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Woman in a 1982 hit who can be reached using the starts of the answers to the starred clue / WED 6-30-21 / Science fiction writer Ted with four Hugo awards / Former fashion retailer so-named for its 57th Street address in Manhattan / Burger chain named for a father and his sons / Video hosting service since 2009 / Anthem whose French lyrics predate its English lyrics
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Constructor: Christopher Adams and Adam Aaronson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (Easy but for some proper nouns that will hold people up to wildly varying degrees)
- EIGHT BIT (17A: *Like many old video game soundtracks)
- SIX PACK (19A: *Common purchase for a tailgate)
- SEVEN SEAS (26A: *Sinbad's milieu)
- FIVE GUYS (41A: *Burger chain named for a father and his sons)
- THREEPEAT (54A: *One of two for the 1990s Chicago Bulls)
- O CANADA (63A: *Anthem whose French lyrics predate its English lyrics)
- NINE WEST (66A: *Former fashion retailer so-named for its 57th Street address in Manhattan)
Ted Chiang (born 1967) is an American science fiction writer. His work has won four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and four Locus awards.[1] His short story Story of Your Life was the basis of the film Arrival (2016). [...] Chiang has published seventeen short stories, novelettes, and novellas as of 2019, and has won numerous science fiction awards for his works: a Nebula Award for "Tower of Babylon" (1990); the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 1992; a Nebula Award and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for "Story of Your Life" (1998); a Sidewise Award for "Seventy-Two Letters" (2000); a Nebula Award, Locus Award, and Hugo Award for his novelette "Hell Is the Absence of God" (2002); a Nebula and Hugo Award for his novelette "The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate" (2007); a British Science Fiction Association Award, a Locus Award, and the Hugo Award for Best Short Story for "Exhalation" (2009); and a Hugo Award and Locus Award for his novella "The Lifecycle of Software Objects" (2010). (wikipedia)
• • •
[See the little letters in the bottom-right corner of this video? ...
VEVO! (59A: Video hosting service since 2009)]
The themers themselves were often charming or original all on their own, esp. EIGHT BIT, FIVE GUYS, and NINE WEST (which I originally thought was going to be the revealer ... has there been a NINE WEST puzzle? Seems like you could do ... something ... with that as your revealer). I also like how "O" was represented by "O CANADA"—the whole number-as-letter thing is built into the song lyrics, so it's perfect. Not many hold-ups for me today. Never heard of Ted CHIANG (and I still haven't seen "Arrival" somehow either), but all the crosses came quickly. I had both HEM IN and PEN IN before BOX IN (9D: Completely confine). I had real trouble parsing / grasping PUNTED ON, though now that I see it, it seems just fine for its clue (44A: Kicked down the road, as an issue). Did not and still kind of don't give credence to the spelling on HUNH?, which looks more like a grunt than a question (39D: "Say what?"). I weirdly loved US TOO. Seems like a totally ordinary thing that is also very original (as a crossword answer) (37D: "We wanna join!"). I forgot VEVO was a thing even though I see those letters on videos all the time. This is probably because I see those videos at YouTube, which is the only "video hosting service" I ever actually go to. OK, that's all. Gotta go to a cooler part of the house now since the sweats have started and it's not even 6am. Good day!
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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122 comments:
As soon as I got to the revealer I went back and filled in the beginning of all the long acrosses. This song will now be stuck in my head for the next three days.
This is definitely my ear worm for the end of June. The video (on VEVO!) is sorta pervy.
This is such a bad song, and yet I heard it countless times. Death to commercial radio!
I listened to the song after solving, and it rang no bells, which explained why this puzzle for me solved as a themeless – rare for a Wednesday, and the novelty of that was a treat. It is a cool song, though, gets everything moving.
I guess when I saw the clue for JENNY and had a couple of theme answers it became clear that the first words of the theme answers made a phone number, so that helped with the solve. One thing that I don’t ever remember seeing before in a puzzle is three answers ending in SSE (EN MASSE, IMPASSE, SUISSE).
The puzzle got me to remembering when we actually memorized phone numbers and actually used phone books. Different world today, no?
I like the range of reactions represented by three answers: HATED IT… WARM… JOYOUS. With this clean grid that gave me enough grit to conquer and some lovely answers, I’ll go with the latter. Thank you, gentlemen!
7 themers and a revealer? I'm no constructor, but that seems to me to be some kind of feat, no?
Took me a while to get going on this one, but by mid-puz I was onto the vibe and surfed (don't worry, @JD - not on SPUME) my way rather smoothly to completion.
I didn't detect a lot of junk here either. Mad some eye-area moves here and there, like for...
Is ENERVATE "commonly believed" to mean "give strength"? Who is doing this? Is it a cult? Do these people live in some kind of wilderness compound? Am I on Candid Camera?? Not buying that bridge.
...but, overall a fun solve. Liked it a bushel and a SIXPACK.
🧠🧠.5
🎉🎉🎉.75
Not only not in my wheelhouse, it wasn't even on my ship! What a triviafest. And "O" is not zero.
Why is Sole survivor of the Pequod a spoiler alert
I vaguely remember the song, and eventually recognizing this was going to be a phone number helped with some of the answers, but overall this one just gets a shrug. Fun because puzzles are fun, but short on smiles and aha moments. And the theme answers just seem to be "stuff I thought of that starts with a number", tho I realize the numbers eventually make up a popular phone number. When I had the J in Jenny, all I could think of was Jodie Foster and Contact, so that didn't help much.
I must be getting old. Kept mixing this up in my head with The Marvelettes singing Beechwood 4-5789. That was 20 years before Tommy Tutone!
Wow - instead of a rant about a PAC, the gender of the constructors or an answer that could possibly somehow be interpreted as pejorative by someone somewhere, OFL provides us with a two paragraph treatise on a pop song he listened to when he was twelve - which is fine, btw. I do have to confess that I find John X’s stream of consciousness riffs more interesting and entertaining than Rex’s though.
Why is a spoiler alert needed for 4D ? That seemed a little bizarre. I believe both HUNH and PODIA are real words - I kept expecting a 3-letter jumble that meant something in a language I’d never heard of. Perhaps the editors were a touch off their game today.
I liked the way the theme just kind of hangs in the background today and does it’s own thing - instead of dominating and suffocating the grid (with PPP for example). I much prefer it when the theme doesn’t try too hard to be cute or overly gimmicky, and today is a good example.
That video reminded me of how about 98% of music videos in the 80s were (1) cheap and (2) lame. Meanwhile, 867-5309!
I liked it - but could understand some not being down with the theme. Cool how the number ran it’s way thru the grid and the use of O. Really nice fill - JOYOUS and ENERVATE. Always nice to see TEA LEONI - Bud SELIG not so much. The four double SS entries are neat.
Enjoyable Wednesday solve.
Fun puzzle!
There’s nothing quite so delicious as a FIVE GUYS burger and fries. The problem with dining in at a FIVE GUYS is the high noise level, caused by the sound of everyone’s arteries slamming shut.
I wonder how many people who actually have the phone number 867-5309 were driven totally berserk. Just listening to the song once had me berserk. Not my cuppa.
Not famous enough.
Beechwood 4 5 7 8 9.
Rickie don't lose that number.
Any other phone number songs?
Happy to be spared that particular ear worm.
I don’t think anyone buys a six-pack for a tailgate. A case, sure. A twelve-pack, maybe. Dude that shows up with a six-pack gets a boot in the rear.
Clearly a sci-fi fan or two among today’s constructors. Yay, I say – although I fell out of touch around 2002, just as Ted CHIANG was becoming big, so needed all the crosses there.
Didn’t we have a term for words like ENVERVATE that don’t mean what people think? Bemused, enormity, factoid, peruse, penultimate. Where’s LMS on this?
I was “nii-ee-ii-een“ in 1982 and I still love that song. Much as I loved this puzzle.
With an exception: HUNH needs to be a one and done. Egregious. Worth it for such a tight quasi-Thursday on a Wednesday but no more.
LOL @Frantic Sloth, I mix up ENERVATE and energize all the time. But I'm DOWN EAST (@TTrimble yesterday) in a bit of a wilderness compound, e.g. 5 hours northeast of Boston.
Well, I solved the puzzle, but WTF?!? Never heard of the song, but the puzzle itself was fine.
I always pictured OFL with shorter hair.
@Anonymous 702am Because that plot twist doesn't occur until the first sentence of the book. IOW, it's a joke.
@kitshef 727am I think "Joe" always brings a SIXPACK. That's why nobody likes him.
I would have preferred Pennsylvania 6-5000.
The song says “o”, not zero. Also, tomorrow is Canada Day, so, cool.
“Call me Ishmael”. Big spoiler there.
The song says “o”, not zero. Also, tomorrow is Canada Day, so, cool.
“Call me Ishmael”. Big spoiler there.
If you went to read MD now for the first time you would know who lives.
“Beechwood…” got a second life as “6-3-4-5-7-8-9” in a later half decade.
Rex, you gotta watch “Arrival”. [spoiler alert] It’s about how language can change the way you think!
@diver51 – Also, Wilson Pickett.
I don't understand making a puzzle like this and not including the band name anywhere. Okay, the grid is already tight with themers, but at least name them in the revealer clue. I mean, the song was their only hit – show them some love!
Apparently one of the original members of Tommy Tutone went to work for Philip Glass in 1994. I think I told this story before, but on a tip from a colleague I met with a lawyer right around that time who was interviewing on behalf of Philip Glass for someone to handle his publishing concern. When I got there the lawyer told me "Philip really wants a middle aged woman for this job." I never heard back from them and wasn't interested in pursuing it, but now I know who they hired, thanks to this puzzle.
I had a similar reaction to Rex: 1) I am also exactly the right age to have LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this puzzle; and 2) I wonder how many others who aren't exactly the right age are going to understand this puzzle at all. The song was everywhere in 1981-1982, but do people who were born in 1990 know about it? At any rate, the theme answers are impressively unforced given how many there are, and I would imagine it would be enjoyable for everyone.
I got EIGHT, SIX, SEVEN, and FIVE as the first theme answers, I thought this was going to be a countdown puzzle at first.
I think Rex is way overthinking the song's premise. There are a million "why don't you love me anymore" songs that are sung to someone who is not there.
Like Rex, I really enjoyed how the constructors used "O" in "O CANADA" rather than the number "0."
@Joaquin - A lot. And the number was still a problem 20 years later, when this Snopes article was published: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/867-5309-jenny/. I didn’t go digging for more recent articles, but I’ll bet that number still gets calls sometimes. 10-digit dialing is becoming common enough that it probably doesn’t happen often any more, though.
I thought PUNTEDON was more than "just fine" - it borders on brilliant.
With the numbers in order, the revealer as a down, the O for OCANADA . . . .
what a feat of construction!
And yet no insipid fill (maybe the EMO, but willing to give a pass on that)
Once I sussed the theme, pretty quickly, it became a fun exercise to see how the constructors would play with the numbers.
For someone growing up in a certain era, this was pretty easy, but a ton of fun.
Kudos to the team.
HATEDIT is apparently a first for the NYT, but I *loved* this one.
And now I'll be humming that song for the rest of the day . . . .
Jenny Piccalo! I too am of a certain age.
@thfenn 755am Glad you appreciate my little (read: dumb) joke. Of course it's completely understandable - I mix up funny and obnoxious all the time. 😉
@Keith D 813am Great minds!
@Keith D 814am Great minds!
@thfenn See?
Aside from the song, with which I am unfamiliar and was in no way helpful, here are the other things that fall in the "that's news to me" category:
Mr. CHIANG, EIGHTBIT,TEALEONI, THESOUP, VEVO, NINEWEST, ALDO (as clued) and JENNY (as clued). It's a good thing crosswords have answers going both ways. I find this very helpful when I have no idea about something. I guess many of us had our wheelhouse day yesterday and were due for a comeuppance.
Fun seeing YOYOED. YOYO is one of those answers that I always try in SB, hoping that they've decided to include it, but they never have.
Nice Wednesdecito guys. Would have appreciated it more if my knowledge of pop culture extended into the 80's.
The spoiler isn’t that his name is ISHMAEL, it’s that he’s the sole survivor of the Pequod, which is the ending of the book. Also, it’s clearly meant to be tongue-in-cheek.
Thx Christopher and Adam for a challenging and engaging puz! :)
Very tough, but successful solve.
Hit and miss all the way; thank goodness for fair crosses. :)
Couldn't figure out the theme.
Nevertheless, another crunchy, entertaining puz; always welcome a toughie. :)
___
@jae / @Newboy
Got Croce's Freestyle 625 in one long session yd. Had an error upon completion, but quickly corrected it. Technical dnf, but another great workout and worth every hour of effort! NW and G.L.s were the toughest. See you next Mon. :)
___
yd pg -1
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Tolerance ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Well, that'll teach me to put off finishing Moby Dick. Serious disgruntlement here. Why not clue the famous first line, to throw a sop to those of us who at least made a start, got bogged down but have good intentions? Anyway. Never had the chance to get acquainted with JENNY, so the theme went right over my head. Also had a dopey DNF at LEONe because I didn't check the cross for eON. Trying to move on.
ENERVATE: I do remember my eyes widening at learning the meaning. One of the lexical nuggets learned from doing Times acrostics, joining etiolate, haboob, clepsydra...
TWEENER is a word just not as the puzzle tends to use it (as a synonym for the term TWEEN).
The actual definition is somebody who is between skill sets. In basketball, for example, you hear it sometimes to describe somebody who plays kinda like a guard and kinda like a forward.
In math graduate school, we used call students who did some theory and some application TWEENERS.
I swear to god that Ted CHIANG could write a short story titled The with the entire text being the single word “the” and he’d win all the sci fi awards for it. 18 short stories, two collections of those short stories, 13 major sci fi awards. And yes, Arrival is a very good movie.
What’s that whooshing sound I hear in the comments section?
@kitshef - My first thought was “keg,” then “pony keg.” @Frantic Sloth is right, though. Joe brings a SIX PACK, probably of Bud, and he doesn’t share (not that I want any of that pisswater anyway).
I think I read somewhere once that Ma Bell (remember her) stopped using JENNY’s number because of all the calls the song generated. I have no idea if that’s true or just some urban legend stuck in the cobwebs in the attic of my memory.
@TTrimble - Apparently Poe’s Law also applies to crossword clues. (for the uniformed see @TTRIMBLE 12:35 yesterday)
Question for the sound engineers here
I think of the art in old video games as EIGHT BIT. Does the term also fairly apply to the the soundtrack like the clue suggests? What does that even mean? Is the EIGHT BIT soundtrack the reason the music seems so tinny?
If the constructors married would they name their son Adam Adams?
If you're ever in a store with a loyalty card and you don't have one, just enter [local area code] 867-5309 to get the discount for yourself.
Trust me, someone has set it up.
@John H
The B-52s had 6-0-6-0-8-4-2 (and I'm waiting for you)
And very recently, 1-800-273-8255, which is the National Suicide Prevention Hotline and the name of a song by Logic - although I don't think the number is mentioned in the lyrics.
Thank you everyone. Remembered the song but could not remember where I got the incorrect 4-5789. Both songs are now in my head :-)
Pennsylvania six five 000. I know that one. This song did not sound even vaguely familiar. What's with the spoilet alert on Ishmael?
Get a Six Pack, Overeat Five Brothers, and Dial it back. Dude what about Eight Bit. Sweet dreams are made of this ... I travel the world and the Seven Seas. Gwen.
I don't remember the 80s but they must've happened, we had to get to the 90s somehow. Might've been a short-term memory problem left over from college in the 70s and all those reefers. Think I heard this song at some point though.
Anyway, every little corner bought its own discrete misery and I was surprised to finish because Hunh was sitting there and that's just an ugly string of random letters and not a word. Try to say it. Tsk.
So, Hated It while I was doing it and would've Punted On it, but I Yoyoed back and forth and loved it when I was done. Those numbers in order? Wow. And Dial? A Cute touch. Plus I miss David Steinberg and this was a nice substitute of college guy-dom.
@Frantic, Follow that surf with a nice dish of Spumoni.
@Lolcat Lisa, You (1) are succinctly hilarious and (2) your name cracks me up.
Hey All !
Great song! I had heard various people (different area codes) with that number had to change it, as they were getting non-stop calls asking for JENNY. Couldn't write/sing it today, though, as it's not "woke". Actually surprised Rex didn't rail on it. So it's OK if you grew up with it? See how none of that makes sense?
Off the rails a bit, sorry. If you were a TWEENER or teenager in the 80's, that's a song you'll never forget. Catchy, funny, on MTV ,(yes, kids, MTV stands for Music TeleVision, and used to actually play Music Videos!) And it's sung as "EIGHT SIX SEVEN FIVE THREE OH NINE", not as "...THREE ZERO NINE".
Noticed the 16 wideness. Brain, still ticking! Impressed at the finding of 7 themers with the required number, and all being things! O CANADA was inspired. (Wonder if that was the seed?)
A JOYOUS puz. Crossing SSEs in the SE! Got a kick out of the ISHMAEL clue. Everyone should know he survived, as the first line in MD is "Call me ISHMAEL". It's a joke, people. Don't read that much into it. ☺️
Not too many names today! And I knew most all of them. VEVO. Amazing how you see that name on videos, and it's basically unseen. Weird.
Too bad The TUBES didn't write JENNY, it's symmetrical!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I listened to the song after solving, and I can honestly say that is the first time I have heard it. I really don't want to hear it again. (I was 30 in 1982.)
z is close. In point of fact the audio, especially the music, that 8-bit games employed was great. In fact, the music was used to help mask some of the visual shortcomings of the video. There are many essays dissecting that point. the Legend of Zelda is exhibit A.
Maybe I should know the exact ratios, but whatever they are know full well that in video and gaming production, it's the picture that requires all the computing power for resolution and storage. And we all know this already. There were iPods that could handle, what, 10,000 songs or some such. But there was no device which could fit in your pocket and let you watch even half a Simpson's episode. ( Obviously a connection to the internet changed that fit your pocket idea)
I might love this puzzle more than anyone else in the world.
When my kid was wee, I made the passcode on the iPad Jenny's number - because I could tell anyone around my age "hey the passcode is the start of Jenny's number" and they would INSTANTLY KNOW the code without me having to say a single digit.
It worked for years... until my kid got too clever.
In first grade he asked the teacher "hey do you know that song Jenny's number" and of course she sang it for him and that was that.
Anyway, this reveal thrilled me! Not the least of which was because I got to the revealer about halfway done, so I could go back and fill in all the theme answers I didn't have yet.
Who wouldda thunk? I solved this thing! I actually guessed right on all three of the Naticky criss-crossing answers -- even though the possible combinations seemed endless. Those three answers were:
14A: Was the E talk show THE SOUP or THE SOAP?
6D: Was the "infamous analogy" for the Internet "a series of" TUBES; TUNES; TAKES; TAPES; or TALES. None of them sounded especially "infamous" to me.
Was the video game soundtrack EIGHTBIT; EIGHTHIT; EIGHTKIT; EIGHTLIT; EIGHTPIT? -- well you get the idea. I have no idea what a video game soundtrack would sound like.
EIGHTBIT seemed the most likely, so I chose THE SOUP and TUBES to go with it, even though TUBES doesn't sound at all "infamous".
As for the theme: Who is JENNY and why do EIGHT, SIX, SEVEN, FIVE, NINE apply to her in any way? Talk about your themes that deliberately BOX out huge numbers of people and create a lot of impenetrable IMPASSEs. Solved it but HATED IT anyway.
HUNH? GTFOH.
Well Tommy Tutone lost me in the alley cuz I never went into that dark place. For all I know, JENNY could've been Francis the mule. I think the only thing I listened to in that era was Air Supply.
Did I like this, you wonder? Well, there was some good stuff that made my mind wander. TEA LEONI was my first little entry. I have a bestie that is her doppelgänger. We go out to lunch and men fawn all over her. Women do, too. I get left eating my petit fours all by myself. I think I will sing that song.
I had no idea where the numbers would take me. Are we talking age? Is this going to be a weight issue? Did someone die at this address? Was it JENNY? Oh....it was her phone number. I can't even remember mine.
The only SIX PACK I know is worn on some dude flexing his CUTE VEVO on a beach in Malibu.
FIVE GUYS OVEREAT THE SOUP and SPAT it out. HATED IT the TEENER yells ENMASSE.
As you were.
My point was that he obviously survived since he narrates the story, but you’re right, the spoiler is that he was the “sole” survivor. I withdraw my snarky comment.
@Z: When you're digitizing sound, you're essentially converting a sound wave (analog) into a digital approximation of the wave. The approximation is controlled by two factors: bit depth and sampling rate.
Bit depth is the number of bits you allocate for each sample value. A bit depth of 8 bits gives you a possible 256 values for representing the amplitude of a given sample (2^8 = 256). Generally, the more bits you can use the better as the digitization will more faithfully represent the dynamic range of the source.
Sampling rate is the other factor that affects the digitization quality. This is basically how often you sample (or measure) the wave to get its amplitude. The more often you take a sample, the more accurately you can represent the continuous sound wave as a discrete digital copy.
If you've taken calculus, it's similar to the process of finding the area under a curve without doing integration (Riemann sum).
This explains it in more depth (and with visual aids):
https://www.presonus.com/learn/technical-articles/sample-rate-and-bit-depth
Kudos for a very clever construction that also made me laugh out loud delightedly with the reveal. The song was ubiquitous in its time, which made it tiresome, but I hear it only occasionally now and it still draws a smile.
Agree Rex should see "Arrival" as well as read Ted Chiang.
@Mill City Architect is not quite right, however. The movie is about how aliens who do not experience time linearly would communicate effectively with others who do and the effects on the others' perception of time once they begin to understand the alien's language.
@Nancy 955am You didn't exactly
ask, but
here is the unfortunate answer to the mystery of the infamous series of tubes.
@Keith D 1007am Oh. Right. Well, that takes all the fun out of it, doesn't it. ☹️
The Wheelhouse and I were not even in the same county this morning. Absolutely no idea on the theme and now that I know it’s a song from the 80s, I totally understand. I was no TWEENER in that decade, but I was busy raising one. Certainly wouldn’t say I HATED IT, but because of that, it kind of fell flat.
Never really gave much thought to the meaning of ENERVATE but good to know.
Wishing all a JOYOUS last day of June.
I don't like that type of music and I am not the appropriate age. So thumbs was down as far as I rate this puzzle.
Thought Sharp's comments were perceptive. I ffear I will dislike most of Aaronson's puzzle because I would rate them as vanity puzzles not to my liking. This puzzle should have been published in a pop magazine (it would be great there) andnt in the NYT. At least the NYT that I read.
Sorry to be grumpy, but having to attend a funeral for a high school classmate tomorrow does that to me.
Honestly had never ever even heard of this song. Quickly figured out it was a phone number which helped me with the starred clues. Got all hung up in the southwest for some reason -- with VEVO and EVADE (had AVOID for a while). And instead of OHO I had AHA so that screwed me up with OCANADA.
It was fun.
I have never heard anyone misuse ENERVATE like that. Commonly?
One last thing for all those carping about "O" not being "zero: switchboard operators were taught to say "O" for purposes of both efficiency (one syllable as opposed to two for "zero") and clarity. So the puzzle is correct in its use of "O".
So a medical student in Philadelphia sold his local 867-5309 number on Ebay a few years ago for $5,500. And those of you who don't know the song probably heard it on a ubiquitous Cingular Cellular ad a couple of decades back where a young woman (ostensibly JENNY) is thrilled she can keep her old number (867-5309) when she switches to Cingular.
Great puzz - loved the theme. And untold thousands of NYT solvers are ear-wormed for the next day or two.
btw - Those of you questioning "Spoiler alert!" need to work on your sense of humor.
Hunh?
The muggy, midday heat left me so INVIGORATED that the moment I entered the air conditioned house I collapsed right down on the sofa!
Are people saying that, too?
Invigorated, enervated whatever. Same thing.
Mix it up and keep 'em guessing.
@Whatsername. Either you're joking or your June is different from my June.
Perfect song for a TWEENER.
IHATEDIT.
😜
YT,
😂😂😂a budding art, music, and crossword snob.😂😂😂
😂🤗😂
🧩not bad 🧩
@Pabloinnh. I wondered about YOYO in the Bee, too, but then realized it's a brand name.
Toughest. I vaguely remember the song but I’m pretty sure it’s been decades since I’ve heard it. My car radio is tuned to an ‘80s station for the very small amount of time I spend driving, and that song is not in their rotation. I do, however, know all the words to “Summer of ‘69”, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, “Hotel California”, “Blinded by the Light”, “Funky Town”,....trust me, I could keep going... Sitting on the passenger seat of that same car is a NYT puzzle from the ‘90s (currently working my way through Fridays) to help kill time at stop lights.
This turned out pretty well given the 7 themers. Liked it.
@Z:
Is the EIGHT BIT soundtrack the reason the music seems so tinny?
absofreekin lutely!!
I had to laugh because my own TWEENER has discovered 80s music recently and was playing JENNY to me not two days ago. So I already had it stuck in my head when I went to solve.
ISHMAEL, as a spoiler, is sorta lame. The book begins, "Call me Ishmael.", thus he must be a survivor of whatever happens next. That he is the *sole* survivor is only known toward the end. It also implies that ISHMAEL is an alias, for reasons I forget, if, in fact, the reason is ever revealed in the text.
There is a bit of fiction, at least one residing in my lower brain stem, where the narrator dies at the end. Anyone?
I enjoyed the comments about the song. I just played the video I don't remember it. So, like Lewis, I solved as a themeless. Not bad. A bit of sparkle: INNUENDO, THREEPEAT. Excellent gag about ISHMAEL.
@Tim Carey, Correct.
Never mind
So I just went and listened to the song for the first and what will also be the last time. Doesn't the unpleasant sound quality of pop hits like this ever bother anyone? Nevertheless, now I've heard it and here is my brief review:
Tinny, raspy, wheezy, scratchy,
Mindless, too...but oddly catchy.
Enjoyed the puzzle even though I am going to have Tommy Tutone stuck in my head for the rest of the day. Biggest issue for me was "Like many baby animals". Sure some of them are cute but a lot of animals are born ugly as sin. Had MUTE there (since I didn't know the down answer) it seemed to make sense.
Never heard of Jenny or her phone number
I must have tuned that shlocky pop ditty out b in the d, and now, having listened to a bit of it, I can hardly wait to tune it out all over again. But the puzzle was okay.
Isn't it "A Canada"?
@frantic, the video is hysterical! Thanks!
Enjoyed the theme, which made things a snap after catching on. HUNH, however, nearly ruined things. Even after filling it in via crosses, I kept hoping “please, don’t let this be right.” And yet, somehow, it was. Just terrible, especially as clued. “Say what?” implies some level of surprise. But HUNH, even if one allows for it, implies a disinterested tone along the lines of “go figure” or something.
But rather than split hairs over it, how about the NYT Editors never allow trash fill like that again, HUH?
What is TEAL EONI and do they come in other colors?
6345789 by Wilson Pickett. May be the best phone number song
@Nancy your poem was CUTE! But hey…depending on the sound quality of your computer speakers even a performance of Mozart can sound tinny.
This puzzle was definitely in my wheelhouse so tons of fun for me. I could remember Jenny’s number but not JENNY, but no problem due to crosses. I was also not familiar with the Hugo award winning CHIANG but now I’ll investigate…my sci-fi choices are those that do NOT go into a lot of detail about the actual science…paraphrase it please lest I fall asleep.
@diver51 (7:05) Beechwood4-5789. Great. Now I’ll have that song stuck in my mind all day. 😄
@Bruce R (10:00) 🤣🤣🤣
pmdm (10:20) Sorry about your classmate. Maybe it’s just me, but the loss of those old friends seems to hit harder than others. Probably something to do with coming to grips with our own mortality I suppose. But in any case, my sympathies.
Come on people, you have to admit that not only is the chorus of "867-5309" the catchiest thing ever, the {opening guitar riff that makes you think it's starting on a major chord but then you find out it isn't when the bass comes in} is even catchier than the chorus.
No one had a problem with ION? It is a charged particle, not a minuscule one.
Unfortunately I did the puzzle before my morning bike ride. I had to listen to that 867 5309 earworm the whole way! Still, enjoyed the solve a lot.
My TWEENER phone number song was Mike Jones' "Back then" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1ERvlxgCD8
281-330-8004. Pretty sure its a legit number since I once asked a guy if he was from Houston when he had a 281 area code, and he actually knew the High School Mike Jones went to.
"Back Then" we used to pretend our Hyundai was actually a candy-dripping Escalade and bounce to Mike Jones.
"Fo' fo's I'm tippin', wood grain I'm grippin'
Catch me lane switchin' with the paint drippin'
Turn your neck and your dame missin'
Me and Slim we ain't trippin',
I'm figure flippin' and syrup sippin'
Like do or die, I'm po' pimpin'
Car stop, rims keep spinnin'
I'm flippin' drop with invisible tops
Hoes bop when my drop step out
I'm shakin' the block with four eighteens
Candy green with eleven screens
My gasoline always supreme
Got dirt on the brim with a pint of lean"
Ha, this puzzle was great. I like all of Chris Adams' work but this was just fun. I had Rex's reaction when I got to the revealer and was able to splatz NINE into place.
Is it too coincidental that this morning I woke up with (and I almost always wake up with a song in my head) the super-obnoxious Cars4Kids jingle in my head, a phone number? Now I'm joyous to exchange that horrible earworm for 867-5309! I can understand @Nancy's reaction to the song but it is catchy and that's the problem. I was in my last year of college in 1982 and was listening to that genre of music so it's a blast from the past for me.
And, @Nancy, I had the same experience up at 6D/14A/17A. THE SOaP went in first, but I was pretty sure 17A was going to have to be EIGHT BIT so I changed 14A by adding the U and lucked out. I was totally ignorant of the TUBES analogy for the internet - guess I'll have to follow the link.
Ted CHIANG - I was stunned to read the clue for 2D and find I had no idea who that was. I love science fiction and here was a four-time Hugo winner I was unacquainted with? But I see he has written short stories almost exclusively - I don't like short stories because either the character development is short-shrifted or I just get to liking them and the story is done. Give me a 7-book series, 500 pages each, any day. But I did love the movie, Arrival so maybe I'll have to check out his short stories.
Thanks, Chris and Adam, very nice!
Like the music or not, the song Jenny captures the mind of a youthful Rex, fantasizing about the perfect crossword that will meet all of his criteria: current, up his alley, and politically correct in every way. The young lad reads on the bathroom stall "for a perfect XW, call..." and dreams nonstop about how he will solve this 15x15 grid in under 2 minutes, blog about its exquisite construction and the flashy reveal...and of course reality sets in and we get the usual rant.
@ Nancy 11:35
But isn't it sort of fun to learn about a bit of pop lore culture that is immediately recognizable to, I'm guessing, folks born between, say 1950 - 1970? After all, it was a #1 hit, had ubiquitous airplay, and was on the charts for half of 1982. And generated a lot of phone calls. Now, if you were born prior to 1950, I can see why you may not have heard of it, but still, there's the joy of learning a little pop trivia! If you were born within that 20-year time frame but never heard the song, then I'd wager you were living a somewhat sheltered life! lol
@jp flanigan. If an atom with an unbalanced charge is not a "miniscule particle", what size is it? Atomic sounds redundant, subatomic would be incorrect by definition, small or tiny don't seem to apply since they are "submicroscopic" as well. I may have slept my way through PCHEM class that day.
I could not believe that I could be wrong about what all those words mean. So I looked each one up and only “bemused” means something other than what I thought. All the others mean exactly what I thought. BTW, enormity, factoid, and peruse mean both what you think and what you don’t think. Read definitions two and three for each.
What do people think “penultimate” means? Last? When you have a word for something, why would you add a syllable that just means exactly the same thing?
I'm a little older than Rex, but who could forget that earworm?! Didn't remember the order of the numbers, but had fun sussing them out. I got slowed down by NINE WEST because I didn't read the clue propoerly and kept trying to get Nordstrom or Niemann Marcus to fit even though they clearly didn't.
I read tons of Sci-fi and did see "Arrival", but that did not help me come up with CHIANG's name. Something else to add to the ever growing to-read list.
At least our singer had a phone number unlike the guy who couldn't get in touch with his Marie. Memphis, Tennessee
@Thane of 13h, Irregardless of what anyone says, you're right.
I’d categorize an ion as a minuscule charged particle…..
@Anon 1:21 – What's a citric? And @Joaquin didn't like it either.
Anyway, I don't know about you, but this puzzle put me in the mood for more cheesy early-80's songs!
TUBES!
INNUENDOS!
Ugh. Thanks to the person who explained "series of tubes," which was apparently insufficiently notorious for me to be familiar with it. Never heard of the E! show either, so "soup" and "tubes" did not Natick me. But BOTH clues are not "Wednesday" level, and both "the soup" and " tubes" can be clued without resorting to a fairly obscure talk show. How about "Holland, Lincoln, and Hugh Carey, for example"? But I did complete the puzzle. At which point I had no idea whatever what "Jenny" has to do with it. Only "Jenny" song I know was sung by Nat King Cole. Also never heard of Vevo, or Billie Eilish, but since I have lived in a pretty much pop culture free environment, I have to expect a few culturally distant clues. However, upon completion of a themed puzzle, one should be able to figure out what the theme was.
IIRC, the original show was "Talk Soup" emceed by some guys who became famous in that genre (not that I recall or care), and then left for some reasons, and became "The Soup".
I was busy in 1982, I guess. This is my first introduction to Jenny. Hi, Jenny.
OK, I'm old. I have never heard that song, and all I could think of was "My number's BEEchwood 4-5709 [not sure about that 4], you can call me up and have a date, any old time." I don't think we ever learn her name, though, so I need almost all the crosses.
Other than that, fine puzzle -- except maybe for ATT, which I just noticed. Using an acronym to clue an abbreviation, and not even the standard abbreviation, is just a little much.
100 comments, and I have a meeting -- I'll try to come back later.
I finished with an error. It turned out I had somehow spelled ION with a zero! Oh the iony... I mean irony! That I would do that on a puzzle with this particular theme. I never realized the two keys were so close together.
In local heat dome news, yesterday it was 47 C / 117 F in Kamloops BC, where I grew up. And 49.5 C / 121 F in the little town of Lytton. Help! our igloos are melting.
I was alive but grown up in 1982, and don't think I ever listened to this song all the way through until today. It still sucks. Puzzle was basically a Meh for me. Because the reveal of the numbers meant absolutely nothing. I know I am going against the grain here because so many of you know this song, but I long for puzzles built on knowledge in the common cannon of the educated homo sapiens. This ain't it. Thank god I knew GWEN Stefani and EMO POP and ISHMAEL (which is in the common cannon).
@Catchy tune -- I doubt my moderately priced Asus laptop is world-famous for the sound quality of its speakers, but still, some of what I hear on YouTube has sound quality that seems almost as good as a vinyl LP and some songs sound like chalk on a blackboard. So you can't completely blame my laptop.
I think it must have something to do with how the song was recorded. Maybe also how long ago. Sometimes one version of, say, a symphony sounds gorgeous and another version sounds dreadful. But the pop songs often seem to be the worst -- especially those that are rhythm-driven rather than melody-driven.
Just wondering: A lot of you listened to the JENNY song today. Was it tinny for you, too, or was the sound quality pleasant? I'm curious. You see, my very-musical-brother suggested that I get some sort of special sound bar to attach to my computer in order to get better sound, and I thought it was an unnecessary expense and also that yet again another gadget would take up too much room on my desk.
Sounds like Jimmy Two Times but MORESO.
Ish trailer?
THREEPEAT (my initial spelling was wrong BTW)
MAEL (just cuz)
A ton of esses and many plurals. Will does pay attention? Or is it the constructors who do?
My favorite song phone line: the phone's still not ringin', so I know its still not you.
Where does BOXIN' come before Day? Talk about INNUENDO. In the OED or in OCANADA.
@Anonymous yesterday. This Anatole dude is pretty ballsy. I have been crediting Voltaire with that quote for 4 decades. I've read Penguin Island. He didn't mention it in there. He did say:
Men who do not love women are the ones who are interested in women's clothes. Men who love women never notice what they wear.
Of all sexual perversions, chastity is the strangest.
What people are most scared of in a madman is his sane conversation.
The best sentence? The shortest.
Men do not know what to do with their short life, yet yearn for another eternal life after it.
The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.
Anatole France
If this song ever came on the radio, I switched stations quickly. So I never heard more than a verse. Guess I'm the wrong age, but it would be great to have a better song as the basis for a puzzle.
@Anonymous (10:30) LOL. You were the only one quick enough to notice my faux pas because it was only 12 minutes before I did. No excuse other than not enough coffee yet or maybe just another of my many senior moments.
@me502pm
Add to the esses remark:but only 1 double POC.
I was somewhat serious about Will or the constuctors paying attention.
Hated TWEENER. Initially had preteen for that clue. Who says that?
I worked from the bottom up because I wanted to see the woman’s name. Got it and didn’t know it, but after NINE WEST and O CANADA I knew to look for numbers, which gave me a leg up on THREEPEAT and FIVEGUYS.
Liked SEVEN SEAS splashing on the ISLE. Crossing MER. Too hot for WARM/STEWS right now. SHY AWAY INVOKES horses. I love horses but I remember this frustrating feeling.
This puzzle is just full of interesting material. Nice mix of sciency terms - ISOMERS, ION, TUBES, ARC, EIGHT BIT, ENIAC - with artsy stuff - SCRIPT (actually could go both ways), CHIANG, ISHMAEL, SOLO, VENUES, ARIA, ASIDE, INNUENDO. HIS Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels involving parallel universes. One is called The Subtle KNIFE: we have KNIFE crossed by SNEAKS. Coincidence?
“Bring up” for INVOKE was the only HUNH? for me. Are we talking bringing a thing/person/demon physically up? Out of the depths? No, thank you; I’ll EVADE (steer clear of) that SPAT.
From yesterday,
1. I learned how to spell Stacey Abrams: add an e, hold the h. Sheees!
2. I Linked Leroy Andersen’s Syncopated Clock because of “tock-tick” but also it was his birthday.
Latvian composer Pauls Dambis is 84 today. Never heard of him, or Tommy Tutone, before today. I’ll take Dambis. I was actually drawn to his plural-looking name. And Tommy Tutone is a group.
Missing Barbara 's posts yesterday and today.
I was also 30 in 1982! I say that my "80's music" was Disney's "Going Quackers," as I raised my sons born '83 and '86. But I somehow know 867-5309 and loved getting the theme and singing along. Fun!!
In my day, “Pennsylvania 65-000…” 😂
Love it!
You know he lives after the first sentence: My name is Ishmael. So maybe not a huge spoiler.
I coulda sworn it was 867-5409. I think my brain confused it with the Junior Samples bit on "Hee Haw:" "And the number to call is BR-549." However, the Bulls' THREEPEATS are legendary, so there was no question.
For a moment I also confused JENNY with Ricky ("don't lose that number"). Wait till YOU're 81 and see if you don't fog up now and again. But all got straightened out, despite my never having heard of Ted CHIANG, EID, or VEVO (wrote in tiVO for my only inkblot).
I won't say I HATEDIT; in fact I thought it was kinda CUTE. So is TEALEONI, our DOD. @doghairstew: the line is "Call me ISHMAEL," but you're right. Dead giveaway. I have to admit I love hearing OCANADA, and think it's a much better anthem than the one we have. Yikes, you almost have to have a three-octave range to even sing ours! Fun theme, and some cool fill. Birdie.
P.S. Can Nelly Korda pull off an Olympic double for the USA? Go Nelly!
P.S. II: Time to wake up the syndilinker again. He's been asleep since Friday, and the syndi-date is about to go to the next month. WAKE UP!!!
The ENERVATE-VEVO crossing almost got me but I guessed right (with the V). Archaic crossing with obscure tech lingo is a big no-no. Maybe the constraints of the theme are to blame but the editor should have retooled that SW corner.
ANEW SCRIPT
INVOKE INNUENDO, an IMPASSE with JENNY you’ll miss,
SHE has such an EGO, SHE won’t SHYAWAY from a KISS.
--- ISHMAEL CHIANG
Definite earworm for the day. Ex-wife had a name close enough to JENNY and our number at the time sorta fit and rhymed (9 at end instead of 5) so I can still remember that number from 40 years ago. Really pissed her off when inserting name and number.
A fully spelled TEALEONI, yeah baby.
Fun puz when memories INVOKEd..
So JENNY “can be reached” via the phone number 867-5309? That’s It? Saw that it hooked (ha!) up that way after coming here.
A quirky and off-beat puzzle, not especially STUNning but CUTE enough.
JENNY and her phone number were totally new to me. Maybe because in the EIGHTies I lived in Alaska, a bit too far out of touch with the lower forty-EIGHT pop-culture of the time. (Then again, maybe not.)
Aaargh! I keep doing this - solving and then forgetting to post.
Lotsa triumph points for me today, with the PPP et. al. And seeing it come together was fun.
@Spacey - you'll notice that when OFL has a substitute in Crossword FutureLand (often on Mondays) that the sub doesn't apparently know how to clue in the SyndieCats. Hence the search for Syndication answers.
Diana, Lady, but don't call me JENNY or ISHMAEL
I found the puzzle a little tough. That is because I never heard of Jenny, 867-5309 and I certainly never heard of Tommy Tutone. Are these things actually real? Or something from a cartoon? Managed to solve it as an un-themed puzzle.
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