Honorific for Gandhi / MON 6-21-21 / Atlanta train system / 1950s-60s singer Bobby / 1963 Best Actress Patricia / Cracker brand with a yellow and blue logo / Vindaloo accompaniment
Constructor: Jacob Stulberg
Relative difficulty: Easy (2:43 even with a tenacious, stupid typo)
THEME: "IT'S ALL RELATIVE" (52A: "Let's put things in perspective" ... or a title for this puzzle) —"blanker THAN blank" phrases, i.e. phrases expressing relativity:
Theme answers:
LIGHTER THAN AIR (20A: Capable of floating, as a balloon)
HOLIER THAN THOU (32A: Sanctimonious)
LARGER THAN LIFE (39A: Imposing and then some)
Word of the Day: AVERY (50D: Big office supply brand) —
Avery Dennison Corporation is a multinational manufacturer and distributor of pressure-sensitive adhesive materials (such as self-adhesive labels), apparel branding labels and tags, RFID inlays, and specialty medical products. The company is a member of the Fortune 500 and is headquartered in Glendale, California. // The company was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1935 as Kum Kleen Products [ed: !!!!], a partnership of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Stanton Avery. (wikipedia)
• • •
The one thing I like about this puzzle is that all the themers are 14s. That is bizarre. Like ... no one likes to touch 14s, they're hard to work with. You see how you get all those three-letter answers under/above the black squares at the ends of the 14; how the grid is super-segmenty because the black squares wrap around the ends of the 14s in an "L" shape because otherwise you'd have real serious white-space problems? Yeah, that's because 14s are hard as hell to manage cleanly. They're ungainly. So ... this puzzle uses only 14s, which is bold. Beyond that, though, I don't really get it. I mean ... blanker than blank. That's it. The revealer isn't even that punny. I mean, usually, like on "Jeopardy!" or whatever (classically, if "Friends" has taught me anything), the category IT'S ALL RELATIVE means you'll be dealing with, like, aunts and uncles and cousins and what not. You know: relatives. But here, these are just relative phrases. THAN is a preposition that follows a comparative adjective. It's awfully literal, and not much fun. Also, because of the aforementioned hyper-segmented grid, most of the fill is short, so there's not even cool long bonus answers to break the monotony. PAD THAI. That's what this puzzle has for me. And while I like PAD THAI (YUM!)... I need more. A little GLUG GLUG, metaphorically speaking, if you know what I'm saying (full disclosure: I'm no longer sure exactly what I'm saying).
But wow was it easy. I flopped and slid around in the SE corner for what felt like a very long time because I wrote in LOBSE instead of LOBES (59A: Brain divisions) and so the Down crosses were all weird, and when I get going very fast, my brain sometimes doesn't really register simple mistakes like that ... and still I came in at 2:43, which is very fast for me. 10-20 seconds under my Monday average, and 10-20 seconds is a *lot* of time on a Monday. I had a bit of an IRMA / ERMA hesitation, I guess, but guessed correctly so didn't have to stop to fix anything (27A: Soul singer Thomas). Didn't really know MARTA but had MART- before I ever saw the clue (14A: Atlanta train system). MARTA is the first name of one of the creators of "Friends" (MARTA Kauffman). Did I mention that I'm in the middle of (re-)watching all of "Friends"? Speaking of IT'S ALL RELATIVE, we just watched the one where Rachel dates the guy who's a little *too* into his own sister. OK, bye!
@Rex thinks this was quite easy. I think it was on the hard side for a Monday.
I never heard of IRMA Thomas. I do know MARTA but would expect many (if not most) solvers would not be familiar with that transit acronym. And Bobby DARIN was terrific but died young and likely unknown to many here.
Here's my favorite Bobby DARIN cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axPOraWoC58
From late yesterday @CDilly52 I don't have much to add to what's already been said except to say congratulations on your retirement. In my experience people who are "busy" when at work tend to remain so in retirement. Your time will fill up so fast, you'll wonder why you wondered about what to do with yourself. 😉
@RooJohnny 538pm What? No year's supply of Rice[clang clang]-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat? 😉
@A 850pm Thank you - and I remember Spanky and Our Gang! You really brought me back with that and the Gorey "Mystery" Intro. Always loved that.
Hey everybody, nice little easy, fun Monday puzzle, huh? Anyway, if anybody needs me, I'll just be over here spending the entire day contemplating the fact that the guy who thinks that LISP and SOT are too often clued "problematically" is apparently happily, nostalgically chuckling his way through 87 hours' worth of "Friends" in the Year of Our Lord 2021.
Don't bother watching all of "Friends", just watch the episodes with Janice. She was the only funny character, and she was way more likeable than any of the "friends". Maggie Wheeler played her to perfection, oh.my.god.
And the winner goes too.......Jacob Stulberg for not giving me a Monday puzzle that made me feel like I was still in kindergarten..... Well, @Frantic's GAS HAT BLY will be hard to match but I had a little chat with CHEF....He made some STEW. For BREAD he used NAAN. STEW was a TAD THIN, so he switched to PAD THAI. Too much GAS we CRY...the DREGS made me ITCHY and ILL. OKAYS, sez CHEF, IOUS all a YUM GLUG of rum. Feel free to get up and groan. I liked all of this....I feel like an adult with a full stomach. Now I LAY me down to sleep.
The cluing is Monday perfect, easy but not embarrassingly easy. Please, constructors, study today’s cluing and emulate!
Besides that, I was fond if CHEF near YUM, ELLA crossing LARGER THAN LIFE, WET meeting a backward WETS, and MARTA / HERA / IRMA / MAHATMA / LIBRA / RHEA. I thought having GAS in the same grid as LIGHTER THAN AIR was cool until I found out that most gases are heavier than air, so I’ll go with: I liked the irony of that!
Oh yes, I liked this. But that’s no surprise; I seem to like all the NYT puzzles. The day I pan a NYT puzzle, I’m guessing it will seem STRANGER THAN FICTION. And once again, Jacob I have loved. You are a high-quality puzzle maker. Thank you for this!
Very simple, straightforward and somewhat standardized puzzle today - pretty light on trivia while most, if not all of the fill seeming like pretty standard Monday fare. Plenty enjoyable, even if the puzzle would fit right in at USA Today (which is not at all a bad thing, lol - it’s actually a reflection of the lack of gunk and other gimmicks that can creep in as the puzzles get more challenging).
And easy breezy Monday. Clean and smooth, like a tasty STEW with no DREGS. And a pretty neat trick to have all the themers plus the revealer with the same number of letters. Good job Jacob!
@CDilly: Congratulations on arriving at this new chapter of your life! The first few weeks for me were like being on vacation and once I finally realized this was my new normal, I was like Flounder after the parade in Animal House. It was shocking how quickly the days passed though, and I soon learned to enforce a regular self-imposed leisure time. Otherwise I found myself going full bore seven days a week. Whatever your version of retired living turns out to be, I wish you many years of happiness and contentment ahead.
Perfectly fine Monday puzzle - catchy theme with smooth, pangram close fill. Liked LARGER THAN LIFE and MAHATMA. The OKAYS x YESES cross was clunky as was the HERA/RHEA combo.
I don’t have much to say about this theme. Three well-known expressions in the pattern “something-ER THAN something else” with a revealer referencing the concept of relativity or “in relation to…” I thought it was fine but not particularly exciting. As soon I realized what was going on, those old Ajax commercials popped into my head: “Stronger than dirt!”
I’d never heard of IRMA Thomas so I looked her up. One of her early hits in 1964 was the song “Time is On My Side” which, unfortunately for her, The Rolling Stones heard for the first time that same year, perhaps even her version of it, and because they were The Rolling Stones and she wasn’t, their version completely overshadowed hers and she ended up deciding not to sing the song for a number of years. IRMA singing “Time is On My Side” in 2005 IRMA telling the story behind the song The Rolling Stones singing the song
OK, that was more than anyone ever wanted to know on that subject. What else can I over-illuminate. I know: Nellie BLY! BLY was someone I researched as a possible quotee and the vast majority of the passages from her work that I found were from “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” which was an astonishing piece of journalism but very difficult to read because of the subject matter. BLY, while working for the New York World newspaper, went undercover to investigate conditions in an asylum. After taking a room in a women’s boarding house, she started behaving erratically and talking strangely, so much so that the police were called in and she was brought before a judge who committed her to the (as it was called) Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island). You really don’t want to know what she went through there, and after ten days the newspaper approached the authorities and got her released. The pieces she wrote about her experiences helped push the Asylum to reform some of its practices, and not a moment too soon.
Today’s excerpt is by IAN McEWAN, born June 21, 1948
“This is how the entire course of life can be changed – by doing nothing. On Chesil beach he could have called out to Florence, he could have gone after her. He did not know, or would not have cared to know, that as she ran away from him, certain in her distress that she was about to lose him, she had never loved him more, or more hopelessly, and that the sound of his voice would have been a deliverance, and she would have turned back. Instead, he stood in cold and righteous silence in the summer’s dusk, watching her hurry along the shore, the sound of her difficult progress lost to the breaking of small waves, until she was blurred, receding against the immense straight road of shingle gleaming in the pallid light.” (From On Chesil Beach)
"But wow was it easy." Sure, of course it was easy for you, Rex. But for a Monday, was it inappropriately easy? I didn't really think so. Not every newcomer will know to put in MARTA, PAD THAI, NAAN, IRMA, BLY, RHEA, ELLA, NEAL, LIBRA, and AVERY without a moment of hesitation, based on how they're clued.
I'm on Team Lewis in this case.
Zing, sass ("sass"), bounce, whatever you want to call it -- that may be a different story. But I thought it was all right. I'm happy to leave it to experienced constructors (Lewis for example) to make that call more authoritatively.
There's an adjective to describe the letters in today's SB, but I hesitate to say it. ;-)
Say that a Krispy Kreme donut is Lighter Than Air and so is the collective intelligence of the entire legislative branch of the US government. Can you insult an inanimate object? Or would it be an insult to the donut? It's All Relative.
@Barbara, The Stones didn't write Time is on Our Side? I have to get my head around that.
@Frantic, a 5-party-favor post🥳📯 Great Mondee!
@CDilly from yesterday, not sure you saw my response but I loved your post. You'll enjoy retirement more than you could imagine right now.
When rex admits that even he doesn't know where he's going with his blog, I think it's a tacit admission that he has traveled down the criticism hole for a puzzle that really doesn't deserve it. This was a very nice Monday, with some fill (MARTA??) that skewed a little tougher. Laughed when I saw TORRE, as I just put him in a puzzle I'm constructing, so there must be something in the air . . . . I actually found the revealer to be sort of cute. And I've never watched a single episode of Friends. Isn't that the show all about white privilege?
Hi IRMA, nice to meet you. Do you know AVERY? Neither did I. Knew everything else though.
Interesting how many comparisons like this usually have an "a" in them like ________er than a ____________. I was out for a run this morning and trying to think of some more without much success, which made me feel dumber than dirt.
Nice enough Monday. Had some fun, which is all I ask of life.
@CDilly52-congratulations on your retirement. I'm enjoying mine so much that I recommend it to all my friends.
Solving on paper, I thought this was a medium Monday. Getting clues only off the first couple of letters stopped right at LARGERTHANLIFE. A few gimmes in the bottom set me off and running again.
@anon - 7:11am, I've seen one or two partial episodes of Friends and I'm jealous of you. I feel like I should try again just to understand it as a cultural phenomenon, but this too passes. Since I believe anything Joe Dipinto tells me, I may try a sampler of the episodes he mentioned. There is a reunion of the actors now on Netflix, which I hear is kind of sad since most of the actors were so iconic in those roles, they were never able to come close to that level of success after the run.
I did learn today to my chagrin that MAHATMA is an honorific rather than his first name. Had to correct from MAHAraj.
I feel like if I do enough xwords, I will eventually learn every line in IAGO's script and will audition for Shakespeare in the Park.
I'm not partial to Jacob's puzzles because I enjoyed his stint as Columbia U DJ. I enjoy them because they are well crafted. Like ACME (if my memory is correct), yet to construct a Saturday puzzle, and why bother when you do so well on other days of the week. Unfortunate Jacob only publishes infrequently now.
Lewis: I seem to remember read one comment you made which seemed to suggest you did not like a puzzle. Perhaps the comment was simply a bit more tepid than normal, which threw me.
bocamp: If you are referring to Sunday's acrostic, I also liked it, although I though it did not pop out at you like some of the quotes do.
Hey All ! @Frantic - It's in the trunk. It fits, as there is space in front and back of a Tesla.
Got four extra black squares today, compliments of the 14's Rex mentioned. But didn't (to me) significantly add many more short-stuff that would've been there anyway, if that makes sense. We end up with four more Threes instead of four Fours. ITS ALL RELATIVE. Har.
Nice fill. I liked this puz. It all ADDedUP. At least we get the correct NAAN. Hopefully the LAY clue brings out @LMS.
My smile was LARGER THAN LIFE when LARGER THAN LIFE filled in. The clue, "imposing and then some", made me curious, without giving anything away. And that's the best kind of clue.
I also loved HOLIER THAN THOU -- an epithet I've been known to use from time to time for the smug and sanctimonious. I doubt there's any quality in a person that I dislike more.
The first themer was the trickiest. I was thinking "LIGHT as a feather" -- which didn't fit. Nor did "LIGHT as air". But I still filled in LIGHT AS confidently...and then ended up with SHIsT as my jersey. Even one write-over on a Monday is a lot, right?
A very enjoyable, grown-up, and blissfully junk-free puzzle that serves as a welcome change from everything that came before during this past PPP-laden week. Sure hope it continues.
I had some hiccups in the northwest since Buddy always suggests Holly to me, and I couldn't quite remember what Atlanta called their subway system. Ended up with a somewhat below average time.
I've seen a number of clips from Friends and can't imagine why anyone would watch it once, much less twice, but then I have an aversion to laugh tracks (real or fake) and the show has to be mighty good for me to put up with them.
Yes, yesterday's, and I agree; nothing really jumped out. I had to work harder than usual to ferret it all out. What a worthwhile effort it was, tho. :) ___
@burtonkd (9:20) -- I've already bought my ticket to "Iago: What a Douchebag!!" -- the musicalized version of "Othello" that will be produced at the Delacorte later this summer. It will star @burtonkd -- not only playing (and singing) Iago, but also conducting the production's 16-piece orchestra. Break a leg, @burtonkd!!!
It was fun to zip through this one. And yes, the 14 letter phrases could have been zippier a la @albatross shell. So good crit from Rex and enjoyable fast puzz from Mr Stulberg.
And Rex, I never watched Friends when it came out, but during COVID tuned in every night. I like it. During these times when people have “permission” to say rude, mean thngs to one another, it’s a relief to see a group of people interacting, even fighting, having fun, and whatever with kindness. And it’s funny.
A fine Monday - easy, for sure, but with an engaging theme and an on-the-nose reveal. Regarding @Rex's, "I mean ... blanker than blank. That's it," I thought there was a sort of unity among the theme answers, in that AIR and LIFE are intangibles (unlike, say, the dirt and wine in other comparisons) - and who is that mysterious THOU? I was surprised to find out it's another intangible (and LARGER THAN LIFE, too), the Lord, who speaks in Isaiah 65: 1 "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, 'Behold me, behold me,' unto a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts; 3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick; 4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; 5 Which say, 'Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.' These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. 6 Behold, it is written before me: 'I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom, 7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,' saith the Lord, 'which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.'"
Also, thanks to @Rex for explaining the reason for all of the "threes." I'm usually oblivious to grid construction and would have had no idea of the difficulties of constructing around 14-letter entries.
MARTA not that hard to suss: most cities (large enough to include abutting cities and towns, of course) with public transport is run by a Metro[politan] somewhere Rapid/Regional Transport[ation] Authority.
I had the AIR at the end of the first themer, and started to put in "full of hot AIR.." but it was too short. Good thing; that would have made it a political commentary theme, fun in its own way, but too likely to touch off a partisan flame war.
@Barbara, thanks for the music links -- actually the one I remembered was the IRMA Jones version, although I think the backup vocals got a little more of a role in the one she recorded. I do remember the Stones version, too.
As for Nellie BLY, my big question has always been "How did she end up as the two-timing woman in some versions of Frankie and Johnny?
The clue for AVERY fooled me at first. "Big name in labels," OK -- but "office products had me looking for something like Staples. I needed a few crosses. Legit clue -- they make office products, and they're a big name -- it just fooled me.
I too have never watched a single episode of Friends, a fact of which I'm quite proud. I even put it on my résumé, and have walked out of a job interview when my potential supervisor made a joke about that fact. I've walked out on a date (after paying for the meal and leaving the lady $50 for cab fare of course, I'm not a cad) when she said that Phoebe was way under-utilized on the show. Unless the actual Titan was on the show I don't care, and if she were on the show, of course she was under-utilized, she's the daughter of the Earth & Sky gods, how could any half hour sitcom properly utilize her? Frankly, I think anyone who has watched wasted their time in one of the most juvenile ways possible. To disclose that they watch in public is to glorify their own inanity, putting the QED at the end of the proof of their idiocy.
@bocamp - I did Croce’s Freestyle #623 in 2 sittings with out many problems except for the NE where I held on to two wrong answers for way too long. Good luck!
I'm always looking for some brain dead show that I can half-watch and binge on while doing something else. I draw the line at Friends. I watch and enjoy tons of crap too. An embarrassing amount of shitty TV I watch. Friends is just not funny and the laugh track is inane. I love Seinfeld and the laugh track doesn't bother me at all. Maybe because the track laughs at actual funny bits. I used to think OFL had good taste in movies, TV Shows and literature, but I'm starting to rethink that.
Huh. $120M Netflix deal followed by a $425M HBO Max deal. For reruns. Personally, I stopped watching Seinfeld after the second or third season and only occasionally watched Friends. Neither are my cuppa. But a quick search of the stars’ net worths shows a range from a paltry $90M to $330M to Seinfeld’s $990M. Somebody thought those shows were damn good.
I've never seen The Godfather, and I am very proud of that. Why would anyone want to see a movie where the protagonists are a bunch of murderous scum?
I've also never read The Great Gatsby, and I'm very proud of that. The representations of women are dated and of minorities are downright ugly.
I've never listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and I'm very proud of that. I can't believe people think music by someone going deaf could be worth listening to.
@Burtonkd – Here is a sampler of Janice's appearances on "Friends", so you don't have to hunt down episodes. (There's a Part 2 and Part 3 to this montage also). Some background: • Janice had an on/off relationship with the Chandler character over the course of the show • she has an annoying laugh, which seems to be why the other friends don't like her • after Season 1 they brought her back only once each season, and she would show up at the most inopportune moments
I only ever saw the show in late-night reruns, and didn't really care for the main characters. They were scripted with a lot of snappy one-liners but didn't really resonate as people, imo.
@Anon12:32 - The only thing worse than correcting somebody's grammar is doing so incorrectly. Thersite's body is as good as Ajax'/When neither are alive - Just guess who used this in Act 4 Scene 2 of Cymbeline {No, I didn't know this, but I did track it down when looking up the answer to the question and making sure that it actually came from the supposed source - I'm really leery of quotes on the internet these days}
Joe Dipinto, Almost impossible to cite the number of times you've been right. But it is utterly impossible to cite an example where you've been more right. Friends was insufferable. Really embarrassing. Maggie Wheeler the sole exception. She took some pretty mediocre material and made it funny. Or as close as that show ever came to funny.
@Z 12:14–Budweiser sales in 2020 topped $7 Billion. If you include Bud Lite it’s over $11 billion. I guess you can call Friends the Budweiser of sitcoms.
@oldactor: "IAGO" has appeared 401 times in NYT puzzles, so I'd be almost half way there if they would stop cluing it as Aladdin's Parrot. Of course it has taken 80 years to get this far, so I guess I'll have to open a script if I want to keep Nancy happy...
@Joe Dipinto: thanks for doing the legwork. People used to tell me I look like Chandler on "Friends", so I can kill 2 birds with one stone with your link.
When the reveal ITSALLRELATIVE filled in I thought yeah, those are ___THAN___ comparative phrases, but why those three? Was there anything else that would connect them together into a tighter theme than just their RELATIVEness? Seems a bit thin to me and having all 14-letter themers exacted a price on the grid by necessitating all those threes and fours. The two-for-one POCs where a Down and an Across get a grid-filling letter-count boost by sharing a single final S, also lowered the overall rating of the puzzle, in my book.
Finally printed out yesterday's. Only about three fill ins on my first pass through but luck and experience led to a successful completion, which was a lot of fun. Surely different than doing a crossword, but a different kind of satisfaction too.
PS-It took me forever to see the author's name. My absolute favorite niece has the same appellation with a different spelling. I still love her anyway.
The only reason to be hear is the off-topic posts. The rest are a continuing re-hash of "clue has appeared X times" and "entry has appeared Y times". No fun in any of that.
I took holier than thou's comment as satirical or ironic. Meaning the opposite of what he seemed to be saying. If not, I was going to suggest his cultural knowledge was more holey (that is holey-er) than it should be. I did not say so because I thought that was his point. So I did not so post. I do not know how @bad mouse took it.
I thought the first themer was rather scientific and dull--but the other two are wonderful in-the-language idioms that make this Monday shine. The grid is indeed chopped up; a sacrifice acceptable for those cool phrases.
"BIG" office supply brand? Can't be that big, I never heard of it. AVERY. If you say so. Mini-Indian theme with MAHATMA and NAAN. DOD is Daniela Ruah, portrayer of Kensie BLY on "NCIS: Los Angeles." Gotta use any excuse to get her in there.
"Friends" is a sitcom; I don't do sitcoms. Far as I'm concerned, they're all the same. Well, "The Honeymooners" had some moments...
Memories of Bobby Darin: "Oh the shark bites with his teeth, babe, and he shows them pearly white; just a jackknife has ol' Mac Heath, babe, and he keeps it outa sight!" Enough of this. Keep your SHIRT on, I'm done.
Here's ALL DARIN said to JAY, " If IT'S MARTA ISLET you LAY, give less THAN an INCH to my wife, I'LL tell her you're LARGERTHANLIFE, then IT will ADDUP that I'm OKAY."
Maybe this puz wasn't betterTHANever (also 14 letters) but it was OK. I've seen the AVERY name on some label material, but didn't realize it was *big*. Patricia NEAL in the right ROLE? Yeah baby. This puz seems to be getting a bunch of OKAYS.
First-rate Monday puzzle. Hope it sets the quality bar for the week.
The theme ADDs UP and the revealer makes smart sense.
Doubt I wasn’t the only one who had “cook" before CHEF, and used crosses to get the “stir-fried noodle dish” PADTHAI. A good pairing of clues and answers there.
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ReplyDeleteSo Zeus married an anagram mommy. (Anagrammama?) I didn't realize he was Italian.
Oh, I kid the (Italian) mama's boy(s)!
***Stupid Poetry Alert***
PAD THAI ELLA
was a heckuva guy
Her longtime fella
Was that GAS HAT BLY
Their RITZY dinner
Was of NAANs and STEWs
But the lucky winner
Held their IOUS.
ADDUP their debts
And all IOUS
Oops! Without more BREAD
Goodbye NAANs and STEWs
I'm so sorry.
The puzzle and theme were good for the Mondee and new solvers.
Obviously, I make my own "fun".
ITSALLRELATIVE, right?
🧠
🎉🎉
This was better than the actual puzzle !!
DeleteMedium. The theme answers were a lot of fun and the fill was generally smooth, liked it a bunch!
ReplyDeleteRe-watching all of Friends.
ReplyDeleteNow that's a Zen koan to meditate on.
But it's no more absurd than stuff I do, so I won't.
@Rex thinks this was quite easy. I think it was on the hard side for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of IRMA Thomas. I do know MARTA but would expect many (if not most) solvers would not be familiar with that transit acronym. And Bobby DARIN was terrific but died young and likely unknown to many here.
Here's my favorite Bobby DARIN cover: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axPOraWoC58
I’m with you. Enjoyable, but hard for a Monday.
DeleteI did this a full minute faster than my typical Monday, so easy easy easy.
ReplyDeleteFrom late yesterday
ReplyDelete@CDilly52 I don't have much to add to what's already been said except to say congratulations on your retirement. In my experience people who are "busy" when at work tend to remain so in retirement. Your time will fill up so fast, you'll wonder why you wondered about what to do with yourself. 😉
@RooJohnny 538pm What? No year's supply of Rice[clang clang]-a-Roni, the San Francisco treat? 😉
@A 850pm Thank you - and I remember Spanky and Our Gang!
You really brought me back with that and the Gorey "Mystery" Intro. Always loved that.
Hey everybody, nice little easy, fun Monday puzzle, huh? Anyway, if anybody needs me, I'll just be over here spending the entire day contemplating the fact that the guy who thinks that LISP and SOT are too often clued "problematically" is apparently happily, nostalgically chuckling his way through 87 hours' worth of "Friends" in the Year of Our Lord 2021.
ReplyDeleteDid this one on auto pilot. Filled it in so quickly, my head was spinning. I would have enjoyed it if it didn’t end so soon.
ReplyDeleteGreat beginner puzzle.
Hoping for a tricky Tuesday.
Don't bother watching all of "Friends", just watch the episodes with Janice. She was the only funny character, and she was way more likeable than any of the "friends". Maggie Wheeler played her to perfection, oh.my.god.
ReplyDelete♪ Who's peeking out from under a stairway
Calling a name that's lighter than air? ♪
Windy
DeleteThe Association
The belt holes for thee.
ReplyDeleteMy kayak has THAI PADs.
Barbie to Ken? beard, maybe
And the winner goes too.......Jacob Stulberg for not giving me a Monday puzzle that made me feel like I was still in kindergarten.....
ReplyDeleteWell, @Frantic's GAS HAT BLY will be hard to match but I had a little chat with CHEF....He made some STEW. For BREAD he used NAAN. STEW was a TAD THIN, so he switched to PAD THAI. Too much GAS we CRY...the DREGS made me ITCHY and ILL. OKAYS, sez CHEF, IOUS all a YUM GLUG of rum.
Feel free to get up and groan.
I liked all of this....I feel like an adult with a full stomach.
Now I LAY me down to sleep.
The cluing is Monday perfect, easy but not embarrassingly easy. Please, constructors, study today’s cluing and emulate!
ReplyDeleteBesides that, I was fond if CHEF near YUM, ELLA crossing LARGER THAN LIFE, WET meeting a backward WETS, and MARTA / HERA / IRMA / MAHATMA / LIBRA / RHEA. I thought having GAS in the same grid as LIGHTER THAN AIR was cool until I found out that most gases are heavier than air, so I’ll go with: I liked the irony of that!
Oh yes, I liked this. But that’s no surprise; I seem to like all the NYT puzzles. The day I pan a NYT puzzle, I’m guessing it will seem STRANGER THAN FICTION. And once again, Jacob I have loved. You are a high-quality puzzle maker. Thank you for this!
Very simple, straightforward and somewhat standardized puzzle today - pretty light on trivia while most, if not all of the fill seeming like pretty standard Monday fare. Plenty enjoyable, even if the puzzle would fit right in at USA Today (which is not at all a bad thing, lol - it’s actually a reflection of the lack of gunk and other gimmicks that can creep in as the puzzles get more challenging).
ReplyDeleteTotally with @Lewis. Great Monday and only a Q shy of the pangram.
ReplyDeleteI've never seen one episode of Friends. Not one.
ReplyDeleteAnd easy breezy Monday. Clean and smooth, like a tasty STEW with no DREGS. And a pretty neat trick to have all the themers plus the revealer with the same number of letters. Good job Jacob!
ReplyDelete@CDilly: Congratulations on arriving at this new chapter of your life! The first few weeks for me were like being on vacation and once I finally realized this was my new normal, I was like Flounder after the parade in Animal House. It was shocking how quickly the days passed though, and I soon learned to enforce a regular self-imposed leisure time. Otherwise I found myself going full bore seven days a week. Whatever your version of retired living turns out to be, I wish you many years of happiness and contentment ahead.
The themers are all very, very familiar and real phrases – none of that stuff made up or altered to fit into the grid as we often see.
ReplyDeletePlus we get a smattering of stuff that’s just above the normal Monday level: MARTA, IRMA, AVERY, TORRE, even JAY-Z.
A thumbs-up Monday from here.
Perfectly fine Monday puzzle - catchy theme with smooth, pangram close fill. Liked LARGER THAN LIFE and MAHATMA. The OKAYS x YESES cross was clunky as was the HERA/RHEA combo.
ReplyDeleteElegant and enjoyable solve this morning.
I don’t have much to say about this theme. Three well-known expressions in the pattern “something-ER THAN something else” with a revealer referencing the concept of relativity or “in relation to…” I thought it was fine but not particularly exciting. As soon I realized what was going on, those old Ajax commercials popped into my head: “Stronger than dirt!”
ReplyDeleteI’d never heard of IRMA Thomas so I looked her up. One of her early hits in 1964 was the song “Time is On My Side” which, unfortunately for her, The Rolling Stones heard for the first time that same year, perhaps even her version of it, and because they were The Rolling Stones and she wasn’t, their version completely overshadowed hers and she ended up deciding not to sing the song for a number of years.
IRMA singing “Time is On My Side” in 2005
IRMA telling the story behind the song
The Rolling Stones singing the song
OK, that was more than anyone ever wanted to know on that subject. What else can I over-illuminate. I know: Nellie BLY! BLY was someone I researched as a possible quotee and the vast majority of the passages from her work that I found were from “Ten Days in a Mad-House,” which was an astonishing piece of journalism but very difficult to read because of the subject matter. BLY, while working for the New York World newspaper, went undercover to investigate conditions in an asylum. After taking a room in a women’s boarding house, she started behaving erratically and talking strangely, so much so that the police were called in and she was brought before a judge who committed her to the (as it was called) Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island). You really don’t want to know what she went through there, and after ten days the newspaper approached the authorities and got her released. The pieces she wrote about her experiences helped push the Asylum to reform some of its practices, and not a moment too soon.
Today’s excerpt is by IAN McEWAN, born June 21, 1948
ReplyDelete“This is how the entire course of life can be changed – by doing nothing. On Chesil beach he could have called out to Florence, he could have gone after her. He did not know, or would not have cared to know, that as she ran away from him, certain in her distress that she was about to lose him, she had never loved him more, or more hopelessly, and that the sound of his voice would have been a deliverance, and she would have turned back. Instead, he stood in cold and righteous silence in the summer’s dusk, watching her hurry along the shore, the sound of her difficult progress lost to the breaking of small waves, until she was blurred, receding against the immense straight road of shingle gleaming in the pallid light.”
(From On Chesil Beach)
Thx Jacob; excellent Mon. offering to get the puzzling week started! :)
ReplyDeleteMed solve.
Had a couple of miscues in the NW; got them straightened out and the rest was RELATIVELy smooth.
Welsh Rugby Fans Sing BREAD Of Heaven Before 6 Nations Game
@Joe Dipinto / @TTrimble
Challenging acrostic for me, but it finally fell. Enjoyed the battle! :)
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Peace ~ Empathy ~ Health ~ Kindness to all ~ Woof 🕊
"But wow was it easy." Sure, of course it was easy for you, Rex. But for a Monday, was it inappropriately easy? I didn't really think so. Not every newcomer will know to put in MARTA, PAD THAI, NAAN, IRMA, BLY, RHEA, ELLA, NEAL, LIBRA, and AVERY without a moment of hesitation, based on how they're clued.
ReplyDeleteI'm on Team Lewis in this case.
Zing, sass ("sass"), bounce, whatever you want to call it -- that may be a different story. But I thought it was all right. I'm happy to leave it to experienced constructors (Lewis for example) to make that call more authoritatively.
There's an adjective to describe the letters in today's SB, but I hesitate to say it. ;-)
@bocamp
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the acrostic!
SB-ers: give today's a try! It's doable. (td 0)
My five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Not close (4)(4)
2. Take pregame shots? (5)(4)
3. Magician's favorite cereal? (4)
4. Something released while skydiving (10)
5. Dead giveaway? (6)
HOLD OPEN
TRASH TALK
TRIX
ADRENALINE
ESTATE
Easy but deeply thought provoking puzzle.
ReplyDeleteSay that a Krispy Kreme donut is Lighter Than Air and so is the collective intelligence of the entire legislative branch of the US government. Can you insult an inanimate object? Or would it be an insult to the donut? It's All Relative.
@Barbara, The Stones didn't write Time is on Our Side? I have to get my head around that.
@Frantic, a 5-party-favor post🥳📯 Great Mondee!
@CDilly from yesterday, not sure you saw my response but I loved your post. You'll enjoy retirement more than you could imagine right now.
When rex admits that even he doesn't know where he's going with his blog, I think it's a tacit admission that he has traveled down the criticism hole for a puzzle that really doesn't deserve it. This was a very nice Monday, with some fill (MARTA??) that skewed a little tougher.
ReplyDeleteLaughed when I saw TORRE, as I just put him in a puzzle I'm constructing, so there must be something in the air . . . .
I actually found the revealer to be sort of cute. And I've never watched a single episode of Friends. Isn't that the show all about white privilege?
Doing the puzzle gives me permission to hang out with all of you for a little while. That's why I do it. I really enjoy your lively company.
ReplyDeleteHi IRMA, nice to meet you. Do you know AVERY? Neither did I. Knew everything else though.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how many comparisons like this usually have an "a" in them like ________er than a ____________. I was out for a run this morning and trying to think of some more without much success, which made me feel dumber than dirt.
Nice enough Monday. Had some fun, which is all I ask of life.
@CDilly52-congratulations on your retirement. I'm enjoying mine so much that I recommend it to all my friends.
@TTrimble (8:13 AM) ty 😊
ReplyDelete👍 for 0
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Peace ~ Empathy ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Friends? You're scraping the BOTTOM OF THE BARREL. But I suppose there's no accounting for taste. IT'S ALL RELATIVE.
ReplyDeleteSolving on paper, I thought this was a medium Monday. Getting clues only off the first couple of letters stopped right at LARGERTHANLIFE. A few gimmes in the bottom set me off and running again.
ReplyDelete@anon - 7:11am, I've seen one or two partial episodes of Friends and I'm jealous of you. I feel like I should try again just to understand it as a cultural phenomenon, but this too passes.
Since I believe anything Joe Dipinto tells me, I may try a sampler of the episodes he mentioned. There is a reunion of the actors now on Netflix, which I hear is kind of sad since most of the actors were so iconic in those roles, they were never able to come close to that level of success after the run.
I did learn today to my chagrin that MAHATMA is an honorific rather than his first name. Had to correct from MAHAraj.
I feel like if I do enough xwords, I will eventually learn every line in IAGO's script and will audition for Shakespeare in the Park.
I'm not partial to Jacob's puzzles because I enjoyed his stint as Columbia U DJ. I enjoy them because they are well crafted. Like ACME (if my memory is correct), yet to construct a Saturday puzzle, and why bother when you do so well on other days of the week. Unfortunate Jacob only publishes infrequently now.
ReplyDeleteLewis: I seem to remember read one comment you made which seemed to suggest you did not like a puzzle. Perhaps the comment was simply a bit more tepid than normal, which threw me.
bocamp: If you are referring to Sunday's acrostic, I also liked it, although I though it did not pop out at you like some of the quotes do.
Collects comic books and binges on Friends. And I let this guy aggravate me ? Who's the idiot ?
ReplyDelete@mathgent, Same 😉.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDelete@Frantic - It's in the trunk. It fits, as there is space in front and back of a Tesla.
Got four extra black squares today, compliments of the 14's Rex mentioned. But didn't (to me) significantly add many more short-stuff that would've been there anyway, if that makes sense. We end up with four more Threes instead of four Fours. ITS ALL RELATIVE. Har.
Nice fill. I liked this puz. It all ADDedUP. At least we get the correct NAAN. Hopefully the LAY clue brings out @LMS.
Time to AMBLE towards the EXIT.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
@JD (8:50) Re your Krispy Kreme analogy, I’d say in many cases the donut has more dignity. 🤣
ReplyDeleteMy smile was LARGER THAN LIFE when LARGER THAN LIFE filled in. The clue, "imposing and then some", made me curious, without giving anything away. And that's the best kind of clue.
ReplyDeleteI also loved HOLIER THAN THOU -- an epithet I've been known to use from time to time for the smug and sanctimonious. I doubt there's any quality in a person that I dislike more.
The first themer was the trickiest. I was thinking "LIGHT as a feather" -- which didn't fit. Nor did "LIGHT as air". But I still filled in LIGHT AS confidently...and then ended up with SHIsT as my jersey. Even one write-over on a Monday is a lot, right?
A very enjoyable, grown-up, and blissfully junk-free puzzle that serves as a welcome change from everything that came before during this past PPP-laden week. Sure hope it continues.
@Unknown 9:02AM
ReplyDelete"I've never watched a single episode of Friends. Isn't that the show all about white privilege?"
LOL! I don't think you're the first to get that impression. But let's leave Rex to enjoy his show.
"10-20 seconds under my Monday average, and 10-20 seconds is a *lot* of time on a Monday." IT'S ALL RELATIVE.
Higher than a kite
ReplyDeleteBigger than Jesus
Sweeter than wine
XIV squares only
I had some hiccups in the northwest since Buddy always suggests Holly to me, and I couldn't quite remember what Atlanta called their subway system. Ended up with a somewhat below average time.
ReplyDeleteI've seen a number of clips from Friends and can't imagine why anyone would watch it once, much less twice, but then I have an aversion to laugh tracks (real or fake) and the show has to be mighty good for me to put up with them.
@pmdm (9:20 AM)
ReplyDeleteYes, yesterday's, and I agree; nothing really jumped out. I had to work harder than usual to ferret it all out. What a worthwhile effort it was, tho. :)
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pg -1
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@burtonkd (9:20) -- I've already bought my ticket to "Iago: What a Douchebag!!" -- the musicalized version of "Othello" that will be produced at the Delacorte later this summer. It will star @burtonkd -- not only playing (and singing) Iago, but also conducting the production's 16-piece orchestra. Break a leg, @burtonkd!!!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to zip through this one. And yes, the 14 letter phrases could have been zippier a la @albatross shell.
ReplyDeleteSo good crit from Rex and enjoyable fast puzz from Mr Stulberg.
And Rex, I never watched Friends when it came out, but during COVID tuned in every night. I like it. During these times when people have “permission” to say rude, mean thngs to one another, it’s a relief to see a group of people interacting, even fighting, having fun, and whatever with kindness. And it’s funny.
🤗🎯❤️🎯🤗
A fine Monday - easy, for sure, but with an engaging theme and an on-the-nose reveal. Regarding @Rex's, "I mean ... blanker than blank. That's it," I thought there was a sort of unity among the theme answers, in that AIR and LIFE are intangibles (unlike, say, the dirt and wine in other comparisons) - and who is that mysterious THOU? I was surprised to find out it's another intangible (and LARGER THAN LIFE, too), the Lord, who speaks in Isaiah 65:
ReplyDelete1 "I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, 'Behold me, behold me,' unto a nation that was not called by my name.
2 I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;
3 A people that provoketh me to anger continually to my face; that sacrificeth in gardens, and burneth incense upon altars of brick;
4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels;
5 Which say, 'Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou.' These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me: 'I will not keep silence, but will recompense, even recompense into their bosom,
7 Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together,' saith the Lord, 'which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.'"
Also, thanks to @Rex for explaining the reason for all of the "threes." I'm usually oblivious to grid construction and would have had no idea of the difficulties of constructing around 14-letter entries.
MARTA not that hard to suss: most cities (large enough to include abutting cities and towns, of course) with public transport is run by a Metro[politan] somewhere Rapid/Regional Transport[ation] Authority.
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DeleteI had the AIR at the end of the first themer, and started to put in "full of hot AIR.." but it was too short. Good thing; that would have made it a political commentary theme, fun in its own way, but too likely to touch off a partisan flame war.
ReplyDelete@Barbara, thanks for the music links -- actually the one I remembered was the IRMA Jones version, although I think the backup vocals got a little more of a role in the one she recorded. I do remember the Stones version, too.
As for Nellie BLY, my big question has always been "How did she end up as the two-timing woman in some versions of Frankie and Johnny?
The clue for AVERY fooled me at first. "Big name in labels," OK -- but "office products had me looking for something like Staples. I needed a few crosses. Legit clue -- they make office products, and they're a big name -- it just fooled me.
Serendipity ! Just came across an OFL comment from October of 2006 claiming that Friends is superior to Seinfeld.
ReplyDeleteI too have never watched a single episode of Friends, a fact of which I'm quite proud. I even put it on my résumé, and have walked out of a job interview when my potential supervisor made a joke about that fact. I've walked out on a date (after paying for the meal and leaving the lady $50 for cab fare of course, I'm not a cad) when she said that Phoebe was way under-utilized on the show. Unless the actual Titan was on the show I don't care, and if she were on the show, of course she was under-utilized, she's the daughter of the Earth & Sky gods, how could any half hour sitcom properly utilize her? Frankly, I think anyone who has watched wasted their time in one of the most juvenile ways possible. To disclose that they watch in public is to glorify their own inanity, putting the QED at the end of the proof of their idiocy.
ReplyDelete@jberg (11:25)
ReplyDeleteGood catch in the "Frankie and Johnny" lyric!
Check out the first paragraph under "History".
@bocamp - I did Croce’s Freestyle #623 in 2 sittings with out many problems except for the NE where I held on to two wrong answers for way too long. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI'm always looking for some brain dead show that I can half-watch and binge on while doing something else. I draw the line at Friends. I watch and enjoy tons of crap too. An embarrassing amount of shitty TV I watch. Friends is just not funny and the laugh track is inane. I love Seinfeld and the laugh track doesn't bother me at all. Maybe because the track laughs at actual funny bits.
ReplyDeleteI used to think OFL had good taste in movies, TV Shows and literature, but I'm starting to rethink that.
Huh. $120M Netflix deal followed by a $425M HBO Max deal. For reruns.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I stopped watching Seinfeld after the second or third season and only occasionally watched Friends. Neither are my cuppa. But a quick search of the stars’ net worths shows a range from a paltry $90M to $330M to Seinfeld’s $990M. Somebody thought those shows were damn good.
Neither IS, not are
DeleteIf "Friends" had been made with 3 fat ugly women no one would have ever heard of it.
ReplyDelete@jae (12:11 PM)
ReplyDeleteThx; on it! :)
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Peace ~ Empathy ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@12:31
ReplyDeleteMay be not, but "Two Fat Ladies" was a megahit with the foody crowd. Brit import, of course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_Fat_Ladies
Thanks, Nancy. I'll get right on that when I finish the Coco Chanel musical...
ReplyDeleteMaybe if and when I retire:)
ReplyDeleteI've never seen The Godfather, and I am very proud of that. Why would anyone want to see a movie where the protagonists are a bunch of murderous scum?
ReplyDeleteI've also never read The Great Gatsby, and I'm very proud of that. The representations of women are dated and of minorities are downright ugly.
I've never listened to Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, and I'm very proud of that. I can't believe people think music by someone going deaf could be worth listening to.
"Inoffensive" pretty much sums up this puzzle for me. Which is just fine for a Monday.
ReplyDelete@Burtonkd – Here is a sampler of Janice's appearances on "Friends", so you don't have to hunt down episodes. (There's a Part 2 and Part 3 to this montage also). Some background:
ReplyDelete• Janice had an on/off relationship with the Chandler character over the course of the show
• she has an annoying laugh, which seems to be why the other friends don't like her
• after Season 1 they brought her back only once each season, and she would show up at the most inopportune moments
I only ever saw the show in late-night reruns, and didn't really care for the main characters. They were scripted with a lot of snappy one-liners but didn't really resonate as people, imo.
YESES: @Frantic (12:02 a.m.) and @Gill I (6:23) crossword poetry slam.
ReplyDeleteYESES: @Carola (10:51) HOLIER THAN THOU passage -- what the language is capable of.
A bunch of OKAYS turn into YESES right at the end of today's puzzle. I wonder -- did they EDIT the first draft of Ulysses in similar fashion?
@Anon12:32 - The only thing worse than correcting somebody's grammar is doing so incorrectly.
ReplyDeleteThersite's body is as good as Ajax'/When neither are alive - Just guess who used this in Act 4 Scene 2 of Cymbeline {No, I didn't know this, but I did track it down when looking up the answer to the question and making sure that it actually came from the supposed source - I'm really leery of quotes on the internet these days}
@burtonkd: You have a long way to go. Iago has 881 lines; the third most in all of Shakespeare.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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DeleteJoe Dipinto,
ReplyDeleteAlmost impossible to cite the number of times you've been right. But it is utterly impossible to cite an example where you've been more right. Friends was insufferable. Really embarrassing. Maggie Wheeler the sole exception. She took some pretty mediocre material and made it funny. Or as close as that show ever came to funny.
Seinfeld on the other hand was a work of genius.
@Z 12:14–Budweiser sales in 2020 topped $7 Billion. If you include Bud Lite it’s over $11 billion. I guess you can call Friends the Budweiser of sitcoms.
ReplyDelete@oldactor: "IAGO" has appeared 401 times in NYT puzzles, so I'd be almost half way there if they would stop cluing it as Aladdin's Parrot. Of course it has taken 80 years to get this far, so I guess I'll have to open a script if I want to keep Nancy happy...
ReplyDelete@Joe Dipinto: thanks for doing the legwork. People used to tell me I look like Chandler on "Friends", so I can kill 2 birds with one stone with your link.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWhen the reveal ITSALLRELATIVE filled in I thought yeah, those are ___THAN___ comparative phrases, but why those three? Was there anything else that would connect them together into a tighter theme than just their RELATIVEness? Seems a bit thin to me and having all 14-letter themers exacted a price on the grid by necessitating all those threes and fours. The two-for-one POCs where a Down and an Across get a grid-filling letter-count boost by sharing a single final S, also lowered the overall rating of the puzzle, in my book.
ReplyDelete@Acrosticophiles-
ReplyDeleteFinally printed out yesterday's. Only about three fill ins on my first pass through but luck and experience led to a successful completion, which was a lot of fun. Surely different than doing a crossword, but a different kind of satisfaction too.
PS-It took me forever to see the author's name. My absolute favorite niece has the same appellation with a different spelling. I still love her anyway.
Sorry about that. We are short a moderator for a couple of weeks and the completely off-topic posts slipped through.
ReplyDelete@7:25
ReplyDeleteThe only reason to be hear is the off-topic posts. The rest are a continuing re-hash of "clue has appeared X times" and "entry has appeared Y times". No fun in any of that.
@7:25
ReplyDeleteYou're biased. You spiked my "very proud" rejoinder to Holier than Thou's "very proud" rant, but left said rant up and running. What gives?
I took holier than thou's comment as satirical or ironic. Meaning the opposite of what he seemed to be saying. If not, I was going to suggest his cultural knowledge was more holey (that is holey-er) than it should be. I did not say so because I thought that was his point. So I did not so post. I do not know how @bad mouse took it.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Foggy loved it. I found the theme was a bit light. ITSALLRELATIVE I guess.
ReplyDeleteI thought the first themer was rather scientific and dull--but the other two are wonderful in-the-language idioms that make this Monday shine. The grid is indeed chopped up; a sacrifice acceptable for those cool phrases.
ReplyDelete"BIG" office supply brand? Can't be that big, I never heard of it. AVERY. If you say so. Mini-Indian theme with MAHATMA and NAAN. DOD is Daniela Ruah, portrayer of Kensie BLY on "NCIS: Los Angeles." Gotta use any excuse to get her in there.
"Friends" is a sitcom; I don't do sitcoms. Far as I'm concerned, they're all the same. Well, "The Honeymooners" had some moments...
Memories of Bobby Darin: "Oh the shark bites with his teeth, babe, and he shows them pearly white; just a jackknife has ol' Mac Heath, babe, and he keeps it outa sight!" Enough of this. Keep your SHIRT on, I'm done.
Birdie. EXIT in a TAXI.
RELATIVE ROLE
ReplyDeleteHere's ALL DARIN said to JAY,
" If IT'S MARTA ISLET you LAY,
give less THAN an INCH to my wife,
I'LL tell her you're LARGERTHANLIFE,
then IT will ADDUP that I'm OKAY."
--- BEAU BLY
One of the (many) great things about answering with a pencil - no typos!
ReplyDeleteA bit on the harder side for a Monday, but finished with ease. Puz reminded me that MAHATMA was an honorific and not a name.
And on the Mack the Knife bit - remember Steve Martin's version? Yes!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Maybe this puz wasn't betterTHANever (also 14 letters) but it was OK.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the AVERY name on some label material, but didn't realize it was *big*.
Patricia NEAL in the right ROLE? Yeah baby.
This puz seems to be getting a bunch of OKAYS.
BTW, that's not a tar or a Q-Tip in the corners - just a SWAB.
ReplyDeleteFirst-rate Monday puzzle. Hope it sets the quality bar for the week.
ReplyDeleteThe theme ADDs UP and the revealer makes smart sense.
Doubt I wasn’t the only one who had “cook" before CHEF, and used crosses to get the “stir-fried noodle dish” PADTHAI. A good pairing of clues and answers there.
Nice work, Jacob S.