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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (11:45)
Theme answers:
- 22A: L x A (LOS ANGELES TIMES)
- 39A: x - y = x - y (SAME DIFFERENCE)
- 47A: (A- or B+)/7 (SEVENTH GRADE)
- 67A: The "x" in x^2 = 666 (ROOT OF ALL EVIL)
- 86A: $$$/X (CASH DIVIDEND)
- 95A: 3.BB (THREE-POINT SHOT)
- 116A: X^Esq (POWER OF ATTORNEY)
Nikola Jean "Niki" Caro MNZM (born 1967) is a New Zealand film director and screenwriter. Her 2002 film Whale Rider was critically praised and won a number of awards at international film festivals. She is the second female director hired by Disney to direct a film which is budgeted at over $100 million, when helming a live-action version of Disney's Mulan. (wikipedia)
• • •
And then ELA HIFIVE VARIG ... the fill in this one is too often stale and weak. When you're hitting the *erstwhile* Brazilian national airlines, you know you've got a problem. An addiction to archaic fill. Plural ELMOS? AT STORES? (not IN?). OPA? SCALER? ECOL? STATOR? DERALTE? URANIC??? OME!?! I'm at a loss. There's almost no good fill in this one. RAMMER? Come on. Why is PENH ... just why? Why is it? Why not PENT? Is "stop" somewhere else in the grid? How in the world do you decide to go with a foreign name *part* over a normal word? There are so so so many ways to ditch 1. plural name ALIS, and 2. crosswordese INGE, and 3. foreign name *part* PENH. Here's just one. Simple. Took me very little time:
New puzzle alert! Well, not new, but newly available online: Matt Gaffney's New York magazine crossword puzzle is now available for your solving pleasure. Here's the promo copy: "The New York Crossword is finally online, appearing each Sunday night at nymag.com/crossword. Matt Gaffney’s current puzzle will alternate weeks with selections from the archives." Matt is a prolific and meticulous constructor, so this is very good news. Also, if you aren't a subscriber to Matt Gaffney's Weekly Crossword Contest (a weekly meta-crossword of varying degrees of difficulty), you are very much missing out on the fun (and occasional self-loathing). Read about recent puzzles here / Subscribe here.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*apparently the title is a pun on "mass hysteria," which, you know, doesn't really work, 'cause if you had that lisp you'd say "math hythteria," but OK
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
The title is a play on "Mass Hysteria."
ReplyDeleteHysterical — Rex ain’t no mathlete — again very easy — 75% of my Sunday average. Fun puz. Especially liked the Power of attorney.
ReplyDeleteI found the puzzle easy and a pleasant diversion; I liked the rebus-like twist as a Sunday theme. I thought SAME DIFFERENCE was cute and ROOT OF ALL EVIL inspired. Admittedly, other than GLITTERATI I didn't see a lot of sparkle; I noticed quite a few do-ers, though: SCALER, LEADER, HEALER, RAMMER, SHOPPER, SEER, CATERER, along with one STATOR (apparently a non-doer) and multiple DEPRESSORS.
ReplyDelete@chefwen, aloha! It's awfully nice to be back in your time zone!
Sorry but I think Rex has got to be kidding. The only thing he got right is that this was challenging (or in his case medium/challenging . For me this was an enjoyable workout that had a happy ending.
ReplyDeleteI hate math
ReplyDeleteI agree completely. Also, on my iPad the clue for 27A showed up as ‘666, which was nearly devilishly meaningless
ReplyDeleteWhat a rude awakening to go from yesterday's thoroughly enjoyable solve to this Franken-puzzle. With fill like AHSO, IAMTOO, OME, and OPA this often felt like a tour of the crossword glue atrocity exhibition. Yes there was a lot of obscure material and I got my share of puzzling out of it but the solve was rarely entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI got no solving high out of this in spite of all the puzzling effort that went into the solve. While I appreciate the range of material this puzzle threw at me I came away an "I'm just glad I didn't get dnfed" feeling.
THO crossing SHOOP and VARIG crossing GENESEE we're the two most questionable crossings for me. While the SE corner had nothing iffy to me when I finished up the puzzle down there I still found it to be the most difficult area.
This was the kind of puzzle where I have more fun looking things up afterwards than I did while solving.
I like seeing Adam’s name on top, not only do I like his puzzles, but his first name is two letters short of my last name and his last name is an ER short of my maiden name, and no, I’m not related to a travel writer. Dang!
ReplyDeleteHeart sank a little when I read the title as I’m not known for my Mathematic ability, much to the dismay of Dear Old Dad. Once I got LOS ANGELES TIMES, I thought “this might be fun” and it was. Loved the ROOT OF ALL EVIL clue.
Had a Geez, here we go again, moment with AH SO, let’s hope that conversation is over and done.
Fun puzzle.
Agreed! My solve time was average. Once I got LA Times, I realized I could stop being anxious about math. Loved Root of all Evil and Power of Attorney! "At stores" instead of "in" was only "what the??"
DeleteMedium-tough seems about right. I thought the theme was cute/clever but I agree @Rex that the fill had problems. Still, liked it more than @Rex did.
ReplyDeletePicky stuff:
ReplyDeleteAn unnecessarily obscure definition for THERM. My Con Edison gas bill charges me for each therm of gas I use. And their therms are 100,000 BTUs, where a BTU is enough energy to increase the temperature of a pound of water a degree Fahrenheit.
The puzzle writer's therms have enough energy to heat up 1,000 kilograms of water 1 degree Celsius, or about 1/25th of Con Edison's therms.
Yes, the puzzle definition is legit according to Google, but in the United States, Con Edison's definition is by far the most used. Further, when I took chemistry, we used the metric system, but "1,000 large calories" wasn't called a "therm,", it was simply called "1,000 kilocalories."
Also never heard the word URANIC before, but OK, what else could pertaining to element 92 be about. The highest natural element is number 92, uranium, so that was easy if one remembers one's chemistry.
No complaint that the i in ILE has an accent circumflex, while the I in TACONIC does not? :)
Had never known before that a corporal was an NCO.
@Carola, welcome back. I sure hope it warms up for you soon. I know it’s not Wisconsin cold, but it is Hawaii cold and not what you would expect in our so called “paradise”. Brrr! When the temperature gets below my age I insist on a fire, we’ve had one every night for three weeks. Running out of firewood.
ReplyDeleteVARIG ? DERALTE ? RAMSESI ? OME, OPA DEROSSI ? URANIC . . . ? Garbage, garbage and more garbage. Rex is absolutely on target today. Seems like every day the NYT puzzles get more nonsensical. I guess if you solve 20 or 30 puzzles a week, you might find this slogfest enjoyable - certainly there are going to be a few who post that sentiment here. Unfortunately, I just don’t get the point of a crossWORD puzzle that doesn’t use freaking WORDS ! Oh well, to each his (or her) own. . . . Smh
ReplyDeleteFirst off, thanks to everybody here who helped raise the 35,000 euros or dollars or whatever to get me out of jail in Switzerland. A special note of thanks to all the people who sent me bullets although unfortunately they confiscated those. Swiss jail isn't too bad, they serve cocoa there made with real chocolate.
ReplyDeleteI did this puzzle on the flight home, and I gotta tell you Emirates first class is pretty swank. I had my own friggin' shower. I was supposed to come back on a Gulfstream 550 but after the situation arose I had to settle for a commercial airline, but like I said it wasn't too shabby.
Anyways I thought this puzzle was just fine. Sappho is my second favorite POETESS so that is always nice to see. Emily Dickinson is my favorite POETESS because she's so dark and gloomy, like an Addams Family cartoon. I used to work with a Japanese guy from Japan and he said AHSO all the time so I don't know if it's a parody if they actually say it, like the Germans say ACH but you never hear any complaints about that. When the Italians get excited they go MAMA MIA! and then they faint, if we want to cover all the Axis Powers here.
I didn't know "hyster" meant "uterus" but that makes complete sense now. I think of "hysterical" as meaning "very humorous" but I guess it really means "crazy" or "out of your freaking mind" and now that really makes sense to me. I also just learned that "distaff" means "womanly." That's one of those words that I read but never really thought about what it meant; I thought it meant like "various" or something. I'm going to use it from now on, and sneak it into sentences like Dashiell Hammett used to sneak "gunsel" past his editors because nobody bothered to look up what it really meant. John Huston got away with that in Hollywood too. That's hysterical.
Thanks again to everybody for helping me out of a jam.
I have been reading for about a year and am quite used to finishing a puzzle that I either enjoyed doing or was at least okay with and seeing Rex pick it apart.
ReplyDeleteI check his site literally every day because I really do enjoy reading it and seeing his take on things.
But one thing that has continually confused me is the disproportionate anger at very small aspects of the puzzle. I get it that this is, like, his thing, getting really worked up over something that wouldn't bother 99.99999% of the general public. But still, I feel like it's a bit unhealthy to have this much anger! And ok, probably better to vent it than build it up until it is released in an orgy of violence and destruction. But still.
And there is nothing exceptional about today that makes me post, but I think the full frontal assaults on gendered words goes a bit too far. I mean, I am all for gender equality
...is usually what people say before saying something pretty sexist. but I am actually for gender equality, and failed to see how "this is a boy puzzle for boys," as Rex stated.
Really? Because the creator uses the word "POETESS"? Is that it? Did I miss something else?
Because for every PHARAOH there's a CLARA, and for every AIDAN Gillan there's a Portia DEROSSI (costar of Better off Ted, the finest television show of the 2000s) and for each Mullah issuing a FATWAH we have a TORY leader (Theresa May (notice my correct spelling of her first name)) limping out of the EU like a wombat that just chewed her own leg off in a snare.
By my count it's 7 male references to 8 female references (if we count SIRI -- but that's a whole other thing), and that includes the literal god EOS.
I know gender is important, and there are serious gender equity issues in Crosswordsylvania, but let's not have a heart attack over this.
Okay, first post over! looking forward to writing more in the future. cheers.
Right on. Rexs complaint about same difference shows his ignorance of math. X-y is by itself a "difference", making the answer perfectly elegant. Same with 67a. Root can be square or cubed or whatever but using the word root without the qualifier is just fine. If you stopped taking math after 10th grade, well I never have read or watched game of thrones. Too bad. Just use what you know and solve.
DeleteCottoned to the trick really early with SAME DIFFERENCE, and I laughed. The mathematical representation for this is spot on. The ROOT OF ALL EVIL’s clue is perfect, too. And POWER OF ATTORNEY. These are great. For the others, even the ones whose clues require a little bit of a, well, of a FUDGE FACTOR, I didn’t get all upset.
ReplyDeleteTo find common math vocabulary, find other phrases that use these words, and then deconstruct the math deal back into a “formula” to represent the common phrase – brilliant. A very common dish ‘round these parts is baked steak, whose main ingredient is steak³. That’s the only one I can think of that you could clue. I mean, we had stuff like SKI SLOPE, ORDERED PAIR, BACHELOR’S DEGREE, ACUTE PAIN… but how the heck would you represent them in a mathy-looking clue?
I loved this.
COEXIST is always clued like everything is hunky dory. Not for me; I coexist a teacher who cheerfully tries to throw me under the bus now and then. We coexist, but I wouldn’t say we “get along.” Ok. Now that I think about it, the fact that I play nice with her and not let on that I’m on to her sabotagery, I guess I see it. Yeah, we COEXIST. But the exist part is weird. Is there a word for the alternative? If I decided to call her out and go all anti-coexist on her? A lexical opposite feels menacing, like one of us would cease to exist.
@Enemy of Food – Welcome! I agree with your gender equality comments. That the word POETESS exists does’t bother me any more than, say goddess or princess. Every year at the ACPT, a bunch of female constructors get together for breakfast. They’re nice to include me ‘cause I really don’t belong in this august group. Anyhoo, we’re always joking about what our breakfast should be called. Constructress Breakfast, Constructrix Breakfast… a feminine suffix wouldn’t bother me in the least. But I think we should totally get embroidered jackets with the name. (Once on FB, our group picture showed up, and Mike Selinker commented That’s great! What puzzle did y’all construct? Or something to that effect. I still laugh at that.)
Letters sometimes followed by :D – LOL. I’m still fascinated at the nervous little laugh we do even when the situation is not really humorous that has bled over into writing. Yesterday in Walmart, I heard a customer say to an associate, Thanks. I didn’t realize it had been moved. And she laughed. There was nothing funny to laugh at. If they had been texting, she would have ended this with an LOL. I get that this little laugh expresses maybe a dopey me sentiment, but still. Human smiling and laughing fascinate me to the point of obsession. I bet the Maasai warrior doesn’t give a nervous little laugh when told he has accidentally grabbed someone else’s spear. Or maybe he does. I have to find this stuff out.
Difference between and epithet and a sobriquet – A sobriquet is a friendly little pat on the shoulder: The Donald. An epithet is a knee to the groin: The Lyin’ King.*
I saw in some book once a KFC sign that had lost a letter to a spectacular, unsettling effect: Try Our New Spicy owl!
*To “fuel + fire, “I had many, many kicks in the groin to choose from: Agent Orange, The Wall Nut, Darth Hater…
The fun of this puzzle for me was trying to figure out the theme answers from the clue alone, with little or no letters filled in the grid for those answers. And that *was* fun (thank you, Adam!), enough so to make me overlook any nits. This was akin to those non-crossword rebus puzzles of my youth, which I loved to crack. So I had a grand old time with this; it had my attention÷(not yet) .
ReplyDeleteI wish SHOPPER would have been SLOBBER, the perfect mate to PAVLOV in the grid.
Mrs. ' mericans solved this one as a tag TEEM. She filled the center quickly, but then it took us a looooong time to complete the corners.
ReplyDeleteWhatever other problems this puzzle may have had, we loved the theme, especially ROOT OF ALL EVIL and POWER OF ATTORNEY and their corresponding CLUEs. So clever! The only one I got tripped up on was "(A- or B+)/7" (notice how substituting a slash there for "or" would have made it very confusing), which I guessed as "made the GRADE", which has the same number of letters as SEVENTH GRADE.
Here's a couple of another IDEAs:
Area divider: (X x Y)/Z
Absolute power: X^|Y| (sorry, I don't know how to do superscripts with HTML)
Less than Equals: < [=, =]
Forty-two across also threw me, as I've only ever known the stuff as red algae, or specifically for the kind that is commonly eaten, Irish moss (Chondrus crispus). I've never heard it referred to as SEA MOSS. Fun fact: Irish MOSS is the source of carrageenan (sometimes spelled as carrageenin), a common (and natural) food thickener and stabilizer.
On the other hand, I knew SHOOP right off the bat. Funny how our brains retain trivia like that.
GENESSEE -- Ah, one of my favourite beers when I was an undergrad in upstate New York. Went well with GRUB. Brings back (mostly) good memories.
@JOHN X -- Great continuation of your saga! Clearly I need to go back and read your posts since Wednesday!
Anybody else hit a total Natick at the crossing of VARIG and GENESEE? I get that this is the New York Times puzzle and therefore its fair game to include New York specific clues, but still...
ReplyDeleteSounds like the clue for THEROOTOFALLEVIL showed differently in different apps, which is a shame, because it was pretty great.
ReplyDeleteWALLNUT, har. I hadn’t heard that one.
How about “i x friend?” Or “vita + i x min?”
The fill wasn’t great but I did enjoy the themers.
Oh, and about Hysteria. Stop already with leaping to save the defenseless women, @Rex. It’s just a word and there isn’t a good substitute, especially in this case. There are plenty of words with the same-looking root and no way to read an insult into them. Try “hysteresis.” Really, @Rex, we’re fine.
ReplyDeleteWhy is OME a cry of despair?
ReplyDeleteMostly straightforward, with pauses for a few of the names. I was defeated by the Mini.
ReplyDeleteI thought the theme answers varied in quality.
ReplyDeleteROOTOFALLEVIL, POWEROFATTORNEY: brilliant (assuming the square root sign prints correctly, of course).
CASHDIVIDEND, SAMEDIIFERENCE, SEVENTHGRADE: pretty good. Didn't evince as big a groan as the first two.
THREEPOINTSHOT: Meh. How is a BB (I got that it was a basketball) a shot?
LOSANGELESTIMES?? The clue would be correct for LOSTIMESANGELES.
And silly me, I got IPAD early on. That left me wracking my brain for a Pharaoh whose name ended in an I.
Having recently been in Ely, NV, I would disagree somewhat with US 50 being the LONELIEST. (I realize that the puzzle writer didn't make that term up for US 50.) One can easily wait close to a minute at Ely's one traffic light. And other nearby through roads in NV and UT are a lot emptier.
I had tongue DEPRESSERS for a long time, and had no idea about TYRESE, which left me wondering about dolls called _LMES.
And RAMMERS seem to be used to compactify dirt. The references I find don't have them used for demolition since medieval times when the last bunch of knights attacked a castle door with one.
It strikes me that with proper nouns, one's indignation depends on what one knows. I knew TACONIC, DERALTE, GENESEE, RAFAEL, and DEROSSI, so they didn't bother me; in fact, they helped me a lot. But SHMOO, SHOOP, and TYRESE outraged me.
Heavy on the double letters today. 5 SSes. And the SW corner also has MM EE and RR. @Nancy all it needs is the LL train. :D.
ReplyDeleteI hate it when people diSS words like Poetess or Actress or Seeress which created a Temptress in a Teapot Dome scandal here a while back. They are just words, ladies and gentlefolk. Old words, perhaps. But there is no harm in using it as done here in an historical (not hysterical) context. If you called Adrienne Rich a poetess you might get some well-earned flack. But open your mind up to the beauty of words. Especially dusty musty fun words. No one complains when ERST is used once in a while. And do we really want to throw the word Mistress onto the dung heap of unacceptable terms? Which reminds me, show me a newspaper or TV news show that called Stormy Daniels a “porn actor.” It’s always actress. But if you’re walking down a red carpet to the Oscars in a see-through dress you’re an “actor.”
@Anonymous 8:34 AM -- Think BB as in BB-gun. BBs (little, round steel spheres) are what they shoot.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGlad so many others liked this — I did too. Rex is just being a poopyhead. Which is why we come here.
ReplyDeleteWelcome @Enemy and I’m so glad you made it out, @JOHN X. Hope you enjoyed the shower.
To me, the theme answers were clever and mildly amusing, but I can see why the humor might not be appreciated by some people. Not that it justifies moaning about the puzzle. The PPP justifies (to me) moaning about the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteA quick word on AH SO: as I've mentioned elseweb, you're absolutely right, I shouldn't have used it. I've taken it out of my dictionary.
ReplyDeleteGENESEE, Utica Club, Piels, Hulls, Rheingold (which could never have their annual voting pageant today), all great Northeast beers before anyone ever made IPA a three letter crossword staple.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed the puzzle. Did what @Lewis did with the themers. Got three that way. Ignored the nits others are groaning about.
Total Natick for me today in the Mini. First time I can remember that happening. Sort of embarassing.
As a feminist woman who thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, I'm genuinely confused by what makes this a boy puzzle for boys.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@Enemy of Food mostly echoed my thoughts (thanks!) ... just wanted to add that it was definitely one of the more challenging Sundays (a bit more doable once I got the theme, but tough to crack with no-easy crosses); Rex has complained vociferously about how too-easy Sunday puzzles can be, and now he kvetches about this too. I skim his blog and if it's too ranty, come to these much more interesting and insightful comments.
Happy almost-spring!
-- CS
@RAD2626 9:45 AM -- Utica Club and Rheingold ... YES!
ReplyDeleteVery fun puzzle. Way more interesting than today’s washpost
ReplyDeleteWe moved upstate in 1972, and I remember driving by a convenience store one time when my sister was visiting. The sign outside said: Genesee 24 pack $9.99. She asked, "What is Genesee?" When I told her beer, she said, "Twenty-four cans of beer for $9.99?!?"
ReplyDeleteBut don't put Genesee down to Genny drinkers. They'll throw full cans at your head.
I always thought I was bad at math until I finished this puzzle. None of it threw me a curve even when I had to circle back round to enter some answers. I though it was a beta solve than Rex.
@Anonymous 8:34, I think you nailed it on your assessment of the themers. They didn’t all hit the bullseye but it was a very clever idea and fun to figure out. I gave THREE POINT SHOT an A because of the cleverness of BB not as basketball, but as ammo for a BB gun.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was either very easy or very difficult. Parts of it practicallly filled themselves in and others might as well have been written in Swahili. I did finish. Good Sunday workout.
Sorry @tb, didn’t know I was coming across as speaking for anybody but myself. That was just my opinion. Because I get tired of having chivalrous males speak up for me. Ironic!
ReplyDeleteThis is very clever, I think. I loved SAME DIFFERENCE, POWER OF ATTORNEY and especially ROOT OF ALL EVIL. There was a bunch of stuff I didn't know (SHOOP, TYRESE, HI FIVE, VARIG, ROSITA) and I thought O ME and the clues for THO and TADA were weird but overall, this was a fun Sunday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteA friend who hails from Pennsylvania originally used to bring GENESEE Cream Ale back with him after a visit home. It wasn't bad, for beer in a can.
I get an Anoka County Shopper jammed into my newspaper receptacle every week. They mostly get shoved directly into recycling but once in a while, I'll give it a look. It doesn't have all ads - there's usually some story of local interest plus a list of important goings-on in the various cities in the county. I wonder what the SHOPPER delivery person thinks when they see weeks' worth of untouched shoppers yellowing in the sun. Are they indifferent or do they feel angst for the Sisyphean task they are carrying out?
Adam Fromm, nice job on an interesting theme.
Pretty sure I have multiple DNF/DNCs because, as Rex said, the fill needs polishing. However, the thought of Russian blue and Egyptian Mau being rAT BREEDs makes it almost worthwhile.
ReplyDeleteIn print the clue includes the radical symbol, and ROOT OF ALL EVIL got a smile here. The others are fine, but “hysteria?” Uh, no. One mildly amusing and a bunch of “kind of cute.”
@Southside Johnny - I think the opposite is actually the case. The more puzzles the more obscurity pales compared to clever word play. INGE, ESSO, VARIG? Blrrgh. I think non-solvers and new solvers are impressed when an experienced solvers plops in Yma Sumac with nary a pause, but, really, its a desperate constructor and we solvers are busy crossing our EYES.
Regarding POETESS, on the sobriquet to epithet scale, -ESS words are closer to the latter than the former. What, exactly, does one’s genitalia or gender have to do with one’s writing? You don’t mean to be insulting or demeaning or degrading? Easy, leave off the -ESS. If you use it you are being sexist. Defend its use any way you want, defining someone’s work by their gender... C’mon people, POETESS defines a person’s work by that person’s gender, do you really need to have explained to you why that is sexism?
Had a devil of a time getting started, with my entry at the SOGGY CAYMAN cross. But after that, it was one of the easiest puzzles in memory. Still managed to DNF at GsE/THEsM. Had no idea about the test but figured it would stand for Graduate School Exam. What is a THEsM, you ask? I have no answer.
ReplyDeleteLoved the theme and enjoyed puzzling over each one.
Less fond of SCALER OPER LEADER SHOPPER POWER HEALER RAMMER CATERER … that sure is a lot of ER(r)S.
X X: Separate but equal
Enjoyed the theme, but not the fill, which was far too obscure and awkward for my taste.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@'Mericans7:06:
I too was an undergrad in upstate NY: RPI, which was XWd fill several times a while back. The TACONIC Parkway was a gimme, since I would use it going down to NYC to avoid the Throughway toll.
Overall, this was a bit more difficult for me than most Sundays. But I got a real kick out of the themers ... Very creative, @Mr. From.
When I saw AH.SO, I knew this was going to set off OFL. Interesting that the author posted and agreed. I don't get why OFL had such a problem with Phnom PENH. This was also a gimme for me. Doesn't OFL know much world geography?
So a math guy does a clever puzzle but the author of the blog is a comic book prof and it's just not in his wheelhouse. The time is above his average which often seems to mean there is a reason to dislike the effort. Maybe some of the criticism is warranted but let's not forget from whence the puzzle originated.
ReplyDeleteLiked it and, for me, a quick solve.
I loved this puzzle, absolutely loved it, and believe 67A to be the best clue I've ever seen in a crossword. And so I'm asking you, Adam Fromm, was THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL the impulse for the entire puzzle -- the seed idea from which all else was derived? I'd take every nickel I have in the world to bet that it was.
ReplyDeleteI found solving this puzzle totally involving. My biggest hangup was Nevada's Highway 50 (51D) which I quickly dubbed THE LOvELIEST ROAD IN AMERICA. Which gave me -EIvIE at 63A for the "Caboose". You try and make that work! The missing "N" of LONELIEST was my last letter in.
Every single visual pun and word game in the cluing was delectable. One of the best and most enjoyable Sundays I've ever done.
Check our the author’s thoughts:
Deletehttps://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/10/2019
Loved the theme and it has been a long, long while since math classes. Got all the theme answers from the clues and then....
ReplyDeleteROOT OF ALL EVIL was the second themed answer I got, after SEVENTH GRADE, and, yeah … my first reaction was, that is the sign for the SQUARE root of … not just the “root.” Moreover — maybe this is a nitpick — when you are presented with the square root notation in math, you are supposed to come up with an ANSWER to the math problem, which obviously must be different than the number under the square root notation. In the case of the actual number 666, its square root is an irrational number … so, I don’t know, maybe IRRATIONAL HATRED as the answer to the clue, SQUARE ROOT OF ALL EVIL? OK, maybe that sucks too … or maybe the whole clue should have been omitted.
ReplyDeleteLike Rex, I’ve no idea why a female poet is called a poetess. Isn’t this a bit dated and sexist? Sylvia Plath was a POET, not a poetess, etc. Nobody, at least today, calls female poets poetesses! The suffix has always been stupid and superfluous anyway — has anyone ever called a female doctor a doctoress, or a doctorette??? I know there are actresses, but that’s just superfluous, too. They’re actors!
Like others, I thought there was a lot of unpleasant gunk in the gears of this. Unlike Rex, I didn’t mind PENH — it was the first answer I got (I always begin not at the top, but by just looking around randomly at the clues.) :)
First thing I check is the title. Oh Lordy...MATH HYSTERIA. Am I going to lose an hour over something I know so little about? Math gives me hives. I still have to ask my husband what is half of a 3/4 cup of sugar.
ReplyDeleteSo...my first entry is LOS ANGELES TIMES and I say to myself...hmmm, maybe I can do this one and maybe it will be fun. It was.
Words in everyday use: GRUB, blobbish SHMOO, HEINIE for Caboose, GLITTERATI and answers that give me a smile because they bring on a memory. First one was Nevadas Highway 50. It is, and it isn't, the LONELIEST. It's magical, especially driving to ELY at night. You'll see more stars than Nostradamus ever counted. And then there's the town of ELY in Nevada. What to do in Ely? Nothing. Well, there's the Renaissance Village where every single American cowboy movie was probably filmed. If you like old, desert, and nostalgia, this is your place. Then we get to the easy (for me) VARIG. Talk about nostalgia...I loved that airline. Friendly, clean, and comfortable. They were right up there with my other favorite, Braniff. Deregulation, 9/11 and rising fuel costs - killer of the airlines. Our friendly skies, no longer. United throws people off flights, turkeys are allowed a seat, peanuts cost $5, drinks are watered down and if you're obese, you have to pay the guy sitting next to you $250 for his discomfort. No, I'd rather drive Highway 50 from Reno to the East Coast...stop in all the small towns and eat me some good GRUB.
ROOT OF ALL EVIL was my favorite. Are the Quakers the only ones that are ANTI WAR? Should I be sad that you can only see an Anteater is a ZOO? My singing pal, ADELE (Hi @Quasi) shows up and so does my granddaughters favorite, ROSITA.
I'm hoping @JOHN X doesn't get stopped by customs going through the X RAY CAMERA. He might have stashed some OPIOIDS in his sun don't shine, HEINIE. :-)
Dear New times York: This puzzle sure wasn't worth clicking on fire hydrants, crosswalks, store fronts and traffic lights to get to it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I got AH SO and POETESS I thought poor Rex. Then I wondered: Could Short be doing this on purpose? Is this his way of exacting revenge? He really resents Rex?
ReplyDeleteAs a math guy I thought the theme answers were fun and engaging and gave a nice jump on the puzzle. THREEPOINTSHOT POWEROFATTORNEY SAMEDIFFERENCE ROOTOFALLEVIL CASHDIVIDEND (Had CASHDIVISION first and why do we need 3 dollar signs?). Hard to choose a favorite but I go with the 3 pointer for the cleverness of the CLUING - BB being shot and suggesting basketball. I got SEVENTH instantly and put in GRADE at the first crossing. Had LOSANGELES quickly but TIMES took longer because I thought the clue might be an airport reference.
DNF the NE corner: had AIDEN and might not have gotten URANIC anyway.
Also while I could not convince myself while working the puzzle that though = while I later changed my mind.
@gill
Did you intentionally misspell nothing in the line about your spelling or was that a typo?
Foreign words aren't 'normal'? Surely you didn't write that - might have been a TA, or an intern, or someone else.
ReplyDeleteA few weeks ago you said that cluing ICE as 'raiding group' was a middle finger to etc. I think this puzzle is a middle finger to you. Mr Shortz clearly does not care.
That having been said, while the theme was not solid, I was able to fill in everything I didn't know from crosses. That's not always the case.
Isn't a POETESS as good a poet as a poet? In any case, doesn't Hollywood, the bastion of American morals and virtue-signalling, still say ACTRESS?
ps there are lots of better verifying tools that I have seen on other sites.
Agree completely with Rex today. Even though my hometown paper made it into the grid, nothing about this was enjoyable. And 'poetess' was the nail in the coffin. Didn't bother to finish because really, waking up to Daylight Saving Time is already punishment enough.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteLost my first draft to phone refreshing.
Just popped in now (puz not in front of me, memory shot to remember it) to say my grandmother used to drink GENESEE Cream Ale all the time. I grew up in NE PA, Scranton area, so it was quite popular out there. Never got a taste for the Cream Ale. He eventually switched to Coors Light after his doctor kept telling him to stop drinking beer. Obviously, he didn't stop, but switched to a less "powerful" beer!
RooMonster
Har. Grandfather, dern Auto-Whatever-It-Wants.
DeleteRoo
Love math and wish I coud remember more of what I learned back in the day. I'm also a very literal person so was cross at the imprecision of the very first themer. Agree with Rex that L x A is Los TIMES Angeles. Period. But I did enjoy the others. Really liked seeing the CATBREEDs at 10D since we owned a shelter cat that looked like a Russian Blue. Other than that, we (puzzle hubby and I) blazed through this in almost half our average time... until we cam to a screeching halt at FATWA, VARIG, RAFAEL, NIKI. Took us a while to see ENDEAVOR at 76D, which helped clear up alot of that area; but still left an alphabet run at the G of VARIG x GENESEE, neither of which we had ever, ever heard of. At least the rest of the names that we didn't know (GIOTTO, TYRESE, ROSITA, and I'll add SHOOP to the list) were all built out from the crosses. So a sour end note for an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
ReplyDeleteHas anyone thought that Rex thinks this is a puzzle for boys because it has a math theme? I’m sorry, but one “ess” in a puzzle does not make a puzzle for boys. I’m surprised no one has caught this. Like@Nancy, I totally enjoyed the time I spent figuring out the”equations”.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks @johns for the entertainment and the gunsel info. Never knew about its "naughty" meaning. I won't tell anyone here. I'm probably the last to know anyhow.
ReplyDeleteHi Rex,
ReplyDeleteI read your blog most days because I enjoy a lot of your comments about the trickier clues. But today, I was surprised when you said this was a "boy puzzle for boys." I was kind of worried that you said that because of the math theme -- I'm a woman math Ph.D. student so was taken aback. Sorry if I just misunderstood what you wrote; I hope that I did.
OMG -- this is so, so wonderful!!! I'm not going to lose every nickel I have in the world because of the bet I made in my post above (11:01). On another blog, @Andrew from Ottawa sent me over to the Constructor's Notes to see that THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL had indeed been the entry that inspired the entire puzzle!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I often do this sort of thing when reading an op-ed piece or essay. I'll come across a particular sentence or thought that I am absolutely convinced was the foundation of the piece. Even if it comes towards the end or even at the very end, I'll be sure that the writer knew what that sentence would be before sitting down to write a single word. As a writer, I often operate that way myself -- and I recognize such an approach when I see it. Anyway, Adam Fromm, it's great that you kept that inspiration in mind as long as you did and ended up using it so well. Kudos!
@GILL, hilarious post today and I agree about flying today. I don’t think millennials can grok just how much fun it was back in the day. Stewards and stewardesses were civil and gracious. So were most of the customers. I flew Varig once to Rio and back. It was worth the entire very long trip (from NYC). Now if someone so much as coughs they turn the flight around. I loved your description of ELY too. I only know it as a cathedral town in crosswords. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteRegarding "Ah So"... I used to assume it was just made-up gibberish meant to represent (mock?) what Japanese (or Chinese maybe?) sounds like to western ears, but I've been taking Japanese lessons for the past year and I've come to learn that it's an actual common phrase in Japanese meaning something like "Oh, is that so?" or "Ahh, that's true". My teacher (from Japan) actually uses this phrase fairly often during class.
ReplyDeleteSo I suppose I'm a bit more inclined to view it's inclusion in a crossword possible as non-offensive - It's merely a borrowed phrase akin to an English speaker saying "que sera sera" or "voila". Then again I suppose it is used mockingly by many, so maybe I'm being too charitable.
I dunno.
nahhhh... Saturday easy.
ReplyDeleteMan, I'd hate to go through life unable to sit down because I perceive bias, sexism, racism, whateverism in a crossword puzzle...
I like John X's analogy, Japanese : AH SO :: German : ACH. I too used to feel that "Ah so" was distasteful until I noticed Japanese speakers (both in Japan and here) actually using the phrase with no apparent irony. Come to think of it I'm not sure I've heard a German speaker actually say "ach", but it's very well attested in German literature.
ReplyDeleteNaturally I enjoyed the theme of the puzzle, though of course I'm biased . . .
Rex's reaction to this puzzle is yet another example of a haiku (senryu?) I wrote a few weeks ago:
Rex hated today's
Crossword puzzle. Must be a
Day that ends in Y.
;-)
--NDE
Well, this one brought back memories of a couple of the more advanced math classes I took in high school, like Probability and Statistics, where I would somehow arrive at the right answer without ever understanding why. Anything language related made perfect sense, even conjugating verbs and all those tenses and so on, math, not so much. My hat's off to all you math lovers who are doing crosswords successfully. I can't imagine doing math puzzles on any similar level of difficulty.
ReplyDeleteGENESEE-I grew up in the southern Adirondacks when the drinking age was 18 and checking ID's was more or less optional, so I had my share of their beer, which should be used solely for watering plants. Genny Cream Ale, on the other hand is at least drinkable.
Was very happy to see that 17D was URANIC and not URANAL, which I was sure would have led to some heated arguments in the "URANAL!" "NO, URANAL!" vein. We can all do without that.
Satisfying to have finished, and still wondering what it all means.
I agree with medium challenging and pretty much nothing else. Rex was back to getting up on the wrong side. I thought it was super clever and a really fun solve.
ReplyDeleteI liked the math theme. Rex is all wet on that criticism. As Anonymous noted, some were better than others, but as a whole, the theme worked very well. Clever, clever.
ReplyDeleteThe fill? blech: AIDAN NIKI ROSITA DEROSSI SHMOO HIFIVE SHOOP TYRESE.
@RAD2626: I also got Naticked on the mini. I can't remember that ever happening before. AIDY/NYX.
Fun puzzle. Loved root of all evil and power of attorney. Did John x have his email hacked?
ReplyDeleteLuved this SunPuz [except for its blatant U-shortage] -- but, then, I was a m&ath major.
ReplyDelete@mericans: Great additional themer ideas. One more that came to M&A's runty mind:
{NYTPuz - Adam} … Adam From(m) NYTPuz.
Great startup in the NW, with COEXIST over PHARAOH. Hard stuff to see (at our house), somehow, until U got lotsa letters.
fave themer: THREEPOINTSHOT = 3.BB. har
staff weeject pick: ELA. Tough Portuguese meat.
Cool re-do of the 65-Across/Down sector, @RP. Hate to see the primo ZOOS clue go, tho … Could we use APT/PEAT instead of ANT/NEAT?
@RP: U don't read the comments of these nice regular folks who contribute to yer blog? M&A refuses to believe that kinda stuff. U are too nice for that.
Thanx for what added up to a lotta fun, Mr. Fromm.
Masked + Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
@Math is for Girls, @MooDuck
ReplyDeleteI definitely had the same thought. The "leaky pipeline" problem means we see fewer women math professors than we should, to be sure, but it absolutely does not follow that "math is for boys," and frankly it's kind of jarring to see that sentiment in this particular corner of the internet. I, too, hope I merely misunderstood what Rex was trying to say! (And if so... I'd be curious to know what, in fact, makes this puzzle "a boy puzzle for boys.")
@JOHN X, Take your usual week off with whoever was seen leaving the shower with you. (Yes, we had a"watcher" accompanying you, the Belgian gentleman with the curled moustache). Report to M in person on the 18th.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I’d have expected a $ sign in the clue or answer for 67A since the phrase is “money is the root of all evil.”
ReplyDelete@TomAZ
ReplyDeleteRe: the MINI, at least include a spoiler alert.
Actually love of money is the root of all evil is the complete sentence.
ReplyDeleteFor the route 50 clue I had the L in place, and had the brilliant idea that rt. 50 must go to Reno. So the answer must be the BESTLITTLE road. Such a disappointment when I was one space short.
You tell my daughter -in-law she's a POETESS and you're coming away with a fat lip. And a woman who brings you your meal will call herself either a waiter or a server. And I don't think Sen. Martha McSally would go for being called an aviatrix, either. So the issue is whether it's different for old-timey examples, like Sappho. The only precedent I can think of is the 19th Century American composer, universally known today as Amy Beach, but who published all her work as "Mrs. H.H.A. Beach."
ReplyDeleteThat said, another DNF for me. I had no IDEA about that actress (or actor), so I guessed the Italian ending to her name would correspond with an openg "Di." O Mi sounded about as old-fashioned a cry as O ME, though I did wonder. "Ahi," go get even more old-fashioned.
As almost everyone else said, a very enjoyable theme.
@Roo, Your Grandfather was pretty smart. Drinking Coors Light is the closest you can get to giving up beer entirely.
ReplyDeleteAnybody want to join me in demanding that the maker of Snoballs, Twinkies and Cupcakes change their name to "Host" immediately ? Didn't think so.
@ GILL.I, Don't be sad about anteaters. The clue said "in the US".
ReplyDeleteAnteaters are not found in the wild here.
I really wish Rex would stop flying his protest flag for people that haven't asked for his help. Comments today show that the Japanese are not offended and I think the feminine -ess words are lovely. Temptress, goddess, even seamstress all sound nice to my ears.
I thought the puzzle was fun and Adam Fromm was brave to have a math themed puzzle. From my experience math folks like precision and this was done in a way that hasn't set off too many tirades.
I really hate this time change.
Welcome home JOHN X.
While I agree that the fill was a bit sloppy, I really liked the theme. Different, fun, engaging.
ReplyDeleteNow that’s my kind of (liberal arts) math. Love those theme clues!
ReplyDeleteI think POETESS is a valid distinction so I can tell which poems I don't want to read.
ReplyDeleteTime posted by Arkansas girl who has been solving for a year and a half: 1:12:58.
ReplyDelete@Jberg
ReplyDeleteDoes your daughter-in-law always resort to physical violence? That's disturbing and I hope she seeks help.
She sounds high-strung, although that's a standard quality for a poetess.
Oh dear @Frank. The correct phrase is “The love of money is theroot of all evil.” The persistent misquote is “Money is the root of all evil.” NOT same difference at all.
ReplyDeleteI’m fine with the partial quote in the puzzle. Agree with many here that the themes are mostly witty and clever. As a serious math person I had a couple of quibbles, but @Rex’s “outrage” is pedantic and overwrought. How about “Math is not my thing so this didn’t really send me.” Morehonest.
I wear a female body and the word poetess doesnt send me into a tailspin in a puzzle. Men don’t overpower women because of a gender marker on a profession. True it’s irrelevant in daily usage but for me it’s permissible in a puzzle for a classic female poet.
I detest the word hysteria when applied to women’s physical and mental health. In fact it’s barbaric, and the “pat the hysterical female on the head” thinking behind it almost caused me to die of cancer. Yet the male doctor who missed my diagnosis never used the h word, never would have. He’s pc all the way. It’s the thinking that has to change. So kudos @Rex, for caring about this.
That said, the word hysteria has a generic meaning for a long time. Semantic shift. There’s no other word with precisely its meaning. I don’t feel that a pun on “mass hysteria” is a cause for vitriol. If I fault the title at all, it’s for the fact that it’s not related to the themers. It’s not a clue to what the puzzle’s about. It’s a so so pun with the word math in it. I can’t think of a better title though, so let’s let it pass.
The rest of the fill I agree. Lots of annoyances, unnecessary obscurities, at least one Natick. But gosh, take a chill pill. Low bp is life saving. The NYT. publishes some real dogs these days. Let’s save our inner Ambrose Bierce for those.
@JOHN X (from Tuesday 1:24 a.m.): At the time, Reno was part of California.
ReplyDeleteNo problem here with poetess, waitress, actress etc. Neither do my wife and daughter. I checked. If that makes us sexist in the eyes of some judgmental people, so be it. We all have to live with ourselves. We’re good in my house.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this. Much tougher than most Sundays, thus more fun.
ReplyDeletePOWEROFATTORNEY, THREEPOINTSHOT, ROOTOFALLEVIL, LOSANGELESTIMES, SEVENTHGRADE, CASHDIVIDEND, SAMEDIFFERENCE all excellent. Quite a feat of construction.
@Anonymous 2:32pm. True dat. My bad. You had me from “oh dear.” :D
ReplyDeleteTo NDE:
ReplyDeleteI must have heard my German-born mother say "Ach so" thousands of times in her life.
only those who've not been there think being a coder (math or just COBOL) is a plum job. managers spit them out by the time they're mid 30s. it's not a long term profession. in particular, read up on the experience of guys who make all those video games y'all love to waste time with. not much different from pulling an oar on a trireme.
ReplyDeletebe an accountant. well, except for crooks like Our Dear Leader, of course.
For several weeks I have foregone reading the title before solving. I've found, for me, it makes the puzz more enjoyable. Today's was slow for me and I also DNFed the Mini like a few others. The middle letter of 4D got me good.
ReplyDeleteThe NYTX needs more constructesses. Har!
An amazingly enjoyable Sunday puzzle. Thanks, Adam! And thanks for dropping by the blog. And please don't let the PC police influence you. The solution to AHSO would be to clue it, "Oh now I see in Tokyo." BTW the first time I heard that construction was on a Kingston Trio album, where they were oddly enough introducing a Spanish musical bit called Coplas. "AH SO. You are surprise I speak your language. You see, I was educated in your country, at UCRA." [because, of course, everyone knew the Japanese could not pronounce the letter L].
ReplyDeleteI think I read somewhere that mathematicians prefer crosswords to Sudoku. I know this one enjoys crosswords and has not done a single Sudoku.
ReplyDeleteTried Sudoku, then KenKen, never looked back.
DeleteWell, this is weird. I struggled through the Agard/Sullivan WSJ Saturday puzzle. Then I hit this beauty . Found it extremely easy (I solve with pen and paper) but pleasant and fun The theme constructs were clever and made me smile. It was like dessert
ReplyDeleteI will never understand why folks complain about answers in the grid that they simply don't know. "Der Alte" for example. It's one I knew unlike the myriad more recent movie and music references And so I learn. SHOOP!
@OffTheGrid: re: constructresses—Ha Ha. That is a neologism I support. It brings clarity to the language. That is a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@sf27shirley.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if anyone answered your ?. Old fashioned cry of despair is OH Me, OH MY! shortened to O ME for puzz.
Seconding (thirding? fourthing?) others here. Talk about sexist comments. As a "girl" (now age 58) who loved both geometry and calculus in high school, I was taken aback completely at Rex terming this a boy puzzle. Not to mention the math terms employed were not at all esoteric, and most were quite clever. "Same difference", for example, was well done in being completely literal. Add two numbers together and the answer is the "sum"...subtract one number from another and the answer is the "difference". Elementary school math, elementary words.
ReplyDeleteBut the blatant gender-bias dig? Rex, it's astonishing hypocrisy for you to call out this puzzle for being sexist when you then turn around and seem completely to dismiss any possibility of female intelligence, ability, and mental agility being able to handle a mathematically inclined puzzle.
Yeah, there are some poor answers in this grid. Also, yeah, I'll probably regret the vehemence of this comment/rant later. But, wow, that "boy puzzle" comment just really, REALLY pi**ed me off.
@Hungry Mother. Sudoku isn't really math. I have done Sudokus that had 9 letters instead of numerals . You could use nine fruits or 9 animals. It's a logic and thinking thing so maybe there's a math tie-in somehow.
ReplyDeleteMSU Spartans win the BIG Ten! (which is like 23 schools now) Woe to the Wolverines.
I am a science and math person. Sudokus are not math. I like to solve xword puzzles even though they are often biased against people with strong science and math skills. I can learn new things from xword puzzles. Nobody can learn anything from a sudoku. They are a waste of time.
DeleteTwo things:
ReplyDeleteFor the (A- or B+)/7 clue I actually did the math. I figured the numerical equivalent of A- or B+ is 3.5, which divided by 7 is .5, which is the numerical equivalent of an F. So, my first answer was failing GRADE.
I crunched a lot of numbers in my job so I got into crosswords after I retired to try something different. Plus I’ve never been a good speller and I thought doing crosswords might help. 15+ years later my spelling is marginally better and my math skills have deteriorated.
Too many to remember.
ReplyDeleteBut the BB/shot clue is even better than you're giving it credit for.
Shot--the tiny pellets in a shell- has a name. Mostly its numeric, but theres one excpetion. Yep, you got it, BBs.
Z,
No. Please explain it to me. The Oscars award a statuette to the best actor and actress. Is that sexist? If so, is it problematic?
They messed up the "power of attorney" clue on the tablet version of the puzzle; it looks like X^E^sq instead of X^Esq.
ReplyDeleteHow can we be consistent when everyone's inane. We do not have poetors and poetesses Writerors and writeresses, scriptors and scriptoresses, directors and directresses, mathematicians and mathematsses. We do have best actor and actress. Maybe we should give an male and female awards for all individual categories. But wasn't a woman up for best actor for playing a man once? Best actor is for playing a male roll, best actress is for playing a female roll? Maybe Tyler Perry could get some recognition. Comedy acting never seems to do to well. Glenda Jackson is playing King Lear. What award would she be up for? Go ponder on the unponderable if this bores you. BUT don't tell me poetess has no history of misuse, but if a woman wants to claim the title I hope she writes circles around everyone.
ReplyDeleteAlbatross,
ReplyDeleteAre you high? An actress can play a man. An actor can play a woman.
Why would you have any difficukty discerning what award the thespian would be vying for?
Linda Hunt won Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Year of Living Dangerously. She is a woman. Her character is a boy. There is no category for trans actors. Yet.
ReplyDeleteNew record time! I loved the math puns! Fun! Fun! Fun!
ReplyDeleteNo drugs involved. I'm insulted that you think it matters. My point is that logic does not work in matters that have an organic history. At least in matters of ethical judgements of feminine endings. Writers are writers, but poets are poets and poetesses. Inane. Actors and actresses (some who prefer to be called actors) have separate awards for a mixture of reasons some having to do with economics and publicity. Maybe the award should be for best male actor and best female actor or maybe they should be for best actor in a male roll and best actor in a female roll. Each has its own pluses and minuses. But Jackson might be better judged against actors in a male roll than actors playing Desdamona. But mainly I was trying to get the discussion out of the standard rut where everybody is snide dug in and righteous. Just don't ask me about singers. Inanity is its own reward.
ReplyDeleteI get the objections to POETESS. I can’t imagine using the term. But really, if we’re dining in a restaurant, how many of us refer to the female person taking our orders and bringing us our food and our bill as a waiter or waitron? Or server? Or whatever? Most of us would likely call her a waitress. These things are deep and complicated and change takes time. But the implications of using the male term as standard should also be interrogated.
ReplyDeleteAnd AH SO is one of those phrases that seems innocent until it doesn’t. I appreciate the constructor’s comments.
In any case, despite all the nits picked, this was a terrific puzzle.
Honestly, I don't have any negative connotations in my mind when I read a noun with an "-ess" at the end. Isn't it only really sexism if the characterization is derogatory in nature? I see that one as purely descriptive, on the same level as describing a celebrity as "black-haired" or "tall." No, those adjectives do not define their work, only the person themselves. Sexism exists in the mind of the observer if they then want to make a derogatory interpretation based on a person's feature which is unrelated to the quality of their work. Perhaps these terms give sexist people a quicker path to their sexism, but I don't know if they are sexist in themselves.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry but this really has nothing to do with math aside from math like clues. I finished this very quickly after a few misdirections. I first thought LxA was length times area (which fits). Then seventh grade appeared and I knew it was a harhar puzzle. I like all the answers except Same Difference (zzzzz). Had body camera before Xray. Never heard of Niki Caro, HiFive, radian, uranic or stator and loathed OME. Agree with you mostly Rex. Have a nice week all.
ReplyDelete(Don't bother any jaguars). SMH
Shouldn’t 31D be AARON, instead of ARON?
ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete@M.M5:46 -- Nope, Elvis' middle name is, indeed, Aron. I forget, but there's some related issue on his siblings' names also.
BTW, is a SEAMSTRESS' male counterpart a SEAMER? ;-)
Thanks. Just looked that up. The parents spelled it as ARON, but it was recorded as AARON on his birth certificate. I was at Graceland last year and it’s spelled as AARON on his tombstone. It’s unclear if the parents misspelled it or intended it to be spelled as ARON.
ReplyDeleteLove LOVE LOVED this! I didn’t get my knickers in a knot over a single entry. VARIG/GENESEE wasn’t a problem. I couldn’t care less about the “ess” issue. I see it’s usefulness at times as a descriptive shortcut. The theme was fresh, surprising and a brilliant idea.
ReplyDeleteHello from upstate- mohawk Valley. Last Sunday I got the whole puzzle!!!
ReplyDeletenow about this puzzle. I liked it for the most part. 93A's answer made no sense to me. This puzzle was clever and I got all the theme answers, but the 'clues' were often not making sense and I couldn't connect a few of them w/ the answers. So I get this puzzle in the Syracuse Post Standard and on the facing page there is always an acrostic which I love to do. This weeks acrostic had the same answers for 2 of the clue words as the answers for 12D and 50A : deralte and nemesis. Amazing!! A shout out to Taconic Parkway that I have traveled many times. And to Genesee beer. Think spring!!
I was told there's be no math...
ReplyDeleteLate getting to this but I always get a kick out of reading “grumpy ol’ Rex’s” take on a Sunday NYT puz.
ReplyDeleteSEER'S INFO
ReplyDeleteI ENDEAVORED to read the Sunday LOSANGELESTIMES,
so I GAVEITAGO, THO the DETAILs were naughty,
‘TIS the ROOTOFALLEVIL, you can read ONADIME
of SHAPELY CLARA Bow and the GLITTERATI.
--- PHARAOH RAMSES_I
This stream of unconsciousness IDEA brought to you by a LEADER and his LONELIEST TIMES TRIP.
Sloggy because of some iffy fill and weird theme clues. I mean: 3 and 7 are in the clue equations--and also spelled out in the answers! Isn't there some kind of taboo for that? If not, there should be.
ReplyDeleteIt took me nearly two hours, or almost 11 Rexes. The theme just doesn't hit the mark: there's no math symbol called "esq." The fill is...well, in one case, the clue even ADMITS it's a nonsense word! This puzzle should have been cleaned up, either before submission or by the editor. Nevertheless, I GAVEITAGO, and ENDEAVORED, successfully, to solve it. I guess those are the high points.
DOD is NIKI Taylor. Points for completing, but still bogey.
Maybe TIS the engineer in me, but I kinda liked it. Especially the POWEROFATTORNEY and THREEPOINTSHOT. Those had good and APT CLUEs.
ReplyDeleteIn the last state basketball tournament game I played in with my men’s rec league TEEM my last THREE SHOTs were successful THREEPOINTSHOTs. Good way to end a hoops career, THO we lost.
I thought the AHSO stuff started with the fictional Charlie Chan. Wasn’t he supposedly Chinese/Hawaiian rather than Japanese? Maybe all Asians are the same to OFL?
Ballpark announcer: “Now batting, for the other TEEM, yeah baby Portia DEROSSI.”
My favorite BANGLE is Susanna Hoffs.
I found this puz not only TACONIC and URANIC, but quite fun (for a Sunday).
Not all of the clues truly represented the answers, but they were still funny. To me. Some unknown PPP, as so often there is.
ReplyDeleteI was looking forward to more math - tho I don't enjoy "math puzzles" per se.
Beautiful day here in the 70s- spring is springing.
Happy St. Pat's.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Watch out for green beer
Wm. C. 10:44 AM --
ReplyDeleteI got Taconic for the same reason you did--went to RPI and traveled that route to and from NYC. I didn't drive and depended on the kindness of fellow students.
This is my first post--I've enjoyed reading everyone's for a couple of months but loved this puzzle so much that I had to add my 2 cents, especially because Rex is WAY off base--again. Root of all evil and Power of attorney were my favorites. Well done Adam--looking forward to more from you!
Wow, I had no idea back in the '70s how sexist Schoolhouse Rock was. "A man can get to be a hero for a famous battle he fought or by studying very hard and becoming a famous astronaut." So how did Sally Ride get to be a hero, then?
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed trying to solve this puzzle. Of course I have a BA in Mathematics (1972). Quite easy...although SIRI tripped me up - I had WIFI.
ReplyDeletePOETESS: dreadful. Sappho was and is a poet. In the ancient world, she was called the tenth Muse. For practical purposes, she invented lyric poetry as we know it, along with the idea of love as bittersweet. When I taught her work in translation, I suggested that students think of her as the first singer-songwriter. In other words, as someone who describes feeling states in ways that are understood to be expressive of the singer's life (though not necessarily factual). In English translation, Mary Barnard and Stanley Lombardo are my favorite versions of Sappho. Anne Carson, to my surprise, not so much.
ReplyDeletePOETESS is just one more example (AHSO) of Will Shortz’s willful cluelessness when it comes to puzzles and modern times.