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Relative difficulty: Very Easy (2:56) (personal record)
Theme answers:
- "FORBIDDEN PLANET" (17A: *1956 sci-fi movie with Robby the Robot)
- "SHE'S THE MAN" (22A: *2006 rom-com starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum)
- "WEST SIDE STORY" (35A: *1961 musical for which Rita Moreno won an Oscar)
- "KISS ME KATE" (45A: *1953 musical with songs by Cole Porter)
She's the Man is a 2006 American romantic comedy sports film directed by Andy Fickman and starring Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey and Emily Perkins. It is inspired by William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night.The film centers on teenager Viola Hastings who enters her brother's school in his place, pretending to be a boy, in order to play with the boys' soccer team after her team gets cut at her school. (wikipedia)
• • •
[there's a remix out there featuring Billy Ray Cyrus ... this song, man ... can't wait to see LILNASX in the grid, full name]
Here are the only time I even hesitated: I read 30A: Put 10,000 hours into, it's said as past tense and so put a "D" at the end, then convinced myself that DEMIT was correct for 32D: Cancel, as a fine (REMIT); I briefly forgot how to spell SHAKESPEARE (there's a no-terminal-E variant, but that's hardly an excuse); I failed to write in "MY SIDES" (62A: "I'm laughing so much it hurts!") even though that's what the letters suggested because I couldn't believe that was really a thing. That's it. I didn't even see many of the Across clues. I thought I tore through this puzzle because just prior to solving, I had been watching Andy Kravis and Joon Pahk solve a Newsday Saturday Stumper Downs-Only on Twitch, and so my brain felt very very warmed up for puzzle action. But then I saw that everyone did very well on the Wednesday, so maybe warming up by watching the crossword equivalent of extreme sports had no effect. Speaking of solving Downs-Only, there's an article about the phenomenon in today's Wall Street Journal. Here's a link to it, though it's now behind a paywall (I was somehow magically able to read it earlier in the day). It's fun, and I'm not just saying that because I'm in it.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
A fine Wednesday puzzle!!
ReplyDeleteI DECLARE, any time you can work SHAKESPEAREPLAY into a puzzle is good. Along with the throwback to the Rocky Horror Picture Show – FORBIDDEN PLANET. And KISSMEKATE!
Not so sure about SHESTHEMAN. Sounds confused. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.
You say TO-MAY-TO, I say TO-MAH-TO. We’re both wrong – it’s t’mayter.
Our favorite moralist AESOP makes an appearance. Maybe he can teach that IRATE King Lear a thing or three before he SWIPES the TIRE.
Gay TALESE in a UNISEX STAMPEDE. Oh my.
I won’t REACT to the MASTER who OMITS MY SIDES. STPAT to the ARCADE, but he OMITS the DEMS ILK. OUI!
WELCH on the MASTER and you MAY slip DISCS.
Good clues, great entries, no visible dreck. None. Nary a one. Zilch. Zippo.
Fun romp. More, please.
ATARI EMAILING, YES YES!
Mark, in Mickey’s North 40
Pretty easy. Loved that Shakespeare got a puzzle for his Birthday. Even a day late is better than an RPG theme.
ReplyDeleteYesterday's puzzle and today's seem to have been switched as per my solving times. This was inspite of not being that familiar with the SHESTHEMAN title and drawing a blank on the clue for KISSMEKATE. The latter was the biggest set back. I'd just put EINE in for 36D and I had some weird mental block on the L for LIN and I wasn't doing any better with just the I for ILK. Since the rest of the puzzle had been so easy I just started dropping in downs until KISSMEKATE became obvious.
ReplyDeleteI ran into much the same problem with the Eastern half of 54A where once again relying on the fill cost me no time at all. Even with all these glitches it was still a Tuesday level solve.
Not to belabor this with too much detail but what exactly Tinder is and why anyone would swipe on it I could care less.
Protestant England followed the Julian calendar at the time of Shakespeare’s death. (It didn’t move to Pope Gregory’s Gregorian version until the mid-eighteenth century.)
ReplyDeleteTherefore, April 23 in 1616 in the latter calendar would have been May 3 in the former.
So maybe Will was just front running...
Years ago, I went through a serious SHAKESPEARE phase, so I have a pretty clear grasp of many a PLAY, but the derivative movies? Not so much. I was a bit snobbish, shunning the Broadway musical for more traditional drama. I found WESTSIDE STORY slightly absurd: gangsters dancing and singing, really? KISS ME KATE showed up in a subscriber series and I reluctantly attended. Kinda blew my mind. Backstage theater interaction, great characterization, and all the music is in context. They made a movie out of it?
ReplyDeleteMy people come from the Ozarks of SW Missouri, and when we visited in the summer it was all about the T'maytas and the ros'n ears. Yep, corn on the cob and homegrown TOMATO.
I think Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, is the source for the 10k hours standard to MASTER a skill. He cites the Beatles and Bill Gates as examples of young practitioners putting in lots of time.
I enjoyed the solve, despite the segmentation.
Ran into a little trouble because, apparently thinking of board games rather than movies, I had a FORBIDDEN DESERT rather than PLANET. Which also makes "PADDY" fit as the legendary snake exterminator. So the NE hung me up for a little while.
ReplyDeleteAnd STU/TALESE/MEESE is a hell of a Natick for someone under 50.
Your postscript made me feel better! I am comfortably below 50, finished comfortably below average in time, but still finished comfortably above my record. I stared at the SW for a hell of a long time. “Kiss Me Kate” is another bit of pop minutiae I haven’t come across, which didn’t help affairs. Rex made me feel like a Philistine.
DeleteEasy. I thought it was pretty clever, liked it.
ReplyDeleteOther than changing my POTATO to a TOMATO, I DECLARE this to be a cake walk.
ReplyDeleteIs there a reason that Rap artists, and I use that term lightly, use the term ‘lil so often, just curious.
So easy I gave it to my German shepherd to solve. It took her only 16 minutes, slobber and all.
ReplyDeleteSO funny, @Rex thinking there was a paywall... take the nanosecond required to click on the “x” and you can read the article. But speed solvers treasure their nanoseconds, so of course the conclusion was reached and published. Fun article, worth reading.
ReplyDeleteThis was Monday-easy but not junky. I liked it. How to make it a Wednesday? Harder clues?
PR on time but still 2 Rexes, so that could be my limit.
Tried solving this downs-only... Had low expectations as I've never been able to finish a Wednesday this way... And was delighted to find I needed only one Across (MAY). So that supports the "way easier than a normal Wednesday" theory.
DeleteTwelfth Night, Act V, scene I
ReplyDeleteDUKE ORSINO:
.......
Of our dear souls. Meantime, sweet sister,
We will not part from hence. Cesario, come;
For so you shall be, while you are a man;
But when in other habits you are seen,
Orsino's mistress and his fancy's queen.
A lovely and worthy theme for a crossword puzzle, and for the many, I suspect, who did not know the connection between many if not all of these movies and Shakespeare, I think "straightforward" is the right call for presenting it.
ReplyDeleteBut I am a wordplay lover, and if the theme doesn't have it, I want there to be a surfeit in the cluing, and here, aside from that terrific clue for ARCADE -- [Business whose income is computed quarterly?] -- I was hoping for more. Still, it was a quick and mentally invigorating solve, which always feels good.
I learned that MY SIDES has been an internet communication thing, equivalent to LOL, for a long time. It's something I had never come across online. And my rapscallion brain wanted to add a VE to 56D (ALI), making ALIVE, because it was right next to SAKES.
Due to a big family gathering, I shall be away from here until Monday or Tuesday. Wishing all a terrific weekend!
With OUI and WWII in place, I was thinking WII for the classic game console. But I guess NES goes better with NAS.
ReplyDeleteI think ST PAT was the only thing that held me up for more than a few seconds today. Felt like a Monday, yet again. Some things that would normally have given me problems like the spelling on CARATS and ALII, I never even saw the clues for.
Save the theme for a Sunday and you could have 10THINGSIHATEABOUTYOU for a grid-spanner.
Was ‘creator of “Hamilton”’ necessary for the clue for 40A? Is there anyone in the world who would not get it from just __-Manuel Miranda, but who would get it with the extra information?
I’m always fascinated by reworkings of Shakespeare and I would add the 80s camp classic Lovelines to the mix. It was based loosely on Romeo and Juliet. Fun idea but way too much junky fill to make it work. EINS, NES, NAS, WWII, ESE, STU? ALII, ALI, ATM, MOO, etc.
ReplyDeleteI thought Michael was an Assistant Professor. Or Lecturer.
@Gill, loved the “baa baa Barbarann” joke yesterday. And @Nancy, loved the golf anecdote. I’m surprised you didn’t club the caddy!
Easy here too, but no PR. I enjoyed the theme, although I only knew that one of the movies had that derivation. Reminded me of the time that I sneaked a (nonflash) photo of the Bard’s grave.
ReplyDeleteAh, West Side Story, the best American musical of the 20th century. "Smoke on your pipe and put that in!"
ReplyDeleteOkay you had me laughing because my first Shakespeare test in high school I got told spelling doesn't usually count but if I spelled Shakespeare without the 'e' again she would mark me down.
ReplyDeleteAlmost no thinking required in this too-easy Wednesday puzzle, but I did like the theme. I was flummoxed by what the revealer would be, because I had/have no idea that FORBIDDEN PLANET, which I never saw, was based on a Shakespeare play and I never heard of the film SHE'S THE MAN. KISS ME KATE and WEST SIDE STORY, once I got to them, made the theme clearer.
ReplyDeleteMust go back to read y'all in order to find out what play FORBIDDEN PLANET is based on. I would have thought it was based on a book by Arthur C. Clarke or Jules Verne or Robert Heinlein, not anything by SHAKESPEARE. Live and learn.
I loved the clue for ARTY (25A). I hated the ridiculous answer MY SIDES. Without adding HURT, it's a phrase no one has ever used ever.
NES ?
ReplyDeletePlease explain
@Nancy - Forbidden Planet is not exactly but recognizably The Tempest.
ReplyDelete@Clueless - NES = Nintendo Entertainment System. It's an '80s thing.
Thanks for the FORBIDDEN PLANET info, @kitshef.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your nice comment today, @Quasi, about my golf story, and to @Jberg and @Cassieopia from yesterday. As I explained to a fellow tennis player yesterday: I've probably played 4,000 hours of tennis for every hour of golf I've played, but virtually all my anecdotes are about golf. And that's not just true for me. Ask a tennis player for a personal anecdote about tennis and he'll look at you blankly. "I'll have to think about that. Oh, okay, so Bill and I were down 5-1 against John and Doug and we came back and won the set 8-6." And I'll say: "That is NOT an anecdote!" But ask a golfer for a golf anecdote and his eyes will light up and he'll say: "How much time do you have?"
This is because good anecdotes are so often about things that have gone terribly wrong. And in golf, things are always going terribly wrong.
@Nancy 9:02 AM
DeleteBecause golf is just an excuse to shoot the breeze and drink beer for 4 or 5 hours.
To echo Rex and @Lewis, just a little ironic that a tribute puzzle to the master of wordplay would have such a dearth of wordplay. Nothing to single out here, but I finished and said, “that’s it?”
ReplyDelete@Dude in Denmark- Does anyone really know what time it is? All I know is every day is the Fourth of July.
@Larry Gilstrap - Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea, but the notion that effective practice is more important than alleged “innate talent” was old news when I started my education studies. What’s often lost is that effective practice is a self-reinforcing activity as is ineffective practice. This means that what looks like natural talent is more often a result lots of effective practice. Conversely, want someone to never master a skill? Make sure they fail early.
Late Question Yesterday - The red square is the “active cell” when Rex took his screen shot. In the web view, this and many other questions are answered by clicking on the FAQ link at the top of the page.
Flat-Earthers. Elvis Lives. The Trilateral Commission. Alien Abduction. Creationists. NRA defenders. Sometimes all you can do is shake your head and say “Whatever.”
You forgot Trump supporters.
DeleteMore of a Wednesday medium for me - definitely a slower solve than yesterday, mainly because I'd not heard of FORBIDDEN PLANET or SHE'S THE MAN.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of SHAKESPEARE PLAYs appearing in different guise - before I did the puzzle, I read the Times's rave review of "Tootsie," which features an interpolated play, "Juliet's Curse," "a sequel to "Romeo and Juliet" in which the resuscitated heroine falls for Romeo's ripped brother, Craig." If I'd ever heard the expression MY SIDES, I'd have used it. One of the times I WISH Broadway weren't so out of reach for me.
@z
ReplyDeleteYou never disappoint. Stay classy!
WEST SIDE STORY...I knew it was based on Romeo and Juliet. I Feel Pretty Maria Tonight. Sung at the top of my lungs. Rita Moreno...love her.
ReplyDeleteFORBIDDEN PLANET. Saw it on tv. Scared the pants right off of me. Who could not love Robby?
Never saw KISS ME KATE nor SHES THE MAN.
SHAKESPEAR with an E at the end. Happy Birthday. And a belated thank you for inspiring all these nice little themes for my Wednesday.
I have/had uncles from my dad's side who were all born in Oklahoma. The "Grapes of Wrath" was their story. Oranges were what they picked when they trekked to Orange Country, Ca but my grandmother was also the proud producer of the finest tomayters you could ever eat. We also had potayters with rabbit ( I was told it was chicken, but it turned out to be Thumper).
Raquel Welch was/is gorgeous. I wanted to grow up and be her. I actually met her - along with Jim Brown - in Spain- while she was filming 100 Rifles. I was doing some interpreting and my good friend, Juan Majan, was training her to ride a horse. She was funny, a bit snooty and couldn't get along with Brown. Something about the Spanish food, I think.
Nice puzzle. Easy puzzle. You also included the lovely TIPPI Hedren.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteDon't know when SHAKESPEAREs birthday is, so that didn't bother me. Know his plays when I hear the names, but wouldn't know any movie is based off one. The only SJAKESPEAREan thing I was sure of, was an episode of "Moonlighting" (way up the list of Greatest TV Shows Ever) from the 80's (hi @kitshef!), where they spoofed Taming of the Shrew.
Cool puz. Funky grid. Looks like it's 16 wide, but it's just 15. Eye illusion. Little bit segmented, but it's still a HIT(IT). IMO. :-)
Funny story about MOO. Years ago a buddy and I went to see "DuckTales:The Movie" ( I was in early 20's)(hey, I still enjoy cartoons!) and they had a mini-movie warm-up about an animal (the ole brain is blanking now on what kind of animal) trying to convince a human of it being a cow. After some yelling and carrying on by the human character, the animal character just looks at him, and deadpans "MOO." My buddy and I laughed till OUR SIDES hurt. They were only three others in the theater, a mother and her two kids, and the mother had a startled jump, and looked at us like we were crazy. I'm surprised they didn't leave the theater. One of those"you had to be there" moments.
UNISEX OATH
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Z. 9:12. Don't forget the Anti-Vaxxers.
ReplyDeleteThanks @kitshef for including 80’s
ReplyDeleteThat bit made me realize I know of Nintendo 64 bec I have a child born in the 90’s
My husband teased that you must think I’m too young to know NES rather than being too old
Lastly — She’s a Man => Twelfth Night ?
Why is OATH a bit of salty language? (28D)
ReplyDelete"Oath" is an older, less-common expression for swearing. "He uttered a mild oath and stomped away." Swearing is salty language.
DeleteYeah, pretty easy once I got over trying to fit "One size fits all" into the UNISEX space. I didn't know SHE'S THE MAN, though once I knew it was Shakespeare it became more plausible. And when it comes to rappers, I know of NAS -- a frequent puzzle appearer, usually clued as himself -- but not the guy who was clued. I just figured that MAN was more plausible than "SHE'S THE MAp" (based on Treasure Island, and featuring a tattooed lady), and that rappers often honor other rappers, sort of like Kabuki actors. So I guessed it right.
ReplyDelete@kitshef, thanks for explaining where FORBIDDEN PLANET came from -- never saw it myself, and knowing that it was SF I would have guessed "A Winter's Tale."
If you want to be precise, WEST SIDE STORY & KISS ME KATE are both inspired by stage musicals of the same name, which were in turn inspired by SHAKESPEARE PLAYs. I think the inspiration for the other two was probably more direct. But I guess it's good to vary the way the theme works.
I did like Saint TERESA of Calcutta crossing Raquel WELCH.
As for the date of WS's birthday, there's much to ponder here. It's sort of like the date of an academy award; I mean, so many of you solve the puzzle online at 10 PM the night before, which means that you were actually doing it on the correct date.
@Z, don't you mean "whatevs?"
@Nancy, here’s an anecdote for you. Not tennis, but close.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/kj7i88LQ9DE
ctdawg
The problem with MASTER as defined by the clue, is that such definition is so, so 19th century, when occupations (even professional ones) were largely static in ken. Nowadays, not so much. What you know, esp. in anything vaguely tech, is obsolete in, at most, half a decade. The Kiddie Practitioners make up yet new jargon, thus making redundant their elders whom they Laugh At for being so behind the times. If you invest 10,000 hours to learn Widget Building, by the time you're done, nobody's hiring Widget Builders. Well, except down the holler way. We read that all those fancy Boeing 787s, made down the holler in South Carolina, are less than up to snuff. Don't pay to build things down the holler, even if you pay those Widget Builders half wages.
ReplyDeleteMore like a Tuesday puzzle for me. I guess we're in for it on rebus Thursday.
ReplyDelete@jberg - I’m not hip enough.
ReplyDeleteHave read some Shakespearean stuff in high school classes, and have attended a handful of live (Door County)Shakespeare plays in the park. But real hard to beat "A Midsummer Night's Dream" 1935 flick for yer Shakespeare fix.
ReplyDeleteyep. A fairly easy WedPuz, I'll grant. Nailed grid-spanner FORBIDDENPLANET as my very first puzentry. A good schlock flick; didn't know it had Shakespeare roots. Did Shakespeare do robots?!!?
OTOH, had no earthly idea on SHESTHEMAN, so a few precious nanoseconds dribbled away, in that particular zone.
Staff weeject pick: MOO. Best MOO-cow WedPuz clue: {"For goodness ___!"} = SAKES. Sneakiest WedPuz clue: {Business whose income is computed quarterly?} = ARCADE.
No real extra-longball fillins in this puz … Two 8's, with EMAILING & STAMPEDE. Two 7's, with DECLARE & MYSIDES [fave one]. And … yet … only 74 words total in the puzgrid. How'd they do that? Does have primo wide-open NW & SE corners … but, then again -- off-settin runty (but nice) weeject stacks in the NE & SW. Huh.
Great MYSIDES clue. Heck, tho … why not go for it all, with: {"I'm laughing so hard it hurts ... and I slobbered all over my taters and cold slaw!"}
Thanx for the fun & friendly solve, Mr. Mahnken. And congratz on NTYPuz #2.
Recommended sequel: Schlock flicks inspired by Shakespeare plays. Must be lots of em, if robots count.
Masked & AnonymoUUs
**gruntz**
Agree about "MYSIDES." Has anyone EVER used that expression when laughing hard, or any other time? The closest thing I can think of is the "Felix the Cat" theme song with the lyrics "You'll laugh so much/Your sides will ache/Your heart will go pit-a-pat/Watching Felix the wonderful cat."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2YJduDyFA4
An interesting theme today. I had to look up "Forbidden Planet" and "She's the Man" in order to connect them with their Shakespearean inspirations. Neither "The Tempest" nor "Twelfth Night" are plays I'm particularly acquainted with so I wouldn't have gotten the plot similarities if I had seen the two movies in question.
ReplyDeleteI liked the clues for 3D, 4D (loved that one) and 43D, plus AESOP as the Fabulous writer.
I find that when I get the giggles (more like hysterical laughter), my cheeks hurt more than MY SIDES. I remember once, when learning Swedish, one of the students was talking about hunting mushrooms and misspoke (and darned if I can remember what he said instead). No one else except the teacher caught it but it was so absurd, I started laughing to the point that I was crying. The teacher was caught by the contagion while everyone else stared at me and all I could do is croak out "I'm sorry" in between spasms, holding my cheeks in pain. I love it when that happens (the laughter, not the stares.)
Thanks, Evan Mahnken, I'll give this one a YES YES.
Oh, and I read an article recently (Google isn't bringing it up for me) that somewhat debunked the 10,000 hour theory. It seems that one needs a bit of talent to go along with that devotion to the craft. I'm trying to think of what I might have mastered, if 10,000 hours is all that was needed. Reading and knitting, I think. (Watching TV? I did a lot of it as a kid.) Playing solitaire, maybe, though I recently broke myself of my Spider Solitaire addiction. Pitiful, I know.
ReplyDeleteVery fun puzzle, close to a PR despite what looked like a daunting grid. Unlike 100% of posters so far, SHESTHEMAN was a gimme for me, as my lowbrow taste in movies includes corny, cheesy, breezy romcoms. It was the first solution I could put in today with complete and utter confidence.
ReplyDeleteAs an inveterate reader of the self-help and personal productivity canon, MASTER was a close second in the confident fill arena, although I don't subscribe to that particular hypothesis. I get the point - work hard with focus, and you'll get better at whatever it is - but mastery? Please.
Shout out to OFL for the WSJ article, congrats. And a shout out to the posters on this board who teach me SO much about the crossword world; because of y'all I already knew and have tried (and failed) to do the down-only approach. Perhaps I need only 9,382 more hours of attempts.
p.s.
ReplyDeleteThere's a powerful lesson in that blog pic of @RP: Those who speed-solve off of Downs-Only clues develop stubbly whiskers and forget to ever take their ballcaps off.
Neat runtpuz coffee cup, btw.
Correction from first M&A msg: " congratz on NYTPuz #2". (Orange-ally switched the Y&T around.)
M&Also
@Rex: Lil Nas X appeared in full in the BEQ Themeless Monday #513 which is dated April 15, 2019.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Z
ReplyDeleteOh you rascal. Don't ever change.
A personal record for me, too... And it beat my best Tuesday time as well.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't matter how easy the rest of it is, crossing TALESE with both STU and MEESE is absolute trash. Completely unfair for people born in the 90s and beyond. This puzzle, complete with its pathetic attempt at timeliness with SWIPES, can go to hell.
ReplyDelete@Anon 11:14: Re your link. Is it about "Auntie Mame" and ping pong??? Since the link wasn't in blue, I had to painstakingly enter the YouTube letters by hand. What exactly would that scene be? I had no idea. Well, the scene that came up was really, really funny. Nothing to do with either tennis or golf, but a wonderful sendup of how an anecdote can be a lot funnier to the teller than to the listener.
ReplyDeleteI saw "Auntie Mame" a long time ago and had completely forgotten that scene. But it's a classic. It's well worth a look, everyone.
@Nancy. Here's Anon 11:14 Auntie Mame link.
ReplyDeleteSurprised the nitpickers are not pointing out the inaccuracy of the LIBRA clue. Both the astrological sign and the constellation are very much Earth based. The constellation is bland and looks more like Robby Robot than a set of scales.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Shakespeare derived play that was shown in movie theaters was Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead. I always thought the title should have been "...is Dead". More in keeping with the humor of the play.
The puzzle was easy except for a few possible crosses that depended on not very esoteric knowledge. I got ARCADE from crosses but did not "get" it til an hour later. Good one. A few good clues and many fine answers.
I agree that simply putting in 10,000 hours doesn't necessarily lead to becoming a MASTER. But I don't think we were MISLED. The clue is "Put 10,000 hours into, it's said" (my emphasis), so the clue seems perfectly accurate to me. I've heard that "rule" applied to playing poker, for example. Whether it's correct or incorrect is a separate issue.
ReplyDeleteCome Wednesday, I like a little bit of a challenge. Didn't happen with this puzzle. But I did smile at FABULOUS WRITER?
ReplyDelete@JC66. Well, it was ghastly. I knew an airhead like that...once. @Nancy, I can hear you laugh! No, not you!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this puzzle except for the revealer, which is so anodyne as to be ludicrous. It was easy but fun, even if I never saw (or remember hearing about) SHE’S THE MAN. Raquel WELCH! TIPPI Hedren. Seriously, what’s not to love? Other than SHAKESPEARE PLAY. As a revealer, I mean; Shakespeare’s plays are terrific. My favorite was Titus Andronicus done by the Puppet Shakespeare Company. I recently saw Gary on Broadway. Meh.
ReplyDelete@M&A 12:44, are you a Cheesehead?
ReplyDelete+1 to the complaint about the STU/TALESE/MEESE crossing. Was able to blindly guess STU, but the others were impossible.
ReplyDeleteSAME ESSEX
ReplyDeleteMy WESTSIDESTORY MAY make me IRATE,
I was FORBIDDEN to PLANET as IT began.
I DECLAREd, “IWISH you’d KISSMEKATE”,
but in THE END I was MISLED – SHE’STHEMAN.
--- “EDO” RAY MEESE
I must DECLARE that I learned something: that FORBIDDENPLANET comes from the Bard. I sort of see it now...but somehow never realized it. Excellent educational supplement: do crosswords! FP is one of my all-time faves.
ReplyDeleteYes, this was easyish; I don't know about any records, though. For one thing, it includes a rapper, which thankfully was only three letters and gettable via crosses. Also, in my paper the clue for MYSIDES OMITS the "____" at the end, so that was hard to see.
As for the puzzle in toto, I enjoyed it (I always enjoy learning something new). OFC, having been OFL for a day, must TIRE of that quickly; he's back to OFC again. It'd be cool if someday we found a Shakespearean root for The Shawshank Redemption, surely in my top 5 of all time, and featuring "Miss Fussy Britches," DOD Raquel WELCH.
Clean fill, with a nose-wrinkle at WWII. Birdie.
YESYES, rather easy. I’d bet there are many more movies based on SHAKESPEAREPLAYs if this idea is recycled sometime. Back in the days of the TV series ‘Moonlighting’ (as @Roomonster mentioned) they did an episode with Bruce Willis as Petruchio and Cybil Shepard as KATE; effin’ hilarious. I bought that whole season on DVD just to rePLAY that episode. Still ‘effin hilarious. Time for another rePLAY.
ReplyDeleteIn days long before that, I taped a poster of yeah baby Raquel WELCH (wearing nothing but hair extensions for coverage) to my window shade so it would roll up and not be seen by nosy parents.
5 weeks later it’s hard to complain about which day this puz was run. Good puz IMO.
Nice puzzle published on or near the birthday of The Bard. Easy and clean, as it were. Makes me want to re-read JF Shulte's "SHAKESPEARE - was he four women?" That by the way comes from an old Woody Allen written piece in the days before he became a director.
ReplyDeleteI've seen The Tempest twice, but @Spacey makes me want to see FORBIDDEN PLANET.
Had fun, for a brief time.
For those who missed it in today’s verse:
ReplyDelete• The title sums up the verse
• One theme answer in each line
• Do-re-mi in the author’s name, ESE remaining
META
Apt for a Wed - not as familiar with all of the movies as some, but it was ultimately do-able.
ReplyDeleteLady Di
BarbieBarbie : I don't know why you were able to access the article, but I wasn't -- because there's very clearly a paywall: The text fades after a few lines, followed by the words TO READ THE FULL STORY and two buttons: SUBSCRIBE and SIGN IN.
ReplyDeleteMaybe rein in your snottiness just a little -- anyone who can solve as quickly as RP is generally able to interpret words / symbols pretty quickly.