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Old Apple image-editing software / TUE 7-27-21 / Verdi opera set in Cyprus / B-52s hit named by Rolling Stone as the best single of 1989 / R&B singer with hyphenated stage name / Chinese steamed bun
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Constructor: Jennifer Lee and Victor Galson
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (3:16)
Theme answers:
Despite the unwelcome return of IPHOTO (what is even happening, why is this bygone i-word haunting my grids!?), I really enjoyed this theme. That is, I had no idea what the theme was, but the solving experience was pretty decent and FACE RECOGNITION was a pretty snazzy answer (despite its dystopian / surveillance state associations), so I was happily along for the ride, waiting to see what I would find when I went back at puzzle's end to figure out the theme. Before figuring out the theme, my impressions were "grid was kinda choppy, kinda fussy to navigate, seemed heavy on short stuff, but the fill was decent, and the longer Downs were fun and original ("LOVE SHACK!"), so let's hope this theme doesn't ruin everything." And then I looked at FACE RECOGNITION, took one look at the themers, and had Nothing. Didn't get it. Then I reread the clue and took another pass, and bam, there it was, plain as the nose (and other elements) on your face. Eyes ears nose lips. My favorite part of the theme was that my figuring out the theme was built into the theme itself; that is, I had to engage in FACE RECOGNITION in order to see the theme at all. My only complaint about the theme is that I think the term is more commonly known as FACIAL RECOGNITION. That is what the term wants to be in my head, what my brain wants the term to be. The wikipedia entry is for "Facial Recognition System." But a quick couple of google searches reveals that FACE and FACIAL are used pretty interchangeably out there, so judges say: no foul.
- REVITALIZE (eyes) (16A: Inject new life into)
- ENGINEERS (ears) (24A: Bridge and highway designers)
- VOLCANOES (nose) (44A: Hawaii ___ National Park)
- APOCALYPSE (lips) (57A: End of the world)
Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player for the Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division of women's professional soccer in the United States, and the United States women's national soccer team. She co-captained the United States women's national soccer team with Carli Lloyd and Megan Rapinoe from 2018 to 2020. (wikipedia)
• • •
Looking back over the grid, it does have a lot of overfamiliar short stuff. I think it was less of an annoyance / distraction today because the cluing was decent, the themers were decent, the revealer was bright and original, and the long Downs really popped. As I've said a billion times (in different ways), when your marquee stuff is humming and your clues and fill aren't making solvers actually wince, no one's going to notice or care about the short fill too much, even if you've got an EENY-NE-YO-ASTO pocket or two. There weren't many places that caused significant hesitation on my part, so sometimes you're just going too fast to notice any infelicities, I guess. I knew Kevin NEALON but was not entirely sure of that last vowel in his name, so I left it blank at first (31A: Kevin once of "S.N.L."). I thought ALEX was ABBY (confusing my soccer stars). When I got to TRY TO ___, I wanted that last word to be BREATHE, but, for obvious reasons, it wasn't, so I needed a cross or two to get RELAX (17D: "Take a deep breath ..."). I had METE before DOLE (in part because I came into that section from underneath and had the "E" in place first—the only letter those two words share) (34D: Portion (out)). I am happy the puzzle is continuing to clue RONA as Jaffe and not the damn disease (I saw a puzzle try to get cute with 'RONA, cluing it as slang for the virus, and my response to that is, please, constructors and editors, I am begging you, read the room). I finished in the NW, which is a slightly weird place to finish an easy puzzle—I'm almost always down at the bottom, especially on the fast days. But this one just swung me in a "U" shape, down the west and back up the east. Played myself out with the CORNET, a musical end to a brisk, lively puzzle.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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67 comments:
The constructors had me at the cross of DELVE and BELIE, two most lovely words, and sealed the deal with the terrific NYT debut answer TRY TO RELAX. They furthered my enjoyment by giving me a couple of areas of resistance, a treat on a Tuesday, and brought out a “Hah!” with those facial sound-alikes.
Then there were a trio of post-solve pop-outs:
• The PuzzPair© of PAD and ABODE.
• The three answers that would have qualified for the theme had it not been restricted to the face: EENY, EBONY, and OCEAN, two knees and a shin.
• The non-name answers that could serve as well-known surnames: George RAFT, Billy OCEAN, Perry COMO, Oliver SACKS, Doris DAY, Bob DOLE, Carl ROVE.
So the hits just kept coming for me, making for a terrific experience. WTG on your debut, Jennifer and Victor, and thank you for this!
I'm up early drinking a cup of ginger tea but I'll be slipping back into bed in a few minutes. There aren't any comments posted yet.
I had a nice time solving. Cute theme, well executed. Sparkly, especially for a Tuesday. Only an average number of threes. Instructive cluing.
Good job!
Fun puzzle with an original theme. Good job of finding all those face parts with different spellings, which I caught onto pretty early, as I was going south down the west coast and ran into FACERECOGNITION early in the game.
Probably a wheelhouse thing, but the only two answers that were not the first things I thought of were BADU and NEYO, whoever they are. Could add DAWG and CAGY, I guess, as they were clued vaguely enough to require crosses. I had to go back and check some clues as I was doing a one-directional solve pretty often and didn't need the crosses, and wanted to see if there were some more fun clues. That kind of a day.
LOVESHACK is a great song but the one that always makes me smile even more is ROCKLOBSTER. You never forget your first love, I guess.
Nice Tuesdecito and congrats on a fine debut, JL and VG. Played Just Like a Very Good Tuesday, for which thanks.
Coincidence that the face parts are even correctly arranged from top to bottom or not?
Fun puzzle. Theme is elegant in its simplicity. Like how the facial features are in the correct physical placement. Start with REVITALIZE and end with APOCALYPSE and include VOLCANOES in between is fantastic. ENGINEERS is a personal favorite for me. Some short glue - but easily overlooked.
A little side eye to the clue for 29d - as it could refer to the lead off of a base. At first I was looking for something that included step or similar.
An enjoyable Tuesday solve.
Theme was great. Had trouble with NEALON/ONERUN.
If we're working on ensuring that our crosswords aren't wildly racist, let's get rid of EENY. "Counting rhyme"?!?! What were they counting? Enslaved people. And this isn't some ancient relic. Even my mom (born in the '50s in Massachusetts) grew up where "tiger" wasn't tiger....
A fun and original theme. Generally, puzzles relying on pronunciation are a really bad idea due to regional variation, but this one seems fairly safe. Sure, there will be places where, say, ENGINEERS has an unusual pronunciation, but those places will generally pronounce ‘ears’ the same way.
Nice that the themers are in the same order as a face. And the fill is very good overall.
I do have do disagree with Rex about the long downs. LOVE SHACK of course is great. UNFAITHFUL is nice. But FILE TYPES and TRY TO RELAX just kind of sit there.
Thx, Jennifer & Victor; enjoyed your offering! :)
Med solve.
Good start in the NW; moved east, then down, ending up at NE-YO
Overall, a very satisfying experience and result. :)
EBONY and Ivory ~ Stevie Wonder & Paul McCartney
@jae
My experience echoed yours exactly. I finally realized what I needed in the NW! A couple of SB words really provided a _ _ _. 😉 See you next Mon. :)
___
yd 0
Peace 🕊~ Empathy ~ Tolerance ~ Health ~ Kindness to all ~ Woof (good DAWG!) 🐶
Felt difficult while I was solving somehow, but came in well under my average time. Really enjoyed the theme.
Ha, the CORNET was my first musical instrument (after the mandatory year of the recorder in the 4th grade -- recorder as in the wind instrument). I think I still remember the fingering for the C major SCALE on the CORNET. Cross with OBOE -- cute.
A well-executed puzzle (and nice to see Rex in a good mood). APOCALYPSE is a neat word whose etymology I'll study later (obviously from the Greek, but I don't know how it breaks down). Good call btw by @Kevin 7:22AM.
I hadn't heard of RONA as short for "the coronavirus". Ya know, there are many coronaviruses. Some are responsible for the common cold. So it's just a wee bit inaccurate to say "the" coronavirus, even if it's obvious what it meant. Similarly, people say "the Wiki", suggesting they don't know there are many, many wikis. If you're a pedant like me and want to disambiguate, you can call it WP.
That's it for now. Yet another college visit. Gotta get cracking. I'll see about finishing up SB later. (yd 0 -- my last was a very common 4-letter word which I must have thought I put in there already. That's the worst way one can DNF on the SB, but luckily I caught myself.)
Just a few seconds longer than yesterday's puzzle without really trying, but what a fun revealer and clever theme!
(And I doubt it would have made sense - to me) - without a revealer.)
Plus, APOCALYPSE opens the imaginary door to this quippet:
In the not-too-distant future, a pandemic is unleashed by ticks that live on and around the mouths of alpacas.
Global chaos ensues.
The disease wipes out 99% of humanity, and the desperate survivors are forced to live in a post-alpaca lip tick wasteland.
I'll show myself out.
🧠
🎉🎉.75
Blrrrgh - FACial RECOGNITION is the technology, FACE RECOGNITION is what the technology does. I don’t know how to rewrite the clue without turning it into an essay, but the clue chafes. Yeah Yeah, the clue isn’t “wrong.” Tell that to the itchy niggle I got when I ran out of grid space and had to “fix” my “wrong” answer.
Hand up for getting the theme at REVITALIZE and the C of FACE. Yep, not even a quarter done and the theme ship had sailed. Then reading that Rex didn’t catch on until post solve was a great ego boost.
IPHOTO is dated. But isn’t MALL even dateder? In 2021 aren’t shopaholics inundated with Amazon Prime boxes? We’ve gone from downtowns to MALLs to sitting on our arses and eshopping in my lifetime. I figure we’re about three years away from being reminded that we are inherently social creatures and all this touchless shopping and transformative work from home office innovations has resulted in a marked increase in depression and suicide. Being an old fogey I still do most of my shopping in person, but I can’t remember the last time I was inside a MALL. I did just recently buy some clothes at the “Asheville Outlet MALL,” but the place is a MALL in name only, since shoppers are exposed to the elements as they walk from store to store. At any rate, I filled in 1A and wondered how long this puzzle was sitting in Shortz’s drawer. The theme is fairly modern, but sci fi fans have been reading about FACE RECOGNITION technology for a few decades, now, so I’m still not convinced this puzzle hasn’t been waiting for a few years to be published.
Still, a fun solve. 👍🏽👍🏽
One of the best - if not the best - Tuesday in a long time. And a debut to boot. Nice job Jennifer and Victor!
@Jess - Born in 1960 and raised in west Michigan. The first version I learned also did not mention tigers. Does that version still exist anywhere? Sadly, it probably does.
@Frantic Sloth - Awful. Just Awful. 🤣😂🤣😂🤣
@kitshef - I’m with you on FILE TYPES, but I like TRY TO RELAX. De gustibus and all that.
@TTrimble - Maybe a wee bit inaccurate in the technical sense, but if anyone says to you “How are you managing with the ‘RONA?” you are going to understand that they are not asking you about your cold.
It seems like every day the evidence mounts that the times have passed me by (probably with a good deal of gusto, I might add) - wow, NEYO, BADU and NEALON are actually names of real (and apparently somewhat well-known) people. I think I am definitely PPP-challenged. Gotta work the crosses and hope for the best.
The clue for EENY seems a little contrived (counting-out rhyme ?) - I understand what the clue is and means, it just sounds weird to the ear (maybe because counting seems to connote a numerical component, or perhaps I am overly dissecting things a la OFL with the themes on pretty much a daily basis).
@Z 8:44 - Agree on MALL. Wanted eBay there.
@Z
Did I not already say that? (Actually, I referred to "the coronavirus". I've never heard anyone say 'RONA. Thank God.)
Hey All !
Does my phone not recognizing my face a problem?
Har. I actually don't have that option on my Android.
Pretty neat sound-alike puz. Those IZE, those EERS, that NOES, those LYPSE!. Isn't that a song or something?
Liked the two 10 letter Downs. The 9's weren't too shabby either. Each 10 went through 3 themers! And not too bad on the dreck. Good job, you two! Another debut, dang, almost makes me want to submit a puz again.
Chuckled when I had IPHO__, and shrieked, "IPHOTO!" Thanks, previous puzs.
"Hey, DAWG, you're FAT, not LANKY"
"You're a HOLE, I AM NOT!"
/scene
😁
THREES, could've clued as "@mathgents bane".
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Frantic, Post of the day! I have no words 😂.
Except these. Volcanoes, the Apocalypse. Here's an Ice Axe, a Seal, and some Tape. Try To Relax. That's exciting stuff for a Tuesday. The constructors are "emergency medicine physicians who live and work together," according to Xword Info. They each probably say, "Try To Relax" daily.
Resisted Face Recognition for about 30 seconds as I wandered around wanting to use Facial Recognition. Struggled with Nealon spelling for a couple more seconds. Completely missed the theme but it's genius.
Monday/Tuesday can be both entry level and entertaining. If you want to lure beginners, yesterday and today should be the standard.
Agree with @Z on Mall. What with Amazon's willingness to send a truck to your house to deliver a box of toothpicks and Facebook's mission to create community, no worries about the future right? Right.
@Southside, Kevin Nealon retired from SNL 26 years ago. You might actually be too young.
I thought of soLVE and was pleased when when DELVE was IDed instead.
I went looking for spare body parts and found a toe, a knee and a pair of ears. The first two are not facial and the third is the actual word, so not like the theme answers. I'm not particularly sensitive to such things but I know some are.
I thought Rex would mention the "facial" issue and was surprised when he didn't jump on it right away. I noticed the theme with ENGINEERS and FACE RECOGNITION, so the aha moment wasn't quite as good for me. The vagaries of solving often determine the aha effect. Nice touch using homophones.
@Kevin
I have no belief in coincidence in this case. Location of body parts: Two eyes in the center, ears far to the right, nose below in the center, and lips below on the far to the right. Not bad for a crossword or a Picasso. Half profile. Half face on?
Good tuesday. A bit harder than yesterday.
@Nancy
Can we get your top 4 Agatha's?
I enjoyed the puzzle, although the number of names unknown to me doesn't bode well were the debut constructors to create a more difficult puzzle. I hope they get that trait out of the way quickly.
I will admit to missing the theme. I didn't realize what it was until I visited XWordInfo before coming here. At which point I started thinking that when looking at a half filled glass, some will call it half full and some half empty. Then I considered FACIAL RECOGNITION and understand better the differing outlook of Chen and Sharp.
And yes, Z is correct about FACIAL RECOGNITION. And the difference between a shopping center and a mall. Yonkers had one of the first shopping centers in the country (Cross County Shopping Center) built in the '50s. More recently, the Cross County Mall abuts the shopping center. And most of the other places to shop in Yonkers are shopping centers, not malls. I guess, somewhat similar to San Diego except that it precipitates a lot more in Yonkers than San Diego. All of which has nothing to do with a crossword puzzle.
Yeah, great theme, I loved how the face parts were disguised, and all hidden in single words. Plus I learned that Hawaii has a VOLCANOES National Park.
CORNET not only crosses OBOE, but is placed symmetrically to SCALES, so the instrumentalist is dutifully practicing.
But why are there quotation marks in the clue for 56A? SEALs do clap, I've heard them. They don't applaud, though. And they never give standing ovations.
@frantic
Please do.
My thunder has been stolen with earlier comments about face parts in order from N to S, and the mall being outdated.
Infernal paper towel jingles made me want to spell the trumpet relative CORoNET. (looks it up on youtube). OMG, that was Rosemary Clooney singing "Extra Value is what you get when you buy coronet" Interestingly, the jingle starts with a trumpet lick:)
@Southside - just to make you feel even worse:), Kevin Nealon was on SNL from '86 to '95. We all have our wheelhouses (and outhouses?).
Never heard of the tiger metaphor angle. Definitely did that version growing up in NC to determine who was "it" for a game of tag. Yikes! The horrors of childhood game chants - "Ring around the rosy, anyone?" At least I knew that one was about the plague.
I'm trying to figure out how Rex ended in the NW since he avers that it is his normal starting strategy and those are the only clues across the top that are dirt easy. DAWG, CAGY, BELIE, OBOE all needed some crossing confirmation.
I always think of ADOBE ABODES whenever I see either word.
I filled it in and then I looked at the finished grid blankly. I didn't get it.
Look, you fill your puzzle chock-full of all those techie/computer/app-y words and phrases like I PHOTO and EXE and PDF/JPEG and all those other things that prove you inhabit a completely different world from the world that I inhabit, and I'm not going to be looking for homophones. Homophones exist in the real world, not the virtual world, and this seemed to be entirely about the virtual world. An ALIZE or a NEERS or a YPSE didn't seem any more ALIEN to me than an EXE or a JPEG. I thought they were maybe some sort of FILE TYPES that had something to do with FACIAL RECOGNITION.
If this same theme could have been embedded in a puzzle that was less aggressively techie I would have liked it a lot more. Heck -- I might even have recognized the homophones.
@Z 859am Don't blame me - I'm just the messenger! Okay, I guess you can blame me a little - didn't make the flag, but I did run it up the pole. There's that word again.
@JD 929am Thanks, but I can't take credit(?) - just grabbed it. Question: In your scenario, how does the SEAL help? Morale-boosting applause? 😉
@Z, @JD and anyone else concerned about isolation plague. Look on the bright side - if recent history is any bellwether, our future is bright with compassion, empathy, and refinement.
@albie 935am Picasso! 🤣 944am At least you said "please". 😊
I kinda feel sorry for anyone who figured out the theme mid- or early-solve. Sometimes being obtuse can result in delightful surprises. Just ask the constant, stupid smile on my face.
I'm off! Back later? Mayhaps.
Such a clever theme. It's rare that I agree with Rex's assessment of a puz, but we were pretty much on the same page - -
Unlike Z, I was not bothered in the least by the FACE/FACIAL issue. While FACIAL recognition might be by far the more common term, sometimes the constructor just has certain constraints to work with.
This was as snazzy a Tuesday as I've seen in a long time.
As far as EENY, I'm guessing the constructor and editors were not aware of the racial underpinnings of the rhyme. I certainly wasn't. Perhaps I should have been. But let's not impute deliberate racism on their part.
@Z, Re Facial v. Face. A clue isn't a definition. It's the faint aroma of ... eh never mind. My battery's low today. Plus, I agree.
Agree on the fun and the cleverness of the theme. With the reveal in place, I looked back to discover the IZE and EERS, then missed out on the pleasure of putting my finger on the NOES (I knew the name of the park so wrote it right in without thinking about the theme) but regained my footing at the end by getting APOCALYPSE from the C...along with a big smile.
Trouble spot: the cross of LOVE SH?CK and NE?LON, as both an "a" and an "o" seemed possible. Help from previous puzzles: BADU. No idea: NEYO.
For @albatross shell (9:35) --
My top Agatha Christie recommendations:
THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE
WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (a short story turned into a play and a film)
(These are three classics out of her top drawer that no one in the world will argue with. Start there. And if you've never seen the film, you must!)
Now, here are some of my own personal faves:
A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED
FUNERALS ARE FATAL
ENDLESS NIGHT
EVIL UNDER THE SUN
THE MIRROR CRACK'D
CURTAIN (Read last)
But I never read any Christie I didn't love until she reached her dotage years. To be avoided: POSTERN OF FATE; SLEEPING MURDER; ELEPHANTS CAN REMEMBER and HALLOWEEN PARTY (or something like that.) CURTAIN, which was published posthumously, was written decades before her death and kept in the vault. It was from her prime writing years and bears no relationship to the novels written late in her life.
GEE WIZ! An exceptionally good Tuesday I thought as I solved without paying the slightest bit of attention to the theme answers. But then when I looked back and realized what they represented and how they were placed in anatomical order, my FACE went from oh, okay to wow! And it’s even a POW! Big congratulations to both constructors for a dazzling debut.
DAWG seems like an expression pretty much limited to dudes. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be a friend, just as long as it’s another dude.
Yes...I also engaged in FACE RECOGNITION in order to glean this wonderful theme. Oh, I see....the IZE have it. Cool frijoles. MOMA is happy and so is @Rex.
I had a moment of "can this really be an answer?"....For 27A I had IP FOTO. I did. I didn't know the B-52 song at 3D. I didn't know Kevin NE LON. What letter goes in there? So I had LOVES (blank blank) CK. Can that really be an FU? No...no it can't. Nobody says that word. A get up and get yourself some coffee moment. Oh for goodness sakes, it's I PHOTO. I'm still not sure about the LOVES HACK ut it makes more sense.
I saw the movie "APOCALYPSE Now" many moons ago and it made me very sad. I watched it because everyone told me to and the actors in it were incredible. It doesn't fit into my "I'll watch it again" category, but it sure won lots of awards.
I agree on MALL being kinda oldie moldy. I haven't been to one in years. I've read that some that have closed are being transformed into homeless shelters. Good for that. Others just remain eye sores. Sad. On the other hand, I don't know what I'd do without Amazon. I run out of something that I can't find at my local store; Amazon has, it and it's at my door the next day. Progress, my friends.
@Frantic: My giggle buttons are running out of room. I will never e able to look at an alpaca again without thinking of lip ticks......:-)
As a young'un I heard mostly the tiger version. My parents, innocently or on purpose, made sure I knew the tiger version. The other version was a bit more common in Vienna VA than Inkster MI (moved age 7). Suburban NJ somewhere in between, usually the same 3 or 4 kids. Never realized until college how certain people's stomachs must of tightened when that rhyme began. Bad or really bad?
My guess is @Unknown is a lot younger than me. If that is true, I'll choose to take it as a good sign.
Best Tuesday ever. I wish I had amnesia so I could do it again.
Medium-tough. Misspelling NEALON and APOCALYPSE didn’t help. A great post solve aha moment. Liked it a bunch and Xwordinfo gave it POW. Excellent debut!
M&A had some Theme Recognition problems, today. Heckuva ahar moment, once U finally get it, tho.
STREETURCHIN RIDESHARE also often contributes to them FACERECOGNITIONs, btw.
staff weeject pick: EXE. Hard to beat a palindromic(al) weeject with scrabble points.
Lotsa neat longball fillins in this puppy. faves included: LOVESHACK. TRYTORELAX. UNFAITHFUL.
M&A was unaware that there was any such thing as a BADU, tho.
Thanx for gangin up on us, and congratz on yer double debut, JL & VG. Great job.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Oh great, the POW has already been awarded ? And it's a Tuesday ? Sheesh...
What are we geezers supposed to do with such 'themes'??? We dint get our book larnin with fonicks!!! Jist spell the darn word.
My husband and I used to sing LOVE SHACK at karaoke but after a while it became too predictable so one time we switched parts - I sang Fred's and he sang Kate's. It was a hit! But an even bigger hit is when we do Rock Lobster, and I hit all of the high notes of the outro. Lots of fun.
I was one who needed an explanation of how the theme answers fit the theme. Seems as obvious as the noes on my face now but...
Thanks, Jennifer and Victor and congrats on the debut.
@Nancy, I have been rereading my Christie Collection, and pretty much agree with your choices. But I think one of my favorites is The Pale Horse. No Marple, no Poirot, and Mrs. Oliver makes only a cameo appearance. I remember how impressed I was the first time I read it.
Now I do like Hallowe'em Party, unlike some. And though it is easy for me to get tired of M. Poirot, I am never tired of Ms. Marple. Well, almost never. I found At Bertram's Hotel just a bit too unbelievable. Ms. Marple is at her best in a village, or, to be sure, in the Caribbean.
As for EENY, the street I lived on in the Westwood Hills near UCLA was entirely to genteel to catch the toe of anything other than a tiger. Use of the N-word would have resulted in mouths being washed out with soap, and I think I never heard that version until I was an adult.
Like OFL, I knew there was a theme, but did not figure it out until long after the puzzle was done. At which point, I said "Bravo!" It is a real plus to learn the constructors are emergency physicians.
I'm curious when @Nancy 10:00am was born.
I'm going to guess during the Eisenhower administration.
But I could be wrong.
What comes across as "aggressively techie" for her is fairly mundane for many of us.
I could certainly see my elderly mother struggling with some of the clues, but she's pretty darn old. The reality is we live in a tech-dominated world. The constructors are merely acknowledging that.
I think some have missed the boat on FACERECOGNITION. Note that “Facere” is the Latin root for Do or Make . So the answer acually means Do Cognition. Smart phones Do Cognition. Lhasa apso, the clue is correct.
This was a wonderful theme, decently executed.
@old timer--I envy you your Westwood Hills upbringing.. I grew up with the old fashioned version and learned the "tiger" one in adolescence. And it makes me shudder to think about what we called Brazil nuts. We age, we learn....
I think I didn't hit publish...
Very clever puzzle, and on a Tuesday at that! Tuesday deserves this kind of respect. It even got Rex’s respect! Agreed with him mostly, but I never considered FACial - sounds overly formal.
Impressive feat by the ENGINEERS to REVITALIZE the bridges after the APOCALYPSE of the VOLCANOES.
One writeover at ROam for ROVE, the idea of which I was savoring until I thought of it as a name. Now I have to mentally reorient back to wandering mode.
The “take a deep breath” TRY TO RELAX combo conjured up images of a performer, maybe an OBOE soloist or an Olympic athlete. Being steadied by a friendly hand on the shoulder before putting yourself out there can make a huge difference.
Brass instrument/plumbing discussion alert! The crucial difference between a CORNET and a trumpet is the shape of the tube, or bore. Trumpets have a cylindrical bore, yielding the more brilliant tone, whereas cornets are conical, and sound mellower. Tubas, horns and euphoniums are also conical. Trombones and baritones are cylindrical.
George Onslow, a French composer of English descent, called by some “the French Beethoven,” was born July 27, 1784. The OBOE is one of the instruments featured in this engaging chamber work. If you don’t have a half hour, the timings of the movements are :
0:02 Allegro moderato
10:38 Scherzo - Vivace
16:39 Andante - molto cantabile e grazioso
24:13 Finale - Allegretto
@egs - Bravo! thought you were serious for half a minute there until the Dawg outtro.
@pabloinnh:
We age, we learn....
There are those in the psych- disciplines who assert that kids are born mean and have to be contained by adults. For a long time. "The Lord of the Flies", and the like.
@Nancy: You and I have shared our common enjoyments and one of the first was our love of Agatha Christie. I've read all of her books and re-read several and if they were made into movies, watched and re-watched them.
My absolute favorite was "And then There Were None." I first read it as "Ten Little Niggers." I read it when I was still living in Cuba and had no inkling whatsoever what "Niggers" meant in the United States and elsewhere. I don't thing Agatha did either. I'm glad the name got changed but it doesn't change the fact that I believe it was her finest book ever.
Face Recognition reminds me of on January 7th, a rag called the Washington Times, ran an article that a Face Recognition company identified "Antifa" in the crowd. This was then shared a million times, including by a Senator on the Congress floor.
The company said they absolutely did not find that!! Then the following day, the rag printed a Whoops Sorry Not True, which no one saw, and the damage was already done.
Love Ru Paul in the Love Shack video.
@Unknown (1:22) -- Thanks for the compliment re DOB presidential administrations. You put me in the wrong one, but let's avoid all unnecessary specifics. I'm feeling extremely youthful right now and I thank you.
Here's the thing. When you've lived most of your life in a non-techie, gadget-free world, you can see -- better perhaps than those who know no other world at all -- the awful tradeoffs of living in a world that often seems to be all-tech all the time.
What kind of life is it to have your IZE on some screen or other all the time?
What kind of life is it to have your NOES buried in one gadget or other all the time?
And if your entire contact with others is virtual -- never in person or even on the phone unless you're texting -- will you ever have any need to use your LYPSE at all?
I can avoid much, if not most, of that virtual world most of the time. And then along comes a puzzle that drags me kicking and screaming into that world -- a puzzle that assumes that anyone who's anyone will know that stuff and should know that stuff. As though it's the most important thing in the world. It's not to me and I will always protest. You can count on it.
I join with those who thought the theme worked very well. Being behind the times technologically helped me here as I didn't hesitate at putting in FACE RECOGNITION. It is one of the most complex COGNITIve functions with specific brain areas performing the task. Damage or disease in these areas can lead to the loss of a person's ability to recognize faces (prosopagnosia), even for close relatives and friends. Imagine not recognizing someone visually and, upon hearing their voice, realizing it's your child or spouse. Eery, right?
Speaking of "eery", it is the less common variation of "eerie" and it used to be a grid staple but I haven't seen it in a while. Xwordinfo.com says "eery" last appeared in 2012 while its double first cousin EENY has appeared 63 times regularly throughout the Shortz era, including a couple of times this year. I think EENY is like GLAMP; you read into it what you want.
I thought the grid work was first class. Four themers and a grid-spanning reveal will usually put severe constrictions on the amount of open space left for interesting fill, especially of the longer variety. Today we get some bonus long Downs, two (LOVE SHACK & FILE TYPES) that drop through two themers and two (TRY TO RELAX & UNFAITHFUL) that drop through two themers and the reveal! Nicely done.
First, I LOVE Rex's inclusion of the Faces album cover, First Step! Second, I found the puzzle a nice solve as a themeless. Third, I was born in 1956 in Baton Rouge. We learned the version of the rhyme NOT including the tiger.
@Nancy
Thank you for the list.
I hope you did not mind my badgering (if you knew, I posted very late one night, mentioning I hoped that Poirot's Last Case was on it).
Ackroid and maybe the ABC murders seemed likely too. The latter was great plotting for a murder but the viewpoint jumping bothered me. Well maybe I shouldn't trust my memory. I've seen to many pbs versions in between.
Two things I learned from Christie mysteries that helped me in deciphering mystery plots:
1. If a detective series has a Watson sidekick be wary, very wary, of any substitute.
2. Husbands and wives know each other all to well and better than anyone else, and their public relationship is not necessarily their real relationship. They will go through hell to help each other or kill each other. True love or not.
I generally think of myself of having read all of Christie's mysteries. But it's not true. I don't usually read plays. And never came across a complete short stories, so have read only what I've come across. But I have not read 2 on your list. I watched Ten little Indians and And Then There Were None multiple times before I picked up a Christie novel and had also watched Witness for the Prosecution many times before and since that point. Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton were wonderful. But my guess is at @GILL I. might have trouble taking her eyes off Tyrone Power. I know the movie plots so well I never picked up the novels. In fact, haven't reread any in 30 years. I might have to give it a try.
I'm with @oldgent that Marple sticks in my mind better than Poirot no matter who is the greater detective.
Christie was better young.
Nothing wtrong with your taste at all by the way.
@pabloinnh - Hand up for hearing “Brazil Nuts” for the first time as a young adult. The casual racism I was raised in is just gob-smacking now. Makes me wonder if the anti-woke crowd realize how they will seem in 20 years.
@Anon3:21 - Granted, it has been a few decades since I took a developmental psych course, but that doesn’t sound like Piaget or Erikson or Montessori or Maslow or Glasser or any other theorist I recall studying.
@TTrimble 9:17 - I see you did, but the tenor of your comment as I read it seemed focus on that usage being technically wrong. I’m also a little surprised because I think I heard “the ‘Rona” first around May of 2020. I would not say I hear it all the time, but it’s hardly rare either. I think it is usually used sardonically.
@egsforbreakfast’s “facere” comment got me curious, so I looked up “FACE” on eymonline.com:
“c. 1300, "the human face, a face; facial appearance or expression; likeness, image," from Old French face "face, countenance, look, appearance" (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *facia (source also of Italian faccia), from Latin facies "appearance, form, figure," and secondarily "visage, countenance," which probably is literally "form imposed on something" and related to facere "to make" (from PIE root *dhe- "to set, put").
From late 14c. as "outward appearance (as contrasted to some other reality);" also from late 14c. as "forward part or front of anything;" also "surface (of the earth or sea), extent (of a city)." Typographical sense of "part of the type which forms the letter" is from 1680s.
Whan she cometh hoom, she raumpeth in my face And crieth 'false coward.' [Chaucer, "Monk's Tale"]
Face to face is from mid-14c. Face time is attested from 1990. To lose face "lose prestige" (1835), is from Chinese tu lien; hence also save face (1915). To show (one's) face "make or put in an appearance" is from mid-14c. (shewen the face). To make a face "change the appearance of the face in disgust, mockery, etc." is from 1560s. Two faces under one hood as a figure of duplicity is attested from mid-15c.”
@albatross shell --
I thought of including ABC Murders -- which has one of her all-time greatest "twists". I left it out because, as clever at it is, I found it much heavier going than her usual books. It was very dense, with a lot to follow and keep track of (as I now remember it) and, not knowing if you'd ever read any Christie at all, I wanted to suggest novels that were more lively, fast-paced and less work to follow. ABC Murders was a book I enjoyed mostly when I got to the denouement; up to then, I didn't find it that compelling.
@GILL -- AND THEN THERE WERE NONE/TEN LITTLE INDIANS is my absolute favorite too. On this we agree. I'd completely forgotten that we ever discussed it. @Albatross -- good as the original version of the movie is, the book is infinitely better. It's a shame you won't be able to come to it "as a virgin" as it were, but it differs from the film in a very important way. It's brilliantly written and even more brilliantly structured. Read it!!!
Poirot vs Marple. This is highly personal with me, but I think that the truly great Christie books (with one exception) feature Poirot, not Marple. These are the books with the most ingenious twists. Why Christie gave her cleverest twists to Poirot I don't know, but that's what she seems to have done. The one exception is "A Murder Is Announced" which features Marple. Read it and then we'll talk.
And lastly, @albatross, about the couples you mention who help each other commit murder. I tend to yell "cheat" -- even when the plotting is exceedingly clever. Agatha did this on more than one occasion. But when there are "impossibilities" in the execution of a murder to be overcome, two murderers have a much better chance of overcoming them. When there's only one murderer, that murderer has to be even more resourceful. No one providing him or her with an iron-clad alibi, for one thing.
Anyway, enjoy all of the above, @albatross.
APOCALYPSE Now is one of the greatest films ever made.
Only watch the original 1979 version, though. Stay away from “Redux.”
The best capsule review ever: “A burned out captain with great hair is sent to kill a renegade colonel with no hair, assisted by a crazed lieutenant colonel with a hair piece.”
@Z
Bluh -- the conversation gets tiresome when it gets to the point about the tenor of comments, but please read it more as sharing a little factoid that perhaps not everyone realizes. Lemon to lemonade: what I understand of the biology and biological action of coronaviruses fascinates me. Particularly the function of the protein spikes, those little protrusions whence "coronavirus" gets its name. Those are usually colored red in the illustrations we see every day, although coronaviruses are rather smaller than wavelengths of light visible to humans. Anyway, I sure wish I knew more biology!
FWIW, I myself probably say "coronavirus" a lot and without particular shame, although I think I say COVID-19 more.
As for your surprise: simply put, I don't get out that much! The people I hang out with over Zoom, they'd never say "RONA". People I see in person don't say it either. But what with the Baader-Meinhof effect (god, I love this blog!), I'll probably hear it three times tomorrow. :-)
While I'm on the topic of proteins: you science students may get a kick out of this instructional video.
I'm serious: it's far out, man. You'll see.
Note to the editor: Not all of us use Apple products. Iphoto today, iphone send key the other day, imac often. As a non apple user, at least I know the answer starts with an 'i' usually. I know more Apple products through the NYT crossword than through any Apples ads.
Will Christie have to change "Ten Little Indians" again? Now that Indians is taboo? When does it end? Wokeness is absurd. We've all been called some kind of deragitory thing in our lives, we got over it. Here's my advice: get over it.
And why do Blacks call each other N's if they want to stop hearing that word? Call anybody anything you want, I'm sure they call you what they want.
TTrimble, I'm playing your 'instructional video' while watching the C-span January 6 hearings. Far out, man!
@anon
So racism a few centuries and "they" are not over it.
Wokeness [reaction to racism] a few decades and you are crying like a stuck pig. How noble of you. Be proud. You are leading us all to a better way. Tell us when you are over it.
Nicely done. Bravo to Jennifer Lee and Victor Galson on their debut New York Times crossword.
EROS' PAD INFO
TRYTO REVITALIZE and RELAX,
being UNFAITHFUL BELIEs the facts,
say, "IAMNOT SHY
to give THREES a TRY,
and FACERECOGNITION in the LOVESHACK."
--- ALEX COMO
EZ puz but needed the revealer to get the theme. Well done.
A nice RECOGNITION of ENGINEERS.
Hold the MAYO in the corners.
Tell me ALEX Morgan ISNT a yeah baby.
Compared to TuesDAY puzzles of recent YEARS, this one is really good.
More a Monday than Monday this week (for me). I was doing something else, was "just going to get this started," and I finished.
Having a hard-of-hearing husband and no kids/grandkids, I am the last of a dying breed. No cell phone. Have an old TracPhone for emergencies, etc., but don't even know my own number. More and more I think less and less of those ubiquitous phones everyone seems to have been sucked into. But the phone lingo is everywhere, so this was no problemo.
i know, i know
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords (and books)
Theme and revealer are fine.
Naticky crossing of LOVESHoCK / NEoLON is not. (LOVESHACK? NEALON?)
Wonder what the PPP ratio is today. Looks pretty steep.
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