June celebration honoring the Stonewall uprising / MON 2-7-22 / Locale of Perseverance rover / Dallas basketball squad informally
Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein
Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Monday)
THEME: CREATED A MONSTER (38A: Emulated Dr. Frankenstein ... or what you did after you filled in the shaded parts [so, the circled squares] of 17-, 23-, 50- and 61-Across) — monster names are buried inside familiar phrases:
Theme answers:
LINTROLLER (17A: Good accessory for the owner of a shedding dog)
NOGREATSHAKES (23A: Nothing to write home about)
DRAGONESHEELS (50A: Move reluctantly)
PRIDEMONTH (61A: June celebration honoring the Stonewall uprising)
Word of the Day: PEDRO Almodóvar (1A: Director Almodóvar) —
Pedro Mercedes Almodóvar Caballero (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈpeðɾo almoˈðoβaɾ kaβaˈʝeɾo]; born 25 September 1949)[1] is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer, and former actor. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narratives. Desire, passion, family, and identity are among Almodóvar's most prevalent subjects in his films. He is known for his collaboration with Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz, who both later became international film stars. He came to prominence as a director and screenwriter during La Movida Madrileña, a cultural renaissance that followed after the end of Francoist Spain.
This is a cute idea for a Monday theme. It's a very basic theme type—hide-a-word, or nest-a-word, or whatever you wanna call it—but the revealer phrase is clever and the general quality of the theme answers keeps it from feeling ordinary. My criticisms here are fairly predictable, in that they are things I've said before. First, with embed-a-word themes, if the embedded word isn't touching / involved in every word of the theme answer, it feels less than elegant. So today, for instance, the TROLL and the DEMON are handled perfectly, because no word in the theme answer is left out of the monster's reach, whereas with the other two, you've got SHAKES and HEELS just hanging out there flapping in the wind, not touching their monsters at all. And then I always balk at "ONE'S" phrases; they always feel like phrases that you're much more likely to hear (in the wild) with YOUR instead of ONE'S. ONE's is defensible, but it always feels clunky. Clunkier today because HEELS is not the word that most naturally completes that phrase. You drag (one drags) your (one's) FEET. It's true. The HEELS phrase is, of course, a real one, but FEET, in this case, is the mot juste.
I would not have minded MAKE A FIST but MADE A FIST is bugging me a little. Changing MADE to MAKE would not be hard, and I don't understand putting something in the past tense like that if you don't have to, especially when the present tense gives you the imperative voice that would really make the answer pop ([Instruction from a phlebotomist, maybe], something like that). See also STEPS ON IT, which is a defensible phrase but is many times better as a command (though today you could not make that change because of answer-length considerations). In general, though, the grid is very clean and far from boring, despite being very heavy on the short stuff.
If you have to put THEY and THEM in the same grid, why not cross-reference them as a potential example of someone's pronouns? If you don't link them, it really feels a bit like cheating—they're just the same word in different cases. There's no need for either THEY or THEM; you can get rid of either of them pretty easily, especially THEM. Turn THEM into TRIM and WAX into TAX, for instance. Anyway, if you want both, link them. Otherwise, lose one. I think that's it. Better than SOSO, I think. Now I think someone should use this hide-an-answer puzzle to start a new hide-an-answer puzzle where CREATEDAMONSTER is one of the theme answers in a hidden cheese puzzle. Or a hidden actor puzzle. Good day.
Good theme, but I don't think of a TROLL as a monster. More like an annoyance.
Solving by looking at only the down clues, I finished but with a double error: SWIPE for 53d "Grab". I should have checked the crosses: WAT and BOPO just don't make sense. Oh, just too confident.
[Spelling Bee: Sat.: pg-1, missed this word (darned plurals!) Sun.: 0, my last word was appropriate for the times.]
Tough. More like a Tuesday. Fun theme answers without much dreck, liked it.
@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #681 started with a “no way can I finish this” take on the grid and ended a few hours later with a finished puzzle. So medium for a Croce. Note that my times for Saturday NYT puzzles are measured in minutes. My Croce puzzle times are measured in hours, but I do step away and come back to it more than once during the solve. Good luck!
What have you done if you combine A HEM, A BACK, A SIDE, A DIEU, A LIKE, A SLEEP and A BIT? You’ve CREATED A MONSTER.
Seeing Mrs. Horrible again makes me wonder if Anoa Bob is on to something with the mysterious links between puzzles.
Very fun Monday, but the revealer doesn’t quite fit. I didn’t create a monster, and I certainly didn’t do so after filling in all of the themers. But thanks for a good time, Rebecca Goldstein.
I’m never a fan of getting blasted with PPP coming right out of 1A (even with Monday-level crosses). Feel sorry for new solvers getting a dose of Almodovar this early in the morning. ISLA and LLOSA also look a little out of place on a Monday. The theme was about all you could hope for - enough there to create a passing interest but not gum up the works or do any real damage.
The director WES Anderson is a WS-fave (I don’t know anything else about him other than he appears in the NYT Xword pretty regularly). If you have a 5x7 trivia “reminder card” like I do, he would be worthy of a mention.
RASTA reminds me of the time I ate a weed brownie and cooked a pizza at 15 degrees for 400 minutes.
@egsforbreakfast -- I too noticed that starting schwa-team.
A highlight of this monster mash are the theme answers – all lovely lively phrases to me. I also liked the side-by-side of two given names that double duty as non-name words, STEW and PATSY.
Impressive to me is how well-connected the grid is. The NE and SW each have two long answers connecting them to the rest of the grid, and the NW and SE each have three. This makes the puzzle very friendly for newer solvers.
Rebecca has range; her last offering, which was her debut, was a wonderful Thursday with the reveal SALT SHAKER, which rebused the letters NACL. As for this Monday creation, from PEDRO to PATSY, it’s a peachy puzzle with pop. Thank you, Rebecca!
My five favorite clues from last week (in order of appearance):
1. Issue with image quality, informally? (3)(3) 2. Not stress so much? (9) 3. Live on water, say (4) 4. Result of selling out (6)(5) 5. The right one can produce a smile (11)
Nice Monday puzzle; easy--even with the PPP items.
My favorite Hidden Diagonal Word for this grid could be Monday-level clued as, "Parsley, sage, rosemary, or thyme." (HERB--begins with the H from SHADOW, 47D, and moves towards SW.) And the KEG in 21A leads into a diagonal classic muscle car--GTO--two things that were often in the same location in my teenage years.
I’m still waiting on my HELGA Pataki clue. HELGA Horrible is easy. Easy like Monday Morning.
I’ve done a couple of Mondays recently on the NYTX App. I am consistently 60-75 seconds slower than I was on PuzzAzz. That’s a 20% drop in speed. I’m sure it’s mostly a familiarity thing and I don’t actually much care about my time, but still it is another reason I find their app unpleasant to use.
“Almodóvar” in the clue tells you it’s probably a foreign name and looks vaguely Spanish or Portuguese (Ó isn’t French nor Italian). Seems like PALS narrows it down to PEDRO or PABLO and EDIT makes it PEDRO. Don’t get locked in on what you don’t know.
I posted a new web puzzle game last night especially because I know @Frantic Sloth will just simple adore it. On her bike.
Cute puzzle - we see so many hidden word themes now but this was fine early week fare. NO GREAT SHAKES shines here - hand up for DRAG ONES feet initially so that was a downer.
Overall fill was a little flat - kind of liked the X cross in the center. HELGA or Christina - hmm???
Oh frabjous day! Rebecca doesn't expect me to know anything about monsters -- not their comics, TV series, gory blood-spattered movies -- none of it! She just wants me to be able to spot them in the gray SHADOWs. I can do that! And it's fun!!!
My eye fell upon "Emulated Dr Frankenstein" before I'd filled in much of anything at all, and I knew immediately that the answer would be CREATED A MONSTER. I didn't even have to count letters. So I knew -- sort of -- what would be in the gray squares. But that didn't make it any less fun. I amused myself with guessing monsters, based on very few crosses.
When I had ---GON, I immediately thought gorGON. I'm the only one, aren't I? Your mileage may vary and it probably did.
What impresses me most about this puzzle are the colorful phrases Rebecca found within to embed her monsters: LINT ROLLER; NO GREAT SHAKES; DRAG ONE'S HEELS. They're delightful. So is the non-theme answer MADE A FIST, as clued. And I admire -- nay celebrate -- the fact that there are almost no proper names or pop culture in the puzzle. Lovely Monday.
Crazy easy but an absolutely wonderful, terrific Monday. Virtually no hint of tired fill or crosswordese — you have to squint (and be a spoilsport) to carp about that. The themers weren’t that exciting to me, but the whole thing was lively and crisp and delightful. I’d be more likely to go with “they” for a non-binary pronoun and I never know stuff like MAVS or any other sports team, but that’s just me. And I wanted to DRAG ONES fEEtS [sic] for a few seconds. No nits or complaints, just a lot to admire and love. Thanks Rebecca!
I think Will got you (on a Monday!). STP is the name of the brand. They market more than one product. From the STP website:
STP® PRO FORMULA CONVENTIONAL MOTOR OIL Scientifically formulated to insulate your engine from the damaging effects of wear. HELPS: Reduce Engine Wear While Maintaining Fuel Economy Control sludge Formation and Clean Key Engine Components Protect Against the Harmful Effects of Rust and Corrosion
Maybe I can be the first to point out the NAP/ASLEEP cross, a nice touch.
@Z's little tutorial on how to get PEDRO is useful; but of course you have to recognize Spanish names. I can do that (well, I knew it anyway) -- but with the rise of Korean directors, I am often in trouble.
I've been reading Rex for almost 10 years now, and until today he has been consistently opposed to cross-referenced clues. Now he's calling for one! We all evolve.
Oh, yeah, @okanaganer -- you're being too contemporary. The original trolls were lurking under a bridge in Norway and eating everyone who tried to cross, until the Big Billy Goat Gruff came along.
Today, I was pink with tickle. Rebecca gives me two people I admire: PEDRO Almodovar is a very popular director in Spain. I first saw "Volver" with Penelope Cruz and wondered what kind of mind comes up with this! Atame ("Tie Me Up...Tie me down) was the second film I watched because who doesn't drool over Antonio Banderas? Then you give me Vargas LLOSA. My dad gave me "A Fish In the Water." It was his memoire. He tells about his growing up in Peru and the angst he suffered for his country. Llosa was the champion of peasants and the middle class people. He hated corruption in politics (who doesn't?) and he tried to make changes. We lived in Lima at a time where all the evil corruptions were exploding all over the place. The people who ran Pero were truly TROLLs, OGREs, DRAGONs and DEMONs..... I have a vivid imagination. I also enjoyed this puzzle. I'm only hoping that the ORCA ate the OKRA . THEM and THEY did; they had to take a NAP to fall ASLEEP. @Z... Yeah sure! Did your cat also eat your homework?????
@Truth Matters-Well, I wondered a little about that as I was writing my comment. Turns out the way you have always thought of something may not be the way it is, so thanks for the correction. That'll learn me.
Hey All ! Where's Themer ROOIBOS TEA? That way you CREATED a ROOMONSTER. Har.
Fun puz. Clean fill, which is always nice. Rex's plaint on the "all the words aren't part of the theme" is kinda silly. They are phrases with hidden MONSTERs in them. Who gives a fig if every word isn't included? Not I. (I did get a chuckle out of Rex's hidden EDAM Themer!)
Easy, fun, clean. What else could ONE want in a MonPuz?
yd -5 (although I tried one word [shortened part of the pangram] several times and it wouldn't accept it, only to see it in the list), so -4, should'ves 2
A lighthearted Monday to start the week. Nothing wrong with that. And as @Nancy pointed out, NO specific knowledge of the MONSTERs was required in order to get the answers, a feature which I deeply appreciated. Nicely done Rebecca.
I agree with Rex that DRAG ONES FEET rolls off the tongue much more trippingly than HEELS, but the MADE/make A FIST debate is pretty nit picky. AHEM.
With multiple pets, I keep a LINT ROLLER in my purse, my car, my travel bag, and just about every room if the house. Do they make those things in the heavy duty industrial size? I recently became the foster parent of a beautiful McNab Shepherd whose behavior is impeccable but when he SHAKES, woof! Takes an ARMY to clean up.
Can't remember a Monday I enjoyed more. Very sweet theme, artfully executed.
Rex really had to tie himself into knots to find things to complain about today.
PPP is tricky to define. A certain song title would be PPP for me but a gimme for someone who is on Spotify a lot. In today's puzzle, for example, there are eleven entries which would be capitalized, but they are all well known to me. PEDRO, MAVS, RASTA, HELGA, ...
*** Wordle Alert *** I encountered something strange in solving today. Describing it today might be considered a spoiler, so I'll do it tomorrow. Got a birdie this morning. ********************
I just learned something that some of you might be interested in. Nevada is the Spanish word for snow. Even though it doesn't snow much in most of that arid state. Gill might correct me, but I believe that the "v" in nevada is pronounced like a "b." Which means that we all mispronounce the name of that state.
@mmorgan 8:51 - Thank you for expressing so well my delight with this puzzle. I'll just add that I thought the reveal was absolutely inspired.
@okanaganer 12:27 and @jberg 9:13 - Growing up in a Norwegian-American household, I learned about TROLLs as fearsome monsters before any OGREs or others of that ilk. As little kids, a favorite game was to act out The Three Billy Goats Gruff, with a coffee table serving as the bridge - one of those games that elicit shrieks of a terror-laughter mix. The reassuring thing was, you knew the TROLL was always going to lose.
No complaints here. In fact, kudos Rebecca Goldstein! A perfect Monday. Kudos also @Nanxy for such a clever description of the monsters lurking in the shadows. Such a wonderfully fun Monday!
Finally, a Birthday Happy for @Barbara S., A BIT of Dickens, from Nicholas Nickleby: “Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.”
@pabloinnh & @Truth Matters - Never saw the STP clue or that would have irked me, too. STP clued as a motor oil seems more like a late week misdirection.
@jberg - “Almodóvar” definitely looks Romance Language to me. I’m with you, though, transliterated names are a total crapshoot, whether it’s from Korean or Arabic or Sanskrit.
@amyyanni - The beatings will continue until morale improves.
@mathgent - re:PPP - I think you are giving the defining characteristic of PPP from a solving perspective. It is that for some the answer will be automatic while for others it will be a WOE. e.g., “Who’s on first comedians” vs. “aliens in Arrival” - My sons will know the answer to the second but not the first. I’m in the sweet spot to know both, while I’m guessing a whole lot of people here would give me the evil eye for the second clue. Also, this is a fine example of how cluing is inherently “political” (in the sense that politics deals with the allocation of scarcity). (BTW - If anyone hasn’t seen it and wants to see what good science fiction looks like, watch Arrival, I just watched it again yesterday which was a good salve for yesterday’s theme). Anyway, that anyone knows a PPP answer doesn’t make it any less PPP.
Excellent start to the week. As one who grew up on horror films, I loved the Frankenstein homage and the MONSTERS hiding between the words, though I do feel a little bad for the vampires, zombies, and werewolves who got upstaged by a TROLL.
Liked MADE A FIST leading to a game instead of leading to a fight.
It’s NO GREAT SHAKES, but if Laurel, Tucci, and Lee got together, it would be a trio of STANS.
Thought for the day: If a MONSTER comet were hurtling through space, could it MAR MARS?
I enjoyed this puzzle because clues that stymied me were later deduced. So everything fell into place after an initial feeling of frustration or hesitation. Only on completing the puzzle did I look at the words in the shaded parts. And that brought me back to "created a monster" which I had gotten easily at the beginning. Very enjoyable!
@A: Thanks for letting us know about Barbara’s birthday.
For @Barbara S - one of my favorites - Warning! by Jenny Joseph
“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me. And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter. I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells And run my stick along the public railings And make up for the sobriety of my youth. I shall go out in my slippers in the rain And pick flowers in other people’s gardens And learn to spit.
“You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat And eat three pounds of sausages at a go Or only bread and pickle for a week And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
“But now we must have clothes that keep us dry And pay our rent and not swear in the street And set a good example for the children. We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
“But maybe I ought to practice a little now? So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple…”
I was kind of excited but mostly devastated to see this puzzle because I've never been published but I was WORKING ON THE SAME IDEA! Themers were FRUITROLLUP, CLAUDEMONET, MICROGREENS, revealer was MONSTERSINC. But I did seriously consider using NOGREATSHAKES. So all in all probably the weirdest puzzling experience I've ever had.
Dinette would certainly also be be a valid answer as clued. As to whether it is binary (there is a right/wrong interpretation), I think you may be associating a greater degree of precision with the english language than actually exists. For example: Dinette is defined as(M/W):
Definition of dinette : a small space usually off a kitchen used for informal dining also : furniture for such a space
If that's the case, then using a strict interpretation is wrong as it is OFF the kitchen while the clue specifically says "in a kitchen" (note that the definition also says "usually" so there is even more wiggle room for interpretation here). I became a much more contented solver when I internalized the mindset that the clues are hints to the answers and not literal definitions. I agree that there are multiple approaches and that the issue is not binary as well.
Amigo, @mathgent 10:17. Nevada in español means snow-capped. Some people think it's strange because they mostly think of the state as being desert-like. Please ring the wrongy dongy bell for me. It has several snow-capped peaks; we use to go there twice a year to go skiing at Boulder ; think Tahoe. I've never pronounced it with a B sound - ever. It was part of my territory so I'd go there at least once a month to visit my travel agents. They all pronounced it Neh va-dah. Just like God intended for us Spanish speakers. :-)
@A.... Today is @Barbara S's birthday? Well, tickle my pink. Another Aquarius genius! Happy, Happy, to you @Barbara...Hope you have as much fun as I did.
staff weeject pick: OUR. Contained the puz's one U.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {French farewell} = ADIEU. (M&A always uses this word to start out a Wordle session.) fave alarmin Mon(ster)Puz no-moo-esque openin clue: {Director Almodovar} = PEDRO. Scared the M&A, sooo … kinda schlocky, I reckon.
fave themer: LINTROLLER. Whenever I visit the in-laws, their dog demands M&A do the belly rubs. If not, she jumps all over m&e, til I relent. If I do the rub, she cuddles up against m&e, while I do the task. Either way, my clothes end up with tons of the hairdo(g) on em. In-laws often out of pity pass the lintroller, after I end up lookin hairier than the dog.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Goldstein. Real good job. [What, no hidden VAMPIRE or ZOMBIE, tho? har]
My first thot was 'dinette', but it's a xword, so "Joaquin's Dictum" applies.
Dinette vs DINING SET
"Dinettes are typically smaller and less [formal] than dining room table sets. Dinettes are meant to be used in kitchens as eat in tables. They can vary in size, seating … two … to … six people … ." (California Dining & Barstools) ___ td pg: 9:34 / Wordle: 5
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Zex. @mathgent. PPP refers to clues and/or answers that deal with Product names, Pop culture, and other Proper nouns. That's it. Nothing to do with who knows it.
@mathgent-Actually the Spanish word for "snow" is "nieve". "Nevada" translates better as "snow-covered" or even "snow-capped", clearly describing the mountains. I wouldn't worry about the b/v thing unless we need to start rolling the "r" of "Rio Grande", for example.
"Colorado" , BTW, translates as "red". Not terribly imaginative as a name for a whole state.
Hi Rex, if you read this would you let us know what your completion time was for this puzzle? In the past I've been utterly impressed with your times on difficult puzzles that have stumped me. I hit exactly six minutes on this one for one of my quickest ever puzzles but I have a feeling that you just blink and the whole thing is filled in. ☺️
Many of us complain about PPP. My point is that a lot, or maybe most, of PPP isn't a problem. For example, several words in today's puzzle are PPP and they slip right in.
Pronouncing “V” in Spanish and note what this says about regional dialects. Although, to my ear, that “B” sound in Spain is different from how I hear English or French speakers pronounce it, sort of like how I would say the letter V while forming the letter B with my lips.
DINING room SET / DINING SET / DINEtte - Unlike math, in English A = B and B = C does not mean A = C.
@Barbara S - Z’s Placebo & Tentacle received complaints about our last birthday party DJ offering. Any nominees? Given your affinity for poetry, may CrossFav Nas.
The New Game - link after the stats
🌎 Feb 7, 2022 🌍 Today's guesses: 11 Current streak: 2 Average guesses: 10.5
Here's yet another use for duct/duck tape---as a LINT ROLLER! I learned this trick in the Navy. Our winter uniforms were dark navy blue wool and they would pick up lint like crazy. Take a roll of the versatile tape, unwind enough so that it will double back around the roll plus an inch or so---don't tear or cut it---and then rewind it around the roll but now with the sticky side out. Then roll the sticky side out tape over whatever surface that needs de-linting or de-dog-hairing. When the sticky side gets covered, unwind it, cut it off and repeat the process. This also works with masking tape or any similar roll of tape. Your welcome.
Snailslibel @11:28, I can empathize and go you one worse. I had already submitted a puzzle and was waiting for a response from the editor when a puzzle with a nearly identical theme and theme entries was published. A couple of weeks later I received a reply from the editor saying it was a good puzzle but they obviously couldn't accept it given the recently published similar one. Talk about a major buzz kill! I MADE A FIST and cursed like a sailor! So yeah, I can empathize.
I know that trolls originally show up in Norse mythology as mischievous creatures, but I think some homeless people living under bridges today are the modern equivalent of the first trolls. I'll bet that when the first bridges built were completed people down on their luck were living under them when possible. The modern day troll is not online, but a homeless person seeking shelter and security.
@jberg and @Carola: yes evidently I've forgotten, if I've ever read, the orignal troll stories. When I was hiking the mountains above Oslo, quite dense and dark, full of mosssy boulders, it reminded me of trolls and such. Kinda eerie.
[Spelling Bee: td pg in 6:40; I'll work on QB later as it's another sunny day!]
[Wordle: I don't usually share, but here was my pain due to hard mode yesterday: ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟨 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
@Anon 12:15 Thank you for correcting @Zed on what PPP means. No, I'm not kidding, seriously, thank you. No sarcasm either, thank you, thank you, thank you.
@okanaganer - I see the duck as a guess. I see the finisher as a guess. But I cannot figure out what your third wrong guess with the missing second letter.
Forgot to mention that it was Dickens’ birthday too, which I knew from @Barbara's post last year.
Yes, @GILL, I had both yours and @Barbara’s birthdays in my phone from last year. Actually there’s another coming up soon. :-) I must have been playing around with my phone calendar - one of the bright spots in my love/hate relationship with tech. Not sure I kept it up after February. Enjoyed your comments about Almodovar and LLOSA - makes me want to learn more.
@Whatsername - love the Jenny Joseph! Think I’ll learn to spit as my warning.
@bocamp, thanks for the very civilized dinette set comment. Yes, Joaquin’s Dictum rides again!
@Snailslibel, I prefer your MONSTERSINC to CREATED A MONSTER. Fun themers also. Hope you get published without suffering @Anoa Bob’s fate! @Anoa, thanks - now I'll never have to buy a LINT ROLLER again!
A wonderful Monday. I think even rex recognized you have to be a bit anal-retentive to find much fault with today's clean grid and solid theme. Although I do agree with him that having THEY and THEM together might better have been avoided. I initially put down PABLO instead of PEDRO, but the downs quickly made me aware of my error. Something tells me the constructor is a film lover. Personally I've never seen a Wes Anderson film that I liked, but I think I'm in the minority in that regard.
And in way more important news: Wordle 233 5/6
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜ ⬜🟨🟨🟩⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 It's too bad the puzzles don't get published on an ascending scale of difficulty like the NYTXW.
@A. You're a peach...and a smart one. I should do the same since I sometimes forget my best friends birthday. My daughter has to remind me! @Z.....Did you change your name? Or have I been talking to someone else and not knowing it? HAH! Where is @Frantic and JD when we need them?
Aww, you guys! I don’t call, I don’t write, I haven’t posted a crossword puzzle review for 2 weeks, and somehow you knew it was my birthday and wished me a happy one.
Thanks to @A (with her brilliant memory-phone and lovely Dickens quotation), @Whatsername (with the wonderful poem by Jenny Joseph – and, BTW, I’m wearing purple *today*!), @Gill I. (my fellow-Februarian-Aquarian and near-twin sister, born on almost the same date), and @Nancy (for the astonishing off-blog canine chorus). @Zex, Greetings. I have to say your DJ question has flummoxed me. I’d say I’ll ponder it but I don’t think that would help.
Enjoyed the MONSTER Medley. I wish the clue “Popular [P]ie [N]ut” had featured all caps. As it was, it reminded me of the Cookie MONSTER. Liked HOOF as the thing a horseshoe is attached to, although when I first read the clue, I thought of a pub wall (near a dartboard). Liked ganja-smoking as a sacrament. Noticed SOSO and TETE, and wannabes DATA, BOZO and EXES. And smiled at ASTI, which for years was my family’s go-to for “champagne.” I’m with the DINette people (but bow to Joaquin’s Dictum). And isn’t it usually LOX and bagel (in that order)?
I also liked all the film-related entries: PEDRO Almodóvar, WES Anderson, Que SERA SERA (from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, and, of course, the “It’s Alive!” scene from the 1931 Frankenstein. Interestingly, that was a PRECODE film, and Wiki talks about the controversy stirred up by various scenes. On the film’s release, state censorship boards got busy in MA, PA, NY and KS, and the movie was eventually banned outright in Québec among other places.
Dordle: 3 today. 4 under after 25 holes.
SB: yd 0, after a string of mediocre finishes (but don’t have much time for it these days)
Moved quickly though this. Not a record Monday, but low in the times. Never used the theme, but I could tell early on wheat it was supposed to be, but it would have taken me longer to back solve from the theme than just to work it straight through. A nice bit of Monday speed work after a tougher than normal weekend for me.
@Anon4:48 & @okanaganer - D’Oh! Yep, I totally missed that it was yesterday’s wordle. When I go to the site after midnight the puzzle and results are gone so it never even occurred to me that someone would be posting earlier results.
@Gill I - Friday or Saturday, as a result of @egs “catching me,” I changed my name. I’m not change the bar’s name, though.
@okanaganer -- Oh, it was Sunday's Wordle! Well, why didn't you say so? I thought I was losing my everloving mind -- and I bet Zex did too. Four 2nd letter alternatives for today's puzzle were simply not possible.
@Anoa Bob -- What an awful story! But it does make me think that perhaps there might be such a thing as a "Universal Mind" or ESP resulting from brain waves zipping around on their own, helter-skelter, hither and yon. These coincidences -- and especially the timing of them -- are so eerie.
I thought DINING set didn't sound quite right. Maybe DINING room set. Then dinette was mentioned. I thought that's it. Looking up the various terms I find them somewhat interchangeable. But the clue mentions kitchen. This tilts it to dinette. And dinette is used most often in kitchens and smaller rooms off kitchens and 6 or fewer chairs. DINING is often used as dining room set and 8 or more chairs in a separate larger room.
And that got me to thinking about bathroom and bedroom as opposed to living rooom and dining room and and the accidents of spelling in languages. Verbs gerunds nouns or just chance?
Which got me to the artificial divisions Rex makes. The shaded letters should cross all words in the answer. How does he count compound words I wonder. Plus he is insistent that the themers be a common a common phrase. Now that makes the words a singular thing. So the hidden monsters all appear in a single phrase. Who made up this all words in the phrase must be used? Is that really in the crossword rulebook?
Inconsistently, I think Rex makes a pretty good case today. But NOGREATSHAKES is a fine phrase. Best or second best for sure. How does one find a balance to the final vices and virtues of a creation.
Yeah. There is no try or not try. There is only do. And yeah I should get a life.
Clue for Column 2: Job for Bruno's producer? EDIT MARS' REMIX
@snails, I might resubmit the puzzle to another publication in several years, with a note explaining its history. Or maybe try the indie route. So I'd rather not go into specifics.
I apologize if someone mentioned this already, but Dr. Frankenstein doesn't create a monster, he creates a creature. It is he, the creator, who acts monstrously because he is so repulsed by the appearance of his own creation. Ironically popular culture has followed the prejudicial lead of Dr. Frankenstein (rather than Mary Shelly) by assuming the monster in the book is the creature.
I noticed THEM/THEY but missed MAR/MARS completely. Hand up for not putting an unknown PPP at 1a on a Monday, plus another at 54d.
Those nits ASIDE, I enjoyed this one. I especially appreciate the non-pugilistic clue for MADEAFIST. This is a puzzle where shaded areas make, for a change, sense. And yes, the TROLL in question is not the internet lurker of today, but the fellow who hides under the bridge and scares poor Billy Goat Gruff. Similarly, the OGRE is not Shrek nor Fiona. But I babble.
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NOGREATSHAKES is worth the price of admission. The rest is fun. That is all.
ReplyDeleteGood theme, but I don't think of a TROLL as a monster. More like an annoyance.
ReplyDeleteSolving by looking at only the down clues, I finished but with a double error: SWIPE for 53d "Grab". I should have checked the crosses: WAT and BOPO just don't make sense. Oh, just too confident.
[Spelling Bee: Sat.: pg-1, missed this word (darned plurals!)
Sun.: 0, my last word was appropriate for the times.]
Tough. More like a Tuesday. Fun theme answers without much dreck, liked it.
ReplyDelete@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #681 started with a “no way can I finish this” take on the grid and ended a few hours later with a finished puzzle. So medium for a Croce. Note that my times for Saturday NYT puzzles are measured in minutes. My Croce puzzle times are measured in hours, but I do step away and come back to it more than once during the solve. Good luck!
What have you done if you combine A HEM, A BACK, A SIDE, A DIEU, A LIKE, A SLEEP and A BIT? You’ve CREATED A MONSTER.
ReplyDeleteSeeing Mrs. Horrible again makes me wonder if Anoa Bob is on to something with the mysterious links between puzzles.
Very fun Monday, but the revealer doesn’t quite fit. I didn’t create a monster, and I certainly didn’t do so after filling in all of the themers. But thanks for a good time, Rebecca Goldstein.
A LINT ROLLER wouldn’t make a dent in this household of furry critters, we need a leaf blower.
ReplyDeleteWanted my feet to be dragged, not my heels, didn’t fit, okay heels it is.
Fun Monday puzzle.
LOL and a big AMEN to the leaf blower, @chefwen!
Delete
ReplyDeleteHad LINTROLLER in place before reading the clue. Thought it might be about the basketball player who inspired terms like "Linsanity."
I’m never a fan of getting blasted with PPP coming right out of 1A (even with Monday-level crosses). Feel sorry for new solvers getting a dose of Almodovar this early in the morning. ISLA and LLOSA also look a little out of place on a Monday. The theme was about all you could hope for - enough there to create a passing interest but not gum up the works or do any real damage.
ReplyDeleteThe director WES Anderson is a WS-fave (I don’t know anything else about him other than he appears in the NYT Xword pretty regularly). If you have a 5x7 trivia “reminder card” like I do, he would be worthy of a mention.
RASTA reminds me of the time I ate a weed brownie and cooked a pizza at 15 degrees for 400 minutes.
Dordle Warning!
ReplyDeleteCan trigger headaches
@egsforbreakfast -- I too noticed that starting schwa-team.
ReplyDeleteA highlight of this monster mash are the theme answers – all lovely lively phrases to me. I also liked the side-by-side of two given names that double duty as non-name words, STEW and PATSY.
Impressive to me is how well-connected the grid is. The NE and SW each have two long answers connecting them to the rest of the grid, and the NW and SE each have three. This makes the puzzle very friendly for newer solvers.
Rebecca has range; her last offering, which was her debut, was a wonderful Thursday with the reveal SALT SHAKER, which rebused the letters NACL. As for this Monday creation, from PEDRO to PATSY, it’s a peachy puzzle with pop. Thank you, Rebecca!
@chefen. I feel your pin. I have to use duck/duct tape on my car seats
ReplyDeleteMy five favorite clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Issue with image quality, informally? (3)(3)
2. Not stress so much? (9)
3. Live on water, say (4)
4. Result of selling out (6)(5)
5. The right one can produce a smile (11)
BAD REP
UNDERSELL
FAST
PACKED HOUSE
PARENTHESIS
Wordle 233 5/6
ReplyDelete⬛🟨⬛🟩⬛
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Managed to salvage a bogey today. 2-under after 5.
Nice Monday puzzle; easy--even with the PPP items.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Hidden Diagonal Word for this grid could be Monday-level clued as, "Parsley, sage, rosemary, or thyme." (HERB--begins with the H from SHADOW, 47D, and moves towards SW.) And the KEG in 21A leads into a diagonal classic muscle car--GTO--two things that were often in the same location in my teenage years.
Wishing all a happy week of solves.
Seeing an NBA team and Nike in a puzzle made me think of the genocide of the Uyghurs. I hope everyone here is boycotting the Genocide Games.
ReplyDelete@Lewis - Is Mr. Tah on the Schwa-TEAM?
ReplyDeleteI’m still waiting on my HELGA Pataki clue. HELGA Horrible is easy. Easy like Monday Morning.
I’ve done a couple of Mondays recently on the NYTX App. I am consistently 60-75 seconds slower than I was on PuzzAzz. That’s a 20% drop in speed. I’m sure it’s mostly a familiarity thing and I don’t actually much care about my time, but still it is another reason I find their app unpleasant to use.
“Almodóvar” in the clue tells you it’s probably a foreign name and looks vaguely Spanish or Portuguese (Ó isn’t French nor Italian). Seems like PALS narrows it down to PEDRO or PABLO and EDIT makes it PEDRO. Don’t get locked in on what you don’t know.
I posted a new web puzzle game last night especially because I know @Frantic Sloth will just simple adore it. On her bike.
Cute puzzle - we see so many hidden word themes now but this was fine early week fare. NO GREAT SHAKES shines here - hand up for DRAG ONES feet initially so that was a downer.
ReplyDeleteOverall fill was a little flat - kind of liked the X cross in the center. HELGA or Christina - hmm???
Enjoyable Monday solve.
Please post wordle info on Twitter, not here.
ReplyDeleteReally liked the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteEasy Monday, flew through, with the only hiccup being FEET(S), which of course goes in the expression "don't fail me now", and not the DRAG one.
ReplyDeleteProbably no other place to put it but I still don't like a revealer in the middle.
STP is an additive and not a "motor oil".
Otherwise a fine Mondecito. PEDRO, ISLA, and LLOSA were all gimmes here, maybe not for everyone. Well done, RG. Respeto y Gracias for all the fun.
Oh frabjous day! Rebecca doesn't expect me to know anything about monsters -- not their comics, TV series, gory blood-spattered movies -- none of it! She just wants me to be able to spot them in the gray SHADOWs. I can do that! And it's fun!!!
ReplyDeleteMy eye fell upon "Emulated Dr Frankenstein" before I'd filled in much of anything at all, and I knew immediately that the answer would be CREATED A MONSTER. I didn't even have to count letters. So I knew -- sort of -- what would be in the gray squares. But that didn't make it any less fun. I amused myself with guessing monsters, based on very few crosses.
When I had ---GON, I immediately thought gorGON. I'm the only one, aren't I? Your mileage may vary and it probably did.
What impresses me most about this puzzle are the colorful phrases Rebecca found within to embed her monsters: LINT ROLLER; NO GREAT SHAKES; DRAG ONE'S HEELS. They're delightful. So is the non-theme answer MADE A FIST, as clued. And I admire -- nay celebrate -- the fact that there are almost no proper names or pop culture in the puzzle. Lovely Monday.
Crazy easy but an absolutely wonderful, terrific Monday. Virtually no hint of tired fill or crosswordese — you have to squint (and be a spoilsport) to carp about that. The themers weren’t that exciting to me, but the whole thing was lively and crisp and delightful. I’d be more likely to go with “they” for a non-binary pronoun and I never know stuff like MAVS or any other sports team, but that’s just me. And I wanted to DRAG ONES fEEtS [sic] for a few seconds. No nits or complaints, just a lot to admire and love. Thanks Rebecca!
ReplyDeleteThx Rebecca, for your MONSTER mash puz! :)
ReplyDeleteMed.
I sTROLLEd thru this one until finally DRAGging my HEELS in the SE corner.
Made the mistake of dropping in 'dOdO' before BOZO. Also, wasn't sure of LLOSA, so that corner took some time to sort out.
Lived a spell in Lake Oswego (not far from Beaverton) in the mid '60s.
The grandkids used rock, paper, scissors to settle disputes; worked like a charm.
Enjoyed the trip down RETRO lane! :)
@jae
Thx, looking forward to working on Croce's 681 today (and maybe tomorrow lol).
@puzzlehoarder 👍 for 0 dbyd / @okanaganer 👍 for 0 yd
___
yd pg: 20:55 / Wordle: 5
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Pablo 8:23
ReplyDeleteI think Will got you (on a Monday!). STP is the name of the brand. They market more than one product. From the STP website:
STP® PRO FORMULA CONVENTIONAL MOTOR OIL
Scientifically formulated to insulate your engine from the damaging effects of wear.
HELPS:
Reduce Engine Wear While Maintaining Fuel Economy
Control sludge Formation and Clean Key Engine Components
Protect Against the Harmful Effects of Rust and Corrosion
Maybe I can be the first to point out the NAP/ASLEEP cross, a nice touch.
ReplyDelete@Z's little tutorial on how to get PEDRO is useful; but of course you have to recognize Spanish names. I can do that (well, I knew it anyway) -- but with the rise of Korean directors, I am often in trouble.
I've been reading Rex for almost 10 years now, and until today he has been consistently opposed to cross-referenced clues. Now he's calling for one! We all evolve.
Oh, yeah, @okanaganer -- you're being too contemporary. The original trolls were lurking under a bridge in Norway and eating everyone who tried to cross, until the Big Billy Goat Gruff came along.
ReplyDeleteToday, I was pink with tickle. Rebecca gives me two people I admire:
ReplyDeletePEDRO Almodovar is a very popular director in Spain. I first saw "Volver" with Penelope Cruz and wondered what kind of mind comes up with this! Atame ("Tie Me Up...Tie me down) was the second film I watched because who doesn't drool over Antonio Banderas?
Then you give me Vargas LLOSA. My dad gave me "A Fish In the Water." It was his memoire. He tells about his growing up in Peru and the angst he suffered for his country. Llosa was the champion of peasants and the middle class people. He hated corruption in politics (who doesn't?) and he tried to make changes. We lived in Lima at a time where all the evil corruptions were exploding all over the place. The people who ran Pero were truly TROLLs, OGREs, DRAGONs and DEMONs.....
I have a vivid imagination.
I also enjoyed this puzzle. I'm only hoping that the ORCA ate the OKRA . THEM and THEY did; they had to take a NAP to fall ASLEEP.
@Z... Yeah sure! Did your cat also eat your homework?????
It's a "dinette set" not a "dining set." Bizarre answer.
ReplyDelete@Airy 9:18
ReplyDeleteI googled "Dining Set". It returned: About 1,600,000,000 results (0.80 seconds). Bizarre comment.
Sorry, but I'm with Airymom. When it's in a kitchen, it's a dinette set.
DeleteI grew up with a table and chairs in the kitchen that seated eight people. I would not call that a dinette set.
Delete@Truth Matters-Well, I wondered a little about that as I was writing my comment. Turns out the way you have always thought of something may not be the way it is, so thanks for the correction. That'll learn me.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteWhere's Themer ROOIBOS TEA? That way you CREATED a ROOMONSTER. Har.
Fun puz. Clean fill, which is always nice. Rex's plaint on the "all the words aren't part of the theme" is kinda silly. They are phrases with hidden MONSTERs in them. Who gives a fig if every word isn't included? Not I. (I did get a chuckle out of Rex's hidden EDAM Themer!)
Easy, fun, clean. What else could ONE want in a MonPuz?
yd -5 (although I tried one word [shortened part of the pangram] several times and it wouldn't accept it, only to see it in the list), so -4, should'ves 2
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
A lighthearted Monday to start the week. Nothing wrong with that. And as @Nancy pointed out, NO specific knowledge of the MONSTERs was required in order to get the answers, a feature which I deeply appreciated. Nicely done Rebecca.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rex that DRAG ONES FEET rolls off the tongue much more trippingly than HEELS, but the MADE/make A FIST debate is pretty nit picky. AHEM.
With multiple pets, I keep a LINT ROLLER in my purse, my car, my travel bag, and just about every room if the house. Do they make those things in the heavy duty industrial size? I recently became the foster parent of a beautiful McNab Shepherd whose behavior is impeccable but when he SHAKES, woof! Takes an ARMY to clean up.
Can't remember a Monday I enjoyed more. Very sweet theme, artfully executed.
ReplyDeleteRex really had to tie himself into knots to find things to complain about today.
PPP is tricky to define. A certain song title would be PPP for me but a gimme for someone who is on Spotify a lot. In today's puzzle, for example, there are eleven entries which would be capitalized, but they are all well known to me. PEDRO, MAVS, RASTA, HELGA, ...
*** Wordle Alert ***
I encountered something strange in solving today. Describing it today might be considered a spoiler, so I'll do it tomorrow. Got a birdie this morning.
********************
I just learned something that some of you might be interested in. Nevada is the Spanish word for snow. Even though it doesn't snow much in most of that arid state. Gill might correct me, but I believe that the "v" in nevada is pronounced like a "b." Which means that we all mispronounce the name of that state.
@mmorgan 8:51 - Thank you for expressing so well my delight with this puzzle. I'll just add that I thought the reveal was absolutely inspired.
ReplyDelete@okanaganer 12:27 and @jberg 9:13 - Growing up in a Norwegian-American household, I learned about TROLLs as fearsome monsters before any OGREs or others of that ilk. As little kids, a favorite game was to act out The Three Billy Goats Gruff, with a coffee table serving as the bridge - one of those games that elicit shrieks of a terror-laughter mix. The reassuring thing was, you knew the TROLL was always going to lose.
No complaints here. In fact, kudos Rebecca Goldstein! A perfect Monday. Kudos also @Nanxy for such a clever description of the monsters lurking in the shadows. Such a wonderfully fun Monday!
ReplyDeleteRASTA showed up late for Marley’s birthday but it was fresh on my mind so that sped up an already short solve.
ReplyDeleteI think of the table and chairs in a kitchen as a DINette SET. A DINING SET would more likely be found in a DINING room.
Couple of notable birthdays today:
the great Eubie Blake
and
Laurie Johnson (The Avengers theme aka “The Shake”
Finally, a Birthday Happy for @Barbara S., A BIT of Dickens, from Nicholas Nickleby:
“Happiness is a gift and the trick is not to expect it, but to delight in it when it comes.”
@Gill I - 🤣😂🤣
ReplyDelete@pabloinnh & @Truth Matters - Never saw the STP clue or that would have irked me, too. STP clued as a motor oil seems more like a late week misdirection.
@jberg - “Almodóvar” definitely looks Romance Language to me. I’m with you, though, transliterated names are a total crapshoot, whether it’s from Korean or Arabic or Sanskrit.
@amyyanni - The beatings will continue until morale improves.
Wordle 233 4/6*
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Still at -4 at 33 holes.
@mathgent - re:PPP - I think you are giving the defining characteristic of PPP from a solving perspective. It is that for some the answer will be automatic while for others it will be a WOE. e.g., “Who’s on first comedians” vs. “aliens in Arrival” - My sons will know the answer to the second but not the first. I’m in the sweet spot to know both, while I’m guessing a whole lot of people here would give me the evil eye for the second clue. Also, this is a fine example of how cluing is inherently “political” (in the sense that politics deals with the allocation of scarcity). (BTW - If anyone hasn’t seen it and wants to see what good science fiction looks like, watch Arrival, I just watched it again yesterday which was a good salve for yesterday’s theme). Anyway, that anyone knows a PPP answer doesn’t make it any less PPP.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteExcellent start to the week. As one who grew up on horror films, I loved the Frankenstein homage and the MONSTERS hiding between the words, though I do feel a little bad for the vampires, zombies, and werewolves who got upstaged by a TROLL.
ReplyDeleteLiked MADE A FIST leading to a game instead of leading to a fight.
It’s NO GREAT SHAKES, but if Laurel, Tucci, and Lee got together, it would be a trio of STANS.
Thought for the day: If a MONSTER comet were hurtling through space, could it MAR MARS?
I enjoyed this puzzle because clues that stymied me were later deduced.
ReplyDeleteSo everything fell into place after an initial feeling of frustration or hesitation.
Only on completing the puzzle did I look at the words in the shaded parts. And that brought me back to "created a monster" which I had gotten easily at the beginning.
Very enjoyable!
@A: Thanks for letting us know about Barbara’s birthday.
ReplyDeleteFor @Barbara S - one of my favorites - Warning! by Jenny Joseph
“When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people’s gardens
And learn to spit.
“You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
“But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
“But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple…”
Theme of the Red Hat women's society.
DeleteI was kind of excited but mostly devastated to see this puzzle because I've never been published but I was WORKING ON THE SAME IDEA! Themers were FRUITROLLUP, CLAUDEMONET, MICROGREENS, revealer was MONSTERSINC. But I did seriously consider using NOGREATSHAKES. So all in all probably the weirdest puzzling experience I've ever had.
ReplyDelete@Anon 10:53 AM
ReplyDeleteDinette would certainly also be be a valid answer as clued. As to whether it is binary (there is a right/wrong interpretation), I think you may be associating a greater degree of precision with the english language than actually exists. For example: Dinette is defined as(M/W):
Definition of dinette
: a small space usually off a kitchen used for informal dining
also : furniture for such a space
If that's the case, then using a strict interpretation is wrong as it is OFF the kitchen while the clue specifically says "in a kitchen" (note that the definition also says "usually" so there is even more wiggle room for interpretation here). I became a much more contented solver when I internalized the mindset that the clues are hints to the answers and not literal definitions. I agree that there are multiple approaches and that the issue is not binary as well.
@Snailslibel 11:28. Pretty weird. If it’s any consolation, I think that MONSTERSINC is the better revealer.
ReplyDeleteFun one!
ReplyDelete🦖🦖🦖🦖
🤗
Amigo, @mathgent 10:17. Nevada in español means snow-capped. Some people think it's strange because they mostly think of the state as being desert-like. Please ring the wrongy dongy bell for me. It has several snow-capped peaks; we use to go there twice a year to go skiing at Boulder ; think Tahoe. I've never pronounced it with a B sound - ever. It was part of my territory so I'd go there at least once a month to visit my travel agents. They all pronounced it Neh va-dah. Just like God intended for us Spanish speakers. :-)
ReplyDelete@A.... Today is @Barbara S's birthday? Well, tickle my pink. Another Aquarius genius! Happy, Happy, to you @Barbara...Hope you have as much fun as I did.
@zex -- Thank you for noticing the schwa team, nor am I surprised that you'd catch it.
ReplyDeleteSchlocky theme. Smoothly filled. Like.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: OUR. Contained the puz's one U.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {French farewell} = ADIEU. (M&A always uses this word to start out a Wordle session.)
fave alarmin Mon(ster)Puz no-moo-esque openin clue: {Director Almodovar} = PEDRO. Scared the M&A, sooo … kinda schlocky, I reckon.
fave themer: LINTROLLER. Whenever I visit the in-laws, their dog demands M&A do the belly rubs. If not, she jumps all over m&e, til I relent. If I do the rub, she cuddles up against m&e, while I do the task. Either way, my clothes end up with tons of the hairdo(g) on em. In-laws often out of pity pass the lintroller, after I end up lookin hairier than the dog.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Goldstein. Real good job. [What, no hidden VAMPIRE or ZOMBIE, tho? har]
Masked & Anonymo1U
biter potential; rated 3 teethmarks:
**gruntz**
My first thot was 'dinette', but it's a xword, so "Joaquin's Dictum" applies.
ReplyDeleteDinette vs DINING SET
"Dinettes are typically smaller and less [formal] than dining room table sets. Dinettes are meant to be used in kitchens as eat in tables. They can vary in size, seating … two … to … six people … ." (California Dining & Barstools)
___
td pg: 9:34 / Wordle: 5
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Zex. @mathgent. PPP refers to clues and/or answers that deal with Product names, Pop culture, and other Proper nouns. That's it. Nothing to do with who knows it.
ReplyDelete@mathgent-Actually the Spanish word for "snow" is "nieve". "Nevada" translates better as "snow-covered" or even "snow-capped", clearly describing the mountains. I wouldn't worry about the b/v thing unless we need to start rolling the "r" of "Rio Grande", for example.
ReplyDelete"Colorado" , BTW, translates as "red". Not terribly imaginative as a name for a whole state.
@amyyanni. I have no choice as I don't do Twitter.
ReplyDeleteWordle 233 4/6
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Hi Rex, if you read this would you let us know what your completion time was for this puzzle? In the past I've been utterly impressed with your times on difficult puzzles that have stumped me. I hit exactly six minutes on this one for one of my quickest ever puzzles but I have a feeling that you just blink and the whole thing is filled in. ☺️
ReplyDeleteMany of us complain about PPP. My point is that a lot, or maybe most, of PPP isn't a problem. For example, several words in today's puzzle are PPP and they slip right in.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite comments this morning.
ReplyDeleteSouthsideJohnny (6:22)
Whatsername (11:23)
Snailslibel (11:28)
pabloinnh (12:18)
Pronouncing “V” in Spanish and note what this says about regional dialects. Although, to my ear, that “B” sound in Spain is different from how I hear English or French speakers pronounce it, sort of like how I would say the letter V while forming the letter B with my lips.
ReplyDeleteDINING room SET / DINING SET / DINEtte - Unlike math, in English A = B and B = C does not mean A = C.
@Barbara S - Z’s Placebo & Tentacle received complaints about our last birthday party DJ offering. Any nominees? Given your affinity for poetry, may CrossFav Nas.
The New Game - link after the stats
🌎 Feb 7, 2022 🌍
Today's guesses: 11
Current streak: 2
Average guesses: 10.5
https://globle-game.com
Here's yet another use for duct/duck tape---as a LINT ROLLER! I learned this trick in the Navy. Our winter uniforms were dark navy blue wool and they would pick up lint like crazy. Take a roll of the versatile tape, unwind enough so that it will double back around the roll plus an inch or so---don't tear or cut it---and then rewind it around the roll but now with the sticky side out. Then roll the sticky side out tape over whatever surface that needs de-linting or de-dog-hairing. When the sticky side gets covered, unwind it, cut it off and repeat the process. This also works with masking tape or any similar roll of tape. Your welcome.
ReplyDeleteSnailslibel @11:28, I can empathize and go you one worse. I had already submitted a puzzle and was waiting for a response from the editor when a puzzle with a nearly identical theme and theme entries was published. A couple of weeks later I received a reply from the editor saying it was a good puzzle but they obviously couldn't accept it given the recently published similar one. Talk about a major buzz kill! I MADE A FIST and cursed like a sailor! So yeah, I can empathize.
I know that trolls originally show up in Norse mythology as mischievous creatures, but I think some homeless people living under bridges today are the modern equivalent of the first trolls. I'll bet that when the first bridges built were completed people down on their luck were living under them when possible. The modern day troll is not online, but a homeless person seeking shelter and security.
ReplyDelete@jberg and @Carola: yes evidently I've forgotten, if I've ever read, the orignal troll stories. When I was hiking the mountains above Oslo, quite dense and dark, full of mosssy boulders, it reminded me of trolls and such. Kinda eerie.
ReplyDelete[Spelling Bee: td pg in 6:40; I'll work on QB later as it's another sunny day!]
[Wordle: I don't usually share, but here was my pain due to hard mode yesterday:
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@okanaganer. Your 4th and 5th tries were just as good as the 6th. It's random. Your 6th try could have been your 4th. Hope that helps.
ReplyDelete@Anon 12:15 Thank you for correcting @Zed on what PPP means. No, I'm not kidding, seriously, thank you. No sarcasm either, thank you, thank you, thank you.
ReplyDelete@Pete - I dunno. I think I detect just a wee bit of sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteIn addition to Globle there is Nerdle , which is a numbers ripoff of Wordle, for those so inclined.
ReplyDelete** wordle alert and potential spoiler**
ReplyDelete@okanaganer - I see the duck as a guess. I see the finisher as a guess. But I cannot figure out what your third wrong guess with the missing second letter.
Forgot to mention that it was Dickens’ birthday too, which I knew from @Barbara's post last year.
ReplyDeleteYes, @GILL, I had both yours and @Barbara’s birthdays in my phone from last year. Actually there’s another coming up soon. :-) I must have been playing around with my phone calendar - one of the bright spots in my love/hate relationship with tech. Not sure I kept it up after February. Enjoyed your comments about Almodovar and LLOSA - makes me want to learn more.
@Whatsername - love the Jenny Joseph! Think I’ll learn to spit as my warning.
@bocamp, thanks for the very civilized dinette set comment. Yes, Joaquin’s Dictum rides again!
@Snailslibel, I prefer your MONSTERSINC to CREATED A MONSTER. Fun themers also. Hope you get published without suffering @Anoa Bob’s fate! @Anoa, thanks - now I'll never have to buy a LINT ROLLER again!
@Zex -- I had the exact same reaction. There IS no third wrong guess!!!!
ReplyDeleteExcuse me for butting in, Zex & Nancy. Okananager said it was yesterday's. Were you by any chance looking at today's?
ReplyDeleteA wonderful Monday. I think even rex recognized you have to be a bit anal-retentive to find much fault with today's clean grid and solid theme. Although I do agree with him that having THEY and THEM together might better have been avoided.
ReplyDeleteI initially put down PABLO instead of PEDRO, but the downs quickly made me aware of my error.
Something tells me the constructor is a film lover. Personally I've never seen a Wes Anderson film that I liked, but I think I'm in the minority in that regard.
And in way more important news:
Wordle 233 5/6
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It's too bad the puzzles don't get published on an ascending scale of difficulty like the NYTXW.
My own Wordle, btw
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@A. You're a peach...and a smart one. I should do the same since I sometimes forget my best friends birthday. My daughter has to remind me!
ReplyDelete@Z.....Did you change your name? Or have I been talking to someone else and not knowing it? HAH!
Where is @Frantic and JD when we need them?
@Zex and @Nancy: here are my last 4 guesses. (Remember this is Sunday's!)
ReplyDeleteAww, you guys! I don’t call, I don’t write, I haven’t posted a crossword puzzle review for 2 weeks, and somehow you knew it was my birthday and wished me a happy one.
ReplyDeleteThanks to @A (with her brilliant memory-phone and lovely Dickens quotation), @Whatsername (with the wonderful poem by Jenny Joseph – and, BTW, I’m wearing purple *today*!), @Gill I. (my fellow-Februarian-Aquarian and near-twin sister, born on almost the same date), and @Nancy (for the astonishing off-blog canine chorus). @Zex, Greetings. I have to say your DJ question has flummoxed me. I’d say I’ll ponder it but I don’t think that would help.
Enjoyed the MONSTER Medley. I wish the clue “Popular [P]ie [N]ut” had featured all caps. As it was, it reminded me of the Cookie MONSTER. Liked HOOF as the thing a horseshoe is attached to, although when I first read the clue, I thought of a pub wall (near a dartboard). Liked ganja-smoking as a sacrament. Noticed SOSO and TETE, and wannabes DATA, BOZO and EXES. And smiled at ASTI, which for years was my family’s go-to for “champagne.” I’m with the DINette people (but bow to Joaquin’s Dictum). And isn’t it usually LOX and bagel (in that order)?
I also liked all the film-related entries: PEDRO Almodóvar, WES Anderson, Que SERA SERA (from Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, and, of course, the “It’s Alive!” scene from the 1931 Frankenstein. Interestingly, that was a PRECODE film, and Wiki talks about the controversy stirred up by various scenes. On the film’s release, state censorship boards got busy in MA, PA, NY and KS, and the movie was eventually banned outright in Québec among other places.
Dordle: 3 today. 4 under after 25 holes.
SB: yd 0, after a string of mediocre finishes (but don’t have much time for it these days)
@Anoa Bob Awful!! You're right, that is worse. What was your idea, if you don't mind my asking?
ReplyDeleteMoved quickly though this. Not a record Monday, but low in the times. Never used the theme, but I could tell early on wheat it was supposed to be, but it would have taken me longer to back solve from the theme than just to work it straight through. A nice bit of Monday speed work after a tougher than normal weekend for me.
ReplyDelete@Anon4:48 & @okanaganer - D’Oh! Yep, I totally missed that it was yesterday’s wordle. When I go to the site after midnight the puzzle and results are gone so it never even occurred to me that someone would be posting earlier results.
ReplyDelete@Gill I - Friday or Saturday, as a result of @egs “catching me,” I changed my name. I’m not change the bar’s name, though.
@okanaganer -- Oh, it was Sunday's Wordle! Well, why didn't you say so? I thought I was losing my everloving mind -- and I bet Zex did too. Four 2nd letter alternatives for today's puzzle were simply not possible.
ReplyDelete@Anoa Bob -- What an awful story! But it does make me think that perhaps there might be such a thing as a "Universal Mind" or ESP resulting from brain waves zipping around on their own, helter-skelter, hither and yon. These coincidences -- and especially the timing of them -- are so eerie.
I thought DINING set didn't sound quite right. Maybe DINING room set. Then dinette was mentioned. I thought that's it. Looking up the various terms I find them somewhat interchangeable. But the clue mentions kitchen. This tilts it to dinette. And dinette is used most often in kitchens and smaller rooms off kitchens and 6 or fewer chairs. DINING is often used as dining room set and 8 or more chairs in a separate larger room.
ReplyDeleteAnd that got me to thinking about bathroom and bedroom as opposed to living rooom and dining room and and the accidents of spelling in languages. Verbs gerunds nouns or just chance?
Which got me to the artificial divisions Rex makes. The shaded letters should cross all words in the answer. How does he count compound words I wonder. Plus he is insistent that the themers be a common a common phrase. Now that makes the words a singular thing. So the hidden monsters all appear in a single phrase. Who made up this all words in the phrase must be used? Is that really in the crossword rulebook?
Inconsistently, I think Rex makes a pretty good case today. But NOGREATSHAKES is a fine phrase. Best or second best for sure. How does one find a balance to the final vices and virtues of a creation.
Yeah. There is no try or not try. There is only do.
And yeah I should get a life.
Clue for Column 2:
Job for Bruno's producer?
EDIT MARS' REMIX
MAR MARS worst dupe this year?
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ReplyDelete@snails, I might resubmit the puzzle to another publication in several years, with a note explaining its history. Or maybe try the indie route. So I'd rather not go into specifics.
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ReplyDeleteI apologize if someone mentioned this already, but Dr. Frankenstein doesn't create a monster, he creates a creature. It is he, the creator, who acts monstrously because he is so repulsed by the appearance of his own creation. Ironically popular culture has followed the prejudicial lead of Dr. Frankenstein (rather than Mary Shelly) by assuming the monster in the book is the creature.
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ReplyDeleteMostly an average Monday, but two directors is one too many, and putting your by far most obscure answer at 1A is suboptimal.
ReplyDeleteRex makes some valid points. The NYT crossword is no longer the greatest. Good editing makes a difference.
ReplyDeleteHappy Monday morning, all. Don't be scared of the monsters under the bed - they're all friendly.
ReplyDeleteDiana, Lady-in-Waiting and Monster Friend
I noticed THEM/THEY but missed MAR/MARS completely. Hand up for not putting an unknown PPP at 1a on a Monday, plus another at 54d.
ReplyDeleteThose nits ASIDE, I enjoyed this one. I especially appreciate the non-pugilistic clue for MADEAFIST. This is a puzzle where shaded areas make, for a change, sense. And yes, the TROLL in question is not the internet lurker of today, but the fellow who hides under the bridge and scares poor Billy Goat Gruff. Similarly, the OGRE is not Shrek nor Fiona. But I babble.
Nice shout-out to PRIDEMONTH: birdie.
TROLL THEM RETRO
ReplyDeleteAHEM, THEY MADE us confide
IT was STEPS that ONE takes;
we put OUR PRIDEMONTH ASIDE
and with ELAN did GREATSHAKES.
--- STANS' PALS PATSY & HELGA
Dinette it is. Final.
ReplyDeleteNicely done for a smooth Monday. Paused over EXES. One write-over: It's BOZO, not boob.
ReplyDeleteWould someone please explain what a WORDLE is and what it has worked itself into t NYTXword puzzles?
ReplyDelete@leftcoaster
ReplyDeleteWORDLE
Wordle 268 3/6*
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