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Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday) (4:05)
Word of the Day: ROSCOE Lee Browne, actor director in the Theater Hall of Fame (5D) —
Roscoe Lee Browne (May 2, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American actor and directorknown for his rich voice and dignified bearing. He resisted playing stereotypically black roles, instead performing in several productions with New York City's Shakespeare Festival Theater, Leland Hayward's satirical NBC series That Was the Week That Was, and a poetry performance tour of the United States in addition to his work in television and film.In 1976, Browne was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series for his work on ABC's Barney Miller. In 1986, he won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Performer in a Comedy Series for his work on NBC's The Cosby Show. In 1992, he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play for his performance as "Holloway" in August Wilson's Two Trains Running.In 1995, he received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his performance as "The Kingpin" in Spider-Man.Browne was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1977 and posthumouslyinducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2008. (wikipedia)
• • •
I was on Twitter before and after solving this puzzle and let me tell you the reaction to 21A: Certain close-knit social media group (TWIBE) was a swift and definitive hell no.
Five things:
- 33D: Ore, for one? (TYPO) — this is what happens when you're so in love with your own cleverness that you ignore plausibility. I get that you're trying to do a cute play on the "for one" (i.e. "for example") convention in crossword cluing, but, see, "ore" is not a plausible TYPO for "one"—look where "r" is on a keyboard. Now look where "n" is. Oh god I just saw ELEA—man, the fill in this thing is not good...
- 51D: What follows the semis (FINAL) — this is correct, but man did I / do I want FINAL*S*
- 32A: Guinness record holder for the U.S. city with the most consecutive days of sun (768), informally (ST. PETE) — I got so bored reading this clue that I never got to the end, so I kept expecting it to look like an actual city name (not an abbr. city name).
- 2D: Super Bowl of 2018 (LII) — there are few clues I resent more than "Surely You Know The Roman Numerals Associated With All 52 Super Bowls!" clues. Super Bowl III was the last one where the Roman numeral seems historical and noteworthy. (UNITAS v. Namath, the year I was born)
- 10D: YouTube popularity metric (VIEWS) — wanted LIKES. Then ... well, this answer got all caught up in the TWIBE nonsense. Since I had TRIBE, I ended up with VIERS ... which I was hoping and praying was not some horrid now-speak contraction of "viewers"
2019 NYT Crossword constructor count:
- M: 21 (including four (!!!?) all-male teams)
- W: 1
P.S. . . well I missed this . . . and I solved this *on* MLKJR day . . .
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Time posted by Arkansas girl who has been solving for a year and a half: 22:18.
ReplyDeleteHad never heard of twibe either, but when I googled it, I learned that users can join up to ten of them. And, maybe it’s a good opportunity for this group?
100% with you on TWIBE. On the other hand, I did find the "theme snakes" to be useful in solving, since I figured them out from their beginnings and filled the rest of them into the empty down spaces.
ReplyDeleteOther unsolicited opinions: 1) Thanks for keeping score on the gender of constructors; I think this is important. 2) I wish you would complain less about words that you consider offensive or repugnant in the puzzles. I guess in general I am happy that there are so few taboo words for the New York Times, and I wish there were fewer, not more.
You might want to fix the your/ you're grammar typo in your post.
Thanks for doing this labor of conflicted love all these years.
TWIBE? GTFO.
ReplyDeleteLast week we had ccup and today brapad? Please just stop it!
ReplyDeleteDoes the NYT have a secret, windowless room somewhere with a big sign on the door that reads “NO GIRLS ALLOWED” and the keys are given only to male editors? Is this the room where socially-stunted editors and constructors meet to snort and snicker and guffaw while they say aloud “poop” and “breasts” and “fart” as suggestions for next month’s puzzles? Will they soon include “squaw” and “pickaninny” and eventually even “n-word” or worse?
Is this also where they add to their list of made up 3,4,5-letter non-words (Acronyms, Initialisms, Abbreviations, Roman numerals, Recording artist names, Business logos, Medal/Award titles, Foreign language words, Prefixes, Suffixes, Ahh, the list just goes on and on....) These might be legitimate entries, but the are NOT WORDS. Why not just change the name to the NYT CrossLETTER Puzzle.
What happened to the clever, well designed, intelligent, even elegant puzzles of the past?
Well thought out. I love this!
DeleteA boy cave, of sorts!
DeleteUnlike @Rex, I found the puzzle easy, partly because I saw the serpentine theme fairly early, With KINGCO... on the left and SIDE... in the opposite corner, I completed those two snakes and then the remaining lower pair after getting a couple of letters in place. Having all those circles filled in made so many of the remaining entries very easy to see. I liked how the admonition to WATCH YOUR STEP was reinforced by including all four snakes, also the placement of YEOW, as if the warning came a moment too late.
ReplyDeleteHelp from previous puzzles: TYPO as clued, KEPI, NIMROD. No idea: TWIBE, NITROCARS, UFC. Do-over: TIEpin.
This took a while... Isn't it a no no for an answer to be a clue? 36D & 66A i'm talking to you!
ReplyDeleteOrdinarily I'd agree, but in this case where they're using Chip as a proper noun with no relation to the 36D clue, I hardly even noticed, so I guess I'd give it a pass. Still, in a puzzle with so many other questionable choices, you'd think they'd be more careful about things like that.
DeleteSnakes slithering all over the grid makes for an oppressive theme, in more ways than one. OFL notes the resulting stress on the fill, and it felt like a Tuesday, all over again. I have some friends who are HELLA into herpetology, desert people. They never saw a bad reptile and I try, but I'm with Emily Dickenson in Slender Fellow in the Grass: feeling zero to the bone.
ReplyDeleteAs I remember, Romeo finds his fatal dose on Juliet's lips and he dives in. Dude was just too impatient.
Check the etymology on how NIMROD became a synonym of Idiot. Is that not called a back-formation? Say something wrong enough and it becomes right.
Encountering a SIDEWINDER is a legitimate threat around here. I've seen them and they are small, perfectly camouflaged, and dangerous. Be careful where you place your hands; WATCH YOUR STEP, indeed.
My people came from the Ozarks of SW Missouri. My Aunt Nora and her husband Earl had a farm outside of Neosho. Once while feeding the chickens, she was bit by a COPPERHEAD. She survived, but the trauma of the event killed my uncle.
MLK JR./ JIGS, eyes down and mouth shut.
The theme was no help at all?
ReplyDeleteReally, how in the he** would I have gotten “twibe” without “siderinder”.
pthth
My first reaction was, as usual, “Oh goodie circles”. Just looking at them I knew snakes were involved. I have a particular aversion to snakes as one of our sweetest dogs was killed by a rattlesnake. That factored into our move to Hawaii, no snakes.
ReplyDeleteWATCH YOUR STEP involves another dog who would come over for the day to hang with our dogs, Skippy was one of his many names. While out walking one evening he stopped on the trail and looked back and growled as my husband was about to step over a washed out area, on the other side was another rattler, which he would have stepped on had Skippy not growled. Long story short (I know, too late) Skippy got to sleep over that night, move to the land of no snakes, and had many happy years. We’ll mis him always.
Medium-tough. Ambitious theme with a boatload of circles. My take is not as bad as @Rex’s but he makes some good points.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear I’m not alone in my reaction to TWIBE.
This is like a Saturday puzzle filled with bastardized crumbs of abbreviations and slang. There were a few fluid moments of solving, but all in all, I’ve never encountered a Tuesday puzzle so fraught with torture.
ReplyDelete... and the twentieth and twenty-first men of the year decided to clue BRA PAD. That's as heroic as NIMROD.
ReplyDeleteI love snakes and have picked one up out in the woods that I had never met before. We made a connection.
ReplyDeleteRex - as usual, I disagree with you on almost every point. You wrote that it was hard to see the snakes until you’re done. Maybe for you; like @Carola and @Patrick O’Connor, I saw the theme way early and easily filled in the four snakes with just a few letters. (And @Carola makes the excellent point that all four snakes cross the reveal.)
I absolutely loved the clue for TYPO. It didn’t occur to me to think about its plausibility and picture a keyboard. Sniff out a way to extinguish my pleasure.
And I was dying to know what city had 768 consecutive days of sun. That’s two years and 38 days. I was so fascinated I did the math. Plan to keep this little gem of a fact in my back pocket for future use.
Lastly, and most bigly, I had the complete opposite reaction to TWIBE. Since I’m not on twitter, I’ve never seen it, but I was instantly smitten. Man oh man that’s a great word. Why the rage? You see it as a way to malign a big word list; I see it as a previously unknown-to-me word that I’m happy to learn. Like @Sara Dacus, I just looked into how to join one, and there are lots of sites describing the process… Rex – it’s a bit rich that you back up your disdain for TWIBE by showing tweets from people who could arguably be members of your twibe of word shamers.
Think there is a Twump Twuth Twibe?
@Magenta Crayola – do you object to PUMPS or SKIRT or BLOUSE? PANTY HOSE? I’m trying to understand what’s off limits as regards women’s wear. Is it ok as long as it doesn’t refer to our boobs? I have bathing suit BRA PADS in my underwear drawer that escaped their little pouch during a wash and can’t for the life of me coax them back in. C CUP, D CUP… these entries don’t offend me. And then what about the “down there” stuff for guys? BRIEFS or ATHLETIC SUPPORTER or JOCK(STRAP)? Are they off limits, too? I’m sure lots of men have these in their junk drawers.
John, Jeff – loved thisssssssss ssssssnaky trick.
@LMS
DeleteHas there ever been a puzzle you dislike?
Junk drawers....good one!!! As usual, you make me laugh.
DeleteTo Anonymous 9:17 AM
DeleteI guess it’s just my bias, but I usually find it more fun to read folks who aren’t looking for nits to pick or puzzles to trash.
Tweets lose all (if there was any to begin with) credibility when profanity is used. Make your point like an adult.
ReplyDeleteExcellent theme with its curvy answers and perfect reveal, and I love how the snakes either start or end in WATCH YOUR STEP, accenting the closeness of foot and snake.
ReplyDeleteFor those one third of adults with a snake phobia (ophidiophobia), to make you feel worse: The decapitated head of a dead snake can still bite, even hours after death. To make you feel better, two things:
* Some venomous snakes have died after biting and poisoning themselves accidentally.
* More people are killed by bees than snakes, and you are more likely to be killed by lighting than by a venomous snake.
Go to XwordInfo and read about how many versions of this puzzle were made before this final one; how many hours, days, and weeks went into it. You may solve it in a matter of minutes and not think about what went into its making. Of course, the quality of the solve is the final arbiter of a puzzle, and for me, I was so charmed by the theme (snake-charmed?) that it overcame any objections. Thank you for all you put into this, JEB and JC!
agree about the dweadful twibe. Also, crossing UFC and AFC?? As a non-sports watcher these were both WTFs....
ReplyDeleteYawn...I will call it "Snakes on a Plain (old boring grid)"
ReplyDeleteTWIBE is awful, just awful.
Also, 32A...I'm assuming this actual means "sunny days" as in cloudless? Otherwise, I'm pretty sure the sun rises no matter where you are (unless at the poles) everyday. Bad cluing to a boring answer anyway.
Guess you should've skipped the puzz today.
DeleteIt wasn't quite Namath v. Unitas, although Johnny U did lead the Colts to their only score.
ReplyDeleteColts quarterback Earl Morrall threw three interceptions before being replaced by Johnny Unitas (sore-armed)with 4 minutes left in the third quarter.
Well, I'm with those that found the snakes early and enjoyed the puzzle. I first saw MLKING, with the "ING" going down the circles and thought that might be something but then I continued along the circles and saw KINGCOBRA. I have no snake stories involving venomous snakes. The only poisonous snake in Michigan is the Massassauga Rattler and I have never even seen one.
ReplyDelete@impjb I didn't see the CHIP duality but seems OK. One refers to the name of a cartoon rodent and one is a piece of plastic in a card game. But maybe that's still wrong?
POOF-PUFF
The snakes helped a lot with some of the unknown fill surrounding them. Slower than usual, but little in the way of writeovers. Maybe my mind is a bit sluggish this morning to match the morning temperature.
ReplyDeleteA better clue for Twibe would be close-knit group for Tweetie Bird.
ReplyDeleteVery challenging for a Tuesday. Three things I have never heard of before this puzzle: TWIBE, ROSCOE Lee Brown, NITRO CARS. Three WoEs on a Tuesday is a once-a-year event.
ReplyDeleteMLKJR over EIEIO – either great or terrible, I’m not sure which. That top row has 12 consonants and just one vowel.
MrsShef and I adore snakes and spend a lot of time looking for them. Of the snakes in the puzzle, we have seen only the SIDEWINDER and COPPERHEAD.
Very easy, but not interesting or clever.
ReplyDeleteToo much of the fill had a made up quality. Stuff nobody really says.
Starting in the NW with MLKJR which also starts the KING part of the KINGCOBRA, I mistakenly assumed this was another MLK theme. Imagine my confusion when snakes started appearing.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if crossing ELEA with AFC rises to the level of a Natick, but it feels close. An ancient foreign placename crossing what is a 50/50 coin toss for those of us who don’t give a fig for sports conferences is just poorly done.
ReplyDeleteI got up early just to read Rex's (and everyone else's) outrage at the 1A/4D combo. I was severely disappointed there was nothing - not even a mention of this slur. Where I come from (SoCal) the word "JIGS" was (is?) used for years as a racial slur and was just as nasty as the "N" word. I found this to be MUCH worse than the use of the innocuous words that so outraged so many solvers in the past couple of weeks. And connected to MLKJR as it is ... whoa!
ReplyDeleteI, too, fell into VIERS -TRIBE - TWIBE trap.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was Tuesday.
Maybe you sports fans know this, but to me the crossing of AFC and UFC was a small but horrible Natck
ReplyDeleteSame here - and Irene is my daughter's name!
Delete@LMS,
ReplyDelete"BRIEFS or ATHLETIC SUPPORTER or JOCK(STRAP) ... I’m sure lots of men have these in their junk drawers."
Was the word play intentional?
I don't get the objections to TWIBE. No, I didn't know it. But there's lots of stuff in the NYTXwords that I don't know. This is why we have CROSSwords and not just trivia answers.. You may be able to get, or at least infer, an answer after a few crosses. And TWIBE is nothing if not very easily inferable. The simplest and most obvious of portmanteaus.
ReplyDeleteIs it the Elmer Fuddishness of the word that people object to? I'm not on Twitter, find the whole thing a bit ridiculous, but I get that other people like it and you know if they want to communicate to the world à la Trump, more power to them.
Speaking of Elmer Fudd, Wikipedia claims that he is the source of the use of NIMROD as an insult. Bugs and Daffy jokingly call him NIMROD when he's in hunting mode.
I picked up on the snakes very quickly and so this puzzle fell easily for me.
Hi Lewis, I burst out laughing at your TYPO today as I agree “lighting” can kill! Especially when you are trying to take a photo of someone and the camera on your iPhone is facing the wrong way. I’ve died from fright looking at myself in very bad lighting. The angle doesn’t help either. Lol
ReplyDeleteJack Kerouac died in ST. PETE. Although from what I’ve read he rarely saw the sun. He was too busy drinking at the Flamingo bar. Which is still there btw.
Again with these asinine tweets! I love how one of the twitterati uses “g.d” for “god damn” (presumably) but feels free to use the F word.
Puzzle was fine, Rex. Who cares about TWIBE? It’s just some dumb word. We’ll get over it. But the serpentine concept trumps it. :)
Chill.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I never ever ever like puzzles with circles. They show off some construction skills but rarely offer much to the solver (at least to me). Still, I very much liked this overall — lots of good clues and answers — but the 42D/53A UF_/AF_ cross was a mega Natick for me — and I do know where Natick is. I guessed L. Nope.
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I liked this puzzle and the range/diversity of its answers, but... one of the sharpest and most intelligent people I know is named NIMROD. Not sure how it acquired that negative connotation. I see multiple hypothetical etymologies, but my favorite traces it to something Bugs Bunny called Elmer Fudd (possibly based on its original meaning of hunter). And sure, it just sounds funny. But... let’s just say it’s potentially a complex and complicated word in today’s world.
Wow, how Rex loves to gripe. Give it a break. Love the word ‘kepi.’ See it all the time and find it funny it’s a French word. It was the Yiddish word my mother used for ‘small head’ and I don’t think it came from The French. More likely from the German word for head—kopf.
ReplyDelete@Magenta, What's your problem with articles of women's clothing? I'm a woman. I wear a bra. A cup, no pad. Very hard to find. Today's controversy - bra. Discuss.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand I haven't seen anyone wear a tie bar since sometime in the '70s. I used to look at them and think, "Well that tie certainly isn't going anywhere." Anything that causes a flashback to '70s fashion should come with a trigger warning. Really, trigger warning should come with a warning, "We're going to make a warning here and it's gun related."
This was a good Wednesday puzzle. A little like yesterday, slow forward march but with a few go backs.
(Samuel L. Jackson voice)
ReplyDeleteWE GOT MOTHA F****** SNAKES IN THIS MOTHA F****** PUZZLE!
Do women summit crossword puzzles to the NYT in equal numbers as men? The answer might be worth knowing before criticizing and implying some dastardly plot to exclude women. All you patronizing men coming to the defense of female constructors please knock it off. If this is what "women's rights" has come down to, fold up your tent and go home, you've won.
ReplyDeleteA racial epithet crossing Dr. King's answer??? Your keen awareness of racial epithets is disheartening and curious. I imagine Dr. King would have hoped we were beyond this but you will keep stoking racial divisions at every opportunity.
LMS I wish you would start your own blog, I would like to be a member of your twibe. I really appreciate your unique perspectives on puzzles, your unabashed joy at wordplay and your bravery in pointing out that "objective" words are benign unless we have ill intent behind them so we should all stop getting our bra pads in a bunch about normal words that are a part of our language and culture. I am a liberal and a woman in case anyone wants to paint me as a conservative gun toting misogynist in further comments. How many times did Will Shortz have to tell us he publishes the amount of women constructed puzzles as he receives? The problem lies in getting women to construct and submit, not in acceptance. So please sign up for Inkubator if you want to encourage women constructors as Rex suggests but please stop bashing the NYT. Reverse discrimination wouldn't be fair to male constructors. Puzzle acceptance should be gender, color or other label blind and should be based solely on puzzle merit. Merit of course is always up for debate as evidenced by this and other blogs. So if LMS ever decides to break off on her own I'm with Her.
ReplyDeleteSign me up (UNCCH n/w/s !)
Delete'Bra pads in a bunch'; most uncomfortable; loved it. Probably as bad as a twisted jock strap, I imagine.
DeleteExcellent post.
And another vote for @LMS.
It really spoils my morning when Rex tries to stir up racial tension where none exists (until he points it out).
ReplyDeleteWhat about poof? That's a British word for a male homosexual?
I also thought that the MLKJR /MLKING crossing was part of the theme. As noted above 39D, there is also POOF/PUFF. But this doesn't work with the other snakes, so I was at a loss. Well, you can get TINDER/TWIBE at 21A but not starting from the first letter of the snake. I couldn't find anything like this in the COPPERHEAD letters. The snakes did help me solve the puzzle. I don't think it's terrible that so few people know the racial epithet anymore. Good riddance to such meanings.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle. Thanks!
Nice Tuesday puzzle. Amazing the grid isn't far junkier given the constraints -- the so-called crappy fill @Rex derides is far better than what we often get with much less imposition by the theme. The snakes were extremely helpful in solving the puzzle, so not sure what the hell @Rex is talking about there.
ReplyDeleteI loved the ORE clue -- in fact, it is the only one I put a smiley face next to as I solved. Since when is keyboard proximity a requirement for TYPO?
As a laundry-doing father of three girls, I can attest that most bikinis have BRAPADs and that they invariably fall out of the bikini top during the wash cycle. How they do so every single time is a mystery, because they are damn near impossible to put back properly through the small slit from which they emerge. Oh, and none of this is salacious.
As is often the case, the over-the-top reaction from @Rex and his Twitter TWIBE is the most hilarious aspect of this puzzle. TWIBE is new to me, and for all I know it's not a thing at all. But it's hardly the only word in the grid -- aren't there 77 other entries and a theme to comment on? I would love to see the correlation of Jeff Chen puzzles and the term "word list" appearing in @Rex's review. Bias is so sad, and so obvious.
Maybe I'm punch drunk because of so many BS words in the NYT lately, but TWIBE was just "meh" to me. Yeah it's bad...but seriously, what else is new?
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming that JIGS is the offending word crossing MLKJR? That one is probably stretching it some. There was a somewhat stereotypical Irishman named Jiggs in the strip, Bringing Up Father that started in 1913 or so...It doesn't quite count as racist as much as it was classist and sort of the Irish equivalent to a Polack joke. But to get from JIGS to *that* Jiggs and then to equate the stereotypes of the late 19th and early 20th century views the Irish as "racist," that's a bit too far.
There is a racial slur that has the syllable "jig" in it, but it's a longer word (3 syllables, if you're wondering) and it was familiar to me growing up, but I never heard it shortened to just "Jigs."
So, as one of the first ones to line up and chime in on the NYT's insistence on using bull shite words that can easily be avoided, this ain't one of them. Not even close.
BRAPAD, on the other hand, is a different story. I'm a man. As a man I know that there are things that, as a man, I just have no business joking about or even mentioning cavalierly. BRAPAD is kind of a personal thing that men really have no business putting into their grid in a polite society. I think the only person capable of making the call to whether that word can be used with no hint of irony or ignorance is a woman. I can only imagine WS shouting out to his secretary/assistant (who is probably a woman...because you know...secretary = woman) or just some rando woman passing by his door, "Hey! Can you come in here a sec and tell me what you think of this word?" At least I would hope he would seek a second opinion. But given his responses of late, I'm beginning to think he has an ego that would contribute to his believing he knows best.
Narrator: "He doesn't."
What a sexist clown he is.
I saw the snakes early and they helped me solve. However I cannot say I had much fun. Lots of car stuff and sports. Too much of both I say.
ReplyDeleteI did get a kick out of 45D & 48D being close together since Bikini is an atoll. I wondered about breast instead of bra pad but I knew kepi was right.
I've never seen a tie bar on a cravat.
Poor Nimrod.
I thought Rex was pretty clear, but I’ll try to restate it since people seem unclear. There are various play on words to refer to Twitter users that play on the “TW” and the whole bird chirping thing. But TWIBE isn’t a very common one. Not a single poster so far has said, “oh yeah, I use it and see it all the time.” I suspect it probably is or was a thing, but it ain’t much of a thing.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, I pretty much agree with @LMS today. Seeing the snake theme gives one a third crossing for all those letters. Having letters in place always helps the solve. The fill is strained on retrospect, but I didn’t notice it while solving so it didn’t effect my solve.
Hand up for wanting FINAL*S* but I play a sport where all major competitions have three FINALs (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed) so I thought it was just me. The more correct singular just sounds wrong to me.
@tb - You need to ask?
Given the puzzle’s propensity to unintentionally insult people lately it seems to me that WATCH YOUR STEP is advice the editor should heed.
I found this to be great fun, and yes, the theme helped me out. In other words, loved it!
ReplyDeleteIt was a technical DNF, however, as I had UFl/AFl, figuring League was fitting. Only when app wasn't happy at the end that I re-guessed C.
@lms - I too was dying to know which city that was. Thought it would be one in Arizona. Really surprised that it could be STPETE. I think this fact ought to be the example in the dictionary for "fun fact".
BTW, Rex - if I wanted to know what your TWIVBE was saying, I'd go look for myself. There's valid reasons, and not always merely date of birth, that keep some people away. There is also a subset of folks who might be on twitter, but not following you.
I looked at this and immediately thought oh, oh, poor @Nancy. Looks like half of the puzzle is circles.
ReplyDeleteHand up for finding the snakes helpful, saw that one right away. Also mourning the evolution of NIMROD. Time and changes.
TWIBE is new to me, but again, it's a poor day when you can't learn something.
And a fond bonjour to KEPI. We veteran solvers remember you well. Nice to see you again.
Fun stuff. Merci bien, mes amis JB et JC.
TWIBE????? Oh, pwease!!!!! Let me invoke the deathless words of Dorothy Parker when, as the New Yorker's literary critic known as "Constant Reader", she gave a terse and scathing review to one of the "Winnie the Pooh" books. Appalled by its twee-ness, she wrote: "Tonstant Weader fwowed up." And I fwowed up at TWIBE. Can we pwease not have these infantile, nauseating textspeak non-words in crosswords in the future. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAs for the west of the puzzle...well there were those annoying tiny little circles again! Today they annoyed me more than usual. And that's because they weren't even there in a good cause. Another construction *feat* that provides pleasure to the constructor and no reward at all to the solver. There was absolutely nothing about this puzzle that I liked. Well, maybe the clue for TYPO (33D).
My fatality occurred at the AFC/UFC cross. I didn,t know where Zeno was from and those two sports references just sank me. Otherwise, this was fun. No surprise; I liked it more than Rex did.
ReplyDeleteI do genealogy and my French great-great-greatgrandfather was named Morand, his brother Myrod. The whimsical spelling of brand-new Ohio in the early 1800s , along with the wide variety of accents in the tiny communities totally befuddled the document producers, so I often see that we have a Moron and a NIMROD in the family. Personally I hate those terms, but having them in the family tree with all our advanced degrees does make me smile.
Me too. I've never been unable to finish a Tuesday before, but if you didn't know these, plus ALOU (still don't know what that means), you were doomed.
DeleteAlou is family name of three brothers, Felipe, Matty and Jesus, all of whom were professional baseball players.
Delete@Z : I appreciate your attempt to be diplomatic by writing “the puzzle’s propensity to unintentionally insult people” the editor should watch his step. Maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe people should be a little less thin skinned. I’ll bet a random sampling of puzzles from five, ten, or twenty years ago would turn up a lot more insults than are found in the current puzzles. Yet somehow no one was bothered back then and these days every day it seems people find things that are offensive.
ReplyDeleteThe one/zone TYPO is actually quite plausible on a Dvorak keyboard layout — r and n are right next to other by the right ring-finger. Is it a bridge too far to imagine one or both constructors using an alternative keyboard? ;)
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteEinstein is becoming the new NIMROD.
The SNAKES helped in my solve also. Even though it was a fairly easy puz, it was still nice to see and write in the SNAKES as a third "cross".
Had Benz for FIAt, and after getting MLKJR, was looking for a pangram. But the Z wasn't correct, so that ended that. (Plus, no J Q X.)(Originally had DEUx for DEUS, so really piqued my interest.) I also noticed MLKJR backwards had four consecutive alphabet letters, JKLM. Neat.
JIGS are Irish dances. Period.
@kitshef 7:12 pointed out the top row of 12 consonants and 1 vowel. The second row has 11 vowels and 2 consonants. Neat, also. Plus, SE corner is mostly E's, R's and S's. CRY next to YEOW. Fun what you can notice in a puz.
Two F's. One POOF. Har.
FINAL TWIBE
RooMonster
DarrinV
I would contribute financially to a Lauren Muse Smith blog, her comments being invariably funny, smart and interesting. As for twibe, I thought it was intuitive and I am not a Twitter user. I would bet the word is used, perhaps by people who don't want Rex and his whiny, arrogant ilk in their tribe. Or twibe.
ReplyDeleteAnd just to be totally un-PC via Monty Python and the aforementioned POOF: The Bruces Sketch
ReplyDeleteDon't send hate TWIBE TWEETS.
RooMonster
@Magenta Crayola: In answer to your query, "What happened to the clever, well designed, intelligent, even elegant puzzles of the past?"
ReplyDeleteTwo words: Will Shortz, who has ruined the NYTXW. I only stay with it/them because, after 25+ years, I am determined to outlast him.
Did somebody BWIBE the constructor to use TWIBE?
ReplyDeleteHoo boy....I'm loving the comments - so far....!
ReplyDeleteThe first thing I wrote in my little margin after encountering the questionable 10D was "Only a man child twit could come up with a word like TWIBE." Then I thought about it some more and decided that I like it. I'm one of those people that find it interesting and funny when nerdy types come up with words like Google, and Twitter and Facebook. Really. You're going to remember them! Just last night I was listening to NeNe on the Housewives of Atlanta use the word "Honkey Bumpkin" to describe her not so fashionable friend. (Hi Loren). Man, the words they come up with. I'm going to see if I can use honkey bumpkin twibe today.
I rather enjoyed this Tuesday. Yes, the circles helped me see the snakes. I'm not scared of snakes unless you're in a lake water skiing at Circle F Dude Ranch Camp in swamp land in Florida and you happen to be a water moccasin. When I was learning to slalom, the handsome ski instructor told me that if I fell, I was quite likely to encounter one. Guess what happened?
I'm not crazy about trivia but I will never forget that ST PETE had 768 consecutive days of sun. How boring for the people that live there. Not even a little hurricane?
Liked that FIAT crosses CARS and there's another CARe OF and then you've got the KIAS and the NISSAN's. and the NITRO thing.
ROSCOE Lee Brown...What a marvelous voice. I could've listened to him all day - and I would've made him sing to me.
Mrs. @mericans and I spent the morning out in a small French village, attending the funeral of a kind, and very "determined" (one of her relative's descriptors) woman who died last week at the age of 93. Until she was weakened by a pulmonary embolism at the age of 91, she had lived independently, largely feeding herself from her garden.
ReplyDeleteFinally started this puzzle after lunch, lost patience after 40 minutes, and hit "check puzzle". I had 9 errors. Looking at the circled "snake" letters might have helped me with 4 of them on the east, but I couldn't be bothered. As @Rex writes: "Hard to see the snakes 'til you're done".
I'm glad to see that @Rex is finally questioning the "cavalier indulgence of slang" in the puzzles.
One of many nits: My older brother is a glider fanatic, and I'm pretty sure he has always used the term WINGspan, nEVER WING SPREAD. Googling the two terms with the word "glider", I get 3,600,000 hits for the former and 16,000 for the latter, mainly relating to birds.
@Malsdemare: A belated congratulations on you and your husband's 50 wedding anniversary! I HOPE SO much that you have a great celebration on Sunday!
Is "Twibe" an Elmer Fudd reference? I found this quite simple as I saw the snake thing off of 1A.
ReplyDeleteI was also a bit shocked to find it there. Perhaps the constructor is too young to understand that MLK Jr. was widely hated in America and was considered, by our government, a snake in the grass. He was even still considered that when President Reagan, very reluctantly, signed the bill making his birthday a national holiday; a bill many states, including Arizona and New Hampshire, ignored for years. Reagan only signed it because Congress could override his veto.
The Rev. Dr. King was an incredibly brave man to do what he did. His Disnification by the political classes into a cardboard cutout focusing on only one aspect of his crusade is a shame. Mike Pence's statement was a complete mockery of him and what he stands for. It is worthwhile for those who don't know any of this to seek out histories of his life and his true vision for America.
Other than that, few qualms.
@chefwen (2:18) -- Your Skippy and the snake story is absolutely enchanting. Are you sure your husband's name isn't Albert Payson Terhune? I read all the Terhune dog novels as a very young child, the first, best-known and most-loved being "Lad: A Dog." The most indelible scene that I remember is Lad saving his master from being bitten by a rattlesnake. The scene, as I remember it, is remarkably similar to the one you describe. Now, since I was no more than 8 or 9 when I read it and since I have not been 8 or 9 for a very, very long time, and since (as I often say) I can barely remember what I had for dinner last night, this scene really must have been indelible. To find out that such thing has happened in real life and to someone you actually know is quite wonderful. If you never read that book, @chefwen, you might want to do so now.
ReplyDelete@Malsdemare (9:55) -- I chuckled over the garbled family names that have cropped up in your genealogy records. Oh, and many good wishes (from yesterday) on your 50th Anniversary.
This was a kick-ass puzzle! Outstanding! On a Tuesday!
ReplyDeleteEverything was gettable but the layout and the clues were superb. I had to fight this one.
@ GILL I, You might want to check the list of possible racial slurs before you use honkey in conversation.
ReplyDelete@ David, You forgot to mention plagiarism in your thoughts on MLK.
@chefwen. Years ago I had a girl malamute that I hiked with in the Tetons. One afternoon on a twisty path up a mountain, we were about to leave the wide open trail for some dense underbrush when Prudence grew twice her size, planted herself in front of me and began puffing in loud spurts. I saw nothing but took her advice and went another way. Two days later we were on a back road that skirted Yellowstone in search of a bear mama who reportedly dined on roadside berries with her twin cubs. When we got to the berry bushes, Prudence, in the back seat behind me, began her puffing routine. And that's how I learned I had a bear dog. That knowledge was very reassuring on our many hikes out west.
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary, @Malsdemare!
DeleteI loved the scary snake theme! I guessed the snakes very quickly. I did think BRA PADS was a little off as an answer to the bikini clue. Plenty of bikinis have *no* bra pads!!! But apart from that, I really enjoyed the puzzle.
ReplyDelete@Anony 11:12...Jeeze (is that word offensive?)...I was in the Honkey (Honky) Tonk country music vibe. That's why the phrase was so funny to me. Good lord...
ReplyDeleteI can't hear the word "poof" without thinking of Kevin Spacey in usual suspects, so I guess the clue works for a Nantucket homosexual. Terrible Natick crossing Zeno with Alou and AFC and the mixed martial arts thing. I have a dream that someday I won't have to see MLK in a crossword puzzle any longer, in any context. I have a dream today.
ReplyDeleteThe male/female disparity of published constructors is indisputable, but does anyone have knowledge of the ratio of male vs female submittals for publication? I think this a crucial metric in determining how much bias is indeed being shown towards men.
ReplyDeleteWell, I thought I was really struggling but finished almost 6 minutes faster than typical Tuesday. Upon review, TWIBE caused me to slow down because I generally loathe “e-speak,” but I give the “Twittersphere” credit for this clever contraction-like appellation. And I sincerely hope that the “TwumpTwuth Twibe exists.” That said, I just can’t figure this puzzle out. Some was Monday-easy but the tough was absolutely tough! Like many, I though the drek was not as bad as it could be, and the theme was Tuesday-ish, but meh...
ReplyDeleteSo I am neutral and done.
“Twibe” stumped me, otherwise an easy and fun puzzle. Thanks very much Mr. Bennett and Mr. Chen.
ReplyDelete@Mark McCarter
ReplyDeletePrevious discussions on this blog suggest that the publishing/submission ratio by sex is roughly the same. @Rex's beef is that @Will doesn't do enough to encourage women to construct and submit to the NY Times.
I'm not sure I agree.
A big thank you to @Roo Monster for the "Poofter" link.
ReplyDeleteLiked the circle-snakes part of the theme mcguffin. Definitely helped m&e out, in the solve. Was crucial in gettin the W within TWIBE eventually, f'rinstance. I may have lucked out, that I went after the first string of circles, by solvin in its direction. Got most of KINGCOBRA; said "ahar!"; and the game was afoot.
ReplyDeleteWATCHYOURSTEP revealer is a bit clunkier, IM&AO. Could just say that when walkin thru a field where a cowherd has been. Doesn't really reveal much. Is kinda cool that a coupla snakes wind thru the revealer, tho.
staff weeject pick: UFC. It's a MMA! Honrable mention to LII. M&A had the advantage of rememberin the 2016 SupeBowl controversy, when they were real hesitant to go with a "Super Bowl L" banner.
Cool that MLKJR made the puz again today, and that a "KING" COBRA was snakin thru it. JIGS part was unfortunately not so cool -- but am sure it weren't intentional.
Tough TuesPuz, on account of lotsa venomously-imposed desperation, as @RP may possibly have already mentioned, maybe [har].
Thanx for gangin up on us, Mr. Bennett & Mr. Chen.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
get yer nerve back day:
**gruntz**
Once I saw one snake (the KING COBRA) the rest were easy -- one or two letters sufficed. So that made the puzzle a little too easy, while the constraints of all those circled letters did reduce the fill quality. Still, it's a nifty idea -- even more so now that I've realized (Thanks, @Lewis) that every snake has one end on the revealer (and the other end at the border, I just noticed).
ReplyDeleteI used to drive a saAb, so that held me up for a bit. As for ST. PETE, I didn't know, but the "informally" in the clue kind of gave it away. No informal names for Phoenix or Tucson, right?
Apparently TWIBE is a thing, but I had Rex's reaction to it while solving -- including putting in TrIBE and thinking maybe there was some kind of rebus EWE to make viers into viewers.
I was more bothered by Zeno the philosopher, since there are two of those -- but I guess the "Zeno of ___" makes it OK, since only one possibility fits.
Funniest comment of the day: @tb wondering if Loren's wordplay was intentional.
I spent many pleasant hours and sunny afternoons roaming the wooded hills and fields where I grew up in Tennessee (that area is now Rock Island State Park) and rarely saw, and never was bitten by, a snake. Whenever I was in an area where snakes might be, I would always carry a hiking stick and would tap the ground and stir up leaves in front of me as I went along. Snakes can hear/feel that and, given the opportunity, will quickly vacate the area. We are not on their menu. It's when we come up on them unawares that we are most likely to get bitten.
ReplyDeleteTo say that ST PETE got all those sunny days doesn't mean it was sunny all day for every one of those days. Just that the sun came out, however briefly, even though it also may have rained on those days, right?
JIGS are also mechanical devices that are built to hold or manipulate a work piece as it is being shaped or machined. I have several that I have constructed in my work shop.
I will leave you with a bit of wisdom from Mrs. Malaprop: If you are going to be a herpetologist, you should always have a good snake bite anecdote.
"Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite and furthermore always carry a small snake." -- W C Fields
ReplyDeleteAs M&A points out, having the SIDEWINDER 3rd crosscheck at the 21A-10D intersection made all the difference in getting TWIBE. And it wasn't until I Googled it post-solve, that the Twitter tie-in explained its essential Elmer Fudd-ness.
ReplyDeleteThat said, like @Tita A, I could have used a 3rd cross-check at my AFl-UFl intersection. Shrug, so bite me (not the snakes, please.)
And like M&A, with MLKJR and the start of KING in the circles, I momentarily was expecting a second tribute puzzle. Why the snakiness of the circles? Why ask why? (Which is something I do that drives my husband crazy - I wonder why something is so when it makes no sense to me. I then proceed to reason on why, using logic (at least I hope so) said thing is so. By this time, husband is saying, "Enough with the speculation.") Anyhoo, by the time COBRA appeared, the snakiness was explained and the tribute idea went POOF.
It's a Tuesday with crunch so thanks, J.E.B. and J.C.
@chefwen, I’m so glad Skippy got to move to Paradise. It’s a fitting reward.
ReplyDelete@LarryGilstrap, the sentence ending with the death of Uncle Earl is perfection.
I’m more than a bit myopic and one hot summer day I entered our cool, cavernous old garage looking for a hose. I spied a black rubber one lying straight out on the floor where it met the cement wall. As I grasped the end with my hand and gave a tug I screamed SNAKE! Who knew a garter snake could grow so large? I’d still prefer one to a bat any day.
I never look at little circles until I finish and I still enjoyed this. TWIBE made me laugh. KEPI was new to me, although I guess it’s old, and so was NITROCARS. A JIG is a lively dance and I can’t bear to dwell on the ugliness that turns a good word into something detestable. I had to change the L for league into C to get the happy music and do a mental JIG.
p.s.
ReplyDeleteI stand correctable -- Actually, all 4 circle-snakes amazinly wind thru the revealer. Wowzer. Reckon I shoulda watched my step, better.
I don't observe any symmetry, in the circle-snake windin shapes, tho -- that woulda been an awesomely fun extra feat. We don't ask for much beyond miracles here, huh, Chen & Bennettmeisters?
@Joaquin: Richly admired yer 1:04pm WCF quote. That dude always enjoyed partakin on a little hair of the snake that bit him. Thanx.
Also WCF: "I cook with wine; sometimes I even add it to the food."
And, of course: "Everybody's got to believe in something; I believe I'll have another beer."
But wait, don't forget: "Once during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water."
For completeness's sake, there's: "A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her."
M&Also
Today was 7 degrees warmer when I went outside at 7 am than yesterday at the same time and the radiator managed to warm up apartment enough so that I don’t feel the need to huddle under the blankets like I did yesterday until I turned the oven on to cook dinner. I can actually take my fingers out of thick gloves and from under the covers and type!
ReplyDeleteI saw the windy circles and thought @Nancy is likely to hate this one. Then I saw TWIBE and thought that’s going to kill it for her faster than snake venom.
Once KING emerged I filled in all the other snakes off of one or two letters. I am not generally SCAREd of snakes except for the venomous species. I did have an encounter with a green mamba in Peace Corps that was slashed to death by a neighbor. My husband and I went to the Osa Peninsula once and took a guided hike in the jungle. The guide told us to WATCH OUR STEPs, but he was the oRe who almost stepped on a Fer de Lance snake.
My sister would have enjoyed the dog snake (and bear) encounter stories posted today even more than I did. Her German Shepherd Rex is very inquisitive and rattle snakes are common on the hiking trails in her area.
@Quasi, coffee almost reached my nose on that one since that’s how I feel about accidental selfies.
I started down the NITRO path and thought maybe my favorite anesthesia would emerge, but there weren’t enough letters. Then I thought about what fills scuba tanks but it was too short. So, ai did concede that the gas in the puzzle was intended for use in CARs. As for the so called euphoric effect of nitrogen narcosis from deep diving, it’s just too dark and cold down there to be worth it as I discovered on the 5 minutes at 100 ft deep dive required for Advanced Underwater Diver certification. Any euphoria that I might have experienced was negated by the unpleasant experience of having my teeth quiver from cole while clamping down on the regularator. I stick to shallow colorful warmer dives nearer the surface.
@Quasi, I chuckled since that’s how I feel about accidental selfies.
@Malsdemere, another belated congratulations on your anniversary. Enjoyed your story about family names too.
In my profession as a lactation consultant it’s almost impossible to not develop an enormous sense of humor about all things related to breasts including the things like BRA PADS that cover them.
Oh, I get it now. Porky Pig is the only one who used the word TWIBE
ReplyDeleteRE: Female constructor submission rates - Will Shortz addressed that in his article about pay rates for constructors increasing as of 1/1/19.
ReplyDeleteThe article states: "The range of contributors is broad. In my 25 years at The Times the ages of published constructors have varied from 13 to 101. Thirty-seven teenagers have had puzzles published. The average age of contributors today is probably in the upper 30s. Published constructors have hailed from 47 states plus D.C., six Canadian provinces and nine foreign countries. Only about 15 percent of published constructors nowadays are women — which is about the same as the percentage of submissions that come from women. We’d like to increase that." (Emphasis mine).
15% of constructors means that 54 or so puzzles per year, approx. one per week. So the NYT is definitely behind in that number this year.
I would never have gotten TWIBE without SIDEWINDER. I've heard of padded bras, but not bra pads, looked them up I guess they are a thing. Got Naticked at AFC and UFC. After being informed there was a mistake, I googled UFl and it was a thing associated with MMA and AFl is also a thing. GRRRRR.
ReplyDeletep.p.s.s.
ReplyDeleteNo debuts, today … sooo … Not an all-debutz week, anymore afterall. Woulda been a primo idea, tho.
Also a primo idea: An all-circles week. Just seein @RP's reaction to The Circles in his FriPuz would be a hella sight to behold.
Mr. Bennett's five NYTPuzs so far have *all* had The Circles, btw. Nice string goin there, anyhoo.
Also way past time for an all-female-constructioneers week, evidently. What the heck gives, there?! Did all the women start doin other fulltime crossword gigs, like Gorski and Spadaccini … or maybe they now are gonna be busy as regulars at NYorker & Inkubator & elsewhere? Does sorta look like there is a bit more competition for scorin lady constructioneer puzs.
@muse darlin could sure be a contender -- if she weren't super-busy, already. I've seen her NYTPuzs in action and they are great. She made real real good runt puzzles, back in the day, too boot.
M&A the Third.
Eweybody hewe is a wascally wabbit & a wowwy wawt.
ReplyDeleteE. F.
No trouble with the puzzle but really, crossing 4D with MLKJR is bad. Very bad.
ReplyDeleteSF Bay area here --"jig" is deeply offensive...
ReplyDeleteI usually just read and don’t post...but I have to comment on BRAPAD. I really have no idea (as a woman) why it’s problematic to have it in the puzzle. Who cares? It’s just a piece of fabric. As for female constructors, my daughter (a junior at U of Chicago) has submitted several puzzles without getting one accepted. I actually don’t think she’s even heard back. I’ve done some of her puzzles and they are quite good. Just a piece of info for those pondering the rate of submission of puzzles by women.
ReplyDeleteI taught "R&J" literally over fifty times and had forgotten the Apothecary? Is my face red!
ReplyDeleteHow far must we keep tip toeing around perfectly innocent words in order not to offend the sensitive? And who are the sensitive? Look up JIG and even the Urban dictionary doesn't make reference to any offensiveness. It's a dance. It's a type of tool, and the innocuous reference goes on. Then we have the sensitive who give rise to the word BRA - and a padded one at that.....Hate to say it, but women (some) wear them. It's an everyday word.
ReplyDeleteThere are plenty of offensive words that most of us who read are aware of and don't use. Some have reared their heads here. BEANER was one - although some of you weren't aware of its offensiveness. Calling an Asian an ORIENTAL was also brought to the fore. These are obvious slurs; leave them out.
Jeff Chen was the one person that brought to Will's attention the pejorative use of the word "Beaner." Further, he explained that it could be switched to something else without compromising the puzzle. Will chose not to...his bad. Do you really think that Mr. Chen would willingly slip in JIG for no other reason than to piss some of you off?
Please....worry about something important. Go feed the homeless or better yet, build them a home.
@GILL I
ReplyDeleteWell said!
Words should be taken in context.
We need to just drop all offensive words/labels, and just start calling people dicks or assholes. Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a good puzzle. I think it’s unfair to the constructor to focus on some innocuous word that can be perceived as offensive. I think Donald Trump and Michael Sharp are racists.
ReplyDelete@GILL I - you made some excellent points as always, but the urban dictionary does list a definition of JIG as an offensive term for a black person. It’s all the way at the bottom but it’s there. I actually looked it up before I posted my comment just to confirm. I’ve heard it used in that sense most of my life but I was unsure whether it might just be a regional or local dialect thing so I checked. It’s also listed on Dictionary.com as “a contemptuous term used to refer to a black person.”
ReplyDeleteI agree that neither Mr. Chen nor any legitimate constructor would willingly slip in a derogatory term with the intentional purpose of offending anyone. As you pointed out, in most cases a word or term is generally innocuous and often the perceived offense is in the ear of the beholder. I think in this case - at least in my eye/ear - it was particularly noticeable because of the obvious crossing with MLK. And perhaps exacerbated by the timing, the image of Rev King being more distinct in our minds this day.
@Whatsername
ReplyDeleteDid you read the clue for 4D? "Lively dances."
As a pilot and somebody who has friends into gliders, WINGSPREAD is not a real term. In ten years of flying I have never heard it even once. It is definitely always WINGSpan! A cursory Google search immediately confirms this, as WINGSPREAD returns all results about a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, whereas WINGSpan returns the desired results about aviation.
ReplyDeleteEADS Bridge on PBS just now. Never heard of it before last week's puzzle... Now I recognize it on sight.
ReplyDeleteOne reason I love doing puzzles is the occasional worthwhile thing I learn when I dig a little deeper on something new (to me). Not to mention how snooty it lets me feel when I can say "Why yes... The oldest bridge on the Mississippi also happens to be the first all steel bridge in the world, and the longest too. Well, until Eiffel built a longer one in Portugal."
Cravats don’t have tie bars. They have tie pins. Big difference. Editors should catch this type of “yuge” error.
ReplyDeleteSigh. First time I've seen my name in a puzzle and no comments on it. (66A). Oh, yeah, my blog handle is not my name, so never mind - as Ernistine used to say on Laugh In (dating myself here). Too much TWIBE talk I guess.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say I liked this one.
ReplyDelete‘ERE IDIE
ReplyDeleteIt SCARES me to HOPE,SO this I DID ADVISE:
For EVER WATCHYOURSTEP during LANDLSIDES,
ADHERE to this ‘ERE you meet
with his WINGSPREAD, ST.PETE;
TAKECARE of YORE self at the FINAL high TIDES.
--- REUBEN “NIMROD” SHEEN
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI had my WINGSPREAD wide and was soaring. Then I guessed CYn and nURA for 22A and 24D. And POOF! That is FINALly where IDIEd. Was it too much for my DURA mater or a nasty and ill-ADVISEd Natick? I BET they DID that just to make us CRY. I agree with Rex's VIEWS regarding 21A and especially 4D. Just a slip? I HOPESO. Mr. Shortz, YORE going to have to WATCHYOURSTEP and ERR on the side of caution. I won't GAB for EVER. No more TSK, TSK, TSKS. I'll just give this one a DEE.
ReplyDeleteMy first entry was DOD CYD Charisse. Hall-of-fame legs. Seeing all those circles, and the name Chen on the byline, I was mindful of impending trickery--forgetting that it's only Tuesday. So I tried to work on the revealer at 35-across. It wasn't long till I figured out what was going on, so then up to the NW--where I encountered a vowel string directly under a consonant string! This from JC???
ReplyDeleteThen I noticed that the KINGCOBRA descended from MLK(ING!)JR, and so thought that all the snakes' heads would somehow involve their crosses. Potentially, they could've: SIDE, PUFF and COPPER can stand alone--but no. That first ore was just an accident. I did not notice 4-down's significance--because I WASN'T LOOKING FOR POSSIBLE OFFENSES!! Now that I see it, yeah sure, bad taste. Reminds me of an old "Get Smart" episode in which the perp is of color. Max says "The JIG is up!" He emphasizes it to make it so outrageous it's funny.
Ore piece of fill I will NOT object to is LII: my beloved E!A!G!L!E!S! were the victors, and the fact that they beat the Pats is doubly sweet, getting revenge for '05.
I thought TWIBE referred to fans of the "Twilight" film series. What do I know? I bought it. ELEA is a tough customer for a Tuesday. The two next-longest acrosses are, strangely, NOT theme-related. They're okay, but YEOW! a lot of fill isn't. We go all the way to sq. 11 before we encounter our first vowel on line 1! UFC and AFC meet; there'd be an interesting contest. Is NITROCARS a thing??
WATCHYOURSTEP, Jeff: you're slipping. Despite 2-down, I have to score a bogey, and that's FINAL.
UFC/AFC was a near Natick for me, but I guessed the C properly.
ReplyDeleteThe snakes may have been in the grass, but they were surely helpful. Like so many species, they get a bum rap.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords, Animal Lover
Let's hear it for one word: TWIBE.
ReplyDeleteGot it all, including the TWIBE, because a snake made me do it, and the snakes made for some impressive graphics and were solver friendly. Can't hiss at that.
So ST. PETE had more than two years straight of daily sunshine. Was that a good thing?
DURA and ROSCOE were unknowns.
Clever and fun puzzle.
From Syndication Land
ReplyDelete@Loren Muse Smith is such a breath of fresh air! I read this blog to see what funny refreshing thing she will say about the puzzle. I had the same reaction to TWIBE. I'm not on Twitter, but the cross was fair. What could it have been besides SIDEWINDER? I'm glad to learn new things from the puzzle, and I thought this was an extremely pleasant solve and well constructed puzzle.
TWIBE? I shouldn’t be surprised and I already had the W in there, so I just shook my head and continued snaking around. No write-overs and done fairly quickly. I DID notice that there’s only one vowel in the top row and only two consonants in the second. Odd use of TAR, only a part of TARnish.
ReplyDeleteYour ADREPS want you to put your ADHERE.
Super Bowl LII was in MN. The AFC team lost. See @spacey’s post for details.
Rather than an idiot, NIMROD was a king and great hunter. The City of NIMROD in northern MN had a population of 69 as of the last census.
Yup. CYD Charisse; her legs went aaaall the way to the floor [GAWKER LEERS]. Yeah baby.
OK puz, that’s FINAL.
Even if it isn't a real term, I thought TWIBE was perfect. In fact, I liked the whole puzzle and found the snakes very helpful in completing the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteIs 4-down something bad? I would have no idea. Looks like it wasn't intended to be, so no problem, at least from me.
I remember CYD Charisse but I only knew/know her as a dancer. Gorgeous legs. Am I allowed to say that?
As you were.
It's OK, Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes.
ReplyDelete