Monday, September 27, 2021

MONDAY 9/27: Puzzle site currently down

Hello, the NYTXW website is down (all morning and still as of 6:45am).

I'll solve / post when I get home from the gym (between 9am and 10am, assuming the site is better by then). Just didn't want you to think I'd forgotten about y'all.

xo
RP

P.S. Here this should tide you over ... it took so long LOL



33 comments:

  1. Rex - thanks for opening it up for us!

    Monday right across the plate. It’s hard to think of other possibilities, right? Long lines. Five “Next TELLER please” signs that you STARE at while hating the three well-coiffed people in their glass-walled offices studiously ignoring the crowd and my resentment. I know, I know – they’re probably not trained to do tellering stuff, but still.

    I guess most of us know that at its inception, it was called DAYLIGHT SAVING time. Said this way, you have to put the emphasis on the DAY. I feel conspicuous saying that way, but it makes sense. Money-saving tips, time-saving hacks, face-saving lies, daylight-saving time. And OK, SO I’m going to put this out there and own it: I never know which half of the year is the part where we’re saving daylight. Is it fall and winter, when we’re frontloading it, or spring and summer when we’re tacking it on? Wait. I have that backwards. Right? When you get down to it, we’re really just shifting the light from one end of our daily walking-around time to the other. Maybe. Either way, I’m delighted when it gets dark at 5pm. No idea why.

    I never know if it’s the L or the T that’s doubled in ATTILA and apparently remain stalwart in my comittment not to learn it. Same with broccoli and parallel. And Cincinnati, Caribbean. . . %$#& doubled consonants.

    Funny clue for A POP. If you don’t suffer crippling globophobia. As I do. And I’m not making that up. It’s awful. And don’t let your students find out: Brad L. once chased me around the cafeteria with a yellow balloon and then popped it in my face. I managed to make it to the bathroom before I broke down and cried. Phobias are real and not to be dismissed, people.

    Maybe ‘cause it rhymes with smite, but it feels like the past tense of SPITE should be spote.

    I think any establishment or family who has a TACO Tuesday is cool. I’ve never really been a part of any TACO Tuesday, but I do have Waffle Weekends. Both Saturday and Sunday I make myself two troglodyte-size waffles in my nifty double waffle iron. It’s so much waffle that the last couple of bites are hard to chew, but I get’er done. Then I lie in a stupor on the couch and doze to taped Bravo tv shows. It’s stupendously, heavenlily decadent.

    The snarky frats I’ve heard of were Eta Bita Pi, Tappa Kegga Dei, and I Phelta Thi.

    Nice fare today, Zachary. It offered up a heck of a lot more interest for me than my paltry savings account.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:39 AM

      For a waffle topping - vanilla bean ice cream and hot fudge.

      Delete
  2. Thx Zachary, for a perfectly fine Mon. puz! :)

    Easy-med.

    Good NW start, moving counterclockwise, finishing in the NE, except for NUT TREE, which required a bit of scrutiny, due to not knowing Juana INEZ de la Cruz.

    No major holdups; very smooth, enjoyable experience. Liked it a lot! :)

    The POLE VAULT was such an exiting event to watch during the Olympics, with Sweden's (Armand "Mondo" Duplantis) taking the gold.

    PENN AND TELLER is my mnemonic prompt for recalling element # 52, Tellurium.

    STEPH Curry, my fave bball watch.

    Had to end my OBSESSion with SB by self-imposing a time limit. All is good now; mucho time freed up for other OBSESSions. lol

    I see the AGGIES went down to the Hogs on Sat. The SEC, tough, tough conf.; even more so if the invitations to the Sooners and Longhorns pan out.

    One Love - Bob MARLEY

    One love, one heart
    Let's get together and feel all right
    Hear the children crying (one love)
    Hear the children crying (one heart)
    Sayin', "Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right"
    Sayin', "Let's get together and feel all right"
    Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa
    ___

    yd -6 (no p nor g for me)

    Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

    ReplyDelete
  3. eFILE could have been a themer. And staTEN, I suppose.

    One HUGE nit: It’s DAYLIGHT SAVING, not SAVINGs. One of those things that really grates on my ear, like saying offsides instead of offside, or going the other way, bicep when you mean biceps.

    Like @LMS, I can never remember whether EDT and EST are winter and summer or vice versa. And always misspell ATilLA.

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  4. Fun little puzzle. Hand up for the double T miss at first. LETHE is probably not early week stuff. Liked SELF PITY and AGE OLD. NFL TEAMS is clunky.

    Enjoyable Monday solve.

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  5. *** Just In Case Some People Haven't Done the Crossword Yet, But Are Still Here Reading Stuff For Some Reason, This Comment Contains No Spoilers And This Warning Is Nearly As Long As the Review Itself But Who Cares? Alert ***

    Rex - what @Loren said! What a guy! 👍🥰

    Pretty good, straight-forward theme and simple fill - all Mondee appropriate kinda stuff.

    This dude now has a total of 2 NYTXW puzzles. The first one in June 2020 was a tribute (Hi, @Ω!) to RBG, so he won me over then.

    I also enjoyed his sophomore effort, which I hope is an indication of his promise in crossworld. Ι'm rooting for you, Mr. Levy!

    There is one thing I'm not happy about: no complaints. 🙁


    🧠
    🎉🎉.5

    ReplyDelete
  6. My five favorite clues from last week
    (in order of appearance):

    1. Alternative to white (3)
    2. Valuable carriers (7)(4)
    3. What's not to like? (4)(5)
    4. It's full of fiber (4)
    5. Funny business? (7)


    RYE
    ARMORED CARS
    BÊTE NOIRE
    LINT
    STANDUP

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  7. @kitschef (7:15) - I had the same reaction to the SAVINGS (plural) but found this, on which most grammar mavens seem to agree: "Daylight-saving time (singular saving) is technically the correct version: the practice is saving daylight. Still, daylight-savings time (with the plural savings) is so commonly used that it’s become an accepted variant of daylight-saving time."

    The grammar mavens, while accepting the plural as correct, do recommend using the singular in formal writing in order to keep the pedants at bay.

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  8. As a dwelling, is a HOVEL "rude" or "crude"?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gopman9:20 AM

      Exactly what I was wondering. Typo?

      Delete
  9. If you can have a "savings account" at the bank, why can't we have "daylight savings"?

    ReplyDelete
  10. OffTheGrid9:03 AM

    I usually note my time but don't OBSESS or have a goal. Today was sub-ten minutes so that would make this very easy by my standards. I liked the puzzle. Neat enough Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Regarding Day Light Savings and Standard times…

    Why don’t we just split the difference and shift 30 minutes, then never change the clocks again? Sure would avoid the “time lag” (akin to jet lag) some folks go through twice each year.

    My only challenge with the puzzle was the NE, but sussed it out (HOVEL) and finished with a little above average time.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Printed the puzzle last night before whatever caused the NYTX website to balk. I just checked my app and it’s fine, now, too.

    I was looking for some sort of soda tax for an added cost. Lived in the state with the highest BOTTLE DEPOSIT and there was no particular added cost beyond taking the bottles back. And it did what it was intended to do, reduce litter. Now I live in a state with no bottle deposit and the amount of litter in scenic locations is shocking. Maybe it’s just me, but the clue got the arched eyebrow and a 10¢ BOTTLE DEPOSIT > $500 littering fine at making people less disgusting.

    Hand up for thinking the S makes DAYLIGHT SAVING sound better. DAYLIGHT SAVINGS may not be the official name, but it is the only way right thinking people ever say it. Give me west Michigan and summer sunsets near 10 p.m. But not Chicago and it’s 3:00 pm winter sunsets. Either way we all have time enough to cry.

    A fine Monday offering. The theme does what the theme does. The fill was decent enough to not make the forehead furrow. Liberty Mutual and not the constructor is to blame for me seeing EMUS in the grid and thinking “you ES SO bees.”

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  13. Jane & Michael B.9:07 AM

    Would have been more fun if the type of bank was switched up - blood, sperm, memory, etc. - as well as money.

    Many thanks. Sincerely.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The New Yorker puzz occasionally pops up a cartoon from the 1920s poking fun at the word Gnu in crosswords. Finally I see it in the wild.

    Hogan crossing Hovel was nice. It would be fun to experience the former but the airport hotel last night was more the latter. Premium price with a disabled thermostat, no stopper for the tub, and .. oh never mind. Enough with the Self Pity already.

    Are there still Bottle Deposits? If I round up a few Nehi bottles, can I walk to the grocery store and get some penny candy? Will the grocer be listening to Paul Anka on his green transistor radio? I'd as lief be studying Lief again to experience that, which would've been around that same time.

    Speaking of time, I ignore Daylight Savings time now that I'm semi-retired. I set the clocks but adjust meal and bed times to keep it level. My tiny act of rebellion.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymoose9:15 AM

    RUDE as clued needs a pretty good lawyer but I did find this at Lexicon.com

    Rude

    4. dated Roughly made or done; lacking subtlety or sophistication.
    ‘a rude coffin’

    ReplyDelete
  16. Lobster11 said "If you can have a "savings account" at the bank, why can't we have "daylight savings"?"

    I think "daylight saving" functions as an adjective, but "savings" is a noun.

    But I have a solution: Since we're only on standard time for about 4 months, and on DST around 8 months, we should call what is now Daylight Saving Time "Standard Time" and what we do in the winter "Daylight Squandering Time." I don't think people will be tempted to add the "s" then.

    ReplyDelete
  17. @Lobster11 - of course it could have been called daylight savings, but in this case there is actual governmental act establishing it, and that act calls it daylight saving. So if you call it daylight savings, you are violating federal law.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hey All !
    Weirdly, out here in PENN AND TELLER city, we have TACO Wednesdays. Not sure why. Maybe the city missed the memo.

    Funny line: EAT IT IN THE BANK. Could be either: Bank hero? - or: Took a header to the teller.

    I 1000% agree with @Mikey from El Prado about the 30 minutes. C'mon, powers that be, it would make life so much easier! But then, Newfoundland wouldn't be half an hour ahead/behind. They'd actually be normal!*

    No BOTTLE DEPOSITs out here in Sin City. Sin, indeed. Originally from PA, which had none, then lived in CT for a number of years, which had it. Memories of spending close to 4 hours feeding cans into the machine, because I had a roommate who went through a 36 pack of Bud Ice pretty much weekly (maybe even 4 days), and he never returned them, just put them on the back porch. He moved out, and said I can take them and turn them in and take the money. I ended up with $42. At 5¢ a can. Do the math.

    Nice puz, easy for me.

    *In case you didn't know, Newfoundland is its own time zone. 30 minute different from Eastern Time.

    Three F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  19. So here's my account of this puzzle. In sum and on balance, it didn't really hold my interest that much.

    My biggest decision was whether I needed an "R" from LEER to get OCHRE or an "E" from OGLE to get OCHER.

    I did wonder whether "treated maliciously" was going to be SPIT AT, but it turned out to be SPITED. Which is, of course, better.

    ETA Pi is a ridiculous "punny fraternity name", but at least it skirts the airport clue. So there's that.

    Nothing especially bad about this puzzle. But nothing especially good about it either. Very meh.

    ReplyDelete
  20. I think Rex is getting at the right take: "savings" is the thing saved, but "saving" is the act or process. So in this period we are (supposedly) saving daylight. But that doesn't result in banked daylight savings we can use later.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Loren Muse Smith said, "I never know which half of the year is the part where we’re saving daylight."

    It's more like 8 months/4 months than half the year. I find the easy way of remembering which is which is that it's backward: we're only on "Standard" time for a c. 4 month period during the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Joseph Michael10:16 AM

    I’ve heard the explanations and justifications for both, but two things I would gladly do without are DAYLIGHT SAVINGS and the Electoral College.

    Easy but solid Monday puzzle. My biggest hang up was figuring out what three letters could possibly follow NUTT (25D). Was worried that it might be NUT TYPE and was relieved when it wasn’t.

    Favorite fill: SELF-PITY. (One of my favorite hobbies) Least favorite fill: OKSO (Huh?)

    ReplyDelete
  23. TTrimble10:34 AM

    Not a bad Monday. One of the few things I furrowed my eyebrows quizzically over was KAL, but I see the cluer's quandary, that the OBVI KAL PENN was precluded by PENN AND TELLER. Hence, a dog food I never heard of.

    Rookie misstep putting in OCHer, instead of holding back and seeing whether they'd go all British on me with OCHRE. It's fine -- I don't mind -- I write "aesthetic" and "amoeba". But I think that was my only misstep. I did think to hold back both on INE- (INES or INEz?) and on completing OV-; OVi (as in "oviparous") is also possible, and OVa feels like a close call since it appears in, e.g., "oval" which is directly connected with the egg meaning. But OVO it was. No connection btw with OVERT, whose etymology is a little curious. ***Nerd Alert*** --> OVERT traces back through the Old French (cf. ouvert, "open") to the "Vulgar Latin ōperīre, alteration (influenced by Latin cōperīre, to cover) of Latin aperīre" (to open; cf. "aperture").

    Relatively decent but not head-spinning time. More than anything I was glad to see that the NYT sorted things out while I sat in their waiting room reading their articles. Did a little Calcudoku, which I've been trying to turn @bocamp on to behind the scenes. But now I better heave-ho; work lies ahead.

    dbyd -1 (missed a 5-letter beginning with T)
    yd 0
    td pg -2

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  24. Anonymoose11:27 AM

    Oops! In my 9:15 post I got clue and answer confused. "Rude" was part of the clue for HOVEL but the reference still applies.

    Rude

    4. Dated; roughly made or done; lacking subtlety or sophistication.
    ‘a rude coffin’

    (Lexico.com)

    ReplyDelete
  25. So confusing -- @Loren wasn't here the first time I read the comments, and now she's the first one.

    Anyway, the move here is toward making EDT go year-round, rather than scrapping it entirely. @Loren, the daylight saved is for urban and suburban-ites, who can come home from work and relax on their patios. In the countryside, it daylight time in the winter would mean kids standing on the roadside in the dark to catch their school buses. Farmers don't like it in the summer because their work hours are defined by the sun, and they don't like them jumping around -- though I'm not sure if that's still the case.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Well, my original comment has disappeared, which is OK, because all I said was I tired to make a theme out of the first word of the themers, which was an abysmal failure.

    What I really wanted to know is what anyone thought of yesterday's Acrostic. I thought it was a beauty.

    ReplyDelete
  27. TTrimble1:24 PM

    @pabloinnh
    I liked the acrostic too. I was slightly despairing at first because I had so little [feeling super-solid only for the last clue], but through the magic of dialectic between the quote grid and the answers, I eventually got a sense of the rhythm (and there *was* a rhythm, no doubt) of the quote. And the quote was on a topic that I find inherently interesting. So, yeah: thumbs up.

    ReplyDelete
  28. @pabloinnh (12:38 PM) / TTrimble (1:24 PM)

    Another enjoyable acrostic with a topic that's near and dear to my heart. My solve echoed @TTrimble's.
    ___

    td pg -3 (maybe two or three more 5 min. sessions, then done)

    Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

    ReplyDelete
  29. TTrimble8:42 PM

    Quiet night. Quiet announcement:

    0

    ReplyDelete
  30. TTrimble9:10 PM

    @LMS
    You might not see this, but I saw the story of Brad L. and the balloon. My sympathies. Human psychology is sooo complicated. I hope your current students recognize that they are lucky to have you, and meet you on a level of humans treating humans like humans.

    ReplyDelete
  31. leftcoaster3:15 PM

    Though the site was down Rex came to the rescue. A HAND for an agile Rex and, for that matter, a clever ZDL.

    Monday outliers: INES and LETHE. Wasn’t aware that TACOS were associated with Tuesdays.

    Live and learn, presumably.

    ReplyDelete