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French skin-care and cosmetics giant / SUN 2-6-22 / Score of 8 in golf slang / Social media star Addison / The better of two sci-fi film franchises / Family name on TV's succession / The volcano Emi Koussi is its highest point / Skin-care brand with an accent over its last letter
Sunday, February 6, 2022
Constructor: Stephen McCarthy
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- "DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY" 3D: Memorable quote from 70-Across)
- "SPACE: THE FINAL FRONTIER" (17D: Memorable quote from 70-Across)
- REBEL ALLIANCE (25A: Good side in 70-Across)
- THE FEDERATION (115A: Good side in 70-Across)
- HAN SOLO (38A: Major role in 70-Across)
- MR. SPOCK (99A: Major role in 70-Across)
A maser (/ˈmeɪzər/, an acronym for microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that produces coherent electromagnetic waves through amplification by stimulated emission. The first maser was built by Charles H. Townes, James P. Gordon, and Herbert J. Zeiger at Columbia University in 1953. Townes, Nikolay Basov and Alexander Prokhorov were awarded the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics for theoretical work leading to the maser. Masers are used as the timekeeping device in atomic clocks, and as extremely low-noise microwave amplifiers in radio telescopes and deep space spacecraft communication ground stations. (wikipedia)
• • •
And it took this long only because I didn't even bother to actually look at what 70-Across was before going up and getting REBEL ALLIANCE. As soon as I saw the revealer clue, with its apparently trolling question, I knew it was a Schrödinger. TREK fits. WARS fits. And sure enough, as soon as I tested the first Schrödinger letter (the "T" / "W"), both letters worked, and the whole puzzle was ... well, done, as far as any level of thematic interest was concerned. The rest of the puzzle is decorative, with "these just happen to be symmetrical" names / phrases populating the grid here and there. I think my favorite part of the grid was "It's a TRAP" (the "T" option in the TREK / WARS showdown), because it's a very famous line from ... "STAR WARS" (well, "Return of the Jedi," but close enough):
I am also enjoying imagining that "STAR TREK" had a character named MRS. POCK. Beyond that, not a lot to love. I'm tired of the way franchises / sequels / children's fare dominates the box office, and I'm ... well, I'm not *tired* of Schrödinger puzzles, exactly; it's just that the bar is so high. Baiting nerds into a flame war ... doesn't seem like a worthy motivation for a Schrödinger. Also, this one was just far, far too easy to sniff out.
The skin-care answers today, yipes and yikes. I am waiting for my wife to solve the puzzle, because I don't think she'll know either of them, either, but we'll see. I can tell you that both are debuts, and it seems to me that if either were so sure-fire great, we'd've seen them by now. NARS in particular is just brutally ugly, as fill, as a word ... woof (36D: French skin-care and cosmetics giant). BIORÉ at least I've heard of (92A: Skin-care brand with an accent over its last letter). It rings a very faint bell, where NARS rings nothing. It sounds like a euphemism for where you kick a guy if you want to really hurt him. "Oof, right in the NARS!" Weird to go to the skin-care well twice like this, with both answers being absolutely new to the grid. Brands and movie franchises! And golf slang! (50A: Score of 8, in golf slang = SNOWMAN). Quite a day for "things I try not to think about."
["DON'T BE SAD ..."]
Not much in the way of difficulty today. Some names that meant nothing to me (a "social media star" (:/), a "Gossip Girl" actor), but the crosses were so easy I barely noticed them. I am doomed never to remember what MASERS are, but luckily crosses bailed me out there as well. I had TRUISM (?) before THEISM (59A: Capital-B Belief) and CORER before PARER (4D: Apple device), and I needed some crosses to get ANDERS (32A: Celsius of the Celsius scale), but otherwise I just flew through this. I would've said you SHIMMY up a pole, but that's apparently a famous mistake (72A: Climb (up) = SHINNY). Or perhaps no longer a mistake, but an accepted conflation. Here's University of Michigan English Professor Anne Curzan (with whom I went to grad school) explaining the curious history of the "shimmy" / "shinny" confusion. The other thing that baffled me was the LOCUS clue (31A: Points all around?). I think of LOCUS as one point, but it seems that in math it can mean all the points "satisfying a particular equation of the relation between coordinates"—so a parabola, for instance, can be a LOCUS. Pffft. Ok. Shrug. If I am still misunderstanding this clue, please don't bother to fill me in, as I no longer care. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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126 comments:
Am I the only one who considers "social media star" oxymoronic? No?
Okay. Just moronic, then. Don't even look at my lawn.
Shades (more like mini blinds) of the classic BOB DOLE/CLINTON crossword of 11/5/96, but I wonder if most people feel that strongly about their STAR WARS/STAR TREK preference. No I don't.
Even though I grokked the mini-rebus, PPP-drenched theme once 3D and 7D were entered (thereby heading to the 70A revealer and knowing they'd both be rebused there - I cannot be alone on this -), I did enjoy this overall. The fill had some good stuff, but it really seemed like they went overboard on the PPP.
@Z Care to do the maths?
Stuff I noticed:
MRS POCK and her hubby Mark. Yeah, he always goes by his last name first, but it's just to distract you from his complexion.
DONT BE SAD is the kid brother of "calm down" but not as infuriating, I'm guessing. It'd probably spark a renewed, refreshed, and reinvigorated crying jag, however.
Just a mean PPP cross at ROEG/RAE, especially since I never heard of either. Why don't these people ever take my perspective into consideration??
Biggest nit:
Even *I* found IM OK and IS IT OK another egregious break from the gradually-becoming-extinct-no-dupes-"rule".
Shortz & Co. clearly are not bound by long-standing tradition, but now it's as if we're being constantly pelted with dupes. Defiance in the face of this common complaint from experienced solvers, and then doubling down, smacks of tin god despotism. There. I said it.
I bid you good day.
🧠🧠
🎉🎉🎉
70A reminds me of a couple of my friends. They also go both ways.
Medium-tough. I didn’t know the STAR WARS quote so it took a while to correctly parse all those letters. Plus NARS and BIORE were WOEs. Impressive grid, liked it.
Got totally Naticked at ROEG/RAE, but R was the third consonant I guessed and luckily I was right with everything else, so it fell into place, but those are not people I've ever heard of, and their names are not common enough that they seem easy to infer. I guess RAE makes more sense than most things, but my first guess was HAE, which is a pretty common Korean name, and my second guess was MAE, which felt as plausible as the actual answer.
For RAE/ROEG at least clue the former as ISSA ___ which appears almost weekly for the past few years.
Kind of liked the variable responses, but, despite being your favorite part, I was very bothered that’s Star Trek got “it’s a trap” instead of Star Wars. Although after the last three films, “It’s a wrap” may be just as appropriate.
Dear gof, I listened to that entire Meatloaf video. Released the same year, same theme, so so so much better.
22 Wide. First thing I noticed. Stacked threes in the NW corner was the second thing I noticed. Yoda quote/schödinger 70A was the third thing I noticed. The fat lady was singing and the rest was just mopping up.
ROEG crossing RAE seems like a natick waiting to trap people.
Waited until after the solve to read the bio blurb. They should label these things with a Spoiler Alert.
@Frantic Sloth - No. Toting up an oversized oversized Sunday’s PPP is what they make you do in the first ring of hell.
74d: Question of disbelief this puzzle might induce
124a: What yours truly would respond if asked 121a about this puzzle
101d: Adjective yours truly thinks perfectly describes this puzzle
I’m not sure why this very clever, well-executed “alive/dead cat in a box” puzzle got scorn from Rex, and is not getting a lot better from my comment buds. Yeah, it was easy to sniff it out pretty early, but it’s still a cool concept, with the dual clues and answers implemented really well.
Alternate clues:
4A. Frilly dress for dad
10A Electricity bills
20A. Go all the way with a British sailor?
28A. Tripartite get togethers
PA LACE
AC COST
‘AVE A TAR
THREES
The OK dupe was egregious, but still, a wonderful Sunday. Thanks, Stephen McCarthy.
With you, @Frantic. Just moronic.
Very obvious and very easy. I like a Sunday with a theme and movies provide fertile ground for themes. This was disappointing. Both those franchises have so much wonderful material from which to create a big fat Sunday puzzle. This was disappointing. Too thin (thematically) and over much too quickly.
DNF because of the ROEG/RAE Natick. The R could have been any of about 27 letters. “Social media star” means nothing to me, and Nicholas Roeg appears to have been relevant only about 30 years before I was born. A nobody today.
Well, I loved the Schrodinger gimmick. I'm a STAR TREK guy, never had much use for that other "franchise", which, when it came out in 1977 I thought: what a goofy spoof. Because, listen up y'all, STAR WARS from day one was a spoof (still is, except it's a huge commercial success spoof). Cheap tongue in cheek special effects, cliche characters, etc. Anyway...
Yes Rex, NARS and BIORE are pretty awful. But I just think the theme was pretty tough to achieve without some such dreck.
[Spelling Bee: Sat pg -1, missing a 5.]
Never did get into the STAR WARS/TREK films, but I guess I’ve absorbed a lot of the jargon over the years, so this was in the easy to medium side for MOI. The middle area was fun, had to rework a few words, but I enjoyed it.
Trying to parse three down made my head hurt.
Well I for one was extremely satisfied with the theme. I’m not really even a Star Wars or Star Trek fan, but I loved the cleverness of the alternate TREK vs WARS answer in the middle as well as the symmetry, both literal and figurative, of the theme answers.
It makes me so sad how petty Rex is in his critiques … when you have clearly lost your joy in solving crosswords, it’s really time to hand the blog off to someone who isn’t.
Bravo.
"DON'T BE SAD" is textbook toxic positivity. I hope in 25 years I can still enjoy solving NYTXW and its ilk. Reading Rex I'm wondering if this is where I'm heading. Been going on crosshare.org for my indie puzzle fix and am loving it.
Thx Stephen, lots of fun with this one; loved the theme, but didn't fully grok it! :)
Med+
Got interrupted by a grocery delivery, so no idea what my time was; seemed a bit tougher than most Sundays.
Had a careless dnf at SAHARA. Was trying to think of an African country ending in 'i', and when I finally twigged on the desert, it ended up being SAHARi. Didn't know TAIKA, so just failed to pick up on the errant 'i' in my quick proof read. Oh well, lucked out on a couple of guesses, so wouldn't have been full value for the victory anyway.
"Taika David Cohen ONZM (born 16 August 1975), known professionally as Taika Waititi, is a New Zealand filmmaker, actor, and comedian. He is a recipient of an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award, and has received two nominations at the Primetime Emmy Awards. His feature films Boy (2010) and Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) have each been the top-grossing New Zealand film." (Wikipedia)
Didn't know AYLA, but YAHWEH looked right. Wasn't familiar with LOCUS (wanted LOCi, but it wouldn't fit); SASSY had to be correct, so that was that. Didn't know NARS, but SUNNINESS came shining thru. Originally, had STAR WARS. Only after getting the second quote did I switch over to STAR TREK, and of course, all the downs worked with it, as well. Never did think rebus until seeing the solution. Obviously, didn't pay enuf attention to the '?' in the clue. Thinking skills still a work in progress. 🤔
BIORE was unknown, but fair crosses got me that one. Knowing HUEY was the key to getting SHOE. Wore Converse (I think we called them tennis shoes) back in the day, but didn't think SHOEs when I first looked at the clue. Thx HUEY!
Recalled RAE from a recent puz, which twigged ROEG.
The SW was the toughest to sort out. Loved MASERS under MASHER, facilitating DON'T BE SAD, which provided the much needed assistance in that area.
All in all, a very enjoyable exercise, in spite of the SARAHi blunder. lol
@Unknown (3:16 PM yd)
Some excellent tips and sources for cryptics via Stella Zawistowsky: here. I'm going thru the NYT cryptics archive, learning as I go.
@puzzlehoarder / @okanaganer 👍 for 0's dbyd
___
td pg: 20:55 / Wordle 232 5/6
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🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
One major writeover that almost (or did, depending on your definition) cost me a DNF. It was my own fault, too: I had no clue about the director at 45D and misread (or just didn't pay enough attention to) the clue for 50A so I had SNOWMeN. TeIKA looked fine to me, and I needed Sergey and Larry to sort that out for me.
@Nancy from yesterday: We'll have to agree to disagree.
Fascinating. Naticked at 33A/33D as well. I enjoyed the theme, although I wonder if more could've been done with it throughout the puzzle.
Like many, I love both Star Wars and Star Trek but admittedly only selectively.
Star Wars: For some reason, I cannot get much beyond the original trilogy. The next two were OK, but I hardly ever watch any of the others.
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan is a clear favorite, real Trek as opposed to the Motion Picture / V'ger production. But Search for Spock and Undiscovered Country are OK by me, too.
I've only ever been to one Star Trek Convention, and it was a small one. None of the big names, but Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Rand) was there. I bought a Science Insignia badge and had my mom sew this onto a sweatshirt. I was in college at the time and still have that sweatshirt, almost 40 years later.
May the Force be with you!
I'm surprised one of the answers wasn't "it'll be ok". /eyeroll
I Naticked on ROEG/RAE too. I just ran the alphabet on that one, since I was pretty sure about the rest of the puzzle. I have, it seems, seen one of Roeg’s films, the weird David Bowie one about The Man Who Fell to Earth. Recommended, though you may add a silly in-joke to your life for the ensuing twenty years, as have my partner and I: “It doesn’t fit! It doesn’t fit!”
Agree with @egsforbreakfast - what a fun, solid puzzle and what a grumpy Rex! Like Mr. Parker, I was a kid in the 70s when SW came out and it was one of the first movies I saw on the big screen (actually on the GIANT screen, as my dad took us to see it at the drive-in). How one could simply dismiss it as "kid's franchise" is beyond me... (I'm not saying it's high art, but it is certainly culturally significant and a lot of fun!)
I liked this a lot and a whole lot more than @Rex. It was fun and, for me, difficult in spots, mostly due to my own misfires. We should all take a moment to mourn those who will no longer be with us after today. I am referring to the commenters whose heads will explode when they see a STARWARS/STARTREK theme.
Ah, well, brought a smile to my face to see Mr. S’s cat coming ‘round the corner again. The last time it showed up was three months ago, a puzzle by David Steinberg (11/4/21), and with a Schroedinger twist that was astounding (highly recommended).
I found today’s puzzle to be très élégant. Two main characters, two forces for the good, two iconic quotes, all framing the crown jewel in the center – gorgeous, without blare.
And what a concept! Turning Star Wars and Star Trek into a Schroedinger! Are you kidding me? When this brilliant never-done-before idea hit Stephen, his jaw had to drop in gratitude.
And then there’s the execution, not only excellent Schroedinger clues – making them sound natural is indeed a knotty knotty task – but in the rest of the puzzle as well, which brought me difficult patches to counter the easy ones.
Elegance, brilliant concept, and lovely execution. What a joy to uncover; what a beauty to behold. Thank you so very much, Stephen!
@Bocamp. Using Wordler's axiom*, give yourself a 4.
*When you get to the point of multiple feasible one letter possibilities, one guess is as good as another.
i.e., After your third entry, GBGGG, it's a guessing game, so your 4th entry is as good as your fifth.
FWIW, there’s a two-beat ee-train in the grid: SHINNY / HUEY/ DONNIE / SASSY / NOSY / ICY / LADY / ONLY .
Not sure the theme supports a Sunday sized grid or not - maybe Wednesday or Thursday would have been more apt? I thought it was fun - some unfortunate fill here and there - I’m sure the skin care side eyes will be numerous today.
The tall, skinny corners become a chore during the solve although I liked HIGH NOON and NAKED LIE. The DONNIE x CNN cross caught my eye. We see the black skimmer on LI in the summer.
A wonderfully old Brokedown PALACE.
Overall a pleasant enough Sunday solve.
The problem with clues like "social media star" is that the answer has absolutely no staying power. Yes, puzzles are defined in large part by their times, and, yes, there are fads and "stars" that come and go. But many at least find a place in that historical/cultural memory so that if I go into the archives 5 years from now and do a puzzle from this year, I can access the historical/cultural memory, and, with same effort and luck, have at least some chance of landing on the answer.
But a social media star? Not going to happen. Not only are they known only to a very small niche of people who are into these things, but as soon as these "stars" are forgotten, they are forgotten. Completely. Poof! Gone. No record. No memory. On to the next.
The puzzle might just as well use meaningless gibberish as an answer - or start using the names of other forgettable people who were known by a very small number of people for a very short time - perhaps some athlete who was on the ice for 5 minutes with Bobby Orr or on the field for one inning with Mel Ott. For that matter, how many of you can name "The Balloon Boy?"
On another topic: Is there anyone anywhere who has actually been comforted in any way at all by the words: "don't be sad?"
Clever idea. Am very surprised there wasn't an earlier puzzle with the theme. My wife liked Star Trek, so I did watch the original series/movies with her. Never watched the follow-ups or Star Wars series. Do I feel lacking something? Not really. Did I like the puzzle? Not really. Did I dislike the puzzle? Not really.Do I like how people here are complaining? Not really. Do I have anything to add about the puzzle? Not really. Will I seek out the puzzle tomorrow? Really.
Am I waiting for the outdoor temperature to rise a bit? Really, really, really.
B Pickett: I'd rather a person say to me "don't be sad" rather than "I enjoy your suffering." And yes, I much prefer puzzles with staying power.
Wow, so much cynicism here. So another similarly clever puzzle happened eons ago, how dare they do one again? Well, I liked it. It’s Sunday, how difficult do you want it to be?
Addison RAE has 86 million followers on TikTok, a hit single, and a Netflix movie. She’s huge and only 21. Now whether she’s Leif Garrett or Jodie Foster remains to be seen. I still think that R is a natick, but they’re both Crossworthy.
@egs - This likely will be loved by newer solvers, but for me there was no puzzling involved. I oppose titles and today’s the perfect example, “Sci Fi Showdown” is up there screaming “Schrödinger” at us. And then I’m not even done with that NW corner and I basically know what’s going on. And, as @Frantic Sloth points out, the PPP theme is compounded by RAPPP (Random Acts of PPP) like TARA Reid and Donnie DARKO, and TSE TSE ELIOT. Not to mention NARS, quite the WTF, and now I learn that it has an “Orgasm Collection,” so I guess that “WTF” is apropos. I didn’t think this was awful, but most definitely not aimed at me.
OMG. I hated this puzzle nor did I find it easy. Delight at quickly finding out Star Wars was involved gave way to frustration as my expectations were not met. By the time I got to THE FEDERATION and finally figured out MR. SPOCK, I was losing interest and did not care that WARS/TREK both work. 'DO OR DO NOT. THERE IS NO TRY' is not from Star Wars, but it is from the franchise. Stop at a liquor store? The editor should have put a CORK in this puzzle. Way too busy. Poor cluing. Not fun, and it could have been.
Got the gimmicky theme concept and tried to bull my way through - way too much PPP (just YAHWEH and BIORE would be too much, but there is more, and it gets worse). I didn’t know the “NO TRY” quote, so the entire west coast was a slog.
I definitely don’t understand the clue for ET TU (Dramatic accusation). If they are referring to “ Et tu, Brute?”, well that sure seems like a question to me. That’s about where my Shakespearean knowledge ends though, so maybe the social convention/interpretation was different 500 years ago. Either that or Shortz just shanked one out of bounds.
Rex and I both got terminally bored with this puzzle at a similar very early juncture. I was able to drop it like a hot potato. (Or perhaps more accurately like a cold, mealy potato.) He was not allowed to drop it at all. Which is the huge advantage of not having a crossword puzzle blog.
Wild horses couldn't have forced me to slog on for even one more answer. However, I do highly recommend today's diagramless -- which I found challenging (they all are), bu do-able (which they all aren't). Unfortunately I did the diagramless yesterday -- leaving me with nothing to do once I'd dropped today's puzzle except for this:
Wordle 232 3/6
🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
The two long clues are not symmetrical. If you are going to use Space The Final Frontier then the corresponding clue needs to be May The Force Be With You or In A Galaxy Far Far Away. You can't have one be iconic for the entire series and the other a single bit of dialogue from one character in one scene.
CNN. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Wordle 232 4/6
⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛
🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟨🟩⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Nice up and down for par today, 3 under after 4.
Not at all a Star Wars fan, was not enjoying this at all. But when I figured out the TREK/WARS double rebus Schrodinger thing, I thought, okay, well, that’s kinda cool. But then I went back to being utterly bored and uninterested. This was about as close as I’ve come to just putting a puzzle down and not finishing because of boredom. Cool if you like it, but not my thing.
BS Rex - this was great!
Sci-fi nerd here and I found this to be a really fun Sunday! I had put THEFEDERATION where REBELALLIANCE goes and STARTREK in the center right away (because Star Trek > Star Wars). I figured it out pretty quickly what was going on after that.
I enjoyed this one more than Rex. I've never seen the 1996 puzzle he mentions so this was pretty fresh for me. Getting the theme was super easy, and in fact I never really felt challenged throughout (I just trusted that NARS was right). Sure, it felt choppy at times with all of the short answers, but the theme felt clever enough to pull me through.
Bottom line: The puzzle felt fresh and breezy to me and left me wanting more: unlike the typical Sunday Slog we see so much of. I'd rather have a clever rerun of an original I've never seen than half a dozen humorous? themers that don't really fit together.
How is (a) CAIN raised in a ruckus?
Hard to express just how little interest I have in Star Wars and it’s all to common presence in puzzles. Oh to never see a Star Wars or Harry Potter clue/theme again. Just an instant turn off.
Glad I didn’t see the print version. The title was enough of a spoiler. Difficulty level went up a bit for me because so much PPP always means you are entering Natick territory. But I loved this puzzle because I love anything that’s tricky, even if I can see the trick right away. There’s just so much to admire. Especially because I took a first look and thought “wow, a spiral!” and then it was.
Thanks Anon@715 for making me feel better about my first Wordle Fail. I had all but the second letter by the third guess. Even what should have been a tricky one. And… didn’t get it in 6. On the bright side, I got to find out what happens when you don’t get it in 6!
Rex's dislike of NARS causes me to recall Jack Narz, a game show host from my youth and brother of game show host Tom Kennedy.
"Kennedy guest-starred on Narz' Beat the Clock, and Narz appeared on Kennedy's You Don't Say! during its NBC run, and on the syndicated It's Your Bet. Narz also appeared on the Password Plus panel while Kennedy was hosting, and even switched with his brother to host for half of an episode."
So YARD SALEZ won't work, I get it, but just adding to our trivia knowledge.
My better half is definitely a Trekkie. Once I got the theme, kept looking for another gimmick. Relieved there wasn't one.
Happy Sunday. "Make it so."
Rex’s take here is a good example of how “purists” and “serious” hobby practitioners take the fun out of stuff.
While I don't love a puzzle based on STAR WARS/TREK, I must applaud the constructor on the idea and its execution. I am in neither of the two camps, though I have a favorite Star Trek movie (the one with the whales) and don't have a preference in Star Wars (haven't seen 5 of the nine.) 17D was a gimme, 3D a WOE.
As I was solving, I was thinking, "@Nancy is going to hate, hate, hate this puzzle." I see I was correct.
"Donnie Darko", that's a movie I loved. It's weird, confusing, dark and has a cute protagonist. Plus Jena Malone.
Scratch and sniff ads - thank goodness they aren't as prevalent as they once were. I get a headache thinking of those perfume ads - you didn't have to scratch so much as merely brush them and the chemicals came wafting off the page. Shudder.
I chuckled to see Rex linked to the Meat Loaf song - that's exactly what went through my head when I saw "Don't be sad" in the grid.
Stephen McCarthy, while I wish there was a more interesting (to me) rivalry you could have used as a theme, I congratulate you on your skill with both the theme and the fill.
I did this on paper starting at 11 o'clock last night and I had to fight to stay awake and finish it. While it wasn't the trivia fest I dreaded nothing can make either of these franchises interesting. Just the eye strain alone was brutal. The numbers in the grid sguares are tiny and nearly impossible to distinguish.
As far as I was concerned NARS, BIORE and TAIKA were the highlights of this puzzle. You can always count on a Sunday for some obscure crosswordese.
The complaints on ROEG are a little surprising. Not so much because any longtime solver should have this beaten into their heads as the fact that we just had it last month and there were a number of similar comments about it then.
yd -0
Oh how I hated this puzzle. It would be impossible for me to care less about STAR WARS or STAR TREK. Waaaaaaaaaay to much PPP for any one puzzle, ever. The only nice thing I can say about it is at least it's not Harry Potter. Honestly, this is the kind of Sunday that makes me question renewing my subscription. UGH
On to wordle.
Guess I’m on the @egs bandwagon because I had fun with this. Yeah, yeah, yeah high PPP and the whole I’m ok, you’re ok, everyone’s ok thing, but I thought this was still clever.
@Okanaganer, I chuckled at your Star Wars was a spoof comment because, well, c’mon, William Shatner (nice person, I’m sure) was such a an “emoti-ham” as Captain Kirk that the original Star Trek could be seen as a spoof (at least today).
I pretty much knew that @Nancy would hate this but was a little surprised at @Frantic’s take (aside from the OK felony).
Hey All !
Director Watiti who? Addison wha? *Natick Alert* Crossing of ROEG/RAE. Luckily, RAE seemed to be the obvious choice for that, but _OEG could've been Any letter, quite possibly even a number. And the SAHARA has a volcano? The stuff you learn...
*Another whiny "I already did it" Alert*
Few years ago, sent in a Schrodinger Chess puz, with the response by Will of "why Chess?" Har. Why not Chess?
Got STAR WARS originally with the WRAP answer, thought, "Hoo boy! This will piss off a lot of STAR WARS FANs!" But then got THE FEDERATION, and it quickly dawned on me we were dealing with a Schrodinger. I wrote it in as a rebus, to find out Rex did the same. Nice. Too bad it didn't switch like the 96 puz.
Nice 21's Downs. I can't recall the (DOOKie) DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO TRY in either franchise. Not a Memorable quote (from either franchise) for me. I've heard it, but somewhere else. I think.
DONT BE SAD doesn't sound like a comforting phrase to me. It's more like, "gee, thanks. Ya think?" to me. As in, obviously. Or obvs, as the kids say these days. DONT BE SAD! Sounds like a command.
*Sting Alert* Or maybe you say DONT BE SAD to a METS FAN. Zing!
WHAT IS THAT? IS IT OK? ITS BAD. DONT BE SAD. /scene
yd -5, should'ves 4 (although the fifth one was a short form of a certain pet type, so maybe should've)
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Correction. I just re-read @Frantic and see she said she enjoyed it…my bad!
That NARS commentary reminds me of the classic "Wolfman's got nards!" scene from "Monster Squad" (1987):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu6L9pG_E6o
Holy bunions....I think I said that exact same thing the last time I did a McCarthy puzzle...
I didn't even notice Mr. Schrodinger's TRAP/TREK war of chances. And...it's no surprise... I could care not a wit/bit...
If you name your French skin care product NARS, I most likely would want to kick you in your nethers. Then you give me a golf term slang such as SNOWMAN? And what, pray tell, is SUNINESS and AIRIALLY and DARKO and the list goes down the ant hill.
I just gave up....
Birthday Alert.....
Dear Friends...
Thank you so much for my Birthday wishes...they set the happy tone for the rest of my day.
I'm so lucky to have you as my cyber friends; if it weren't for you I'd be starting my day as a grump.....and of course @Rex for providing this wonderful outlet for the funny, bright, and, frankly, wonderful people....
My family came over and we had my FAVORITE sashimi. We ate for hours and I enjoyed every bit of raw fish that God intended us to eat. After our late lunch we managed to eat a Torta Caprese and finish a cold and yummylicious Veuve Clicquot. I wish all of you could've been here to share with us.
@Nancy....Your card made us howl with laughter. I kept telling everyone you were a neophyte when it comes to a computer, but ay Dios mio, you outdid yourself.... :-)
@Z....Well, dang....You gave me a Trump? It still made me laugh. I forgive you because I always forgive you. After all, your mamacita cooks with lard and that's a good thing.
Took longer than it should have, because I couldn't let go of maythefOrcebewIthyou for 3D, even though it was one letter short of the necessary length. I had completed the rest of the grid and had only the West side to get, but it was a struggle. Finally pieced enough together for the Yoda line to come into focus, and finished easily.
My favorite Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) today might be clued: ______ Bear (4 letters). No, not yOgi; POOH, which begins with the 27A P and moves to the SE. So from 27A square, you get a horizontal POO and a diagonal POO (which is significant for all of you folks wanting to POO-POO this puzzle). I enjoyed it.
There is also a HDW that could be the answer to, "World's longest river, perhaps." (The NILE--located in the extreme SE corner of the grid.)
I’m not at all shocked that Rex hated it. I knew he would, but thought he’d say it’s too bro-ey, as if only men like Star franchises. I AM shocked that so many in the commentariat hated it. Sure, those who have no interest in the franchises aren’t going to like it, but Rex and others are complaining because a similar trick was done in 1996?!?!
Mind you, I am not a freak for either franchise, but I’ve seen and liked some of the shows/movies in each one. Various family and friends are freaks for one or both, and I’ve witnessed the Trek vs. Wars all-out battles, so the “better” revealer was outstanding, to my mind. I had just Star Wars at first, so I thought the constructor was trying to be provocative. The alternate down possibilities on WARS/TREK were great, though I guess doing that with CLINTON and BOBDOLE would be much harder. I had LooSED/LooKED at first and was trying to figure out how “looked” could be interpreted as “let out.”
The symmetry of the two very long quotes and the “good sides” is amazing (not so much the character names). Anonymous’ 8:57 comment about the two quotes not being comparable is about the most nit-picking case of pedantry I’ve ever seen.
Oh well. I knew Roeg, so I wasn’t tripped up by the natick that took down so many. Definitely a case where knowing PPP helped me - not just ROEG but also TAIKA, DONNIE, etc. i’ve been to both the Summer Palace in Beijing and the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg so I liked that clue. Had no idea there is a volcano in the Sahara. I do love learning geography factoids.
I also remember AYLA, the heroine of another, more down-to-Earth franchise. I loved The Clan of the Cave Bear, in which Neanderthals raise a baby modern human. But the later books, after she leaves the clan, got increasingly silly. Ayla invents surgery, taming dogs and horses, and tampons, probably among other achievements I don’t remember. And falls for a hunky hunter. I wanted the Neanderthals back.
Anyway, excuse my SUNNINESS but I found this a happy Sunday solve.
Rex isn’t a big fan of themers. But I am - if they’re good. I loved this one. Puzzle of the week, month and year (so far)…
@ Nancy. You are very intolerant for a constructor who likes to bathe in adulation for her own work. If you can't say something nice.........
Fabulous Puzzle, Stephen M!!!! Really Enjoyed It! Took my son and I almost an hour, but it was a LOT of fun. Especially loved that "IT'S A TRAP" was one of the crossing answers (along with It's a WRAP). You put a lot of effort into this puzzle and it really paid off! Thanks --Rick
With you, egsforbreakfast! I really liked this, even though I’m not a fan of either Star****, thought it was quite clever.
I did almost Natick on Roeg/Rae, but hit it in one, so I’ll consider it a Good Sign for today.
Nifty idea, but for me not all that much fun to solve. Since I'm a Star Wars fan, my eyes lit up at REBEL ALLIANCE, but even HAN SOLO couldn't save this one from going off track into slog territory.
@Wanderlust 11:12 - I enjoyed your comments about AYLA. In connection with the hunky hunter episode, I remember thinking that it seemed like she'd read The Hite Report.
A perfectly fun grid with a nice little theme, some long symmetrical quotes, and good fill overall.
Rex hates fun and hates popular movies, as he reminds us every time a single answer sneaks in from Marvel or anywhere else. HATES. The hate gets boring. This was a fine Sunday puzzle. They can't invent a brand new twist every day, so stop whining about it.
Will's note in the printed paper says that some of the answers may not be the same for all solvers, which pretty much gives away the gimmick. When I saw "the good side" in the clue for 25A I thought momentarily we might be dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, but of course that wouldn't fit. I had enough crosses to put in REBEL ALLIANCE, so I went down to 70A and filled in STAR WARS-- didn't even think of STAR TREK because I'm old enough to think of it mainly as a TV show, not a 'film franchise.' But I finally worked my way down to 99A, and had MR from the crosses, whereupon the old scales fell from my eyes. I immediately checked the crosses in 70A, and by golly, they worked both ways. Quite a feat, and I enjoyed it.
I had more trouble with the long quotes. If you tell me you're going to try to do something there is an 80% probability I'll reply by quoting Yoda; or rather misquoting, because the first thing I wrote in was DO OR DOn't do.... It didn't fit, and the I from ISLET was in the wrong place, so that was quickly fixed.
But when I got to the other side, I had SP_C from crosses and figured it was Kirk telling SPoCk to do something. When I head 'quote' I think of someone saying something; the final frontier bit is a slogan, isn't it?
I did remember Nicolas ROEm -- wrong, but it gave me the problematic letter, and LOGO was obvious. More remarkably, I somehow knew that Celsius's given name was ANDERS.
The most fun part: learning that SNOWMAN was slang for the figure 8.
Most frustrating part: running through multiple synonyms for grams (starting with Nonna) until all the crosses worked.
Happy belated birthday, @Gill - I missed it yesterday somehow.
Oh, bosh, this was a lovely cute schtick today and a great feat of construction, if you ask me, to get both DOORNOTDOTHERISNOTRY and SPACETHEFINALFRONTIER as the cornerstone clues AND get clues with two completely valid answers for WARS/TREK (W/T A/R R/E S/K) via the downs. I saw the center clue and instantly filled in my own answer (STAR TREK) aware that the dark side might intervene in my puzzling. So, yeah, relatively easy, but still fun. My only sad was the hidden quote for STAR WARS (ITSATRAP) didn't have a Star Trek counterpart elsewhere. I spent a while looking for it after I finished and having failed to find one, I feel out of balance with...um...the force? (For a brief moment instead of "ITS A WRAP" I thought it was "ITS A WARP", which would have been a bit too twisted.)
My nits are with two golf clues (yuck) on top of two cosmetics clues (bleah) and an unfamous social media whosits.
One missed opportunity: if you have to have golf clues, in a Star Wars / Star Trek theme, why not work "Scotty" into a punny clue?
I loved the STAR____ puzzle.
Wordle was good to me. My starter was in the xword.
Wordle 232 3/6
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Can't wait to see what Dordle and the BEE have in store.
If it’s popular, there is a large group on this blog who feel it’s their duty to hate it. See Star Trek, Star Wars, GOT, Harry Potter. Pretentious elitists. It’s embarrassing, but also hilarious. Never understood why they can’t enjoy these things and Dostoevsky at the same time. I think it’s because that would put them at the same level as the plebes. Proud plebe here.
Rex,
I can’t find Curran’s explanation for the shimmy/ shinny confusion. All I can find is a public radio but she did, but she doesn’t explain the confusion at all.
I have an explanation. And it’s the same as none in home in.a similar sounding word is misunderstood by mid wits and gains traction.That’s all. That’s it. It explains the error entirely, Shimmy shimmy up? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Shinny up?that makes perfect sense.
Yep. Life is too short to waste any more time on this. Filled out all the themers and then who cares about puzzling out the rest.
Am I doing something wrong to fill in the 2-letter squares using 'rebus' on the app? It won't give me the music. The trolling worked/backfired and my husband and I are not speaking to each other anymore after trying to solve this together. Waaah.
Why do people equate making an observation with complaining?
What's more tedious: Rex's "hate" or people complaining about it?
What's more complainable: people hating equations about observations or people asking questions?
@Z 1236am Since when are you such a wimp? You should be able to ride a bicycle through the first circle of hell by now.
And if anyone takes any of this seriously, then I just don't know what.
O good grief, nevermind. I figured it out. I had a one letter whiff. This is my first and last puzzle for a while. Tax season is upon us. again. Waaah.
Please tell me how you filled in the rebus answers! Thanks
Ditto @Frantic!!!
Never been real big on schlock flick franchises. First film or two often starts out pretty good, then the sequels get kinda wacko eventually. I reckon the greedy studios get desperate to try somethin different, to feed on the original franchise premise's success.
@Teedmn: yep. Donnie Darko was definitely great. One flick and out. No sequels. Primo move. Even had great music, in it.
Kinda liked "Alien" & "Aliens". First 2 installments had some teeth to em. But then things got pretty wacko, after that. Ridley did eventually do a pretty good pre-quel flick, tho.
SunPuz was OK. Liked the Wars/Trek switcheroo idea. Limited theme humor, but of course Mr. Spock wouldn't abide that.
staff weeject pick: PAS. French desperation, tryin to support the medium switcheroo hi-jinx.
The Shotzmeister write-up on the author had a typo: "This is his his third Sunday Times crossword …" Had double-his meat.
Too many skin care brands today. Also, had no luck at all with the A?LA/?AHWEH crossin of mystery. Went with a guess of AULA, of course. Wrong again again, M&A breath.
Skin care … the final frontier …
Thanx, Mr. McCarthy. Middle themer gets two STARs [har]. Thanx for not also tryin to sandwich STARGATE in there. A 3-way with Shroedinger woulda blown his his mind.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
It worked for me doing it as a rebus.
When I got to the Yoda quote, I had to quit. I worked at Theranos where that quote was emblazoned on a huge wall. Too much PTSD and I hate quote puzzles anyway.
p.s.
"Shortzmeister" … not "Shotzmeister". Typo, in first M&A msg franchise installment. har. apt.
M&Also
After reading the criticisms in the original post and many comments, perhaps I better understand why people don't appreciate it. I read these commentaries to become better at understanding crosswords, including what makes a good or terrible puzzle. Often it is disappointing to learn that a puzzle I really enjoyed is boring or derivative to others. It is exhausting to be such a slow learner.
At 21A I happily splatzed in ADONAI, and every letter of it was wrong. Would any of you scholars care to enlighten me on YAHWEH vs. ADONAI?
Spot on! (As in G-spot on!)
Too many golf clues. Golf is a dumb and fascist sport.
@RYS, my rebus squares were the two possible letters, separated with a slash. I put WARS letters second although it was in the top half, and my iPad was still happy.
Looks like Rex omitted the slash and maybe came out happy as well. Except for the review part.
lI enjoyed the theme once I sw what it was. But I found the puzzle so difficult I just gave top and cheated for half the answers.
People I'd never heard of , skin care never heard of and some clues that just seemed so vague or.
eg. Is Lisa the only Simpsons character with a four letter name?
Whaat are knee patches?
Would not have thought of either of the "quotes" 3d just not familiar, 17 d very familiar, but not something I would have thought was ever "quoted".
Never heard of "Girls" let alone the creator
kSo, liked the theme but not the puzzle
in my dead trees version, WS writes: "your solution may not match everyone else's". to me, in my naivete, means that themers will be proper, but different, answers, depending. but, that's not even true of the 4 cell 'theme' part, in that you have to have both to figure out (sort of) the themers; it's just one rebus.
was expecting to see rebi in, what turned out to be, 6 themers. now, that would be impressive. not.
What Shakespeare was trying to convey with 'Et, tu?' was "Oh, no, not you, too, Brutus!?!", which I would take as an accusation.
OK puzzle, but 33A/33D was a Natick for me.
@ghkozen 1:25 a.m
Nicolas Roeg is far from a nobody. Two of his films were named in the top ten of a recent list of the best British films of all time, including "Don't Look Now" at #1.
https://www.timeout.com/film/100-best-british-films
@B. Pickett 7:57 a.m.
TikTok has over a billion monthly active users, and Addison Rae is the #4 most followed account on TikTok. “Known by a very small number of people” simply does not apply to her. Maybe “known by a relatively small number of NYT xword solvers” or (more likely) “known by a rather small number of Rex Parker commenters” does, but that doesn’t mean she flat-out shouldn’t be in the puzzle. The comparison to a brief teammate of Mel Ott or Bobby Orr is absurd — she is more like the Bobby Orr of her field, which is an extremely popular one (far more popular than hockey, and probably baseball too). As for staying power, we’ll see, but even if TikTok has faded away in five years, her name will still be relevant as an important participant in a significant cultural phenomenon. As for today's puzzle — again, over one BILLION people use this app every month, and she’s in the top 5 of those users.
Should these two names be crossing each other in a puzzle? Probably not. But they are each, in amusingly different ways, very notable.
@ Anonymous 1:42 PM. Same here. 33D and 33A ROEG-RAE should have been edited and/or clued differently.
@anon 1:08
Per wiki, Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and the economy that rose to prominence in early 20th-century Europe. The first fascist movements emerged in Italy during World War I, before spreading to other European countries. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, liberalism, and Marxism, fascism is placed on the far right-wing within the traditional left–right spectrum.
Perhaps you could elaborate on how golf fits into the equation. I always understood it to have been developed in Scotland, and having very little if anything to do with pre World War I Italian politics.
@Rex, I feel so sad for you.
Hey, is this a nod to Bob Marley on his birthday? Shine Like A Star
Clever theme trick, which I did not see at first because I didn’t see the title and I just assumed that both franchise names would be in the puzzle separately and I didn’t bother to look ahead to confirm that. Ha ha on me. MR SPOCK showed me the light.
If yesterday I was the wrong age for the puzzle, today I was right on Target. I absolutely loved the tv STAR TREK as a kid, and when STAR WARS came out it was exactly the good-vs-evil, shootem’ out space fairy tale this too-serious teen needed at that moment. Could’ve done without the “franchises.”
Speaking of which, my orchestra is playing a STAR WARS tribute concert this week. Is there some kind of anniversary, or, heaven forbid, a new se/prequel coming?
Pretty easy ride today, especially knowing 3D off the DOOR—— . Did have a couple hitches: at 21A I actually wrote in EL—— (thinking Elohim) where YAHWEH should be but wasn’t convinced so left the rest to confirm, or not, as it turned out. There are a number of serious contenders for that clue. Like Rex had coRER before PARER, which threatened the PALACE but my AVATAR came to the rescue. Agreed with him on LOCUS, too. Hey wait! Apple device was unrelated to the tech firm and Rex didn’t mention it?
A fiendishly close cHEerIoS before WHEATIES made that section squirrellier than necessary.
I wonder how ELIOT would feel about sharing the grid with HAN SOLO and MR SPOCK?
Sooo close, but we didn’t quite make it to the RYE MARINa - and no IPA ale from @Z’s Placebo and Tentacle today. IT'S SAD.
Got to go practice John Williams now. Man knows how to hurt horn players.
“God grant me the self esteem of a mediocre white man.”
Late to the party, singing obligations. Our church has a wonderful pianist/organist but our choir is still on hiatus so I get to be the choir occasionally, like today.
Not much new to add in the way of commentary. I liked the long quotes and the TREK/WARS either/and/or crossings. Finished in the NW as it took me forever to see THREERS, had the TH and couldn't get past THEABCS forever. Eventually the quote took shape, problem solved, satisfaction guaranteed.
Most enjoyed DONTBESAD with its Meat Loaf connection. Our Monday hootenanny has reconvened and I sang "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad" as a tribute at our last one. Doesn't have quite the oomph on an acoustic guitar, which somewhat diminishes the hyperdrama. And I can't do it without the truth of "I'll never be able/ to give you something/ Something that I just haven't got which climbs to a freaky high note, and I always wonder if I'll have it or not. In any case, RIP to Mr. Loaf, as the NYT referred to him early in his career.
I thought this was just a fine Sunday, didn't rush through it and had some smiles along the way. Good on ya, SMC. Sunday Morning Cruciverbalism exemplified, and thanks for the fun.
p.p.s.s.
Found another M&A typo or two from my first msg …
* Really meant to say "middle switcheroo hi-jinx", rather than "medium switcheroo hi-jinx".
* Dude's name is actually spelt Schrödinger. Been a-thinkin ... a 3-way Schrödinger experiment might make a great runtpuz theme. (dibs)
M&A now leads the Shortzmeister 3-1, and is definitely a contender.
M&A Non-Autocorrect
This one was "The Cat"'s Meow.
@Kimberly!!!
@Truth Matters:
how golf fits into the equation
since the original Anon has skipped the bait, I'll bite. two ways -
1 - at the professional level, since pro golf is a Darwinian occupation, those that do well always get swelled heads believing themselves superior in all ways, and almost always back Right Wingnut pols, aka fascists.
2 - among regular folk, golf and white-shoe club membership is where the 1% go to flaunt their superiority
When I saw the Star Wars/Trek clue, I'd thought this was really going to be something special. I'd thought all the related answers would fit with something from either franchise, and that all the intersecting clues would also be compatible. Imagine if every clue touching those long vertical ones could have been made to fit with a quote from either franchise! That would have been so ambitious that I might have done the puzzle twice to see the other version.
Felt underwhelmed to find it was just that one word.
Having dropped the puzzle long before getting to the Shrodinger section and therefore not having seen any of the four Down clues with two possible answers, I looked at the filled-in grid and wondered: How would I have clued those four Downs? It was challenging. Here's what I came up with. One clue (71D) is identical to Stephen's; two (47D and 67D) are quite similar; and one (55D) I struggled with and is not nearly as good.
My clues:
*Names found on checks
*"It's a ____!"
*Part of the body sometimes encircled
*Provided access to
The last is much, much weaker than "Let out, in a way" -- which is inspired.
Trying to clue these was a lot more fun for me than the puzzle was. The next time a Shrodinger puzzle is done, I hope the constructor's brainpower will be put to use for a far more interesting theme choice than STARTREK vs. STARWARS. As for DOORDONTTHEREISNOTRY -- I have no idea what that even means.
@anon 3:35
Darwinian ???
Darwinism, theory of the evolutionary mechanism propounded by Charles Darwin as an explanation of organic change. It denotes Darwin's specific view that evolution is driven mainly by natural selection.
Golf, organic change?, natural selection?
The only thing that is evolving here is that I have slowly realized that, oops, my mom told me that if you can’t say something nice, then say goodbye.
@JoeD 1:19 this am
Ha,ha, that's *exactly* what I was going to write. Oh, well. Also I thought there was a very high number of POCs and 3S verbs. Ugh.
But where is Professor Anne Curzan explaining the curious history of shinny and shimmy, I asked. Didn't it seem strange Rex teased it but failed to provide? Or am I the only one who wanted to know?
Anyway, here it is: https://www.michiganradio.org/arts-culture/2015-09-13/the-skinny-on-shimmy-and-shinny
Joe D,
Viz Mr.Hart.
You’re quite right.
If you get the THe Movie Chanel exta, Bottoms is haunting West Texa right now.
Every puzzle gets scorn from Rex. He's truly joyless.
Yahweh is the Divine Name revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus, possibly meaning I AM WHO I AM. In Judaism, it came to be considered to sacred to pronounce, so Adonai, which means "Lord"-- a title, not a name -- became the default substitute in reading. This was indicated in the Hebrew texts by using the vowel symbols for Adonai above the consonants for Yahweh. (In the Hebrew Scriptures, willing to consonants are fully written, with vowels indicated in short hand above
In many English translations, LORD in all caps is used as the translation for Yahweh. Jehovah is an English combination of the continents for Yahweh and the vowels for Adonai. Bottom line, Yahweh is a name and Adonai a title. I'm an Episcopal priest, not a devout Jew, but even so found use of the Divine Name in a XW a little off-putting.
I'm with you. Nanu, nanu! lol
So. Many. Names! And a director (ROEG??) crossing a social media star (RAE) clogged the whole north central for me. The rest played really slow. I would say medium for Sunday, certainly not easy.
@Gill I - I totally forgot I booked Donny for your B-Day Bash. And how was I to know that all he would play is Meatloaf? My apologies.
@Frantic Sloth - On a Bike?!?!
@600 - My guess is he meant to include the link then forgot to actually insert it and hasn’t looked at the post since because nobody complained to him.
**wordle alert**
A very fascist -4 after 32 holes.
Wordle 232 5/6*
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛
⬛🟨🟩⬛⬛
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
And now there is this, which will certainly have @Frantic on her bicycle.
🌎 Feb 6, 2022 🌍
Today's guesses: 7
Current streak: 1
Average guesses: 7
globle-game.com
Today I felt sorry for old Rex. I was able to quit in disgust most of the way through. He had to finish it in order to publish the solution.
As usual, the science clue is wrong. -ASE is not an organic chemistry suffix; it's a biochemistry suffix. -ASE is a suffix meaning an enzyme, which is far too large (many orders of magnitude) of a molecule to be feasible in organic.
@kromiumman:
As the olde saying goes: "all biochemistry is organic, but not all organic is biochemistry."
"Some might also point as its beginning to the influential 1842 work by Justus von Liebig, Animal chemistry, or, Organic chemistry in its applications to physiology and pathology, which presented a chemical theory of metabolism,[10]"
the wiki
although, yes -ASE is as you've described.
if you mean enzymes are too large to synthesize, well, they are.
"An artificial enzyme is a synthetic organic molecule or ion that recreates one or more functions of an enzyme. It seeks to deliver catalysis at rates and selectivity observed in naturally occurring enzymes"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_enzyme
My sentiments exactly!
Has there *ever* been a puzzle that Rex really liked? Is there a list somewhere of his favorites? Must be an extreme rarity.
Dear Rex,
It seems your criticisms guarantee your unhappiness. On the one hand you note this Sunday puzzle was a copy of a theme from a famous prior puzzle in November 1996. Wow, 1996! No wonder you have developed such a genius for crossword puzzles, but for us mortals a November 1996 New York Times crossword puzzle theme could never be “famous“.
You do note that the prior theme on politics was better done than this one and of course this puzzle is just a copy of that theme, not original.
You go on however to note there are two new entries you have not seen before in this puzzle, but rather than appreciating the originality you dismiss the two new clues by saying if they had been any good they would have been used before this!
I suppose you should quit now out of sheer boredom developed through the acquisition of your competence and genius but I would really miss you because I actually did not know about the November 1996 famous previous theme and honestly I didn’t find this puzzle boringly easy.
I am the Defender but I have to say your displeasure with both lack of originality and originality makes my job challenging!
Defender
tom@silvermanlawoffices.com
Nars makes the BEST eyeliner. It is a pretty mainstream name if you shop at Sephora regularly...
Do you ever like the Sunday crossword? I read *almost every Sunday, and in the two years since I started, I can’t remember a single Sunday crossword you haven’t trashed. 😂
When I go the theme, I of course had to put TREK in, even though my crosses to that point would have had me go the other way. Star Wars ... first movie great, then forty years of (mostly) dreck.
"Addison RAE" gets more Google hits than "Neil Armstrong", which should tell you something.
Maybe I should begin using that French skin care stuff. Anyway, a couple of PPPs led to a tiny DNF.
And yet...this was fun on a Sunday. Happy non-Ides of February to you!
Diana Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
THEFINAL STAR TREK WARS
I'DBET ABET'S ABET, until IT'SBAD,
DOORDONOTTHEREISNOTRY
SOANDSO CHASTE I TARA, DON'TBESAD,
ISITOK TO NAKEDLIE.
--- MR. HAN SPOCK SOLO
I am not going to plow into the TREK/WARS controversy, though I answered with TREK. And once again, I enter the puzzle via SPACETHEFINALFRONTIER--though to call that a "quote" is a bit iffy. To me a quote is from dialogue, as 3-down is. 17-down is the series intro, and although Shatner is saying the words, so that it could legally be called a "quote," I think it's a [big stretch]. Anyway, thanks for the shout-out, making it two days in a row!
I wouldn't call this easy, since I was never sure how far the duplicity extended. The cryptic note under the title made me look for a revealer-type clue, and when I saw it the whole jig was instantly up. Yeah, those four downs, clever indeed. Center done. But then...could there be a Trek character ending in _____LO? A Wars guy MR_____? Nah. NW = Wars, SE = Trek. But it had me going. Then too there were PPPs aplenty; I guess on a Sunday 21x21 it's hard to avoid 'em. But the east particularly was tough to get into, all the way up and down the coast. Loved the CORK clue, but it took me a while to get it. Oh: and innocent is not necessarily CHASTE. Bad clue.
A word to @anonymous about golf: those "fascists" pour millions of dollars into worthwhile charities, and have been doing so for decades. As to the posh country clubs, you may have a point, but even locally, they too hold many charitable events. My main point is, you have ignored the 95% of us slobs who just like to get out for a nice walk in the country on short grass, and get some badly needed exercise. Perhaps you have little skill at the game, so you choose to decry it. Hell, little skill? Join the club--by no means exclusive!
Nice two-way puzzle; I liked it better than OFF did. A well-deserved birdie.
For the golf haters above, including OFL: Golf is not only for the top 1%. The yearly membership where I play is less than $400 (9 hole course). Last year I played most every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon and got in somewhere around 45 rounds. So it cost me about a dollar a hole. If you think that's elitism or fascist, you're nuts. And I only wear white shoes with shorts. Also, I still usually break 100 for 18 holes, so that puts me at about the 85th percentile of all players; so I'm not terrible at it. Fresh air, sunshine, maintaining some degree of fitness, you golf haters need to grow up or at least get your head out of (the sand).
Got SPACETHEFINALFRONTIER off the _PA. Do not know enough about STARWARS to have known that quote. Why does OFL whine about the Schrodinger part?
Frequent entrant TAR Reid, yeah baby.
ISITOK? Yup.
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