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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (somewhat slower than your typical Monday)
Theme answers:
- STITCH IN TIME (20A: Prompt action when things are unraveling)
- HEM AND HAW (32A: Beat around the bush)
- DARN IT ALL (42A: "Oh, blast!")
Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about 1 m (40 in) in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between 20 and 35 kg (44 and 77 lb). All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are adaptable and habitat tolerant, and are found in forested, mountainous, and heathland areas of southern and eastern Australia, including Tasmania, as well as an isolated patch of about 300 ha (740 acres) in Epping Forest National Park in central Queensland. (wikipedia)
• • •
I don't understand what ANAL is doing in this puzzle. You can do better than that pretty easily. I don't have a problem with ANAL per se (!), but I wouldn't use it if I could get something equally good or better in the grid without much trouble, and here you *definitely* can. Even leaving CURE in place, you can do lots of stuff. AGAR ABIT ATOM ... I like AGOG. The point is, if you don't have to make people think of assholes, you probably shouldn't. ANAL: use only when needed.
I don't mind ANAL in the grid but if you can do as good or better w/ other fill maybe do that? Esp. if ANAL crosses NUT? Just something to think about.
— Rex Parker 🐈🐾☕️🐾🐈 (@rexparker) December 20, 2021
The THEFT part of IDTHEFT was also toughish (Monday toughish) for me to get. I was thinking "goal" in terms of the things that were being stolen, not the stealing itself (43D: Goal of phishing schemes, informally). I think I confused Wyeth's HELGA with Ibsen's HEDDA Gabler, because I wrote in HEDDA (25D: Andrew Wyeth portrait subject). OBIES before TONYS, too (67A: Annual theater awards). Still, I did this in 3:08, which is a relatively normal Monday time. So maybe it's normal. I just don't notice so many sticking points, even minor ones, on a Monday. But again, conceptually this one works well. Solid Monday fare.
Mediumish. I recently started doing puzzle using the NYT app instead of Acrosslite so I think I may be a tad slower in the new-to-me format. The reason I switched is that somewhere along the line I started getting a lot of pop ups and fake virus warnings on my desk top so I did a cleanse and now everything is fine. However, the cleanse got rid of the Crossword Scraper extension I was using to create Acrosslite puzzles. I am reluctant to put it back because I might have been the source of my pop up problems.
ReplyDeleteI’m with @Rex on this one, a solid theme with some fun long downs, liked it. Nice debut!
@bocamp & Z - Croce’s Freestyle #668, like #667, is on the tough side for a Croce. I missed it by one square in the center where two unfamiliar clues crossed. Good Luck!
Pretty much what Rex said. Decent theme, some rough fill, and some fill that didn’t seem particularly Mondayish. Not sure quite why the Spanish word has entered the English language, but PEPITA seems to have become the go to word for “roasted and seasoned pumpkin seed” for about a decade. Yet it still strikes me as relatively rare. I’ll be curious to see how many people are familiar with it. But still overall a fine Monday.
ReplyDeleteAs for ANAL, we also get TUSHIE, HETERO, and something THROBBING (probably because of images of Raquel WELCH in her buckskin bikini dancing in our heads) to go with the NUT Rex already mentioned. Just loads of Xmas spirit in this puzzle. Not overly fond of any of Rex’s proposed solutions, but I’d go with with his suggestion of avoiding ANAL unless you really need it.
Thx Anne, just as a Mon. puz should be! :)
ReplyDeleteMed.
Tabbed thru, then filled in the blanks. Fun way of solving Mondays.
Very enjoyable trip.
@Pablo, JC, Joe, Smith
Wow, what a clever and challenging acrostic; very tough to find a foothold. Finally managed to subdue it. That one word was 'outstanding'; indeed, a butte! :)
@Joe
I posted a snippet re: Adolph Sax recently (as I recall). You may be thinking of one of the instruments he invented.
There was also something related to 'laid him on the green' some time ago.
@CDilly52 (9:02 PM yd)
Condolences to you and Pip on the passing of OC. 🙏
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Thanks @bocamp for your kind words.
DeletePax 🕊
I decided to do this puzzle by only looking at the across clues. Man, that makes it a lot harder! But I stuck with it and eventually finished, in 24 minutes. Yikes! for a Monday. But it was a lotta fun; challenging in a Friday kinda way. Guessing the downs from just a few letters, eg 45 down RE--RD... is it RETARD? Surely not. And eventually it wasn't.
ReplyDelete27 down reminds me of an episode of the Big Bang Theory. Penny is at her bartending job; Sheldon (who doesn't drink but is agitated by something that has happened) walks in, sits down and gives her his order:
Sheldon: "I would like some alcohol."
Penny (bemused): "Can you be more specific?"
Sheldon, pausing as if suffering a fool: "ETHYL alcohol."
[Spelling Bee: Sunday 0; nice and straightforward, few stupid "words".]
Glad I did this one at night, pretty sure between the ANAL, DAMP, THROBBING, TUSHIE it would have not passed the breakfast test. Is there even a CURE for that?
ReplyDeleteAside from that, I did enjoy the puzzle and a somewhat cultish theme.
I wondered if the clue for snort/pug clue was a typo. Perhaps they meant pig.
ReplyDeleteThis felt brutal for a Monday; “stitch in time” didn’t resonate and tho and rue felt like contrived crosswordese. And I thought emoting is simply acting with emotion; not sure why emote means to “Act poorly?” Lay in was just as unsatisfying and I don’t think would ever be used to mean stockpile. Mondays are supposed to be a delight and this felt like more of a slog.
ReplyDeleteHarder than usual. Partly because some answers were just flat out wrong.
ReplyDelete-The WOMBAT lives in the southeastern coastal areas of Australia, primarily in forests and mountainous areas. It is *not* a denizen of the outback (the EMU is, however).
-ETHYL is not a stand alone synonym for any kind of fluid. It’s the adjectival form of ethane. That is to say, it refers to a C2H5 group that is attached to rest of the molecule . The correct answer to the clue for 27D is ETHYL alcohol (more correctly referred to as ethanol).
Also, THO and RELO are crosswordese That don’t really belong in a Monday puzzle.
I have no problem with ANAL. It’s silly to get upset over a common, correct anatomic and medical term.
I love HALCYON and PEPITA in any puzzle any day of the week. Even on Monday, where the solvers may be new, but they have knowledge. If answers like this are fairly crossed, and these are today, IMO, they’re fair game.
ReplyDeleteI am a fan of seaweed salad, so I enjoyed the cross of SEA and SALAD. I also liked seeing a backward RATS to go along with DARN.
And I loved seeing WOMBAT. We learned recently in a puzzle that wombats poop cubes, and here are two more interesting facts about them: A group of wombats is called a “wisdom”, and their pouch is upside down, that is, it opens on the bottom to prevent dirt from entering while burrowing.
Nothing UGLY about this debut, with its clean grid and terrific reveal. Anne, your puzzle notes (in XwordInfo and WordPlay) touched my heart, and the philosophy you’ve developed is wise and beautiful. I’ve come away from your notes and puzzle fulfilled, and thank you so much.
@Z & @REX commented about........... avoiding ANAL unless you really need it. I believe that is also what Dr. Ruth used to say.
ReplyDeleteAny crossword grid with the word "HALCYON" in it gets an A+ from me. It makes me envision Maxfield Parrish prints. Enjoyed this start to a Monday!
ReplyDeleteI see that Mens Health magazine ranked Raquel WELCH #2 on their list of “hottest women of all time” which raises a couple of questions.
ReplyDelete- It’s 2021 – seriously, you are still doing this?
- In particular, what does this have to do with men’s health?
Anyway, she has been in a couple of my favorite movies, albeit not in starring roles. She played Lust in the original Bedazzled, and Lady Constance in Richard Lester’s The Three Musketeers (the one with Michael York and Oliver Reed and Spike Milligan and Charlton Heston and Faye Dunaway).
But in everything I’ve seen, she’s been good. Not Meryl Streep good, but good.
Oh, and the problem with the theme is that the 'stitch' in STITCH IN TIME refers specifically to sewing, while the 'hem' and 'darn' use completely different meanings.
ReplyDeleteTough for a Monday. Some was due to fat fingers hitting wrong keys, but some was just due to toughness. Solid puzzle overall. I am OK with ANAL in a puzzle, especially when clued as a personality trait.
ReplyDeleteOnly major nit was the STITCH IN TIME (it is the title title of a movie, and it is a phrase said sometimes in its shortened version without the saves nine part. However, it is the only phrase in the theme truncated. Maybe if it had been clued as “It saves nine, with A”?
St. Louis would definitely like a word with 14A. I mean, we have an entire national park with a 630ft monument dedicated to the idea of being the Gateway to the West for goodness sakes!
ReplyDeleteI pretty much fell right in line with the rest of us - difficult for a Monday, PEPITA and HALCYON (as clued) were tough, had to get the revealer to figure out STITCH IN TIME, I never heard ETHYL as a stand alone term (is there a credentialed chemist amongst us?), and I noticed some of the gunk (THO, LAH, YEA,) as well. Did they really screw up the clue for WOMBAT that badly ?
ReplyDeleteCute theme - nice puzzle - one of the more concise and apt revealers we’ve seen recently. HALCYON is on my Mt. Rushmore of words so fantastic setting it early week. Agree that overall this could have been a Wednesday - but low on trivia and fair.
ReplyDeleteThought Christina first for 25d. No issue with ANAL and was hoping that 42a was DAmn IT ALL. Was thinking ETHYL has more of a European connection - as we use ethanol commonly. Had a few ALES in cans over the weekend so a little side eye there.
Enjoyable Monday solve.
"Ethyl" is not referring to ethyl alcohol here. It used to be a brand name for the chemical tetraethyl lead, which used to be added to gasoline as an anti-knock agent. Eventually people realized that putting tons of particles of lead into the atmosphere wasn't a good idea which is why we have unleaded gasoline now. Pretty deep cut for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteEthyl leaded gasoline is the confusing brand name choice for tetra ethyl lead (TEL), which was an anti-knock (octane boosting) gasoline additive discovered by General Motors researchers on Dec. 9, 1921 and introduced commercially in Ohio on Feb. 2,1923.
ReplyDeleteBack when service stations really were that, and an attendant checked your oil, cleaned your wind shield, and pumped your gas, you might say to him, "Fill it up with ETHYL", meaning premium high octane. It probably cost as much as 25 cents per gallon.
The ethyl as antiknock refers to the additive tetraethyl lead which was banned in the late 80s or 90s. The “ethyl” or ethyl alcohol used today is to help the gasoline burn cleaner.
ReplyDeleteWhile stitch in time seems oddly clued, we burned through 3 copies of Mary Poppins DVDs when my kids were toddlers - so this answer came easily.
DARN twice in the last week.
ReplyDeleteMy Friend had a Scottie (Scottish terrier) named Buchanan. Its' specialties were farting and snorting.
ReplyDeleteThat's all I got.
I think I'll watch that Linda Ronstadt video for the rest of the day.
ReplyDelete@Tom T from yesterday.
ReplyDeleteJust noticed your Rusty Staub recollection from yesterday, and it reminded me of an old timers game played at the old Comiskey Park in Chicago. Hall of Famer Luke Appling homered into the left field stands.
He was 75.
I object to "female French friend"! I get that it's Monday. But if the answer were AMI, I am 100% sure the clue would not say "male French friend."
ReplyDeleteAnother HALCYON fan here. Fast Monday for some reason. Don't know about pugs, but during 16 months of working from home learned one of my two cats definitely snores.🐈
ReplyDeleteThis one was in the ol' pinwheel house. Remembered the Helga bruhaha in the 80s that Time Magazine chronicled back when it was important. Meetings in Omaha at HDR's HQ (visit for the steaks, stay for the rolling thunder storms), and Daria on MTV in the 90s. A cartoon for adults (with arrested development).
ReplyDelete@Z, I learned Pepitas when a few were sprinkled atop a creamy butternut squash soup. Heavenly.
Have always thought Halcyon was such an odd-looking word but sounds like its meaning. Always struggle with people who Hem And Haw. TapTapTap, cmon, cmon spit it out!
This one was over too fast but it brought back some fond memories.
@kitshef, Parents took us to see Bedazzled at the drive-in back in the '60. It made my father angry and I had the impression it wasn't what he thought it would be. Do I correctly remember a nun jumping on a trampoline?
@Jim Spies, Don't worry. St. Louis got there first. Here's a riddle to cheer you up.
What’s the best thing to come out of Nebraska? I-80.
HALCYON HERE
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, thank you for this!
DeleteOne of my favorite Thoreau quotes from Walden, "Men say that a stitch in time saves nine, and so they take a thousand stitches today to save nine tomorrow."
ReplyDeleteThe Three Musketeers! Michael York! Sigh...
Thought this was surprisingly crunchy for a Monday.
Christina didn't fit for Wyeth's muse and I couldn't remember HELGA's name without some hints. On a Monday I'd probably have gone for Hagar the Horrible's wife.
Add me to the list of HALCYON fans. As I was writing it in I thought, tough word for a Monday, and when was the last time I saw it in the wild? Long ago enough that I don't remember, but of course that could be yesterday.
ReplyDeleteNow PEPITAS is a word I learned in Spain many years ago, because I had never encountered thme in the Estados Unidos, and had to have what they were explained to me. It took a while for them to show up here, but here they are. Had a similar experience with calamares. After being introduced to them in Spain, I thought I'd never see them again, and now they're on the list of appetizers anywhere you go, maybe including McDonalds.
@Unknown's typo explanation for the SNORTing pug makes the most sense to me.
Does anyone know anything about ETHYL? (I kid, I kid).
Nice start to the week, AR. Absolutely Reasonable for a Monday, says I. Thanks for all the fun.
ETHYL has appeared in NYTX puzzles 48 times since 1951. 22 times the clue makes reference to it as some sort of gasoline additive, but never once mentions it having been a brand name. Today’s exact clue has been used four times, the other three times being in 2010, 2004, and then the very first time it appeared in November of 1951. The first six times it appeared with some sort of gasoline additive clue. It finally got the “kind of alcohol” clue in late 1959 then didn’t appear for nearly 7 years. There was a “Word on old gas pumps” clue in 1994, so it’s been a dated usage for nearly three decades. My personal favorite (from early in Maleska’s tenure) was “Gas for Merman?”
ReplyDeleteIn short, it is a dated clue but not a wrong clue.
We don’t actually know how the word “STITCH” in that phrase is working. The saying was first written down in 1732, but isn’t fully explained by Fuller. You can find lots of people claiming it is a sewing reference but no evidence to this is ever provided. Merriam-Webster says that the word STITCH goes back to before the 12th century, but that the “sharp sudden pain” is the older meaning. Apparently from the 1580’s there’s a “Meaning ‘a stroke of work’ (of any kind)…” (that’s from etymonline.com). That meaning would make sense in this phrase just as well as the sewing meaning. Nobody seems to have a clue about the “saves nine” part of the phrase beyond its meter and near rhyme making the phrase sound good. At any rate, Merriam-Webster has entries for both the longer phrase and as it appears in the puzzle, giving only the idiomatic meanings. Any explanation of how it originally came to be or was meant is lost and all the etymologies are just really folk etymologies.
@Miriam - AMI has appeared 653 times in a NYTX and never once has the word “male” appeared in the clue. AMIE has made 426 appearances and “female” has appeared in the clue 26 times.
Some odd words for a Monday puzzle if you are new, but all fine with me. I thought it was a successful puzzle for a Monday. One of the better debut puzzles I've solve by my standards.
ReplyDeleteHere are some random thoughts.
ANAL: This word has a fairly simple meaning that does not imply anything bad. To tose who get upset by such words in a puzzle, I would think the problem is more with the solver's [dirty?] mind rather than the puzzle.
PEPITA: For someone like me, who does not enjoy pumpkin seeds and therefore avoids them, the word is a bit esoteric for a Monday.
ETHYL: I was told that the reason why gasoline was leaded in the fifties and after was because a lot of the liquid was left over from World War II and had to be used up. Don't know if this is true. But I do seem to remember Amoco bought most of the leaded gas and was the last major brand to sell leaded gas.
HELGA: At least the clue did not reference Hagar the Horrible.
THROBBING TUSHIE ANAL. Nice. Throw in some PEPITAS and a few ALES and you've got yourself a party.
ReplyDelete@Miriam- LOL no, you’ll have to file your complaint with a higher authority.
ReplyDeleteKitshef,
ReplyDeleteI forgot to provide the 400 HR/ No 40 in a season. Sorry.
In addition to Murray and Musial
Dave Winfield
Fred McGriff
Cal Ripken
I'm not familar with the Murray batting title riddle....
And just because because it'll be showing up sooner or later in a puzzle, there's a peewtt in Babylon, NY. ( Nobody cals them that fwiw. They're always called (Northern) Lapwings.
HALCYON for the win!
ReplyDeleteI found today's puz to be on the easy side, so maybe it was just in my wheelhouse. I thought it was an excellent Monday for newbies. Very few proper nouns.
Rex mentioned LAYIN as the more familiar basketball term, but I think he is confusing that with LAYUP which is the actual hoops term.
I also didn't have a problem with ANAL, but perhaps the NYTXW is a Rorschach test for prudishness? It's just a part of the body, that's all.
@Miriam - Following up - Weng in the 70’s seems to have decided that “French friend” was the preferred clue for AMIE, occasionally also allowing “Parisian friend” or “Gallic friend.” “Girl friend” did slip through a couple of times, but I guess he thought we could figure out whether we needed AMI or AMIE from the number of squares we needed to fill. Looking through the clues I do like “Man’s Brest friend,” but a couple are cringe-worthy (looking at you “Sweetie in Tahiti” which just screams “creepy old guy”). You can do your own clue searching here.
ReplyDelete*ALL IN ALL, a winner of a Monday and a very nice debut. I liked the theme and thought STITCH IN TIME is an okay stand-alone but really wanted an A in front of it. I prefer TUSH, thank you and ALAS, like Rex, wish we could just politely ignore that other four-letter word.
ReplyDeleteAs a long time resident of the Show-Me State, I had to side-eye the clue for 14A. I do believe St. Louis also claims that name of fame but I guess we can share.
HODA Kotb and Yoko Ono ARE a lot alike - great for crosswords.
* Another duplicate entry day! This time crossing each other.
My five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Took a second? (9)
2. Quarters feed into them (5)
3. Fast finish? (4)
4. Pieces together? (5)
5. Vintage eight-track purchases maybe (5)(4)
REMARRIED
SEMIS
MEAL
SUITE
TRAIN SETS
HODA KOTB went from a WOE to an old friend, at least in crosswords. Haven't seen a morning show in decades.
ReplyDeleteANAL has "reared" (sorry) its head a few times recently, so I resolved that this must pass the breakfast test.
Nice to sit down and have a little more to chew on than the normal Monday.
HELGA for the portrait subject is a pretty deep dive, no? May as well go with a Maleska-era "female name" clue - sorry Miriam.
@Miriam, you are 100% correct that AMI has never been clued with "male French friend".
Here are all the clues in the NYTimes over the years:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder
For AMI, you generally get variations on "Friend to Francois", which like "Female French friend" has alliteration going for it. or "What kind of fool AMI?". You do get a fair amount of French pal or buddy, that do suggest a male.
AMIE does tend to get a feminine suggestion in the clue, since it is the feminine form of the noun. There are plenty of just "friend" clues also. Whether romance and other languages should remove masculine/feminine declensions is above my pay grade.
@RP: Cute WOMBAT pic. Too bad the NYTPuz can't use pics like that as part of its cluins.
ReplyDeleteNice MonPuz theme. fave themer: DARNITALL.
Didn't know PEPITA. Looked it up in the Official M&A Help Desk Dictionary, and the closest I could come was "peptic". Sooo … learned somethin obscure there, I reckon.
Also, admired the sparkles of: HALCYON. HETERO. TUSHIE. IDTHEFT. THROBBING/ROB. SNORT.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Nebraska city nicknamed the "Gateway to the West"} = OMAHA. One of four that initially got splatzed in off nuthin, by just readin the first few Across clues. [Others were DAMP, ANAL, and AMIE.]
staff weeject pick: THO. M&A is a sucker for elision. Mighty clean-lookin set of 20 weejects, btw. Primo weeject stacks, in NE & SW, too boot.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Rowley darlin. And congratz on yer fine debut.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
Xmas-ish & biter-ish:
**gruntz**
@JD - Yep, nuns jumping on trampolines to get closer to heaven. Plus, one was a man trapped in a woman's body and deeply in love with one of the other nuns. Depending on Dad's sense of humor, he might have balked at some of that.
ReplyDelete@Anon 9:29 - I feel like I should have come up with Cal!
Groucho:
ReplyDelete“Here’s five bucks, run out and get some gas. If you can’t get gas, get Ethyl. If you can’t get Ethyl, get Mabel.”
I can't believe all this fuss about STITCH IN TIME.
ReplyDeleteLiteral meaning-If make a sewing repair right away (a STITCH IN TIME) you save having to do more (9) to repair it later after it worsens.
As a metaphor-Dealing with any problem as soon as possible will probably be easier than dealing with it later.
Maybe we should tell the French to use amix for a friend of an unknown gender.
ReplyDeleteIt's just a stitch in time
ReplyDeleteWe fit together fine
A puzzle looking for its piece
You're perfect, I don't mind
--Smashing Pumpkins
Many of us found the puzzle to be a bit difficult. One of us solved it just using the acrosses. We're quite a HETERO group.
ReplyDeleteIf a seam is coming apart, one stitch now can solve the problem now while it might take nine stitches later. Isn't that what the saying means?
Sloppy editing. Not correcting "pug" at 39D.
Like Lewis, whenever I see WOMBAT, I think of their geometric poop.
The best thing about the puzzle is that it stimulated some spirited comments. Not talking about the chemists nitpicking ETHYL. Please remember Joaquin's Dictum.
@mayhvent 10:28 am. My Grandmother agrees with your assessment of “stitch in time” adage. She used to use that to get me to quit procrastinating, and I vividly recall asking her why she said that all the time and what does it mean. She said that when you have a job to do, getting right to it keeps the job from getting more difficult. I remember that her explanation didn’t make much sense so she asked me, “What happens when you procrastinate and don’t take out the garbage?” I replied, “Dad yells at me because it starts to stink.” And she said that most tasks, especially ones we would rather not do, are best done tight away to save them from becoming more difficult or stinkier.
Delete@pmdm
ReplyDeletefrom wikipedia:
While most oil companies were switching to leaded gasolines en masse during the mid-to-late 1920s, American Oil chose to continue marketing its premium-grade "Amoco-Gas" (later Amoco Super-Premium) as a lead-free gasoline by using aromatics rather than tetraethyllead to increase octane levels, decades before the environmental movement of the early 1970s,
So I went to the computer to write about the puzzle, got an email with an attachment from my brother that I needed to read and answer first, completely forgot what was in the puzzle, had to retrieve it from the breakfast table, and now I can remember it and write about it.
ReplyDeleteI have nothing much to say. It's a cute, pleasant puzzle with no proper name trivia, with a nice clue for SALAD, and with one word -- PEPITA -- that I didn't know. That's not bad for a Monday.
kitshef,
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing you're an O's fan. I know this is apostasy in some circles, but Ripken is grossly overrated. Check out his stats. Save 198s and 1983--his first and second seasons---he was really just a good ball player. Not great.
Are the 1890s too far back for your taste? I hope not. Check out the dynastic Baltimore teams of that decade. Be sure to research Hughie Jennings. Maybe, maybe the zaniest player/coach ever. Ee-yah!!
@kitshef, You're right. Not his sense of humor. Alan King on the Ed Sullivan Show, jumping nuns not so much.
ReplyDeleteBurgle means to enter into premises with the intent to commit a crime. Robbery means to forcibly steal property.
ReplyDeleteJust a quibble.
Nice 'n easy, with a lovely reveal. STITCH led to a quick HEM and DARN, but I was expecting those to be followed by a play on "sew" and was delighted to be proven wrong with COMMON THREAD. I liked SOLES over DARN IT ALL, which brought back images of my thrifty mother-in-law, using a DARNing egg and working on a hole in a sock. The STITCHes here were to save dollars, not time. Agree with others about the pleasure of encountering HALCYON.
ReplyDeleteHelp from previous puzzles: HODA. Do-over: my "Lowest of the low" were WORmy before they were WORST.
Reading through the comments, I developed the dismaying thought that I was the only one here old enough to remember tetraethyl lead as a gasoline additive. Then along came four comments in a row all explaining it. EERIE. My wife, who is a biochemist/toxicologist/public health specialist has strong interests in the toxic effects of both lead and glyphosate, so I've become more aware of both. The other day I heard a program on NPR where someone said the IQ of the average child went up 10 or 15 points after tetraethyl lead was banned.
ReplyDeleteAlso, pug is not a typo. Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia article about the breed:
"Pugs are prone to brachycephalic airway obstructive syndrome (BAOS) which causes respiratory distress in short-snouted breeds. Pugs have elongated palates. When excited, they are prone to "reverse sneezing" which causes them to quickly (and seemingly laboriously) gasp and snort. The veterinary name for this is pharyngeal gag reflex and it is caused by fluid or debris getting caught under the palate and irritating the throat or limiting breathing. Reverse sneezing episodes are usually not harmful, and massaging the dog's throat or covering its nose in order to make it breathe through its mouth can often shorten a sneezing fit."
So, yes, they snort.
"The Ugly Duckling" is a story by Hans Christian Andersen, first published in 1843. That doesn't fit my concept of "fairy tale" -- but Wikipedia calls it a "literary fairy tale," so I guess I have to accept it.
OK, time to start wrapping presents.
Took a little longer than usual to sew this one up.
ReplyDeleteFrom LAYIN to HALCYON to PEPITA, the grid featured a number of words not COMMON on Mondays. For a little added challenge, there are names like DARIA, HODA, and HELGA as well as names that aren’t names like ETHYL, FLORA, and HAIRY. There’s even a leftover STAR from yesterday’s cookies to make this an enjoyable start to the crossword week. Congrats to Anne on the debut.
Glad to see LAH-di-dah spelled correctly for a change.
HEM AND HAW walk into a bar and order TEN ALES while arguing about the need for ANAL in crossword puzzles.
strictly speaking, and why not(?), it's not ETHYL, but tetraethyllead, which is the lead that's not in unleaded petrol.
ReplyDelete@chefwen/1:45
ReplyDeleteYou're a dreamboat!! Can we visit some time? You bring the banana, I'll bring the buttah.
@jae
ReplyDeleteThx, looking forward to it later today (and maybe into tomorrow). lol
___
td pg -4
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I initially misspelled WELCH as Welsh, and on later review I wondered how my resultant entry for 4D could pass muster in a NYT puzzle. Then I caught my initial error. Oops!
ReplyDeletehmmm. some complaints about HELGA... well, really that has to be a complaint against this particular Wyeth, since HELGA is his most famous subject.
ReplyDeleteand... we seem to have a bit of controversy over the use of ETHYL, for one, it's not Merman, she's ETHeL, and for another, the other, arguably primary, purpose was to keep valves from eroding. the ETHYL lubricated the cylinder, and the valves esp. so that they seated with much less stress. without it, valve jobs were part of regular maintenance. a bit more octane was nice, but avoiding valve jobs far more useful. for those of geezer status, you may remember that, as unleaded became more prevalent, those with pre-unleaded manufactured engines were warned not to use unleaded regularly: expensive valve job was right down the road.
Today on "Classic Moments in Crossword Cinema", we present a mashup of 26d and 34d.
ReplyDeleteWasn't Ethyl the landlady on "Isle of Loosies"?
Not much to say about this puzzle. I didn't comment on yesterday's, so I'll do that now. I thought it was great – I liked the way it finessed several different elements into the theme. It seemed like the constructor actually took pains to come up with something interesting. That one rebus image —you know the one— was pretty hilarious though.
@bocamp 12:38 – no, I meant that the exact word in the Acrostic quote was used by someone in a post here.
STITCH IN TIME saves nine
ReplyDeleteTo recap what I already posted - the sewing type STITCH may or may not be what the adage references. The saying was first published about in 1732 while the "sewing" explanation appears to be recent. There doesn't seem to be any good explanation for the "may save nine" (as first written down in 1732 - the "may" disappeared in 1792). One meaning of STITCH from the 1580's is "a stroke of work of any kind," a meaning that works every bit as well for the saying.
TBC - I am not saying it is not a sewing reference, I am saying we do not actually know what the phrase was making reference to back in 1699.
@Anon 11:33 - Christina would like a word.
ReplyDelete@EV - 😂🤣😂🤣😂
@Maybe - Your error would seem to fit in just fine with today's other entries.
@jberg - Thanks for the PUG research.
@Anon 10:57 - Yep. Something all The Hobbit readers learned in chapter one.
Speaking of HELGA and Wyeth, let us not forget that Wyeth's father was the cross when natick became a crossword term. Shockingly, this fact has not made it into NC Wyeth's Wikipedia entry.
Anon 11:33,
ReplyDeleteNah. Christina (of Christina's World) is an order of magnitude more famous than Helga. If you ever get the chance, swing by the Brandywine River Art Museum--- which is called that by exactly noo one. It's really the Wyeth museum. It's pretty great.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteDang site wouldn't reload to let me post my scintillating screed. Now I can't remember what I said! 😁 Oh well, looks like we'll have to do without my witty repartee today. (I do hope y'all know I'm joking!)
yd -4, should'ves 2
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Anon 11:33 and 12:10, I think Christina was famous and Helga was infamous. The Helga paintings are meh but one was on the cover of Time. It was a great controversy but not great art.
ReplyDeleteANAL is one of those words, like OREO, et al., that have a grid fill friendly sequence of low scrabble score letters. We've seen it before and will see it again soon in another crossword puzzle. I agree with those who say it's an anatomically correct term relating to a vital part of our gastrointestinal tract* and no more inappropriate in a puzzle---or anywhere else---than, say, ORAL.
ReplyDeleteMy issue is with how it's clued, almost always as part of the Freudian scheme of psychosexual stages of development (today "___-retentive") that has been discredited and discarded by psychology and psychiatry since long ago in the previous century. If you check out a contemporary Intro to Psychology text you will find maybe one or two pages out of maybe 400-500 pages that discuss Freud's ideas and then it will be in the context of an historical footnote.
The NYT xword seems to be the last bastion of Freudian psychoANALytic theory. I would urge those folks to bring their cluing of ANAL out of the late 19th and into the 21st century.
@Nancy, I've learned from humbling experience that if I don't write down thoughts or ideas that come to mind right away then they seem to vanish into thin air, never to be retrieved again. I have pencil and paper at hand on my computer desk, on a stand next to the TV chair, on a table where I spend time on projects and on the bench top in my workshop. Now the challenge is to write down those ideas before I get distracted and forget them anyway!
*I read a recent report about the discovery of what scientist called the earliest fossil evidence of an animal life form. They said two things identified it as such. One was a bilateral anatomical structure which provided the basis for locomotion. The other was a digestive tract with two openings, an oral and an ANAL one. So being ANAL is characteristic of all members of the animal kingdom.
Not much to say. Good for the Mondee, if you can ignore the undercurrent of various anatomical areas and functions. I've almost managed to rise above THROBBING TUSHIE, with a DAMP ANAL CURE.
ReplyDelete@J-Dip - that's a hilarious catch.
Also, thanks @bocamp for calling my attention to the passing of OC
@CDILLY52 If you're around today, please accept my most heartfelt condolences. OC is one of my favorite avatars and I've adored her from afar (not to sound too creepy). Give Pip an extra head boop from me. ❤️
With profound apologies to @JD:
ReplyDelete🧠
🎉🎉
@Z/12:02
ReplyDeletewell... let's see
"The Helga Pictures are a series of more than 240 paintings and drawings of German model Helga Testorf (born c. 1933[1][2] or c. 1939[3][4]) created by Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009) between 1971 and 1985."
.
"Christina's World is a 1948 painting by American painter Andrew Wyeth and one of the best-known American paintings of the middle 20th century."
both the wiki.
so, a battle between The Crimson Tide and my junior high school badminton team. I will concede that Christina may be the single most well known. but the clue is "Andrew Wyeth portrait subject " and Christina is hardly a portrait.
My favorite posts this morning.
ReplyDeleteZ (12:38)
Unknown (2:18)
Lewis (6:51)
Lewis (9:46)
Woke Millenial (10:19)
jberg (11:04)
Anonymous (12:10) The Wyeth museum is in Pennsylvania at the site of the Brandywine battle during the revolution.
JD,
ReplyDeleteNot only the cover of Time but Newsweek and plenty of others I'm sure. Not sure however where you got the idea that helga is infamous. The helga paintings--whatever their aesthetic value-- were enormous news because they were a secret.
@Joe Dipinto (11:44 AM)
ReplyDeleteUnderstood; my mistake. Need to pay better attention. :(
@Frantic Sloth (12:29 PM)
Yw :)
___
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@pabloinnh JC66, Joe DiPinto, you are correctly being very coy about what word in the acrostic you mean, but are you possibly talking about the one from TTrimble talked about 11-5-21?
ReplyDeleteHarder than the usual Monday but that's a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Pugs snort - none that my dog meets ever did?????
My grandmother darned a few of my socks back in the day. I've given it a go a few times (sans egg) but although the concept seemed exceedingly straightforward, the execution wasn't. Even with a solid object in place substituting for the darning egg, I couldn't get everything lined up nicely. But it did get the heel hole plugged albeit not elegantly.
ReplyDeleteI liked this puzzle, with its very apt revealer. I was puzzled, reading Jeff Chen over at xwordinfo.com. He worried about new solvers not knowing AMIE or DARIA. Although new solvers may not have encountered a crossword puzzle before, they didn't arrive on the scene like newborn calves - they have a knowledge base of some sort. I think the solving protocols like clue and answer matching plurals and tenses or the meaning of a ? at the end of a clue would hold more mystery for a new solver. On the other hand, I started solving crosswords out of my mom's easy puzzle books in my pre-teens so it's hard to remember being a rookie.
Congratulations, Anne Rowley, on your debut!
Stop worrying about new solvers, we're fine... we don't need you all speaking for us. It's just a crossword puzzle, nothing to be proud or ashamed of your experience..
Delete@kitchef
ReplyDeleteThat's it!!!
Great find.
Alternate clues:
ReplyDelete7D. Gang of Anglo/French guy friends. AMEN
33D. Juul starter? ELITE
Thanks for this nice debut Monday, Anne Rowles, and for a touching write up.
@Frantic, Darn It All woman! For a moment I was in a panic.
ReplyDeleteAnon @12:50: Because this is what the media was focused on and I followed the story while it was happening.
ReplyDelete"The sessions were a secret even to their spouses.[8]
The paintings were stored at the home of his student, neighbor and good friend, Frolic Weymouth. When the existence of the pictures was made public images of Testorf graced the covers of both Time and Newsweek magazines.[7][11] Testorf, although flattered by the paintings, was upset by the publicity and controversy they provoked.[7] Although Wyeth denied that there had been a physical relationship with Testorf, the secrecy surrounding the sessions and public speculation of an affair created a strain in the Wyeths' marriage.[12]"
@Kitshef – thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou. It would have continued to bother me.
ReplyDelete@kitshef
DeleteThx from me as well! Reread that and found I remembered the discussion (well, it was less than 2 months ago). On the other hand I may have repeated myself a little bit ago...
JD,
ReplyDeleteI know. Nothing yove cadged from the Web is news to me, nor does it suggest that infampus be used in lieu of famous when referring to the helga pictures.
@kitchef-What @JoeD and @JC66 said. If I read it back then I should have remembered it, but, uh, no. Put it in the Acrostic and double-checked all the crosses but it still didn't make sense, and now it does.
ReplyDeleteMuchisimas gracias.
Not reporting on Sunday's dismal performances. Glad today to learn about PEPITAS.
ReplyDeletepg-4
mathgent,
ReplyDeleteYes indeedy. Hard to swing a dead cat in that neck of teh woods and not be on hallowed ground. Valley Forge isn't too far. And just a little beit north Is Washinton's Crossing, Trenton and Princeton.
FYI. There are two revolutionary war cemetaries at Washington's Crossing--the big one ( I think they call it the National cemetary) and of course its wonderful and important and sacred. But just past the Thompson Neely house, right along the towpath for the Delaware Canal is a handful of soldiers graves. Somehow these graves are more solemn, sad and lovely. I highly recommend a visit if you're in the area. (if you like gardens/wildflowers and the pretiiest riparian forest in Buks County, check put Bowman's wildflower preserve. Costs these days. It was a free when I used to haunt it, but Im sure its worth the price)
@Anon, You asked why I thought it and I showed you in the most expedient way possible. It's not my intent to convince you. You have your opinion and I have mine.
ReplyDeleteJD,
ReplyDeleteHuh? Al li said was the Helga paintings were famous not infamous and the reason they were famopus is because they came out of left field, a utter suprise to not only the art world but as you note, even Wyeths' intimates.
THere is no my opnio versus your opinion
Ripken not a great player? He gets to the 2131st consecutive game - breaking one of baseball's most universally considered unbreakable records, and does he take a day off and savor his achievement? No, he just goes on and plays another 502 consecutive games after that. Also most home runs all time for a shortstop. What more do you want? It wouldn't surprise me if he mopped the floor of the locker room and locked up the place each night before he went home. The cliche that "they don't make then like that anymore" is a massive understatement.
ReplyDeletejberg @11:04, many veterinary groups around the world and even some countries all calling for an end to the breeding of short (and ever shorter) nosed dogs due to many health problems this inflicts on the hapless victims. Some have urged Kennel Clubs to drop breeds like pugs and bulldogs from their official lists and to no longer include them in their shows.
ReplyDeleteAs you noted, breathing problems are the most noticeable, with issues like exhaustion, overheating, regurgitation, sleep apnea and collapse being tell-tale signs of a struggle to get oxygen.
Other problems include eye, dental and spinal abnormalities. Skin infections are common due to the resulting excess folds of skin. They have problems reproducing because of odd body shapes and lack of stamina due to low oxygen. Births can be problematic because of the abnormally large cranium and some even require caesarian sections!
This dog lover joins those who say that purposefully breeding traits into dogs that will cause them to suffer all their lives is a form of animal cruelty, especially so because there is no other justification for it other than cosmetic, how they look. Some people think it's cute.
bigsteve,
ReplyDeleteGo to baseball reference. Save hos 1982, 1983 and 1991 seasons, ripken was decidely meh. Yeah, he played a lot of games in a row. Impressively surdy, no doubt. But he's a career .276 hitter. Never popped 40 Hrs in a a season. he's a classic compiler. ANd A strong case could be made that his second MVOp ( in 1991) shoud've been won by Frank Thomas)
Pugs can also sneeze or bark their eyeballs out. Don't get one.
ReplyDeleteDespite many a visit to the B'wine River Art Museum, which is near to but not coincident with the Brandywine Battlefield-- I too thought of Christina first, only for some reason in my mind she was named Laura, which has the same number of letters as Helga. Quite the excursion!
Hate to be a stickler, but I have to pinpoint something needling me:
ReplyDeleteReally don't love seeing DAMNITALL in the same puzzle as INALL--two answers with ALL as word in them is a no-no--and worse the two answers not only cross each other but cross in the ALL.
And then we also have LAYIN, which doubles up the IN rom INALL.
Usually the Times nixes such repetitive fill--I'm a little disappointed to see it WELCH on rules that it generally HAS RESPECTED.
And big Steve,
ReplyDeleteWhile Ripken absolutely, postively does have the mist homerund by a shortstop it's only by a whisker. He hit 353 as an SS Alex Rodriguez hit 345. And of course A-Rod was very much stll clouting them when he accepeted the third base job with the Yanks. Ripken? He scuffled along to hit another 80 over the next serval years. A Rod? More like 270. But yeah Ripken is your SS home run champ.
@Anon 3:46. By 'a strong case', I assume you mean 'no case at all'. Ripken's WAR was 11.5. According to Baseball Reference, that is the 12th-best season by any player, ever. Better than any season by Mays, or Mantle, or Musial, Aaron, Bench, Ted Williams ...
ReplyDeleteFrank Thomas's WAR was 7.0. A nice season - seventh best in the AL. You could make an argument that Thomas was as good or better offensively, but you have to ignore that Thomas was a big liability on defense, when they even let him play (he DH'd a lot), while Ripken was was the best defensive shortstop in the league. Ripken achieved a nifty feat that year - led the league in offensive WAR and in defensive WAR.
So ... I think Rex maybe does read these comments, because since I mentioned that he hasn't posted times recently, he started posting them again. Now I can say I did this puzzle in 2 Rexes, although it felt harder, and I got stupidly stuck on COMMeNTHREAD, wondering what happened to the other T.
ReplyDelete@Pablo, Joe, JC, bocamp
misheard lyrics, like
Scuse me while I kiss this guy
Annemarie and Penelopin are playin' in the band
All the light that's in Ohio (ok, that one was me, not until we recently saw John Hiatt did I learn that it's about lilacs)
And, one of my smaller ESL kiddos told me his classmate had gone home because he had a stomach egg, what kind of egg is that, Miss?
Very crunchy acrostic. Had those first 2 letters and thought, not in English... but when the first letter of the second word went in the combo clicked (love that feeling, how the heck does the brain *do* that?)(trying not to spoil for those who haven't done but may)
@JD & @Anon - I think it was in an early episode of Cowboy Bebop (the recent live action version) where Christina’s World made an appearance in the background and it was clearly appropriate for what the director wanted to convey (pardons if that’s not the right spot, I just saw it somewhere recently but I am not at all certain exactly where). That’s fame - three quarters of a century later and a painting still can be used as a cultural touchstone. HELGA paintings are a curiosity shrouded. If they are brought up today the majority of the discussion is going to be about all the supposed secrecy around their creation, with maybe a passing discussion about whether or not they are any good. The consensus was that they weren’t, but I was never entirely sure that the consensus wasn’t just a manifestation of American Puritanism. Regardless, “infamous” is accurate.
ReplyDeleteThe oldest of us may remember that "ETHYL" used to be synonymous with high octane, as in "Fill it up with ethyl," back in the days of gas stations where they checked your oil and cleaned your windshield.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, many of us like ANAL.
Below average solve time, so I would rate closer to easy, but there were a couple words that could be considered non-Monday level.
ReplyDeleteAnother possible clue for WOMBAT - animal that poops cubes. Look it up!!
Along those lines, to the commenter who thought Rex was wrong for disliking ANAL in the puzzle, this is not only at the fault of the solver. ANAL refers to only one part of the anatomy, so there's no appropriate vs. inappropriate interpretation. Again, not being offended by the word, but agreeing with Rex that it doesn't belong in the puzzle when alternatives could easily be had. Much like the F%$# word, it's one thing to use around the guys in the locker room, but you wouldn't say it in a business meeting, etc.
@Smith--oh yes, mondegreens.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite is still "there's a bathroom on the right.".
Oh z. Please. There’s no evidence that the public thinks of the Helga pictures as the I’ll gotten fruit of adultey.
ReplyDeleteThe pix are famous.infamous is incorrect in describing them
Kitshef,
ReplyDeleteWow! I thought we were pals. Anyway, despite your gratuitous swipe at my poisition, I stand by it.
I do so chiefly because many, perhaps most, serious baseball folk dismiss WAR.
Do a google search. If after reading a bit you stand by WAR’s worth, I’ll join the Ripken fan club.
And despite your poor manners, I say again, read about the truly great Orioles teams. They played 90 years before your boy Cal. And they had, at least, 4 players better than he.
And posters complain about our one line SB stuff? There have been more posts about baseball and erotic art than about the puz. And long posts.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'.
RooMonster Complainer About Complaining Guy
I’m with @Nancy today. Not much to say about this clever Monday offering. As did many here, I enjoyed seeing HALCYON gave the puzzle’s Monday-ness a big lift. I don’t find STITCH IN TIME yoo fsr afield from the constructor’s theme. Perhaps I am simply not picky enough , but the entire theme made sense to me. I say kudos to our constructor on a bang-up debut!
ReplyDeleteGot to this puzzle a day late, working on being a little less type-a with my puzzle solving.
ReplyDeleteI recognize that from time to time the word ANAL is needed for the puzzle. What raised my eyebrows was pivoting to solve the down and finding the clue "Means of Entry."
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWell, actually, you darn a sock with YARN. Not thread. Not the same thing. At all. Knitters everywhere are cringing.
ReplyDeleteBravo to Anne Rowley on her debut. But it could have been much better if the editor tied up a few loose THREADs.
ReplyDeleteTEN SENT ODE
ReplyDeleteMs. WELCH is a RESPECTED STAR,
DARN ELITE TUSHIE I am sayin',
ALL us COMMON HETEROs ARE
THROBBING with IDEAS of LAYIN'.
--- TONY PEPITA
Nothing like kicking the new week off with "Miss Fussy Britches" herself, she of the last poster Andy DuFrain would ever need: DOD Raquel WELCH.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was a fine Monday puzzle of typical solving ease, the lone outlier being PEPITA, which sounds like a nickname instead of a seed. Easily enough crossed, though, so no harm no foul. Likewise the R of RESPECTED completes the unknown name DARIA. (Never did get into MTV.)
I actually misread the SNORT clue, thinking the animal WAS "pig." Only after coming here did I realize it was "pug." But yeah, they do too. My aunt had one. I won't say the dog was spoiled, but she enjoyed Delmonico steaks EVERY DAY for dinner. And frequently snorted her gratitude.
I have no problem with AMIE, since the language uses spelling to distinguish gender. I have a feeling that one can be an AMI regardless of gender, but that only a female can be an AMIE. Liberte, egalite...sororitie??? *sigh*, Let's call the whole thing off.
"Sew" that's it, a DARN good start. Birdie.
1a is not the WORST way to start the day. Yeah baby. But then DARNITALL INALL. ALL crossing ALL is not brilliant. Kinda UGLY there. I'm almost MADAT it. I thought pumpkin seeds were PEPITAs only after being roasted and seasoned; available at Menards and other fine stores.
ReplyDeleteIn high school I had a poster of Raquel WELCH taped to my pull-down window shade. Good place to hide it. ONE of my bright IDEAS.
Speaking of THROBBING, the corners are SLOW. Huh? What?
A nice Monday TEST.
I have a friend who likes PEPITAs (and crosswords - hi @Teed) and turned me on to them a few years ago. Get them at Trader Joe's.
ReplyDeleteRemember Snert - another cartoon dog? Had me wondering for a bit.
Happy Monday all!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Good Monday medium-challenging puzzle. Have to RESPECT Anne Rowley’s debut work on this one.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to a smart theme, some sharp fill caught my eye : HALCYON, DARIA, PEPITA, TUSHIE, HETERO, and WOMBAT.
I’d award Ms. ROWLEY a TEN.