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Relative difficulty: EASY for many , but Medium-Challenging (3:26) for me (it's got a themeless word count (72)??? so yeah, just somewhat slower than usual for me to get through)
Theme answers:
- BEATLEMANIA (17A: "Affliction" suffered by Fab Four devotees)
- MARCH MADNESS (27A: "Affliction" suffered by bracketologists)
- FASHION CRAZE (43A: "Affliction" suffered by clothes lovers)
- SPRING FEVER (56A: "Affliction" suffered by the winter-weary)
Jacqueline Ruth "Ilene" Woods (May 5, 1929 – July 1, 2010) was an American actress and singer. Woods was the original voice of the title character of the Walt Disney animated feature Cinderella, for which she was named a Disney Legend in 2003. (wikipedia)
• • •
NOISE LAWS (34D: Peace-and-quiet ordinances) and SANTA LETTERS (23D: Mail addressed to the North Pole) both qualify as real things, and yet I balked at both—crinkled my nose at the former and outright disbelieved the phrasing of the latter. "Letters to Santa" feels like the actual phrase, and in fact when I google ["SANTA LETTERS"], the first page of hits gets me several sites that are actually about letters written *by* "Santa." In fact the first seven (7) hits all think SANTA LETTERS come *from* the North Pole. But I see SANTA LETTERS used elsewhere to refer to letters written *to* the North Pole, so OK. Not lovin' it, but OK. As a shaved-headed person, I was not offended by BALDIE, though my sincere reaction was "oh go f*** yourself." Is that "offended"? I dunno. So many guys have shaved heads now, the idea of insulting someone with "chrome dome" or "BALDIE" seems puerile and very mid-20th-century. But whatever, if you're proud that you've debuted this stupid non-word that is also a pejorative, good for you, buddy (two constructors have used BALDY before, which is the actual spelling, but seriously, pat yourself on the back for your word debut!). Playground retorts are the worst kind of fill, and when you shove one (ARE SO) in a corner with stilted crosswordese like ASDOI, you're really not doing your job well. ITISSO, also stilted. ISOUT, just bad. But again, mostly this one was a cut-above the usual NYT Monday, just entertainment-wise. My favorite answer was EDITWAR (9D: Tussle between wiki page. modifiers). OK, bye, have a nice day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. I'm told DARTs aren't actually aimed at bull's-eyes, necessarily, but this is someone else's fight to pick (25D: Missile aimed at a bull's-eye).
P.P.S. This theme has pretty much been done before, and not too long ago (2015). Half the themers are the same. Minimum due diligence is running your themers thru databases to see if you're repeating someone else's work.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Full disclosure: My idea of fashion is jeans and a T-shirt.
ReplyDeleteBut shouldn't an affliction be "fashion crazY" as opposed to FASHIONCRAZE?
My whole life I've been pretty much AGOG at one FASHION CRAZE after another, so nice to see that in the grid.
ReplyDeleteI've heard "bob and weave" in the present, but never in the past tense. Shouldn't that be "bobbed and wove" rather than 10D WEAVED? Okay, not enough letters to fill the slot, so WEAVED it is.
POTTY MOUTH is a catchy phrase, but it's also a tad short for its grid slot at 4D. So what the hey, slap on a gratuitous -ED. Problem solved. But would anyone ever actually say or write POTTY MOUTHED? Sounds off to me.
I gave the side eye to likes of ISOUT, ITISSO, ARESO, ASDOI, ONEA, TARA & TARSI, but I guess that's the price to be paid when going for a low black square count, 34, and a low word count, 72. Those are typical themeless numbers---WHAT NERVE! Add the constraints of four themers and you are bound to have some less than sterling fill.
Re: WEAVED. I think it's like hung/hanged... It depends on the context of the verb. WOVE would be for the textile art; WEAVED is for traffic or boxing rings.
DeleteOn the tough side. Cute with some fine long downs, liked it.
ReplyDeleteVery easy Monday for me except In the Middle East where I had I ENE at 42A and filled in R thinking what else could it be, must be IRENE, had FASHION CRAZY at 43A which made SANTAryTTERS. Didn’t take too long to sort that out, but I’m glad I don’t bother with timing myself.
ReplyDeletePuzzle partner didn’t comment on 51A BALDIE, so I guess he’s accepted his lot in life, although when I complain about how long it takes to dry my hair he says “at least you have something to dry”. Sorry Jon, won’t mention it again.
@Anoa Bob 1:12 AM
ReplyDeleteI think "bobbed and WEAVED" is the common term for boxing moves, at least as I've heard it. "Wove" is proper for textiles, I guess.
On another note, I'm still giddy over AGENAS on Saturday. That was the "answer of the week" and very worthy of a Saturday NYT puzzle. It got me to reading more about it (always a positive thing). 365 AGENAS were launched, which justifies the plural; two very public NASA uses of AGENAS were Gemini 9A which was the "angry alligator" and Gemini 8 in which very famous guy Neil Armstrong averted disaster with cool thinking under duress and was a major plot point of a recent feature film.
If you like words, AGENAS had restartable engines which used a hypergolic fuel/oxidizer system, with unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine as the fuel and inhibited red fuming nitric acid as the oxidizer. Neither Byron nor Keats ever wrote a more beautiful sentence than that.
But most of what the AGENAS did was secret reconnaissance missions, including the super-awesome CORONA project. CORONA satellites were bolted to and guided and powered by the AGENAS. The CORONAs carried 32000 feet of fine-grain 70mm B&W film that took stereoscopic surveillance photos; when they were done, the film was ejected in a pod which did a fiery re-entry into the atmosphere then deployed a parachute and was then snatched in mid-air by a special plane with a hook. That's serious James Bond stuff right there folks, or at least Ice Station Zebra.
AGENAS
I did the puzzle yesterday, then woke bolt upright in the middle of the night with another possible theme answer, promptly returned to sleep, and now for the life of me, I can't remember what it was. I also can't think of another possible theme answer (maybe some of you can), which leads me to believe this is a tight theme. Furthermore, it has lovely in-the-language answers, and I'm guessing that it has never been done before. Credit to Ross for all of that! I left the puzzle thinking, "This is a quality Monday, and I had a good time with it!" Thank you, sir.
ReplyDeleteI keep seeing GETS AT as GET SAT, as in, "The duty of ushers is to ensure that their charges get sat." I'm trying not to, but at the moment, it's a losing battle.
Finally, my ear worm for the day is ISLAMABAD. I just love the way it rolls off the tongue!
Nice Monday! I found it easy, apart from being flummoxed for a time at "bracketology," which first made me think of botany (bracken) instead of basketball; POTTY-talking also deprived me of the crucial initial M, so getting that answer was my big reveal of the day. I liked the parallel POTTY-MOUTHED SANTA LETTERS with the adjacent WHAT NERVE!
ReplyDelete@M&A - I'm guessing you appreciated the Monday MOO :)
Lady Di was Charles’ partner?
ReplyDeleteSeems like ‘wife’ is the better word choice.
After she became his wife, she wasn’t LADYDI anymore; she became Princess Di.
DeleteVery nice Monday that required some thought.
ReplyDeleteThe one answer that stood out for me was Ilene Woods? Am I really supposed to know her?
Edit war also was new to me. I guess that is another reason to distrust Wiki "facts".
I can't believe I read @ JOHN X's entire rocket essay but I did. If that mid-air (as in 21A) snag is real then that is some kind of James Bond or sci fi maneuver indeed. If not then you spin a great yarn.
Just an easy, lazy solve. Some nice long entries to fill. Beautiful morning here and a good start to the day.
ReplyDelete@Lewis: Is Lama Bad? No, Lama Good!
ReplyDeleteLiked this one a lot.
Not every lama is good. I slam a bad one when I encounter it.
DeleteThis is my idea of a damn fine Monday. Themers justified the -ese. Merci, M. Trudeau.
ReplyDeleteAnd Welcome back, @Lewis. I've missed your positive input.
@Leewwwiiiissss!!! You’re back! All is right with the world again. Hope you had a terrific time.
ReplyDeleteSince I start with the fill-in-the-blanks first and go from there, never once stopping at any clue that flummoxes me, I miss a good deal of the objectionable fill. ILENE is a case in point. After I read Rex and notice the weaker fill, I glance back at my grid and shrug. I miss most of that in my dogged pursuit of uncovering the theme.
SANTA LETTERS did give me pause, but then I decided it’d be a good name for an agency that “rented” out temporary mall Santas.
Loved the British northwest with its ELTON, LADY DI, and BEATLEMANIA.
Perfect Monday if you ask me. I agree with @Lewis – tight theme. I like that each themer is indeed an affliction. I was thinking of some kind of _____ bug, but upon further reflection, I think the “bug” here is not used to describe an affliction as in I have a stomach bug. Rather, you’re either bitten by it or you are it. A firebug, say. I know my avatar doesn’t work since it’s a made-up thing and I’m being a smarty-pants. Smartie-pants.
Oral fixation
I never noticed that the boxing terms bob and weave can also be hair terms. Hah.
The expression SPRING FEVER is interesting. For me, it means you’re all excited that winter is almost over, and the cold is on its way out. For Mom, it means truly a feeling of lethargy and sluggishness.
The alternative spelling of BALDIE was for me no biggy.
“Brevity is the soul of WIT.” Ahem. Move along people. There’s nothing to see here.
Ross – lovely Monday offering. If I understood correctly, Rex’s “I guess I'll take a simple *but coherent* theme and a grid with a lot of zingy fill” was directed at this, so yay. Maybe we’ll avoid lots of mean commenters oozing through the floodgate that Rex sometimes opens. Maybe we’ll avoid a feeding frenzy.
A few entries just felt a bit off. Letters to Santa, yes; SANTA LETTERS, no. Noise ordinances, yes; NOISE LAWS, no. Cluing JAW with a T-Rex reference. [I see Rex didn’t like those first two. Is he cheating off of me?]
ReplyDelete@Lewis: LINSANITY? Too dated, I guess. Though he did just win the championship.
Just in case M&A isn’t around today: favorite MOO-cow easy clue; Cow’s sound.
Diana was his "partner"? What fresh hell is this? And maybe I'm a sex maniac at heart but I always thought Spring Fever was about being turned on -- to love, romance and any kind of fecundity. It's about escaping wintry doldrums? I thought that was a type of cabin fever. What do I know. I live in Florida. Although I am up north now. Ready for some sick summer fever. I agree with Joaquin above. Should be Fashion CRAZY, per the clue. Excessive yawning is an affliction too. One I experienced today doing this puzzle.
ReplyDelete@Joaquin: "Affliction" is a noun. "Crazy" is an adjective.
ReplyDelete@Anoa Bob: "POTTYMOUTH" is a noun. "POTTYMOUTHED" is an adjective.
Both clues look fine to me.
Rex, you can take solace in the fact that they didn’t call you a “bald asshole.”
ReplyDeleteOther than the one pejorative, I thought this puzzle was pretty good. Pretty, pretty good.
LD
IS OUT ARE SO IT IS SO AS DO I...Dang. Go away. Don't you dare ruin my Monday.
ReplyDeleteI'll jump on the LADY DI partner thing bandwagon. Poor Camilla, will she ever get center stage?
Phew...got that off my chest. I liked this affliction thing. I can only think of the bubonic plague. I was never afflicted with any of these answers. As a matter of fact, I've never heard of bracketologist. Why did I read it as proctologist? Was never quite into the BEATLES, I'm only glad for MARCH MADNESS because it is my time to couch potato Hulu. I think of the Kardashians when I seen FASHION CRAZE and that brings me great sorrow. I see SPRING FEVER and I think amorousness (Hi @Quasi).....
The HARD C clue was cute. If I'd see a woman wear a MINK stole, I'd accidentally spill my banana split down the front. Oops. SCREW you.
I kinda like the word BALDIE. Sometimes I wish my husband were one. He has a lot of hair and I'm the one that cuts it. I've begged him to grow a pony tail but he won't....Imagine that. I've even asked him to try one of those man buns. He won't do that either. I think I'm going to put a little ribbon on the top of my doxiepoo.
@Lewis......WELL did you eat a potato croquette?????
This puzzle's affliction is that it exists. ITISSO bad. ILENE Woods on a Monday -- LOL, what a joke. Ironic to see CLEAN here, as the fill is anything but. ARESO, ISOUT, ERS, BALDIE (!!), ASDOI, ITISSO, HARDC, ONEA and TARSI -- that's 1/8 of your entries right there. WHATNERVE! I'm sure EDITWAR is a thing, but it MIFFs me as a concept and an answer. That's right, I'm SORE about it. SCREW this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI expected a complaint about APU. The very un PC character on The Simpsons
ReplyDeleteGreat Monday, surprisingly tough in parts for me (such as the SE). The criticisms appearing here are reasonable, but I still found this to be highly enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteAddendumb: Would you say someone suffers from "Fashion Craze"? You'd say she is "fashion crazy" or has "the fashion crazies." Although I've never ever heard this term before even as "fashion craze."
ReplyDeleteI looked up "bracketology", a term I've never heard, before coming here. Seems it's a word -- but one I won't be using anytime soon. Obviously I don't suffer from MARCH MADNESS.
ReplyDeleteBet my friend @mathgent will be all over this answer, though. He does suffer from this malady -- sometimes to the point of [gasp!] doing the puzzle and watching a basketball game at the same time.
Another big question mark is EDIT WAR. I'm trying to decide if it's Green Paint or just Bad Grammar. I worked in publishing and I can promise you that I've never heard the term EDIT WAR in my life. Happily so.
And then there's "Sir John", as in ELTON John. No, no, no! It's "Sir Winston", not "Sir Churchill". It's "Dame Agatha", not "Dame Christie." ELTON John is "Sir Elton". This really shouldn't have gone through. It's a very easy fix. Bet this has been said already.
Other than that, a perfectly pleasant puzzle.
OK, confession. I used to relish sitting next to a guy at the barber who had very little need to be at the barber and asking my barber to “thin it out a little. It’s just too thick.” I got my mom’s hair gene (thick and dark and slow to gray) as opposed to my dad’s (bald by 30), so I know it is really just a twist (double helix?) of fate. Still, going to the barber for a few wisps of hair, rather than coming home*, always caused my needle reflex to jerk.
ReplyDeletePerplexed by the whole partner v wife plaint. I see @RavTom explains why “wife” would be wrong for LADY DI, but I am perplexed that anyone thinks “partner” is not a near equal synonym for “wife.” Unless you think a wife isn’t a partner...? Add that “wife” has some historical baggage and I understand why the term might be eschewed by people who want their marriages to be marriages of equals. I do not understand why using “partner” instead of “wife” would be remarkable to anyone.
A fine puzzle. I will note that FEVER is a bit of an outlier, MANIA, MADNESS, CRAZE all being mental health issues.
*I picked this phrase up recently and I’m wondering how many here know it means to shave one’s head.
Re: wife vs. partner for Di.
ReplyDeleteAs Lady Di, before marriage, partner.
After marriage, Princess Di (As pointed out by another commenter)
So clue and answer are correct.
Jeff Chen at XWord Info links to a 2015 Monday puzzle that had the same theme, including two answers identical to this puzzle's. It also had a fifth themer, MEDIA FRENZY (maybe that's what you thought of, @Lewis? Or FEEDING FRENZY?)
ReplyDeleteI think I like the earlier puzzle better. There, the themer clues are straightforward definitions. Here, the verbalized "affliction" unnecessarily strains to tie them all together. Besides which, a CRAZE is not something one suffers from. "Craziness", yes. Also, I've never seen BALDIE spelled that way, and IMPASSION is typically followed by the -ED that does *not* typically follow POTTY MOUTH.
Bonus points for St. JOSEPH'S College, which is about a mile from where I live. It was originally founded as a women's college, the only one in Brooklyn. That should make Rex happy.
The Von Trapp children are here to defy the noise laws and sing us off:
♪ So long, farewell
Auf wiedersehen, goodbye
I flit, I float
I fleetly flee, I fly ♪
A Merrie Monday to all!
I wanted cabin FEVER instead of SPRINGFEVER. I think you suffer spring fever when it's winter, but it feels like spring for a few days and you start to wish it were spring forever. The "winter weary" are the ones who, in the dead of winter, are tired of being pent up in their houses/cabins/apartments and start to go a little crazy.
ReplyDeleteAlso agree with Joe Dipinto...
Doctor:
"I'm sorry to tell you, but you have Beatle Mania."
"I'm sorry to tell you, but you have Spring Fever."
"I'm sorry to tell you, but you have March Madness."
"I'm sorry to tell you, but you have Fashion Craze."
One of those is not like the others.
If you want to see Santa letters, watch the 1947 'Miracle on 34th Street'. The Post Office, a branch of the United States Government, receives thousands of them. And they end up on the judge's bench.
ReplyDeletePOTTYMOUTHED cluing should have used the word "spewED," not spewING."
ReplyDelete@orangeblossomspecial; here in the real NYC the Santa letters wind up being distributed to people who will purchase and send gifts to the letter senders. It's a nice tradition.
ReplyDelete@Z, thank you. We're an old fashioned couple, I guess. My wife has been my partner for 42 years in every single way. And she has her own name because she's not my appendage. I put her through school, she put me through school. Without her partnership nothing would be the same. Also, I rarely, if ever, introduce her as "my wife", I introduce her using her name. It's obvious to any sentient being we're a couple.
I never before thought about how nerve and never have the same letters.
Ilene was no more nor less difficult for me than any other Disney clue, so I don't care.
Nice, solid Monday Ross, thanks.
@GILL I. -- I came close; I had patatas braves.
ReplyDelete@joe dipinto -- I don't think it was a "frenzy" answer, but I don't know for sure. Should have written it down.
Thanks to the Kardashians, many ladies in my northern NYC nabe are wearing ridiculously large fake asses. I’d say that qualifies as FASHIONCRAZY.
ReplyDelete@LD 8:15, nice CurbYour Enthusiasm reference
@LMS love the brevity comment at the end. Snorted my coffee
@Lewis great to have you back and remind me that I’m not alone in regarding the sunny side of things and the "Rex plus his twitter army of nitpicking nabob dittoheads" outlook isn’t the only way to approach things.
@nancy, since anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, topics that are controversial get edited back and forth to reflect partisan viewpoints, hence EDITWARS. Mansplain over and out.
Wasn’t there a Mohammed Ali clue recently? Mini theme today with "bobbed and weaved" and FLIT like a butterfly, sting like a bee...
My five favorite clues from last week:
ReplyDelete1. High point of winter? (6)
2. What's frequently found in poetry? (3)
3. Handles with care? (8)
4. They might work on something for 60 seconds (5)
5. Couple of high points? (6)
ICICLE
OFT
PET NAMES
AD MEN
UMLAUT
My five favorite clues from two weeks ago:
1. Top of an outfit, for short? (3)
2. Big shots at a hospital, informally? (5)
3. Actors' unions? (13)
4. Question following a holdup (7)
5. Post office? (8)
CEO
HYPOS
SHAM MARRIAGES
AM I LATE
NEWSROOM
So, no DARTS isn't a game like archery where you always go for the bullseye (not even called that on a dart board, IIRC). There are a lot of defined games for a dart board, none of which I recall the specifics of, except that most, if not all, required the players to hit certain places in order to reach a defined score. One might never have to hit a bullseye.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteFUGUE STATE? Nah, it's a STATE of FUGUE, no? Either way, it'd be a winner with @M&A. And speaking of Mr, Masked, MOO clued as a Cow's sound, Awesome.
Thought this to be a fun "Affliction" puz. Now, don't get all mad and say Afflictions aren't fun, it's a serious problem, etc. etc. Just take it for it being a nice MonPuz distraction.
A FASHION CRAZE to me is about the FASHION itself, not the people who have it. They're just CRAZy. Everybody copies everybody else. Think for yourselves, people!
Used to be on a DARTs team, and as Rex says, there are games that you have to aim at stuff other than the bullseye, but he Waaay overthought it. The clue is fine as worded.
Was going for a No-Writeover day, but soDOI-ASDOI SCREWed and ELUDEd me. That really GETS AT me. IT IS SO. Har.
Three F's today, much better than the zero F's in YesterPuz!
I'M PASSION
RooMonster
DarrinV
Spring Fever? Cabin Fever would have been so much better.
ReplyDeleteCabin doesn't fit, only 5 letters.
DeleteLady Di was Charles's "fiancée," not partner. No one calls their girlfriend or fiancée "partner" especially if he is the heir to a throne.
ReplyDeleteBritish noble nomenclature is confusing to many. Diana Spencer was Lady Diana Spencer from birth because her father was or would be an earl. Children of dukes, marquesses, and earls are Lord or Lady [firstname]. Mystery fans learn this from the Lord Peter stories of Dorothy Sayers. Lord Peter was the second son of a duke and had no other title, so Lord Peter he would remain for the rest of his life, unlikely to succeed because his nephew was next in line for the dukedom. Lord Peter married, and his wife became not Lady Wimsey, but Lady Peter. However, if Peter had been just a knight, Sir Peter Wimsey, his wife would become Lady Wimsey. (The best-known example 200 years ago was Lord John Russell, the great Whig leader: when he married, his wife became Lady John Russell, though eventually he was made an earl in his own right, and his wife became Countess Russell, and in one of those twists of fate, her grandson Bertram became a mathematician, and one of the best known figures of the last century).
ReplyDeleteIn any case, a wife of Sir Elton John would be Lady John, not Lady Elton, so they got it wrong in today's puzzle. Lady Di I can live with. That was her birth name or nickname, and while after the divorce she could call herself Diana, Princess of Wales, those who disliked her sometimes preferred to go back to calling her Lady Di. The lasting lesson for Dianamania: Heirs to the throne were no longer expected to marry virgins. Under today's standards, Prince Charles would have been free to marry his true love Camilla. Who knows what heirs that marriage would have produced? Though Lady Di seems to have been a great mother to the two boys she did have.
har. Y'all have got MOOS HYSTERIA, today. staff weeject pick & fave moo-cow easy-E MonPuz clue, of course.
ReplyDeleteyo, @Lewis - welcome home. yep. Always wake up and write down them inspired themers -- altho some of em might look a little weirder in the bald daylight. Sorta like if yer amazin dream-themer idea for this puz came out to be CATTLE STAMPEDE, or FALL OUT FITS, or somesuch. Been there. Deliriumed that.
Awesome puzgrid. Slightly feisty for a MonPuz at our house, with all them longball words. Plus, lost precious nano-seconds, wantin POTTYMOUTHIN. Mighty fun solvequest, tho. ILENE who?
Thanx and congratz on gettin a grudginly good @RP review, Mr. Trudeau. fave themer: IMP PASSION.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Echoing kudos for NE BEATLEMANIA, ELTON (though as has been noted it’s Sir Elton not Sir John) and beloved LADYDI; Lord I cried that Sat AM.
ReplyDeleteDNK ILENE, but gettable.
Not a WIKI fan.
All in all, good Mon puz.
CRAZiness ensued when I threw mAW in at 59D. I filled in the rest of the grid and went back to see where I was supposed to be in ____ California. Imagine my surprise to see BAmA, CA. I started wondering if the clue was wrong. Then I had my "aha" moment - it's supposed to be BAhA! Ha! What's a hAW on a T.Rex? A few seconds later I got the J and all was fixed but I certainly didn't SHINE in the SW.
ReplyDeleteA fine Monday, thanks Ross Trudeau.
I kinda liked this puzzle. Went way too quickly, though.
ReplyDelete@'mericans from yesterday re: Eton. No harm, no foul. It's the interwebs, and we all (myself included) would do well to slow down a tad.
I take nothing said (typed) here personally because, well, what would that accomplish?
On to Tuesday. .
Better than most Mondays.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley, the view featured the iconic, often snow covered, majestic peak Mount San Antonio which everyone called Mount Baldy. I totally balked at wrenching in BALDIE as clued.
ReplyDeleteI learned early in life to never deride a guy for being either short or bald. My motive is not courtesy, but survival. There's a strong possibility he might follow you out to the parking lot and beat your ass. I have a nice head of hair, but I had nothing to do with it. Remember the old joke about male pattern baldness? The punch line revolves around "Hair in your genes" vs. "Hair in your jeans."
"As a shaved-headed person, I was not offended by BALDIE"
ReplyDeleteFrom the amount of ink you devoted to whining about it, it sure seems like you were!
@Larry Gilstrap:
ReplyDeleteThe punch line revolves around "Hair in your genes" vs. "Hair in your jeans."
I'm pretty sure I read up years ago that male pattern baldie is inherited from your Mama, not your Papa. As usual, Mom is the problem.
Does anyone remember the NYC gang ( scary) from the fifties.? BALDIES?.
ReplyDeleteThanks RT
I liked this one a lot. Some misdirection, longer answers inferred from crosses. Ahhh.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finally quit the comb-over and gave in to my inner bald, I told the barber to give me a buzz cut. I told him I should get a discount in the future since I had less hair to cut. His response? "Then I'll have to charge you a finder's fee."
I wanted cabinFEVER for 56A but it didn't fit.
Say, did you hear about the gal with one leg shorter than the other? Oh, you mean [See 42A]
@Charles Flaster- I know the Fordham Baldies as a Bronx gang in the movie The Wanderers. Apparently the Fordham Baldies were a real gang way back when.
ReplyDeleteSEMI-CLAD FLIT WIT
ReplyDeleteThe TVSTAR ISOUT with LADYDI,
they could not SPRINGFEVER ELUDE.
They got MID-MARCHMADNESS, ASDOI;
IMPASSIONED before getting SCREWed.
--- ALEXA ILENE JOSEPHS
Another scary moment: I'm on the same page with OFC! *shudder* Even as to the difficulty rating--for a Monday. Wasn't sure about the ending of some of the long downs: POTTYMOUTH__? SANTA_______? One thing I must mention that he didn't: the old RLP (random letter pronunciation) which occupies no less than center stage. However, I will concede that the clue was Mondayed down for us instead of being in some mean-spirited disguise designed to cost large chunks of solving time.
ReplyDeleteI liked it overall; theme constraints are bound to "afflict" the fill, but he didn't do too badly with it--and there's lots of length to deal with, more than usual for the day. DOD in memoriam is LADYDI--but I would be more than pleased to have our current lady-in-waiting wear the sash. Birdie.
"Well I never!" WHATNERVE!!! This is not mere MARCH MADNESS. Nor a CRAZE or MANIA.
ReplyDeleteThe Princess, wife, mother of Charles' children (the heir apparent among them), the bona-fide virgin bride! The LADY DI was no mere onetime "partner," affectionately or not.
First a "difficult for a Monday" puzzle, filled with a "difficult to swallow" answer. I am AGOG and breathless! What next?
Diana, Lady in Waiting for an abject apology!!
This could be a perfect Monday puzzle for one and all.
ReplyDeleteVery impressed with its smoothness, consistency and symmetry in theme, construction, and fill.
Bravo, Ross Trudeau.
A Monday puzzle with 'tude, a la M&A. A nice surprise.
ReplyDeleteThemers were fine, but I had to convince myself that FASHION CRAZE worked. It does, sorta. "I had a bout of FASHION CRAZE when I was in my late teens, shortly after a period of time when I POTTY MOUTHED everybody.
Some nice long downs, which some might think aren't so great. ARE SO! However, many commenters liked this puzzle, AS DO I.
I’m back right on schedule to give our very own LADYDI a hearty yeah baby.
ReplyDeleteI think I’ve suffered all of those afflictions. Of course you must be of a certain age to have had the original BEATLEMANIA. And I was ONEA, but they called off the draft.
Also old enough to remember the BALDIEs and the Greasers. BALDIES favored the BEATLE type haircut and would DRESS in burgundy jackets with black leather sleeves and brown wing tip shoes; Greasers slicked it back like Elvis and wore motorcycle jackets and black pointy shoes. Girlfriends in burgundy or navy blue hooded benchwarmer coats as appropriate. FASHIONCRAZE indeed.
I’d like more Mondays like this.
Well - the SyndieCats are good friends. Thanks @Spacey! And welcome back to the fold, @Rondo!
ReplyDeleteDiana, LIW