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Relative difficulty: Tuesday
THEME: Queen B — Every clue starts with B. Theme answers start with a word that's pronounced the same way you pronounce the letter B.
Theme answers:
- B-MINOR MASS (20A: Bach masterpiece, informally)
- BEA ARTHUR (32A: Betty White co-star on "The Golden Girls"
- BEE STINGS (40A: Benadryl might treat them)
- BE YOURSELF (52A: Bit of advice to the insecure)
Word of the Day: UGLI (36A: "Blemished" fruit) —
The Jamaican tangelo, also known by proprietary names ugli /ˈʌɡli/ fruit, uglifruit, or uniq fruit, is a Jamaican form of tangelo, a citrus fruit that arose through the natural hybridization of a tangerine or orange with a grapefruit (or pomelo).[1]
This tangelo was a natural hybrid, having arisen spontaneously like the grapefruit,[1] in Jamaica, where it is mainly grown today.[3] 'UGLI' is a registered trademark of Cabel Hall Citrus Limited, under which it markets the fruit,[4]
the name being a variation of the word "ugly", which refers to the
fruit's unsightly appearance, with rough, wrinkled, greenish-yellow
rind, wrapped loosely around the orange pulpy citrus inside.[2]
(Wikipedia)
• • •
Annabel Monday!!!!! Okay, this is so not a good omen. I'm fast approaching midterms and I get to a whole puzzle themed around the letter "B"? Can next week's Monday theme be "A+" or "Annabel passes all her midterms without having to stay up all night or even having to put that much work into them because she's just that good"? Anyway, I definitely scored worse than a B on puzzle time, to b honest. I got stuck on the left for ages, ditto with the bottom right quadrant because I couldn't figure out what PONE was, and there were just various unnecessarily hard words scattered throughout the puzzle. Didn't help that I'd misspelled RBG's last name as GINSBERG for a solid twenty minutes. And UGLI is my biggest Natick since actual Natick. But that's probably just because I've never personally eaten it. Difficulty aside, though, I had fun. Few obvious clues, no overused answers. I'd love to see more constructors try things like this! The clues were more interesting because they must have been more of a challenge to write.That said, I had to go on the Wordplay blog to get the theme. I felt like a big buffoon when I realized absolutely all the clues had been B's. In my defense I did the puzzle on mobile so there wasn't an obvious wall of B-clues staring me right in the face, just one at a time, and I was more focused on cracking the code of whether UGLI was a typo or not. But like I said, it was cool. I like bees. I forget if I've talked about them before on this blog, but I find eusocial insects really neat.
Bullets:
- MIFF (10A: Bother) — Makes me think of Miffy. She was a little bunny who had adventures that were actually pretty boring but that probably helped me sleep when I was a baby, so fair enough.
- MATHLETE (10D: Braniac in a certain high school competition) — I'd love to hear from current or former Mathletes about your experiences! Also, did you call yourselves that? Like for real? Also, kudos to you, that's hard stuff. I used to be great at math until I reached calculus, at which point I suddenly discovered that I'd rather analyze literary themes and the social implications of literature for the rest of my academic life, which conveniently doesn't require you to take the integral of a function.
- BEA ARTHUR (32A: Betty White co-star on "The Golden Girls") — Obligatory:
- ALUM (2D: Bill Clinton vis-à-vis Georgetown and 54-Down) — oh god that's going to be me soon oh god. Nah, in all seriousness I'm pretty excited. I'm thinking of becoming a librarian.
Signed, Annabel Thompson, tired college student, and I swear to God I almost just typed "high school" instead of college, eep. I'm going to bed.
OH MY GOD I ALMOST FORGOT: It's my mom's birthday tomorrow! She's going to be--um, 39! Again! In all seriousness, happy birthday to her.
 |
| Look, they're Rex's BFFs. Also I forget which one is the older twin |
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Annabel Thompson on Twitter]
Medium-tough. I thought the theme was a bit ho-hum until Jeff mentioned on Xwordinfo that he failed to notice that all the clues began with B (also the Bill Shortz byline). My excuse for not noticing is that when solving on an iPad you only see 2 clues at a time, so it’s easy the miss the two columns of B words (Hi Annabel).
ReplyDeleteVery smooth to boot, liked it.
This is a good start to the week. a challenging Monday no less. I spent more time on this 17:09, than last week's Wednesday 13:52. I had some misspellings, like Ginsberg, instead of GINSBURG, but I didn't run right through this. Naturally I didn't get the theme, so there is that. Thanks Ellis Hay, I like.
ReplyDeleteThis came in at Tuesday time for a couple of reasons. For one there is a bit more than the usual amount of odd material for a Monday but mostly it was because I effed this thing up from the get go.
ReplyDeleteIn the NW I was convinced 1D had to be plural, why, I have no idea. This means I'm refusing to put that B in there. My "logic" is there must be a rebus here. Having no idea what so ever where 20A was going I'm glad to see it's a debut. SNAP helped me see REDONE but it led right into a spelling issue. I put in WHOOP at 6D thinking that's how you spell WHUP. How have I come so far not knowing how to spell WHUP? The same way I don't associate the phrase "buy the farm" with something like "kick the bucket". Moving along I have no idea on 29A because I've never heard of this "Dorough" person and have no reason to. Filling in the middle of BEAARTHUR I flip around the R and T and don't notice. Now I can't get FIR at 25D. It took the NE and MATHLETE to straighten that out.
In the SW I got GIN- for the start of 38D and I'm honestly trying to think of which Supreme Court judge is named GINA. This only lasted a few moments but moments add up. ISTHATOK needed all the crosses. That phrase is not OK.
The SE was the only section to go smoothly. I know this is a lot of detail for a Monday solve but I can't recall the last time I packed so much stupid into getting a clean grid on a Monday. Anyway all these glitches account for the extra two minutes.
As far as the theme and it's clue list gimmick go I find my own mistakes more interesting. Can you tell?
Just like a bee the theme flew right over my head. I thought, ok a themeless Monday, that’s fine. Doh!
ReplyDeleteOther than not catching the theme, pretty easy. I did have one hiccup at 44A, I put down LayERS thinking “A brood of chickens” looked up and saw LAYER at 1A, oops, that can’t be right, changed my ay to ON and I was done.
Toughie for a Monday, but fair. I started out with “slice” in 1A, which quickly led to problems. Compounded the problems with “headache” in 40A. So it took longer, but it was enjoyable, especially when the AHA! moments came.
ReplyDeleteVery nice review, Annabel. I enjoyed reading it.
Good luck on your midterms, Anabel. Thanks for your write-ups. And, yeah, I had to go look up eusocial, which really looks like it’s a cocktail party in Brussels.
ReplyDeleteListen. Discussions here about our individual solving methods are boooooring. Not nearly so interesting as my constant whining about grammar shamers and whether that “to” is a preposition or a verb particle; now that’s some interesting sh&%.
How. Ev. Er. Today is one where it matters just a bit. I solve on paper, and the clues’ B-fest screamed look at me! before I had even settled in under the (miraculous Biddeford) electric blanket with the blue throw pillow, coffee, and TV clicker. My first thought was that people solving online would miss this very cool clue aspect.
The only note I have in the margin is a frowny face and the word IDEA. But then I remembered the constraints of the clues and dialed it back a little bit. For me, and IDEA is a quiet whisper, like I think I’ll make riblets for my lunches next week. A brainstorm is more of a scream: For Christmas, let’s get our daughter the Biology, Medicine, and Surgery of Elephants textbook that costs more than a microwave since she wants to be a fancy pachydermatologist. (She loved it.)
@jae – thanks for pointing out “Bill” Shortz. I would have missed that. I did notice that Ellis has no extraneous B’s in the grid. In my brief GLOSS period (puzzle by Ian Livengood with entries like ROUND CHUCK, RAVE ROBBERS) during which I tried all sorts of shameless copy-cat grids – BLESS, BLACK, NOR, NOT – I dug my heels in and had no other iteration of that letter in the grid. No matter – I was rejected every single time.
@puzzlehoarder - I know, right? Sheep feels pluralsome.
Liked FATSO crossing TART and HAMS. I bet there’s such a thing as a HAM TART.
I also get a kick out of the word WHOMP. I’ma whomp up on your assumption, buddy.
Ellis – congrats on your banner beginnings in this befuddling bailiwick.
PS - TED reminds me of this TED Talk someone emailed me about a couple of weeks ago. How had I not known about Anne Curzan?! The Supreme Rational Non-Whiney Linguist Goddess of the Universe? I doubt that the people here who got their nose all out of joint about infer starting to mean imply and other stuff will bother, but maybe she can convert some fence-sitters.
This was a very enjoyable Monday puzzle. I noticed the "Bill Shortz" thing but not once did I notice the clues or the theme answers. I've been very high all weekend so that may explain that.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of high, BONG was in the puzzle! Back in high school I could steer a car, do a bong hit, and shift gears all at the same time. Jimmy Carter was president then, so we as a nation did not yet know how to just say no. I was never one for the beer bong I just drank 'em normal style. TIPSY was in here too. That's like SOT, it makes fun of people with drinking problems. I'm not against these words; since I quit drinking I enjoy making fun of stinking alcoholics because I am now better than them. USER, REDS, GODRY, PANT, TINGE, PASSAWAY, and ALEVE were also included in case you did not get this puzzle's pro-drug slant.
Some more good words were HATE, RILE, SHOO, WHOMP, and FATSO. You can always get away using FATSO if it's Sgt. FATSO Judson, played by Ernest Borgnine. He fought in World War II and was married to Ethel Merman for 42 days! That took guts. Also he won The Oscar™️ by beating Spencer Tracy, James Cagney, James Dean's ghost, and Frank Sinatra! The same Frank Sinatra who played Maggio, the tough monkey wop who Fatso Judson beat the shit out of until he died. Ethel Merman could probably beat the shit out of Frank Sinatra. There was a bar in NYC that always had a chair reserved for Ernest Borgnine for years, and one time he sat in it. Two people I would not want to share a bathroom with are Ernest Borgnine and BEAARTHUR. Sharing a bathroom with FERMI or another MATHLETE would be easy because you could just make them use the backyard from now on and take the recycled newspapers out with them, and you can bet they'd not only go out there but they'd probably never come back in. You could have the whole house to yourself.
I was on morphine all weekend, which is some pretty good stuff. It was medically administered so I am morally pure, not like some two-bit junkie. It made me really chatty. The doctor asked me where it hurt and I told him all about flying a Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft, how the controls are cabled with no boost so it's like flying a big Piper Cherokee, just with more physical heft and mass. They never figured out what was wrong with me, because there wasn't anything wrong. I just wanted the morphine.
Ciao
Ok, so this thing had an odd feel for reasons I couldn't quite understand (it's 2:something am in California and insomnia is why I'm here, awake but bleery) until I read @Don From Accounting's post. Now I get it. Hate, Rile, Shoo, Fatso, Tipsy, Bong, Pant, Pass Away, Whomp, Miff, gees!
ReplyDeleteAlso, @Don you big crazy, I spent the afternoon at the ER with someone who'd fallen and no one was offering morphine. Your post rivals the puzzle for that "what universe am I in right now" feel but I do like the phrase 'with more physical heft and mass." Is there a ton of redundancy there?
Thank goodness for Miffy.
Nerds seem to be cool now, so I’m no longer ashamed to admit that I am a former MATHLETE (and yes, @Annabelle, we definitely called ourselves that). The funny thing is, I was also a sort-of decent athlete, too. So I would often show-up to these math contests in my basketball uniform, either coming from/going to a ball game on either side of the contest. Interestingly, I remembered getting bullied a bit by the mathletes and athletes alike for my double life. In particular, I remember one time when my high school basketball team was playing at the Savvis Center in St. Louis and my coach let me show-up late so I could participate in a math contest. I ended-up riding the bus to the game later with the cheerleaders, who also got their jokes in. Ahh ... the glory days.
ReplyDeleteTough Monday. Like the rest of you, solved as a themeless.
Just be thankful it didn't include the broken English "Be Best"
ReplyDeleteReading down column 6, RAD GINSBURG. Yes she was.
ReplyDeleteCol. 3, Would a YETI MOLE be a blemish or a pet?
4, I always have a REDONE TIE because I can never get the length right on the first attempt. So glad that wearing a tie is now a rare event.
I did the puzzle last evening but almost always wait 'til morning. I liked it and it was fast for me at 10 minutes and the theme popped early. DAUB is a good word that we don't see often. FATSO is OK when not used as a label.
column 5, not 4
DeleteSomehow, the SE caused me to stare. The change of cOrn to PONE solved it.
ReplyDeleteI blame the them, and the clue for UTTER, for making this one of the - I dunno - five(?) hardest Mondays ever for me. Blurt out sounds forceful ... wanted expEl or eject or erupt, or maybe shout.
ReplyDeleteAlternative clue for 5D: Best to avoid this m&m.
Alternative clue for 35D: Best to avoid these m&ms.
B, BEA, BEE, BE, cool, and folks had trouble seeing the theme?
ReplyDeleteFun Monday.
Gotta go run the snowblower, again.
@Don From Accounting, Hysterical, easily twice the enjoyment I got out of the puzzle. But actually I liked this one for a Monday. Super quick solve but some interesting fill. Definitely agree, however, that blurt out has different connotations than "utter". Could have gone with "Wild Bill Hickcock's compadre, but going for all B's in the clues might explain the choice. Hmm, there is "Bill Hickcock" though.
ReplyDeleteIS THAT OK? Thanks for asking. No. We’ve had this All-The-Clues thing before. It was a nothing burger then, it’s a left-over nothing burger now. Also, are we still in middle school? Not one but two puerile middle school insults in one puzzle? And speaking of middle school, it has been 15 years since HOWIE et al. released their comeback album. Throw in a movie starring Marky Mark and The Golden Girls and I felt like my telephone booth time machine had taken me back to ‘90’s. I’m sure others really liked the cutesy B thing. I did not.
ReplyDeleteLike many non-paper solvers (cf. @LMS) I totally missed the fact that all the clues began with B. Nifty feat, fun puzzle, and unusually challenging and enjoyable for a Monday. I’m not sure if I would have looked it more or less if I’d noticed that.
ReplyDeleteHi Annabel, enjoyed your write-up but as usual I wonder what Rex would say... and @Don... wow!
Some of this parsed strangely for me, such as RED ONE at 5D and DE-MOED at 26A.
With all those Bs, I assume that GEES at 65A was intentional.
ReplyDeleteValentine from Vera on Cheers: B MI NORM ASS
Got the answer theme but not the clue theme. Physical paper was not delivered due to the weather, that's twice in three days.
ReplyDeleteDoes The Times really appreciate my ($888/year) daily print subscription or should I ditch the print?
Pretty spectacular debut. Congratulations Ellis.
ReplyDeleteAmazing how many folks - me included - missed the clue gimmick which makes the "Bill Shortz" byline much less dorky.
The clue gimmick, four very solid themers, no other B's in the grid, and very smooth fill and cluing given that it is a Monday and with all those constraints. Bravo.
This is a cute idea, but the clue portion of the B theme falls flat for phone solvers who only see one clue at a time. The Will to Bill move is excellent. I liked this but now love it in retrospect.
ReplyDeleteMy ER no longer gives morphine for a kidney stone. I wonder what could be worse. Take care, @Don. Nobody likes the messenger and it’s the time of year when taxpayers get really cheesed with their accountants.
Good luck with those tests. Funny write-up. Thanks for the smile. Puzzle was so meh. Bs are just not that interesting. B effort on a Monday feels blah, boring, baffling, bad, bufoonish, etc. That said, I usually don't get it anyway, so whom am I to criticize.
ReplyDeleteCame here anxious to get Rex’s take since I found the puzzle crunchy and challenging in a good, easily overcomable way. Really enjoyed the solve after immediately noticing the theme. I was sure Rex would have something irascible to say and wondered what fault he could find in this sparkler. No shade to Annabel, you did a good job.
ReplyDeleteBest thing about a blah Monday is coming here and being delighted by the comments. @Don always sets the mood.
ReplyDeleteWhat a strange puzzle. I noticed all the "B" clues and my first thought was, you know, to Be or not to B. Ha ha.
I honestly thought I'd have a DNF on Monday. I didn't know that when you buy the farm, you die. What a strange way to go. My husband says "pop your socks." I like that one better. I guess if you had the plague, your toes swell up.
I'm plugging away little by little because I couldn't remember things like FATSO and WHOMP or that the best thing about a Birthday Cake is a LAYER. What happened to icing or @Brookboys slice? Nope. Then I get to wondering why BE YOURSELF is advice to the insecure. Don't insecure people not know how to be themselves?
Curious to know why bad actors are called HAMS. What does a pig have to do with acting. GEES are baffled exclamations? HATE GO DRY UGLI TIPSY FATSO Bomb builder and drug USER. Such a happy little puzzle.
I didn't even like B MINOR MASS and I rather enjoy Bach.
BEA ARTHUR - my one and only smile.
I missed the entire theme before coming here. I didn't notice that all the theme answers began with a "B" sound and I certainly didn't notice that all the clues began with the letter B. Even more ignominious, I didn't notice the inspired "Bill Shortz" byline. Does our Will Shortz have a nifty sense of humor or what? Also, am I the world's most unobservant puzzle solver or what?
ReplyDeleteDespite not being aware of the theme, I enjoyed this puzzle much more than most Mondays. I was actually slowed up in two places -- always an enjoyable state of affairs for me. I stared at BEE-----S for the longest while, wondering what they could possibly be that had anything to do with Benadryl. I was thinking of sneezing and sniffling, not BEE STINGS. I stared at pEAA----- (32A) for the Betty White co-star, entirely baffled, because I had BEER pONG instead of BEER BONG. I think they're both Things, but I don't know exactly what.
If I were to ban alcoholic beverages at my house (fear not; I won't!), would I be GOing DRY? I thought only entire countries, or at least entire states, could GO DRY. It seemed too strong a phrase for the clue. And MATHLETE -- I didn't know you last time, but I know you now. You can't fool me twice in less than 3 months.
Very nice puzzle. Upon discovering the theme, I really admire the cleverness of the clues.
Missed the B clue business AND the Theme.....it didn't matter.
ReplyDeleteTricky And Tough. I threw in TROMP instead of Whomp and wondered why Bundle Up means TRAP. Then I was sure the brooding sort was a LAYER even though we had that already. (I wanted SLICE for that.) I resent the answer LONER. Not all loners brood. Some do crosswords. And TIGHT before TIPSY. As Monday’s go, this was a good one. Hi Annabel. Best of luck on your midterms. I was on the Math Team in high school, but we weren’t called Mathletes. It helped me get a high score on my SATs. But I can only remember a fraction of what we studied. :)
ReplyDeleteI was on the math team in high school. No one called us mathletes. My strongest memory is that one of the guys, with a pocket protector and probbably a slide rule clipped to his belt, bald-facedly asked me, in the bus on the way to the first meet, 'What are you doing here, girls aren't supposed to be any good at math.' After I aced the tests while he limped along behind, he was silent on the way home. Next time I talked to him was at a music festival 20 years later, where I was performing on stage and he was in the audience. To my surprise he actually seemed quite pleasant, almost, you might think, human.
ReplyDeleteSmart as I am, I never noticed the b's and thought an awful lot of the clues were a bit off.
I'm doing Mondays downs-only these days, and I do NOT need this kind of gimmick at the start of my week. (Also I never even noticed all the clues start with the same letter until I got here. But it does explain a lot.)
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this more than most, easier, Mondays.
ReplyDeleteI, too, flat missed editor “Bill”. Like DEMOED and WHOMP.
Tough for a Monday: at leats 50% over my normal time. The hardest part for me was the stack of HOWIE and BEA ARTHUR, crossed by BONG. I tend to be a details person (it's a curse), so even though I completed this one on the iPad, I did see the B clues. I like how the constructor DAUBs Benadryl on BEE STINGS.
ReplyDeletePASS AWAY sounds too euphemistic for the darkly humorous "buy the farm", IMO. I first heard of that latter phrase after my older brother rode (as an aviation journalist) with a Blue Angel, landing on an aircraft carrier after a round trip ASEA. The pilot had placed a little plaque on his instrument panel that read "Farm for sale". My brother had to explain to me that it related to life insurance: you die, and your inheritor(s) get the farm.
I had a funny bit of confusion in that Michigan area. Had stOMP at first, which gave me tORA, which I clearly was confusing with TORAh.
Good F & U counts in today's puzzle. Roo Monster and M&A should be happy.
Thanks Mr. Hay for a good work-out.
Beaujolais comes in white, pink, and red. the answer was obvious but i thought that clue was misleading at best
ReplyDeleteHey Buds !
ReplyDeleteBaffled at the fact I had no IDEA and didn't notice all the clues started with B. Blows the mind, as I have the printed out puz right in front of me. Big D'oh! Brought the puz to a new level of appreciation. Boo yah!
But, puz took a little longer than a normal MonPuz. Berating, no. Brilliant idea. Big Wow from me when it was pointed out by Annabel. By now, y'all know that.
Bundle of F's, well, four, but that's better than a lot of puzs! By Jove, did have two writeovers, gasP-SNAP, star-FREE (must've been thinking is Scrabble board.)
B's be ballin!
RUBBER BABY BUGGY BUMPERS
RooMonster
DarrinV
My face is BEET red not to have noticed the clues all started with B as well as the Bill Shortz topper.
ReplyDelete@Don from Accounting is back! Yay!!! You are such a hoot, @D from A! And you're definitely in the wrong profession. I hope you have a stage comedy or screenplay percolating in the drawer, because you're a born writer.
ReplyDelete@puzzlehoarder (1:19) -- I chuckled over your last paragraph. Really funny!
@Quasi (9:34)-- Loved your last sentence too. And I had the same reaction to the LONERS clue that you had. Not all LONERS are brooders. I'd also say that not all brooders are LONERS: some really like a shoulder; some an audience, even. We all know who they are :)
Today's NYT crossword, in conjunction with Sesame Street, is brought to you by the letter "B".
ReplyDeleteRipped through this one, thinking the theme answers were fine, but constituted a pretty thin theme. It wasn't until I came here that I noticed the all-B clues and Bill Shortz. The latter is cute, but the former really elevates this one. Very nice work by all in volved.
ReplyDeleteBut...how do you not clue 65A as Bee ___??
I've been solving seriously and timing myself for about six months now, and this is my first 8+ minute Monday since the early days. Glad to see it's not just me. It's a good puzzle, IMO, but it maybe should've run on a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteOnly complaints: HORA and RONA was a big natick for me, and as someone born and raised in the southeastern US, I have never heard of PONE bread. I guess that one's more of a complaint about my ignorance, but I feel like this isn't the first time I've been tripped up by a "southern" clue that was news to me, despite living in Tennessee and Georgia for the first 28 years of my life.
It's foolish that 47-across is clued with the "say." To me that implies that the 10% is optional instead of literally the definition of a TITHE. Maybe if it had been "Bestows 10% in church, say" I'd be okay with it. Is there another way to read it that could explain away my irritation with the clue?
ReplyDeleteI'd also argue that a brainstorm is not one IDEA, but a session in which one generates multiple ideas... but I'm probably just being pedantic.
I did not enjoy this puzzle. That every clue started with the same letter certainly helps explain the awkward cluing, but that doesn't make it worth the gimmick. Sorry to our debut constructor.
Today is my literal B-Day, and I was appalled to find 7" of slush on my very, very long driveway. My wife informed me that we were lucky that we got only 7" of snow. For the sake of marital harmony and the potential of a birthday "gift", I kept my tirade about the worthlessness of the statistic "inches of snow" to myself. I'm unloading it here, because I will not have sex with any of you tonight, guaranteed. 7" of what kind of snow? Nice fluffy stuff you can schooch of your drive with with a dust mop, or 7" of near-slush which turns into a rock at the slightest bit of compression? Do you know that snowblowers work by attempting to compress the snow, and hoping it blows out the top rather than turn into a rock? The stuff we got overnight turned into rocks, inside the snow blower.
ReplyDeleteThen I come inside to this crap. How many times has this been done, and how many times has it been pointed out that MAKING ALL THE CLUES START WITH THE SAME LETTER MAKES (almost) ALL THE CLUES SUCK!. If the best possible clue for any given answer is a B, then every day all clues would start with a B. You know how many clues started with a B yesterday? Only four out of more than 100. 4% sounds about right for the number of answers best clued with a phrase starting with B. Today we get 100%, so 96% of our clues were sub-optimal. I don't want people deliberately making the most important part of the solving process, getting the answer from the clues, sub-optimal. I get that sometimes it happens, some times they don't care enough to make it not happen, but don't try to be sub-optimal! K?
Many thanks to LMS for introduction to Anne Curzan and her Ted Talk session: well worth a listen.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis was not your usual "Monday" puzzle - as in you have to use your brain. So I enjoyed it a lot altho (brain & all) I never got the theme (should've notice Bill Shortz).
ReplyDeleteDon from Accounting - I hope you're feeling better. I think we could be friends.
@Nancy - I'm pretty sure Don from Accounting is a country music songwriter from before your time.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I solve on paper and still didn't see the Bs. My only excuse is that we got to our vacation rental in Florida fairly late last night, discovered that we didn't know the WiFi code, and spent the morning retrieving it and then unpacking (first things first!) So I turned to the puzzle at noon, in a hurry to get it over with. Now I see what it is, I like the puzzle much better -- I'm even ready to forgive PONE.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm off to the beach. Eight inches of snow back home, I hear.
ReplyDelete@FlyingP6:24 --
I too was a Mathlete. Here are my brags ...
One the Math side, a few things. I was on the math team in HS, and we would compete with the other seven teams in our local athletic league twice a month, I think. There were about 8 active competitors on each team, and each of us chose three subjects ( e. g. Algebra, Geometry, Calculus) to solve 3 problems, timed about 20 minutes each, with points awarded for the top three contestants on each test (e. g. 10 for first, 5 for second, 3 for third, place points shared in ties). Our team won a disproportionate share of points over the course of a year, partly because (blush) I pretty much always got 30 points or nearly that. Our local newspaper always put out an article when we did well, and noted the high-scoring players (blush). Admittedly, I did well because I was generally assigned to the freshman and sophomore subjects ... as a strategy by our coach. In another event, there was some kind of a very challenging national math test that I took. My score was in the 60s, with the second-highest scoring person on my team in the teens or twenties as I recall. Unusual and lucky, because there were several of my teammates who I KNOW were smarter than me. I think that most of the reason, though was that our coach made past years' tests available, and I spent a lot of time studying them, so I was able to develop a clear strategy in advance about how to use the test time, whereas I suspect the others did not.
On the athletics side, our junior high school basketball team played at halftime of a Celtics game against another similar-sized town's team, on the parquet floor of the old Boston Garden. In a running-clock 15-minute game, we won 14-8' with (blush) 8 points contributed by yours truly, including a buzzer-beater from outside the foul line. Very unusual, and lucky, since I was FAR from the best player on the floor. After the game, we were led into the Celtics locker room, meeting Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, Tommy Heinson et. al. Interestingly, Bill Russell paid good attention to us, while later in his career the press painted a surly picture of him. My strong memory was of standing beside him, my 5'8" to his 6'10". What a thrill!
So many ridiculous answers. Pone as a southern bread? As Rex would say, have you ever heard anybody say, I think I'll have some pone? Ever? NB. I'm from Mississippi. Blurt out = utter! And the clues are forced and not good. Poorly done all around.
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ReplyDeleteThe 2018 Orcas have been announced.
ReplyDeleteSaw the Bill Shortz alias, right after finishin up the solvequest. Well played, Shortzmeister.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick, in absentia: BBS.
Been kinda on the sick side lately, so I don't believe I've solved much or been through here for a spell.
fave fillins included: MATHLETE & ISTHATOK longballs. ONRUSH. WHOMP.
fave themer: BEYOURSELF. Which makes more sense than BEEYOURSELF. And appeals to the luvly Blu'Bel blog maestro much more than B-YOURSELF.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Baby sheep} = LAMB.
Hay -- Thanx for the MonFun, and congratz on comin up with a debutpuz that makes the Shortzmeister opt for a name change, Ellis Hay. Glad U weren't playin with F-themers, instead; Fill Shortz don't hardly pass the breakfast test. Mighta been OK by @Roo, tho, I reckon. Say, Hay -- This theme mcguffin could work with U's, maybe? (yo, nice @mericans who count em).
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
Got the B theme and after reading all the brilliant solvers who missed the theme, I felt smart...then I read that the editor was Bill Shortz and back to feeling stupid again for having missed that.
ReplyDelete@Don great post. @LMS I love hearing posters' solving methods because I learn different ways to approach puzzles. And I am continually in awe of your avatar game, which is second to none.
Thank you Annabel as always for making typically Boring Mondays Beautiful, Bright, and Beguiling with your Blog posts.
And thank you Ellis Hay for making a non-Boring, Bang-up Monday and Bringing your B game.
p.s.
ReplyDelete@Magnificent Z Beast: yep. Once again, the runtpuzs got snubbed by the Orcas.
Always hard to start every puzclue with the same letter. That might sorta rule out doin this trick with U's. Maybe it could be done on a runt-like scale -- ahar, maybe then, Orcas will take notice. Could be a contender …
M&A&delusional
Thank you very much, Mr. Hay, for a very clever puzzle. A lot of effort for a Monday, I’m sure. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI'm totally with AnnaBel on this Being Tuesdayish. I Blame the Bland clues for things like 6D, "Beat Badly". With __OMP in place, it could have Been trOMP, stOMP, (cHOMP?). So I had to work a Bit on a Monday, Brava!
ReplyDeleteWhy am I capitalizing all the B's? Because I completely missed that all the clues started with B. So I'm self-flagellating here.
I liked the GEES at 65A, could have Been clued as "What comes after today's theme for Barry, Maurice and RoBin".
Congratulations, Ellis Hay, on your deBut, and thanks, AnnaBel, for the fun write-up.
Never heard PONE mentioned by anyone below Mason-Dixon line.
ReplyDeleteChallenging for a Monday. Add me to the list of those who failed to notice that every clue began with a B, even if, looking for a theme, I finally noticed the B-sounds in the answers. And I too am working from a hard copy. Thanks, Annabel, and those commenting--this is why I come to this blog.
ReplyDeleteNow off to section A of the NY Times, curious about the crisis of coyotes being raped at our borders. Title of lead story in the national edition of newspaper: "Braving Heat and Coyotes to be Raped at the Border." Ok, I know, nothing to joke about.
Anon. i.e. Poggius
Pone
ReplyDeleteDictionary result for Pone
noun: pone; noun: cornpone; noun: pone BREAD; noun: corn pone
unleavened cornBREAD in the form of flat oval cakes or loaves, originally as prepared with water by North American Indians and cooked in hot ashes.
Looks like to bread to me.
I thought the clues were painful and the only good part of the theme was Bill Shortz. At least we only had to sacrifice a Monday so this could be published.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Don from Accounting is actually a blogger we all know who is flexing his writing muscles for our enjoyment. Wonderful disguise.
@Gill I: As an actor, I've heard that at one time stage makeup had lard at its base. A bad actor, over-emoting and experiencing stage fright, tended to sweat profusely, thus smelling like a ham. I hope that's true.
ReplyDelete@Lee: It's not PONE bread. Here in TX it's called Corn Pone. My mother used to make it often. Corn meal, hot water and salt deep fried in small cakes.
Recovering Mathlete, but no, we didn't call ourselves that. We were nerds, not dorks!
ReplyDeleteAlso, here's how I knew that I'd enjoy being a math major: mathematics didn't get truly fun and interesting UNTIL I took calculus. In fact, for years – and I kinda-sorta still believe this – I wondered why calculus wasn't taught much earlier, and in particular, before geometry. Geometry suddenly made so much more sense after calculus, and the simple beauty of calculus really made me appreciate mathematics as a field.
But then I keep reading and hearing about how calculus wasn't the favorite of many friends and acquaintances, and so perhaps my worldview is slightly colored by my math aptitude. "Mathtitude"...maybe I'll try to make that a thing. It's certainly better than "mathlete."
@oldactor. Good gravy. I think I'll go and tell all of my friends. That's the best thing (other than @Don from A) that I've heard today..... It's right up there with @Loren's story about how the JIGGER dancers only move the bottom half of their bodies all the while hiding behind a half door. ;-)
ReplyDelete@Pete-Well first, happy birthday. Hope all your birthday dreams come true.
ReplyDeleteSecond, snowblowers. I've had a machine that clogged up like that. No fun. My driveway is long too, and goes down a hill. Up and down and clearing the flat space on top in front of the garage takes me a couple of hours and my pedometer says that all the back and forth can add up to five miles. Here's the good news-my current snowblower NEVER clogs up or turns stuff into rocks. Mushy stuff exits, fluffy stuff flies far away. Every time I use it I wish all my power equipment worked as well. (Details available on request, and no, I'm not a sales rep.)
@Pete:
ReplyDeleteToday is my literal B-Day, and I was appalled to find 7" of slush on my very, very long driveway.
welcome to... New England? mine is 100', steeply up (the side of a) hill, with a 45 degree curve at the top. and the kid couldn't get the snowblower started. and didn't feel like shovelling. so the geezer had to do it. fortunately, in my part of NE, only the bottom inch was slush. but it won't get above freezing for the next week, so if you don't get it off the driveway today...
ReplyDeleteI can't go along with "ease" as a logical answer for "Bed of roses, so to speak?" (39 across). That seems like a real stretch—barely reasonable, let alone intuitive! Anyone else?
Makes perfect sense to me.
DeleteFrom the interweb:
Bed of roses----used in reference to a situation or activity that is comfortable or EASy.
@Nancy 9:24 Don’t feel alone, I’m right up there with you.
ReplyDelete@ M&A Hope you feel better.
I will never understand why having all the clues begin with the same letter is a thing. It just makes for clunkier than necessary clues and adds nothing to the solving experience. Blech. Thought the puzzle was on the dull sides anyway. I have to confess I did not notice the B's in the grid or the inspired Bill Shortz.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I wanted LayERS for 44 across having completely forgotten I already had LAYER for 1 across. Didn't know the Backstreet Boy though I've heard them often enough. Took me a while to suss out BEA ARTHUR as I've never watched The Golden Girls. Not a big fan of most sit coms or laugh tracks.
Took me quite a bit longer than usual for a Monday. I'm blaming it on the dumb clues. :)
There you have it. It's not your fault. You can rest easy.
DeleteDid this late in the day and it seemed hard for a Monday. It was no bed of roses; it did not offer EASE. Didn't like that clue; and really didn't like the clue for UTTER (blurt out), as blurting seems almost the opposite of uttering! Grrr
ReplyDelete64A is B.S There's no way YORK is the namesake for Big Apple City.
ReplyDeleteI was on the math team back in the day. We definitely were not called MATHLETEs, thank god. I was also on the football team so "mathlete" would have caused even more ridicule from my peers than just the mere fact actually being on the math team did. (The intersection of the two sets contained only one element, me).
ReplyDelete@gfrpeace: I was going to ask you 'Are you Sadie Dupuis' until I read the '20 years later' part. I got to meet Sadie at SXSW last year.. she was a math geek at MIT (I think) before forming her band Speedy Ortiz to some measure of (indie-level) success. We talked about how much math we'd forgotten.
Oh there was a puzzle, right. My time says it was pretty easy, faster than average Monday, for some reason. I too misspelled GINSBURG, with an 'e', which I think was my only hiccup to speak of.
@Ornery: New York was named after the fifth Duke of York....King James II. Even I knew that one.
ReplyDelete@Oldactor: Just for you from a fun minstrel song show:
Ham fat, Ham fat, zigga Zola Zang,
Ham fat, Ham fat, tickle olla tan;
Oh, walk into da kitchen, as fast as you can
Hooche Koochee Koochee, says the hamfat man.
:-)
That's right...wasn't New York named after the Duke of York?
ReplyDeleteI don’t understand the older twin comment.
ReplyDeleteFairly easy, but more like a Tuesday as stated above. And maybe the insistence on starting every clue with a "B" was the problem, but I was annoyed by the frequency of clues that felt off the mark. Bother for Miff? Not even close. Bundle Up for Wrap? You can bundle up WITH a wrap, but you don't wrap when you bundle up. Blurt Out, Perhaps for Utter? Please. Yeah, you find beer in frat houses, but "beer bongs" are more likely in a good old dorm. Redone doesn't necessarily look brand new. And, yeah, Pone is never spoken in the South. Add it up and most of the difficulty is due to shaky clues.
ReplyDelete@Ornery was funnin y'all. Of course he/she knows New YORK was named after YORK. He/she wrote Big Apple City, as in an actual City name. Which would be odd named after YORK.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you haven't clicked on @Z's Orca's link, go do it now. Well worth the read and the Wowness of the Winner Puzs.
RooMonster
Didn't get the fact all the clues started with a B. But I time my Mondays and Tuesdays and the reason not to time is to savor the puzzle, so when I time I pay less attention.s
ReplyDeleteNew York was New Amsterdam when the Dutch founded it and colonized the lower Hudson. Obviously named after the city in Holland. Renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York, yes, but the royal dukedom is named after the city, right there in the center of Yorkshire. So the clue is accurate enough.
I noticed as I tried to find a starting place that it seemed as if a lot of the clues started with B. So I switched to the Cross/down mode and blimey, all the clues do start with B!
ReplyDeleteWhy I’m so late I solving today (not that anyone should care), is that I truly wanted to share with all of you who shamed me for having never looked at any graphic novel and specifically for not knowing MAUS a week or so back. I finished it late late late last night - started and could not stop (except for intermittent crying jags) until the end, and I am still just raw. Usually one with too many words, I haven’t sufficiently accurate facility to describe this work of art. If you haven’t, read MAUS, an epic story of survival and politics and the horrors that history must record in order (hopefully) never to repeat them. The absolute most moving telling of the holocaust story enhanced by the artwork and the concepts portrayed through the graphic novel vehicle. I am just so humbled by the Spiegelmans’ story and the telling. Thank you to all who urged those of us unfamiliar with this work to read it.
Guilty as charged: "Mathlete." Some of us were actually cool. Just good at math. My kids get a big kick out of it though.
ReplyDelete@CDilly52 Maus was the first graphic novel I read. Today, my son writes them and reads them. One of out 3 of his recommendations work for me.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle tonight. Look at the clever cluing:
6D beat badly = WHOMP
33D bad blood = HATE
45D blitz = ONRUSH
Thanks, Ellis Hay, for teaching me HORA ("Bar mitzvah dance"); clever use of GO DRY.
I am a very excited to explore the genre now. Love learning new things!
DeleteUgh, DNF on a Monday. That hurts. But there was RONA crossing HORA, and there was nothing I could do but guess the vowel, and I guessed wrong.
ReplyDeleteSolving on an app, I didn't notice the "B" cluing gimmick until I read about it here. When you don't see the gimmick, then the clues are essentially strained for no reason.
No. Just...no. The RMK is bad enough as fill--now you want to put one in a themer! Why, why would he do this? I scanned the clue list, and there it was. The letter B, Beginning every clue. What is the point? Because he CAN??? Sir, that does not always mean you SHOULD. Not if it results in the abomination of 20-across. I quit right there.
ReplyDeleteLETS USER?
ReplyDelete“BEYOURSELF”, was the LONER’S prayer,
“and from FATSO OAR UGLI please cure me.”
EVENSO, ISTHATOK to LAYER
and with EASE give the HORA FREE FERMI?
--- ISAAC GINSBURG
What a whiner. College is the easiest, lowest stress time in life. Good luck in the real world.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Staying up late or all night is counter productive. Learn how to study - you've got the whining down pat.
To C or not to C the Bs, that's the question. I didn't.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed tougher than the average Monday - p'raps due to the B Z ness.
A-bel doesn't seem a whiner to me - esp. after day after day of Rexian x-word dumping. I don't remember being that tired in college, tho. Even ended up going back to grad school in my 50s, whilst working full-time and teaching part-time.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Nice array of Bs. 9D, PASS AWAY adds a sombre, prophetic note with a balancing, c'est le vie clue. The symmetrical 38D GINSBURG entry has to be purely coincidental. She's a model of brillianace and vitality.
ReplyDeleteDEMOED is dookly awkward.
A different kind of Monday, and a good one.
Well, maybe 20a coulda been the band The BFIFTYTWOS, (Love Shack, baby) but ISTHATOK, still just a lone B missing its hive? And then there’s the bonus GEES, stayin’ alive. It was a WHOoP for longer than it was a WHOMP.
ReplyDeleteIt’s Two Stooges if they’re DE-MOED.
The way OFL was gushing over Maude the other day maybe it’s OK that he wasn’t here for BEAARTHUR. Never liked that show. Even with yeah baby TART Adrienne Barbeau.
Darn near 70 degrees today for all the revelers in town for the Final Two tonight. But it gets UGLI quick in MN; blizzard conditions with up to 20” of snow Wed-Thurs. You get the IDEA. OK puz.