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Nine-time PGA Tour winner Jay / WED 1-15-20 / Taiwan-based computer giant / Receptacle for one doing decoupage / Tennis great Huber
Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Constructor: Mary Lou Guizzo
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:30)
Theme answers:
- HIT BELOW THE BELT (17A: Engaged in foul play)
- SPARRING PARTNER (22A: One engaged in friendly contention) [not sure you wanna double up on "engaged" after using it in your first theme clue...]
- THE GLOVES ARE OFF (36A: "Oh, now they're really going to fight!")
- THROW IN THE TOWEL (49A: Cry "Uncle!")
- PULLS ONE'S PUNCHES (56A: Hold back)
ay Dean Haas (born December 2, 1953) is an American professional golfer formerly of the PGA Tour who now plays on the PGA Tour Champions. [...] Haas has had a solid career on the PGA Tour, winning nine times between 1978 and 1993. He had a resurgence in 2003, when he finished in the top 30 on the money list for the first time since 1995 and made the United States Presidents Cup team. The following year he was one of Hal Sutton's two captain's picks for the Ryder Cup, and made his third appearance in that event.
Haas was known for being one of the most consistent players on the PGA Tour over the course of his career and ended up playing 798 events. He is only five starts off Mark Brooks' record. He has made the cut 592 times on the PGA Tour, more than any other player. Haas also has the distinction of playing in the most major tournaments without a win, with 87 during his PGA Tour career. (wikipedia)
• • •
ANKE held me up a bit because I thought the last letter of her name was an "A" (40D: Tennis great Huber). I guess she was pretty "great"—way greater than Jay HAAS was at golf, that's for sure—but (like HAAS) she never won a major. I wouldn't use her name unless I absolutely had to. But I wouldn't be commenting on her name at all if the rest of the grid weren't such a mess. I am totally unfamiliar with PUT as a correct answer to 60D: Wager. Like most solvers (probably???) I wrote in BET (I had the "T" from SETH already). I'm guessing it's some technical thing, inserted here to make an otherwise very very easy puzzle a tiny bit harder. Or is it as simple as, say, "I PUT $5 on Mane Event to show!"? Maybe that's it. TMC is not an abbr anyone uses—just try to get a first page of search results that *doesn't* suggest that maybe you were thinking of TCM (a real abbr. in common use because it's a channel people actually watch). And TMC is an [HBO competitor] in What universe??? Does HBO even know The Movie Channel exists?? First you want me to believe MASHABLE is a "competitor" of BuzzFeed, now you want me to believe that TMC is a "competitor" of HBO. No. No, I say. You are causing "competitor" to lose all meaning, and I have to draw a line somewhere.
There are very plausible TWO-HIT game scenarios where the pitcher gets absolutely shellacked. How many batters did the pitcher walk? Or hit with a pitch. Walk a couple guys and give up a homer, and then walk a couple more and give up a triple that the next batter knocks in with a sac fly ... suddenly you are pitching a TWO-HIT game and you're down 6-0. Not "really good." Yes, under most circumstances, if you go the distance and just give up two hits, you have pitched well. But the further you drift from the legitimately named games (NO-HIT, ONE-HIT), the more your claims that the game was necessarily well pitched come to seem suspect. The end.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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91 comments:
Oat bar (3-Down)? Seriously? C'mon...
A Monday fast Wednesday but I screwed up with CEO at 6D. I knew LEWE didn't look right but I don't know that show and once again my common sense is taking a break.
COO is one of those entries that has managed to slip through the cracks unnoticed until today. I imagine for a lot of people it's just common knowledge. So much for my business acumen.
This constructor normally uses a childhood photo with her xwordinfo byline. Today she's gone contemporary. She didn't elaborate but whatever her health crisis is I hope she does well.
In my opinion there is a clear *double* natick, with the obscure ERITU crossing *both* RLS and NOTV (I'd wager that easily less than 20% of the population would know even one of those three words... to put them together all crossing each other would seem completely unacceptable to me. Also, I would argue SCHUSS crossing UMBER is another natick, especially given that aMBER is a much more common color term, and SCHaSS would work just as well as SCHUSS, if, like the vast majority of the population, you're not up on your technical ski terms. Do others agree/disagree?
My thoughts are with the constructor, who is dealing with a difficult medical situation.
I like grid-spanners, and all of these are in-the-language expressions that have literal fighting meanings and figurative non-fighting meanings (not sure the gloves ever come off in boxing), so it's a tight set. I'm willing to put up with less polish in the rest of the puzzle when 75 squares are such good themers.
I was a sportswriter for 24 years, and I've seen a lot of baseball games, and every two-hitter I've seen has been a really good game for a pitcher. So that's a fair clue. Using Rex's logic, even a no-hitter couldn't be clued, "Like a really good game for a pitcher, say," because what if the pitcher walked 10 and allowed six runs?
How many pitchers will finish the game after walking four batters, giving up a home run and a triple, and six runs. You must pitch a complete game to get credit for a two hitter.
Medium. Liked the theme, but Rex is right about the fill.
@Mary Lou - My positive thoughts are on the way.
ERITU crossing IDIO, that's gonna Natick a whole lot of unhappy crossword solvers.
I enjoyed watching ANKE Huber play many times in the 90s. Very good player, winner of twelve singles tournaments. Went as high as #4 in the world. But a better clue would be “Former tennis star Huber.”
Like Ms. Huber, the puzzle was good but not great.
Isn't THE GLOVES ARE OFF a hockey thing? Dunno, I have never watched a hockey game so don't take my word for it!
This one was easy for me, well below my Weds average. Not bragging (my average is slow), just a wheelhouse thing.
Had ASUS before ACER and BET before PUT, but that's about it, the rest fell right in. Luckily knew SCHUSS, UMBER and IDIO, and everything else was inferable. Tolerably fun despite OATBAR (UGH) and ERITU (EWW).
Have taken a long timeout from all things crosswords -and otherwise for that matter- and this is my first post of the year.
So, Happy New Year to all and a special thought for MLG to whom I wish all the best during the hard times.
I did not enjoy this puzzle.
It's not even Boxing Day.. (celebrated in the UK and the Commonwealth on the 26th of December and taking origin from boxes with presents that servants received from their masters in the mid-19th century).
Theme answers are ok, I guess,
but the fill is so tortured that gives you RLS (Restless Legs Syndrom)..
Signed (from yesterday),
Grouching Tiger, Bitten Dragon
I love the spirit of this puzzle -- phrases from boxing that have spilled over into the out-of-boxing world. There are so many of them, too, like take it on the chin, roll with the punches, on the ropes, go down swinging, down for the count, bob and weave, and beat to the punch. I suppose this could have been a Sunday puzzle, though that might have been overkill.
I broke into a smile at UMBER, which popped effortlessly into my head, even though I probably haven't thought about the crayon color "burnt umber" since I was a single digit. Some tricky, wordplaying cluing, of which there should be a noticeable contingent on Wednesday, would have punched up the puzzle, as it were.
I used to love boxing, watched it all the time, the more blood the better. Now I hate it; the violence and machismo turn me off. There is such a thing as a noble fight -- and many crosswords present me with one -- but boxing isn't that to me any more.
Prayers and good wishes on your condition, Mary Lou. Rooting for you.
Every day I get the NYTXW on my I Pad. Today, no puzzle. Has anyone else experienced this? Who should I call about it? Jim
I attacked the themers like a raging bull, and then filled the rest. Lots of fun.
I wonder if PUT is referring to the options market? A PUT is a contract giving the owner the option to buy a stock at a given price within a given time. It is risky, hence "WAGER." I stared at it a long time. Not a good clue.
I had an E instead of an I on the Eritu Idio cross. Ideo could be correct and the aria meant nothing to me.
Really odd, vaguely unsatisfying cluing for the themers.
Still feel like Monday was the hardest puzzle so far this week, although I did DNF today at Ere TU/IDeO. Should have gotten that ideo- is idea, idio- is oneself. It is nice to know, though, that I can still be tripped up by “quintessential crosswordese”.
Got AAAS without seeing the clue and thought that it would be an American Association for the Advancement of Science clue – which would have been much better, I think.
Wishing you the best, Mary Lou. Speedy recovery.
Anyone else stuck on Burnt Sienna? Even tried it with one N. Doh.
Enjoyed the baseball chatter. Spring Training is in sight!
No comment from Rex about “below” below “Lowe?” I took a guess at idio but spelled it like an ideot, tried glee pot for glue pot, because why not?and was left wanting by the eri tu/RLS cross. My knowledge of lyrics outside of English extends only as far as la vida loca.
This was just awful. Sooo many bad answers. For me, the worst was 51D although there were plenty of contenders. I thought, please don't let it be woody. Sigh.
@ Mike Bulgier, I thought hockey as well.
@Mark Bulgier - there are two competing etymologies for the phrase. It appears first in the nineteenth century. One is that it does refer to the sport of boxing (and this seems to be the most common.) The second is that gentlemen would wear gloves and if they were to engage in something as unbecoming as a fisticuffs, the gloves would come off.
Sure, they throw off their gloves in hockey fights, but the phrase predates hockey.
Very average Wednesday time for me. I finished four seconds faster than average. ERITO was brutal, but IDIO was inferable, I thought, from the word "idiosyncratic" and "idiolect" (okay, that second one is not exactly common vocabulary.) And less obviously, perhaps, from "idiom," which also comes from the same root.
@Benjamin Blanchard -- SCHUSS was something completely unknown to me, but I very clearly remember burnt umber and burnt sienna from my crayola 64 packs back in the 80s, so that was a gimme with no other letters filled in. RLS seems to show up in crosswords all the time for an authors initials, so I felt that was certainly fair for a Wednesday puzzle. NOTV took me a few beats to understand as "no TV" as punishment alternative to a "timeout" (at least that's how I understand the answer), but that one is in the language, though it does look odd in the grid.
I guess I'll start OFF by saying that I know squat about boxing. My husband tried to explain about the finesse. I managed to watch Ali a few times - only because I loved his chutzpah. I also loved Howard Cosell and his funny looking toupee.
Mary Lou usually makes me smile. Today she has the EWW UGH syndrome. Everything here seems so violent. I might've enjoyed this a teensy bit more had she clued 19D as an avocado. Instead, we get Jay what's his name.
I've heard all of the phrases except the PULLS ONES PUNCHES. I usually add a weight at the end of anything I pull.
You'll find a GLUE POT for sale on ETSY. When you make yummy meringue, you only use the white part of your EGG. Save the yolk to make mayonnaise.
PUT? As in PUT on the Ritz?
@Mike Bulgier and @Suzie Q:
I initially thought the same about the origin of "gloves are off," which would have totally blown up the theme of this already weak puzzle.
But no -- if you google the phrase, it does in fact seem to originate from boxing.
Anon.7:06, Nope, that's a call. A put gives the holder the write to sell. But I think the puzzle is thinking more along the lines of the previous comment, to put money on. Kinda weak, but so is the whole puzzle.
In my opinion, a nicely constructed puzzle and a very dark and ominous comment from the constructor. A bit more cryptic than Alex Trebek's revelation. As do others, I send hopeful wishes. And thanks for the new avatar.
Knowing the origin of NATICK in the world of crosswords, I am always amused by solvers who take refuge there rather than admit ignorance. Opera arias are not arcane neither is Robert Louis Stevens. The fault is not with the constructor but the solver. There are many pop culture answers that give me pause. They also give me a chance to learn. If someone is not using crosswords as a learning tool, then it is just an ego exercise.
"Eri tu" is by far the most common aria in crossworld, so you might as well commit it to memory. it's the ono/eno of opera.
I spent forever thinking the flower was a daisy. Glue dot looked plausible, Aike I suppose less so...
I loved this puzzle. Flew through without a hitch.
Crayola crayons were the gold standard of a kid's art supply arsenal in the 60s. Opening a new box of 72 on Christmas morning was bliss. Sooo many beautiful colors. Seafoam green, violet blue, lemon yellow, maize. And then there was burnt umber. The very name begged 'shun me.' When the rest were worn to nubs, burnt umber stood unchanged. To this day, I can't figure what oulined picture in a coloring book or image you could scrawl on construction paper would've called for its use. But at long last, burnt umber was there when I needed it.
Thank you Mary Lou Guizzo. That was ton o' fun.
I can hear Bob Ross’s voice droning peacefully “burnt umber". Didn’t realize it was a crayon a color in addition to an oil paint.
Eri Tu is an old staple. Any additional Italian beyond the familiar title seems a bit much for Wednesday.
Thanks @peter p: that explains why I only know it from hockey.
Despite the really rough and tumble fill, this went down easily.
Yeah, Rex, that is indeed it == I'll put $5 on the Patriots to get caught cheating again, etc. No need to overcomplicate it.
Me too for the IDeO/EReTU cross, but now that I think about it, it's wrong. IDIO- meant indivisually, IDEO- means having to do with ideas, which is not how it's clued.
When I was in my early teens my brother and I, who shared a bedroom, stayed awake with the radio on, listening to Lou Burdette beat Harvey Haddix after the latter pitched 12 perfect innings, only to lose in the 13th. (Burdette reputedly told Haddix that he'd scattered his hits, while Haddix had bunched his one.) So that was a one-hitter loser.
@Robin 2:13 AM
I'm with you on the ERITU IDIO cross. I was shocked when my guess of "I" resulted in the"Congratulations" message.
The theme made for colorful fill, even if it was pretty easy for a Wednesday. I did feel I shouldn't be asked to know the words of Italian arias -- what am I, an opera singer? -- but if you want the lyrics of every song in every Broadway musical written between 1945 and 1970, I'm your gal.
The trickiest clue for me was "Timeout" = NOTV. I stared at N??V for the longest time. And who ever knows how UIES is going to be spelled from one day to another?
Sending you all my best wishes and good thoughts, Mary Lou, in getting through your current health difficulties and coming out on the other side completely well and ready to come up with more great puzzles.
A PUT bet is allowed in the game of CRAPS at some casinos after the come-out roll. Very arcane and esoteric, even for Shortz.
In addition to the aforementioned gunk (ERITU, ENTR, TMC, SCHUSS . . . and ARS for heaven’s sake !) I would suggest that Jay HAAS is a little too far down the golf food chain to be recognizable and ANKE Huber had a marvelous career, but it is a stretch to call her a “tennis great”.
The saving grace for this hodgepodge of foreign phrases, b-list athletes and icky crosswordese is that a lot of it is Monday-easy which prevented it from becoming a total slog.
The clue for 46D (TWO HIT) contains the qualifier “say”, so I will concede that it is appropriately clued and OFL’s criticism of that one is probably unwarranted. The vast majority of two-hit efforts are going to be real gems. The occasional dud scenarios that Rex concocted will definitely be outliers and are accounted for in the clueing.
I'm surprised by the number of people unfamiliar with SCHUSS, it's a very common skiing term. There's even a trail at our local area called "Warden's Schuss" which the college uses for ski races. Steepest trail on the hill. I do not schuss that one.
I'm with @Lewis on the boxing scene, used to be interested in it, but finally decided that when the object of the exercise is to beat your opponent unconscious, no thanks. Also agree with him on the burnt umber memories, used to be one of my favorite colors.
Put in GLUEPOT and NOTV instantly. Not sure what that means.
I think a TWOHIT game implies a complete game, which is a worthy feat. You can make up a lot of "what if" scenarios, but if my guy throws a two hitter, I'm a happy fan.
Liked your themers, MLG. Feel better.
A put is a stock option, and actually a wager, technically, because you're buying a timed, highly leveraged piece of a company (like any equity can be a "bet"). I had bet in there and was confused for the entire solve. It's actually a chintzy clue, even for Wednesday. Stock market wager would have been better, I think.
Of course one person's Natick is another person's obvious answer. "Natick" isn't a Natick either if you drive the Mass Pike once in a while.
But crossing ERI TU (nowhere near as famous as something like Nessun Dorma) with three hard ones is a bit much for a Wednesday. I messed up on IDIO, thinking that the full word was spelled ideopathic, like ideological.
@jberg - Thanks for the memory of that great Haddix/Burdette game. Brought to mind game 4 of the 1947 World Series when Yankees’ Bill Bevens took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Brooklyn, only to lose the no-no and the game on a Lavegetto double.
ERITU is a thing I've never used in my life...(See also ERES TU), I know it solely from xword puzzles. I didn't even really know that it was ERI TU. It's just a string of letters that I know exist as an aria or song or something. It doesn't even matter that I know anything about it, just that I can recognize the string.
There is something about that that seems wrong to me. It's like a code you learn to help solve a "puzzle." Once you learn the code, (full of words with arcane meanings or names of arcanely famous athletes, actors, musicians, or artists, along with a host of other words or variant spellings normal words, etc., etc., etc.), then you use it to decode the puzzle from there. The difference between a Monday and Saturday is just how obscure those code words are or how obscurely you can clue the most normal word (also based on a code system).
I am acutely aware that when I mention to people I do the NYT xword and they respond with the requisite awe, that it doesn't mean anything except that I've done the puzzle long enough to have memorized the code. That's it. It's not that hard once you get it. Sure, you have to REMEMBER the code words and sometimes a constructor will throw in a "new one," but that just gets logged away in the database for later use.
It's a bit cynical, I know...but when it comes down to it, I must admit that I am only good at NYT xwords in particular because I've put in the time. When I go to a different site's puzzles, if I do them long enough, I just learn their vocabulary, their "code," and I get to be pretty good at those too.
Early week puzzles are just introductions to the code, usually in mass doses. Today's inclusion of ERITU is just to introduce the noob to a new word in the code lexicon. Rex mentioned a few others in his review. After a few times, they'll see what most of us here already see: it's a word/phrase you'll never use in your life...ever...but you'll need to know it to solve later week puzzles.
@jberg. Same here. Laid in bed with the radio on and listened to the last 5 or 6 innings. 1959. Adcock homered with two on to win the game but was only credited with a double because AAron left the basepath to shake Haddix' hand.
Williams and Musial played in their 16th All-Star game that year.
"Eri tu" is age-old standard crosswordese. It's just that the clue took a different approach. And Idio seems fairly obvious considering we use the word idiosyncrasy often in English.
@mathgent -- Accurate, witty comment about ANKE Huber. Enjoyed your comparison to today's puzzle.
Let's save the word "great" for ANKE's countrywoman, Steffi Graf, and those of her ilk. Greats don't come along every other Wednesday.
Just a note here to say that Jay Haas is, in addition to being an accomplished golfer, the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. He attended Wake Forest University, which also produced Arnold Palmer, Lanny Wadkins, Curtis Strange, Webb Simpson, Scott Hoch, and Jay's own son Bill. Jay also appeared in a music video with Hootie and the Blowfish. Just a little trivia for this fine Wednesday.
Hey All !
Struggled in the center section that Rex mentioned. Had IDeO and no reason to think it was wrong. Didn't know RLS, and after mentally running the alphabet, arrived at the R, which rang @Kathy's "knowing from doing the puz many times" bell of ERe TU and what I thought was RL Stine! And still got he "Almost There!" message. Yargh. One-letter DNF there.
Seems to me puz needs a Revealer. Kinda strange these themers are just left out there to be thought of as boxing terms. I mean, it's inferable, but maybe throw BOXING or something somewhere? MO, humble or not, of course.
Two LOW in N. Har, that's funny for me, not sure why. Maybe @Lewis' observations rubbing off? Some crossing doubles, HAAS/AAAS, SCHUSS/SSR, LOLL/OLLIE.
Seems more TuesPuz-y. Just my two cents.
CLASSY PABST
RooMonster
DarrinV
Wrote in the answer to 31A and thought to myself “what sort of asshole PUTs in the bane of my existence again?”
“Decoupage” is such a cool word. GLUE POT is not.
Anyone else exist in a world where you’re constantly reminded that CHAI means “tea?” Yeah yeah, the 14A clue is correct in current usage, but ANO/AÑO level side eye here.
@puzzlehoarder - I think the whole CeO, COO, CfO phenomenon is the result of title inflation. When “President” became a title for the 21st tier of middle management the private sector had to come up with new nomenclature to really know who was in charge.
@Benjamin Blanchard - As @pabloinnh said, SCHUSS isn’t particularly technical. The first thing you learn on the bunny hill is how not to SCHUSS, that is, how to turn so you’re not skiing out of control straight down the hill.
@Lewis alludes to a very simple fact that should worry the NFL. Boxing was huge as recently as the mid-1970’s, arguably bigger than football at that time. How quickly it has become a tertiary sport is truly head spinning. Football has had a lock on a large percentage of our best athletes for decades, but that is changing. It will not surprise me when football stops being the center of the major sports universe.
@anon6:54 - Tech support.
I'm glad the professional detested this puzzle as much as me. TMC is not an HBO competitor, really. TWO-HIT game is sort of arbitrary-sounding and I did sheepishly fill it in.
It was fast until the NW corner. I had SLALOM instead of SCHUSS (mainly because I'd heard of the former). I was also looking for aMBER.
The theme alluded me for a while. Just not a boxing fan, no Dr. Joyce Brothers.
Correction for myself:
I had meant to reference @Dorothy Biggs comment, not Karen's. Sometimes the ole brain decides to just do whatever the hell it wants!
Was also a fan of Crayola when I was a kid. Getting a new box of 64 was like being gifted money! Now, they have a box of 92? 96? Wow!
RooMonster Color Me In Guy
All the 15s were easily filled in from just a few crosses for me. No boxing fan here, but they're all well known phrases outside of boxing as well.
I had Bet at 60D, but I also at that point had Pac,UVA, Inlets, and Kiln. So I knew it just had to be "pull one's punches." Put was the last thing I put in the puzzle; it took me a few minutes to figure out it was referring to a put option.
Benjamin, put me in your imagined 20%. I've got no problem with Verdi.
I liked That being next to Hath too.
Good health to you MLG.
@ Dorothy Biggs, Well said. I agree about learning the "code" of the
NYT. Doing puzzles from a different source does indeed take some time to learn their code. Good solvers also need to have good memories.
@amyyanni, I, too, tried BURNT siena until I got more letters and remembered BURNT UMBER. Ah, yes, there was a time, admittedly a simpler time, when crayons were a status symbol at school. A box of 48 colors was the pinnacle with its flip-top box...until the box of 64 came out with—a built-in sharpener! And then 72 when my kids were in school; could the number hand climbed even higher since then? You can bet that many of us knew the names of all the colors. And still remember the thrill of opening a brand new box, running a hand over all those perfect points, and inhaling the heady aroma of fresh crayon wax. (Second only to mimeograph fluid). When I was bored in class, which was often in a room of 40 kids, I would arrange them in color order—so many shades of blue and green! Thank you, Binney & Smith! (I never had a GLUE POT, though, whatever that is.)
What a cool theme for a puzzle—crayolacrayons across, the color names all down.
+1. Was certain RP was going to launch into this one.
Y’all think boxing is violent, how about ENOLA Gay, the “historic” plane that carried the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima? Historic indeed.
All the best to Mary Lou Guizzo darlin, on her serious health challenge.
Wowzer … Five 15-long grid-spannin themers. They were fun to figure out. Next longest thing in the puz was GLUEPOT, which had the assignment of gluin 3 of those massive themers together, down the middle. Kinda liked learnin about GLUEPOT clue's "decoupage".
fave fillins included: SCHUSS. KIOSK. CLASSY. PABST. NANO. Also kinda liked AAAS crossin HAAS, for some weird & vague M&A reason.
best Ow de Speration: IDIO/ERITU. RETAPE. ENUF. ENTR. [M&A had the IDEO/ERETU error, tu boot.]
staff weeject pick: COO. Interestin, that they clued it up as the Chief Operatin Officer abbreev. M&A woulda de-COO-paged that puzclue, if he was editin this puz up. Don't even get m&e started, on that merciless ERITU clue (yo, @Nancy). And don't make me (and @Nancy) come down there, Shortzmeister.
Thanx for the fun and take care, MLG. Heckuva construction … it pulled no punches.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
@Peter P, I feel like I need to bow my head in shame with NOTV... I've been doing crosswords for many years and somehow thought that "Timeout" was a brand, and that NOTV was some other brand. I still stand by SCHUSS and UMBER tho, haha ("in the 80s" should be a flag there - we're now in the 2020's. But maybe >20% of folks have "burnt umber" in their memory and I just didn't use crayons enough growing up!).
@Dorothy Biggs and @Suzie Q - Yep. And after awhile you can even detect the “voice” of specific constructors. To me, ERI TU is a holdover from when Opera was much closer to the pop culture center, a time that Shortz more than anyone other editor except maybe Peter Gordon holds onto. La Traviata made a cameo in Pretty Woman 30 years ago, the era that always seems to be the pop culture center of the NYTX. Other than a few people here, I know nobody with a deep interest in Opera. OTOH, The Detroit Opera House is still going strong, so there is at least some cultural cachet out there for opera. Anyway, I have a whole section cordoned off in my brain for stuff I learned from and only use in crosswords.
Worries me, looking at all the people who never heard of Robert Louis Stevenson, people by definition technically literate or you wouldn’t be able to do these puzzles at all. Okay, never mind you never read Kidnapped (I keep getting it mixed up with The Little Kidnappers, which turns out, if Wikipedia is to be believed, never to have been a novel), you just gotta follow the rules, as set out above by @Dorothy Biggs: if it’s an author monogram, it’s either RLS, or EAP. For those of you who missed English class, that’s Edgar Allan Poe — but you don’t have to know that!! If the clue wants a three letter initialism for an author, it’s so likely to be one of the other of those that you can bet, or PUT, the rent on it.
Here’s wishes for your return to health, Mary Lou.
Just looked up Crayolas and saw that beside the 64 Box we had as kids, they came out with a 96 Box, a 120 Box, and more recently, a 150 Box, and a 152 Box! That is Crayon Nirvana there. Maybe I'll get back into coloring... I can afford to buy them now, not like when I was a kid!
Roo
I enjoyed the puzzle, with its five vivid theme expressions (marred for me only by the clunky ONE’S), and somehow I never saw NOTV and most of the other UGH-inducing fill folks have pointed out.
I smiled at the PANSY being included in the ring, surrounded by all the hitting, sparring, and throwing of punches.
Re: ERI TU - I thought it was a hard clue for Wednesday. Otherwise, I just wanted to add that besides its being a handy letter string for crosswords, it’s also a great aria. If you haven’t heard it yet and have 6 minutes to spare, take a listen to baritone (and very young) Dmitri Hvorostovsky with his winning performance at the 1989 Cardiff Singer of the World competition. There’s a intro; the “ERI TU” part starts at the 2-minute point.
Today in Crayon Collecting History:
Burnt Umber as a Crayola color name didn't exist during or since World War II, so I highly doubt anyone here "remembers" it. The assortments since 1950 or so contained Burnt Sienna, Raw Sienna, and Raw Umber, the last of which was also retired eventually. The clue is technically accurate because there was a color called Burnt Umber very early on, but I have a feeling that sloppy fact-checking was at play here.
This was kind of a pointless theme, imo. Yes, the theme answers were given "non-boxing clues" as Rex puts it, but they really don't lose their boxing connotations when used metaphorically. So...meh.
White people singing white-people music in the manner of white people.
@Benjamin Blanchard - Looks like I was wrong about "burnt umber" being in the 64 pack in the 80s. According to Wikipedia, it was only in packs from 1903-1944 (!). "Raw umber," though was around until 1990, though. "Burnt sienna" and "raw sienna" both still exist, so I guess my mind must have just filled in the gap and thought "burnt umber" must have existed as a Crayola crayon color. It's a pretty standard color for a basic painting palette (though, of course, it depends on what you're painting, but for naturalistic scenes and subjects, it's one of the usual.)
And don't remind me the '80s were 40 years ago! ;)
Agree. I appreciate your considerate commentary.
taking (or tossing) the gloves off goes back a long way. it merely means the difference between 'civilized' fisticuffs and bare-knuckle. no more complicated than that. around the time that professional boxing segued from one to the other, I suppose the distinction was made more often.
@Dorothy Biggs: very well said.
GLUEPOT is definitely a thing. Glue used to be used a lot more in a variety of fields. My wife was amused at spotting a big bottle (but not a POT) of glue on Peggy's desk on a Mad Men rerun a couple of days ago. Furthermore, some glue needed to be kept warm, hence, I assume the POT aspect.
I feel that I was an IDIOt with my 23D-32A DNF, but on the other hand, I can roll with the PUNCHES on it.
I always like seeing the word KIOSK. It's spelled the same way in Swedish but is pronounced shōsk, which is how I always mentally pronounce it.
I feel about TMC the way Rex does - the obvious HBO competitor is SHO. TMC has crummy movies as a rule. I'm not even sure we still get it on our Comcast subscription but I don't miss it if we don't.
Sorry, Mary Lou, to hear about your medical issue. It must be like being HIT BELOW THE BELT when one gets struck by ill health. Best of luck to you, and thanks for the Wednesday puzzle.
@Joe D
The clue for 20A, UMBER, is "Burnt____(old Crayola color)."
So, it's pre-WWII.
What's not factual about that?
I liked this one a lot.
I agree with @Lewis on all counts. For me it was a fun puzzle below average time. All of Rex's complaints I got with fair crosses (from my wheelhouse).
For the crosswordese complaint, I need some gimmes (or crosswordese) to get a toe-hold. Lots of Friday/Saturday puzzles, I go through and have only a few words filled in, but that's enough to get going most of the time. Fill in SW and ooze out into the rest of the puzzle.
I thought NANO would have more comments from those who lose precious "nano-seconds" with tough clues.
I'm 75 and teach engineering classes as my retirement hobby. My wife (retired elementary school teacher) usually give me a box of crayons the first day of school. It's still a thrill!
ANO! ¡Eso es gracioso!
The mashup of notv, eritu, gluepot and idio drove me to google decoupage and the aria. Found the rest easy. Cookie Lavagetto will live in infamy in the heart of every old Yankee fan. I'm with those putting put as a stock market wager as correctly defined by @Z
@Joe, Geez, I concocted my own memory from various sources. I remembered it as being burnt umber. That may be because I also took oil painting lessons as a teenager where I think we used it. I'm sure I hated burnt sienna equally. Although for all you T.S. Eliot fans, I think Burnt Norton was awesome.
@JC66 – I said the clue is technically accurate. But I suspect it was meant to tap into Crayola color names as a collective memory from the boomer years. If so, they goofed on that front.
@Peach – Didn't your name used to be @Flesh? ;-)
(Explanation)
Sending healing thoughts to the constructor.
I had burnt siena before UMBER. They are my two standard browns in watercolor painting. Siena is more often spelled with two n's though. I don't remember anything about the crayon names, though I do have a funny story on that score.
My older son was at his kindergarten readiness screening. They asked him what color a crayon was. He picked it up, and read off the wrapper "Light Green". They pronounced him ready.
Lots of ugly fill as others have noted. When we got to the opera thing, I said, "Please don't be ERI TU," but of course it was.
I loathe and despise boxing as a sport, but luckily all these phrases were very much in the language. I remember when we were watching Star Trek Voyager, I'd always groan when I realized we were going to get one of the episodes of Chakotay boxing random aliens. UGH.
I wondered for far too long what NOT V was. Sigh.
@Ellen S TSE gets used pretty regular as a author anagram.
@Joe D
Ok, but I still don't understand how "sloppy fact-checking" can lead to an accurate clue.
I know. I once constructed a cool foody Sunday that Shortz Tough shot down for SHRIMPSCALLOPINI because he'd never seen it on a menu.
Most important part of all messages today - thoughts and best wishes to MLG. May it all go well and speedily.
@Jberg @Yankee fan @ TJS
All great games but best ever 16 innings pitched by Juan Marichal and 42 year old Warren Spahn on July 2, 1963 at Candlestick. Scoreless for 15 innings. Won by a Willie Mays homerun into the wind in the bottom of the 16th. Two incredible warriors.
@Z. Your point re @ Lewis re boxing and football is exactly right. There are people on this blog who will recall that the three biggest sports in America in the fifties were Baseball, Boxing and Horse Racing. Think Friday Night Fights and Seabiscuit drawing huge crowds to watch his train go by. Latter two are marginal today and baseball is still beloved but has issues. Another Darrell Stingley incident would do the NFL serious damage. NASCAR also struggling. Public sentiment has turned from violence as entertainment although MMA still on a run.
Set a personal Wednesday record today. May the constructor do so in her recovery.
@GHarris - @TJS and @Doug Carr maybe? At any rate, it wasn’t me.
@RAD2626 - Yep. Right now it’s Football followed by baseball/basketball followed by ice hockey. It wouldn’t shock me at all if by 2030 or 2040 Soccer and Basketball are the big kahunas. I love baseball but it’s busy turning itself into a boring game and why would any parent let their kid play football when there is soccer? If MLS doesn’t botch things soccer could easily be as big here as it is in the rest of the world in 10 years.
JC66 – If, for example, they meant RAW Umber, which existed through most of the last century until it was discontinued in 1990. That's a color people would genuinely remember that now qualifies as "old" since it no longer exists. But they got the names mixed up through inattention to detail.
Anyway it's just conjecture on my part. Maybe, bizarrely, they really did intend the pre-1940 color.
Enjoyed the puzzle today, thought it was the perfect level of difficulty for a Wednesday and would like to see more crosswords from this constructor. I don’t know Ms. Guizzo but based on posts from others, I extend my sincere hope for her full and speedy recovery.
Before NOTV was considered a punishment, some of my earliest TV memories were of my dad watching the Friday night fights. Anyone remember the old Gillette theme song? http://www.televisiontunes.com/Gillette_Cavalcade_of_Sports_-_Boxing.html
@RAD2626: yes, NASCAR is struggling but speaking as a long time fan, I don’t think it’s a matter of violence. It’s more a decline in the level of entertainment value combined with a change in demographics from an older generation of fans who were fiercely loyal to their favorite drivers, Also when you factor in the price gouging on everything from hotels to souvenirs, the cost of attending a race has become astronomical.
Agree on everything but NOTV which is tough to parse but not a proper noun or anything people haven't heard of. Some of the other stuff out there was awful though, including the ones you mentioned.
NASCAR is going belly up for the simplest of reasons: all racing is conducted like IROC was years ago. The cars are all identical, except (a bit) for the radiator hole. Also, they're the size of slot cars, not real Grand National Stock Cars. Finally, roundy-round racing has always been the ken of backwoods moonshiners, and wannabes. The fact is, cities are taking over the population, and the empty states are rapidly de-populating. Deal with it.
Weird puzzle. The grid is not a square, it is 15x16, which results in an undesirable symmetry of the black squares. Also, I don't know where in this country the JOURneyMAN would be pronounced GERMAN, or HOneyBEE as HUBBY. In short this puzzle has a clever idea but the execution in MESSY.
I am glad I am not the only one to notice that ANO and AÑO are not the same thing. OY
Burnt by the SCHUSS / SSR crossing. In my mind I thought Lith was Lithium so I had no idea and went with ESR. Of course it’s Lithuania - a former SSR. Got everything else though...
CLASSY PABST SMEAR
ANKE was ONCUE TWO wit:
SHE SPIED THAT SCOT swelled;
THAT WOODY was a HIT
BELOWTHEBELT.
--- ROLF LOWE
NOTV for you, after the race this week. I have managed to be in the room for Dale's crash 19 years ago and the crash this Monday. Ugh. Mr. W watches the races - I think they are all nuts. (And I think many of these folks are driving on our roadways, thinking they are in a race or a car commercial for tough "drivers." No wonder I hate to be a passenger with any driver who isn't similarly terrified of the actions of other distracted/drunk/careless/aggressive driver. End of rant.
Puzzle was easy-ish for a Wednesday, I guess. Won't fight a bout it. (sic) Couldn't spar the effort. (sic) (sick)
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Easier than Monday orTuesday because of the boxing theme with the four easy grid-spanners. One write-over: oast before KILN.
Thanks for the smooth ride, Ms. Guizzo.
Interesting puzzle with 5 grid-spanning themers that require no revealer. Actually, the themers themselves were easier to get than other answers in the puzze.
In Elementary school I much preferred Sergeant crayons to those made by Crayola which seemed much more cheaply made and didn't transfer the coloured wax to the paper as well. Weird memory. Burnt UMBER seems a common phrase, but not one I associate with crayons.
I had no problem with the fill; in fact I thought it was a decent puzzle.
Apparently Mary Lou Guizzo has health problems. I'm hoping she recovers well.
I can add little to what OFC said. Perhaps if one themer were eliminated it might have made for better fill. Five gridspanners? That's pretty tough to pull off. I think "THEGLOVESAREOFF" is an allusion to hockey. Just the other night, incredibly, two players dropped their gloves and had at it BEFORE THE OPENING PUCK DROP!!! "I went to see the fights and a hockey game broke out."
The DOD stage is pretty bare today, but there's ANKE Huber (who??) right next to the SASH, so she might as well PUT it on. Ms. Guizzo's grids are usually more CLASSY than this. UIES, doubly hateful because you can use UEYS if you need those letters, elicit a 61-down from me. Bogey.
How is att the answer for an A.B.A member?
I don't get the connection between a.b.a member and att
The ABA is the American Bar Association, which is the national organization for ATTorneys. ABA is also sometimes used for the defunct American Basketball Association just to keep us on our toes.
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