THEME: STARTING QB (59A: Key member of a football team, in brief ... or a feature of 16-, 29-, 35- and 42-Across) — two-word phrases where the first word starts with a "Q" and the second word starts with a "B":
Theme answers:
QUICK BREAD (16A: It doesn't need time to rise before baking)
QUEEN BED (29A: One of two "royal" sleeping options)
QUILTING BEE (35A: Social crafting event)
QUAD BIKE (42A: ATV with four tires)
Word of the Day: QUAD BIKE (42A) —
An all-terrain vehicle (ATV), also known as a light utility vehicle (LUV), a quad bike, or simply a quad, as defined by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI); is a vehicle that travels on low-pressure tires, with a seat that is straddled by the operator, along with handlebars for steering control. As the name implies, it is designed to handle a wider variety of terrain than most other vehicles. Although it is a street-legal vehicle in some countries, it is not street-legal within most states, territories and provinces of Australia, the United States or Canada. (wikipedia)
• • •
Extremely straightforward. I guess the "Q" words make it interesting. More interesting than "R" words or "D" words, for example, probably. I don't know if it's because I don't care about football at all anymore or if it's because the theme is so precisely literal, but conceptually this one just felt flat to me. But there's no question about its "working." That is a fine play on the word "starting," and those are all solid "QB" phrases, so there's nothing much to fault. I don't think I've ever heard the term QUAD BIKE before. I thought it was going to be some vehicle unknown to me, but it turns out it's just ... an ATV. Apparently they also come in 3-wheeled varieties, but I can only ever remember seeing the four-wheelers, so what this puzzle is calling a QUAD BIKE is just an ATV to me. Tellingly, QUAD BIKE is folded into the ATV wikipedia entry, offered as a virtual synonym (see the Word of the Day, above). So that was ... odd. But a QUAD BIKE is very much a thing, and even if the term wasn't well known to me, it was easy to get / infer, both from the "four" in the clue and from the theme itself. There's just not a lot to say about this one. The grid is clean enough. The theme works OK. Here it is. It's NFL playoff season, so the puzzle's got timeliness on its side as well. I like HUGGABLE and STAR TURN as answers—very vibrant. I also loved seeing ELVIS Costello (just as I've loved seeing him literally, in concert, five times). Haven't listened to his brand new album yet ("The Boy Named If"), but this oddly touching interview makes it sound really interesting. ELVIS's late career has been remarkably strong. I thought 2018's "Look Now" was one of the best albums he's ever made.
I had a few dumb hiccups, most notably when I wrote in PRRR (?) at 15A: Contented cat's sound (PURR) and ORCS (?!) at 18A: Monster often seen wielding a club (OGRE). "Monster," singular. Not sure how I missed that, but there it is. I also really thought 38A: Created yarn or tales (SPUN) was LIED. If "yarn" didn't mean "implausible story," I wouldn't have fallen into that weird hole. The only fill I really object to today is ILO (International Labour Organization) and OBE (Order of the British Empire), mostly because they are initialisms that positively reek of bygone-itude. They used to be much more common in the "good" old, pre-construction-software days of the 20th and early 21st centuries; I'd never seen either of them before I started solving, and I honestly haven't seen either of them outside of crosswords, that I can recall. But that's just two short answers; nothing else here clanks or clunks very much. It's a very competent Monday puzzle. Not particularly HUGGABLE, but not bad either.
Wow! Talk about timing! I did this puzzle while watching two elite STARTING QBs put on a show for the ages. Best. Football. Game. Ever.
@Z - I know you are not a fan, but if you didn’t watch Sunday’s games, you missed two of the most exciting sporting events imaginable, and you missed seeing two incredibly gifted athletes performing “impossible” feats. I doubt that you would have found these games boring (though you could still legitimately complain about the number of commercials!).
@whatsername - Hope you made your appointment with the cardiologist in advance. How many more of these can we take?
For Mondays I try to solve looking at only the down clues. I almost made it but got stuck, so I had to look at the 1 and 21 across clues before getting it. Monday clues can be ridiculously straightforward...looking at you, 6 down! But here some were a bit tough; 3 down PLIANT for "flexible" wasn't evident without the 1 across. For 11 down I had APPEARS then ATTENDS and got stuck until BEGIN helped me get to ARRIVES.
As a rule, I do not watch the NFL. But feeling poorly this weekend, I ended up watching the end of all 4 playoff games. And holey moley!... all four decided by a successful field goal with no time left on the clock. Just crazy. And that KC / Buffalo game was unbelievable. I just might (==definitely will) watch again next weekend.
[Spelling Bee: Sun: 0. Sat: pg -1, missed this word which really steams me because I must have tried this variant of the same word about ten times, knowing damn well it's a word because I used in my job many many times. Why accept one variant and not the other? Sam Ezersky needs to be sent to a reeducation camp.]
The thing that really stood out to me is that we didn’t get a HELGA Pataki clue. Which reminds me, I saw Christina’s World make an appearance at the end of Oblivion. Sci Fi directors love that painting. It’s a better painting than Oblivion is a movie.
Otherwise a fine Monday effort.
@Joaquin - Football has amazing athletes. The game is still a yawner. I assume you mean the 42-36 OT game, not the 13-10 game. We’ll have to discuss variable rates of reinforcement and how not to be manipulated by them some day. 😉
Kind of a depressing puzzle for me after my beloved Packers lost to the 49ers on Saturday. Football season over for me. Pretty sure Rogers will retire now. Oh well, life goes on, thank gof it’s only a game. House guests from Wisconsin left a day before the game, otherwise it would have been very gloomy around here. Bad enough with my Green Bay born husband.
Other than all that football stuff, I did enjoy this Monday offering.
"Variable rates of reinforcement"? That's kinda what I get from word games, personally. But I'm not really manipulated - more I'm a wanton pushover. (Same with spectator sports)
Easy-medium. The bottom half was a tad tougher than the top. Solid and light on junk, liked it.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #677 was deja vu #676. Extremely daunting at first (pretty sure I wouldn’t finish) but it slowly came together after a very long time. However, I missed it by one square in the central CA portion of the grid. Good luck!!!
Pretty smooth, with a couple of faux pas: roadBIKE (didn't read the first part of the clue); ALUMae (too many of the 'ae' endings in the SB are messing with me, lol). Got both fixed up in due time.
Wasn't familiar with STAR TURN. Am now. Looks like it has uses additional to the clued one:
• a performance, role, or appearance (as in a movie or television show) that is done by a star or well-known personality
• an outstanding performance or prominent role in or contribution to something (M-W)
HUGGABLE puz; liked it! :)
@okanaganer 👍 for 0 yd ___
yd pg (13:53) / Wordle 4 / Dortle (almost went with ABIDE before ASIDE
My five favorite clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. FM band on the radio? (9)(3) 2. Tan writing books (3) 3. Screen rating, in brief? (3) 4. Destination for a return flight (4) 5. Lumberjack's favorite kind of beer (5)
Clue list note: There was a lot of love for [Words read with feeling] for BRAILLE, and while it is a fantastic clue, it has appeared before, and I try to only put original clues in the list.
Super easy until I hit QUAD BIKE, a term I’ve never encountered, and I live in the country, surrounded by ATVers. My problem is that it’s an illogical term: Two wheels = bicycle = bike Three wheels = tricycle = trike Four wheels = quadricycle? = quike? quadrike? But QUAD BIKE makes no sense.
Too right about the football Sunday @Joaquin! My son in law and I have our own little side action on college (men’s and women’s) and pro athletics and both of us were nail biting Sunday. Truly exciting.
It’s always a little irritating when you’ve never heard of one of the themers, but not fatal. Today, QUAD BIKE was a mystery, even getting the QUAD half right away from the theme and clue. (Two “never heard of” themers would've been a deal-breaker).
The cool thing about this puzzle is I don’t know what SPANX is - I still don’t really - Uncle Google tells me it’s a brand name for a company “focusing on shaping briefs and leggings” which to me just sounds like tight fitting clothes - whatever the heck it (they?) is/are, the whole thing just doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.
I have heard of self rising flour and the rapid rising yeast counterparts, but hadn’t heard the term QUICK BREAD before - is it something that people actually say ?
My easy streak continues. What luck that I made two kinds of WUICK BREAD yesterday while listening to vintage jazz including lots of ELLA.
The only place I slowed was on QUAD BIKE. Since it was obviously a QB answer, it wasn’t a lengthy head scratcher, but man answer I had not heard. I have beard someone distinguish it just as a QUAD in response to a query about someone’s ATV and in discussions regarding the city policy making efforts to create some leeway for operating golf carts and certain ATVs on municipal roadways. Golf carts and ATVs including QUADS were included within certain parameters to meet safety regs (lights, directional signals, seat belts, mirrors, etc.) but I have never beard QUAD BIKE.
Fine Monday and very easy but enjoyable.
I must apologize for delivering my kudos to our @Namcy for yesterday’s delightful puzzle. Gran would have loved this one. I could hear her jolly chortle over DRAWERS OF CHESTS and HONOR of MAIDS especially. We haven't had a “good old NYT Sunday” in such a long time (that being for me one of an ilk familiar to long time NYT solvers but executed in a fresh and artistic manner with cleverness and humor galore), and this capped off a very enjoyable solving week for me. Thanks so much!!
Nice puzzle - tight theme with clean fill. The revealer is apt after watching Mahomes and Allen last night. Agree with Rex on the clunkiness of QUAD BIKE - QUILTING BEE was my favorite themer.
The mid length downs were solid - QUANTIFY, HUGGABLE, TAKES TEA all top notch. Maybe a little too much trivia but overall pleasant.
I’ve tried EC’s latest - the organ does try to rock like his early stuff but there’s just something missing. Although I get a kick out of some of Rex’s music clips - his touting Look Now doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy.
Superb Monday offering. I solved this after watching the Rams Beat Brady's Buccaneers. (I found out that Sunday and Monday puzzles are available at 6:00 PM the day before on the NYT e-edition access where I solve.) I'm not a Brady hater but I am a Matthew Stafford fan. I watched him at Detroit for years and always thought he would really shine on a good team. He even made the Lions look almost good at times. He is an excellent passer and always seems unflappable. I'm happy that he has a chance to play on the bigger stages of pro football. A super bowl win would be awesome, or even just being in it.
Glad the Packers ate it. FYI--The Lions beat the Pack in the last reg. season game. It was their 3rd win of the season.
Perfect, a Monday morning quarterback puzzle. Four great games, QUITE, and whaddya know, neither Brady nor Rodgers gets to the SB, let alone the NFC championship. Agree KC-Buffalo was one for the ages.
Apt inclusion of NFL, and plenty of fill tied back to the playoff weekend. The Rams held Tampa ATBAY, Stafford ARRIVES, and we have LARGE, PURSUIT, PARK, and SACk to play with, among others. Fun Monday.
Tom T here--but the blog won't let me post as Tom T today!? Anyhow ...
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clue for today's grid:
Samovar (3 letters)
No big hang-ups with this puzzle, but not a speed through either--agree with the "Medium" rating.
Answer to HDW clue:
URN (located in the NE section off the U in PURR)
That leaves us with a rare trifecta--three URNS in one puzzle: a horizontal URN as the answer to 48A, the aforementioned diagonal URN, and (fortunately--so you don't "spill the tea") an upright, vertical URN as part of the lovely STAR TURN at 8D.
And speaking of STAR TURNs and QBs, hand up here for the best playoff game ever with those two QBs last night. It should be noted that STAR TURN is perfectly "under center" at the top of this grid, and that 60D NFL is balanced with something that all QBs hope to avoid, a SACk (4D). Really nice puzzle!
Good Monday, wow what games! Good to see Stafford still in it. He would have been in more play-offs if he hadn't been with Detroit (I'm from there, go back to Nightrain Lane). Solid puzzle. And yes, @Southside, Quick Bread is a term in regular use, e.g., a basic bread making book may have a chapter on Quick Breads, or a bakery might well arrange various Quick Breads (Banana Bread, Pumpkin Bread, Irish Soda Bread) together.
By the way, the BIKE in QUAD BIKE is derived from the name dirt BIKE, which is a kind of small off-road motorcycle (BIKE is a synonym for motorcycle). So the clue and answer are not referring to the unicycle/bicycle/tricycle progression.
Use Google images to see dirt bikes and quad bikes a-plenty.
Was this coincidental, apt, timely, serendipitous. or just dumb luck? What ever, it seemed a little anti-climatic after last night's thriller. Not sure how OFL found it "medium". I was pretty much reading the clues and writing in the answers, especially after the QB gimmick became obvious after two examples. I think the only new-to-me was LUIS as clued, but that filled in on crosses, no problem.
The first flower I gave my wife was a wild ASTER that I picked as we were walking along on our first date. That was fifty odd years ago and I always try to find one on the anniversary of that day in October. So nice to see that here.
OK Mondecito, JG. Jolly Good for a Monday, if slightly easier than normal. Thanks for the fun.
I'm not surprised Rex didn't know QUAD BIKE, but I'm a little surprised so many others didn't. And, yes, it's not "logical" (I think @Tom T is correct about it coming from "dirt bike"), but English does that (December and decimate and "etymological fallacy" come to mind). A little noodling around shows "QUAD" without the "BIKE" seems more common, but then there is this place in Britain and lots of coverage of the Tesla QUAD BIKE for kids announcement, with QUAD BIKE making headlines in a wide variety of news sources. So definitely legit, if maybe not Monday Puzzle Legit. I assume the QB theme made it Monday okay in the editor's mind. Personally, dirt BIKEs and QUAD BIKEs and snowmobiling are not my thing, but I threw down QUAD BIKE with barely a wasted precious nanosecond. Side note: Lots of irresponsible ads with pictures of kids on these things without helmets. Do Not Let Your Kid Ride a QUAD BIKE Without A Helmet.
I see the Michigan Contingent is happy for Matt Stafford. I must confess that being a "Lions fan" made quitting on football a lot easier. Every other Detroit team has gone through the typical pattern of highs and lows. The Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons, and DCFC have all won titles and at least been competitive most of my adult life. And the rebuilding years have actually led to rebuilt competitive teams. But in a league that legislates parity the Lions have been inept since before I was born. Their ineptitude is the negative equivalent of Brady winning so many Super Bowls. If there were a football Hall of Infamy the Lions would get in on a unanimous first ballot. Not wasting my Sunday afternoon on the Lions led pretty quickly to not wasting any time on Football. I do follow sports which does mean lots of football "coverage" still makes it to me. The Weather Channel is about as interesting.
On a slightly different note: A few years ago my 12 year old grandnephew was killed while riding a dirt bike on a track. He fell and another biker fell on him. He would have been safer driving a car, something he would not have been allowed to do for 4 more years.
Other football fans might enjoy the video, too. Lane tackled ruthlessly. He grabbed face masks. That became a penalty. So then he clotheslined. That became a penalty. You get the idea.
Hey All ! Well, the last 2:00 of the Bills/Chiefs was awesome. The rest of the game wasn't terrible, but those last 2 minutes, holy cow.
@Tom T I like your HDW stuff, but today's is actually in the puz at 48A. 😁 I found 'Astronaut Grissom' in SE corner.
Nice puz. Shout-out to the SB with the Themers QB. I haven't seen the QB in quite some time. SB been kicking my ass lately. I might go back to just trying for G and calling it good.
Tough to fill cleanly SW section, with two QU's in close proximity to each other, but John managed it nicely. And any puz with Calvin & HOBBES is already a winner.
PLIANT and plaint are too close in spelling! Was wondering how plaint meant flexible, as the ole brain decided to read it dyslexically.
Oh, speaking of URN, we have it twice, 48A, and 8D, START URN. What one does to brew the coffee? Har. Some other UR_'s, URR in PURR, URL, URS in PURSUIT. PLUS, we get a Boggled ROO with NITRO and OBE.
Story ladder: ALISTers TASTE QUICK BREAD, so EAGER THY art for their QUEEN BEDs, or ELSE the QUILTING BEE that has SPUN on their QUAD BIKEs will USE SPANX on the STARTING QB. EERIE. Until I WAKES up.
Dang, I give that story a 4 on a 1-10 scale!
Anyway, Happy Monday All. Let's switch to a 9 hour day, Tuesday-Friday, so we can have Mondays off. Sounds good?
Yeah, I understand the etymology -- motorcycles are bikes, motorbikes are not cycles, so the prefix fails to QUANTIFY. It's still weird to see it.
And we all live in silos. Mine doesn't have any knowledge of Game of Thrones; Rex's doesn't include the United Nations organizations. Sad, though.
@Southside, SPANX aren't just tight, they involve spandex -- basically modern-day girdles. Or bike shorts, to stick with the theme.
I think I've done too many of these things; I saw OG in 18A and got a brief moment of enjoyment wondering if it would be OGee or OGRE (OGle didn't occur to me until later).
I also enjoyed thinking of a GRENADE as a hand-held explosive. I don't think you want to hold it in your hand for very long.
QUADBIKE seems like reasonable Monday fare to me, but then I have one. Don't enjoy it recreationally, but it's definitely a great workhorse. Someday I'll graduate to a tractor, but for now it's essential equipment.
@OFL: Apparently they also come in 3-wheeled varieties
That's because the Damn Gummint all but outlawed them. That, and insurance companies took/take a draconian view of them. Real easy to tip over. Speaking of which, there's an old "Top Gear" (Clarkson, etc.) episode where they 'test drive' some (French, I think) mini 3-wheel car. At one point it comes down a steep street in some European city, i.e. cobblestoned and quite narrow, and falls over attempting to turn onto the main thoroughfare. Funny.
A smooth, intelligent, junk-free Monday that's also extremely timely. There were even two traps to fall into; one I did and one I didn't. I put in roAD BIKE before QUAD BIKE, but took it out immediately when I had an SR----- at 38D. And I wanted PASTIME before PURSUIT for "hobby", but URN kept me from writing it in.
Wish all Mondays could be this good. It's not especially challenging but it's also never dull. And I loved the revealer.
Amazing timing. To Quote Britspeak, Mahomes and Allen were Quite Brilliant last night. I needed a Quaalude Break to calm my heart; I Quaffed Beer instead.
Coming on the heels of the most thrilling postseason weekend in league history, this one landed perfectly.
Monday morning quarterback throwing out a collection of Monday words. Marie and Mao together, Elvis. Ella and Luis. Monday people. Calvin is the Monday Hobbes. It's only fitting. The strip was named after John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes. If we ever get a Saturday John we can talk about the social contract and the fact that freedom doesn't mean you to do anything you want to do. I'm in a mood.
A lot of pleasant things here to think about. Sequins, a Taste of (pumpkin) Quick Bread, my friend and her annual booze drinking and Quilting Bee vacation with her quilting friends. A Nancy Mitford book The Pursuit of Love now a movie on Amazon Prime. They did a good job on it. Too bad that one Mitford sister was such a Hitler fan (I'm just talking to myself here).
Pleasant puzzle, fun.
@McD from yesterday. Yes, I can't imagine trying to use the NYT puzz for ad space. Advertising for the most part needs repetition and it needs to reach the target audience. Take Apple for example. A billion dollar (now trillion) is going to pay an agency for 2 seconds of eye time in an isolated placement in a puzzle, or slip someone a few bucks to sell products that practically sell themselves? Where are the products that would skew toward the Boomer/GenX demographic, like a statin. Have you ever bought something because you saw in a puzzle?
Well...I'm sitting on my QUAD BIKE contemplating whether I want to make my favorite QUICK BREAD goodie. Do I make beer bread or scones? @Southside J 7:08...Yup..I made a lot of these quickies during the COVID outbreak because you could't find any yeast. No need for waiting around for hours for your dough to rise. I will think about it while sitting under my QueBracho tree. While my husband is still sleeping in our QUEEN BED I'm here and I'm still giddy over this weekends football. I've said it many times; I stopped watching for my own reasons.... but not this weekend. We watched the Niners game on Saturday and I almost fainted with last minute anticipation. Then last night we had a bunch of friends over for drinky-poos and a Quick Bite of goodies. The KC game was on. Everyone was a KC fan. @Whatsername...boy did I think of you. We were all screaming right up to the end. I have no nails left since I bit them all to a QUICK. My only Monday complaint is that I thought John had 18 or so too many proper names in his grid. All of them gettable but I got bored with them. I also got bored with OBEILO. Other than that, the idea was pretty good and the QB's fit in very nicely. I will now stop quibbling and go make Gordon Ramsay's Quick Bean recipe. Hah...I just made that up!
What a great way of STARTING off the week with a fun puzzle featuring my favorite team sport! A little bit challenging in spots but mostly a nice Monday breeze.
Of course there couldn’t have been a more fitting theme after the weekend of football we just witnessed. And that game last night? Well, for those of you who are not fans, just trust me . . . it was legendary. A brilliant performance from each of two great QBs … the likes of which we may never see again.
@Peter P: Great respect for your Buffalo Bills. They deserved that win every bit as much as KC did. Chiefs fans know too well the pain of losing in OT when your team doesn’t even have a prayer of touching the ball. Maybe we’ll finally see that rule get changed.
@Joaquin: 😂 I nearly had to call the paramedics last night. What a slugfest! It’s beyond me how anyone could watch that and call it boring.
A horrible product is SPANX! It digs and it pulls and it yanks! No trips to the deli -- It tortures your belly! When offered some SPANX, say "No thanks!"
A horrible product is SPANX! You don't want it binding your flanks! In your gym pants it hurts And it's murder in shirts -- So the answer to SPANX is "No thanks!"
Not so long ago when someone wrote in to ask for an explanation linking a clue with an answer, the request was promptly answered by the super intelligent people who participate in this blog. Lately, I have noticed those requests for clarification, for explanation have gone unaddressed. I wonder why.
Not a very QB-sneaky theme, but it is a MonPuz, after all. Liked that the themers attracted U's, like cute lil moths to the flame.
Pretty smoooth fillins, considerin this puzgrid got scrabble-twerked to the max. faves: PURSUIT. STARTURN. LYMPH. KENOBI. BILOXI. PLAQUE.
staff weeject pick: OBE. At least sounds like a cool nickname for that KENOBI dude. Primo weeject-rows #5 & #11, btw. fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Sparkly bit on a gala gown} = SEQUIN. Gimme, once U rule out CINNAMONROLLCRUMB.
@Whatsername -- yeah, the loss sucks. I'm one of the few who don't actually have a big problem with OT. My wife is the life-long Bills fan (I'm one by marriage), and when the Bills scored the last touchdown, I did say out loud "It's Mahomes; they have three time outs; there's thirteen seconds left." I thought they should have squibbed it. But if you can't stop the offense for 13 seconds, I really can't feel too bad about losing on the first possession in overtime. The winner of the coin flip wins something like 52-54% of games, from what I remember reading, so it's reasonably even. If they played possession-for-possession, I think they'd still be playing. :)
What a fine Monday! I agree with others about the aptness of the theme, but for me pleasures were found more in the sparkle of the other entries, beginning with that SEQUIN and continuing with PLIANT, STAR TURN, TAKES TEA. I'll avert my eyes from GRENADE and NITRO and linger on PURR x HUGGABLE.
QUICK BREADs, I think, are called "breads" more because of the loaf tins they're baked in than because of their kinship with "regular" bread; their sugar + fat content moves them closer to cakes. For any bakers who like both bananas and chocolate, this double chocolate banana bread is really good.
I was delighted today to see a Monday puzzle that actually Mondayed. Very easy, light, and quick, and boy what a day for it, what with all the football excitement over the weekend. Yesterday's Bills/Chiefs game was great, but of course the Niners victory was greater. Really I did not and do not care who else won. The 49ers clearly have the most effective defense in the NFL, and they are going to the SuperBowl. Time was when my wife, at least, would have wanted Boston to win their conference, but the thrill is gone.
Delighted also to hear again and again from @Nancy. It is a real pity there is probably no market anymore for her brand of poetry. Ogden Nash actually made a living writing humorous short poems. Usually not limericks though. I guess that man from Nantucket ruined the form for others. Spanx!!!! I laughed twice.
BTW, there is nothing obsolete about the OBE. There may no longer be much of a British Empire, but the awards are still being given out. Very often to Dames!
Enjoyed watching the NFL hilites. As for QB's, Mahomes and Allen are imo the best (esp bc of their ability to elude the rush, in addition to their running prowess).
@jae
Thx, on it now! :)
@Anonymous (5:38 AM)
My bad; should be Dordle. ___ td pg (10:29) / Wordle 4
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@chefwen (12:57) Sorry about the Pack loss, a shocker. ☹️ I think too that may have been the last of Rogers wearing the GB colors but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him sporting Bronco blue this fall. I don’t think he’s finished just yet.
@OffTheGrid (9:11) So sorry about your nephew. That must’ve been devastating for your family.
@GILL (10:37) 😘 Could it be your 49ers and my Chiefs are fated to meet again? Tune in to next week’s episode of “As The QB Turns.”
@Nancy (11:10) I’ve never worn SPANX in my life but I’d say you nailed it. [Laughing Out Loud Emoji]
Very wee PPP as in not that much: mostly 3 letter words and also well known. I am assuming none of the themers are PPP. One double PoCs and 5 singular PoC (one hidden or internal). Good longer fill overall. Clues too straight forward for my taste but it is Monday. Rex gives it a medium which it definitely isn't, apparently based on his foolish missteps which he apparently does not factor in on his ratings. Maybe he should.
Strange how easily and often this self-centered egomaniac and know-it-all,Rex, reports on his mistakes and areas of ignorance. Probably some deep-state double bluff to make his detractors look foolish.
The theme is timely, if not sparkly. I tried to fit QUARTERBACK in for the revealer. The strange foolish error part was I succeeded and was left wondering what Q-word means sew? You do know I only do crosswords because I love spelling so much.
Putting roADBIKE in at 42A cost me an eon in Monday solve time (i.e. 48 seconds). Not following along with the QBs, which would have prevented that delay, I merely thought, "Huh, they're called that?" when I splatzed it in. Other than that, and a brief QUANTItY, everything was easy today.
As did Rex, I momentarily considered that "yarn" in 38A's clue might not be referring to the knitting stuff. Once I got SPUN, I turned down to see Sr____ in place and wondered if there was a weird storm (like sirocco or derecho) that started with Sr. It all got straightened out eventually.
@Nancy 11:12....I think I'll hire you to compose a sweet, funny little poem for the birthday's of my daughter and her husband in April...Each a day apart. Boy are you good !!!!!! @Carola 12:28. I just downloaded your chocolate banana bread recipe. It looks yummylicious. Thanks. @Whatsername 12:51. If KC and the Niners do play together and KC loses...will you still be my friend?
This lifelong rider always thought that "BIKE" was a shortened form of "BIcycle" and that the "BI-" meant "two", as in "two wheels". Same goes for "tricycle" or "trike" referring to a three-wheeled vehicle. QUAD BIKE strikes me as an oxymoron. Would not the progression be from "BIKE" to "trike to "quike"? Maybe that's why that last one is called an ATV.
It would be a QUEEN size BED, right? Would you say just, for example, "full bed"? And would that mean that QUEEN BED has been shoehorned into a Procrustean BED?
Never heard of STAR TURN so learned something there. Still looks weird though, more like some astronomical term.
I'll be delighted to write one for you, @GILL -- just email me, off-blog, with a few amusing details about them, along with the dates of their respective birthdays.
Thanks for the shoutouts, @JD, @Whatsername, @mathgent and @oldtimer. How perspicacious of you, @oldtimer: I curse the drying up of that Ogden Nash market every day. Your flattering comparison is much appreciated.
@Anonymous 11.39 My guess is that in the past a bazillion folks would answer, which got a bit annoying after the 6th or so response. So no one responds now because they figure someone else will.
This was a perfect Monday, fitting and fun. I’m delighted by the weekend games because MY hometown team, the Bengals, won (my partner calls them the Bungles, which is a hoot given his beloved Pack didn’t). I don’t watch football and this weekend was no exception but I am regretting I didn’t watch bits and pieces as they were going on. I may have to watch the Bengals next weekend. I always like John’s puzzle and this one did not disappoint.
On the heels of my triumph yesterday, I bombed today. I promise this is my last Wordle post.
Someone has probably answered this, but just in case: a quick bread doesn't use yeast or self-rising flour, but a little baking soda or beer! Banana bread is a simple and popular example, as are buttermilk biscuits. And yes, it's a term people use.
Fun, easy, nice Monday. Knowing zero about fusbal I thought the theme was something about QU until I got the revealer, and then I thought, I've heard of that! So it clicked. Under average time. Just what a Monday should be.
Didn't we have KENOBI super recently? Or maybe that was the New Yorker.
@Nancy, gotta say Thanx for your doggerel on SPANX. Always the lyricist!
@Offthegrid oh, that's awful about your grand nephew. Condolences...
@Roo. *SB alert* pangrammatic genius is good enough for me!
No!!! The term bike for a motorcycle predates dirt bikes. By many, many decades. And while we're at it, nobody, but nobody says quad bike. Its only ever quad.
Re:three-wheeled ATVs. They are incredibly dangerous. Someone said the governmnet outlawed them and I belive it. But even if they hadn't they are spectacularly ill-suited to the job. All trikes with one wheel in the front and two in the back are Those poor pirates--thats whet we "real" motorcyclists condescendingly call Harley riders--and trike bikes are alwat found with or very near a buncj of harleys. Anyway, the trike is suppose to help these poor souls hwho don't have the ability to balnca eon two wheel, but irony is, tey're in much greater danger of falling over on their sad thre-wheeler. there's a reson the moddrn trikes all have the reverse gemotery--two wheels up front one in the back. This more favorable design has been undisputed for a hunfdred years. look no further thatn the morgan three wheeler.
I never heard of QUAD BIKE either but can't complain today. I'm glad you got your ELVIS, Rex. I've tried achieving moderate fandom about once per decade but no dice. Or few dice. Saw him, met him in the late 80s. Still blah. Different strokes and all like that, y'know?
Forgot to mention that you did some serious POC sleuthing there albatross shell @1:06 PM. Finding the internal plural of convenience at 36D TAKES TEA is evidence of that and qualifies you for the coveted Advanced POC Merit Badge. (Should be in the mail as soon as it clears committee.)
For those of yous working on the basic POC Merit Badge, remember that POC is a crossword term and not a grammatical one. It means adding an -S, an -ES, or dropping a -Y and adding -IES to a word or phrase in order to inflate the letter count so that the word or phrase will fit a bigger slot in the grid.
@Amy - I think Rex’s comment was about ILO in crosswords being bygone. As recently as 2017 you could count on seeing ILO 2-4 times a year in a NYTX, but now we’ve only seen it three times in the past five years.
@Anon 11:39 - Pretty much what @Malsedmare said I think. But also I think a fair number of regulars just skip anonymous posts, too, so anon questions get ignored longer. At least sometimes.
@albatross shell - Sorry about the Michigan beer fail. Last I checked that particular Detroit beer was being brewed under contract by a local craft/contract brewer. It was these folks doing the brewing, but I don’t see that logo on their contract brewing page so maybe it’s somebody else, now. Also - 👍🏽👍🏽 to the second paragraph of your 1:06 post.
I know lots of you really enjoyed the games yesterday, but I’m still chortling over the intense schadenfreude shared over a particular QB’s loss Saturday. Two new ones I heard today are calling the gentleman “Rush Lambeau” and “Chucker Carlson.”
as to the bike/trike/quad debate. if you grew up in a Snow Country city until, approx. 1970s, you should remember the police winter motorcycles. they were/are regular Harleys, but with the backend switched out for a two wheel axle and rather large storage bin. whether each city did the conversion each year, or Harley made separate machines I don't know.
Monday-morning QB here.I thought it was pretty good. But Rex is right. It was a bit flat. It needed another level of gimmickry to put it over the top (score a touchdown?) Also, there were way too many three-letter bits and pieces. Still, not bad for a Monday.
Easy as a fill-in. A nice little Monday; not QUITE the impact for us syndie folks as for all the day-after solvers, but cool enough. UMA makes a welcome return (STARTURN?) as DOD. Gotta love the KENOBI/BILOXI pair. Birdie.
Dirt Bike Coach is an authentic source of information regarding dirt bikes, offroad (racing & jumping) training, best gears, and tools & accessories. https://dirtbikecoach.com/
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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89 comments:
Wow! Talk about timing! I did this puzzle while watching two elite STARTING QBs put on a show for the ages. Best. Football. Game. Ever.
@Z - I know you are not a fan, but if you didn’t watch Sunday’s games, you missed two of the most exciting sporting events imaginable, and you missed seeing two incredibly gifted athletes performing “impossible” feats. I doubt that you would have found these games boring (though you could still legitimately complain about the number of commercials!).
@whatsername - Hope you made your appointment with the cardiologist in advance. How many more of these can we take?
Bang! Zoom!
Just channeling Ralph Kramden to describe my swift solve. Cute theme - and timely, I guess.
Nice Mondee fare, though waaay too easy...even for me.
.5🧠 (🎶...if I only half a brain...🎶)
🎉🎉
For Mondays I try to solve looking at only the down clues. I almost made it but got stuck, so I had to look at the 1 and 21 across clues before getting it. Monday clues can be ridiculously straightforward...looking at you, 6 down! But here some were a bit tough; 3 down PLIANT for "flexible" wasn't evident without the 1 across. For 11 down I had APPEARS then ATTENDS and got stuck until BEGIN helped me get to ARRIVES.
As a rule, I do not watch the NFL. But feeling poorly this weekend, I ended up watching the end of all 4 playoff games. And holey moley!... all four decided by a successful field goal with no time left on the clock. Just crazy. And that KC / Buffalo game was unbelievable. I just might (==definitely will) watch again next weekend.
[Spelling Bee: Sun: 0. Sat: pg -1, missed this word which really steams me because I must have tried this variant of the same word about ten times, knowing damn well it's a word because I used in my job many many times. Why accept one variant and not the other? Sam Ezersky needs to be sent to a reeducation camp.]
The thing that really stood out to me is that we didn’t get a HELGA Pataki clue. Which reminds me, I saw Christina’s World make an appearance at the end of Oblivion. Sci Fi directors love that painting. It’s a better painting than Oblivion is a movie.
Otherwise a fine Monday effort.
@Joaquin - Football has amazing athletes. The game is still a yawner. I assume you mean the 42-36 OT game, not the 13-10 game. We’ll have to discuss variable rates of reinforcement and how not to be manipulated by them some day. 😉
Kind of a depressing puzzle for me after my beloved Packers lost to the 49ers on Saturday. Football season over for me. Pretty sure Rogers will retire now. Oh well, life goes on, thank gof it’s only a game. House guests from Wisconsin left a day before the game, otherwise it would have been very gloomy around here. Bad enough with my Green Bay born husband.
Other than all that football stuff, I did enjoy this Monday offering.
"Variable rates of reinforcement"? That's kinda what I get from word games, personally. But I'm not really manipulated - more I'm a wanton pushover. (Same with spectator sports)
Easy-medium. The bottom half was a tad tougher than the top. Solid and light on junk, liked it.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #677 was deja vu #676. Extremely daunting at first (pretty sure I wouldn’t finish) but it slowly came together after a very long time. However, I missed it by one square in the central CA portion of the grid. Good luck!!!
Thx John; nice start to the solving week! :)
Med.
Pretty smooth, with a couple of faux pas: roadBIKE (didn't read the first part of the clue); ALUMae (too many of the 'ae' endings in the SB are messing with me, lol). Got both fixed up in due time.
Wasn't familiar with STAR TURN. Am now. Looks like it has uses additional to the clued one:
• a performance, role, or appearance (as in a movie or television show) that is done by a star or well-known personality
• an outstanding performance or prominent role in or contribution to something (M-W)
HUGGABLE puz; liked it! :)
@okanaganer 👍 for 0 yd
___
yd pg (13:53) / Wordle 4 / Dortle (almost went with ABIDE before ASIDE
⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟨🟩🟨⬜ ADIEU
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ASIDE
🟩🟨🟩⬜🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ STORY
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ SOOTY
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
What's Dortle?
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. FM band on the radio? (9)(3)
2. Tan writing books (3)
3. Screen rating, in brief? (3)
4. Destination for a return flight (4)
5. Lumberjack's favorite kind of beer (5)
FLEETWOOD MAC
AMY
SPF
NEST
LAGER
Clue list note: There was a lot of love for [Words read with feeling] for BRAILLE, and while it is a fantastic clue, it has appeared before, and I try to only put original clues in the list.
Super easy until I hit QUAD BIKE, a term I’ve never encountered, and I live in the country, surrounded by ATVers. My problem is that it’s an illogical term:
Two wheels = bicycle = bike
Three wheels = tricycle = trike
Four wheels = quadricycle? = quike? quadrike?
But QUAD BIKE makes no sense.
Too right about the football Sunday @Joaquin! My son in law and I have our own little side action on college (men’s and women’s) and pro athletics and both of us were nail biting Sunday. Truly exciting.
4 of 5 were on my list as well, @Lewis.
He shoulda/coulda just stopped at "so there's nothing much to fault" instead of going on to ridiculously fault many things.
It’s always a little irritating when you’ve never heard of one of the themers, but not fatal. Today, QUAD BIKE was a mystery, even getting the QUAD half right away from the theme and clue. (Two “never heard of” themers would've been a deal-breaker).
The cool thing about this puzzle is I don’t know what SPANX is - I still don’t really - Uncle Google tells me it’s a brand name for a company “focusing on shaping briefs and leggings” which to me just sounds like tight fitting clothes - whatever the heck it (they?) is/are, the whole thing just doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.
I have heard of self rising flour and the rapid rising yeast counterparts, but hadn’t heard the term QUICK BREAD before - is it something that people actually say ?
My easy streak continues. What luck that I made two kinds of WUICK BREAD yesterday while listening to vintage jazz including lots of ELLA.
The only place I slowed was on QUAD BIKE. Since it was obviously a QB answer, it wasn’t a lengthy head scratcher, but man answer I had not heard. I have beard someone distinguish it just as a QUAD in response to a query about someone’s ATV and in discussions regarding the city policy making efforts to create some leeway for operating golf carts and certain ATVs on municipal roadways. Golf carts and ATVs including QUADS were included within certain parameters to meet safety regs (lights, directional signals, seat belts, mirrors, etc.) but I have never beard QUAD BIKE.
Fine Monday and very easy but enjoyable.
I must apologize for delivering my kudos to our @Namcy for yesterday’s delightful puzzle. Gran would have loved this one. I could hear her jolly chortle over DRAWERS OF CHESTS and HONOR of MAIDS especially. We haven't had a “good old NYT Sunday” in such a long time (that being for me one of an ilk familiar to long time NYT solvers but executed in a fresh and artistic manner with cleverness and humor galore), and this capped off a very enjoyable solving week for me. Thanks so much!!
If QUAD BIKE is a four wheeler, what is a QUAD TRIKE?
Nice puzzle - tight theme with clean fill. The revealer is apt after watching Mahomes and Allen last night. Agree with Rex on the clunkiness of QUAD BIKE - QUILTING BEE was my favorite themer.
The mid length downs were solid - QUANTIFY, HUGGABLE, TAKES TEA all top notch. Maybe a little too much trivia but overall pleasant.
I’ve tried EC’s latest - the organ does try to rock like his early stuff but there’s just something missing. Although I get a kick out of some of Rex’s music clips - his touting Look Now doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy.
Enjoyable Monday solve.
Superb Monday offering. I solved this after watching the Rams Beat Brady's Buccaneers. (I found out that Sunday and Monday puzzles are available at 6:00 PM the day before on the NYT e-edition access where I solve.) I'm not a Brady hater but I am a Matthew Stafford fan. I watched him at Detroit for years and always thought he would really shine on a good team. He even made the Lions look almost good at times. He is an excellent passer and always seems unflappable. I'm happy that he has a chance to play on the bigger stages of pro football. A super bowl win would be awesome, or even just being in it.
Glad the Packers ate it. FYI--The Lions beat the Pack in the last reg. season game. It was their 3rd win of the season.
Perfect, a Monday morning quarterback puzzle. Four great games, QUITE, and whaddya know, neither Brady nor Rodgers gets to the SB, let alone the NFC championship. Agree KC-Buffalo was one for the ages.
Apt inclusion of NFL, and plenty of fill tied back to the playoff weekend. The Rams held Tampa ATBAY, Stafford ARRIVES, and we have LARGE, PURSUIT, PARK, and SACk to play with, among others. Fun Monday.
@Joe Welling. That would be a twelve wheeler.
Tom T here--but the blog won't let me post as Tom T today!? Anyhow ...
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clue for today's grid:
Samovar (3 letters)
No big hang-ups with this puzzle, but not a speed through either--agree with the "Medium" rating.
Answer to HDW clue:
URN (located in the NE section off the U in PURR)
That leaves us with a rare trifecta--three URNS in one puzzle: a horizontal URN as the answer to 48A, the aforementioned diagonal URN, and (fortunately--so you don't "spill the tea") an upright, vertical URN as part of the lovely STAR TURN at 8D.
And speaking of STAR TURNs and QBs, hand up here for the best playoff game ever with those two QBs last night. It should be noted that STAR TURN is perfectly "under center" at the top of this grid, and that 60D NFL is balanced with something that all QBs hope to avoid, a SACk (4D). Really nice puzzle!
OK, I think it's official: ANTE(S) must appear in every puzzle! Sheesh.
Good Monday, wow what games! Good to see Stafford still in it. He would have been in more play-offs if he hadn't been with Detroit (I'm from there, go back to Nightrain Lane).
Solid puzzle. And yes, @Southside, Quick Bread is a term in regular use, e.g., a basic bread making book may have a chapter on Quick Breads, or a bakery might well arrange various Quick Breads (Banana Bread, Pumpkin Bread, Irish Soda Bread) together.
By the way, the BIKE in QUAD BIKE is derived from the name dirt BIKE, which is a kind of small off-road motorcycle (BIKE is a synonym for motorcycle). So the clue and answer are not referring to the unicycle/bicycle/tricycle progression.
Use Google images to see dirt bikes and quad bikes a-plenty.
Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat? A drive landing off the fairway, followed by a shot to the green and a one-putt? Something:
Wordle 219 3/6
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟨🟨⬛🟩⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Gollygee that was easy.
Was this coincidental, apt, timely, serendipitous. or just dumb luck? What
ever, it seemed a little anti-climatic after last night's thriller. Not sure how OFL found it "medium". I was pretty much reading the clues and writing in the answers, especially after the QB gimmick became obvious after two examples. I think the only new-to-me was LUIS as clued, but that filled in on crosses, no problem.
The first flower I gave my wife was a wild ASTER that I picked as we were walking along on our first date. That was fifty odd years ago and I always try to find one on the anniversary of that day in October. So nice to see that here.
OK Mondecito, JG. Jolly Good for a Monday, if slightly easier than normal. Thanks for the fun.
The ILO does important work, and I for one was glad to see it in the puzzle.
I'm not surprised Rex didn't know QUAD BIKE, but I'm a little surprised so many others didn't. And, yes, it's not "logical" (I think @Tom T is correct about it coming from "dirt bike"), but English does that (December and decimate and "etymological fallacy" come to mind). A little noodling around shows "QUAD" without the "BIKE" seems more common, but then there is this place in Britain and lots of coverage of the Tesla QUAD BIKE for kids announcement, with QUAD BIKE making headlines in a wide variety of news sources. So definitely legit, if maybe not Monday Puzzle Legit. I assume the QB theme made it Monday okay in the editor's mind. Personally, dirt BIKEs and QUAD BIKEs and snowmobiling are not my thing, but I threw down QUAD BIKE with barely a wasted precious nanosecond.
Side note: Lots of irresponsible ads with pictures of kids on these things without helmets. Do Not Let Your Kid Ride a QUAD BIKE Without A Helmet.
I see the Michigan Contingent is happy for Matt Stafford. I must confess that being a "Lions fan" made quitting on football a lot easier. Every other Detroit team has gone through the typical pattern of highs and lows. The Tigers, Red Wings, Pistons, and DCFC have all won titles and at least been competitive most of my adult life. And the rebuilding years have actually led to rebuilt competitive teams. But in a league that legislates parity the Lions have been inept since before I was born. Their ineptitude is the negative equivalent of Brady winning so many Super Bowls. If there were a football Hall of Infamy the Lions would get in on a unanimous first ballot. Not wasting my Sunday afternoon on the Lions led pretty quickly to not wasting any time on Football. I do follow sports which does mean lots of football "coverage" still makes it to me. The Weather Channel is about as interesting.
Can we knock off the NFL comments and get back to the Wordle results we all care about ?
Why would you have to push over a wanton ?
Decent Monday. Hope it's not the POW.
3-Wheeler ATV's have been banned for safety reasons. But 4-Wheelers are far from safe.
HERE'S MORE IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
The report is dated but relevant.
On a slightly different note: A few years ago my 12 year old grandnephew was killed while riding a dirt bike on a track. He fell and another biker fell on him. He would have been safer driving a car, something he would not have been allowed to do for 4 more years.
Very pleased with myself. Just got a birdie on a tough hole in Wordle.
I trust Lewis that they were the best clues of the week. Underwhelming.
I love banana bread. Just learned that it's a QUICKBREAD.
Do all those Q words justify 24 Terrible Threes? Hmmm.
The 49er "starting QB" wasn't the key player in our win over GB. The defense held Aaron Rogers to ten points. Five sacks.
I've said this before. I will be 75 this year. I was 10 when the Lions last won a championship.
@Amyyanni. THIS IS FOR YOU
Other football fans might enjoy the video, too. Lane tackled ruthlessly. He grabbed face masks. That became a penalty. So then he clotheslined. That became a penalty. You get the idea.
Hey All !
Well, the last 2:00 of the Bills/Chiefs was awesome. The rest of the game wasn't terrible, but those last 2 minutes, holy cow.
@Tom T
I like your HDW stuff, but today's is actually in the puz at 48A. 😁 I found 'Astronaut Grissom' in SE corner.
Nice puz. Shout-out to the SB with the Themers QB. I haven't seen the QB in quite some time. SB been kicking my ass lately. I might go back to just trying for G and calling it good.
Tough to fill cleanly SW section, with two QU's in close proximity to each other, but John managed it nicely. And any puz with Calvin & HOBBES is already a winner.
PLIANT and plaint are too close in spelling! Was wondering how plaint meant flexible, as the ole brain decided to read it dyslexically.
Oh, speaking of URN, we have it twice, 48A, and 8D, START URN. What one does to brew the coffee? Har. Some other UR_'s, URR in PURR, URL, URS in PURSUIT. PLUS, we get a Boggled ROO with NITRO and OBE.
Story ladder:
ALISTers TASTE QUICK BREAD, so EAGER THY art for their QUEEN BEDs, or ELSE the QUILTING BEE that has SPUN on their QUAD BIKEs will USE SPANX on the STARTING QB. EERIE. Until I WAKES up.
Dang, I give that story a 4 on a 1-10 scale!
Anyway, Happy Monday All. Let's switch to a 9 hour day, Tuesday-Friday, so we can have Mondays off. Sounds good?
yd -10, should'ves 5
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Tom T
Har, I didn't read your second paragraph! Talk about overreacting. Egg on the face.
Got to pg today, QB still flitting away.
RooMonster An Egg On The Face Is Worse Than Two In The Pan Guy (😁)
Yeah, I understand the etymology -- motorcycles are bikes, motorbikes are not cycles, so the prefix fails to QUANTIFY. It's still weird to see it.
And we all live in silos. Mine doesn't have any knowledge of Game of Thrones; Rex's doesn't include the United Nations organizations. Sad, though.
@Southside, SPANX aren't just tight, they involve spandex -- basically modern-day girdles. Or bike shorts, to stick with the theme.
I think I've done too many of these things; I saw OG in 18A and got a brief moment of enjoyment wondering if it would be OGee or OGRE (OGle didn't occur to me until later).
I also enjoyed thinking of a GRENADE as a hand-held explosive. I don't think you want to hold it in your hand for very long.
QUADBIKE seems like reasonable Monday fare to me, but then I have one. Don't enjoy it recreationally, but it's definitely a great workhorse. Someday I'll graduate to a tractor, but for now it's essential equipment.
@OFL:
Apparently they also come in 3-wheeled varieties
That's because the Damn Gummint all but outlawed them. That, and insurance companies took/take a draconian view of them. Real easy to tip over. Speaking of which, there's an old "Top Gear" (Clarkson, etc.) episode where they 'test drive' some (French, I think) mini 3-wheel car. At one point it comes down a steep street in some European city, i.e. cobblestoned and quite narrow, and falls over attempting to turn onto the main thoroughfare. Funny.
@Southside:
but hadn’t heard the term QUICK BREAD before - is it something that people actually say ?
'Bread' made with just chemical leaveners, aka baking powder, aren't proofed after mixing, just straight into the oven.
Still not doing the SB but getting laughs out of it anyway. (She’s a comedian so I think it’s safe to assume it’s a joke)
This was good for a QUICK BREAK from my Monday morning PURSUITS. And I do mean quick. If I had sneezed. I might have missed it.
Liked all of those Qs and the play on the word “starting.” Nice that NFL runs out from the revealer.
If someone on the street stops you and asks if you want to make some QUICK BREAD, it’s probably a good idea to keep on walking.
A smooth, intelligent, junk-free Monday that's also extremely timely. There were even two traps to fall into; one I did and one I didn't. I put in roAD BIKE before QUAD BIKE, but took it out immediately when I had an SR----- at 38D. And I wanted PASTIME before PURSUIT for "hobby", but URN kept me from writing it in.
Wish all Mondays could be this good. It's not especially challenging but it's also never dull. And I loved the revealer.
Amazing timing. To Quote Britspeak, Mahomes and Allen were Quite Brilliant last night. I needed a Quaalude Break to calm my heart; I Quaffed Beer instead.
Coming on the heels of the most thrilling postseason weekend in league history, this one landed perfectly.
Monday morning quarterback throwing out a collection of Monday words. Marie and Mao together, Elvis. Ella and Luis. Monday people. Calvin is the Monday Hobbes. It's only fitting. The strip was named after John Calvin and Thomas Hobbes. If we ever get a Saturday John we can talk about the social contract and the fact that freedom doesn't mean you to do anything you want to do. I'm in a mood.
A lot of pleasant things here to think about. Sequins, a Taste of (pumpkin) Quick Bread, my friend and her annual booze drinking and Quilting Bee vacation with her quilting friends. A Nancy Mitford book The Pursuit of Love now a movie on Amazon Prime. They did a good job on it. Too bad that one Mitford sister was such a Hitler fan (I'm just talking to myself here).
Pleasant puzzle, fun.
@McD from yesterday. Yes, I can't imagine trying to use the NYT puzz for ad space. Advertising for the most part needs repetition and it needs to reach the target audience. Take Apple for example. A billion dollar (now trillion) is going to pay an agency for 2 seconds of eye time in an isolated placement in a puzzle, or slip someone a few bucks to sell products that practically sell themselves? Where are the products that would skew toward the Boomer/GenX demographic, like a statin. Have you ever bought something because you saw in a puzzle?
Well...I'm sitting on my QUAD BIKE contemplating whether I want to make my favorite QUICK BREAD goodie. Do I make beer bread or scones? @Southside J 7:08...Yup..I made a lot of these quickies during the COVID outbreak because you could't find any yeast. No need for waiting around for hours for your dough to rise. I will think about it while sitting under my QueBracho tree.
While my husband is still sleeping in our QUEEN BED I'm here and I'm still giddy over this weekends football. I've said it many times; I stopped watching for my own reasons.... but not this weekend. We watched the Niners game on Saturday and I almost fainted with last minute anticipation. Then last night we had a bunch of friends over for drinky-poos and a Quick Bite of goodies. The KC game was on. Everyone was a KC fan. @Whatsername...boy did I think of you. We were all screaming right up to the end. I have no nails left since I bit them all to a QUICK.
My only Monday complaint is that I thought John had 18 or so too many proper names in his grid. All of them gettable but I got bored with them. I also got bored with OBEILO. Other than that, the idea was pretty good and the QB's fit in very nicely.
I will now stop quibbling and go make Gordon Ramsay's Quick Bean recipe. Hah...I just made that up!
What a great way of STARTING off the week with a fun puzzle featuring my favorite team sport! A little bit challenging in spots but mostly a nice Monday breeze.
Of course there couldn’t have been a more fitting theme after the weekend of football we just witnessed. And that game last night? Well, for those of you who are not fans, just trust me . . . it was legendary. A brilliant performance from each of two great QBs … the likes of which we may never see again.
@Peter P: Great respect for your Buffalo Bills. They deserved that win every bit as much as KC did. Chiefs fans know too well the pain of losing in OT when your team doesn’t even have a prayer of touching the ball. Maybe we’ll finally see that rule get changed.
@Joaquin: 😂 I nearly had to call the paramedics last night. What a slugfest! It’s beyond me how anyone could watch that and call it boring.
NYE BYE THY STY. It all somehow makes me want to be in a city with a marina, but I can’t think of the name. Can anyone help me?
Is 8D in double dupe territory with 48A and 59A? START URN/ URN / STAR TINGQB.
I think HELGA should be clued as Mrs. The Horrible, familiarly.
Did anyone catch Trump playing WORDLE on SNL? Pretty funny.
Nice puzzle to do while watching such great football last night. Thanks, John Guzzetta.
The World's Worst Invention!
A horrible product is SPANX!
It digs and it pulls and it yanks!
No trips to the deli --
It tortures your belly!
When offered some SPANX, say "No thanks!"
A horrible product is SPANX!
You don't want it binding your flanks!
In your gym pants it hurts
And it's murder in shirts --
So the answer to SPANX is "No thanks!"
@egs - I believe that’s what Mrs. Wyeth called her.
@Nancy 11:10, brilliant!
Not so long ago when someone wrote in to ask for an explanation linking a clue with an answer, the request was promptly answered by the super intelligent people who participate in this blog. Lately, I have noticed those requests for clarification, for explanation have gone unaddressed. I wonder why.
Not a very QB-sneaky theme, but it is a MonPuz, after all. Liked that the themers attracted U's, like cute lil moths to the flame.
Pretty smoooth fillins, considerin this puzgrid got scrabble-twerked to the max. faves: PURSUIT. STARTURN. LYMPH. KENOBI. BILOXI. PLAQUE.
staff weeject pick: OBE. At least sounds like a cool nickname for that KENOBI dude. Primo weeject-rows #5 & #11, btw.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Sparkly bit on a gala gown} = SEQUIN. Gimme, once U rule out CINNAMONROLLCRUMB.
Thanx for the fUn, Mr. Guzzetta dude.
Masked & Anonymo12Us
possible biter:
**gruntz**
@Whatsername -- yeah, the loss sucks. I'm one of the few who don't actually have a big problem with OT. My wife is the life-long Bills fan (I'm one by marriage), and when the Bills scored the last touchdown, I did say out loud "It's Mahomes; they have three time outs; there's thirteen seconds left." I thought they should have squibbed it. But if you can't stop the offense for 13 seconds, I really can't feel too bad about losing on the first possession in overtime. The winner of the coin flip wins something like 52-54% of games, from what I remember reading, so it's reasonably even. If they played possession-for-possession, I think they'd still be playing. :)
What a fine Monday! I agree with others about the aptness of the theme, but for me pleasures were found more in the sparkle of the other entries, beginning with that SEQUIN and continuing with PLIANT, STAR TURN, TAKES TEA. I'll avert my eyes from GRENADE and NITRO and linger on PURR x HUGGABLE.
QUICK BREADs, I think, are called "breads" more because of the loaf tins they're baked in than because of their kinship with "regular" bread; their sugar + fat content moves them closer to cakes. For any bakers who like both bananas and chocolate, this double chocolate banana bread is really good.
I didn't get to watch the KC-Buffalo game. Looks like I missed a game with no defense.
I was delighted today to see a Monday puzzle that actually Mondayed. Very easy, light, and quick, and boy what a day for it, what with all the football excitement over the weekend. Yesterday's Bills/Chiefs game was great, but of course the Niners victory was greater. Really I did not and do not care who else won. The 49ers clearly have the most effective defense in the NFL, and they are going to the SuperBowl. Time was when my wife, at least, would have wanted Boston to win their conference, but the thrill is gone.
Delighted also to hear again and again from @Nancy. It is a real pity there is probably no market anymore for her brand of poetry. Ogden Nash actually made a living writing humorous short poems. Usually not limericks though. I guess that man from Nantucket ruined the form for others. Spanx!!!! I laughed twice.
BTW, there is nothing obsolete about the OBE. There may no longer be much of a British Empire, but the awards are still being given out. Very often to Dames!
Enjoyed watching the NFL hilites. As for QB's, Mahomes and Allen are imo the best (esp bc of their ability to elude the rush, in addition to their running prowess).
@jae
Thx, on it now! :)
@Anonymous (5:38 AM)
My bad; should be Dordle.
___
td pg (10:29) / Wordle 4
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@chefwen (12:57) Sorry about the Pack loss, a shocker. ☹️ I think too that may have been the last of Rogers wearing the GB colors but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him sporting Bronco blue this fall. I don’t think he’s finished just yet.
@OffTheGrid (9:11) So sorry about your nephew. That must’ve been devastating for your family.
@GILL (10:37) 😘 Could it be your 49ers and my Chiefs are fated to meet again? Tune in to next week’s episode of “As The QB Turns.”
@Nancy (11:10) I’ve never worn SPANX in my life but I’d say you nailed it. [Laughing Out Loud Emoji]
Very wee PPP as in not that much: mostly 3 letter words and also well known. I am assuming none of the themers are PPP. One double PoCs and 5 singular PoC (one hidden or internal). Good longer fill overall. Clues too straight forward for my taste but it is Monday. Rex gives it a medium which it definitely isn't, apparently based on his foolish missteps which he apparently does not factor in on his ratings. Maybe he should.
Strange how easily and often this self-centered egomaniac and know-it-all,Rex, reports on his mistakes and areas of ignorance. Probably some deep-state double bluff to make his detractors look foolish.
The theme is timely, if not sparkly. I tried to fit QUARTERBACK in for the revealer. The strange foolish error part was I succeeded and was left wondering what Q-word means sew? You do know I only do crosswords because I love spelling so much.
Putting roADBIKE in at 42A cost me an eon in Monday solve time (i.e. 48 seconds). Not following along with the QBs, which would have prevented that delay, I merely thought, "Huh, they're called that?" when I splatzed it in. Other than that, and a brief QUANTItY, everything was easy today.
As did Rex, I momentarily considered that "yarn" in 38A's clue might not be referring to the knitting stuff. Once I got SPUN, I turned down to see Sr____ in place and wondered if there was a weird storm (like sirocco or derecho) that started with Sr. It all got straightened out eventually.
Thanks, John Guzetta.
@Nancy 11:12....I think I'll hire you to compose a sweet, funny little poem for the birthday's of my daughter and her husband in April...Each a day apart. Boy are you good !!!!!!
@Carola 12:28. I just downloaded your chocolate banana bread recipe. It looks yummylicious. Thanks.
@Whatsername 12:51. If KC and the Niners do play together and KC loses...will you still be my friend?
Didn't someone on this blog use STARTURN in the last couple days?
And why didn't the Michigan contingent tell us the palindromic beer was originally a Detroit beer that maybe returned there in 2018?
My favorite comments this morning.
Lewis (6:19)
Nancy (11:10)
This lifelong rider always thought that "BIKE" was a shortened form of "BIcycle" and that the "BI-" meant "two", as in "two wheels". Same goes for "tricycle" or "trike" referring to a three-wheeled vehicle. QUAD BIKE strikes me as an oxymoron. Would not the progression be from "BIKE" to "trike to "quike"? Maybe that's why that last one is called an ATV.
It would be a QUEEN size BED, right? Would you say just, for example, "full bed"? And would that mean that QUEEN BED has been shoehorned into a Procrustean BED?
Never heard of STAR TURN so learned something there. Still looks weird though, more like some astronomical term.
I'll be delighted to write one for you, @GILL -- just email me, off-blog, with a few amusing details about them, along with the dates of their respective birthdays.
Thanks for the shoutouts, @JD, @Whatsername, @mathgent and @oldtimer. How perspicacious of you, @oldtimer: I curse the drying up of that Ogden Nash market every day. Your flattering comparison is much appreciated.
@GILL (1:22) Well now, considering how gracious you were in 2020, what kind of fan or friend would I be otherwise?
@Anonymous 11.39 My guess is that in the past a bazillion folks would answer, which got a bit annoying after the 6th or so response. So no one responds now because they figure someone else will.
This was a perfect Monday, fitting and fun. I’m delighted by the weekend games because MY hometown team, the Bengals, won (my partner calls them the Bungles, which is a hoot given his beloved Pack didn’t). I don’t watch football and this weekend was no exception but I am regretting I didn’t watch bits and pieces as they were going on. I may have to watch the Bengals next weekend. I always like John’s puzzle and this one did not disappoint.
On the heels of my triumph yesterday, I bombed today. I promise this is my last Wordle post.
Wordle 219 6/6
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@Southside
Someone has probably answered this, but just in case: a quick bread doesn't use yeast or self-rising flour, but a little baking soda or beer! Banana bread is a simple and popular example, as are buttermilk biscuits. And yes, it's a term people use.
Fun, easy, nice Monday. Knowing zero about fusbal I thought the theme was something about QU until I got the revealer, and then I thought, I've heard of that! So it clicked. Under average time. Just what a Monday should be.
Didn't we have KENOBI super recently? Or maybe that was the New Yorker.
@Nancy, gotta say Thanx for your doggerel on SPANX. Always the lyricist!
@Offthegrid oh, that's awful about your grand nephew. Condolences...
@Roo. *SB alert* pangrammatic genius is good enough for me!
I did an internship at the ILO in Geneva when I was in college, so it’s definitely not bygone.
No!!! The term bike for a motorcycle predates dirt bikes. By many, many decades. And while we're at it, nobody, but nobody says quad bike. Its only ever quad.
Re:three-wheeled ATVs.
They are incredibly dangerous. Someone said the governmnet outlawed them and I belive it. But even if they hadn't they are spectacularly ill-suited to the job. All trikes with one wheel in the front and two in the back are
Those poor pirates--thats whet we "real" motorcyclists condescendingly call Harley riders--and trike bikes are alwat found with or very near a buncj of harleys. Anyway, the trike is suppose to help these poor souls hwho don't have the ability to balnca eon two wheel, but irony is, tey're in much greater danger of falling over on their sad thre-wheeler.
there's a reson the moddrn trikes all have the reverse gemotery--two wheels up front one in the back. This more favorable design has been undisputed for a hunfdred years. look no further thatn the morgan three wheeler.
I never heard of QUAD BIKE either but can't complain today. I'm glad you got your ELVIS, Rex. I've tried achieving moderate fandom about once per decade but no dice. Or few dice. Saw him, met him in the late 80s. Still blah. Different strokes and all like that, y'know?
@Nancy, what a great poem. You’re on a roll.
Forgot to mention that you did some serious POC sleuthing there albatross shell @1:06 PM. Finding the internal plural of convenience at 36D TAKES TEA is evidence of that and qualifies you for the coveted Advanced POC Merit Badge. (Should be in the mail as soon as it clears committee.)
For those of yous working on the basic POC Merit Badge, remember that POC is a crossword term and not a grammatical one. It means adding an -S, an -ES, or dropping a -Y and adding -IES to a word or phrase in order to inflate the letter count so that the word or phrase will fit a bigger slot in the grid.
@Amy - I think Rex’s comment was about ILO in crosswords being bygone. As recently as 2017 you could count on seeing ILO 2-4 times a year in a NYTX, but now we’ve only seen it three times in the past five years.
@Anon 11:39 - Pretty much what @Malsedmare said I think. But also I think a fair number of regulars just skip anonymous posts, too, so anon questions get ignored longer. At least sometimes.
@albatross shell - Sorry about the Michigan beer fail. Last I checked that particular Detroit beer was being brewed under contract by a local craft/contract brewer. It was these folks doing the brewing, but I don’t see that logo on their contract brewing page so maybe it’s somebody else, now.
Also - 👍🏽👍🏽 to the second paragraph of your 1:06 post.
I know lots of you really enjoyed the games yesterday, but I’m still chortling over the intense schadenfreude shared over a particular QB’s loss Saturday. Two new ones I heard today are calling the gentleman “Rush Lambeau” and “Chucker Carlson.”
as to the bike/trike/quad debate. if you grew up in a Snow Country city until, approx. 1970s, you should remember the police winter motorcycles. they were/are regular Harleys, but with the backend switched out for a two wheel axle and rather large storage bin. whether each city did the conversion each year, or Harley made separate machines I don't know.
Monday-morning QB here.I thought it was pretty good. But Rex is right. It was a bit flat. It needed another level of gimmickry to put it over the top (score a touchdown?) Also, there were way too many three-letter bits and pieces. Still, not bad for a Monday.
Easy as a fill-in. A nice little Monday; not QUITE the impact for us syndie folks as for all the day-after solvers, but cool enough. UMA makes a welcome return (STARTURN?) as DOD. Gotta love the KENOBI/BILOXI pair. Birdie.
QUANTIFY NEEDY
MARIE was EAGER to make QUICKBREAD,
her PURSUIT was to URN it faster,
she'd BEGIN INN her LARGE QUEENBED,
STARTING its USE when anyone ASTER.
--- ELVIS HOBBES
Would you call it a bit crunchier or chewier than the usual Monday? You decide. Depends on the kind of cookie you like. ;-)
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
You can SAC the QuarterBack, but no one SPANX the Queen. Don’t even try...or ELSE.
haha @lefty, good one! I can't top that.
@rondo -- You’ll be coming up with something.
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