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Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: None
Word of the Day: PARKER (Journalist Parker with a 2018 Pulitzer Prize) —
Word of the Day: PARKER (Journalist Parker with a 2018 Pulitzer Prize) —
Ashley R. Parker[1] is an American journalist, a Pulitzer Prize-winning White House reporter for The Washington Post, and senior political analyst for MSNBC. From 2011 to 2017 she was a Washington-based[2] politics reporter[3] for The New York Times.
• • •
Hi all, Rachel Fabi in for Rex Parker today (and for the early readers, apologies that this is late! That's on me! And because I'm running late, you're getting a Fabi-style writeup instead of a Fabi-imitating-Parker-style writeup-- this format may be familiar to readers of my New Yorker write-ups on Diary of a Crossword Fiend). I solved this one in a bit of a panic since I knew I was late, so I'm not sure I can give an accurate assessment of its difficulty, but I finished it just slightly above my average time. Whether that's due to the puzzle being slightly more difficult than average or my frantic solve making it harder to see things I otherwise might have seen is unclear. But despite the state in which I solved this puzzle, I still really like it! It's got a cool grid, and some excellent long entries, and a bunch of clues that I really enjoyed. There's some fill I could live without scattered around the puzzle, but in general, I think this is a very solid Saturday offering.First of all, that grid shape! I love grid designs with long lines of blocks through the the middle, and this one is no exception. I don't really know what else to say about that, other than that I think it looks rad and facilitates a sort of unique way of moving through the grid during the solve.
Signed, Rachel Fabi, Queen-for-a-Day of CrossWorld
The long entries I particularly enjoyed were HARRY STYLES / LADY FRIENDS / POINT OF VIEW / and KRIS KRINGLE. Although HARRY STYLES was clued surprisingly straightforwardly (there's so much you can do with that name, so it seems a wasted opportunity to settle for [19A: Singer who rose to fame on "The X Factor"]!), the other three have either fun or particularly tricky clues that I enjoyed. The clue on LADY FRIENDS in particular [9D: Some boos] likely tripped up some solvers who are unfamiliar with the term "boo" as a modern pet name for one's partner. The POINT OF VIEW clue was also tricky, being one of those one word clues [52A: Take] that could mean just about anything. And [22D: Stocking stuffer] for KRIS KRINGLE is fun because it's just adjacent to what we normally think [Stocking stuffer] means -- this is the guy who *literally* stuffs the stockings.
Long entries aside, there were a few other clue/entry pairs in this puzzle that made me smile, and one that literally made me laugh out loud for the dad-joke of it all. The dad joke clue [39A: Sticky food?] for KABOB is cute and clever, and I adore it. I also really liked [49A: Coverage of the royal family?] for TIARA, [20D: Real posers?] for YOGIS, and [30D: "Cry me a river!" elicitor, perhaps] for SOB STORY. I got extremely tripped up on [34D: When?] as the clue for NOT IF. Once it clicked, though, I was pretty satisfied by that little bit of wordplay (because the entry fills in the implied blank [___ but when]).
A few more things:
- 58A: Yeah, right: I wrote over the first four letters of I'M SO SURE, like, four times. I tried YEAH SURE, SURE SURE, and WELL SURE before finally landing on the correct set. I guess I was not so sure!
- 62A: "___ a Pizza" (punnily titled children's book) -- I vaguely remember my little brother reading and enjoying "PETE'S a Pizza" and I like that punny title, so I will forgive the otherwise pet peeve of mine of having what looks like a plural name in the grid. Much better clue than just naming two random PETES!
- Fill I could live without: HRS, ALLI, NITTI (are we supposed to know mafia gangster henchmen by name??)
Well folks, that's all the time we have for today, because it is ACPT weekend and I need to go mentally prepare. Apologies again for the late post-- blame me, not Rex!
PS. Thank you to everyone who contributed to These Puzzles Fund Abortion! I know many of you did, and I really appreciate it. We've raised $32,000 so far (!!!), which is just unbelievable. If you still want to pick up a copy of the puzzle pack I edited to benefit the Baltimore Abortion Fund, you can do so here!
PPS. Even if you are not attending the ACPT today, you can pick up some independent puzzles from the "Virtual ACPT Puzzle Table" that Nate Cardin and I coordinated for constructors to show off their work this weekend. Those puzzles are available here (and includes one free BAF puzzle!).
I’ve stared at TREE and TEES and can’t figure out why they’re the answer to those clues
ReplyDeleteTees for golf. I can’t figure out Tree either.
DeleteTree as in trap something up a tree. Notably, raccoon hunting in Where the Red Fern Grows.
DeleteTree a cat and it's cornered, in a way.
DeleteMASERATI two days in a row. What are the odds?
ReplyDeleteThinkin’ of you, @Whatsername, and reliving the glory of the Chiefs beating the NINERS!
@Kristian & @Mike, thank you both for a most entertaining Sat. puz! I didn't TEAR it up, but held my own. :)
ReplyDeleteHi @Rachel, always nice to see you; many thx for your excellent write-up! :)
Easy+
Good start in the NW, down the coast, over to the SE and finishing up in the NE. Not remembering HARRY STYLES nor MRS POTTS contributed to a minor holdup in the NE. Also, not knowing 'boos' didn't help with LADY FRIENDS.
The granddaughters are big into LEGO construction.
Garden of EDEN ~ John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Know Frank Nitti from The Untouchables and Road to Perdition. I’d never heard of that Ashley person. Apparently works for TASS or the like.
ReplyDeleteCan’t believe I’m the first to comment. This was so easy for me...14+ minutes, almost a record. Now what do I do with the rest of my morning?!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI bet more than a few people had goTTI before NITTI.
No?
Only me?
Oh well.
TREE - as in "up a ___". Delightful puzzle. My best time for a Saturday.
ReplyDeleteNot easy, but a good Saturday challenge. Wiseacre is interesting and Pete's a Pizza is new to me. Lots of fun.
ReplyDelete@Baron Mooney Re: TREE, think of “cornered”...”up a tree” = Treed.
ReplyDeleteWhen a hound dog "trees" a possum (that's Southern-speak), that possum could be described as "cornered," as in nowhere to go, painted into a corner.
ReplyDeleteWow, was it a time-consuming coincidence for me that bronxcheers fit perfectly in the 9 Down slot (Some boos)! I was so sure I nailed it (it's a fun alternate answer for that clue), making the NE a nightmare. But I eventually sorted it out and finished successfully in roughly average Saturday time.
So, no Bronx cheers for Kristian and Mike!
I'll be "that guy" this morning.
ReplyDeleteI get that TEES is a golf thing, and golf has greens, but TEES are not used on the green. If you think so, please feel free to try to insert a tee into the green on any reputable golf course in front of the head groundskeeper and report back with the results.
Other than that... good puzzle. I crashed and burned in the NE corner (my eyes glazed over as soon as I saw "The X Factor", and it took a while to recover) but managed to grind it out eventually. And that's OK. Flew through the rest of it once I got some traction in the middle section (LECAR, YOGIS and NITTI were the gimmies) and radiated out from there.
@Mothra
ReplyDeleteAs you can see, you weren't. As for what you can do: I might recommend a rousing bout of Calcudoku. Or, try some weekend puzzles (Acrostic, Variety).
@Anonymous who was the first: TEES as in things you put golf balls on; greens refer to golf courses. TREE as in when a cat trees a squirrel, or the like. (There was a famous internet meme about a dozen years ago of a cat treeing a bear. Like this.)
At first, I thought to myself: what day of the week is it again? The bottom half seemed ridiculously easy. Then I got to the top half, particularly the NE, and therewith adjusted my POINT OF VIEW. I am just not up on HARRY STYLES, although I know who he is and I know he is curiously aptly named. (While looking stuff up about him post-puzzle, I ran across that "people also ask" thing that Google gives you, where there arose the question "What does Harry Styles smell like?" Well, it never would have occurred to me to ask! It leads me to wonder: what does @Frantic Sloth smell like? Or @Hungry Mother? Anyway, I was informed that Harry smells like a mix of tobacco and vanilla. The tobacco I easily believe would come naturally to him. The vanilla is some affectation.)
Meanwhile I had girlFRIENDS for a while, and that wasn't helping. FEET was pretty obvious, once I looked at the clue, and that helped straighten me out. I thought MERMEN was pretty cool, as is the musical STYLE of the band The MERMEN. Kind of a California surf Pulp Fiction sound they have going.
I vaguely remember Frank NITTI from the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.
Lovely little snippet of information about WISEACRE. I just figured it was some Americanism vaguely patterned after "wisecracker".
When I see ELOISE, I think: 'ints from 'eloise. Little mini-puzzle for some of you there.
That NE corner is one big, fat sack of WTFuzzle.™ This is not a good sign for the ACPT later today.
ReplyDeleteCould not see the answer to "podophobia" as anything other than "fear of plurals", so that was no help.
Wanted "meld" for Vulcan's specialty until I thought "oh, yeah - the god Vulcan."
And those were the easy parts. Fell asleep mid-solve, so still not done.
I'ma hafta finish later cuz I got things.
🧠🧠🧠 🧠 (so far)
🎉🎉🎉 (ditto)
This was a "keep the faith" puzzle -- in that when I couldn't enter a single answer into the NW, I went elsewhere, keeping the faith that eventually I would return to the NW and all would become clear. Since it's a highly segmented puzzle, I did this with absolutely no certainty at all. And because of all the unknown proper names, I was sure I'd eventually have to cheat. But as it turns out, I didn't.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the challenge and the intense thinking the puzzle required a lot. But I do have some NITTIs:
"Yeah, right" does not = I'M SO SURE. The tone is completely off.
"Made a bee line for" as the clue for SPELLED is just too cute for its own good -- and it's totally unfair.
"When?" as a stand-alone clue for NOT IF is ridiculous and also unfair. Boo!
And speaking of Boo, "Boos" are LADY FRIENDS???? Never heard of it, but I can promise you this: Call me your "Boo", and I won't be your LADY FRIEND any more. Got that?
Also, in case no one else noticed, there are three car clues plus one car person clue. Evidently no one PITIES me or pays the least bit of attention to my anti-car POINT OF VIEW. But this is just too much.
Still, today it was a matter of "suffering", not suffering and I did enjoy the struggle.
And immediately after posting that comment, it all fell into place.
ReplyDeleteWhat a maroon.
Good workout for me and I could go on, but I'll just go.
Gotta read Rex & y'all later. Sad face.
Good day, all!
During my first go-through I thought, Great, I know precisely none of these answers. Then I hit “that’s ALL I need”, which really was ALL I needed to get going. I strongly suspected TIARA would be right for the royal family clue (I’m sure Charles, in particular, would look fetching in one), and then two lines down was my old friend TIGGER with an especially fulsome clue. And...they’re off! I kept thinking I’d have to cheat to complete the solve but I just kept plugging pleasantly along till it was done. Yay! Last area filled in was the NW, which I thought was rife with tricky clues. I was proud of myself for getting AWAY TEAM off _WA_____M, but WISEACRE – yikes! – I needed all the crosses I could get. That’s such a long clue and even so, it doesn’t actually explain what WISEACRE means, which I think is someone who pretends to wisdom rather than has it. Renault’s LE CAR was an inspired bit of naming, I must say. I could go on about individual clues and answers I liked but I’ll just say that I loved the puzzle, had a great time solving and thought it was an exemplary Saturday, if slightly on the easy side.
ReplyDeleteToday I give you two excerpts from THOMAS KING, born Apr. 24, 1943.
“So, let’s agree that Indians are not special. We’re not … mystical. I’m fine with that. Yes, a great many Native people have a long-standing relationship with the natural world. But that relationship is equally available to non-Natives, should they choose to embrace it. The fact of Native existence is that we live modern lives informed by traditional values and contemporary realities, and that we wish to live those lives on our terms.”
****************************************************
“Indians were made for film. Indians were exotic and erotic. All those feathers, all that face paint, the breast plates, the bone chokers, the skimpy loincloths, not to mention the bows and arrows and spears, the war cries, the galloping horses, the stern stares, and the threatening grunts. We hunted buffalo, fought the cavalry, circled wagon trains, fought the cavalry, captured White women, fought the cavalry, scalped homesteaders, fought the cavalry. And don't forget the drums and the wild dances where we got all sweaty and lathered up, before we rode off to fight the cavalry.”
(Both from The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America)
@Mike G (8:42) - You are correct - TEES are never actually used on a green, which is why the clue says they are in your pocket. It's exactly where they should be (or in your bag) when on the green. The clue is correct.
ReplyDeleteA few TEEs are kept in a golfers pocket during a round of golf. They're most often used for TEEing up the ball when TEEing off at the TEE (which is also a term for the start of each hole). So how does 'green' fit in? Tees serve at least two purposes on the putting 'green': 1) in lieu of a tiny plastic disc, one can mark their ball by gently inserting a TEE directly behind the ball, which can then be picked up, cleaned and replaced just in front of the TEE. 2) TEEs can be used as a means of repairing damage to a soft green caused by the indentation of a ball landing on it, often the result of a longer, high arcing approach shot.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, there may be some totally non-golf meaning for the clue, in which case I'm way over par on this explanation. LOL
When someone is 'cornered' they could be said to be up a TREE, as an animal might be when being pursued by a predator, e.g., another animal or a hunter.
___
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I don't feel so much like a DIM BULB today as I winkled out that answer right away, confirmed by the BARREL of fun. Fun to think of that as a fun measurement unit.
ReplyDeleteI'll agree with @Frantic that the NE was on the tougher side, with HARRY STYLES, MRS POTTS and Mr. NITTI all needing crosses. I have heard of HARRY STYLES though I'm not sure where.
Too bad I'm not joining in on the ACPT fun today - I solved this 10 minutes faster than my Saturday USUAL, though maybe I've used up all my crossword mojo for the day. Good luck and have fun, everyone who's competing today. I wish I could join you but I have to settle for doing the puzzles post-competition.
Thanks, Kristian and Mike, and congrats, Mike, for fulfilling your NYT Themeless dream.
I have a problem with this one, who says I WIN I WIN? Doesn’t everyone say, I WON I WON?
ReplyDeleteMy DIM BULB lit up along this brilliant little Saturday. I did so many aha's and ooh's that I stopped counting.
ReplyDeleteAt times I felt like the WISE ACRE among the TREEs. My KEBOB was on FIRE but I came to a screeching halt at 40D. It was here that I felt like a Butthead. I forgot that BEAVIS, and only he, could have an alter ego named Cornholio. Meet my new best friend Cornholio.
Boo for LADY FRIEND was new to me. Do men use that? I'm a female, can I say that for my BFF?
I managed to get all the names I wasn't sure of. Alas....I had one Google.....I wasn't sure of ASHLEY Parker. I had most of her name but I wanted to check. I did. I felt mighty smart finishing this puppy.
Will heads explode with MASERATI, LE CAR, SUV and SPORTAGE walking into a bar?
My TIARA runneth over.
@A from yesterday. You have some Poke in your yard? You should try the death by chocolate poke cake. It'll make you stop the weeds from sprouting.
LADY FRIENDS took me forever and then I thought “is that really what ‘boo’ means? Isn’t ‘boo’ a lot more intimate than ‘LADY FRIENDS.’” I always thought “boo” was more akin to either your romantic partner or maybe a best friend while “LADY FRIENDS” is a lot more generic and, for your heterosexual males, specifically not romantic. That is, “I have a lot of LADY FRIENDS at work and we socialize on occasion but I’m much to smart to ever get seriously involved with any of them.” But maybe I’m making that up because it took me so long to convince myself that the clue was really looking for LADY FRIENDS.
ReplyDeleteI did not know WISE ACRE came from the Dutch (I assume Google translate is correct when it returns “waarzegger”). Nice.
I know HARRY STYLES is famous and has some sort of hot idol status. I have zero idea why. He fairly regularly is “trending” on Twitter. I never know why. Some sort of play on that name would have been far more useful to me than the straight trivia clue. I do wonder if HARRY STYLES his hair in a REMOP top.
I somehow know Frank NITTI, but not well enough to know if it is NITTy, NITTe, or NITTI. That ignorance also slowed me on seeing LADY FRIENDS.
I haven’t checked the whole puzzle yet, but ELOISE/TIGGER/ASHLEY Parker/PETE’S a Pizza/KRIS KRINGLE makes the SW especially PPP dense and I won’t be surprised at all if causes a few DNFs. I guess four figures from children’s lit are maybe a little less likely to cause problems. We will see.
“Solid” is about right. The ugly never overwhelmed the good stuff but just not quite the same joie de vivre yesterday’s effort has.
SENHOR is the sort of spelling you'd see in a Tin Tin comic, when he's in a fictional country somewhere dealing with intrigue, sinister and comic.
ReplyDeleteIn case you're wondering, the "ACRE" in WISEACRE is a corruption of the Middle Dutch word segger, or "sayer." Source: Websters New International Dictionary, 2d ed. (1943)
No, just Portuguese speaking countries.
Delete@Barbara S -- Love, love, love that second Thomas King quote. It's so funny and engagingly written. And to think: I've never even heard of the guy before.
ReplyDeleteAlso -- Forgot to put this in my first comment: Are there actually people who are afraid of FEET???!!! For heaven's sake -- why?
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteMy hold-up was the PPP laden NE. Jiminy Crickets. Even having HARRY STYLES in, I was flummoxed. After getting rest of puz in approximately 20 minutes, it took about 10 more minutes of reading clues and not gettin' nuthin' before I decided to cheat. I did have FEET and INALIE in, but took them out, as I couldn't get anything else. Figured I'd start anew, but was not to be. The Vulcan one really threw me. FIRE. Ah. Thanks to whoever it was who said Vulcan was a God. It's been ingrained in the ole brain as just being from Star Trek.
Looked up Capone's cohort, no way I would've gotten that. Isn't NITTI a tire brand? Didn't know MRSPOTTS, did figure out LADY FRIENDS, though. Also looked up the definition of Dalliance. Those two cheats finally got me the NE. Also had my Super Bowls mixed up, and had chiEfS in. But that one was this year. (2021 Super Bowl, for the 2020-2021 season).
I am proud of myself for getting rest of puz figured out quick for me for a SatPuz. Not proud of myself for the NE! Felt like a DIMBULB up there. Wanted to FLING the puz against @Nancys wall.
That's my SOB STORY.
Was a decent themeless. Couple of repeater answers, IWINIWIN, TAPTAP. Neat Neat.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Never heard “boo” used this way. When did that start?
ReplyDeleteI don’t get it.
I agree. Just because some thing exists for certain people doesn’t mean it is acceptable.
DeleteI mainly know it from the 1996 Ghost Town DJs song “my boo”, though I’ve heard it used colloquially plenty of times as well.
DeleteDefinitely seems like a bit of a mixed bag today with all of the foreign car references, some oddball stuff like MERMAN, ALIGHT, SENHOR (yea - that’s a word you come across, what maybe once a decade, lol), NITTI (crossing YOGI even). Some real crossword license taken with the clueing for TREE, TEES, NOT IF, IM SO SURE, WORE and others.
ReplyDeleteSounds like the tried-and-true Saturday solvers are pretty much pleased with the finished product in it’s entirety - I was at least able to cobble together enough of it to keep it interesting. Very nice to have a guest blogger today and read a column about the puzzle without all of the sniping, sarcasm, pontificating, nit-picking and vitriol.
Btw, I always enjoy words like PRIMPS - it kind of means something, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really mean anything at all - it’s kind of like one of those “you know what I mean !” words, if you know what I mean.
Haven't done today's puzzle yet. Dropped by early (for me) to share a few things I found, inspired by yesterday's puzzle and comments.
ReplyDeleteThe first is a recording of W. H. Auden reading part of his “In Memory of W. B. Yeats.” Next is a reading of Yeats’ The Second Coming by Liam Clancy. I didn’t know Clancy but his reading was so compelling I looked him up. He was a very successful Irish musician, who became famous as part of the Irish folk group The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. The last link is The Clancy Brothers singing “Finnegan’s Wake” with a reading by Tom Clancy of an excerpt of the Joyce novel and truly bringing it to life.
Here’s my post from last night. It had one error so once I decided to repost, I deleted the original.
“@Loren, I totally missed the last line of your post. Thanks to @RAD2626 for pointing it out. Chased down a few gems others (@Barbara S, @Nancy, @jberg and @albatross shell?) might enjoy as well.
W. H. Auden reads In Memory of W. B. Yeats (I)
Liam Clancy reads Yeats
Finnegan’s Wake Clancy Brothers/James Joyce”
I'll rate it "doable," with my first-reaction words of the day being IRK and SOB STORY: so many names in the grid and too many I didn't know. But it's hard to stay mad at MRS. POTTS and KRIS KRINGLE, the MERMEN and their LADY FRIENDS, and the crosses of DIM BULB + DAWN and SOB STORY x PITIES.
ReplyDelete@Teedmn, same here for who-knows-how coming up with HARRY STYLES. I needed STYLES to get into that NE corner and could hardly believe the crosses worked out.
@TTrimble - What do we smell like? Hmmmmmm - well @John X smells like whiskey. That’s easy. @Albatross Shell? Drawn butter, maybe. @Frantic Sloth? That’s tough. Cinnamon maybe. @bocamp? I’m going with patchouli. @All the math folk? I’m guessing a mixture of chalk and shredded paper. @LMS - Definitely Tabu. Or buttered popcorn. A mixture of both?
ReplyDelete@Mr. Cheese - "Boo" to mean somebody special to you, or a boyfriend/girlfriend, goes back at least a couple decades, in my memory. The first citation I could find is 1990, in a song lyric (Grand Daddy I.U. 'Sugar Free') . I remember learning it in the early 2000s. Plenty of Urbandictionary definitions arise in 2003, so that seems to be when it started gaining popularity.
ReplyDelete@Z - "Ladyfriend" absolutely can carry the meaning of "lover." That's exactly how I use it (and the only way I use it) and how I hear it used (as a heterosexual male.) If you look that up in Urbandictionary, you'll see that's the primary meaning.
Little too much trivia for a Saturday - MRS POTTS, ANISTON etc. Didn’t know LADY FRIENDS and blanked on MERMEN. LE CAR in the same grid as MASERATI is interesting.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Rachel - I’m not a fan of the diagonal blacks. This one needs to be REMOPped.
I know it’s rare - but I’m hoping for a nice Sunday.
A simple explanation of TEES and green pocketful: when on a green a golfer has a number of TEES in his pocket (or possibly in a pocket in his golf bag.
ReplyDeleteAlso note that green can refer to the putting green, the golf course, or in the rules of golf any area od the course that is not the tee area, sand trap, bunker, water hazard and naybe the cup itself. Over my head here.
The simple part: the golfer on the green has tees in his pocket. Thus they are a green pocket full.
yeah, but do golfers, either pros or weekend duffers, really keep TEES in their pockets? it would seem, with all that lower body movement, particularly during the swing, that those pointy ends would end up impinging on some tender flesh. in the olden days, when golfers wore those neon baggy pants, may be not so much. these days more and more of the pros are wearing what amount yoga tights. I seriously doubt there's any TEES in those pockets.
ReplyDeleteI wanted One Across to be DUMBASS, but alas....
ReplyDeleteAfter getting nowhere on the top, I raced through the bottom half, then back to the north for a long, but finally successful slog. Agree with @Frantic Sloth on the NE, yikes!
Agree with @albatross shell on the TEES, except it’s kind of a stretch clue, even for Saturday.
But all in all a good puzzle.
I liked it. Good sparkle -- thirteen red plus signs in the margins.
ReplyDeleteOnly eight threes making room for 14 longish entries. Excellent.
But I agree with Nancy. The cluing crossed the line from Cleverland to Unfairland too often. Besides the clues she mentions, there's "Bum-rush" for SWARM.
FLING is a great term. It describes exactly a certain romantic adventure. On the other BOO doesn't suggest anything. I see that it comes from "beau," which is just as easy to say. Maybe a BOO is a beau with privileges.
Oh, like everyone is supposed to know what obscure anagrams like “ACPT” mean!
ReplyDeleteThis being a Saturday puzzle, the use of "green" is more expansive, more word-playish, than just a putting green.
ReplyDeleteAlso, after I make a putt, while walking off the putting green, I usually reach in my pocket for the Tee I will use at the start of the next hole.
Tees are kept in the golf bag but having a bunch in your pocket saves time.
@Anon10:12 - Well, everyone reading a Saturday crossword blog about the NYTX might reasonably be assumed to be aware of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament organized by Will Shortz. I never compete but I do usually order the puzzles to solve at my leisure. Info here.
ReplyDelete@Anon10:07 - Well, even if I didn’t just stick TEES in my pants or shorts pocket, my golf bag still had a special pocket just for TEES.
@Peter P - Yeah, I can hear it. And I knew it was probably just fine. But part of my solving brain is still screaming “foul.” It’s that part of my solving brain that keeps me from being a speed solver.
@TTrimble 8:46 AM wrote: "… greens refer to golf courses."
ReplyDeleteThis prompted me to think a little deeper:
I had forgotten that 'green' can also refer to a golf course, in general, as in: Grab your clubs and let's hit the 'green'!
Learning the Lingo: Golf Slang & Terms
"Here at Golf Drives, we have put together an A-Z list of our favourite and the most commonly used golf phrases and terms, so you can be completely prepared the next time you hit the 'GREEN'."
Also re: the issue of TEES in the golf bag and/or the 'pocket': I kept most of my TEES in my bag, but after a TEE shot, I'd retrieve the TEE and put it into my pocket. By the end of the round, I'd have a few TEES in my pocket.
@Z 9:30 AM
You'd be right, especially when I fire up my diffuser. LOL
___
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
For me, there was a long, winding, involved thought process needed for every answer.
ReplyDeleteExtremely tough but ultimately doable (with a couple cheats on short things that I now regret). This is what a Saturday ought to be.
Tough but enjoyable. A solid Saturday that I felt good about finishing. Congratulations to Mike on his NYT debut.
ReplyDeleteEspecially liked the two basketball clues crossing, but I couldn’t help thinking that if the Colorado squad was playing in UTAH they’d be the AWAY TEAM, but the Rockies would still be in the Rockies. Other favorites were REST, SPELLED and TAP TAP.
Can’t say the same for 9D, which seemed a tad off. If a LADY FRIEND is a boo, then what is a gentleman friend? A baa? A bee? Also, do people actually refer to themselves as YOGIS? Makes me think of an old cartoon character.
@Joaquin (7:52) Ditto. 👍
I almost gave up with half of the grid empty, but I took a break, came back, and polished it off. The names were particular daunting. The wordplay was beautiful.
ReplyDeleteYo Anonymous@ 10:07 am:
ReplyDeleteThose pros with tight pants have these things called caddies who keep tees in their pockets.
@Mike G. Reread the clue. The TEES are in the golfer's pocket.
ReplyDeleteMedium. chiefs has the same number of letters as NINERS, what year is it?
ReplyDeletePretty smooth with more than a whiff of sparkle, liked it.
Re. "boo" : I have a vague memory of a Paul Newman flick from late fifties, I think "Rally Round The Flag, Boys" where there is a scene of army recruits riding a bus, and there is a conversation regarding whether it is wise to tell your new "Boojee" about your old "Boojee".
ReplyDeleteSo I think there must have been a version of "Boo" in Southern slang around that time.
I found this puzzle to be really annoying due to all the misdirect cluing.Too cutesy by half.
BOO:
ReplyDeleteIf you do not know it, it sounds funny or meaningless. So what? If the supposed origin is correct it is sourced in beauty. Now try hearing it said, my boo, in a sweet Jamaican accent. It seems to me to echo something much older. Booboo or boo as a term of endearment for a child and then used by a man as a pet name for his possibly not too bright lady friend. Possibly not to bright man too. Some other negatve inferences might also be involved but sweetness was the intent. I have found no actual instance of this use.I know I have heard it in some Jamaican films. The Steve McQueen Small Axe series. Jamaica seems to be the source of its current usage.
In any case, I like BOO better than bae.
@Z
Drawn butter. Thanks for not going with birdshite.
@Space Is Deep, When my daughter was very small and already ultra competitive with her older brother, she'd yell, "I win! I win! You losed!" I never corrected her. It was too funny.
ReplyDeleteAnd now, from the site The Rice University Neologisms Data:
"Definition: term of endearment for one’s partner, or word for boyfriend or girlfriend Boo Origin: Originally derived from the French word “beau” which came to mean boyfriend in the English language. Beau sounds enough like ‘boo’ to were (sic) eventually the sound shifted as well as the spelling to a more conventional English word. The word came through the African-American lexicon and can be heard in music from that genre.
Usage: “It’s our three month anniversary and I just wanted to tell you that I love you boo”
Source : television
Last modified: 10 June 2008"
It must've made a comeback.
Shortest Rex write-up ever where he also apologizes to the constructor for taking the day off in the replies.
ReplyDelete@Z...If you're going to give people a smell name PLEASE DO NOT GIVE @Loren, Tabu. That smell stuff will kill you the minute you enter an elevator. I think she's more of a Miss Dior.
ReplyDelete@Mikey from El Prado
ReplyDeleteI was sure 1A was going to be DULLARD.
@anon1048
I see nothing in the clue about the golfer unless his name is Mr. Green.
I knew some people with pet turkeys named BEAVIS and Butthead, wild turkeys calmly walking around in their yard. And they claimed they could tell them apart because Butthead had a bad attitude. Seriously.
ReplyDelete@Frantic (8:47) WTFuzzle ™️ Love it!
@Space (9:00) Agree. Whether it was a game or a lottery ticket, the exclamation would be I WON.
@mathgent (10:10) Thanks, you answered my question. (If a lady friend is a boo, then what is a gentleman friend?) He’s a beau. Of course! So I guess in both cases, FRIENDS with benefits.
Building on Mike G post. The tee clue is green pocketful. Most golfers keep their tees in their pocket so the clue is absolutely accurate.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Barbara Streisand!
ReplyDeleteDid Will Shortz plan this? Cry Me a River
Fun FLING! Loved the tricky cluing (a la KRIS KRINGLE, REST) but was very DIM on some of the PPP, like the mobster and the movie mom. Thought the only weakness was EDENS - that POC a less than perfect spot.
The BULB was not coming on at 1A, even though I suspected DIM-something (ooh, time for brunch). Started off half right with I WON I WON (isn’t “I win, I win” toddler speak?). PITIES made that right, allowing WISEACRE to emerge.
wiseacre (n.)
1590s, partial translation of Middle Dutch wijssegger "soothsayer" (with no derogatory connotation), probably altered by association with Middle Dutch segger "sayer" from Old High German wizzago "prophet," from wizzan "to know," from Proto-Germanic *wit- "to know" (see wit (v.)). The deprecatory sense of "one who pretends to know everything" may have come through confusion with obsolete English segger "sayer," which also had a sense of "braggart" (mid-15c.).
LADY FRIENDS was tough, because I know “boo” and “boo-boo” as terms of endearment for children and pets. Very old-fashioned in the deep south. My neighbor’s 25 year old daughter is called BooBoo - if you use her real name she thinks you’re upset with her. Plus I thought HARRY’s last name was STILES.
Scary to see FIRE and RED ANTS together. Also WISEACRE and BEAVIS.
Thanks, K&M, a STEP up from THE USUAL!
*Almost* finished today - I'm still one of those who struggle with Fridays (these days more successful than not) and rarely try Saturday, but when I saw "Pete's a Pizza" in a quick scan of the clues I just had to start (we still have that book somewhere around...). I really wanted "logic" for "Vulan's specialty" but obviously it didn't fit ...
ReplyDeleteAgree that some of the clues and answers were fun and most guessable so yay.
Have a good weekend
-- CS
@GILL (11:23) I’m in total agreement with you about the TABU. Some of those retro scents can be overpowering. Years ago I WORE Chantilly but these days it makes me gag. I had @Loren pegged for more of a Calvin Klein LADY. @Frantic? Armani. @Nancy? Classic Chanel. @chefwen? Something with vanilla. And you? Most definitely Poison by Dior. 😂
ReplyDelete@Whatsername 10:36. The Rockies playing in Utah wouldn’t be in Colorado, which is what the clue says.
ReplyDeleteAnother way of cluing AWAYTEAM would be: What stocking stuffer yells to begin his annual journey.
This puzzle was super fast for me, much faster than yesterday’s. I really liked it, and disagree with most of the clue criticisms today. Thanks Kristian House and Mike Dockins.
Does anyone have a suggestion for good crosswords for people who don't watch TV?
ReplyDeleteWho sez - BOO, IM SO SURE, I WIN I WIN (I WON as pointed out above), MA - no, just had MASERATI yesterday, and the worst, REMOP. “Excuse me, I have to remop.” Otherwise, not bad.
ReplyDeleteDidn’t love it. Indicator to be quiet = rest? Tough one for me, which I don’t mind if I learn something good, but didn’t feel this one offered that.
ReplyDeleteBut I couldn’t create one of these to save my life, so I always appreciate the constructors!
My first thought for 10D "Awkward way to be caught" was delicto flagrante. Wish there had been enough space for that beauty.
ReplyDeleteOne of the ways we learn how to judge size and distance is called linear perspective and is due to the fact that objects appear smaller as they get further away from an observer. An example of this, and one often used by artist to give the perception of depth in a two-dimensional picture, is that parallel lines appear to CONVERGE (37D) as they travel away from a viewer. So when I saw the clue "What parallel lines never do" I was thinking "touch", "connect", "meet" or some such. Took a few minutes to fill in CONVERGE because my mind set was that they always do exactly that. They never come together completely, they just get closer and closer together as they recede into the distance.
One of my favorite visual illusions uses linear perspective to make objects that are identical in size appear to be of different sizes. Here's an example of how this works. (Image safe for all situations and ages.)
If crosswords can be bright and breezy, this one was. Fun, fresh clues and answers (at least to an oldster like me). Stumbled for a bit on the eternal KABOB/KEBAB conundrum but not for too long. And I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever seen “Cornholio” in a crossword.
ReplyDeleteI had to cheat, but only to get SPORTAGE. Not up on all those Asian cars. That was enough to solve the rest. I know what Ganja is, though it is odd, to say the least, to substitute the American WEED.
ReplyDeleteThe top half was pretty solvable, and easier than yesterday.
Thanks for the links to Auden and the Clancy Brothers. I know that song almost by heart, but it was a treat to hear Liam read the relevant part of the Joyce novel.
For all those complaining about TEES, the clue (green pocketful) was obviously a misdirect to make us think about cash or its equivalent. IMHO, whether it took 6 seconds or 6 minutes to eliminate one. ten, wad, etc it still is, Saturday appropriate.
ReplyDelete@Anon 12:45
If you think music it works fine.
@Anon 12:45 - Think music notation. A rest is a symbol indicating not to play anything.
ReplyDeleteOof. Someone needs a primer in geometry. Parallel lines are equidistant. They not only never touch, the never converge either.
ReplyDeleteThat artists working in two dimensions cannot represent that does not change the definition of parallel. (This comment not only safe for all, always, but true everywhere, always and for everyone)
@Whatsername
ReplyDelete"Boo" and "bae" are what the kids say today.
Hey, Anonymous at 12:45: a REST is a notation on sheet music indicating that you are not to sing or play your instrument. Hence, quiet.
ReplyDeleteI associate "boo" as a term of endearment from Peanuts, with Sally's determination to drive her beloved Linus crazy by calling him her "Sweet Babboo." But I still wish the correct answer had been BRONX CHEERS. (I know, I know, let it go, Tom T).
:-)
CORNER : TREE :: FISH : BICYCLE.
ReplyDeleteThis is constructor onanism. Ludicrous.
Saturday’s sadistic swill.
Editorially, out to lunch ... with indigestion after the meal.
Otherwise - a fun ride!
DeleteWednesday's puzzle was full of pop culture references that were meaningless to me, but every guess I made was a good one. Today, I got past Harry Styles, Aniston, Beavis, Eloise, but blew it on Mrs. Potts. And as we say at Belmont, "I shoulda had it." Didn't check through the whole alphabet on "Remo_" and somehow thought that "remow" might be it. And Mrs. Wotts. Which of course would not have been spelled like that..... Ends a long winning streak, and can't blame the constructors at all! I generally enjoyed this one, just about the right difficulty - like @Nancy, started out slowly, but it all worked out.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 10:07: No such injury when I put my tees in the back pocket of my pants.
ReplyDelete@Anoa Bob - I am imagining every mathematician here’s head exploding as the read your comment. 🤣😂🤣*
ReplyDelete@Gill I - So you agree on the buttered popcorn?
@albatross shell - Absolutely not. But your comment did make me think that the mighty masked one probably has a strong scarlet tanager musk about him. Maybe also mixed with buttered popcorn from his love of schlock movies.
@A - If Julia marries Harry and hyphenates her name she’d be Julia Stiles-Styles.
*And now pondering the placement of that possessive apostrophe.
* you should.
ReplyDeleteThe possessive properly belongs to mathematician.
@2:34
ReplyDeleteI get it. Gluts like steel!
@Anoa Bob:
ReplyDeletegive the perception of depth in a two-dimensional picture
last time I stood in the middle of some train tracks, looking down the line for the next train, a 3D world, the tracks look to converge, even with my binocular eyes. IOW, it ain't a 2D artifact.
I love reading some of the comments posted here. For example, parallel lines are By Definition the same distance from each other everywhere - they just don’t converge, it’s a fact. Yet every day, on some topic, someone just chooses to believe whatever they want and posts it claiming it to be accurate. Fortunately, it doesn’t make my head explode - I think it’s actually very humorous to witness.
ReplyDelete* it would almost certainly be preferable to rewrite the sentence.
ReplyDeleteI’m imagining all the mathematicians here whose heads are (currently) exploding.
Anon 2:34
ReplyDeleteOof. You have binocular vision. Not binocular eyes.
@Reality Rocks (3:07). Reread the clue for 37D.
ReplyDeleteDoes everyone know that Chip and MRS POTTS look like this? I only mention it because knowing that she's a teapot was a big help with her name. I've never watched that version of "Beauty and the Beast", but I have occasionally run into these two characters. Maybe in previous XWs?
ReplyDeleteI thought BARREL was absolutely fine for "Amount of fun". But I've since thought about the expression "more fun than a BARREL of monkeys", so BARREL is also a unit of monkey measurement.
In case anyone's wondering, I smell like lemon with just a hint of dark chocolate.
@Nancy (9:10)
Thomas or Tom King is a Canadian writer and broadcaster. Having typed that, I've looked him up and realize that he was born in California. Who knew? But he's been living in Canada since 1980, so we've claimed him. He created a radio program on CBC, our public broadcaster, called The Dead Dog Cafe, which was satirical and funny. He played a version of himself and interacted primarily with two characters called Jasper Friendly Bear and Gracie Heavy Hand. They discussed anything and everything from the Indigenous perspective. He's written novels, short stories, non-fiction and children's books. A multi-talented guy.
We have a close friend who has been calling his wife BOO for close to 50 years. We used to make fun of him for that, now we all call her BOO.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle which we finished cheat free. Always a plus.
How to properly repair a ballmark on a green; in this case, with a TEE. ⛳️
ReplyDeleteIn this vid, Chip Essig (how's that for a golfer's name!) demonstrates how to mark a ball on the green with a small object such as a coin or a TEE (from his 'pocket'): here. ⛳️
___
pg (currently 3 over par with three holes to go)
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Whatsername 11:56. HAH! So you want me dead? Even better than poison, my go to was Opium. I'll still put a little dab on my wrist and hope no one OD's.
ReplyDelete@Z. You put butter on anything and I'll lick it to death.
@GILL I
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that the Mods let your comment to @Z get published...and I'm jealous. 😂
Remind me to never do that again. At least I went in feeling like an idiot, but emerged convinced. Certainty is unfamiliar to me, so that's nice. 🙄
ReplyDeleteNice to see Rachel doing the write-up today, but I hope Rex is feeling okay.
As far as what I smell like...did you ever get a whiff of something that smells so good you can't keep from sticking your big honker in there and breathing in very deeply over and over again? Well, that ain't it. Some things need to remain a mystery.
@A 1144am Have you ever heard the legend (probably apocryphal) of Barbra Streisand sending a rose every year on her birthday to the agent who turned her down because she'd "never make it in this business"?
@Whatsername 1156am "Poison" is aptly named. I remember back in the 80s when every time a coworker (who was drenched in it) walked by, I asked another coworker who sat next to me "Do you smell cat pee??" I had no idea.
@GILL 415pm 🤣🤣🤣 Don't tempt him!
Hm, some people have a very mistaken notion of what it would take to get a mathematician's head to explode, or to spontaneously combust.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, projective geometry, a very old and spectacularly beautiful subject, has much of its origins in solving problems of artistic perspective. In the projective plane, which roughly speaking is obtained by completing a Euclidean plane by adjoining to it a horizon or "line at infinity", any two projective lines intersect -- in particular, two Euclidean lines that are parallel intersect at the line at infinity when they are completed to projective lines. (Making all this precise is not difficult, but I won't go into it here.)
It would be rare to the point of nonexistence for mathematicians to say that lines CONVERGE at the horizon, but we know what you civilians mean by that. ;-)
@ Mathgent - the clue is “What parallel lines never do”. The answer is CONVERGE, which of course is factual and accurate. I don’t get your point - but unlike others who post here, I retain my intellectual curiosity even in the event of conflicting information - so if there is something that I missed and you would care to elaborate, I am all ears.
ReplyDeleteI also initially thought BRONX CHEERS for 9D and was happy to discover that RASPBERRIES has the same number of letters!
ReplyDelete@3:15
ReplyDeleteyou assume. mine are on stalks and rotate 360 degrees. yes, I do make the necessary reports to MIB.
I am not as crazy as Rachel about the dad-joke for KABOB ("Sticky food?"). Rarely have I seen a kabob on a stick -- usually they are on skewers, almost always metal. Corn dogs, on the other hand, are always on sticks.
ReplyDelete@LenFuego 5:25PM - skewers can be said to be a type of stick. At least I consider it such, as well as the Wikipedia editor who wrote: "A skewer is a thin metal or wood stick used to hold pieces of food together"(who sites the OED). It's a fair clue in my humble opinion.
ReplyDelete@egs (12:14) Yes, as I said, they would be the AWAY TEAM since it would not be in Colorado. My point and (obviously weak) attempt at humor was that they would still be in the Rockies - as in the Rocky Mountain range which extends into UTAH.
ReplyDelete@GILL (4:15) No no no! I definitely don’t want you dead. I was thinking of your razor sharp personality and witty zingers. Referring to you as the Poison ... but in a good way. Really!
@Frantic (4:23) Cat pee? I’m dying 🤣🤣🤣. And I’m gonna remember that the next time I get blasted with fumes from one of those godawful bottles of hazardous waste.
Jeez Luise @JC.....And here I was thinking English Muffins!
ReplyDeleteThe parallel postulate is not assumed to be an axiom in non-Euclidean geometry. See articles, for example, on elliptic geometry. I do not remember enough of my math to know whether this means (1) Parallel lines can converge; or (2) All lines intersect so the concept of "parallel lines" is meaningless; or (most likely) (3) something else.
ReplyDeleteI said in my 12:47 PM comment that an example of linear perspective is how "parallel lines appear to CONVERGE (37D) as they travel away from a viewer." In our everyday experiences with real world objects like buildings, streets, hallways, etc., do not their sides or edges, which we know objectively are parallel, appear subjectively to converge as they travel away you? How is this not true?
ReplyDeleteThen I said that artists use this to give the illusion of depth in a two-dimensional drawing or painting by drawing what we are familiar with as parallel lines as lines that are converging. Is this not true?
And then I added a link that shows how this can be used to make objects that are objectively the same size appear subjectively as having different sizes. I think those two illusions in the linked image are interesting and even amusing. Is there something wrong with that?
I'm puzzled why these comments seem to draw such ire.
I had to make two presentations at an online conference today, so I'm here very late. I really loved this puzzle -- the point about the grid is not only that that diagonal line looks great, as Rachel points out, but it enables a LOT o flonger answers, adding to the challenges.
ReplyDeleteSadly, though, i finished with an error. I figured the pockets must be full to green TEAS (horrible POC, but...). The golf thing still doesn't quite make sense to me.
My brother is constantly looking for love, and refers to those he thinks he's found as LADY FRIENDS, so that's OK. But BOO? OK, but what I want to know is what the distinction is between BOO and BAE? (Yeah, I'm in my upper seventies, so be patient with me).
@Nancy, did you see today's Wit Twister? I'd love to have your opinion on the second line -- artistic shift of stress, or failure to scan? I can't decide.
I'm not understanding the fuss about CONVERGE.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that parallel lines never converge. It is also true that they appear to converge in most pictures.
So what is wrong with the clue? They don't actually converge; they just appear to.
**WIT TWISTER ALERT**
ReplyDelete@jberg (7:26) -- You're absolutely right re the Wit Twister: the 2nd line doesn't scan.
It could have been made to scan very easily:
"That I may be -- within my heart I ------. Not "deep in" my heart -- which would have to be read with the stress on "in" and not on "deep".
A handful of you know that I have written 41 of these myself -- well before the time that this type of puzzle started appearing in the Saturday NYT. Nothing new under the sun, right? I pitched my anagrammed verses to Will Shortz quite a number of years ago and he ignored them completely. Mine are not as terse as Nancy Coughlin's -- which are all 4-liners -- but I had them in mind for the Sunday Variety Puzzle and wasn't trying to be terse when I wrote them.
Many of my poems use the same anagrams that many of hers do. FYI, here's my earlier version of the words she used today: Oh, and I gave all my verses titles.
AMONG THE OTHER PRIMATES (6 letters)
The ------ I'm in is attractive.
The monkeys are happy and active.
Their ------ are humping and climbing and screeching and grooming.
To ------ a penchant for daring,
I'll sleep in the woods while preparing
A bed that is ------ than any you'd find where I'm rooming.
After being up all night in the emergency room (everything's fine), and getting a few hours sleep and then working all day, I read all the comments and could find no mention of BOO Radley.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I expected more, and am sorely disappointed.
"And so to bed."-S. Pepys.
@Anonymous 6:31 PM
ReplyDeleteThe parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry says that given a line L and a point P not incident to the line, there exists exactly one line through P that is parallel to L. (Two lines are parallel if and only if they do not intersect, meaning there is no point incident to them both.) It's not customary to speak of lines "converging" -- either they intersect, or they don't.
The "exactly one" condition can be violated either by having no lines through P parallel to L, or by having more than one line through P parallel to L. The resulting non-Euclidean geometries are termed elliptic and hyperbolic, respectively. Technically, one needs a notion of distance so that it's possible to measure curvature of the geometry, or of the "space" as mathematicians say, and the classical non-Euclidean geometries involved spaces of constant curvature (so that two points have no distinguishing features that can be measured in terms of the intrinsic distance -- the spaces are "homogeneous"). Elliptic geometries are where that curvature is positive, and hyperbolic geometries are where it's negative.
Some of the most compelling illustrations of the hyperbolic plane are in the art of M.C. Escher. Like here. The "circle at infinity" or "horizon" is the boundary of the disk. In this strange geometry, the geodesics, i.e., the paths such that the length of the path between any two points is minimized, are either straight lines or circles which meet the horizon at right angles. These should be considered the "straight lines" in this geometry. If you observe carefully, you'll see that the parallel postulate is violated. The triangles which are the black/white regions all have the same area in this geometry; note their boundaries are geodesics. The sum of the angles of each triangle add to less than 180 degrees -- that's a feature of hyperbolic geometry. In elliptic geometries, the sum of the angles is greater than 180 degrees.
No offense meant, but I'd rather talk about what @GILL I would butter.
ReplyDelete@pabloinnh 817pm You're right! 😭 BOO-Radley-Hoo
ReplyDeleteI solved today's puzzle with no help and was especially proud for sussing out MRSPOTTS. The movie isn't really all that in the zeitgeist and I only saw it once when I was twelvish (much bigger fan of Ron Perlman's Beastly work). I do remember taking teapots and was able to make an educated guess as to the answer.
ReplyDeleteHere's where it gets a bit eerie though (crosswordese used on purpose):
For the past couple of months I have been "practicing" by doing older Wednesday and Thursday puzzles in order starting from an arbitrarily selected date circa 2009 (I did the same thing with Monday and Tuesday puzzles a couple of years ago but went way further back).
Anyway, I've made it to June 2012 and don't think I've ever seen Mrs. Potts as an answer nor clue. I did today's puzzle last night and this morning I started on the June 28, 2012 puzzle only to find the clue "Mrs. ____, "Beauty and the Beast" character".
Rex included this clue in his bullet comments in 2012:
"28D: Mrs. ___, "Beauty and the Beast" character (POTTS) — probably should've inferred this more easily considering all those damned inanimate objects (candlesticks and clocks and what not) talked in that movie."
My take is that this name is/clue isna rarity if it got into Rex's bullets. Is it a coincidence that I did back to back puzzles released 9 years apart with this same secondary character or does that old Potts show up more than I realize? I Couldn't find anything on xwordinfo and thought someone could help TAPTAP me out of this eerieness (or at least tell me this happens all the time).
@7:37
ReplyDeleteIt seems the discussion/disagreement revolves around whether the 2D presentation of convergence in 'pictures', by which it appears to mean man-made depictions of the Real World, is a fiction and that there is no convergence in the 'Real World'. This, of course, is nonsense. Convergence in 'pictures' is because it pre-exists in the human (and other animals'?) eye/brain mechanism. Why this is controversial here on Planet Parker is beyond me. But so it is.
Wikipedia says Harry Styles lost on "X-Factor": "His musical career began in 2010 as a solo contestant on the British music competition series The X Factor. Following his elimination early on, he was brought back to join the boy band One Direction, which went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time."
ReplyDeleteBut a website posting of Capital FM Radio says he won big from the start: "Harry Styles made history auditioning for the X Factor ten years ago, and fans are looking back at the past decade and how far the 'Adore You' singer has come, from One Direction mania to an incredible solo artist.
Which one is right?
--J. R., Watertown, MA
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Oooh! A spell-caster post got through on the April 24 column! I kinda miss them.
ReplyDeleteOne thing is for certain: I am not Rachel Fabi. Proof?
ReplyDeleteI thought the clue for LADY FRIENDS was awful.
Calling the clue for HARRY STYLES too straightforward does not compute. Nor does the idea that there is "so much you can do with that name".
I originally put in SURE SURE for 58A, thinking how cheap it was to fill space with a repeat. Well, that turned out to be wrong, but later I came to I WIN I WIN, and for good (bad) measure, TAP TAP.
@Mike G: Au contraire. (If you're any kind of a golfer) Your approach shot usually makes a dent in the green surface; the handiest tool for repairing such a ball mark is: a TEE! You carefully pry up the indented sod till it makes a small mound, then tamp it down flat. Really serious golfers will carry a two-pronged ball mark repair tool, but a tee works just fine.
ReplyDeleteTo the puzzle. One of my fantasies is to own a MASERATI for every day of the week; we're working on a good start. I note that KRIStian has managed to include a partial selfie with 22-down. Clever clue, too. An enjoyable solve, with not much to IRK. The repeats at 2- and 42-down are acceptable; the bigger the jackpot the more "IWIN!"s there are...and who taps a mike once? No one. The NINERS lost because they were the AWAYTEAM. Gotti's name was John, but Frank NITTI is familiar to us old "Untouchables" fans. As to DOD, we have a surprisingly rare appearance of Jennifer ANISTON: look at all those friendly crossword letters! I'd like to count her among my LADYFRIENDS. I'd like to, but...guess not. This is close between birdie and eagle; I'm in a great mood* right now, so eagle.
*Our Golden Knights defeated the Minnesota Wild last night to advance to the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. New player Matttias Janmark had a hat trick; his number is my birthday, 26. Jersey time!
Good puzzle but badly clued in a few spots.
ReplyDeleteYeah, VGK beat MIN, but too many cheap shots by VGK kept top MIN players in the lockerroom.
ReplyDeleteFun puz, well done. Agree about some iffy clues. Wouldn't say I've ever had a 'pocketful' of tees on the green, or anywhere else on the course; one or two maybe.
Jen ANISTON, yeah baby. One of the LADYFRIENDS.
Enjoyed the workout.
NOT FEET
ReplyDeleteHer POINTOFVIEW is ALL SPELLED out,
MRS.POTTS PITIES those MERMEN:
On THEUSUAL FLINGs she'd doubt
they've got THE REST for LADYFRIENDS.
--- ASHLEY DAWN LECAR
Got off to a fine start in the SW, where I experienced what became the theme of the puzzle for me. The sense of guessing answer, saying, "No. Nuh-uh. That can't be right, but I can get a cross. I wonder if there could be two correct answers to the puzzle?"
ReplyDeleteAnd I finished with a ton of correct guesses in the NE. I am shocked. Shocked I tell you. But, with a teeny bit of help - I got the puzzle.
I still wonder if there is a puzzle out there with two correct sets of answers. Not THAT would be a feat!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
@D,LIW, I recall a recent puzzle that had identical clues for the acrosses and downs but different answers for each identical clue. I don’t remember the date or the constructor. All I remember is that it was pretty good. Maybe Jeff Chen knows. He knows just about everything...
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ReplyDeletehttps://manifestspellcast.wordpress.com