.png)
Spanish resort island to locals / MON 11-23-20 / Pink-flowering shrub / Horror film villain with knife / Locale of Oakland and Alameda
Monday, November 23, 2020
Constructor: Stanley Newman
Relative difficulty: Hard to say since I solved it untimed *and* Downs-Only ... seemed like it might play slightly harder than the typical Monday
Theme answers:
- DIDGERIDOO (18A: Australian wind instrument)
- MID-OCEAN RIDGE (38A: System of underwater mountains)
- BRIDESMAID (60A: Wedding attendant)
The parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals. The parietal lobe is positioned above the temporal lobe and behind the frontal lobe and central sulcus.The parietal lobe integrates sensory information among various modalities, including spatial sense and navigation (proprioception), the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch in the somatosensory cortex which is just posterior to the central sulcus in the postcentral gyrus, and the dorsal stream of the visual system. The major sensory inputs from the skin (touch, temperature, and pain receptors), relay through the thalamus to the parietal lobe.
Several areas of the parietal lobe are important in language processing. The somatosensory cortex can be illustrated as a distorted figure – the cortical homunculus (Latin: "little man") in which the body parts are rendered according to how much of the somatosensory cortex is devoted to them. The superior parietal lobule and inferior parietal lobule are the primary areas of body or spatial awareness. A lesion commonly in the right superior or inferior parietal lobule leads to hemineglect.
The name comes from the parietal bone, which is named from the Latin paries-, meaning "wall". (wikipedia)
Bullets:
- The revealer clue is not accurate — There are not "two forms" of ID found in the theme answers. There is one form, found twice. There's just ID ... two times. Not, not, decidedly not "two forms." I get why the "forms of ... " phrasing is there, in terms of trying to evoke a common phrase related to IDs, but when your themers don't have "two forms," best not to say they do.
- What the heck is a MID-OCEAN RIDGE? — I have no doubt that it's a real thing, but that is not a thing that either Rachel or I had ever heard of. Seems kinda weird that you have to get that technical on a Monday, when the only theme restriction is 2xID.
- Some of the fill is less than great — this is true esp. for YALEU, which, when you're solving Downs-only, is particularly gruesome ("What 5-letter answer ends -LEU?" A: nothing good). Lots of very common crosswordy stuff. Solid and inoffensive overall, though, for the most part, and the rather large / open corners kept the fill from being boring.
- Neither of us knew PARIETAL — or, in my case, how to pronounce it :(
- There are so many ways this puzzle could've included more women and it just chose not to — CHRIS, DANA, PEARL, OSAKA, OBAMA ... lots of opportunities for cluing these answers as women. It seems like a low-stakes thing to many of you, I know, but just a little attention, a little thoughtfulness, even having the issue (of gender parity) on your radar, would go a long way. Please check out this visual essay from the website The Pudding ("Who's In The Crossword?"), which uses data gleaned from several major daily crosswords to illustrate the tendency of puzzles to underrepresent women and people of color.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Save And Share :
129 comments:
Rex, what are you eating through much of the video when you’re off camera? It was distracting, and slightly impolite, and now I’m so curious what it was. You sounded like an old grandmother sucking on hard candies.
I rather liked this puzzle, it required some thought, which is always welcomed on a Monday.
Didn’t see 62D and didn’t look for a theme, just finished it and went on with my day. Oh well, my loss.
Just finished reading all the comments from Sunday’s puzzle and didn’t want to be left out of the 203 and counting comments. I really liked the puzzle, took some effort to finish, but it was a fun ride.
Whizzed through the first half of this and thought I might be on track to beat my (modest) record. But the lower half was full of toughies, starting with that MIDOCEANRIDGE, whose first letter was the last to be filled in and only because I got the cross. Being neither North American or Jewish I then struggled mightily with the SE corner, with TEMPE, PIERRE Trudeau, the Book of EZRA and MATZOH all in a cluster like that, none of which were Monday level gimmes in my opinion. That corner alone took roughly 40% of my solve time, which was frustrating. YALEU (yeuch) and ARAMIS and MALLORCA all slowed me down too. So much for beating my record - my time was nearly double it. Hrmpfh.
Easy-medium. Smooth but a tad hohum, plus what @Rex said about the ID thing. Didn’t hate it, but....
BAAED
Didge, Ridge, I expected maybe a Fridge or a Bridge or a Midge, but not a Bridesmaid!
Workmanlike Monday - a couple tough areas but for the part a smooth solve. Agree that the revealer was a little clunky - but the idea wasn’t bad. MID-OCEAN RIDGE was in the back of my mind somewhere and wasn’t a terrible entry. The overall fill was fine - Rex brought up the real stinker in YALE U - but I liked ENAMORS and the MALLORCA, ITS A GIRL stack. Spent two days in Majorca with my wife in the late 90s while traveling Spain and Portugal - beautiful place.
Stanley Newman publishes the Saturday Stumper every weekend - my favorite puzzle only because it usually humbles me. I know his cluing style pretty well by now. Not a bad start to the week.
One of my fastest solves ever. Almost broke a barrier, despite having my laptop on my chest whilst solving. (Hmm... who does this make me sound like? Hint: "*and* Downs-only")
I didn't wait around to hear R & R's post mortem analysis, but just like last time, find that Rex comes off as more likeable in the video format than when he expresses himself in writing. (Which maybe furthers my impression that he often puts on a grouchy act while writing.)
Agree with MID OCEAN RIDGE and YALE U. Knew PARIETAL. Out of sheer instinct, I put the accent on the second syllable.
-0 y.d.
Fun and informative acrostic yesterday. @bocamp, did you do that? BTW: I didn't get enlightenment about "peace", except for generalities about multiculturalism. Maybe I missed something.
Some random observations:
• Monday theme with a fair number of later-in-the-week answers (MIDOCEAN RIDGE, MALLORCA, ARAMIS, PARIETAL, IRON CAGE and maybe more). Was this too tough for new solvers? Maybe some beginners can chime in here?
• O-starters: OPAL, OHNO, OBAMA, OSAKA, O-RINGS.
• Schwa-enders: OBAMA, OSAKA, TAPIOCA, EZRA, TOGA, AZALEA, DANA, BOGOTA, MALLORCA.
• Is a backward LAPTOP a cousin of “drinking buddy”?
• Double-ID-theme-inspired short tale: PROVIDE EVIDENCE, said the public to the one with the PRESIDENTIAL BID. “I DIDN’T SLEEP A WINK,” he replied, “so after I RAIDED THE FRIDGE, I took a MIDNIGHT RIDE to do some thinking, then concluded I was STRIDE FOR STRIDE with my opponent and I was wishing for a BIDENCIDE. I asked, WHAT DID I DO WRONG? Nothing, I concluded, I won because too many voters didn’t have a VALID ID. Go with me here, public, LET KIDS BE KIDS."
"Two forms of ID" is just a long way of saying "two IDs." I mean, does anyone have, say, two driver licenses? Two passports? Two birth certificates? I think the problem is in the colloquialism not the revealer. Lots of common phrases don't actually make literal sense when you parse the individual words.
We have seen YALEU before. I've "ughed" every single time.
I may just start skipping the 23rd of the month. Watching Rex and Rach solve was interesting once, but as a monthly thing it's going to get tedious real fast.Plus - 30 minutes investment when reading the write-up takes maybe 5? Why would I want to watch the video? This is also my feeling about podcasts. I guess if I had a long commute a podcast might be nice for filling the drive time. But write articles and I can fit a half dozen or more "podcasts" in the same amount of time.
Speaking of articles, EZRA et al. have been in the news with the interesting Voxexit. All the editorial leadership of Vox announcing that they are leaving within days of each other and I still haven't seen a Vox Explainer on what's going on. EZRA Klein is heading to the NYT Opinion pages. I must admit that I tend towards traditional outlets much more than the new ones. Apparently I'm not alone. Anyhoo - EZRA was the most interesting thing in the puzzle.
So that’s Rex. A lot more jovial than I expected. I also realized his times aren’t as unreal as I once thought... He solves on a normal keyboard and types super fast. I’ve always solved on my iPhone. The thumb typing must add significant time to my solves.
Seems low stakes. The understatement of the year. If you want to make the number of women v men mentioned in the puzzle a social justice issue feel free. And I will continue to think it is moronic.
Hi Rex, just an addition to your note about the lack of women in the puzzle: I believe the preferred term is "actor" now, not "actress," just like we no longer say "poetess" or "prosecutrix" (yes we did once use that term to mean a "lady prosecutor" yuck).
Pretty trivia-laden, so thankfully it’s a Monday.
DIDGERIDOO
MID-OCEAN RIDGE
MALLORCA
EZRA
ARAMIS
PARIETAL, all seem a bit esoteric for this early in the week.
And, of course it’s the NYT, so you’ve got the cringe-inducing YALEU and BAAED as well. Not awful - just the price you pay for having a theme I guess.
A pearl is not a stone.
r.alphbunker's interface has a "downs only" mode that actually hides the across clues so you can't be tempted (also an "across only" mode). http://puzzlecrowd.com:8080/CrowdSource/
I didn't hear anything.
There are so many ways this puzzle could've included more women ....ha ha ha ha ha ha
Stone walls do not a prison make/nor iron bars a cage. Proof that IRONCAGE isn't really a thing.
Somehow I entirely missed the clue for the revealer because I was doing acrosses and so was left wondering what the theme might be. The "two forms of ID" doesn't bother me as much a s it does OFL, like most other things I can think of.
Got EZRA from the downs and went back to see if the clue was "Poet Pound", which it was not. A shame because "poet pound" sounds like something you'd do to a bad poet.
Same thoughts about YALEU, which I knew it would be after reading the clue and seeing five letters needed. Thinking "please don't be YALEU" was no help at all.
Solid Monday, maybe tough on newbies, but pretty much all familiar for old timers like me. Thanks for the fun, SN, and I really enjoy your Saturday Stumpers.
@Miranda - Maybe you might want to reconsider your understanding of the word "stone." Other non-earthen "stones" include gall stones, hailstones, and peach stones. That's just the nouns. I'm stone-cold sober as I write this.
The first – and I expect it will be the only – time I’ve heard YALE U. And what do non-locals call MALLORCA? According to Wikipedia, we call it Majorca – but I’ve never in my life heard that either.
But I can forgive a few minor things like that for a clever, well-executed theme on a Monday.
I never thought of PEARL as a “gemstone”, but I suppose it fits.
Agree with those saying easy medium. Thought it was a solid Monday.
I loved MIDOCEANRIDGE given it's a long marquee literally in the middle of the puzzle and knew PAREIETAL immediately. I wrote a thesis in college about the importance of balanced, interdisciplinary study and Rex/Rachel would seem to have benefitted.
IRONCAGE is a bit odd. I think STEELCAGE would be more apropos given the clue.
Add me to the YALEU is a stinker category (the only significant foul in my book).
ORING is fine in my book - Challenger made it indelible for me. If you haven't seen this year's Netflix documentary on Challenger, it's worth a watch. I had no awareness of Feynman's significant effect on the investigation (Feynman is worth following on twitter too).
This could (maybe should) have just been themeless as far as I'm concerned.
@kitshef - thanks for pointing out Majorca - I was puzzled by the clue. Majorca is used in the arts/crafts/antiques trade - Majorca potter and Majorca glass. I think we can blame the ye olde English for the misunderstanding of the Spanish accent.
@Miranda
I'm tempted to agree, but the definition in Wikipedia says "A gemstone is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli and opal) and occasionally organic materials that are not minerals (such as amber, jet, and pearl) are also used for jewelry and are therefore often considered to be gemstones as well.
Merriam Webster is more succinct: "a mineral or petrified material that when cut and polished can be used in jewelry"
Loved the video and looking forward to the next one. I DNF'd at 38 "M". I think IRONCAGE's are painted green. I wondered if the 2 forms of ID thing meant 2 different sounds for the 2 ID's in each word. That sort of works but not cleanly. And, as Rex points out there are a few ID's in the grid outside the themes, including a forward backward combo in HEIDI.
Re: Sunday WaPo puzzle. Thanks to you who suggested it. ***SPOILER ALERT***STOP!! I usually don't like use of black squares but it was so elegant and unforced. The relevant black squares evened opened up to enter the needed letters. What fun it was. All praise deserved.
DIDGERIDOO and SLASHER too. Can you call PIERRE a woman? You've got ACTRESS HEIDI...Do you suppose she has a she SHED?
Strange sorta Monday. I felt like I BAAED out of the ball park. No PEARL clutching except YALEU. You have to clutch when you say that word.
Now I'm going to listen the @REX's video and try to guess what he's eating.
Where's Kathryn Bigelow when you really need her?
Hey All !
@Z
Let's all get stoned! Har.
Crunchy tidbits thrown in here, maybe too much for a MonPuz? I bet tomorrow's will be deemed "Should've switched thus with YesterPuz". Any takers? 😋
I liked it. I did think the whole theme/reveal was kinda wonky, though. IDS? That's it? Oh well, still a nice solve. Light on the black squares. 32, when 38 is the norm on a Monday. Nice openness all over.
Got a bunch of DOs, DODO, ITLLDO, INDO, KUDOS, SODOM, MIDOCEAN, DIDGERIDOO. DO be DO be DO. 😁
No F's (WELL...)
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Stanley, a most enjoyable solve, altho, imo, the editors might have played this on Tues. (or easy Wednes.). Nevertheless, crunchy fill and some things to stoke the memory bank. Thank you! :)
The NW went well, but thereafter, it was hit and miss. 2 min. over av.
New: "mid ocean range".
Hazy: "Chris"; "Mallorca"; "matzoh".
Write-overs: 50A "butcher"; 63A "Ezek" (pay attn bo, the clue is not abbr'd.)
Fav. clues/answers: "didgeridoo"; "it'll do"; "yon"; "choirs"; "due south"; "kudos";
Didn't appreciate: "iron cage"; "slasher" (yesterday's "gat" and "capo" were subtle; "slasher" (as clued) is glaring); maybe could be clued as "censor", "editor", etc.;
Side-eye: time to ditch sexist "ess" suffixes, e.g. "actress".
W.O.T.D.: "didgeridoo"
Language O.T.D.: "matzo/h" Yiddish matse, from Hebrew maṣṣāh
"Trade"ing baseball/football cards and agate shooters (marbles) was a big thing in my neighborhood ('50s).
George "Ezra" - Barcelona
y.d. 0
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
Christmas Eve Eve is Christmas Adam (you know, since Adam came before Eve...)
Typical Monday here. SB Genius quickly, no-sweat Mini, and easy NYT puzzle. Nice and sunny here in SW Florida.
MatzOh? Matzah yes. Matzo yes. Never saw it spelled Matzoh. I googled it and came up with no such spelling. Thought there'd be other complaints. But so far I'm the only one. Am I wrong?
Why anyone would want to view and listen to a video of Rex and Rachel chatting beggars the imagination. I'm certainly anything but video-averse but I certainly won't waste my time on another of Rex's solving videos. I gave up on today's after a few minutes.
That said, Rex's comments in the written blog were spot on.
Mid-ocean ridge is taught in any earth science class. My sixth grade students learned it. Seems fairly common knowledge.
ID's? That's it?
Nothing to write home about.
If the revealer were "WIZARD of ID" then we'd be on to something.
@Unknown 9:21 AM
I've seen it spelled this way lotsa times. Here.
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. They turn on machines (4)
2. 1, 2, 3, 4 ... 11, 12, 14, etc. (6)
3. Times table? (8)
4. Zoning, so to speak (3)(2)(2)
5. Melting point? (6)
COGS
FLOORS
NEWSDESK
OUT OF IT
ICICLE
If I am not mistaken, I believe the Mid-Ocean Ridge was the setting for The Skin of Our Teeth.
Or was itThe Matchmaker?
I was surprised -- and delighted -- to see such an-Mondayish puzzle, replete with challenging fill like PARIETAL and MID-OCEAN RIDGE (which, btw, I've never heard of). I solved it as a themeless and certainly didn't need to know the theme to solve it, but now that I see the theme, it's nice. It led to interesting fill, always a good thing.
And even though geography is one of my weak areas, and even though there was a lot of it in this puzzle (including ULSTER, which I didn't know as clued), I liked the fact that the knowledge required to solve this were things the educated person should know. Such as one of the Three Musketeers. A famous prime minister. A famous newscaster. And not, say, trivia like the lead DIDGERIDOO player in the pop band "Wild Marmalade".* KUDOS on an interesting and grown-up Monday.
*Si Mullumby. It's a she. I looked her up.
I thought that YON is an old-fashioned word for ‘that’. YONDER means ‘that there’.
Oh is that ever GREAT, @Lewis (6:53)! Inspired, even! Don't miss @Lewis's brilliant utilization of today's theme, everyone!
@OFL:
I have no doubt that it's a real thing, but that is not a thing that either Rachel or I had ever heard of.
you need to watch more Science Channel. or audit a physics class.
"Neither of us knew PARIETAL"
ditto, but biology.
other than acronyms for Red State football/basketball/competitive knitting schools, no one, but no one adds U to the end of a school's name.
Wow...another XWord Puzzle Editor puzzle in the NYT (Cf. Agard, Gordon, et al.)....
(I wonder if Anna Stiga has any hits in the NYTXW Creator Database?)
@chimcham and also the software Rex uses helps a lot with speed. It skips to the word you want and shows you the clue to the side. Once you learn it, you can go way faster than we do on a regular app on the phone.
Post solve: forgot to go back and look for the theme inserts. Kinda meh, tho.
Here's what Stanley and had to say at XWord Info: "Most of the ideas for the crosswords I make come from a twisty interpretation of everyday things I see, read, or hear. The inspiration for today's was just like that — seeing "two IDs required" in a newspaper article. With the assistance of the very constructor-useful onelook.com, I selected the three most lively theme answers available. (Sorry, ETHIDIUM BROMIDE didn't make the cut.)"
Here's Jenni Levy's review from "Diary of a crossword fienD"
Yes, side-eye for "YaleU"
@TTrimble 6:46 AM 👍 👍
LOL - Acrostics seem to be well above my pay grade. I'd need some serious tutelage. Btw, you're not too far off on the "peace" solve: think puzzle in a puzzle (or the day's puzzle is your friend). 🤔 🕊
@Z 6:59 AM
Thx. for the Vox link. Hope it's just a simple explanation: time for people to move on; others will fill the gaps, and good things will continue to happen.
Love the Vox podcast, "Future Perfect": "Rethinking Meat".
@Chim cham 7:07 AM
Yes, I found the same to be true with my iPad (not quite as tough as on a phone), but still … Nevertheless, it still provides a comparative picture of my progress over the years.
@Wit 8:14 AM
Thx for the "Challenger" heads-up; will give it a view. :)
@Hungry Mother 9:18 AM 👍
___
Btw, thx to all who touted the WaPo Sunday; it was all that it was hyped to be. Felt awkward doing a puzzle on the big screen, rather than on the iPad. Not as intimate an experience; enjoyable, nevertheless. :)
George "Ezra" - Barcelona
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
Don't forget Iggy Azalea, Chi Coltrane and Lolita Haze.
The two IDs in DIDGERIDOO and BRIDESMAID are pronounced differently, so "two forms of" makes some sense there. Not really true for MID OCEAN RIDGE.
Easy like Monday morning
This is a theme? OK
@Unknown9:21 & @TTrimble - When I searched for MATZOH I was asked if I meant MATZO. Nevertheless, like @TTrimble, lots of recipes for MATZOH did appear so I guess it’s a thing.
@Roo - To quote EZRA Pound:
Well, they'll stone ya when you're trying to be so good
They'll stone ya just a-like they said they would
They'll stone ya when you're tryin' to go home
Then they'll stone ya when you're there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
🤣😂🤣
@kitshef - You never heard of My Orca or you just didn’t remember hearing about it? I seem to remember reading something about how the Brits overrun it every August. I could be making them up, though.
@Wit - and Rex/Rachel would seem to have benefitted. Classic case of adding 2+2 and getting π. Nothing personal, this tsk tsking is a regular feature here, but the endless epistemological sophistry gets tiresome.
Re: the dispiriting bro-iness of xwords in general, agreed.
Either way is correct
Can anyone please refer me to a blog that only discusses the puzzle. This is a blog about REX. Which is nice for him, but, who cares about him?
Surprised that no complaints about EASTBAY from the Easterners here. The San Francisco Bay Area is better known than I thought.
Lewis’s list of the best clues of the week is a wonderful feature of the blog. Lewis, you’re a treasure!
I was thinking about playing the role of Lewis’s evil twin and posting a list of the worst clues of the week. Today’s “Fleming who created 007” for IAN would probably make it.
no one who's Modern would ever quote Ezra Pound, Nazi of the first water. same for Elia Kazan.
This had a theme? Coulda fooled me. Oh wait, it did fool me. When I finished I looked at it and thought, that’s odd, to have a themeless Monday. No circles or shading, etc. to indicate any hidden letters, and the “IDs” didn’t exactly jump out of the grid. Nothing wrong with the puzzle as far as my own solve, but seemed hard for Monday and pretty tough for rookies. MID OCEAN RIDGE was new even to me plus DIDGERIDOO and PARIETAL too would be quite discouraging.
Definite 'ugh' for YALEU. Also with those that don't think of pearls as gemstones. DENT before Ding held me up a bit. But a fast relatively fun start to the week, so if we're a little short of KUDOS, for sure ITLLDO.
Just a question: for those of you who reference other newspaper crossword puzzles, like the L.A. Times or the Washington Post or Long Island's Newsday - do you pay for access to each of those puzzles or is there some all-purpose crossword site or place? Forgive my ignorance but I am a just-around-the-corner from 75 year old and my internet savvy is minimal, at best.
If you have to be Jewish to know “MATZOH,” well, that’s pretty sad—and more than vaguely anti-Semitic.
@RP: For a more satisfyin challenge, y'all shoulda solved this sucker as a 15x15 diagramless.
poor IDLE HEIDI … left one of her forms of ID behind -- just DUESOUTH, in fact.
staff weeject pick: IDS. I'm ok with there sorta bein two "forms" of em in the themers: a front one and a back one.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue … ok, time-out, here. I woulda gone with {Artist's stand} = EASEL, but if U are solvin "Downs Only", that wouldn'ta come up (so to speak). Of just them Down clues, I'd hafta go with {"Dumb" bird} = DODO.
Puz played slightly DUENORTH of Easy, for a MonPuz. Probably becuz of MIDOCEANRIDGE concerns, crossin MALORCA, PARIENTAL (extendin into ULSTER/PIERRE) & IRONCAGE.
{End of a school address} = U. Handy examples: YALEU. EDU.
Thanx for the early week workout, Mr. Newman. I'm pretty sure it was really you … U certainly furnished lots forms of ID.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
A crossword puzzle is a pleasant diversion to help us wend our way thru some tough times. . . But, in Rex's world, it must, wherever possible, contain references to Asians, Hispanics, Blacks, Transgenders, Gays, Muslims, Little People, Samoans, Native Americans, and Women. . . If I left anyone out, I'm sure the PC Police will be knocking down my door. . . GOD HELP US!!
I'D say, a very enjoyable Monday, with a nicely concealed theme and plenty of out-of-the-ordinary entries. I liked the little ditty DIDGERIDOO, IT'LL DO, the non-gem PEARL of TAPIOCA, and the geographic variety represented by BOGOTA, SODOM, MALLORCA, ULSTER, TEMPE and the EAST BAY (and, Midwesterner that I am, the veiled reference to CHI-town). I was surprised to read that MID-OCEAN RIDGE isn't such a well-known term....but then maybe not everyone has a fascination with plate tectonics :).
@Z
I thought that was Dylan Thomas.;-)
@bigsteve46
Here are the links:
Newsday.
LA Times
WaPoSunday
This felt tougher than most Mondays. The PEARL clue was bothering me so I checked the gemsociety.org site.
"While these others form as minerals underground, pearls have organic origins. They form within various species of freshwater and saltwater mollusks. Simply put, pearls are gems but not stones. However, the ancients made little distinction between pearls and actual stones."
https://www.gemsociety.org/article/history-legend-pearls-gems-yore/#:~:text=While%20these%20others%20form%20as,between%20pearls%20and%20actual%20stones.
@Bigsteve46 - To access today's puzzles google "Diary of A Crossword Fiend" and click on "Today's Puzzles" in the black bar just under the banner at the top of her site. There are usually a couple of ways to download each puzzle.
Alternatively, you could join cruciverb.com (no charge) and gain access to several daily puzzles.
Hope this helps.
@bigsteve and others- lotsa puzzles can be found here:
crosswordlinks@substack.com
@Lewis
POT PAL and drinking buddy. Good one.
Presidential mind reading. You did a solid.
ICICLE. Great clue. But seeing it today, I thought does it melt higher up and just run down the sides? Depends upon where the sun is hitting? The melting still comes to a point. But then, aha: It is also a freezing point. Freezing point, future clue?
Nobody complainting about the extra IDs, IDLE HEIDI? Hooray.
@Z
EZRA in the captain's tower.
I usually read all the clues as I solve since I don't speed solve. Missed the ID'S clue Then like @Bocamp forgot to look for the theme. It was minimal, but a fun crunchy Monday.
YALE U. U is common for University and the name of the institution is YALE University. So no foul, just accurate, clever, and gettable. Yes. nobody ever says it. So what? Where is that in the unwritten rules of crosswords? Sure some answers should be common words or phrases. Some should be imaginative. Besides, if it irritates a few ELI's, so mu h thhe better.
@anonymous 11:22 - that's not a EZRA Pound quote
FYI-A claw is a curved, pointed nail on the digits of an animal—a definition that can be broadly applied. A talon is a sharp, hooked claw of a bird of prey. That means all talons are claws, but not all claws are talons. Source-askinglot.com.
Some have complained and they're right.
@bocamp
Ah, maybe I get it. Partially, anyway. But for today, I'm not sure about 'Pax' (which is Latin, that I know).
Re the Acrostic: I doubt you'd need any tutelage. If you have the general knowledge needed to complete the NYTXW on a daily basis, and the persistence to achieve or get close to QB every day, then I think those two qualities are all it takes.
Well, I'll add that the willingness to look for letter patterns, such as for cryptic quote decoding puzzles, can also come in handy.
Usually I have only a few answers to clues, perhaps as few as two or three that I have any real confidence in. The online acrostic will enter the letters from those clues automatically into the quote. But with luck, you may see e.g. an H that's the second of a three-letter word in the quote, so you could try T-H-E there, and see what the T and E suggest for other answers down below. And so forth. There's a kind of dialectic which emerges between the answers and the quote, where they mutually bootstrap each other up. Maybe it's just my personality, but that kind of dialectic and detective work deeply appeal to me.
Anyway, I encourage you to give it a try. Maybe the main thing is not to let yourself be intimidated. Or, to tell it from my own experience: I might despair a bit when I first lay eyes on an acrostic, thinking at first I'm not going to get it, but in the end I seem always to get it, and I believe that experience is actually very common.
DIDGERIDOO was here not that long ago but it was long enough for me to hesitate on the front part of the word.
Ringo Starr must have known more about Mallorca than I do:
"A woman that I know just came from Mallorca Spain
She smiled because I did not understand
Then she held out a 10 pound bag of Cocaine
She said it was the best in all the land"
Thanks, Stan, I liked your Monday puzzle and Saturday's Stumper.
@Bob:
D'oh!!!! the EZRA triggered so bad, I didn't even bother to read the 'quote'!!
EFB (11:15) -- There's the Wordplay blog, but the scrolling system was invented by the Marquis de Sade. The comments and commenters get buried, never to be seen again. Hell, you can't even find yourself half the time. And there's no contact info, so you can't make friends there the way you can here.
I agree that the incessant focus on Rex here is beyond annoying. So do what I do, @EFB. Stop reading Rex and stop reading the comments that are about Rex. That's what I do as a matter of course. Even if it's written by a good blog buddy, once someone starts reacting to Rex's reaction -- they like it, they don't like it, I couldn't care less -- I stop reading and go on to the next comment. Look at this blog as a smorgasbord and help yourself to what most appeals to you, skipping everything else. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. That's my suggestion.
@albatross shell -- [Freezing point?] has actually been done (2011).
As an eastcoaster I only know California from books, TV, and movies. I got EAST. LA was a letter short. BAY was the next word I thought of, who knows why. It sounded familiar. The puzzle had several things I didn't know but enough crossed were gettable they all became knowable or guessable and even sellable. Always forget that second D in the Native instrument and then think the G or R must be doubled.
@Z
I sincerely try not to offend, but your point is taken. It is hard to say anything without offending someone.
I do take some offense at your characterizing my comment as "sophistry" (if it was pointed at me) - I don't believe that what I said was "fallacious with the intent to deceive." I despise sophistry, and its common practice in the body politic (nothing new). And, I do think that crosswords are fairly polymathic by their very nature.
In any case, my experiment in participating in this blog is over. Tough crowd.
@Lewis
Thanks. You are a gem, stoned or not.
@ mathgent 11:16 I think EASTBAY is a pretty well known term throughout the US. I've only lived on the East Coast, but I didn't find it esoteric at all.
Re: the mid-Atlantic ridge (also called the rift?), I think anyone with a passing knowledge of plate tectonics, geology, or volcanoes, would be familiar with this term. I think it runs up the middle of the Atlantic and literally up to Iceland, hence all the spectacular volcanic activity there.
As far as Rex goes with his disappointment that there weren't more women in the puz, that falls pretty low on the list of global concerns. To me it comes across as virtue signalling, and nothing more.
@Wit
Don't let @Z bully you.
Your comments are interesting and aren't offensive to me.
Stick around and keep posing.
@TTrimble 1:03 PM
The Latin connection - you're on the right track. 👍 Btw, Google translate is my friend. 🤓
Okay, good tip on the acrostic; you fill in below what you know for sure, then see if that opens up something above, and if so, then that fills in more below, and you keep going back and forth, right? I tried a recent NYT acrostic, and the quote was totally unknown (at least to me), as was the author. It was a very long quote, and the wording was next to bizarre, as well. I only had a few of the answers below, and none of the words above seemed inferable, so I thought, "this is totally impossible, how could anyone come up with the correct solution?" I know some of you on this blog do, so okay, the Mensans, but not I. Thx for the encouragement; I'll have another go at it. I assume the NYT's one is archived, so I can give yesterday's a shot? 🤔
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
Really poor mis-clue on white stone. A pearl? Not scientific, guys. You should not do that it us not clever but stupid and wrong. Sad, too, like 56-across. And since when is there a verb ’radioing’? Anyway. Rest went ok.
@Wit
I hope not.
I have disagreed with you without being disagreeable, I trust. I did not think the sophistry remarks were directed at you but maybe about your subject matter. But whichever, Z will speak for himself, I will guess.
I certainly have some value in your viewpoints.
Spelled that way in New York!
@Lewis: I luv you madly, but Bogota does not end in a schwa. Not where I come from. @ pabloinnh: Am I right?
@Wit
Yeah, please don't go; I'm enjoying your posts.
But could I get you to explain "Feynman on Twitter"? *The* Feynman (Richard P.) has been dead for some time. He has a son named Carl whom I see occasionally around the internet. Or is "feynman on twitter" about something else.
Very poor mis-clue on white gem stone 16 A. The pearl is not a stone! That is unscientific and you should not do that- not clever but stupid. Also like 56 A- sad. And when was there a verb ‘radioing ‘?
Gee. Monday is to be easy for us not for construction breaks!
Wit,
Z is a blowhard. Wrong today, yet typically instant, about pearls being stones.
Don't abandon this blog because of that choad. Really. He's not worth it. If I find your pots interesting, and JC66 does that suggests plenty of others do to. You should at least be armed with that info before you bail.
@Wit
Obviously, I meant keep posting.
@Wit -- I join JC66 in his 1:46 comment. I like your posts and wouldn't want to see you go either. I have no idea what @Z was talking about...because I have no idea what you were talking about...because I didn't watch or read what Rex and Rachel were talking about. But I looked at your post just now and it seemed perfectly innocuous. Hardly something to be forced off the blog for.
the Ring of Fire (not the one by Johnny Cash) in the Pacific is likely the better known earthquake/volcano zone. the problem with the Atlantic Mid Ocean Ridge is that, unlike the plate boundaries in the Pacific, there's just one pathetic little island, Bermuda, which consists of bits and pieces (dozens, if not hundreds) of the cone of one pathetic little volcano. no lines of them in the Atlantic.
@Wit - I apologize. I really meant “don’t take it personally.” My comment wasn’t about your comment as much as it is about a long line of similar comments. Yesterday it was that play. Other times it is 19th century lit or 20th century lit, other times it is deriding Rex for teaching comics, another time it was because Rex doesn’t lionize mathematicians enough. Individually these comments are innocuous, but taken together I find them troubling.
Also - I was over the top with “endless epistemological sophistry.” It rolls off the tongue so nicely and I forgot that however much I meant it generally you were likely to feel it was directed especially at you. I was too busy being clever.
@old actor-Si senor, you are indeed correct.
Seems like only yesterday I was trying to help with the proper pronunciation of "caramaba", long A always as in "father", and here we are again. Bogota is especially jarring because it's BO-go-tah. BO-go-tuh, or whatever, is more than icky.
Pretty sure it only figuratively goes up to Iceland.
I've noticed that the number of SB comments has diminished but I fear it's now becoming an acrostic blog.
Er, no. It's simply that there is a much smaller Jewish population in the UK than there is in the US - 0.43% of the population here vs 2.14% of the population there - and representation on TV and in films (and in supermarkets and in cafes and restaurants) is correspondingly pretty limited. We have a much larger South Asian population here - 6.2% of the UK population, vs 0.15% of the US population - so if the NYTXW wants to pose questions about chapatti or naan or roti or paratha or hoppers or puri, I'm set.
Z
Very good last sentence.
Think I saw it on a gravestone.
@zepher 159pm, annonymous 204pm
Looks like a duck to me. Language is not a science test. Language has non-science usage. And a bit of a stretch keeps the mind agile. Of course I defended YALE U. I bahed at BAAED, but really wouldn't say it's wrong or worth the gripe.
@Wit
Hang around! When a comment perplexes, ask. And, always keep ACME's QTIP principle in mind (easier said than done). 😊
@Z 2:30 PM 👍
___
-2
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
Never saw the revealer clue or the theme. YALEU was pretty lame, though
Thanks Rex for mentioning gender and racial parity, things we can all be more thoughtful about. But then why is 'Itsagirl' such a bummer. Be glad!
Hanging out with the Rex and Rachel show while I'm mandated not to come into work -- it's kinda nice. I baked another loaf of sourdough and took on a new bookkeeping job that I can do from home but really don't want to.
The soundtrack for that is going to be something classical. Maybe that Enescu guy from the other day.
I had no idea Rex was so silly. I wonder if some nerds say YaleU. does this make it a thing? What are the tags for making the linky?
Shucks, I was hoping everyone would stay snarky and offended and argue some more, with an increasing number of us taking sides just to give us a little more polarization than we already have. Been far too peaceful today. Nice apology and wrap-up @Z.
@Wit, you DID say "I wrote a thesis in college about the importance of balanced, interdisciplinary study and Rex/Rachel would seem to have benefited". That at least made me pause, tho not bother to comment. I wouldn't say it came close to tiresome "endless epistemological sophistry" (and FWIW would encourage you not to leave just because someone said so). Still, if what you meant was that you think Rex and Rachel's joint effort today reflected the benefits of interdisciplinary study, slightly more straightforward phrasing might have conveyed just that. I personally don't think it reflected much at all, but that's neither here nor there. FWIW, think Nancy's got it right, as usual.
YALEU sounds like an insult! "You cut me off, YALEU!"
y.d. -1, closest in a while. Had to cut todays short, work started early.
This is a crossword blog, however, from the initial write-up of Rex, the comments sometimes skew in different directions about different topics. To me that's fine. I can see others point of view about the skews being unwelcome on a crossword blog, but really, think how boring it would be if the only thing discussed here was the days crossword and Nothing else.
*waits a few minutes for time to think*
See? Boring. Embrace the skews, don't hate them.
RooMonster "Embrace The Skews!" Guy
@oldactor -- I luv you right back, and thank you for the lesson; you as well @pablo!
@RooMonster 3:41 PM 👍
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
@Kit - This blog is about the NYT crossword puzzle AND Rex's commentary on the puzzle. Therefore, IMO, any comments about either of those subjects is right on the money.
However, we often stray from the main subject just for fun. And in the spirit of that, I say these two things:
(1) Please, @Kit, keep posting; and
(2) How 'bout those Chiefs!
@bocamp
Oh, for heaven's sake: TOGA! (Gee, I guess that is a Latin word!)
Latin was the language I took in middle school and two years of high school.
Re acrostics: consider yourself lucky if and when you ever recognize the quote. Generally, just go in expecting you're not going to recognize it. I practically never do myself (I think the last time I did, it was from the Devil's Dictionary).
Membership in Mensa is not a prerequisite!
I took issue with the “forms of ID” that clearly weren’t, but other than that, found this Monday accessible because of the variety of acrosses and downs that were interspersed nicely with an easier across helping a difficult down and vice versa.
Liked the fact that the long answers, while they were theme answers had nothing to do with the actual theme, other than containing the letters ID twice. Thus, I spent some head scratching time staring at the three once I had them al,l assuming they were theme answers and trying for some minutes to discern what they had in common other than the fact that each shared two occurrences of ID, spaced throughout the words. Go figure.
Can’t see IT’LL DO without thinking of the movie “Babe the Pig,” a favorite of my daughter’s. The farmer, each time Babe had successfully performed a shepherding task, would say either “That’ll do, Pig or IT’LL DO, Pig”.
The phrase became part of the family lexicon, and I recall its genesis as Family Saying precisely. There we all were, one Sunday afternoon immediately after a lengthy homework skirmish and struggle between my daughter and her dad, the teacher over math homework
What you need to know is that my husband was brilliant and his light hardly ever came out from under the proverbial bushel. When it did, it was always with some wry, self-deprecating quip. He loved to teach, loved to perform, but always in the background. He was a percussionist, not a drummer and content to be but one tiny part of an entire musical opus.
Daughter, Kate inherited his genius, his talent and his desire not to have to self-promote or behave in a “starlet” manner - ever. Her loathing of self-promotion drove her out of the professional theatre world after several successful years, but the stress of self-promotion just took too much enjoyment out of creating art. So, like her Dad, she took her immense talents and joyfully gives them away as a teacher.
Anyway, after this particularly difficult tussle with what the school called “pre-algebra” in her 6th grade year, the lengthy assignment was mercifully complete, the extra Dad-designed problems (to make sure the concepts “stuck” - that man did love a post-test!) solved successfully, the tears of frustration dried and her backpack was loaded for Monday morning.
Clearly exhausted, Kate slid off her chair at the dining room table, walked slowly around to the other side, leaned up against her Dad and put her arms around his neck in a hug. Larry, asked her,”Did we get it all?” She heaved a 6th grade, pre-teen, “spare me from my over-invested teacher-Dad” smile planted a sweet kiss on his cheek and said “IT’lLL DO, Pig.”
A fine Monday from my POV.
@Z
You're a mench.
@Joaquin:
(2) How 'bout those Chiefs!
how about the worst nightmare for a certain bloc of red blooded Americans: the best QB in the league is mixed race? I read a comment, years ago by a name I don't recall, that if all of this inter-marriage keeps up, we'll all look like Brazilians!!! funny thing is, the Irish, who certainly all look alike, hate certain other Irish. and so on. stupid people will always find a reason.
I'm in agreement with @Roo and @Joaquin when it comes to the skews/strays. In fact I agree entirely with this guy, who was defending "digressions", and why we shouldn't shout "digression!" at people
... lots of times you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. I mean, you can't help it sometimes. What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice.
H. Caulfield
@Lewis, you're welcome. Hearing from you is a ray of sunshine.
I live in New Haven and work at Yale and couldn't answer that one off the cuff. It needs to be eliminated from all crosswords asap
I had no IDea there was a theme - seriously, no IDea. I guess I never noticed the revealer.
@Joaquin 4:05 PM / JC66 5:13 PM / Qpabloinnh 5:32 PM
Right on! 👍
@TTrimble 4:20 PM
Bingo - A for the day! If I had it to do over, I'd take Latin and Spanish in lieu of French in h.s.. Btw, you probably know this: one of the more famous "toga" scenes is from Animal House, filmed at the UofO in Eugene. And, we definitely don't call it "OregonU". LOL
And, again, thx for the encouragement! :)
@CDilly52 4:49 PM
One of the many wonderful things that happens on this blog is an evocation that results in an anecdote such as yours. It warms the cockles of my heart to read your stories – this one prompted by a simple phrase in today's x-word: "it'll do". :)
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
@Joaquin (4:05) “How ‘bout those Chiefs?” They ‘bout gave me heart failure last night. But hey, 9-1 is looking pretty good.
@Wit: Your experiment with this blog is over? Oh no! Please reconsider. For what it’s worth, I agree with you on at least two points in your 8:14 post: that this puzzle seemed like a themeless and that IRON CAGE is weird answer. So now you see, since we are of like minds, you really must stick around or at least come back occasionally.
Not going to argue Rex's point on female names, except two:
1. Pearl was a repeat clue "White Gemstone" (is there a name for that trick?) So I think Pearl stands. But even it you used a female clue, the only ones I can think of are: Pearl Bailey or Janis Joplin nickname or album. Both of which are outside the knowledge of non Baby Boomers.
2. Obama. I believe there is an unwritten rule that Presidents appear in crosswords and the only way a First Lady does is with her own crossword worthy name: "Mamie" or "Onassis." Michelle doesn't qualify. Daughter "Malia" can appear but again she can't clue "Obama."
@Wit -- I solved the @Z problem a few weeks ago. I skip all of his/her entries, and any entry where I see @Z. I get through the blog much more quickly now.
You complain about the (relative) lack of feminine clues then miss the feminine theme clue bridesmaid!
@Anonymous 1239 in reply to
@me 1259
Yes you are right one person complained about the extra IDS in the puzzle. Rex might have in his video (which I have not seen) but did not in his blog (unless I missed it there too). M&A's comment I took as a witty comment not a complaint. The one complaint spent my more time complaining about the 2 forms of ID which has been explained in many ways already.
I would like to see why you think the complaint is justified. I know many here agree with you.
Why don't I?
The revealer specifically mentions 3 clues which it is to be applied to. There is no room for confusion. The revealer mentions two IDs in those clues. None of the extra ID words have a double ID. Thus no relevance or applcation to the revealer. In fact, that there are 2 single ID's could be taken as meta-nod to the puzzle itself. Maybe you aesthetically dislike this compared to adhering to some unspecified ambiguous made up rule, but clearly neither the editor nor constructors of NYT puzzles agree with you.
Right or wrong? Much more a matter of taste.
@Larry (6:49) - What about Pearl Harbor?
Old joke: I know a guy who's half Japanese, half Jewish. Every December 7th he attacks Pearl Goldstein.
@bocamp-Toga scenes were indeed filmed at OregonU, but they were inspired by Dartmouth, or as we call it, the college down the road.
They don't call it DartmouthU either, because it is " Dartmouth College", thank you very much. And the number of alumni who chose to settle locally is impressive and enriching.
@pabloinnh 8:00 PM
Hats off to the alumni of "the college down the road". My h.s. girl friend's brother went to Dartmouth in the '50s. Maybe he was an inspiration to those who later inspired the OregonU scenes. 😉
___
0
Peace שלום Paz 平和 Pax שָׁלוֹם Paix 🕊
@bocamp
Animal House is of course iconic, and I know it well. I didn't know it was filmed in Eugene OR. I did hear TOGA! TOGA! in my head as I was writing you.
I wouldn't say I regret opting for Latin as a youngster, but in my professional life I need French and German a lot more than I need Latin! :-) German is for me is far more of a bear than French, despite the fact that my wife's extended family is all German. (They're very sweet when I eke out a stammering reply in German. (-:)
Yeah, I kind of figured Google Translate was a mainstay for you! All those exotic languages.
@CDilly52
Seconding what bocamp said. Your husband reminds me of my uncle who, as I eventually learned, shielded his brilliance except from the eyes of a select few. I did enjoy his luscious library whenever we visited. His volumes of The World of Mathematics made an indelible impression. And Babe is such a sweet movie. Something about pigs resonates with me ever since my childhood Piglet.
I liked this one a lot. I nearly solved it accidentally with only across clues.
Regarding 48D - Haven't you all heard of PIERRE, the dehydrated Canadian?
and 7D - Did you know God's name is ANDY? ANDY walks with me ANDY he talks with me ...
I always enjoy referring to December 23rd as Christmas Adam. Since Adam came before Eve 🙃
Edited by Will Shortz? Words of praise : KUDOS?
He knows very well that kudos is singular and has no plural.
WELL...ITT’LLDO - Is this the editor’s SLOGAN lately? Sorry. No KUDOS for this SAD ACRID mess.
PS - Are DANA Carvey and David SPADE the same person?
ANDY IDS CHRIS
“Is the BRIDESMAID an ACTRESS from SODOM?”
“WELL, she ENAMORS in OPAL and PEARL.”
“DUESOUTH of her LAP, has her BAAED got ‘em?
If NAE’S the answer, then IT’SAGIRL.”
--- DANA ULSTER
I get the idea that maybe it's hard labor to construct a puzzle. So many of them--including today's--start out in the north with good, solid fill; then as you proceed DUESOUTH things seem to deteriorate and you're left at the bottom with YALEU and the crutchy SASS. Do they just get...tired? "Oh come on, let's just fill this thing out and send it in. I don't wanna look at it anymore."
At first, with ITLLDO, DIDGERIDOO and DODO, I was sure the theme would revolve around DO. I was just a letter off. Writing DeNt for 23a put a DING in an otherwise perfect solve, writeover-wise.
Who says a PEARL can't be a stone? I know how it's made, but it hardens. You can call it a stone because of the hardness, not because you think it's a mineral. Compare the Petrified Forest.
One PPP entry leaves no doubt whatever to the gender: DOD Heidi Klum. As to others, I think it's a silly point to carp about too many male clues; it's not that big a deal. We all know who we are...almost all, anyway. Get over it. The world is struggling mightily with the worst pandemic to come down the pike, and people are griping about how a name in a puzzle is clued.
A few nice touches: well-placed Z's in each NW/SE corner, near twins OBAMA and OSAKA. IRONCAGE is a thing--in some pro wrestling shows. And looky here: ITSAGIRL! See? Feel better now, sexy SADIE? Birdie.
👍
Well, if you have ever attempted to construct a crossword, even with the computer help that's available, you know it's hard.
So here here for Monday! Not so hard, not so easy.
Diana, LIW
I thought it was OK. Wasn't paying too close attention, so the dual IDS reveal explained it.
Change up the clues? OK, how about DANA Delaney? Yeah baby.
For a Monday ITLLDO.
Nicely done Monday with a well done bite.
Post a Comment