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Relative difficulty: Challenging (4:53) (slowest Tuesday time this year by half a minute)
Theme answers:
- HOUSE PETES (17A: Representatives Sessions (R-TX) and Aguilar (D-CA), for instance?) (house pet +ES)
- FOR THE WINES (25A: Why many people visit Napa?) ("For the win!" +ES)
- BABY SITES (31A: Nurseries?) (babysit +ES)
- BEAR CUBES (44A: What ice trays typically do?) (bear cubs +ES)
- HOOVER DAMES (50A: President Herbert's wife and mother?) (Hoover Dam +ES)
- GUESS NOTES (61A: Play "Name That Tune"?) ("Guess not ..." +ES)
Yaren (in earlier times Makwa/Moqua), is a district of the Pacific nation of Nauru. It is the de facto capital of Nauru and is coextensive with Yaren Constituency. [Population: 747 ... !?] (wikipedia)
• • •
It's funny the puzzle thinks I know the first names of US Reps nowhere near where I live. There are many hundreds of them. I know a *Jeff* Sessions, and I know a Pete *Domenici*, but they were both Senators. Anyway, HOUSE PETES, my god. No way. So for a Tuesday this theme was very hard. But also the theme is off. And the puzzle makes the grave mistake of thinking that more is better, that cramming the grid with theme material will make the puzzle somehow more entertaining or more impressive, when all it does is strain the grid. I'm still laughing at YAREN. I mean ... what? It's bad enough I have to remember NAURU, a very very very tiny country. But its so-called capital? More people live In My Neighborhood than live in YAREN. I got YAREN and gaped at it. Checked the crosses. Shrugged. Thank god for crosses. Beyond that, the fill was rough all over. Not yesterday rough. But rough. Long Downs in the NE were the one highlight for me.
ANGIOGRAM (32D: Cargiologist's X-ray) and BERNOULLI (33D: Mathematician Daniel after whom a principle in named), ha ha on a Tuesday? My dad was a radiologist, but even then I had trouble coming up with ANGIOGRAM. And I just flat-out don't know BERNOULLI. At all. Fun. Also, I totally forgot the TROGGS (48D: Band with the 1966 #1 hit "Wild Thing," with"the"), which hurt a lot (me: "the FRUGGS? ... the ... what was Iggy Pop's band???"—it was the Stooges, so I was way off there). The TROGGS and James ARNESS (40D: "Gunsmoke" star James) placed this emphatically in The Land Before (My) Time. I wish I had liked this better. It's possible the theme would've played better, or more clearly, with "ES" added somewhere in the middle of the phrase (so the apparent plural thing wouldn't be an issue) ... and maybe if it ran on a Wednesday :)
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
My slowest Tuesday in recorded history and not a fun experience in any way.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t find this nearly as tough as Rex did. Go figure. @mmorowitz - this was a fun experience for me! I don’t think I’ll ever tire of a good add-a-letter theme. Pedestrian, maybe, but it’s such simple entertainment. Word on the street is that this type has fallen out of favor with Sir Will, but I’m glad he accepts one every now and then.
ReplyDeleteAt first marveled that John found five (5!) that involved a sound change, but, duh. I challenge you to find one that doesn’t.
Oh, the possibilities here… love tap/tapes, bath mat, cold war, survival kit, drill bit… Steak rubes could be people who order filet mignon well done. And they are legion. I worked at a Western Steer; I know these things. (I can’t be an I Don’t Own a TV snob here, but I sure can be a Rare Steak snob.)
TO BED was a dook for me for like forever. Hah. Arlo tobed his knee playing ball with his grebe Pete, so he hasta take it easy for a while.
Able was I ERE I saw Elba is such a sad, desperate little palindrome. I prefer Nurse, I spy gypsies, run!
Ahem. I’m not an introvert, but I relish my ALONE TIME. I can eat whatever I want whenever I want. I can go to bed at 5pm and get up at 11pm (for the day) and not be embarrassed. I don’t have to constantly talk about stuff I don’t need to talk about anymore, like how pretty our farm is; we’ve established this. I can watch Jason Statham movies. I can close the heat vent in our bedroom, crack the window, and keep it freezing in there and still sleep with the ceiling fan on high. Alone time feeds this extrovert’s soul.
John – this is your NYT debut! I’ll look for more from you.
A great puzzle. Thematically rich with many wonderful crosses.
ReplyDeleteFantastic puzzle! Best Tuesday in quite a while. The revealer was spot on and very clever.
ReplyDeleteHard to believe I have anything in common with Rex, but my dad was also a radiologist...as am I. Among my favorite memories of him:
-receiving my diploma from my father on med school graduation day (he was an alumnus...school tradition).
-being an MRI fellow under his tutelage.
Very easy here. Both the mini and the regular puzzles just fit my diminishing knowledge base. The theme seemed appropriately transparent for a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteOh YES YES. A clever theme that eluded me until nearly the end. A moment of panic when I thought I was permanently stuck. A happy ending. And that huge anthem from my youth, "Wild Thing" by the Troggs!
ReplyDeleteThese are the elements of a great solving experience. "Ciolfi" is etched in my brain. I will be looking for it.
Another lovely thing about this theme. The ES was added to PET, WIN, SIT, CUB, DAM, and NOT, that is, every vowel was played with, going from its short sound to its long.
ReplyDeleteGreat catch. Missed that!
DeleteThis one was particularly tough for me too - especially since even upon completion I couldn't get how the theme answers tied to the theme (just assumed all those theme answers were just things people say, that I wouldn't know). Didn't see + AND + ES until reading the blog. But now, knowing that, it seems like a pretty sweet puzzle.
ReplyDeleteAgree that this puzzle didn't feel fun. Just felt clunky at every step. Although BERNOULLI was easy since I have a degree in physics and mathematics and the Bernoulli's are rather famous.
ReplyDeleteBunch of nice long downs, plus seven(!) themers put a ton of stress on the short stuff, and it shows. But I think it was worth the pain.
ReplyDeleteHow many times will we have to hear Rex complain about a national capital he doesn’t know? It’s not that hard – learn them. You don’t have to memorize them all – just look them over a few times so that it’ll ring a bell when they appear.
I loved this! Solid and FUN!!!
ReplyDeleteThe watchword on this puzzle is pluralistic. Counting the themers and EAUX (but not ANDES), it has something like 19 plurals.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @LMS on this one. The puzzle provided a bit of resistance -- just the right amount for a Tuesday -- and kept me amused. All the ARNESSes, BERNOULLIs, GUIDOs, PETES, SELIGSs, and YARENs were easily inferable from the crosses.
The reveal helped me on BEARCUBES. Never heard of them, but it was clearly the only answer that would work there.
Nice to see AORTA right in the "heart" of the puzzle. Speaking of heart, I had an ANGIOGRAM six years ago, following five months experiencing the beginning twinges of a heart attack (though never the full event) several times on a daily basis. Finally I saw a cardiologist who moved heaven and earth to have me do a 3-dimensional color heart scan. What it showed was my LAD (also known as "the widow-maker") was 99% closed in one small spot. Any day and I would have been a gonner. The hospital kept me overnight, gave me ANGIOGRAMs before and after inserting a stent, and I was good as new. Walked AWAY the following day.
Ah, the TROGGS. In this period of rancorous politics, some of you might appreciate a bit of levity. Here's a video of the comedian Bill Minkin performing his impression of Senator Robert Kennedy singing the TROGGS' "Wild Thing".
A lav is a SINK, a lav is a SINK. A lav is a SINK. John is slang for bathroom in general, or specifically a water closet. Nobody says “be right back I’m going to the john” and does their business in a lav. I hope.
ReplyDeleteIn England, lav is definitely used as shorthand for bathroom
DeleteGrowing up in Central NY, it was always a Lav Pass that I needed to leave class to "do my business."
DeleteOn the hard side for a Tuesday, sure, but a really good puzzle. I also had an issue with the fact that most of the theme answers could be pluralized without the E, but that's a small complaint.
ReplyDeleteI really wish I could be as passionate as some of you about a puzzle. I like puzzles overall. I do them every day. There are some puzzles that piss me off, but I have never done a puzzle that I "love" or that was "fun."
ReplyDeleteI like peanut butter. I eat it most everyday in some form or fashion. There are some peanut butters I don't like, but I've never eaten any peanut butter that I "loved!" (with an exclamation point). There are some things where all you have to do is hit the basic standards for the thing, and that makes it good. Not all things are like this, for sure. I can love my car, or certain kinds of music, or specific songs, or even some kinds of food (not peanut butter) like pizza, or french fries. I used to think that french fries couldn't ever be "loved," but there is a local place here whose french fries I actually do "love."
I can only imagine that when someone claims to enjoy a simple Tuesday crossword puzzle hyperbolically, they are trying to compensate somehow. It's like when someone tells me they like creamy peanut butter and I say I like crunchy...then the conversation escalates to why we choose one or the other, one of us inevitably will say I LOVE crunchy peanut butter! It's like you're trying to convince the other person of something by going all the way to one side and resorting to some kind of overstated positivism. It's just peanut butter. It can't get much better than just, you know...peanut butter.
It's just a puzzle. I wish I could care as much about it as some of you do. But then I think, no...I'm glad I don't "love" specific xword puzzles. I'm glad I don't think of specific puzzles as "fun."
To each his/her own, I guess. C'est la vie. One thing about this blog's comments section, you are constantly reminded how different human experience can be with something as simple as a run of the mill, everyday, 5-10 minute, Tuesday NYT crossword puzzle.
This post was fun to write.
Amazing to me how my solving experience so differs from Rex’s, which I discover upon reading his post. Seemed Tuesday-ish to me.
ReplyDeleteTough puzzle for a tuesday!!! Should have been on a thursday!!! and no food
ReplyDeleteFWIW, Pete Sessions was the scumbag who helped orchestrate much of the 2010 Republican gains and is the current House Rules chairman, and he just lost his seat (thanks to the Beto coattails), so he's been in the news a decent amount.
ReplyDeleteMy major gripe is that while EAT IT was Al's second-biggest hit and his first top-twenty song, "Ricky" did crack the Billboard 100. It's not like I had any trouble getting the clue, but as a fan, that one annoyed me.
While most of the themers were "meh" for me, HOOVER DAMES struck me as pretty clever.
I had it originally clued as Weird Al’s first Top 40 hit, but they changed it for some reason. They also changed the clue to AORTA - it was “It comes from the heart”, which I thought was much more clever.
DeleteHOOVER DAMES was one of my favorites, along with FOR THE WINES.
Explanation for clue for Onek, please.
ReplyDeleteOne k. A thou(sand).
Delete@BRIAN GROVER: A lav is also standard real estate-speak for a half bathroom (toilet and sink but no bath/shower). I thought it was an acceptable clue.
ReplyDeleteWas one minute faster than my average Tuesday and still two minutes slower than Rex on a slow day. Doh.
ReplyDeleteFor once, I'm shocked by Rex's vitriol. I really thought this was a puzzle he'd like. But then, I picked up the theme almost immediately. I started out with HOUSE-----, and confidently filled in "mates", then PHOBIA had to be right, so I switched that to a P and realized it was HOUSEPETES right away. I do agree that there is some ambiguity of "insert an e before the s" vs "add an es" on some of them, but FORTHEWINES cleared that right up.
ReplyDeleteAnd there were definitely some completely unknowns for me: YAREN, TROGGS, XKE, ... But the crosses were sure enough that I had no trouble finishing. All-in-all, a fun Tuesday!
Thought this one was better than last Fridays or Saturdays. I think Rex is wandering farther and farther into the nonsensical trying to find the negative these days. And to @I heart this puzzle, If you dont think of puzzles as fun, why do you do them ? And by the way, Skippy Creamy is obviously the best.
ReplyDeleteSo I finished this in exactly average Tuesday time.. but I had an error. What? #$%^&! and it took at least a full minute to find it, and it's (almost) understandable: YARaN instead of YAREN. I should have known that it's more than one woman being liberated, yes, but until that moment, it was lost on me.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was cute. I might have really liked it is YAREN hadn't messed with me quite so much. ANGIOGRAM and BERNOULLI and TROGGS, oh my!
Any Tuesday that is a challenge is usually welcome but sadly today is not the case.
ReplyDeleteI was not amused by the theme answers at all.
Ice trays do not give birth to cubes. That seemed like the worst of the bunch.
I don't mind a sprinkle of French but crossing aime and eaus seems overdone.
Sods is a yucky plural only seen in crosswords.
To bed is not a memorable line for Lady Macbeth is it? Are you here @ the Bard? Help us out.
Maybe I just couldn't connect with this constructor's style.
No fun at all. Sorry John Ciolfi.
The Beard (not the Bard) says yes, it is a memorabke line not least because it is preceded by "what's done cannot be undone".
Delete(BTW, plural of "eau" is "eaux").
I thought the themers were very clever and cute and fun, and the revealer was great (even though I got it after I had gotten most of the themers themselves). Because I liked it so much I expected Rex to hate it. I guess he didn't, YAREN notwithstanding. I realize now that when a puzzle has a fresh and innovative theme such as this, I barely notice what might be seen as problematic fill.
ReplyDelete@little brown bear—One K= one thou
ReplyDeleteLike Rex I thought it was + add e until I saw the revealer. I liked it a lot better once I understood.
Wiki says YAREN is the de facto capital— not sure what that means. I ran the alphabet to get ASL (doh!) and then saw YES YES.
@Loren, ROFL at your avatar, tho it may not pass the breakfast test.
@I [heart] -- and fun to read!
ReplyDeleteIf you're doing puzzles to see how fast you can do them, then a puzzle that's a an across/down/across/down thinking exercise isn't going to be fun for you. If you enjoy the thinking exercise, which I do, then this Tuesday is good clean fun.
ReplyDeleteA couple of ahas, a couple of ha has, DNF on CIS/EAUX/NIX, but so what?
Liked it, learned some stuff.
The 53D clue (Vapors) and answer (MISTS) is incredibly incorrect. Please consult your elementary school science textbook, please. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI’m one of Pete Sessions’s constituents. He’s a great guy who has done a lot for our community. His father William Sessions was FBI director.
ReplyDelete@Brian Grover:
ReplyDeleteAccording to Merriam Webster's dictionary, LAV is short for LAVatory, which in British English (also the source of JOHN) can mean "toilet".
Sorry for the short post, I only have one sod on my lawn and just learned I’m supposed to use SODS.
ReplyDeleteBrb
Thou =thousand, k=thousand , thus thou= 1 K.
ReplyDelete@Little brown bear8:12 --
ReplyDeleteOnes => One K. "K" is shorthand for a THOUsand.
This puz played a bit harder than my usual Tuesdays. That's good, though, too easy is no fun.
Like most, ANDES was a gimme, so it was clear early on that additional ESes were somehow going to be involved. Finally grokked it when HOOVER as a gimme was followed by _AMES (Barely remembered to beD).
It’s a burden going through life with a name that is a toilet and a prostitute’s customer.
ReplyDeleteSlowest Tuesday all year also. Had never heard of ARNESS, YAREN, and other proper nouns. Was so proud of myself for knowing AIME, AMIS and EAUs (Or so I thought until I had to spend 3 minutes searching for my error). Maybe they had to run this one quick because Pete Sessions just lost his house race
ReplyDeleteBTW Bernoulli's principle is what keeps airplanes aloft.
ReplyDeleteA fine Tuesday. Kept me on my toes. My only little sadness was having to pen in ASHES. Paradise is completely lost. Such a sweet little town that I used to visit during my working days. If you own shares in a face mask company, you'll make a windfall.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of ALONE TIME....Some of my best memories derive from those moments. When I arrived in San Francisco, I didn't know a soul but I was determined to go out and explore every inch of my new city. The first thing I did was buy a little touristy map to see what things were on everybody's "to see" list. I knew I would only do it once and I wanted it to be fun. Headed straight to Fisherman Wharf and Alioto's for Cioppino. Then took the ferry boat for a tour of The Bay. Next was booking a trip to Alcatraz. Made some friends. Fell in Love with The City By the Bay and Herb Caen.
LAV (short for lavatory) is the name all airlines use for the bathroom. Take your pick: JOHN, Loo, WC, Bog and my favorite Khazi.
Didn't know YAREN nor BERNOULLI but I like learning new things that I will forget. SEXY HOOVER DAMES was my favorite. HOOVER's wife's name was Lou Henry. Who names a DAME Lou Henry?
I'll take more of these Tuesdays Mr. JOHN of lav fame. Congrats on your debut.
I, too, slogged through this one, but at 4:07 still beat the boss by a bunch, and that hasn't happened for a while. :)
ReplyDeleteI'll take it.
Re: @LMS’ “...find one that doesn’t.” Well, duh. Vowel Consonant is usually a short vowel sound while Same Vowel Consonant Silent E has the long vowel sound. Bat/abate, Bed/Bede, Bit/Bite, Not/Note, Cut/Cute. It’s how we represent 10 sounds with just five glyphs. No funky accent aigu or umlaut needed.
ReplyDeleteOpened up my NYT this morning and section C is missing. I had to resort to PuzzAzz, so I happen to know that I took nearly nine minutes to solve the puzzle. These days that puts this in easy Wednesday range for me, so definitely challenging for a Tuesday.
James ARNESS got the side eye from me, too. Sure sure, 20 years, 635 episodes, most watched show in America for years. But that 20 year run ended in 1975, 43 years ago. So, sure, I know that James ARNESS and Peter Graves from Mission Impossible are brothers, but there’s a couple of hundred million Americans going, “Don’t you mean Tom Cruise and does he even have brothers?” Just a wee bit dated is all I’m saying.
Not the TROGGS.
The cluing was mostly quite hard. The knowledge required was broad: not only pop culture, but math (33D), art (57A), Congress (17A), and Shakespeare (34D). Perhaps the hardest Tuesday I've ever done, and I enjoyed the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI had no idea what the theme was, though it seemed to have to do with long vowel sounds, as opposed to short vowel sounds. I wondered: What will the revealer be? ANDES was terrific -- and not exactly what I'd expected.
If only I'd known that Aguilar was a PETE (17A). I struggled with HOUSE-E--S for so long. Didn't know EAT IT, Weird Al's first song. And I couldn't remember if the classic Jag was an XKE or an XKG.
I would have settled for a mere TABLE as the counter alternative in 31D, but you gave me a BOOTH. That was very thoughtful. Thank you.
Both HOUSE PETES and HOOVER DAMES are inspired creations.
Found it easy and enjoyed it.
ReplyDelete“More people live In My Neighborhood than live in YAREN.” One of the best lines in history of this blog!
ReplyDelete@TJS - I don’t think Rex hated this puzzle or was even particularly negative about it. Paragraph one makes no mention of whether Rex likes or dislikes the puzzle. Paragraph two is a riff on the obscurity of some answers. I can find two critiques of the puzzle in this paragraph, too many theme answers making the fill “rough” (which he then says is not as rough as the fill yesterday) and obscurity. Paragraph three returns to obscure answers, the suggestion that this was better suited for Wednesday, and “I wish I had liked this better.” In short, Rex’s criticisms are that added theme answers makes filling a grid harder and having the ES added at the end made it harder to suss out the theme. Personally, these seem like perfectly salient and on point. But then, I’m part of the crunchy PB elite, not some creamy loving plebeian.*
ReplyDelete*Just wondering how many people will take that last sentence seriously. Don’t.
Thanks for your dedication in putting out the blog. We’d all understand if your heart wasn’t totally in it today.
ReplyDeleteI found this puzzle medium challenging for a Tuesday. My time was normal though. It would have been faster if I hadn’t thought Weird Al’s song was EAT ME. Lol.
ReplyDeleteSince when does a tray “bear” cubes? A tray might “make” cubes. It might “hold” them. But to bear as a verb doesn’t suit the clue. A person might bear cubes to his guests in a tray but an inanimate object can’t.
James Arness was also in THEM, the movie about giant ants, and he will forever be famous for playing the monster in The Thing from Outer Space, which was basically a menacing carrot.
Loved it!
ReplyDeleteI think when you have 10 or more answers that aren't in English, maybe it's time to go back to the drawing board... This puzzle was brutal!
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Rex did not mention the passing of Stan Lee. That seems like it would be a flag-at-half-mast event for him.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle had some high-end medical terms. Do most people know their cardiac anatomy well enough to know an aorta begins at the left ventricle? Even if you or someone you know has had an angiogram do you immediately think of it as an x-ray?
Then expecting people to know a grebe is a diving bird?
Truce has an unusual clue as well.
All of this makes for a juicy Tuesday without a doubt.
Nice.
@GILL (8:57) -- "Who names a DAME Lou Henry?" Do I have a story for you. And I'll change the last name to protect the innocent. All first and middle names remain the same.
ReplyDeleteI went to school with a girl named Barbara Kaplan. She told me her full name was Barbara Henry Kaplan. Evidently her father had a brother or a father or someone (who remembers?) named Henry whom he adored. When his first-born daughter was born, he named her Barbara Henry. When a second daughter was born, he named her Gail Henry Kaplan. When he finally had a son, he named him Henry Herbert Kaplan. Barbara added: "But I think he was really tempted to name him Henry Henry Kaplan."
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteI did think this was a great feat of puzzling. Six themers plus a revealer, and long Downs in NE/SW crossing, with excellent entries: WOMENS LIB, ALONE TIME, ANGIOGRAM, BERNOULLI. And very small, if any, dreck. C'mon, if your biggest complaint is YAREN, with all this theme, then the puz is a hit.
John even managed to get his name in! Har. That was the hardest section, the SE. GREBE a new one on me. Had GRErE/SHErA. Also, DNF with EAUs/NIs.
Had HOOVER nAMES first, but finally figuring out theme helped me change it to a B. A fun theme, AND ES, even though I thought it was only the E that was AND-ed, and wondering why the themers were all POCs. Aha, AND ES. Got it.
@LMS - always love Bob from Weird Al. Plus we also get EAT IT! How can you not like a puz with that much Weird Al-ness?
TRUCE SWEAR
RooMonster
DarrinV
I sure hope today we stay on topic and not dissolve into an abyss of peanut butter debates. Fingers crossed.
ReplyDeleteOh happy coincidence, I just did a similar puzzle in a book of NYT Sunday puzzles, so the theme was obvious at "HOUSEPETES", and the rest were more or less gimmes. Age (expeerience!) is definitely a help for ARNESS and XKE and The TROGGS (You make my heart sing!). Wild Thing is definitely rock and roll for the beginning guitarist.
ReplyDeleteOnly WOE for me was YAREN. Now I have to find out where Nauru is.
A little prickly for a Tues., but that's OK by me. I don't always feel this smart when I finish a Tues.
Oye GILL I--mucho ojo, eh?
Finished a smidge under average Tuesday time. I loved the Weird Al reference. Of course, being a nerd, I first thought "My Bologna" only to see five squares there. Oh, "EATIT." Funny enough, after driving the kids to school today, I heard "Another One Rides the Bus" on one of the sat radio channels.
ReplyDeleteI caught the theme right away with FORTHEWINES. It just seemed like an oddly verbose answer to the clue "Why many people visit Napa?" that it telegraphed to me taking a stock phrase "for the win" and adding an "ES" to it. So the other themers fell into place rather easily.
But I did get stuck in the west. Instead of ANGIOGRAM, for some reason, I had radIOGRAM. (I dunno, I was thinking radiology, so maybe radiogram for a technical word for x-ray? I guess I should have been clued in by the "cardiologist" part of the clue.)
I had fun with this one! Good job John Ciolfi!
It's only Tuesday! And I'm struggling - have I lost my knack?
ReplyDeleteTougher than snot TuesPuz. Which is just fine, with m&e.
ReplyDeleteEspecially had trouble gettin traction in the YAREN-surroundin territory. I could blame YAREN, altho I did have some sorta spooky vague memory of that answer, from somewheres, but needed a lotta crossers to feel at all confident about it. YAREN is a debut word, for the NYTPuz, so musta seen it elsewheres.
SAG-ES! That gets SAG an honorable mention, in the staff's weeject pick deliberations. OGR-ES was not nearly as impressive. staff weeject pick: UNO. Mostly just to call attention to its appallin, unthinkable, hidden, sub-limb-enamel U NO sentiments.
6 themers & a revealer & twin niner long-balls in the NE & SW. Heckuva debut puzgrid.
Thanx and congratz, Mr. Ciolfi. JURE welcome back, any old time.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
Good puzzle. The theme was fun, and not as far-fetched as some recent themes have been.
ReplyDeleteWeird Al's first hit was "My Balogna." It reached number 1 on Dr. Demento's countdown in 1979. But EATIT was a gimme, with all those vowels.
ReplyDeleteTotally fun, esp. Hoover dames. The comment above about timing yourself vs. just noodling your way thru the puzzle rang true. I'm a noodler, will put it down, sip my Jaegermeister, hear about my beloved's day, then go back to it--no rush, a lovely evening meditation.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was pretty tough but fair. I didn’t enjoy the theme as much as others but on the other hand, I did get a chuckle out of a couple of them. HOUSEPETES was my favorite. Sad to say, I filled in EAUs without much thought and never checked the cross, so I had a DNF. It’s been my impression—though I’ve never really examined the answers closely enough to be sure—that constructors usually pluralize non-English words with an S, regardless of what the actual language would do, so it never occurred to me that in this case, the answer was the actual French plural. That’s on me.
ReplyDelete@Nancy, the auto dealer neighbor, George, down the street when I was young named his oldest daughter Mary George; I was insanely jealous. I’m a Mary as well, but my middle name isn’t nearly as gloriously in-your-face as that. It helped that the woman, absolutely stunning, went by George. I think I’m STILL envious. C’mon, parents; you could have named me Mary Daniel, for my cardiologist dad. BTW, ANGIOGRAM went in without a fuss as did BERNOULLI. It’s that garbage can brain I have; never know which neuron is going to fire on any given day.
I need help understanding LMS avatar. Yeah, I know who it is, but how does it fit the theme? Anybody? Bueller?
Maybe YESSES, SOREN and OWLS instead of YESYES, YAREN and AWLS.
ReplyDelete@Z, I never said he hated this puzzle, but after re-reading his comments, perhaps "negative" was too strong a word. It just seems that every time he hits a spot in the puzzle that slows him down from nano-speed, he has to somehow blame the puzzle. "Thank god for crosses". Well, yeah, thats part of the deal, isn't it ? Todays gripe about add an E or ES seems like a stretch to find a quibble, but atleast not as absurd as Mondays theme discussion : "Two are things you put in your mouth, one isnt" I mean, c'mon.
ReplyDeleteAnd Dude, Skippy Creamy and Welches Grape, the only things I insisted on when I got married. End of story.
@mals
ReplyDeleteRe: LMS's avatar, add ES to it.
Nauru (YAREN) is not so obscure these days - it has been in the news a lot in these recent years because it is where Australia puts its asylum seekers, in apparently horrible conditions, complete with gag orders on all those who work there. Yes, whistle-blowing is illegal with severe penalties. Look it up.
ReplyDeleteIt's not just @Mals who should thank you, @JC66 (12:01). It's I who should thank you, too. It's not just that I didn't understand @Loren's avatar. It's that, as usual, I didn't even see it. Just like yesterday, before it was pointed out in blog comments. I'm not visual and I don't ever notice anyone's avatar -- old, new, clever, pretty, whatever. But I'm pretty awed by @Loren, even though I'm late to the party:
ReplyDeleteIt seems that first she thinks up a pictorial pun that no one but she would ever think of. Then she manages to find a representation of that picture online. Then she cuts and pastes it. Then she changes her blog profile to accommodate it, thus changing -- daily it would seem -- her blog avatar. (I can't even put up a single one-time blog avatar; the only reason I have my [permanent, I assure you] Central Park photo is that @Hartley put it up for me. All the way from CT. Still don't know how she did it.)
Getting back to @Loren -- what's amazing is not only what she does but when she does it. Today's great PUBS/PUBES joke was thought up, located online, and embedded by 6:22 in the morning! And yesterday's "Chopsticks" joke was thought up, located online, and embedded by 4:15 in the morning!!!! I don't know how you do this, Loren! I just don't!
I had a problem with the question mark on the Napa clue. The NY Times crossword site says "Clues that end in question marks indicate a play on words in the clue or answer.". "For the wines" is exactly why "many people visit Napa". No play on words there
ReplyDeleteMisfa, anyone??
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@LMS: Thank you for the "Bob" link! Pretty sure that's my favorite Weird Al song.. that video is so clever, it always makes me chuckle!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite sentence in the Wikipedia writeup on Nauru is: The name "Nauru" may derive from the Nauruan word Anáoero, which means 'I go to the beach'.
@jberg - Yaren does not have an official capital, as most countries do. The YAREN district is where most of the administrative buildings are, so it functions as the capital.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t fly through in typical Tuesday fashion, but had a great time solving it. Had a little trouble with BERNOULLI as math is a very weak spot in my knowledge, had to rely on crosses. Remembered the song Wild Things, had to rely on husband for the bands name. I guess that was a “One Hit” band, and not a very good one, at that.
ReplyDeleteCaught on with HOOVER DAMES, clever.
Fun puzzle.
BERNOULLI and TROGGS were totally in-my-wheelhouse answers that helped me out a lot. I struggled a lot with YAREN and FOR THE WINES and FAS but a couple of lucky guesses made it fall together. A slow Tuesday for me, but I liked it.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear this took longer than average for many - I was close to a 9 minute solve and that's 1 1/2 minutes over my Tuesday average. Though I don't solve online so I don't have anyone keeping track of my solves - perhaps 7:30 is just the Tuesday average I'd like to have!
ReplyDeleteI liked this puzzle's theme. Post-solve, looking at the constructor's name, I was expecting to see David Alfred Bywaters constructed this - he's a DAB hand at letter addition, letter subtraction and letter substitution puzzles, all with cute clues. You should check out his puzzles (Google him) if you like easy but clever. And then there are the Victorian novel recommendations...
I remember BERNOULLI from engineering school but have completely forgotten his equations. Though, whenever I take a shower and the shower curtain starts blowing in on me, I nod SAGEly and say, "Ah, Bernoulli". Though Wikipedia claims that it hasn't been proven that Bernoulli's principle explains that phenomenon. I'm sticking with Daniel.
The TROGGS was a gimme - when I was in a band, we did a great cover of their song, "Love is All Around".
I thought 68A should be clued as a verb. The plural noun SODS seems odd. And then I wrinkled my nose at the plural EAUs (37D) crossing NIs. I thought, oh, and are they going to clue that as "knights who say NIs?" Har, French EAUX, silly. I fixed that.
Great debut, John Ciolfi, thanks.
@JC66. Thank you....um, I think. Yeah, doesn't pass the breakfast test but wickedly funny. As usual @LMS, you rock.
ReplyDelete@TJS - It is peanut butter, not peanut oil butter is all I'm saying. I want that crunchy peanut feel.
ReplyDeleteConsidering how generally cynical I am (being raised Calvinist will do that to you) I find it a tad humorous that Rex (almost) never strikes me as being as negative as so many others find him. If he was giving grades I bet he'd have assigned a C+ for this, a B- if it had run on a Wednesday. Pointing out what is good about something is good for the ego, but pointing out what can be better is good for improving one's craft. Rex does seem to have zero regard for constructors' egos.
@Casey - Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do. More than one Mi would be Mis. More than one FA would be FAS. Yeah. I know. No one disagrees.
@Nancy - I think Muse has mentioned that insomnia plays a role in it, as well as having to be to school way too early. Me, I need my beauty sleep.
Great puzzle. In between a Tuesday and a Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteBEAR can mean hold or support so in that sense an ice tray can be said to BEAR CUBES.
ReplyDeleteI think it's hilarious that Rex had trouble with BERNOULLI and ANGIOGRAMS, (words that for me are dirt simple and readily accessible), but will never acknowledge that Captain Ahab's cabin boy's cousin twice-removed might be someone that not everyone has at the front of their Rolodex.
ReplyDelete@Nancy. HaHa. It's the first names that get me. I actually have a friend that named her son Ashley Justice.
ReplyDeleteUnisex and all, you know.
Thank you @anonymous 3:12pm. I stand corrected. I guess even an ice tray has a constitutional right to “bear cubes.”
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to SEXY cars, I SWEAR that the Jaguar XKE is at the top of the list. Enzo Ferrari himself declared it the most beautiful car in the world. Here are two eye candy quick-click pics of this gorgeous machine: XKE #1 and XKE #2
ReplyDeleteSince 21A HAI is "yes" in Japanese, maybe it and the nearby 9D YES YES could have been clued together.
I GUESS I'm in a small minority (outlier?), but my reaction to these themes where an in-the-language phrase is goofified by adding/changing/subtracting letters is usually MUTED at best. Often it produces themers that, for me, range from being overly strained to the nonsensical. Today it was GUESS NOTES. Huh? I'm not sure how that connects to the game show "Name That Tune". Weren't they trying to GUESS the name of that tune?
So I'm often looking for other entertainment or amusement in the grid, and today that came from those two sets of double nine-letter down stacks. BERNOULLI was my favorite. Having taught statistics and probability, I'm more familiar with Jacob than with Daniel, as clued, but you could take your pick of any of the eight members of the BERNOULLI family that are credited with being big time players in the early days of mathematics and physics.
Is there an actor, past or present, who has a more grid-fill-friendly sequence of letters than 40D ARNESS? Betcha a cold one we see him a a grid in the not-too-distant future. BERNOULLI? Probably not.
Hey @ Karl 12:34, Thanks for standing in for the Bard. It all comes back to me now but not while I was solving. Yes, I didn't spell eaux correctly in my post. My typing would never sustain me. My handwriting is very nice though.
ReplyDeleteMedium-tough. I’ve seen Nauru plenty of times in crosswords but I have no memory of encountering YAREN before. A couple of the theme answers were on the weak side, but over all not too bad for a Tues. Liked it. Pretty good debut.
ReplyDeleteOnly infantile minds rejoice in HOUSEPETES and HOOVERDAMES.
ReplyDeleteACT V SCENE I Dunsinane. Ante-room in the castle.
ReplyDelete[Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting-Gentlewoman]
Doctor I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive
no truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
Gentlewoman Since his majesty went into the field, I have seen
her rise from her bed, throw her night-gown upon
her, unlock her closet, take forth paper, fold it,
write upon't, read it, afterwards seal it, and again
return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast sleep.
Doctor A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once 10
the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of
watching! In this slumbery agitation, besides her
walking and other actual performances, what, at any
time, have you heard her say?
Gentlewoman That, sir, which I will not report after her.
Doctor You may to me: and 'tis most meet you should.
Gentlewoman Neither to you nor any one; having no witness to 20
confirm my speech.
[Enter LADY MACBETH, with a taper]
Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;
and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
Doctor How came she by that light?
Gentlewoman Why, it stood by her: she has light by her
continually; 'tis her command.
Doctor You see, her eyes are open.
Gentlewoman Ay, but their sense is shut.
Doctor What is it she does now? Look, how she rubs her hands. 30
Gentlewoman It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
washing her hands: I have known her continue in
this a quarter of an hour.
LADY MACBETH: Yet here's a spot.
Doctor Hark! she speaks: I will set down what comes from
her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
LADY MACBETH Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why,
then, 'tis time to do't.--Hell is murky!--Fie, my 40
lord, fie! a soldier, and afeard? What need we
fear who knows it, when none can call our power to
account?--Yet who would have thought the old man
to have had so much blood in him.
Doctor Do you mark that?
LADY MACBETH The thane of Fife had a wife: where is she now?--
What, will these hands ne'er be clean?--No more o'
that, my lord, no more o' that: you mar all with
this starting. 50
Doctor Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
Gentlewoman She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of
that: heaven knows what she has known.
LADY MACBETH Here's the smell of the blood still: all the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh, oh, oh!
Doctor What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged. 60
Gentlewoman I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the
dignity of the whole body.
Doctor Well, well, well,--
Gentlewoman Pray God it be, sir.
Doctor This disease is beyond my practise: yet I have known
those which have walked in their sleep who have died
holily in their beds.
LADY MACBETH Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so
pale.--I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he 70
cannot come out on's grave.
Doctor Even so?
LADY MACBETH To bed, to bed! there's knocking at the gate:
come, come, come, come, give me your hand. What's
done cannot be undone.--To bed, to bed, to bed!
[Exit]
Doctor Will she go now to bed?
Gentlewoman Directly.
Doctor Foul whisperings are abroad: unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds 80
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets:
More needs she the divine than the physician.
God, God forgive us all! Look after her;
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night:
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.
I think, but dare not speak.
Gentlewoman Good night, good doctor.
[Exeunt]
@LMS: Sunday night my wife and I were out for dinner at a wonderful restaurant in SF, one we visit frequently before concerts.
ReplyDeleteTwo women at the table next to us, to the waiter:
#1: I'll have the filet mignon, medium well.
#2: I'll have the same, medium well.
My first thought was, "isn't there a law against that?" My wife, the shyer one, was so tempted to lean over to them and ask, "Are you sure? You want a filet medium well?"
'Twas a shocker. Clearly, since I'm writing this, I haven't recovered from it yet.
Hardest Tuesday I can remember.
ReplyDelete@ John Ciolfi, Thanks for dropping by. I like your clue better.
ReplyDeleteTough Tuesday - even with getting the theme idea right away with HOUSE PETES. I had to do lots more skipping of clues than on a normal Tuesday, for sure, and ended up with a DNF at ONE g x TYgE: what with not knowing BERNOULLI, YAREN, and TROGGS, what was just another strange looking word? Favorite: HOOVER DAMES. Nicest surprise: the final reveal that tied it all together.
ReplyDeleteWhile officialliy it is in the OED, SODS is nonsensical and ridiculous as a plural noun for pieces of turf. Please stop using it. It is not used in speech anymore and is listed as very rare. Certain words get added and certain words leave our beloved language every year and are removed from dictionaries. Unfortunately the editors seem quicker to add words and slower to consider removal. This word absolutely needs to go extinct.
ReplyDeleteYou should be able to critize Pete Sessions over votes or policy positions, but to call him a scumbag merely because he helped his party win seats in Congress seems to indicate the poster has problems with democracy.
ReplyDeleteBut to expand on Rex’s closing statement that the puzzle needed to have 1) the ES added to the middle of the clues and 2) been run on a Wednesday, I’d add 3) And run before Rep. Sessions lost his seat!
HAI BALL
ReplyDeleteDo WOMENS’LIB on your own dime, so you DAMES get AHEAD,
but, BABY let’s NIX this ALONETIME, get SEXY and let’s go TOBED.
--- JOHN AMOS BERNOULLI
I don't time myself but this one seemed to take a lot less time than usual. Only one writeover. I had blanD before MUTED. A bit of crunch (YAREN, BERNOULLI, ARNESS) with a nicely executed gimmick. My favourite was HOOVERDAMES. Bravo to John Ciolfi for a fine debut NYT puzzle.
ReplyDeleteUgh, what an abomination! Worst puzzle in a long while; it just doesn't work. How many HOOVERFAMS are there? I only know the one. And FORTHEWINS???? No. Then there's the fill; oh, I don't even want to waste the time. Will, where were you? How did this sneak past you? There isn't even a DOD to gladden my heart. "Other." (Too bad even for a double-bogey)
ReplyDeleteI usually solve these in ink. Today I solved this one in my head.
ReplyDeleteWheelhouse and all that jazz, I guess. But this one seemed to fill itself in for me. Like someone was whispering the answers into my ear - or right into my pencil. Boom, boom, boom - done. Those HOOVERDAMES were the first to help me know what was going on - then it only got faster. After last week, I feel like I have my brain back. Even though the snot-monsters keep filling my head up every night, just when I think this cold is gone. Tissue? I don't even know you!
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady-in-Waiting for another sneeze
Mostly with Rex on this one. Much tougher than usual Tuesday fare, with a somewhat screwy theme and revealer. YAREN and TROGGS are outliers for me, but as Rex says, thank god for the crosses.
ReplyDeleteAn OK puzzle made interesting by its challenge.
@Diana -- Must be a bad bug that's apparently pretty widespread. Now recovering from a two-week-plus bout but still sniffling.
ReplyDeleteI think this was one of the toughest Tuesday puzzles I've done, but it was a ton of fun for me. I at first thought, "OK, add an 'e'", but then, at HOOVER DAMES I said to myself "Self, there is only one of those", and thus it took the revealer to verify that we are adding 'es' to the themers. That took away the wonky FOR THE WINS, and made everything hunky-dory.
ReplyDeleteNeat theme, perfect revealer, nice downs (plus I didn't know there were so many BERNOUILLIs), and I didn't notice any cringe-worthy fill.
Couldn't believe it took me way too long to get MGM. My God, that was actually a gimme.
Probably the best Tuesday in aeons, and a debut! Bravo!.
Got ‘er done right quick even with at first a Sable for a STOAT.
ReplyDeleteThat’s exactly why I went to the Napa valley, FORTHEWINES.
I think one could find SEXY Tori AMOS on many yeah BABYSITES.
Silly concept, but, ya know, Tuesday.
33D: Mathematician Daniel after whom a principle in named. Shouldn't that read, ' . . . is named ?'
ReplyDeleteTo Little brown bear @8:12am,You wrote:
ReplyDeleteExplanation for clue for Onek, please.
A thou is a thousand, so one(1)k = 1,000