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Sole ingredient in some cookies / SUN 12-12-21 / Side hustle for a veterinarian / Frodo's film franchise familiarly / Thrift-store fashion informally / Aggressively mainstream in slang / Pandora native in Avatar / Its etymology may derive from the diminutive of borough in Italian / 1979 Commodores hit with the lyric Good times never felt so good
Sunday, December 12, 2021
Constructor: Daniel Okulitch and Doug Peterson
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Theme answers:
- LOCKSMITH (23A: Side hustle for a hairstylist?) (because stylists shape locks)
- LAB SPECIALIST (34A: Side hustle for a veterinarian?) (... vets deal with labs)
- BAGGAGE HANDLER (50A: Side hustle for a therapist?) (... therapists handle your 'baggage')
- OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR (67A: Side hustle for an anesthesiologist?) (... anesthesiologists put patients under i.e. "out")
- NAIL TECHNICIAN (87A: Side hustle for a carpenter?) (... carpenters work with nails)
- CIVIL ENGINEER (101A: Side hustle for a marriage counselor?) (... counselors ... deal with ... civil unions, maybe?? Not really getting this one)
- BASE COACH (118A: Side hustle for a drill instructor?) (... drill instructors work on army bases)
A consumer price index is a price index, the price of a weighted average market basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Changes in measured CPI track changes in prices over time.
A CPI is a statistical estimate constructed using the prices of a sample of representative items whose prices are collected periodically. Sub-indices and sub-sub-indices can be computed for different categories and sub-categories of goods and services, being combined to produce the overall index with weights reflecting their shares in the total of the consumer expenditures covered by the index. It is one of several price indices calculated by most national statistical agencies. The annual percentage change in a CPI is used as a measure of inflation. A CPI can be used to index (i.e. adjust for the effect of inflation) the real value of wages, salaries, and pensions; to regulate prices; and to deflate monetary magnitudes to show changes in real values. In most countries, the CPI, along with the population census, is one of the most closely watched national economic statistics. (wikipedia)
• • •
Further, everything just felt clued harder than usual. I sailed through some parts of this grid, but at other times I felt like I was just crawling because I just couldn't find the handle on some of these clues ... and then the answers would turn out to be something deathly dull like DATA or CPI. But seriously, that whole MASH-UP area was brutal for me. Genuinely thought I wasn't going to solve it. Finally looked at the MOUSER clue and that saved me because before that, with no idea about LAB SPECIALIST (again, ???) I could not get MAMA BIRD (that MAMA part, yikes), or SCULPT, or PARTIER, and definitely not MASH-UP or ARCANA (had an "S" at the end of that one for a bit). It's not a bad section, fill-wise, just ... really hard to access because LAB SPECIALIST was such a non-thing, which deprived me of crucial toeholds. Not a lot of longer non-theme stuff to spice up the grid today. Mostly 3-to-6-letter stuff, which is hard to make consistently interesting. LOSE-LOSE is good (ironically), and POGO STICKS is bouncy (literally), but everything else was just OK, and when cluing got tough ... well, it's just not terribly fun to struggle through the cluing for short stuff, since there's no payoff. There's just ... short stuff. The grid is clean enough, just not a lot of fun. In fact, with ALITO LEPER GHETTO REEKING LOSE-LOSE in it, the whole vibe of the puzzle is kinda downerish. Didn't know DARLA, but most of the rest of it I was familiar with; it just felt like a slog getting a lot of it to turn up.
Explanations and other stuff:
- 74A: Avid bird-watcher, say (TOM CAT) — any cat that's around birds will watch them. No idea why "tom" is apt here, except that it's an outdoor cat. But my cats are indoor cats and they too will watch the hell out of birds. And squirrels. And leaves that float in the wind.
🎶“I sometimes see you pass outside my door … Hello …”🎶 pic.twitter.com/iXibETm8Ph
— Rex Parker 🐈🐾☕️🐾🐈 (@rexparker) December 11, 2021
- 7D: Frodo's film franchise (LOTR) — "Lord of the Rings"
- 106A: Small sweater? (PORE) — your pores are small (relative to, I don't know, fire pits or moon craters) and you sweat through them
- 40D: Thrift-store fashion, informally (BOHO) — I got this quickly, which really isn't like me. What do I know about fashion? I couldn't even get the TECHNICIAN part of NAIL TECHNICIAN right. Anyway, BOHO is just a shortened form of "Bohemian."
- 66D: Aggressively mainstream, in slang (BASIC) — can you be "aggressively mainstream"? How do you "aggress" into the fat middle of the culture? "Screw you, independent-minded people, I'm gonna watch a whole season of 'Friends' and then I'm gonna listen to the new Adele album on repeat! *That'll* show you! Grrrr ... Aggression!"
- 82D: Sole ingredient in some cookies? (DATA) — really thought this was gonna be a fish pun. After I finally got it ... really wished it had been a fish pun. "A cookie is a small amount of data generated by a website and saved by your web browser. Its purpose is to remember information about you, similar to a preference file created by a software application." (techterms.com)
P.S. You wanna see a trick puzzle? And an easy one, so you won't get all angry? Here you go: a 7x7 with a fun little twist.
P.P.S. a timely and important (and puzzle-related) message from my friend and fellow crossword blogger, Rachel Fabi:
"These Puzzles Fund Abortion" (TPFA), a puzzle pack of 14 crossword puzzles by all-star constructors, raised over $60,000 this year to support abortion funds around the country. In light of the legal challenges to abortion access currently under consideration by the Supreme Court, a donor told TPFA that they will match donations to abortion funds up to $1500 -- just donate to an abortion fund (see here for a list) and forward your receipt to the email address on the TPFA page above to double your impact. Keep an eye out for an all-new TPFA pack coming in spring 2022!
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120 comments:
"Really wanted to like this one because Doug is my friend ... "
Let me fix that for ya: "Really wanted to like this one because Doug used to be my friend ... "
A Sunday challenge and I say "Hooray!"
Medium-tough. Some of this was pretty easy and some of it was not. I finished when, after a bit of staring, I changed raTED to VOTED. This is what a Sunday should be...mildly amusing with a touch of crunch. Liked it a bunch!
There is a super natick where OVIEDO crosses NAVI. I had never heard of either of these before, and yet I guessed "v" as the least of the evils, and turns out I got it right... what were the odds of that? About the same as a Sunday NYT crossword puzzle with no naticks!
Some clever cluing and sharp fill, but this theme left me cold. Didn't hate it, but didn't love it either - mehty shrugville (Hey, @Z!)
On the plus side, any puzzle that has MOUSER and TOMCAT in the same grid is CATCHY enough to hold my interest for 30 minutes.
But only just.
I imagine many others will find it much more enjoyable...just wasn't for me, but I'll soldier on with life.
Today's Ponderment: Am I the only person in the country who hasn't seen Avatar? Were they landlocked or did the NAVI have NAVIES?
🧠🧠🧠 (stupid, self-inflicted holdups in some sections, but otherwise a smooth solve)
🎉🎉 (because it's big [Hi, @JD!])
"Bird" can be slang for a woman, so a TOMCAT can be a man who avidly watches them, and I feel gross for typing this.
Quite a slog, took ages to finish, and I finished with an error ("again?" you ask): CIVIC ENGINEER crossing DARCA. I thought DARCA was a pretty cool name for a vampire, even though DARKA would be apter.
Agree NAVI crossing OVIEDO was also ugly. I got it, but still. (Tried to make TOLEDO work for quite a while.)
I sorta got the theme about halfway through and wasn't crazy about it. But when I got to the end I liked it a bit more.
I liked ODOR for "trash day reminder". My trash bin is about 80 feet away from the house, and in the winter, there isn't any odor even if it hasn't been collected in 6 weeks and you're standing right over it. But still, sassy clue. These days with all the recycling, I have so little actual trash, I only put the bin out at the lane once every 6 weeks or so. It has maybe 4 pounds of garbage total.
{Spelling Bee: td (Sat>) pg -1, missing a 6 letter. Not a great week..
Sun to Sat: -1, -2, -2, 0, -1, -5, -1(so far). Friday I pretty much gave up early.]
Good Lord, this thing killed me, and that doesn’t happen very often, maybe once a year.
About halfway through I just started hitting the “reveal word” button, meaning I had simply given up.
Oh well.
* * * *
Rex, civil engineers do very important things all over the place.
This is a good start. The first two paragraphs explain everything, yet just scratch the surface.
The Roman Empire produced some the greatest civil engineers in world history. You should look it up.
Roman roads are amazing, better than almost anything built today.
People who work as manicurists and pedicurists are legit called nail technicians, or nail techs. No stretch there at all.
And if we’re at the point where we can’t appreciate a fun clue for crosswordese, then we’re just being grumpy.
I appreciated the challenge for a change even if the constructor was gifted things like OVEIDO, a Spanish city with a population of 220,000.
I wound up working at a snail's pace through this grid, but left few grid entries empty as I progressed. While the solve was hardly breezy, it wasn't particularly difficult either. I'd describe my effort as "chugging" rather than "slogging". Themed clues fell in place in similar fashion. No real "stumpers" for me.
Only one awkward fill: Having filled "MAMAxxxx" (One with a nesting instinct), I found myself cringing at the possible BIRD finish, muttering "please no". Yes.
While not particularly amusing or thrilling, the solve was satisfying.
Try googling "Lab Specialist" before having a wee snit over it, Rex! You'll see thousands of listings for jobs, descriptions, and the like. I think this was a case of you being in a huff because it's not something you know, like NAIL TECHNICIAN, (same thing....google it).
And sheesh....being so activated by "side hustle"--a commonly used term--because grumble grumble it's symbolic of the evils of capitalism.... Woof. Old man yells at cloud, if you know that meme.
Fun puzzle, tricky in some places, but fair! Good job Doug and Daniel.
@Rex: It's simple -- Military engineers build weapons, CIVIL ENGINEERS build targets.
I agree with what @Rex said about "the area just above the SPECIAL part of SPECIALIST." Almost my Waterloo too, although I didn't mind LAB SPECIALIST as much; it's valid, I just couldn't see it.
Biggest hangup outside of the NNE was BOgO instead of BOHO at 40D, making BAGGAGE HANDLER reluctant to appear.
This was not a march through the grid; there were skirmishes here and pockets of resistance there to overcome – just how I like it.
What a terrific conceit for a theme. OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR and BAGGAGE HANDLER really sparkled, IMO, with CIVIL ENGINEER not far behind.
I felt for that MAMA BIRD, with the TOMCAT looking up at her, and that MOUSER actually making contact (Hi, @Frantic!). And maybe it’s because we had MAGI in the puzzle Friday, but when I see that lowish row that starts with TREE WISE VAN, my brain says “three wise men”. There is also what feels like the start of a joke, with the REALTOR, NAIL TECHNICIAN, and CIVIL ENGINEER crossing the STREET. Finally, there’s that olfactory PuzzPair©, ODOR and REEKING.
All in all, not just a routine filling in the squares, but a rich experience. Thank you, D&D!
@Anonymous 12:17. Don't feel bad. I had the same thought process and we know we're not alone.
@Frantic. Hand up for not seeing Avatar. Hand down for wanting to.
@Conrad. Thanks for the laugh.
I enjoyed this. It's a better than average Sunday puzz.
Agreed. That cross ruined the puzzle for me
Thx Daniel & Doug; fine Sun. offering! :)
Med.
Worked this one in a counterclockwise fashion, starting in the NW and finishing in the upper Midwest, which took some time to work out.
One particularly tricky spot, tho: (NAVI / OVIEDO / SAIL ON/ BASIC).
Once again, fair crosses come to the rescue.
Loved the BASE COACH misdirection. Had them both in baseball/softball and at boot camp.
Very enjoyable solve! :)
@puzzlehoarder 👍 for 0 yd / @okanaganer 👍 for 0 Wed.
___
yd 0*
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Maybe it is because the name Navi stuck in my head, but I ambled right through this almost snaglessly. Thumbs up.
My solving experience was very similar to Rex’s - booooring. I agree that the theme entries felt really forced and definitely didn’t flow naturally, so really nothing is present today to hold your interest.
It also seemed like the gibberish was even more nonsensical than usual - with stuff like BOHO, LALO, NAVI, MWAH, OVIEDO, STAX (and that’s just in the northeast!). Rex claims that the constructor is capable of good work - not sure what Shortz found attractive about this one - seems like the Times should be a notch or two above this though.
12D is clued incorrectly, IMO. The "Something" made is wASTE, not HASTE.
Ups and downs here - theme was cute enough and tried but thought the overall fill lacked. ARCANA indeed for some of the trivia - NADINE, AXILS, TAMI etc. Liked POGO STICKS and ENTIRETY - also MAMA BIRD but a lot of side eye in the oversized grid.
The only blues great is Muddy - ETHEL should have been clued more precisely.
Definitely tougher than most Sundays - just not very enjoyable.
[Park supervisor?] for VALET seemed to me to be a bonus theme answer, the cherry on top of a fun puzzle.
I liked the theme answers better than Rex (although he’s right that several of jobs are pretty nebulous, like saying “educator” instead of “kindergarten teacher”) but I agree that this is not one of Peterson’s best. The challenge of a Sunday Sized grid is always avoiding the slog, and the 67 3 & 4-letter words are just too much muck*. A section like LALO/EXPO/AXILS is just gooey mud sucking on the solver’s hiking boot and sucking joy from the solving experience.
Agree with @John X that CIVIL ENGINEERs are important people and have been in any civilization. But I’m also not surprised that people don’t know what they do. I have a friend who does traffic management. Things like signal timing and traffic circles and “traffic calming.” Fascinating to hear him critique a poorly designed intersection. And a job I didn’t know existed until I met him.
Hand up for never watching Avatar in its entirety. Still, NAVI has been clued this way so many times that I wasted not one single nanosecond before entering the answer. I think the movie is based on The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K Le Guin, which is most definitely worth reading.
*No, I didn’t count. That type of information is gotten by clicking on “analyze this puzzle” at xwordinfo.com
@Mike Herlihy - You’re thinking of HASTE makes waste but there’s also the simple imperative, make HASTE.
@Southside Johnny - As I mentioned, I was looking at the puzzle stats at xwordinfo.com and one of the lists started with this: These 59 answer words are not legal Scrabble™ entries, which sometimes means they are interesting. One person’s gibberish … more nonsensical than usual is another person’s sometimes … interesting.
Made some stupid spelling mistakes (ANORAK, TOODLELOO: they were so stupid, just never mind what I did) that meant I had extra work to do.
Pleasant theme, better than most. Another hand up for not having seen Avatar. Liked this one. Liked seeing CORA, LALO, & NADINE. Happy Sunday.
@Mike Herlihy 7:40 - agree that the clue directs us to wASTE as written.
I initially had TOMCAT in for MOUSER, then saw TOMCAT again (with confirming crosses) and realized my error. That is a sign of a good puzzle.
My toughest part was the "guess the vowel" crossing of LALO and AXILS. First tried an "o" then went to "A".
My only issue with the theme was OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR. To me, all of the second words in the theme answers describe the job in the clue, with a little imagination. To me, an anesthesiologist's job is not even close to a COORDINATOR. The OUTPATIENT part of the answer was perfect, but not the COORDINATOR part. "OUTPATIENT provider" would have been a better answer, as they provide sedated or anesthetized patients for surgery or other procedures.
Me as Rex : "And the picture of the cat has a caption that says *pass outside my door* but the cat isn't looking out the door! It's looking out a window ! How did this get by the editors ? Are we supposed to think a door is the same as a window ? Unforgiveable !
Yes, 40 million plus 1.
A Sunday puzzle that makes you think ? Travesty.
Just what I’m hoping for in a Sunday puzzle. Fun, just hard enough, and some delightful surprises. Thanks to Doug!
@Rex - appreciate the Mr. Peanutbutter pic from the Bojack Horseman series. Such a dark comedy (or maybe a slightly lighthearted tragedy?)
NYTXW really needs to stop going to the Urban Dictionary for clues. BASIC can be clued in so many good ways; why resort to “in slang”?
That aside, I did like the cluing for this puzzle. The theme didn’t do anything for me, but the challenging clues made it worthwhile.
I say this as a huge Buffy fan, DARLA is a fairly deep dive. A much more important character in the Angel spinoff.
Very fortunate to know NAVI; else OVIEDO would have been death. 318th largest city in Europe, so better learn the whole top 400, just to be safe for future crosswords.
@TJS - Rex was planting ear worms.
Theme is very pleasant. Made more work for myself due to stupid spelling errors. Enjoyed seeing CORA, NADINE, & LALO.
And no, haven't seen Avatar.
Happy Sunday.
Rex has a disdain for things mathematical and technical, in general. He should get out of the English department and walk around to other parts of the campus once in a while...
Also happened to guess V for OVIEDO crossing NAVI. NAVI sounded like it might be a name because of Usnavi in "In the Heights." But any number of consonants could plausibly have been correct.
Villager
I never cease to be amazed at all the things that Rex finds offensive. Today it's "side hustle." Must suck to be him.
Just when I think John x is lying dead somewhere in the desert cuz haven't seen him Post in a while.....good to see you are still amongst the living
Except for areas with unknown Spanish towns, tv vampires (knew the TVDADS), LALOs and the like, this went fast and easy. SCULPT and CPI-PELE areas slowed me too. Maybe I am finally getting the hang of Sundays. At least the last couple months my times have nosedived.
Civil Engineers are responsible for that physical infrastructure we keep hearing about. Mostly we only hear about the engineers when they mess-up bwcause the messes are huge. A testament to their competence that Rex doesn't know what they do. Same with BASE COACHES in baseball?
Those last 2 work as theme answers. I thought NAIL TECHNICIAN worked too but I never been to one so I'll take @Donna's word. I'd say LAB SPECIALIST sounds less common than LAB TECHNICIAN. I agree with Rex it a bit spongey in that NAIL SPECIALIST seems OK too. Maybe thats just my ignorance. I toss COORDINATOR in there too. Project yes. OUTPATIENT? Ask a hospital administrator.
Thanks @Lewis for TREE WISE MAN and the other hidden joys you so often uncover.
Hah! Finally remembered NAVI this puzzle, but it was only after I hesitantly put in NAVIES elsewhere.
Hand-up for raTED before VOTED.
@Z from yesterday.
I have used periods in texts but none them were arrogant that I knew of, but I understand the logic. I think spelling and grammar standards will be undermined by texting in the long run. Effects negative and positive.
I believe I have dropped an arrogant THANK YOU and YOU'RE WELCOME to the trollish among us on this very blog.
In what world is "weenie" ever spelled WIENIE?
It's "weenie" or "wiener", never this freakish Frankenstein hybrid.
Otherwise though, I enjoyed this one, and thought most of the themers landed quite well!
If a puzzle provides pleasure in the solving, does it really matter if the conceit doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense?
It really doesn't.
What this is is an "in other words" pun puzzle. BAGGAGE HANDLER might be another way of describing what a therapist does when he offers therapy. It is not in any sense an entirely different occupation. So "side hustle" is an extremely unfortunate way to clue that and all the other themers.
Still, ignore the two words "side hustle" and you have a fairly pleasant, if uneven theme. Some themers like BAGGAGE HANDLER, LOCKSMITH and OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR are nice and some like CIVIL ENGINEER and BASE COACH are really weak.
But the pleasure is in trying to figure it all out. If the rather unclear clues made the solve more challenging, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Anyone else have TOLEDO before OVIEDO? Actually, I had TOLEDO before OLIEDO/NALI and therefore a [technical] DNF. I also didn't know the song title SAIL ON, but guessed right. (That's a lot of names in one teensy tiny section.) As far as that pesky "L" instead of a "V": I'm doing what I always do in such situations -- I'm pronouncing this puzzle "Solved!!" So there.
Worked for the engineering firm Slough & Slued years ago, curb and gutter specialists. It's true.
Delightful puzzle jam packed with enough good stuff to keep me working on a Sunday (agree Anon @8:16). That and getting the theme at 23A.
The fascinating Bohr, Lamar (she had innate electrical engineering abilities), and Toole (highly recommend A Confederacy of Dunces). Have I said all this before? Adlai Stevenson, not dumb enough to appeal to voters.
Large Orchestral Gong Tam-tam. Pogo Stick. That's just all fun to say.
Baggage Handler is the therapist's main job, but still darn clever. I'm a follower of the brilliant Tobias Funke's school of thought myself.
Thanks much to @Frantic for teaching me MWAH. MWAH. Didn't see Avatar.
Gotta love the NYT puzzle crew's commitment to aggressive mediocrity. Hey, there's an example of BASIC! In the wild! LALO crosses AXILS at the A and it's good to go on a Sunday!
I entered MUDDY with great confidence... and was stunned when one of the crosses worked
I Liked it. It was challenging and cute. Bah Humbug Rex!
First thot for 'Blues great' was Muddy (hi @Son Volt & Ellen)
Definition of WIENIE:
FRANKFURTER, HOT DOG (M-W)
Recent Example on the Web:
"The Dan's Dogs WIENIE wagon will be there to serve hot dogs, and each guest will go home with a uniquely painted rock as a thank you for coming." (Ann Norman, cleveland.com, 14 Sep. 2017)
WIENIE and 'weenie' are both acceptable Spelling Bee words.
___
td pg -1*
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Put me in the "enjoyed this one very much" crowd, and unlike OFL the title of a puzzle rarely spoils the entire thing for me.
This one had lots of trivia that I remembered after thinking just a little, which is the best kind. Knew in no particular order: OVIEDO, TOOLE, PELE, AXILS, and a couple of others that made my morning. Thought the answers were fun enough, and none of them were mislabeled enough to bother me.
Seeing INANE always makes me think of the composition I was writing in English class in high school when I had just learned this, along with INNATE, and wrote about a veterinarian's INANE love of animals. Oops.
The only thing that irked me was seeing REALTOR and being reminded of how many people pronounce this as REE-LA-TOR, even our good friend who has been showing us properties and is in fact a real REALTOR. Nails on a blackboard for me.
Nice job, DO and DP. Dual Ovation for a Delightful Puzzle. Always nice when I find it easier than OFL, so thanks for all the fun.
Lab=labrador.
When I get the pun other people missed, the day is turned upside-down.
Navi means 'prophet' in Hebrew, like in the song 'Eliyahu hanavi' (Elijah the prophet)
That's how I remember the term from Avatar. Speaking of Hebrew, most of the 'gibberish' that Borat was speaking, supposedly Khazak was in fact Hebrew. I think it was part of Sacha Baron Cohen's in-joke on the audience. I found it really funny, especially with all of the supposedly antisemitic content in the film.
@Nancy (9:15) -- I too had OLEIDO/NALI, but nary a TOLEDO (TOODLEOO, yes). I needed my atlas to get OVIEDO. It's one of the smaller-footed towns on the page.
I like AXILS. And CIVIL ENGINEERs who use their powers for good.
This was easy and fun. Clever. I enjoyed all of the theme clue/answers. NAIL TECHNICIAN and BASE COACH were my least favorite and I only list them because listing the others is too lengthy :-).
I had a scary area on the east side - OVIE_O crossing ST_X. While I had thought of the online "cookies", the word "sole" was making me look at it sideways and I knew neither the city nor the record label. Just as I was about to throw in random letters just to call it done, DATA came to me, whew. (If I had thrown in oATy, because oatmeal can be as dull as the soles of your shoes, that would have been INANE and INsANE because everyone knows there isn't going to be a city OVIEoO).
Two kealoas today EMEND/aMEND and WIENIE/WeENIE. I suppose the latter is more of a derogatory slur than a hotdog but I left the second letter out just in case.
Thanks, Daniel and Doug.
In days of yore, there were two types of engineers: Civil and Military. As you'll likely guess, the Military engineers designed & built things for the Military, Civil engineers built things for civilians. As new disciplines came along, they all got their own names, but CIVILENGINEERing remained the same. We renamed Military Engineering to The Military Industrial Complex.
Am I goin nuts ? Isn't "good times never felt so good" sung by 40,000 Red Sox fans at Fenway every home game? They-re not singing "Sail On. The'yre singing Sweet Caroline".
Since nothing actually means anything on the internet, I invite you all to try this. It reads delicious, but not quite Halal.
@Nancy. Yes, the theme answers punnily describe the clue occupations but also name a different occupation. So BAGGAGE HANDLER is both a therapist AND someone who works at an airport, for example. Side hustle=2nd job.
Wrote ‘lab technician’ with some confidence, then had to claw my way to the actual answer, which is not even a thing. Too many clunkers, plus a natick, so it’s a voluntary DNF today. Off to walk our black Lab.
@TJS. One different word
Sweet Caroline
Good times never SEEMED so good
I've been inclined
To believe they never would
Whoa, sail on, honey
Good times never FELT so good
Sail on, honey
Good times never felt so good
Yes there are issues with this puzzle as Rex pointed out. But overall it was a most enjoyable solve. And that’s all that matters to me. The flaws should have been dealt with by the editor - like the high number of thee and four-letter words. That’s not on the constructor it’s on Will Shortz. For a debut, I’d say it’s pretty, pretty, pretty good.
@TJS - I can't speak to whether you are going nuts, as I am not a BAGGAGE HANDLER, but the lyrics to Sweet Caroline are "good times never seemed so good".
@Teeedmn - Worse than a kealoa, as you have weenie/wienie/weener/wiener.
"Drill instructor" felt flat; instructor is too close to coach. Why not drill sergeant? Isn't that the better-known term in pop culture?
Regarding 12D. If you are in a hurry you make HASTE to do something. According to the SAW, your HASTE might make waste.
Alternate clue for "Sub groups?"/NAVIES would be "Plural 72D"
@TJS That was my first guess, too, but way at the end of the song you get:
Whoa, sail on, honey
Good times never felt so good
Sail on, honey
Good times never felt so good
Sail on, sugar
Good times never felt so good
I disagree. HASTE is "made in a hurry" (as clued)--"make haste" is a real if archaic phrase. WASTE would be "made in haste" or possibly "made in a hurry, in a saying".
Flew through it right up to the Oviedo. Plugged in letters until “congrats!” Fastest time of the year so I loved Rex’s “medium-challenging”.
Mama bird and base coach seemed a little meh and I wanted to spell “toodleoo,” “ toodle loo,” but all in all a pleasant breeze. If anything, easier than what I expect for Sunday. Thank you Daniel and Doug!
Glad I'm not alone in the Avatar Seen-It-Not Sweepstakes. And I'm with @OffTheGrid - no interest to see it either. Whenever I catch a glimpse of it, all I see are taller, sharper-angled Smurfs. And I don't wanna see Smurfs either. Call me blueist, but there it is.
@JD 919am 🤌💋🖐❗️ back atcha.
@Anonymous 933am Love "commitment to aggressive mediocrity".
@Pete 1033am Looks delish! Gonna try it someday - reminds me of a cauliflower-crusted pizza I had recently which was surprisingly yummy. (Sometimes it pays to hang with the gluten-intolerant.)
Flew through it right up to the Oviedo. Plugged in letters until “congrats!” Fastest time of the year so I loved Rex’s “medium-challenging”.
Mama bird and base coach seemed a little meh and I wanted to spell “toodleoo,” “ toodle loo,” but all in all a pleasant breeze. If anything, easier than what I expect for Sunday. Thank you Daniel and Doug!
Rex doesn’t know what a civil engineer is or does? That’s an astounding admission. If Rex weren’t so self absorbed he’d be ashamed at that stunning bit of ignorance.
Rex, ( you either sometimes read the comments or someone informs you of them) civil engineers are the folks (overwhelmingly men by the way) who build the bridges that allow you cross rivers, they build the sewage treatment plants and systems that keep you from drowning in your own feces and dying of cholera. They build the train stations, airports, rods and just about all the things you need to survive out there. But yeah, it’s not worth knowing what they do. Enjoy understanding postmodern- feminist -BLM theories as they pertain to Comic books.
I usually try to imagine Rex's reaction to puzzles as I am wandering through them. He fooled me today. I did think he would not like it because of its punny theme basis but, I was dead certain he would go off on Alito because of his belief that fringe right-wing folks are not proper subjects for crosswords because of being too offensive.
While I don't agree with that perspective, Alito is yet another Justice whose political bent and religion exerts a mighty (and mighty improper, IMO) influence on his judicial opinions. He stated that the absurd Texas lawsuit trying to overturn the 2020 Election (it is a bit more complex than that but, that was its clear intention) should be considered by the Court. Essentially, he has never met a far right, as in really far right, perspective on the law that he didn't love. Watch, as he will likely be the penner of the opinion overthrowing Roe v. Wade in the Mississippi abortion case.
Apologies. Some weird glitch in the matrix caused my happy little comment to be repeated many times. Whoops!
Pretty good SunPuz. Had a bit of desperate theme humor, which always helps with the jumbo-sized solvequests.
Smooth solvin, at our house -- except for the POLYTHEIST/TOOLE/OVIEDO/COORDINATOR/TECHNICIAN area. Had to start out attackin that there area from above, and eventually loop all the way around and attack it from below ... thereby makin it the final area to be conquered.
staff weeject picks: ORO STS. Palendromic runts.
Knew NAVI, sorta. Made its crossin with OVIEDO less nanosecond-gobblin, for our team. Only slight hitch was for some reason I remembered it as NAVU. Wishful thinkin, I reckon.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Okulitch & Peterson dudes.
Masked & Anonym8Us
**gruntz**
Though the themers don’t always land, this was a fun puzzle, from POGO STICKS to POLYTHEISTS. Thought BAGGAGE HANDLER was the best themer of the bunch. Also liked LOCKSMITH and OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR. Enjoyed learning that shaking hands originated in Greece, just as bumping elbows originated here last year.
Surprised that Rex rated this Medium Challenging. Seemed pretty Easy to me. So the solve went fast enough to avoid my usual Sunday stupor. And for that I am grateful.
Side hustle for a
* Shipping clerk
* Military police officer
* Political speechwriter
* Boxer
* Flight attendant
* Crossword constructor
Yeah. I saw that and put in "tomcat."
@pabloinnh, Your Inane story is hilarious. Sounds like something I would've done.
@Rich Glauber, Very interesting about Borat.
This was a good Sunday. The theme is gibberish free and the fill provided some good puzzling in several places.
I detect the editors' touch in how some of the more challenging fill was tweaked with debut clues. The NAVI crossing OVIEDO area was a good example. While that crossing is tough enough by itself the debut clues for SAILON and (especially) BASIC amped up the overall difficulty in that section.
Coming up with NAVI (no interest in "Avatar" whatsoever) was oddly what allowed me to see my TOLEDO/OVIEDO write over. I loved that crossing of new ARCANA with the old.
Just enough difficulty today to make that clean grid feel satisfying.
yd -0
@pabloinnh
I had to pause to think if REALTOR needed an extra A because of hearing it so often. Same extra syllable pause for ADLAI. All the way with Adlai almost begs for A-de-lay. Also do vets exploit pet owners' INANE love of animals? Yeah I know that is sacrilege for some here.
The dictionaries seem to equate WIENIE and WeENIE this wiki article claims a slight difference:
"Weenie is a synonym of wienie.
As nouns the difference between weenie and wienie is that weenie is (diminutive) a hot dog, wiener, wurst or sausage, often cut into pieces for children while wienie is (us|informal) a wiener sausage."
So since the clue is Frank (short for frankfurter) maybe WeENIE is a tad better but either is correct.
I'm betting we have at least five corrections by now but in the sweet Caroline lyrics the word is seemed not felt. Whatever bosox fans sing.
100% agree that LAB SPECIALIST, CIVIL ENGINEER, OUTPATIENT COORDINATOR and BASE COACH were weak, each with a different reason. First, “LAB TECHNICIAN” is a much more common job title than LAB SPECIALIST, which is very vague and general. BASE COACH irritated me because I thought “drill instructor” was a bad clue; as someone else mentioned, “drill sergeant” would have resonated better. And I understand that anesthesiologists put “patients” “out,” but does it really make sense to call that “coordination?” I agree that something like “provider” would have felt more natural (as in, they provide “patients” who are “out”). Lastly, I know what a civil engineer is, but the connection to the original job was tenuous; is it because they “engineer” civility? Idk, doesn’t work for me.
Also agree about weenie/wienie; I know wienie is technically correct, but it’s much more obscure and also a kealoa - an unfortunate combination.
Hey All !
Tough going for me. Had to stop mid-puz to do laundry. Like to get it out of the way early. Came back, and still struggled. Had to Goog a couple of times, and still wound up with a DNF.
Lots of PPP out of my ken. Had PARTnER for PARTIER first, and aPI for CPI, which got me the nonsensical LABSPE anALyST, as ADLAy spelt thusly. Other DNF spot was OVIEoO/oATy/STyX. oAty for the cookie clue seemed right. What a WIENIE.
SLOUGH and SLUED next to each other, neat. Theme was OK, some devilish cluing (re:Park supervisor?), not the best SunPuz, certainly not the worst. Good, clean, SunFun.
yd -4 should'ves 1
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I truly feel bad for those whose solving experience/puzzle enjoyment is destroyed by a single clue or a title. I might suggest you join 40 million of your fellow Americans and seek the help of a BAGGAGEHANDLER.
It’s kinda interesting having 57A (SLOUGH) sitting on top of 63A (SLUED). In some incarnations, forms of these words are homophones.
We acquired a set of ceramic bowls in OVIEDO on our honeymoon. Next time we were in Spain, thirty some years later, we picked up a replacement for the one we had broken in the interim. Exact same design and colors.
I liked this puzzle a lot. Each of the themers worked well or very well with the idea of two different jobs connected by an aspect of the main job. The fill and fill cluing were quite good. In looking at what caused me to say “How the f*** would I know that?” the theme-composer for the Mission Impossible film is about the only one. Not to say that everything else was easy, because that is not so.
Thanks for a very nice Sunday, Daniel Okulitch and Doug Peterson
What is an ACCENT GRAVE?
Is it like a grave accent, but the blank is in the wrong place?
Thanks, Daniel and Doug! Great puzzle. Took my son and me an hour, so pretty tough, but we enjoyed figuring out the themers, especially BAGGAGEHANDLER and LABSPECIALIST. Pretty tough for us amateurs but all gettable in the end. Thanks for the Commodores, Rex, took me right back to high school ! : ) --Rick
Drill Instructor (DI) is unique to the USMC. Basically a Staff Sergeant in the other branches Watch "Full Metal Jacket" to see one in action, played by R. Lee Ermey. He was a former DI hired for FMJ as a coach for the actors. He performed so well, they just substituted him in the movie for whoever first had the role. He is an honorary Gunnery Sergeant (Gunny) as well. Agent Gibbs of NCIS is an ex-gunny.
FYI Christmas movies.
Hey all, very recently ther was a discussion about Christmas movies. If anyone cares One of Rex’s favorites, Christmas in Connecticut is in TCM this afternoon. It’s followed by my a vastly better film, Remember the Night. I can’t recommend the former, but can’t recommend the latter enough. It is, essentially, a perfect movie. ( Stanwyck stars in both. She’s better in RtN)
Agree with 🦖’s crit and also experienced similar snags, but liked it! 👍🏽🧩👍🏽
And thanks to the 🧩 constructors creating in support of women’s rights.
🤗🤩🤗
@anonymous @12:17 - via bird and tomcat
Haha, yes. Good point. 😂 gross. 😂
@ghkozen – The accent grave can be:
1) where you bury your empty jars of Accent Flavor Enhancer.
2) where Meryl Streep sends the speech patterns she used in her last movie.
Accent GRAVE is a French accent mark, usually over an e. It is a stroke with the left side higher than the right. In contrast, for an accent aigue the right side is higher than the left.
Too lazy to figure out how to post an example. Aigue is much more common than grave.
Simpler link than most: https://www.dummies.com/article/academics-the-arts/language-language-arts/learning-languages/french/french-accents-and-the-cedilla-166701
Villager
This was a very pleasant solve on our way home from Boston, where we were visiting with our daughter. Thanks to Daniel and Doug. But have to agree wtih Rex that some of the answers were just not crisp: LABSPECIALIST, OUTPATIENTCOORDINATOR, NAILTECHNICIAN. LOCKSMITH and BAGGAGEHANDLER were the ideals. Rex doesn't know what a CIVILENGINEER is?? My brother-in-law and many of our son's college classmates would be appalled. And my grandfather. CE's all. Well heck, I'm appalled.
PPP's crossing at 19A-3D, 59A-61D, 81A-72D made for some head-scratching.
@ghkozen, 1:13 PM: An accent grave (pronounced "grahv") is a downward sloping accent over some French verbs. Not a great clue, agreed.
It's December 12, Happy Birthday to Frank Sinatra!
@Frantic I was simply perplexed by the vegan/cheese mashup.
I dunno - I sped through this (with snags of course) & enjoyed it a lot. I don't think it was challenging since I wound up at Spelling Bee way too early in the day. I'm not even sure I would say Medium.
Enjoy the weekend.
My 2 cents: Drill sergeant wouldn't work very well with BASE COACH.
@Anonymous (2:00 PM)
Just watched 'Christmas in Connecticut' yd. Watching 'Remember the Night' on YouTube now, following your prompt. It has one of my fave songs (which I sing every nite before retiring):
"In the 1940 feature film Remember the Night, Sterling Holloway sang "A Perfect Day" accompanied by Barbara Stanwyck at the piano." (Wikipedia)
___
td 0*
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Welcome to natickville. Worst DNF Sunday in a long time.
Had to go the the reference sources for many of the answers, but still liked the puzzles. Though Sharp would not because his taste in this type of theme entry greatly conflict with mine. So thumbs up for me while his thumbs seem to point to the other direct.
How many of you knew Daniel is a Broadway Musical/Opera star? Visit his Wiki entry that should be updated to include his crossword construction credentials. Makes me wonder if the Lalo began life as a reference to a composer with Lalo as a final name. (Possible clue: composer rocked by Keith Emerson).
My facepalmer was FIREOPAL, though SCULPT threw me mightily. All in all not bad for me today (33 minutes) as I found the theme pretty easy to discover and intuit. Many Sundays I sweat from my PORES even once I've filled in a theme answer because I just don't get where they're going with the theme. This one was BASIC and easy to FLEX on.
@albatross shell - I can accept not needing to double space after a period, but hell is going to freeze over before I stop using periods in text messages. When I first heard that periods suggest yelling to some text readers I was mostly appreciative to know how I was coming across to younger folk. From this I decided I needed to learn what different emojis mean. At least I’ve never texted “LOL” inappropriately. I knew early on it meant “laugh out loud” and not “lots of love.”
If you write it “GRAVE accent” I always picture a nice wreath. For the diacritic I always want to say and write it as “accent GRAVE.” When writing it in English does the pronunciation change?
@Frantic Sloth - As our resident blueist, what’s your take on Picasso’s blue period?
@TJS 10:21 - You’re asking us?
Funny thing about side hustle. In my latter time in HS (sometime before 1980, but I won't say how much), I had a part-time job at one of the Robert Hall stores (you have to be ancient to recognize that name!) in town. And, it turned out, so did a number of fully employed adults. Who knew?? One guy was a 'sales engineer' for IBM. Turns out that then (still?) it was a firing offence for an IBMer (professional grade, at least) to have any other form of employment; you were expected to get along on what Big Blue decided you were worth. As if.
@12:17
guess aren't a cat person. cats, especially those males still having gonads, aka TOMCAT, and spend time out-of-doors don't only chase rodents. BIRDS are a delicacy.
@Off/7:01
not really. I took it literally. see above.
@JD/9:19
100%
@10:19
should we date 'other engineers' to Watt's steam engine?
for those keeping score, the phrase is 'haste makes waste'. decide whether the clue is correct.
@Pete - you may be confundling vegan with vegetarian. The latter allows cheese (and eggs, milk, honey, etc.).
@Nancy, I had to mentally discard Madrid and physically alter Toledo - OVIEDO was my third thought and where I drudged that one up heaven only knows - 10th grade Geography?!
Didn't know PELE played for the Cosmos but tried it and it worked. Had Arcane not ARCANA so never got to PARTIER and I don't watch TV so know nothing about the TVDADS.
Maybe if I'd waited to do puz with son and granddaughter I wouldn't have DNFed.
SB pg -2.
Can't believe this week I missed the same 6-letter work twice! Congrats to all the -0ers.
ACCENT GRAVE: This one was a no-brainer for me. In "The Bank Dick" W. C. Fields plays Egbert Souse, and whenever he introduces himself, he adds that it's pronounced soo-ZAY, accent grave over the 'e'. The problem/joke is that his preferred pronunciation requires an acute accent over the 'e'. The accent grave renders it as it appears, SOUSE (which was part of his character).
@Joe Dipinto (2:45) -- Glad I came back to the blog tonight because I wouldn't have wanted to miss your very funny wacky-definitions of the ACCENT GRAVE. Epecially the Streep one.
@Andrew Heinegg (11:58)-- Maybe the NYT or WAPO should make you their SCOTUS analyst. I couldn't agree with you more on ALITO. If I could press a button that would make one justice, and only one justice disappear from the court, poof, it would be ALITO, no question. Much more than Thomas, though they're both equally conservative. I knew ALITO would be an uncompromising, hardnosed, completely closeminded idealogue when I watched his confirmation hearing. I found him then and find him now to be an enormously dislikeable human being as well-- a feeling I don't have about any of the other recent conservative nominees. What a disaster he's been on the court and, yes, he's the guy who's gunning for Roe and will take it down. If you believed him back then on his so-called respect for "stare decisis," I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.
@kitshef:
some are, some aren't. each sub-group has it's own name/prefix. ovo-lacto is one.
I'm betting everyone has gone to bed or maybe a bar.
I'm just stepping in because the one thing I loved was seeing OVIEDO,,,Hi @egs.....The best cider, a beautiful Cathedral and the Museo de Bellas Artes.....I love Spain.
But what else did you love? you ask.....Well, I learned that our constructor, Daniel Okulitch sang at the Teatro Colon, in Buenos Aires. I went to my first "real" opera there. My dad lived in Buenos Aires for many years and he was a huge opera fan. He took me to see "La Boheme." Unfortunately, Mimi took out 10 hour to die of tuberculosis (with apologies to those afflicted) and I thought I'd die before she did.
The Navi sank my perfect week. Just an impossible cross. I actually missed two squares, since I never heard of "sail on" either, and had "sailin' " Liked the puzzle otherwise...
@pmdm 4:25 – Your reference to Lalo and Keith Emerson intrigued me, so I went hunting for a connection since I was unaware of one. I'd never heard of the group The Nice, so this was kind of a blast to discover. (The Lalo piece is one of my favorites.)
Compare:
"Diary Of An Empty Day" performed by The Nice (Keith Emerson's pre-ELP band)
"Symphonie Espagnole, Mvmt. 5" by Edouard Lalo, with Leonidas Kavakos (violin)
Thanks for the introduction!
P.s. Daniel Okulitch released an album of American art songs. It has a listing on Amazon but I think it might be out of print.
@Euclid – I remember Robert Hall stores! I had an olive green corduroy blazer from there when I was in high school. It was my favorite jacket.
I'm just wondering how it happens that I see the notice "This comment has been removed by a blog administrator" if comments cannot be posted in the first place sans admin approval. Second thoughts?
I agree! Sounds to me like some people have just gotten too complacent. I don't think there's a constructor out there that anybody likes. I have to stop reading the commentary.
My big beef is with the clue "Something made in a hurry." I got "waste", as in "Haste MAKES waste." What a good clue, I thought. But then it became apparent that the grid required the answer to be "haste". NO! Just plain wrong.
Totally agree. Made for a Waste of time.
Oh. My. Gawd.
There are people on these boards who were in high school when the Commodores sailed on.
Valet, fetch my freaking wheel chair
Hey, good buddies, I'm still chortling over last week's Grizzly Grizzly Grizzly = BEARS REPEATING
Can't beat that with a stick!
My dad (1924-2004) worked at many jobs after serving our country as an officer in the US Navy during WWII. Sometimes he had 3 jobs simultaneously: He left industry to take a job as a teacher, but still was in the Naval Reserve; he also sold Fuller Brush, worked as a lifeguard, and was a “runner” for Buffalo Raceway. He never complained. When I got laid off at Bethlehem Steel during my junior year of college, he forbade me from taking unemployment. There were a lot of fathers, who took several jobs to help make ends meet then.
"make HASTE"
The very definition of a slog, with little to no payoff. Double-bogey.
Sole cookie in most puzzles - OREO, of course. (I got some Trader Joe Oreo-style cookies this week with peanut butter innards and PB and Chocolate coating. Not that I'm bragging. But they were soooooooooo)
Oh, @Spacey, a slog? with OUTPATIENTCOORDINATORS in its midst? (I used to work with a bunch of anesthesiologists - many puns in the OR)
Fun for Sun-day.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords, and a New Year without a new virus!!!!
POETIC ODE:
SCULPT TRYST (IN RAGE ACT OFF)
IN HASTE ICANSO ACT the fool
with A HANDLER as WISE as Athena;
she does BASIC CHEX of my TOOLE
to MAKEME put GREECE on my WIENIE.
--- TOM "TAMTAM" TATE
As far as themers go, this puz started out slow with LOCKSMITH and then fizzled out.
So OFL doesn't know what a CIVILENGINEER does? Another example of not being in the real world enough. What a WIENIE.
ICEE I have HEDY Lamarr circled.
Enough from me. How about the rest of you SOW and SEWS?
Hi, Rex, Lab == Labrador as in the dog, hence the tie-in to the vet clue.
@ Anonymous (7 PM at the end with the Syndicats) :
I'm sure Rex gets the Lab pun. He is merely wondering what a Lab Specialist is in the real world. Baggage Handler, Locksmith etc. are real jobs. Is there such a job as a Lab Specialist ? I'm with Rex here. You work in a Lab. But are you ever called a Lab Specialist ?
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