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Monkey head mushroom by another name / FRI 9-17-21 / Group whose name means the people of the waters that are never still / Brand whose logo includes a schoolboy with a ball for a head / Animal associated with Egyptian goddess Hathor / Portmanteau for a messenger bag
Friday, September 17, 2021
Constructor: Matthew Stock
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: Sebastian STAN (11D: Actor Sebastian ___) —
Sebastian Stan (born August 13, 1982) is a Romanian-American actor. Stan gained wide recognition for his role as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, beginning with 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger. He later returned in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and went on to star in Ant-Man (2015), Captain America: Civil War(2016), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021).
On television, he has played Carter Baizen in Gossip Girl, Prince Jack Benjamin in Kings, Jefferson in Once Upon a Time, and T.J. Hammond in Political Animals. The latter earned him a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Movie/Miniseries. In films, he co-starred in Jonathan Demme's comedy-drama Ricki and the Flash and Ridley Scott's science fiction film The Martian. In 2017, he portrayed Jeff Gillooly in the biopic I, Tonya. (wikipedia)
• • •
[From "The Melting Pot is an Outdated Image of America [...]" by Cecilia González-Andreiu]
Beyond that, there's just no sizzle here besides maybe GLITTER BOMBS (which I think I've seen before, but it's still good fill). The puzzle relies way way too heavily on fill-in-the-blank and "?" clues. PRAGENCY is hard enough to parse without the "?" clue, but at least that clue had wordplay that made sense, unlike REEL, which ... well, yes, you do "wind" a fishing-rod reel and if you are out on a boat when fishing, then you "wind on the water," but [Wind on the water?] when you have REE- in place suggests (or suggested, to me) an entirely different word. Can you guess what that is? [... Tick ... tock]. I sincerely wrote REED in here (since REED is another name for a certain kind of "wind" instrument, and REEDs (the plants) are most definitely found "on the water" (around ponds and such)). This left me with GOADS for 38A: Aspirational hashtag (GOALS), which I knew had to be wrong, but which I still couldn't sort out because REED seemed right. Was I parsing GOADS wrong? Was it ... GO ADS! (the "aspirational hashtag" you use when you ... want more ... ads?). Anyway, the only real difficulty in the puzzle came with "?" clues, and with having no idea who Sebastian STAN is (I saw every MCU movie through "Black Panther" and still have no real idea who was in them, for the most part ... and "Gossip Girl," not exactly age-appropriate for me) (he's a famous actor, he's fine, I'm just saying I didn't know him).
A MURSE remains not a thing—it's a portmanteau joke that surely died almost as soon as the name became public. The idea of multiple TREACLES is a flat-out absurdity. The clue on EON is ... what is that? (41A: S_c__d (time in time)). I've seen this "I'll be cheeky by removing letters from my clue word" clue at least one other time, and I hope it's not a trend, because it's awful, child's-placemat stuff. Fill-in-the-blanks are bad enough, don't make me do the ****ing Jumble. What does "time in time" even mean? I know that a "second" is a unit of time and an EON is a unit of time, but what is the phrase "time in time" supposed to evoke? It's a non-phrase. "Time After Time," that's a phrase (and a great Cyndi Lauper song). I don't know what "time in time" is. This is the *crossword*. Write a *crossword* clue.
What else? Oh, you call Pentagon bigwigs BRASS. Just BRASS. The "HAT" part feels real old-fashioned (it's a real phrase, but, you know, more quaint than alive) (21A: Pentagon bigwig). Lastly, I had BOWL for BOAR (21D: Big game). That's nobody's fault but my own. Just a misunderstanding of "game." Maybe intentional on the part of the cluer, maybe not. Anyway, it was effective misdirection, whether intentional or not. I think that's it. If the grid had been much hotter, a lot of its issues would've seemed less important, felt less irksome. The Friday bar is high. Gotta come with more heat than this. Good day.
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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168 comments:
First entry was EON. Love that clue. And FWIW, I always used to get an extra child’s placemat when the kids were little and do all the little tasks with them. De gustibus and all that.
Second is kind of an anti-kangaroo word. A kangaroo word is a word that contains its synonym hidden in order among the letters, so
Astound: stun
community: city
strives: tries
An anti-kangaroo word contains its antonym, so
fabrication: fact
wonderful: woeful
Other fun with words, the semordnilap – a word that, spelled backwards, is a different word. And obviously semordnilap itself is a semordnilap. Doncha just love this stuff?
I watch enough Great British Bakeoff to understand that their TREACLE is (akin to?) our molasses. So the plural form for me is odd, (hi, Rex) the way, say, mayonnaises would sound odd. But all you have to do is look in Mom’s pantry to see my Hellman’s and her Duke’s, and bam - two mayonnaises. Back to molassesses. . . A light touch with this stuff is advised lest your happily dainty little tarts become stressed desserts.
Starting a Friday with 1A is tough. Pretty quickly I got OGLED and AVATAR, but the last of the MOHICANS didn’t fall until I retrieved SELASSIE from the reptilian crossword sector of my brain.
@Rex – agree on parsing PRAGENCY. Looks like a place that would have PEWs.
Even as a kid, I marveled that we needed to be warned not to open a shoebox, tear into that little packet, and eat it. I mean, c’mon, man. Do we need a DO NOT EAT sticker on paper clips? Light bulbs? Spackling compound? (I’m reminded, though, that I used to ingest flea-killer every morning for thicker hair, so, well. . . I’ll just shut up about this.)
I guess sushi/sashimi neophytes could use a little “DO NOT EAT all of this in one bite” sign on that dollop of wasabi.
I always associate the sinking of the LUSITANIA with the beginning of WWI. The other day, Mom asked me why so many people around the world hate Americans. I told her that maybe one reason is that we’re so utterly self-absorbed. As I said this, I was mentally separating myself from such vainglorious Yanks, feeling worldly and woke. Yeah. Right.
How/why does a tutu stick out? Jim
Not having a chip on my shoulder, I thoroughly enjoyed today's puzzle.
@Jim – the skirt sticks straight out.
Had the TU- there, and really wanted to get TUSH to work.
Thx Matthew, for a perfectly fine Fri. puz! :)
Med. solve.
Great start in the NW, moved counterclockwise, ending up at TEACH-INS.
Actually thot TEA CHATS, but STAT wasn't looking good for a name; neither did LUSATANIA seem right. So, TEA CHINS it was. After all, the clue did include 'social', so CHIN-wagging, with a spot of TEA. Why not? lol
Fave clue: 'ground shaking stuff'.
Really enjoyed this one a lot!
___
dbyd & yd both pg -1 (neither was gettable pour moi) :( / td 0
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Annoying DNF for me. I had TEACHerS instead of TEACHINS as a plausible name for a PBS type series, misspelling LUSeTANIA and creating Sebastian STAr - since I’d never heard of him either.
Otherwise I found this fun and fast for a Friday.
GLITTERBOMB crossing HITMEN and MURSE certainly paints a picture.
Excellent post @LMS. I agree with all of it except the DONOTEAT comments. Tide Pods anyone? Found out yesterday that a co-worker of mine ate packing peanuts as some sort of on-line challenge as well. Never did think he was the sharp tool in the shed, and now I wonder if he was not left out of the shed to rust. Thanks for explaining semordinlap and kangaroo words. To me, the second/EON clue is perfectly fine for a crossword and is one way to expand the options of clues for words that we see way too often as fill. It made me think, and I put in Era first (to give sacred) until the second part of the clue hit me
I really liked GLITTERBOMB. Have never heard the phrase but it makes sense.
Often when I’ve never heard of an actor that appears in the puzzle, I’ll visit IMDB to see what they’ve been in and sure enough, there is a reason I’ve never heard of them. But Sebastian STAN … I’ve seen at least ten movies with him in them, plus a couple of TV shows, and yet the name meant nothing to me.
One of those puzzles that was laughably easy – somewhere between a Tuesday and a Wednesday – but I still managed to blow it. “By the by” – BTb went in, which led to Pub for a place with bowed heads and SuSTINAS. Funny thing is, if I had hit that section from below or from the left, I probably would have guessed SESTINAS and confirmed it with PEW and finished. But I came from above right, so BTB was already locked in.
I’m on Team Rex on the clue for EON. Those clues are on of the staples of the Puns and Anagrams puzzles, and I don’t like them there, either.
Wow. Rex takes virtue signaling taken to new heights, previously unscaled even by him.
University level dreck from Rex today - hard to take him seriously sometimes. Fantastic puzzle - a little easier than most Friday’s but solid fill and wordplay. Liked the diagonal grid symmetry. Clue for PEPPER should make @Lewis’ best of list. PR AGENCY did take me some time to get. Liked SESTINAS and LAID SIEGE. OGLED and MURSE are the negatives here.
Enjoyable Friday solve.
The best puzzles for me are those in which I’m highly motivated from start to finish. Not so good are those puzzles in which I feel like I’m going through the motions until completion, or others in which my interest flags as soon as the theme becomes apparent, or some that are so difficult for me that I stick with it until the end, but more because I’m stubborn than motivated.
Today’s falls into that best category. I was scattershot-ting all over the grid, getting bits here and there, each fill-in getting my juices flowing more, resulting in another fill in, all crescendo-ing to a most satisfying ending.
Along the way were three terrific clues for STEAK, REEL, and especially PEPPER, a backward LEER to go with OGLED, and the thought that EDAM might be the only four-letter-or-more semordnilap in the grid, which would have been très élégant, but then I saw REEL. So close!
How do I know I was motivated? I didn’t notice the highly unusual diagonal symmetry of the grid until Jeff Chen pointed it out in his review. And any puzzle that grips me so strongly from start to finish that I don’t notice something like that – well, that puzzle, for me, goes into that “best” category. Thank you, Matthew, so much for this!
I wanted Teach ins to be Ted Talks but I knew they weren’t social protest but more aspirational gunk. (Sorry…the TED thing seems pretentious to me even if the subject matter is an important topic.) I honestly didn’t know that Melting Pot was an offensive white supremacy construct although it makes sense I guess.
I love wasabi! (Just needed to get that out there.) This is a very good Friday offering, but for MELTING POT. Must be honest, as had a lengthy conversation recently on why the term is hurtful and archaic.
Thinking my Sabai sofa should arrive today.
(Sabai makes eco friendly furniture.) Am rounding the corner on getting settled.
May your Friday be a Glitterbomb of a day, if you enjoy that sort of thing.
Learning through Crosswords: I had no idea that "MELTING POT" was NON-PC. Or is that UN-PC?
Did anyone else have ASP for the Egyptian goddess's animal?
Can't know for sure of course, but I feel like so many of you not knowing Sebastian STAN is the greatest proof yet that the NYT crossword solver community skews straight male. :'D
Love,
Gayboi
Some parts were easy and then I hit the "I have no frickin'' idea what gets stuffed in here" button. I've never heard of that Monkey head mushroom LIONS MANE. I'm no chef like our friend @chefwen, but I do a fair amount of mushroom cooking. I can make those little puppies sing; a little olive oil, a little butter, some vino tinto, a few minced scallions and no LION would dare enter my sauté pan.
Don't have a clue what TEACH INS are and never heard of BRASS HAT. I like a fighting chance when I come across something I don't know, but today I threw my gloves down the stairs. I eventually picked them back up and finished my fight. I came away with those three bruises.
There was lots to like, though. I thought the cluing was wicked good in places. My favorite was the last one at 59A. STEAK is indeed worse when well done.
I always thought of TREACLE as overly sentimental - now I know it can be used as pastry fillings?
Then we get to MELTING POT. Well dang...and then some. I always thought it referred to positive assimilation. Now I read @Rex and he says it's a utopian fantasy that erases ethnic difference of immigrants. I'll have to look into this. I don't want to erase nada. You start changing my enchiladas and you're dead in my book.
I agree 100% about "melting pot," and as usual, thank you Rex for calling out Matthew Stock on how problematic the term is. For what it's worth, however, I think Israel Zangwill's original 1908 play, "The Melting Pot," which popularized the term, is still a worthwhile read. He does not see the cultures all melting together into something homogeneous (like Richard Rodríguez in "Brown"), but conceptualizes their relation as a reciprocal dialogue. The other metaphor he uses is of an orchestra in which each instrument maintains its separate voice, but harmonizes with the others. Indeed, the hero of the play, David Quixano, composes a symphonic piece that is intended to represent this, titled "The Crucible." When the term caught on, it lost the subtlety Zangwill originally tried to imbue it with.
This was the kind of puzzle where you look at 1A and immediately go somewhere else to get started. For me it was old friend AERIE and I went up and back down and up again, finishing in the NW with, of course, 1A. I grew up in the land of the MOHICANS but had never heard that particular description, which is quite lovely.
Didn't stop to think much about MELTINGPOT, but no, it's not really accurate. We started our school days with the pledge of allegiance, and I have similar problems with "liberty and justice for all", so I skipped that part. Even less accurate than MELTINGPOT, I'm afraid.
Just when you associate STAN with rabid fandom, it turns into a unknown actor. I mean, really.
Any day when I can remember the LUSITANIA and spell SELASSIE right on my first try is a good day and made me like this one. Some good misdirects on the clues and snappy answers.
Very nice and appropriate Friday, MS. More Stuff like this welcome any time. Thanks for all the fun,
Loved this. Had to start in the east after a total shut out in the west. Lusitania was mildly tough because, fooled again, I think of it as having been sunk and was looking for some end-of-war thing that got destroyed. But Also and Tutu* yielded it up and I marched south. Got to Steak, headed west and then north before fighting with the mushroom, and things slowed down considerably.
At that point I psyched myself out thinking there was some millennial cultural knowledge called for that I didn’t have (what with the sussed out Teach In in the east). Still thinking it after Pragency fell (assuming, and I’m not kidding, it was probably some online overpriced maternity store).
But it turned out to be an old school Melting Pot, a Brass Hat, and at last the Mohicans, making me feel smarter than I actually am (check out David Brooks’ article from yesterday, Is Self-Awareness a Mirage, comments are even better than the article).
Jeff Chen did a wonderful explanation of this puzzle’s diagonal symmetry. The solve felt a little “different” and I think that had a lot to do with it.
*Dancer injury attorneys.
The MELTING POT chip on Rex's shoulder is more like a Ponderosa Pine and his preaching IN RETURN sends me out of the PEW. PEW indeed!
@Z (from last night)-Thanks for the Two-Hearted Ale recommendation. I've actually seen it on one of those "best of" lists that you run into from time to time.
If you're in NE, I'd say, in no particular order, Laswson's Sip o' Sunshine, Maine Brewing Company's Lunch, and the legendary Heady Topper from the Alchemist. There are a bunch of others I like nearly as well. We live in fortunate times, at least in some respects.
Can’t share Rex’s PC rage at real, legitimate phrases, just because they come from viewpoints we don’t share. I dislike the bent behind MELTING POT as well (and agree that it is a progenitor to the anti-CRT idiocy of today). But words we disagree with are still words. TREACLES, on the other hand, isn’t. Can two croissants be filled with almond butters? Strawberry jams?
Cruised along ridiculously fast, thinking this was too easy for a Friday (chock full of long gimmes), until the SW, spent more time there than the entire rest of the grid.
Time After Time: great song, Lauper didn’t write it. Rob Hyman, who along with Eric Bazilian were and still are The Hooters, classic Philly band. Also responsible for What if God Were One of Us? If you haven’t heard them, find their compilation album Hooterization.
Yes on the asp, then Cat before COW
Did anyone else notice that Matthew no longer provides constructor commentary on Xwordinfo, but does on Wordplay? Was wondering if this was somehow related to the dispute Xwordinfo had with KAC……anyone have any color on this?
Sun Volt @ 7:27 AM: Your phrase “University level dreck” is hilarious! No doubt you are sarcastically poking fun at poorly educated people whose vague and misinformed sense of history, current events, and politics comes from online social media and televised propaganda. “University level dreck” is funny because it’s so nonsensical — like saying “Professional sports level incompetence.” That’s what you were going for, right? That’s why you left out the hyphen too — to comment on what poor education looks like?
PRAGENCY is a DOOK. I actually said it out loud, quite loudly, in a rising tone. Then... oh.
I’m with @gill. Melting pot means positive assimilation.
OFL goes out of his way to see bigotry under every rock.
Hey, Rex! Melt this!
I never thought after almost eight decades of being a liberal, someone would accuse me of wanting to "erase the ethnic differences of immigrants" and being "icky and ignorant and tone-deaf". But such is life ...
@Benjamin - Are you a Stan stan? Hand up for having no idea. On that long list of work the only thing I’ve seen is The Martian and I just don’t do movie stars.
What’s with the diagonal symmetry? It looks like it’s pointing us towards something.
I’m definitely with Rex, not @LMS, on EON. Cryptics, Jumbles, Spelling Bee, there’s lots of puzzles for those who think that rearranging letters is a fun activity. Leave the crossword alone.
LOL on people not realizing that their childhood was drowned in racism and being all taken aback when it’s pointed out to them. Rex cited a relatively recent article from something put out by those radical Jesuits, but the discussion was old when I first encountered it 25 years ago. The suggestion then was to replace MELTING POT with a salad bowl metaphor, but even that metaphor is lacking. If you’re paying attention you learn that lots of things look different to other people.
MOHICANS crossing MELTING POT. What’s the name of that rule again? Never ascribe to malice what can be explained by stupidity? In this case I suspect it’s more ignorance than stupidity, but that looks like some next level trolling. Let’s ask some MOHICANS their thoughts on the American MELTING POT.
I’ve heard of the BRASS, I’ve heard of ASS HAT, but I don’t recall ever knowing that BRASS HAT was a term.
I liked this more than Rex.
@JC66 late - True. But did you notice that I didn’t go on about how that IPA, regarded as the best beer in America four years in a row*, should be common knowledge to everyone? Given the numbers, I’d bet that more people are familiar with the IPA than a certain LA neighborhood, but I still wouldn’t get all defensive if someone said it was obscure.
*Proof that, as IPA’s go, it’s the most famous. Magazines need content so they do these kinds of things. But what does that even mean?
Michael Page, perhaps reflect upon your decision to dismiss as “PC rage” Rex’s pretty nicely composed thoughts on how MELTING POT was clued and the disturbing history of that term. I don’t see the rage, and wonder where you do. Is any expression of critical evaluation rageful? Is any identification of ossified patriotic myth PC? I also don’t see Rex making the case that the term MELTING POT is not composed of words. You may or may not be persuaded by what he wrote, but in describing those few sentences as “PC rage” you display an aggression that belies your point.
Never heard of either PRAGENCY or IROC. Finding that C was pure guesswork.
Don’t understand the issue with melting pot. What’s wrong with assimilating into the culture of the country you immigrate to? If I have no interest in assimilating into the Japanese culture, I shouldn’t move to Japan. Or if I do move to Japan, then I’m the “ugly american” (damn racists).
@Z Well I'm not sure if I'd qualify as a Stan stan, but I am definitely an Admirer of Cuties. And I think my first introduction to him was as the closeted gay son in Political Animals... but it turns out he's played a closeted gay son in not one, not two, but three productions!
Spurred by Michael Sharp's outrage at MELTING POT, I went to Wikipedia and was immediately fascinated. I learned a few suggested replacements like "kaleidoscope", "mosaic", "symphony", and "salad bowl". I feel I have a lot to learn and think about here, as I too, like @Gill I., grew up with more positive associations.
Wanted "gazed" before OGLED. Nowadays the word OGLE seems to be used with only one meaning, to eye pointedly and greedily/lecherously, especially when men do it to women. But the word has carried more than one meaning. Merriam-Webster lists a noun, "an amorous or coquettish glance", which seems very different. Goes back to Old High German ouga, "eye", cf. German Auge.
Anyone who ERRs by mistaking wasabi for guacamole is really not paying attention to what these foodstuffs are. Put aside taste and smell. Wasabi is more of a paste, and stiffer. Guacamole often has avocado chunks which seem unmistakable.
MURSE, which I didn't know, looks ugly to me. As so many portmanteaus do.
Re Rex's "I've seen this "I'll be cheeky by removing letters from my clue word" clue at least one other time, and I hope it's not a trend, because it's awful, child's-placemat stuff." -- oh, it's a trend all right. It shows up a lot in cryptic puzzles. I think they're fun. But then, I'm a child at heart.
It was very slow going for me to get into this puzzle. Scattershot entries until the NW began to come together, whose long answers I mostly really liked. (Did you know that the hairstyles called "Mohawks" in the US are called "MOHICANS" in Great Britain? Of course, talk about stereotypes and racism: these are complete misnomers. Pawnee, more like. Once again, Wikipedia to the rescue.) Interesting diagonal symmetry today, of the y = -x kind. And me also liked GLITTER BOMBS, CHICAGO BEARS, SESTINAS, LUSITANIA -- good stuff.
Did not care for TREACLES (nor for "molasseses", nor "mayonaisses"). But TREACLE reminds me of a word game where supposedly there is just one word with a given four-letter sequence and the object is to find it. In this instance the sequence was ACLY and they had in mind "cataclysm", but I had righteously come up with the alternative "treacly" (hmmph! so there!). But here are some others to chew on: HIPE and ACUR.
Happy Friday, everyone!
yd pg -2 (still working)
td pg -3
This was a reasonable Friday struggle and for a change I wasn’t helped along by proper names. I’ve never heard of the actor or the comedian and I needed some crosses to see SELASSE. I’m sending a raspberry in the direction of IROC and It took a ridiculously long time to remember the name of the CHICAGO football team. Bulls felt so right and wrong at the same time, but wasn’t a Kardashion married to a basketball player for the Bulls? I bet @Loren would know.
The rest of the puzzle felt fair and fun. I’m very fond of PRAGENCY and TUTU. I wanted REEf before REEL. When wind travels over a reef the shallower water ripples more was my explanation. I don’t fish so the other meaning of wind made me think of winches not REELs. I got there at the end. I’m not hip but MURSE was a dated groan. I think GLITTERBOMB is on its way there too. It makes me think of those invitations and Christmas cards that spew glitter all over when opened. Who doesn’t hate that?
@pabloinnh - Truly blessed. There is more quality and variety today than at any time since prohibition. There is the occasional “OMG that’s awful” moment, but just so much good stuff that outweighs the occasional clanker.
OFL hits the nail on the head again, for me anyway. Weak, lame puzzle, full of empty tricks and gimmicks. We should expect and receive better.
@Lewis. Maybe a stretch but 2 more semordnilaps.
IDID-DIDI (Didi Conn, actress)
STAN-NATS (as in Washington Nats, a crossword staple)
I find the "melting pot" debate fascinating, because to me the "diversity" of this puzzle felt shoehorned in, to the point of being pandering and condescending. ("Quinceañeras" for RITES? That doesn't even conform to basic convention, i.e. Spanish clue for Spanish entry. It's just a totally tacked-on diversity entry.)
Then, of course, I hop online and find out that, far from being overly-PC, the puzzle had in fact made a massive PC-faux pas. Hey, guess I'm just one of those ignorant, unwashed, mixed-raced Americans, whose ancestors bought into the ugly lie of the melting pot. My bad.
My only personal beef with this puzzle is SLID for "took a dive." What the heck is that? And between that and the quite cryptic PR AGENCY clue, I ultimately didn't finish. Oh, well.
Reposting because of the stupid link...which probably isn't worth all the fuss anyway, but then again, what is?
Who are these people lining up to dine on silica gel? Just WTH is appetizing about that little bag of Gof-knows-what? Is it an overblown sense of adventure? Or a death wish? Or pica?? What???
You know what DO NOT EAT makes me want to do? Right. EAT.
It's like a gustatory spoiler alert.
GLITTERBOMBS on steroids, courtesy of Mark Rober
Wouldn't call this one easy, but somehow it went fast. Crosses were brilliantly fair so I had a fun solve.
🧠🧠.5
🎉🎉🎉
Hey All !
Quick note about YesterComments -
It finally happened. No "Reply" replies on the whole 116 Comments. Wow! Rarity.
Also a Rarity, just like I said a few days ago, today we get Diagonal Symmetry! Isn't it strange when you mention something, and soon it follows? Boy, it'd be nice to get $100 Million dollars. (Fingers crossed) 😁
Tough puz for me, but kept refusing to Goog anything. Got to middle of puz, but couldn't figure out that little section. Main reason was having BRB for BTW. Which got me Pub for PEW. 'Locale for bowed heads?', the heads part could've been for beer, but didn't know how bowed worked. (bode? boughed?) So, the longer ones ended up brEADIES and buSTINAS. Oh well. STEWed over that! (Get it? Cause STEW were the letters I missed)(Loses something when you explain it. Unlike @LMS today, whose post is filled with Easter eggs.)
Funny seeing semordnilap in the clues. Didn't know it was out there in the world, thought it was just a part of our little world here.
TREACLE always sounds to me like something icky. Like gooey ick. "What is that slimy TREACLE leaking out of the pipes?" Har. Sorry if that's not breakfast worthy!
Had adAGENCY first for PR. PRAGENCY sounds like a pageant for pregnant women.
I would think MELTING POT would invoke the opposite of RexThink, as in not separating ethnicities, but saying different peoples are the same. You know, MELTed together. IMO.
Anyway, neat Diagonal Symmetry puz, Matthew. Light on dreck, some fun clues, tested the ole brain. Fun memory of 'The Super Bowl Shuffle'.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I saw" ground-shaking stuff?" and my first thought was PEPPER.
I saw "Sharper image co?" and my first thought was PR AGENCY.
Have I been doing crossword puzzles for too long or what?
Found this medium for a Friday -- not the hardest I've ever done, but enough here to make me have to think. Of the several nice clues -- TUTU; TOUR; PET; my favorite was the one for STEAK (59A). "Considered worse", though, isn't strong enough in my book. If it's a truly prime piece of beef and you cook it well-done, you haven't just made it worse. You've actually assassinated it.
My only complaint is SLID for "took a dive". The dive is a fall, not a slide. You can "take a dive" without sliding (think the Grand Canyon: you may bounce but you certainly won't slide); conversely, you can slide without having fallen...hopefully. (Think ice skating and the luge.)
I found this quite enjoyable.
@Z Do you really think cryptic puzzles are just rearranging words? If so, you should do a little more research. Cryptic puzzles are all about wordplay. Yes, there are occasional anagrams, but it can be difficult to even determine that based on the wordplay and indicator in the clue. Most respected cryptic constructors limit the number of anagrams to one or two per puzzle.
I much prefer cryptic puzzles to regular crossword puzzles. Regular crossword puzzles are sometimes little more than a trivia contest. Cryptic clues allow a solver to derive the correct answer even if the definition is unknown to him/her through wordplay. I have learned many new words by solving the wordplay. This is not possible in a regular crossword if you don't have enough crossing letters.
Anyone interested in great cryptic puzzles should check out https://www.leftfieldcryptics.com/
The puzzles are constructed by Joshua Kosman and Henri Picciotto, who were long time constructors of cryptics at The Nation.
@JD 818am As always, thanks for letting me know I'm not alone. Could not stop seeing "pregnancy" in PRAGENCY and it rankled until just now. 😊
Also realized why BRASSHAT, previously unknown to me, looked so familiar. The BR threw me off. (Hi, @Z)
Hand up for learning (and believing in) the positive and inclusive vibe to MELTINGPOT, while also being open to cocking my head to view it from another angle. It's uncomfortable, but enlightening.
I find the melting pot topic fascinating too. As a grandchild of Italian immigrants, my father and his siblings were not taught Italian at home, because their parents wanted them to melt in. Now people realize that being bilingual from childhood is a huge plus.
Im a child of a Lithuanian iimmigrant I learned nothing about that culture. I kind of had the realization from Rex's rant that despite being only 25% Anglo Saxon and the other 75% from non Anglo countries, I've melted into being 100% American bland . This sort of makes me sad. My beautiful Lithuanian mother's last name was changed by her Uncles to Brown. My beautiful Italian last name was changed by some family members to Bonner.
Brown and Bonner from the original foreign sounding surnames. It makes me sad that to fit in here, people have to lose their identity. This was Rex's point.
It's true that fans of multiculturalism aren't big fans of the term melting pot, but so what? Lots of people not only like the term but find it both aspirational and inspirational. Rex's stridency doesn't make his argument any stronger. And frankly, I'm not only unmoved by his position but his outrage too.
Easy- medium. LIONS MANE and SESTINAS were WOEs. Solid with a smattering of sparkle, liked it.
Me too for asp before COW
The crossword was OK but......
YAWN
"...lost me a lot with the delusional and frequently racist American myth of the MELTING POT (a utopian fantasy promulgated largely by white people with the unstated but clear goal of erasing the ethnic differences of immigrants). The clue on MELTING POT is dishonest and irresponsible. When you use MELTING POT in this non-culinary way, you are evoking a specific and now very contentious theory of American life (one that there have probably been TEACH-INS about). Just stating that theory as a fact, a reality ... I dunno, it's icky and ignorant and tone-deaf. The idea of America as a MELTING POT papers over the long and enduring history of racism in this country. It's some feel-good white-person how-dare-you-teach-critical-race-theory-whatever-that-is nonsense. And I say this as someone who was raised on and to this day *adores* the Schoolhouse Rock cartoons."
Schoolhouse Rock cartoons? Now there's kultcha for ya!
All the "older" folks here will remember Rip. Taylor and his GLITTTER BOMBS. Technically, they were Confetti BOMBS, but close enough for me.
And the SLID people, think Baseball. Sliding to beat the tag.
RooMonster GLITTTER Guy (who does he think he is? Liberace?)
Rex is so wrong in his screed regarding the meaning of melting pot, Though typical of the PC world academics like him inhabit. I pity them, actually.
To those confused about why "melting pot" is problematic:
The concept of the "melting pot" evokes this idea that everyone will come together and create this "ideal" version of America where differences are melted away and everyone is the same. This may seem ideal on the surface, but the problem is the melting away of differences. A better ideal is to EMBRACE differences, to CELEBRATE difference, to recognize it and appreciate it and learn from it. I've heard that using a "salad bowl" analogy is better than a melting pot, because a salad doesn't erase difference -- it thrives on it.
Also, there's no such thing as "positive assimiliation," as someone put it in an earlier comment. Assimilation is inherently negative, because it assumes that there's some "correct" way to be, say, an American. But there isn't. There shouldn't be anything to assimilate into. Ask yourself: what does the "correct" version of America look like? What do you mean when you say an immigrant should "assimilate" into "American" society? Historically, this means "act more like white people." And that's the rub. "Assimilation" has a racist history of forcing immigrants, slaves, and even native people to "act more like white people."
Sgt. Mac: Rex will probably be retired on a fat pension before it happens but schools like his and courses like his and professors like him will largely be gone in another 10-20 years. In fact the entire sordid excuse for a higher education system in the US - - indeed in the West - - will be gone, at least in its current form.
But there will always be crosswords.
It's as if @Rex and I did two different puzzles. I thought this one had a lot going for it, with its many not-your-usual-suspects entries: MOHICANS, LUSITANIA, TEACH-INS, SELASSIE + RASTA, CHICAGO BEARS, LIONS MANE (I liked the way the age-old NFL rivalry was sneaked in), LAID SIEGE, GLITTER BOMBS. A very enjoyable solve.
Help from previous puzzles: IROC. Do-over: "As well" before AT THAT. No idea: STAN. Eyebrow raised at: OGLED next to HOTS; TREACLES (it seems that Lyle's Black Treacle is the only game in town).
@Glen Laker:
Had the TU- there, and really wanted to get TUSH to work.
Unlike pole dancers, ballerinas want to be straight from spine to coccyx. Sprinters, OTOH, have tushes well worth admiring. Even the boys.
@OFL
Not sure I trigger quite so much on MELTING POT. I just got back from a blood draw, and had to wait behind a 90 year old Italian guy, who said he's been here since he was 20. Barely speaks English, but wouldn't shut up. Not much melting going on. In this shithole county, the Italians hate the Hispanics for not speaking English!!! They're at least as bad. At least the Irish are sorta English speakers. Anyway, assimilation is the point of The Melting Pot, and is a Good Thing. Far too many 'foreigners' consider themselves Italian, Dominican, etc. first, rather than American. That's a considerable reason why Trump gets so much support. In the 19th and first half (or thereabouts) of the 20th centuries, ethnic enclaves, aka ghettos, were the norm. I'd wager that all large cities still have Chinatowns, NYC and Boston still do, for a fact. How's Canada working out between the English and the French, after 300 years?
Some years ago, I saw a report quoting some Right Wingnut complaining about miscegenation: 'if this mixed-race marrying keeps on, we'll all look like Brazilians!' As if, of course, that skin color is the key to identity. That's a pure melting pot. One of the few times I left the USofA was a week or so in Haiti, before Baby Doc got thrown out. Much to my surprise (I shoulda known better), the caste system was still in effect, wherein the lightest shaded (though still identifying as Black) folk were at the top of the hierarchies.
Gio,
Aint nothing stopping you from using your grandfather's beautiful Italian name. Or your mothers' for that matter.
Ands since when are American's bland?
I can't believe that anyone would believe that the poisonous "identity politics" we're experiencing today is a better version of America than the traditional ideal of the MELTING POT. It's aspirational, of course, and no one is obliged to "melt". People have always been perfectly free to hold onto their cultures to whatever extents they prefer. But a great many immigrants of the past were delighted to feel welcomed into the greater whole as full, unhyphenated "Americans" -- maybe even the forebears of some of the people on this blog. Maybe even Rex's forebears -- wherever they were from originally.
Is MOSAIC a better term than MELTING POT? Perhaps, but I don't think the terminology is what's important here. What's important here is the sense of America as more than the sum of individual, divided groups.
Having been out of academia for more than half a century, I found myself absolutely baffled when I got a questionnaire from Columbia for a recent alumnae reunion. (I chose not to go, btw, and this was one reason why, though hardly the only one.) It asked me to "list" my "affinity groups" -- the people I wanted to be seated with at the class dinner. I looked at the request blankly. Let's see. "Tennis players"? "Political science majors"? "Former book editors"? "Published authors"? "Crossword puzzle nuts"? I had no idea what my "affinity group(s)" were. And I certainly didn't need to be seated with them in any case.
The questionnaire was evidently prepared by a generation very different from mine and with very different concerns. I read it and thought: Thank heaven I'm not going to college now! And thank heaven I didn't decide to teach!
"There is no such thing as positive assimilation".
I see it as a positive that an immigrant who has certain cultural attitudes that men are superior to women and that women's rights need to be curtailed in some respects, or that say men have a right to strike women if they get "out of line", would need to assimilate the idea that that's not how things are supposed to work here. Examples of this sort are limitless.
In the language of Piaget, "assimilation" and "accommodation" are adaptive or learning processes that complement each other. Both are needed.
It's a two-way street. Americans who have families that have lived in America for the past two hundred years also need to learn to assimilate and accommodate the presence of newly arrived immigrant families. All of us constantly need to learn as the environment is constantly changing and diversifying.
@Seth 1037am Your comment is particularly interesting to me because though your idea of MELTING POT makes more literal sense, my personal image has always been more of a stew. Several ingredients, delicious in their own right, but by being united with others, meld into a creation even more flavorful and robust, while preserving the now subtler notes of each element.
I don't agree that assimilation is inherently bad, either. Some degree of assimilation is necessary to achieve a variety of societal goals. I think compromise where you might think submission. Undoubtedly, the whole "American Experiment" is forever evolving - and in some seriously unfortunate and often dangerous ways - but I still manage to Pollyanna my way through life believing in the ideal as a goal, if never an achievable reality.
I’ve got a bunch of jars of treacle and a bunch of jars of honey jumbled up in the cupboard. Let’s put all of the TREACLES on the table and all of the honeys on the counter. When we’ve sorted them out, we’ll use the TREACLES as short-crust pastry fillings for the upcoming quinceaneras RITES, but we won’t invite Tilde, since I don’t know where to find her.
Like others, I went straight for the TUsh before slipping comfortably into a TUTU.
Aren’t TEACHINS what teachers teach to help us with our learnins?
Pretty easy, but motto enjoyable Friday. Thanks Matthew Stock.
@Nancy 1103am Beautifully stated. Hear! Hear! Nothing like "affinity grouping" to bring us closer together. Geez Louise.
So I can’t add silica gel to my roni za?
Thought this puzzle was hard and ended up with a DNF since I didn’t know how to spell LUSITANIA and thought that those social protest lectures were a series of TEA CHATS, as when you brew some Lipton’s and talk about America as a melting pot. Then when I got the correct answer, I could only see it as TEA CHINS, as when the Lipton accidentally dribbles out of the cup while you’re sipping it.
Was glad that 3D turned out to be Red HOTS and not Red HATS.
Loved the clue for PEPPER and the sight of GLITTER BOMBS across the grid Also liked the semordnilap and the kangaroo word clues. Thought the clue for ERR (41D) was trying too hard.
Then there are the two types of hats to tip: the BRASS HAT if you’re a Pentagon bigwig and the ATT HAT if you work for the phone company.
Pretty easy for a Friday with the added bonus of yet another delightful screed from the Communist blogger.
If he spent as much time on researching the things he hates as he does hating he might find out how incorrect he is about most of the things he hates on. I assume he gets his ‘facts’ from CNN.
@anon 10:59 I use the Italian name and my mother uses her Lithuanian name. If you would actually read what I wrote, I said some relatives changed these names upon blending into American life. My immediate family did not.
And yes, I find the name Brown to be bland.
Why is nobody talking about the clue at 55 across which seems to be palindromes spelled backwards? I don't get it can somebody explain.
@Seth 10:37....
Your post was interesting. It was I who mentioned thinking that MELTING POT was a positive assimilation.
Maybe I'm being a Polyannna but my mind immediately jumped to The Statue Of Liberty: "Give me your tired, Your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breath."
I was one of many who had to learn to assimilate to some degree and I'm white - so there's that. I've had to assimilate with every single country I lived in. It was all positive for me.
WE all came from somewhere else and brought our customs along. The same holds true today. At least it does in my little world. We can melt in one pot and still keep our individuality. That's what makes America great.
First, the puzzle. For me, seemed typical for a Friday but with unusual symmetry. Perhaps too much of what I would call trivia, which tends not to interest me.
Second, speaking of not interesting me. I solve crosswords to escape from serious issues (like climate problems) [even though I am very concerned about these issues). I remember sometime in school being taught that "melting pot" is more a goal than something describes our society. But I do not read the write-up or comments here to be sucked back into that world. Nor do I believe one person is influenced by what is posted here. At least as regards political topics. Some things are important to state. But in the proper place. And not to simply massage one's ego.
Easy - but unsatisfying, as per Rex.
@G. Weissman 8:39a - not sure you read the room properly. I have no issue with Rex’s take that MELTING POT is temporally poor usage - but rather the way that he attempts to educate the reader on a single, marginal clue in the puzzle and generalizes the rest for no rational reason. He does it often. It becomes increasingly apparent today because we have a generally clean, fun offering. I was hoping he would opine on the difficulty of constructing the diagonal symmetry - but no he latched on to one item and that was it - not teaching, not educating just blustering. That was the university level dreck.
I did pick up on your haughty put down though - thank you. Although my PhD is in Physics - not comic books - I’ve been on both sides of academia and can say that I’ve earned the merit to criticize as needed. Your turgid justification of higher ed in relation to the uneducated has bred the absolute elitism that is so prevalent today. That makes you just as threatening as those idiots you refer to.
Everyone (except Natives) is an immigrant or the descendant of immigrants. We mostly genocided* the only real Americans. America is nothing BUT a mix of everyone that came here and their progeny through the generations.
*not really a verb
In the not too distant furure, my college class will hold its 60th reunion. I will select as my affinity group "classmates still alive" and hope to be seated with some.
@pabloinh and @Z, you should both be ashamed of yourselves. Beer discussions ? How can you use terms like "surely blessed" in this country when there are so many social problems that we have to be concerned with at all times ?
Thank God that we have dedicated people like our university professors, who take time out from viewing every Marvel super hero movie ever made, to inform us of the insidious racism that we are all guilty of.
(Life-long Bud drinker. But now it's Presidente on the island.)
@The Vex
EDAM is MADE backwards, i.e a semordnilap (palindromes backward).
to a degree, alas, The Orange Sh!tgibbon (not my coinage, but I cleave) saw the vein of xenophobia that has existed here from the beginning. he didn't invent xenophobia, just is wily enough to stoke and exploit it. 'Irish need not apply' Negroes are only good as slaves Germans smell bad 'Yellow Peril' Puerto Ricans ain't Americans and so on. in less than a generation, White folks will be just another minority, so let's be sure only White folks who've made it to upper-middle class can vote.
it is equally true that from the beginning up to WWII, most immigration was more or less 'open door' for more or less that whole time, but with an express purpose: import cheap labor for specific projects. we still do that to some extent; cheap IIT Freshers have displaced hundreds of thousands of perfectly useful American computer folk simply because IT corps got the Green Light to import them. Mexicans still pick a lot of our food. and so on.
I just wish we all had the same understanding of driving etiquette. For instance, if you've pulled out way far into the intersection where I'm going to make a left turn around you, and I stop well before the intersection with my left turn signal on, and flash my headlights at you, I'm telling you to go, because I'm going to have to make a K-turn to actually get around you, you friggin idiot!. Once we get that down, we can worry about world peace and harmony.
This one played easy for me, despite starting off 1A with cherokee. Then I read 1D and knew they wanted MELTING POT even though I agree with Rex on the ick factor.
Also tried asp before COW, but then I got 6D AVATAR and doubted there would be AA in people name. Tried MoHegANS (is that a thing?) before IMO gave me MOHICANS.
Was lucky to Sebastian STAN from Falcon and Winter Soldier, plus LUSITANIA off the L of ALSO. And CHICAGO BEARS was a total gimme.
I like that answer and GLITTERBOMBS, though I hate hate hate glitter.
Yes, let's keep TREACLE to the singular please.
Ended in the SW after staring at PRAGE--- and then PRAGE-C- before realizing the first 2 letters were initials.
Think a melting pot is such a bad thing? Tell that to the European women who are having to deal with the misogynistic attitudes of the Muslim immigrants who are "just maintaining the culture from their home country."
The way melting pot was described to me in my white-bread junior high was like the orchestra or salad bowl images: by all means, maintain your culture but also assume the culture of the land you now live in.
Torture for me & I loved every minute of it - especially PR Agency.
To me the most interesting thing was the curiously symmetrical shape of the puzzle, which led to some asymmetrical answers, and took me a while to figure out how the whole was constructed, which was something I'd never seen before.
That rex jumped into his usual "woke" diatribe right in his very first sentence was *yawn* only too predictable.
I did agree with his (and others') take on EON. I see that a lot on the puns and anagrams puzzles, and wondered why it showed up in a regular Friday.
Fwiw, I was only a minute off my fastest Friday time, which makes me feel like this entire week has skewed very much on the easy side. Here's hoping for a killer Saturday.
LIKES: MELTINGPOT, LUSITANIA, PRAGENCY, GLITTERBOMB. There was some sparkle here.
Why is it semordnilap instead of emordnilap? Is it a POC? Is the plural seordniaps or emordnipaps? What if there's only one? These ambiguities haunt me.
I don’t really get RP’s objections today, I liked this just fine. Really good clues for PEPPER, WIND, STEAK but thought the one for NILES was a little odd since Frasier appears in the clue and is also a Crane. Good to see Da BEARS. It occurred to me that one who is STREET SMART would never fall for a GLITTER BOMB.
When I got to 21A and the clue said “ Pentagon bigwig,” I saw _ _ASSHAT in the grid and thought that sounded about right.
I love it when crosswords make me smarter. I never knew there was a monkey head mushroom much less another name for it, and if you had asked me when I got up this morning, I would have said that SESTINAS were short-crust pastries.
Rex’s discussion of MELTING POT was thought provoking. I remember reading that term at a very young age in elementary school and the TEACHer explaining what it meant. I’ve always just thought of it as a blending of many cultures but I can see where people of different cultures would have different opinions.
The melting pot is the reality of leaving one's birth country for another. My grandparents immigrated young but kept their Greek heritage very much intact, speaking Greek more than English in their home and community. My parents and their siblings married people of Greek descent but my generation didn't. We grew up in an assimilated world unlike theirs. We married our non Greek spouses in the Greek Orthodox church and baptized our children there. But our children don't baptize our grandchildren there, breaking a chain that was a religious and social lifeline for those before us. So now we 3 generations gather for a lamb feast on "Greek Easter" with pride and joy in keeping old traditions, but that won't continue in the years after my sons, niece and nephew are gone. Immigrants, if allowed to live freely, melt over time. And that's ok because if we didn't I wouldn't have my beautiful half Chinese granddaughter filling my heart with complete happiness. I love my heritage but when I feel guilty that I don't speak Greek fluently and aren't adept at the dances, songs, cooking I remind myself that that's actually the job of a whole country on the Mediterranean.
LOL! @GILL 1142am Great minds? Okay - let's pretend! 😁
@Pete 1205pm A lofty goal that will most likely post-date world peace, I'm afraid. 😕
I agree with Rex that there were too many ? clues. As you might recall, I have gone on record as saying that there should be NO ? clues. Do they think we're morons? There, that's a good use of a question mark.
I agree with NOTHING else he said. He has sadly become a parody of himself, and I see from the comments that 90% of you agree with this. He's got a couple of university-level (there, hyphen Nazi, ok??) dreck fans in the group. I suspect they're young and card-carrying members of the CC. They probably don't even know what the card-carrying member thing means. (Google Bush Dukakis) I used to be a card-carrying member of the ACLU until recently when they decided censorship was okay. Because free speech is abused by the privileged. But I digress....
Ogle is a word. We can't use it? Ever again?
Melting pot. Two words there. We can't use them? Ever again? Because of what you think they mean?
Words are old-fashioned? We can't use them? Ever again?
Words have multiple meanings? So we take the worst one and throw away the rest?
You're a teacher?? Really?? This is horrifying. I hope you do better in Minneapolis than you're doing in upstate NY. I have my doubts.
I thought the puzzle was great! I always forget Niles Frasier's name, though.
Kudos to the person who cited Israel Zangwill!
And PR Agency, for the person who asked, is who you pay money to to get a sharper image of yourself or your company.
Cheers.
@The Vez - see Loren Muse Smith's post at 6:20am.
@pmdm - I disagree with you that no one will be influenced by what is said here. Yes, it is very, very unlikely that someone coming in with an opinion will change that opinion (although I'm sure it happens occasionally). But for people who have never thought about what MELTING POT really means, it gives them a variety of viewpoints to form an opinion.
It is an irritating and an utter waste of time for most of us, but a few people may benefit. I can't cite examples, but I'm sure there have been instances where my thinking has been influenced by Rex and the commentary.
My two cents: even if it were physically possible, I can't see the point in melting pot. You smoke pot; you don't melt it.
@Seth, There actually is a right way to be an American. You can find it spelled out perfectly in the constitution.
The Declaration of Independence is handy too if it's not misunderstood to provide for a free-for-all.
Watch "Fantastic Fungi" on Netflix for anything you want to learn about the real life of mushrooms.
@Frantic, 11:29, Wow, I was thinking soup but was too lazy to type it. Uncanny.
I had -UT- and really wanted BUTT to work. Great minds…
Good gravy @Frantic. Will you pease stop sneaking into my brain and borrowing my words...Or is it the other way around? I'm a Polyanna short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout.
This STAR TREK CLIP seems relevant today.
@Georgia
Love what you wrote.
Hard for me. Nineteen mystery clue/answers, close to where I DNF (20 +). Got it clean but came away without feeling that the experience was worthwhile.
I read Dead Wake, the excellent Erik Larson book about the sinking of the Lusitania. Was it a "turning point" in WW1? I didn't get that impression.
@kitshef 1226pm I so agree. There have been several (maybe many?) times when my thoughts were provoked and even opinions softened if not completely changed by others here. Of course an empty head makes plenty of room for such sweet switcheroos, but I am a living, breathing, dancing example of why the term is "happy idiot".
@JD 1233pm 🤣 Stop scaring me! Right now!
Leftist former NY gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout has probably engaged in TEACHINs.
Villager
Anyone consider that @Rex does it to increase readership/comments?
@Amelia. It's comforting to see that someone shares my antipathy for the "?" clue and for the same reason.
@Frantic (9:47) In your video link, the words “red HOT” appear near the beginning. Interesting coincidence.
@GILL (11:42) and @Georgia (12:20) Brava! Well said.
@Michael Page (8:26) - if the British can have maths, then why cannot we have TREACLES or any of the other plurals you listed? Also, M-W lists TREACLES as a word. (Despite this, I agree with you that it sounds odd, but a lot of our language is without sense)
Double DNF for me. First, I was stuck in the SW corner and looked up the mushroom, and I never heard of a LIONS MANE mushroom, though our local stores and farm markets have all sorts of different kinds of them. Second, I had REEd instead of REEL, and left it in. No trouble with DO NO TEAT, which our local boys raised on dairy farms might say when they refuse to take ag classes at our local high schools.
I spent a few excellent years in San Francisco, where people of so many cultures seem to have learned to get along, though remaining staunchly Irish, Italian, Jewish, Hispanic, Chinese, Samoan, or Black. Gavin Newsom, the non-recalled Governor, was one of the few politicians who were not one of the above who got elected Mayor. Is SF a MELTING POT? No, because it celebrates all its different communities. But it is, in the sense that they all learn to work together, and all root for the Giants and the Warriors. I do think OFL is way off base here. American cities are where to travel to to see many different cultures melded together, yet remaining authentic, just as European cities are places to like to visit to be immersed in a single culture, be it French, English, Spanish or Swedish.
@Amelia 1226pm Are you sure you don't like question marks? 😉
And now, I'm out. I've said waaaaay too much. (no need to pile on, anyone) Later, peeps. ✌️
The EON clue format is used in the Puns & Anagrams puzzle all the time now. It's a fairly new thing. Look at any recent P&A and you'll see two or three of those clues.
I don't like Will Shortz turning all the puzzles into one big melting pot – excuse me, salad bowl, that's *so* much better – where any kind of clue can be used in any kind of puzzle.
Gio,
Here's what you wrote:
My beautiful Lithuanian mother's last name was changed by her Uncles to Brown.
That means your mother's last name was changed. Apparently what you meant to meant to write was some of your uncles changed their last name.
Unknown @9:08 - IROC is from International Race of Champions. My only knowledge of this is seeing the Camaro IROC cars growing up in the 70's
Sorry - one more.
@Georgia 1220pm What @Amelia 1239pm said.
@JC66 1252pm All the time! Even though I kinda doubt it. 🤷♀️
@JC66- Sadly, no. @Amelia-Great comment.
My favorite posts this morning.
Loren (6:10)
Joaquin (11:57)
Georgia (12:20)
Georgia, what a beautiful piece of writing. My wife's father was born in Samos and both of her mother's parents were born in Greece. Your story of how you and your family have evolved in this country is in many ways her story also.
@Nancy 9:57 - in baseball, you can dive into a base (slide head first), but that can also referred to as a slide. That is how I read the clue, so it makes sense to me
Haven't confused guacamole with wasabi, but when in Luxembourg did confuse custard with cheesecake. At a self-serve cafeteria, picked out for dessert what I thot was custard and literally spat out the first bite, thinking it was somehow spoiled. Found out later that it was cheesecake, which was a new thing to me. Over the years, I developed a great liking for it.
Perhaps kaleidoscope or salad are more appropriate terms than MELTING POT, altho the ingredients in the POT are subject to change for creating an improved stew.
'Crucible' (hi @William (8:08 AM) may be an even more apt descriptor, as it better describes the workings of the American democratic experiment as laid out in the Constitution, and could apply anywhere there are a 'mix of many different cultures'.
Crucible: from M-W:
• "a vessel of a very refractory … material … used for melting and calcining a substance that requires a high degree of heat"
• "a severe test"
• "a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development"
May we all, as chefs, vow to work harmoniously in this great kitchen/laboratory, celebrating diversity and always striving to improve the recipe! 🙏
NOTE: wrote this before seeing your excellent posts @Frantic Sloth (11:29 AM) / @GILL I. (11:42 AM) / @Georgia (12:20 PM)
I'm with you all! 😊
@tb (9:58 AM)
Thx for the cryptic puzzle link; I'm still a rookie in this category, so it'll be interesting to compare these cryptics with the NYT ones.
___
Starting today, embarking on a new SB routine, severely limiting time spent. Will experiment with time-limits, attaining g, pg, etc. Today was an easy one, so had a quick 0.
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Two cents more on the melting pot.
1. If you come here but don't learn English, that's legally and morally OK, but you'll almost certainly never get ahead economically. And in any case, your children will learn English.
2. Culturally, you can stay as old-country as you want, to the extent it doesn't violate US law (no child marriages or refusing to provide your children a rounded education that includes English, math, and science, for example).
That's all there is. If you come at 20 and want to continue to wear the traditional clothing from your old country until you die at 95, go to it. Just obey the law, and for your own good but not because it's mandatory, learn English. But don't be too surprised or disappointed if your children end up marrying outside your ethnicity.
Villager
Aw, that's sweet of you to share from your exalted mountaintop.
@Vez (11:42) - in case you were not joking, see the first post (by @LMS) today for an explanation
@Amelia - plenty of us disagree with Rex and his weekly rants, but what's the point of saying anything about it here? I'm pretty sure he doesn't even read the comments. And even if he did, he certainly isn't going to be persuaded by a poster here. Luckily he doesn't do it every day, and most of the posters here either ignore it or disagree with it. I, for one, find consolation in the fact that being a professor today literally requires you to maintain your activism because there are groups out there that campaign to ensure only the most PC and most politically active get teaching appointments and tenure. That is literally how it works. Even the great professor Harold Bloom had to quit teaching graduate school because of how the system operated.
As for this puzzle. I thought it was average to decent. I actually loved the ? clues which I also prefer to PPP.
Reviewing this past week "Rex" complains about every single puzzle - though he does offer a "not bad" to one of them (after complaining about it at length of course). His commentary reveals a life based in complaint - not recommended for children and other living things.
Trey,
Chevy most certainly exploited their association with the racing series to sell Camaros. Dodge did too with their Daytonas for a spell. But for what it's worth the original cars for IROC were Porsche Carrera RSRs. And thete were terrific. Apropos of today's freshman dorm BS about melting pots, homogeneity etc. The whole point of the IROC series was to eliminate any difference in the cars so that only the driver was being tested. And the drivers for that inaugural season were a regular melting pot: Mark Donahue ( American), Denny Hulme ( Kiwi) Emerson Fittipaldi ( Brazil). Year two was had even more melty goodness: Jody Schecter (RSA) Ronnie Peteson (SWE), Fittipaldi again. (this is when the Camaros kicked in btw).
Gah!! I forgot Graham Hill ( England).
Melting pot: cancel much?
I still like the image. This is not the forum for argument, though, so I'll leave it at that.
I get that there's a high level of attention today on racial and ethnic diversity and identity. It's good that great wrongs have been acknowledged. The metaphor of a melting pot, however, is not one of them. It refers to a crucible and the forging of a new material and by extension a new nation. (I don't think there's any culinary reference).
Rex is forging new ground when he applies the tenets of cancel culture to the world of crossword puzzles. Certain words are so toxic that they may not be used.
The reality is that the U.S. is a fairly successful example of a multi-cultural society but multi-culturalism requires tolerance not intolerance.
Luv the slant-wise puzgrid symmetry. It's like bein glitter-bombed with freshness.
Lotsa glitter-ish fillins, includin: WALLTOWALL. MELTINGPOT. LUSITANIA. CHICAGOBEARS. TUTU.
staff weeject pick: TIG. Better clue: {Hybrid of tiger and eraser??}.
Primo all-weeject grid lines, crossin at RAG/RUG.
Best clue rep groupin: {To boot} = ALSO/ATTHAT.
Cannot believe I lost several precious nanoseconds on SELASSIE/TEACHINS. Kept parsin that there 18-A protest series as TEA CHINS, which made no brita sense and made m&e hesitate to accept it. Doh.
Thanx for the themeless fun, Mr. Stock dude. Great PEPPER clue, well seasoned with sneakiness.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
I never heard of monkey head mushroom but I was given a "log" seeded with LIONSHEAD spores. They were beautiful and tasty. They sell them at the farmers market here but more than I care to pay.
EON was easy and clever to me. Time within time literally. How about a bit more tolerance for diversity in cluing, especially for common answers. I mean the normal clues get pretty stale, don't they?
MELTING POT triggered Rex. Then his not unreasonable history of the phrase set off a lot more triggers.
@joaquin
No idea at all why you would think Rex was calling you a racist.
@Nancy @Z
I would take "with liberty and justice for all" as aspirational. Melting pot is a not quite something I would call aspirational. It can be twisted in a few too many ways. Freedom of religion does not mean freedom to beat or stone women or the freedom to not do your job as a county worker. Scary where the supreme court may be going.
Tyranny is usually by the majority, the rich, the powerful, or the popular. It is the others that most need the protection of the law. But it is the first group that normally gets the most protection from the law.
At least NILES wasn't a plural. I do remember something about the Blue and White Niles. Or maybe not.
I was amused by BRASSHIT, but then realized I only imagined the third S.
What's your beef with the Jumble?
rjkennedy98,
You should check out the work Robert George is doing at Princeton to combat the stultifying effects of the nearly monolithic outlook in American academia. Specifically, he's working to create universities where people who don't share the prevailing orthodoxy can speak freely without fear of reprisal.
Slid M-W
of a base runner in baseball : to fall or dive feetfirst or headfirst when approaching a base
2a: to slip or fall by loss of footing
So basball covers it. Maybe the stock market too. The price slidn The price took a dive.
When I took U.S. History in (public) high school in 1977, we were taught that “melting pot” was an antiquated and problematic term and concept, and that the new and preferred metaphor was “salad bowl” because individuals retains their identities and contribute to the whole, and the sum is something new and wonderful. But “salad bowl” didn’t fit so I typed “melting pot” and wondered if people would comment.
If you are looking for more of a Friday challenge try Liz Gorski's Feb. 11th puzzle from 2000.
@2:16
Yeah, White people are in existential danger. We must save them. It's been true since Ancient Greece: the better educated the individual the more 'liberal' said individual. The contrary is clear, as well: the nastiest knuckledraggers are from shithole counties, poor, stupid, sick, old, White. And they are absolutely sure that their lousy condition is caused by immigrants, rather than the rich White guys in the mansions outside the hollers.
Actually the birth rates for whites in the US are declining pretty rapidly so they are in an existential crisis. But that's not what I meant, nor what Robert George is combatting.
The most likely ERRor when it comes to wasabi is that it may not really be wasabi at all but some concoction primarily made with horseradish and food coloring. The root veggie, Wasabia japonica, used in the authentic condiment is extremely rare, pricey and doesn't keep as well as horseradish so odds are that the green paste served with your sushi isn't real wasabi.
I thought the clue for 10D LUSITANIA went overboard by using the word "destruction" when "sinking" is the in-the-language word for what happened to the ocean liner. That seemed like gratuitous obfuscation to me.
I googled WRIST PAD and the first page was all WRIST RESTS (with a few mouse PADs mixed in).
Do they serve TREACLES at TEACH INS for SESTINAS?
Rex,
Time after Time is a great Rob Hyman and Cyndi Lauper song. They're credits as having co-written it, though its pretty clear Hyman did the heavy lifting.
Lauper is a fine pop singer, but she's no song writer.
She's So Unusual--her biggest album and the one which Time After Time appears-- has plenty of hits. Girls Just Want to Have Fun was a monster, and it was written by the late great Robert Hazard. All Though the Night, maybe the prettiest song on the record and another song that gets plenty of airplay was written by Jules Shear. Money Changes Everything was a minor hit but got significant MTV play was written by Gray Thomas even She Bop had plenty of authors including Gary Cohen, Steve Lunt and most important Rick Chertoff who in addition to help write that ditty produced the whole album. Frankly it was Chertoff and Hyman (two thirds of the Hooters) who made She's So Unusual the smash it was.
@anon 9:41 -- Good catches!
hot off the press: Montana will be "flooded" by 75 Afghan refugees. well, according to a White Congresscritter. doing most of the fighting, and far and away most of the dying in the name of the USofA, isn't reason enough to get them to a safe place.
Growing up in Canada, we learned that MELTINGPOT was the racist ideal south of the border, while in Canada we honored our MIXINGBOWL. I remember a teacher describing it like dumping a bunch of Smarties (here, M&Ms) into a bowl and stirring them together. All the colors are still there doing there thing. A worthy ideal not always achieved, but certain preached more than in the States.
I'll say this: you really, really know how to solve, and to write about, these puzzles. Even if you knew little else about the world, this would be enough. You're a treasure.
@Benjamin - I just love the notion of a Stan stan.
@TTrimble paragraph 1 - 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
(the rest, too, but I wish more people, on being told something beloved might be racist, had more of the “help me understand” reaction)
I don’t know about anyone else, but “Cyndi Lauper song” doesn’t necessarily mean “song written by Cyndi Lauper.” I know that construction often means ”written by”, but it doesn’t always mean that. Hence I was confused by the “corrections” being issued, not remembering that Rex said anything about Lauper writing that song. I don’t think he did say that, but now I see why people think he did.
Seems like you folks like to talk a lot of politics.
My sister has been in dance studios for 65 years.. Tutu is pretty much ballet...and not every one of them wears one. I think you'll find hundreds of styles in a dance studio.
As for melting pot..salad bowl or what have you. My mom spoke polish as a child in Lackawanna NY. My dads folks German in the Dakotas. I speak only English. A month ago NPR was trying to make me feel bad because a Chinese woman was complaining she didnt know Chinese because he Grandparents would let her mom speak it... so she lost it. NPR also did a deal on Native Americans (I guess that might include me as i was birn in Buffalo) who were had poor schools and were not doing well learning STEM stuff. The next week they were complaining that by teaching reservation Americans in English schools stressing the three Rs ..the children were forgetting thier heritage.
I dont know how to make kielbaska like my Polish grandmother nor pigs ears like my German Grandmother. I wish I did.. See if NPR comes knocking on this white males door to do a story about how I have melted into...I dont know what. And as for all super hero comic movie stuff... I wouldn't expect so many adults to be so up on comics.
My first thought for 53A was "Aerie," but then I reconsidered, since aeries are built in treetops - even atop power lines - and have nothing to do with mountaintops. To see Aerie as the answer was a little comical.
As for Melting Pot, the full expression is "America is a melting pot, where the bottom gets burned and the cream floats to the top."
My favorite posts this morning.
Loren (6:10)
Joaquin (11:57)
Georgia (12:20)
Georgia, what a beautiful piece of writing. My wife's father was born in Samos and both of her mother's parents were born in Greece. Your story of how you and your family have evolved in this country is in many ways her story also.
I find myself happily embracing my shallowness. Melting Pot: Just a term that points out that the USA is made up of more people of diverse origins than anyplace else on Earth. That’s enough for me.
I did this in what felt like about 12 different 3 minutes sessions starting at 10pm last night and finishing at 5:30 pm today. So I never really got into the vibe or rhythm of the puzzle. But I did think Rex would like this one when I finished. Oops. My inability to predict Rex’s responses never ceases to amaze me. Even after all these years.
I barely noticed MELTING POT but I totally get Rex’s point and find the arguments here fascinating. Like the “American Dream,” the MELTING POT is one of those concepts that has many complex and problematic ideological layers to it, that become sharply visible when you cast the slightest little critical light upon it.
Z,
Rex most certainly wrote the song was Lauper’s.
Luckily for Rob Hyman, BMI and ASCAP disagree.
I prefer "tossed salad" to melting pot.
@Chip/5:08
wrong
"The only western country to break into the top 20 most diverse is Canada. The United States ranks near the middle, slightly more diverse than Russia but slightly less diverse than Spain."
-- https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2013/07/18/the-most-and-least-culturally-diverse-countries-in-the-world/
I was thoroughly “melting potted” as white until at about age 70 when I did a thorough family tree, correcting some errors from the ‘50s. I became angry wondering which generation decided not to tell the next that we have native blood.
@CuppaJoe:
depends on what the meaning of 'diverse' is.
- how homogeneous one's own ancestry is
- how many distinct ethnicities reside in the country
as the Right Wingnuts are fond of saying: mixed ethnic marrying, esp. Black/White, are bad news.
the longer your ancestry has been here, the more likely you are to be a mutt. if we're all mutts, it becomes harder to convince even the knuckleheads that their particular mutthood is superior.
Yay, I’m a fan of Joshua Kosman’s cryptic puzzles as well. He is also a great music critic for SF Chronicle!
Jk
You're gonna come to Lackawanna. Ridge Dinette
Played MUCH easier for me today than yesterday, maybe because there were only two unknown names - STAN and TIG. Only things I didnt know were TREACLE and SELASSIE, but had the crosses. Bad clues were 'wind on the water' and 'took a dive'
As a former Republican, I find myself more tolerant and inclusive than Rex. It's a freaking crossword puzzle! Just because the answer (or clue) doesn't align with your position doesn't mean that it should be eliminated from the puzzle. Puzzles are for everyone, not just those with one way of thinking (or should we assimilate into a melting pot of one-thought?). In fact, including words you may not agree with becomes a teaching moment, much as today has. I learned something by being open minded, perhaps Rex could at times, too.
Anonymous at 7:18 PM.: Part of my anger was that one of the mistakes on my family tree hid the fact (maybe on purpose) that branches of the tree go back to the 1620s.
It’s PR AGENCY 🙃
8D is incorrect. Haile Selassie is the throne name taken by Ras Tafari Makonnen when he became emperor of Ethiopia in 1930. It is a compound phrase meaning "Power of (Hail-e) the Trinity (Selassie)" in Amharic. To split the two parts of the name is nonsensical. They are not a "first name" and "last name" but rather comprise one name. Where is the puzzle editor?
Yes
Good puzzle. I went too fast and had TEACHerS instead of TEACHINS. I do not know the actor Sebastian STAN, so STAr sounded okay. Also, I did not know how to spell LUSITANIA. Now I do…
Wow, all that fuss over MELTINGPOT. The notion that everyone's culture would "melt away" and we'd all become "Americans" is silly; of course the expression couldn't mean that. What it does mean is that different people can live together without going to war. And that's GOALS enough for me.
Puzzle was on the hard side of medium, here. I had a real struggle in the SW, largely because of not parsing PRAGENCY. Had PRAGE and was stopped cold. When I finally saw it, it was much more of a groan than an aha!
Another sore spot was 43 down, whose clue seemed nonsense at first. I have vaguely heard that perfect is the ENEMY of good, can't remember where. It's understandable...sort of. To me, perfect is the enemy of reality. Par.
@Spacey - the real clue to PRAGENCY was that "co." was abbreviated in the clue.
Started my puzzle with TIG, who I happened to see once on a TV comedy special.
Bit by bit I filled/changed/answered and reigned.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords, melting into the scenery
PEPPER POT
IDID my TEACHIN’S for them TO learn
TO get the HOTS, DONOT be afraid.
I ALSO met my GOALS and INRETURN,
by all my STEADIES I got LAID.
--- BRITA SESTINAS
Appears OFL is off his meds again. Try this: stick to crossword analysis and leave the Lunatic Fringe B.S. out.
OFL’s soap box rants re: MELTINGPOT and NONPC are getting quite irksome and very predictable. Maybe a micro- or even macro-aggression against some of commentariat. DONOT have a COW, man.
Some of my grandparents and their siblings came to the U.S. on the LUSITANIA, years before it was sunk.
Good Fri-puz IMO.
The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant in Spokane. I haven't been there, but have not heard anything negative.
Lady Di
LAID SIEGE to the NW and suffered casualties. RITES scheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully to be attended by survivors.
Being educated in Canada 60 years ago, the conventional wisdom taught us was while the U.S. was a MELTINGPOT, Canada was a mosaic. Neither concept is fully accurate but reflects the American emphasis on integration of newcomers into the majority culture compared to Canada's official policy of multiculturalism.
There are days when it grieves me that “Rex” is an educator in real life. This is one of those days…
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