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Actress Graff of Mr Belvedere / WED 1-22-20 / Part of crystal radio kit / SS onetime flagship of White Star Line
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Constructor: Alex Eaton-Salners
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed clipboard solve)
Theme answers:
- CARIBBEAN (17A: Like calypso music)
- CORAL (19A: Atoll material)
- CHINA (21A: Porcelain)
- ADRIATIC (23A: SS ___, onetime flagship of the White Star Line)
- BALTIC (34A: Second Monopoly avenue)
- CASPIAN (45A: Prince of Narnia)
- BLACK (55A: Hugo ___, longtime Supreme Court justice)
Lee Ann Meriwether (born May 27, 1935) is an American actress, former model, and the winner of the 1955 Miss America pageant. She is known for her role as Betty Jones, Buddy Ebsen's secretary and daughter-in-law in the 1970s crime drama Barnaby Jones. The role earned her two Golden Globe Award nominations in 1975 and 1976, and an Emmy Award nomination in 1977. She is also known for her role as Herman Munster's long-haired wife, Lily Munster, on the 1980s sitcom The Munsters Today, as well as for her portrayal of Catwoman, replacing Julie Newmar in the film version of Batman(1966), and for a co-starring role on the science fiction series The Time Tunnel. Meriwether had a recurring role as Ruth Martin on the daytime soap opera All My Children until the end of the series in September 2011. (wikipedia)
• • •
Let's start with the biggest problem, as I see it, which is that your entire puzzle is built around showcasing the seven-ness of the seas ("C"s) but then ... you ... you let three other "C"s into the grid? Whyyyy? "C"s are not "E"s. You don't actually need them!! And one of them is in IRENIC (and, fittingly, ICK), so please don't tell me they are here to make your grid clean, yeesh. The truly elegant move is to rid the grid of all "C"s except the seven in question. This grid has 10 "C"s. That is the basic fact of this grid that is jeering at this theme from the bleachers. The much less annoying thing about the theme is, as I say, that clue on ADRIATIC. But also the clue on CORAL, frankly. You can see that all of the clues are trying very, very hard to veer away from the sea, so that you won't see the sea ("C D C?") element until the end. I get how hard it must be to get ADRIATIC away from the sea. So you go to a boat no one knows, which is a. still sea-adjacent and b. annoying because no one knows your dumb boat. But ADRIATIC is a hard case. CORAL is not. It's a color. It's a name. You did your due diligence with the other clues, why did you throw CORAL back into the sea with its "Atoll" clue? It's like ... no one thinking through the details that make puzzles truly elegant. Good ideas are being sent out into the world unpolished. Sigh. Whatever. I still enjoyed this puzzle. I just wish that if all the Men at the NYTXW are going to keep publishing the same Men over and over and over (women constructors at a dismal 14% for the year so far), those puzzles would at least be undeniably great. Shaped with care. Spot-on. Try harder. Also, publish more women. But also also, try harder.
Six things:
- 38A: Actress Graff of "Mr. Belvedere" (ILENE) — oooof. So I'm half mad at myself for forgetting this misbegotten piece of crosswordese, but more mad at the puzzle for putting it in in the first place. Would've let it go but then, in the same section, the puzzle decided to go with Yet Another Bygone Actress's First Name! This is a textbook example of why it's important to *vary* the knowledge bases you're drawing from. Asking for two bygone actress first names in the same tiny section is cruel. Luckily LEE Meriwether is a good bit more famous than ILENE Graff, so I was able to recall her, but sheeeeesh, no.
- 40A: Stain (TINGE) — had the "T," wrote in TAINT. "Stain" implies something unwanted. TINGE does not. I see how this clue is defensible, but I don't have to like it.
- 26D: Arcade fixtures (COIN-OPS) — "ooh, mom, can I have a quarter for the COIN-OPS?" asked 1980-me after I'd been taken over by some weird pod people who were bad at approximating actual human language.
- 15A: Lovefest, literally (ORGY) — Not sure if the clue writer doesn't understand the meaning of "love" or doesn't understand the meaning of "literal."
- 1A: Kind of wine drinker who might remark "I'm getting hints of unripened banana" (SNOB) — and *this* clue makes me think the clue writer doesn't understand the meaning of "snob." There is (literally!) nothing snobby about this "remark." Aficionados are not snobs, per se. Get a grip.
- 51D: And the following: Abbr. (ET SEQ.) — if you're a constructor and you're ever wondering "is this 'Q' worth it?" check to see if it's in the answer ET SEQ., in which case, no it isn't.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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100 comments:
I thought 39D couldn’t possibly be GAS, since it’s literally the clue for 20A ... but I eventually reluctantly filled it in.
I am not, nor could I probably ever be, a NYTXW constructor. However, I literally thought “ICK” when I understood the theme, and wrote in the C for ICK, and the C for RACED. The revealer says SEVEN SEAS. It was very disappointing that the other 3 weren’t eliminated.
Still, there was an awful lot to enjoy, and appreciate in what was an otherwise fun solve— but it could have been perfect.
This was a kind of solve I love -- stop and go. A passel of gimmes mixed with a passel of can't-fill-in-yets. When driving in stop-and-go traffic, the "go" is the best part, but when doing crosswords, it's the stop, because of the superb feeling that comes with eventually filling in said stop.
So, while this very impressive extravaganza theme didn't help my delectable solve much (a few c's going in circles), it didn't detract from a terrific solve, as extravaganza themes sometimes do, and added a layer of wow to the glow that the solve gave. Thanks for all of this, Alex!
QUAY and NIAGARA added some water-related echo, but I especially liked the two oblique sea-related captain references:
* The nod to Ahab with the ALBINO Moby Dick, as the Pequod sailed in three of the seven seas.
* OMEN, which backwards is the captain of the Nautilus, in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
I confidently put in RACED for "Tore" at 9A. Then after I'd figured out the theme I went back and said, "No, it can't be RACED because all the C's should be in circles." And I didn't get (and still don't) ARE for "Art nouveau?" at 47A. So that left me with _ARANTENN_S for Moving targets for waves at 11D. Tried to parse it as sARAN TENNiS, which made about as much sense as ARE. Then I noticed ICK and IRENIC and that improved my RACE relations.
I liked how "wave" in 11D clue was not a SEA wave, but a radio wave targeting our CARANTENNAS so that we can use our PRESET(s) 33D.
@Conrad, I believe "art" is the old english way of saying "are" and the "nouveau" bit means it's the new version of that word, hence "are." The use of the French nouveau is weird in my mind since it seems to want to reference the old spelling/usage of "art" instead of "are" but I believe that's the explanation.
A bit of a slog, even though I filled in the “seas” right away. The SE took me the longest time. Very nice challenge.
*SIGH* Today’s @RP notes typify all that’s good and all that’s bad (IMO) about x-word commentary from OFL. He starts out gratuitously hating on the constructor (but that’s OK, right, because he’s a white male?), then at the end of a long first paragraph that is masterful in explicating the (IMO terrific) theme gives him a grudging thumbs up, then goes on in the rest of the review to find every imaginable reason to tear him down again, at the same time sticking it to the NYTXW guys for not being women and therefore not doing their jobs well enough. *SIGH*
I have to admit I found this rather challenging for a Wednesday (though not because of the clueing criticized by @Rex—tough answers were fairly crossed, no googling needed), and I didn’t see the seas’ names until I came here, mainly because they were in fact very nicely camouflaged. I’ll grant that the clues for CORAL and for the names LEE and ILENE could have been better, and it would have been nice to rid the puzzle of non-theme C’s, but still—I thought this was one of the best themes of the year so far. (I knew @Lewis would laud it to the skies!)
Getting back to the culture wars battlefield, I’m going to yield to the temptation to quote from comments I made here about 1 month ago: “… have to point out that 3 of the last 5, 4 of the last 8, 5 of the last 10, and 7 of the last 21 puzzles have been created by women (1 as a co-constructor), leading me to several more observations: This is good! WS and company deserve some praise, so way to go Will! As is typical, OFL, good culture warrior that he is, failed to comment, though I’m guessing he noticed. Finally, can we accept once and for all that the NYTXW is not biased against women, and probably not against other ‘marginalized’ groups of constructors or potential constructors, even when (as will inevitably happen) there are future weeks or even months that are disproportionately white male?”
I am astonished you did not ding this for the incorrect themed - there is no “CHINA Sea”! There is a “South China Sea”, and an “East China Sea”, but there is simply not a plain old China Sea.
Also Rex, you really ought to know the White Star Line, if only from its most infamous vessel, the RMS Titanic.
Wordplay explained it for me. Art as is the archaic verb "where art thou?"
Not easy for me. Somewhere between a normal Wednesday and a normal Friday.
Enjoyed things well enough for most of the solve, but things just kind of fell apart in the south. ESOS EMO ET SEQ EDU ORS. Oddly the worst fill is in an area that appears to have only modest pressure from the theme.
Uh, Rex - ever hear of a ship called the Titanic? White Star Line.
So you pick seven seas that have C's in them and then circle the C's? I've taken the Circle Line around Manhattan so I know my way around bodies of water, but I'm still clueless as to how this particular circular action is interesting. So there are 7 C's. Coolios! I C U there and feel a C-zure coming on. I'm feeling C sick. Gonna pray to the PORCELAIN God. Car Antennas? Rex is too kind.
Just got this: ART is the old fashioned form of ARE. So ARE is the new (nouveau) form of ART. Still groan worthy.
At Comerica Park in Detroit a batter can hit a ball really well, drive it 419’ to straight away centerfield, and be out. That’s this puzzle. Some of that “just missed” quality Rex referenced, but I keep looking at the seven circled C’s and thinking “that’s not how I make my “7.” I guess there are lots of fonts where 7’s have a curve to them, and sure, some people can’t draw a straight line, but it bugs me. And while others are irked by RACED ICK, that NICOISE C right in the middle of the seven C’s really strikes out.
COIN OPS are laundromats, so that arcade clue was a “huh?”
I think Rex missed the SNOBbish element of the clue at 1A. “Unripened banana” suggests a criticism, an unwanted aroma, and would only be said with an arched eyebrow and an implied “tsk tsk.” Besides, the line between SNOB and aficionado is precious nanometers thin.
Saw some C's, counted the number, and waited for the SEVENSEAS revealer, and there it was. What I didn't see was the number 7 formed by the circles. Someday I'll look at the grids to see what else is going on besides filling words in, but today is not that day. A double reveal, and the C's are in the seas, so I thought the whole thing was pretty nifty.
Hardest thing for me was trying to parse CARANTENNAS . Difficult to make that into a one-word answer. Easiest part was the Spanish stuff, although I sometimes look at "Sapnish queens" as a clue and wonder if they're after some random name. Looking at you, Anas.
Good Wednesday fun, AE-S, and I don't blame you for your race or gender.
I may have told this story before but I once won a wine tasting/rating contest at a party (bottles were wrapped for disguise) with a rather inexpensive wine picked up at a grocery store on the way to the party. The "aficionados", who had brought expensive wines, were slightly miffed.
Garment instead of RAIMENT for too long and agree with Rex on TINGE (clue confused me). That made the mid-Atlantic section tough. Didn't love it but not as annoyed as some solvers.
Fun theme. Clues which were not to hard but a bit deceptive, like spare part. Loved this puzzle.
I have never once EVER thought wine EVER smelled like a banana. I guess I'm no SNOB.
One day, I'll learn that CARIBBEAN doesn't have two "R's."
Did you notice that all the "C's" started or ended with the SEA except for Hugo BLACK? That bothered me but then I just read @Quasi and I'm all happy and laughing....
I liked the NICOISE RECIPE getting COOKED. I just saw a Gordon Ramsey Christmas thing where he made a salmon NICOISE and I'm still drooling.
I really liked that our @Rex started with "O god no" and ended with "I really liked this theme."
I knew fairly early that there was something fishy going on. The joke was on me, however, when I got to the revealer but had guessed May for 61D giving me Seven Seam?! Of course that was easily corrected but it made me laugh at myself.
I noticed the extra Cs and knew Rex would not like them but I didn't let it bother me. I thought this was good fun and just tough enough to make me think. Car antennas was hard for me to parse Like @ pabloinnh said but a cool answer.
I agree with Rex!
A lot of these clues could have been about jewelry or shopping, or even about more current soap opera actresses. These make the puzzle easier and a woman constructor would have known this.
Fifty year old white men are the worst! Boo NYTX!
Nah, if Rex doesn't know about it, then it is obviously impossible obscure and does not belong in a crossword puzzle.
I think the hostile locales clues are way off the map. To me, a locale is where the hospital sits geographically - in the city, in the burbs, near a battlefield, etc. The departments - e.g the OR, ICU - are inside the hospital.
Let’s test it. Would anyone ever say - how many locales does this hospital have?
I could be wrong. Just doesn’t feel that way.
Not great. Grokked the C/sea theme immediately upon entering CARIBBEAN, but the SEVEN thing was a nice surprise. However, far more annoyed me than pleased me. IRENIC and ETSEQ are hilariously bad. I feel like people say Penn, not UPENN. ESOS, ANA, ORS, OER and DEL -- ICK!
Mistakes included laBOred at 5D and Taint at 40A, but those are my fault, not the puzzle's.
Art nouveau for ARE gave me my only smile. That's quite good.
I write my 7s with a horizontal line through them, like the Euros often do. So I guess I'm that SORT of SNOB.
I would submit that there should be an abbreviation in the clue for 26D (COIN OPS). It may be technically defensible based on common usage, but it seems like shoddy editing to me.
I agree that TINGE is also mis-clued, which is unfortunate since It would probably take a nano (oh, ok - a mili) second to come up with a Wednesday-appropriate clue.
Today’s Dark Matter entry is ESOS, which I’m guessing may be some form of crosswordese that more experienced solvers are used to by now. However, as clued it is beyond esoteric and discernible only via the crosses.
Overall, a very enjoyable Wednesday offering, congrats to the constructor.
When you start with a 1A clue that I absolutely love -- the wonderful clue for SNOB, and I actually know someone like that! -- you put me in a mood to love the puzzle. And then I realize later on that I don't love the puzzle. Because I sort of think that you can't have "C"s that are circled when you also have "C"s that aren't circled. It's arbitrary and it annoyed me.
And, while I had no attention of connecting any circled letters -- not in a punny way, not in any way since I don't/won't do grid art -- I was so focused on this as the "trick" that I completely failed to notice CARIBBEAN, CORAL, ADRIATIC, BALTIC, et al until the entire puzzle was filled in. The fact that they're clued in such an oblique way that you don't notice -- or at least someone as unobservant as I didn't -- is definitely a plus. So a mixed bag for me. If the constructor had managed to get rid of all the uncircled "C"s, it would have been a much better puzzle.
As for difficulty: Very easy except for my one write-over section, where I had garMENT instead of RAIMENT. This slowed me down a lot in the SE -- especially since it was next to the outstanding TEN PIN clue which I couldn't initially figure out.
I agree that it would be nice to see more puzzles constructed by women, but I am curious about the statistics. That is, what percentage of all puzzle submissions are constructed by women? If 14% of the puzzles are constructed by women then a selection rate of 14% would be expected. I suspect the submission rate is higher than 14% but I'd like to see it quantified.
Still laughing about Rex's comment on "Lovefest, literally" = ORGY
This puzzle has definitely brought out my inner Rex. I picked up on the theme very early and thought (hoped) that only the seven circled Cs would appear in the puzzle. Alas …
Then it took me forever to realize 45D (Altered dishonestly) was not COrKED (as in a “corked” baseball bat).
OTOH - If I am ABEL to be in an ORGY it will ELATE me.
Correction. The Adriatic was not an SS. It was RMS Adriatic – RMS for Royal Mail Ship.
Good cluing for TENPIN, RAIMENT & ART.
Both of my parents were born and raised in Philadelphia. My father went to the University of Pennsylvania (as did Donald J, Trump, btw). No one ever refers to it as UPENN. It is Penn, with La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Temple and Villanova which comprise the Big 5.
There is a mistake in the clue for 23A - they are referring to The Big Four of the White Star Line, one of which was the RMS ADRIATIC (along with the Celtic, Cedric and Baltic).
@Hawk - You’re right, but also you’re wrong.
@Vanhalkweg - Ditto. “a place or locality especially when viewed in relation to a particular event or characteristic.” From Merriam-Webster online.
@Bruce R - If submissions by women were 14% then it would be clear evidence of systemic sexism at the NYTX. Unless you believe ovaries somehow impair one’s ability or desire to make and submit crossword puzzles.
@webwinger -Wow. Cherry pick facts much? Here’s the data for this year. Except for the change at USA Today, these numbers are roughly consistent with recent history. BTW - I’m not the one tracking the data, Rex shared this before. I don’t know either of the people doing the daily updating.
Seems to me that 61 down should be MAY not SAY. can anyone explain this?
@Hawk the 1871 SS Adriatic was the flagship of the White Star Line. The second ship of the same name (RMS Adriatic) launched in 1906 but was never the flagship of the line.
@Rex they say ignorance is bliss, but you seem constantly pretty angry about it.
Wonderful!
AES is an excellent constructer and could have replaced the other Cs, but the quality of the fill would probably have suffered. Prettying up the grid is not a good tradeoff for me.
Sparkly. Fifteen red plus signs in the margins, high for a Wednesday.
Excellent analogy by Z (7:23) but I think that it cleared the fence.
I learned the explanation for the clue of ART here. Great or terrible?
Great clue for CARANTENNAS. Also, I love saying “blini.”
Also enjoyed seeing COOKED. “They cooked the books.” Great expression.
I’m with Rex 100% today. Liked the first SEVEN SEAS, but those other C entries were ICK on my NICOISE! 11 down has to be the worst clue of this young decade.
Hey All !
Had RAgED and IRENIk because I really didn't want to "C" extra C's. ICK. Already had ICU/ICK in the middle, but somehow the ole brain elided over that. I ended up with gARANTENNiS for CARANTENNAS, wondering what in tarhooties gArAN TENNiS was. Figured a bunch of y'all would say, "I just played gARAN TENNiS yesterday!"
So a DNF/FWE in those three spots.
I did like the theme for the gumption. Names of SEVEN SEAS in SeVEN C's in a grid art SEVEN. Clean up your extraneous L's (and maybe try different SW words) and this puz would've sung. That concludes my SNIPES AT this puz.
TEN PIN got a "Oohh, nice one!" once I cottoned on to it. Devious, that. ALBINO weirdly clued. While technically correct, it just seems off to me. GNU again. From seeming obscurity to twice in a week!
COOKED my RECIPE with LARD
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Z
Z wrote:
"@Bruce R - If submissions by women were 14% then it would be clear evidence of systemic sexism at the NYTX. Unless you believe ovaries somehow impair one’s ability or desire to make and submit crossword puzzles."
I don't follow. If the submission rate for women is 14% and the selection rate is 14% then that would be evidence that there is no bias.
@Tina (9:59). I also had mAY, til I saw the across clue, but try this out: replace PERHAPS in this sentence:
Let’s have lunch sometime; PERHAPS next Tuesday? SAY works, but mAY doesn’t.
I also originally thought 11 D CARANTENNAS was one word, probably Spanish, until the light went on. Is that a reverse DOOK?
Anyway, I thought it ironic that @pabloinnh had the same problem. (SusieQ, I don't know if you're fluent in Spanish).
OK, full disclosure -- I didn't notice that the Cs were in actual sea names until I read Rex; that made my appreciation go up considerably. But yeah, the random extra Cs were a serious fault. Also, if you're going to use paired clues that are very similar to each other, you should do it the way it's done with 5A and 9A, drawing on different meanings of the clue word -- NOT the way it's done with 31D and 44A, two different hospital areas known by an initialism. For example, you could draw on the ambiguity of "locale" -- place where the hospital is, or place within the hospital? -- and make one of the answers be something like MEDICAL CAMPUS. (I'm not claiming that's good, just an illustration -- I'm a critical solver, not a constructor.)
Still, there's RAIMENT, a beautiful word and a strong plus. So overall, a good puzzle with a very strong theme.
Now to read the comments and find out I'm just repeating others' points.
An absolutely delightful and fun puzzle.
“She shall be brought before the King in RAIMENT of needlework.
The Virgins who follow her shall bear her company.”
This from an anthem by Henry Purcell I sang long ago.
It is the first and only time I have used, or perhaps even saw, this word.
So now we have to know French, Spanish, Greek, and Lao to solve an ENGLISH x-word....7 foreign language clues. SERIOUSLY??
And I may just be stupid, but never heard of "irenic", never eaten or seen a "blini", and if you said "etseq" to me I would ask if you choked on something.
Also, I should probably work on my knowledge of ships from 1904... What about Raiment? So silly that I had "ment" and filled in Garment for Clued 'clothing'. Yeah that was fun to sort out. Looked up the word and even Google says it's arcahic. Did Meleska some how come back to life and edit this puzzle? So much crap in this puzzle I hardly noticed the 7 clues that are straight up people's names. One of which was some Poet born in 1892 and wrote using a different name! Yep, should have known that one. It's right here in my leather bound book of 19th century feminist poetry.
UGH!
Oh....I DNFed HARD. Lol
Hoo Boy. Did OFL actually write "Hoo Boy"?
Very easy sail through the C's. Felt more like a Tuesday. Clever concept.
Rex never heard of the White Star line whose most famous ship was the Titanic. His depth of ignorance is amazing. Cannot understand his ability to ace puzzles. Perhaps general knowledge is overrated.
Overall I found this to be absolutely delightful with a delicious aha moment at the revealer. Then to see that the Cs are lined up in the form of the number seven was a brilliant spot of icing on the cake. I did have a little trouble here and there, but the fact that I had to work for it made it all the more satisfying, The clue for 11D was brutal. I was actually looking up CARANTENNAS as a word in the dictionary before I finally got it.
RP’s review seemed a little TINGEd with personal bias, but I do agree on a couple of the things he SNIPESAT. Seems to me orgy would be a sexfest, not a lovefest, although I don’t have any actual first hand knowledge. Also thought COINOPS was weird. As @Z said, laundromat might have been a more applicable clue than arcade. However, I find it hard to believe anyone alive in the 90s could ever forget Leonardo DiCaprio‘s dying threat to the White Star Line as he slowly faded into oblivion. If only they had sunk in the CARIBBEAN Sea, he might have survived. I still haven’t forgiven Kate Winslet for hogging the raft.
@Tina re 61D: We should get together for lunch, say [perhaps] Friday?
@Terry 8:36 – lol
I thought this was fun. I grew to like the extra Cs. I reimagined the puzzle as a trivia question: Which of these are not real names of seas?
1. The Adriatic Sea
2. The Baltic Sea
3. The Black Sea
4. The Sea Of Carantennas
5. The Caribbean Sea
6. The Caspian Sea
7. The Coral Sea
8. The China Sea
9. The Içu Sea
10. The Sea Of Niçoise
11. The Sà Sà Señor
The answer is 4, 9 and 10, of course, since their C's are not circled. 11 doesn't even have a C. (It has been pointed out above that there isn't actually a mere China Sea, but we'll just ignore that.)
I figured for sure Rex would post a link to "Sweet Dreams" by Eurythmics, so I chose something else.
Question of the day: Can someone hijack his own blog?
I suppose not, but here's the problem. I inferred from the comment section that Rex had had the same objection to the uncircled "C"s that I did. I also gathered that [oh no, yet again] he was on his How Many Women does Will Shortz choose to publish and how many does he ignore? soapbox. In order to read the former, I knew I would have to at least catch a glimpse of the latter.
Look, Rex -- I'm a female constructor. Admittedly, I'm working with a very talented and successful male constructor, but still: A very, very high ratio of NYT acceptance that includes two puzzles already published and two puzzles in the queue. Would you please stop your self-righteous and condescending whining on the behalf of women. We are perfectly capable of advocating for ourselves should it prove necessary. I don't think it's at all necessary and I don't think the criticism is remotely fair or accurate. But any women who do think it is can jump on the soapbox themselves, should they choose. In the meantime, your "I care so, so deeply about the trials and tribulations of female constructors and how put upon and unfairly treated they are" has been beaten to death day after day, month after month -- for what seems like years now. Is it ever, ever going to stop?
I don't get 11 down ?????
I agree with Rex especially about this constructor's "self indulgent puzzles" - I'm always tempted to wait out his puzzles until the next day.
Did anyone else get 1/23/20 puzzle in Today's Times Digest?
Philly Cheesesteak,
Give up. U Penn is here to stay. It's awful. The absolute pits! But take heart. There is one redeeming quality to the usage and it's this: anyone who employs it is instantly marked as an ignoramus. The older I get, the more useful markers like that are.
Hurrah for the Red and the Blue.
Col. `88
Now that I've read the comments -- I got ARE from crosses without noticing it; then when I learned that it was clued as Art nouveau, I really liked it -- only, on reflection, it isn't really correct. ART is not the old-fashioned way of saying ARE, it's the form of the verb that goes with the second person singular, which was used for close friends, children, and servants. So if you go back to Shakespeare (or talk to a Quaker) you will never find "You art..." Since contemporary English has dropped the second person familiar in favor of calling everyone 'you,' it dropped 'art' by necessity. But if you call someone 'thou,' you're going to have to use ART with it.
Question to ponder: English got rid of the class distinction by using the respectul "you" for everyone, whiled French and Italian did the same thing by using the familiar form for everyone. Explain why.
"Stain" does not have to imply something negative -- my previous house had a deck that had to be stained every few years to preserve the wood. TINGE works for that sense. OTOH, sometimes TINGE is negative.
@Bruce R. -- I think Z's point is that the editor of the world's best puzzle probably doesn't just sit in his office waiting to see what comes over the transom. Ideally, he or she should be out there recruiting the best of the up-and-coming constructor generation to submit. That would mean, among other things, getting more submissions from women.
jb 129
CAR ANTENNA (a moving car picks up radio waves).
I thought that there was no way that "irenic" could possibly be right because f the theme. Other than that, I really like this puzzle.
I wonder if "Philly Ivy" is sort of a reference to poker player Phil Ivey. Probably not, but... whatever.
@jf66, I thought CARANTENNAS was one word too! Glad it wasn't just me. :)
Nancy,
But Rex is a feminist!! Stop picking on him.
Loved the (mostly) impressive theme and sharp cluing along the way.
However, despite C-ing the theme early on, instead of cruising along I found it rough-going.
Just couldn't conceive the non-theme Cs could be correct--especially the niCoise one, toothpicked as it was amidst the others.
And thanks, Rex, for the note Re: "snob." I appreciate that the clue tries to make the claim outlandish, and refers in particular to the familiar "wine snob" label, but being informed/aware in a specialty area, no matter what it is, is not snobbery.
Snobbery is a posture where one--without being informed--automatically condescends. Thus, to use snob accurately, a better clue would be:
[Kind of wine drinker who might remark "You like a bottle that costs $12? That's ripe! In fact, that's bananas!]
Chuckle of the day: comment by @Nancy. Such passion! You go, girl!
OMG, I wonder if OFL is feeling Black n’ Blue from the good old fashioned whupping that @Nancy put on him this morning. You go girl! To quote another Eurythmics song, “Sisters are doing it for themselves!”.
@Anon 10:57 - I’m with you when I see all of the foreign stuff and material that is ancient but not really “history” in the sense that anyone cares about it - Plato, Euclid, Galileo, Yes. Some first century Greek senator or Roman emperor that nobody has heard of - No! Ditto with Roman Numerals and something like ESOS - yes, It probably is a word that means something in some country somewhere - Who Cares ?
Today for example, we have a quadruple PPP stack (is that the right term for four consecutive rows?) in the west:
ADRIATIC
LEE
BALTIC
ILENE
Many who post here will argue (with some justification):that part of the fun is attempting to piece together the solution(s) via the crosses and perhaps some educated guesses. The danger is that, when this type of approach is overdone (as it was with one of the puzzles last weekend) the puzzle becomes in effect unsolvable. As ith many things in life, striking the proper balance is key.
@Nancy at 11:14 - I wholeheartedly endorse your rant at the never ending carping over the number of women constructors. I came very close to mentioning it myself today because I find it as tiresome as you do, but you expressed it far more eloquently than I ever could. Plus being an actual constructor who has actually been published in the NYT and who happens to be a woman, you have the street cred to back it up. Thanks for saying what needed to be said.
Although I regret prolonging what seems to be an idiotic argument (but hey, @Rex started it!)—and my intention in the previous post was specifically to end this caviling—I have to point out some things about @Z’s (9:58) spreadsheet: It shows for the current month an overall percentage of 26% women constructors across 13 puzzle platforms. If USA Today (with 73% women, strongly suggesting bias in their favor) and Inkubator (restricted to women constructors) are omitted, the overall percentage is 14%, exactly the same as the NYTXW. My numbers from December (webwinger 7:05) showing more than 30% women in the Times were assembled on a random day from a similarly sized sample of puzzles (though prompted by the casual observation of numerous recent female constructors). Five of Z’s 13 sources were @25% or more women for January. Obviously neither of us can make a claim of statistical significance. But neither can Z or Rex justify the smug barbs they fling.
Unquestionably there are many superb constructors who are women, including a number of my favorites. But that is not inconsistent with the possibility that being a woman (and what kind of troglodyte equates that with having ovaries anymore, Z?) makes one less likely to aspire to success as a constructor or to have a particular talent for it. And it’s hard for me to believe there are women out there now making great puzzles who haven’t thought to submit them to the NYT, or hesitated because of presumed bias against them (though maybe some are working with USA Today or Inkubator because they correctly expect preferential treatment). Anyhow, it’s not as though society bestows its material rewards disproportionately to this area of human endeavor…
After composing the above I read @Nancy’s 11:14 post: Touche!
This puz has © ORAL. I thought it was a superb theme idea and execution. A few bits of desperation scattered about, but hey -- this puppy had eight themers (gotta count that revealer) and a ton of constraints.
scenic fillins included: RECIPE. COINOPS. HUSKS. ROBOTIC [crossin 3 themers]. CARANTENNAS [cool clue -- with antennas gettin chased by radio waves]. NICOISE [but not copyrighted, and blatantly so, within the 7-pattern].
staff weeject news: Picks of the day are SAC [copyrighted] & ICK [not copyrighted]. ARE gets honorable mention due to it's funny whatfor art thou up to clue. Primo weeject stacks in the NW & SE, too boot.
Admired that the circled C-spots had a variety of positions in the sea-themers. Nice extra touch, even tho it probably may have occurred by necessity.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. E-S. Unlike @RP, M&A does not cringe, when he sees U a-comin. Just keep avoidin PEWIT in yer fills, and yer puzs will be more than C-worthy by m&e.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
@Philly Cheesesteak:
the University of Pennsylvania (as did Donald J, Trump, btw).
No, in fact that's not true. The Orange Julius only went for 2 years. He couldn't get in (lousy grades? lousy SATs?), so had to wait for his brother's true bro to get him a transfer from that commuter school in NYC after his first 2 years. As always, a half-wit. :)
But, yeah, it's only ever called PENN. But not the first puzzle to add the U out of necessity.
Rex we print out from the Times digest every day and we have a puzzle by Barbara Lin today! Crazy!
Easy-medium. Very clever and delightful. It did take me a couple of minutes of staring post solve to grok all of what was going on. AES went into some detail at Xwordinfo about the constraints involved in creating this one, but he does not mention the extra Cs. Liked it a bunch.
Oh yea - I love the way @Nancy kicked some ivory tower, academic elitist behind! It’s Rex’s blog and of course he can write whatever he wants, but it is great to see someone with the bonafides to back it up actually state with such clarity and elegance what many of us have been saying (not as eloquently) for some time now. Good job by you, Ms. Nancy!
Now can anyone address the constant carping about the NRA, any member of Trump’s family or cabinet, corrupt leaders of third world countries, almost any member of the republican party, archaic terms that may be (if one tries hard enough) viewed as sexist, racist, triggering, non-pc, non-woke . . .
As a non-gamer, I can't keep up with what consoles are used for which games - I was sure Mario was found on NES (through crosswordese) but today, it's WII? (Yes, I Googled it, post-solve, and I see how things have changed, but still...)
That entry slowed me down on the east side - I agree with Rex's take on TINGE ≠ Stain - and with CARAN going down at 11D, I had a few moments of panic. Seeing WEAR and filling in T__G_ finally untangled my brain enough to catch the nice CAR ANTENNAS clue. But as for 37D, WII are not amused.
Not taking the clue for 15A too seriously, I had fun splatzing in ORGY. COIN OPS, I'll agree with @Z - only laundromats come to mind for me. I've been working for 30 years at a company that supports the laundry and drycleaning industry; there is a magazine solely devoted to COIN-OPS and their doings.
I'm not usually on AES's wavelength, but I enjoyed today's puzzle very much.
Hot damn, Nancy! You rocked that. I, too, am tired of having Rex think we chickies need a daddy to take care of us. I'm also a bit tired of hearing that stuff he doesn't know is unfair. I still read him but may take a play from your book and skip right to the bloggers. Much more fun.
i caught the Cs, the seas themselves, and the revealer. Also noticed the extraneous Cs; those were a shame. Missed, not surprisingly given my crossword myopia, the numeral seven. I absolutely loved CARANTENNAS, and was pretty pleased with myself that I got BLINI off the B. Is the singular BLINa?
We had a neighbor's horse come visit this morning so this is a good day. Not so good for the neighbor having said horse go on a walkabout, but my dogs were delirious with joy. Better than the deer!
@JC66
Re CARANTENNAS-I'm fluent enough and almost tried to make this into some weird word I'd never seen, Didn't work. Here's a pro Spanish spelling tip-no double N's. If you have an N sound, you only need one, which is just one of the ways Spanish is far more logical than English, especially in terms of orthography.
@Nancy, well said, and amen.
Started in the NW. Thought for sure it was going to be a B puzzle with 5 of 6 B's popping upthere. But, no, a C puzzle. I'd give it at least a B+. Did not mind the uncircled Cs a bit. Yes would have been neat to have no other Cs, but then no circles needed. No 7 likely to be noticed. No theme obvious. Lewis would probably spot the seven seas with 7 Cs forming a seven, but who else? It also would have been neat if the ICU ICK cross were in the dead center of the puzzle suggesting an 8th sea. Then the cross really would make more of you there C sick.
Liked NICOISE CARANTENNA RAIMENT QUAY (worth the ETSEQ, Rex) ALBINO and more. The crosses did OK on the stuff I did not know but took some effort for a Wednesday.
I think people complaining about the extraneous Cs are sort of missing the point -- in my reading, it's a nod to the fact that, despite the common idiom being "the seven seas," there are more than seven seas in the world. Similarly, there are more than seven Cs in this puzzle. It works pretty well from that perspective.
Also, Rex telling someone else to "get a grip" was one of the better laughs I've had today
I thought this one was terrific and am still smiling at the constructor’s ability to hide (from me) SEVEN SEAS in plain sight. I needed the reveal to light up CARIBBEAN, CORAL, CHINA, CASPIAN, and BLACK and to help me get BALTIC and ADRIATIC. I’d seen that the Cs formed a 7, and for a moment had thought that the reveal was a pun on ”SEVEN cees” - what a delight to then discover the actual bodies of water. A bit of a letdown to then come to the blog and have those extra Cs pointed out....alas.
@Joe 6:59 and those who followed - Thank you for the “art” explanation. That one totally eluded me.
@Commenters re: White Star Line - One of the reasons I love reading comments is finding out that I’m not so smart after all, as in being sure that “S.S. Adriatic” couldn’t be right, would have to be “R.M.S.”
@Nancy....Nah...it's not gonna stop. I think it's cute. You know, the tall white prince coming to the damsel in distress rescue. We're helpless...just like Snow White was. We need the kiss on our pearly red white lips - otherwise we will melt like the wicked witch.
Thank you all ye powerful, handsome, rich, white men for coming to our rescue. Especially you beer drinking ones.
See you at the bar, @Nancy. Drinks on me. :-)
waiting for @Z to mansplain away Rex's actions.....
@Nancy - First, you aren't really a constructor. By your own admission, you came up with two decent themes then teamed up with Will Nediger, who actually constructed the puzzles, filled the grid, went through the back and forth to get it published. You had a man do that. You've said here that you never could really construct a puzzle. You can't pick the color to paint the house, have a guy actually paint the house, then call yourself a house painter.
Second, how on earth is it inappropriate for a man to advocate for women? For a white to advocate for people of color? For cisgendered heterosexuals to advocate for the queer? It's just advocating for justice. You got a problem with that? Think of all the rights you have now that your grandmother never had. Men helped with that. You would have gotten absolutely none of that without men helping in the fight. You don't owe them anything, women deserved it all along, but you wouldn't have gotten it if men hadn't joined the fight.
My youngest was obsessed with the Titantic when he was five years old, so after I stopped being miffed that it didn't fit, I figured out what might fit instead. Did not notice that all the circled C's were in real seas. (Minus quibble about China.) Pretty cool.
I was singing this after doing this after doing the puzzle.
sweet dreams
I guessed right on how to spell CARIBBEAN, but thought it was Niagra and so wrote Newyork instead. Ooops.
COINOPS are definitely laundromats not arcades.
I use UPENN on message board to make sure people are clear that I'm not talking about Penn State.
Wow! @Nancy, @GILL, and others. Defensive much? Your sensitivity to @Rex speaks volumes. Your level of hostility is remarkable.
COINOPS “art nouveau” laundromats!
I gotta thank Rex for making me LOL (literally) with his comment about COIN-OPS. Hilarious. Plus, his comment about ORGY is spot-on and echoes what I wrote in my own notes about the puzzle afterward.
Thanks
Rex, Snob of CrossWorld: White Star Line??!? Ever heard of the RMS Titanic? Didn’t think so.
@Larry. OK, let me add to your story...@Nancy can defend herself just fine. Here's my take: I think what @Rex is doing to get Will - et at - to promote as many women constructors as possible, is admirable. @Rex does a fine job of pushing for the NYT to publish more women, but his crusade goes so far as to sound like we women need to be rescued. Of course there is nothing wrong for any man to advocate for women. As a matter of fact, I find it wonderful and wouldn't ever want it to stop. Here's my problem....@Rex comes across as acting like we are poor little innocents who need his help 24/7. He's made his point and I agree with him. When he tends to go on (ad nauseam) about how women are left out in the cold, I get a little queasy. This is 2020 and yes, we've come a long way. Many men have had our backs...they are the ones that I would drink a martini with every night of the week. He's made his point; it's a good one - but I don't need you to help me put my panty hose on anymore. And please....stop with the white guy bashing....that, too, get's old.
Peace, baby.
Thanks to everyone who answer my question about 11 down - I would never have gotten "Car Antennas" as easy as it was.
Male vs. female - who cares? If the puzzle is good, it's good.
Nancy, I've enjoyed your puzzles & I also enjoy Robyn Weintraub. As for Alex Eaton ??????????????????? you can get the gist.
I've always been bemused by the assertion of '7' seas, since, unlike continents, all of the seas and oceans exist from arbitrary decisions while the actual body of water is one contiguous plot. Yes, I guess it's helpful to put differing names to differing locales, but, again, arbitrary. And the big ones are called OCEAN, anyway.
@Larry
You are without a doubt the worst $hithead ever to post.
@Nancy
Great comment.
@GILL I
Your response to @Larry was excellent.
BobL,
Second worst. Z is still the first.
@Larry -- The term "co-constructors" is how the professionals in the world of crosswords tend to refer to people who collaborate on a puzzle, but I'm willing to concede your argument that the "constructing" element of the process is mostly defined by the construction of a grid. Therefore, I'm perfectly happy to refer to myself as a "co-creator." It's more precise. Is that OK by you, Larry?
I do wish I could show you the emails that have gone back and forth between my collaborator and me on all the puzzles we've done -- the ones that have already appeared and the ones that are yet to appear. You would see that I don't come up with some vague theme and then "leave it to him" to do everything else. Far from it. In "Black Hat", for example, I conceived both the concept and the layout of the puzzle and clued all the theme answers. Will changed one of those four theme answers. After agreeing on the final group of answers, Will then created a grid to incorporate them. He was able to use the layout I had suggested within the grid he created, and it was a beautiful grid with no compromises. This could not have been easy.
And then, with all the rest of the fill having been established, I did considerably more than half of the cluing of the rest of the puzzle myself. I sent the clues to Will with the message: "If you come up with a better clue than mine, feel free to change it." Remarkably, he changed very little.
Without a collaborator as talented as Will -- someone who can work within the confines of a theme that makes building a grid around it quite challenging, there would be no "Black Hat" puzzle. But I also have to say that without my original concept of a "Black Hat" puzzle, there also would be no "Black Hat" puzzle. If you see what I mean. To say that "I picked the color and then let him paint the house" negates the importance and rarity of a really good idea. If you think coming up with good ideas is so easy, you do it, Larry. Come up with something good enough and innovative enough that a top puzzle pro will want to collaborate with you. Then we'll talk.
To everyone else today who wrote nice and encouraging things -- thanks so much!!
Amen @Nancy. Well said, both places.
I hate to brag, but I got ADRIATIC on the first I. But that's because I used to read/know enough to guess that White Star based on obscure knowledge in reading the history o the Titanic so many years ago.
Thought the theme was great until realizing there were 3 extra Cs outside themes.
Yeah, the extraneous C's detract, still the theme was a decidedly ambitious undertaking to attempt, and for that we have to give credit. Correct, also, that there is no just plain CHINA Sea.
I don't want to be one who SNIPESAT constructors, but UPENN just grates. UMASS, UCONN, sure. UPENN? No, just NO. That dog don't hunt. And please don't remind me that His Orangeness ever got within shouting distance of that school. Or any school, for that matter.
Some twisty clues, and the way-not-Wednesday IRENIC, made for a harder-than-average solve; SAY medium-challenging. CARANTENNAS, a premier long down sadly beginning with a non-theme C, was tough to parse. DOD Shannon TWEED Simmons is ABEL to ELATE. Par.
Wow. Bad day for OFL - exposing his wine snobbery, and having the mantle of "Protector of the Little Woman" stripped off.
WEAR BLACK
To the ORGY we RACED,
INEVER ever SAY, “Wait!”
EDNA’s RAIMENT unlaced
to RELEASE my play DATE.
--- ILENE ANA TWEED
No, not easy, but gettable with a little effort.
The layered theme was the best part: Revealer SEVENSEAS, the seven circled Cees, and the big hand-drawn 7 connecting the Cees and the SEAS. Some depth here, I'd have to SAY.
TENPIN is cleverly clued, CARANTENNAS took time to see, and ETSEQ and QUAY were finally pinned down by the shared Q. NICOISE was a true outlier.
Glad to get this gem of a puzzle from AE-S.
I’ve dipped my toes in 3 of those SEVENSEAS. Maybe I need to shoot for more? I did think a bit about those extra Cees, but still a pretty good gimmick.
Since @spacey already named Shannon TWEED, I’ll call for Lana DEL Ray. But any former Miss America, who also played Catwoman, should be automatic, like LEE Meriwether. Yeah baby.
I again was ABEL to finish with no write-over, so OK.
Ha ha ha ha ha on me.
I put mAY instead of SAY for 61D. It "may" happen could be "perhaps."
And I've been trying to wrap my mind around what's so punny, or funny, about SEVEN SEAm. Do you find this particular seam on a shirt? Pants? Gold mine? Huh?
Oh. SEAS. A DNF.
Diana Rosannadanna, or Miss Emily Latella - never mind!
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