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Holders for emergency supplies / MON 3-18-19 / Latin motto for go-getter / Popular rodent control brand / Country completely surrounded by Italy
Monday, March 18, 2019
Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (for a Monday) (3:25)
Theme answers:
- PLAIN TO SEE (si!) (17A: Clearly visible)
- LAH-DI-DAH (da!) (28A: Hoity-toity)
- AIMS HIGH (hai!) (45A: Sets lofty goals)
- THE ROYAL WE (oui!) (59A: What egotists use instead of "I")
plural noun: go-bags
• • •
OK, let's get one thing out of the way immediately: the clue on MARA is criminal. It's deliberately evoking the leader of a global white supremacist movement. MARA doesn't have to be there at all, and if it *does* have to be there, then there are other MARAs in the world. There well and truly are. And the clue! "Presidential retreat"?!?!? I'll let my friend Austin explain:
I love this theme. I really do. I really wish I hadn't run into *&%^ing MARA because it really soured the whole experience. Nice to get to a revealer that gives you that moment where you look back over the puzzle and go "Oh yeah ... cool." The one area I had trouble today ... well, there were two. First, I had PLAIN and wrote in PLAIN AS DAY for 17A: Clearly visible. Brutal misstep, especially for a Monday. Probably added 10-20 seconds to my time all on its own. Ooh, KTOWN was also tough somehow. Don't know what I was looking for, but it wasn't that (6D: Neighborhood to get kimchi and bibimbap, informally). I stupidly wrote in AMORE at 18D: Sentiment from a Latino lover (TE AMO), so as you can see, that whole area was just a clusterf***. D'OH! (55A: "That was stupid of me!"). But the one that really baffled me was RA-E / -OBAGS (25D: Rant and rave / 34A: Holders for emergency supplies). I know GO BAG as something you can grab when you need to disappear quickly and possibly for a long time. I think of it as including cash, as well as other things you will need if you are on the run. The clue made it sound like some kind of first aid kit, so even with -OBAGS in place I thought maybe the first two letters were initials. Not sure why RAGE troubled me, but the only answer I wanted was RAVE, which was in the clue, so ... :( ... I figured it out, obviously, and it probably took me only a matter of five seconds, but on a Monday, at the end ... it felt like forever. Fill on this one was tight and interesting. Really good work, except for the clue on MARA, which is entirely the editor's fault, in the end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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130 comments:
A Typically easy Monday except that I had no idea what the theme was until I read the last clue (I work from the NW to the SE only). And then an enjoyable “Ah-ha!”
One nit to pick: 42D (Break at the Indy 500 - PITSTOP) could be right if a fan in the stands visited the restroom during the race. But for the racers themselves, it hardly qualifies as a “break”. Rather it is a crucial part of the strategy of race.
Cute and nice and super easy and a good for beginners Monday, but I prefer themes you can see along the way, where the revealer can actually be of some thematic and conceptual help. This is the kind of theme you see afterwards and say okay, cool, but I couldn’t possibly have seen that while solving. Still, a fine puzzle!
The RAGE and GOBAGS cross also gave me pause and was the last to go in.
I also winced mightily at MARA but I think it’s acceptable puzzle fare even if it’s not the way I would like to have seen it clued — if at all. I’m just dreading how the trolls will respond tomorrow.
PEKE and DEETS?! Am I terribly uncool or are these entries too much of a stretch for a Monday? DEETS in particular led to a gag reflex. I’ll also admit to never having heard of a LARCH, and KTOWN also slowed my roll slightly. Clearly those are things, but not sure if they are Monday things. But PEKE and DEETS really bugged me quite a bit. Surprised Rex didn’t mention those. Still, I agree it was a clever Monday theme. Maybe I’m just picking nits over the DEETS.
Dude it’s a Monday puzzle. Three minute diversion for you. A few minutes more for most. Mar-a-Lago is current. I don’t like him either. Chill out.
I really truly despise Trump. I don't like his politics, I don't like his attitude, I don't like his smug face. I look forward to the day he is rotting in prison. But it never once occurred to me to object to MARA as clued. It's a place that gets mentioned in the news a lot. It's legitimately in the public consciousness. It's fair game for a puzzle. Rex's hypersensitivity may be well-intended but he's starting to become a parody.
The puzzle was fine. I didn't notice the theme but I see now it's clever. I liked knowing SAN MARINO, I liked being able to figure out KTOWN without much trouble, I liked LARCH (cue Monty Python).
Nice to start the week off with such an internationally affirmative puzzle. I found it easy to fill the grid, able to get it almost all with Acrosses only. The disadvantage of not looking at the Downs was that I missed the crucial reveal at 61D and thought instead that the THE ROYAL WE was the reveal. So I studied the four phrases....and felt that PLAIN TO SEE was mocking me. Finally I noticed YES. Hallelujah (ja!).
Rex, sometimes I can't tell where the theater stops and the reality begins with you.
GOBAG: You think of this as something to grab when you need to disappear, like an fugitive? How often do you go underground? And why? Your reaction was super-strange, unless it was theater, which I don't think it was.
I think of a GO BAG (I prefer the superior name BUGOUT BAG) as something a responsible person keeps handy in case of a sudden natural disaster. For me in L.A. it would most likely be an earthquake, and I have an awesome BUGOUT BAG hanging on my front door knob. Cash, energy bars, water, waterproof strike-anywhere matches, I even have three vacuum sealed changes of t-shirt, socks, and underwear in there! I've got emergency radios (including FRS/GMRS two-way radios), and even though I don't smoke I've got two packs of Marlboros so I can sell cigarettes at $10 each. In my car I have even more, a tupperware box with canned food, canned milk, water filters, and a portable gas stove. My set-up is so slick that I guarantee you there will never be a natural disaster as long as I'm near it. I wish I had a flare gun but I know I'd shoot them all off for fun.
Rex, my offer to treat you to a booze and coke fueled weekend in a Dallas brothel still stands.
Medium. I never would have figured out the theme without the reveal.
Clever, smooth, homophones, liked it.
Solved it as a themeless as I never saw the clue for 61D, filled itself. Fun Monday, I just wish I had seen the theme, Oh well. C.C. just keeps getting better and better.
MAR-A-LAGO didn’t bother me at all, it’s just a place, why all the RAGE?
A rather challenging Monday, at least for me. I found the southeast corner to be the toughest, but my guesses all were all correct, for a change.
To me, MARA is a name that will always be inextricably entwined with the NY Giants NFL football team. Tim Mara was the founder of the Giants, and his son Wellington became one of the most influential owners in NFL history. In recent years football has become identified with significant injuries that are apparently life-threatening. However, for much of my life football was a happy and enjoyable diversion. I enjoyed watching pro football and college football alike, and my absolute favorite team in sports has been the New York Giants football team.
@Nancy, I read your comments yesterday about the work that will be going on above you with sympathy. My wife and I have lived in a small co-op (18 units) in Brooklyn for the past 30 years, and it seems like one or another project has been going on regularly for all that time. We found that a martini every day at about 5 PM helped quite a bit ;-.)
What a simple idea. Perfect for a Monday.
I really, really appreciate that CC separated out the YES homophones so that we could see them in all their phonetic glory. So, say, DAVID BOWIE, HACIENDA, COUNT BASIE wouldn’t have been nearly so elegant.
Things I didn’t know: the spelling of RESCIND, FAN ART, and the actual meaning of THE ROYAL WE. I thought THE ROYAL WE was what you said when someone said something like Are we going to power wash the house now? and you say Is that the royal we?. And actually now that I think about it, eve then I don’t know what the hell it means.
And since I’ve assumed the mantle of being the dum dum who confesses to not knowing all this stuff we’re supposed to know, I have to come clean that I thought it was Man the torpedoes- full steam ahead! Makes sense, too, right?
I do know now that you’re supposed to pronounce FORTE to rhyme with fort if you’re talking about your strong suit. The problem is that the judgy grammandos might not know as much as they think they do, and if I say it right, then they’ll think I’m dumb. As much as I hate it and am ashamed of myself, I still try to couch my linguistic laissez-faire in acceptedish language. I’ve never tried to dodge the accusation of being a hypocrite.
Rex. For once we agree. I find the pig so repugnant that I change the channel if I hear his voice. Changing ICED to ICE T would have avoided the whole thing. @TomAz’s point is well-taken, though.
CC- another fine offering!
Fun puzzle though I never even noticed the theme.
LMS: I have exactly the same problem with how to pronounce “forte”! So I just avoid saying it altogether. Though I was delighted when Alex Trebek pronounced it correctly about a week or so ago on Jeopardy.
This crisp solid offering shows that when you lighten just a tad on theme-related squares (and today there are but 39) you can pare iffy fill and insert strong fill, enhancing the solver's experience. More like this in the future, please!
Pretty challenging for a Monday for me! Took me 7 Rexes. How many people would know that the phrase is spelled LAH-DI-DAH? I got that first H only from SLEUTHS, which itself took me until the end to get.
I agree, too, that DEETS, GO BAGS, and PEKE are borderline Monday fare, as are the name brands KEDS and DCON. (If they are not global brands, we struggle.) SAN MARINO -- loved the clue! -- might cause a problem for some solvers.
Otherwise, I was FOND of the theme, which I figured out only after SEEing the revealer.
LARCH trees are cool -- most of the year in fact, and are common from northern temperate through subarctic areas of the northern hemisphere. There are around a dozen species of LARCH that can be found across Asia, Europe, North America. It's big in Russia, and used extensively in construction because it is resistant to rot. (Unlike the Kremlin.) It wouldn't surprise me if MARA Lago's roof beams are made of it.
Nice to see TEHRAN and (Uncle) SAM nestled up next to each other.
As for FORTE, in British English, I believe, it is pronounced as FORTÉ, or "four-tay", with stress on neither syllable. I'm states-side too infrequently to recall how I've heard it pronounced in different parts of the USA.
A tad slow today. I filled in lots of downs, more Tuesdayish, than Mondayish.
My objection to MARA is that it leaves out those two stupid hyphens (what was Marjorie Merriweather Post thinking? Always reminds me of the fake-y suburban neighborhood names invented by undereducated real estate developers - hmmm, maybe that place found its true owner). So it ends up looking like a name. Rooney or whatever.
What I love about this puzzle: besides being on the crunchy side for a Monday, the revealer is hidden in the 3-letter Downs, so it doesn’t ruin the themers. Sometimes on Mondays the themers kind of fill themselves in, and these all required some individual thought. Yet the puzzle was easy compared to later-week puzzles. This one would make a great intro to the NYTpuzz. Fun and satisfying for all!
I’m getting to be a big CC fan.
Rooney Mara and Kate Mara are sisters and actresses. And there's no hyphen. Very, very swellelegant, elegant Monday.
Um, this is a blog, so Rex gets to say whatever he wants to say
@merican in Paris … LMS
Re: FORTE pronunciation
Only knew forté until I was an adult. Childhood piano lessons are reason.
Once again, the singular of tamales is tamal. And yet last week when I made a tamale pie, I couldn't help but call it that...love Rooney Mara BTW
There's probably not a person on the planet who despises Trump more than me. But MARA is a legit clue. It's an actual place. Changing to clue to something referencing the football team owning/actress family is probably too hard for a Monday. But the added parenthetical phrase in the current clue is both unnecessary and not true.
I solved it pretty handily. I’m with you on MARA, Rex. MARA jade and Kate MARA both come to mind immediately, for a start.
I hope some day to visit Patagonia and see a MARA (as well as a rhea, a guanaco, etc.).
Bonus reverse-themer, san mariNO.
Mar a Lago means sea to lake but you probably knew that. I guess CC or Will could have clued MARA Wilson of Mrs. Doubtfire. She was the cute youngest daughter. And speaking of....I think I first heard CARPE DIEM uttered out loud by Robin Williams in his role in Dead Poets Society. Seize the day, boys.
Loved this sweeeeet Monday. I now seem to always look forward to CC's puzzles. She gives us an unexpected surprise in all of her themed crosswords. Today you have to wait until the very end to get that lovely aha moment.
No yo in front of TE AMO. Yay. OLIN in my favorite "Chocolat." Learned what DEETS means. I like that one!
THE ROYAL WE is supremo.
I, too, thought it was "man" the torpedo. And I know how to pronounce FORTE but I never use it because I don't want to sound like Rush Limbaugh.
MARA is too dated for a NYT crossword. Hopefully in two more years it will be no more accurate than Crawford Ranch or Key West. As stated above, as clued this should be CAMP DAVID.
Why does the NYT deliberately put an answer in the puzzle that is guaranteed to vex a sizable number of solvers? So avoidable.
First of all, please note that @Rex liked this puzzle and said so. That might disappoint those who love to bash him for bashing puzzles. And he is correct in his comments about Trump. Please consider this fact: A man who murdered 50 people just because they weren't white and had the "wrong" religion, cited the President of the United States as one of his inspirations. Imagine the horror of that. I believe in free speech but there can be consequences. I do not favor censorship in the puzzle but I also support @Rex's efforts to point out the potential danger of words. For more, read David Leonhardt in today's NYT. The country can't afford to not call out Trump at every opportunity and in every forum.
Am I the only one that can do a crossword puzzle without ever being triggered by the fill? Throw in clues about Hitler, Putin, the NRA, the president, etc. So what? Why do words in a crossword puzzle elicit such emotions? Just solve the damn thing. I wonder if Picross creators have the same problem. "Can you believe this person put a 9 and an 11 next to each other? Don't they know the association people will have with 9-11!?" It's ridiculous. If words trigger you, you probably shouldn't be doing crossword puzzles.
No to Go BAGS
Agree with Rex on MARA.
Any unnecessary reference to Squirrel in Chief is unwelcome in my book. In 2016, I vowed to only refer to him as "45," as if he were a prisoner. But that didn't stick.
I think a clue of “Actress Rooney” would have been fine for a Monday.
I was pretty disappointed by the theme here . . . At first I had PLAINSIGHT, thinking that the word IN was in the phrase, giving you IN PLAIN SIGHT, and the others would follow this pattern. Instead you have to complete the puzzle, then stare at it for a minute to figure out the ends phonetically sound like the word yes in other languages? [sad trombone music here]
My problem with the Mara clue is that it is wrong. Mar-a-lago is not a retreat. It is a for-profit resort. Trump Org makes money every time 45 goes there. The Secret Service doesn't even get a discount. Mar-a-lago is not a resort, it's a business.
Esther ROLLE from Good Times?? You have to be not just old, but a very certain amount old, to have any chance of getting that clue. I am exactly that old, and did that much TV watching, but still didn't know her last name after all these years!
Overall, a good puzzle. Slightly harder than most Mondays, it seems to me.
Trivia: Joel Fagliano's mother's name is Mara.
What's the point of a theme that is totally undetectable until the revealer, and therefore has no impact on the solving experience?
Had no idea that LAH-DI-DAH meant "Hoity toity." I thought it was just a goofy exclamation, like in "Annie Hall."
At first, I agreed with @Joe at 8:03 AM.
But then I saw @Michiganman's earlier comment (7:55 AM)
and read David Leonhardt's column. He makes a convincing case.
Worth reading.
Any reference to that POS in the White House offends me.
Will is baiting you, Rex. Can't you see that?
I think of LAH DI DAH as something to say to someone who is acting Hoity toity.
"Well Lah di dah" (sarcastically) Or, for more emphasis, "Well-La-di-F***ing-dah"
I liked the theme a lot -- had no clue where it was leading until the reveal, and even then I had to study it for a bit before realizing it was all about homophones. The fill has a few spots of creakiness for a Monday -- GOBAGS, DEETS, DCON -- but overall it holds up well. Very nice work.
The clue for FANART makes it seem like plagiarism -- a bit harsh in my view.
The clue for MARA is obviously deliberate, given Kate, Rooney, Wellington or Max as non-hyphenated alternatives. That said, it's hard for me to get offended by a crossword entry or clue (although "beaner" certainly did the trick). I can't imagine @Rex really being triggered as much as his post might suggest -- he's just blowing off steam and looking for a reaction. Kudos to the commentariat for what have thus far been measured responses.
While I consider our current POTUS to be [insert every negative adjective you can think of here], I know how to leave those emotions behind when solving a crossword puzzle. I think most who post here do also. I might call those who can't and demand for Shortz to censor the puzzle a bit over the top, but I certainly can understand their emotions. Especially in the short time after such a tragedy as occurred in New Zealand.
And Dave, just because you own a blog doesn't give you the right to slander and libel others, or to bully. Sorry, but there are and should be limits.
Personally, I would welcome the day I see "Given first name of Harpo" as a clue. I do not take offense when I hear in a movie commentary his first name.
Well, MEH and DOH are the tiredest cliches - and the clues for PRIM and FOND evoke even worse. As to referencing Trump, Reagan, and Uncle Sam in the same puzzle - ymmv, but it was not for me. Meh indeed.
Totally agree about MARA. Rex, your rant about MARA is way over the top. I detest the current Chief Clown (a very dangerous moron) but stop with your politicized responses to almost every puzzle: either they’re too sexist, racist or otherwise politically incorrrct.
They’re puzzles Rex, that’s all.
I'm with @TomAz on liking the LARCH as a Monty Python reference, but around here we call them tamaracks. We have planted a couple on the property, lovely trees.
"SI" without the accent mark means "if". We all knew that though. Also, if you use all caps when you're writing, you don't have to worry about it. In other Spanish miscellany, the Mar a Lago issue always makes me think of Charlie Pierce's description of he-who-shall-not-be-named as El Caudillo de Mar a Lago, which strikes me as perfecto.
I really like not knowing what's going on until a revealer shows up and then you have to even figure that out. Fun stuff. Also, haven't seen SLEUTHS since The Hardy Boys.
Thanks CC. A deeply Monday Monday.
I love that Rex was so triggered he didn't bother to mention the constructor was a woman. I guess his rage is more important than his feminism. color me shocked.
Thanks for the fine puzzle CC. more of them please. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I can solve one of yours at Mar-a-Lago, and laugh, and laugh.
I thought the clues and the fill were a bit better than usual for a Monday. The grid is very clean. But the theme was weak and pretty much invisible. I solved as a themeless and don't feel I missed anything of interest.
Thanks, @Brookboy. I wait to find out from the Super exactly what's in store for me. Assuming he's been told the truth.
No, the clue for MARA is far criminal than referring to the President of the United States as the leader of a global white supremist movement. I really try to enjoy you column as part of my morning puzzle ritual and I realize you can’t help yourself but I wish you would try. Can’t this part of my day be apolitical?
Like most above, this was a bit more difficult for me than the normal Monday. Also like others, finished on the Gobag. Also, like others no fan of the Trumpster, but OFL's RAGE Amit MARA was a bit over the top.
Here, here! But this isn’t about puzzles, or the NYTimes; it’s about, and only about: REX PARKER.
@pabloinnh pointed out that the larch is also known as a tamarack. The notable thing is that the tamarack and the western larch are deciduous conifers, turning a beautiful golden color in the fall.
@puzzlehoarder - They generally post later in the day, but the syndicated community is alive and well. They tend to be politer and fewer in number than us “real-timers,” but they come here daily, just five weeks later (except Sunday where they’re only one week late). At the top of the page is the syndicated puzzle link. Click on it and it will take you to the correct post and you can see what they have to say. I just got an email follow up to a puzzle from 2012 yesterday (if you’re a blue account you have the option of getting all later posts emailed to you).
Foreign homophones. Nifty. I can’t remember the last time I had this many write-overs. SAN MoRItz, FANpic, RAvE, on a Monday. I also needed almost the entire answer to see LAH DI DAH. I am a little amused by the PSA in the last column, DAMN HASH DENS. Not quite sure what to make of the first column, SAPS LOLA SOFT....
I’m going to agree with Rex on MARA. A NYT Crossword isn’t going to be like an AV Club, with it’s a left leaning slant, and anything in the actual newspaper should be fair game, but it’s also supposed to be a fun, relaxing diversion. Seeing that clue, makes me fairly infuriated. Also, we’re checking in here for a critique of the puzzle, so let’s give the man some props for stepping up to the plate, and putting it out there!
Sir Hillary,
You mention some find= Maras but you omitted the best. The Mara in Kenya ( and a bit in Tanzania*). Sometimes it's called the Masai Mara. It is a spectacular land.
* I have no idea if the eponymous Mara river extends beyond Tanzania and Kenya. I'm referring to the grasslands.
So apparently I’ve been misspelling DEETS all my life as “detes.” Not sure why. But it’s a made up word anyway, so I guess it’s okay. Except for adding to my solving times.
And now: The Larch.
Clearly visible is “Plain as day”. Never heard of “Plain to see.” Peke is not real. Like calling my shar-pei a sharp. La di dah is a poor answer for hoity toity- it is only the response to a hoity toity comment. Crap puzzle.
Enjoyed this one; some nice words,like sprig and sleuth (feel nice in the mouth when saying them), and the royal we makes me smile, thinking of Queen Victoria ("We are not amused").
I learned forte from the French meaning strong, pronounced "fort" in English; forte from the Italian meaning loud, prononced for-tay, the opposite of piano, soft.
PEKE is just crosswordese, but PLAINTOSEE is real. PLAINasday is good, too, but not the right answer today.
My five favorite clues from last week:
1. Ride, in two different senses (3)
2. Spread in a spread (4)
3. Place where people are going with their drinks (6)
4. Boxer who retired in 2017 (7)
5. Gate expectations, briefly (4)
NAG
BRIE
BAR CAR
BARBARA
ETDS
"Proper pronunciation is not my forte." - Some nerd
In English, the proper pronunciation of FORTE is "fort" if you are referring to someones's area of expertise. However, if you are using FORTE in the musical sense of strong or loud, then the proper pronunciation is "for-tay." The musical pronunciation seems to dominate both uses in the U.S.
There are other borrowed French words that are pronounced according to standard English pronunciation rules, primarily in Britain, including FILET, CLARET, and VALET. In Britain the hard "T" is pronounced, while in the U.S. the French pronunciation predominates.
Pronounced "fort" it's a French word which means "strong".
Pronounced "forté" it's an Italian word which means "loud".
It's really not difficult and, if, in the English speaking world, you're not playing with a group of musicians, it'll be "fort". Oh, I see this got explained by Leslie already; well, I'll leave it here anyway.
Rex explained his reaction quite openly. I imagine if the nay-sayers had family or close friends in or from New Zealand they might have a bit more empathy.
Rex, if you lived in bucolic Northern California rather than bucolic upstate New York, you'd sure as heck know what a "go bag" is.
Peke? Does anyone say that? Ever?
I really liked this puzzle despite the reference to the Kleptocrat and his enablers, complete with improper explanation of why he goes there. And, since I never see the tricks until I come here, I have no problem with the reveal at all.
I sure missed the point of this one by using only the crosses to fill in the SE. I couldn’t get the theme no matter how long I stared at the long themers. I went with a rare themeless. Clearly Monday can be trickier than expected when one thinks she is such a LA DI DAH solver.
Hand up for man not DAMN. How did so many of us get it wrong? I suspect the censors cleaned it up for those of us glued to 1950s tv.
I loved DEETS and GOBAG. We’re into the DEETS of ours. We even have those tablets that protect your thyroid in case of nuclear fallout. Of course by now they’ve been in the box for 25 years and may have turned into cyanide. They were all the RAGE when the town sent a list of provisions to have for an emergency. In case of that kind of emergency I think my thyroid would be the least of my troubles.
Since that’s all I had to work with while solving, I have to say the fill was far far above the usual Monday fare. This was a DAMN fine puzzle.
My only erasures plain sight and duh for doh. I think manning a torpedo would be suicidal.
What is the significance of the grayed-out squares with a single letter highlighted in red? For the many times I have checked out this site, I have never been able to deduce why this has been done. Thanks, Warren
How about changing IMPOLITE to ISPOLITE clued as {Acts respectfully} which would change MARA to SARA which could be clued as {Everybody doesn't like something, but nobody doesn't like ___ Lee}
Agree 100% on "MARA." Now I'll get to my pet peeve: "TAMALE." My significant other, a Mexican-born, fully bilingual, dual-citizen professor of Spanish and Latin American studies, has pointed out to me that this word does not exist in Spanish, her first language, or, to use proper Spanish, " 'Tamale': no es una cosa." It is not a thing. The singular of "tamales" in Spanish is "tamal," no "e," and it is an egregious gringo bastardization to say or do otherwise. I wouldn't belabor it except for the fact that it as shown up in Shortz-edited several other times within the past week, and, again, to use Spanish: es demasiado. It is too much. Stop already.
Hey All !
How to identify The Larch. :-)
Nice MonPuz. CC sure cranks them out. Wondering her accepted to rejected rate. Certainly, they can't all be winners, can they? Or is she up there with Patrick Berry as no bad puzs?
I made a puz with this type theme that has 13 Fifteen letter answers. Each section of three 15's (top three rows, center three rows bottom three rows) had a mini-theme in first and third row. Two of the four Down 15's along with the first three Downs (3 letter words) and last three Downs (3's) were the theme. But... it had many obscure words and phrases that I'd never even try to submit it anywhere. I just thought it was neat to make.
If you read all that, then cool. If you cared or not, that's fine. :-)
This seemed a typical easy MonPuz for me. Held up only in a few spots. Took me till the finish to SEE what was happening. Enjoyable romp. YES it was.
STALE DEETS
RooMonster
DarrinV
Didn't anyone else notice that MAR-A-Lago is crossed with DAMN? A nice touch.
I've been hearing those little dogs called PEKEs since I was about 8, more than six decades ago. I think the breed itself may have gone out of fashion, perhaps, so one doesn't hear it so much these days.
Different solvers think of themes different ways -- for me, it's not supposed to help solve, but to add another layer of puzzlingness -- once it's all done, you look at all the theme answers and try to figure out what's going on. This one played that role beautifully -- it took me about a minute before I realized that they were all in non-English languages.
Then if you're really committed to solving puzzling things, you can go look at @Loren's avatar and try to figure out what she's up to there. Got it fast today, but sometimes I have to beg for help.
BTW, @Loren, maybe you were pulling our legs (who, you?) but it's THE ROYAL WE because actual kings never say "I" -- since they speak for the whole realm.
Hey,it works! I clicked on 'publish your comment' without clicking "I am not a robot" and it went right through, or at least seemed to. I'll come back later to check.
The Western White House, Southern White House, Little White House and the rest are not "The" Presidential Retreat. We all know where that place is, and there's only one. just one. above and beyond the Mafia stink of Mar-a-Lago.
My comment seems to have disappeared. Oh well, no big loss.
I really liked the puzzle and the theme. My biggest laugh (at myself) was at 41A. I thought "Who is Lois Leap?"
To all those who are so 'chill' about the MARA clue -- Rex is right. Trump is a leader of a global white supremacist movement. He is president. That makes him powerful -- and dangerous.
This is no time to be chill. People are being murdered. It's time to raise every voice in opposition, at every opportunity, even about an insidious crossword clue that normalizes Trump.
A lot of us are putting ourselves on the line to oppose Trump and his minions. We're organizing, protesting, writing, phoning, texting, knocking on doors. What are YOU doing?
@r.alphbunker, and there you’ve solved the problem neatly. Who doesn’t love cake? Good to see you here.
The whole FORTE thing was resolved four years ago, and on a C.C. Monday puzzle.
People, paying attention to history matters!
@Warren in NJ - The answer to your question and many others is on the FAQ page. It is really quite simple, Rex takes a screenshot and that is the “active” word and letter, basically where he finished.
@jberg - Yay!
@ghostofelectricity - Maybe not in Spanish, but TAMALE certainly exists in English. It may also exist in Spanglish. That particular horse has been beaten to death at least once before here.
SEE-DAH-HIGH-WE. yep. Pretty good MonPuz … Thanx, CC.
staff weeject pick: YES. Weeject theme participation. Like.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Mother sheep} = EWE.
@RP: M&A ain't a big fan of old Comrade Spanky McBonespurs appearances in the puz, either. Did cross him with DAMN & IMPOLITE, at least (yo, @jberg).
fave fillins include: CARPEDIEM. PICNIC. RESCINDS. PITSTOP. Parts of FANART.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
voted a biter, by test solvers:
**gruntz**
Surprised no one has mentioned NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson
I finally finished the Saturday puzzle this morning before my run. I found it about average, meaning that it beat the hell out of me, but I got it.
My dad used to say "DAMN the torpedoes, full speed ahead" whenever it was funny to say it. I appreciated the reminder in this puzzle. "We are not amused" was another of his favorites. Hmm, realizing why nobody gets my humor. It's at least a century out of date.
@Roo Monster, thanks for the Monty Python link.
@ghostofelectricity
Is "gringo" the same as "beaner?"
The answer is yes. They're both slurs.
I also associate Mara with the Giants, but I enjoyed seeing it clued to our president.Much as our fearless leader on this blog hates to admit, a lot of people love and admire President Trump and doing crossword puzzles isn't simply a woke activity. I don't like the clues that reference President Trump's predecessor, who I chose to forget, so equal time feels like somebody is paying attention to the sensitivities of the audience. Oddly enough, the Times leans left, but most of the buyers of the physical paper and most of its advertisers lean right, so know where your bread is buttered.
MARA completely bothered me because of the way it’s clued. It’s not a presidential retreat. It’s a way to bilk us out of millions and make us look like idiots. I could barely look at NE, and could barely tolerate the few minutes it took to complete this puzzle so I could start the process of forgetting it ever happened. The only thing that made the puzzle at all tolerable after that inclusion was OUST. Thank you, Rex, for stepping up.
I object to Mara as clued because of unnecessary hyphen not for any political reason. Rooney and Kate Mara are well enough known for a Monday IMO. Their grandfathers are Art Rooney and Wellington Mara, the founders of the Steelers and Giants. Let’s keep the politics out of this.
I agree with @Rex on MARA. That guy is less a president than Maduro. He is encouraging white racist terror attacks world wide and refuses to acknowledge it — *and* he didn’t win the election! (See “Venezuela”, pot/kettle, etc., plus, see racist. Oh, sorry “white racist” is redundant, but I got carried away.)
Other than that, I thought the puzzle was better than Sunday’s. Better quality fill throughout. Cute theme.
Deets? Fan art?
We, for one, were quite 44A with this.
We don't think it 45A and we are not particularly 62A for the 40A.
On the more positive side, we really liked the clue for 41A.
Nick Cave and the bad 67A are all the 25D!
Have a great week and 11D!
@r.alphbunker....Cool beans. I'm wondering if CC clued it any other way.
@ghostoflectricity: I hear you. I'm thinking TAMALE pie etc. are American versions of Mexican foods. Maybe TEX/MEX. TAMALE, as spelled, is all over California. At least the ubiquitous "yo" is left out of the TE AMO debacle. That was my biggest pet peeve :-)
@Anony 11:48. Gringo is not even a close cigar to the word beaner. I'm called "gringa" all the time. I'm also called "la Yanqui." I don't look Latina and so when I join in the Spanish conversation fray, the looks I get are comical. It evidently originated from the Mexican American war and the Americans use to sing "Green Grow the Lilac" at every opportunity. From the song, we get "gringo." I'm never offended being so named.
By the way..."presidential" means dignified and confident. Is that "begging the questions?"
"(Of) The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles
(Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms and the Intervention of the Great Rumpus Cat)" is of course a poem by TS Eliot which was then a major scene in "Cats". So Pekes is not so strange.
Wonderful puzzle albeit hard for Monday. Took me 2x last week's Monday and 1.2 my average. Much more Tuesday time. Would never have figured out theme without revealer. So clever.
@GHarris: Manning a torpedo would indeed be suicidal. I saw one in a military museum in Tokyo. It looked like an oversized torpedo with a one-man cockpit. I have no more info on them but find the whole idea very depressing.
Fast Monday time for me (13 min).
OFL probably knows this but chose for the sake of discussion not to mention it: FORTE is a term from fencing or swordfighting. It is the strong part of a blade, the half closest to the hilt. That's how it got into our language. It is of course also a French word, modifying female nouns, but most of the time the nouns are masculine, and the word is FORT, pronounced FOR, and meaning 'strong'.
It isn't just WS who likes to bug @Rex. Also, I suspect, the wonderful (and female) constructor. But then, if you have MARA, the Trumpian clue is the only one that is Monday-level. Oh, and Trump is often a standard-issue Republican President. Had the predictable sorrowful message for the NZ head of state. Issued a very predictable and normal veto message on the rejection of his State of Emergency, and Bush or Reagan could have written it. He's still a crook, and a man totally unprepared for the job. As the Times said on the eve of the election, he is a "mountebank".
Re: @Anonymous 11:50. Obama was pretty awful, like making sure many more Americans had health care, being faithful to his wife, being a good father, having no scandals (and I think no indictments of anyone) during his presidency, trying to nurture respect for all, respecting the legal system, respecting the constitution. Yeah, who would want another president like that?!
As @M&A and @jberg point out, MAR-A in the grid is crossing DAMN IMPOLITE. I rolled my eyes at that entry - like @LMS, I have to move away when I hear that voice though sometimes my co-worker listens to podcasts or news stories during work hours and that sound drifts over from his DESK.
My big write-over was Rex's PLAIN as day - TE AMO fixed that. And there's always my urge to write the brand as DkON, not DCON, but I caught it right away (but still wrote it in wrong first).
I'm sure you'll hear me say FORTE the musical way when I mean the expertise way - I learned the true pronunciation from this blog and yet my many years of saying it wrong will probably never change my default.
The LARCH - I love those trees. When I found out that tamaracks were commonly called larches, I bought bundles of them to plant in my yard, inspired by my love of the Monty Python skit, and now they are quite tall - almost pillowy SOFT to touch in the SPRInG and such a lovely golden HUE in the fall.
CC, I love the theme and the fill, thanks.
@Gill I.
"Gringo" and "beaner" are identical slurs. They are both intended to hurt and demean the recipient. Your own subjective approval or disapproval is exactly that: subjective. And a horrible double standard.
Don't give lectures on slurs if you only disapprove of some of them but are OK with the ones you like. At least give everyone else the equal freedom to approve/disapprove their own favorite slurs.
Anony 1:34. My personal opinion: "I'm never offended being so named." By all means, I thoroughly approve of giving everyone else "the equal freedom to approve/disapprove their own favorite slur."
I let you know mine. Yo no te amo.......
I found the puzzle easy-peasy, typical Monday, except for one cross, 40A and 40D. Never heard the slang phrase "deets", never used the "popular" rodent control brand "Dcon", so I couldn't get the "d". Everything else just fell into place, maybe even a bit too easily.
I agree, the definition for "Mara", 16A, gives too much attention to someone who doesn't deserve the attention he gets.
@Gill I. 1:52PM
You're a gringo? I always thought you were a beaner. I'm glad that you are gracious and open-minded about the use of these terms.
I didn't know that "gringo" came from "Green Grow the Lilac." I like this blog because I learn new things. I think "beaner" comes from the fact that Mexicans really like beans. Look at a taqueria menu if you don't believe me.
Did you know that I'm of Spanish descent? I'll bet you didn't! That might upset preconceived stereotype opinions you may have formed of me. Gill, I always like your comments.
With regards to MARA I also find he who shall not be named repugnant but I’m with those who feel it’s just a puzzle. Though technically it is MAR-A so maybe Actress Rooney would be more correct.
Regarding forte Webster’s allows either pronunciation Fort or fortay)
To @Anonymous 11:50 AM...
I'd like to see proof that "most of the buyers of the physical paper and most of its advertisers lean right." I'd also like to see proof that most of the solvers of the puzzle are buying the physical paper.
In any event, I abhor the current president of the U.S. but I"m not going to get bent out of shape because the word MARA is in the puzzle, even if its clue is a little suspect.
And it IS Rex's blog and he can say what he wants, short of the "fire in a crowded theater" standard. And this falls far short of that.
badges?? we don't need no stinkin badges!!
@Anon 3:13
I'll put this puppy to rest, but first, no....I'm a gring(a). Please do me a favor and don't ever go to some places in Latina America where they very affectionately call ANYONE who isn't a native- either a gringo or gringa. Many times they add the diminutive "Ito" "ita." It's not a slur. Beaner is, and you know it.
I wear my badge of honor name proudly: La Gringa flaquita pecosa." Look that up!
@anon1:34 - “gringo” and “beaner” are neither “identical” (what you said) nor “equivalent” (what I think you meant). If you don’t know why let me suggest some remedial reading on race, preferably not by someone from a racist think tank.
@Z - there’s an FAQ? I don’t see it anywhere
Isn't the larch a character in a Dr. Suess book? The grinch, the larch, etc.?
This blog reminds me of a favorite one liner I once stole “I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out.”
@Warren in NJ
You can find FAQ way at the top of the page, right above the X in REX.
A fun Monday puzzle for me. I agree that the reveal should show cleverness in construction, not so much in helping the solve. Although, for me, on Friday and Saturday, I need all the help I can get, so the reveal as an aid is OK.
The phrase is "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead" From the Civil War I think. Although if you are a submarine captain, you might say "Man the torpedos" to the sailors who get them ready to launch. You don't get on the torpedo and make like a fish. Kinda like "Man the guns" doesn't mean doesn't mean get on the gun, but get the guns ready. [Aside: we may need a gender neutral term like "they" for future torpedos]
On the ROYAL WE: I suggest to my wife, "We should clean out the garage" and she asks "Do you mean the royal we?" Or as an alternative come-back: "Do you have a mouse in your pocket?" Sometimes there's another occupant of the pocket, but that's not for a family BLOG.
@Gill I.
Oh, I think I get it now. Slurs are OK as long as the speaker uses it affectionately.
@Z
I grew up in a big U.S. east coast city and I live in a big U.S. west coast city and also served in the U.S. military, so unlike small-town folks I don't need any "remedial reading" on race. If you think two slurs are not equivalent then you are tacitly implying a superior:inferior relationship between the two groups affected. That's not very "woke" now, is it.
All slurs are bad, but if you're going to use them treat everyone equally. And cut the hypocrisy.
How do you get it in your pocket?
You can use "yo" in "yo te amo" for emphasis (I love you, he doesn't), and I've given up on "tamale" vs. "tamal", but "No problemo" is unforgivable, at least by me.
A friend told me a story of a college prof asking a black student how he would prefer to be addressed (this was some time ago). The student said "Negro" and the prof informed him that that should not be what he liked to be called. I think there's some wisdom there that might apply to some of us.
Thank you for being outraged about MARA. I had more of a reaction to the Reagan clue. He initiated the outrageous budget busting deficits that will eventually destroy our economy, now totalling $22 trillion. Fiscally conservative Republicans - oxymoron.
I 18-Down You, Rex Parker! I could have written today's comments. I can't begin to tell you how OFFENDED I was by MARA LAGO!!!!!!!!!! I loathe the orange moron.
I had the same troubLes you did: PLAINASDAY, AMORE, RAGE & GOBAG.
I love your site - it's GREAT!
TY,
JORDAN SCHAPS
@Z: Serious question. Which Think Tanks do you consider racist ? Brookings ? Cato ? AEI ? Rand ? Heritage ? I ask his because I don’t think any of them are. Maybe there are other downstream ones. It seems like a pretty scurrilous accusation on your part without even telling anyone to whom you are referring.Thanks. Oh, p.s. please provide links proving the racism or shut your ...
What a Monday! This is the first I have sat long enough to think about much less solve the puzzle. Imagine my delight (OK, you certainly don’t have to) at reading the commentary today and seeing that I am one of the minority finding this very easy! I actually did a happy dance down the hall at the courthouse on my way outabiut 30 minutes ago because of how happy I am to be in the wheelhouse rather than the “out” house for a change!!! Chuffed. Just wel and truly chuffed.
First the theme. Didn’t k ow there was one. Sped through (more than 3 but not much over 5) and nothing hit me as “theme-ish, so i didn’t look. Came here, and I thought it was mighty clever and well-executed. Agree that highlighting the foreign sound on its own strengthens the theme.
On the Mar-a-Lago issue, I only hope against hope that the HCIC (Head Cheeto in Charge) will self-destruct sooner rather than later. But my hope against hope is that the blue collar voters who have been voting 100% against their self interest based not on facts but believing what they want to hear will wake up by March 2020 and realize that nothing that has happened under the Trump administration either increased their wealth, improved their jobs, brought BACK jobs lost in coal, textiles and other manufacturing, or gave them the stability they were promised . . . or HEALTH CARE! I shall not rant on about my personal disappointment with the Democratic party’s lack of organization that did not help keep these voters in the fold.
OK, I’m back on my meds and calmed down. Great Monday puzzle after an absolutely BRUTAL Monday at the office.
Oh, and a GOBAG is just something you keep handy so you can leave for wherever at the drop of a hat. For about 5 years I worked on one case in the Federal MDL that took me all over the US, and lots of Western Europe and I had to keep a GOBAG at the office to catch a direct flight to Frankfurt. It was hell on my family.
See y’all tomorrow, si’?
@anon 7:18 pm. I’ve noticed that people who throw around terms like racist haphazardly are generally racists.
Amen, Rex. I can't thank you enough for your Mara comments. Any crossword reference to that racist, misogynistic, authoritarian, narcissistic orange baboon is totally offensive. His presidency cannot be normalized.
Love me some New York football giants.
a35yguji
After reading the hysterical reactions to a hint involving Trump, I’m looking forward to reading the reactions here after the 2020 election. It should be glorious.
On an evening 2-hour plane flight had opportunity to read the full day’s worth of comments. Very interesting experience.
I agree it would have been better to avoid MARA as clued. It’s definitely not accurate to characterize it with the adjective presidential. Other good or better clues exist for Mara. Great suggestion from @r.alph for a one letter substitution.
I am no fan of 45. But still... Is this worth all the RAGE? Now and then amidst our current societal shouting match we hear, as in some of today’s comments, low volume pleas for “proportionality”. Why is that so hard to achieve? Can’t one (was about to write WE) object to something small (and boy was this small!) without totally villainizing those who disagree?
Then the slurs slugfest had to start up again. More and more it seems like people can’t wait to be provoked into angry response on this front, one way or the other. Does the uproar protect anyone from harm? Does anyone care how woke or un-woke the shouter or shoutee is?
BTW, snopes.com pretty much demolishes the oft told origin story of gringo/a repeated above. It’s hard to deny that this term, though it may be used affectionately in some contexts (as can the n-word), was not originally employed with kind intentions. Increasingly it seems to me that derogatory speech directed at those with “power”, and none other, is uncritically embraced by linguistic hypercritics. Why not (as corny as it sounds) just apply the “golden rule”? Maybe the powerful would react in a positive way, which, however slight, could matter, seeing as how they still have power. And people (especially @Rex, withholding a barb I really wanted to shoot), PLEASE channel your energy more productively!
Re the puzzle, I quite liked the theme. Needed the revealer to see it. Cool that the revealer had a 3-letter answer and was clued at the very last.
But in no way was the fill Monday level to my mind. My time was not much above Monday average, but many entries struck me as at least Wednesday-ish: ROLLE? GOBAG? DEETS? Among clues, could I be alone in having absolutely no idea re 1970 hit for the Kinks (and I’m smack in the age demographic for that)? Lots of clever wordplay in cluing (e.g. eating outing), but I think it would have been much more at home in a midweek puzzle. I would expect a real newbie to have given up in bafflement after a few minutes today.
‘Nite all!
Are you thinking of the Lorax, who speaks for the trees (or was it thneads).?
Oof...I was expecting Rex to be triggered by MARA as soon as I saw it, but wasn't expecting it to take up the majority of the blog (god forbid the fill had made MAGA a better fit).
For me personally, I'm no fan of Trump, but he's current and he's widely known. MARA as clued is a lot more monday appropriate than the actresses MARA who are a little more obscure. Also, it's literally a place that the president retreats to, so I don't see how it's a less apt answer than Camp David or a more official venue.
Anyway, I wish the crossword could just be "words we know" instead of some kind of value judgment, but I guess something that neutral has no place in these times...
INANE MOOD
Well LAHDIDAH, EWE are IMPOLITE,
too DAMN PRIM it’s PLAINTOSEE,
when one AIMSHIGH, so FOND to CITE
THE 'TWOS' of THEROYALWE.
--- SAINT LOLA ROLLE
This was a strange experience for a Monday. APLIT??? Well, that's what I have, and it won't budge. Google won't help. It keeps insisting I want "split." Hold on; I'm gonna try "splitting" the word to leave "LIT" by itself. Aha, there it is! AP LITerature. Now, what does AP stand for? [page down] Oh, there we go. "Advanced Placement," found in about the tenth listing. Well, that's a new one on me.
Now over to KTOWN. I guess that must mean "KoreaTOWN," sorta like "Chinatown." Hmm, aren't we offending anyone here?
And now GOBAGS. Never heard of them. I had to guess the vowel for the crossing tree; A "lurch" tree would be amusing, but...no. I went with the A. Also FANART by inference. All these things--and DEETS! Short, I assume, for "details." Never heard of them. And all this on a Monday!
To the theme: very clever and Burnikel-worthy. I can well imagine some of the younger folk not knowing Esther ROLLE, which may make for solving difficulties down there, but I knew that one. Used to watch that show because I thought Bern Nadette Stanis as Thelma was hot hot hot.
In fact, our grid is loaded with potential DODs today. With honorable mention to the above-mentioned Good Timer, I have to give it to TINA Fey. Close one.
Educational and fun to solve: what's not to like? Oh, the MARA thing? Yeah, I'd rather have seen a clue about the Giants' co-owner, but no deal-breaker. Birdie.
Take a cleansing breath. Calm down. And stop it. Sure it woulda been better to clue it as yeah baby Rooney MARA, the actress, but the other thing is a real thing. Should radio and TV talking heads be prohibited from using it? No. It’s a place. It exists. Enough.
Didn’t realize it was another fine effort by CC until after finishing. She’s got puzzles everywhere. It’s PLAINTOSEE good work.
Challenging for a Monday, no? YES-yes, SEE-see (si, si). Not to speak of DAH and HIGH and the ROYAL WE-oui.
Also see KTOWN, DEETS, FAN ART, and EASE (clued as "simple", meaning easy as in slang?).
Nice work, CC!
Hooray for Monday and CC. Good for this tough-for-a-Monday puzzle.
Ha ha ha. I was wondering what island came before Kitts et. al. St. Johns?? Oh, SAINT, I get it. DOH
Een tho you might wish to OUST a person from office, where they reside at times is fair game for a puzzle. Doesn't MAR A Monday for me.
Diana, YKW
It's obvious OFL is pre-offended on too many things to mention. Earth to Space Cadet Rex - it's a crossword puzzle clue. Grow up.
Forgot to mention, as some did above, that the first thought upon filling in the LARCH, was Monty Python. The second was 'tamarack' which they are called around here. Great for making fences.
Nothing will ever make me think that CC (Zhouquin) is less than amazing. That said, much of her fill is dull, with an over-reliance on proper nouns. She seems to be so intent on breaking a "most prolific constructor" record that she's sacrificing quality for quality.
For me, this puzzle was MEH -- a theme that was clever in theory but executed in a dull way (two of the themers were flat, and LAH-DI-DAH and THE ROYAL WE had insufficient sparkle to carry the puzzle), plus names-loaded fill that also felt flat.
Re: MARA -- I agree with RP that it was badly clued, and I also agree that it could've / should've been clued in a way that didn't point to a dangerous leader who's assaulting democratic norms. (Designer Max Mara; actor Kate Mara; actor Rooney Mara.) All y'all who think that we who decry him do so because we dislike his policies: No nyet nein non. If that were the case, the outcry over Reagan and the Bushes would've been comparable -- but it wasn't, because not one of them assailed democratic norms (well, not to this degree).
Outside The Box: Nothing is "just" itself. Puzzles are composed of language; language reflects ideas; and ideas influence people -- people whose daily actions affect others in many ways (not least because they vote). Ideas affect how we view, and then treat, groups that have less or little power; it can create or solidify barriers to their having equal rights.
A recent WSJ puzzle clued ELO as " 'Evil Woman' band". Why? Other ELO singles charted higher; when you type in ELO at YouTube, that's not in the first several songs offered. Why did the ed. choose that over the neutral "Telephone Line" or the arguably positive "Sweet Talkin' Woman"? Why did he not even *realize* that he was promulgating an ugly idea about women?
Women seldom appear in xwp, and when they do, the references are almost always negative or degrading. TYRA, a supermodel, even tho I've never seen fill that couldn't accommodate TYRE TERA TARA TORA and myriad other options instead, but the eds. never think of that. (And it's more than a little depressing that what used to be called "model" was amped up to "supermodel" as a sop for women, for whom the best shot at earning big $ still comes from achieving what men deem the right kind of body -- i.e., from being a model or an escort.) Bra-cup size has now crept in. TIA as babysitter (but TIO is always clued as a relative, not as a caregiver and *not* as someone who is mysteriously let off the hook for *not* being a caregiver). NIECE as "potential flower girl." OBI clued with "geisha" rather than the neutral "kimono," which is worn by men and women alike. MAMA as "a cry from the crib" and MRS as "title for some moms" even though there are myriad clues for both that don't reinforce "woman = married mom" (check any internet clues compendium).
Why would I *not* be infuriated by fill that reinforces the idea that women are only ornaments, wives, moms, free caregivers, and bitches? How is that *not* a problem when, say, the 60yo male boss (who flirts with all of the female workers under 30 *and* has been caught in an extramarital affair with his 32yo underling but who wasn't sanctioned in any way) -- how are his views not a problem when he, choosing from three part-timers for two FT jobs, hires the cute inexperienced 26yo and 28yo women instead of the doesn't-do-the-girlish-bullshit 51yo woman with 3x as much experience and with work product that is quantitatively and qualitatively better? (I was that 51yo woman, and this was at a co. where I'd been so well-liked a FT employee in years past that they made me a hefty counter-offer when I had a better opp elsewhere. No FT job = no health insurance = catastrophe.)
Please stop pretending that words and ideas are separate from the actual lives of actual people. With regard to women: As long as we're thought of as merely ornaments, wives, moms, carers, and/or bitches, we'll continue to be beaten up and killed by men who profess to love us; we'll continue to be raped; we'll continue to be sexually harassed and then vilified for speaking up; we'll continue to earn less for work that is identical or that warrants equal compensation; we'll continue to do the bulk of the housework and child-rearing even though we work FT outside the home just as our husbands do. Female genital mutilation will continue, as will honor killings. As will the withholding of education, the right to vote, the right to drive, and the right to leave the house without a male relative as chaperon.
In the 1980s, when Margaret Drabble wrote "The Handmaid's Tale" -- so easily thought of as dystopian fiction -- every repressive policy she wrote about was legal somewhere in the world. Fact.
So language matters, everywhere and all the time. Even in xwp.
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