other than not starting from A=B=C? I am not swayed from "properties are axiomatic."
a=b+n for some positive n is the DEFINITION of a>b. From this definition, we can PROVE that the > relation is transitive. Thus transitivity is not an axiom, but a provable result.
Oh wait, I see what happened. You weren't paying attention. The form of the transitive property is "if a > b and b > C, then a > C." You can prove a statement like this by assuming the premise, and then deriving the conclusion. I didn't assume a>c, I assumed a>b and b>c.
@all y'all - Derry Air _is_ Londonderry Air because Derry _is_ Londonderry. The Irish town of Daire = Derry was dubbed Londonderry by the British King James. Ever since, the British-type Irish folk call the place Londonderry and the Irish-type Irish folk would be hard pressed to say the word out of a desire not to lose their lunch from loathing of the oppressor, so they call the tune Derry Air. The words "Danny Boy" were written by an English writer, so you can guess which set of Irish folk sing them.
Proper Irish sing the Derry Air: "Acushla mine, the singing birds are calling The call of love that's meant for lovers true. 'Tis autumn time, and where the leaves are falling Alone I wait, to beg a word with you. 'Tis of my love, my love I would be pleading, Around my heart, your fingers you entwine, The birds above, they know how much I'm needing One little word to bid me hope, Acushla mine."
@Z :LOL you really are clueless. If only you’d predicted the rally on election night like me. Oh, wait, I said the market is plunging and may never recover. Never mind, we are living in the same fantasy world.
Joe Jackson wrote a song about selling his soul to the devil for a beautiful song, “I’ll be down in the ground with Shakespeare and Bach and the man who wrote “Danny Boy.”
Anons 5:47 and 6:23. I just went to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's absolutely gorgeous rendition of Londonderry Air. It has lyrics that are neither "Danny Boy" nor the Acushla one you cite, so there's at least one more version. For all I know, there may be half a dozen more. And they all sound wonderful. While, as a lyricist, it pains me to say this, the melody is so glorious that the words almost don't matter. I'm with Joe Jackson: that's the kind of melody you'd indeed "sell your soul" for.
It's been called the most perfect melody ever written. If there's a more perfect one, I've yet to hear it. A number of years ago, PBS had a documentary of ordinary people -- mostly rank amateurs -- singing Danny Boy. Some of the renditions were pretty awful, some were quite lovely, but it was a charming and irresistible conceit -- and watching it made me happy. Like Loren's video from a few weeks ago. Infectious.
@Nancy— it is the “perfect refrain “ I’d furthermore agree with Herr Jackson about Shakespeare and Bach (and Mozart maybe a few others) but I’d like to 5hink they’re God’s gift not Satan’s.
I can say without reservation as a reaction to your post (with apologies to actual practicing religious persons):"Amen sister. You wrote the truth".
As far the recent tumble of the stock market, Sean Hannity, one of a number of FOX personalities that never finds fault in anything Trump ever does or says, opined that this downturn is Obama's fault for allowing low credit rates. I knew Trump or some Trump supporter would find a way to blame Obama for any negative news. I get it when they want to claim credit for everything good that happens. They're politicians. But, stand up and be counted when the worm turns.
Your comment is in the shallow end. Z's analysis may prove incorrect but, at least it is not personal potshots at someone for their opinion. Try refuting instead of insulting. You might even feel better tomorrow. Or not;
I puke on Trump supporters, moderates, and the “on the other hands.” Fuck fuck fuck all of you enablers who sit back and watch our Republic go to hell. And “well the Clintons . . .” I hope you die s painful death you fucking moderate and shitholes.
Easy peasy (like easier than yesterday) until, as Rex surmised, I ran into ORONYMS x DE NOVO. That corner killed me! I was got so shook by that cross that my brain never even found its way to IN HD. Verrry rare Tuesday DNF. Sad!
Found this, since I knew the original's name, and just wanted to find confirmation:
""Danny Boy": The History and Lyrics. “Danny Boy” is a popular ballad that was written in 1910. Many people associate the song with Ireland, even though lyricist Frederic Weatherly was a British lawyer. The connection came when his Irish-born sister-in-law sent him a copy of the tune “Londonderry Air” in 1913. https://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/the-history-of-danny-boy.html
Nancy. Why don’t you quietly retire with your vibrator and your dried up, not had sex in decades vagina and calmly put yourself to sleep? We would all be better off Then hearing your incessant virago bitching and whining.
“Well maybe the Trump supporters have some good points”. I shit on all of you. When the Democrats win I hope we fucking lineup all of you against the wall and fucking kill you. You goddamn fucking sicken me.
@Alex Wright - No. I gotcha even if I was a bit inarticulate in posing my objection. If, however you accept the transitive property of inequality as your premise you can than prove the transitive property of equality. To me, this makes them equally AXIOMatic. There may very well be a good reason to accept the properties of equality as one’s premises, but it seems to me that a difference that makes no difference is no difference.*
*Yeah - that’s right - I quoted Spock. I told you I like trashy space opera.
Today's puzzle, like yesterday's, was perfect for a Tuesday or Monday romp. Has a revealer and a theme, mostly clean - typical B Haight. Wouldn't give one Diverticulitis, or any other DV affliction.
@Rainy from yesterday - hope you weren't referring to any Synders? I just glanced at some of the late Futureland comments, and they seem to be getting nasty and personal again. Why oh why? And they seem to pick on some of the most interesting folks, IMHO.
Some of whom I can't wait to see again at ACPT, as long as another 'Noreaster doesn't come along. Hope all of you and yours are safe and INSIDE.
After getting the "trick" and looking at 53 across where I had DE__V_, I was really hoping for another themer: DEjaVu! That would've been DOPE. I wonder if the corner could've been reworked...well-known album AJA for 50 down, etc. Oh well.
VOTERID is not lovely, but it does begin with V and end with D; SORTA theme-ish. 3 down makes me think of Hall & OATes' song "I Can't Go With That." I try not to think of it, but it makes me.
Is the clue for AXIOM really an axiom? To me it seems more like logic, which I tried first, unsuccessfully. And, can my ECARD have EPICS attached? DOOK!
Why is there a ? in the clue for 18 across? And why does the clue for DOSE contain an abbr. (RX), which normally points to an abbr. answer? Inquiring minds want to know.
All of these things are really nits; I can point to no horrors here. Well, INHD comes close to *GAG.* The talky entries are ADORBS: ILLBITE, SAYWHEN, IHOPESO and the H&O thing. EVIE McKinney for DOD. Medium, and somewhat enjoyable. I must get another updated Scrabble dictionary: ORONYM is not in mine. Ah, the language moves so fast...last thing I filled in was NRA; a downer ending. Par.
DARTH VADER made me rule out "homonyms" as an answer, and I guess the key is that homonyms refer to individual words while ORONYMS refer to groups of words, maybe.
Like yesterday, this was easy with a tight theme and 'cute' revealer, and little dreck. I liked it.
@Lady Di - of course I wasn't referring to we sydies/synders. I wasn't even referring to the various vitriolic comments of a political or scathing nature. What I was objecting to was the conversations between or among various real-timers that have nothing to do with the puzzle or with other commenters not part of their conversation. I won't expand on this - I usually just scroll by such convos. Annoying but no biggie.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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137 comments:
Nice one, @Rex, but you can't PREVent, PREVin-loving PREVaricators from sending Mr. Shortz our PREVious puzzles. This is only a PREView.
The sound is off, but such mistakes are PREValent these days.
By the way,imagine the fun revealer possibilities if today's puzzle theme were reversed.
Never heard or read of ORONYMS, but easy puzzle never the less.
On the easy side. I noticed the theme of Ds and Vs long before I figured out the revealer. That made the revealer kind of a little mini Aha, which was fun.
@Rex: yeah, but it isn’t DE NOVa. It’s DE NOVO. A person might think the common Latin phrase is “quid pro qua,” too, but that person would be wrong. I once had a linguistics prof who kept using the phrase “sort of a priori,” which I loved. People do say and write these things, so they’re fair.
Glad Bruce didn't put in Betsy DeVos. We don't need paroxysms of TDS.
A nice Tuesday. Even with the theme I needed crosses to get the first and last theme entries. The geographical one should have been obvious.
We have ILLBITE over ADOPTME. Kind of a mixed message there. That lower right corner had a non theme D/V entry crossing the revealer. DENOVO's opposite is just plain old ORNATE. Maybe that's why it crosses INERROR and NOCANDO.
Read the constructor's notes today. Apparently he follows this blog. Congratulations to @lms on her upcoming puzzle with him at 42D
I for one thought the puzzle was adorbs. I love me some dadbods. Overall I just liked the fill more than usual. Felt less old. Coming from a 52 yo that is saying something.
FWIW, solved this last Saturday at the Westport Library tournament. The entire green room discussion was about ORONYMS (and that every solver started with ADO at 1A). It was interesting to hear Will Shortz admit that it was a new word to him.
LIMA may be the capital of Peru but is not in the Andes. LIMA is 557 feet above sea level. Peru has jungles too. Would it be correct to clue it as “jungle capital”? La Paz is in the Andes at 11,942 feet above sea level but Sucre is tha capital of Bolivia.
This just seemed shallow and lazy. All of those casual conversational answers along with slang terms (I guess I'll just have to get used to adorbs)make for a very boring puzzle.
Save up crossing use up? As I said, lazy.
As everyone has said and will say, oronyms is the only redeeming word.
It seems our LMS's fame has spread far beyond this blog.
No wonder she keeps getting picked on.
Way to go Loren!
Don't we usually see ab ova not de novo?
If Mt. Etna is the logo why is it spelled Aetna?
How long will it take for someone to object to the sexist clue for dad bods?
Remember the canned tuna commercial that said Sorry Charlie?
I could never understand why Charlie the Tuna was suicidal.
There is a South Park episode that revolves around an oronym.
Jimmy: Do you like fishsticks?
Cartman: Yeah.
Jimmy: Do you like putting fishsticks in your mouth?
Cartman: Yeah.
Jimmy: What are you, a gay fish?
I think 15A is not an axiom but a theorem. I mean, you could make it an axiom in some system, but then you could make any statement an axiom. In our algebra, it’s a theorem. Anyhoo, I went with LOGIC there and I refuse to change it, so RLD, AOE, BGAS, BITH and ICHERE are henceforth words.
Other than that, didn’t like the puzzle. Too many phrases: IN ERROR, NO CAN DO, ADOPT ME, ILL BITE, SAY WHEN, IM HERE, USE UP, I HOPE SO, SAVED UP. Then add in ADORBS, DAD BODS, SORTA and two dang car trivia clues and you’ve lost me.
Pretty nice puzzle for a Tuesday, though perhaps a bit too colloquial. Everything but the unfortunate DENOVO/ORONYM cross felt like a Monday.
I'm not a CLEMSON fan but even I know DEATH VALLEY is the nickname of their football stadium and a menacing one at that.
My one complaint is REDDISH, I'm calling it a clunker.
Are poll workers requesting VOTERIDs now or is it still just Republican congressmen?
Fun easy puzzle....Knew oronym was going yo be WOD...and @LMS would know that word!!!
Y = VI (DEV)(IOUS).
IOUs twice in matter of days (though more of an Easter egg today) are no coincidence. It suggests that we borrow Sunday's themer (Y = VI) and combine it with today's revealer (DEVIOUS) to get Y = VI (DEV)(IOUS). We then drop the catalyst and are left with the more elegant Y = VI (DEV).
Then we just walk it through the balancing part. By the commutative property, the E substitutes for Y. So: E = V squared (I)(D). One assumes that "I" is a euphemism for the square root of -1, an imaginary number. Therefore, energy (E) is the product of density (D) times an imaginary velocity (V) squared: E = D(IV squared).
Not surprisingly, this rings more of Maleska than Shortz. But it does explain how the the 2017 Oscars are in 2018.
@Aketi I had the same thought. Awful clue.
Never ran into ORONYMS, but most of it was easy, the . . .NYMS (homonym, synonym, etc.).
Once I changed dad buns into dad bods the NW fell in place and I finished with relative ease.
This was fine. Played an normal Tuesday for me. Nothing remarkable and nothing horrible. Solid fare. A meat and potatoes dinner.
@Mike in Mountain View .. "By the way,imagine the fun revealer possibilities if today's puzzle theme were reversed." Yes! Exactly where my head went at 5:45 on a Tuesday morning. Revealer clue: "STDs, or an infectious description of ... "
It's true that, in the context of the Real Numbers, the transitive property can be a theorem. But it is more broadly an axiom of the theory of partially ordered sets, so from a modern mathematical perspective AXIOM is probably correct.
I liked AXIOM next to RABBI, and the almost-adjacent DEEP VOICE and DARTH VADER was nice. Also, if "D-V-ous" were a thing, wouldn't it and DEVIOUS be ORONYMS? That was my interpretation, anyway.
"Adorbs"?
Do you know anyone who actually says that?
Yes...and there’s nothing adorbs about it
Can't believe no one picked up on the DEATHVALLEY (18 across) crossing CLEMSON (12 down) - according to Sports Illustrated, entry of the football team into the stadium is among the most exciting moments in college football.
Dearth Vader is fast becoming a crossword cliche. At least three time in last three months. How about Chewbacca or Darth Sidious or something else?
Played easy for A Tuesday.
Now am anxiously waiting to hear from @LMS because she apparently inspired the puzzle or so the constructor says as over xword info.
Rex, good column today. Especially liked the line that "odious" is the evil twin of DEVIOUS.
Not one of Bruce Haight's better efforts. Twenty Terrible Threes (too many). But enough good stuff to compensate. AXIOM (rarely a theorem in my experience), DODGEVIPER, clue for DARTHVADER, ORONYM.
If Rex had trashed this ouzzle, I was going to remark oronymically "Take a nice cold shower."
@Travis - of course! How could I overlook the theory of partially ordered sets. Kicking myself now.
“Ice scream”? Shouldn’t it be ice cream?
Thought the puzzle on the whole was D-lightful. Took me about the same time as yesterday, but had to spend seven minutes checking for an error before I got the happy pencil. Hands up for entering DE NOVa, which was what I finally had to change. Also thought that DE MOVER SION might be an ORONYM.
Lots of other write-overs: proOf > AXIOM, gothic > ORNATE, bADBOyS > DADBODS, etc. Hesitated on REDDISH. Clunker indeed.
@Puzzled Peter (from Monday at 4:47 PM): Thank you for the correction. As you wrote, tomalley is the a digestive gland of a lobster -- SORTA like a liver and a pancreas combined (known to marine biologists as the hepatopancreas in other arthropods). And the roe are called coral.
So, I stand corrected: I was IN ERROR. Serves me right to simply repeat what I was told by my father at the age of five, and not to verify. It took me a long time to come to the realization that my DAD -- bless his soul -- was prone to fractured facts. One he oft repeated was some "fact" attributed to Albert Einstein, along the lines of, "If the honeybee disappeared, we'd all starve." (My DAD was an amateur beekeeper.) Eventually, once I thought about it, I pointed out that: (a) Albert Einstein was a physicist, not a biologist; and (b) huge segments of our agriculture, such as grass for grazers, corn, wheat, and rice, do not depend on pollination by honeybees. One thing I didn't point out, as it would have been regarded as heresy by my DAD, is that the honeybee is an exotic species in the Americas, and that there are lots of bumblebees and solitary bees that are also pollinators, and whose numbers would improve if honeybees disappeared (not that I wish them that fate). Earthworms were also introduced to the Americas by Europeans, fundamentally changing the ecosystem of North America's temperate forests.
Diana Vreeland would have loved this one!
I thought GOLDWYN was an ORONYM.
If I had done this one on paper I would have had a DNF because I put in BRAY for CROW and had YAG which I assumed was onomatopoeia for "Gag me with a Spoon." But I fixed it when I did not get the closing bell. (Which reminds me, looks like Wall Street got the DOSE yesterday. Well, it is a VD theme...
@Two Ponies got it exactly right. Shallow and lazy...I thought that exactly as I worked it. OTT, OAT, RSVPS, AÑO, ESS. I thought, hmm...didn’t put too much effort into polishing to get a cleaner grid. That’s how you get ORONYMS.
Norton Security is the another name of the most recent and upgraded security programming suite ready to take a shot at countless like Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Android, iOS and numerous others.
http://www.nortonsetup-norton.com
I always love Bruce’s themes ‘cause so many times they manipulate letters. Yeah – I was praising another of his puzzles with some letter shenanigans and was running my mouth here, offering other possible themes. Well. Darned if he didn’t email me and, well, the rest they say and all that. (Reason number 4 to include your email in your profile: some fancy schmancy constructor may email you. Hi, @Andrea!)
Speaking of ACME, this one reminds me of that Sunday puzzle by ACME and Da Feyer- the title was “Puzzle Envy,” but “Envious” works this way, too. They had entries like NIGHT VISION and NIA VARDALOS.
This is where my mother-in-law adopter Tucker. I’ve shared this here before, but it always cheers me up. Wake County Animal Shelter
ADORBS. Haven’t heard that one out in the wild yet. What’s next?
The Honorbs Judge Vic Fleming
Oh my God – she’s so insufferbs.
ORONYMS are such a hoot...
nude eel (makes you wanna revisit new direction…)
stuff he nose,
dairy air.
Those are all findable on the internet. I think I may have invented one – see my avatar. If someone did beat me to it, I’m still claiming it.
Bruce – I’m impressed with how this idea played out. Well done! (I guess you did have DOUBLE VISION on your list at first…probably couldn’t find a symmetrical partner?)
I thought this was one of Haight’s better efforts. More letter play than word play, but I thought the rest of the puzzle redeemed the simple theme. I’d go with more Mondayish, but that’s not Haight’s fault.
@Aketi - You’ve got me pondering the difference between “in the Andes” and “Andean.” Peru is definitely an Andean country and Lima is it’s capital, so the clue is okay, I think, since Lima is the capital of a region of the Andes. Not that I considered this as I solved since I just translated the clue to “four letter South American city.”
@kitshef - AXIOMs are used to prove theorems, theorems can be proved from AXIOMs. Properties seem pretty AXIOMatic to me, but feel free to share the proof of the transitive property and prove me (and Shortz) wrong.
I wonder if we’ll get a stock market update today. Not that I think any Trump policy has had any time to actually impact the market for good or ill, yet, I just wonder if trumpkins are capable of any level of intellectual consistency.
@Loren
Stop giving away all those great ideas! DOUBLE VISION would have had some nice clue possibilities....
It's only Tuesday, and I just learned a great new word: ORONYMS. Can't believe I've never heard it before, but I haven't. Thank you, Bruce.
When someone says SAY WHEN to you, have you ever been tempted to say "Never"?
So now we have "virtual pets" (44D). Is anything in our world real anymore? I'll tell you where I'd like to see "virtual pets." On airplanes, that's where. So we won't have to fly with Pretty Peter the "Therapy Peacock", or whatever his/her name is.
DARTH VADER and DAD BODS. Two things I'd never heard of until I did NYT crosswords. DARTH, I gather from a zillion puzzles, is the very epitome of Evil, but I have no idea what he looks like or exactly what it is he does.
ECARDS: To the person I sent one to yesterday -- By the time you eliminate the ones that cost money and/or require registration or membership (sometimes you don't find that out until you've selected something you really like) and by the time you eliminate the ones that make loud, weird, extremely unpleasant, and sometimes downright alarming noises, there's not a lot of choice left. I did the best I could.
An enjoyable Tuesday. The theme is a great big nothing, but it didn't matter in the least.
And here's one that stretches across all 15 squares: DEMOCRATIC VOTER. (Clue: "House flipper in 2018?")
Pretty darn good puzzle for a Tuesday. Brought to mind an obscure term from science boronym, things that sound 5B-ish. And comments from some of this blog's loons on all sides, on all sides! Moronym.
Nothing wrong with this one. To those complaining about short crosswordese -- um, it's in every single puzzle ever. The only question is whether there is too much of it. In my opinion, today the answer is no.
Nine of the twelve 7's in the corners are multiple words. Some people hate that, but I love it.
My only nose-wrinkle while solving was at USEUP crossing SAVEDUP. Now that others have raised it here, I'm with those who believe the clue for LIMA doesn't work.
Thanks, Bruce -- well done.
Not a Trumpkin but anyone who knows anything about the equity market knows that tax reform, particularly the lowering of the Corporate Tax rate, contributed to the rally in stocks. Some people are blinded by hate. Why they speak of something which they obviously know nothing is curious.
esteemed economist Paul Krugman said the markets would crash if Trump became President, so I dumped all my stocks 15 months ago.
This may seem like nitpicking, but 34A is a misleading clue if you know something about the geography of Peru. Lima is a coastal city--it is specifically the NON-Andean capital of Peru. The city that is regarded as the Andean (and former Inca) capital is Cuzco.
Maybe "oronyms" is not Tuesday-ish, but as an old and dear friend used to say, it's a poor day when you can't learn something.
@LMS's examples make me think of French-speaking (and wonderful guitarist) Pierre Bensusan singing "The Town I Loved So Well"--
"Zere was music zere, in the Derry air ...."
A musical derriere always makes me smile, even at my age.
I'm not sure if this is an ORONYM or not but if you want to really laugh and I mean it, go to Google and type in Mariah Carey song on Bulgarian Idol. "Ken Lee." I lost my notes on how to embed a YouTube - damn. Anyway, it's incredibly funny.
For dreaded Tuesday, I enjoyed this puzzle. Mr. Haight always knows how to play with his puzzles. I know many don't like the ILL BITE NO CAN DO I HOPE SO types, but I find them amusing.
ECARD. @Nancy...you're ADORBS. @jberg, @JC66 you two are also ADORBS. thought of you last night, @JC66 sipping a glass of Talisker....
Cheers! Still alive and still celebrating. What more can one ask for?
46D: What's an "ice scream" ? Shouldn't that have been "ice cream"?
@LMS, did you mean "Stuff he knows?" I didn't quite get that one. Love "Dairy Air." A song about Methane? haha.
I'd like to know if "Haight" is an oronym of "hate." Or is it "height"?
> Odious
Or their more sinister cousin: "Emptiness"
Stymied and almost DNF because I did not know DODGE VIPER and needed to find ORNATE to get it. Should have thought more about the revealer. Which is hilarious! Saw Haight and figured OFL would pan it. He didn't really, but the one huge flaw I think was USEUP crossing SAVEDUP.
LIMA is certainly the capital of an Andean country though it is as I recall near the coast. "Una noche obscura en Lima" was the first book I was assigned to read in Spanish class, When I found myself reading it for pleasure, I realized I was good at modern languages (though terrible in Latin).
After DEATH VALLEY and DODGE VIPER, I was hoping for a D-V-related "ways to die" theme. So, DEEP VOICE was a disappointment on that score (also on the "green paint" score), but DARTH VADER revived my good spirits: I especially like his chokehold-from-afar method - DEVIOUS!
@puzzlehoarder, thanks for pointing out I'LL BITE + ADOPT ME! We also have the CAVE of CAVE canem.
"Haight is Love"
Stock markets worldwide are still in the toilet. Trump is doomed.
Hey All !
ADORBS! Again... Makes me SORTA BLEARy eyed. It'll be nice when that's USEdUP.
My DADBOD is fat SAVED UP!
Puz was Tuesday good. Wasn't IN HD good, but IMHERE and liked the solve. A SORTA segmented grid, but enjoyed the open corners.
Never write in either ADO or DIN when I see that "commotion" clue. I wait on crosses. Like the Mauna ___ clue. Write in the __A, wait on crosses. You're not gonna trap me! :-)
DOPE BRAG
RooMonster
DarrinV
It's especially clumsy because if it had just been an = rather than the greater than sign, the clue would've been correct.
"Properties seem pretty AXIOMatic to me, but feel free to share the proof of the transitive property and prove me (and Shortz) wrong."
a>b is defined as a=b+n for some positive n. So a=b+n, b=c+m, substitute to get a=c+m+n, m+n is positive so a>c. Extremely elementary proof. Probably one of the first that kids learning number theory do.
Enjoy your tax cut while your 401K dissipates into thin air.
Every day I thank God for the Laffer Curve.
Lima and axiom are clued wrong, and I did not finish because I had "bray" for "brag" and just figured "well, if it's in square brackets then who the hell knows if it's a real word so I guess yag could be something somebody says"
Oh and getting both "loud commotion" and "commotion" in the same puzzle is a real pain in the ass.
Started out Easy & wound up Medium b/c of "oronyms" - I know we'll see it again. All in all, a fun puzzle. Thanks Bruce.
I hope Trump IS doomed.
Can we include "trumpkids" with trumpkins?
My five favorite clues from last week (a day late, my apologies):
1. Kept on the down low (8)
2. Extremely fancy? (5)
3. Digital communication, for short? (3)
4. Toilet paper? (8)
5. Things held in a cannonball (5)
SIMMERED
COVET
ASL
HALL PASS
KNEES
I'm not panicking. Pelosi and Katy Tur are going to flip the congress.
Clue for ORONYMS confused the M&A. As someone else already pointed out, I think the clue had a typo in it. My puzzle said …
DOWN
46 Words and phrases that sound approximately alike, like "ice scream" and "I scream"
This inspired m&e to enter ORiNYMS. Becuz in their example, U can use a word, OR a sound-alike "I". QED & Wrong Again M&A Breath & DNF. [snort]
D'n'V. D envy? Clue for D envy: {What the flunking member of the Underachievers Club had??}.
Sooo … would "runt rump" be a cool ORONYMer? Like, cuz it has more U's in it.
Thanx, Mr. Haight.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
As I did this I was thinking “Rex is gonna hate this one.” Usually Tuesdays are themeless and the themed ones rile him up enough without throwing one at him when he doesn’t expect it. Not to mention the imbalance of the fill, where some was almost beyond the banality of a typical Monday and some was creeping towards much later in the week.
I have to applaud Rex’s efforts at finding the positives, because this is the type of puzzle he generally rips to shreds. It made me smile, both with pleasure and (confession) a little amusement.
For me? It was a’ight. Do the kids still say that? “A’ight?” I’ll stick with my old lady -ish. “Meh.”
The previous Bruce Haight puzzle suffered from a meh fill and theme, this one makes improvements in both departments. A good Tuesday affair.
7-letter corner stacks are risky. If they're blah, then your whole puzzle is wasted because the rest is filled with short answers. Those corners are neatly done in this puzzle. DADBODS, NOCANDO, ILLBITE, VOTERID are fresh entries in Crossworld and relevant in current language. That's very good. Potentially the most problematic answer, namely ORONYMS, was crossed fairly. Also, ADORBS! OTOE OTT ANS are the most offensive answers, but the rest of the Croswordistan residents in this puzzle are OK. The SAVEDUP/USEUP crossing is not optimal though, I have to say.
The theme also worked for me. DEVIOUS pun was a bit pushing it, but then again at least it tried. It wasn't like "Here are some DV answers, enjoy!" I appreciate the thought.
Decent effort, fun enough for a Tuesday.
GRADE: B, 3.4 stars.
Let me get this straight.
All of you Trump haters don't care what horrible things
happen as long as you get to feel good about blaming Trump
whether he is responsible or not?
I just want to make sure I understand your priorities.
Stuffy nose
I enjoyed it—graceful puzzle. I liked that all the disparate theme answers had the same dark “flavor,” except for DEMOVERSION. That and the REDDISH clue were my only disappointments.
Love how “DONALDTRUMP” fits into 18a- “Lowest point for Americans?”
A fine puzzle. Lots of current stuff: DADBOD, ADORBS. Very little crosswordese. Good construction, fun solve.
it's not an AXIOM, it's a syllogism. you can find an extended definition on the wiki.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?. These are the kinds of things my Dad found very clever and left me scratching my head as a kid (along with the "black and white and read all over" newspaper.) Apparently I was easily confused and he was easily amused. Speaking of which, there's a great scene in the movie, "The Good Lie" where a trio of guys freshly transplanted to the US from Sudan discover the "Why did the chicken cross the road?" joke. It had me laughing out loud at that old chestnut.
Oral, orate, ORaNYM, 'nuff said.
Thanks, Bruce Haight, (and @LMS) for a fun Tuesday.
@Two Ponies, I hate Trump. so long as I got my vodka, benzos, and weed, and my disability checks arrive on time each month, I could give two shits what else happens.
You are absolutely correct. I can construct a proof for it so it can't be an axiom. An axiom is a self-evident truth that requires no proof.
I'd say @Loren is getting closer to lunch with Bruce, girlfriends. Perhaps we could all "Dine Vicariously".
This was a fast solve and my last entry was to change DENOVa to DENOVO, completing the puzzle stumper, ORONYMS. I appreciate learning a new word on Monday or Tuesday. I liked the theme and the DEVIOUS revealer. There was a good mix of answers in the vernacular. I personally Haight ADORBS and am patiently waiting for it to follow fab into oblivion.
Good fun Tuesday puz. Thanks, Mr. Haight. @John Deuel, yes, it shoulda been "ice cream." It was a rare genuine mistake in a clue. I'm surprised it got past Mr. Shortz, but what's the saying? Even the great Homer nods (or something like that)?
@Kimberly 12:12
Tuesdays in the NYT puzzles are Always themed. More precisely, Monday-Thursdau in NYT puzzles are Always themed. Friday-Saturday in NYT are themeless. Sunday in NYT is themed and oversized.
@Two Ponies 12:16
It's not good when the economy falters for anyone. But all the Trump lovers who were bragging their asses off when the Stick Market kept rising, were 1) delusional, and 2) hot air blowing morons who think they know everything. So hating Trump for flailing is awesome as payback for those ignoramuses.
Tanking economy sucks. But those blind Republicans are blaming Democrats, you know, because nothing is ever their fault.
@pabloinnh @LMS,
The song “Danny Boy” is based on an old Irish tune called “Derry Aire”.
@ Yargh 1:59pm
Oh you mean like how the Dems were still blaming stuff on Bush six years into Obama’s presidency (coz, you know, Obama never did anything wrong). Furthermore, short term stock market gyrations do not a faltering economy make. Let’s see: wage growth, low unemployment, subdued inflation...yeah, things really suck!
I'm always happy to learn a new word - and I was pretty sure it was DENOVO though I wrote DENOVa and thought, no that looks wrong almost right away. I liked this puzzle a lot and was particularly grateful not to have too many sports teams or music clues. Got briefly hung up by ADO at the top, but the downs cleared that up and then I got a second chance to put it in Woohoo!
@two ponies. I hope Trump's opponents aren't rejoicing in bad news or awful events. But can I point out that Mr. Trump routinely takes credit for anything good that happens, regardless of his role in making it happen so it’s a tad hypocritical to protest when people blame him if things go south. Personally, I'm a fan of fact. I'd be lots happier if that were the case with this administration as well as those opponents who have only a slight acquaintance with the truth.
The other day I took the dog for her early morning walk in subzero weather. I got basck in bed afterward, and as soon as my wife felt my hands she emitted an ICE SCREAM --so I thought that particular ORONYM was correct.
@Aketi, FWIW I think Bolivia has two capitals -- still one fewer than South Africa.
This puzzle was a classic case of saved by the revealer -- as several have noted, the theme seemed kind of dull, but the revealer elevated it. Aside from that, I have no more to say.
Except that my step-daughter says ADORBS all the time -- or at least, she texts it all the time.
The market appears to be up 360 points just now ( 3:23). When Obama was President I was very happy that the market went up. With Trump I am very happy that the market is up. I sense among some people, however, a highly inappropriate "schadenfreude" over the crash of the past two days. My pension, like those of millions of middle class retirees, is heavily invested. The "Trump Rally" increased my pension funds by about 20 %. The "Obama rally" was even better, but that was over 8 years, not just one.
This was a nice puzzle, but I was very nervous at the denovo - Oronyms cross. Could it be de nova and oranyms. (from "oral") ? I got it right, avoiding the annoyance of DNF on two consecutive Tuesdays - the last one which I will Elwes remember.
It doesn't matter about the stock market. Jesus will soon return and eternal life will begin.
Paul Ryan abruptly leaves press conference when pressed on the Nunes memo. #snowflake #zombie-eyed granny starver
@ Yargh 1:59pm
Oh, you mean like how the Dems were still blaming Bush for stuff six years into the Obama presidency (coz, you know, Obama never did anything wrong). Furthermore, short term market gyrations do not a “faltering economy” make. Let’s see; wages are rising; unemployment is low; inflation is subdued. Things really suck.
Every day I thank God for the repeal of the estate/death tax.
Art Balini, take your racism and go home.
Bill Williams @ 4pm - how on earth is my comment racist? Do you even know what that word means? Rhetorical question - clearly you do not.
@Thomaso808:
Thanks--I have heard it as "Londonderry Air", but perhaps I was mishearing "London
Derriere".
@Thomaso808 -- the song "Danny Boy" uses the melody of is called "Londonderry Air".
My brain just wasn't happening with this puzzle. For some reason I just could not see GAG, kept wanting GAH! so then I had DODH...and couldn't figure out how to fix it. Then when I filled in the letters of DEMO VERSION I could not for the life of me see those two words, but then I "realized" that backwards the answer reads NO IS REMOVED (except that it doesn't in fact read that) so I thought there was some weird reversal thing going on. Things eventually snapped into place, but uyy.
@Thomaso808 and Pabloinnh -- Actually I see the Wikipedia entry has "Derry Air" as an alternate title, though I've never seen it titled as such.
(sigh) DNF on a Tuesday. Died in the SW.... so sad...
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 1/2/2018 post for an explanation of my method. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio & percentage, the higher my solve time was relative to my norm for that day of the week.
(Day, Solve time, 26-wk Median, Ratio, %, Rating)
Mon 3:32 4:09 0.85 8.5% Easy
Tue 5:03 5:44 0.88 24.6% Easy-Medium
Pretty straight-forward. Malapop at 1A with ADO and Pond for PIER were my only erasures. EVIE was all crosses. DAD BODS? And I learned ORONYM today.
I don't know much about stocks and bonds and all that investment mumbo jumbo, but I do likes me some Colbert. He makes me chuckle.
@Art Balini ... a little unsolicited advice ... ignore the trolls ... when you react to them, they get what they're hoping for.
@ 'Mericans in Paris,
I'm going over my limit but if you are still reading I had to thank you about the tidbit re: earthworms. I followed up on it and I still am astounded. That is amazing. I had no idea.
What's worse than talking politics? Talking economics! Not that I'll let that stop me. You've been warned.
There is no stock market "Trump Rally" as a result of the tax cut (unless you think a rally that started in October 2011 was based on a cut that didn't go into effect for 6+ years). The positive effect of the ACA on the economy is reflected in this rally, but can hardly be cited as the cause any more than saying romantic music causes pregnancy. Sure, it can be a factor but it is a lot more complicated than that (and good public policy does not guarantee improved stock markets). At best one can argue that the ACA has had a positive impact on the economy and this economic health has been reflected to a degree in the stock markets. Markets (stock, tulips, bitcoin) are noted for their unpredictably in the short term and susceptibility to crashes. Governments in general and Presidents in particular have minimal impact on any market in the short run, although good policy can promote (not guarantee) relative stability in the long run. What we do know from experience (do the years 1929 and 2008 ring a bell) is that laissez-faire policies promote a gambling mentality in the market and can lead to major crashes and loss of wealth (although only a fool would try to predict when a crash will happen). Generally speaking, stock market value is independent of the over-all economy, but crashes can have significant consequences that require major government intervention to recover from in a shorter time frame.
TL;DR? I am guilty of schadenfreude, but not at the market loss but at the trumpkins who tried to take credit for something Trump had nothing to do with and so now must reasonably assume blame for something Trump had nothing to do with. Of course, I see Hannity is blaming Obama. Stupid people are sure to believe him.
@Alex Wright - Uh... It looks like you took an axiom and tried to make it look like a proof. Specifically, how does A+N>B+M>C differ from A>B>C> other than not starting from A=B=C? I am not swayed from "properties are axiomatic."
a=b+n for some positive n is the DEFINITION of a>b. From this definition, we can PROVE that the > relation is transitive. Thus transitivity is not an axiom, but a provable result.
Z - you're in over your head. Best to stay in the shallow end.
Oh wait, I see what happened. You weren't paying attention. The form of the transitive property is "if a > b and b > C, then a > C." You can prove a statement like this by assuming the premise, and then deriving the conclusion. I didn't assume a>c, I assumed a>b and b>c.
@all y'all - Derry Air _is_ Londonderry Air because Derry _is_ Londonderry. The Irish town of Daire = Derry was dubbed Londonderry by the British King James. Ever since, the British-type Irish folk call the place Londonderry and the Irish-type Irish folk would be hard pressed to say the word out of a desire not to lose their lunch from loathing of the oppressor, so they call the tune Derry Air. The words "Danny Boy" were written by an English writer, so you can guess which set of Irish folk sing them.
Proper Irish sing the Derry Air:
"Acushla mine, the singing birds are calling
The call of love that's meant for lovers true.
'Tis autumn time, and where the leaves are falling
Alone I wait, to beg a word with you.
'Tis of my love, my love I would be pleading,
Around my heart, your fingers you entwine,
The birds above, they know how much I'm needing
One little word to bid me hope, Acushla mine."
@Z :LOL you really are clueless. If only you’d predicted the rally on election night like me. Oh, wait, I said the market is plunging and may never recover. Never mind, we are living in the same fantasy world.
Joe Jackson wrote a song about selling his soul to the devil for a beautiful song, “I’ll be down in the ground with Shakespeare and Bach and the man who wrote “Danny Boy.”
@Z
What, not happy with a 500 point rise in the Dow?
Do you ever tire of being wrong? Or a douche?
Maxine Waters - DNF.
I got the revealer early on, and I needed it. Getting LIMA was hard, kept thinking QUITO. And BLEAR never heard of. ORONYM knew it had to be a NYM.
@Anonymous 5:33, too bad your dad didn't pull it out in time.
Every day I thank God I'm a woman and not a man.
If there weren't earthworms, then how the hell did Indians fish?
Art Balini, why don't you buy a damn white sheet and hood?
One sec. I gotta go read Huffpo to see what to say next . .
Rex must be stupid if he did not know ORONYM.
Anons 5:47 and 6:23. I just went to listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's absolutely gorgeous rendition of Londonderry Air. It has lyrics that are neither "Danny Boy" nor the Acushla one you cite, so there's at least one more version. For all I know, there may be half a dozen more. And they all sound wonderful. While, as a lyricist, it pains me to say this, the melody is so glorious that the words almost don't matter. I'm with Joe Jackson: that's the kind of melody you'd indeed "sell your soul" for.
It's been called the most perfect melody ever written. If there's a more perfect one, I've yet to hear it. A number of years ago, PBS had a documentary of ordinary people -- mostly rank amateurs -- singing Danny Boy. Some of the renditions were pretty awful, some were quite lovely, but it was a charming and irresistible conceit -- and watching it made me happy. Like Loren's video from a few weeks ago. Infectious.
@Nancy— it is the “perfect refrain “ I’d furthermore agree with Herr Jackson about Shakespeare and Bach (and Mozart maybe a few others) but I’d like to 5hink they’re God’s gift not Satan’s.
I can say without reservation as a reaction to your post (with apologies to actual practicing religious persons):"Amen sister. You wrote the truth".
As far the recent tumble of the stock market, Sean Hannity, one of a number of FOX personalities that never finds fault in anything Trump ever does or says, opined that this downturn is Obama's fault for allowing low credit rates. I knew Trump or some Trump supporter would find a way to blame Obama for any negative news. I get it when they want to claim credit for everything good that happens. They're politicians. But, stand up and be counted when the worm turns.
Than God for that.
Your comment is in the shallow end. Z's analysis may prove incorrect but, at least it is not personal potshots at someone for their opinion. Try refuting instead of insulting. You might even feel better tomorrow. Or not;
I puke on Trump supporters, moderates, and the “on the other hands.” Fuck fuck fuck all of you enablers who sit back and watch our Republic go to hell. And “well the Clintons . . .” I hope you die s painful death you fucking moderate and shitholes.
Easy peasy (like easier than yesterday) until, as Rex surmised, I ran into ORONYMS x DE NOVO. That corner killed me! I was got so shook by that cross that my brain never even found its way to IN HD. Verrry rare Tuesday DNF. Sad!
@pabloinnh 10:42:
And then, there's this...
"I'm in the mood for love,
Simply because you're near me.
Funny, but when..."
Funny butt?
@Thomaso808, 2:35:
Found this, since I knew the original's name, and just wanted to find confirmation:
""Danny Boy": The History and Lyrics. “Danny Boy” is a popular ballad that was written in 1910. Many people associate the song with Ireland, even though lyricist Frederic Weatherly was a British lawyer. The connection came when his Irish-born sister-in-law sent him a copy of the tune “Londonderry Air” in 1913.
https://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/the-history-of-danny-boy.html
So the actual oronym is: London derriere
Nancy. Why don’t you quietly retire with your vibrator and your dried up, not had sex in decades vagina and calmly put yourself to sleep? We would all be better off Then hearing your incessant virago bitching and whining.
“Well maybe the Trump supporters have some good points”. I shit on all of you. When the Democrats win I hope we fucking lineup all of you against the wall and fucking kill you. You goddamn fucking sicken me.
@Alex Wright - No. I gotcha even if I was a bit inarticulate in posing my objection. If, however you accept the transitive property of inequality as your premise you can than prove the transitive property of equality. To me, this makes them equally AXIOMatic. There may very well be a good reason to accept the properties of equality as one’s premises, but it seems to me that a difference that makes no difference is no difference.*
*Yeah - that’s right - I quoted Spock. I told you I like trashy space opera.
BOTH INERROR
EVIE SORTA SAVEDUP this GAG:
“PAL, I’MHERE to be DEVIOUS again.”
DARTHVADER in his DEEPVOICE did BRAG,
“IHOPESO. I’LLBITE. SAYWHEN.”
--- RABBI CLEMSON “EPI” PENN
Today's puzzle, like yesterday's, was perfect for a Tuesday or Monday romp. Has a revealer and a theme, mostly clean - typical B Haight. Wouldn't give one Diverticulitis, or any other DV affliction.
@Rainy from yesterday - hope you weren't referring to any Synders? I just glanced at some of the late Futureland comments, and they seem to be getting nasty and personal again. Why oh why? And they seem to pick on some of the most interesting folks, IMHO.
Some of whom I can't wait to see again at ACPT, as long as another 'Noreaster doesn't come along. Hope all of you and yours are safe and INSIDE.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
After getting the "trick" and looking at 53 across where I had DE__V_, I was really hoping for another themer: DEjaVu! That would've been DOPE. I wonder if the corner could've been reworked...well-known album AJA for 50 down, etc. Oh well.
VOTERID is not lovely, but it does begin with V and end with D; SORTA theme-ish. 3 down makes me think of Hall & OATes' song "I Can't Go With That." I try not to think of it, but it makes me.
Is the clue for AXIOM really an axiom? To me it seems more like logic, which I tried first, unsuccessfully. And, can my ECARD have EPICS attached? DOOK!
Why is there a ? in the clue for 18 across? And why does the clue for DOSE contain an abbr. (RX), which normally points to an abbr. answer? Inquiring minds want to know.
All of these things are really nits; I can point to no horrors here. Well, INHD comes close to *GAG.* The talky entries are ADORBS: ILLBITE, SAYWHEN, IHOPESO and the H&O thing. EVIE McKinney for DOD. Medium, and somewhat enjoyable. I must get another updated Scrabble dictionary: ORONYM is not in mine. Ah, the language moves so fast...last thing I filled in was NRA; a downer ending. Par.
Another swift solve. At a leisurely pace with morning donut and tea. About 9 minutes and BOTH the puz and donut were finished.
Darnedest weather I ever saw was a hailstorm about 20 miles south of DEATHVALLEY. Talk about fire and ice.
Had to google for EVIE Sands. Yeah baby.
Better than many a Tues-puz. Mr. Haight did dee-vee-us.
Okay, D-V-, but what about the OUS part? Wanted to see how it fit in with the themers, but NOCANDO.
SORTA liked this one otherwise. No, liked it more than just SORTA, but no real AHAS here.
DARTH VADER made me rule out "homonyms" as an answer, and I guess the key is that homonyms refer to individual words while ORONYMS refer to groups of words, maybe.
Like yesterday, this was easy with a tight theme and 'cute' revealer, and little dreck.
I liked it.
@Lady Di - of course I wasn't referring to we sydies/synders. I wasn't even referring to the various vitriolic comments of a political or scathing nature. What I was objecting to was the conversations between or among various real-timers that have nothing to do with the puzzle or with other commenters not part of their conversation. I won't expand on this - I usually just scroll by such convos. Annoying but no biggie.
Best ORONYM I know is courtesy of Terry Pratchett in Witches Abroad, where eating foreign food causes dire rear.
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