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Fourth person to walk on the moon / SUN 8-22-21 / Toni Morrison title heroine / Member of a noble family / You might be marveling at this as it whizzes by / My Two 2015 Claudia Harrington children's book / 1980s gaming inits / Pioneering gangsta rap group / Girl in the Old Curiosity Shop / Group trying to sack a QB
Sunday, August 22, 2021
Constructor: Stephen McCarthy
Relative difficulty: Medium (?)
Theme answers:
- "MEAN GIRLS" (23A: 2004 film about a group of MALIGNERS)
- GREASE PAINT (25A: It might be put on for stage PAGEANTRIES)
- MAGLEV TRAIN (42A: You might be MARVELING AT this as it whizzes by)
- CATECHISM (46A: Sort of SCHEMATIC for Christian education)
- DATING SITE (64A: Many relationships are INSTIGATED on one)
- WHITE BREAD (68A: Healthy eaters may give this a WIDE BERTH)
- LIONESSES (90A: They can be NOISELESS while stalking prey)
- ADVENTURERS (93A: Explorers of the UNTRAVERSED)
- CALLIGRAPHY (111A: Writing done GRAPHICALLY)
- GIFT HORSE (115A: The Trojans lacked the FORESIGHT to turn this down)
Maglev (from magnetic levitation) is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of magnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage of the lack of friction. Along certain "medium-range" routes (usually 320 to 640 km [200 to 400 mi]), maglev can compete favourably with high-speed rail and airplanes. (wikipedia)
• • •
No idea who ALAN BEAN is, so that was by far the toughest part of the grid for me. I guess I know who the [House Republican V.I.P....] is, since she's a rep from my state, but she's such a vile dishonest fascist supporter of disinformation and sedition that I'm not even mentioning any part of her name, you'll notice. Not sure what this crossword editor's fascination is with "both sides" of the political aisle, but he's clearly really committed.
 |
| [NYT, May 14, 2021] |
Is the mule carrying a KILO of coke? (79A: Valuable load for a mule). I am guessing (only guessing) that it's gold, but it's not the 19th century, so the clue is a little confusing. What is PAP? Is that like CUD? Soft food, maybe ... I think? Anyway, [You can chew on it] is about as unhelpful a clue for PAP as I can imagine. I had RERIG before REFIT (102D: Make over, as a ship) and "AYE AYE" before "AYE, SIR" (101A: "On it, captain!"), so I was really whiffing on the nautical stuff today (which there was a weird lot of). I've heard the French cry "Mon DIEU!" but "DIEU merci!" I couldn't really place. The rest of this grid ... happened. I'm quite done. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. if you want to remind yourself what good puzzles look like, go order the puzzles from yesterday's Lollapuzzoola crossword tournament. Just do it.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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129 comments:
Well, I like doing anagrams so this theme was fun for me, but I can imagine it being a thuddy letdown for some.
I wonder if @Z even bothered...no I don't. He's too stubborn to not finish, but he'll clench the whole way through. I'm guessing. 😁
Never knew the name for those futuristic-type speedy trains, so MAGLEVTRAIN still looked like an anagram to me. Semi-certainty about the crosses made me leave it in. Whew!
Beyond the theme, I found myself mostly on the same wavelength, so I kinda raced through - well, my kind of racing. Sloth isn't just a name or a sin, you know. It's a lifestyle.
I remain impressed with this constructor - this being only his second NYTXW. The first back in June was his first puzzle anywhere. Geez Louise. There oughta be a law!
Congratulations on another success, Mr. McCarthy! Keep 'em coming!
🧠🧠
🎉🎉🎉.75
Medium. It’s puzzles like these that tempt me to emulate @jberg and skip Sundays, but then I’d actually have to pay attention to the news, so I’ll hang in there. More irritating than intriguing.
Concise summary of Rex's post: "I don't care for anagrams".
My summary: "I like them!" So I guess that's why I enjoyed this. (And these aren't stock anagrams harvested from some website, the constructor wrote a script to find them from previous answers on xwordinfo.com.) Hence items like MEAN GIRLS, MAGLEV TRAIN, and GIFT HORSE. Pretty neat, I think.
J'ai dis "BIEN merci"! (wrong, but half the letters correct). Also easily got ILS, but it could have been something like GQS, right?
A mule or courier is someone who personally smuggles contraband across a border for a smuggling organization. The organizers employ mules to reduce the risk of getting caught themselves. Methods of smuggling include hiding the goods in vehicles or carried items, attaching them to one's body, or using the body as a container. In the case of transporting illegal drugs, the term drug mule applies.
I got ALAN BEAN almost immediately without any crosses. I guess that's a difference between me & Rex, I'm just slightly older and has the all the Apollo astronauts memorized when I was like in 2nd or 3rd grade.
But the word jumble stuff... doable but not interesting.
I rode on the MAGLEV TRAIN in Shanghai once. It was cool, and very fast, though not altogether practical (required a long cab ride out to the burbs to get on the train to take it even further out to the airport).
I am similarly confused by the KILO answer. Is it referring to a drug mule? Kilo of what, exactly?
Drug mules. Not donkeys.
i'm not a big fan of anagrams,
Puzzle was a slog.
Like Rex, I didn't know the man on the moon from the man in the moon (hee, hee), but as it crossed a CANON camera type also outside my wheelhouse which in turn crossed STEPHANIK, whose first name I had no idea about, this was PPP natick #1 for me.
#2 was the STIEG/TNN crossing.
Educated guesses got me out of both of these conundra, but because unlike Rex I had no idea what the Vietnamese call sandwiches, I met my Waterloo at #3,where this crossed with "1980`s gaming initials.". I mean, who the hell cares about answers like these?
I had an epiphany tonight that it's senseless to complain about these PPP naticks every week.... They are way too consistently present to represent an anomaly or an editorial oversight... They are in fact a FEATURE of the Sunday NYT crossword puzzle. That nice feeling of closure in fully completing a puzzle has become a thing of the past... Now it all comes down to a crapshoot in a few benighted spaces.
Too bad... I was ok with the theme and much of the fill in this one... But alas....
Not a big fan of anagrams, but I ended up liking this more than I thought I would. Puzzle partner is a whiz at anagrams, so he was a huge help. Got MEAN GIRLS right away only because I had half of the letters already in place. The rest I had to struggle with. GIFT HORSE was fun too. Never ever heard of MAGLEV TRAIN, so I was sure I had something wrong there. Looked it up, huh! I guess that what comes with living on a little rock surrounded by a bunch of water. I love BANH MI sandwiches, but I’ll be damned if I knew how to spell it, had BAhn first.
As an aside to @GILL I - @joho wants to know when we are going to teach Mango the Fandango Tango, so if you have a few minutes, some pointers would be most welcomed.
Unless the anagrams are show-stoppers (DORMITORY/DIRTY ROOM… EVANGELIST/EVIL’S AGENT), I just can’t find it in me to enjoy them overmuch.
I enjoyed the clue for NO ONE. That could be a great tagline for a horror flick: "Who can hear you scream in space?” The movie would involve something innocuous quietly growing TENDRILS while the hapless BLEARY-EYED astronauts are laughing as they SAUTE their freeze-dried ONIONs. That word TENDRIL just feels so menacing to me. It’s all fun and games until TENDRILS start to sprout and gently wave around.
“Plaster” before ALL STAR. Bet we’re legion this morning.
I hate it when the menu is so big that appetizers and desserts each have their own MENU PAGE. I usually find myself scanning the options with one question in mind: which one is the biggest? If the waiter brings our fare to the table, and someone ordered something whose serving is a lot bigger than what I chose, I’m devastated.
“Tight-fitting” – SNUG. We just went over our employee handbook and the teacher dress code. It states that dresses and skirts have to be knee-length. I followed up with the principal afterwards to make sure that slightly above the knee was ok. She said sure – said she just didn’t want to see anyone’s fanny. But then, Then… she admonished me that if I wore a loose-ish flare skirt I should wear little biker shorts underneath in case I was ever knocked to the floor. I swear. And I should wear rubber-sole shoes in the event I have to run. This is a delicious little tidbit I’m going to tweak and polish to tell all the people who are horrified at my new job situation. Anyhoo – my skirts are all fairly snug pencil skirts, so I think I’m good.
Only heard of PAP in the context of the Smear test. Made the clue pretty disturbing. Was hoping for FAT or CUD.
Thx Stephen for a fun Sun. puz! :)
Med. unsolve.
Misspelled CATECHISM for the dnf. Didn't check the the anagram letters carefully; had Ms. Stefanik as ELISa. :(
Otherwise, pretty smooth, with no major hold-ups.
Enjoyed the puz. :)
@BJS
Welcome aboard! 😊
@TTrimble 👍 for yd 0
___
yd pg -1 (tabbed)
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Dear Puzzle People and Rex,
I have learned what a Natick is but I would appreciate some help understanding what a “PPP’ Natick is.
As to anagrams, I don’t have the proficiency or experience to have an opinion one way or the other but I am constantly amazed at the ingenuity of the constructors and the ease with which the gifted solvers race through the puzzles with apparently little problem.
it does seem that as you become spectacularly talented at solving these puzzles, like Rex, you can also become annoyed by the puzzle being too easy for you or too mundane in terms of style. Apparently if you become superb at crossword puzzles you enjoy them less because they are too easy or familiar.
I’ll continue to use that excuse for maintaining my incompetence
Defender Tom
Even if you like the theme, some of the fill is pretty indefensible here. TOAT, STDS, NHLER?
For me, anagrams = blecchhh. In this case, I appreciated that the “jumbled” clues had at least *something* to do with the answers, and as Rex notes, there’s some good stuff here and there… but I still don’t like anagrams.
When I came to a theme answer today, I merrily moved on, waiting for enough crosses to give the answer away. I’m no fool. I die on the Jumble puzzle trying to unscramble mere five or six letter strings, and these theme answers were monster strings.
Given that there were 10 theme answers, I was thinking, Stephen McCarthy, that your initials were appropriate for this puzzle.
But I put my hard hat on, then chiseled my way around and eventually through those 10 theme answers, and darned if that accomplishment – that digging out of the hole I started from – didn’t feel mighty good at puzzle’s end. Thank you for a puzzle that gave me a heck of a solve, Stephen!
Excellent puzzle IMHO. Don't understand the objections of Rex and others that the theme is "just" anagrams, that "the theme is dismal." The anagrams were pretty darn clever. For a change, no Simpsons related clues, always a bonus.
When the group NWA was at its height of popularity I visited my partner's family in western Massachusetts. Entering a diner one morning, we were taken aback to see a line of men sitting at the counter -- every one of whom was showing his crack. "A lot of plumbers here?" I wondered. My brother in law replied, "No, they're just NEWA -- New Englanders With Attitude."
Why are so many people confused about the KILO clue and answer? Obviously the "valuable load" is heroin or cocaine carried by a drug mule. Some of the posters seem to never have heard of a "drug mule" before. How is that even possible?
Have I ever mentioned how much I despise anagrams? What really cheeses my grits, though, is I never used it's a kid's placemat of a puzzle to describe them before. Touché!
@Frantic Sloth - Of course I finished it. Basically just did it as a double sized themeless with a bunch of unclued answers. It took me 30 minutes while I watched DCFC pummel the boys from San Diego.
@Loren Muse Smith - So you’re not Ridley Scott. Also, we’re all still waiting for your M&A challenge entry. 🤗
I’m so happy to be at a place in life where I no longer have to concern myself with what people are wearing. I always went with “dress professionally” and figured if someone didn’t know what that meant there were probably bigger issues to deal with. I did have one teacher blessed/cursed with a bosom Hugh Hefner would have loved. She had to be reminded every spring that they needed to be better contained. That the building wasn’t air conditioned didn’t help because contained while comfortable and cool was a clothing challenge.
@Defender - PPP is Pop Culture, Product Names, and other Proper Nouns. I s’pose a “PPP natick” is a natick caused by crossing PPP.
@Shirley F - I think Rex was implying that in the somewhat staid NYTX a drug mule reference is unlikely so the mule must be carrying a KILO of gold. But he didn’t do it particularly well, so it looks like he doesn’t know what a mule is. I’m guessing he has heard of a drug mule since he’s mentioned his love of The Wire and Breaking Bad before.
No sense to expound - the only thing I have to say is that this puzzle is a WISH SHOT.
Was hoping for something to temper Henri.
After an afternoon of puzzle-solving at Lollapuzzoola yesterday, I felt ready for this one! I enjoy anagrams, and am amazed how things sometimes just... work. Like how CALLIGRAPHY is like writing graphically, and MEANGIRLS are maligners. Clever of Stephen McCarthy to attach lack of foresight to GIFTHORSE, but I was underwhelmed by GREASEPAINT use during pageantries. Anyway, I found this a pleasant, straightforward solve.
I'm wondering how many other folks don't know what a MAGLEVTRAIN is. Is this one of those I-don't-know-it-so-it-must-be-a-bad-clue Rex things? I would've thought this is common knowledge, and I don't even travel that often. And really? Rex doesn't know a mule as in drug mules (although it seems others were confused as well)... Finally, ALANBEAN is a legit astronaut, but I agree it's a little obscure to know the 4th astronaut to walk on the Moon.
Did anyone else here participate in Lollapuzzoola? I did better than last year, now scoring solidly at the bottom 20%. I'm always amazed by the community of solvers - and constructors - and appreciate you all.
Same here. As someone blissfully unaware that this was a common theme thirty years ago, I enjoyed decrypting the anagrams in my head. And while I haven't been doing xwords long enough to know this is a hoary theme, I'm old enough to remember frequent unfavorable comparisons of the US to Japan vis-a-vis their maglev trains and our tortoise-like Amtrak rolling stock (I love Amtrak, btw), so that one popped out immediately.
It's not much of a theme, but I did get some pleasure learning unexpectedly fitting anagrams: GRAPHICALLY for CALLIGRAPHY; MALIGNERS for MEAN GIRLS; and maybe UNTRAVERSED for ADVENTURERS. More than "just anagrams" in these cases, i would say.
Unfortunately the others involved contrived links so were disappointing in this regard.
Anagrams DO NOT belong in crossword puzzles. They're just a refuge for the uncreative.
What I would call a work-a-day puzzle that lacks humor and whose theme some will not like. I don't hate anagrams but after 6 letter widths I am challenged, so all I could do is shrug my shoulders after doing the puzzle.
For those who believe the puzzle should not have been published, I would aim this comment towards. Puzzles in the NYT might not please everyone, but their function seems to be to please a significant enough number of solvers. The entries assume solvers have a certain willingness to ignore the unpleasant (to the solver). Claiming a puzzle should not have been published is very close to declaring puzzles should only be published that appeal to the person who is complaining. I don't think they mean to say that, but sometimes that is how a complaint can be taken. By all means, complain to high heaven if you dislike a puzzle, but don't assume your idea of a good puzzle is sacrosanct. Unless it is.
Totally agree with Rex on this one. While I was slogging through I kept thinking that Rex is gonna rip this theme to pieces. Was bored and then felt my blood pressure rise when I saw the House Republican VIP. The one who, I believe replaced Liz Cheney who was ousted because she didn't support the Big Lie. Yeah I'm a Democrat but Republican names don't evoke a visceral response ... but don't need to see fascist ndames while enjoying my morning coffee.
MAGLEVTRAIN made me cranky but both cats snuggled in with me so I'm good, now. More bicycling today. Need to decide if I am keeping my 50 year old Raleigh 3 speed (made in Nottingham, England) or go with a Jamis many speed cycle.
I think we had a similar theme not too long ago. Hated then and now. Forget the anagrams, clue the long acrosses normally, and call it a themeless. Not saying that would make it a great puzzle, but it would make it unmemorable, which would be an improvement.
No problem with Rep, Stefanik but Justin Trudeau used to prance around in blackface so maybe skip him next time.
I kind of felt like I was sleepwalking through this snoozer. Not much of interest today - no real theme. The puzzle is just anagrams, a bunch of trivial stuff and the usual contingent of foreign nonsense. In other words, a pretty typical Sunday NYT offering. We had some sparkling stuff going on last week, looks like we are transitioning back to the more traditional “word goulash” that is the NYT comfort zone.
Awful, awful clue for TENDRILS - a classic case of trying too hard on that one.
Good luck to everyone who is staring down Henri in the northeast. Stay safe and healthy.
Well, completely give your theme away in the title, why don't you? Such an obvious anagram that even a 6-year-old child wouldn't miss it. The ones in the puzzle are, on the other hand, absolutely brilliant. These are not your father's or grandfather's anagrams. PAGEANTRIES/GREASEPAINT! SCHEMATIC/CATECHISM! FORESIGHT/GIFT HORSE! Fabulous! Not so fabulous to solve, mind you: the solve was quite straightforward, unsurprising and a bit TEPID. But fabulous to admire -- the way you might admire a Cezanne or a Mozart. As in How in the world did he do that?!
Is there a website you go to in order to find the best, the most original and the longest anagrams? Do you choose words at random, put them on an "anagram this!" website and hope something great will turn up for more than a few of them? Or you have a mind that just does this sort of thing all by itself -- kind of like people who can multiply humongous numbers in their heads?
Every time I found myself somewhat bored with my own role in the solve, I pondered those questions. I have no answers, alas. But I commend Stephen McCarthy on what is definitely an anagrammic coup.
Obviously McCarthy was dying to make a puzzle with MAGLEV.. so he used really boring anagrams to do it. We deserve more creativity.
I can't believe that nobody is complaining about 84a which to me is as upsetting as having to share a planet with Elise Stefanik. Still puzzles shouldn't be political and we should leave political correctness at the door when we enter the puzzle room each day. So OK in that sense
Seemed like your basic Sunday puzzle to me, and thought the anagrams were kind of fun. Hand up for plaster first. Couldn't see RIGHTONCUE until I ran the alphabet to get an E in front of ACHTIME, just could not get that as an opposite of never. But what pained most of all was a DNF having gone with gas appliances and just figured it must be Anid Blyton that's a children's author. LOL, a perfect example of a "PPP Natick". Hope Henri leaves those of you in its path unscathed.
Terrific Puzzle! I like anagrams just fine, so.... and besides, I finished it in less than 40 mins, and had a few places I had to think twice, but none of that nasty "not quite" at the end.... straight to the happy music. So I really loved this. 10 long themers, and no un-gettable fill! Thanks, SMcC! --Rick
Being the chaste naïf that I am, my first experience with the term "drug mule" came with the movie Maria Full of Grace (2004). It was a tough watch, but I recommend it. Fun fact from IMDb: "Catalina Sandino Moreno became the first actress ever to be nominated to Best Actress at the Oscars for a role that it is spoken entirely in Spanish."
@LMS Yes, but can you run in your pencil skirts? And what's next - concrete pillbox hats?
@Colin 740am Congrats on your Lollapuzzoola bonanza! I had to settle for the "next day" ticket this year, so at least I'll get to do some good puzzles. Not the same, though. 😕
I like anagrams so it was a fun solve for me. I've been working my way back through the archive for a while and coincidentally yesterday I encountered Thursday Sept 15 2016, in which EVERY CLUE was an anagram and that was possibly the hardest puzzle I've ever done. I was relieved to see that this one only had a few anagrams and indicated which ones they were.
amyyanni--get the Janis, keep the Raleigh.
Love Elise Stefanik. More answers like this one please. Can do without NWA.
Why is 42D, "Responds to brrrrsk weather?" clued with a question mark? The answer is straight forward, but I was searching for a punny answer. What am I missing?
You missed what I think is the worst part of the puzzle which is the B in ALANBEAN, because it crosses _OIL clued "Be hopping mad" which could clearly either be ROIL or BOIL and not knowing the 4th man to walk on the moon, I had to guess blindly since BEAN is somewhat more likely that REAN as a surname. Blech.
Hey All !
Came to the Crossword Puzzle, and found the Spelling Bee! Figured SBers would like this one.
I liked the fact that each un-anagrammed answer related to it's clue. Mind you, there aren't related as a whole, but related as a theme, if that makes sense.
Struggled a bit in each area, but managed to suss out (most) everything. The (most) is because... DNF! Had yesSIR in, giving me ByNHMI for the Vietnamese sandwich (defensible, as Asian languages can be spelled differently), BLEAReEYED (no excuse on that, eyes elided over that extraneous E), OLDIsS (elide again!) Dang. Also had iOS for EOS, so ALAN BiAN walked on the Moon, apparently. Oh well, no I RULE today. 😁
Fun clue on BLEEP. Wanted ONION where CHILI is, only to find it later in the grid. Forgot what we call that, wonderful memory of mine.
Writeovers I can recall, SHudder-SHIVERS, elpaso-TUCSON, Fubar-FAarCE (Har! Figured if we have NWA, why not FUBAR?), fAn-CAT, think that's it.
Some odd-y answers, IATE (a phrase, yes, but looks wacky together), DLINE (same) ILS (which is French?) good ole TOAT, plus we get consonent enders SILENTR, COACHK OLIVIE-R (har, just seeing if you're paying attention.)
@M&A YesterComments
Tried to find the shortest Worducken, came up with
MIATA - A inside IT inside MA. Who has dibs on the longest one? 😁
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Don't know if the printed magazine intro is shown in the online version, but W.S. wrote that Stephen McCarthy incorporates "some of the wordplay of cryptics in his themes and clues. This is a good example." I was looking forward to a variety of cryptic cluing but I was disappointed to only find anagrams all the way. Not that they weren't engaging - the cleverness was admirable. But out of maybe a dozen ways to write a cryptic clue, only using anagrams didn't bring cryptic puzzles to mind. Otherwise, I didn't really mind the old-fashioned tilt of this puzzle with only BAHNMI crossing NES seemed out of my cultural literacy.
Mercifully very easy, as my response to anagrams is "Just shoot me now" - though I admit to grudging admiration for the cleverness of the GIFT HORSE clue. Nice entries like TENDRILS, GASKET, RIGHT ON CUE, BLEARY-EYED , and YOU WISH kept up my spirits. One do-over: my member of a royal family started out as XENia, the warrior princess.
Looks like @Wrecks is officially back from vacation. And - Surprise! - I disagree with his assessment today.
Although I am not a fan of anagrams, I thought this puzzle was quite clever.
It seems to me that the people who like anagrams liked this one and the people who don't didn't and those who don't care didn't care. And that's today's review of the commentariat.
I've been doing the Jumble in the daily paper almost forever so of course, this Sunday was fine with me. My Dad used to do them when I was growing up and if he got stuck he would have me give a truly hard one a try. I remember one Sunday, when all the answers are six letters long and usually more difficult, when he said --here, you try it-- and we both spent most of the day rearranging letters. The answer, which I'll always remember, turned out to be EYELID. These letters can be recombined in a fascinating variety of nonsensical ways, I discovered.
Most of this was pretty quick. MAGLEVTRAIN was an unknown but had to be right. Got stuck for a long time in the NE with REENACT instead of RESHOOT and a dismal inability to see "noble family" as anything but a baron or an earl or something. Got there eventually with a feeling more or "well, that's that" than "IRULE.
Anyway, I enjoyed your Sunday effort, SMcC. Some Might Complain, such is life. Now to wait and see if Henri wants to say bonjour to our part of NH. Doesn't look bad so far.
Poor taste to have NWA and Prime Minister Jolson in the same puzzle.
I didn't realize that the theme answers were anagrams of the capitalized clue words until I had finished solving. It's hard to say if that speaks more to my willful ignorance of themes or just plain ignorance. Either way this puzzle was a breeze to fill. The theme answers were easy to recognize and the clues always helped even though I didn't exactly know what was going on and didn't care.
MAGLEV was a gimme. I subscribed to Popular Mechanics and Popular Science as a kid so that one was right in the hoarder's wheelhouse.
A Sunday puzzle, is for me, just a chance to test out my crosswordese chops. This one only scratched the surface and in that sense was a bit of a disappointment. NAS is the rapper, NES is the gaming thing, ANA is an airline as well as a name blah, blah, blah.
Until @ Nancy pointed it out I didn't realize that the title is an anagram as well. That just goes to show that my inner child is less than 6, which goes without saying anyway.
Well, I don't like anagrams so right off the bat I wasn't happy. All in all it was kinda boring for a Sunday. I did rush through it, though. I live on Long Island and they keep warning us we may lose power any minute thanks to Henri. I wanted to make sure my streak was intact so I did my best to solve quickly and didn't read all the crosses if I didn't have to.
Printed out a few 1995 Sunday puzzles last night to keep me occupied if we should be in the dark for the next few days. Gosh, I hope not. Fingers crossed!
Did you notice that if you remove the 4th letter of the answer to 4d, you have an anagram of the answer to 7d?
Did you notice that the first 5 letters of the answer to 12d are an anagram of BANAL?
Did you notice how banal this puzzle's theme is?
Here's a submission for M&A's Worducken contest of yore, quaintly:
C{HI(CAN)E}RY
Speaking as someone who's always liked Cryptics a lot, here's a big difference between the Anagrams-all-the-time puzzle today and the Cryptic which uses anagrams plus completely different forms of wordplay trickery such as "hiddens", homophones, and two uses of the same word.
The best Cryptics make you think you're looking for an anagram when you're not, and vice-versa. If you're the constructor and there's a 7-letter answer for a clue that's not an anagram, but instead is, say, a "hidden", you should try to incorporate two words at the beginning or end of the clue that add up to 7-letters. If there's no such combo in the clue, the experienced Cryptic solver will know that the answer can't be an anagram.
Not knowing what you're looking for is what makes the Cryptic solve both challenging and fun. Today we all knew exactly what we were looking for -- and that's why the solve wasn't all that thrilling.
My WORDUCKEN for today. It's the best I've been able to come up with so far -- and I've found this no easy task, believe you me.
PROPAGANDA: PAGAN inside ROD inside PA
All of my energy flowed into a stare-down with MAGLEVTRAIN -- quadruple-checking the crosses, abandoning hope for coherence, wondering what would happen if I played it backwards on my stereo.
@Nancy (9:32) -- My father had no anagrams, nor his before him. Things were that tough. But he squirreled away money so we could go to restaurants with the kind of placemats the kids can unscramble with crayons. And he watched and smiled as we slowly left him behind, resettled and prospered in a world he could only imagine.
Talking about an undeling’s breasts? Creepy Z. Deeply creepy.
I agree with Rex. I also found this puzzle "remedial." ALthough I would rate this easy medium at best. For some inexplicable reason, the name Alan Bean into my head into my head right away. Strange. All in all, another unexciting Sunday.
This looks like a puzzle that would be significantly harder to construct than to solve. I can assure you that coming up with anagrams that are apt to the original phrase can be amazingly difficult, and I think Rex's appreciation might increase, um, appreciably if he were to wrap his head around the amount of cleverness involved in constructing this, instead of just dissing the result as "remedial" or fit for a kid's placemat (it's so much more than that).
On the puzzle-solvers' end, I'm not quite sure why anagramming is so widely reviled. So much of crossword-solving is trivial pursuit, with attendant moaning and groaning over PPP. At least with anagramming, you don't need to rely on esoteric knowledge. Little puzzles within puzzles. I find them fun.
(You know who was really good at instantaneous anagramming? Dick Cavett. SPIRO AGNEW --> GROW A PENIS was one of his.)
I'll also put in a word for ZOOM. I did not enjoy teaching classes over ZOOM (or in my case, Webex and Microsoft Teams), nosireebob. But the amount of collaboration this technology has enabled, with people from all over the place, has literally been life-changing for me. If Michael Sharp does any collaborative research as part of his academic work, I might recommend to him this particular silver lining. (This might depend on the field; I'm not sure.) Big reductions in carbon footprints, as well.
The puzzle. The anagrams are brilliant: MALIGNERS --> MEAN GIRLS for example. Really, it's throw a dart at the themers and MARVEL at whatever you hit, with the sole exception of GRAPHICALLY --> CALLIGRAPHY (using GRAPH twice is less impressive).
I had some trouble in the ALAN BEAN area. Alas, I did not memorize the names of astronauts growing up. Was it BOIL, or rOIL, or what does mOIL from the other day mean again? And I do not know EOS as a camera name, only as a dawn goddess, so I got stuck in downtown Natick (nay-tick) traffic.
BANH MI, yum.
Yeah, KILO is definitely a drug carrier reference. Why Rex changed his mind to gold is a mystery.
Arr, SHIVER me timbers! Hoist the MIZZEN mast! AYE SIR!
Well, now that random flotsam and jetsam is surfacing to consciousness, I'd better stop here. But to sum up, I thought it was a nice and in some places informative puzzle, and not too difficult. Please stop by again, Stephen McCarthy.
yd 0
td pg -6
@Frantic Sloth 12:03 AM
I'd take your lifestyle brand any day of the week over Gwynneth Paltrow's goop. EACH and every TIME. But what should you call it? FLOPS?
PAP:
"The food comes in many varieties and flavors that are purchased ready-made from producers, or it may be table food eaten by the family that has been mashed or otherwise broken down. "
the wiki
not as disgusting as I recalled it's definition. though might be accurate for the 19th and earlier centuries: food stuffs chewed by Momma then stuffed into The Little One's mouth.
I see from XWord Info that the constructor is working on a PhD in transportation modelling. Now we know where magnetic levitation trains fit in. Rail engineers are amusing people. Bridge designers don't have toy bridge sets at home.
Died in the NE corner. TNT, It May Be Blown. Up, I think. Nit of the day. The rest was just beautiful.
wasn't there a time when anagram-ed words weren't CAPPED in the clue, and solvers had to figured which word is targeted?
Lot of commenters are being MEANGIRLS and boys about this puzzle, but it was hardly just a Solve 10 Jumbles. First. most of the clues gave you a focus as you got a few letters going from crosses. Even better, being able to eliminate certain guesses at crosses because the letter wasn’t in the clue, proved valuable several times. If anyone has read through the last three sentences and has any idea what I’m talking about, let me know, as I’m sure it is important stuff.
But, on the whole, it was enjoyable. Liked the SETI clue ( Grp. that hasn’t yet found what it’s looking for). Made me wonder if the same clue could apply to the group know as Search for Terrestrial Intelligence.
Thanks for a fun Sunday, Stephen McCarthy. Now I gotta get the BLEEP outta here.
My mate and I found this to be one of the best puzzles in a long time. Not too many names. Hardly any rappers. Clever cluing. I guess we love anagrams.
@Mike E:
my thought, exactly. 'cryptic' implied (or I inferred) something more convoluted than anagrams, with the anagramee (or is it the anagrammer?) in caps.
The bad faith packed into so few words is astounding here
Translation: “I am very racist”
@Mike E – Shortz is always trying to convince solvers (and himself, I suspect) that the puzzles are more "sophisticated" than they actually are by saying they incorporate cryptic clues, when you and I and @Nancy and everyone else here who does cryptics knows perfectly well that they don't.
I didn't hate it, although I could have done without the House VIP clue. There is some redemption in that if you read down and around, you get ELISE LIE EACH TIME RIGHT ON CUE.
Unlike Sunnis, SHIite children can have a cat or dog. These are known as SHIA pets.
Whatever one thinks of Elise Stefanik and Justin Trudeau they are both prominent politicians and it would be ridiculous to keep either of them from being in a crossword puzzle. Sheesh.
WHITE BREAD near SULA was a tad uncomfortable
I’m surprised so many people never heard of magnetic levitation, hence Maglev trains. Shows how in the Stone Age this country is in terms of public transportation. Can’t understand why the world’s heating up.
A nag rammed us, today. This stuff happens, from time to time. Like an ATOM from a MOAT, etc.
Had IROCK before IRULE. And I kinda admired the nice run of other letter+worders, such as: SILENTR, DLINE, COACHK, EFILING, ASOCIAL, AGAME, etc.
Also luved the looong diagonal set of black blocks, mid puzgrid.
ZOOMBOMB was a fillfave.
staff weeject pick: GON. Not to be confused with G-ON, btw. Good clue for G-ON: {Use The Force to flatten a bit??}. Primo weeject stacks in the NE & SW.
@Roo dude: Excellent runt worducken (see also below). Also, hearty congratz to @Nancy and @Joe Dipinto and @Barbara S. and @TTrimble for their epic worducken contribs. The full 15x15 worducken-themed puz is shapin up, quite nicely. What we'all really need now is a killer puzgrid-spannin 15-long example.
DiPinto. hmmm … PIN within IT within DO. I suspect a clever blog alias at work, here.
Thanx for the many 'grams of fun, Mr. McCarthy dude. Totally MAGLEV-itated the M&A brain.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
Worducken 101:
**gruntz**
@JD → I see from XWord Info that the constructor is working on a PhD in transportation modelling
You mean like this?
Strange about anagrams. A fellow grad student at Berkley could see them instantly, I mean instantly (ok, a few seconds) while my brain struggled mightily. We know that neurons can take strange paths during development so it’s a neuron thingy (which of course explains nothing).
Talking about explaining nothing, my favorite medical expression is IDIOPATHIC (I need to put this in my next probably rejected crossword). It means nobody’ knows what the hell it is, as in idiopathic dermatitis, a rash of unknown origin. ITIS is another way docs strive to impress us with complicated medical terms - just add it to an organ and you have an inflamed organ - pancreatitis, gastritis - which of course is just descriptive of a symptom and not terribly informative. Today’s puzzle gave me brainitiis and it’s not idiopathic because I’m staring at its cause.
"[Gerry] Mulligan, who lived in Los Angeles for many years, was at home anywhere in the world. He was a wonderful ambassador for jazz and a great raconteur and punster (he came up with the anagram “Svengali” for one of his favorite colleagues, Gil Evans).
-- https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-02-04-ca-32072-story.html
I recall a video of him, interview or chatting with the audience, saying, "anagrams cost extra."
The comedian Bill Burr does a bit about how in all of history only twelve human beings have walked on the moon. You would think that would qualify each of them for eternal fame, but most people can name more Kardashians than they can name astronauts who have walked on the moon.
Actually,it"s cerebritis for inflamation of the cerebrum. (That's the thinking portion of the brain.)
I enjoyed the puzzle. I still do the JUMBLE daily, as I did when I was a child. My husband's physical therapist believed that solving anagrams was a better practice to keep up your mental prowess than solving crosswords as you get older. He said it was supported by research. I can't cite the source of this idea but as a senior citizen I might as well hedge my bets and do all types of puzzles.
@What? I do think different people have different levels of facility for seeing the anagrams more quickly.
@Colin :Congratulations on improving your score in the Lollapuzzoola tournament!
@Frantic Sloth : I didn't have time to participate in the Lollapuzzoola tournament so I'll be doing the packet today. It's a great way to spend a rainy Sunday.
Saw the title and thought “anagrams.” Ugh. Not a fan of rearranging letters when I’m solving a crossword and looking for wordplay. Also seemed like way too many proper nouns. So for the first time in years I gave up about 3/4 of the way through when I realized that I just didn’t care anymore. I’m glad some were able to enjoy the puzzle but it was simply not my cup of T.
After immediately getting that it was all anagrams, I felt a bit let down (no delayed gratification aha moment). That is, unless you count looking-up Maglev Train after completing the puzzle. I use the app, and had saved Maglev Train for last — thinking it looked like a mistake — so was pretty surprised to get it right. Seems pretty obscure. Let me guess, it’s terminus is Natick!
“No idea who ALAN BEAN is.”
The fourth man to walk on the moon. Not a YouTube influencer.
I do the Sunday crossword every weekend with my grandma and we always look at the blog afterwards. I'm 26 and grew up with the movie Shrek; I can recite every line from it, and yet I have no idea "What makes Shrek shriek" and why the answer is "ANI." It's killing me! Someone help??
@Justin
Sneaky clue. If you add the letter I to Shrek, you get SHRIEK.
@M&A (12:55 PM)
RE: WORDUCKEN. I've got a 15er. Check it out.
SOFT[HE{ART}ED]NESS.
@TTrimble (from last night)
I hope you won a packet!
Stephen McCarthy is a new constructor (this is only his 2nd NYTXW) so cut him a bit of slack please. It’s WS’s choice to run his puzzle on Sunday - not his. Maybe WS should reserve Mondays for new constructors and maybe he can work on elevating the quality of the Sunday crossword to at least the level of The New Yorker Magazine - which is always much better. If the New Yorker can do it why can’t the Gray Lady?
Honestly wasn't thrilled by the anagrams. Just meh.
Very surprised that so many people weren't aware of magnetic levitation trains - MAGLEV. I've been hearing about them for over 20 years, so that felt like a gimme, not a sticking point.
No Acrostic puzzle in the magazine this week… I know the big mucky-mucks at the NYT peruse this blog so I ask them respecfully to please make Acrostic a regular feature and run it every Sunday without fail. Get rid of that lousy Ring Ring puzzle. That top right corner needs to have a decent puzzle. Lately it’s been a parking spot for a pile of failed experiments.
@Barbara S. – you may as well throw in HARD[HE{ART}ED]NESS as a bonus.
I like doing anagrams, but not so much in a crossword. My style is the daily Jumble because it has a “reason” - you are completing a pun or a play on words. Even when it’s a bad pun, a groaner, or not clever at all, there is a reason. Not so much a fan of the long anagram just because and without a payoff other than you have to solve it to solve the puzzle- sort of.
I am over all things zoom as well as all the “bombs” that are suddenly attached to technological events. Yep For me the zoom anything is now as irritating to me as incessantly adding the word “hashtag” in conversation. And whichever generation that has to “hashtag” everything, I wish they would devise a new “cool thing,” because that habit makes me crazy. Yep, “hashtag old and knows how to communicate properly.” Is this also where those same young folks would add “Hashtag Sorry-not-sorry?” Really tired of that too.
I am cranky today. Had a wish my head would just go ahead and explode migraine yesterday and the “migraine hangover” makes me cranky.
Nothing too hard or too sparkley today. Standard.
Same here
He may have been thinking of Acapulco Gold
@Joe Dipinto (3:31 PM)
So true. I guess I'm in a mellow mood today.
@Anonymous (1:34 PM) -- Then of course there was Thelonious Monk, who had a ring with his last name on it that read "KNOW" [with inverted "N"] when seen from the point of view of someone who was looking at his hand. Hence his famous aphorism (often muttered cryptically): "Always Know."
@thefogman – I don't understand why that puzzle is called "Ring Ring" when the object is to draw rectangles. I've liked some other things they've had in that slot, though not for awhile. The "Two Not Touch" weekday puzzles can provide a decent challenge.
I would be happy with an Acrostic every Sunday and a Cryptic and Diagramless alternating every Sunday in one of the other slots.
BAHNMI / NES -- total PPP Natick.
trash. almost four hours and mostly all of that time struggling with the northeast lol. i was so looking forward to today too! sundays are my favorite, but i was especially anticipating today after some really enjoyable puzzles on wednesday & saturday, and solveable thursday and fridays. alas, for me it wasn't meant to be. i used two lifelines - asked my partner about wonder woman (actually i asked if she was from another planet like superman and he said "no she's an AMAZON" and i was like, oh, yep, there it is), and then asked my precious pal and bonafide shrek fan about 16D, to which she said it could be CAT or ASS (and we agreed the latter would be really funny). of course, it was neither. sorry, but i just absolutely loathe those literal spelling type answers like ANI, HARDC, etc. there's no fun, no soul, not even a forehead slap. you're just sat there like :|
SHA la la tripped me up way more than it should - i entered TRA early on, certain it was tra la la by the banana splits. but later when things weren't working out i googled that song and it came out in '68, not '64. sigh. OHH LA LA? CHA LA LA? i mean...obviously not, but my brain wouldn't cooperate until way late in the game.
i thought RADIO for some reason long before i finally got to RADAR. disappointed in myself not catching the NHLER clue and thinking it was govt related, perhaps CHAIR. enjoyed the IRULE and XENON reveals though. (I RULE being one of the best parts of an already great movie, american beauty, it's just too bad kevin spacey turned out the way he did.) ALAN BEAN? never heard of him. all i've got in the old brain filing cabinet under astronaut is armstrong, aldrin, and sally ride. couldn't decide beforehand if it would be BOIL or ROIL and i thought the astronaut clue would be one last name, not first and last. stared at it until finally i gave up and googled everyone who had walked on the moon. never heard of ELISE either, another begrudging google. had SLR before EOS, then i thought i remembered EOS...but then i "realized" i was thinking of a lip gloss brand and that couldn't be it, but it was after all. couldn't decide whether to guess CON, FOR or PRO. took ages to get GREASE PAINT even with my pen and paper out. kept thinking maybe it was something green or great or something about a tiara.
it's really a shame because the other 3/4 of the puzzle was going so well! sure it was a bit slow going (AYE AYE before AYE SIR and taking too long to figure out MAINE despite being a life long new englander AND even looking at a map after running the states in my mind were my biggest facepalm moments), and CALLIGRAPHY was a stretch imho (and not really a fun one with GRAPH in the clue and the answer), and ADOUT can f off entirely. any word i end up googling and see only crossword clue & scrabble results for is garbage in my book. but one "meh" reveal and one bs word would have made for a fine sunday if it weren't for that damn northeast.
not a clue what MAGLEV was but that was a fine wikipedia article to read and goes in the "i learned something new today" category so no issues there really. hopefully next sunday is more fun like usual.
@Loren Muse Smith forgot about that one - i too had PLASTER for ages, even thought for a minute i must be misspelling it and it could be PLASTAR before the lightbulb went off.
& re: dress codes - i remember in school (as a student) the rule was regardless of the type of bottom you were wearing, it had to come past your fingertips while your arms were at your side or you'd get sent home to change. and no "strappy" tank tops either. god forbid anyone saw the shoulder or leg of a 12 year old while you were sweating in a concrete room with no a/c and windows that didn't open in the heat of summer because a strike had put us all there late into the year doing make up days.
I am 100% with you Tom!
oh, also wanted to add that i LOVED the TENDRILS reveal. and also also, that TEPID produced a fond memory, in which a particularly witty friend of mine once signed a fictional email to someone that was irritating him "tepid regards" (in place of "warm regards" of course) and i just found it so funny it has stuck in my head for the last fifteen years.
Elise Stefanik - "A dishonest supporter of disinformation and sedition". . . SEDITION!!!! . . . She is my Congressperson. . . I know her well. . . She is honest, extremely helpful, and caring. . . As usual, you speak loudly from a position of ignorance. . . Your description does, however, fit the Biden/Pelosi/Schumer culture-canceling fascists. . To A T.
@Barbara S. - har. Dang, girl … That was *fast*. Luv it. It has the chicken and duck words totally centered within the turkey word, too boot! Outstandin bake. And delicious.
Things are lookin real real extra-good, for this Randolph Ross TuesPuz themer set. Hopin he wants to adopt this puppy, and build the xword for it … If he don't read this here blog, a fellow constructioneer friend might need to alert him to the offer. He is most welcome to use the idea, and (no doubt) think up some cool worducken themers of his own. Or not. It's been fun at this end of the turkey, no matter where it all goes.
And y'all keep them worduckens quackin up and comin in for a spell, if U want … can always use some more shorter symmetric(al) choices. Maybe even shoot for some more worduckens that are totally centered within each other, like Barbara S.'s marvelous SOFTHEARTEDNESS. In any case, it's just plumb fascinatin to see what U clever folks cook up.
Thanx,
M&A Worducken Desk
You don't know what a MAGLEV TRAIN is because China and Japan are eating our lunch when it comes to modern infrastructure. It's still a weird answer, I'll grant you.
Such a funny, charming post, @Birchbark (11:18). It not only made me chuckle; it made me unaccountably proud of whatever tiny part I might have inadvertently played in your writing of it.
@Joe D (3:54) -- I'm with you all the way on wishing for many, many more Sunday Cryptics and Diagramlesses (even though I'm not one of the world's great Diagramless solvers.) I don't share your love of Acrostics, however, finding the process of solving them quite tedious. I'd fill that Variety Puzzle gap with more Split Decisions and more Marching Bands.
I was getting ready to blast @Anon (4:38) for their support of Stefanik with a "What the hell is this doing in a crossword blog" sort of comment. Then I realized @Rex started it. So ... never mind.
LOL
@JoeD, Whoa! You gotta wonder why a guy would need a PhD for that, and how he actually looks in a bikini.
@Barbara S.
You totally crushed it. I knew you had it in you.
So nice to have you back...
I don’t like anagrams in general, so I found this more of a chore than pleasurable. The worst part of this is to see, in any crossword, the name of the woman that purports to represent me in Congress. She is a traitor who is the worst kind of politician; she is smart enough to know better yet reversed many of her positions to pander to her base.
@okanoganer, je crois que les français disent "Merci bien", pas "bien merci" - mais Bien Sur Vous for thinking about it!
@M&A, f(or(tun)ate)ly. Not symmetrical, alas.
Northeast was utter garbage. Just made me want to EXPEL my computer out the window.
Lots of rules that have yet to be made for the WORDUCKENFEST. Any one letter words besides A and I? Abbreviations? Other languages? Then how about wordducken+1? That's right add a 4th word!
OR to MORE to AMORES (Ovid validation?). Shortest possible worducken starting with a 2 letter word.
I to AIM to MAIMED is one letter over the bare minimum possible for any worducken.
I to AIN to MAINE is a bare minimum. AIN is Scottish for own. A half-step worse than TUN?
The puzzle.
They were not of course just anagrams of random letters. They were anagrams of other words that in combination with the other words in the clue gave a clear indication of what the final answer could be. So it sees to me it was silly to just moan about anagrams.
However it certainly gave Rex and Z a nice opportunity to ENUMERATE all the anti-anagram plaints. Me? I thought the anagrams were pretty good ones and added to the fun. The high point of the puzzle. Do I in general like anagrams? NO. But I do do the Jumble everyday.
@Shirley F. 643am
NEWA NEWAC
New Englanders With Asses
New Englanders with AssCracks.
Bien, merci... I have definitely heard; in reply to a question like "Comment vas-tu?" or "Tu vas bien?" it means "(I'm) good, thanks". Whereas "merci bien" isn't necessarily a reply; it simply means "Thanks a lot".
Took a long time to solve. Took a fairly long time to realize the anagram motif I think because the lap top version title doesn’t exist. What was the title? It should not just be available to the pen and paper solvers.
The thing I like about the anagrams is that if you have a cross that you are not sure of you can simply check the anagram. If that letter is not there,it's back to the drawing board. Saved a little time and eraser. These Naticks that you speak of, aren't they personal. I might know Alan bean but never heard of banh mi for example. Net man's Natick is another man's gimme. Also,as an aside, who is responsible for coming up with the phonetic spelling of words from languages that have different alphabets than we do. I know you can't spell it b a n because that would sound like ban the bomb but who came up with banh. I've seen banh like in Siobhan. Just a thought.
Am I the only one completely baffled by "I OWE, I OWE, it's off to work I go"??? For the life of me, I could not come up with that, because the phrase as I know it is always " Hi Ho, Hi Ho,..."!
Who puts SLAW on a hot dog? Really?
Well said
To: okanaganer
You can't say j'ai dis. Should be j'ai dit; dit is the past participle of the verb dire.
Amyanni….I have a Jamis Boss Cruiser and like it a lot.
Amyanni….I have a Jamis Boss Cruiser and like it a lot.
FYI: maybe this was said already, but a MULE is not an animal, it is a drug smuggler who brings cocaine or heroine etc. across a border.
Worst puzzle ever. I hated every second of it. Unlike many, I didn't mind the anagrams, but I absolutely despised the cluing, and I agree with those who said the northeast corner was so very annoyingly unsatisfying.
Got a clue quibble: "Avoids a bogey, perhaps" for PARS. There's no "perhaps" to it. I don't care if you had a one-inch kick-in, once you made it, you avoided a bogey. Editing should definitely have deleted that word from the clue.
Anagrams are okay; a little exercise for the old gray cells. Of course, CALLIGRAPHY and "graphically" don't change much, including keeping the word GRAPH intact. That's a defective theme entry. Let's try to mix 'em up a little better than that, if you please.
These nits aside, our Sunday constructor scores himself: he PARS.
MERELY TEPID
MEANGIRLS from a DATINGSITE
are LESSTHAN ALLSTARs in bed;
EACHTIME YOUWISH they get it RIGHT,
but do AMAZONS get BREAD?!?
--- ALEXA NOONE
CREATORS MAID
This TRUISM may be GLIB, LADEN with ASOCIAL rage:
IF YOU SNEERAT 'Adam's rib", remember MOM'S MENUPAGE.
--- IKE KEA
Yeah it's only anagrams but so what? Compared to some of the Sunday slogs this puz was fun-ish.
EACHTIME Lucy LIU shows up she's a winner.
Did this one BLEARYEYED at 5:00 a.m. and still liked it.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm on the lookout for those MAGLEVTRAINS. I mean, really?
Diana, LIW
"Mule" is a slang term for a drug smuggler, the person carrying in drugs....
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