.png)
Balrog's home in Lord of the Rings / SUN 2-28-21 / Big name in windshield wipers /Site of the Minotaur's labyrinth / Liquor with double-headed eagle logo
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Constructor: Brad Wiegmann
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- BARELY MANAGING (24A: Leadership style of the nudist club president?)
- MANY MOONS AGO (41A: When the nudist club was founded?)
- RAW RECRUITS (56A: New members of the nudist club?)
- COMIC STRIPS (78A: What happens in the stand-up show at the nudist club?)
- EXPOSURE TIME (92A: Hours spent by the pool at the nudist club?)
- FULLY RECOVERED (108A: How people returned from a week at the nudist club?)
- BOTTOMLESS PIT (4D: Where the nudist club orchestra plays its concerts?)
- WINNING STREAK (59D: Victory in the annual nudist club 1K?)
Cetus (/ˈsiːtəs/) is a constellation. The Cetus was a sea monster in Greek mythology as both Perseus and Heracles needed to slay, sometimes in English called 'the whale'. Cetus is in the region of the sky that contains other water-related constellations: Aquarius, Pisces and Eridanus. (wikipedia)
• • •
Almost all the difficulty lay in trying to figure out what the hell the themers were trying to do, which meant over and over again, struggle was followed not by aha but by oof. Now I'm seeing MORIA? What is that? (43D: Balrog's home in "The Lord of the Rings"). Also, who / what is BALROG. I saw all those movies, and found them completely dull and forgettable. "LAR MORIA!" That's the devil's toast—roughly translated, it means "here's to your continued crossword suffering!"
Besides the themers, the only other trouble spot I encountered was the SW, generally. This is almost entirely due to the fact that I forgot CETUS, which ended up being in a weirdly crucial position, in terms of movement through the grid. CETUS and EAST gave me fits, and so my way into the SW felt a bit clogged up. I'd also never heard of RAIN-X (?) (69D: Big name in windshield wipers) or LISA Vanderpump (83D: Vanderpump of Bravo's "Vanderpump Rules"), and couldn't get to AUTO from 99D: Thermostat setting at all—needed every cross. Still, as trouble spots go, these are all pretty minor. The big issue today is that very little of any of this was interesting. I wish the news were better, but it is not. I'd really been feeling that the puzzle in general had been creeping up, quality-wise, this year. But Sunday ... bloody Sunday. I think I've liked one this year. The Paolo Pasco one from 1/3. I'm begging the good constructors, submit Sunday puzzles. Save us. Save me. Thank you. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. The Boswords 2021 Spring Themeless League starts *MONDAY* Mar. 1, 2021. Get a taste of virtual tournament fun and then when this whole pandemic baloney has subsided, you can maybe venture into the wonderful world of 3-dimensional crossword tournaments! Actual physical space! Actual human bodies! What a concept. In the meantime, this League is very popular and people seem to really enjoy it, so give it a go. Here's a blurb from head tournament guy, John Lieb:
Registration for the Boswords 2021 Spring Themeless League is still open! The 9-week event starts on Monday, March 1 and features themeless puzzles -- clued at three levels of difficulty -- from an all-star roster of constructors and edited by Brad Wilber. To register, to view the constructor line-up, and to learn more, go to www.boswords.org.[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Save And Share :
160 comments:
Puns and nudity. What could possibly go wrong?
Another Sundee, another lackluster theme. Not awful, but not awe-inspiring either.
Okay, so maybe that's too high a bar. I was mildly entertained and not offended by anything, so there's that.
Fave themer: MANYMOONSAGO. And it got a wee chuckle, which was more than I could say for the others.
I actually think the fill was the star of this one. Not a lot of the usual suspects and it required some thought in places. (Can't have the Giant Sundees be too much of a struggle!)
There are sure to be some who liked this, and I don't mean to REIN on their BERET...just not my cuppa (as one of you likes to say 😉)
Not a wrestling enthusiast, so RIC Flair was new to me. Dude should call himself bIC Flair. That way he can be two pens. Nyuck nyuck. 🙄
Did someone say WINNINGSTREAK?
🧠🧠.5
🎉🎉🎉
“That was more fun than most Sunday puzzles. I actually LOLed at ‘MANY MOONS AGO’”.
“Time for you to grow up.”
“Sorry. That ship sailed decades ago.”
Article about constructor Brad Wiegmann
Long-time lurker, first-time commenter in this space. I sometimes think Rex is too harsh, but not today. I join him in registering my disgust with LAR, among other lousy bits of fill. Rex describing LAR MORIA as "the devil's toast" made me laugh out loud. Which was nice, because, apart from MANYMOONSAGO, I never so much as smirked during this solve. Another Sunday slog without much payoff.
Though I would pan this puzzle as hard as Rex did, my emphasis would be the opposite.I didn't think the theme was all that bad, though corny it was for sure. My beef is with the PPP-inundated fill. This constructor may have broken the all-time record.
And why is it (he asked once again) that those unfamiliar with latter-day Disney films, Star Wars or (heaven forfend) Harry Potter are always at a disadvantage, and this seems to be true with every friggin' Sunday puzzle! Why can't clues reference Shakespeare or, given what's going on around us today, Orwell's 1984? Has our literacy level really reached such a low point, and do we really have to constantly be asked about rappers and punk bands all the time, and rarely about the classics (rock included)?
I get what Rex means about the old-timey feeling of this theme ( tho many of us are, indeed, OLDIES). But I actually liked it in the “end”, because it was kind of endearing in its own way, but also laced with all sorts of really smutty and suggestive stuff, like OBSESSIVE VIBES, LONGS, NOTYET, SINS, CLOSETS, DRAGS, LUST and GEEKS, Best of all, sitting smack dab in the middle and egging it alL on, is our very own LEWIS!
I liked it better than most Sundees, and I thank Brad Wiegmann for this nice debut and the wonderfully self-deprecating mock interview on xwordinfo. Hope to see many more from Brad.
Thought this was pretty easy (for me) and pretty stupid (for everyone). Agree with Rex. Shortz seemsvto be scraping the barrel on Sundays.
Medium. Fun Sunday, liked it more than @Rex did. Colorful debut.
Lake effect snow menaces people all over the world who live near lakes in cold weather. It refers to an effect, not a place.
I’m afraid I smiled at “bottomless pit.” Guess I’m not grown up yet!
I’m in the Boswords 2021 Spring Themeless League! www.boswords.org
I found the puzzle mostly fun and smiled at all the theme answers. Rex, "Fully recovered" worked just as well as all the rest
to fit the theme.
I did think the PPP was overly difficult which made the puzzle quite difficult, because as with quote puzzles (which I hate) I didn't know what the theme answers would b until most of the letters were in from crosses.
I wondered about the Lake effect snow clue, suspecting it might be as Horace Patoot, 2:47 said
Wow on several levels. Brad started making puzzles only a year and a half ago? Wow. And he makes THIS, a sterling SUNDAY? Wow. In which every theme answer lands on the mark, and a couple that make me, alone in a room, laugh out loud? Wow. And in which a combination of vague clues, theme answers that were hard to guess at, and things I didn’t know, put me through a gauntlet where I needed more crosses than usual and was sweating it out – to my great pleasure. Wow.
Then there was dessert – his zany comments (which can be found in Xwordinfo or Wordplay) that tickled me silly. Sir, I believe you have found a calling that you need to continue to pursue, please! Thank you for a top-to-bottom terrific solving experience!
Agree with Rex's comments overall, but it seems a little strange that a literature professor would find MORIA, a major location in Lord of the Rings, to apparently be off limits.
Thank you! And may I add, nearly daily references to The Simpsons.
Less LCD trivia!
I don't usually agree with Rex but today is an exception. This was sophomoric potty humor and frankly an insult to the community of solvers.
I needed my wife's help with this one, but I was a bit distracted and probably gave up too easily. We both appreciated the silly puns-in-the-buff! We especially appreciated the shout-out to Alex Trebek at 1A.
My only real beef was, I don't think potstickers are cooked in a wok? You need a pan with a flat bottom (see Wilson Tang's new book, "The Nom Wah Cookbook", which details how to make all sorts of Chinese goodies including several dim sum, as well as some good history about NYC's Chinatown).
I am in awe that Brad started constructing only a year and a half ago. Kudos!
Of all the strange and unusual coincidences... We too had not heard of Rain-X (or only vaguely), and then after figuring it out, we saw ... for the first time ... a TV commercial about Rain-X windshield wipers!
Gotta say, I'm shocked that Rex isn't familiar with LOTR (an answer I'm surprised isn't a regular feature-three common consonants and a vowel? C'mon people.)
You should check it out- there's an extremely popular seminar mashing up "Tolkien" and "medieval" just waiting for you.
Sundays are always a slog. A dull Monday or Tuesday is over in 8 minutes, a dull Wednesday is at least educational in crosswordese. Dull Thursdays I usually cheat on because tawdry gimcracks bore me, and Friday and Saturday are challenging enough I usually can't judge them as boring.
But the big Sunday grids with dozens of finicky little 3 and 4 letter ENOS LAR EST ILE DEN EPA....it is to vomit. I'm always missing some stupid typo I have to scan for and it's always some random 3 letter clue I fat fingered.
Look, NYT, babe, kiddo, schnookums (another good answer I've never seen! Xacross "schmaltzy endearment" you're welcome):
I'm 30 and I pay actual Dollarydoos (Xdown: "Australian Funny Money?) for a *crossword puzzle app.*
I pay a S U R P R I S I N G amount of Dollarydoos, fren.
I am the future of your crossword. Possibly I alone because I don't know anyone else my age who does this.
I don't want "my" slang clued at me, any more than you in your youth wished to see "groovy" or "far out", or "sick jammination, soul sister" or whatever other linguistic crimes are lost to the ages.
No "bae". No ephemeral tech companies, until the OED includes them as VERBS. Rappers and YouTube stars are the ephemera of ephemera and you never cite the good ones.
Mores the point, you have to accept that culture has *fractured*. It's not three channels and everyone goes to the movies on Saturday anymore. Maybe-maybe- the top CBS dramas and comedies have common audience share among older folks.
But guys, I haven't watched network tv in years.
My point is you do not win my heart by assuming I want to hear text shorthand and references to Game of Thrones. Also, we hate it now, after WOKE BAE DANERYS (an answer in search of a clue) lost the plot.
Just give me well written, or at least not unbearably dull, Sundays.
Sure, they won't all be bangers, but as the President might say, c'mon, man.
Don't make me hate it. There are a lot of YouTube stars and I can always watch them instead.
Thank you, @Brad for a wonderful Sunday puz. Enjoyed it a bunch! :)
Easy/med. solve.
Got off to a good start in the NW, then it was hit and miss the rest of the way. No major issues, just kept going back and forth until every thing fell into place. No head-scratchers. Lots of fun. :)
John "Lewis", a true hero! John Lewis: Good Trouble: one of the few movies/docs I've paid to watch. $5.99 on Apple TV; proceeds go to the National Civil Rights Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Blue Moon of Kentucky ~ Carson Peters & Ricky Skaggs: watch this youngster fiddle and sing with the best of 'em.
Many happy times ahead for you @Barbara S., playing hide-and-seek with Quinn. She'll no doubt be in one of the "closets".
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Teamwork ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I'm with @Ken Freeland on this. I would have cruised through this in record time if I hadn't hit a PPP speed bump at damned-near every turn. That was just annoying as hell.
The only themer that I found even mildly amusing was the very last one, and it was important that it was last. I thought it was kinda clever that after all the nudity folks were FULLYCOVERED. Fully re-covered. Get it? Get it?
Sigh....
I liked the puzzle, but then again, I like all puzzles.
Many ha-ha's, particularly because they were corny (or should I say porny).
I would like to add my two cents about Einstein being named Times Person of the Century (60 Across).
Can people describe how he has affected our lives?
What do you think he won the Nobel Prize in physics for?
What did the Nobel committee ask him not to mention in his acceptance speech?
As an engineer and physics instructor, however I think that the Civil Rights advocates, Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi were more deserving of this honor.
They helped to create a conversation that still resonates to this day.
I drop this comment hoping that people will actually take a moment to explore and learn more about Einstein's work.
Did the constructor or editor ever watch Jeopardy? TREBEK had all the questions!! Everyone had the answers, right there on the board. That was the whole gimmick.
ERIE is not "the" only lake in "lake effect snow" - Western Michigan gets lake effect snow from Lake Michigan, parts of Ontario get it from Lake Huron, the Keewenaw Peninsula in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and parts of northern Ontario get it from Superior, and Lake Ontario dumps snow in a band from Syracuse to the Adirondacks.
Had SUNBURNCOVERED for the last clue for too long so my brain burned.
I guess what baffles me is the nature of peoples' senses of humor. Or maybe the seemingly extreme reaction to something that is (at least to me) so unimportant.
I have come to accept solving puzzles whose PPP turns me off. And it doesn't seem to matter to me if the PPP is dated or current. Perhaps the fact that I don't mind having to research to solve the puzzle doesn't bother me. And I don't care if I don't laugh at the entries (as I did not today). The eventual completion of the solve is all that matters to me as long as the amount of PPP is not oppressive. On those grounds, I am not sure how today's puzzle played out.
In the end, I guess my reaction is closer to that of Lewis than the others who commented above. That seems to becoming typical for the Sunday puzzle. Clearly, many who comment here have a much different attitude than myself.
Was moving along, thinking this was a relatively normal Sunday – a little tougher than average. Then I hit the PPP-fest at the bottom: The tennis ball company, the wrestler, the voting act name, the wiper company, the tenor, the Vanderpump, the Prince song, the Taco Bell slogan, the South Korean president, the South Pacific guy, all in a fairly small area in the SW. Not good.
My big issue with these blah Sundays is that once you see the barely-amusing schtick, you're stuck with this giant grid to just plod thru. I liked.....VIBES? I grew up an OHIOAN so I guess...yay? I actually liked THATTOO--feels like a solid conversational phrase, kinda looks like TATTOO (THATTOO TATTOO!). Reaching for any sparkle.
At one point my phone vibrated and I looked up minutes later to see that I'd completely forgotten I was doing the puzzle.
A good, fun Sunday theme!
Fill was less than perfect, but hardly the worst. LAR, sure, bad, but it's three letters. Got it on crosses.
I liked the puns. You can't re-invent the wheel every Sunday. This is exactly the kind of puzzle I'd expect for this day of the week, and it was built well with decent themers.
Rex, you have to just stop advertising that you don't know LotR and Marvel and anything that's a HUGE MASSIVE BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE SERIES. You just sound so old. So very old. Stop. These are part of the zeitgeist, and if you give the constructors a pass every time they dredge up an OPERA clue from 100 years ago, you CANNOT whine about MORIA.
The dwarves dug too deep, and too greedily...
I’m torn about this one. Rex definitely has a point about old-time corniness combined with a certain amount of slog and less than sterling fill, and yet, and yet… I have to admit to chuckling over BOTTOMLESS PIT and WINNING STREAK. It’s a puzzle type we’ve seen many, many times, and I’m not sure there was sparkle enough in the themers to be a complete justification. And anyway, is “nudist” even correct? Isn’t “naturist” the preferred term now? Or are they different? I can’t agree with those commenters who feel this was somehow in bad taste or verging on the pornographic. My understanding of nudism/naturism is that it’s all about the health of mind and body.
Kinda slow going in the early stages. It took a while to get traction anywhere. The first word I was sure of was OBSESSIVE (“Like Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick”) – it’s also an appropriate adjective for those who solve and write about crossword puzzles every day (dontcha think?). After that I just popped around all over the grid, here, there and everywhere until I was done.
• Interesting that as verbs “bone” and DEBONE mean the same thing.
• VALISES will always remind me of the Jacques Brel song, "Timid Frieda".
These two lines come up repeatedly in the lyrics:
“There she goes with her VALISES
Held so tightly in her hands.”
• ERIE is* not* the only lake responsible for “lake effect” snow, no siree Bob. (Hi @Horace S. Patoot and others)
• Nice to see LANAI, an old friend from Spelling Bee.
• DOOK ALERT: I kept seeing I, MALONE up there in the center. Maybe a second version of the well-known Irish folk song, which tells the story from sweet Molly’s point of view?
Speaking of the Irish, today’s passage comes from Colum McCann, born Feb. 28, 1965.
“What Corrigan wanted was a fully believable God, one you could find in the grime of the everyday. The comfort he got from the hard, cold truth--the filth, the war, the poverty--was that life could be capable of small beauties. He wasn't interested in a honey-soaked heaven. To him that was a dressing room for hell. Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when he looked closely into the darkness he might find the presence of a light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same. He wanted, quite simply, for the world to be a better place, and he was in the habit of hoping for it. Out of that came some sort of triumph that went beyond theological proof, a cause for optimism against all the evidence.”
(From Let the Great World Spin)
I give Rex a C+ today. I thought the theme was just fine -- yes it was corny, xword themes almost always are. It made me smile in places, which in my book means it worked reasonably well.
Rex's redeeming feature is his critique of much of the fill. There was a lot of dreck today -- I don't know what a "Vanderpump" is and what's more I don't know why anyone else does either. Same for a professional wrestler. I don't think of INDIE as a 'genre, it's a different thing entirely. ROEG. ILER. RHEE. A Taco Bell slogan. NENE is a child? I thought that was niño/a and nene was a Hawaiian goose? MORIA, RAINX, EMILE. ick.
I thought the clue on WOKS was wrong but I did learn today that there are flat bottom woks. I think lakes other than ERIE can cause lake effect snow. The clue on 11D SOLVENT is flat-out wrong -- it is quite possible to have debts and to be solvent; insolvency occurs when the amount of your debts exceeds your assets.
@JoeDipinto thank you for posting the article about the constructor.
Hey All !
This is the benefit of immaturity, to be able to do this puz, and get a big chuckle out of the theme! I liked this very much! So, nyah! 😆 Gonna stand over here with all us snickering GEEKS.
Top three favorite/chuckling inducers, MANY MOONS AGO (c'mon, that's just funny as clued,) WINNING STREAK, BOTTOMLESS PIT. Lighten up, people! You're too damn worried about everything!
Got down to two squares, the L of VALISES/LAR (who names their kid LAR?), And rAD_T/MOIR_. Figured the second one had to be an A, since it was probably AT. But as you see, had CrITS for CHITS, and couldn't get off that. Managed to get the L correct, but got my one-letter DNF with that R for H. Ugh! What a reBUFF. (Har!)
Another potential themer? ARISING. Don't feel any guilt about teeheeing on that. And it's aBREAST to the last themer. Done? NOT YET. Then there's DEBONE.Har! These are the jokes, folks. That's the NAKED truth. My feelings are UNCLAD. 😆
Those SORE POINTs aside, thought puz was pretty darn good. In the words of Larry the Cable Guy, "That's funny right there, I don't care who you are." 😁👍
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Sometimes I think you’re too harsh on Sundays ... but not today. A lot of yucks this week, but not in a good way.
I liked this just fine. It harkens back to a time when nudity was naughty and fair game for jokes.
There were some clues that tickled me too.
Bees are humbugs and skipping town to avoid trouble.
Sometimes you just have to relax and enjoy some Sunday silliness.
Today I chose to and had some fun.
I can vouch for lake effect snow coming from other lakes besides Erie since I can almost see Lake Michigan over the big drift in my front yard.
Surprised this was published - especially as a NYT Sunday. Nothing to do with the so-called risqué theme - but because it was a bad puzzle. The cluing leaned towards TV Guide level and was all around flat.
Not much faith in our higher education system when an English professor continues to OPINE that he hasn’t seen the LOTR movies. I’ll take the Dumbing Down of a Generation for $1000 Mr. TREBEK.
Guess I’ll do Stan Newman’s puzzle which I normally don’t do on a Sunday.
Kind of a nice leadoff homage to the great TREBEK.
Good god, really? Get over yourselves.
the high and mighty types are insulted by this theme and would rather a Shakespearean puzzle? You guys must be fun at parties.
For that matter, I knew MORIA from the books which literally defined the literary fantasy genre for several generations to come, and were published in the 1950s.
That Progressive ad just came on (just how much money do these insurance companies make?) with “Dr. Rick” helping people not turn into their parents. A poster in the background of one scene says “Dad Jokes Are Not Jokes.”
Hand up for almost breaking the eyebrow bone from arching it so hard at the “the” in the 77A clue. Add “in Buffalo” and the clue would have been fine. I also circled the Balrog clue. That definitely counts as a LOTR deep cut.
I LOLed at Rex’s LOTR take. The spouse has exactly one comment about the movies, “Oh look, another battle scene.” I like the books, there’s all kinds of interesting things going on, but even three over long movies can’t really do justice to the books. And so, LOTR gets reduced to battle scenes.
@Anon7:44 - TREBEK has all the answers and reads them to us.
On the one hand, I found @Rex’s review completely spot on today. OTOH, there was something endearing about this puzzle, especially taking into account the constructor’s comments. Part of what kept me engaged was the suspense of wondering how close to the censorship line we were going to get—especially with “What happens in the stand-up show...”
Agree that much of the PPP was pretty brutal, but since I long ago decided that’s what Google is for, no guilt, I tend not to find it terribly upsetting.
Enjoyed SomeOneHasToBeMe’s extended 6:49 rant. Sounds like you would have enjoyed the NYTXW more before you were born, in the Maleska era...
Well I guess the fact that I had TAB for 'acid container' says something about me, huh? It tripped me up for a second haha. I thought the puzzle was fine, albeit cornball in the theme answers. As usual I'm a bit mystified at the outsized negative reactions by solvers who are unhappy with a puzzle... as if you are entitled to one that exactly fits your standards. I just try to solve them, figure out what's what, and get to the finish. Maybe learn a new word, maybe remember something I once knew... it's just a fun pastime.
Ohh, that’s how Jeopardy worked!
Such cavils notwithstanding: during his unparalleled career, Alex delivered over 500,000 answers testing his adoring fans’ knowledge.
The clue had a question-mark, too. Literally non-literal ... that’s the whole gimmick.
I liked the puzzle. I laughed at FULLY RECOVERED.
I join the ERIE-lake-effect wonderers, even though it tried for fresh cluing on an old word.
Q. What do you call a two-for-one deal on body art?
A. THATTOO.
Wow, what a great Sunday puzzle! And a debut for Brad Weigmann, no less. Congratulations, Brad.
I don't know what's wrong all y'all naysayers. This is the epitome of wackiness, I'll OPINE. And the bonus clues like the LADLES hitting the sauce, the REIN coming from the horse's mouth. My Bahs becoming humbug BEES, aha! ENGINE size in liters. From Freddy Krueger to Ahab (and his CETUS). The puzzle played harder than the last few Sundays because it took me so long to get even one of the theme answers (RAW RECRUITS first) but I had fun chipping away at it.
Double DNF though, at IN A mIn (which I've seen before but never heard uttered) crossing mOCELLI (yes, I've heard of BOCELLI, oops) and CEnUS (another oops, should've known better) but it doesn't spoil my fun with this puzzle.
Thanks Brad!
Wow. And here I thought “I can’t believe Rex hasn’t read 19th century Brit Lit” comments were beyond the pale. Thinking that being a Lit prof requires one to have read LOTR is beyond beyond the pale. Beyond the paler, as it were. I can’t wait to see what beyond the palest is going to look like.
I have no problem with nudity tittering, but the NYTX is not the venue. They are going to keep it clean, and that forces the humor to be tepid at best. Also, I haven’t done it yet, but past experience tells me that the WaPo puzzle will be more creative in a way that I remember the NYTX being when I started solving.
Indeed
Well, it's for sure that the Gray Lady isn't gray anymore. No, she's definitely turned blue. Toilets the other day and today nudity. Orgies tomorrow?
But c'mon, everyone. Lighten up. This was sort of amusing and sort of diverting, right? The puns may be a bit corny, but they were fun to figure out, no? The constructor obviously had fun creating this and his enjoyment is contagious. And nothing here is the least bit offensive or smutty -- it's all good-natured, harmless fun. My favorite themer is BOTTOMLESS PIT. Oh, the image that comes unbidden to my mind!
And the level of difficulty was enough to hold my attention throughout. My one write-over was CEreS before CETUS -- what I don't know about whales would fill a library. And OPIE has a last name! Who knew?
The best thing about Time's Man of the Century? It's a hell of a lot easier than Time's Man of the Year, isn't it? Much less competition. Many fewer choices. Possibly only ONE choice!
My biggest nit was RAINX. I don't even know the model names of cars and you expect me to know the brand name of a windshield wiper? Surely you jest.
I knew I was in for trouble as soon as I discerned that KNOSSOS was next to EEN. When I saw that (in addition to LAR, NENE, ENYA, and EINS) before I even left the northernmost section, I realized that this puzzle was definitely not constructed with me in mind, lol. Pretty much everything that I am weak on - mythology, foreign words, names and places, Star Wars, LOTR, . . . Just too much to fight my way through.
I don’t get jazzed by fighting through every single cross when the payoff is something akin to EEN or NENE. I concede that every puzzle will, out of necessity, most likely have some of that unfortunate dreck - however to feature it so prominently and with such frequency just seems to do a disservice to the whole concept of a crossWORD puzzle (you know - the “words” part of it).
I don’t know if that’s just a byproduct of the difficulty involved with constructing around the constraints imposed by the presence of the theme, a deliberate ploy to amp up the difficulty level, or perhaps it just a deficiency in my knowledge base and interests. Anyhow, this one was not for me.
@Frantic Sloth 12:00 AM
That vid was too funny! 😂
@Joe Dipinto 12:32 AM
Thx for the Wiegmann article. Btw, glad you aced the acrostic; plenty tough for me. I'll be at it all week. LOL
@anonymous 1:15 AM
Welcome aboard! 😊
@Barbara S. 8:42 AM
Thx for the "Timid Frieda" vid link; what a delightful song, and what a talented group of actor/singers. Also like your "passage of the day."
Btw, a movie version of "Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris" can be viewed on Kanopy, provided your library subscribes.
___
Seems to me that 77D would have been better clued as "Lake-effect" snow lake (or some such, omitting "The")
Lake-effect snow
"The areas affected by lake-effect snow are called snowbelts. These include areas east of the Great Lakes, the west coasts of northern Japan, the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, and areas near the Great Salt Lake, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Baltic Sea, Adriatic Sea, and North Sea." (Wikipedia)
Big Rock Candy Mountain' ~ Burl Ives
Oh, the buzzin' of the bees and the cigarette trees
The soda water fountain
Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In that Big Rock Candy Mountain
___
p -21
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Teamwork ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Glad to see this comment. As an erstwhile Buffalonian I am fully aware of Lake effect snow and you are right. It is a meteorological phenomenon not at all unique to Lake Erie.
Still I thought puzzle was not bad with a well executed theme. But we do need harder puzzles generally.
Another "bloody Sunday."
Rex hates the puzzle, @Lewis loves it. Obla di, Obla dah,
life goes on!
tc
ps...come on, Rex, "the bottomless pit" answer was clever!
@J-Dip 1232am Nothing like a cold dose of reality to exacerbate one's (my) feelings of shamefully cruel pettiness. Thanks. 👍😉
With several people mentioning the Xwordinfo/Wordplay interview, I just had to scuttle over there to see what all the fuss was about. I like this guy! Dude is hilarious and doesn't take himself too seriously - or at all. And this is a debut? Geez! Now I really feel like a jerk. Fortunately(?), as with most things in life, this, too, shall pass. (And hopefully it'll take a few commas along with it.)
As you were.
@Z 9:45 - I have no problem that he hasn’t or had no interest in reading the books but that he claims lack of knowledge due to not seeing a movie. It’s akin to saying never got around to seeing the movie so how am I supposed to know there was a whale in Moby Dick.
I also have to laugh at people who complain about Harry Potter (#1 book series of all time), Marvel Superheroes (#1 movie series of all-time), Star Wars (#2 movie series of all-time), LOTR (7 decades of best-selling books and one of top movie series of all-time), Disney movies (no explanation needed), Simpsons (longest running TV show of all time), etc. THIS IS THE DEFINITION OF POP CULTURE, which means it's fair game for crosswords. These are the most popular and best-selling books, movies, and shows on the planet for DECADES! If you choose not to partake, that's absolutely fine, but then be quiet about it. If you don't want to be pop-culturally literate, that's your choice. I've never seen an opera in my life, and I don't cry every time ARIA or VERDI appears in a grid.
As for the puzzle, I liked it. Sure there are a few pieces of bad fill, but overall the puzzle provided some nice resistance, clever clues, and a fun theme. Sorry if you can't get a chuckle from some good nudity puns. It works for me!
Actually "The Simpsons" is satire for the adult mind, cloaked in silliness.
The complaints about the oldtimeyness of some puzzles is bizarre - culture is carried by those who remember and read.
Interesting OFL jumped to the movies - has He never read the books?
anyways, MORIA also appeared in the first reading at Catholic services today.
@mooretep: anything involving timed satellite signals, like airplane navigation and gps. As well as deep space exploration requiring corrections for gravitational lensing. As well as any fallout from the US decision to use the A-bomb as a weapon against Japan (see letter to FDR).
The prize was maybe for the PE effect? The relativity stuff seems too obvious. And, I don’t know about the speech. Nazis maybe. Now I can go wiki the answers.
This puzzle was, interestingly, so hard for me that I am thinking of hitting Reset on my statistics. My time was 4x my average Sunday. I say “interestingly” because Friday was Shot Two for me. So yesterday I had fever and fatigue, and apparently also a spongiform brain. Anybody else get the stupids from the vaccine?
Yeah, the jokes were stupid, but I love the concept that if you can’t get published you can add nudity and try again (see his comments). Also that the wheels of Justice are greased by Dad jokes. So I give this one a big meta thumbs-up.
To those who say this puzzle is juvenile, I say-is not! is not! is not! Take that!
Corny puns do not offend or bore me, the PPP was mostly known by me, and I found the answers surprising enough to be entertaining, so I'm in the "liked it". group. Had to stop in the middle to make a decision on buying a condo and moving out of our dream house, downsizing hath appeared and now is, so many precious nanominutes were consumed. Anyway, dad jokes only remind me of my dad, as I have said before, and they always make me at least smile.
My favorite wrong answer, after having the K from KNOSSOS in 1A, was to plunk in CARNAK. Now there was a guy who had all the answers.
Thanks for a nice Sundecito, BW. Be assured that some of us, at least, had a good time with it.
I'm with @Lewis on finding some of the answers laught-out-loud funny and the rest worth at least a smile and nod of appreciation at the wit. I liked it all, from the perfect title to the perfect end to the nudist week with everyone FULLY RECOVERED. Ha!
@Brad Wiegmann, I can't wait for more.
(Hope this isn't a repeat. I don't think my last post went through just now:)
I agree with @Frantic and others: the constructor's notes are wonderful. Funny and self-deprecating and delightful. In fact, they're the best constructor's notes I've yet seen. This is truly a guy I'd like to know.
He was also a hero at the DOJ and, alas, paid the Trump era price for it. And yet he's retained a wonderful sense of humor throughout the whole ordeal. Remarkable.
Put him back at DOJ, please, Joe. We need people of real integrity there, obviously. But the idea of a DOJ with a sense of humor -- well that's awfully appealing too :)
Very revealing!
Ditto. Being a grownup is not all it’s CRACKed up to be.
@BarbieBarbie,
Yep, the theory of relativity is used for GPS Navigation insofar as it is used to correct the signals for time-space relativistic effects to improve their accuracy.
He received the Nobel Prize for the "Photoelectric effect", (PE), which is the idea that underlies the functioning of photovoltaic solar energy panels. More useful than GPS IMHO.
When receiving the Noble Prize, he was asked not to mention his theories of relativity as it was too strange to believe.
That the faster you traveled, the slower time moved, the shorter distances became, and the more massive you would become.
This was just too much for the scientific community to buy into.
Interestingly enough, when quantum theory became a thing (or not) he was the skeptic and gave us the quote: "God does not play dice".
His equation E = mc^2 is what describes how a nuclear power plant and nuclear weapons work.
Easy Sunday. My only issue was trying to choose a “C” or a “K” for the Jeopardy host. The theme was fun and definitely helpful in keeping it from being a slog.
Rex and the rest of this board may be inveterate crossword solvers, but to the rest of us mere mortals, his and others commentary often comes off as unbearably jaded and elitist. I mean give this guy a break. To me it was a damned enjoyable puzzle, particularly for a first outing.
If you didn't take pleasure in the Ring movies, which is hard for me to imagine, you should have read the books. Moria was enough of an outlier to give pause.
And puns that make you groan or chuckle have served their intended purpose, so why bitch about them.
I may be in the minority here, but I thought it was a really enjoyable puzzle.
The themers did nothing, nada, zip, nil for me....I just went about my business and try to guess what some big ass kahuna nudist might be doing.
So did I like it?....you bet your sweet bippy I did. Lots I didn't know and had to take several potty breaks, but I did my little chuckle here and there. I liked MANY MOONS AGO. If you ever take Amtrak from San Francisco to Denver, you go through the Rockies and the nudist will give you an eyeful as you're sitting in your dining car, sipping wine and eating grits.
I've never understood the squeamishness so many American have about nudity. It deserves a place in a crossword so that people will run screaming to the beach and tear off their clothes. My first (and only) foray to a nudist beach was in San Francisco. I think it was at Land's End Beach. I didn't know it was a nudist beach until my girlfriend and I placed our blankets on the sand and this dude comes running up to us full commando. My eyes popped out of my head because his (um) thing...was saluting. I started laughing so hard, it deflated. Anyway...I don't mind nudity. If you do...don't go to Europe.
Love me some Andrea BOCELLI..I LUST for him....LISA Vanderpump rocks and anything LOTR is fine with me.
@Joe Dip...thanks for that article. And @Lewis...you made me look at Xwordinfo (which I never do) to read up on Brad. Yay...He has a wonderful sense of humor.....
@Sixthstone - Right on!
The Sunday NYTXW can and should be better. The editor has gotten lazy as he approaches the 10,000 milestone (currently at 9,962). Rex is merely stating the obvious. WS has got to go. It's time for a change.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Editors
Having played in pit orchestras, I have to say BOTTOMLESS PIT made me want to buy puppy pads for all those pantless musicians. Those are the retired chairs from the main stage - filthy and threadbare. I need a moment.
Ok; FULLY RECOVERED now. Hey, look, threadbare fits the theme! I didn’t see it as more juvenile than any other punny theme. Actually, it helped me wriggle out of a few tight spots, like the LISA ECASH RHEE pileup.
WINNING STREAK was my favorite, just because it reminded me of attending football games in high school. Didn’t see streakers often, but the ever-present possibility added REAL VIBES.
Interesting having EAST in the west and BIG WEST in the upper NE.
A few entries I wouldn’t want to combine with nudity: BEES SLEET WOKS BLADE.
Almost DNF, except I kept hunting and found OdDIES, which gave me a chuckle because it wasn’t a typo. I actually thought “an oddie but a goodie’ could be a thing. Like, head drop?
The allergy clue might have given me pause if I hadn’t just had to answer that COVID vaccine question about ever needing an EPIPEN. Had to drive 4 hours round trip, plus the nearly 2 hours at the site, but first shot is done. Stretched my legs walking around historic downtown Natchez, got barbecue and a strawBERRY cupcake, and was able to drive the whole way home with the top down. LIVE MAS!
I think Rex gets upset when clues out of his wheelhouse hurt his speed solving times. I approach the puzzle differently.
I go though all the clues hitting those in my wheelhouse and branching out from there. I’ll ask my sons about rappers and comic book characters. I’ll ask my wife about actors.
Then, using the crosses, I will learn things that are outside my wheelhouse. Every puzzle is a learning process for me. I still remember learning many years ago that Asta was the dog in the Thin Man novel. Today I learned that the Greek city was KNOSSOS, not Gnossos like I thought.
If there’s a clever theme, I marvel over it. Today’s was a little cute but nothing worth showing off to my family.
So, reading Rex’s take is usually a downer for me but reading your comments is fun and informative.
never comment here... but seriously....
look up history of clue for 110 down.
SO many other ways to clue this. ENOUGH!
Aw, c'mon Rex. I am old and a nudist and I thought it was fun. I think the fully recovered answer was the best. Lighten up, man. May I suggest you go visit a nudist camp with your family? You might find the experience enlightening.
"Yin" is NOT the dark side. "Yang" is the dark side. How could the editors miss that!
As noted Erie clue is dead wrong which didn’t help this disappointing Sunday
From the linked article “ Brad doesn't have a political bone in his body" and "has been such an uncontroversial person in that role for such a long time," said Mulligan, who is now with the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress. Ha ha ha.
Since we're all twittering about nudity, and the ramifications & manifestations of a nudist colony here, may I raise a delicate subject? A year or so ago there was a fad to get a tan on one's peritoneum, with disturbing videos and tales of totally predictable bad outcomes. That's fine, people are stupid and seem to be proud of videotaping it and telling everyone about it. What I'm most concerned about are the side effects of the various biologics which treat arthritis, psoriasis and other auto-immune diseases - you know, the ones that make sure you get TB for your efforts. They all also seem to have specific focus on the peritoneum, as in "some users have had pre-cancerous lesions on their peritoneum". Doesn't that seem to be a disturbingly specific side effect, possibly deliberate? We all have about 20 square feet of skin, and these medicines specifically attack 2 square inches of it? That's way less that 0.01%, and the medicine affects that area only? That's a targeted malevolence there, if you ask me. I'm betting big Pharma is about to come out with a cure for peritoneum cancer, and they're trying to give it to you with Humera. You heard it here first.
REINs do not belong in a horse's mouth. Bits yes. REINs no.
From an ABC news report, August 2020: "Current and former national security officials are raising concerns over Attorney General William Barr's recent decision to remove the head of a Justice Department office that helps ensure federal counterterrorism and counterintelligence activities are legal – and replace him with a political appointee with relatively limited experience. ... For much of the past decade, that little-known office has been led by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brad Wiegmann, a 23-year career public servant, not a political appointee. But two weeks ago, Wiegmann, 54, was told he is being reassigned and replaced with a political appointee, according to a Justice Department spokesman and sources familiar with the matter."
Props to Weigmann for being so competent in his job that the Trump administration felt the need to remove him. But what a truly poor puzzle, if only due to the record-breaking number of proper names. And that's the naked truth.
@Pete, 11:59: Tanning one's peritoneum would require a bit of doing... the peritoneum is the mucosal lining of the abdomen (on the inside!). I think it's the perineum you mean... "down under"?
Inking in TREBEK right out of the gate, I was hoping for a better-than-usual Sunday. I headed straight south but was reBUFFed when I arrived at ECASH - a real SORE POINT.
LAR Lubovitch was no problem, dance being more on point for me than rappers and TV stars.
@Julie 11:33 AM
Totally agree! That was the one clue/answer in this puzzle that I found offensive, and decidedly sexist. :(
___
pg - 8
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I enjoyed the theme overall - I don't mind immature humor, and it's nice that knowing the theme didn't give any answers. However, despite a relatively slow-but-steady solve, we did get stuck.
I hate to have one section ruin a puzzle, but the SW area was absolutely terrible. We were stuck with E_P_____TIME for some time.
Every. Single. Down clue that crossed those empty letters were names completely unknown to me. Whale constellation? A South Korean president from the 50's?? Some person's first name from a show on Bravo?? Windshield wiper brands? Whatever EMILE was (that we had EMILy for)? Yeesh. There's nothing less fun than getting stuck on a long across and having literally no chance at coming up with any of the crossing clues. Kind of defeats the fun of crosswords, IMO.
Count me among those who decry OFL's objection to BOTTOMLESS PIT, since, as any opera fan knows, the orchestra is in the PIT in front of the stage, and the players are BOTTOMLESS at the nudist-club. That they're also topLESS doesn't make the clue/entry wrong.
Shout out to the missing best entry: Bare Naked Ladies.
@Barbara S. beat me to the punch posting "Timid Frieda". Now I'll have to come up with another song that has VALISES in the lyric. It can't be that hard...
♪ For nephews and nieces with peanut caprices
Stuffed in their valises were Pieces of Reese's ♪
...well, I'll work on that.
I liked this puzzle a lot. It's no more juvenile or dated than Agard's pot-smoking Sunday puzzle of some moons back, and the themers all land nicely, imo. Nothing flashy, just clever enough. I'm surprised it's a debut puzzle, I'd have bet the constructor had more than a few under his belt.
And LAR Lubovitch is well-known enough to be in the puzzle nine times since 2003, so he doesn't merit complaints at this point. That's the trouble when you speed-solve, I guess: you never notice or learn anything over the years.
Music to Blow Your Brains Out by
to those objecting to REIN: read the clue - "from the horse's mouth". yes, yes it does. the BIT, as some demand, does not 'come' from the horse's mouth. it doesn't 'go' anywhere, unless the horse spits the bit, and, unless you're a truly expert horseperson, you end up on your back staring at the sky. and, hopefully, not in the vicinity of where Dobbin is now headed.
@ChuckD
Reread @Rex. He didn't say he never saw the LOTR movies. He said he saw them, found them dull and forgettable.
Always appreciate a humorous SunPuz theme. This one was extra-cool, becuz of its FULLYRECOVERED last, sorta closin punchline themer. Well done.
staff weeject pick: LAR. Mostly cuz @RP surprisinly jumped all over it, plus it conveniently rhymes with HAR. 25th anniversary of its use, in Shortzmeister Era puzs, btw.
Offered merely for its statistic(al) interest:
Today's vowels: 33 A's, 57 E's, 36 I's, 27 O's, … but only 4 U's.
starkly cool fillins included: TREBEK right outta the chute. ESCAPEPLAN. OPIETAYLOR [Close to an ORGY TAILOR themer]. THATTOO. OBSESSIVE. NOTYET with symmetric(al) INABIT.
Liked the Shortzmeister's commentary note quote: "You'll want to put on your silly puns hat before you begin". Coulda even maybe aptly went with " … take off your super critical pants before you begin."
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Wiegmann. And for lettin it all hang out, on yer debut. Good job. Maybe a little less of U stripped next time, just sayin.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
i am gruuunt:
**gruntz**
First, the puzzle was just fine. Second, I just want to say, that despite the great contributions of Einstein and other scientists, the best invention by humans is clothing. The worst invention is religion but that's for another day.
Rex,
You’re a sourpuss. I enjoyed this puzzle and found it refreshing and fun. I had many chuckles.
Gene F.
@Colin - Damn, I worked hard on that one, didn't bother to check my anatomy. Oh well,.
Medicare eligible juvenile here, I guess. I laughed out loud at all of the puns. Hard to pick my favorite because they were all funny to me.
Bottomless pit. Comic strip. Fully recovered. In context of the clues they suggest nakedness. But not in their standalone meanings.
Rex and I depart ways on this one. Since I've come to expect silly puns, etc., as crossword themes, I found this one no worse - and actually better - than most. I smiled quite a bit, and at non-themers, too.
Except for ECASH, I was a genius - I wanted VENMO in the worst way and there were so many v's in the puzzle. I still think it was better. Wound up with ECOIN because of the Naticks, since BIT wouldn't fit.
I don't even know what to say about someone who didn't love LOTR - movies and books. I'll refer you to Stephen Colbert.
Don't care about all those other places, Lake Erie is THE lake for lake effect snow, especially in the same puzzle as OHIOANS. Just ask anyone from northern Ohio, especially Cleveland or Ashtabula, or from Cleveland's infamous snowbelt or secondary snowbelt, or Erie, PA, or Buffalo, NY, for that matter. Look up the tiny town of Chardon, OH, sometime. They'll still be digging out in June! Meteorologists tout that they specialize in Lake Erie's lake effect snow (and lake effect rain). We may not have much but, damn, we have lake-effect-snow-and-the-world's-best-sunsets. And don't try to take that away from us!
With good reason, our slogans are: "The best location in the nation" and "Cleveland - you've got to be tough!" How the hell do you think we get through February?
Don't @ me, bro, about this one - it's non-negotiable. Period. End of story, and all those other trite expressions. Lalalalala, I'm not listening. (Not reading anything else here today - drops mike!)
Yeah, the number of comments would be cut in half if solvers would reread the clues before they hit 'comment' and start ranting.
@judmen
You got that wrong. Yin is the night and the moon.
@Chuck D 10:34 - This notion (and you are hardly alone is espousing it) that there is some canon that every English Prof must know is just not accurate. Just a W.A.G. here, but that he hasn’t seen the movies and doesn’t know MORIA makes me think he hasn’t read the books. Another W.A.G, there are fewer English profs who have read LOTR than English profs who have. In fact, take any College English Department anywhere and the overlap of books read is going to be far smaller than the sets of book read by only a single prof in the Department.
@judmen - You seem to have your YIN and yang in a muddle.
How did I not know about Toyah and Robert’s Sunday Lunch before today?
Finished it but still didn’t like it. Instead of racking my brains over clever clues, I racked my memory over PPPs.
Correct me if wrong but doesn’t Shortz sell the Sunday crossword to other venues to appear a week later? I guess it would explain why they appear so terrible to Times’ regulars as he would have to dumb it down.
@thefogman be careful what you wish for. Given what the NYT is like these days, whoever comes after Will Shortz will likely want to “disrupt” the x-word puzzle. For people who decry clues based on songs, movies and tv shows that at this point are a decade if not more old, just wait to behold the spectrum of ephemeral knowledge that will be necessary when the editor is no longer moored in any sort of shared cultural or civilizational tradition.
Easy-Medium NYT Sunday ... 14% below my Sunday 6-month median solve time
I did my first Brad Wiegmann puzzle yesterday in the WSJ and here, he makes his NYT debut the very next day. I had an even easier time with that one than I did this one, but I kinda had a scowl on my face through much of this solve, whereas I have a fonder memory of yesterday's. I just didn't get with the VIBE of this puzzle.
I often rather enjoy puns as a form of humor, but they have to be clever and I didn't find any of the themers here to be all that clever. It could just be my mood today, but these puns just fell flat for me and I found myself dreading getting to the next one. I think I actually kind of avoided them by just doing the crosses and I don't remember doing that before. I'll give the grid points for all of the themers being firmly in the language. That's not always the case with themes like this.
On the plus side, it was over relatively quickly. This was an incredibly easy week of NYT puzzles for me. I posted my lowest cumulative solve time for the week (out of 578 weeks of puzzling), beating my previous best by more than two minutes or almost 4.5%. That's an eternity. I averaged almost 15% below my 6-month median solve time. Here's hoping for a little more challenge this next week.
p.s. I'm not at all surprised that Rex panned it, but I just read through the review and comments at Crossword Fiend and most folks over there liked this one. So, perhaps I just wasn't in the mood for a punny puzzle today.
p.p.s. Is anyone else out there doing the Boswords Spring Crossword League? (besides @John Hoffman, that is ... weirdly, we share a surname, though not the spelling) I participated in their Winter Tournament a few weeks back and enjoyed myself. John Leib and Andrew Kingsley did a great job of organizing it and the puzzles were all solid contributions by excellent constructors. It's a rather poor substitute for an in-person tournament, but it was a nice change of pace for this quarantine-fatigued solver. Come join in the fun, if you're at all tempted by the idea.
Einstein ? I'll take the guy who invented cruise control.
Unlike Rex, I am 100% here for nudity puns!
But, like Rex, I (as well as my fiancée) found this puzzle quite disappointing. We finished up at “EXPOSURE TIME” and both said “Oh.” In a disappointed, half frowning kind of way.
I immediately commented, “We might have had a different opinion of the puzzle if we had finished elsewhere.”
“Yes!” she agreed, “Like MANY MOONS AGO.”
It’s true we both laughed out loud at that one.
As it were, I think “EXPOSURE TIME” is the weakest, unfunniest and dumbest of the themers. Sad for this constructor that I will be remembering his puzzle for that, rather than the delight we got from MANY MOONS.
p.s.
@RP: Always enjoy yer blog write-ups, pro and/or con. But today I think I found one way for U to look on the bright side of the grid:
They mighta slipped LAR and MORIA into yer puz solvequest today, but they did at least manage to drop TROU!
M&A Moment of Optimism
I can’t figure out Rex’s fury with LAR. For heaven’s sake, he’s an important American dance figure. I dare to say he’s got much more gravitas than RIC in American culture. Are we to disregard all of the arts or is just dance singled out as unimportant in Rex World?
Poop to the puzzle haters. I’m with @Teedman and had a good time with this.
I come down pretty much with Lewis. Liked this Sun.
Been Jeopardy fan since before Alex: “Thank you Don Pardo; thank you friends”—Art Fleming.
The trivia was much more appealing than the theme today. My first entry was KNOSSOS. This was just off of the first S as 27A had to be SEES. Archaeology was one of my many childhood fascinations. Going back down those long forgotten rabbit holes is one of the joys of solving. Revisiting MORIA had the same feel.
While I'm no fan of dad humor the trickiness of the fill made up for it. There were enough head scratching clues to make getting a clean grid satisfying.
If it weren't for Spelling Bee, I'd probably cancel my puzzle subscription.
It's nice to feel no pressure coming up with anything new to say; others have already said it all. Yes, I liked MANY MOONS AGO too. The overall VIBE reminds me of the kitschy sensibility of my aging German in-laws who hang cartoon pictures on their bathroom walls of naked boys peeing, or put out at Christmas time an ensemble of tiny figurines of little angel children playing musical instruments with their little BOTTOMs poking out. Tee-hee, tee-hee. Isn't that adorable.
Harmless, and some of it is fun, but for me it has every danger of growing old quickly.
I'm also glad some people took up @mooretep's pop quiz on Einstein, including GPS, the photoelectric effect, etc. It's pretty much impossible to overstate the importance special relativity has for fundamental physics: it's indispensable if you want to do it properly, so I tend to think of its importance less in terms of applications to ordinary life, and more of it as laying down the most basic principles of physics: the symmetries that must be obeyed, the quantities conserved or that are invariant under those symmetries. I didn't know the Nobel committee advised him not to discuss SR (which in any case wasn't the work that won him the prize, so maybe it makes some sense).
Many people have noted the irony that it was the paper, where he argued that electromagnetic radiation (aka "light" but understood generally as it includes also radio waves and gamma rays) is carried by quanta that we call photons, that won him the Nobel. The irony is that he spent decades arguing against the quantum theories that this paper helped lay the groundwork for.
However, I don't at all agree with @mooretep's "His equation E = mc^2 is what describes how a nuclear power plant and nuclear weapons work."
No it doesn't. Sure, it's used to calculate how much energy is released in various phenomena. But it doesn't describe where nuclear energy comes from. For that, well, it's a long list of people, but it was Becquerel who discovered radioactivity, the Curies who studied new radioactive elements, Rutherford who carried out nuclear reactions, Hahn who discovered nuclear fission and Meitner who figured out what was happening there (where uranium bombarded with neutrons could split into smaller nuclei, thus releasing lots of energy, and more neutrons), Frédéric Joliot-Curie, the husband of Marie and Pierre's daughter, for letting the world know that this could create a chain reaction, and then there was a whole host of people who figured out how to harness that, including all the people involved in the Manhattan Project.
The fundamental physics of nuclear forces is an enormously complicated subject. E = mc^2 on the other hand is more or less just an easy corollary of relativistic mechanics, where the fundamental concept involved is the space-time metric that is due to Einstein.
@judmen 11:39 AM
No, sorry, you're wrong. Yin and Yang.
Keeping with the "oh, no!" theme, at least 96A, SORE POINT, was not clued with utter vulgarity, as "Adam's nightmare," or Adam's nightmare after a sunny day (so here, outraged at the suggestion, I provide it). Medieval and later artists had to decide, as many have noted, whether to give Adam and Eve belly-buttons, apparently not needed or present since neither was nurtured in a womb. Some wondered if they should have private parts, with almost every painter assuming they should (after all, they had been commanded by God to be fruitful and multiply). The famous German alchemist Paracelsus (16th c.) argued that neither Adam nor Eve had private parts until the Fall, at which point they added them, like a goitrous swelling.
Did they have sex before the Fall? Milton says yes, in a lovely scene of blissful, sinless intercourse. St. Augustine (4th-5th c. AD) says yes too, without, I think, any detail. But Augustine insists that the Fall occurred very quickly, on the first day after their creation (this isn't biblical). I once heard a lecture on this, based on Augustine's *De Genesi ad litteram*, and I asked if Augustine considered the possibility that Adam and Eve were able to have sex but chose not to, in those few hours of paradisiacal existence, because one or the other had a headache. The lecturer thought it was a stupid question, and I guess it was.
Anon. i.e. Poggius
I personally would rather they publish two 15x15 puzzles on Sunday than one 21x21. Or an extra variety puzzle of some kind.
I didn’t like “Travel expense” for TOLL. I’ve traveled plenty of times without ever paying a toll.
Glad to see RIC Flair getting some love. He’s a legend. YouTube some of his promos. Straight gold.
Besides the trite theme and lousy fill, this puzzle was in the category of all mechanical motions: writing the letters - I love the sensation of writing with ballpoint pen ink on newspaper, and moving the head back and forth between clues and grid. No thinking, just mechanics. Most NYTimes Sundays are like that now. Only the weekdays are worth doing.
@Anon, i.e. Poggius 3:34 PM
Contact me at the email address on my profile if you're interested in an observation tangential to your post.
Wow, such a harsh review for a puzzle that I enjoyed more than most Sundays. "Fully recovered" elicited a more than audible snort, and I liked a lot of the other themers. Who cares about "lar" when everyone got it from the crosses anyway, not to mention that Lubovitch is among the maybe six choreographers I might actualy be able to name. Rex having trouble with the appropriateness of Rain-X makes me worry about the state of his windshield-truth to tell I had had trouble recalling it myself, but my annoyance was only with my own difficulty remembering a brand I've used a dozen times.
I usually never look at the creator at all before I start the Sunday, but this time made the mistake of reading the bio and admit I had suspicions this one by an almost "novice" creator who is a "security lawyer" (don't know what that is, but it sounds ominous) would be a lesser effort. Puzzle proved me wrong, but I'm pretty sure Rex never got over the intro.
Just because you are more knowledgeable about Shakespeare or Orwell trivia doesn’t make you any better than someone who has read or seen Harry Potter or Star Wars. The blog is filled with those who are all too eager to pat themselves on the back for never having seen an episode of The Simpsons or watched Game of Thrones. Get over yourself. There are plenty of intellectuals who enjoy pop culture as well.
Wow! Talk about a random rant that has absolutely nothing to do with the puzzle or blog. Looks like you have some issues you need to work out.
Seriously? Just because you’ve never paid a toll doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. The clue wasn’t “travel expense for anyone who has ever traveled”. I seriously don’t get some of the people who comment here.
@Barbara S: Thank you for the beautiful Colum McCann quote. He's one of my favorite writers.
@Douglas
For those on laptops, you might want to use the @ convention so we know who you're responding to.
@Joe Dipinto
Thx for the article about Brad Wiegmann
Well, knew KNOSSOS so of course 1A had to be carnaK not that I'm even sure how that was spelled... messed up that NW corner for a looong time! Otherwise ok, not great, not too bad, not really funny, and not very hard...interesting guy who created it though
@Hartley...Good to see you again, amiga. Don't be such a stranger! By the way....I agree with you on LAR Lubovitch. I think it becomes the wheelhouse conundrum. I happen to love ballet and know of him.
@JC66. Day 3 of Moderna shot # 1 and absolutely no side affects. Maybe I'm impervious to any vaccines since I've had a million of them due to my travels to foreign countries. However, I don't want anyone to be afraid to get their shots. What do you prefer...getting COVID, or having a little sore arm?
Alex is in the NYT Sunday puzzle - immortalized for the ages!
@GILL I
Good. From what I've heard (not a large sample) any reaction only last a day or two, at most and the second shot can cause a more serious reaction, such as flu-like symptoms.
@Pablo 10:51
Posted before reading, glad to see someone else had carnaK!
Also, happy downsizing! We did it almost 3 years ago, bought a condo in a walkable town, train to NYC just a block away, love it, love it! (Ok, the train part ended exactly one year ago tonight, but it will come back). You won't regret it. Cheers!
100% ditto Ken Freeland 1:31 am. Crosswords should be filled with vocabulary, not random people's names.
@Gill @JC66
DH got his first shot (Moderna) this morning! So thrilled! No reaction. We *have* heard that the 2nd one is more likely to cause a reaction.
Coming in late to the party. I thought this was a fine debut. I'm fine with a bunch of silly puns and these made me chuckle. Gandalf's fight with the Balrog in MORIA is a high point of the books as our intrepid team needs to continue the quest without the help of magic (except for one pesky ring.) I first read the LOTR when I was 12 and reread them every year for the next 20 years, more sporadically after that. The movies are okay, but the books were a huge influence on my life.
“It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.” Gandalf
@Smith-Thanks for the encouraging words. We're leaving four acres with extensive gardens and a huge lawn where we do all our own maintenance to having to put the trash outside the door, so it will be quite a change. Inevitable, but definitely bittersweet.
@GILL - 1st Moderna no side effects except for a sore arm. 2nd Moderna (Fri.) felt muy crappy yesterday (fever/chills/tired/achy) but am fine today except for the sore arm.
I lived the puzzle a lot, fun and interesting with witty answers. Nice job for a first timer
How sad that Rex Parker felt compelled to tear apart this clever, fun, and engaging Sunday puzzle.
Re TREBEK: There's a whole slew of people lined up to fill in as temporary Jeopardy! host in the post-TREBEK era. Ken Jennings was the first, and I thought he did a very good job. Congenial, compassionate, quick on his feet, not bad at schmoozing -- and intellectually he walks the walk, making him a pretty convincing successor IMHO.
The dude they had on this past week: I was not as keen on him. He's a producer/exec behind the show named Mike Richards.
Future hosts include Katie Couric, Aaron Rodgers, Bill Whitaker, and Mayim Bialik (cast member of The Big Bang Theory; offstage she's a scientist).
(Source)
Of course TREBEK was an institution, and very good in his role. On occasion he would respond to a wrong answer with "Oh no", almost in the tone of "you're way off", which would endear me less to him, but aside from such minor blemishes, he was pleasantly polished and congenial, and a pretty smart dude from what I could tell.
Here's a little compilation that I found sweetly amusing. RIP, Alex. Thanks for all you did.
I grew up in the SW part of Ohio. I have not lived there for over 50 years, but when I read the clue for 77D, I instantly thought of Lake Erie. Of course there are other lakes that can cause lake effect snow, but the answer for 77D must have exactly 4 letters. So "Erie" is the only possible answer. This problem does not affect SW Ohio, so we were not worried about it. Those folks in Cleveland, Erie (PA), and Buffalo would get clobbered, not us.
@jae et al...My next is the 26th of March. If you don't hear from me...I died.
Pretty clear that the constructor was reassigned from his job, for better or for worse, because he was suspected of leaking. I hope and pray he is innocent.
Well said!
They do lead from the horse’s mouth though, unlike bits which ideally remain where they’re put until they’re removed.
@Pablo
It will be ok! We had the big house, tons of outdoor space backing up to extensive woodlands...did love to garden...have managed herbs and veggies on my balcony...and it’s fun and healthy not to get in the car every time you need milk or a bottle of wine, and to be able to walk to restaurants with outdoor dining, also PT, camera store, pet shop, library, bank; we can drop the car off for service and walk home, etc...on balance a good trade. Wishing you all the best!
lmao imagine thinking the LotR movies were dull
I like how half of Rex's critiques are just "I don't like X so that's a bad clue." Imagine thinking the LotR movies are dull lmao
Dear Rex
Maybe you need to stop writing your blog if you feel it is so beneath you. Everything you say seems calculated to take the fun out of doing the puzzle. I used to love reading your comments but have stopped because they are so angry and mean. I am not a professional puzzle doer so perhaps not the right audience in the first place.
I had a great time doing this puzzle. I don't consider myself a troglodyte but I thought the themers were funny. Also appreciated the challenge that resulted in a clean finish, which, any time I can achieve that, makes me feel good!
I fully agree with you Lewis. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Solid debut, W.S!
@Ken Freeland as someone who knows almost nothing about shakespeare and doesn't care for it, ditto old movies/actors, trust me there are plenty of those clues. which just goes to show, it's not really disproportionate, but rather what you don't know will stick out like a sore thumb. every crossword is going to contain something somebody isn't very familiar with, that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
you seem to be focused on the "newness" of these pop culture-ish clues, so let me remind everyone that the hobbit was written in 1937 and lord of the rings in 1954. star wars came out in 1977. (i realize the clue in sunday's puzzle refers to a more recent iteration but i'm speaking in terms of star wars clues appearing in puzzles in the way you reference it.) even harry potter has been around for over twenty years now. and frankly, excluding rap from "the classics" and putting it in the same category as "low literacy levels" is white supremacy talking.
i can understand not enjoying the proper noun stuff - i just talked about this yesterday or the day before, i definitely find more pleasure in "regular" words, because you can figure those out. with names, either you know them or you don't, and even if it's a name you can guess at, it's just not a very satisfying reveal compared to the ones that involve vocabulary, root words, puns/wordplay, etc. but to suggest that proper noun clues from some arbitrary date and before are somehow better and more ~highbrow~ than clues that reference current media is just such a boring, unintelligent, "get off my lawn" type of complaint.
(related: thank you @Douglas.)
really no surprise with the reaction to the recent POTTY MOUTH puzzle where this writeup and ensuing comments would go, lol! it took me awhile to fill in the jokes although i knew the lines they would be along, but i enjoyed all of them. BARELY MANAGING was easily the least favorite, and i think BOTTOMLESS PIT or MANY MOONS AGO tie for the top spot, somewhat ironically. i guess i always have been an ass woman.
again it was the bottom rows of the puzzle where i finally started to break it open. in the end, it was the teeny little NW stack that got me. did not know RHEA or EINS, and the travel expense i thought could have been ROOM, then i had MEAL. so i had to resort to google for the KNOSSOS answer, where i read all about the labyrinth, daedalus, icarus, and the whole ordeal. why didn't minos just kill the dang minotaur in the first place if he didn't like the thing? guess that would have made for a rather short, boring story ;)
anyway, after that i was able to fill in the rest and finish. very disappointed i didn't get TREBEK before seeing the K, was thinking it had to be some mythical wise man, sage, seer, etc. i love jeopardy and am still unable to really grok that alex is gone. didn't mind ken jennings hosting actually, but he had to leave to film his other game show and now they have the executive producer or whatever who sounds like he should be hosting survivor or something. not my favorite, but he obviously loves the game and loves alex, so he'll have to do in the meantime.
that's enough from me in a post few will even read - see you all tomorrow :)
Wow, so Rex has an issue with MORIA (a major locale) because he didn't pay attention to the movies? The movies that were based on a beloved series of books that are pretty much standard reading for anyone interested in fantasy literature (or any literature, for that matter).
Fly, you fools!
Those things that only existed between about 1970-1979.... weren't they called nudist colonies?
18D clue: "Child, in Chile"; answer: NENE? Last I checked (including the OED and Google Translate), a nene is a Hawaiian goose, and child in Spanish is Nino/Nina (with tildes over the second n). Is this pandemic license?
I don't usually comment, prefer to lurk in the background, but really appreciated this. Yes, let's remember who's the future of crosswords and try not to lose them.
NOT FOR HER
IT AIN'T EXPOSURETIME when I'MALONE;
ISIT ARISING rhyme VISAVIS DEBONE?
--- RIC LEWIS
Who doesn't love a pun?
Lots of potential here. Can't wait to see what BS has to offer.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting
Oh come on, it wasn't THAT bad. All the themers are "in the language;" nothing seems forced. Maybe my expectations have been lowered lately (some people might try that), but in-the-language seems pretty hard to achieve any more. It's a weird feeling to see the usual clue for EKING written out : BARELYMANAGING. You have to give extra points for that one; it's SO much better than that ugly bit of crosswordese. In fact, this one's a solid birdie. So there.
THAT WEE SEES FREES
I'M BARELYMANAGING my RAWRECRIUT,
FULLYRECOVERED LISA AIN'T,
I'M OBSESSIVE FOR HER birth DAY suit;
LUST makes an OLDIE like me FEINT.
--- LAR SMIRNOFF-EINSEIN
Pete @ 11:59 am :
Dear Pete, are people ingesting tanning lamps???
How weird!!!
The peritoneum is an internal membrane.
��
Ditto.
Boy...some of you are really of the supercilious sort!
What does PPP stand for?
@Blair - Pop Culture, Product Names, and other Proper Nouns.
Thank you!
The answer to the clue should have been, "Who was Alex TREBEK"?
Post a Comment