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Chef Waters who pioneered the organic food movement / SUN 5-23-21 / First work read in Columbia's Literature Humanities course / Mild light-colored cigars / Naturally occurring hexagonal crystals / PC platform popular in the '80s / Moore antipoverty entrepreneur of the Robin Hood Foundation / 2019 box-office flop described by one critic as Les Meowserables / Oscar-winning actress born Mary Louise
Sunday, May 23, 2021
Constructor: Jennifer Nebergall
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS (27A: "That was great!" - "No, it stunk!") (anything minus anything else results in a "difference")
- HIGHWAY MEDIAN (42A: Route 70 in {Route 10, Route 95, Route 101, Route 70, Route 25}) (if you sort the numbers in value order, 70 is in the middle, ergo it's the "median")
- STOCK DIVIDEND (66A: Cattle in [cattle / pigs]) (with pigs being the stock divisor)
- ANIMAL PRODUCT (95A: Bear x tiger) (anything times anything results in a "product")
- MODE OF TRANSPORTATION (106A: Car in {plane, car, train, horse, car, car, train}) ("car" is the most frequently appearing term in the set, i.e. the "mode")
Cats is a 2019 musical fantasy film based on the 1981 Tony Award-winning stage musical of the same name by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which in turn was based on the poetry collection Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) by T. S. Eliot. The film is directed by Tom Hooper, in his second feature musical following Les Misérables (2012), from a screenplay by Lee Hall and Hooper. The film features an ensemble cast, including James Corden, Judi Dench, Jason Derulo, Idris Elba, Jennifer Hudson, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson, and Francesca Hayward.
Cats was theatrically released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 20 December 2019, by Universal Pictures, and was panned by critics, who criticized the visual effects, editing, and performances. It is often considered one of the worst films ever made. The film was also a box-office bomb, grossing $75 million on a budget of $80-100 million, and is estimated to have lost Universal Pictures approximately $114 million. (wikipedia)
• • •
SELF-SOWN is both original and ridiculous. Doesn't the wind sow those seeds? Or gravity? It is probably the most original thing in the grid, but not exactly in a good way. There is good stuff, though. I really like VIGNETTE and CRY FOR HELP and TRADE WINDS and MEMPHIS and HOT SAUCE and maybe even SPARE ROOM. Both Rachel and I balked at WINOS, which continues this long-standing and ugly crossword tradition of trafficking heavily in slang for alcoholics. Even the clue seems to suggest "come on, solvers, dig deep into your vast reservoir of derogatory terms for addicts." There's got to be a way to get WINOS out of there. Rachel also objects to all forms of O.D. (today, OD'ED). I have to say I largely agree with her, even if it can be used in slangy, non-drug ways. If you don't want to get rid of ODED for its insensitivity to drug users, how about you just get rid of it because it's ugly fill that no one actually wants in their grid. Whatever gets you from A to B. Just chuck it.
We didn't struggle with much of anything in this puzzle. OVERLAP took some squinting and pondering. We (that is, I) had REDID (?) before REDUX before AMEXES came to the rescue. My first guess was SNIFF at 11D: Sound of disdain, but Rachel was right to suspect SCOFF. I think SCOFF is also a "sound." Neither of us really got the "?" humor of the clue on IMP (39A: Recurring pain?). Is the idea that you're supposed to think of bodily pain but instead it ends up being a metaphorical pain (in your metaphorical ass)? Whatever play on words was supposed to be happening there didn't really land solidly for either of us. OK, That'll do it for today. See you tomorrow.
Here's the video of me and Rachel co-solving today's puzzle via Zoom:
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101 comments:
Oh, goody. Math tricks 'n' such. Should I just shoot myself now or is that maybe an overreaction?
Oh. Overreaction it seems.
Not nearly as rough as I thought when the first themer I got was HIGHWAYMEDIAN and I freaked since it harkened back to that statistics course I had to take for some Gof-awful reason.
(Disclaimer: I actually liked that course, but I like pretending more.)
Overall, it went pretty fast with one notable exception:
Do not remember any "Hello MOTO" cellphone ad. Furthermore why wouldn't Dorothy call her dog?
The result (for a nano or so) was a self-imposed Natick at 14A/17D:
VAt _ S/whatever the hell subatomic particle.
Is that supposed to be a PION or a P-ION? Not that it matters. Even if someone is kind enough to answer, odds are my ears will suffer the usual in-and-out velocity burn. 🙄
I enjoyed the ride with some old friends popping up like DAGWOOD, and Moulin Rouge (TANGO) and ATARI and MSDOS.
What can I say? I'm old and geeky.
🧠🧠.5
🎉🎉🎉.75
I’ve spent enough time here that I am quite familiar with POCs. So is 55A an SOC? Who ever refers to a single cowboy boot or combat boot? Yes, I know it’s possible (Hey! I stepped in something and now it’s on my boot), but in real life when we are talking about footwear, we almost always talk about BOOTs, plural. Just seems like an odd choice for cluing when there are so many other possibilities (both nouns and verbs).
As much as I liked last week's puzzle, that's how much I disliked this week's. The themes were boring... No 'ahas'... And the fill was mostly humdrum. At least it didn't take much time....
I liked the puzzle mostly because I’m a math and physics NERD (not professionally, but voyeuristically). I’m certain that some of the pro mathematicians will have scathing nitpicks on the themers).
MOTO RELO AVOCADO NOLO OSLO IAGO OTOH METRO. Oh where does the time go?
Thanks for a good puzzle, Jennifer Nebergall, and congrats on your very enjoyable debut.
When I saw the title, I felt scared because I thought it would require some kind of tricky math knowledge, maybe involving the idea of that Fibonacci thingy, maybe involving the numbers of the squares (!), and I would just feel like an outsider.
So when DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS fell, I relaxed. Cool. Common expressions containing math words revisited. I guess you have to know a little statistics to appreciate the clues for HIGHWAY MEDIAN and MODES OF TRANSPORTATION, but I managed.
“Rat nest” before RAT TRAP
“Zone out” before STEP OUT.
“Snort” before SNIFF (Hi Rex and Rachel)
AVODADOS in sushi eat almost exactly like ぶり (yellowtail), my hands-down favorite. I’m moving to the outskirts of Charlotte soon and was just yesterday making a mental grocery list of the stuff I’m gonna buy at a Japanese food market for a temakizushi party I’ll intimidate my Mom and my sisters with. I can’t wait to be close to civilization again, close to a store that sells daikon tsukemono and shiso leaves.
On MEMPHIS and its clue. Man oh man was I thinking about Elvis yesterday. I saw Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time and was stunned at all the stuff I hadn’t known about Freddy Mercury – that he had big teeth, that he was born in Zanzibar, that Queen upstaged everyone at the Live Aid concert. Where the hell was I that I missed all that? Anyhoo, Elvis was on my mind because about 20 years ago, my sister and my dad got into their nastiest, drawn-out, not-just-in-fun fight they ever had: who was the better musician, Freddy or Elvis. Dad said Elvis, my sister said Freddy Mercury.
Loved OEDS crossing NERD. My condensed OED is a prized possession, prominently displayed in my classroom. My 9th-graders have just finished Romeo and Juliet, and I showed the film version on Friday, When Romeo realizes Juliet is a Capulet and says O dear account! My life is my foe’s debt., a couple of students fixated on the word account and asked about it. I had no idea. I mean, c’mon – there’s no time to figure out every single word and what it meant in a Shakespeare play, and usually they don’t notice or care. But not this group. When I caught one guy on his phone looking up the word account, I felt like a failure that this future welder was interested in a Shakespeare line that I couldn’t explain. Right before the bell rang, another student looked up account in the OED. Jeeze Louise. I looked into it yesterday and was thrilled to learn that Romeo is using the words account and debt in a finance statement sense. I still feel ashamed that I didn’t know, but in my defense, I didn’t major in English. I’ll lick my wounds with the memory of another kid in that class (ne’er-do-well, wants to drop out and be a prison guard) who called me over and whispered, How could Friar Laurence Live with himself?
My Columbia education really paid off today. Which is nice.
Agree totally with @Matthew B on this one... as good as last week's was, this one was Natick City in the upper northwest. As extensive as my vocab is, it doesn"t, alas, include the use of "vamp" as a verb (except to act like a vamp), nor does the Cambridge Dictionary. Fine, the constructor threw in a ringer, but then do the "down" clues offer any support? we have a particle physics term, an obscure commercial trivia question, and some diarist named Nim. This kind of PPP chunking really upsets me. Well, better luck next week, I guess... 🤮
Five is pretty skimpy, themewise. I didn't really notice how few there were when I was doing it. I do kind of like the theme answers. But the "s" on OPINIONS feels wrong. The phrase is DIFFERENCE OF (singular) OPINION, it seems to me.
Gotta go now. I'm driving up to Toa Point, where I will enjoy the trade winds and partake of a delicious salad of oats, t-nuts and avocados with vignette dressing.
1 on 1
4 on 6
Weird. The only videos I found were Mos Def and Memphis - no Rex and Rachel. ?🤔?
Gotta love the math take on familiar phrases! Math and physics nerd here as well. Thank you, Jennifer, and congratulations on a terrific debut!
I had a couple of missteps: Got hung up when I put ROLO instead of SKOR, and had SENCHED (wondering, "SENCHED???... but ACHE is correct" [uh, no]) instead of SYNCHED.
This week's critique by Rex and Rachel seems more reasonable - objective? - in terms of puzzle construction, and less emotional (the way it usually is). Appreciated the tempering of temperament. Since I follow only the Sunday comments, the 23rd of the month doesn't pop up very often.
A smooth and relaxing solve, like rowing a boat over still waters at dawn, making for a lovely follow-up to two effortful (yet exhilarating) puzzles.
I loved the theme for several reasons. I’m a fan of mathiness, as long as it’s not too advanced, and this certainly wasn’t. I loved the poetic feel of substituting words for numbers in the theme clues/answers – it had an old-time rebus-y feel to me. And I absolutely loved trying to guess the theme answers from the clues, which I never was successful at, but that didn’t matter. When the answer finally revealed itself, I filled up with happiness and wonder, like a child seeing a meteor, maybe. I don’t know why, but I did, and I loved that feeling.
Crosswords constantly remind me that I carry words with me that I had no idea were in there, like turning around as I’m driving to find a hitchhiker in the back seat that I don’t remember ever picking up. Today it was CETUS.
I loved the adjacent pair – PRESS POTTS, and a backward A TAD sharing the grid with A FEW.
So, many gifts in this one. Congratulations, Jennifer, on your debut – on a Sunday no less! – and thank you so much for it!
I thought this wasn’t an entirely successful puzzle and also not my cup of SODA. I’m not a math person and maybe I wasn’t in the right mood – I found the solve pleasant enough – it wasn’t a slog, but the themers held no particular appeal. The only one I thought rose above the bland was STOCK DIVIDEND because it had two layers of punning: 1) the use of the mathematical term DIVIDEND in a non-mathematical context (like the others) and 2) a play on the notions of STOCKs as shares in a company and liveSTOCK. I thought the plural OPINIONS was odd in 27A (hi @Joe D). And really, both cattle/pigs and bear x tiger were immensely strange. I guess it was a matter of getting into the vibe of this puzzle and just going with it, but I found that harder to do than it should have been, probably more on me than on the puzzle.
Highlights: I liked the two colorfully named British dishes, TOAD-in-the-hole and ETON mess. I guess TOAD-in-the-hole has an American version which consists of an egg cooked in a cut-out circle of bread, but I‘m more used to the British sausage and Yorkshire pudding incarnation. ETON mess I’ve never heard of, but it looks sinful and delicious: strawberries, meringue and whipped cream (“Just a taste, please!”). ALICE Waters and WES Moore sound like two people doing good work in areas that need support (sustainable food, childhood obesity) and (poverty, veterans’ issues) respectively. I liked the MARS clue (“What two Vikings have explored”). I liked TATTLER because it reminded of the 18th-century British Whig publication called TATLER that’s a great source of information about British society of the period. And I liked TRADE WINDS because they sound cooling and exotic.
Today we have our favorite kind of poem, an ode, by THOMAS HOOD, born May 23, 1799.
A Parental Ode to My Son, Aged 3 Years and 5 months
Thou happy, happy elf!
(But stop,—first let me kiss away that tear—)
Thou tiny image of myself!
(My love, he's poking peas into his ear!)
Thou merry, laughing sprite!
With spirits feather-light,
Untouched by sorrow, and unsoiled by sin;
(Good Heavens! the child is swallowing a pin!)
Thou little tricksy Puck!
With antic toys so funnily bestuck,
Light as the singing bird that wings the air;
(The door! the door! he'll tumble down the stair!)
Thou darling of thy sire!
(Why, Jane, he'll set his pinafore afire!)
Thou imp of mirth and joy!
In love's dear chain, so strong and bright a link,
Thou idol of thy parents; (Drat the boy!
There goes my ink!)
Thou cherub—but of earth;
Fit playfellow for Fays, by moonlight pale,
In harmless sport and myrth,
(That dog will bite him if he pulls its tail!)
Thou human hummingbee, extracting honey
From every blossom in the world that blows,
Singing in youth's elysium ever sunny,
(Another tumble!—that's his precious nose!)
Thy father's pride and hope!
(He'll break the mirror with that skipping-rope!)
With pure heart newly stamped from Nature's mint;
(Where did he learn that squint!)
Thou young domestic dove!
(He'll have that jug off with another shove!)
Dear nursling of the Hymeneal nest!
(Are those torn clothes his best?)
Little epitome of man!
(He'll climb upon the table, that's his plan!)
Touched with the beauteous tints of dawning life
(He's got a knife!)
Thou enviable being!
No storms, no clouds, in thy blue sky foreseeing,
Play on, play on,
My elfin John!
Toss the light ball—bestride the stick—
(I knew so many cakes would make him sick!)
With fancies, buoyant as the thistle-down,
Prompting the face grotesque, and antic brisk,
With many a lamb-like frisk,
(He's got the scissors, snipping at your gown!)
Thou pretty opening rose!
(Go to your mother, child, and wipe your nose!)
Balmy and breathing music like the South,
(He really brings my heart into my mouth!)
Fresh as the morn, and brilliant as its star,
(I wish that window had an iron bar!)
Bold as the hawk, yet gentle as the dove;
(I'll tell you what, my love,
I cannot write unless he's sent above!)
Cute theme - but it is light on the theme content for a Sunday size. The grid gives us so much 4-letter pedestrian fill that it became a chore to finish this thing. Liked TRADE WINDS and VIGNETTES - the Disney clues and the birthstone of the holy trinity not so much.
Last week we were given disks - today DISCS. The editors should probably stick with one.
Straightforward but flat solve today.
"Insensitivity to drug users"???
After nearly 40 years of "Just say 'No'", I think I've become insensitive to insensitivity as far as they are concerned. Are we seriously supposed to cleanse the universe of descriptive terminology because it might hurt a feeling or two? Come on, Rex.
Besides, not all O.D.s are bad.
Signed,
Your right eye
Nebergall had me at 1A. 🥏
Theme was a Meh+ here. The need to make the clues math like meant no wackiness to be found. The themers are fine, but these don’t even rise to the level of bad puns, so they just don’t do much for me.
On the other hand, I thought the voice on the fill and cluing seemed really fresh, even to going very current with the RNA clue (FWIW - the Wikipedia page for mRNA vaccines is titled RNA Vaccine). There were multiple times during the solve where the clue got a smile, from the overly specific ILIAD clue to the MARS clue. There was a hint of spring freshness that’s often missing in NYTXs. Or maybe 1A just predisposed me to liking the puzzle. Either way, this is a nice debut even though the theme didn’t really strike my fancy.
Interesting choice today on the ALIA clue. I can’t say I like it any better than yesterday’s PPP clue for ALIA. I guess yesterday is marginally better because it hasn’t been used a thousand times, but in the end it was still ALIA.
I had to fast forward through the beginning of Rex and Rachel. I don’t mind discussing the weather, but I am completely over, have zero tolerance for, complaining about the weather. Want to see Z tune out? Start complaining about the heat cold rain humidity snow sleet clouds high sun. I’ve just noticed recently how much such bitching really annoys me. I don’t think it used to bother me and I’m sure I used to do it. Now, though? I do not want to hear it. Dress appropriately and enjoy the seasons. Otherwise, please stop.
@Frantic Sloth - Sometimes I have to reload the page to get the videos to appear.
@LMS - Moving? So I presume a new job? Can you add any more of the top seven stressors to your life?
I found it gently fun. Not too difficult, but as you said nothing really bad about it and the themers were enjoyable.
Took me a while to commit to IMP because there’s nothing inherently recurring about it. You can have a one time encounter with an IMP. Had a groaner at AMEXES especially as an immigrant myself. Also wanted numerator instead of DIVIDEND but it fell nicely into place anyway.
@Sun Volt re: disks / discs
Can't really choose one and discard the other when each variation has specific uses (unlike the 364 spellings of Amon Ra we're supposed to remember).
Frisbees and musical platters are discs. Folks who play those music platters are Disc Jockeys.
However, computer data storage happens on disks, whether they be hard or floppy.
For other flat, round things, the c and k are mainly interchangeable and largely depend on whether you're in the US or not. Brits and Canadians use the c, Americans use the k.
Speaking of computer related anomalies, the plural of 'mouse' is of course 'mice' unless you're referring to the computer pointing device, then it's 'mouses' --- although many dictionaries also list 'mice' due to its commonality of usage from folks who make assumptions about it.
Thx Jennifer for this fine Sun puz challenge! :)
Easy++ unsolve. Dnf'd for the 2nd day in a row. :(
Plunked in SKOL for the candy and gave the side-eye to LNA, but left it for the time being. Moved quickly and smoothly thru the rest of the puz, until the far NE corner. Wasn't familiar with the subatomic particle, nor the cellphone ad line. Thot I knew what extemporizes means, but having VA- - S just had to guess VAMPS (extemporizes). Nothing else would fit.
Once again, I fill in the last cell without going back over the puz. One of these days … 🤞 By the time it was too late, I did go back and correct SKOL / LNA gaff, but the dnf stands.
I long for the day when I can use the Apple Pencil to markup live pages on the iPad, rather than to have to take a screenshot and do the editing on it, or in the Photos app. Another route would be to use the in-app pen/pencil option when spidey-sense tells me something's not quite right and dim those cells, or even better erase them. At least this would/will be a bit of a prompt to come back to the problem area before filling in the final cell.
Update on the above: did a couple of older NYT puzzes yd eve and actually remembered to use the in-app pencil option to dim potential problem areas and came back to look at them before filling the final cell. 👍
@TTrimble (10:18 PM last eve)
Good to hear from you!
You would have been among those in my secondary school chess club who would have waxed me and most certainly still would. Nevertheless, EN PASSANT seems to be the best tactic in most cases. ♟
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
This is not a specific comment, but a general issue that does apply to this puzzle as well - once again, I was solve the puzzle without really understanding the theme. This time, I DID know that all the theme answers concerned math concepts, BUT I did not truly understand the clue. I did get MEAN and MODE and DIVIDEND, but did not see how they were explained in the clues. To wit: if one can solve a puzzle without really understanding the questions, is the problem with the puzzle or the puzzle? Have I really completed the puzzle, or am I just identifying an underlying weakness?
tc
Quite neutral over this puzzle. I like math, but I really don't see a huge connection with this puzzle. Phrases that incorporate math terms? That's OK, but yes, the theme density was a bit thin today, with no corresponding upside for me. Not a complaint or a quibble, just an observation that may or may not resonate with you.
By the way, I am very familiar with the subject of today's acrostic, but struggled through the puzzle without getting the idea until late into the solve. Without turning this comment into a revealer, I would say I found to puzzle to be a bit dull today. I can remember a NYT Sunday tribute crossword puzzle (you must remember, Z) dealing with the same subject (again, not a revealer) that I found much more interesting. Overall, a rather ho-hum seekend for me.
I got self-sown immediately because it is well known to gardeners--absolutely a thing.
Love Mos Def. Just sayin.
Had a wonderful time recently working on the puzzle from 6/19/16 called “Traffic Intersections “. Brilliant and fun!
I’m fairly new to this (3-4 years) so please share some of your favorite puzzles with me if you can. I also get a kick out of this blog. Lots of laughing and shaking my head. Thanks all!
Come on. Admit it now. You're relieved that you didn't have to DO THE MATH. Right? Oh, sure, @mathgent and @TTrimble may be disappointed, but the rest of us? Not so much, I'd say.
The theme clues looked daunting...until they didn't. And the easiness of the surrounding fill made one's awareness of their undauntingness happen sooner rather than later. So this ended up being one of the easier Sunday puzzles in recent memory. Easy -- but also very pleasant. And amusing, too. I found all the ink expended on those very long theme clues to be quite funny, when all you really needed to pay attention to was the minus sign or the multiplication sign.
A cute, imaginative idea for a theme, Jennifer -- and quite a lovely debut. Kudos.
This was on the tougher side for me. I knew from the title that math would be involved but I wasn't making any sense of the clues, not noticing the "minus" sign in 27A and barely retaining my understanding of MEDIAN and MODE from my math days. ANIMAL PRODUCT was my first theme success and it got easier from there. In the end, I had to admire the concept, very nice.
I'm most proud of seeing SELF-SOWN from the first and last letters. Every year, I have morning glories that self-seed - not exactly a wildflower but it's always gratifying that they come back without my having to buy and plant them. (And no, Rex, they aren't windblown; gravity has them fall right down into the self-same pot they originated from, though I will admit to a few popping out in odd places in the yard. Birds? Har.)
My self-inflicted holdup of the day was deciding 10A would be ASKS (okay so far) and then making a variation of Kaftan as a long, loose robe. Wrong on the spelling and wrong on the actual article of clothing, which isn't a robe. Another was "long" in place of SLOW, 72D. Long and drawn out, right?! DAGWOOD saved my bacon (and probably used it in a sandwich).
Thanks, Jennifer Nebergall, this is a wonderful debut!
Now that was fun. A math puzzle full of fun. Mode of transportation was particularly brilliant. Would have been great if mean could have been worked in to go with median and mode.
And I do feel like there should be an 's' on ANIMAL PRODUCTs to make that more of an in-the-Language phrase. Maybe that's the 's' that wandered up and attached itself to DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS.
Never been to a ball game where they replaced the words 'HOME TEAM' while singing, but my childhood team (Orioles) and current team (Nationals) don't scan.
@Liz1508 - that 6/16/16 puzzle was my favorite Sunday since I've been solving. I'll throw in a plug for 11/1/2008.
@Monty Boy late yesterday: sanfranman59 is also still a frequent commenter and was on that 2009 comment board.
What a delightful ode!!! Thanks, Barbara!
77 Down and page 15
Agree!
Do you think they knew the magazine section would feature an article on Alice Waters today?
@Teedmn (9:27) -- I like the SELF-SOWN morning glories. Here we have SELF-SOWN bee balm, milkweed, etc. in the meadow. Plus the SELF-SOWN dandelion fields we fondly think of as the front and back yards.
@Z (8:10) -- I don't think we have a DIFFERENCE OF OPINIONS about weather-talk, because I trust you'll agree that what I have to say is important. It's kind of muggy today, yesterday as well. We AERATE with windows open throughout the house until the indoor and outdoor temperatures match, then close most of them, all ceiling fans fully engaged. Our strategy includes drawn blinds in sync with the solar arc. Tomorrow I'll call Scandia Heating and figure out what's going on with the AC, working theory being a coolant leak. Otherwise just wait for the TRADE WINDS to show up or winter, at least one of which will surely arrive.
VAMP, as used in music, is not an exact synonym for extemporize. There are VAMPs that are improvised, especially in jazz, but in other uses, VAMPS are intended to be played as written in the score.
VAMPS in music are used to repeat some passage a number of times when the number of repetitions cannot be known a priori. It's used often in musical theater. One common example is when a song intro is repeated under dialogue or other stage business. The musicians will repeat the intro until the conductor cues them to continue. The cue is based on the action on stage, which typically (in a pit configuration) only the conductor can see.
In musical scores, it's simply notated with the word "VAMP" above the repeated measures (indicated by the standard repeat bars notation).
@Liz1508 (9:20 AM)
Will do! 😊
___
p -45
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Bad weekend with the NYT puzzle. Three squares off. I forgot AMEXES were green, although my partnership had one in the 80s. I just couldn’t see VAMPS, although the cross should have done it.
Hey All !
As good at math as I was in High School (admittedly many moons ago), I was totally lost on just what in tarhooties the theme was. Had to work through the puz without having the "Aha" moment of the theme to help. So it was like a big themeless. Not fun for a SunPuz.
WETINK took forever to parse. Don't know why. I was like "WE TINK? What the heck is that?" Only after getting the Almost There message, going back to see my wrongness, did I finally parse it as WET INK. Ended up correct in that section (and also VAMPS/PION P crossing, with PION being a WOE), and still had a DNF. Had MODErn TRANSPORTATION, even if TO A PrINT made no sense, and AVaCADOS, which I spell with that A every. single. time. Every time. But, by the puz end, the ole brain switches to "impatience mode" and doesn't see obvious things like TONAL instead of TaNAL. Dang.
So, kind of an odd duck puz. Writeovers I can remember, aroma-ScEnt-SMELL, dOOrS-HOODS, snap-TNUT, ___DIVIsion-___DIVIDEND, rAGgedy-DAGWOOD (early get, thinking it was a turn-some-way to find a missing word thing [Ann, in that case]), HAle-HAIL, and maybe a couple more.
So, chalk this up to a going-through-the-motions puz. I know it's tough to construct a SunPuz, so nice on that to Jennifer, but no zazz for me. TIME to move on. ☺️
Seven F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Just FYI Rex, sets are definitely a thing in math: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Set_(mathematics)
I really plugged away at this one and thought I had a chance to close it out. Unfortunately, I was done in by the CLAROS, OSLO, etc section - SELF SOWN didn’t help (Which didn’t seem like a real thing. I mean if humanity vanished from the earth, would certain plants stop reproducing ? Apparently, some plants count on birds or animals to sow their seeds or something like that). So stuck there, and not knowing anything about cigars, I just couldn’t come up with anything viable for the Bozo’s crime novels (I had OHIO). Thus, I simply could not get to the OSLO ELSA cross. Done in by a crime novelist crossing the wife of a physicist (yes I’ve seen ELSA in crosswords before) - so this one goes to Shortz on a PPP cross. At least it was a fair cross - I’ll plead guilty to the senility factor ELSA slip-up).
Congratulations Mrs. Einstein ! You are the first entry onto my 5x7 note card of recurring Xworld info that I haven’t committed to memory yet (probably with the whole Rei, Roi, clan of Spanish and French royalty soon to follow).
I actually would have been lost without the theme entries today - the perimeter of this puzzle is basically 16 separate 4x4 or 5x5 puzzles - I’m not good enough to gain a toe-hold in each one separately, so I needed to transition from one to the other, or parse together a theme entry running through that section, which fortunately I was able to do today. This, to me, was a good, fair and enjoyable puzzle to work through today. I suspect that some of the regulars here might find it a touch on the easy side, but for me it was a perfect Sunday/Thursday tough.
Got the themers through the crosses. Nice one for the math people. I'm not going to infer anything from a list of farm animals but I'm ok with that. I think it was a well done puzzle overall. What held me up were misdirects that use language in a way I don't. So, no ah ha's, just huh or oh.
I don't think of Imps (cute little moppets who do naughty stuff) as Ongoing Pains.
Didn't know Vamps meant Extemporizes. I need the '20s movie star clue for that.
For some reason, I spell Scepter Sceptre.
I think of Tattler as some sleazy tabloid of yesteryear, and Tattletale as the blabbermouth.
In Touch and Out are magazines I didn't know about, but I don't say Mags.
Still, fun was had.
Easy. I’m stat person so it’s hard not to like this one. Nice debut.
@bocamp - I did Croce’s Freestyle # 614 in one take. Pretty doable. Good luck!
@Z (8:10) -- So if we're not allowed to bitch and moan about the weather any more, what's left to live for? :)
Your comment (which @Birchbark drew my full attention to, btw) goaded me into clicking on Rex and Rachel's video, which I never would have done without a compelling reason. And I turned it off just as quickly as you did, but not for the same reason. Rather than talk about the video, let's talk about the weather and who can make it actually fun to listen to people complaining about the weather.
Here's a partial list of people past and present who I would pay top dollar to listen to complain about the weather:
Fran Leibowitz
Nora Ephron
Dorothy Parker
Noel Coward
Woody Allen
Larry David
Joan Rivers
All are/were not only world-class comics but also world-class complainers. Don't give up on world-class complaining about the weather, @Z, just from listening to some dreary tape from Rex and Rachel. Weather can be one of life's greatest opportunities for complaining. Given the best complainers, anything can be turned into the ideal subject.
Bravo to Jennifer Nebergall on her debut puzzle.
Thumbs up for hometown constructor 👍
Sticking with the math theme, I'll average out my rapture over last week's puzzle with my disappointment with this week's (hi, @Matthew B 12:10 and @Ken Freeland 1:15) and call it even. Math, for me, is more associated with fear of failure (CRY FOR HELP) than fun, and three of the clues were incomprehensible to me..Fortunately, as @Nancy 9:23 noted, it soon became apparent that understanding the clues wasn't necessary: just think "math term" and get enough crosses to see a common phrase.
Otherwise, I enjoyed the tougher-than-usual cluing (it seemed to me) and plenty of the answers: VIGNETTES, TATTLER, DIRTIER, SCEPTER, DAGWOOD, TRADE WINDS....
@Teedmn 9:27: I got as far "kaf" and then doubt made me check the "a" cross: nope.
@Birchbark 10:09 and @Teedmn, re: SELF-SOWN: My champ is snakeroot plant that is self-seeding itself into a small forest on the perpetually shady north side of our house, a little "woodland" with trillium, lilies of the valley, wild ginger, and other Wisconsin natives.
Mostly fun! I had CAFTAN before KIMONO so my NE was a bit of a mess. Great debut Jennifer!
@jae (10:46 AM)
Thx, I should be so fortunate! LOL
___
pg -17
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Oh, @Barbara S., That's how I think of an Imp. I love it, thank you.
@Joe D., Vignette dressing, harharhar. I'll never again be able to call it anything else. Can't wait to ask for it in a restaurant.
@Z, Now I see my problem. The pesky freshness of the cluing.
Forgot to check theme title YOU DO THE MATH
would have made a difference in enjoyment and speed.
🤗❌🤗
@Liz1508 - also recommend 12/3/2015 for a really fun theme.
@Barbara, thank you for posting that ode! I agree with @Nancy and @JD that it is delightful.
@JD (10:44)
My admiration of you has just increased, given your preferred spelling of SCEPTre! I’ve just put you at the centre of my list of people of high calibre with strong moral fibre who give off the lustre of intelligence and good sense. The spectre of the disappearance of this venerable mode of spelling is a sombre one. I prefre this ordre of lettres even though people may infre that I’m oddre than most writres. Where are their mannres? I’m cretain my readres have no problem with my ER-RE transfre wherevre they discovre it. In fact, the next time they encountre their computres I’m all togethre sure they are bound to become practitionres themselves.
[Autocorrect is ready to murdre me with a sabre.]
@Anonymous 10:10 – Yes exactly. A performer might extemporize over a vamp, such a singer doing a spiel to introduce the next number (think Tina Turner's intro to "Proud Mary" – Ike and the band are vamping behind her).
Thank you, Jennifer Nebergall, for a successful first NYT puzzle! Pushed back just a bit occasionally, but the cluing was fair and
I enjoyed the theme. All in all, a very pleasant way to spend part of a Sunday morning. Even Rex couldn’t find much to complain
about, which, as you must know, is unusual!
@LMS—. welcome to Charlotte! It’s a very welcoming city and a great place to live— except for the traffic!!
If they must use ODED, they could at least clue it as [Israeli actor Fehr, known for the ‘Mummy’ franchise]. (Or, for Saturday, [Brendan’s ‘Mummy’ co-star.])
I have a degree in math but amazingly the theme never helped in the solve.
Not since sixth grade have I had a math class that used the terms dividend and divisor rather than numerator and denominator. Wrote in ANIMALPRODUCT after having a few crosses, without getting the theme, rather thinking of the x as having a meaning like "versus." Finally realized the theme after writing in HIGHWAYMEDIAN.
Leo
DIVIDEND/divisor is not interchangeable with numerator/denominator. The first pair are terms used in the function of Division. The second pair are names for the parts of fractions.
@Z 810am Naturally thought of you at 1A 😊 Later that post...Whu-huh?? Why didn't I think of that? In fact why didn't I think of closing the page and reopening it or closing the browser or cleaning the cache or turning the whole megillah off, then on or trying another iPad or buying a new iPad or throwing it and every other electronic device I own against @Nancy's wall or going to sleep and trying again in the mor...hey! It worked!
P.S. You're gonna have to explain "reload" to me - apparently just another acronym or initialism. 😘
OR I could just apologize for my cranky tummy and move on.
@Liz1508 920am Thanks for the puzzrec and I'll be back later with some faves.
Hint: Searching for anything by Patrick Berry, Robyn Weintraub, or Andrea Carla Michaels would be a good place to start. Difficulty varies.
I do not read the titles for Sunday puzzles before I start. Today is a good example of why I don't. The challenge and solving joy were enhanced by not knowing. And, as @Nancy pointed out, there was really no math to be "done" anyway.
A very glaring construction error. The comic strip with the dog Daisy is BLONDIE not DAGWOOD. Dagwood is only a character IN Blondie.
Rex: upper 70s to low 80s is not hot!
Surprised there were no complaints about AMEXES being an advertisement for American Express. I of course was thinking about greeting cards for immigrants; had to Google and therefore learn all about American Express green cards to understand.
The clue is "Comics CHARACTER with the dog Daisy". I had the same reaction as you until I looked at the clue again.
I was glad to have a puzzle I could complete with no lookups, after the last two. Doubly glad when I liked it. Sundays are so often a slog. This was steady as she goes, top to bottom, and yet many of the answers were not obvious from the clues, but depended on crosses.
So glad to see you back, @LMS. Fibonacci thingy! I bet you are looking forward to living in a more civilized place than West (by God!) Virginia. Though you will surely miss a lot of what makes WVA charming, with its hills and hollers. (ISTR you are not planning to take on a new job in the ed biz -- and why should you? If you want some extra cash, you are going to be much in demand as a tutor, for all those AP kids hoping to ace their Lit classes).
And triple thanks, @Barbara S., for today's delightful Ode. I could not stop laughing. I immediately thought of one of my grandsons when I read it.
Yup, only hiccups were MOTO & PION.
Better than mean Sunday.
@Liz1508
Here's one I just finished: Friday, October 7, 2011 by Kevin G. Der
Also, I second @Frantic's constructor suggestions wholeheartedly.
___
pg -4
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
New York Times title “You do the Math”
L.A. Times title “Food for Thought”
Guess which on I liked more?
I was left thinking “Math terms, that’s it?” I enjoyed this about as much as I enjoyed math classes. In the end, my real hang-up was Amexes because mine isn’t green ... I don’t think of the brand as green, so I kept trying to think in other directions. It wasn’t until I had everything but the X that I finally got it (by going through the entire alphabet. And then I felt like an idiot ... which I guess is appropriate because that’s also how I always felt in math classes.
Same reaction as those who read the title and thought "oh oh" and same sense of relief when there really was no math to be done. The first themer made me think of the goraner that may have been posted before about the difference between a bird with one wing and a bird with two wings is just a difference of a pinion. If it is a repeat I hope enough of you share my kind of memory, which makes many things all new again.
I'm claiming that "Hello MOTO" never made it this far north. Only MOTO I've ever heard of was Mr. MOTO, and the only thing I know about him is his name.
Otherwise smooth sailing and a perfectly acceptable Sunday Theme Lite, as has been pointed out. Congragts to JN on a fine debut. Just plain Nice, and that's fine.
@LMS-Best wishes for a smooth move, along with sympathy and empathy. We've been in our new place for about three weeks now. As soon as clear patches of floor begin to appear, we hustle over to a storage unit and find something to fill them up with. I'm thinking moving, besides being totally disruptive, is not really a thing, it's a process, and a long one. Good luck.
@Liz1508 Took me some time to find it, but one of my all-time favorites is the 11/5/1996 puzzle. Hope the link works!
While you were MILDLY critical, I can only imagine your remarks if the constructor didn't have a vagina - Something like "How could unadulterated crap like this even be considered for a NYT Sunday puzzle?"
@Barbara, I'll take that compliment even if I don't deserve it! Thank you! ❤️
Cute puzzle, but second Sunday with title missing.
@Frantic, I clicked your link I agree! I remember doing it on paper.
@me 12:12 – that should have said "such as a singer doing a spiel..."
Still don't get IMP.
On another note, how does it generally work out when couples do the puzzle? Together? competitively? does it last more than a few weeks?
@Joe in NF – It usually starts out well enough, then progresses to annoyed fuming, followed by snarky insults, vicious arguments, the hurling of lamps and other furniture, and, eventually, divorce at the end of week #3. Sometimes murder.
My wife and I have been doing the NYTXW puzzle together for about 4-5 years now. Used to only on weekends, now we do it every day. We're not super strong - our times range from ~7-10 min on Mon/Tues, up to ~45 or more for Sat/Sun. But we also don't generally try to rush it. We take it easy on weekends with coffee and our now 6mo old, but have always made a bit of a morning after it.
Regarding IMP - An "imp" being an obnoxious/annoying person or child. I guess the idea is if you know an imp, they will be a recurring annoyance or pain in the butt. I don't think there's anything more to it than that. Questionable cluing to say the least.
@Joe Dipinto:
CT has a particular method. wood chipper. not what you might expect from a Blue State.
@Barbara S 7:21 am
Thanks for the poem!
What's up with IMP. Please help. I won't be able to sleep if someone doesn't explain.
A very challenging and enjoyable puzzle to do while watching the PGA Championship on TV. A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
@Birchbark - Discussing the weather doesn’t bother me. Hope your AC repair isn’t too expensive.
@Nancy - Unfortunately, most weather bitchers aren’t funny, just bitter sounding. TBF, I’ve done my fair share of complaining, and it’s really only recently that the complaining seems incessant. Maybe it’s COVID related, as if the only small talk we remember is the weather.
As for Rex and Rachel, their actual solving discussion is something I generally find interesting, and I think hearing Rex might help some not react so strenuously to his pronouncements.
@Frantic Sloth - So… the throwing it against the wall method worked? Sounds like your computer was assembled in Rye. I’ve had yesterday’s videos so often that now I just load Rex twice every day before I even start reading. This seems to be more of an iPad thing rather than a desktop/laptop thing for me.
@Pablo 2:38
I had a Motorola Razr years ago. Hello, MOTO.
Glad to hear you've completed your move (haha, it takes a year, really). We just hit the 3 yr mark on Friday and realized it feels like home. It did take pandemic time for me to finish some boxes, though. Plus I retired, but I'm currently un-retired, working as interim church secretary and loving it!
So not as much puzzle time as in the teeth of the pandemic but definitely better mental health.
Best wishes for your settling in!
You are not a failure. You are a success! You’re reaching kids who might not otherwise encounter Shakespeare, and you’ve got them interested enough to want to understand every word. And never feel you’ve let your students down when you don’t know the answer to every question. One thing you want to impart to them is that no one knows everything, but that learning is a lifelong pursuit. And please remember that the world needs everyone, including welders and prison guards. Try to inspire all your students. Those who drop out may remember you as a light.
@Smith
Thanks for the Motorola Razr/MOTO explanation. I wish I could say aha!, but the Motorola Razr is as unfamiliar as the MOTO thing. Lots left for me to learn, I'm afraid. And great thanks for the relocation commiseration. Although, a year? Oh oh.
Best thing about our new digs is being five minutes away from a three-year-old granddaughter, who makes me smile just thinking about her. We have something like an equal appreciation of silliness, a rare thing.
Meanwhile, go Bruins.
@leo 12:23
@Anonymoose is correct, but this gets into issues of syntax vs. semantics. I'll just say that as a teacher of mathematics, I use DIVIDEND and divisor especially in the context of quotient-remainder theorems, which we all learned in elementary school when we learned long division of whole numbers, but which plays a role in more advanced mathematics as well. I make a point of using this terminology when I discuss polynomial division, as I often do in calculus classes, and in undergraduate abstract algebra.
I'll also say that being a mathematician didn't confer an appreciable advantage in solving this puzzle. A bit on the meh side, although it was pretty light on junk.
As others have noted, the intersection of the Nordic-sounding SKOR with RNA was a bit of a Natick. The types of vaccine for COVID that I know are based on names of corporations: Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson (Astra-Zenica is popular in Europe). The candy bar is barely familiar; I'm not a big consumer of candy bars, although I do like toffee bars as a subset of candy bars.
I like that PION is in there. Also that it's RENE Descartes; the subject of analytic geometry was reborn with his eponymous coordinates, which serve to unite algebra with geometry. (My gosh, I'm so erudite.)
Appreciative thanks to those who weighed in with authority on SELF-SOWN.
Wow, do I care what the name of Dagwood's dog was (DAISY)? Yes, I know the name Dagwood Bumstead; I'm that old. Mostly his name connotes a tall sandwich. The clue is obscure.
SB: yd 0, td pg -4.
Yes, "set" is a math term, as in "Set Theory".
Those of us who attended elementary school in the 60's got a heavy dose of the so-called "New Math:", which was something of a failure in math education that made heavy use of set theory. We learned about numbers as :"sets". All I remember is that it was confusing, and thankfully went away in the early 70's.
I liked the similarity with the MEDIAN and MODE clues specifically because those two terms are usually learned the same day in math class and often using the same terms!
"Self-sown" is the common and accepted expression for any seedling that finds its way without us humans intervening. Yes, sometimes the ants help, or the wind, or the seeds are dispersed by attaching to fur of a passing dog. But these aren't random acts, since the plants have evolved mechanisms to take advantage of of these external forces: think of the parachutes on dandelion, or the burs that attach to mammals, or the elaiosomes produced to reward ants that move the seeds around. Of course there are many common plants whose fruit explodes and scatters the seeds a good distance (such as jewel-weed and witch-hazel). But all the seedlings that result through these various mechanisms are considered to be 'self-sown.' Also, thinking back on a previous puzzle, most everyone has a scissor jack in the trunk of their car. Puzzle solvers need to get out in the real world more!
Please keep your politics out of the puzzle. I don't ever want to see OAC, HILLARY, or Kamala Harris in a puzzle clue!
Such lovely thoughts, Babz.
MOTO UNIT
If your MODEOFTRANSPORTATION sucks, and the HIGHWAY is your HOME,
you OWE it TO your SELF, REDUX; a TRADE IN and AUTOLOAN.
--- ALICE POTTS
Oh, that kind of green card, the AMEX type. The green card I was thinking of is already informally called that, the ID card for a legal permanent resident. Otherwise not much for sticking POINTs.
Only one mention above about bonus math guy RENE. Did nobody notice?
This puz was OK.
I'm forced to agree with @Rex & @Rachel on this one. It's...there. Black bars 3 or 4 long extend in from the edge all the way around, creating a dozen little pockets in the grid. This becomes sloggish. There's little "flow."
Not to say it's horribly unpleasant; I wasn't quite sure what the constructor was after, for a while. Waiting to actually DO math...but no, it was just math terms used in un-math expressions. It's a fine idea, I suppose, but it just didn't reach out and grab me.
Some of the longer fill is good; I liked the clue for HOMETEAM. (And right next to TRADEWINDS, reminiscent of the increased activity as trade deadlines approach)
So, I'm not gonna say YOUROCK, Jennifer, but you did create almost the very definition of a par.
Can't close without a sympathetic shout-out to Jon Rahm, who leading the Memorial by six (!) shots was forced to withdraw for COVID protocol, with only the final round to play. We hope to see you in the Open, Jon.
For a first puzzle this was great. Especially after some of the bloopers we had this week.
So off to enjoy my Sunday. Looks like everyone else is getting the heat wave we had last week, but now we're stuck in the 50's/60's for this week. Fine with me. Like this puzzle.
Diana, LIW
I made the mistake of thinking it might really use mathematical terms, so I started off thinking 27a started w “differential”- didn’t go easy for me from there. Why do I struggle w the identified “easy” puzzles?
Oh, and “vamps” is not a substitute for “extemporizes.” If you disagree, I’ll fight you. 😊
It’ NIn, not Nim, her name frequently appears in crosswords, and she is known to most reasonably educated folks!
I don't care what they say, I sure like it anyway. Great Sunday puzzle IMHO, except I cringe every time I see TSA as an answer, just as I cringe every time I have to endure their fascist frisking.
For 61A, the emoji didn't print in my local newspaper, came through as a x-in-a-box.
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