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Online provocateur / WED 3-17-21 / 1967 hit that starts Well my pad is very messy and there's whiskers on my chin / One hanging around a party with swingers
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Constructor: Peter A. Collins
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:50)
Theme answers:
- TED DANSON (17A: If you think actors have two left feet, you haven't seen ___) (get it ... dancin' ...?)
- DOLLY PARTON (20A: If you think country singers can't do hair, you haven't seen ___)
- MICHAEL BOLTON (35A: If you think pop balladeers can't run fast, you haven't seen ___)
- JANET YELLEN (52A: If you think economists don't lose their cool, you haven't seen ___)
- WES CRAVEN (55A: If you think film directors are always satisfied, you haven't seen ___)
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. He produced major works in a variety of media but considered himself a painter above all. He was best known for his pioneering photography, and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Man Ray is also noted for his work with photograms, which he called "rayographs" in reference to himself. (wikipedia)
• • •
There's nothing here outside of the theme. The fill is unremarkable, with some patches that are actually a bit rough. Not surprisingly, these are the (only) patches I struggled with. DEREG and AMARE are both kinda ugh and they cross, so that's not great. Not a fan of "I'M A MAN"—it's a fine song, but it's old and though I know the chorus, that opening line means nothing to me. ALEPH next to EL SOL running through APO isn't too much fun either. Along with the roughness came a little toughness. I thought the Ranger's home at 64A: Ranger's home, in brief (NHL) was MSG (right idea (hockey), but too specific). I thought the "Hose" in 63A: Hose problems was a garden hose, so wanted LEAKS or KINKS; needed many crosses to get SNAGS. Not a huge fan of ABBÉ or TORI, but most of the rest of the grid was solid enough. Just lifeless. Always happy to see Dolly's name, though. I can take that energy with me into my day, I guess. Take care. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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118 comments:
The NYTX always ends up on this side of Dad Jokedom when it tries to do wacky. Do something with Ted Talks, Dolly the cloned sheep, the archangel Michael, Janet Jackson, and ... Hmm... Wes is a little tougher... But get away from the source person and go big on the wacky and this would be a lot more fun. Instead, the wacky is tepid at best so another promising conceit leaves me feeling meh.
NAN lost an A again. I did notice it crossing MANNA, making me wonder if MANNA was really just Indian bread.
Arched eyebrow at the HIPSTERS clue. We have lots of good coffee around here, but the closest we get to HIPSTERS are the lumbersexuals prancing around in their flannel shirts and bushy beards. Full disclosure - Flannel shirts and a beard... But I don’t prance. At any rate, be assured that the coffee at Z’s Placebo and Tentacle Pub will be artisanal, Flannel shirts optional.
If you think redhaired singers can't trim sheep, you haven't seen...
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...ED SHEERAN
Easy and easier than yesterday’s. Mostly smooth and punny, liked it.
I’m a TED DANSON fan and I will again recommend “The Good Place”. It’s the most interesting thing he’s done (IMHO). It has a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score and can be streamed on Netflix and Apple TV+.
Agree with Rex and @Z that this one was not HOT TO WEL(L) ADMIRE.
And neither was that. But that just means they belong together.
Good news is, this was a handy cure for my insomn...🥱😴
🧠🧠
🎉🎉
Yes, I don't cook So cooking clues trouble me. But I've gotten used to Indian food clues in the #NYTXW. But as Z notes above, WTF, is it NAN or NAAN?
NYCHIPSTERS are idiots, but after the past year or so, I'm tired of people dunking on NYC peeps. Maybe the NYCHIPSTERS all fled town town their parents' estates, but they didn't make the news for doing so. Meanwhile the leading candidate for mayor has admitted to spending much of the past year outside the city at his second home.
The cross of ALEPH and NHL left me very unsatisfied
Puzzle partner pulled a @Nancy and crumpled up his copy, it didn’t hit the wall, but ended it up in the fish pond. I, on the other hand found this amusing. I little silly perhaps, but I can relate. I just wish the theme answers could have kept with the ON endings. Seemed a little disjointed to switch to EN for the last two.
Definitely an easy puzzle, it's rare for me to get through a Wednesday without having to google some name so I was proud of this one!
Strange to see "naan" missing an "a" but I guess that is to be expected when "daal" is spelled "dal".
My only hiccup was in the south, I had "aleph" and "el sol" straight away but wasn't familiar with "ewan" or "apo" (??) or "nhl" (??) so just tried random letters until it worked.
Four foreign language clues is a lot, this time they weren't so bad but I never enjoy guess-the-last-vowel for French / romance languages.
“I’m a Man”...one of Winwood’s best.
I tell ya – this is a tough crowd as regards wackiness standards. I smiled at each themer, and I especially got a kick out of imagining DOLLY standing there parting someone’s hair. (Her entry is timely; I read recently that she’s bought out the supermarkets Big Star, Piggly Wiggly, and Harris Teeter. Go DOLLY!)
When I saw the trick with TED DANSON, I went back and changed it to ‘dancin” and then quickly realized that Peter decided to leave the spelling unchanged and rely on the pronunciation. I like this decision. Sat there whispering TED DANSON and giving that last vowel the side-eye. Anyone notice that TED’s DANSON in the AISLE?
Rex – yeah, it’s weird to try to get an image of the act of craving, but when the first craving hit me while I was carrying my son, it was a spectacle to behold. I swerved off the main road, screeched to a stop at a convenience store, rushed in, grabbed the crunchy Cheetos bag, paid for it, and tore into it right there, hands shaking, I wanted those Cheetos so much.
“Heaven-sent food” – PEACE, LOVE, AND LITTLE DONUTS didn’t fit. If you haven’t experienced one, hie thee to a franchise forthwith and get the maple bacon one. What a concept, that place. It’s like some STONED guy decided to ADORN some TORI goodies with whatever was on hand: Fruity Pebbles, M&Ms, gummy worms, pretzels. . . Wonder if there’s one topped with crunchy Cheetos.
That SNAG? In your hose? As a regular wearer of hose, I can tell you that a worse problem is when you’re in too much of a hurry to wrestle them back up properly after doing your business, so the crotch part is halfway down to your knees, and you have to take much smaller steps until you can slip back into the bathroom to rectify the problem.
I love that first line of I’M A MAN. Hah. “Well, my pad is very messy and there’s whiskers on my chin” pretty much describes a lot of my 2020 lock-down.
I’ve been dealing with some Stuff and haven’t had the energy to comment, but I do try to keep up with all y’all. The TROLLs are still lurking, and when I see one of their comments, I silently pray that people will just completely ignore them. Their cruelty is matched only by their cowardice, and the whole phenomenon is mystifying.
Peter – always a pleasure. I’m going to try to think of themers all day. (Hi, @Joe Dipinto!) Anyone know if Sarah’s face went white when she was asked about the Bush Doctrine?
PS – Apparently DOLLY’S gonna name her new chain Big Wiggly Teeters.
“Commin Sense” eg, TRACT? Got it but don’t get it.
@Adam12 - TRACT as in TRACT^2 here. Common Sense was a political TRACT written by Thomas Paine.
@LMS - Sure, just drop in with two theme examples and a hooters joke. 😂🤣😂🤣😂
There’s the craft of constructing a puzzle, and Peter’s a pro. This grid is clean and smooth, with a wide variety of answers – polished. Many decisions go into making a puzzle, and Peter seems to make all the right ones.
There’s an art to constructing puzzles too. Coming up with fresh themes. This one is fun, started my day with a smile, and it’s Peter’s 115th puzzle! Also, there’s the art of finding new words – NYT debuts – words that have never shown up in one of the bazillion puzzles before, that keep the NYT puzzle fresh and alive. Peter has 562 – 562! – debut words to his credit (thank you for this tidbit, XwordInfo), including all of today’s theme answers, save for Dolly Parton.
You earn your middle initial time and time again, Peter. I’m amazed and tickled by what you do. Thank you!
Either a puzzle is fun or witty. This was neither. What is TORI?
Glad to see DOLLY in today's puzzle. I tried to put her in a puzzle last week (Most Grammy nominations).
Hmm. All the things Rex complained about were things I liked about this one. Like Abbe and tori. I guess the things he finds "rough" or "tough" are the type of thing I appreciate. Enjoyable, clever, and just the right amount of head-scarching. I liked this one a lot.
I was definitely thrown by the clue for HIPSTERS - then I started thinking what on earth is a “HIPSTER” specifically (my first thought was a middle aged dude trying to regain his lost youth by getting stoned and going to a Rolling Stones concert). The first dentition that came up on Google was “ a person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.” Ok, that helps - the clue refers to “artisan coffee shops”. I think of artisan coffee as similar to a locally produced beer served at a nearby independent Ale House. Are either of those considered a recent trend, new fashion or something outside of the cultural mainstream (or have I been reading Rex for too long and now have the over-thinking bug as well) ?
@LMS – In the Additional Themer department, I doubt you'll be able to top your avatar.
Why is “IT’S A DEAL” a ‘cry’ while shaking hands? Our faces are maybe two feet apart. You should be speaking in an appropriately low volume.
That clue did make me wonder when the last time was that I shook someone’s hand. I think it was October of 2019.
I think we’ve had EEYORE, ROO and POOH all very recently. Would it be so very hard to work in Kanga now and then?
For what it's worth, the theme got an audible chuckle out of me (especially JANET YELLEN), which is always welcome on a Wednesday morning.
Interesting theme. I, like many, I presume, first had AMoRE, but the perp fixed it. I like commas.
@SouthsideJohnny -- since I take your question to be genuine, to this youngster who doesn't remember the 80's, the clue is perfect. A hipster's home is basically an specialty coffee shop. A Google Image search may be more helpful for you to figure out what a hipster means than the dictionary :-)
Re the rest of the puzzle: I liked it, but struggled mightily with the NW and SE corners. This puzzle is unacceptably (to me) cut off in those corners. If you don't get DEADON (ick!) or MANRAY (which I should have gotten quicker), those corners are only solvable on their own terms.
If you think presidents are impatient you haven't seen_____
If you think presidents sign all bills you haven't seen_____
Love it!
TORI is the plural of torus, the topological name for a donut or bagel.
I wanted to see TED dance on at first, but got the present participle idea soon enough and then it was a smooth downhill run. (Full disclosure, we're about to go skiing, the snow melts during the day and freezes solid overnight, which makes for interesting conditions.) No other real hangups but I would have liked to see USAINBOLTON, even if it's wrong.
A friend and I did an Osher course on DOLLYPARTON recently and learning more about her was an eye-opener. She is really something. One quote--a fan asked her at a concert if she had considered cutting her hair. Dolly said "Cut it? I just bought it this morning.".
Also I learned that LENTILs are a component of dal. I had been wondering what my dal was missing.
Nice Wednesday from a pro. Thanks for the fun, PAC, this was Perfectly Acceptble Construction.
When @LMS finds time to comment, it makes my day.
Stay safe everyone.
This played more like a Tuesday for me. Finished a full two minutes faster than yesterday, and that’s with a typo that cost me sixty seconds (my fat thumb had entered NGL crossing with ALEPG, and it took me a literal minute to scan the grid and find it).
I love bad puns, but I was groaning at this one. Audibly. I solved in bed last night and my fiancée commented that if I’m groaning at a pun that means it’s criminally bad.
The issue is the cluing. The whole “If you think ____, you haven’t seen ____” is just so … Fozzie Bear Stand Up. Better set ups could have been “Actor cutting a rug” for TED DANSON, “Country singer with a hair brush” for Dolly PARTON, “Pop balladeer fleeing the scene of a crime” for MICHAEL BOLTON, “Economist with a finger caught in a mousetrap” for JANET YELLEN, and “Hungry hungry film director” for WES CRAVEN. (These are just off the top of my head, so there are probably even better / less painful / possibly-even-actually-funny ways to clue these.)
Or not. Who knows? A sense of humor can be deeply individual. I just know I’d have enjoyed the puzzle more if these bad puns were presented more dryly.
On that note, @Joe Dipinto — I snorted out loud at your Ed Sheeran comment.
My fiancée did complain about the ON endings switching to EN endings. Didn’t bother me.
As far as other possible theme answers (famous names that can be homophones for a present participle phrase), I do love Rex’s suggestions! Perhaps “Graphic novelist rapt in a session of Dungeons & Dragons” for NEIL GAIMAN. (Too on the nose?)
Regarding NYC HIPSTERS: I was in my mid- to late twenties in the first decade of the 2000s, living in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, not the theme park in Virginia). I played in a band, worked in a bar, had graduated from a liberal arts school with a poetry degree. Ticked all the HIPSTER boxes, one might say. Always hated the term and felt it didn’t apply. I self-identified, rather, as an “Aging Indie Rocker,” and have always prized sincerity over sarcasm, idealism over cynicism. I’ve been so happy — relieved! — for the last several years to have finally seen the dreaded HIPSTER word fall from usage. Perhaps seeing it in a NYTXW on a Wednesday is a sign that it is truly a dead term?
@Z: I, too, have a bushy beard and am fond of flannel shirts. Never been called a “lumbersexual,” though. My fiancée has sometimes said, “I am going to marry a Kodiak bear.”
Also @Z: I stand corrected, regarding yesterday’s REO confusion. @OldCarFudd, @newbie and @Wylmcc agreed with you (though @tea73, @a, and even OFL Rex Himself agreed with me). Seems to be something more well known to certain generations and geographical regions, none of which apply to me. I’ll take it — while admitting that being an 18-year resident of NYC gives me quite the upper hand on a lot geographical and landmark clues in the New York Times.
Either way, I was wrong. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Agree wholeheartedly with chefwen @ 2:44 am. All "on" would have been nice -- or a third ending [an? in?] for the center answer.
It's a wordplay puzzle! It's a pun puzzle! So I should be a lot more filled with joy than I actually am. But although it's very smooth and professional and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the puzzle, I found it tepid. It wasn't especially funny and it certainly wasn't challenging.
Perhaps I solved it the wrong way. Perhaps I should have filled nothing in at all once I had the theme figured out. Perhaps I should have tried to guess the theme people with no crosses at all. It would have made the puzzle more challenging and intriguing, surely.
Too late now. Maybe next time.
MANNA OMAN, there's a whole lot of M's, N's, O's, and A's, in the Lower East Side.
To that point, if you think Mycenaean kings don't talk with their mouths full, you haven't seen ... Agamemnon.
When I got DOLLY PARTON,I knew this was gonna be a snore/dad-joke puzzle. Other things to do.
Liked this one for the most part - although do agree that when you play this game you should try to go as wacky as possible. Other than DOLLY - wasn’t really fond of the themers. Fill was smooth - liked the clue for PIÑATA and the HOT TOWEL x DEAD ON cross. TROLL is apt for this blog lately. There are many who use HIPSTERS as a pejorative.
Loved Cheers in day but never a big fan of DANSON until Curb.
Enjoyable solve - time to start the corned beef.
Tract as in Essay
I misread "Panasonic subsidiary" as "Palindromic subsidiary". Then struggled to come up with a word spelled _Y_Y_.
All of the themers are white, their average age 73. Where's Erik Agard when you need him?
I used to frequent the first Indian Restaurant in NYC (Broadway around 91st Street, so long ago I forget the name) and Westchester (Bengal Tiger, White Plains). And since them I've eaten at many others. Nan or naan? I've seen it on the menus both ways.
Seemed like a Tuesday puzzle to me. Didn't understand the theme, but so what? Still enjoyable enough. Much more enjoyable than reading about being annoyed that the name end in both ON and EN. That is truly sad. At least I feel so.
Did you know the constructor has a truly noble sideline? Read about it at XWordInfo.com.
Thank you @Peter for a smooth Wednes. puz!
Easy solve.
Good start in the NW and down the coast, finishing in counterclockwise fashion with two of my faves, LENTILs and EEYORE. No pit stops along the way.
Have a good buddy who loves EEYORE, so she's turned me into a fan, as well.
MANNA From Heaven ~ Gaither Vocal Band (Live)
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I liked this, thought it was solid and a bit of a laugh, but somehow can’t work up much enthusiasm. The solve went smoothly. I had what was probably a common malapop involving HAD and ATE. I amazed myself by knowing Leslie ODOM Jr. right off, although I don’t know how. I saw “Hamilton” when it was broadcast on PBS a long time ago, and I didn’t take in the names of anyone in the cast apart from Lin-Manuel Miranda. (Or did I?) Watched a cute video the other day about an orphaned STOAT, but I’m too lazy to find it now – you’ll have to take my word that young STOATs are surprisingly endearing.
A quotation from PENELOPE LIVELY, born Mar. 17, 1933:
“I have a print - you can buy them at the Victoria and Albert Museum - of a photograph of the village street of Thetford, taken in 1868, in which William Smith is not. The street is empty. There is a grocer's shop and a blacksmith's and a stationary cart and a great spreading tree, but not a single human figure. In fact William Smith - or someone, or several people, dogs too, geese, a man on a horse - passed beneath the tree, went into the grocer's shop, loitered for a moment talking to a friend while the photograph was taken but he is invisible, all of them are invisible. The exposure of the photograph - sixty minutes - was so long that William Smith and everyone else passed through it and away leaving no trace. Not even so much of a mark as those primordial worms that passed through the Cambrian mud of northern Scotland and left the empty tube of their passage in the rock.
I like that. I like that very much. A neat image for the relation of man to the physical world. Gone, passed through and away.”
(From Moon Tiger)
Hey All !
My buddy EEYORE made it into the puz. Har 🤪
Pretty neat theme idea. Got a sneer out of me. Not an audible chuckle, but the puz did what it set out to do. That 1D-2D thing was kind of bizzare, and AMARE instead of AMORE was really trying to give me my one-letter DNF. Thankfully PINATA easy enough to suss out. (Had Parent there first, thinking swings on a playground.)
Knew everyone except JANET YELLEN. That name rings a far away faint bell, though.
@kitshef 7:27
"Cry" as used in the NYTXW is any utterance. Could even be a whisper. Although, if one is excited enough about the DEAL, they might say it louder than normal, as you are arching away from the YELLEN. ☺️
Re: Hipsters - I think of them as the Metrosexuals in that one South Park episode.
Have you seen the Pepe Le Pew/cat with the disgusting Cardi B and whoever-the-hell else at the Grammys meme? Tell me which one is worse. Just sayin'.
No F's (HATERs)
RooMonster
DarrinV
anonymous 8:59,
So what? The modern crossword puzzle was invented by a white guy who was born 150 years ago. Old white guys are handy to have around. They give us things like modern germ theory, calculus, Saturn V rockets, pasteurization, the internal combustion engine, Braille, Zeiss optics, artificial hearts, The Iliad and LL Bean.
Go be woke someplace else.
Didn't easily get the Northwest corner at first so went to the Southeast and figured out the theme after getting "Wes Craven" with a few crosses.... got Janet Yellen right afterwards and worked up from there.
Cute puzzle -- thanks, Peter!
LOVE LOVE LOVE MAN RAY......IF Only I had been alive and living in Paris during his time...maybe waking up in the morning and wondering what his creative mind could conjure up while sipping a little cognac in a corner cafe. I'd beg him to use me as a model; I would dance on top of a table, but...alas....he chose Kiki to be his femme fatale.
Did I enjoy the puzzle? Why yes....You snuck in the MAN. BUT....you also snuck in MICHAEL BOLTON who I find to be the most boring (sorry) singer on this side of Paradise. When he sings "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" I end up foraging the refrigerator for some cheese.
Peter puzzle sometimes need a pickled pepper. He always makes puzzles that seem like they take him ten minutes to construct. I can almost see him smile while he adds a little this and a little that. The NAN needs a little more A, the NANO needs a little second, maybe the APO needs a little L....Just my thoughts.
@Joe Dip....Ay chihuahua...Good one.
@Loren: Only one way to hold up hose. Of course I haven't worn any since I last worked about 50 years ago, but I had to wear a girdle because the panty croch always came down to my knees. Good luck.... :-)
No offense but wouldn’t it be Raving? Not Craving?
@Anon 9:25 - Just think about how much more we would have, how much faster we would have gotten it, how much better we would be if the other 70% of the population had been able to participate in the creative process.
Go be a grumpy old white dude somewhere else.
Dad joke puns, a cute PIÑATA and a guest visit from @LMS. What other delights can a Wednesday hold? Maybe a Reuben & Guinness lunch? Ahhh, sweet mystery of life!
@Anonymous (9:25 AM)
I respect your POV, just as I respect @Anonymous 8:59 AM)'s. What I don't understand, tho, is your need to invite a fellow blogger to "go be woke someplace else".
Is not this blog for all to express themselves without being disrespected?
___
Peace ~ TOLERANCE ~ Empathy ~ Kindness 🕊
@jess & @oceanjeremy - HIPSTER always strikes me as a “I know one when I see one” sort of term. That is, completely speaker dependent for meaning. I have heard it used as praise and with derision. PBR became a HIPSTER beer. What the heck does that even mean? Well, when somebody in a band who pays the bills by working in a bar because that poetry degree is good in the long run but not so much in the short run drinks PBR because it is what he can afford PBR gets HIPSTER cred. So you walk into the hot new bar and all the people who think being a HIPSTER is the thing to be are drinking PBR. Who is the actual HIPSTER here? Heck if I know. I do suspect that google image search is the way to go, though.
@oceanjeremy - I do try to avoid “wrong” unless it is a matter of fact. And I can’t disagree that being from the rust belt gives me an advantage on knowing about R.E. Olds (like I said, my college had a building named for the guy). More importantly for solving crosswords, it really is about 50-50 on rock band v. car maker dude clues.
Speaking of 50-50 clues, is TORI Amos no longer crossworthy? Also, it is good to read up on TORII, which is not a weird plural for TORI. TORII is coming to a puzzle near you soon.
@Anonymoose - Now do Andrew Jackson...
@8:59 - 73? Really?
@LMS - I hear you, but I was genuinely curious (the same way one gets curious about just how long a cat will chase the red dot of a laser pointer). I never actually said where I worked, so it was funny to be accused of being wrong. And then to come up with Springwells... that’s not a common thing to know. But it was quickly getting to the cat knocking over the lamps stage of curiosity. As a result, though, I did catch up on the Great Logo Kerfuffle. Not too surprisingly, “Hometown of noted racist and anti-semite” isn’t exactly the best thing to have on the town logo in the second decade of the 21st century. But the replacement? Boy howdy.
I did the math. Average age is 73+ a little.
If you don't think a President can unite a country, you haven't seen______.
(most unusual final consonant spelling for this bit?)
@Loren, if I ever need an effective ipecac, I'll keep that donut menu handy - definitely doesn't pass the breakfast test. (a few of them looked okay, for the record).
It feels sacrilegious to say this, but how many Broadway actors that aren't known from TV or Movies are currently household names? Not saying it's for lack of talent, just what tends to get our attention these days.
Fun puzzle and THANK YOU for including your solve time.
At first I thought they should have gone with something "scared" for the WESCRAVEN clue, but that wouldn't have comported with the other answers, all of which were gerunds. Good job
For those interested in seeing Ted Dancing....from the movie "Body Heat"
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ted+danson+dancing+body+heat
If you think obscure bloggers never use gerunds, you haven't heard ... Ria Talken.
And if you think you stroll with an attitude, you haven't seen ... Christopher Walken.
Not to worry. I've already shown myself out.
TCM ran 'Casablanca' yet again the last few days. The opening narration mentions that the flee-ers land in Africa in OrAN. Was going to check the wiki to see if such a country still exists. Never got around to it, so had to wait for OMAN to come around on the guitar. Yes, yes it does... but it's a city in Algeria.
I enjoyed this one. I started at the bottom and had no idea where the clue for the last themer was heading until I saw WESCRAVEN. Okay...you had me right there at the dark side. Even first thing in the morning I can do a little scary. Alas, that theme was not to be, but I still got a kick out of MIKE & DOLLY & TED & JANET. I hadn’t thought of Mike for a long time. He lived one town over and my teens told me his teens threw mad parties. I believed them. I used to sing a full medley of his hits just to drive my family crazy. Learned some stuff today and now I have more confidence in SANYO products. I’m not a big fan of LENTILs so I won’t be ordering DAL, and I thought it was AMoRE, not AMARE. All in all a very satisfying Wednesday.
If you think sportswriters don't preserve their own food, you never saw JIMMY CANNON.
If you think ax-murderers don't ride trains, you never saw LIZZIE BORDEN.
If you think pop singers are cowards, you never saw BOBBY DARIN.
If you think rock guitarists don't cry, you never saw MARTY BALIN.
@LMS,5:11am, would I drive through five states to find a primo donut shop? You betcha and I’d make money selling seats in the car. A pop-up gourmet joint opened around the corner and folks stand in line in the cold for two hours to get a dozen on a Sunday morning. Heck I could be warm and seated and halfway to Charleston by then.
If you think all composers are easy to find, you haven't seen...
I started out thinking I wasn’t going to like this but ended up loving it. The only themer I wasn’t crazy about was MICHAEL BOLTON which seemed a tad clunky. But overall, lots of fun. Now I’m gonna be thinking all day of other names that might work. One that immediately jumped out at me was:
If you you think actresses can’t play baseball you haven’t seen __________*.
The absence of regular TWEET TIRADES since January has been a welcome change. I have not missed them, not ONE BIT.
*SALLY FIELD
Only one quotation “NON”-clue today; 18 down. Did you notice?
The solve was very nice with only one.
Happy to see your comments! Wishing you well in dealing with whatever has your attention these days. And this donuts look amazing!
Original poster of the age + race comment here. I have nothing against any of the people featured (I also didn't mention gender at all, so I'm not sure why that was included in the tirade against me). I'm speaking to an institutional bias which exists in many places, the NYT crossword among them, in favor of highlighting the achievements of cishet older white people (yes, most of them men). I myself a 31 year-old cishet white dude, but, unlike the poster who advised me to "be woke somewhere else," I don't feel any particular desire to celebrate the achievements of my "cultural forebears" since the institutions I mention seem to have it pretty well covered. I invoked Erik Agard because his crosswords represent an inclusivity that not only rejects the inherent gatekeeping in an ethnocentric puzzle like this (further exemplified by the dismissive tone of your uncomfortably whiteness-worshipping comment), but is also just more fun.
I just watched A's Grebe video link from yesterday, which was awesome, and youtube gave me another recommendation from BBC. In case any of you need another Grebe fix:
https://youtu.be/ZbRrxw-H6xA
...Joseph Haydn
@Dan 10:58. Nice!
M&A asked actor Christopher if he'd like to join in on this rodeo, but he said he was Walken.
Some real nice desperate puztheme Cullins by constructioneer Peter, here, tho. Amused the M&A.
staff weeject picks: ONE & BIT. Weeject neighbor cross-referencin. Cute. Also like them weeject quad stacks, in the NW & SE.
@Muse darlin: Good to hear from U; many best of luck wishes, for all that Stuff. Hope to see U back more regular-like, once the Stuffiness clears up. re: Dolly's new chain: I want to go to there.
Ow de Speration moment: DEREG/AMARE.
Missed Ow de Speration moment: BUT/UNDIE, in the NW corner. Gets the puz a U.
Sparkler moments: MANRAY. PARITY. ITSADEAL. TWEET SWARM.
Thanx for the puzzlin, Mr. Collins dude.
Masked & Anonymo s
harder than snot:
**gruntz**
@Hartley would drive through five states to get to @Loren's donut shop. But those donuts don't pass @burtonkd's "breakfast test". Who's right, I wondered? @Loren and @Hartley or @burtonkd? There was only one way to find out. I needed to click on the link to the donut shop.
I did and here's my conclusion. As you all know, I can throw my NYT against the wall from time to time and still have a wall. But if I threw those donuts against my wall, I would not have a wall. They look heavy as lead, cloyingly sweet, loaded up from head to toe with sugary glop, and half the size of Montana. I'm with @burtonkd.
Presidents = wheelhouse
Composers = not so much
A little help please. And since my wheelhouse isn’t everyone’s wheelhouse maybe all the unanswered ones, no matter how obvious to the contributor, should have answers provided.
The shear number of these already points to another nit. If making names into homophonic present participles is this relatively easy then another unifying aspect to the choices would be more elegant. JANET YELLEN is pretty good, but is a bit of an outlier in this set. MICHAEL BOLTON, too, but at least he’s still entertainment industry.
Revisiting 7:48...
If you think presidents are impatient you haven't seen_____ Joseph Biden
If you think presidents sign all bills you haven't seen_____ Richard Nixon
@Anon 11:20: May I ask what you do for a living?
If you think novelists can't perform transplant surgery, you haven't seen...
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...SUE GRAFTON
If you think dyslexic ice cream sellers never get tanned, then you haven’t seen Robbins Baskin.
I just had to throw something out there as an intro to saying that I liked the puzzle, but that the revision of themer clues suggested by @oceanjeremy 8:33 am works better.
Nice to hear from @LMS. Keep those pantyhose hitched up!
I'm in the running for today's Dunce Cap Award, because I didn't get the "-ON" part of the first few theme answers. I understood the first as, "You haven't seen Ted dance on"...what? At least, you can dance "on" something, but I was lost as to how "on" could work with PART and BOLT. Patiently, I soldiered on, confident that a reveal would clear it all up. But then I encountered JANET...without an ON...and finally understood that she was yellin'. Aha and a delayed appreciation for the theme. Thanks to all who added to the cast of characters!
@Loren (5:11) You made me snort my coffee with your pantyhose story. Been there, done that, but not since I quit working. Another of the pleasures of retirement; every day sans SNAGs.
To actually see DOLLY PARTON someone’s hair, watch Steel Magnolias where she plays a salon owner . . . with a heart of gold, naturally.
@Anonymous (7:48) Biden and Nixon
If you think a handsome actor can’t make cookies, you haven’t seen ________.
If you think a famous Scientologist can’t drive you haven’t seen _______.
If you think a legendary actress can’t sew, you haven’t seen ______.
KEVIN BACON
TOM CRUISE
ELIZABETH TAYLOR
@Z
If you think all composers are easy to find, you haven't seen...
JOSEPH HAYDN
Whoo dogies, that was a tough Wednesday. If I hadn't known who JANET YELLEN was, I would have never gotten out of the SW. And the NW didn't exactly fill itself in either. The rest was easy enough. I wasn't surprised to see Peter A. Collins was the constructor after I was finished.
I don't know if you would call it a PHOBIA, but the feeling of running my wet finger across stiff paper makes my skin crawl. I blame kindergarten and having art class with a blob of school glue/paste on a piece of construction paper. You had to pull bits of the paste off the paper to apply it to whatever we were gluing that day - I'm shuddering as I type this. Weird.
My post-puzzle comment: "It's the schwaness of it". Because I too thought all the themers would end in ON. But yeah, Janet can go right on YELLEN about the unfairness of life.
I am old enough to remember the original hipsters in San Franciso and their coffee shops. The Co-Existence Bagel Shop did not last long, but the actual coffee places lasted for years. I used to buy my coffee at Malvina's, but there were three or four places in North Beach that offered a first-rate brew. And then you had the hipster bars. Vesuvio's was, and I think still is, an absolute marvel, especially if you are itching to get way from Portland, Oregon. Right across from City Lights.
Upper Grant was a must-see for tourists and students alike, and also featured some of the best bars in the City, which were decidedly unhip, and proud of it. The great Chronicle columnist Charles McCabe used to drink his breakfast at one of them, but only, he assured his readers, after he had done his daily stint. His joint was Italian. My joint was Irish to the core, and the owner wrote a fine book about how to run a proper pub.
@Z & LMS - I almost posted a reminder not to feed the trolls yesterday but then I started wondering if posting that was feeding the trolls?
@old timer:
I used to buy my coffee at Malvina's
OK, so here's obscure question. Back around that time there was a folk singer and sometime song writer named Malvina Reynolds. An unusual name. Same person?
A few days ago, while getting ready to take up old business at this site, I was preoccupied with trying to figure out why the emblem on the Mexican flag, an eagle suppressing a serpent, was exactly the same as that of the political arm of the medieval (and later) Catholic church, namely the Parte Guelfa (Guelf Society or Guelf Party). When I finally arrived at an answer, I realized that it had the double virtue of being (1) likely wrong and (2) offensive to the most catholic of tastes. Thus I never posted it.
Last night in a long-distant phone call to an old friend, I told him that the great Italian beer mystery had been solved--that is, why Peroni, a perfectly fine Italian beer in the Americas, could be such an insipid beer in Italy. I realized I had never gotten around to thanking @Z for figuring this out, and I am indeed grateful. For an explanation, go back to the posts one day before the Mexican flag posts. The explanation can be summarized as follows: if you like Peroni beer at Italian pizzerias in the Americas, and want to relive the beer experience in Italy, never order Peroni beer--what you want is what is marketed in Italy as Nastro Azzurro, a label controlled or owned by Peroni.
At any rate, thanks again to @Z.
Anon. i.e. Poggius
If you think Animals disregard avians, you haven't seen...
If you think it doesn't hurt to come second on American Idol, you haven't seen...
If you think rotund TV bus drivers fit easily behind the wheel, you haven't seen...
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ERIC BURDON
CLAY AIKEN
RALPH KRAMDEN
@BARBARA S: Thank you for the Penelope Lively quote. She's one of my favorite authors. I especially like Moon Tiger and How It All Began.
Always nice to see LMS in the comments, and several people noted that. But I didn't see anyone except @Joe Dipinto remark on her avatar, which is brilliant. No surprise, but seriously, check it out.
@Anon@1:26, Malvina's was (maybe still is) a place in North Beach, named after some other Malvina than the old gal who wrote "Little Boxes" and dozens of other great songs. I knew her to speak to, and a lovely person she was!
When I was buying coffee at Malvina's, and having the occasional cappuccino, which I still believe to be better than any you can get in Italy, the cafe was kept alive not just by folks like me but also by its wholesale customers, and the fact that the owner, Franco, also had a franchise for a brand of espresso machines -- and knew how to fix them, too.
@Anon 12:14 Why?
Nice to have you back, LMS😊 I can relate to your “hose” problem & loved your Dolly’s markets titles‼️ Hope your “stuff” sorts itself out... 🍀
@Anon 2:52. Because I'm curious. I take it, however, you're goin to decline to answer the question. But maybe you'll answer this one: Why do you care whence my curiosity
If you think legendary jazz cornetists can't format text, you haven't seen...
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...BUDDY BOLDEN
If you think British lyricists can't totally rock a grey-beige outfit, you haven't seen...
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...BERNIE TAUPIN
(Alright that's just awful, I know.)
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
A song to celebrate the day’s saint:
Patrick’s Arrival - Christy Moore
(Warning - the sound starts very faintly, then gets louder.)
If you think actresses can’t assist with arson in the Deep South, you haven’t seen___*
Must be easy if I can do it. (I know, it’s 16 letters and doesn’t fit the present participle gig. Still.) Favorite so far is @LMS avatar! Welcome and hope things improve.
Not too thrilling but HAD some fun. Wanted to mount, not BOARD. Smiled at the thought of a barber’s HOT TOWEL. LENTILs and NAaN is MANNA. Some colorful words like TIRADES and PHOBIAS.
I had a few comments about some wonderful posts from yesterday that I didn’t post, and won’t NOW, but just wanted to give a shout out to @Lewis, @Barbara S, @Joe D, @Frantic, @TTrimble and @Malsdemare for their contributions!
Not MANY St. Paddy’s Day references today, just ISLES (O’ MAN?), ABBE and the good OLD IRA; but at least all of the themers sound like they could be Irish. OLD MICHAEL’s t’rowin’ a PARITY in the REC room - bring NAN!
*Katharine Hepburn (Kate and Audrey work too)
Never had dal with just one lentil. I also prefer the dahl form of dal and the naan form of nan but now I’ve learned there are lots of ways to spell them!
Managed to finish the puzzle ok but got held up for a bit on TORI, geometry not being something I associate with bagels...
If you think blonde actresses can’t (or can) win the bee, you haven’t seen TORI SPELLING! Take my wife...I get no respect...I’m here all week, folks. 🥯
“I’m a Man” - great song but never knew it had any words other than the chorus! 😀
Nice to see the NHL for a change.
@kitschef - re Kanga - so true - the mom is too often overlooked (there was a funny/sad SNL skit about it this past Christmas season). But dad is overlooked a lot, too. And who was Roo’s dad, anyway?
@jess knows his hipsters. I recommend anyone still confused asking a Millennial (or younger) to straighten you out on hipsters. Now that I think about it, aren’t the man-bun guys hipsters, too? Is that a sub-group or a different group entirely? Enquiring minds want to know! I’ll have to ask my son.
@oceanj - alas, you’ll have to leave me out of the “correct” group - everything I know about Reo I learned from Wikipedia after looking up NYT 🧐Crossword answers, including yesterday - but I have been to Detroit and its environs once or twice and to the antique car museum in Cleveland, most notably for a Christmas party - but that’s another story.
@bo 9:51 am - hear, hear! 🙂 usual
@JoeDiPinto - 😅 as usual
What about today being March 17? Don’t want to be a HATER or a TROLL but MANNA? Matzo? Bagels?
No soda bread?
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! ☘️
1) If you think that foreign directors are born, not made, you haven't seen...
2) If you think that English actresses never really age, you haven't seen...
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1 Milos Forman
2) Margaret Leighton
Puzzle was a difficult solve for me. Kept finding areas with clues that had answers on the edge of my consciousness or knowledge. I was sure to know them with a couple of crosses. And eventually got a couple and got the answers.
I, like Rex, was thinking of garden hoses, but in my yard the hose must take a winding path around trees, bushes, benches, birdbaths, statuary, stumps, rocks, posts and tripods. Thus SNAGS was a fitting, if odd, answer. Never thought of the hosiery connection until reading Rex.
Trolls. Yesterday I was going to post to one who never thinks of @Z: Yes I agree. Thought and obsession are different things.
But there has been one that has been sticking in my craw. The description of homosexual sex as disordered. The seeming scientific underpinning of the word combined with its religious overtones and veneer of moral judgement is insidious. If one believes for religious reasons that it is a sin just say that is the reason. You need no extra justification. To apply the term disordered is inviting some kind of prohibition or corrective action to be taken on a group that has long suffered great mistreatment. It is like posting a notice about someone's house that on weekdays between 9 and 5 the door is left open and unguarded with no surveillance cameras and out of sight of all neighbors with many valuable items right inside the door. And then claim no, I was not encouraging anyone to rob it. I was just sharing my knowledge and experience.
If you think Santa's helpers can't play football, you haven't seen _____
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Reindeer Blitzen
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0
Peace ~ TOLERANCE ~ Empathy ~ Kindness 🕊
Why did the hipster burn his mouth on pizza?
Because he was eating it BEFORE it was cool
@Loren, I was just thinking the other day I should purge my sock drawer of now-unused hose! Eventually began buying them a size up so as not to have the “small steps” issue. Don’t miss those days!
@oceanjeremy, your clues would’ve made this much more entertaining! Anyone still trying to think up more should follow your lead!
@Barbara, thanks for the fascinating “Moon Tiger” excerpt!
@bocamp 9:55 - good point, well said.
@burtonkd - nice! and @Dan’s composer has another unusual spelyn.
@egsforbreakfast, love your Robbins Baskin - nice twist!
@Carola, I actually plopped in ‘ON’ before reading the Yellen clue - made that take longer to see. Also didn’t help that I kept trying to think of an old white male economist!
The additional theme suggestions are fine. Some are better than the originals IMO. but give credit where credit is due. Peter A. Collins came up with the idea. None of you did (unless, as I suspect, Collins is an Anonymous poster). No not me.
@Kenny Mitts - 🤣😂🤣😂🤣
@newbie (3:58 PM) 😊 / @A (5:34 PM) 😊
@jae
Toughest Freestyle yet; all good except the whack-a-baloney-letter. Lucky guess on the meme one.
___
Peace ~ TOLERANCE ~ Empathy ~ Kindness 🕊
@Anonymous 2:52. I’ll jump in an add my pathetic two cents.
Your rejoinder to another anonymous’s post (9:25 AM) makes some claims. Including institutional racism. Those claims may be true, but you provide no evidence. You do however build your argument as if that original assertion were true. And you then draw conclusions — and helpful solutions🤔, The term cishet is enough to repulse most people. It’s more a way to signal a world view than engage in what the first anon was babbling about. ( check the WHO and see how many genders they list) And I think, while you were in high dudgeon you lost track of the institutions you were damning. You carelessly use a plural, when the singular NYTime is the only institution you cite. That of course is a quibble.
But the word salad you proffered as a defense of your original post is, well, quite sad. And, you do know that Erik Agard is white, right? I mean making him the champion of the bugbear of white pro legs is... what? Let’s call it...ironic.
((But my half Japanese wife says it’s idiotic)
@7:46 - Well actually..., @11:20 didn’t get any facts wrong. Not something you can claim. And “cishet” repulses people? In my experience it’s only bigots who are repulsed by such discussions.
Z,
Wow. You’re on record as saying that Calvinism is the best explanation for the state of man🙄.
Now, you’re obliquely defending sodomy?
Go with God dude. Good luck.
@Anon 7:46 I'm fine to just let you keep telling on yourself at this point.
Z's Placebo & Tentacle
Ollie-Ollie Octopodes are our mascot 🐙 (Yes! We even over-stuff our marketing!)
Does your hunger have a death grip on you? Are you CRAVEN some tasty, deep-down-home cookin'?
Z's Placebo & Tentacle has the cure - and not just for half of you! We've proudly served our secret family recipe to generations of loyal customers.
Come for the Fried Calamari, dusted with Powdered Sugarpill, stay for the Powdered Sugarpill-dusted Fried Calamari.
And beer.
But don't take it from us - see what our diners have to say:
"Captain Zemo's imaginative concoctions are simply fantastical!" - Jules. V.
"SCUBA-doobie-doo and two thumbs up!" - Jacques C.
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Our Giant Squidchip Sugarpill Cookie (serves 8) is just what the doctor ordered - and we ain't squiddin'!
Sea you there!
ZPT
Anon 8:54
We have very very different ideas about the world. Your story ends in the grave. Good luck with that.
@Z, I tried to set your lines "Does your hunger have a death grip on you? Are you CRAVEN some tasty, deep-down-home cookin'?" into the S&G tune "The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine" but it wouldn't work. Did you have a tune in mind? Those lyrics are begging for a jingle! Maybe @Joe D can help.
@Anon 9:14 I'm honestly perplexed that anything in either of my initial comments could cause someone to say the horrid things you've said today (weirdly, you seem to have presented yourself as two different anonymous posters, but who do you think you're fooling?). I kind of just suspect you're a miserable person jousting at windmills and I don't wish to pile on. Too much. Seek help, I guess.
What on earth is CISHET and why is everyone fussing about it?
@bocamp - missed it by 2. I guessed wrong on the meme (should have gotten that one) and ditto on the whack-a-baloney-letter.
So I'm up late and thought I'd see if any of you musical types noticed the unusual melody line in the Christy Moore song in my 3:18 post. The top note in the first arpeggio in each verse is a seventh and the second time it's an octave. Took me a couple of listenings to realize it's deliberate.
AISLE be frank. I was a bit BOARD with this ONE. The tired OLD gimmick made me groan OMAN MANY times, but not enough to RIP it up or bash it like a PINATA. INDIE end it was OK, but barely.
Oh. Peter Collins. Saw the name after the solve. No wonder it was so smooth.
I still had a one-letter dnf, but that's entirely my fault. (I wondered who Michael Bollon was. Now I know - he bolted.)
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords and sloats
TROLL TWEET
PHOBIAS and TIRADES are DEADON foretellin',
OLD HIPSTERS are afraid of DANSON or YELLEN.
--- "NANO" NAN OMAN & MAN "MANNA" IMAMAN
Are we supposed to know who JANETYELLEN is? Is ANYONE supposed to know who JANETYELLEN is? Man (Ray), that SW was not just a bear; it was a grizzly! A series of semi-reasonable guesses was the only thing that saved me down there.
I'm not a big fan of this type of theme, or of fighting through iffy fill to get a solution. Though sporting a splendid DOD in the full-named DOLLYPARTON, this one was more trouble than it was worth. Bogey.
On the easy side of medium, something like yesterday’s. Good fun, relatively simple theme.
Themers are good, though DOLLY PARTON’s hair styling seemed less apt than the others. JANET YELLEN , Biden’s Treasury Secretary, has been in the news for some time, and has earned her current political celebrity.
A few pausers in the fill: had spotON before DEAD ON, equITY before PARITY, AMoRE before AMARE, and LENTIL clued as "Dal ingredient”.
Overall, enjoyed it.
I think the former Chair of the Federal Reserve and current Secretary of the Treasury is fair game. More than fair game is DOLLYPARTON; anyone who gets asked to pose for Playboy at AGE 75 . . . Plus she does wonderful charitable things.
Good ONE.
So this was the puzzle in syndication today, 4/21- what the hell does “loop loopers” even mean? (58 down)Which if you can answer that, then I may understand the answer “ELS”
@Monsta The "L" has been credited with fostering the growth of Chicago's dense city core that is one of the city's distinguishing features.[6] It consists of eight rapid transit lines laid out in a spoke–hub distribution paradigm focusing transit towards the Loop.
Source - Wikepedia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_%22L%22
@thefogman- thank you. I didn’t even think about the ELS in Chicago as a “looper” for the Loop.
@Monsta - My pleasure. Us Syndies have got to stick together.
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