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Game option represented by a flat palm / SUN 1-2-22 / Sinuous dance that emulates a creature / Daughter in the comic strip "FoxTrot" / Culinary phrase after pollo or scaloppine / Goddess who turned Picus into a woodpecker / Final Fantasy character who shares a name with a U.S. city / Bottle flipping in the mid-2010s e.g. / God sometimes depicted with green skin / Rapper known offstage as Mathangi Arulpragasam / Car model made entirely of Roman numerals / Ones doing stellar work / High on marijuana in slang
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Constructor: Paolo Pasco
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: "Color Mixing" — theme answers are anagrams of two colors; the clues contain both the colors and a normal clue:
Theme answers:
- REINDEER CALVES (21A: CERISE + LAVENDER = certain baby animals)
- DOG COLLAR (32A: CORAL + GOLD = pet store purchase)
- GERMAN BEER (46A: AMBER + GREEN = imported brew)
- MARINE CORPS (52A: PEAR + CRIMSON = fighting group)
- MENTAL IMAGE (60A: LIME + MAGENTA = visualization)
- STAR CLUSTER (74A: RUST + SCARLET = celestial group)
- PEACE MARCH (83A: CREAM + PEACH = nonviolent protest)
- HOT CEREAL (94A: TEAL + OCHER = breakfast option)
- VEGETARIAN MENU (107A: MAUVE + TANGERINE = restaurant handout)
Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam MBE (born 18 July 1975), known by her stage name M.I.A. (an acronym of "Missing in Acton"), is a British rapper, singer, record producer and activist. Her songs contain evocative political and social commentary regarding immigration, warfare and identity in a globalised world. Her music combines elements of alternative, dance, electronic, hip hop and world music with eclectic instruments and samples. [...] M.I.A.'s first two albums, Arular (2005) and Kala (2007), received widespread critical acclaim for their experimentation with hip hop and electronic fusion. The single "Paper Planes" from Kala reached number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and sold over four million copies. Her third album Maya (2010) was preceded by the controversial single-short film "Born Free". Maya was her best-charting effort, reaching the top 10 on several charts. Her fourth studio album, Matangi (2013), included the single "Bad Girls", which won accolades at the MTV Video Music Awards. M.I.A. released her fifth studio album, AIM, in 2016. She scored her first Billboard Hot 100 number-one single as a featured artist on Travis Scott's "Franchise" (2020). // M.I.A.'s accolades include two American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) awards and two MTV Video Music Awards. She is the first person of South Asian descent to be nominated for an Academy Award and Grammy Award in the same year. She was named one of the defining artists of the 2000s decade by Rolling Stone, and one of the 100 most influential people of 2009 by Time. Esquire ranked M.I.A. on its list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century. According to Billboard, she was one of the "Top 50 Dance/Electronic Artists of the 2010s". M.I.A. was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for her services to music. (wikipedia)
• • •
Is the NYT trying to make people tired of the PRIDE PARADE? Back-to-back appearances are pretty conspicuous for an answer this ... colorful ("colorful" is an apt adjective based on the pride flag and is in no way a corny pun based on the theme of this puzzle). Not sure how I feel about AD ASTRA and ASTRONOMERS sharing the same grid. No, turns out I am sure, and I'm agin' it. STAR CLUSTER and AD ASTRA, fine, you can hop languages, but duping the ASTR- part is going too far. The puzzle was hard today primarily to the extent that I didn't know a bunch of proper nouns: EGO RENO ELSIE AIDAN PAIGE and MEL, to be specific. The MEL miss really hurt because I am a faithful watcher of "GBBO"—turns out I never knew MEL's last name. Also, clue really should say "former co-host" since she left the show in 2016, which is many eons ago in "GBBO" time. But if proper nouns hurt, they also helped: MARA SOLANGE FAVRE ELENA and M.I.A. went straight into the grid, no problem. So: win some, lose some, normal Sunday difficulty.
I didn't know NUDE was a lipstick choice. I'd heard of it as a stocking choice but it seems like a problematic concept, given that NUDE skin is obviously *all kinds* of colors. Looks like there are all kinds of NUDE, too, so hey, great. I have never spent significant time with a makeup wearer, hence my cosmetics knowledge deficiency. Hardest part of the grid for me by far was the very beginning; took me forever to figure out PAPER (1A: Game option represented by a flat palm), and even after I got it, it took a few beats before I understood what the hell "game" was even involved (A: Rock, PAPER, Scissors), and then I totally forgot there was going to be an Olympics in PARIS (1D: 2024 Olympics host) (I wanted CHINA there, but that's *this* year, not 2024). My favorite answer (that didn't involve swole ungulates) was FADED. I just watched someone rush to Twitter to show off their answer for 56D: High on marijuana, in slang, and while the tweet did get a lot of likes, there was a small problem: the grid-poster had written in BAKED, not FADED, and in doing so had also let the world know that they thought "Nappy" was the British term for NAPKIN (105A: Nappy : U.K. :: ___ : U.S. = DIAPER). So, a small bit of advice from someone who routinely writes in wrong first guesses: don't tweet out your grid at all (come on, spoilers!) and *especially* don't tweet out your grid Before You Have Finished.
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117 comments:
Easy peasy - minutes faster than the Fridee and less than half the time spent on the Saturdee.
That is not NORMALly the case.
I guess the title bumps this up a fraction of a notch, but it's basically just anagrams.
Unlike someone here (who shall remain nameless because he/she wants to keep his/her hate for anagrams a well-guarded secret), I like anagrams, but not on the Sundee or the Thursdee for that matter. Too pedestrian. And that's saying a lot coming from me.
There were some really nice longs like REDTAGSALE, ALMARSALA*, ASTRONOMERS, AARONBURR, REMITTANCE, and IN A PANIC.
PRIDE PARADE? Again? Also, is anyone else growing increasingly sicker of ELSA??
*AL MARSALA, colleague of Rings Fibonacci will be applying for the "security" job at @Z's Placebo & Tentacle Pub
Congrats, PARIS! Only 100 years since your last Olympics.
🧠.5
🎉🎉🎉 (mostly because I didn't spend much time on it)
Rex's bit on REINDEER CALVES is hilarious, and now all I can imagine are their super-jacked lower legs à la Popeye's forearms.
And don't even get me started on Albatross Chicks. LOL! What is that? The contents of @albie's little black book?
Thx Paolo, for this awesome Sun. workout! :)
Med+.
This was a scary adventure; so many pitfalls. Somewhat surprised (and relieved) I had no errors in the end.
Very slow start in the NW; hung in there tho, and came up with STEWARD which provided the impetus for the entire corner.
Had a genuine 'malapop', dropping IDA in where IND belonged, only to discover that it belonged to B. Wells down the road.
Other tricky spots: EGO / OSIRIS (wanted ISIRIS, but EGi just didn't sit well, and decided I was also conflating ISIS with OSIRIS; FADED / FORUM / AMIMA (had bAkED / bORUa/ ErIcA). Finally unbaked that section and sussed it out; LITHO, BETAS, PAIGE was also a somewhat tricky area; last entry was the 'A' in the ADASTRA / AL MARSALA.
So, bottom line: happy new year camper, here! :)
Fun acrostic today; got most of it from sussing out the grid, rather than the clues and answers, per se. Kinda backwards, I guess.
@okanaganer (1:33 PM yd) 👍 for no Covid and 0 dbyd
___
yd pg -3* (tabbed)
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
A lot to love here. Mental Image Dog Collar, Foreward Marine Corps, and my everyday favorites Tea and Hot Cereal. But I started In A (second of) Panic because that's how I start everything. Warms me up faster.
Got the idea at Dog Collar and was a little deflated to see what was up. Thought we were going to do something with pretty colors. But still had fun. First because I loved running up and down those stairs throwing down letters, and second, because it was filled with real things spelled correctly (you don't see that every day in the NYT nowadays). Tried to get as much of the themers as I could on the crosses because I'm too lazy to do a crossword and anagrams at the same time.
One thing, Paolo Pasco. If you think a Strut is the same as a Sashay, you've never seen Jessica Rabbit walk.
I'm trying to stop myself right now, but I can't. Imok, Letsoff, & Starcluster LLP. Retired now, but in the '70s representing rock stars who trashed hotel rooms.
Unfortunately, I was flattened at the intersection of Al Marsala and Ad Astra and had to look for directions, so DOA in Natick (if food names count).
(@Frantic, Al Marsala😀! I was thinking feed store owner.)
meh-ish, like the review
Thought this was a better than average Sunday puzzle... unfortunate natick where I chose FAZED as opposed to FADED, because I had no idea who "actor Gallagher" was, but otherwise an enjoyable solve.
Hand up for BAKED for the pot thing.
Agree, Rex, REINDEER CALVES is bizarro. Just weird; not A Thing. (Except maybe in Lappland, where I have actually been 35 years ago!)
[Spelling Bee: Fri 0; Sat pg -3 but I'm really too sick to put in a decent effort; can't sit at the computer for more than a couple of minutes. Missing 1 6 and 2 7s.]
Medium. I’m with @Rex on this one.
Took me a while to catch on to the trick (so what else is new.?) when I finally did, I loved it. I think GERMAN BEER cracked it open. Alcohol involved and I’ll get it.
@Nancy, thought of you first thing this morning when I opened up my 2022 Pearls Before Swine daily calendar. The title.
CRUMPLE-UP-EACH-DAY-AND-HURL-IN-ANGER. Showing Rat crumpling up a page and hurling it at Pig, reminded me of you and your dented wall.
Fun Sunday puzzle.
I seriously overthought this. Until I came to reindeer calves and after that I was really on tip toe. Five scoops of ice cream.
My heart sank when I saw the byline. It's not that Paolo Pasco constructs bad puzzles; they're always excellent. It's just that Paolo is from Mars, I'm from Kepler-62e. My heart sank further when I read the first themer clue and realized I was in for an Anagram Sunday. Like @Frantic's friend, I hate 'em. Unlike @Ff, I don't care who knows. But then I realized I could ignore the colors and just play the rest of the clue like a normal crossword, occasionally using the letters in the anagrams for a little extra help. Not exactly easy-peasy, but Easy-Medium.
Actually, "nappy" IS "the British term for 'napkin'" in that "nappy" is just a shortening of "napkin."
I dunno. I've been smoking weed for fifty years, and never heard "faded" as a descriptor of the experience. Never felt it either, for that matter.
I glanced quickly at [High on marijuana, in slang], and what I first saw was “high on margarine”. Hah! Try THAT!
Some random thoughts:
• I tried so hard to get that car model consisting of Roman numerals without any crosses, with no success. It finally came with the V from VEGETARIAN MENU, and it has the bonus of being a palindrome.
• I learned what a cha chaan teng is, and that’s one I’ll remember.
• My brain rebels at figuring out long anagrams; it angrily shuts down. So, my strategy was to get those answers with few crosses, and if it didn’t come, then looking at the two colors, picking out letters that hadn’t been slapped down yet, letting those letters wander through the blank answer squares, and seeing if that tripped off the answer. This enamored my brain, which said, “Ooh, more!” Thus, I had a grand old time with the theme answers.
• Speaking of ELENA Ferrante, her novella “The Lost Daughter” is streaming on Netflix, with Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Ed Harris. Anyone seen it and recommend, or not?
There were some patches of rub, but mostly the solve was calming. It stayed interesting because intelligence pervaded the cluing, but the mood was like drifting down a river in a tube – enjoyment without struggle. Your creation, Paolo, made for a lovely chaser after yesterday’s scratching and clawing (oh, I liked that too!). Thank you for making this!
Happy New Year, everyone!
Coming up with all these mixed-color anagrams can't be easy (oh, I just saw it: "He wrote a program to help him find examples of its theme."), but I figured Rex would find this the blandest of themes. The NW and SW corners held me up for a spell.
LOL, whenever I see "Aaron Burr" in any context, I think of the "Got Milk" commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLSsswr6z9Y
A big disappointment. I was hoping for something interesting about the color pairs and all we get are… anagrams?! Is there anything less fun than anagrams in a crossword? The rest of the puzzle was fine, but the themers were a big letdown.
Remember when “Clu” used to be the answer for “Actor Gallagher”
Got PAPER off the bat, so I am not sure why @Rex would struggle - great clue and very appropriate, unless of course you never played that game.
The puzzle was fine, but I have to agree with @Rex that the longer answers lacked pop. The theme would have been stellar (especially since we had AD ASTRA, STAR CLUSTER and ASTRONOMERS) if the colors and the answers had some relation to each other. Otherwise, it anything that will make me remember this puzzle in the future.
Lots of difficult (for me) PPP today, and mainly due to names that I have either never heard of (at least as clued) and/or shows/movies I have never watched (MEL, ELSIE, ELENA, MIA, LEE, AIDAN, RENO, and I am sure that there are more). There was a point where I was not sure I would finish with happy music, as there were too many "well, this sounds right" answers. Luckily, my guesses were correct.
My biggest issue was FADED - I have never heard that term. I almost forced in bAkED, and wondered if there was an internet site called a bORUM (hey - seemed just as likely to me as FADED did). Part of the issue was also having _T_R_L_STaR giving me FA_aD as the pot answer. Once I figured out that STAR was at the beginning of the answer and not the end, then it was time to play "guess the consonant in the middle of a term new to me and an unknown name". Could have been a k, or t, and maybe a z, or c for all I knew.
yd -23 (long day on the road, but not sure I would have gotten more than a few extra answers had I had more time with the puzzle)
Quite the load of unknown names in clues and answers: SOLANGE, RENO (as a Final Fantasy character), AIDAN, ELSIE, MEL (bring back Ott!), Picus, ELENA, LEE, EGO. Only that last one caused any problems, as I had a moment of iLSA/ELSA fear. Convinced myself that ELSA was right so problem averted.
Never once heard anyone brag about their GPA in college. Somewhat unconvinced it ever happens.
Felt brilliant putting in mOLES for “plot problems” thinking of garden plots. Spent some time wondering if SmEArED could somehow work for ‘in a bundle’.
Finally I wanted to share the example using ANIMA in a sentence from M-W.com:
"After the Nexus Event of Loki catching feelings for his Jungian anima, he and Sylvie are brought before the creepy animatronic Time-Keepers for sentencing."
Reindeer (and moose and elk) follow the cattle model of cow/calf, rather than the deer model of doe/fawn. I don't know who decides these things.
Honestly, I will never understand why some otherwise-intelligent people find amusement in anagrams. All English words, and thus all combinations of English words, are permutations of the same 26 letters. It therefore stands to reasons that some different permutations of the letters in a given word or combination of words will spell some other word or combination of words. I don't see how there is any joy to be found in that. To be amusing you have to add something, well, amusing, like some kind of irony or something. Ugh.
In the end - an oversized grid of nothingness. Anagrams are tedious at a base level - who would have thought that color anagrams could make things worse? Other than STAR CLUSTER - the themers were flat. All of the obscure short trivia was backed into. Rex brings up AD ASTRA/ASTRONOMERS funk - I’ll add ELSA/ELSIE.
73a is Disney blabbering at its worst.
I’m not sure what provocative photos ELSA has of Shortz - but she’s getting a lot of play lately.
To publish this as the first Sunday of 2022 is brutal.
@kitshef - does putting pencils in his nose count as Blutowski bragging about his GPA (0.0) in Animal House? Otter also seemed proud to have the highest GPA of the Delta pledge class (1.2)
Pretty much what @Trey said--PAPER was gimmee, last letters entered were in the D in FADED/AIDAN and the E in EGO/ELSA. Like others, I thought perhaps there exists a Queen iLSA in the Disney camp, because, wow, how many times can we keep trotting out ELSA?!
A nice quadruple of Hidden Diagonal Words sharing a five letter string in the SE: TEARN (TEA/TEAR/EAR/EARN).
Finished this puzzle well ahead of my Friday/Saturday times this week.
I did not enjoy.
@Lewis, Saw that ELENA Ferrante movie last night and highly recommend. Amazing directorial debut from Maggie Gyllenhall! And Colman of course is wonderful in everything she does.
Tough start to this one in the north, with SOLANGE, OSIRIS and a complete WoE with REINDEER CALVES ! ! ! (I really thought I made a mistake somewhere cuz that can’t be right). The sailing got a little smoother after that in the center. GERMAN BEER seemed a little like GREEN PAINT at first, but in retrospect it is probably as valid and well-known a phrase as FRENCH WINE, so ok on that one.
Things got a little bumpier in the south again with all of the proper names, foreign words and things like ADASTRA, BROGAN and CIRCE. I’m with the others who didn’t get much of an energetic vibe from the theme, but at least the theme entries were pretty easy to parse (once we got past that monstrosity in the north).
I’m so glad we provided a bunch of alternative clues for ELSA - it turns out they were pretty badly needed. And btw, what is up with that clue for 74A (SRO) - OMG, go with the Broadway sign, this is supposed to be a crossword puzzle, not a cure for insomnia.
Liked it; smooth overall, and faster than usual. Too bad, as it's raining this morning.
Kudos to NBC for airing the 2010 episode with Betty White as guest host.
Where does the answer “stan” come from? So much I never heard of. Sometimes it seems a constructor is just showing off. I grew up in a culture with a lot of marijuana being enjoyed and never heard it called faded. Yes I’m complaining because I bombed this one!
Hey All !
Nice enough puz. I am impressed how close the Central Themers are. GERMAN BEER, MARINE CORPS, MENTAL IMAGE, STAR CLUSTER, PEACE MARCH are only 7 rows twixt them. Tough to get any semblance of clean fill when your Themers are that bunched up. So bravo on that. Since MENTAL IMAGE is in the exact Center Row, we get Nine Themers as opposed to Ten. And no need for a Revealer, which will please some of us.
Did like how they were all colors. Didn't notice at first, as CREAM + PEACH could word as different meanings, but was easy enough to suss out. Brain still functioning! Would like to see if I can retroclue some long Downs to make them "colorful", but I'm too lazy!
Last letter in was the G of EGO/GOTAT. Why would you clue EGO like that Pablo? 😁 And can't get my head around the clue for GOT AT meaning GOT AT. Wanted nOdAT forever. But SdIR is thankfully not a thing. Had that empty square for like five minutes, running the alphabet in my head, until finally deciding only the G made sense. Crossed my fingers, litely tapped the G key, and ... Happy Music! Whew, puz solving is stressful!
Some writeovers I really can't remember now, but just a few. CIVIC clue was interesting. There was a cool clue I (of course) can't remember now, I knew I should've wrote it down! Oh well, maybe I'll find it later! Good SunPuz overall.
Off to work on my CALVES. Har.
yd -12, -1p, should'ves approx. 8 (approx. because I see them now and think maybe I should've gotten them. If you can follow my reasoning [which sometimes even I can't!])
Seven F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
And…just for my own curiosity: I’ve heard of the color peach, but pear? Anyone heard of that color before?
@JC66 already came up with “logo for a modern day real estate broker” last night.
My offerings include
Where the Sims live
Where you play Minecraft
What you do in a flight simulator
_______ a job (get hired on Zoom)
@Frantic Sloth is doxxing me and my well kept secret. Unbelievable! Now the whole world will know I despise anagrams. Can’t a blog commentator have any privacy anymore? I see I am not alone.
@kitshef & @Trey - GPA bragging is best left to farces like Animal House. GPA is the most meaningless construct that everyone thinks they understand. With “standardized tests” being all the rage the issue of inter-rater reliability gets lots of discussion in education circles. Just look at the comments here about puzzles and you get a sense of the problem - how do you know that my “great puzzle” is the same as @bocamp or @bluestater? The minute you get beyond simple facts, how something is “graded” has almost as much to do with the grader as with the graded. So, hand up for arched eyebrow on that clue.
@bocamp 12:34. I had the same malaprop issue misplacing poor Ms. IDA B. Wells. But, the path of ny solve meandered around in a generally counter clockwise manner that I had forgotten I’d made a stop in Ida previously and should have been in IND! That took ne a while to correct.
Seems that my comment may have disappeared. At least it was short. Just in case it did, I will repeat myself.
I have neutral attitudes concerning anagrams and crossword titles, so neither turned me off. The title was of no help to me, and the theme clues were impossible for me until I figured out the theme, after which they were easy. But the other entries - I am just not on the constructor's wavelength. So I guess a typical Sunday. Nothing else to say.
@nanny, it was Clu Gulager, not Gallagher.
Anagrams? That's it? This was a yawner.
@Liz1508 - Here is one site that lists PEAR as a color.
As for STAN, it comes from an Eminem Song from 20 years ago and can be found defined in Merriam-Webster. I hear it used fairly often on sports shows and then also about fan groups like “Harry Potter STANs.” I feel like it has replaced “wannabe” as the go to insult for the over-enthusiastic fan.
If you like PP's puzzles, and I do, he does a progressively harder series M-F in The Atlantic, which I enjoy.
OTOH. I caught the trick at REINDEERCALVES in this one and while I like anagrams as much as the next person, by the time I got done with this one I was thoroughly tired of them. I wasn't looking for some hidden connection like OFL, as I thought coming up with the anagrams was tough enough, but still....
Dave Barry is the master of making names into very silly anagrams. No examples spring to mind, but if you've read much of him you know what I mean.
Kind of an unnecessary warning from OFL, as the next time I post an inspired guess on social media will be the first time. This may have something to do with my unfamiliarity with many of the hip modern proper names in today's offering.
So on the whole, not bad, some fun longer answers, but mainly something I finished because it's Sunday morning and cold and raining and I have no better options. Thanks for the fun, PP, Perfectly Passable but does not inspire singing and dancing.
I might as well have bought the Daily Newd and done the jumble. After yesterday's gem, it seems we have already seen the high and low for 2022
Successive approximation: BAKED, then FACED (short for S***FACED, and I do think I've heard FACED on its own). The D in AIDAN was my final letter.
Thank you @anon 9:02!
I suppose there'll be complaints about anagrams, but once I figured out REINDEER CALVES was a lettered mixing of the colors, I started trying to guess from the clues and my crosses and it was fun. The theme phrases are certainly an interesting mix.
In Sweden, north of the arctic circle, we were told that all of the reindeer we saw were owned by someone. It was a cold spring and the reindeer hadn't yet come down off the mountains for the annual roundup - I saw no calves. Loved Rex's rethinking of the phrase!
This was easier than I've come to expect from Paolo Pasco. I had a STAR CLUSTER of ERRs in the 38D, 42A, 51A area but once I took out "left" for 38D and LOtta at 51A, the rest fell in place.
I did slow down in the east due to my fixation that 40D would end up as Brutus, based solely on length of name. And maybe that 45A might be rUby? Nothing cooperated there and as I had never put in Brutus, he slowly eroded away as a contender.
Thanks, Paolo, this was a breezy first Sunday of 2022.
@Lobster11, Your comment about people finding amusement in anagrams is interesting.
As much as I dislike an anagram, this puzzle amped up the genre because I relied on the crosses. If I'd sat there trying to unscrambled all those letters, the cops eventually sent to do the wellness check would've found me on the floor drooling.
But I can imagine the enjoyment of one type of patient, intelligent person who enjoys untangling problems and maybe does or doesn't need that rush from a tiny victory. The brain enjoys being used for things it's good at.
Rex is never going to be satisfied with a Sunday puzzle because he insists that Sundays are the most widely anticipated and esteemed effort of the week. I don't know where he gets this idea from and I've been doing them way longer than he has. My expectations for Sunday are much lower so I thought this one was fine. Can't remember an anagram theme that really lit up the solve.
The wiki on M.I.A. was entertaining. Esquire lists her as one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century ? Wow, I remember when people took Esquire seriously. And all the Billboard awrds. I picture people at Billboard just sitting around, desperately trying to think up new award names. "Hot 100", "Top 50", "Greatest 25 British/Asian hip hop Artists of the Millenium".
"swole ungulates" is worse that "reindeer calves" any day.
Solved with down clues so it was just a big themeless with some strange entries. Like the comment about reindeer calves.
This constructor does the Atlantic’s daily puzzle and they’re so aggressively hipster and bro-forward I cringed when I saw his name today. Nice to know he has another gear.
Forgot to say thanks to @Chefwen for that calendar title. Perfect. Would have worked for all of last year, too.
And thanks to Shakespeare for remembering what all those Romans talked about.
What 🦖Rex said.
🦖🦖🦖
Average 🧩 should be 2.5 Rex’s
An anagram theme = Just shoot me now. Still, battling resentment every square of the way, I filled the grid, apparently out of some sense of Sunday puzzle duty.
A huge, huge challenge...for the constructor. For me, no challenge at all. You can pretty much get the anagrammed answers at a glance, without making any real effort at all. And therefore I would imagine that even the people who hate anagrams wouldn't have minded this puzzle too much. Loving it, though, is something else again.
So much work expended, Paolo, and I commend you on being able to pull this off. Couldn't have been easy. But for me, the result was sort of dreary. The puzzle somehow felt very long. I only struggled in the section where EGO was clued so peculiarly and, with "tacit" in the back of my mind for "said without saying", it took me forever to see GOT AT.
Lots and lots of kealoas in this puzzle. ERS/ORS. WARD (off)/FEND (off). ABASE/ABASH. AHHS/AAHS.
Biggest writeover: BROGue before BROGAN for the shoe. An Irish shoe, obviously. Or was I thinking perhaps of a CLOG?
NO JOY HERE
You would never ever hear a Brit refer to a napkin as a nappy, never!!
Uh, isn't it A LA MARSALA or maybe ALLA MARSALA but surely not AL MARSALA?
Didn't care for this one, but then I don't like anagrams as a general rule.
STAN comes from an Eminem song about an obsessed fan.
Amen to what Rex said. Plus, I hated the Naticky NE corner that was designed to defeat solvers. Boo! Not fair! You win Paolo Pasco.
@Z 926am Hey - I never named you, so congrats on doxxing yourself. Ew.
I'm with @Son Volt 826am on that obnoxious Disney clue for SRO. GTFOutta here with that.
@Lobster11 825am Luckily for me, I'm not an "otherwise-intelligent" person! Wait... 😉
@TJS - Rex .., insists that Sundays are the most widely anticipated and esteemed effort of the week. I don't know where he gets this idea from...
Rex has mentioned before that his blog traffic goes way up on Sunday, I believe the same is true for both the online version of the puzzle and the print version (well, at least Sunday paper sales are typically the highest for most daily papers), and constructors also get paid the most for the Sunday puzzles, more than just being double-sized would justify. WaPo doesn't even publish their own puzzles except for their Sunday offering and they have a full-time constructor just for the Sunday puzzle. I'd say the notion that the Sunday puzzle is "widely anticipated and esteemed" is widely accepted by just about everyone. Whether it deserves this status is questionable IMO, but that's a different question. Much like whether MIA deserves the status as "top whatever." Esquire is describing what is, not what should be. I'm as far out of her fan base as is possible and even I heard of her before she ever made a puzzle.
@Nick - bro-forward - ? - "Bro," as I understand the term, does not intersect with crossword solvers or constructors in any way. Pasco is a college student and he skews young (probably the very reason The Atlantic hired him), but hardly what I would call "bro." "Bro" is more dunking Oreos in Mayo. (If y'all missed this, you're welcome)(for the record - this guy isn't actually all that "Bro" - but definitely has "bro-tendencies")
I'm okay with anagrams, altho this was a heavy dose. There was a very pretty girl in my high school named Anna Graham (the girl, not the high school). I enjoyed learning many years after his death that his lyric "Mr. Mojo Risin'" is an anagram of Jim Morrison.
Started out way down south in the MARA and ELENA section, which gave me VEGETARIAN MENU almost immediately plus enough to see HOT CEREAL and PEACE MARCH. Then I filled in the other six anagrams and decided I couldn't be bothered with the rest of it. So I have no idea what else is in the puzzle.
Agree that this was kind of joyless, at least as far as the theme goes. Like Rex, I was wondering if I was missing something important — I thought surely the colors must relate to the answers somehow. It could have been better with zany cluing for the answers instead of straightforward clues. You could use Rex’s hilarious image of sleigh-pullers with muscular legs. Some other possibilities: movie loaded with Hollywood talent for STAR CLUSTER, police arrest of a Doberman for DOG COLLAR, etc. But I’m sure you couldn’t do all of them that way.
Not sure I’ve ever seen a VEGETARIAN MENU. In most restaurants it would be the vegetarian section of the whole menu. In an eatery that serves no meat, it would be a menu in a vegetarian restaurant.
Anyone else get the top three letters of the volleyball answer and think, “Hmm, maybe I should start watching that sport more”? (SEXTETS)
Belated thanks to @Lewis for yesterday’s top ten clues of 2021. Don’t think I saw any in today’s puzzle likely to make the 2022 list.
My favorite use of the answer to 59 down was carved in large, bright red letters over
a lobby doorway in what used to be known as the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Boston: "NOT AN ACCREDITED EGRESS DOOR"
Oh, well, so much for 2022 being the year the NYTXW is the high point of my Sunday. At least it’s Nine Ladies Dancing Day!
Speaking of special shoes, I knew the dress shoe BROGue but not BROGAN so Paolo taught me something.
From Wiki: Brogan-like shoes, called "brogues" (from Old Irish "bróc" meaning "shoe"), were made and worn in Scotland and Ireland as early as the 16th century, and the shoe-type probably originated there.[1][2] They were used by the Scots and the Irish as work boots for wear in the wet, boggy Scottish and Irish countryside.[3] The word "brogue" is still used in Britain for a style of dress shoe, which may or may not have an ankle high top.
I’d taken a break from commenting but resumed latish on NYE. Here is the part with the birthday composer links, and another showing Betty White’s singing talent:
**Birmingham is the birthplace, and today is the birthday of, Odetta, and she’s going to help me ring in the new year: Be gone, 2021. C’mon, 2022, let it shine!
RIP Betty! One more reason to give 2021 the boot. Here's a neat clip - think she'll make a great guardian angel.**
Happy New Year to all who observe! ;-)
the last person I heard say "A ways away" was my grand Pappy, and he died in 1962. gad.
what's the problem with REINDEER CALVES??? anyway??? the young of many animals are calves. I suppose, too lazy to look up, that there's some taxonomy that assigns some noun to some animal for such naming.
@The Nanny:
No. the last name is Gulugar. or some such. too lazy to...
I suppose I'll offer this up every time it occurs, but Gerry Mulligan, late great baritone sax player, was being interviewed and somehow his level of brain power came up, to which he answered, "anagrams are extra". yes, indeed.
@blue stater 11:11 Even though it ends in a, Marsala is a masculine name, therefore al Marsala is correct.
Can anyone explain SRO to me please?
@bocamp-I got an unusually high number of answers from the clues in today's Acrostic, so opposite experiences. I agree it was a fun one.
My problem was that my printed version was for some reason way s p r e a d o u t which made writing the letters in problematical and words harder to suss out.
Also, I keep looking twice at all the commenters referring to Paolo. It still ain't me babe.
@Blue Stater/11:11
Well, in this here shithole county of southern New England, which is to say, 99.44% of restaurants are Italian, yes it is called AL MARSALA. If your Blue State is Taxachusetts, a trip to the North End is still 100% Italian restaurants (last time I was in town). Well except for Fanueil Hall, of course. Not sure how Bostonians define the North End these days, what with the Southeast Distressway long gone to mark the border.
While some of you are no doubt nervous about Alabama vs. Georgia, I’m busy studying the line on ELSA vs. POGO. Each has made three appearances since November 21. Now everyone is worried about the omicron variant sidelining one of them and allowing the other to romp uncontested. But wait, PRIDEPARADE still has an outside shot, having STRUTed its stuff thrice since September 25.
Unusual kealoa at 7D with the answer being either ROC or ORC.
I’m not a fan of anagrams unless there’s some amusing point. To be fair, Rex’s swole REINDEERCALVES is amusing, but only in an absurdist, after-the-fact way. Not by the intent of the constructor.
Hand up for DRAMA AND RAGE.*
Not sure which is worse: anagrams or word ladders. Either way, this theme was at best a disappointment, though the puzzle was well constructed and easy to solve. The highlight was Rex’s take on REINDEER CALVES and the MENTAL IMAGE that conjures up of Santa’s reindeer just before Christmas working out on Peloton bikes.
*ANAGRAM DREAD
@pabloinnh (12:18) -- As everyone knows, what I really hate are squooshed squares. So your s p r e a d o u t squares today sound quite wonderful to me! Alas, I didn't get any in my puzzle.
@Frantic -- Oh, I think @Z was teasing you. His comment is obviously facetious and I found it rather amusing. And besides we know that Rexites are never embarrassed by their puzzle prejudices. @Z is no more embarrassed by disliking anagrams than I am by disliking car clues and rapper clues or @Hartley is by disliking sports clues.
For someone who has never counted volleyball players, a SEpTET along with 36A Veto = NIp seemed pretty reasonable.
@okanaganer (1:05 AM) 👍 for 0 Fri.
🙏 for a speedy recovery! :)
@Trey (8:07 AM) 👍
@Lobster11 (8:25 AM)
I generally have a somewhat adverse reaction to anagrams in standard xwords (altho, occasionally they help with the solve). I love anagrams in Scrabble, Boggle & SB bc there's a sense of satisfaction (reward) for every word found (hi @JD (10:10 AM). I also find anagrams to be a positive in cryptic xwords, as they complement the non-cryptic (or direct) part of the clue.
@Liz1508 (9:11 AM)
Complementing @Z's (9:26 AM) & @Wanderlust's (11:14 AM) 'STAN' replies to you:
"Only the most pop culturally isolated English speakers don’t know what the word “stan” means. Its origins lie in Eminem’s 2000 hit song 'Stan,' about an overzealous fan, and has come to describe anyone who takes their love of a particular artist or entertainment franchise to new extremes. (For Eminem’s fictional Stan, portrayed in the music video by actor Devon Sawa, that extreme meant murdering himself, his girlfriend, played by Dido, and their unborn child by driving their car off of a bridge.) The use of 'stan' as a noun gradually gained popularity." Ann-Derrick Gaillot on 'the outline.com'
@pabloinnh (9:37 AM)
I'm with you on Paolo's Atlantic xwords; fun and stimulating. (hi @Nick (10:23 AM)).
@Nancy (10:50 AM)
Hands up for BROGue before BROGAN.
@Liveprof (11:29 AM)
Here's to Anna Graham. Love the name! :)
@A (12:01 PM)
Hi Mimi, good to see you the past couple of days! Thx for the BROGAN/BROGues Wiki para. Best of the new year to you, too. :)
@pabloinnh (12:18 PM)
I don't know how many of the clues I'd've gotten; I was having too much fun doing it backasswards. lol
___
td pg -3*
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Blue Stater 11:11 – I did notice the AL MARSALA entry and thought wtf? It's most often seen on respectable menus as ALLA MARSALA, which is a contraction of A LA MARSALA, or just MARSALA by itself. AL is a contraction of A IL; IL being masculine and therefore not the article you would use with MARSALA, which has a feminine ending.
Nevertheless, if you look on the internet you'll see a slew of recipes for Veal or Chicken Al Marsala. Chalk it up to Singular Panini Syndrome. Or maybe there's a guy named Al Marsala who supplied all those recipes.
@Marsala people, it means WITH Marsala. No that anyone asked, just sayin'
@Lewis
Watched The Lost Daughter last night. Olivia Colman is amazing, no surprise, but I had trouble with her character being 47. The way she acted it made it seem as if she were closer to 67. I can't believe anyone today would consider 47 OLD. But maybe that's just me!
Happy New Year, all!
I'm surprised that I'm surprised at all the anagram-hating (and the tacit impugning the intelligence of "otherwise intelligent people"). It's possible to anagram with wit and flair, e.g., when the anagram offers unexpected commentary on the original letter sequence, and that's where the real artistry enters. Ask Dick Cavett.
The problem here is that the anagrams were way too easy. I think @Nancy said it best.
All due respect to Joaquin and his Dictum, but I find ANIMA a little irksome. It's a basic Jungian concept, all right, but so is "persona" which word is used to clue it -- and the two concepts are spaced so widely apart that I find it distracting and jarring to put the words together this way. Even if it's just meant as harmless wordplay.
FADED? New to me. Kids these days.
MEL Giedroyc: wow, that is a fascinating last name. Apparently the name hails from some conglomeration of Polish and Lithuanian with a dash of Russian: descendants of Prince Giedrius whoever that was. It reminds me a little of some Belgian French names that you sometimes see that end in -q or -cq with no u. I'm so terrible with names that I figured it belonged to one of the male hosts of the baking show, e.g., the tall co-host who trills "Bake!" with a vibrato. (Why do those male co-hosts always look so pasty? Just as if someone had held them upside-down by the heels and dunked their heads in bowls of AP flour. It's unnerving. Actually, it would be cool and weirdly fitting if they did that.)
@Southside: I'd say HOT CEREAL is even more green paint-y than GERMAN BEER.
@Cecio: SRO = STANding Room Only.
@Liz1508: STAN is the title of an Eminem song about an obsessed fan, and that's where this meaning came from.
SB: boy, today's letters are weird, and... well, one of the solutions describes that grouping of letters well. yd 0, which felt like a victory, more so than usual.
Is there an Acrostic today? Let's find out!
@ Swedish Chef: Dr. Rick from Progressive would like to have a word with you.
This was an easy Sunday. I started in the NE and MARINE CORPS may have gone in completely without my understanding the theme. I'm just not a theme person. However with the next themer (GERMAN BEER) the fact that they were straight up anagrams became clear and the puzzle was even easier from then on.
A Sunday puzzle calls for more than just what a computer can come up with.
yd pg-1.
I was initially bewildered by the comments about reindeer calves not being a "thing".
When the comments showed that some readers thought reindeer should have fawns itt brought a chuckle. Having lived over 50 years in a state where reindeer are raised, hunted, made into stew and sausage, etc. I had only, ever, heard "calf" or "calves".
@Nancy 1251pm Oh, I think @Z would know that I'm teasing right back, but maybe not. I didn't add the (always implied) kiss-blowing winkie face, so you might have something there. Guess I hoped the "ew" would help.
Hey, @Z - looks like the yolks on me! Sorry, Mr. Pants!
FWIW, almost every single thing I say on here is tongue-in-cheek. So, when in doubt, pick one:
1.) laugh it out
2.) block it out
3.) shove it...out.
😘 to all!
@liz & wanderlust
Huh. I thought it was a truncated portmanteau of STalkerfAN.
Colorful anagrams theme [64-Across]. But, hey -- pretty well done, for what it is.
How'bout {BLACK & BLUE = Bad karma for old tower dwellers?} = ? *
Bet y'all already got it figured out. See? ... Too easy.
staff weeject pick: EGO Nwodim. One of M&A's fave SNL castmember names. Second only to Punkie Johnson.
PEAR is a color? I can maybe see LIME. Defi-nit-ly ok with PEACH & TANGERINE. PEAR, tho? Is APPLE then also a color? Banana? Surely not UGLI -- M&A hasta draw the line there.
Knew of AARON BURR, but not AL MARSALA.
Cool puzcousins today: PRIDEPARADE & PEACEMARCH.
Other cool stuff: REDTAGSALE [bonus color]. REMITTANCE. ASTRONOMERS. BROGAN. UBOATS.
Thanx for mixin it up with us, Mr. Pasco dude.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
* = BABEL LUCK.
**gruntz**
@sharonAK:
let me guess. in the lower 48 (or 49), a REINDEER must be a DEER and their rug rats are fawns...
Tired of the overwrought closeups in the movie. I'd give it a c minus for poor camera work and plot.
Serviette maybe?
@JD
This is one of [many] things I don't understand. My brain just "does" anagrams. There's no "patient, intelligent ... untangling." It just *is*. Usually, like with SB, both online and Sunday, the first thing I get is the pangram. I'm not aware of figuring it out (when I do have to figure it out, like today, I get woodlark, which Sam doesn't accept).
Anyway, the only time this puzzle was interesting was *before* I saw the anagrams and got MARINECORPS, who remembers how, and spent time puzzling over what color PEAR would be that combined with CRIMSON would make a color called... MARINE?? And then I saw it and the rest was meh.
On to the acrostic!
I realized after I posted that i misspoke. Reindeer are not hunted, they are slaughtered, caribou are hunted.
But they are the same animal. "Reindeer" are domesticated caribou. And since I've heard from reindeer herders that many of their animals have been swept away by caribou migrations, I imagine some reindeer have been hunted.
My ruminations continued...
Caribou also have calves as do moose and muskox and buffalo and elk and...does any animal except true deer have fawns?
And why and how did caribou come to be called reindeer? My idea was that the English seeing Sami (AKA Lapps) having what appeared to be deer harnessed with reins began to call them reindeer.
Well, no, apparently the term "most likely comes from the Old Norse word 'hreindyri' which is derived from the word 'dyr' meaning 'animal'. It also originates from 'hreinn', a word that by itself refers to the horned animal commonly known as reindeer." per google.
@anonymous 2:37, Cute, but No.
According to Google you're both right.
HA, no!
Standing Room Only. Only seen in sold-out shows.
@Smith, And you're the type I couldn't even imagine. That must be a helluva lot of fun.
Also saw it last night! Gyllenhall wrote it as well as directed it! It’s a psychological drama with lots of flashbacks and nice scenery, but the acting (esp. Colman) is riveting. Also on Netflix is another psychological drama, “The Power of the Dog”. Both of these films stayed woth me!
@JD
No, it just *is*. I accept no responsibility! Our older son believes that some people are raised with or born with what he calls "puzzle solving mentality" so the brain just does it without conscious thought...
FWIW I love learning new languages, perhaps another manifestation of the same thing. But I do also enjoy figuring out how or why certain things mean what they mean. Like what even is weh tun? I haven't yet fit it into any language schema, but I'll probably remember it because it's an outlier...
How are 3/4 and 7/8 dates?
@Unknown 6:17
Sneaky clue:
March fourth and July eighth.
"FADED", huh? Forced a DNF, since I couldn't get past bAkED.
How long before we see "TAINT" enter the crossword with a more contemporary clue?
I'm medium annoyed with 69D, which is PCS for parts of many gaming rigs. Am I crazy or does PC not stand for personal computer? How is a personal computer a part of a gaming rig? A gaming rig is a type of PC, etc etc. Seems like an unforced error because they were over-excited to demonstrate knowledge of gamer lexicon "gaming rig".
Please save your comments about tomorrow's puzzle until @Rex posts his review.
@Frantic Sloth 2:08 - What?!? Next you’re going to claim that Z’s Placebo and Tentacle isn’t really in Rye, NY.
AARGH!!! I'm only halfway through the clues and haven't read the other comments to prevent cheats and spoilers, but sooooo many names, characters, actors, plots of books. AARGH!!! wait, i said that already. I'll finish and see if the crosses are any help , but really? It seems that Sundays are more heavy with this stuff, perhaps because they have to fill more squares.
@Mods:
I cry discrimination!!! You let Harry's far more explicit comment get printed, but spiked my volleyball, vaguely suggestive, comment. That's not fair to Local 12 Villains, Thieves, and Scoundrels Union.
@Joseph Michael:
Not sure which is worse: anagrams or word ladders.
anagrams are fine. I refuse to do quote/quip multi-line puzzles. same with word ladders. bleh.
Finished it, finally ... well, checked the grid at least. Many complaints (maybe as to my exposure, not to the puzzle):
Game hand option = PAPER?
PRIDEPARADE twice in a week?
EEN/EER Kealoa
Naan/Roti Kealoa
WTF is Solange?
El GRECO??
NWODIM??? Do people still watch SNL???
Clues in NE a bit ambiguous:
Keep from sticking = STIR? get it, somewhat
OSIRIS is sometimes green?
GOTAT = said without saying? better options available
AIDAN Gallagher WTF??
73A Herc line??
SHEAFED??
I've enjoyed chicken MARSALA but never seen referred to as ALMASRSALA
ADATASTRA????!!!
BROGAN???!!!
LAIC crossing MARA?? AARGH!!!
CIRCE crossing MIA ?? AARGH!!!
Played harder than normal for a Sunday for me due to the extreme amount of literary/movie and other PPP references.
I’ve read that Barnum got people to exit his exhibitions earlier than they would have wished by labeling a door “This Way to the Egress.”
Barnum is said to have gotten patrons of his exhibitions to exit earlier than they intended by labeling a door”This Way to the Egress.”
Forget albatross chicks, I want to see a puzzle that uses SWOLE UNGULATES!
Regarding "PRIDE PARADE". Where I come from (which is the Queer community) I believe we'd like to say "Pride March". Yes, I know it's gotten pretty festive since 1969, but I'm surprised nobody mentioning that it's meant to be a march. If you're going to allow "pride parade" then you might as well not complain about "koala bear" "shooting star" and "sexual preference".
“CLINCHES” I would have thought was “ACES.” That really threw me, even though it had to be “ICES” to work with “NOVICE.” AARRGGHH….. 🧊
I had the same reaction as OFF: "THIS is a PASCO???" Anagrams, "that's it?" = THEEND. YAWN. Bogey; I can't seem to drag him down farther than that. Maybe go back to the 15x15s, Paolo, there you shine.
GOT BALD?
So, I TOLDALIE, what THE heck,
IT'S how AWL our HOT DATES are viewed.
IN THEEND they can't TAR AND WRECK
THE MENTALIMAGE of U NUDE.
--- ELENA BROGAN
I don't mind anagrams, the Harper's puzzle is chock full of them, But in my PAPER half of the theme clues ended at the = sign. Not much help there.
ITSABET you PASSED AT the corners.
SADE AND EGO Nwodim can each have a yeah baby. It is SADE's birthday today after all, AND EGO was on TV last night.
Understood that this wasn't for everybody, but IMOK with it.
I, for one, enjoyed the anagrams. However, the NE and SW corners had some major unknown Naticks for moi. Ah well, tis a Sunday.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
hello, can anyone please explain to me how 3/4 and 7/8 are dates?
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To Anon @ 10:54: March 4th. July 8th
Really hard to believe that Rex doesn't get it that REINDEER CALVES are Reindeer Youngsters !
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March 4 and July 8
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