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Tool for preparing apples / MON 6-7-2021 / Actor Diggs / Tennis' ____ Cup / Kitchen utensil brand / Desi of "I Love Lucy"
Monday, June 7, 2021
Constructor: Erika Ettin
Relative difficulty: Easy
THEME: Roll With It — You can add "roll" to the last word of each theme answer and make a phrase. (EYE roll, FORWARD roll, etc)
- PRIVATE EYE (17A: Sleuth for hire)
- PAY IT FORWARD (23A: Perform an act of kindness, in a way)
- HOTEL CALIFORNIA (36A: 1977 #1 Eagles hit)
- HIDDEN CAMERA (46A: It might catch a thief or a speeder)
- ROLL WITH IT (57A: Be willing to accept whatever...or a hint to the ends of 17-, 23-, 36- and 46-Across)
Word of the Day: UPCS (10A: Lines at the cash register, for short?) —
The Universal Product Code (UPC; redundantly: UPC code) is a barcode symbology that is widely used in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries for tracking trade items in stores.
UPC (technically refers to UPC-A) consists of 12 numeric digits that are uniquely assigned to each trade item. Along with the related EAN barcode, the UPC is the barcode mainly used for scanning of trade items at the point of sale, per GS1 specifications.[1] UPC data structures are a component of GTINs and follow the global GS1 specification, which is based on international standards. But some retailers (clothing, furniture) do not use the GS1 system (rather other barcode symbologies or article number systems). On the other hand, some retailers use the EAN/UPC barcode symbology, but without using a GTIN (for products sold in their own stores only).
Right, the puzzle! Erika Ettin had a really sweet note in the NYT's puzzle notes about how excited she is to be in the NYT, so I just want to extend her a heartfelt congrats (and a belated but no less heartfelt congrats to every other new-to-the-NYT constructor for whom I have neglected to do this). Zipped through the puzzle itself; I didn't note any tough crosses or obscure pop culture/sports trivia. Well, aside from ARNAZ, but I know I should know more about "I Love Lucy." Minor gripes: Musk feels like too obvious of a clue for ELON, and I'm gonna throw in the typical Rex-grouse on the lack of accent on CHERI's cross. Other than that, though, a nice solid little Monday. The berry/Berry thing was cute, and I admire the Cran-Apple bait-and-switch (we all thought it was some tech thing about Apple the corporation, right?).
- PTSD (55D: Possible condition for a war vet, for short) — Alright, soapbox of the week: PTSD's association with war and only war can help mask the fact that it can result from any kind of trauma. 49 percent of sexual assault victims develop PTSD, and 1 in 13 people will develop PTSD at some point in their lifetime. All of which is to say that if you or someone you love experiences trauma, it's important to educate yourself on signs and treatment.
Off the soapbox now, thanks for reading! - NERDS (62A: Crunchy, colorful commercial candies) — My sister used to be obsessed with these. I remember her having Nerds pillows, Nerds sweatpants, a Nerds plushie...who knew a candy could be such a thing?
- HOTEL CALIFORNIA (36A: 1977 #1 Eagles hit) — Is there some sort of law that this needs to be playing on every alternative radio station in the country every time you flick on the radio in the car? I swear, it feels constant.
- AXEL (61A: Skating leap) — And an impressive one at that.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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101 comments:
I have just two words for today’s theme: Bo Gus.
August, if you’re hearing Hotel California you may be listening to Classic rock stations but you are definitely not listening to Alternative. If you’re hearing that song on a station that calls itself Alternative, you need to try some different ones.
Easy. Pretty good Mon. although I kinda agree with @August about looseness of theme. Liked it. Nice debut.
@Bocamp - I finished Croce’s Freestyle #617 in two sessions. Tougher than the last one but definitely attainable. Good luck!
This seemed a little fishy to me. Are EYE ROLL, FORWARD ROLL and CAMERA ROLL really in everyday language? They all have a whiff of green paint to me. Even the revealer, ROLL WITH IT, felt slightly awkward to me. Maybe I’m just too quick to carp due to working 80 hours a week for the last 3 months to do what my contractor won’t.
Anyway, I always appreciate a debut crossword, and I thank you Erika Ettin.
Yay for me, I finally put down ARNAZ instead of ARNeZ, that’s taken me years. Now I have to learn AÇAÍ instead of ACia and OLAF instead of OLAv. Might take a couple more years, but at least I’m on the right path.
Cute Monday puzzle. Forward roll and camera roll were a little iffy. I love California Rolls and I used to do the EYE ROLL thing to my to my dad, he hated it and it usually got me in deeper trouble. Ah, teenagers.
A nice debut puzzle for the Mondee with a straightforward theme and above average fill. The constructor credits Robyn Weintraub with "amazing mentorship", so she obviously knows where to get her lurnin'. This bodes well for her future endeavors. 😊
I have no nits. What the hell?
Guess I'll have to make a stupid joke:
Is SESAME ELON related to Fusilli Jerry?
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Ms. Ettin. You're off to a great start and I hope we're treated to another of your creations very soon. 👍
🧠
🎉🎉.5
Anyone familiar with gymnastics or circus training (like my teenager) would be very familiar with a forward roll. Camera roll does feel iffy (a roll of film, yes), but not nearly as irksome as 'irking' (45D).
can someone kindly tell me what it means if there is (or isn't) a star on a completed puzzle if you have solved it on the website?
also -- i do not think the theme is light, i think it is tight.
"eye roll" is the only noun that is commonly used for the thing itself -- e.g., "when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that there were no gay people in Iran, there were a lot of eye rolls in the audience." that sentence may not be to your taste, but it is accepted as current vernacular.
"forward roll" is a term recognizable to any parent of a young gymnast or karate student.
"camera roll" is the name in the iOS operating system for the folder that contains all the photos taken on any given iPhone.
“Hotel California”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Hey Jude”: I’ve heard enough…no mas
Some experienced solvers like to challenge themselves on Monday by trying to solve using just the down clues. I prefer to solve as usual – spread from what you got – but I do like to try to figure out the theme before I get to the reveal. Today, after a good effort, I got stumped on that score, and I love getting stumped fairly, so I got my hoped-for Monday challenge satisfied.
That was bolstered by a few answers that weren’t obvious from the clues, and the joy widened with a trifecta of palindromes, EVE/ALA/OXO. I also noticed that quite a few four-letter answers anagrammed – EWOK (woke), PIER (ripe), LAIR (rail), OLAF (foal), THRU (hurt or Ruth), and LEVI (vile or evil) – and, I’m guessing, there is a good chance of more.
Bless Robyn Weintraub, yesterday’s constructor, who mentored Erika (according to Erika's notes). Robyn, you are a crossword angel. And Erika, congratulations on your debut. To me, this puzzle has the stamp of quality, and augers well for your future offerings. Thank you for a satisfying Monday!
Quick SB and very quick NYT grid today. On to the LAT grid. I didn’t notice the theme.
Axel made me think about the Olympics and other World Competitions. That brought to mind the insane clips of Simone Biles competing this weekend. There was lift-off, I swear.
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. Small organic food producer (5)(3)
2. Cars for cats, say (4)
3. Opening of a toaster (5)
4. Like Queen Anne's lace (4)
5. Advice to one in a lather? (5)
HONEY BEE
TYPO
HERE'S
HERS
RINSE
I didn’t do a word count, but it sure seemed like it was heavy on trivia today - actors, actresses, brand names, foreign stuff, Star Wars . . . I just scanned the grid a second time, and It may well turn out that the PPP is within the normal range, but it sure seemed like everywhere I turned I bumped into one form or another.
Me-"What the heck is a CAMERAROLL? Should I immediately pitch a bitch on the BLOG? Oh, wait, I'll Google it. Maybe it's something that I don't know"
Seconds later, "Wow! It's a thing. I know something new."
I thought the theme was fine. The word ROLL (goes well) WITH IT, IT being EYE, FORWARD, CALIFORNIA (although I’ve never had one – not much of a sushi fan) and CAMERA (again, an app I don’t use but I’ve heard of it). RE: FORWARD ROLL, assuming this is what we used to call a somersault, when I was about 12 my best girlfriend and I perfected the double somersault and we used to go rolling around all over the place. It’s amazing how long you can do this without getting tired when you’re 12. I don’t remember that we ever went backwards but really, we must have.
I thought a lot of the answers in this puzzle formed interesting partnerships with other answers in this puzzle.
New York Neighborhoods: SOHO, UPTOWN
Dungeons and Dragons: SWORD, GORY
Pet Food: ALPO, MEOW Mix
Competence: ADEPT, ABLER
Figure Skating: LACES, AXEL
Fruit: CRAN, AÇAI
On a Pedestal: IDEAL, ADMIRE
Kitchen Tools: OXO, CORER, PARER (from yesterday)
Tennis: SETS, DAVIS Cup
Phones: Smartphone CASE, TEL
Beside the Water: PLAYA, PIER
Cute Fantasy Characters: EWOK, OLAF
Misspelled Rock Star: AXEL ROSA
Eden Residents: ADAMS, EVE
Today I’m quoting LOUISE ERDRICH, born June 7, 1954.
“The music was more than music—at least what we are used to hearing. The music was feeling itself. The sound connected instantly with something deep and joyous. Those powerful moments of true knowledge that we have to paper over with daily life. The music tapped the back of our terrors, too. Things we'd lived through and didn't want to ever repeat. Shredded imaginings, unadmitted longings, fear and also surprisingly pleasures. No, we can't live at that pitch. But every so often something shatters like ice and we are in the river of our existence. We are aware. And this realization was in the music, somehow, or in the way Shamengwa played it.”
(From The Plague of Doves)
Fun Monday - theme was a little loose - liked EYE and CALIFORNIA ROLL but maybe the others could have been substituted with cinnamon, bank jelly etc. Lots of trivia but straightforward early week stuff. Doubling up on berry was cool.
Simple but enjoyable solve this morning.
Anyone sick of the lazy Rosa Parks references? She was not FROM or OF Montgomery. She was from Tuskegee. Sure, revisionist history has decided that her role in the Montgomery busy boycott was her most significant contribution to American civil rights...but that was truly a drop in the bucket of a prolific activist life.
Rant over.
I do like it when the theme helps with the solve, but on a Monday that’s not generally necessary. So instead, having an “oh I get it” theme is a really good route to go on Monday, and this was a superb example of that type of theme.
Had all the theme answers except for the reveal, AND had read the clue for the reveal, and still could not figure it out. Needed to figure out the reveal answer to get it.
@George - Camera Roll is not just on iOS. Any Windows (10) PC will have the Camera Roll folder.
Eagles are classic rock not alt.
@George: AFAICT, the "blocks" icon you're talking about is sort of a low-res image of the crossword. If all the squares are white, the puzzle hasn't been started. A mixture of blue and white means the puzzle is in progress and the blue squares correlate roughly to the areas of the puzzle that are filled in. When the puzzle is done, the star appears on a gold background if the puzzle was completed correctly or on a blue background if the puzzle had errors, or if you used the "Check" or "Reveal" functions.
@Barbara S, I think I have said this before, but your literary quotes are really a great contribution to the commentary. Thank you for your effort.
After sussing out the revealer, I returned to the first themer and saw "pay it forward". Cool - the word "it" followed by a "roll". The subsequent themers didn't contain the "it". Too hard to construct?
In any case, a pleasant solve.
No natick possibilities?
FELIZ crossing MALAY ELON ARNAZ?
PLAYA crossing UPC TARO
They both seem more than Monday crunchy anyway. Especially the first one.
I do have a fondness for the word FOYER. It is one of the words that divides the world in by pronouciation. I like both ways myself. I also like the contrast with some other words meaning the same thing. Mudroom (or is it mud room?)
A similar problem arises with HONEY BEE v HONEYBEE which Lewis's Best led me to look up this morning. It seems to be a battle between science, the usage dictionaries and the AP standard. I like the science in this case and why it is honey bee and house fly, but dragonfly and yellowjacket.
I was wondering if anyone other than Boomers would get “camera roll”. Back in the 35 mm camera days, we routinely referred to film as camera rolls (the film rolled into and out of a small metal container). My daughter was looking through a box of my old 45 records and was amazed to learn“flip side” was what we called the back of a 45 and “adapter” was the plastic thing that goes inside the hole in the 45.
@Lewis-Thanks for the idea of an anagram search. I didn't limit my search to 4 letter words but did find 5 more of those.
PAT yields apt & tap
APE-pea
ODE-doe
ABLER-blare
ONES-nose
TEL-let
ROSA-soar
LAIR-(adding to Lewis's rail--liar, rial
RAG-gar
UPCS-cups
ADEPT-taped
SWORD-words
I thought those little containers were for pot. Whadayaknow!
You can check out any time you like but you can never leave. Hmm - Sounds like the motto at Z’s Placebo and Tentacle.
So the Eagles aren’t “alternative?” Hmmm - Seems like they were “alternative” before “alternative was a thing. Or are we all of the belief that if you get huge you can’t be “alternative?” Seems like a Cages under Cage position to me. Anyway, yeah, the Eagles are more likely to be classified as classic rock today, but those labels are all pretty arbitrary. It’s time to walk away from our need for hard and fast classifications.
The puzzle was a fine Monday. CAMERA ROLL is one of those anachronisms, a thing that once referred to a physical thing that is now still around as a purely metaphorical thing. It’s right there with “dialing” a telephone. Yes, I am a camera. Anywho, this whole what is alternative musing has me b-side myself, and I cant seem to focus on the puzzle’s merits. I don’t know where I’m going, I just know I’m getting there via Chicago.
My curiosity about what the theme answers had in common was a lot milder than @Lewis's -- bordering on non-existent -- and when I eventually found out, my response was "Is that all there is?" It was irrelevant to my solving experience, and if I never had found out, that would have been OK too.
Even though there were some brand names I didn't know like FROYO and NERDS (someone really named a candy that???), I ROLLed not WITH this, but right THRU it. Does even the novice solver enjoy a clue like "library item" for BOOK or "poem of praise" for ODE? Oh, well, one more day to go and then it will be Wednesday.
Hey All !
@Virginia Lady 8:23
Har! I was going to say the same thing about CAMERA ROLLs. I had the big film camera (can't remember what size film it took, 26 pops into the ole brain for some reason), then got a sleek camera that took the smaller 110 film. Thought I was cool! My dad was a big 35mm guy. Yes, no idea this "new" CAMERA ROLL app. Kids these days... ☺️
Liked this puz. Congrats on the debut Erika. Still have a heart hurt pang when someone gets a debut puz in. Jealous much? ☺️
Like others, couldn't figure out the theme until getting Revealer, so that was neat. Usually on a MonPuz, after the first two, you say, "Ah, got it." Too bad MISERY ROLL isn't something, cause then we could've had two more themers, as SESAME ROLL works. Light dreck, not sillily EASY, good start to the week!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Thx Erika for your Mon. LABOR of love!
Med solve.
Worked this one from top to bottom starting at ALONG and ending on ROLL WITH IT.
Lots of good stuff in this one, esp PAY IT FORWARD. Love the concept! ❤️
Hotel California ~ Eagles (Live Acoustic)
@Joe Dipinto 8:19 PM & @JC66 8:58 PM (both last eve.)
Finally got it; what a battle! Loved every hour of it, LOL. Got the ebook on hold (#2 on the wl)
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I was disappointed. "Pay it forward" has an 'it'. "Private Eye" has a phonetic 'it'. Nothing in the other two.
This sort of flew by and I didn't really stop to think about a theme. @Barbara's word partnerships are the most interesting thing about it.
Roll With It Private Eye. Stay at the Hotel California, watch for the Hidden Camera and don't forget ... Pay It Forward.
@Z, Good song but you have to wonder if the outfits were an inspiration for This Is Spinal Tap.
@albatross shell (8:16) -- Oh dear. Are we about to have a "how to pronounce FOYER" skirmish on the blog today? (I'm just teasing you, @albatross; you know that.)
I'm going to head it off at the pass. It's FOYer, not FOYay. FOYay is pretentious unless you're French. But don't take my word for it. There's no alternate way to pronounce it -- there's only one way, the right way, as you'll see HERE.
I agree heartily with TJS’ comment on Barbara’s literary quotes!! Thank you, Barbara. Keep them coming!
Thank you, Virginia Lady! I read every comment re: Camera Roll before commenting. I guess we are of the same generation- it’s a roll of film that goes in a camera. But just us oldies but goodies remember or even know this .
I thought this was a "cut above" Monday - with a cute, nicely HIDDEN theme, solid theme entries, and HOTEL CALIFORNIA as a terrific grid spanner. Congratulations to @Erika Ettin on this fine debut.
**Memory Lane alert** Speaking of HOTEL CALIFORNIA and @August's comment about being unable to escape the song on the radio...in the midnight hours of a Christmas Eve in the early 1980s, I turned on the radio to an otherwise unlistened-to rock station, to keep me company while attempting to assemble the approximately 5,000 pieces of an AT-AT kit into a dynamite present for my Star Wars-smitten son....and as the hours passed felt I'd become trapped in a loop carrying me between a hotel I could never leave and being in the desert on a horse with no name. A nightmare all around.
Jeff Chen loves to play "Guess The Theme," but for me that's a game with no payoff. Like finding a paper hat in a box of crackerjack.
If Lewis really has the best clues of the week, what a bleak week it's been. The only standout was the one for BEE.
Nice puzzle notwithstanding the clunkers Nancy mentioned. Happy to see only eight Terrible Threes. Excellent for a first time constructor.
ANNE Hathaway! What a sweetie.
We spent a very enjoyable week at the Club Med at Playa Blanca in Mexico. I won the backgammon tournament, my first international championship. Maybe fifty years ago. I don't know if they're still in business.
I guess part of the mentoring advice is to use EYEROLL in your puzzle:) Also, kitchen utensils: CORER, and the peeling one from yesterday (no spoilers for Sun puzz)
Camera Roll has been around since the days of film, i.e. a roll of shot film. It is interesting that the outsized influence of Apple makes you have to scroll way down on google to get to the original term that is the basis for the iPhone app.
Only microsecond trouble spots: lyRe>HARP; seems more angelic. raRe>GORY
I don't eat much candy these days, but do enjoy raiding my kids' Halloween stash and getting the satisfying crunch and sweet/sour rush of chomping on a mouthful of NERDS.
Is the new rule now that OLAF is the snowman from Frozen and OLAV is the Swedish king? This will help me with the F/V dilemma.
Z,
I am literally ( not metaphorically) looking at three camera rolls from the 1989 NFC Championship game. Not much film is being shot these days of course, but there's a century worth of it in vaults all over the world. I'm having these rolls retransferred and color corrected (graded if you prefer the modern term). The idea that camera rolls are now only metaphorical is preposterous.
Always been FOYay for moi. Pretty sure I'm in the minority (wouldn't be the first time LOL): FOYER
@jae (12:49 AM)
Thx; On it! :)
___
td pg -5
PEACE ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
If you want sprouts that you can't stop eating, here it is:
12 once bag of 'fresh' sprouts
1/2 lb. extra crispy bacon, crushed
trim (even if they say 'trimmed' on the package) the sprouts, the halve the long way
sear the sprouts in some/all (depending of volume) of the bacon fat
then add
- one medium/large (again, depending on your taste) diced yellow onion
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1/2 cup good water
- tsp each: marjoram, oregano, thyme, herbes de Provance
- S&P to taste
- tsp or so sweetener, honey, brown sugar, molasses, white sugar
- tsp garlic powder (NOT salt)
cover and simmer about 10 minutes, test sprouts with toothpick
if you kept the outer leaves left of the cutting board as you cut up the sprouts, toss them back in
a 12" skillet just about fits.
serve and eat immediately, IOW only make enough for one sitting. sprouts, alas, don't keep.
Phaedrus beat me to it. Hotel California is not something you'd hear on a radio station that describes itself as alternative.
@Kirstin:
this is a Monday, after all. Rosa obscura just isn't in the cards,
The revealer got that Moana song stuck in my head: 'I know everybody on this island, has their role on this island, so maybe I can roll with mine.' So that's my earworm for the day! Congrats on new living place, and yay Brussels sprouts!
@Nancy 909am
Yes in America forAY is only used to make fun of the pretentious. World-wide Canada and England prefer foyAY according to always accurate online sources. Sarcasm intended. The French language is the definition of pretentiousness. Pretentiocity is the definition of pretentiousness.
I am a gardner. I need a mudroom.
Certainly a novice level Monday which should help new solvers become more ADEPT. Didn’t really need a revealer to solve but needed it to understand the theme. Even then, I looked at 23A and thought PAYROLL since FORWARD roll didn’t ring a bell. But either way it works. Congratulations Erika and happy birthday!
SESAME bagels are my favorite, preferably toasted with honey-walnut cream cheese.
**NERD Alert!! BOOK Recommendation**
If you’re looking for an absorbing EASY summer novel, I highly recommend Margreete’s Harbor by Eleanor Morse. You might even call it a PLAYA read as it’s situated on the coast of Maine. Set in the late1950s to mid 60s, the story is centered around Margreete, a woman who in the early stages of dementia sets fire to her kitchen. Her daughter then moves in with her family and what follows is the next 10 years of all their lives. I’ve never been to Maine in my life, but it’s so well written that I can almost hear the sound of the waves hitting the shore. I haven’t finished it yet but already one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Z,
Here's just a few films currently being shot on film. That film will be in magazines. It will be on a spool. It will wend its way past a lens enroute to another (uptake) spool). Ecah load is called a roll. A film roll. There will literally be thousands of these film rolls.
As promised a few films curently being helmed by guys you might know:
West Side Story-Spielberg
No Time to Die (the new Bond film)--Joji Fukuaga
The French Dispatch--Wes Anderson
Here's a few recent films which had plenty of camera rolls
A quite Place II--Krasinski
Old-- m. Night Shymalan
You might want to know at least something about film before condemning it to the land of metaphor.
OK @albatross, how is any language pretentious? Yes, French had/has (haven't checked in some years) an Academy to police vocab and grammar, but what's wrong with that? American English is degraded by hillbillies and ghetto rappers; is that better?
Gah!! so irritated that I wrote film roll for cameras roll. This makes me sloppy. It does not undermine my point. Camera rolls are not just a thing. They are THE thing on film.
I think anything would taste good with all those "accessories".
Sorry, @Nancy, Wednesday is 2 days away.
conrad, thank you. from your comment, it seems that the precise answer to my question, rephrased for clarity, is:
“why do some completed puzzles, whether they are blue or gold, have a star logo over their grid icon, and others do not?”
“you get a star IF there are no errors on the grid when you input the final letter. it also requires that you don’t use any of the check and reveal functions. if there is no star, and you didn’t use any hints, it means you got the “oops!” message once you initially filled the grid.”
I'm OK with the fully Frenchified fwa-yay, or the fully Anglicized foy-ur. What my ears find irking is the halfway foy-yay.
“Hotel California” is neither classic rock nor alternative rock. It is lame-o rock.
Thx for the excellent write-up August. :)
ROSA Parks: "the mother of the freedom movement" (Wikipedia)
@Hungry Mother 6:20 AM 👍 for the QB
@chefwen 2:50 AM 👍 ARNAZ
@Barbara S. (7:09 AM)
Thx for the Erdrich quote; love it! esp: "But every so often something shatters like ice and we are in the river of our existence. We are aware."
@Whatsername 10:22 AM
Looking forward to 'Margreete’s Harbor' coming to my library soon. 🤞
___
td pg -1
PEACE ~ Empathy ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Back when Kodak, and then the Instamatic ruled, and film came in rolls, I never heard anyone say "big event coming up, I'm going to need some more camera rolls". Not saying no one ever said that, just not in my experience, so the final ROLL in today's set would not have been connected to EYE or FORWARD for a very long time, like, ever. So a revealer that really didn't reveal anything, but at least it was in the right place.
Otherwise a pleasant enough Mondecito and congrats to EE on an Entertaining Entry. We could have used three more themers though, because With Six You Get EggROLL.
The easiest and least pretentious way to pronounce FOYER is "lah•bee".
@Barbara (7:09) Your quote today took me back to a passage in the book I’m currently reading (my post at 10:22). The mother in the story is a cellist, and here is how she conveyed her love of music: There is nothing greater than music for expressing what words can’t express. ... Some people think that playing is all about themselves. If you’re thinking like that you’re not making music. You have to make yourself small enough to disappear inside it. Then you can make music that makes other people feel something.
@Kirstin G (7:20) Good info on Rosa Parks and thanks for sharing. FWIW, I felt the Montgomery reference was an appropriate Monday clue.
@ Anonymous (10:04) I’ve never tried brussels sprouts in bacon grease but that sounds delicious. I agree they’re best fresh but I actually do enjoy them reheated as well.
@Anon 10:04 → 1/2 cup good water
Is that really what the recipe says? lol.
Yay to @bocamp on completing yesterday's acrostic. It was definitely a challenge.
There are two other #1 songs in the themers besides the dreaded HC, if you lop an "s" off one of them:
1981
1988
Osaka just pulled out of the Berlin 5000. That's the tune-up for Wimbledon.
I don't think she'll be playing on grass at all this year. I wonder if the All England Club will miss her more than she misses it. You know, the way the French Open missed her more than she it. LOL.
Pretty tough for a Monday, but well crafted.
I do have a NIT to pick SOHO is not London's theatre district, though it is adjacent to it. The theatres are in the West End. Soho is the neighborhood just to the north, and was traditionally where foreigners with odd cuisines settled, and offered their wares -- some French, more Italians and Greeks. It was the part of London accurately described as Cosmopolitan. Also, on certain streets, it was where you found some streetwalkers, who were liable to arrest, and prostitutes who were not bothered by the police, because customers would ring their doorbells and go up to their little rooms. Easily identified by the fact their doorbells had only a female first name. Prostitution, per se, was not illegal. Soliciting on the street was, and so was maintaining a brothel. But in theory these ladies and their landlords w were safe because they simply rented a room for a fixed rate did not share their profits with the landlord. That was in the 1960's -- things may have changed since.
FOYER, pronounced foy-er is the room you assemble in before going into those West End theatres, and of course theaters worldwide. By slipshod extension, some folks use FOYER to refer to their front hall in a house. FOYER, anglized as fwy-yay, can have that meaning in French, but its real meaning is the room where your fireplace is, and by extension, your home. Spanish has the exact same construction, with the cognate word "hogar".
I think Shorz was asleep at the switch today, Not only with SOHO, but also with ADMIRE. There are tons of things people may ADMIRE, but hardly "idolize". I assure you, much as I ADMIRE today's constructor, who gave us a fine, clean puzzle, I don't idolize her. Same goes for the puzzle itself, and for most puzzles I do every day.
Oh! Remember my difficulty with getting the blog to properly display when I Googled for "rex"? It worked fine today, just as it always used to. I figure the problem was at Rex's end.
Do I dare talk about a little ROLL in the hay?......as in hay....what's going on here?
What fun to romp around and do some sniffing on a Monday. Now what could the theme possibly be? Oh look...it's all about a roll...!!! A little here, a little there. A FOYER FROYO, a FELIZ PLAYA to frolic in. Some LARD to fry my SESAME bagel and my favorite GORY NERDS.....Speaking of.....Dear August, I must invite you to my house for dinner. You really eat Ramen with Brussel sprouts? Doesn't that give you uncontrollable gas? I'll make you some of my famous "Moros y Cristianos." You want happy gas, you'll get happy gas.
So this is a debut? Well first and foremost.....En hora buena. This was cute and I love waiting for the end to get the sweet aha.
Whatsername....Thank you for the book recommendation. You always have good ones. I've out cooked all the bread I can eat; have run out of books to read; painted about a million too many little greeting cards, so I'm ready for a good read.
pabloinnh
That's because camera roll is the term for what's been shot not the unexposed stuff. I take it, you haven't worked in TV or Film production either.
@Joe:
Any serious cook/chef/cookbook will advise one to use some sort of prepared water in cooking if your tap water smells or has discernible bad taste. Your dish will end up tasting like chlorine or iron or sulphur or some other nasty. Of course, some folks don't notice.
How could any compilation on triple AXELs not include this:
Midori Ito
Or this:
Brian Boitano
Which, of course, invites this.
@JohnX, On second thought, I deleted mention of my disdain for The Eagles in my post because I didn't want to go there, and The Big Lebowski is my all time second favorite movie. So, good on you.
I am hanging my head in shame this morning. Would have had a new Monday personal best this morning absent having to play hunt the error, which turned out to be fat fingering DAVId rather than DAVIS.
Since my great-grandfather was Dwight Davis, I really should have been able to type this correctly...
CAMERA ROLL is an outstanding themer.
People over a certain age will likely think of film cameras.
Younger solvers are more apt to think of the place iOS devices put their photos.
And Gen Xers will think of both.
@JD 9:05 - I assume you mean the James Gang video, not the R.E.M. or Wilco Video.
@Joaquin - 🤣😂🤣 - To my mind a FOYER is not as large as a lobby, but I think most people do use them pretty much interchangeably.
@Anon CAMERA ROLL expert - And…? If you overhear someone at Starbucks talking about their CAMERA ROLL they’re talking about their computer’s file system or maybe the problem they had posting to Instagram, not Spielberg’s latest. And, seriously, Spielberg is doing a West Side Story remake? Please, no. If it is just very good it’s a failure, and the likelihood of it being far less than very good seems high. Spielberg has the tendency to preach, and if there’s a Shakespeare play that risks lapsing into excessive preachiness it is Romeo and Juliet. Anyway, we don’t actually dial when we dial now even though we could and we aren’t actually using a physical CAMERA ROLL in a 35mm camera when we use a CAMERA ROLL, even though we still could. That’s what “anachronistic” means (and the choice to use actual film seems potentially pretentious - it’s the new A&P - Anachronistic and Pretentious… or is that a new Decemberists cover band?).
When the pandemic hit, our local rock and roll radio station, due to a sudden loss of advertisement revenues, laid off all but one disc jockey and started playing only classic rock. I guessed that was because they wouldn't have to pay royalties on the old stuff. So, yeah, "Hotel California" seemed to come up every few hours.
I spent a night in Hotel California in Todos Santos, Baja California del Sur, in the mid 90's while on a road trip out of La Paz looping around down through Cabo San Lucas and back up to La Paz. The Hotel was unremarkable and the room where we stayed was hot. Don't know why anyone would write a song about it. Bought a tee shirt the next day, then checked out and actually did leave.
My favorite FELIZ recuerdo de una PLAYA was while visiting PLAYA del Carmen, just south of Cancún, Mexico on the Yucatán Peninsula. It was still somewhat isolated then but I think these days that the entire coast from Cancún down to Tulum has been developed. That corridor is now called the Riviera Maya.
@Joe Dipinto 11:45 - what struck me in the recipe was the 'fresh' sprouts. I never know how to interpret that type of use of quotes. I remember seeing a sign at an ice cream store: We use "real" M&Ms. Without the quotes, I'd know they use real M&Ms. With the quotes, who knows?
@Doc John 12:11 One of my favorite scenes from any movie, ever.
No Z.
You're wrong. Regardless of what you think about Spielberg, what he'll have when he fishes shooting a scene is a camera roll. That's why the film that's been shot is called. That's happening this very minute in productions all over the worlds. There's nothing anachronistic about it.
When the clock strikes in Shakespeare's play Julius Caesar we have something anachronistic. Camera rolls in the world of film are very much in play. It is not a pretense to shoot on film. Film has qualities that digital technology can emulate but not match. (that is not say digital is inferior. It has many features that celluloid can't match). That someone opts to use one or the other is no proof of pretense. Look, you're out of your element here. I'm literally fewer than 200 feet from a film vault with many thousands of camera rolls. That's what they're called. The name of the place I work has Film in it. The claims you're making are not just incorrect, they're risible.
Speilberg has a tendency to preach? Romeo and Juliet lends itself to excessive preachiness? Wow! 😆 "Nosce te ipsum"
@anon. 12:07-You are certainly correct in thinking that I have not worked in tv or film production. It is one of my deepest regrets, but I press on. Thanks for the explanation. Another day, another something learned.
@old timer (12:02). Thanks for the memory of SOHO.
Re your comment about ADMIRE. Please recall the Joaquin Dictum.
@pablito...Can I give you a piece of blank paper to doodle on?
@Anoa....Ooooh the memories of PLAYA del Carmen. I had the wonderful fortune of going to Cancun back in the late 70's before it was developed. A little undeveloped island with nothing but the bluest of blue waters. Even the lagoon side was pristine. Then we travelled to the (then) empty but delightful little village of PLAYA del Carmen. Nothing but surrounding jungle, wonderful local people and food to die for. There was nothing but joy. Now, alas....all tourists, big lavish hotels, empty Dos XX bottles everywhere and neckkid wimen. I was so glad I got to see it before it got spoiled - even though it's still beautiful.
'fresh' sprouts are 'trimmed' and packaged, 12 oz. in my megaMart. they are also available frozen, shaved (I know, but just means pre-cut as well as trimmed, thus exposing the innards for some time), pre-roasted, canned (mostly in jars), and, all too rarely, on stalk.
'fresh' just because megaAgribusiness likes to cold-store just about anything for as long as it can get away with. as they say, be a locavore as much as you can. in the freezing Northern Climes, that ain't much time. thank Fredrick McKinley Jones for out-of-season foodstuffs.
@ Adam S. 12:28 I'm old enough to recall when the Davis Cup actually meant something. I met Harry Hopman, former coach of the Australian Davis Cup teams. I couldn't tell you who won the Davis Cup for the last 30 years.
To Anonymous: enough with the film rolls already. We get it. Z was wrong about something. Let's move on.
Oh yeah, the puz. Liked it, liked the theme, just thought there were a lot of proper nouns floating about.
No, it was Yes.
@oldtimer 12:02. Please ignore @mathgent's comment about Admire v. Idolize.
Admire means, "to feel respect and approval for someone or something.
Idolize means, "To regard with wonder and delight; to look upon with an elevated feeling of pleasure, as something which calls out approbation, esteem, love, or reverence;
This is why there was never a television program called American Admiration.
As with previous posts on the subject of usage, his comment is invalid.
@GILL I-I blame my wandering mind on thinking about the injection I was about to get in my eyeball. That's done now, I can mostly see again, and I can resume blaming my mistakes on age and general technological incompetence.
Also, it's really hot here, which we in NH are not used to, and there's a lot of brain farts going on. On our way to my doctor's we watched a car pull into the exit lane of an interstate, heading the wrong way. No crash scenes on our way back so I guess he may have realized what he had one when all the other cars were coming straight at him.
Excuse me, but it's time to check the oven. I think my film rolls are about done.
@Anon 12:11 – that's a no-brainer, it seems to me. Most people are aware of their local water quality – they drink it, after all (or they don't drink it) – and home cooks would adjust meal preparation accordingly, without being reminded to do so by a recipe. I own about 20 cookbooks and regularly read online recipes, and never once have I seen "good water" specified. It struck me as funny. "Don't be using that cheap everyday stuff, you break out the high-end H2O for this."
@pablo 1:23 – Your lovely post reminded me to tell you what a very spatial person I think you are. I'm sure everyone here agrees.
@TJS 8:01, @Nancy 9:40, @bocamp 11:30 - You're welcome, everybody.
@Whatsername 11:41
That passage was a great complement to the Louise Erdrich -- thanks.
@JoeD-Gee thanks.
I was going to make a big sign at the top of that emptiness that said "Insert Film Rolls Here" but it was beyond me.
I have a few film cameras in my closet -- a 35mm Yashica SLR, and two large-format cameras inherited from my father. Those two last were meant to take sheet film, but the smaller one had an adapt-a-roll that let you use 620 film just like in a regular roll camera. Sadly, 620 is no longer sold, but 120 is, and that's the same width of the film, but a different length. I suppose that would still work in the adapt-a-roll, but I haven't yet tried it. Anyway, I've shot a lot of film in my younger days, and it came in rolls -- but no one I knew called them either cameral rolls or film rolls; our term of choice was rolls of film. I still have a 35-mm vinyl film can that I use to pack pills in when I travel. So I was wondering about the theme answer, but now I know that a) the film industry calls a roll of exposed film a CAMERA roll, and that b) my phone has a CAMERA roll option in the Pictures app. (I knew that, just didn't think of it). I think the latter was what was in the constructor's mind, as a film-industry term seems too recondite for a Monday.
@old timer -- my thoughts too about SOHO. According to Wiki, there is one theatre there, but currently it's best known as a center of the English film industry, so it's probably full of camera rolls.
FORWARD rolls, though -- we all had to learn to do them in high school gym class. Don't they teach that stuff anymore? Has it gone the way of Home Ec and Civics? Sad.
This was a fun puzzle, I hope we see more from Ms. Ettin.
Smooth and easy puzz; little to no dreck (I don't consider ACAI dreck -- not yet). Got hung up only slightly with paRER instead of CORER.
Color me pretentious, then (FOYER). Actually, I think many of us learn pronunciations from our parents. I love you Mom, but I place the blame squarely on you. ;-) Guess how she pronounces "visage" and "homage".
And I blame the font kerning for making me think at first @Frantic Sloth's "lurnin'" was "lumin'" -- her folksy way of saying "illumination" perhaps? (Should I be grateful FLICK is not in the puzzle? I'll find out after I post.)
I guess I'd consider HOTEL CALIFORNIA the best song I know of the Eagles. Honestly, though, I'm so sick of their songs that I usually flick the radio dial as soon as I hear them. (FLICK you, Eagles!) The same is not true of The Doobie Brothers. Don't ask me to explain.
Congratulations to @bocamp for battling through the Acrostic. Builds character!
yd & td: 0
@anon 1024am
It was mostly a joke and I thought joshing about the French language being pretentious was less offensive than a foray into pronouncing the French pretentious. After all they pronounce foyer forAY. They also have an official language that needs official permission to create words, or so I have been told. And as you pointed out police grammar. So you did indeed catch my drift.
That strikes me as pretentious to a certain degree.
I object to your characterization of hillbillies and ghetto rappers as degrading the language. I feel that on balance they enrich the language. They should not be degraded for their speech. It is rich and colorful.
@Albie
Always enjoy your posts. You and the other regulars make this blog a must-not-miss pleasure.
td: 0
Whew! I didn't know if I'd get the last word, but after a few minutes, I finally did.
@JC66-
Well done you. I'm at -2 and calling it a day. Did get the Acrostic, after recognizing what the author's name was going to be. Satisfaction indeed.
Amen to your comment about this place. You're such a lovely commentariat we'd like to take you home with us, we'd love to take you home...(possible misquote there).
Fun puzzle and a very nice write-up. My only gripe is a Paris sweetheart is either “cherie” or “chere”. And congratulations August on your new home.
@kitshef- one of my fave movies!
EYE and CALIFORNIA work well with the gimmick. But CAMERA and FORWARD do not. The constructor is lucky this is Rex’s day off. He would not have been so kind - in spite of this being a debut puzzle. How about replacing one of the theme answers with ROYALJELLY and the other with SNAREDRUM. The editor could have and should have made this one better.
Okay, let's see...EYE ROLL, yeah, fine. FORWARD ROLL, ah, the very first exercise you learn in your very first self-defense class. (See STTOS' "Charlie X") But CALIFORNIA ROLL?? What is that? Oh, perhaps a reference to the high earthquake potential in the state. [pause while I Google] Oh it's food. Well, not food for me, since it contains sushi. But apparently someone eats it. No wonder I never heard of it. Apparently someone eats Brussels sprouts too--and, somehow, likes them. Weeeird. Now CAMERA ROLL. Well, that's not a thing; we can go with the director's shout "ROLL CAMERAS!" I guess... The whole mess is not very in-the-language.
The marquee answer is that immortal hit by those immortal Eagles. Glenn Fry is still with us; he checked out, but he never left. It's a grace that saves this fractured theme, with the aid of a crowded DOD stage (ANNE, ROSA, HALLE), to a par.
The "living on my own thing" our substitute OFL sez. I realized this morning that my college tuition has gone up 3,000% since I went there! I am officially old!
But I can still enjoy a Monday puzzle with the best of them. Happy Monday ass SyndieCats.
Lady Di
PLAYA LAIR
A HIDDENCAMERA by the PRIVATEEYE
in an UPTOWN HOTEL ONE day,
caught Mom PAY for a ROLL ALONG WITH some guy;
an EASY CASE to see who'd MA_LAY.
--- AXEL ADAMS
Not much zip here, but fine for a Monday if you just ROLL WITH IT.
EASY enough but ROLL would never have occurred to me. Seemed like lotsa names.
Yeah baby SADE in the corners, HALLE Berry in the puz.
OK for Monday. What ELSE?
Sometimes my keyboard skips letters...
Hence my very odd comment above. Simply meant to wish you ALL a happy day.
Lady Di
No problem D,LIW. I take it as a compliment whenever somebody’s says I’m the cat’s @ss…
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