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"Yay for us!" / TUES 3-26-19 / Fraction of a bushel / Nursery buy / Dawn's direction
Tuesday, March 26, 2019
Hello! It's Clare again — back for another Tuesday. Hope everyone is having a great start to their week! I just turned in maybe my biggest law school assignment yet, and I am SO relieved, so the start of my week has been great. That, plus the fact that March Madness is going on, and baseball's OPENING DAY is Thursday (Go, Giants!), and I feel like this week will be a good one.
Constructor: Zhouqin Burnikel
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- SUNG (1A: Like carols and cantatas)
- MONTECARLO (16A: Grand Prix locale)
- TUESBELLE (24A: "You're beautiful," in Paris)
- WEDIDIT (37A: "Yay for us!")
- THURMAN (39A: Uma of "Kill Bill")
- FRIARTUCK (50A: Friend of Robin Hood)
- SATE (70A: Fill to excess)
Kunta Kinte is a character in the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley. Haley claimed that Kunta Kinte was based on one of his ancestors: a Gambian man who was born in 1750, enslaved and taken to America and who died in 1822. (Wikipedia)
• • •
I thought the theme overall was clever. Having seven clues correspond to the theme is ambitious, and it was done well. I appreciate the effort that must have gone into constructing a puzzle like this. And, the theme definitely helped me with the solve this week, which is doesn't always do.I did have a few nits with the theme, though. One is how the clue for the theme answer was phrased (62A: Start of the baseball season... or what the start of each starred clue is). Shouldn't the clue for 62A send you to look at each starred answer and not the clue? Also, OPENING DAY is Thursday, not Tuesday, so it's strange to have this theme in today's puzzle. Lastly, by having this theme take up so much of the puzzle, the other clues/answers were constricted, and there just wasn't much else about this puzzle that I found particularly clever.
The fill also confused me in places. I didn't know PLIES (14A) could be tissue layers. LEANTO (46A: Rustic shelter) is more poverty-based than "rustic." I like seeing a word like BLITZES in a puzzle (32D: Intense promotional campaigns), but AD BLITZES seemed kind of made up to me. 9D: That: Sp. could also be "ese" or "esa" and not ESO, so that threw me a bit. I had "rad" instead of FAB for 42A: "Groovy!" I'm not sure that a MOON STARER is a thing. Having an anagram can be clever, so I could almost get behind that answer, but I find it kind of weird. Also, enough with the guns in the puzzle!! It's first of all odd to have "pellets" in both the clue for 7D: Pellet projectors and 21D: Small pellets. Then, the clue for VEST (53A: Bulletproof garment) also related to guns, even though there are so many other ways one could clue to VEST.
Apparently, I didn't like the puzzle as much as I thought I did when I started writing this. Maybe the theme is the only saving grace. I did like the classic misdirection from 6D: Nursery buy (I was convinced that was a nursery for the baby and not one for plants). My favorite clue/answer combo of the puzzle was probably 64D: Chatty travel companion as GPS. I also thought having FRIAR TUCK (50A: Friend of Robin Hood) in a puzzle was unusual and fun.
Misc.:
- Whoa. Is that why the saying goes "a bushel and a PECK"?? Mind = blown.
- I drink so much tea, and the only thing I could think of for a while for a brewed drink at 31D was "ale."
- Working as a waitress last summer, I definitely made my fair share of cappuccinos and LATTEs.
- Just gonna put it out there that the Warriors knocked the Houston ROCKETS out of the playoffs last year. Crossing my fingers that happens again in this playoffs. *Knocks on wood.*
Signed, Clare Carroll, a happy law student
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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87 comments:
are you guys not doing the constructor count anymore?
I finished this sub-6, which is a fast Monday for me. As I was solving I kept waiting for resistance and I found none. The puzzle seemed weird, as I solved. It's kinda chunky, which added to my time. At one point I thought the puzzle was a parody of an easy puzzle. But TU ES BELLE is right in my wheelhouse, as is KINTE and ROCKETS and a few others. CAR ALARMS gave me a brief pause, very brief, but AD BLITZES I filled off the A.
I had no clue on the themer, as I hadn't been paying attention, but OPENING DAY was so obvious it didn't need the theme. It wasn't until I was done that I saw the days of the week thing. That made the puzzle feel less weird, post-solve.
I didn't need the clue to 68A to solve, but now I see it, and it's a winner.
Easy. Timely, smooth, cute, liked it.
A PECK is a quarter of a bushel, as others will surely point out too. In Vermont, where I grew up, it’s a common unit for apples, a full bushel being too much for many households to manage at once. My grandmother was full of down-homeisms including “You have to eat a peck of dirt before you die.”
Nice puzzle but, as Clare notes, all about theme, with suboptimal fill. Worth it though IMO.
A FAB Tuesday, I'd say. At the UMA THURMAN level, I looked back...and TUES jumped out at me, and indeed, there was the theme....but what play on DAYs would the reveal be? A delightful surprise for me and perfect for the puzzle and the season.
I liked how, except for FRIAR, the other days are cleverly disguised not just by placement but by sound, with the sound of the day different from the sound in the word it's embedded in (e.g., with the "N" disappearing in SUNG, MONTE different from MONday, etc.). Too bad something couldn't have been done to change the I sound in FRI - maybe with FRItos? :)
I noticed that LOTSA noises RANG out in the grid, with CAR ALARMS, AIR GUNS, and ROCKETs going off, along with a talkative SIRI and a GPS unit and carols and cantatas being SUNG. I see @Clare's point about a pellet overload, but enjoyed the cacophony.
Monday easy in spite of a few glitches. I had RING before RANG in addition to a PEONY/PLANT write over. The French phrase had to be mostly worked around. 30D could end with an M as well as an F. The 42A clue didn't help so that area had to be back filled from the SW.
I got the revealer well before finishing but stopping to really understand the theme would have taken more time than sticking to the fill.
WOWZERS, C.C. is on a roll. LA Times and the Wall Street Journal today and Tuesday’s NYT. Can we call this a Three Bagger? You go girl.
Clever theme and an enjoyable solve.
Opening day was last week. The Mariners played the A’s in Japan.
Favorite clues were for GPS STARER and the revealer.
I disagree with Clare about LEANTOs. They are used by hikers and campers and kids in wooded areas.
Somehow it never occurred to me that NAUSEA is ship-sea. Sea being an historical accident, I guess. Original Latin and Greek meaning ship-sickness, but the English word always being used more generally. I know I'm slow.
Never crossed my mind that a leanto is poverty based. It is something you would built in the woods. It amazes me that Rex found a stand in who is more PC obsessed than he is. It's a puzzle, get over it.
Elegant theme and reveal. CC just churns them out; I see her puzzles in many publications, and wondrously, the quality of this output is first-rate. May I remind you that English is not her first language, in fact, she started constructing puzzles (in 2010) as an aid to bettering her English, having been raised in China, and coming to the U.S. in 2001. Her first NYT puzzle came out in 2013, and, IMO, her cluing steadily improved from basic to more sophisticated, and in 2016 she published her first NYT themeless.
Now -- speaking of today's puzzle -- she makes beauties every day of the week.
Agreed @Lewis! And I started from the bottom in order to suss out the theme, which worked. Timely anticipatory welcome to the baseball season. Play ball! (Hoping the Mariners will still have a bit of jet lag come Thursday.) Also found MOON STARER clever given how it's clued.
Where did LMS go? I miss her.
Yup, lean-to is a thing. Didn’t you ever read the Little House books? Rustic...and I guess urban people don’t shop in stores anymore, which is really kind of fascinating. You have to read the labels on actual packages to pick up tissue ply info, but it’s important to those who use septic systems, so it’s usually in large letters.
Solved this as a themeless, since those DOTW starts were for some reason not obvious to me. The fill is fine; it’s the clues that needed a bit more cooking, as a Clare pointed out. So overall an okay Tuesday.
Simply not a Tuesday puzzle. Would have qualified as “very easy” for a Monday. TU ES joliE before TU ES bellE cost a few nanoseconds but nothing else did.
Puzzle fails the ‘BAE’ test. RNA/NAE/ANS gets you out of that.
SUN HAT at 26D set off my bug detector.
Felt like a lot of stuff ending in A: SIDE A, NAUSEA, TEA, ARA, LOTSA, FLORA, SPCA. Maybe that’s normal and I only noticed it today?
Pointless theme with no redeeming qualities. Resorting to random dull high school French phrases “ tu es belle” to make the theme work is just dumb. And a lean-to is a sign of poverty, Clare? Perhaps you are thinking of hovels. A lean-to is a camping structure. And very rustic. I’m surprised you didn’t jump on “Orient.”
This felt more like a Monday to me.
The theme was OK but it was so easy that it gave me time to nit pick.
Really dislike the plural of anise.
Why does the clue for SWF say "once"? Don't they date anymore?
If you need a Ted in your grid why pick that one?
The term is "half-assed". If you're going to be edgy, do it right.
I liked the review overall but clearly Clare is not a camper.
I agree with most of the commenters so far. A super easy Tuesday (giving me a personal best Tuesday time), and a fun solve. Paid no attention at all to the theme until I was done. A LEAN-TO is absolutely a shelter for hikers in the woods. I’ve stayed in many while hiking the Long Trail in Vermont.
I especially liked PECK and FRIAR TUCK.
Two talking machines in the puzzle. Creepy.
Bae needs to say 'Bye. Geez, that missing B doesn't even add a syllable so why drop it?
Clare seems to be intelligent so I hope she escapes college with her sensibilities intact but it sounds like the academic brainwashing has already started to take effect. When all it takes is a few BBs and an air gun to ruin your day I fear you are lost.
Straightforward fill, nothing too tricky. Nice write-up, Clare. I think you might know the word "PLIES" as tissue layers: think bathroom tissue, aka toilet paper. Then think that they usually come/are advertised in 1-, 2-, and 3-ply. (Googling informs me they can have up to six plies, but I can't remember seeing anything beyond 3-ply.) On the other hand, maybe if you don't see the ads that much, I could see missing this word.
And congrats on turning that big assignment in! Enjoy your day.
Ack! Hit "post" too soon. Checking around the house, it's not just bathroom tissue. Regular tissue also comes in plies. I see my box of Kleenex is 2-ply. I just always associate it with bathroom tissue/toilet paper for some reason (probably because it's sometimes mentioned in the advertising), but, yes, you definitely have the thinner one-ply tissue paper and the thicker 2-ply. No idea how high those go, though.
This was a nonstop no thought romp. Am I getting smarter or are the puzzles easier?
Me too! These days she's the main reason I come back to this blog. Come back to us LMS!
Faster than usual, but the theme didn’t click in for a while. I wanted “first pitch” until it was clear that it wasn’t a good answer and didn’t work for its perps. ADBLITZES was the last to appear even though I’m binge watching “Madmen”.
Clare seems to have caught the Rex Parker "if I don't know it that means it's bad" bug.
For starters: PLIES is a perfectly good word. LEANTO is not poverty-related. It's typically seen as a shelter for campers. AD BLITZES is most certainly not made up. Anyone with familiarity with advertising and marketing knows this.
I encourage Clare to be more open about the puzzle and not assume that your lack of knowledge equates to a bad clue or fill. This is a trait that will serve you well as a lawyer.
Put me squarely (pun intended) in the Monday-easy, no thinking require camp. And the theme: days of the week? How truly THURilling.
But I did learn a new verb. I've heard of doing a half-assed job, but never of half-assing a job. I'll try to work it into polite conversation very soon. At which point, the conversation will no longer be all that polite and I'll probably be thrown out on my ass.
@kitshef, why avoid BAE? very in the moment. Especially in favor of NAE?
Same! Hope she’s on Spring Break?!?
If you look at her spectacular grid, she starts with SUN(day) and runs through the entire week ending with SAT(E). She has this 4 10 9 7 7 9 10 4 count going. CC has to find words that start with the day of the week and keep it within her grid count. Does that make sense? Just look at how she has to work to get this done....I'm impressed and I hope I explained my self without giving anyone a headache.
A Tuesday with a ton of constraints that she pulled off with nary (to me) a groan. Wow.
I've had AIR GUNS and BB guns and built a LEANTO with my brother. I've played black jack in MONTE CARLO and remember when ESSO was also a USofA gas brand. I talk nicely to SIRI and think of a PECK on the cheek. Love KITEs on a windy day and my tissues are always Two PLIES. Except for the strange ANISES, I enjoyed this puzzle.
I once had a high school English teacher who told me, "Never undertake vast projects with half-vast ideas."
Hey Todd, it's just a review. YOU get over it. You can't get all persnickety about people being so easily triggered when you yourself are so easily triggered. smdh
All talk of Todd aside, I had "rAd" at first too...then I saw that there is no such thing as a SWr...so I changed it to "mAd." I finally saw the FAB answer...and that section was my only snag. The rest of the puzzle was Monday easy.
Hands up for staying in hiking LEANTOs, using multiple ply TISSUE, picking rad before fab.
Loved MOONSTARER - words that anagram to their meaning is a fascinating subject. Go to online anagram solvers and you’ll likely find one for your name.
MEDIABLITZ might be more familiar, but ADBLITZ seems legit.
Good tuesday puzzle. After mostly ignoring longer clues first time through, revealer helped fill them right in.
Isn’t ESSOjust the arm of EXXON used in Canada? I remember when it changed over in the US. Very surprising to see that old name and logo across the border.
I love ANISE flavored anything but didn’t trust the plural. Downs confirmed quickly
I love you a bushel and a PECK will be running through my head all morning now. They sure could write ear worms. "Oklahoma" is tough to watch with an eye for modern sensitivities...
Oh brother, the Clare-bashing is a bit much. Yeah, she whiffed on the LEANTO implication and apparently hasn't heard of ADBLITZES, but so what?
This puzzle is standard Tuesday fare -- nothing to write home about, but certainly serviceable. The grid felt a little choppy to me, probably because, like yesterday, there are a lot of theme entries.
Small nit -- the S in TUESBELLE. Makes it inconsistent with the others, which only have the first three DAY letters. (BTW, did anyone besides me start with TUESjoLiE?)
ANISES is awful, but it's a necessity because having RUDE at 41D would have the Breakfast Test Police in an uproar.
EAST and ORIENT near each other? Discuss.
Cryptic clue du jour: Bit of turmeric in overdue cappuccino cousin (5).
This was an elegantly conceived and crafted puzzle. I do not care that it was easy, and in fact since it is Tuesday, found it appropriately placed (in the week) and obviously had a bit of “crunch” with the nursery misdirection and a few other bits of cleverness.
Today, I did not check to see if we had a visiting dignitary blogging for @Rex but when Clare had no idea about “plies” I immediately knew she had not purchased toilet paper so many times that she knew that the number of layers clearly matters and indeed is a “thing!” Perhaps it’s the drudgery of law school, also absolutely a “thing” once one passes the dreaded One L year.
Nice review! Good luck, and persevere-the practice is worth the effort if you choose an area you enjoy. As a 35 year veteran, I still love to get to work every day! And GO WARRIORS!! After my fave KD defected from the Thunder, I switched allegiance to Golden State. My kids live out there and are fans so it seemed logical.
Great, easy puzzle. The generational take on certain words and phrases is interesting though. Anyone who grew up watching Kleenex Tissue commercials knows that it's "2-plied." How else would we know the word? Leanto being more poverty based than rustic? Woo.
Also interesting that @clare just thought she enjoyed the puzzle. As it turns out, she rescinded her enjoyment. That "it seemed like fun at the time" thing used to take years to realize. Now it's instant.
Thanks @Gill for remembering when it was easier to just have fun.
Clare is a young person indeed. If you are over 55, you know FAD dates to Groovy, ad blitzes are definitely a thing, Kunte Kinte is a gimme, you always knew about bushels and PECKs, and you probably don’t necessarily associate leant-tos with poverty, but more with outbuildings and add-ons on farmsteads. I think we got the STARER anagram because nobody, ever, has said the phrase “moon starer” (why not a different clue?)
Cheers!
For some reason I started reading the review under the puzzle solution. It took about a sentence and a half to realize that OFL was taking a day off (hi @CDilly52).
Also @John Child--I've heard the "eat a PECK of dirt" expression here in NH too. Must be a NE thing.
TUESBELLE took me back to my first years of teaching when my department chairman, a French teacher, used to thank me with the expression "Merci bien, t'es beau tu sais". We shared a free period and sat and drank coffee and did the NYT crossword together almost every day. Good times.
Opening Day can't come soon enough for baseball-loving me. I'm hoping for a repeat, but odds are against it. The sports gods have probably smiled on us here in NE enough for a while, it's probably someone else's turn.
Thanks to CC for a fun Tuesday.
Apparently all the rustic types are completely ignorant of homelessness in America. All I can say is PICNIC.*
Regarding @LMS - She’s been very busy. I’m sure she’ll be back.
CAP was my first word, so I saw TU ES BELLE first, thought that was a pretty odd choice, then saw THURMAN and posited a DAY theme. WooHoo me. The theme was well done, the fill was not ambient music, more Muzak. This was a fine TU ES DAY puzzle.
*PICNIC - Problem In Chair, Not In Computer. As in, yeah, for most of us a LEAN-TO is something related to hiking and camping, but it is also very much related to urban “tent-cities.” People who don’t know this would look better if they didn’t try to cover their ignorance by shouting “PC.”
Dear Clare, please feel free to enjoy the puzzle and not assume you need to pick nits. Some people are only happy when they are unhappy (is that you, Rex?). Overall, being happy when you're happy is better.
@Laura R yesterday - Well, at least one person read it. My only niggle is that everyone has areas of ignorance, so I try not to be too condescending for peoples’ ignorance (as opposed to name-calling). Otherwise, I’m right with you.
Had PRBLITZ in there for a while slowing me down a bit, but otherwise a fun, smooth Tuesday. And nice tie-in with the “Legally Blonde” gif, apropos of a law student.
Nice easy Tues puz.
Great time o’ year, openin day Thurs, and excellent bkball. Go Devils!
Hey All !
Fun puz, LOTSA themers (8!), light dreck considering the constraints, two F's. I'll take it.
SOME cheater squares, but when it results in cleaner fill, then that's fine. Had petA for SPCA mucking up the N Center for a bit. Otherwise an easy TuesPuz.
Nice one CC!
FAB OOZE
RooMonster
DarrinV
This was pleasant like morning SUNshine.
No MONkeying around, just plain TUESday joy.
Absolutely WEDeled through this, THUmbs up for a FRIction-free SATchelful of fun!
Wow, what an utterly condescending comment that seems chock full of "get off my lawn!" types. If Clare sees fit to point out her qualms with the puzzle, it is utterly rude and minimizing to imply that she's too young to know better. Imagine the ASS-backwardsness of saying kids are immature and brainwashed to not know SWF and have a problem with gratuitous gun references, while complaining about BAE. Please do better.
I had mixed feelings about the puzzle. The theme's clunky and MOON STARER is terrible, but I have to give props for the ROOTS/RTES cross, at least.
Nice to have an easy, fun Tuesday puzzle that gets us ready for OPENINGDAY. Yes, a couple of games were played in Japan last week, and though they count, most people view this Thursday's games as 'opening day'.
To switch sports, it's time for the ROCKETS to dethrone the Warriors after coming close last year before an untimely injury changed the momentum. Sorry Clare!
Flac, thanks for the reminder of a teacher (I had one too) who warned students about 'half-vast ideas'.
Enjoyable Tuesday for me. Put me in the camp that is admiring of the constructor figuring out all those weekday abbreviations and fitting them into the puzzle. While the solve may have been relatively easy, constructing the puzzle surely wasn’t.
Clare, I always enjoy reading your reviews. Don’t let the pickers of nits get you down. You have the ability to state your criticisms without sounding angry and aggrieved. That’s a talent that should serve you well in your law career.
I too miss the wit and wisdom of @LMS.
@Anon 8:35. I don't make the rules, I just call the violations.
well, was Opening Day last week? not if you ask most baseball folk. the game was played in Japan so Ichiro could retire there, and give the teams enough time to get over jet lag before playing real games. but it is, to quote the Orange One, America's Game.
@John Child, I just ate the last apple from the last peck of Vermont apples I bought last November. It’s always a poignant snack.
and... shouldn't MOON STARER be clued along the lines of drunken frat boy behavior?? I mean, there's one in the White House, after all.
I understand she is unavoidably engaged elsewhere, but will return when she is able.
Latte
Where can I get a latte around here?
You'll eat a peck of dirt before you die made it to the west coast, where I grew up.
I enjoyed the puzzle and was glad for the reminder that OPENING DAY is fast approaching. I'll miss seeing the midwesterners in their shorts and short sleeves taking pictures in front of the Cubs-logos-through-the-years wall when it's 50 degrees and I'm in my parka, but I'm looking forward to being able to walk the dogs around the spring training stadium again.
Not sure if I'd have thought of PLIES if it hadn't been for that ADBLITZ about toilet paper (or maybe paper towels) involving a little (kid? bear? puppy?) asking his mom "what's a ply." There was a pun about apple pie involved. Driving me a little crazy that I can't remember the rest.
A PECK of apples and a PECK on the cheek in the comments made me reminisce about that long departed but still missed Fifth Avenue ladies dress shop Peck & Peck.
PECK is a great word, but I had a headslap moment when I entered the word NAUSEA for seasickness. Obviously NAUSEA can occur for many reasons, but seeing NAUtical and SEA in my mind brought me right back to a miserable sail crossing against the current between St. Vincent and Bequia. By Jove, that’s the word origin or should be!
GPS made me pause while solving but otherwise this was a smooth and easy puzzle that would have served well on a MONday or TUESday. I thought the theme was perfectly executed and didn’t see it until I finally reached the bottom revealer. CC is a complete pro and I never cease to be astonished at constructors and solvers whose English is a second language.
Clare’s review was a wonderful example of the process of reviewing a puzzle. We can gain insight from seeing how someone solves, and Clare shows how a first impression can be changed for a reviewer by closer examination. I’m a fan of this puzzle, but I enjoyed reading how she changed her mind.
I can see why you’d say that, but “Opening Day” is Thursday. The games in Tokyo were called the “Opening Series.”
Now that I have read an explanation of the theme I see that it is quite cleverly done, a nice feat of construction. However while solving I didn’t get it at all, and my initial reaction was something that rhymes with FRIARTUCK. As Clare points out, it would have been more accurate if the revealer clue had specified the start of each starred ANSWER. But I skipped coffee today so maybe I’m just a little slow this morning.
Count me among those missing the esteemed @LMS. Haven’t seen her post in over a week. I hope she’s just on a break and will be back soon.
@Z
I wasn't saying that it would be incorrect to clue LEANTO as structure seen in tent cities or type of homeless shelter, but to suggest the rustic shelter cluing is somehow inaccurate or unworthy strikes me as weird. Is cluing TENT as a backpacker's shelter to be criticized because I associate TENT more with tent cities or weeklong music festivals. Yes she associates it more with poverty, but for most people that would be second or lower on the list. It certailnly diesn't mean they are deficient in poverty awareness.
I think I understand LEANTO being considered rustic.
In the depression, lots of lean-tos were built in the Catskills and elsewhere for hikers. Over the last 80+ years their deficiencies have become very well known.
- Good sanctuary for field mice and other vermin that carry hanta virus, etc.
- They don't really keep you as dry or warm as a modern tent of the type that didn't exist in 1935.
- Maintenance budgets are zilch nowadays - hard enough just to maintain the trails.
So yes, I would consider lean-tos (leans-to?) on hiking trails rustic. I doubt any new ones are being built.
Easy and fun, tres belle. Like @Adam, appreciated ROOTS crossing RTES. And TED,CAP,LOTSA RBI, EAST, and WEDIDIT, all have a nice baseball overtone no matter how clued, at least for this Red Sox fan. My only complaint would be that in baseball TIED doesn't really imply 'headed for overtime' since, well, there's no clock.
Finished the puzzle, went back to suss out the theme, circled MON through FRI and thought, okay, weekdays only. I read xwordinfo and found there were 7 themers plus the revealer so I went looking for SUN and SAT. SUN HAT stuck out but I looked for SAT to no avail. I finally had to look for the *ed clues and saw SUNG and SATE. So some post-solve entertainment ensued.
I liked this. My husband is going to the Twins' opener on Thursday so it feels very timely. Thanks, CC.
@Anon
Lean-tos are also common off garages, cabins, and sheds to shelter wood piles, garden tools, lawn mowers, and vehicles in rustic and suburban areas. Still being built today. I built one 3 years ago.
Concerning NAUSEA:
The origin is greek ναυτία from ναυς= ship, so literally "ship-itis"! (as in
otitis for example).
Obviously, the term acquired a wider sense, hence sea-sickness, morning (pregnancy) nausea et al.
My excuses for the pedantics, I thought someone might be intetested..
@albatross shell - I was too sweeping. My apologies. I was thinking of those comments that state that LEAN TOS are not poverty related or that accuse the writer of being PC because that is how the writer knows the structure.
If you are a friend, feel free to email me for an update regarding @LMS. She is very busy, but she will be back when she’s able. She specifically requested that her news not “hijack” the comments. As If, but we are respecting her wishes.
Oh boy, an argument about when Opening Day is! That's the kind of thing that makes me love this blog.
I'm back home from our Florida vacation, but spent the morning picking up the dog from the boarder, buying a little food, getting cash to pay above boarder, etc. -- so I got here very late. I've read the comments, but don't have much to add. Loved the theme.
Maybe in a Penzey's store you could ask where the allspices were, and be told "over there, just past the ANISES." I can't think of any other way to use it.
Thanks, Clare! I can't understand why your cheerful and chatty reviews seem to evoke so much negativity from some, but just ignore it.
Re “Opening day”. No doubt, first two games were played in Japan last week, so Ichiro could appropriately retire, but Openin Day considered by most to be this week.
@Z
Thank you for the apology. A simple acknowledgement would have sufficed.
I would guess I oversweep more than most, so I understand completely.
Nice response
@jberg-I think of my wife's brother's daughter Chrissy and I think, ANISES a wonderful thing to have.
Sorry.
Wow! It didn't take the Negative Ninnies long to turn on Clare. Jeesh!
@Nancy. I think half-ASS remains an adjective in today's clue. It replaces "perfunctory".
Who's LMS?
Again solved using only the Down clues. The theme definitely helped once I recognized the initial days of the week pattern... But I didn't grok that SAT and SUN were included until after I finished. Nice grid!
@Rainbow
LMS is @Loren Muse Smith, a regular whose daily comments all of us look forward reading. She's been absent recently.
I don't get the theme. I got all the answers and its was fairly easy for me, but how are ANY of the theme answers (sung, tu es belle, etc) related to a theme of opening day? Because their first letters are the first letters of the days of the week? Bah! Horrible theme.
Clare, Cashmere comes in PLIES also. More plies, more softness and warmth.
@Tom Rowe
Answers have three (sometimes four) of the first letters of each day--MON, TUES, WED, and so on. They are the "opening" of that particular day.
Not related to baseball, really, just spelling.
I thought the puzzle was fine. Very easy for a Tuesday. And ANISES? Really? But other than that I enjoyed it.
Karl, What a nice nugget. Thank you. I am surprised I've not heard it before as I spend much of my life in the company of merchant mariners and boaters. We do love factoids. I write this from my bunk which is afloat but, sadly, not asea.
I am so sorry about Dutchess. We lost our beautiful 16 year old Maggie a little over a year ago, and your words could not be more accurate as to how we felt and still feel about her and her passing. Thank you for being willing to share that with us.
SOME RIDE
Ms. THURMAN, TUESBELLE, IDO not HAVE sorrow,
BAE, WEDIDIT so well in my OLD MONTECARLO.
--- TED PENNE
So nice to see DOD Uma THURMAN's surname for a change, though that was about the only choice to fit the theme (Thurgood Marshall, maybe?). Even more constricting was the entry for today.*
I noticed only after the fact that the first and last acrosses were also themers: FAB! All this, plus the reveal line, makes for SOME density that was largely defeated by our stellar condtructrix. So if an UPONE or a SIDEA slips in there, we can forgive.
I was expecting WEDDING (meh) and instead got WEDIDIT! Tons better. Mini-themes occur, one of which our guest blogger mentioned as a minus--I don't like guns either, but it didn't bother me that much. Others include a couple of Romance Language lessons--plus SIRI/GPS.
Well done, CC: *TUESBELLE! Birdie.
Neat and clean and well-done. LOTSA good things here.
OPENING DAY, very good revealer, though a month+ago on this end of the blog. Favorite themer: TU ES BELLE.
Moon STARER and Kung PAO chicken are new ones for me.
Some AD BLITZES as well as CAR ALARMS could be clued as a source of noise pollution.
It's HALF-ASSed isn't it? No, not the puzzle butt the term.
@Lefty - yes, halfASSed is the term I know, too.
Clever theme - didn't see it until I was done (ignored the little *s)
I finally learned how to remember who is UMA and who is UTA - just in time for THURMAN to be our Thursday answer.
Another winner from CC.
Diana, LIW
One of the better Tuesday puzzles to come down the pike. OPENING DAY - perfect.
I guess one had to overlook the odd clue/answer combo, but it didn't matter. This is a fine puzzle by good ol' CC. Probably not so old.
@rondo yesterday - gotcha on the "cunning" AER clue.
Two good puzzles to start the week.
Another CC puz. She’s everywhere! And usually pretty good. Who will be the next NYT puz constructor that I’ve met? A bunch lately.
As kids we used to back our targets with books or a bunch of newspapers so we could recycle the BBS from our AIRGUNS. Never did put an eye out.
Yma Sumac yesterday and yeah BAE BAE Uma THURMAN today. Can Uta Hagen be far behind? Might be the end of that word ladder.
Smooth as ever a CC puz was. And all week long to boot.
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