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Eponymous hypnotist / THU 3-7-19 / Cheer at Texas football game / Toy boxer in classic two-player game / Counterfeiter trackers in old lingo / Exclamation usually made in high voice
Thursday, March 7, 2019
Constructor: Brian Thomas
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed on the clipboard, so I'm not sure, but I got the theme early and never struggled)
Theme answers:
- HANG 'EM HIGH (17A: 1968 Clint Eastwood western with six nooses on its poster)
- HOOK 'EM HORNS (23A: Cheer at a Texas football game)
- ROCK 'EM SOCK 'EM ROBOT (37A: Toy boxer in a classic two-player game)
- KNOCK 'EM DEAD (46A: "Show the world what you've got!")
Aoraki / Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand. Its height since 2014 is listed as 3,724 metres (12,218 feet), down from 3,764 m (12,349 ft) before December 1991, due to a rockslide and subsequent erosion. It lies in the Southern Alps, the mountain range which runs the length of the South Island. A popular tourist destination,[3] it is also a favourite challenge for mountain climbers. Aoraki / Mount Cook consists of three summits, from South to North the Low Peak (3,593 m or 11,788 ft), Middle Peak (3,717 m or 12,195 ft) and High Peak. The summits lie slightly south and east of the main divide of the Southern Alps, with the Tasman Glacier to the east and the Hooker Glacier to the southwest.There was a large rock fall in 1991 that turned the summit into a knife-edge ridge and reduced the height of the mountain by an estimated 10 m or so at that time. Aoraki / Mount Cook was measured in 2013 to be 3724 m, which is 30 m down from its pre-1991 rock-fall measurement. (wikipedia)
• • •
The fill was fine, I thought, though I see people grousing online a bit. I could always do without the RRN (random Roman numerals) (see 34A: XCI) and short gunk like DAK and ACH, but nothing grated on me too much today. "WHAT A TOOL!" left me oddly cold. Usually colloquial exclamations are very much my thing, but that one felt harsh and borderline profane and just not ... tight enough to fly. Really wanted "WHAT A JERK!" Still do. I was disappointed in the clue for CHIN MUSIC, since that is a fantastic baseball term (for a high and inside fastball), but I have never heard it used to mean [Chitchat] (though the dictionary says that is indeed its primary meaning). CHIN-WAGGING, I am familiar with. But not CHIN MUSIC. Not in this context.
Three cheers for the non-leering BRA clue (30D: Clothing item with hooks); "HOOK" is actually in the grid, and you generally avoid using clue words that are also grid words, but today I didn't notice or care, and the "hooks" are so different that I don't mind. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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115 comments:
What? No "Book 'em Danno?" Really missed an opportunity there.
This was a fun solve. Cute trick and not too hard. Fun.
CHINMUSIC should so much have been clued as a baseball slang. In 2001 I attended a 3-week management course at Kellogg in Chicago and there were many international participants. For one of our nights off, we went to Wrigley Field and saw a Cubs game. I was seated next to a classmate from Japan and we found out we were both big baseball fans. Our conversation included a lengthy comparison of translated baseball slang, e.g. "suicide squeeze" "paint the corners" "basket catch". About a week later there were a dozen or so of us in the dorm lounge watching a MLB playoff game and the pitcher threw one high and tight, and from the back of the group came a distinctly Japanese accented exclamation, "Chin-music!" The room bust out laughing. That friend probably still tells his buddies in Japan what that means!
What a neat little tricky Thursday. My first entry was 36D ITS and then wrote in “Rock’m Sock’m Robot” off that final T. I swear. My first two answers. (And I didn’t notice the odd singular, but point well taken.) In the grid, the E-less words didn’t look so wrong, but I got it all sorted out pretty quickly. What I didn’t see/look for was the reveal since I like the suspense. For the life of me, I wouldn’t have guessed it, so when it fell, I laughed.
Question – I was unfamiliar with the Texas rallying cry. Is the base phrase Hook them, ‘Horns! Or Hook them horns! (nonstandard hook those horns)?
Loved the KEYED/TYPED cross with their matching clues. And I also liked the crossing things that you hang from your rear-view mirror: DICE and PINE TREE. Please please please let that cardboard tree smell like pine and not vanilla or coconut. Or Pineapple. Please.
“Exclamation usually made in a high voice” – Ok. That’s tight enough.
Root sight (sic) – grey. Women, if you’re so inclined, this stuff, basically root spray paint, can buy you a few more weeks before paying a gazillion dollars to get your hair re-colored.
I never realized how many in-the-language ‘EM phrases we have in our glorious CHIN MUSIC (woe??) They could make great book titles:
SIC’EM: An Editor’s Memoir
BOOK’EM: The Mueller Report
READ’EM AND WEEP: Taking Control of Your Bills
SPREAD’EM: Rumors, They’re What’s for Breakfast
LEMME AT’EM: Life with a Doorbell: A Dog’s Perspective
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT’EM, JOIN’EM: How I Embraced The Nirvana of Non-Standard English
USE’EM OR LOSE’EM: Whither Went Whom and Lain?
"Hook 'em Horns?" If you say so.
@LMS, It shortens to “Hook ‘em.” Spoken with index and pinkie extended, all else curled. (to make a Longhorn) Football cheer etcetera. I know this because when Cal was playing UT way back when the Texans yelled their thing and showed their almost-surfer gesture and the Bersekers responded with a not-quite-profanity ending in Bears, and its accompanying gesture, and it was magnificent. Looong time ago when that kind of thing was exciting.
Last night I stared at an empty grid for 5 full minutes and then gave up. This morning I filled it all in, in near-record time. Once again, even though my brain feel all cottony in the morning, it’s much smarter. Needs that overnight spinal fluid rinse for sure.
Oh, I liked the clever theme idea and it's good execution, plus the RUNONS/CONTINUES cross, and learning a new phrase (CHIN MUSIC), and it all makes me think, "Keep 'em coming, Brian!" But as I leave the puzzle, what is sticking with me most of all is: "Man, that was the best. ETE. Clue. Ever!"
No mention of “LIE ON”? What a terrible answer ...
I admi that I don't check in here every day, so I don't know all of Rex's undoubted many talents. Has he ever created a puzzle without three letter words.
I am sure it has been done although if it were the rule, then there would be groans about the same old four letter words ...)
A
Fun and breezy. Don't understand the carping about the singular ROCKESOCKEROBOT. The game name was plural, but my robot was fighting your robot, singular.
As I recall, the TV ads were far more exciting than the game itself.
BEST ACTOR answer 11D was worst partial ever
Puzzle felt flat to me, especially after I grasped the “trick”. Really fast solve too (7:58), but I don’t know why as I FELT it to be a slog. Agree with @Rex that ROCKEMSOCKEMROBOT is idiotic in the singular. The toy in question contains BOTH robots. It’s not like one of them goes home to its squalid Philly apartment hoping for a shot at the title with the champion Rockem Sockem Robot (somehow I think some Hollywood script writer right now is penning a Toy Story/Rocky screenplay).
Anywho, fast, but not my cup of tea I guess as far as Thursdays go.
Two things I can not and will not do: Line Dance and Text with my Thumbs. Seeing others do these things makes me KEYED up. I guess I’m too much of a Nervous Nelly. I liked the theme but the grid had too much junk fill. IS IT OK? No.
Very neat. Agree with all the fun combos mentioned and also like Champagne and FLUTE.
The clue for the robot was singular "Toy boxer", so I'm fine with ROBOT.
CUTCO makes very sharp knives that are usually sold door to door by college students. I have seen many, many cut fingers from those who don't respect how easily they cut through food.
I also smiled at the clever clue for ETE
Now, that was fun. ROCKEMSOCKEMROBOT alone worth the price of admission. You make a puzzle with a swell theme like this, you can pretty much put in any fill you want.
Clues like “Some jerk he is!” and “Does this seem fine to you?” and fill like XCI just don’t matter when the puzzle delivers on the entertainment front.
Thought it was a rebus until I knew it wasn’t. Definitely a DNF, but I’lll count it anyhoo.
Me too. The “high Em’s” thing is clear now. I felt dumb for not seeing it - but sometimes I’m so not in the mood for a trick theme I willfully resist allotting any brain power outside the clues proper.
Like others, started filling in as rebusses (rebi?), until an abundance of downs would not fall. Also, said to say as a UTD grad, my first response was GIGEAGGIES.
Got the theme early on and moved through most of the grid with gusto but the crosses in the NE totally stymied me. Had to cheat to get the “h” in slouch and that enabled me to finish.
Sorry, I meant “sloth”
I got the theme early and it helped except in the NE. A near miss for me but I finally saw it.
If anyone's "pet letter" is K this grid should make you happy.
Chin music was new but even better is @ BarbieBarbie's spinal fluid rinse. I definitely will borrow that phrase. Thanks!
Cutco was an unknown but I am well acquainted with BonAmi cleanser.
I always admired their slogan and the cute little chick on the label.
Clever marketing I thought.
Good puzzle. Lively theme answers and some nice open corners to boot.
Things I learned this morning: that CHINMUSIC means anything other than a high, inside pitch; and that MESMERize comes from someone's name. Very cool, that last one.
The cluing was fun, but the clue for ETE took the Champagne thing a step too far.
I agree with @Rex that the ROBOTS are plural. Why not just go 16 wide -- hell, that's what yesterday's puzzle did, and for a far less compelling reason.
It annoys the hell out of me that MIKE and mic are seemingly interchangeable, but I'll get over it.
I gave LIEON the side-eye for quite a while before realizing that "Use" is a verb, not a noun. Well done.
CUTCO are knives sold as part of a multi-level marketing (MLM) scheme, a type of legal (for now) pyramid scheme. The company preys on college students with promises of a lot of money for minimal work. But most of the sellers actually lose money because they have to pay fees and meet minimum sales requirements.
The puzzle was OK otherwise but I wasn't happy seeing CUTCO included. It's known more for being a scam than as a brand of kitchen utensils.
An, the rare SOC. Seems like we should remember this day.
XCI didn’t bother me because, first, we don’t see RRNs eight days a week anymore, and, second, X-BOX GAMES and CONTINUES more than mitigate the transgression.
@Anon7:46 - In these parts “rebopodes” is the preferred plural. That’s because we STICK ‘EM in our pipe and smoke ‘EM.
The CHIN MUSIC clue was a learning experience. Like so many others, I’ve heard the baseball usage for 50 years and never once the “primary” usage.
@LMS - I was thinking of you yesterday as Seattle Riot shared a question from their try-out questionnaire: “Men lie. Women lie. ___________.” (The answer they were looking for is “Ultimate players lay out.”)
Apparently I didn’t catch spell correct changing “Ah” to “An.”
"Texas' world-renowned "Hook 'em Horns" sign, created by head cheerleader Harley Clark in 1955, was voted the nation's top hand signal by Sports Illustrated." They actually voted, folks...
Here's the key point to realize about ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOTs.. the game sucked. No one ever played it for more than a few minutes before getting bored.
This puzzle was fine. I dropped ambeR in at 1D and was off to the .. well.. I gave up on the NW, and circled around clockwise. Thought at first the EM thing must be a rebus or something, but I knew MESMER was right.. it all worked out OK in the end.
What everyone else is saying (fast, fun theme, not much dreck) but did no one else write in WHATAFOOL? This leads to the delightful FADA! and makes you wonder if you really should have FADO which is generally sung in a high and plaintive voice and then you change the F to a T and it still makes sense but even moreso.
Fun Thurs. if over too fast, thanks BT.
Hey All !
Just had a funny thought, read the answers as MEs instead of EMs. Go ahead, Har-ness will ensue.
Liked this nifty little theme. Brian had MESMER as a cross with two themers, so that was a highlight. In the same group of those who found it easy, except the NE corner. Not sure why that was so tough. Looking at it after the fact, I think it was the clues. Yeah, sounds good. Too bad the MT wasn't MT COOL, cause that would be, well, cool.
Got the same K feeling that @Suzie Q had. Funny. Maybe I'll adopt the K? Probably not, I'm sure it gets used more than the F. I don't have the numbers, but will state it as fact regardless. :-)
Got a chuckle out of WHAT A TOOL. Ha, known a few TOOLs over the years. RUN ONS over TEXT. Who, me?
Some fun -ese today, IS IT OK, UH OH, T MEN, DAK, SPF (because of the F, of course).
Only KAOS I ran into today was running out of room when first entering HANG EM HIGH. Went UHOH, but quickly recovered and grokked the theme at the singular ROCK EM SOCK EM ROBOT (which bothers me not at all as a singlet).
AMEN TMEN
RooMonster
DarrinV
BRA! (har)
@TomAZ - With all due respect to Sports Illustrated, The #1 hand signal in the US is clearly the one finger salute.
“Hey! You knocked my block off!”
https://youtu.be/P-nk1hB8bQI
Wow, what a tough work-out...and I loved every minute.
Started this late last night after a two hour dinner with friends. They brought over two bottles of "Gnarly Head" Lodi Zin, knowing that I love me some mighty fine wine (You can buy it at Safeways - try it.) We KNOCKed EM down pretty quickly. After guests left, I sat in my favorite chair, burped a bit and could only muster up IS IT OK. Off to bed.
So I look at this Thursday at 4 in the morning because that's when I (ugh) got up. I just stared. Slowly words began to emerge. Got HANG[EM] HIGH after several sips of coffee. Smiled. Things began to creep back from gray cells that had been lying dormant for many years. My trusty pen was ever so lightly putting things in each little square because I wasn't sure of my answers. Are the cute little OTTERs still being trapped? I guess so. Chitchat was small talk for a while. CHIN MUSIC? That's a thing? HOOK EM HORNS is something the Texans say? Never heard of ROCK[EM] SOCK[EM] ROBOT. Needed every single down to get that answer. T he only two themes I got without pause were KNOCK[EM] DEAD and STICK[EM] UP. Cool beans.
Very last entry was 34D at X BOX GAMES. I never learned my Roman numerals...never will....don't use them....and Halo and Gears ain't floating around in my branch of knowledge.
Some people like the smell of PINE. It reminds me of summer camp and our weekly chore of cleaning up our cabin toilets and showers. My bunk mate thought that pouring that stuff on the floor and swishing a mop around would do the trick. Those smells don't mix.
I hope that the clue for ETE makes it in the crossword Guinness Book of all things clued the way God intended.
Thanks for a RAD puzzle, Brian Thomas.
Whoa!
Fastest Thursday by over a minute.
Didn't get to finish my coffee...
Got slowed down when I had ROCKE____ and saw "classic" in the clue and went right to ROCKEtjsquirrel.He wasn't a boxer but he could have been a contender. Note to self, read entire clue.
Sorry, but an Emcee does not need a MIKE! They need a MIC, short for MICROPHONE. Or am I missin something here? I often do!
I didn't enjoy the puzzle. Got the rebus but the Texas thing killed me. Thank you for the revenge @Barbi. Go Bears.
Can we get something straight here? Mike is not - not - the abbreviation for microphone. You may find some variation crap, but it's mic. Cause it's not spelled mikerophone. Except in maybe in Greek, but on second thought that's probably mykrophx.
So, let's see. Three product names, a gibberish-y toy, a gibberish-y cheer, an acronym from a forgettable TV show, some video games, and a couple of oh-so-up-to-the-minute slang phrases. And, TADA, it's a puzzle! Is there any room left under the SCALP for things that an educated person really needs to know?
The theme helped me solve, as the best themes do, so that's not my problem with the puzzle. My problem is the exhaustive and exhausting search for hipness and the focus on trivia of almost staggering unimportance. I see that most of you so far have liked this puzzle, so I seem to be the outlier. But, even though I managed to finish it, I didn't have to like it. And I surely didn't.
While I ride my two-wheeled bike, my grandson will ride her three-wheeled tric.
I solve my print puzzles using a pen. Always.
According to Rex, I am not normal.
Looks like it’s “Hook them, ‘Horns!” as the base phrase.
According to the school websites, the UT cheer actually originated from an A&M phrase, “Gig ’em, Aggies!”, which itself was the crowd’s response to the cheering squad’s query “What are we going to do to those Horned Frogs?!”
When Texas was later playing those same TCU Horned Frogs, they used the phrase “Hook em, ‘Horns!”, which then rapidly became popular as a rallying cry, no matter the opponent.
Thursday’s? Not up to em some weeks. Today’s was easy & fun.
I've never heard of HOOK EM HIGH, so the NW was very challenging for me especially with CUTCO & MTCOOK. Otherwise, I did find it relatively easy for a Thursday puzzle and pretty enjoyable at that.
I am getting better at Thursday puzzles. They used to be stressful for me because I knew there was some hidden rebus or trick and Thursdays are hard enough without them. But now I'm getting used to them and know what to look for, so it's a little more fun.
@Andy Silverman -- For some reason, I cannot stop laughing at your ROCKEtjsquirrel anecdote. Maybe it's because "Rocky & Bullwinkle" is still the greatest subversive cartoon show I can remember. Maybe it's because Rocky was voiced by June Foray, who also voiced Natasha, Cindy Lou Who, Granny (Tweety Bird's sometimes-owner), Witch Hazel and numerous other Looney Tunes characters, and is responsible for many happy memories. Maybe it's because Rocky has a friggin' middle initial, which of course he does. Anyway, thanks for putting a big smile on my face.
Note to constructors: Please find a way to make BULLWINKLE an entry soon.
Thank you to all the wonderful teachers throughout my life who made things as interesting and fun as you do in your daily musings! I’d sign up for your class any day and hope you get rewarded occasionally with students who enjoy learning.
I loved this puzzle. I got off to a slow start, but then began clicking in the northeast and HANG EM HIGH fell right out. Like Rex, I was puzzled at first as to why it seemed to be a rebus that didn’t apply to the down clue, but shortly after that I nailed STICK EM UP and had the ah-ha moment.
I loved ROCK EM SOCK EM robot, though take the point it probably should be plural. To me, CHIN MUSIC as the answer to chitchat was delightful; like Rex, I have never heard it used in any context but baseball slang for a brushback pitch. To find out its primary meaning is “chitchat” is quite surprising! I like learning something new from the NYT puzzle, as I periodically do.
I believe WHAT A TOOL is of relatively recent vintage and started as Internet slang (I think), and I initially had WHAT A FOOL but that didn’t feel right, because a fool isn’t necessarily a jerk. Of course the answer could not be WHAT A JERK without re-cluing, because “jerk” is in the clue.
Liked MESMER, ISOMER, KAOS, OWLET, some others, too … always glad to see OVID in a puzzle. I much prefer literary proper names to celebrity proper names. Nice solving experience.
Those are good, Loren Muse Smith.
I think the only thing that kept this from being a Tuesday puzzle was the 'em gimmick. Still, I had fun with it.
I wrote in WHATAlOad off the W. Close enough to help me get through that corner quickly.
Rocky & Bullwinkle are my all time faves. Loved the Mr. Peabody (and his “Boy Sherman”) cartoons, too. They get such short shrift in crosswords!
Pretty easy puzzle today, the NE was a bit of a speed bump, but otherwise straightforward.
Shoutout to Rex for including the Teenage Fanclub clip in here. They're one of my favorite bands and I just saw them in Minneapolis this week.
What a learning experience:
1. CHIN MUSIC is chat. I thought that was a CHIN wag, and the “music” onlay applied to baseball.
2. WHAT A TOOL. No idea that is an expression.
3. OTTERs are still trapped. Hmmmm.
Enjoyed the oldies: BONAMI (had Brillo at first and that certainly slowed me down). So surprised that London FOG was correct. KAOS brought back memories of my sibs and I arguing over what to watch and being so happy when my pick, “Get Smart” won out.
@Crimson Devil, 12:57 yesterday. AMEN on how correctly to fry OKRA. I am a 40+ year transplant to Oklahoma (more in that in a minute) and had never had the “South side” until 1976. My mother-in-law hooked me and yes, the only way to make first class fried okra is by slicing it, letting it sit on paper towels to lose any extra moisture, dust it in cornmeal and fry it in a blazing hot cast iron skillet. Divine, and the “slime” is all gone.
Got the theme at the first because of TMEN, but it hurt my (transplanted)soul to have to type Iin that horrid phrase from south of the Red River. All I can say to that is:
BOOMER SOONER!!!!
43a "Mike" Does the emcee need a friend by the name of Mike? This is a personal pet peeve of mine, something I would say into the mic at a crossword creator's convention!
Cruised along very nicely until the unpleasantness of the NE corner, then hamstrung myself with LIEIN (as in “had a nice long lie in this morning”) instead of LIEON. Then proceeded with a frustrating assortment of incorrect crosses like CUTZO/MTZOIK. etc. Had to step away to see the obvious MTCOOK.
@Lorelei Lee, the Radio and Television News used the term “Mike” for microphone as far back as the 40s, according to copies of its newsletters available online. Just because you’ve never heard of this shortening of microphone or don’t like it doesn’t make it wrong.
Had TMEN and knew HANG EM HIGH so I just figured the key was "em" without the "m" and went on from there. When I found the reveal I just shrugged and didn't bother looking at the grid much. As usual, I had to come here to see the "trick". As the young 'uns used to say, What. Ever.
A lot of this was easy for me, last thing to fall was the Texas thing as I neither know nor care to know a single thing about football. Futbal is my thing. The clue was for a single ROBOT, not the name of the game; geez, the things that set off the crossword kids, no wonder they bristle at ANAL as an answer.
I have never heard "chin music" in any context (yeah, no baseball for me either) and had "what a fool" for quite a while. I did not know that "tada" is said in a high pitch either. Cutco is a scam, not a well known kitchen utensil, at least not in any of the professional kitchens my wife and I inhabited for 20 years. I've got a nice set of Henkels though, still going sharp and strong 35 years after purchase.
Not so small a nit, mic is an abbreviated "microphone" and is not to be confused with a man's name.
James Cook was already well known for his maps of New Zealand before his further explorations of the South Pacific led to his death in Hawaii, but the native name is used more often these days.
The runons continue to be typed, or keyed into, texts written by the sassy gypsy stuck in the dead end gig economy. Pretty soon he'll have to resort to "stick em up".
CHIN MUSIC? Is that what all the crazy, hep kids are saying these days? I must be getting old.
I always used mike for microphone.
Mic got started by sound engineers and picked up by rappers and spread quickly.
Check here:http://mentalfloss.com/article/66196/microphone-mic-or-mike
M
Easy. Caught the theme at HANG E HIGH and zipped through the rest.
Fun theme answers, liked it.
DNF because I've never been to a Texas football game (nor to any other football game for at least 40 years), so I thought HOld 'EM HORNS would make a pretty good cheer. This gave me DOOK, but I thought maybe that was a real thing. So I finished and looked up lAT CAKE to see what it might be, whereupon the Dictionary app suggested I might want OATs instead. Doh! If I'd bothered to run the alphabet, I would have got it, so it's all because I'm such a SLOTH.
Dull theme, nice revealer; I was annoyed by all the vague clues at first--autumn color, I'm looking at you--and even though I knew St. Kitts was really St. Christopher, he just shut off my mind to other possibilities, so I needed a lot of crosses to get LUCIA there.
Those things you talk into were MIKEs for most of my life; in the old days, you needed a silent E in order to get the long I sound, and MICE wouldn't have worked. They became mics about the same time the journalist's lead became a LEDE. So you young 'uns should just be patient.
I bought my Cutco knives from a frind's son when he was in college. He's in his mid-forties now. Cutco is an upstate NY company that sells very expensive cutlery and accepts knives through the mail for free sharpening for the life of the knives (or the life of the owner, if you don't cut a main artery with those very sharp knives and live that long). My only problem is slicing and dicing for the days it takes for the knives to come back.
I kept wanting the EMs to be a rebus even though they did not fit. So stubborn, and even though I had the other answers **and** the literal hint, I still tried to figure out how I could make them work. DUH.
Thought it was a fun puzzle.
2 TOOL explanations, with the NSFW one being more recent, but hardly new. I’m pretty sure it was common as early as the 1990’s.
@MIKE complainers - Use whatever you want but both are acceptable spellings. In the context of crosswords the spelling is determined by the number of squares needed to be filled.
@Linda Vale - If you do it to impress non-solvers I’d agree. I solve in pen because it is easier to see, especially since I like to lightly write in answers I’m not sure about. If I printed out the puzzle on good white paper it might be different, but the flimsy newsprint is hard to erase without destroying the paper and #2 pencil doesn’t contrast enough with the “white” of newsprint. A lot of the fastest solvers agree with Rex, just proving we should take anything any of them say with a healthy dose of scepticism.
Right in my wheelhouse - even the product clues, which I generally dislike, were products (Bon Ami, Cutco,) that I own. I have been to St. Lucia, and to Mt. Cook, and "Hook em Horns" is very familiar. (there was even a commercial featuring a game of "charades" where the U of T alum is trying to get the "Aggie" to say "Hook em horns..." "Never graduate!" But I watch a LOT of college football...) I think a better clue for "chin music" would be "Brushback pitch in baseball slang.."
Enjoyed this one a lot!
a double thumbs up for Z and his pen. mine is fountain and for the same reason. and, since no one else I care about sees the result (I leave the paper in booth in the hopes that some low-information voter reads it. yeah, I know), I just adjust the wrong letters in my head rather than over-writing. why bother, exactly? leaves a clean grid.
Super hard for me. Much harder than typical Friday or Saturday puzzle. CUTCO? HOOK EM HORNS? CHIN MUSIC? Seems so obscure and weird to me.
Knew HOOKEMHORNS. Didn't know the ROBOT(S). Cute theme, tho.
Bonus themer: PINETREMES.
I also got whole hog sucked in on that there instinctive ThursPuz rebus feelin, as I filled in the gimme HANGEMHIGH. Wasn't quite sure where to park the rebus square, tho. Went with the HI in HIGH, figurin it was some sorta friendly greetin theme, at first. (And that the next theme would probably have a YO rebus square.) Wrong again, M&A breath. Would make a nice runtpuz, tho ...
fave fillins included: WHATATOOL/TOAD. GYPSY. BONAMI. MESMER(izin).
Lost precious nanoseconds at: CUTCO/LUCIA/MTCOOK network. Guessed right on all the crossins, tho, sooo … ok.
staff weeject pick: DAK. There were several tasty ones in today's mix of 20 runt entries, I'd grant.
Thanx for stickin up for em, Mr. Thomas.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
I’m going to post this before I read anyone so I don’t feel too bloody stupid. After five minutes of floundering EVERWHERE, I was sure I’d never finish this, I’d have massive DNF on a Thursday!! I got a little bit of the North, enough to see HANGEMHIGH, only that didn’t fit and I didn’t see how a rebus would work. So I cannot tell you how I got this, given I didn’t know squat, (robots, Texas cheer, the hypnotist) but I did, simply because I had enough letters of the reveal to put in STICKEMUP and that gave me the trick, which told me how HANGEMHIGH worked, and then I was off to the races.
So after about 20 minutes of beating myself up, I flew through the thing. And it was fun!
Now: What’s the commentariat saying? Let’s go see.
Z,
Spelling is determined by the number of squares neede to be filled?
Thats absurd, laugh-out-loud idiotic.
Anyone who uses a microphone for a living, or even deals with audio say in RTF, uses mic.
Only rank amateurs and imbeciles would use mike.
I didn't get the ete?
My little brother tried selling Cutco at one time, I think a little over 35 years ago. I doubt they still do this, but back then he was told to demonstrate the sharpness of the kitchen shears by using them to cut a penny into a spiral like a corkscrew. It was surprisingly fun to watch :-)
Hi,
I am a fairly new solver, can someone explain to me how one was to figure out that it was 'E' for 'EM'. I solved it as a rebus, entering 'EM' and assuming you ignored the 'M' in the down clues. I finally had to reveal the puzzle to see that it was meant to be just an 'E'. From reading the comments it seems that most people figure that out, so I'm wondering if someone can explain how so I understand for the future.
Thanks!
"Hook 'em Horns" is the slogan and hand signal of UT Austin, and it's correctly rendered in the puzzle. The phrase should probably have a comma but that battle's lost. Longhorns typically just say "Hook 'em" now. By sometime in the middle of the century, I assume there will be a further shortening and people at the games will just scream "HOOK!" and everyone will know exactly what they mean.
@Anon 9:29, best MIc rebuttal with "bike" and "tric"! I rolled my eyes when I saw MIKE in the grid, anticipating the ensuing whines. I'm with the older crew who have used MIKE exclusively forever. When did it change? I don't care. (I still use words like "proven" and "shone" because I didn't get the memo when they changed either. Though I see "shone" is still used when it isn't followed by an object a la "the sun shone" - learned something new today.)
I played with the EM rebus until the revealer showed why every rebus had been M[EM] going down, d'oh. I need to step up my game if I don't want to completely make a TOOL of myself at the upcoming ACPT. Worst example today is my re-visiting TAtA from last week, for 26A. One does raise one's voice when saying TAtA, does one not? As for the cross, don't ask.
K____ company that merged with Heinz was Knorr until the crosses cleared that up.
Why I knew HOOK 'EM HORNS after I got the HOOK 'EM is a mystery to me.
63A reminds me of getting some orange-oil scented fresheners free in the mail. I put them in my shoes. Now there's a scent combo that doesn't CUTCO it, ugh.
Brian Thomas, congrats on your first Thursday - I liked it.
@cale42, 12:26pm: The "THEME" paragraph in Rex Parker's blog writeup, right under the puzgrid picture, gives a pretty darn good explanation. Start with that -- and I think that'll help U out.
M&A Help Desk
This puzzle played very fast. My first entry was HOOKEMHORNS. I tried a rebus for EM before I saw the downs. HANGEMHIGH was a gimme as was KNOCKEMDEAD. I had to stop and think for the ROBOT toy. I’ve never seen one, but the rhyming name was cute and I could eventually retrieve it. The revealer was a winner. This was a fun theme that gets extra points for moving those Ms.
WHATATOOL is right in my vernacular. I must be right in it’s age sweet spot. I had a vacation in St. LUCIA before it was wise to visit. CHINMUSIC was new and noteworthy. Nobody wags any more.
CUTCO brings back uncomfortable memories of emotional extortion. How I dreaded those phone calls from sweet, adorable high school friends of my kids who just wondered if they could stop by and chat. I knew what was coming. They’d arrive at the door all neat and trim with their hair slicked down and a knife case in hand. I felt like a butterfly about to be stuck with a pin. There was no escape and these knives were crazy expensive. I always succumbed. Nearly 20 years later, what knives do I reach for first when it’s time to start dinner? CUTCO. I’m always slightly cheesed if the one I want in the dishwasher and I’m forced to resort to a Henkel option. They last forever. They never need sharpening (in my experience). And they’re made in America. I would get a few more if I still knew any teenagers. It’s probably best that I don’t.
Filled in HANGmHIGH and ROCKmSOCKmROBOT right out of the gate, with no crosses, and was astounded when they turned out to be correct in the main. When I got to STICKEMUP and got the trick, that did make me laugh. This was almost a record fast Thursday but I had so much fun who cares?
Favorite thing to learn today: LUCIA. The *only* nation named for a woman. Out of 195. That's...uh...0.5%. How many are named after men, I wonder? "Hello, Mr. Belgium!" Wikipedia has some interesting factoids on this subject. My absolutely delightful son-in-law is St. Lucian and has fabulous stories of his childhood, many of which involve him dashing through the jungle, machete in hand, on the constant lookout for ridiculously huge snakes. He's a gem of a person. Was his personality formed in part by St. Lucia being named after a member of the gentler sex? What impact does a country's name origin have on its culture, anyway? Would Russian culture be different at all if the country was known as, say, "Melissa"? Hmm.
So Anonymous, was Rod Serling an amateur or imbecile? He used the word mike for microphone in his scripts for The Twilight Zone. Considering his resume and reputation as an award-winning writer and television producer, I think we can trust he knew what he was doing. The arrogance of some people on here who think they know everything is hilarious.
Biggest surprise for me today? That @OISK liked it. I was so sure he'd have had many of the same objections I did. This may be the first time you've completely fooled me, OISK.
In fact, just about everyone fooled me today. The word "fun" was used so often, I felt as though I had done a different puzzle from everyone else. (Well, there was John Hoffman at 12:01, so that's something. But other than John...)
@Masked and Anonymous.
Oh geez.. I read that this morning and didn't process it all all. Stupid lack of coffee. Just went and reread it now.
Thank you so much.. makes complete sense now.
Frank,
Mic is pronouned MIKE. Show me a Serling script with mic written as Mike and I'll concede the point.
Bravo. Well said, with a heartfelt “ditto” regarding both Ms. Smith and her anonymous compatriot.
@Z, @Linda Vale - I'm pretty sure that Rex said " (Actually I solved with a pencil, like a fairly normal person)" as a joke, in contrast to what preceded the parenthetical in that sentence, "... solve[d] it on the clipboard with a cup of hot water & lemon", i.e. he wasn't using hot water & lemon as a part of his writing.
@heidiho -- ETE means summer in French, and Champagne is a French province.
31D - ISOMER. That chemistry degree is paying off for me.
Son imposed on many of my friends to load ‘em up with Cutco knives. They do make the best, adjustable, fish filet knives: quite ingenious. As for kitchen, I reach for Henckels.
Agree re CHIN MUSIC: if dictionary cites prime meaning as other than high inside pitch, dictionary needs updating.
Loved puz, got it all: but still don’t understand ETE.
LMAO at the clue for TADA. People say this in a "high" voice? Like, a falsetto, Mr. Bill, Karen-on-"Will-&-Grace" voice? Or maybe it means they sound wasted -- Stoner 1: "Got any more weed?" Stoner 2 (offering a joint): "Ta-da, dude."
Still can't stop laughing.
Well DUH, ETE just dawned on moi !
Ete is French for Summer
For all you helpful people earnestly telling LMS how to parse Hook 'em Horns, I think she was hanging noodles on your ears.
(Sorry not to imbed the explanation but Google "I'm not hanging noodles on your ears."
From Google Books:
Rod Serling - FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE, published in 1962. A collection of his TV scripts. This one is “The Odyssey of Flight 33”
“Then he held THE MIKE close to his mouth. ‘LaGuardia, this is a Boeing 707, and every five-second period you keep this aircraft up in the air, you're shortening the odds on its ever getting back on the ground. Now don't give us this two-four- ...’”
Hey @Nancy, what am I, chopped liver? I thought I was on your team today. Altho I may have been too subtle. I’m still smarting from yesterday. No one commented on my joke about “out like an Elia.” Perhaps no one remembers Lamb’s nom de plume anymore.
@Let's Get Real Guys, thank you for pointing out Rex's little joke about solving in pencil!
@Cassieopia, I loved your speculation on whether Russia would be a kindler, gentler place if called Melissa. Mother Melissa does sound nice.
Anyone else concerned that @John X didn’t comment today? I hope he wasn’t detained at the Swiss border.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/66196/microphone-mic-or-mike
The above link gives a credible account of the mic- mike story. The OED dates mike from the 1920s and mic from the 1960s. I don't remember seeing mic until sometime in the 2000s. Did not know it had taken over until the dropthemic stuff. Was that a plot to sell more microphones?. I do have a preference for new words to be spelled in a way that reflects how they are pronounced. Mic looks like a lost battle on that front, but keep mike alive I say. I have yet to figure out what clues should be answered CZAR and which TSAR and which either.
Either Thursdays have been easier lately or I'm getting better at this game. I am happy to pretend it is the latter I fear it is the former.
This was fun. Clever clues, good answers, lots of good fill, a theme that aided solving. Commercial names that produced few complaints. My best friend had the ROCKEMSOCKEMs but I could only remember boxing robots. But soon got it from the theme and a few crosses. About a third of my solve tme was working out the NE corner.
Loved the way the SE corner fit together. It's a thing of beauty.
ISOMER, ALLOY, all the K-words.
My group used the word TOOL all the time in the 60s to mean someone, person A, who is being used by another person B to get something done that person B wants done under the pretense that that person B is actually doing person A a favor. A is being manipulated to B's purposes. Not being a jerk, but certainly being unaware.
Glad to learn the original meaning of CHINMUSIC.
Oops I think I said the SE corner was a thing of beauty. I met the SW corner.
I suppose this blog attracts people who are kranky, hence the spelling discussion which I find king of beside the point. But consider this. A certain type of bread from India can be spelled either NAN or NAAN. Z was correct: one uses whichever alternate spelling the number of squares require.
And Nancy, if you are an outlier, your certainly are not alone. I gave a thumbs down to todays puzzle because of all the features you don't like.
By the way, I solve in ink but fill in the grid with very small letters so that I can easily cross out incorrect letters (and I do that often). I prefer doing that to erasing. And I hope nobody cares.
@Lets get real here guys - From Twitter today. Rex is vehemently vociferous in his detestation of pen solvers. His excuse is that he thinks we all do it to show off and act superior. I don’t see all his Tweets, so I can’t be certain, but I’d estimate he tosses an anti-pen salvo at least once a week. He turns 50 soon, an age where the eyes start to go. We will see if he changes his tune.
@Banana - Man, that’s so very Zen. My puzzle goes into the recycling bin somewhere between minutes and hours after solving and I fix every mistake. I could not leave it uncorrected, physically incapable even.
@FrankStein - the whole notion had been debunked already and that didn’t stop them. Then, rather than actually look up a script they demand you prove it. Rather than engage I suggest the only reasonable response is <a href="https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/fremdschämen”>fremdschamen.</a> It is a special kind of stupid to insist you’re right when 11 seconds with Uncle Google can clear things up.
@malsdemare - There is nothing better than that light coming on.
@FrankStein - the whole notion had been debunked already and that didn’t stop them. Then, rather than actually look up a script they demand you prove it. Rather than engage I suggest the only reasonable response is fremdschamen. It is a special kind of stupid to insist you’re right when 11 seconds with Uncle Google can clear things up. (Damn smart quotes)
Z ,frank,
The proof youre citing is a modern audio transcription.
Show me a mimeographed image.
Who are you calling stupid z. Me? Please.
Mike. Sigh. I got unnecessarily hung up there, having spent too many years in a cappella groups getting that spelling drilled in by sound guys who would get SO ANNOYED if anyone wrote “mike.”
It may be an accepted spelling to the general populace, but that is surely going to irritate any pro.
@ Quasi, I liked your joke yesterday. I just didn't comment. It was a good one for the crossword crowd.
Only rank amateurs and imbeciles would make a statement beginning with "only rank amateurs and imbeciles".
@Sir Hillary, @Gypsyboom, @Z, @Jesse, @Frank Stein, @albatross shell, @Marie, @ jberg...
... and anyone else who chimed in on MIKEgate - I rather like mic, too, but as regards mike, I have to make three points:
1. As @albatross shell said, mike is older; the OED has mike appearing first in the 1920s and mic showing up in the 1960s. So there’s that.
2. If we dig in and insist on mic, when you use it as a verb, how the heck do you inflect it? Is the guest speaker miced yet? Or Micing a woman in a strapless gown is always a challenge.
3. We don’t nuc our lunch in the microwave, enjoy a fresh cuc, or drink a diet coc. Those truncations are absurd, laugh-out-loud idiotic.
(Oh, and speaking of truncation, it’s truncated to trunk, not trunc.)
[Bam. Mike drop]
@Loren Muse Smith It is written, "Mic'd"
Bolls or pods it's all picked by machines these days. When I was little my mother had a friend whose maid asked for the summer off so she could pick cotton. Our friend asked her "Why would you want to spend the Summer bent over in the hot South Texas sun dragging a heavy sack?"
She said, "Oh it's easy, all you have to do is just Pick!"
A dillydallier is not a sloth. A sloth does precisely nothing. A dillydallier kinda putzes around, not *making it* [reference to last week's answer "made it" to the clue "arrived on time"].
Can someone please explain why every puzzle solution grid has one word in grey and one letter in red? In this case the word "keyed" and the letter "E". I have really tried to figure this out on my own, hoping it would become clear over time, but nothing is clicking!
The sloth takes offense at this comment! It is a slow beast to be sure, but does in fact move, in an almost hypnotically deliberate manner.
@doghairstew - the grey word / red letter represent the location of the selected square at the time the screenshot is captured of the finished puzzle. Different apps/web pages show different colors, but that's what's being shown.
Thanks for the reply, Mike. I must be dense because I still don't get what the "selected square" means. Is that the last square that the solver filled in? If so, why is that significant?
Oh maybe it's because I've never done the puzzle online. The selected square is simply the last square the solver clicked on, and when they click on it it turns red, to indicate which square will be filled with the subsequent key stroke? Sheesh, so many words to describe such a straightforward concept. In short I guess it doesn't have any particular significance as I had imagined. Unless one considers the last square filled in to be particularly meaningful. Thanks again for the explanation!
Easy and fun puzzle...until I got to the NE, which did me in. LUCIA crossing CUTCO was a natick for me, and kept wavering between LIEIN and LIEON for the bed, which made MTCOOK never come together. Also, could they have clued ACTOR any more blandly?
UHOH, TMEN!
STICK’EMUP HIGH in the PINETREES, and CUT ONE to shreds,
HANG’EMHIGH on a LINE please, and then KNOCK’EMDEAD.
--- MIKE REINER
A slow start, but a real-life synchronicity moment wedged me in. Just last weekend, the new nightclub KAOS opened at the Palms just down the block. Made me think of Agent 86 (and DOD honorable mention 99). Anyhow, this led to HOOKEMHORN...oops! Not enough squares! Yeah, but that just HAD to be the answer, so: rebusiness afoot.
Skipped to the revealer clue, and the FOG cleared. Now it all made sense, and good old Hans MESMER fit right in. After that the solve became really easy.
There is some unfortunate fill: the RRN of course, and stuff like DAK and MKTS. But at least our hero Brian refrained from cluing NELLY via the rap route; he gets big points for that.
Theme-wise, I agree with OFC about 14a, the high tight fastball, and about the singular ROBOT. That there is one broken toy.
Cluing is interesting enough to put this puzzle properly into a Thursday spot; sometimes beyond. "Best_____" for...ACTOR? Wow, can you even DO that? GYP{SY gives us co-DODs Rosalind Russell as the Mom from Hell and Natalie Wood is the title role: "Mother...I'm pretty!" Yeah baby, you got that right. Additional Honorable mention to Rosa PARKS. Not to be omitted. Birdie.
I figured that HANGE(M)HIGH was the revealer because you were HANGing that EM HIGH. So it was a breeze down to the ‘actual’ revealer.
Like OFL, a high and tight fastball is what I associate with CHINMUSIC.
Before getting carried away with EATING, NELLY Furtado a KNOCKEMDEAD yeah baby.
The snow CONTINUES, so this was a nice diversion.
Stared at the themers for some time, especially ROCKEM SOCKEM and HOOKEM. Also quite literally followed revealer instructions to STICK M UP:
Wrote in the Ms in EMs and then mentally unstuck them, sticking them on top of the Ms above. Literal thinking maybe, but it worked for me.
Some tough cluing for LINE DANCE, CHIN MUSIC, SCALP, AND MT. COOK. Helpful long downs in the NW and SE corners were WHAT A TOOL and XBOX GAMES.
Enjoyed it.
Once again, not being a gamer was my downfall.
Thanks, @Rainy, for pointing out John X yesterday. Made the whole experience worthwhile.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
I have never and know of absolutely no one who has ever said look at the beautiful ocher leaf colour. EVER!
Agreed
A boo in syndication for Cutco. I agreed to a presentation from one of my students, who proceeded to ruin one of our good knives by trying to cut a rope with it, or something. It was many years ago, and I wouldn’t think of a MLM product as an ordinary kitchen utensil.
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