Palm that yields deep purple fruit / MON 2-14-22 / Genre for boy band BTS / The one for Starbucks shows a two-tailed mermaid / Trove of business contacts / Receptacle into which a quill is dipped / Apt infographic for showing a bakery's sales / She may take your temp before tucking you in

Monday, February 14, 2022

Constructor: Alan Siegel

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (like, on the easier side of Monday-easy)


THEME: SMARTPHONE (63A: Device that can replace 16-, 23-, 37-, 40- and 51-Across) — the clue tells you exactly what the theme is, so why am I bothering to write an explanation? I don't know:

Theme answers:
  • ALARM CLOCK (16A: Morning waker-upper)
  • PEDOMETER (23A: Step counter)
  • COMPASS (37A: Orienteering aid)
  • ROLODEX (40A: Trove of business contacts)
  • CAMCORDER (51A: What many a home movie was once shot on) (weird to reference bygone-ness here and *only* here when the point of your theme is that they've *all* been superseded)
Word of the Day: UTICA (33A: Upstate New York city) —

Utica (/ˈjuːtɪkə/) is a city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 U.S. Census. Located on the Mohawk River at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains, it is approximately 95 miles (153 kilometers) west-northwest of Albany, 55 mi (89 km) east of Syracuse and 240 mi (386 km) northwest of New York City. Utica and the nearby city of Rome anchor the Utica–Rome Metropolitan Statistical Area comprising all of Oneida and Herkimer Counties.

Formerly a river settlement inhabited by the Mohawk Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, Utica attracted European-American settlers from New England during and after the American Revolution. In the 19th century, immigrants strengthened its position as a layover city between Albany and Syracuse on the Erie and Chenango Canals and the New York Central Railroad. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the city's infrastructure contributed to its success as a manufacturing center and defined its role as a worldwide hub for the textile industry. Utica's 20th-century political corruption and organized crime gave it the nickname "Sin City."

• • •

Way too matter-of-fact to be interesting. Yes, your phone can do all these things. We all know what phones can do. They've been doing them for well over a decade now. PEDOMETER!? Were those ever common? This puzzle feels very behind-the-times, very "can you believe the gadgets and gizmos they have these days?" Maybe ten years ago this would've been moderately interesting. Today, it just reads as musty. The fill isn't doing the theme any favors, either. It also feels stale, KPOP and KCUP notwithstanding (you really should be limited to just one "K" answer per grid, but since those are some of the only currentish things in the grid, we'll let it slide). MIDI always feels old (if you clued it in relation to music technology, that would be cool, but probably not easy enough for a Monday, even though it's the only kind of MIDI that comes up when you google MIDI); INKPOT, superold; FCC OOH EMO feels rough and xwordese-y; MENSA (ugh) ORSO ODEON OMAN, same. I don't understand why the short stuff in the nooks and crannies of this grid isn't a lot cleaner. In particular, I don't understand going with this SW corner. ENGR is grievous to look upon, and under the partial BONA it's somehow even worse. This quick rewrite isn't great, but everything in it is better than ENGR and BONA (and I did it in about a minute, without the aid of construction software):


As you can see, I also got rid of DR. MOM because it feels so goopy and sentimental and faux-nostalgic and semi-sexist and just generally made-up. "MR. MOM" I would absolutely accept, as it is a funny movie starring the amazing and always criminally underrated TERI (4) GARR (4). But DR. MOM just grates. Feels like advertising copy. Also, by changing OMEN to ONES, I get rid of that awkward OMEN / OMAN 1-2 "punch" at the end of the Acrosses. And I get rid of the grid's second "Star Wars" clue—two birds, one stone! You know there's something lacking in the puzzle's overall entertainment value when I'm spending most of my mental energy just reworking the short stuff. It doesn't feel like there's much else for me to do today.


My hometown is in the grid, but I don't have a ton of nostalgia for my hometown, and literally zero family members live there any more, so ... yeah, always weird to remember that I spent most of my childhood and my entire adolescence in FRESNO (1975-87) (47D: Largest inland city in California). I've lived in Binghamton almost twice as long now, but ages 5 to 17 somehow feel way more transformative, momentous, and memorable than ages ... blah blah blah to whatever I am now, it's all a blur, and COVID Times haven't helped unblur it. I never had a ROLODEX but I always thought they were cool-looking. The world was more aesthetically pleasing with some of these bygone gadgets in them. I miss card catalogues too, frankly. So informative, so satisfying to comb through. The flattening of all human experience into phone experience is one of the very worst things about recent technological "progress," if only for aesthetic reasons. Physical things and physical spaces are nice, and everyone just looks the same no matter what they're doing now. Chatting? Hunched over phone. Banking? Hunched over phone. Watching movie? Hunched over phone. Same same same. Ah well, the three-dimensional world was fun while it lasted. I want my puzzles to be current, but much of what passes for "current" in real life you can straight-up throw in the ocean as far as I'm concerned. Only don't do that, because the fish and birds are having a hard enough time with pollution as it is. 


Hope your team won the "Big" "Game"! (I lie, I don't care ... but I do hope you're happy ... see you tomorrow!)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. a message from August Thompson, who will no longer be doing the first-Monday-of-the-month blog posts on a regular basis (though he might still drop in and cover a puzzle once in a while):
Dear CrossWorld,

Thanks for letting me spend so much time with you these past few years! I'm moving on, but I'm so glad to have been a part of this blog. Thank you so much to Rex. 

Best,
August
It's been a joy having August write for me for so long (from high school through grad school!). I know everyone who's been reading the blog for any great length of time joins me in wishing August all the best with future endeavors. Thanks for helping out and decidedly changing the tone of this place once a month, August. You're welcome back any time.

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

100 comments:

jae 12:14 AM  

Easy-medium.

@Z - I’ve been using the NYT Crossword app on my iPad for more than a couple of months and I am still slower than I was on the app I was using to do Acrosslite formatted puzzles. You brought this up a while back so I started paying more attention to my NYT app solves and I think it is slightly more difficult to navigate.

Solid Mon. I use none of those features on my phone but then I don’t think my generic T-Mobile phone is all that smart. Liked it, nice debut!

FWIW the only time I’m hunched over my phone is when I’m reading this blog.


@bocamp - Croce’s Freestyle #682 was easier than last week’s. Good luck!

Brian A in SLC 12:49 AM  

I remember Teri Garr as getting plenty of props - and crushes and adoration. Fun guest on Letterman. Hope her declining years are bearable at least, such a nice woman.

okanaganer 12:52 AM  

Rex, tonight my sentiments agree with most of your last paragraph. ("The world was more aesthetically pleasing with some of these bygone gadgets in them... Ah well, the three-dimensional world was fun while it lasted"... touche.) Except the part about your childhood home.

The town I grew up in is a BC interior town, in my youth it was gritty and busy chasing "progress" and didn't know how lucky it was. I haven't lived there since 1979 -- at which time I was only too happy to leave -- but now it resonates with me. A certain Facebook group raves about it, with gorgeous photos posted daily. Inconceivable! I am currently reading Neal Stephenson's latest SF novel (Termination Shock), and a couple of scenes are located there (surprise!)

I did this puzzle by only looking at the down clues. (This makes Mondays much more challenging, and rewarding when I finish without cheating!) The theme really helps, because the long acrosses have something in common, and I just have to guess what it is.

[Spelling Bee: Sat: -2, missed these words.
Sun: reached pg in 5:20, then got to 0.]

Brian A in SLC 12:54 AM  

https://youtu.be/zXf9uQf6iuM

Several more of these Teri Garr collections on YouTube.

chefwen 1:04 AM  

I really didn’t know SMART PHONES did all that stuff. I fought tooth and nail to keep my flip phone because it fit so perfectly inside a little pocket of my purse. Husband finally made me join the current century and I couldn’t be happier. Now I guess I’ll have to actually read the manual to find out what other treasure it holds. Anyhoo, easy solve which I did using only the downs (Monday and sometimes Tuesdays are the only days I can do that)

Watched the Puppy Bowl rather than the Super Bowl. My friend who was just here from Wisconsin to help me celebrate my Birthday threw a Super Bowl party and made a cake in the Green Bay Packer colors with WHO CARES written on it. Maybe next year.

Conrad 5:54 AM  


I thought the puzzle was fun and Monday-easy and I was in a good mood until I read the end of @Rex's post. August, I'm going to miss you!

snabby 6:16 AM  

How did PALSY not get edited out? I forgave most of the mustiness when I hit the themer, but yikes. And the clue, "___- walsy (chummy)," I mean, if you need a hint for the clue of such a weak word, maybe don't use it.

Lewis 6:54 AM  

@August -- Thank you for being such a lovely presence here. It's been joyful watching you transform over your years here, and I wish you well.


As for today's puzzle... The constructor's notes warm my heart. Here, a person who, as a volunteer, helps seniors prepare tax returns, submits his first puzzle to the NYT and it gets accepted! Way to go, sir!

Stubborn that I can be, I held on to my landline and just used my SMARTPHONE sparingly until sometime last year, when 19 out of 20 calls being junk finally convinced me to turn that landline ringer off. No regrets. I am so much happier for it.

I liked OMEN next to OMAN and SEE crossing SEE, and smiled at the images the cross of STILETTO and PEDOMETER brought to mind. While the puzzle filled in quickly, I tried to guess the reveal in advance – without success – but the mental work in trying to crack that riddle made my brain very happy.

Thank you for that, and well played, Alan, and congratulations on your debut. Keep up the good work in your volunteering and puzzlemaking!

Phillyrad1999 7:05 AM  

Whether pedometerswere common or not, I was one of the suckers who bought the kind that clipped to your belt or pants at the hip and counted “most” of the steps you took.

Z 7:14 AM  

Thanks August. Hopefully now you can catch up on your sleep.

SouthsideJohnny 7:29 AM  

This one almost seemed too easy, even for a Monday. I think Rex’s quick edits would have made an improvement (and agree with a prior poster - wtf is PALSY doing there (so unnecessary, just a self-inflicted wound - and such awful cluing).

Hopefully we will get a day without a verbal synonym soon (YOO HOO) - boy I am really starting to dislike those things; they seem like the crossword equivalent of weeds in the garden - unpleasant, generally harmless and usually pretty easily dispensed with, but annoying nonetheless.

Really nice to see the amazing Ms. Teri Garr getting so much love on a day when she is not even in the grid - hopefully she will grace us with her presence in a puzzle soon.

Lewis 7:40 AM  

My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):

1. Place to find a crook (5)
2. Game measured by its number of points (3)
3. Intro course? (3)
4. Lover of Italian opera (5)
5. What may connect the parts of a school assignment (6)


ELBOW
ELK
APP
TOSCA
STAPLE

OffTheGrid 7:42 AM  

By the time you read this someone else may have pointed out that 3/4 of the answer to 17D, MIDI, is in one of the clue words. Surprised that @Rex or one of the early commenters didn't see it. This was a fine Monday. My mantra is "I will not live my life through my phone". I was forced to upgrade a few years ago when AT&T stopped support for my beloved, small, Motorola. However, I do like that I can text and the camera is fun. But that's it for me. Well phone calls, too, obviously. Hooray for Matt Stafford and the Detroit Rams!! (Hi, Amyanni)

bocamp 7:48 AM  

Thx Alan, just right for a Mon. puz! :)

@August, thx for your dedication to the blog, and the best to you in all your endeavors! :)

Med.

Should know KPOP by now; took KHAKI for it to POP.

I recall the doubts some had when the iPHONE first came out (same for the first iPad). Human nature, I guess. 🤔

Fun solve.

@okanaganer 👍 for 0 yd
___
yd pg: 8:29 / Wordle: 4

Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

Fellow Earthling 7:49 AM  

Best of luck to August! I’ll miss your Mondays!

Son Volt 7:50 AM  

Agree that there’s not a lot of splash theme-wise but it was harmless for the most part. My wife is a walker and always wore a PEDOMETER prior to her iPhone - now it’s her beloved Fit Bit. Like Rex I do get IRKED about abbreviations such as ENGR. Recently we had Rome, NY - today it’s Mohawk brother UTICA.

Good luck August!

Enjoyable Monday solve.

SouthsideJohnny 7:51 AM  

Wordle 240 4/6

🟩⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟨🟩🟨⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Had a very makable birdie today, but guessed wrong. 4-under after 12.

thfenn 7:58 AM  

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. I get the complaints about today's puzzle, but I thought it was a nice entertaining start to the week. KPOP/KCUP, OMAN/OMEN, or friend ODEON. We had an ELF and a Gollum quote, was disappointed that an ORC and ENT didn't join the party. I like having a phone that does all those things, and actually do indeed use my phone for all those things. The item that could be on this list but isn't is a watch. For some reason, I still like having one on my wrist.

Anonymous 8:04 AM  

A Wordle field goal today.

Wordle 240 3/6

⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Anonymous 8:06 AM  

Gotta love it. Rex critcal of the "behind the times", "musty" fill and then waxes nostolgic about "rolodex" and "card catalogues". And "improves" the SW corner by including a refrigerator company and a spaghetti sauce maker.. And it only took a minute ! Whatever you say, Rexie.

Tom T 8:34 AM  

Easy puzzle; very little resistance. KERMIT always brings a smile.

Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clue:

Soaks up at mealtime (4 letters, answer below)

Thanks, August for sharing your time with us through the busy years of your schooling. Wishing you nothing but the best as you PIVOT into the next phase!

Looked back at the grid and was briefly confused that the editors allowed the typo on Pre-MED (then I realized it was PERMED). Hah.

HDW answer:

SOPS (begins at 56D square, moves SW)

Happy Valentine's Day to all.

amyyanni 8:39 AM  

Yes, @OffTheGrid, smiling here along with most of Georgia. In addition to Stafford being a Dawg, McVay, the Rams Coach, graduated from high school in Brookhaven, an Atlanta suburb.
Thanks for the memories, August. Best wishes.
Speedy puzzle. Clever. Because I'm a runner, my watch does a lot of things. Upgraded it in 2019 when training for the rim2rim2rim at the Grand Canyon. GARMIN didn't work, clearly...but may be source of a new theme??
Happy Valentine's Day. Or not. It is a commercial day, I know.❤

Frantic Sloth 8:45 AM  

I thought this was a pleasant stroll through a theme that wasn't obvious and needed a reveal, which was (thankfully) properly placed.
Really can't ask for more on the Mondee - and all the more impressive that it's a debut.
Congratulations, Mr. Siegel! Looking forward to more from you.

@August You were a refreshing diversion with your monthly write-ups and will be greatly missed. Best wishes for all your future endeavors!


🧠
🎉🎉

bigsteve46 9:29 AM  

Despite one "Hobbit" and two "Star Wars" clues (yes, I know they're part of the common culture of the day - but that doesn't prevent me from wishing that they would go away or better, never were in the first place) a nice crisp Monday entry.

What are the people who insist on describing the Monday puzzle as "easy" trying to say? Isn't the idea of a Monday puzzle to be "easy"?

Some of you never-miss-a-day commenters ... take a day off, now and then!

RooMonster 9:30 AM  

Hey All !
Typing this on my SMARTPHONE right now. And yes, I'm looking down. 😁

Can anyone think what we did pre-SMARTPHONES? I can't. But I'm not the most reliable source for rememberance. Soon, they'll embed a device behind your ear that'll pop up images in front of your eyes, no longer needing a physical PHONE. Won't that be nice.

Nice puz, bygone stuff. @Clare keeps missing her KPOP clues. Har. I'm sure she is solving somewhere. Do KPOP groups drink KCUP coffee?

No SPIT spit from Rex. Apparently clued appropriately. J and W from a pangram. Try harder Alan! (Kidding)

Extra Themers, calculator, internet, sports bettor, movie Maker, etc. etc.

yd -10, should'ves 5

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Beezer 9:41 AM  

Thank you August and good luck! You always provided a very fresh perspective whenever you guest blogged!

Yes, the puzzle was easy but I really enjoyed it in spite of the nits @Rex mentioned. I also bemoan the fact that we are tied to smart devices. While I DO have an iPhone, like @offthegrid I tend to just use it for talk, text, and camera (sometimes GPS) BUT when I’m at home I do tend to be a bit too tied to my iPad (as evidenced here).

@amyyanni, after everyone sung AcrossLite praises, I tried it out and I found “the official” NYT app much easier to navigate. Too much b.s. on the AL screen plus the keyboard is much smaller. Maybe it is the difference between working on a computer v. an iPad…dunno.

imsdave 10:06 AM  

@jae - there is a Chrome extension that converts the NYT format into Across Lite - very handy.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/crossword-scraper/lmneijnoafbpnfdjabialjehgohpmcpo?hl=en-US

Carola 10:10 AM  

My take: SEE @Rex. Besides the review of the puzzle, his lament for the demise of the card catalog struck a chord with me...letting your fingers do the walking through a "Subject" section was faster than online searches and often yielded treasures that the data base didn't.

@chefwen 1:04 - Belated happy birthday, and love the cake!

@August, good luck, and don't be a stranger.

pabloinnh 10:14 AM  

Talk about feeling old-fashioned. I still have an ALARMCLOCK, a PEDOMETER, a COMPASS, a ROLODEX, and my idea of a what a home movie was shot on was 8mm film. No SMARTPHONE either. Life is next to impossible, nevertheless, I persevere.

Yes, Monday easy, which is redundant. Hard for me to dislike any puzzle with a TENOR and a CHOIR. I haven't heard PALSY-waslsy in nearly forever, had that kind of connection with an engaging goofball when I was in college with a guy from UTICA.

Best of luck to August, thanks for your contributions.

Congrats on the debut, AS. An Attractive Start, and thanks for the fun. Think I'll go have some KPOP in a KCUP.

Whatsername 10:15 AM  

Easy peasy. I think even a first timer could have managed this one but I say that in a good way. I love that this puzzle spans history from INK POTs to SMART PHONES and those themer gizmos in between. Congratulations Alan – fine puzzle, super debut!

I would like to have seen “for short” as part of the clue for 55A. It’s been a while since Carrie Bradshaw was on TV but as I recall she and her pals drank Cosmopolitans, never COSMOS. And she never left home without her STILETTOs. I often wondered if she ended up with A CORN or two on those elegant feet.


jberg 10:16 AM  

While solving, I kept thinking how untimely all those devices were -- although, since I shot home movies on an 8 mm movie camera before upgrading to a Super 8 when my kids were teenagers, so I couldn't decide if the CAMCORDER was obsolete or anachronistic. And the ROLODEX, which has stuck around as a metaphor much longer than as a physical object. Then I got to the reealer, and realized that was the theme, which gave me a moment of pleasure.

Nicholas Lemann wrote a long piece in the New Yorker lamenting the decline of the card catalog; his specific argument was that the physical cards contained a lot of information that wasn't picked up in the digitization process: how worn a card was, hand-written notes, and so forth. He lost the argument, though.

@offthegrid-- not only the same letters, but the same meaning. Somebody ERRed in the editing process.

And while I guess you could say you dipped your quill into an INKPOT, I've never heard it called anything but an inkwell. Fortunately, that wouldn't fit.

I'm not sure what Rex has against UTICA. 14th largest city in New York? OK, but how does that compare to Rye?

@August, we'll miss you! Thanks for all your contributions over the years.

lodsf 10:18 AM  

Fun, fast (even for me) Monday. I’ve used my smartphone for all of those things except “compass”. Who needs a compass with Apple Maps?

Nice to remember the card catalog(ue): When the “new” San Francisco main library opened in 1996 they did away with card catalogs. Abandoning the card system was innovative at the time. They used the old cards to ‘paper’ some of the walls. Not sure if those decorations are still there as I actually been *inside* the Main for years (branch is more convenient & SFPL transfers books between locations).

Whatsername 10:39 AM  

@chefwen (1:04) Happy belated birthday! At the bank Friday all the employees were wearing their KC colors in honor of our beloved Chiefs. The young lady at the drive-in had one on that said “I hope they both lose.” Kind of summed up the feelings of most people around this neck of the woods.




Nancy 10:42 AM  

Do you really need an entire INK PIT in order to fill a quill pen? That seemed like a truly enormous amount of ink. Having confused a PEDiMETER with a Mani Pedi, I managed to correct my "I" to an "O" right before coming here -- thus avoiding an ignominious Monday DNF.

I'm one of only 8 people worldwide living without a SMART PHONE. If I ever break down and get one -- and I'm quite determmined not to -- it will be because of Uber and nothing else. Hailing cabs in NYC is getting harder and harder and meanwhile I'm getting older and older. And I've had a very unpleasant inflamed heel problem that's severely limited walking since early November.

But as for the other stuff. I have a clock radio that serves as an ALARM CLOCK. I don't need a PEDOMETER -- I walk as much as I possibly can until I get tired, and then I stop. (Well at least I did prior to this past November). I don't want to know from 10,000 steps. Are you trying to make me feel pressured or something? I don't need a COMPASS in NYC; the streets are all numbered and go either East-West or North-South. I have an analog leather-bound address book. I've never used a CAMCORDER. It's just the Uber thing that makes me think maybe I'll have to get a SMART PHONE some day.

A pleasant, junk-free puzzle that's perfect for a Monday.

GILL I. 10:42 AM  

I wasn't particularly slapped happy on this Monday. First I hear that our amigo, August will no longer be writing the Rex blog....waaaaa... Then I noticed the MAU/LAXE/SPIT/HAZE areas and I did a yikeseeedo dance.
I guess words like PALSY-walsy, STILETTO and MENSA make me want to get out my grumpy pants. I didn't go looking for them (they are housed in the dirty clothes hamper) but I did begin to go tripping down memory lane:
I owned all of those little theme things...May Moons Ago. I still have my ROLODEX which I will cherish forever. Names of people of my past, friends, travel agencies(that have all gone belly-up) and the best auto mechanic I had. I still remember his name...Pedro. Pedro took care of my 68 VWBug like it was his child. I loved that 5'4 happy and honest man...He once changed my tires for free. I bought him a bottle of the best tequila I could find. He jumped for glee.
Speaking of SMART PHONE....I have an iPhone 11. I seriously only use it to delete the million unwanted calls and texts that I get daily. I have it on mute and my friends get angry and want to know why I didn't pick up. I sincerely despise people at the supermarket holding there phone into ears as if they are glued there permanently . They bump into you in the aisles. You can hear all about their colonoscopy results.
I updated for one reason only.....I take lots of pictures. I take them on the spur of the moment. They look good and I have many of them framed. Everything else does not matter to me. I have too much time to cook/bake/walk puppies/read/paint and have fun.
Speaking of fun:
I didn't watch the game last night. I don't like the politics. So I escaped to my studio, shut the door, and continued reading "The Splendid and the Vile." It's wonderful, particularly if you admired Churchill;
It's the only room that is all mine. I only allow my pups and my little Hadley Rose to come in. It's also the only room with no TV. Well, actually there is one but I've disguised under one of my paintings......My husband watched the game in his favorite chair in the living room....Bourbon in one hand, remote in the other. He didn't care who won...He loves Mexican food and football. Viva la Pepa.
I'll miss you, August.

Carola 10:53 AM  

@jberg 10:16 - Might you be thinking of Nicholson Baker's "Discards"?

JC66 10:55 AM  

Always enjoyed your posts @August. You'll be missed.

Joseph Michael 10:57 AM  

Is there a word that means easier than easy? That’s the word that describes this puzzle. However, it doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the solve. Congrats to Alan on the debut.

After filling in ROLODEX and thinking about what an old trove of business contacts that would be, I was glad to get to the revealer and discover that the theme was all about replacing such things. This is not to imply that I have gotten rid of my rolodex which I inherited from my mother and is still filled with the names and numbers of people who once populated her life.

Liked the idea of a bakery with a PIE CHART. Conjures up the IMAGE of a tavern with a bar chart and an acting school with a line graph.

mathgent 11:03 AM  

Lewis’s list (9:40) is a damning indictment of last week’s cluing.

I’ve just changed my first word in Wordle from ATONE to SONAR. It’s produced two pars so far, about what ATONE did.

A 11:10 AM  

Best of luck, August - you’ll be missed!

With the boy band genre at 1A, I decided to embrace the PPP. Scanned the clues and answered all the names/pop culture clues I could. Only missed a couple, notably the Gollum riddle, which is pretty cool and which I won’t forget. Hesitated on COSMO because I wanted a “familiarly” or “casually” qualifier, but otherwise what would’ve been a zippy solve became leisurely puzzlement. Oh, and those stubborn COOPERS lurked in a dark corner of my brain - needed all the crosses to drag them out before the light came on.

The downside of scanning the clues for PPP was that I saw the reveal clue and immediately thought SMARTPHONE, quashing any suspense from trying to figure out the theme. OutSMARTed myself there.

Happy Birthday, Albatross Shell! Your day is shared by Irving Gordon, who penned “Unforgettable.” The Manhattan Jazz Orchestra doesn’t phone this one in.

Happy Valentines Day, all!

egsforbreakfast 11:22 AM  

It seems like there was discussion here just 5 days ago about ODEUM vs. ODEON.

COOPERS must have been a nice answer to see for Rams rooters. I don’t think he would wear a KUUP.


Nice debut on your first try, Alan Siegel. And thanks for the AARP tax gig. I’m using the service for the first time this year.



albatross shell 11:43 AM  

I'm on the "almost too easy" side. Hardest was remembering which of 3 locations to put the H in 1D.

I enjoy the dusty musty stuff. Coopers included. I am now 3/4 of a century. Us moldy goldies woud prefer 'Topper with spirits' as a clue over the Sexy-City one. I remember both but drink was the essential part of that clue.

An O heavy puzzle with all those two-O words. Better than E heavy puzzles. Not that I'm prejudiced.

August: Sounds like we will meet again some sunny day. May you have good luck in life and work and thanks for sharing them with us.

Hey I like palsy-walsy. The tinge of shade is interesting. Searching online I was unable to come up with any original usage for it, even those most point to the early 1930's but no one is saying where. Odd that.

Anonymous 11:44 AM  

@chefwen:

If your willing to spend a Kilobuck or more, you can have a SMART flipPHONE. Not that I consider that a SMART decision.i

If The Immunized One leaves, will you still be a Fan?


@Roo:
Can anyone think what we did pre-SMARTPHONES?

Sure. We all watched the teeVee on a TV. We anyone would 'watch' CinemaScope on such a dingus is beyond me. Do anything more than 1% of SMARTPHONE owners use it more than 1% of the time as a PHONE? I expect not. As to PEDOMETER, I recall seeing an advert for it when it first appeared (iPhone?) and wondering how much it cost to make a semiconductor version of a simple mechanical device.

Whatsername 11:54 AM  

@Nancy (10:42) Sorry to hear about your foot troubles. Sounds very painful. I understand your resistance to the smart phones but one thing it’s absolutely wonderful for is ordering food. You go to the website, pull up the menu, place your order, charge it to your card and it appears at your door like magic. Or if you prefer, it’s ready when you get there to pick it up. During the pandemic I’ve even done most of my grocery shopping online.

Lewis 11:56 AM  

@mathgent -- Indeed, picking were slim last week.

Smith 12:01 PM  

Not quite a new PR for Monday, but close.

KPOP and KCUP walked into a Cuup Shop just as ALARMCLOCK IVAN awoke at HAZE ACORN TIME. KERMIT's PEDOMETER IRKED DINAR. ALSO, PERKY YODA QUOTED ELF.

That's all.

SB [duh!]

jae 12:11 PM  

@August - thanks for your delightful perspective.

WestofNatick 12:15 PM  

@Rex Thanx for the John Prine song. It's always nice to be reminded of his beautiful, witty, unique persona.

A 12:18 PM  

Oops, sorry @albatross shell, I left off the @ (and added caps) in my 11:10 post. There's a link to a recording there in honor of your day!

mathgent 12:32 PM  

MFCTM.

lodsf (10:18)
egsforbreakfast (11:22)
Lewis (11:56)

old timer 12:34 PM  

This one was oddly slow for me, for a Monday. Perfectly acceptable though.

OFL's Fresno memories brought up two memories: First, day camp trip to Yosemite from LA. On that trip, in between numerous stops for what were not then called Icees, the counselors taught us, "you'll bake in Bakersfield, and fry in Fresno. (It was a day camp with an overnight, actually two or three nights, in Yosemite, which I now know was a way to give the parents a vacation from those annoying smartypants boy children We saw the then-famous Firefall, Bridal Veil and the big falls, and probably walked up to Angel and Nevada Falls, which was an inevitable and delightful day out when I took my own kids there.

Second, Fresno itself, which I drove through once on the old 99 right through town. Fresno was amazingly handsome in those days, far more so than Bakersfield, and I could have seen why people wanted to live there. Plus, so close to the Sierra.

I remember the first time I saw an iPhone, many years ago. My jaw. Dropped. Here was everything I ever needed, in one small handsome package. A phone, a calculator, msybe a PEDOMETER, and access to online sites, which were largely phone based back then. Owned one ever since, and also bought be some shares in Apple, the best investment I ever made in my life. Thank you Mr. Jobs, and even more thanks to the mighty Woz.

Nancy 12:42 PM  

Thanks for the sympathetic shoutout, @Whatsername. In the last week to 10 days, I've finally felt real improvement -- after three months of very little improvement at all. I think that I'm finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel, though I know I'll have to be very careful for a while so as not to cause a flare-up.

As to a SMARTPHONE for ordering food delivery-- you don't need one in Manhattan. Nor do you need any of those apps. (I call them "middlemen", btw). My system is far simpler. I phone one of the 5 or 6 neighborhood restaurants I've been using since the pandemic began. I give them my order over the phone using a credit card. I tell them to add the tip I'm specifying to the amount. Most keep my card no. on file; I read it off to the few who don't. They deliver it to the lobby of my building; my doorman calls me when it arrives and sends it in the elevator to my floor where I pick it up.

How could a phone app possibly be easier or less complicated or more direct than that?

JC66 12:54 PM  

@Nancy

Diversity! In Manhattan, instead of only 6 restaurants to chose from, with a SMARTPHONE, your choices are infinite.

Wordler 12:58 PM  

There were several choices for a Wordle starter in the Xword today. My choice was kinda nutty but it led me to a birdie. My average over 33 games is 3.9, all 3's, 4's, and 5's.

Anonymous 1:04 PM  

I'm still having trouble fitting "rectangular parallelpiped" into 51 down.

Many or even most sugar cubes are not cubes. Why did they have to give an incorrect clue for CUBES when there are so many correct ones?


Villager.

Anonymous 1:22 PM  

@1:04
Many or even most sugar cubes are not cubes.

only if you measure with a Swiss screw machine operator's micrometer.

Joe Dipinto 2:01 PM  

@Nancy – Smartphones are also helpful to see the sales at Fairway or Whole Foods etc, so you can get ideas for what to make for dinner this week, new recipes to try—

Oh. Never mind.

First person to figure out the connection this has to the puzzle wins a prize → 🟧🟨🟩🟦
(Hint: it's not the song)

other david 2:18 PM  

Nope. Not obsolete enough to have shot home movies. Camcorders shot home videos, most home movies were shot on Super 8.

Karl Grouch 2:24 PM  

Must be the combination of 1&70A.
KPOP (as in KitschPop): O MAN!

Z 2:31 PM  

@jae and others - I preferred PuzzAzz on the iPad, only using AcrossLite on the desktop. I also have StandAlone’s Crossword on the iPad which I use for the BEQ and Saturday Stumper (and occasionally the Monday Newsday if I need an ego boost). I still use PuzzAzz for subscription puzzles if I can’t print them out. I did this puzzle using the NYT app and finished in 5:40, which would have been a medium Monday for me on PuzzAzz, but is nearly a PR on their app. What I’m really curious about is the 3:48 PR on a Saturday. I know my Monday PR is 5:02, so have to wonder how I have a sub 4:00 Saturday in my stats. Solving in the paper is still my preferred method.

**wordle talk**
It’s cracking me up that people on Twitter are upset by today’s word since it’s not a Valentines Day word, almost an anti-amore word, and blaming the NYT Games people. I’m pretty sure the words are just in the queue. Is it bad of me to hope that the word on Easter is “satan?”

@mathgent - I use a different first word every day, having a slight preference for two vowels and diphthongs. So far my distribution hasn’t suffered because of my random start strategy. 0,3,14,14,7,2 for an average of 3.775 guesses. Today I started with “quick” and finished in three guesses.

Joe Dipinto 2:43 PM  

@Karl Grouch – It's not an answer either.

Anonymous 2:58 PM  

@bigsteve46 9:29

"What are the people who insist on describing the Monday puzzle as "easy" trying to say? Isn't the idea of a Monday puzzle to be "easy"?"

I was 46% (!!!!) under my average Monday time. So for me...easy. Not sure what others mean by "easy".

Karl Grouch 3:03 PM  

Then it must be a clue.
But I have none..

Joe Dipinto 3:10 PM  

@KG – Nope. Focus somewhere else.

Karl Grouch 3:38 PM  

Uncle!

A 3:42 PM  

@Joe D, is this getting warm?

Z 3:46 PM  

What does "easy" mean?
From Question 4 on Rex' FAQ page:
4. "Why did you rate Monday's puzzle 'Challenging' and Saturday's puzzle 'Easy' — I solved Monday's puzzle much more quickly blah blah blah" (and variants)


I rate puzzles according to RELATIVE difficulty: that is, I rate their difficulty relative to the typical difficulty for That Day Of The Week. This baffles people so much that I may stop doing it.


This has been a part of the FAQ page for as long as I have read Rex. People also complain if Rex adds "for a ..." to the rating. I do suggest that you read the FAQ page if you never have. Rex rarely updates it so it provides a bit of a slice of blog history.

Son Volt 3:59 PM  

@Joe D 2:01p - is the constructor related to Janis Siegel?

alicat 4:00 PM  

Puzz was fine but I wanted a rebus with 🐝 MINE, or ❤️ 🐑🦉WAYS, Or MY ❤️👖4 🐑….
Oh well, I’ve got 💝 and a card from my grandson that says U R THE 🍏 OF MY 👁, 👁❤️U‼️.

Nice to have a holiday that celebrates love, desserts, and flowers!
Now let’s see, where's the dark chocolate raspberry one?

Alicat 4:12 PM  

@joe d,
Is the answer about the clue ARCED, that relates to your rainbow colors, without the ends?

Masked and Anonymous 4:47 PM  

All the best, @August.
Nice debut puz, Mr. Siegel dude.

And Happy V D, everyone.

Oops … unfortunate initials, there. Was just tryin to kinda hide the theme of this runtpuz, which was inspired by yesterday's NYTPuz …

**gruntz**

p.s. Might be gone, for about a week.

M&A

Joe Dipinto 4:59 PM  

@Son Volt – you are a half-inch away from the correct answer, so I am giving you the win!

Today's constructor is named Alan Siegel. Two of the Manhattan Transfer members are named Alan Paul and Janis Siegel. When I saw *his* name I immediately thought of *them*. (I have no idea if the Siegels are related, however.)

Your prize is the antique sundial that has been handed down through my family for generations. I realized after completing today's puzzle, "Hey, I don't need this thing taking up my whole living room anymore. My smartphone tells the time!"

@A – now I am intrigued by your link, and I will have to figure what you were going for. This is even more fun than Wordle!

Andrea 5:30 PM  

All the best to August! It’s been delightful to read your write ups all these years 😊. I hope your life continues to be interesting, fun, challenging and full of surprises 🦋🌺

A 5:31 PM  

@Joe D, I may have overthought it but it was fun! See if you can track it down. There are actually two references in the puzzle that relate to your post. Puts Wordle to shame.

Joe Dipinto 6:10 PM  

@A – I know Manhattan Transfer recorded "Route 66" but I'm not seeing the puzzle connection. I'll keep looking. I also just remembered they had a song "Operator" – maybe that's the other reference (44d)?

@Alicat - there was no intentional link between the colored tiles and the rainbow clue.

Son Volt 6:37 PM  

@Joe D - I will treasure the sundial.

Had one of those aha moments after seeing your Manhattan Transfer vid. I’ve never been a huge fan of that group but knew Janis from the fantastic Short Stories with Fred Hersch. I can’t remember what I had for lunch today but can make that connection with a relatively unknown record from 30 years ago.

Anonymous 6:41 PM  

Cerebral Palsy Walsy

Brian A in SLC 6:42 PM  

So now you're gonna make me try to figure out why the Manhattan Transfer invokes four colored squares? Or am I exposing sone hopeless lack of comprehension?

Anonymous 6:43 PM  

@Nancy: Our experiences are opposite because I've had a smartphone since 2007 but I've never once used it for Uber (or ever used an Uber). I am forever trying to use it less, but it pulls you back in. Sorry about the taxi troubles. I was in NYC in 2003 (pre-phones and -Uber) and had to get one of those sketchy private black cars rather than a taxi because there was literally no taxi that went by me that wasn't already full.

Nancy 6:51 PM  

JC66 -- West Side restaurants will deliver to me???
Downtown """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""???
Brooklyn """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""???
Please explain how that would work with a SMART PHONE????

A 6:53 PM  

@Joe D - Yes, they did. You're on the right track. Speaking of which, it was first up on the B side of Troup's album. You might look for another musician tie-in. (Operator isn't it - that's reaching even further than I did - a little.) This is all your fault, you know - I'm an ignoramus when it come to folk/pop music.

Anonymous 7:12 PM  

@Nancy 6:51: I don't use restaurant delivery apps but I kinda think ANY restaurants in the city will deliver to you if you're w/in the city limits and they are on the Grubhub, Uber Eats or whatever. I like that you have only 6 though. We don't need THAT much choice and it can make us nuts.

@Rex: "The flattening of all human experience into phone experience is one of the very worst things about recent technological "progress," if only for aesthetic reasons. Physical things and physical spaces are nice, and everyone just looks the same no matter what they're doing now. Chatting? Hunched over phone. Banking? Hunched over phone. Watching movie? Hunched over phone. Same same same. Ah well, the three-dimensional world was fun while it lasted. I want my puzzles to be current, but much of what passes for "current" in real life you can straight-up throw in the ocean as far as I'm concerned. Only don't do that, because the fish and birds are having a hard enough time with pollution as it is." -- This spoke to me. Beautifully said.

JC66 7:14 PM  

@Nancy

Yes!
Yes!

There are apps (DoorDash, UberEats, etc.) that you can download onto your SMARTPHONE that do exactly that.

Unknown 7:37 PM  

If folks are deeply involved in a serious discussion with @Nancy about the joys of smartphones and using these new-fangled things called "apps," then let's not complain about puzzles feeling musty or out-dated.

Personally I liked today's theme; it was well crafted, and perhaps some of the shorter fill could have used tightening up (I'm never a fan of EMO . . . . like, does anyone really listen to it?), but that's a small nit to pick on an otherwise tasty Monday puz.

And folks got to see DRDRE last night on the tv screen! woot

LateSolver 8:35 PM  

If I had know this was going to be so easy a priori, I would have shot for a PR. As it was I still came close, and I am a very slow typer.

As a PhD ENGR who works at a research lab with many very smart people, I know of noone who is in MENSA.

Knew COOPER from the eponymous COOPER's Rock State Forest in WV (3.5 hrs W of DC, 1.5 hrs S of PIT), where a fugitive barrel maker was reputed to hide out and continue his trade. Worth the stop if you are ever in the area.

albatross shell 9:53 PM  

@A
I must have started writing my comment before your comment showed up. Thanks for the thought and song.

BTW that song is also a Nat King Cole hit and the band has a Manhattan relation to Joe's group. I had the Route 66 Ozarks connection to your attempt to answer Joe's question. I was working on the second one without success. Maybe you two can make a BANDLE puzzle and sell it to the NYT for a few mil. That'd be some nice breads.

albatross shell 10:03 PM  

@Unknown
Agree about the theme. Rather impossible to guess the theme w/o reading the revealer clue (or filling it in from crosses) but monday-apparent otherwise.

Smith 11:09 PM  

@unknown

Ahem. At restaurants, outside, of course, when they have a QR code for the menu we always get a real solicitous, "Are you finding the menu ok?", and this afternoon our server almost keeled over when, after she asked if I needed a receipt, I replied that I had already texted it to myself, in the... app. I'm not really that old, but it tells you how "old" people appear to the younger. Which suggests that their general experience of older is complete lack of familiarity with technology. I try not to take it personally.



Penna Resident 11:22 PM  

i actually thought this was hard ***for a monday***
MANGA is not a monday word. IRATE instead of IRKED. etc.

Wordle 240 3/6
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

and 4 is NOT par. i would be like 15 under if it was.

the chocolate doctor מרת שאקאלאד 1:28 AM  

Thanks August

Bea 6:12 PM  

Thanks, August!

Fill quibble: KCUP really bugged me for some reason.

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kitshef 7:59 AM  

Very, very easy, although figuring out the theme took a little. At first, I thought it was going to be things that most people no longer use but I still have (other than PEDOMETER). When SMARTPHONE filled in from crosses, I had a sudden fear that they were now obsolescent, too, and I'd missed an entire generation of tech.

igoal88 10:31 PM  

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thefogman 10:24 AM  

Bravo to Alan Siegel on his debut NYT puzzle. Well done.

Burma Shave 12:17 PM  

SEE CEE LOGO

Set the ALARMCLOCK for TENOR SO,
it's soon TIME to ORDER a COSMO,
AXE IVAN and ARLO to come ALSO,
to the ODEON bar down in FRESNO.

--- DR. KERMIT COOPER

spacecraft 1:03 PM  

Wow, OFF must've doubled up on his curmudgeon pill today. This wasn't nearly that bad. Okay, maybe one too many K-answers (KPOP, KCUP), and cluing MIDI via "mid-calf" seems too close, but it's a fine puzzle otherwise. The theme is straightforward and makes sense--as is proper for a Monday. And there are a lot of PERKY answers in the fill, too. Solid debut; birdie.

leftcoaster 4:35 PM  

This Monday grid is as SMART as MENSA, and as neat and tidy as KPOP and a KCUP.

OMEN and OMAN are serendipitous SEAT mates in the bottom row of the ODEON, and they have ORDERed COSMOs flavored by ACAI.

That should keep them all PERKY.

Diana, LIW 9:09 PM  

oops - I forgot to comment. Brain fog today.

Lady Di

Lily Martin 5:02 AM  
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