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Canadian hockey great Eric / SAT 1-18-20 / Relative of slate / Indicator of interest on Match.com / Self-described bluesologist Scott-Heron / Old World grazer / Opening for Mughal masterwork / So-called African unicorns
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Constructor: Ryan McCarty
Relative difficulty: Easy to Easy-Medium (untimed)
Word of the Day: HALOGEN (6D: Chlorine, for one) —
The halogens (/ˈhælədʒən, ˈheɪ-, -loʊ-, -ˌdʒɛn/[1][2][3]) are a group in the periodic table consisting of five chemically related elements: fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), bromine (Br), iodine (I), and astatine (At). The artificially created element 117 tennessine, Ts may also be a halogen. In the modern IUPACnomenclature, this group is known as group 17.The name "halogen" means "salt-producing". When halogens react with metals they produce a wide range of salts, including calcium fluoride, sodium chloride (common table salt), silver bromide and potassium iodide.The group of halogens is the only periodic table group that contains elements in three of the main states of matter at standard temperature and pressure. All of the halogens form acids when bonded to hydrogen. Most halogens are typically produced from minerals or salts. The middle halogens, that is chlorine, bromine and iodine, are often used as disinfectants. Organobromides are the most important class of flame retardants, while elemental halogens are dangerous and can be lethally toxic. (wikipedia)
• • •
[30D: R&B/soul singer with the 1981 hit album "Breakin' Away"]
I really hope you know a lot about hockey, or a little about '80s soul, because I can see that LINDROS / JARREAU crossing absolutely eating some people alive, especially younger non-hockey fans. I'm not sure that "R" cross is inferrable. I lived in Michigan for eight years, where you pick up *some* knowledge of hockey merely by osmosis; LINDROS is a name I've definitely heard before (43A: Canadian hockey great Eric), but I couldn't put the latter part of it together without the crosses. Thanks, Al!!! The word SUDSED and its different forms (SUDSES) will never not make me laugh at its stupidity, and I think this is the second time we've seen it in a themeless this year. Not a big fan of crossing UP with UP in the SE. I would totally SUDS ... SUDSE? ... that part of the grid if I could. But it's a tiny matter. Literally. Three squares total. Tiny.
I thought the so-called African unicorns were RHINOS because of course I did. Though ... do they have two horns? Oh, they do, but it's really that main fore-horn that you notice. Thankfully, GIL Scott-Heron (my first answer in the grid) (24A: Self-described "bluesologist" ___ Scott-Heron) gave me the "I" I needed for OKAPIS. I though chlorine was a HALO GAS at first because I am so good at science stuff. Wrote in WAVE at 9A: Indicator of interest on Match.com because that seemed kinda sweet, but then it ended up being WINK and I literally cringed, ew, go back to waving, please! You know who WINKs suggestively at you before they really know you—probably BADDATES, that's who (35D: "Emergency calls" may save you from them) (nice clue; nice use of scare quotes). There'll be time enough for winking! Slow your roll, Match.
Muffed the IRMA / Erma thing because that's what I do (Pretty sure I confused her with ERMA Franklin, Aretha's sister). Got mad at and am still mad at BLUESTONE for being very very dubious in regards to its status as a thing (35A: Relative of slate). Blue gray, steel gray, slate, OK, but BLUESTONE ... sounds like a creamery. I'm sure it "exists," in that the color spectrum is infinitely divisible and you can call any part of it any damn thing you want, but I've never seen anything described as BLUESTONE in my life. I enjoy the BLUES TONE of GIL Scott-Heron, I do not enjoy the BLUE STONE of alleged color. [UPDATE: LOL it's an actual stone, not a color at all. OK then! My bad!] I also enjoy all the music (not just GIL but Al and ERMA as well), and I enjoy vibrant phrases like POP A WHEELIE and "I'VE MOVED ON" (man, there is a whole bad-date story arc in this puzzle). Enjoyed the mild misdirection of 9D: Leisure activity for which you need glasses (WINE TASTING). And mostly enjoyed having very few occasions to shout "No!" at the grid. Thumbs up.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. 37A: Opening for a Mughal masterwork is TAJ because it's the opening (eh! eh!) word in TAJ MAHAL.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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99 comments:
Bluestone is a stone not a color.
The west campus of Duke University is composed of Duke BLUESTONE. I was told that the west campus, that everyone sees on tv, was modeled after Princeton University. It was too expensive to transport the same stone used up north, and so Bluestone from a local quarry was used instead to create that classic gothic architecture. I’m not sure, but that may have lead to their team being the Blue Devils.
I lived in Park Slope in the late '80s, early '90s, and bluestone was what everyone called the slate sidewalks.
Satisfying Saturday. I took Bluestone to be a type of rock, not a color, since slate is a type of rock or stone. Never heard of this "bluesologist" fella.
I would have finished this puzzle five minutes earlier if I wasn't absolutely sure the Dalmatian clue referred to a COAST. I had IONA Thomas forever too. And Sidewalk Set. Luckily COBS saved the day as I saw a similar clue in another puzzle recently even if I rarely see corn these days at barbecues.
Some good comments yesterday regarding trivia and limits of knowledge. Looking forward to today's.
Oh, @Rex....You're reading too much into a WINK. I love WINKS - think of sexy, debonair, suave, Cary Grant or Humphrey Bogart, just giving you that special look. Maybe you have to be a woman?
So..yeah...the ALJARREAU/LINDROS killed me. My only Google. Damn - and I was doing so well.
I SLID INTO SLIP SHOD faster than a winner winner chicken dinner. Nothing was stopping me up in the northern parts. Then you have to hand me two names that got me good. Regardless, I loved this. fun to see LAVA LAKE thumbing its warmth at ICE PALACES. Thinking of LACE DOILES and hoping that I never have to sit down to a dinner that has one displayed. Martha Stewart would never approve.
WINE TASTING was my favorite. So wanted CUT A RUG for that dance move...Do I need to find another DAD joke for @Quasi?
GIL/GILA...Over and out.
Bluestone and slate are building materials. I have a bluestone patio.
Well, wow. Novel-looking grid peppered with a host of gorgeous answers and clever gotcha clues. Merely 64 words, and where is the junk? Nowhere! This is a product of skill and talent, a combination of answers and clues that made me slow down pleasurably, putter. Indeed, it made me use my inner putter till I tapped this thing into the hole.
Lovely touches abounded, intentional and accidental (like that backward PUCK near the hockey great). Beauty and joy. That big arrow of black squares points down, Eric, but the arc of this puzzle is nothing but up. Masterwork, indeed. Thank you, sir, I loved this, and more please!
Delightful. Design is elegant. Liked SLID INTO & the clue for KICKSTARTER (pitch) because baseball. Had that AL JARREAU album, love it. Only quibble is SIDEWALK ART. Difficult to think of a sidewalk as a "piece." Pieces of chalk are what you use to create the art. OK, everything else sparkled. UMBRA was either new or relearned. Off to the long weekend!
Super-fast for me today. Somehow I was tuned-in. I wish I could bottle it.
Bluestone is a material used for steps, chimneys & fireplaces here in the Northeast/NYS. It's really durable and attractive. Gives it a natural, rustic look. Google photos and you can see for yourself.
I'm with @ Lewis all the way. This is my kind of Saturday. Nice to see a positive review from Rex as well.
I see from the comments already that we are going to be schooled on blue stone today. OK by me. I learned something new.
Astronomy mini theme with nadir and umbra. Both lovely words.
So many examples of clever misdirection today. My favorite was "Green
people". Eco-related? Envious? No, rookie. Yay!
I don't care about symmetry. Why not let constructors put black squares wherever it leads to better fill.
From an aesthetic perspective, my goal especially on Sundays is to produce a flawless, completed, inked solution that looks as good as the printed answer grid. That's art
Fast Saturday but no idea if its my fastest since the iOS app broke a few weeks ago and despite emails, NYT tech folks won't help me.
SUDSED is horrible and got HAJ and TAJ mixed up which gave me HINT instead of TINT - reasonable I thought. Took me 5 minutes to sort that out.
Slate is a metamorphosed MUDSTONE which is like SANDSTONE but as a keen schoolboy geologist I never heard of BLUESTONE.
I must get better with my African antelopes, especially my OKAPIS.
Now on with my day and hope for snow…
David
Here in Brevard NC
@amyyanni 7:09 - Think of "piece" in the context of an artistic creation or composition. The sidewalk is not the piece, the artwork is.
Dotard is such a wonderful word. It's one we need to thank the North Koreans for reminding us it exists.
Hey, did anyone catch Rex's mistake about BLUESTONE? Oh. Never mind.
Really liked this one, probably because I knew both Eric LINDROS and ALJARREAU. I say "knew" when I should say "remembered eventually", which for me means a good crossword answer. Had RIBS before COBS, thinking we throw the bones away. Otherwise one thing led to another and I was done before I wanted to be, because fun factor.
Just a smidge too easy for a Saturdazo, but smile-inducing all the way, for which thanks, RMcC.
Hey All !
Diagonal symmetry. Rare. Only see in one to two puzs a year. Remember that Stealth Fighter puz a while back that had @M&A's Jaws of Themelesses as the planes? Wasn't that diagonal symmetry?
So a nifty grid to start. Some nice answers, also.
Had to employ the use of Check Puzzle feature to continue my conquest of solving. So while not an I RULE type solve, it did move things along nicely. Did have POP A WHEELIE off nothing, so that was nice. But, had lIke for WINK, causing my first Check foray.
BLUESTeel-BLUESTONE, had KCUP, but took it out. Wrote SUDSED in of the second S, with a chuckle, because remembered it from the kerfuffle it caused before.
Nice clue for WINE TASTING. Don't know UMBRA as clued. Haven't seen GNU forever, welcome back!
NO VICES, TIE DON, NAVI(Y) DAD, ANTIS PAM, LACED OILY, har.
SUDSED SNITS
RooMonster
DarrinV
Just when I thought I could get through a failing NYT xword without needing to retreat to my safe space, along comes DOTARD.
And wouldn't it have been fun if 46D was clued as, "What the dotard looks for in a woman."
Kickstarter referrs to the website, which describes itself as a site that "...helps artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, and other creators find the resources and support they need to make their ideas a reality." so in this context, it's a sales pitch, not a baseball pitch.
"Umbrella" is Italian for "small shadow"
I came here to comment on bluestone, but apparently my work is done here...
@David in Brevard - did you delete the app from you I device and then re-install it? Sometimes the data in these apps gets corrupted and you have to clean the old one out and install a fresh version...
Ryan McCarty apparently lives in a world very different from mine. One where people would say “Winner winner chicken dinner” or “I rule”. One with something called a KCUP and someone named IRMA Thomas. One where “Emergency calls” has some meaning other than … well, “emergency calls”, and people use match.com to set up their bad dates. This is just an observation ... not a criticism of this excellent puzzle
LAVA over ICE was neat. [Had ICE cAstlES at first, which worked on a ton of crosses.] Seen OKAPIS only in zoos, but they are truly beautiful.
And BLoomberg before BLUESTONE ... thinking websites.
From what I can tell, Okapi are called the African Unicorn because Europeans kept hearing about them but never saw them. Males actually have 2 horns.
Two Philadelphia/Pennsylvania related clues gave me a head start with this one. Eric Lindros was THE dominant player on the Philadelphia Flyers, and all garden paths are made of Pennsylvania bluestone. A very pleasing design for this Xword. How many people put in Dalmatian COAST, once the C and T were confirmed?
Just now noting the connection between 'throwing shade' and 'taking umbrage'. Gotta think LMS would appreciate that.
Personally, I would prefer to do without DOTARD, but that is a quibble regarding a remarkably junk-free Saturday. Our old friend SUDSED is back for an encore - we beat it too death last time (I’m in the “It’s not worthy” camp, lol).
Rex didn’t recognize BLUESTONE, so we will all get an education on that today. Eric LINDROS is definitely Saturday-tough. Thankfully not much far-fetched trivia today after yesterday’s orgy of eccentricity .
Has anyone ever actually heard the term “African Unicorns” used in reference to OKAPIS (as opposed to tech startups domiciled there) ?
Today I learned that BASTE is a sewing term, after recently learning that “sewing bees” are apparently some form of competition - I can only imagine the head judge orating “On your mark, get set, MAKE ME A SWEATER !”.
I first read Bluestone as Bluest one — like the Whitest one Bridge — and our Orangest One — #Sad.
LAVA LAKES over ICE PALACES. Fearful symmetry.
The "two horn" theory had me tear out OKAPIS in favor of crossing ICE cAstlES (c.f. @kitchef (9:07)). Nanoseconds in the northwest turned to milliseconds like pages torn from a calendar and blown down the sidewalk of an old movie transitional sequence. I like that sentence so am keeping it as is.
A very good friend's marriage of seven or eight years started with a WINK on Match.com. I officiated at their wedding on a beach in Turks and Caicos. Everything perfect, except/including that I wore shoes and socks.
Today, snowshoes. Everything is canceled for snow.
Breezed thru this thing, which would normally tick me off on a Saturday. But this fill was so clean that I enjoyed every minute of it. Obviously Rex does not appreciate how effective a wink can be in certain situations. I am not surprised. Glad to know that atleast @GILL.I agrees.
@A Grimwade: Being from the Philly area and growing up in a neighborhood with beautiful bluestone sidewalks was a big help to me too. But I was mighty glad to be an Al Jarreau fan, since the world of ice hockey remains behind a closed door to me.
I enjoyed this puzzle tremendously, with only one quibble: I don't believe a LACE DOILY has been part of a place setting, fancy or otherwise, for many years. A tacky, Walmart-induced place setting, perhaps. And the doily would be made of plastic.
Hand up for liking this tussle. Each section was opaque until it wasn’t, then fell quickly. I have one criticism of the grid, the NW is tenuously connected to the rest of the grid. I always feel like segregated sections defeat the “cross” element of “crossword.”
LINDROS/JARREAU were slow coming because of the clues, but once I had a couple letters both were easy. Mildly embarrassed that LINDROS wasn’t automatic. One of the top 100 hockey players of all-time playing during the best 20 years in Red Wing history, an opponent we hated because he was so good and played for the other guys.
I looked up BLUESTONE before reading Rex, so knew he was off base, but I can’t really fault him. I wanted soapSTONE, which is a thing I’m familiar with. Then with —UESTONE in place I resisted the BL because we had “bluesologist” in a clue. Having never seen or heard of BLUESTONE, I ended up at Wikipedia where I learned that it’s a thing that is known as a different thing depending on where you speak English typically. I’d have gone with a Stonehenge clue, but then the clue was basically meaningless to me.
@Joaquin - Viciously funny.
@David in Brevard - What @Steve said. In NYTX Tech defense, they probably aren’t replying because the problem isn’t in their app, it’s in your iPad or iPhone.
@anon last night - “popularizer” is better.
@Others last night - Saying Camus is in Rex’s field is just wrong. I’m constantly amazed that people think this, especially the more learned than most group that comments here. It’s like saying that Julia Roberts should be an expert ballet dancer because she studies “performing arts.”
I’m also wondering how many who thought the Camus quote was easy got GIL Scott-Heron without crosses. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is obviously more culturally and socially relevant to 2020 America. Also, it’s a lot less like advanced navel gazing.
@JC66 last night - You know me too well.
Puzzle was fun, but not as enjoyable as seeing all the "corrections" of @Rex's BLUESTONE faux pas.
@Lewis
How you see things like hockey player LINDROS/KCUP (puck backwards) amazes me.
@Kitshef
Good catch on throw shade/take umbra context.
@SouthsideJ
A spelling bee is a completion; a sewing bee is just a social get-together.
I guess it's opposite day for me because I found this one extra hard. I always start with the short words to give me a toehold, but couldn't come up with IDOS, didn't know GIL or WINK or IRMA, thought YOW was owW, etc. Most satisfying moment was remembering ALJARREAU after I had the EAU.
Might have done better solving in daylight. I'm in the west so I do the crossword the night before, in case I forget and miss out on the gold star. I'm a sucker for gold stars and my streak is long enough right now to exert some don't-break-the-chain pressure. We went out to dinner and a play last night (with added excitement because a comedy show called The Deplorables was in another theater at the same art center, so rather than strolling into our little playhouse we were standing in a long line to get bag-searched and wanded - you can guess what that show was about), so I was solving later than usual.
Excuses, excuses. Nice puzzle in retrospect. Learned lots of new words.
I'm with @marty: 41D would have been better clued, "Trump, familiarly".
A pleasurable Saturday morning gift. The symmetry was beautiful, Good start to the weekend. Hope it ends with a Niner WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER.
@Z. Here we go again. "Saying Camus is in Rex's field is just wrong." Your amazement amazes me. He has a doctorate in English, has he not ? To "not remember "The Stranger", to not have read "The Great Gatsby" until three years ago, indicates that there is something very wrong with our higher educational system. This simply should not happen. To so narrowly define your area of study all the way to a doctorate level is ridiculous. This is not an indictment of Rex, whom I give credit to for being honest, but it certainly is an indictment of the system as a whole. It is possible to get an English degree and never have read Shakespeare. And I just read yesterday that Freshman year at Northwestern University is going to cost $70,000.
Once upon a time, all the sidewalks in NYC were bluestone. There are tons of old bluestone quarries in the Catskills! https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/20/nyregion/preserving-the-history-that-lies-underfoot-bluestone-sidewalks-on-comeback-trail.html
Like Rex, Gil Scott-Heron was my intro to the puzzle. Fascinating character. Great New Yorker profile a few years back. Again, you could look it up
How old am I? I tried all manner of answers for the Match.com clue. Winks was the last clue I put in. Thank God I don't need it. I mean I have no problem with it. I read the wedding announcements evert week, and pretty much half of them are dating site successes. Maybe more. Also, I take a count of women who don't change their names and that's a much lower number. But that's another story.
So. After my rant yesterday, I got to the hockey clue. HOCKEY? HOCKEY? To quote Robert Wuhl in one of the best jokes ever, what the fuck do I know about hockey? I got it eventually, partly because I knew Al Jarreau.
But really, everything I said yesterday doesn't apply to hockey.
Great puzzle. Loved it. Thanks, if you're listening.
Apropos of what we were talking about, Sunday's By The Book in the NY Times Book Review section, is Larry Kramer. That's the feature that interviews people about their reading habits. They always ask if you were having a dinner party, who would you invite, living or dead. Oddly, they don't ask him that. (AIDS may have something to do with that omission.) They do ask him what the last great book he read was.
Yup. Camus' The Stranger.
Another hand up for putting in COAST instead of CROAT for Dalmatian. But am I the only one who left it in?
This gave me SIDEWALK SET instead of SIDEWALK ART for "pieces of chalk" -- well, why not? -- and IOLA instead of IRMA. It also gave me CANS instead of COBS for the cookout discards and all of this produced ULNEA for the shaded area. ULNEA was the first hint that Something Was Wrong, though I had no idea what.
I had thought my downfall would be the ALJA?REAU/LIND?OS cross, but I guessed right.
Some idle thoughts:
Lipstick shade = NUDE? I say: Why bother?
I thought that "I RULE" was pretty rude and crass and gloating...until I saw the hitherto unknown "Winner, winner, chicken dinner". Anyone who would say that is someone I really, really don't want to know.
@marty:
Dotard is such a wonderful word. It's one we need to thank the North Koreans for reminding us it exists.
Well... I'd rather the NKs not have had reason to remind us, don't ya know?? As Tillerson said, yet we are reminded again, we're run by a ** moron.
As to hockey greats; until relatively recently how many weren't Canadian??? A clueless clue.
Wrote a long comment, couldn’t get it published—I’ll come back later.
Easy-medium. I know who AL JARREAU is, but never would have guessed the spelling.
ribS before COBS and sand before BLUE were it for erasures.
Great looking grid with some sparkle, liked it.
I’ve been doing the Sat. puzzles from the archive for a few years now. I keep one in my car for stop lights and Costco lines and I also do them on my morning walk. I started with 1996 and just finished working the 2006 ones, which is when I started doing the NYT regularly. So, very recently I decided to go back and do 1994, which was the beginning of the Shortz era. I’m not sure if Will was still cycling through Maleska puzzles but some of these early ones are real bears, with crosses that redefine the meaning of Natick (i.e. a lot less than 1/4 of the solving population would know either answer). I’m only up to Feb., but two that stand out so far are Jan. 8th by Rand H. Burns and Feb. 26, by Bob Klahn. As always, your milage may vary. Oh, and I’m about 1/2 way through another Burns puzzle that seems to fit the bill...my next trip to Costco/long stop light should tell.
Please, how is TAD shade?
I started with GIL Scott-Heron but I put in Rex's Gas going down from there and hence made no further progress in that area, especially after putting in labeL for 8D's stick-on. Now I wanted 13A to end in "thermal" but couldn't make it happen. I finally wandered over to the NE, where I got my real start.
I still have a front tooth that is getting darker as the years go by due to attempting to POP A WHEELIE and muffing the landing. The face-plant into asphalt was not fun. I did not get up and try it again, though I did have to get on my bicycle and ride home. And yeah, I was 30 years old, should've known better!
I circled two clues as really nice today - The clue for 23D's SIDEWALK ART and for 56A's PASTS (not "flags", har).
I loved noticing the grid symmetry today. I was staring at the lowest "jaw of themelessness" (hi M&A) and noticed there weren't four but only three. Wow!
And AL JARREAU - I haven't thought of him for ages but back in the 80s, we used to listen to him TEAR IT UP while at work. Good times.
Ryan McCarty, I loved this Saturday puzzle. It gave me much more of a workout than I think it should have, but that's a good thing on a Saturday.
@amyyanni, nice to see KICKSTARTER works in baseball too, but I believe it is referring to the crowd-funding website. Also, "piece" is referring to the piece of art, not the chalk in this case.
I do believe in the theory that WS edits for mini word themes, introducing SUDSED a week or so ago to put it into our collective RAM for a Saturday puzzle.
If you know 5 hockey players IRL (other than xwordubiquitous Bobby ORR), Lindros would be one of them.
@Z, funny to think of soapstone as a building material, being soft and talc-like. Also, agree with your take on Rex not knowing Camus - amazing what people presume others should know - we all have our gaps and wheelhouses. I admit he does surprise me - such as the long run of pleasant write-ups we're getting:)
No PETA shade at the ANTTRAPS? We had a colony in our walls and floorboards in our top floor NYC apartment. Took forever to get rid of them - they are collectively so clever at popping up in new places every time you plug a hole.
ICEcAstlES fit at 16A, reminding me of winter carnival in Saranac Lake, NY, frequently the coldest place on the eastern part of a winter weather map.
I like STINTS over SNITS.
Was thinking of a grappling hook, so took a while to see TIEDON, as in a fishing hook.
GIL & BLUESTONE we’re lonely entries on the first pass. Then an animated GILA /GNU cross led into the northeast corner and the true fun began. POP A WHEELIE & SIDEWALK ART amused me as this impossible at first grid yielded. I thought 12 down clue should have been “mini/maxi” for KNEES to be appropriate attire, but I’m a guy so what do I know. Thanks Ryan for sharing our Saturday with an effort that certainly was not SLIPSHOD.
Like Rex, was initially struck by cool diagonal symmetry.
I think Blue Devils comes from WWI French fighting corps, but BLUESTONE is good guess.
Learned TAJ architect, KCUP, ALJ..., IRMA.
Loved reference to N Korea moniker for Le Grand Orange.
Increasingly, it seems, more slides are head/hands first.
Nice Sat puz.
@Leslie
See second row.
@Leslie -- That flummoxed me, too, until I figured out the answer:
This puzzle was just a shade too difficult.
This puzzle was just a TAD too difficult.
@ Leslie TAD and shade are both synonyms for a small amount.
Was thinking about Costco as upscale, which surprised me when I found this out. The aesthetic is certainly bare bones warehouse, but the product lines are frequently aimed at a more affluent shopper, not that I would get this impression looking around at other shoppers (not a fop to be found). If you look at the locations map, they only exist in urban and wealthy suburban areas - I was surprised to learn this while in western NY state and found that the closest locations were in Cleveland or the NYC area (where there are 4 that I use regularly).
Bluestone sculpture park:
https://www.newyorkupstate.com/woodstock/2015/04/opus_40_sculpture_park_saugerties_woodstock.html
Is TAD the new BLUESTONE?
@TJS - It seems to me that you want Doctorates to be something they are not. If one goes for a Masters Degree they will know a lot more about a lot less (that is, the area of study narrows while the depth of study increases) than someone with a B.A. A doctorate takes this to an even deeper extreme. Drawing on recent theories of gender and sexuality, I argue that representations of male community in Middle English poetry reveal a deep-seated anxiety about the vulnerability of homosocial desire to forms of perversion. Do you really think the person who wrote that needed to have read Camus? I imagine the doctoral advisor asking, “what the heck you’re doing bringing in mid-20th century existentialists when you’re writing about medieval England.” (Here’s the full abstract for the curious). It seems to me that you are arguing that everyone should be a generalist. That’s not what Masters and Doctoral programs do.
For the person asking yesterday why I defend Rex on this, it’s the same reason I rant against excessive PPP in puzzles. The epistemological question as a it relates to crosswords is a fascinating one that exposes so much of how we think and why we disagree.
Totally agree about maintaining rules of symmetry in grids. Rex mentions sonnets. Another example is Haiku. 5-7-5 is somewhat arbitrary (though it does have a pleasant feel). Far from restricting the writer, Haiku compels us to be inventive and creative with our word-smithing.
It doesn’t seem like the word DOTARD is very appropriate - is it ever used as a neutral, descriptive noun, or is it always pejorative?
I haven’t been able to quite grok how “Dalmation, for one” gets us to CROAT - is Dalmatia a state or territory in Croatia, so we treat it the same way that a “New Yorker” is an “American”? I googled it and its described as an historic “region” - would “Southerner, for one” also get us to “American”?
I missed the blog posts for a few days - so . . . Did Nancy ever get her computer to work (or should I not ask)?
@burtonkd - Your slate observation made me wonder if I misread the clue, but it was just “Relative of slate.” You went building materials. Rex went colors. I went countertops. I’m just realizing now that the slate clue is paired with “Piece of chalk” for a double one-room schoolhouse misdirection.
@Z and @TJS exchange brought back to mind a bon mot I always thought accurate: “Philosophers are people who know less and less about more and more, until they know nothing about everything. Scientists are people who know more and more about less and less, until they know everything about nothing.” ― Konrad Lorenz
Me too! Confused.
BLUESTONE Lane is a rocking coffee shop, which is how I figured out that particular answer.
I loved this puzzle - difficult enough, but gettable in the end. GIL was my first answer as well, but OKAPIS didn't fall until much closer to the end. I got DECAL next, and then POP A WHEELIE (ah, youth!). Then I got stuck. Ended up EN - S - not sure if it would be ROLL or LIST, but Gila monster saved me there. Proceeded to fill in the right side off the grid, didn't know how to spell AL JARREAU's last name but vaguely remembered Eric LINDROS from my youth, and then got the SW and on up to the NW to end. Nothin I didn't like about the puzzle.
For the Star Trek fans....
Desperately wanted Kirk's cabin or quarters for "site of many pitches". Different game.
@Z (11:38) re Ph.D.'s -- Interesting observations in support of your view that doctorates are specialized, ERGO we needn't expect doctors to possess a broad knowledge base in their field. I'm not sure you want to cling too closely to this improbable conclusion.
Many of @Rex's posts are at odds with it, as when he affirmatively uses the Ph.D. (and implied broad knowledge base) to criticize a puzzle for including non-medieval authors/books/characters/poems he hasn't heard of. When we cite something to make a rhetorical point, right or wrong, we open the door to have it cited back at us. That is what I see happening fairly in the commentary today.
As for the "relative of slate" clue, I wanted some sort of E-MAG.
The up/up cross is cool - at the bottom looking up across the puzzle.
You don’t need to know a lot about hockey to know Eric Lindros. He was a first overall pick, was one of the most dominant players in the league, won the league MVP award, is in the hall of fame, and played relatively recently (retired 2007). Similar time span and fame level as, say, Mike Piazza, who retired at the same time, and you certainly do not need to know much about baseball to know who Piazza is.
Sparklin fresh! themelessthUmbsUp! Near-runtpuz grid symmetry style, too boot.
Fillins were great; too many to re-mention from @RP's primo blog write-up. Absolute drop-dead faves: POPAWHEELIE. IRULE. KCUP. SLIPSHOD [M&A had SLAPDASH, for way too long].
This dang thing almost had an average word length of 6. Some neat/sneaky clues like the IRULE and INTERS [schlocky!] ones, but after all that, the solvequest still went pretty smoooth, as SatPuzs go.
Tensest area for the nanoseconds bank was at the LINDROS/ALJARREAU region, but was able to vaguely recall ALJARREAU.
That there puzgrid layout popped a jaw of themelessness wheelie. Like a lot.
staff weeject pick: DEM. Only abbreev meat in the puz. Mighty cute clue, btw.
Thanx for a great SatPuz, Mr. McCarty. Luved dem sparkly fillins.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s. @RP: Well, yeh -- but lack of grid symmetry can also be a sign of desperation, which is always kinda entertainin...
the ultra-rare lacrosse-game grid symmetry:
**gruntz**
@Rastaman -- I so appreciate your interest and concern. I have an appointment with my handyman to come at 10:30 tomorrow to set up my new computer. I will try to comment on the blog tomorrow prior to his arrival, so that if I am unceremoniously dumped from Rexworld because the site no longer recognizes me or if I can't get to the site because I don't know how to use Windows 10 after ll years of Windows 7, or both, I at least can say goodbye and prepare you to henceforth look for my name in black.
I would describe my feelings awaiting this new computer installation as somewhere between anticipating root canal and getting ready to be put before a firing squad.
When I was figuring out where, and if, to go to college, I was apprised of (what would be now called a Dad Joke) the following:
B.S. - bullshit
M.S. - more shit
Ph.D. - piled higher and deeper
Which, altogether, is pretty accurate. Esp. at the Doctorate level. Orals are your opportunity to show that you know more about your dissertation subject than your committee, which generally doesn't claim to know more than you. They shouldn't, for the simple reason that a successful doctorate is all about *new* knowledge. It might be synthesis of existing knowledge in a novel way, or something that wasn't known to exist at all. The latter is rather rare. The former is common in the social sciences and liberal arts; folks have been earning Ph.D. in, say 17th century troubadour performance, for many decades, all finding a minuscule insight each time.
As to OFL, an English Ph.D. might have only a passing mention of French literature. Again, the Ph.D. is deeper on a narrower purview.
@Steve, with a stop at the on/on and ending with the ov/ov.
@Z,I thought you has to get past the B.A. and M.A. stage before you qualified for Doctoral status, but maybe I'm wrong.
Many of the old sidewalks here in Manhattan are slabs of bluestone. Once again Rex has displayed his limited exposure to the real world. Too much time in his academic ivory castle.
Look up Dalmatia in Wikipedia. It’s a region in Croatia along the country’s “coast” on the Adriatic Sea.
Only three and a half minutes longer than yesterday's solve. Normally I'd feel a bit disappointed but this puzzle was so nice looking and the entries were of such quality that I didn't mind.
This constructor puts out top notch material and today's offering is a real gem.
I didn't jump into The Stranger conversation yesterday but Amelia's comment reminded me of what I might have said. First of all let's not forget that Rex Parker is an alias of Michael Sharp. Yes, they are practically identical but the blog allows the assistant professor or lecturer to posit his opinions in a completely different manner than he would in a classroom. Many of Rex's off the cuff remarks are emotional outbursts not carefully considered ruminations. He is goading us as well. That said, I do think the days when The Stranger was required reading (although not necessarily in English class, more likely Comp Lit) are long gone. Existentialism fell out of favor 40 years ago or so, and even though Camus resisted that term for his famous novel, it was considered a classic of the genre. I also recall having to watch the filmed version by Visconti starring Marcello Mastroianni for school. It was bleak and indecipherable, at least to me, but I seriously doubt that students today are watching it in darkened classrooms. Perhaps they are sitting through "Shawshank Redemption." I'm not surprised Larry Kramer loves the novel. It suits his world view, although his own novel "Faggots" could have benefited from Camus' restraint.
LOL @RooMonster. I had the same thought about the K CUP and it reminded me of an old, bad joke about a 401-K being similarly related.
My solve was difficult at first but got easier as I got on the constructor’s wavelength. And I freely admit that I did some serious guessing on the LINDROS-AL JARREAU crossing. I actually had nothing until I found Richard GERE lurking way down at 45A. He and the GILA monster led me through that section where I had the -SPAM and -STONE so that helped me finish out SNITS and STINTS. Guessed ANTI- and BLUE- which gave me the AL for JARREAU. The “B” from BLUESTONE (that made intuitive sense as it relates to slate) made me think that BAD would be the front end of BAD DATES. And that was the “easy” part. Notice there is still absolutely nothing in the NW. and it stayed that way to the bitter end.
As for miscues, there were so many, starting with HALOGas. That actually was just Gas for a long time since I had the G from GIL (who dwells in the depths of the depths of my crossword memory) and since chlorine is a gas, well, I felt certain that just had to be correct. Hubris will out. And that kept me from putting TIED ON in at 29A. Ironically, that was one of my first guesses for that answer because it just made sense and I kept coming back to it to try to find some crazy play on words and just couldn’t find one.
So, after I had made my way from the GERE area clockwise all the way around, I finally said to self “just throw in TIED ON and see what happens.” HALO GAs becomes a perfectly correct HALOGEN and the door cracks open.
Good wordplay, SUDSED aside (although for some reason I just knew that would be correct when I filled it in almost on autopilot), and a very interesting grid with mostly fair crosses for the PPP issues. A very fine Saturday from a constructor not well known to me before today. Well done, Mr. McCarty! You are a new favorite. Thanks!!
TJS -- Can't remember if it was '70 or '71, but there was a sit-in at the Rebecca Crown Center when Northwestern tuition crossed the shocking $7,000 line. We were outraged.
@Amelia -- Book Review sends ALL questions to authors; they decide which to answer and then BR edits. Always sorry so many writers dodge the opportunity to call something "just plain bad."
Say NUDE GNU five times really fast. Hey wait, we already did that in the August 2nd puzzle.
So once again the puzzle has decided to host a wine-tasting campaign event, this time at an ice palace submerged in a lava lake. This seems impractical, if not dangerous. But I'll try a K cup of the Crôat d'Arbitrage while I'm here. The bluestone-ware plates and lace doilies are lovely.
I thought this was first-rate. Excellent fill, nothing seemed either past-its-shelf-life old or show-offy new. Just good no-nonsense gridwork.
Since Rex bogarted *both* artists I wanted to link, I'm forced to play an excerpt from Nadir's aria from Les Pêcheurs de Perles, as sung by Met Opera mainstay Matthew Polenzani.
What the hell. I'll add my two cents today, for a change. I usually lurk in silence because by the time I get around to completing the puzzle and reading the commentary, everything has already been said and hardly anyone's going to see what I write anyway. But I feel compelled to thank the commentariat here (most of you, anyway) who enhance this hobby of mine and provide me with lots of chuckles to boot. There are some very thoughtful, witty and creative folks in this here community. Thanks again for your comments and to Rex for providing the forum. On to my two cents ...
Easy-Medium NYT Saturday (12:04 vs 14:35 6-month Saturday 6-month median) A very smooth NYT 64-worder Saturday for me. That's a little surprising because I've averaged nearly 10% above my 6-month median on RM's previous 10 Saturdays since he appeared on the NYT scene a year and a half ago. There was a time not so long ago that I wouldn't have seen such a wide open grid and assumed that I'd have no chance of solving it. Still more proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
Random thoughts:
- My last entry, KNEES {12D: Mini/midi midpoint}, doesn't strike me as a good clue/answer combination but I'm certainly no fashionista.
- TIED ON {29A: Attached, as a hook} didn't come easily either. We had sudses in a puzzle last week, so I guess SUDSED {57A: Got in a lather} is a natural follow-up (yuck!).
- Never in my life have I even thought about weaseling out of a date by requesting an "emergency call" (BAD DATES {35D: "Emergency calls" may save you from them}). Dates have been rare enough occurrences over the years that I've not had the luxury of planning ways to get out of them.
- BLUESTONE {35A: Relative of slate} isn't familiar.
A good, solid puzzle by one of the newer constructors. Keep 'em comin' RM.
@sanfranman59:
Never in my life have I even thought about weaseling out of a date by requesting an "emergency call"
that's because your a guy not a girl. this is specifically a girl thing. these days much easier to pull off; just 'butt dial' your BFF under table or wherever and wait for the call for immediate 'help'. if you've never been so exploited (girls generally wait until desert has been consumed, of course), yore fortunate.
Re above...Ew. If it seems to you a lot of women are making excuses to end the date, maybe it's time to ask why. Do you really think all these women are just looking for a free meal? No, they're looking for a nice guy who doesn't assume women are scheming freeloaders.
@Birchbark - “...we needn't expect doctors to possess a broad knowledge base in their field.” That wasn’t a conclusion so much as an observation. Hand up for pondering some sort of online magazine, but nothing fit with —UESTONE and everything looked solid (because it was). This was after I had decided soapSTONE was not going to work. I never really considered how variable the usage of “slate” is before today.
@TJS - I don’t think I’m atypical and I would put my knowledge base something like this:
What I know < What I’ve read/watched/listened to < What is worth knowing < What is currently knowable.
If I had to guess I’d say each less than sign represents several orders of magnitude. The stuff that goes into producing a doctorate is far more likely to stay in area 1 than anything one may have read as an undergrad, if one even read it as an undergrad.
@sanfranman59 - I never used it for a BAD DATE, but so many administrators were using the “emergency call” technique that my superintendent required that our secretaries call his office during our admin meetings if we were needed back in the building. No more stepping out to take a call on our cells and then heading back to our buildings. With superintendent #3, nothing we did in his meetings was worth being out of our buildings. #1 and #2 both had meetings that were good uses of our time. You can guess which of the three guys I worked for instituted the rule.
@quasimojo Yeah, that's why I meant never to do that again. I think it was Z who pointed out that he might have an alter ego here that bears no resemblance to his actual persona on campus. It might all be a game.
@anonymous 2:35
Yes, I went and looked at the full interview online where he did answer the question about the dinner party. It was kinda boring. Wodehouse, Edmund Wilson, Dostoevsky.
I liked this puzzle although I had Messier before Lindros.Duh! His name is Mark...I agree with Rex 100% about the symmetry requirement. Today's permutation was fine. I would not be fine with random black squares.
@anon/4:29
go look up the meaning of 'mad money' someplace, then come back. you might not like what I observe, but it's accurate.
@jae. I did the first archive puzzle you cited. The one with the cars. Interesting. Took me forever. Of note in the puzzle, nothing was over-explained. You really had to work and think for yourself.
How the hell can you do this and walk at the same time?
Thanks!
One of my favorite “old saws.” @Nancy!
@Quasi & Z - your comments reminded me that I read The Stranger for an undergrad Existentialism class in the late ‘60s. My memory of the book provided no help with yesterday’s answer.
@Amelia - I walk the same course every day. It’s all paved streets on a large cul de sac with no places to trip. A wise doctor once told me not to fall....and I finished the second by Rand Burns from Feb. 12, 1994. The bottom half isn’t too bad but the top half is a killer. I missed it by 4 squares, although in retrospect it should only have been 2.
I didn’t realize Shiite was spelled with two is and of course I know inter is to bury but I just quickly put in enter thinking it had to have some connection to the clue. Thus a DNF for that one square.
Pretty dang nice puzzle I think.
Not fond of up/up and con/on; "sudses" is not a word anyone says ever; except maybe Proctor and Gamble sycophants.
Antispam is not a thing, nor is "preventing cyberclutter," so not a thing clued by not a thing. Weird.
I very much liked the shade/shade thing. Dredged Lindros up because way back then I had a friend with the same surname; needed LIN__OS before that happened.
Slate, shale, bluestone. All related and easily knowable to anyone who grew up in the Northeast US. All, of course, sedimentary rock and wonderful preservers of ancient death records.
NW was slow because I worked out 16A as SANTARACES (Winter carnival spectacles) and stuck with it because hilarious and it should be a thing if it isn't.
How did you all get "ANTISPAM"?? Is that an Apple thing? What does it do????
Thanks for clearing up TAD and shade!
What am I missing about the clue for STINTS? Lovely puzzle and finished in a fair amount of time.
Hand up for RHINO. Seemed so obvious... The LINDROS/JARREAU cross was no trouble for this Flyers fan, but sq. 46 did give me fits. KICKSTARTER makes no sense to me vis-à-vis the clue--unless it's some bleeping website about which I am totally ignorant. Then there's KCUP?!? I mean, I wrote the K in there, and was gratified to see it was right, but sheesh! What is a KCUP????
I have a nit to pick with the clue for ANTTRAP: it contains the word conTRAPtion. That ought to be a no-no. The foregoing aside, I found this a typically Saturday-challenging solve with brain-teasing clues, and more than a TAD of triumph points. The breakthrough into the NW happened when I had enough letters to find SIDEWALKART. Eventually, SLIPSHOD (great word!) dislodged the stubborn rhino and that was that: IRULE! IRMA seems to be the lone DOD candidate, but I'll go for Shirley MacLaine, who so charmingly played IRMA La Douce--but that's another story. Birdie.
From Syndication Land
I was wondering about STINTS myself. Turns out "husband" can mean to "use resources economically."
Nice work @spacecraft. As for me, I guess I'm not ready for prime time Saturdays.
On the plus side, I liked most of the long downs and acrosses, especially SIDEWALKART and WINETASTING. I do quite a bit of the latter. Oh, and also liked Rex's write-up.
Another plus was K (as in Keurig) CUP. I have a cup of one of its many good coffees virtually every day.
WINK WINK
I'VEMOVEDON from BADDATES,
no more SLIPSHOD NOVICES, dude,
SEW, now ITEARITUP great
with whom I'VE SLIDINTO NUDE.
--- GIL "GILA" LINDROS
Two days in a row with no write-over. This seemed kinda easy for a Sat-puz.I did notice the odd grid layout with three double Utahs. Did not read all of OFL, or anyone else for that matter, but the SNITS-STINTS (and nearby TINT), and GIL-GILA seem less than optimum.
@spacey - KCUP = Keurig coffee-maker portion; KICKSTARTER = website where you can beg for money to fund your great idea
Gimme GIL Scott-Heron and near-gimme ALJARREAU start a musical mini-theme. I've spent a lot of time with IRMA Thomas' music, so yeah baby to her.
After a slow start, this puzzle went pretty smoothly, almost easy.
My girlfriend is French Canadian and frequently mixes up certain English expressions. As an example she'll say "slapshod" which I find endearing. So far I don't think she has ever said "slipdash" which would be equally good.
I know what Kcups are, but I happen to have a Nespresso machine which makes far superior coffee in this gourmet's opinion.
KICKSTARTER confused me greatly until I read a comment from someone up there explaining that is a crowd-source website. I knew it had nothing to do with baseball. I hated Eric LINDROS for his arrogant refusal to play for the Quebec Nordiques aided by his elitist parents. Sad how his career ended, though. He was a great player.
Good puzzle.
Very enjoyable. I wonder how many other single words, like BLUESTONE, can be split three different ways to make word pairs with different meanings.
BLUE STONE - yep, that stone is blue
BLUES TONE - play it smooth
BLUEST ONE - aww, cheer up
Forgot to mention: I fully expected to see a video clip of John Rhys-Davies catching the poisoned fruit that Harrison Ford was about to ingest in "Raiders," muttering "BADDATES."
Thanks to @rondo for explaining KCUP. I wouldn't know; we brew a 12-cup pot at a time and don't let the carafe get empty.
Had fun with this, but too many unknowns for a perfect round.
Diana, LIW
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