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Air carrier from Taiwan / THU 1-24-19 / Unlikely source of Top 40 song / Instrument that opens Stravinsky's rite of spring / Spamalot lyricist
Thursday, January 24, 2019
Constructor: Stu Ockman
Relative difficulty: Medium (6-something, almost a minute of which was spent trying to dig myself out of a terrible predicament in the SW corner ...)
Theme answers:
- VOODOO DOLL (17A: One stuck abroad?)
- FOOLPROOF (26A: Risk-free)
- TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD (41A: "I'm out")
- FOOTSTOOL (50A: Ottoman)
Stag beetles are a group of about 1,200 species of beetles in the family Lucanidae, presently classified in four subfamilies. Some species grow to over 12 cm (4.7 in), but most are about 5 cm (2.0 in). // The English name is derived from the large and distinctive mandibles found on the males of most species, which resemble the antlers of stags. (wikipedia)
• • •
Had trouble with SEAL (23A: It can make an impression in correspondence) and wrote PEONS for PLEBS (28D: Commoners). Balked at I CAN'T because I kept wondering "you can't *what*!?" (36D: "That's beyond me") Also had to talk myself into REGINAL, because ??? Didn't really know what a STAG beetle was, so getting into the SE corner was a little challenging. DESI, not a term I remember hearing / seeing before. But by far the toughest hurdle for me was the SW, where everything was going great until TAX---. I had zero zip no idea about EVA Air (!??!) (64D: ___ Air, carrier to Taiwan), and—the real issue—I wrote in REF instead of REC (65D: Supporting letter, informally). REC is better, but "letter of reference" is a common enough term. I write these things all the time, and somehow when looking at RE- my brain couldn't come up with anything but REF. This was unfortunate, not just because it was wrong, but because it made me think TAX--- had to be TARIFF (71A: Revenue-raising measure). But TIMEX *had* to be right. Blargh. Eventually worked it out, but the corner ate up way way more time than it should've.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
PS I guess in other formats you have to enter the "O"s in a kind of googly way and so the GOOGOO part of GOOGOO EYES makes sense on the page. As you can see from my printed grid above, that did not come through for me.
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105 comments:
NW corner was tOO easy, made the rest of the puzzle mOOt.
Had _ _ X_CT at 71A (Revenue-raising measure) and really thought it was going to be SEXACT.
Also thought 5A (Shooter's need) was going to be ARM.
I sometimes do puzzles backwards, and saw g_g_eyes, which seemed vaguely familiar and then it hit me. The oo. Went fast after that as I looked for the themers. I enjoy puzzles when they have rebuses and I actually figure them out--which, sadly, is very rare.
I'd rate it as an easy theme, a tough puzzle, and a fun Thursday - I got a kick out of all the gOOfy GOO GOO EYES staring out at me, especially those spOOky VOODOO ones. I also liked how the theme answers were symmetrical but the eyes shifted around, making things a little tougher.
My solving experience was similar to @Rex's, with CROON x VOODOO DOLL in right away and then a major struggle in the SW, resolved only after I erased REf and did an alphabet run for 50D "Side" with FA- in place. Once I had FACET, I could piece together the rest. The theme was definitely a help in getting OOLALA and COOLANT.
Do-overs; DElos Records, hassock before FOOTSTOOL. No idea: DESI. Faked out yet again: Sierra Nevada = ALE, not ore.
Mostly easy. I had a small problem in the SW with REf (for REference) instead of REC. It had me staring at TAX_fT for way too long.
I wrote the above comment after I finished the puzzle and before I read @Rex. Nice to know I’m in good company.
Abaft before AREAR was my only other erasure.
Fun, liked it.
I love the look of those [OO] things all over the puzzle. It made me remember I have an old album by Jean-Michel Jarre called Zoolook. Also the movie Footloose.
A friend once asked me, out of the blue, what the Queen's last name was. I said "Windsor, I think." "So why does she sign her name "Elizabeth R.?" I explained that R stood for Regina--Latin for queen, so Elizabeth R. == Queen Elizabeth. (As in Oedipus Rex == King Oedipus.) (I love explaining things so I sound smart.) But still, REGINAL is... a stretch. And makes me think of vaginal.
Interesting that two Canadian provinces have their capital cities named in honor of the same person: Victoria (BC) and Regina (Saskatchewan).
Solid Thursday puzzle, average difficulty. Got the rebus quickly. My friend's Greek mom makes the best moussaka, now I'm dying for some. Bahais was new to me, interesting looking that up.
In despair, my brain filled with blanks as I read through the clues, until dunG (beetle) made a start, then - thank heavens - a toehold courtesy of entirely too many hours spent watching Star Wars (LANDO). So 59A was the first correct fill, fairly daunting but I knew there was a pattern or a trick...it’s a Thursday puzzle, after all. 67D as part of the theme gave me my big break. After years (years!) of haunting this crossword community I’ve learned a few tricks and OONA is one of them. Combined with excellent clueing for GOOGOOEYES I was then, finally, off to the races.
This was one of those puzzles that seemed so impossible at first glance then, with patience and that odd space in thinking that happens with stepping back and shaking up the neurons,clicks into place.
What a phenomenal solving experience. This puzzle seemed to burrow into my brain and make me think differently and find synaptic connections that I did not know existed. As with Rex, the SW corner fell last, and skewed slightly harder than my Thursday average. But who cares? I beyond adored this puzzle. Thank you Stu Ockman for crafting this gem.
Got theme fairly quick which made the puzzle come together pretty fast, had problem with TAXACT also (REF instead of REC forever) DUNG instead of STAG, which is more fun, anyway. But after going through all the across clues, once CROON did not fit, went back to revealer and easily figured it out.
Thursday enough for everybody? I'm no constructor and I can't believe I'm going out on this limb, but is this thing not symmetrical? I tried to prove my theory and started counting lines and squares and sOOn began snOOzing. Nice puzzle.
Yesterday we had an Afro-Cuban band leader and today DESI gets wasted on something that is news to me. Would you please 'esplain? Never heard of the referenced clue, so that's on me.
Generally found British humor to be a bit silly. Yes, even Monty Python and Benny Hill, etc. Podcasts have been filling my earphones lately. I just heard an interview with ERIC IDLE promoting his most recent book and he seems relevant and terrific. Embrace vibrant old guys! Aspire for that status! He's got those years in bank, and you're not guaranteed tomorrow.
I asked for a lovely rebus today and I got it, a shade too easy for a Thursday, but I’ll take it. Got hung up in the NE with BAHAIS and SCHEMA. Finally worked my way through it and came out a winner.
Started from the ground up and got GooGooEYES right away and had a lot of fun seeking out my other oo’s.
Loved it, but over too soon. Are we ever satisfied?
Aside to @Nancy, I have read Racing in the Rain and totally agree, fabulous book.
I didn't know LANDO or SNAPE, and MOUSSAKA was a guess, so I got this only because I solve online and get the happy tone when everything is correct, otherwise a big DNF. South Asian living abroad was also a new word for me, and I googled it later. Issei, Nisei, and Sansei would have been in my wheelhouse, but they are East Asian Japanese terms denoting generations. O.K. Rebus.
I have to agree that the trick was obvious very early on. Not a bad thing for me as I have things to do, places to go, people to see…
Those of us who wrote in SCOOP first, non-rebussly, are probably legion. I was already wondering about whether you could call just one thing “equipment.” I had decided it was marginal. Like in
You ready to hike? Watcha got there?
It’s a walking stick. It’s my hiking equipment.
I dunno – I guess it works. Feels a little marked to my ear though.
I felt pretty smug when TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD went in off only the T.
Also agree that the TAX ACT/EVA/REC area was a beast.
Have you ever wondered why we taunt NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH NYAH(or nanny nanny boo boo – whatever your go-to taunt) using the same tune as Ring Around the Rosies? Is this just America, or is it the same in other countries? Do Maasai warrior little brats taunt each other? Is it sing-song? This kind of question is why I’m constantly buying anthropology Great Courses on Audible, but I have yet to get any answers.
@Gill I et al from yesterday – Hah! No, my grandmother was Bigmama. But around here, kids have mawmaws, mammaws, meemaws… really, they’re all just iterations of mommy and mama (thence the word mammal). Sounds the baby makes when he’s lying there on his back and can see only the lips move of the lunatics cooing over him and decides to give speech a go.
As I was solving, thinking of other OO OO phrases, I kept hearing this, arguable one of the coolest songs ever. I love the line I’m so three thousand and eight; you so two thousand and late. I mean, my interest in keeping up with music died around the Simon and Garfunkel era, but still.
Rex – you do some serious over-thinking, man. Ok, well, I can’t say that you’re an overthinking critic or that I’m a like wow man whatever cool underthinking putz, but I’m always grateful that I can look at a trick, accept it, enjoy it, and not get all miffed and stuff. The two OOs look like GOO GOO EYES to me. After your screed, I went back and put little pupils in all my OOs and laughed at all the eyes goo-gooing me. This is the fun you can have when you solve on paper.
Had TAX_ _T and thought if it is TAXCUT as a revenue generator, well, if I ever...
Rex, were the eyes in your puzzle as tiny as they appear in your write-up? In my version of the NYTimes app, the double-Os are big and close-set, lending them a more pop-out, goo-goo eyes effect.
This should have been much shorter save having to enter oo soooo many times in the iPhone app. More. Rebus. Noooo
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, I can report that this puzzle has 28 double letters -- extraordinarily high -- but it comes with an asterisk, as 20 of them were the theme double-O's.
This went smoothly, with no boo-boos or boo-hoos. It helped that we were told how many rebus squares there were, and that the theme answers were symmetrically placed. Would have been more challenging, and maybe more fun, if the theme answer placement was a bit more loosey goosey. Might also have been cool if the clue for ODD [Lacking a mate] were also used for STAG.
All told, I was never bored as I vroom vroomed through this, and like with those TIRES in the grid, the puzzle pumped me up for the day. Thank yoo Stoo!
There are few things I find more frustrating than flying through an easy puzzle and then being unable to finish because of one square. Today is was the DESI/LANDO cross. If you didn't know either of these, that "D" could reasonably be almost any letter of the alphabet.
I loved this one. Much faster than average. And a lower Rex multiplier than usual (usually it's 4). Since I'm newish, I need a leg up and I get it by starting at the bottom. For this puzzle that made a huge difference.
No baseball, thank you.
Favorite word: GLOMS
I knew DESI from Indian/Pakistani comedians (Kumail Nanjiani, Hasan Minhaj, Mindy Kaling, to name a few).
Maybe half the time of a normal Thursday, thanks to some gimmes that might be hard for some: ERIC IDLE, GAELS, SNAPE, ROES.
DESI was the only WoE.
I really enjoyed the reimagining of OO as EYES.
For most of my youth Barney Google and Snuffy Smith appeared in the Sunday funnies. I can’t ever recall seeing Barney Google – the strip focused solely on Snuffy.
You picked the Goo Goo Dolls over Sam Cooke?!? I have no words...
Good write up Rex. Can’t get the ear worm of the old Barney Google theme song out of my head.
I had no problems glomming onto the theme but I do take issue with OO LA LA. I’ve only seen it spelled OOH or OH. I even tried g👁👁gling it and came up with 0.
Also is the back of an envelope where seals are usually found technically “correspondence”? I would have clued it “on” rather than “in.” But I’m even more of a stickler, pardon the pun, than Rex. And very often only partially right.
I liked the cross at 8A/8D. Rainn Wilson, AKA Dwight Schrute from “The Office’ wrote an autobiographical bool called “The Basson King’and is a notable practitioner of the Baha’i faith.
Anyone else only ever heard the phrase as “googly eyes?” Goo goo eyes was a new one to me ...
#kitshef reminded me of a song snippet my mother used to sing: “Barney GOOgle with the gOO-gOO-gOOgly eyes, Barney GOOgle had a wife three times his size.” I don’t remember the melody and I’m sure she never sang anymore. I’ve never looked it up but it sounded like something from the ‘20’s or ‘30’s.
— Jim C. in Maine
Not a rebus fan generally but can enjoy one that's clever and a bit challenging with interesting fill. This was not that. Just a bunch of double O's. Grade: Meh Minus. Like Rex, I thought the best thing was TOORICHFORMYBLOOD. The next best thing was 5D clue, Rabblement. Love that.
Is “goo goo eyes” an expression that’s more common in the Midwest? I’d never heard it until I left New England (temporarily) for Indiana.
@mls. Love reading your comments. Thanks for starting my day off, musically that is, with the great Black Eyed Peas. The “eyes”have it today. Puzzle missing googoo eyed Betty Boop?
Bollywood movie fan excited to see (and know) DESI.
I usually hate rebus puzzles but this one was fun. Yeah, that ECA/REC/TAXACT corner killed me too.
Desi/Lando was a Natick for me; fortunately D is near the start of the alphabet. Had the same scoop/ref/tariff issues for a while. Once I got on board, really enjoyed the ride. Thanks, Stu!
DNF on nAH/BAnAIS. Couldn’t see it and didn’t look at it as a trouble area.
Interesting. Monday easy. Answers just sort of fell in place. No real quibbles.
Hey, I made it into the puzzle.
Barney Google, with the goo-goo-goo-ge-ly eyes.
I didn't understand the "Call to reserve?" answer "Let"
It's been like what, 5 min. since we've had a Star Wars clue. Then we have Harry Potter too. Double bonus!
If that wasn't enough we have our buddy arc so we can continue to beat arc/line compass/protractor into the ground. Didn't get my fill yesterday.
On Rebus Thursday we get a Monday-level puzzle.
The only clue I liked was re-serve for let.
Meh and then some.
I guess I'm bitter and feeling cheated.
I don't think PLEBS was properly clued because it is an abbreviation or informal version of "plebians."
The puzzle reminded me of my comic-book reading days, when Superman declined the post-office's suggestion of a Superman stamp. His reasoning? If ever the stamp was canceled in Altoona or Chattanooga the O's would show over his eyes, and someone would remark "Put glasses on Superman and he looks like Clark Kent."
Talk about a stretch!
@imasdave Amen to that !! Don't know much about science books but I do know that he is one of the ALL TIME GREATS !! A much better pick than the Goo Goo Dolls (who are not anywhere near new music either). What a wonderful world this would be !!
Caught the theme early (with BASSOON). Most of the fill was fairly easy, but I only finished with a lucky guess on DESI/LANDO. Struggled longer than I should have with the revealer because I wanted it to be GOOGly instead of GOO GOO.
I have flown EVA and on one occasion found myself on one of their Hello Kitty planes, Taipei to Chicago. http://www.evakitty.com/en/
"one day Barney got divorced, now he's living with his horse". Why did my memory retain that from about 60 years ago ? Sheesh.
Some fun, some learning. Haven’t seen Ms Oona in a while. Desi/Lando did me in. Good to see Iona Gaels too. Eva Air, not so much.
@imsdave 6:50....Ooh yes. Why in the world post a Goo Goo Dolls scratchy voice when you can have the wonderful, OOcandy Sam Cooke: A Change is Gonna Come....
VOODOODOLLS to the rescue. I'll add CROON as well (think Sam COOKE). TIS a bit on the easy side for a Thursday and yet I DNF at the STAG/GAELS section in the SE. I don't mind. Little else had my head itching. Interesting seeing BAHA'IS sitting atop ARARAT - the place where the Ark finally landed and giving human-kind a new beginning. Of course we eventually ruined everything. I'm always fascinated by all religions. The BAHA'IS have been so horribly persecuted. The Muslims in Iran didn't think much about equality in anything - much less, women's rights, so they banned the Baha'is to purgatory. What a concept: Unite the world by bringing religions together. Nah, we like control.
I just made MOUSSAKA the other night and yet I couldn't remember how to spell it. I can spell eggplant, though and just remembering how good it tasted along with the béchamel sauce, well, yum it TIS and it's never TOO RICH FOR MY BLOOD.
Love words like SCHEMA and ARCH and MUST y-smell and GLOMS. Add the beautiful LADYS slipper and I'm a happy camper.
I enjoyed this, but it took me a long time because once I realized it was a rebus, I decided to solve it on Puzzazz (thanks for the tip, @Z!) instead of Across Lite. (I can handle a rebus with Across Lite on my desktop or laptop, but not -- I believe -- on my iPad). I’d never used Puzzazz before so it took me a while to figure out and get used to the interface. The rebus feature does make life more livable on an iPad, but still... maybe I'm just more used to it, but I do prefer the overall layout of AL (or maybe I could keep tweaking Puzzazz).
That learning process distracted me from the content of the puzzle to some extent, but I ran into a mega-holy-hell confluence of Naticks in the SE — thanks to LANDO and GAELS and DESI, all of which were totally unknown to me (the latter two clued thusly, anyway). Other than that, this was nifty fun!
And let us all tip our hats in gratitude for the countless joys Eric Idle has given us.
42 comments and no has mentioned what leapt out at me while solving, this was like doing 5 mini puzzles because the corners are so tenuously connected to the middle. This leapt out at me because the connectors were, for the most part, not automatic for me so I felt like I was restarting in every corner. The connectors quickly resolved once I restarted, but I never flowed from one part of the puzzle to the next.
Hand up for not understanding LET as clued.
@imsdave - I don’t think Rex “chose” it so much as it was inflicted on him and he opted to share his pain. The persistence of memories can be audibly annoying at times.
No problem here with LANDO but @Lobster11 (it’s been awhile - good to hear from you) and @Amy Yanni are absolutely correct. Names, especially names from science fiction, are not inferable. If you don’t know the foreign word either it could reasonably be any consonant and you can’t really rule out the vowels either.
@Muse - Now I have to back and complete my googly eyes (@Tom Taylor - I’ve heard both. I think Googly Eyes are what the Cookie Monster has).
IMHO a fine Thursday even if it played a little on the easy side.
@Anonymous 8:23, does it clarify it if you read it as "re-serve" instead of "reserve"? (It's a tennis thing.)
I had literally the exact same issue as Rex in the SW corner. REF instead of REC and no idea what Eva Air is. Liked @Richard's pointing out the theme (or possibly coincidence) of the BAHAI/BASSOON cross, as Rainn Wilson is possibly the most famous Baha'i in the world and I forgot all about his book!
Seems like we recently had GOOGLE eyes in a couple of puzzles but GOOGOO was also familiar to me. Pretty easy Thursday but a rebus always brings me joy - thanks to Stu Ockman. It was fun.
A little blander than I like my Thursdays. T[oo]RICHFORMYBL[oo]D is wonderful, but the other themers just sorta sit there. My favorite entries are the long non-themers -- ERICIDLE, MOUSSAKA and INAFLASH are all fun. Very nice clue for LET.
Sam C[oo]KE may have the greatest voice of all time, but since he died 4 weeks after I was born, I never saw him live. I have seen the Goo Goo Dolls several times, and they put on a good show. Dopey name, but a decent band.
This Thursday puzzle's grid screamed out to me that it would contain rebuses, and as a classical music fan, BASSOON gave away the game. A pleasant solving experience for me.
LMS: Overthinking is the name of the game here, but often the result is humorous.
By the way, you can find the original grid submitted a year ago and Will's comments over at XWordInfo. One might disagree with Will, but he does try.
To “make goo-goo eyes” at someone is a pretty dated way of saying one is looking adoringly at someone. Usually in an obvious and slightly ridiculous fashion. But, it’s a thing and I had no trouble getting it.
Disagree. Plebs contrast with patricians in ancient Roman society. Plebeian is the adjectival form.
Starting from the bottom, I agree with @Z, GOO GOO EYES and Googly Eyes are not the same thing -- the former is an emotional expression, the latter a permanent condition (and not of real eyes!)
Thanks, @Suzie Q. for explaining re-serve, it never occurred to me (nor apparently to many of us). I even thought about tennis, but it didn't come to me.
Like Anonymous above, I too had the T and thought of TAX cuT, figuring the constructor was endorsing Arthur Laffer's theory; fortunately, it didn't work with REf either. I have occasionally seen an EVA Airlines plane while taxiing into a terminal somewhere, but didn't know it was Taiwanese. I didn't know DECCA was British either, but nothing else fit.
My first thought at seeing 67D clued is "A Chaplin" was "weren't there two of them?" There were (the present actress and her great-grandmother), but I guess each one of them is (or was) "a Chaplin," so that's OK.
Not only were all the across theme answers symmetrical, but almost all of the 10 pairs of eyes, and hence almost all of the down rebuses. Only OONA and CROON are not. A nice touch.
I've always called them STAGhorn beetles, so that held me up, but apparently STAG beetle is more common. What I learn from crosswords!
@Loren, thanks for the song!
I'm ecstatic - nailed a Thursday, a little concerned so many found it so easy, as it took me half an hour, but a rare (and enjoyable) win for me nonetheless. A Thursday that wasn't 'beyond me' (ICAN) or TOORICHFORMYBLOOD is worth celebrating. Getting CROON/VOODOO early helped. Always pleased to make the same mistakes Rex and others did (peons, dung, does before ROES, ref before REC, etc). But my hangup was in the SE corner - didn't know LANDO or DESI, NYAH didn't look right, and seriously, I kept thinking my adoring looks were GOOGLE EYES and just couldn't make it fit (or find the tenth OO). Lots of fun today.
DNF two places. One I should've had, since I knew EVA (which I think should never be clued that way,) but somehow never changed ref to rec, and the other that was an impossible cross for me and many others- I had lanno and nesi. Nevertheless, liked the puzzle, and some clever and amusing cluing.
Coulda, shoulda included DOOK.
I took a peek at Rex to see if he understood GOO GOO EYES as being represented by...two eyes. He didn't. Oh, GOODY. Neither do I. Like Rex, I see them as just being...two eyes. Wide open and awake, but not especially "adoring". In fact, sleepy eyes can be quite adoring sometimes, don't you think?
That, however, was the least of my problems. I would have Naticked in the SE anyway -- what with the "Star Wars" guy crossing the Iona athletes crossing the South Asian living abroad. But my task was made infinitely harder by having MUSk instead of MUST for the "closet-y smell" (43D). This gave me SkA- for the beetle. Not that I've ever heard of a STAG beetle, either. A beetle that's "lacking a mate" (29A) and "standoffish" (54D)? AnyHOO, I ran the alphabet trying to come up with some sort of SKA- beetle and settled on SkAr. Giving me REELS for the Iona team. (Why not?) Leading to LENGO for the Star Wars guy (why not?) and GESI for the South Asian living abroad. (And, again, why not?)
Many many BLOOPERS. A real crash-and-burn. Don't ask.
Never mind that the last TAXACT in this country was a massive revenue *losing* measure....
Can someone help me out with ARARAT? How is that an answer to “post-flood locale”. Also, the clue to 57A should be hyphenated or two words.
Hey All !
No OOLONG? Or more importantly, no ROOSTER? Har.
There is a ROO in FOOLPROOF.
The OO count is 2 for GOO, FOO, TOO, and 1 for DOO, LOO, ROO, VOO. So now you know. :-)
Had @LMS's SCOOP before figuring out the theme. NE corner was a little of a toughie for me. Wanted Abaft for 11D, ditto for 12D (as in the word ditto, not meaning also wanted abaft there). :-) Plus had dea in for ATF. SW got me with sIeko first for TIMEX. I think it's actually Seiko, no? Had the REf, but after getting TAXA_T, figured it had to be changed to the C. Almost my famous one-letter DNF back in that NE, with the H of HAH/BAHAIS, could've been bAH, fAH, nAH. But guessed correctly! YAY ME!
Themer OOs were sorta kinda symmetric. The middle three had the OOs second and second-to-last, but the Revealer follows the first one with second and fourth. One of those should've been reversed to get the 100℅ symmetry. But that's tOO CRITICAL, and it's close enough, and made for a great puz!
What happens to me when I see a gOOd lOOking LADY - GOO GOO EYES IN A FLASH.
Har.
DIRE DROOP
RooMonster
DarrinV
The puzzle got a little political because I was certain that a revenue raising measure was going to be a tax cut. i also got naticked (my home town) at Lando, Desi, Nyeh. Really?
according to a 'Law&Order:CI' episode, DESI is a bit, at least, pejorative within the sub-continent community. shouldn't it be banned from xwords?
where I come from, a FOOTSTOOL and ottoman are no where near the same thing. you rest your outstretched feet on an ottoman whilst smoking your pipe and reading Chaucer in your easy chair. you stand on a FOOTSTOOL to reach the upper cabinet. or any cabinet if your six years old.
RCA's! ERICIDLE! CROON! VOODOODOLL! Talk about a running start, there it was. Fun trick.
Nice to see GAELS. A friend and I used to quiz each other on college nicknames, so that helped.
One summer he worked at the US/Canada border crossing as one of the people that asks you where you're from and where you're going and so on. A pretty sketchy type told him he lived in St. Louis. What do you do there? I go to the university. What's their mascot? asks my friend. Hemming and hawing. He didn't know the Billikens?! said I. Nope. They took him in for questioning and he didn't get to go to Canada. Obscure knowledge can be uselful too.
Thanks to Mr. Ockman for a fun puzzle. Just wish it had taken a little longer.
@Escalator
In the Old Testament, Noah's Ark landed on Mt. ARARAT after the flood.
Almost half our average time today! Hands up for REF for Rec, and I also didn’t know DESI as clued, but got the few thing we needed from crosses. My neighbor in the small, German village where I grew up had a Hirschkaefer as a ‘pet’ in a terrarium. Hirsch = deer, Kaefer = beetle in English. So as ROES and ALOOF dropped in to make S-A-, I said to hubby, wonder if it could be a STAG beetle. And so it was! FYI the thing was black with a body about 2” long and ‘antlers’ another 1” long from its head. I never played with it, but it was impressive. I still try to be nice to bugs, even if I don’t like their scrabbly feet on my palm. We keep a bug catcher kit (stiff sheet of paper and a clear Tupperware bowl) at the ready to relocate any strays in the house back out into the garden. Even the durn stinkbugs that are aplenty in our area. But I draw the line at wasps, black widow spiders, and brown recluse spiders. One of the latter bit my horse and it melted away a piece of skin and flesh from eye to mouth around the bite! So, yeah, those suckers gotta die. Luckily we’ve only ever found one recluse in the house and that was when we first moved in after the house had been empty for a while. But we see the black widows out and about all the time. *shivers*. But I digress.
Loved how TOORICHFORMYBLOOD had the OOs so symmetrically. Oh, and hubby says that a dedicated horologist like him would abhor the comparison of a TIMEX (52D) to a Citizen. I just like saying horologist and abhor in the same sentence. As folks on this blog often say: you know, it’s a word thing.
And, @Escalator, (mount) Ararat is where Noah and the Ark landed abfter The Flood.
Speakin of rebus art enhancements … M&A has a habit of circlin his filled-in rebus squares, in case of pattern-recognition needs, or somesuch. Sooo … today, my rebus squares came out lookin like puppy paws [aka PEEPAWS] … or even moreso: like little pig snouts.
LET clue was superbly sadistical. {Call to re-serve, in tennis} would, of course, be the non-? clue version.
staff weeject picks go to the EVA & REC twins. Didn't know EVA as clued, and REC is sorta ok but I'm still not quite sure if {Supporting letter, informally} is supposed to stand for RECommedation, RECord, RECeipt, RECipe, RECount, RECycled-U, REClaimcheck, or whatev. Kinda IFI, if U will. Them was some OCKwords, I reckon.
M&A finally just splatzed in TAXACT and ran for it, tho. The SW nanosecond carnage was therefore somewhat limited and non-epic.
Thanx for the snoutpuz, Mr. Ockman.
Masked & Anonymo1Us
**gruntz**
@BD - Neither Wikipedia nor Urban Dictionary seem to consider it pejorative. It strikes me as possibly being similar to “townie,” a term which isn’t actually pejorative except some snobs tell on themselves by thinking it is a slight.
Yeah, hand up for having my VOODOO economics screed instantly half-written when I briefly thought it was going to be TAX cuT. I’m pretty sure you’re all happy the answer is TAX ACT for that very reason.
@pmdm - There is no try. Do or do not. That explanation is especially galling given chink beaner and jig crossing MLK JR.
Just to clarify on my earlier comment: we see the black widow spiders literally "out" and about, as in outside. Not out and about strolling across the kitchen floor in the house.
SCHEMA is a mainstay in Cognitive Psychology. It's a pre-existing mental image or plan of how something works or performs. SCHEMAta (plural) streamline day-to-day life and help us go on autopilot when, e.g., making a cup of coffee, catching the bus, rolling a doobie, and stuff like that. On the downside, they are the basis of stereotypes and can lead to discrimination based on sex, age, ethnicity, etc.
TIMEX, pronounced TIE mecks may not be a competitor of Citizen, but TIMEX, pronounced TEE may, sure is.
It very rarely freezes down here in deep south Texas, aka TexMex Land, and then it will only last a few hours, so my first thought for "Annual Spring event" for 7D was MOLT, not MELT. With a sizable population of solvers living in similar latitudes, maybe the clue should have added "for some" or some such.
@Z: Get some new material.
I never lucid dream. My friends talk about it as in, "You know, when you realize you're dreaming and then you can just decide to, I don't know, fly". Well it's that first part that's the hold-up for me - I never realize I'm dreaming until I'm not. I mention this, apropos of nothing, because I also don't seem to know when I'm thinking either :-). I need to realize I'm thinking something and then act on it. Today, after doing 2/5 of the puzzle and being well aware of the theme, I filled in COOK at 39D and thought, "I could have sworn it was COOKE." Not until MOUSSAKA showed up did I realize we were dealing with a set of GOO-GOO EYES there. Sigh.
Even sillier, I successfully put in LET at 57A but it wasn't until now that I realized it wasn't "reserve" but re-serve. Duh.
I liked the clue for ODD, 29A's "Lacking a mate" which could have been the clue for STAG also (that would have been easier for me than the beetle).
Nice Thursday, Stu ockman.
@z, is your comment to @pmdm part of a conversation that got deleted from today’s comments or what? Especially galling considering the first two slurs don’t cross MLK Jr, and would have trouble doing so, at least in Tuesday’s puzzle.
I’m missing so much. Was hoping OONA Chaplin was OONA O’Neill (and Charlie) Chaplin’s granddaughter. Great-grand, and Eugene O’Neill’s great-great-grand makes me feel really old. When I was a kid, the Armistice Day parades would have some last straggler centenarian Civil War vets being rolled along in wheelchairs, on life support. These were guys who signed up as bugle boys or drummers or cannon fodder at the very end of the war and when they were 13 years old or so. I’m beginning to feel that way, god I’m old.
Anyway, I gave this puzzle 5 stars on Puzzazz, and I hardly ever do that. I really liked it. (Obviously, but mostly for the theme; the fill was like the cake part of cupcake - a necessary evil to get to the frosting.) But I wonder how I would have felt if Will and Joel had left Stu’s original fill alone. Per the essay on Xwordinfo, Will sat on the puzzle for a year after it was accepted, and then felt the fill had become dated. In his explanation of why 40% of the fill had been replaced (so we’re barely solving Stu’s puzzle), Will explained, “One important thing to keep in mind is that the standards for fill keep rising. Puzzles that we accepted in the past might not make the grade today. “ Oh. Standards for fill keep rising. Remember that, children, because it will be hard to discern just from looking at the puzzles.
Lots of pleased commenters today. Just wasn't my cup of OOlong.
Got the theme early on and that helped me navigate the rest until I lost it at the D crossing Landon and desi. Totally unfair and compelled a cheat to finish. Should anyone be interested a letter of mine will appear later today online and tomorrow in the print edition of the NYTIMES.
ADVISORY: it is political and may be offensive to some.
Noah’s ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat. I only know this because of doing crosswords for some 60 years.
@Teedmn (1:24) -- Really? There are people who 1) know when they're dreaming and 2) can insert things they think they'll enjoy right into their dream at will? This may be the most interesting thing I've ever learned on this blog. Sorry, though, that it's not true for you, @Teedmn. It's not true for me either. It's exactly as you say: I have no idea I'm dreaming until I'm not dreaming anymore. But what a great thing to be able to do. I could put such a talent to very good use -- I know I could.
@Larry Gilstrap -- I also find Monty Python too silly for my liking. But if you can find some of the Dudley Moore/Peter Cook skits or the original "Beyond the Fringe" skits on YouTube, you might want to have a look. I was lucky enough to see "An Evening with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook" on B'way back in the '70s and I laughed so hard my ribs hurt. Wondering how their humor would hold up today. Maybe I'll take a look myself...
Oona IS Charlie’s granddaughter. His daughter Geraldine is her mother.
Opera-spawned hits: "Musetta's Waltz" from Puccini's La Boheme provided the melody for Della Reese's 1959 #2 chartbuster "Don't You Know". That's the only one I can think of. Instrumental melodies from concertos and whatnot have been used frequently.
OO OO OO Baby Baby -- I liked this puzzle. Heck, I didn't even mind LANDO. Of course Rex had to complain about non-issues, as is usual in the schema of things.
I am so bad at seeing Thursday themes. I always forget about the rebus possibility. I knew that Rite of Spring starts with a bassoon, and I still didn't get the trick. So I poked along for a LOONG time before the aha! moment. Once that happened, the rest fell quickly.
@Nancy
Monty Python too silly? I agree!
Here's one example
And another
And another.
:-)
RooMonster
Porgy and Bess was an opera. Billy Stewart had a hit with “Summertime” in 1966. It went to number 10 on Billboard 100.
@Anoa Bob: Timex... Tee-may. Like the pj's I got from Target are lingerie if I pronounce it Tahr-ge (*ge* pronounced like Faberge egg)? ; D
Loved it
Was wonderin how WS et al. would continue, today, to wecognize the considerable influence of Bugs, and, sho’ nuff: OPERA !. As has been said, all I know about opera comes from that Wascal Wabbit.
This was clever and fun. But as SCOOP was my initial answer, it took awhile for the OO rebus to kick in.
Question for those debating "googoo" vs. "googly" eyes (I myself had only heard the latter, including in my 75-year-old father's vernacular of "making googly eyes at someone"):
What do y'all call those little stickers that look like eyes, where the pupils freely jiggle around in a little dome?
Wondering if this is a regional/generational thing too.
@Teedmn, @Nancy, or @anyone else who's interested, lucid dreaming, being aware that you are dreaming while you are dreaming, got a boost in popularity in the 1980s when Stephen LaBerge did his dissertation research at Stanford on it and then published a book about it. Nowadays you can even buy electronic devices that will alert you when you are dreaming. There's even a Lucid Dreaming Society. Cool stuff.
"Barney Google—with the goo-goo-googly eyes!"
here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Google_and_Snuffy_Smith
just so ya know.
No one else stumbled on MOUSSAKA vs SOUVLAKI? I was surprised to note the correspondence.
DESI???
I did! With so many similar and non-trivial letters (-ou—k-), it made it really difficult to change my answer.
some time ago Stu Ockman made a puzzle in which the repeated "oo" was central; in fact it was basically an egg-crate right in the middle of the grid. Interesting author leitmotif?
In tennis if the ball touches the net in a first serve it's a Let. And the server re-serves. Yeah ... a stretch.
Most satisfying completion for me, especially considering that Friday’s was too easy.
As an IT person I got this one quickly because so many of my colleagues over the years have been salvation. What’s interesting, and why I am bothering to post this, is that it seems to be slightly pejorative to some. I’ve not been able to figure out why some colleagues from India are bothered by this and others are not. While I have not conducted a survey of the topic, it did not appear to me to be related to the expat’s age or region of origin. I suspect it is more likely correlated to how long someone has been in the US. If anyone knows I’d love to hear it.
No idea how the term “southern Indian” got turned into salvation. I thought I had proofread it better than that. Sorry!
Ditto for “Mac the Knife” from ThreePenny Opera.
Anything (AND the cast album) from South Pacific (well, it was Broadway opera.)
Years ago, I used to listen repeatedly/fruitlessly for similarities between Rigoletto’s “La Dona E Mobile” and rockblues “She’s About A Mover.”
JimG
Surprised not to see more complaints about the NE corner... I got slaughtered up there, between BAHAIS, SCHEMA, and ARARAT. Figured out the theme pretty quick though, and the other corners weren't too bad.
ODD experience here. Couldn't get going anywhere till I spotted LANDO, so by chance I started my solve in the reveal corner. TGIF and the 3-letter (?) Chaplin opened my GOOGOOEYES early on. Even so, I had a lot of problems.
--> EVA: not DOD Longoria, but ___Air, carrier to Taiwan?? Who knew?
--> AREAR? Nah (or HAH). To the stern is aft, or abaft. NO ONE at sea EVER says "AREAR." Phooey.
--> PLEBS without the second E?? Could've at least put (var.) in the clue.
--> IFI ever...see this again it'll be tOO sOOn.
--> ARCH clued "Playfully roguish?" Never heard THAT definition before.
--> DECCA is British?? Funny, I always thought it was American.
--> DESI as clued? No clue. Arnaz too easy for Thursday?
--> ALE somehow comes out of Sierra Nevada. If you say so.
CRITICAL? IAMTOO. All this stuff made for a strained solve. I did it, but it seemed like it shouldn't have been that hard. I CAN'T explain it, but the triumph points just weren't that high. Par.
HAH! That's ODD! Again I agree with Rex. 'TIS a weak theme with an unfair crossing at 59A and 61D. One TIRES of such cruel Naticks. Is the constructor's AIM to go "NYAH, NYAH!" towards us poor PLEBS? I had LANnO and nESI (a variant of Nisei?). Nope. IFI only knew who the Star Wars character was. That one CRITICAL square COOKED my goose. ICANT GAB any more as IAMTOO ILL to go on. I simply MUST go out for an ALE. LET's rate this one ELEVEN - out of 100. Not FAB!
STAFF STAG
ICAN’T say that IAMTOO ALOOF
or CRITICAL, IFI GAB as a stud,
but she’s too REGINAL to be FOOLPROOF
and that LADY’S TOORICHFORMYBLOOD.
--- ADAM MOUSSAKA
Hand up for REf before REC (which shoulda been clued as the room or a VHS button). The CROON/VOODOODOLL cross gave it away so it was nearly FOOLPROOF.
I see other folks have mentioned Barney Google, so I don’t have to go there.
The Pink LADY’S Slipper is the state flower of MN. Member of the orchid family, I believe. Gimme there.
Also a FOOLPROOF IDEE, OONA Chaplin as yeah baby.
The earworm continues . . . Baaaaarney Google, with the goo-goo-googly eyes . . .
Still fighting a cold/flu, so I find it hard to drag myself to my laptop, but sometimes the show must go on.
I know the term exists, but I don't think I've ever witnessed GOO GOO EYES. In my own case, like Jimmy Carter, I've made them in my heart... You know, if you place a dot in the middle of all the 'O's and draw little arched eyebrows over them, you might approximate GOO GOO EYES. Crossword art - could be the new thing.
AREAR is iffy, but I'll it go.
I was once caught going through a red light by an intersection CAMERA. Expensive. Never again.
Puzzle was fine, if not OO LA LA.
Helpful OO's in helpfully symmetrical themers made this fun to do and easier than expected for tricky Thursday, with VOODOO DOLL leading the way.
Moving my way down to the SE corner, stepped into a tangle of proper nouns: GAELS, SKAG, LANDO, and DESI. Half-guess, half-vague recall got me GAELS, which took care of the unknown SKAG beetle as well. Guessing again, made a CRITICAL game-ending error: Went for an N in LANnO and nESI, and stayed with it.
Kind of a letdown, but liked the puzzle and felt good enough about the near-win.
Oo oo! OONA clued me in earl on. At first I thot there would be 10 pairs of OOs - eek! But nae.
Had the same Natick as Foggy, but guessed correctly on LANDO/DESI - not sure why.
@Rainy - like the idea of crossword art. OO la la, indeed.
Diana, LIW
PS - Hope you feel better, @Rainy!
Lady Di
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