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Relative difficulty: This took me 8:11, which is fast for me (I spotted the theme quickly)
THEME: Literal interpretations of phrases that have a positional word
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: GLUON (52A-- Particle binding quarks together) —
- BENDS / BACKWARDS [Goes to great lengths]-- "bends over backwards"
- A CUT / THE REST [Superior]-- "a cut above the rest"
- THE BELT / HITS [Plays dirty]-- "hits below the belt"
- THE BRIDGE / WATER [No longer an issue]-- "water under the bridge"
Word of the Day: GLUON (52A-- Particle binding quarks together) —
A gluon is an elementary particle that acts as the exchange particle for the strong force between quarks. It is analogous to the exchange of photons in the electromagnetic force between two charged particles. Gluons bind quarks together, forming hadrons such as protons and neutrons (Wikipedia)
• • •
Hey solvers! I'm Malaika. You might know me from the Vulture 10x10s, Crossword Fiend, or 7xwords (2021 - 2021, may she rest in peace). Or you might know me from the last time I guest blogged, when I asked y'all not to be mean about .puz files and a commenter called me condescending. Well, I'm back, baby! Ready to condescend, and so much more. I'll be here for the first Wednesday of every month, which I'll call Malaika MWednesdays unless any of you beautiful comment-leavers have a better idea.Onwards!! Y'all, this puzzle was delightful. First of all, a very pretty grid layout with nice flow. And those little "colonnades" of long side-by-side down answers are such a nice treat while solving, one that I typically associate with C.C. Burnikel's grids. And I really, really liked the theme. From a solver's perspective, it was fun to uncover, and not so tricksy that it was a slog. From a constructor's perspective, it is soooo impressive to have those themies stacked and symmetrical. She made it seem effortless!
Here is the deal: When I really, really like a theme, I don't nitpick. I just let the good puzzle vibes wash over me like scented bathwater.
...But okay fine, I suppose you are here to watch me pick nits, so I can do that if I must. Three of the themies used the word THE and one didn't, which feels imbalanced. The HOT TEA / GOT HOT dupe stood out to me because those entries were positioned symmetrically in the grid. I hate when the Times clues GIT as like.... a dialect-y screech? Rather than the enormously widely used version control software. ONE ON is an incredibly ugly partial. And..... that's it!
That's all I got! So much good stuff in here... CUBANO, with that lovely little clue, [Sandwich invented in Florida, despite what its name suggests]. And YODELER, also with a lovely little clue, [One in peak singing condition?]. And MINIBAR, also with a lovely little clue, [What might display a little spirit?]. I liked seeing OBO ("or best offer") because it's an abbreviation that I, a serial Craig's List browser, see all the time.
Bullets:
- AUBREY — I wonder if the decision to use a 19th century illustrator rather than the beloved actress / comedian Aubrey Plaza was a decision from the Times or from the constructor
- TARO — Excellent to see a boba shoutout in this clue
- BREECH — This was clued as [Bottom-first birth position] and I cracked myself up imagining the team of editors sitting in a circle being like "can we say tush?" "no no. let's just do butt." "no guys, we can't say butt." "okay what can we say then??"
- SILO — This meaning isolate "in modern lingo" feels, like, absurd to me, (people at my office use it all the time) but I suppose I am of the age that the Times would consider me a user of modern lingo?
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Hi Malaika; you have a great name for either crosswords or Spelling Bee!
ReplyDeleteI too enjoyed the solve. The theme may be a bit over-used for some, but not for me. In addition to the symmetry, the 4 inferred positions are: over, above, under, beneath. Nice!
SILO: it's neat how a word that's been around for ages suddenly gets a new meaning. 60 years ago it was missile silos, now this.
I have to disagree about AUBREY. Seriously, have you seen Beardsley's drawings? He lived only 25 years, but just look at them. I'm a sucker for Art Nouveau, but still.
Alternate clues:
ReplyDelete5D. Small Spanish bears anus
11D. Odor of either Bob or Elizabeth
39A. It intersects with Here Ave
CUB ANO
A DOLE SCENT
THERE ST
An oft-used theme concept, as the constructor acknowledges. But a good, pleasing use of the hidden preposition device, for sure. It was fast but fun all the way.
If U liked the NW, then you would surely like to know that I UBERED to my UBOAT for a LUAU.
Congrats on a great debut, Meredith Colton Hazy. And thanks for a nice write up, Malaika.
Hahahhahah
DeleteDespite skipping over them all the way through my solve because I just refuse(!), I've decided to grant special dispensation for the lookie-loo clues . Clearly, this set up was necessary for the theme to work, so I'll allow it.
ReplyDeleteThen again, these themers make no sense to me.
GLUON THE BRIDGE?
ONE ON THE BELT?
And I can only assume that the "E" is somehow missing from ACUT(E) THEREST.
As we all know, ACUT(E) THEREST is the most deadly of the THEREs.
There's THERE and there's THERE(r), but then there's THEREST, the worst of the THEREs.
Chronic THEREST is bad enough. ACUTE(E) THEREST is the rabies of adverbs - 100% fatal.
At least BENDS over BACKWARDS made sense.
Aside from the silliness of the theme, the callous disregard for life-threatening disease, and the obvious editorial fails, I enjoyed this one - especially the long downs which brought a touch of heft. Maybe should have run on the Tuezz, but that's not on the constructor.
Congratulations on your NYTXW debut, Ms. Hazy. Impressive constructioneering + fun solve = Winner! Winner! Chicken dinner!
🧠🧠
🎉🎉🎉
Are you trying to be funny? Because it's not working.
DeleteLike Malaika, caught on early in the game with BRIDGE & WATER. After that it was all fun and games. Absolutely loved it, I’d be happy to get one like this every Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteOnly unknown was GLUON, but crosses made it so.
Welcome to the blog Malaika, I’ll look forward to your next write up.
Easy-medium. A fun take on a familiar theme. Like it. Nice debut!
ReplyDeleteI assume "In modern lingo" works a little like "slang" in the NYT puzzle division. There's a 30-year buffer where it's "what the kids are saying."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of the kids, referencing AUBREY Plaza would have made for a good clue, but I was more surprised the clue didn't reference AUBREY Graham. Maybe that's saved for Thursdays and up.
Thx Meredith; NIFTY Wednes. puz! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Malaika, nice to see you again; thx for your writeup! :)
Med.
Felt a tad tougher than avg., but went fairly smoothly, with no major holdups. The theme was helpful in this one.
Lots of crunch with CUBANO, GLUON, TITIAN, LONDRES & AUBREY.
Very enjoyable journey. :)
@Eniale / @okanaganer / @ Anonymous (7:44 PM yd) 👍 for 0's (QB's) yd
___
yd pg: 3:31 / Wordle: 2
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
ReplyDeleteMwa! to Malaika MWednesdays! Condescend away!
Only writeover was a stupid half typo: Didn't know the illustrator, so wrote in AUdREY. Then didn't cross-check. For that I deserve condescension.
Agree with pretty much everything, thanks for a nice write up. Imagining your editor's room scene helped my start my day with a chuckle, and that's a good a way to start your day as you can hope for!
ReplyDeleteNice little puzzle - pretty straightforward with the cluing. The only speed bumps for me were the usual suspects - LONDRES, TITIAN, AUBREY and GLUON. It’s always nice to have a puzzle where the PPP and trivia is (for the most part) fairly crossed. GLUON was tough, but if it comes down to the last square crossing A_BREY, at least the U is pretty discernible.
ReplyDeleteNice write up by our guest host as well - I don’t miss the three paragraph dissertation on the subject/verb agreement of the themers or the critique of the length and location of the theme entries at all, lol.
Other than the theme solves the rest of it felt more like a Monday. Once the theme was obvious it all felt like a Monday.
ReplyDeleteMalaika MWensday has nice look and sound to it but if it doesn’t catch on you could alway fall back to Midweek with Malaika
SILO should have been clued as biz-speak and we were talking about it 30 years ago so “modern” is okay, I guess, but it seems a little old to me. It tends to get used when division of labor leads to disconnectedness, with people often forgetting that division of labor is generally a productivity boon.
ReplyDeleteAbove and over being above below and under was also a nice touch. The solve was a little irksome because my path through the grid meant I saw the second half of themers first all four times. That meant there was no flow for me through the grid, I was restarting with a basically blank section over and over again. That there are just two little connection points between north and south exacerbated the SILOed feel of the grid.
Still, I thought this was a fine solve.
BREECH or BREaCH is a lengthy kealoa. I never mix them up, but if I always verify. I wouldn’t want anyone to make a crack about me using the wrong one. So even though I was 99.99% sure I left it blank until I verified the cross.. I did the same with ADOLESC-NT because I am always mildly surprised when that terminal sound is spelt with an A, but it occasionally is.
@albatross shell late - Filing a class action suit (and probably ending any hope of ever getting another head coaching job) was new news. That sports team owners are a bunch of racists,, of course, isn’t. The text mistake by the GOAT coach is hilarious. And if some of the allegations end up being provable the settlement might actually be impactful. That’s a big “if” of course.
**Wordle Alert**
Eagle. And I have to thank Rex. Regular Rexites who wordle will understand.
Wordle 228 2/6*
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Very pleasant puzzle and write up. No major FLUBs. pAlS before LADS, didn't know Beardsley but had __BREY, so what else could it be?. Also didn't know GLUON or TITIAN but crosses did those for me. TALC/CALC in the same grid. Good long downs. I gotta GIT.
ReplyDeleteFun little puzzle - we’ve seen this type of trickery before but it’s cute and the general fill was fine. Again my eye is drawn to the long non-themers - they always seem clunky although I really liked INHIBITIVE and LOST CAUSES. The EE or EA crosses my mind. Was hoping for some type of MINI BAR - GLUON mash up.
ReplyDeleteTITIAN’s huge Assumption over the alter of the Frari is incredible.
I would think AUBREY Huff is the most temporal of the group…
Enjoyable Wednesday solve.
@Z. I get your Rex reference but how did you come up with a first guess with that many green hits?
ReplyDeleteBREECH vs breach
ReplyDelete"Breech is a noun referring to the rear of a gun or the rear, or buttocks, of a person. Most people are familiar with "breeches" meaning "pants." Breach on the other hand means "a break or violation" such as a "breach of conduct" or a "breach in a dam." The most common switch up occur in the phrase "into/unto the breach."" (M-W: What to Know)
@Z (7:13 AM) 👍 for the eagle
___
td pg: 12:53 / Wordle: 3
Daily Dordle #0009 3&5/7
⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
zaratustra.itch.io/dordle
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Wordler - Pure Luck. I do not do the high RSTLNE word strategy.
ReplyDelete@Wordle - Although I just realized that my first guess was 60% RSTLNE. But that’s not why I chose it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Malaika! The puzzle was fine, but I *really* liked your write-up!
ReplyDeleteHand up for Plaza being my go-to AUBREY.
ReplyDeleteOOH RENEE feels like it should be from a late '60s song.
diRE before WERE.
Definitely a nicely filled-out grid, and a superior theme. Thumb way up today.
@Z - I don’t believe BREECH / BREACH is a “kealoa”. Only one of them is correct.
ReplyDeleteHidden Diagonal Clue from today's grid:
ReplyDeleteRoad houses? (3 letters, answer below)
Great write up Malaika! I also got the theme from the very start with BENDS/BACKWARDS falling easily. The rest of the solve was steady, if not speedy--easy/medium for me.
Like others (I gather), I filled in the LU of GLUON/BLEEDS/AUBREY to finish up.
LONDRES gave me some pause, and I wanted INHIBITIng before INHIBITIVE, and hEm before SEW.
That V in INHIBITIVE, was necessary to provide the answer to today's HDW clue:
RVS
Nice review Malaika. My time was similar to my recent average other than a typo that it took me awhile to find.
ReplyDeleteMy only issue with the puzzle is the natick GLUON crossing AUBREY. I guess it is somewhat inferable if you have heard of other particles (like MUON) that have a U before the ON, and AUBREY is a name, but I certainly felt like I was guessing when I put that in as my last letter.
Hi Malaika! I agree with your assessment. And I also think "git" could have been clued differently. It's defined as "unpleasant or contemptible person ("that mean old git")
ReplyDeleteand although not common in the U.S. (in my experience) I've heard British people use that expression.
SB yd - 0 (second ever). I seem to only be able to do that with the low-point value puzzles. There seem to be too many words I am unfamiliar with when there are so many possible answers
ReplyDelete@Keith D - I suppose in the strictest sense you’re correct. But I was mostly trying to set up my crack of dawn “crack” crack. I do really wait to fill in the second vowel, though, which is a very kealoan type behavior.
ReplyDeletebtw - @Frantic Sloth - 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 - Great post. I now expect Acute Therest to be added to the potential side effect disclaimer in the matching bathtub ads.
Love Malaika’s suggestion for clueing git. Also Malaika Mercredi should work for a crossword crowd.
ReplyDeleteHi Malaika — I’ll be looking forward to you MWedenesdays. I suppose it would be too much to have hoped for [back-assward birth position].
ReplyDeleteA heads-up to let you know that Lewis and I have a puzzle in tomorrow's (Thursday) LA Times.
ReplyDeleteI'll be back later, after breakfast, to discuss today's puzzle which I haven't looked at yet.
Hiya Malaika in the middle, love your review. Now do you have any super powers such that you could ban wordle references in the blog? Nothing against it, but this is the NYTxword Blog.
ReplyDeleteHappy Groundhog Day, all.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteHappy Groundhog Day! Phil saw his shadow. Six more weeks of this crazy snow stuff for y'all.
One-letter DNF with TALe/eST. How is New Orleans in Central Time Zone, and Michigan is in Eastern Time Zone? Bizarre. Sure, TALC makes more sense than TALe for the soapstone clue, but whatever.
*Repeating News Alert*
I sent in a similar Sunday size theme to the NYT with all kinds of things like in this puz, some over, some under, some crossing, others I can't recall immediately. You guessed it, rejected. (Breaking out the violins) 😁
Fun clue for MINIBAR. Painter TITIAN was a WOE. Got a U party in NE/NCenter. I guess @M&A will be HOSTing.
@Frantic
Got a good laugh out of your THEREST. Might say it was ... A CUT above!
Someone tell me about the GLUONs above THE BRIDGE. Har.
yd -0 !! Long time since last one. Dancing @Gill's Fandango Tango.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
So excited about all future Malaika MWednesdays that I'm almost speechless. Almost.
ReplyDeleteI was relieved to see that Threat to the Allies in W.W. II was Uboat. It wasn't my first thought. Didn't we just have Uboats on Friday?
Got the theme and marched along until I got to Inhibitive, which restrained, hindered, and put a check* on my progress.
Seems like a word I'd know but I may be thinking of prohibitive. Think I'd remember throwing around a hunner dollar word like that if I ever had.
Teetotaler was part of the struggle too because I persist in thinking, against all evidence, that it's TeAtotaler. Someone who totes tea around and is Inhibitive about booze. Yeah, there it is. I just used it and it felt strange.
*I looked it up.
@Frantic, Gluon the Bridge is a insightful observation. The alternate clue could have been Part of Stripper's wardrobe.
@Z, you expressed my reaction to the Silo clue almost exactly, except that mine was more like wtf, that was the 90s. The engineers, who glommed onto any fad that gave them clear instructions for interacting socially, were big on un-siloing for a while.
@Birchbark, if you're observing from afar. There's an article online in The New Yorker, a personal history titled Tabula Raza, written by John McPhee and also brilliantly read by Grover Gardener. If you don't subscribe I think you can get 3 free articles a month if you sign up. It will be in the 2/7 print issue. Oranges, scotch, fishing on the Willamette, theft of modeling clay.
I had tikibar in place of minibar, dnf.
ReplyDelete+1 for Git clued as source code store
Did our guest commenter mis-attribute this puzzle to yesterday's constructor?
ReplyDeleteWell I sat on my rickety fence for a few minutes I get all sweaty when I see {with}...What? you want me to go find him?
ReplyDeleteI got off my fondillo and did the marching soldier thing. Hi Ho, HI Ho we're off to war we go.
OK...So I got BENDS and BACKWARDS and then went on a scratch and sniff hunt for [over]. Well I guess if you're into Yoga you can do that. But I still wondered if [over] got lost in the dirty hamper load.
ThE BELT came next. Did [below] get lost looking for HITS, or was that a miss? Ay Dios mio. The light bulb DUH finally came on.
So I finished and was delighted. My fence no longer needed mending . It was a CUTe (Hi @frantic) picket that everyone came by to admire. So I did my usual and went looking for memories:
AUBREY Beardsley was a hero of mine. My avatar is one of my favorites of his black ink drawings. I use to copy him all the time because I was scared to try and be original. He did inspire me to do a TON of black ink drawings as well as black charcoal. Changed my Artis life!
Then of course my mind wanders to CUBANO and the sandwich. If you live in Tampa, FL. They add some Genoa salami. The Miami contingency thumbs their noses {down} because they are the ones who first came to Miami and by gum...it's only made with roasted pork, sweet ham, Swiss cheese, three pickles, and yellow mustard. BUT...the star of the sandwich is the bread. Yessireebobaroo. The bread it is. I've tried to make Cubano bread and I can't. You need a moist palmetto leaf on top of the dough before it's baked. So instead, I order it on line. It's still not the same as coming out of a Miami bakery.
I had a Cuban sandwich at, (of all places), IHOP. Yep...It was on the menu and I didn't want pancakes . It was delicious. Not really authentic but it had the pork cooked to perfection.
Thank you Meredith for a very interesting and fun Wed. puzzle. AND, Malaika for your comments and joining us....
So many to thank...so little time.....
Great job guesting.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this one. Latched onto the theme with ACUT above THEREST, and seeing that helped me complete the other 3, so thought the theme worked well.
ReplyDeleteWe throw around SILO all the time in my field - comes up mainly when we're fretting about the need to work across sector or come together for a broader strategy. Being stuck in your silo is always bad. But we've used it that way for at least 30 years now.
Had rentED before UBERED and guyS before LADS, so the north needed some untangling. Also had gEl and thought LONDREg looked great, but had to let it go to get the chimes. Love how if it's not Eggo it's Edy's - and always a fun choice to have in your freezer. Waffles or ice cream, waffles or ice cream. hmmm. Fun Wednesday.
Very enjoyable and my kind of wordplay puzzle. Sometimes with a theme like this, the term "taken literally" or something of that sort will be used in the clue. I'm glad that it wasn't in this puzzle. And while grid construction is not part of what I bring to the table in my collaborations, I would imagine that having a theme that involves the interrelationship of two different rows and then still being able to have for your Downs such graceful, "in the language" long answers as LOST CAUSES; ADOLESCENT; TEETOTALER and INHIBITIVE is a real constructing coup. Nice work, Meredith!
ReplyDeleteAn echo here (though not from a YODLER on a peak): a tried-and-true theme, very nicely done. Four solid phrases, a pleasing pairing of over and under, above and below, each properly placed with respect to the puzzles waist. I liked the nod to art history with TITIAN and AUBREY and thought the 7+-letter Downs were an unusually good array. This one left me with a smile.
ReplyDeleteDo-over: INHIBITIng. No idea: GLUON.
NFL owners are a bunch of racists? African-Americans comprise 70% of players. And players get paid more than anyone else, save one man.
ReplyDeleteThe fact is, it would be hard to build a better wealth-creating engine for African Americans than the NFL. That's why so many are eager to play for "a bunch of racists".
Unless, of course, the argument being adavancesd is that African Americans are too stupid to see that they're working for a bunch of racits.
Give me NFL owners as champions of African Americans over US public schools anyday.
Am I the only one who thought it was TEaTOTALER?
ReplyDeleteI naticked at GLUON/AUBREY. OTher than that I thought it was a fun puzzle.
I'm putting "Midweek with Malaika" out there.
ReplyDeleteThis one fits my original understanding of what a rebus is like
ReplyDeleteSTAND
I
I know our crossword definition of a rebus has changed to include all sorts of wacky things, and that's fine with me.
I for one was happy to see Beardsely as the clue for AUBREY, as the other ones folks have mentioned are unfamiliar, which makes me think they're pop culture references from some time in the last thirty years.
Very nice debut MCM. My Compliments, Madame (or Mademoiselle). Thanks for the fun.
hello and welcome to the latest "once a month guest blogger." hoping for more. and maybe some more video solves. I like to see and hear how they did it. it would certainly silence the doubters who don't believe the solving times.
ReplyDeletea fine writeup and review of a slightly harder than normal Wednesday puz. I don't really care for the puzzles that have two clues tied together in any fashion. dumb. time consuming. but, ymmv.
Zippy
I enjoyed the puzzle review, and thank you - i had a good time with water under the bridge and the rest. I'm amused however about the age difference (apparently) between Ms. Malaika and me as it pertains to Aubrey Beardsley. Being the fan of Salome ad Oscar Wilde and Poe and Beardsley's work this clue was a "gimme." It is a bit age related -not to the 19th century, but to the 1960's when Beardsley was a significance influence on psychedelic art and design and a common inhabitant of dorm rooms everywhere. But I guess the '60s are now as far back as the (18) '90s.
ReplyDeleteAnd then of course I've never heard of the "beloved actress/comedian Aubrey Plaza" if she had been the clue I would have been in puzzle-solving trouble. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks this way? And it's great to learn about a new person, even in the notes.
Frantic are you serious ?
ReplyDelete"Then again, these themers make no sense to me.
GLUON THE BRIDGE?
ONE ON THE BELT?”
you can’t be
I don’t like the cross-reference clues but this was a well done Wednesday and an impressive feat construction so I say congratulations to Meredith on a successful debut. You deserve all the accolades coming your way.
ReplyDeleteBRR and WET are quite apropos for the weather in my neck of the woods this morning. A high of 62 yesterday and 22 today with 6-12 inches of snow forecast. Good time for some HOT TEA but a LUAU also sounds pretty good right now.
Happy Groundhog’s Day to all who celebrate. Not a chance that Punxsutawney Phil is gonna see his shadow anywhere around here today. Besides, in breaking news this morning it was revealed by Phil’s ex wife Phyllis - now retired and living in Florida - that that particular rodent has always been a serial liar, not to mention a flaming liberal. Tune in later for the exclusive story on Fox.
Gill,
ReplyDeleteBingo! It's almost impossible to get a good hoagie beyond, say North of West Chester County, NY, West of say, Pottsville, Pa., and South of say Rhebobeth Beach, Delaware, and the reason is the bread. Specifically hoagie rolls. They doesn't have to be Liscio's or Amoroso's or Formica Brothers--the gold standards--- but they have to be in the ballpark. Frankly, the rest of the country just can't get it right.
Best Cubano I ever had was in a tiny, very modest deli/conveneince store in the Keys. Hell if I rember the name, or even the Key. But I remember that sandwich.
Sorry about that Ground Hog @Roo—at least February is a MINI BAR sized month. Maybe we should just take @Ami’s advice & be happy? Maybe rewax the skies & schuss into March Madness. If a YODELER HOST throws a LUAU is he certifiable as bipolar?
ReplyDeleteNice debut grid Ms. Hazy. Enjoyed it and a guest commenter’s critique was just added gravy on the main dish. Looking forward to seeing you both again.
Too easy for a Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteHow come something from the 90s is " only thirty years so" OK one day, and "last century" another day.
I had other comments, but the absurdity displayed by @Anon, 10:05 has just blown my mind.
KnittyContessa,
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you're not alone in the teatotaling world. And I'll bet, without mch effort, you'll be able to find that usage.
But in my opinion teetotaler/tealtotaler is precisley the same phenomenon as home in and hone in. The word tee--it's really just the letter T syanding for total, sounds the same as tea and of course that non alcoholic drink sounds like a reasonable explanation for the word. It's wrong. but it's reasonable. A cas-attenuated though it be-- can be made. Just so with hone in. It's wrong, but its tantalizingly close. So midwits with questionable hearing advance close-to-correct- argument to defend the usage.
Give it a few years. Teatotaler will be perfectly acceptable. It may ven become preeminent.
Some will shrug and say that's the natur of language. I say that's piffle. the T-- for total-- means something and that meaning is different than tea. To lose total is to lose a more perfect understanding of the word.
@DeeJay - No, but she did compare the grid to puzzles done by yesterday’s constructor.
ReplyDeleteThis oft-used literal type of theme might have made Rex
ReplyDeleteTHE COLLAR
HOT
but I thought it was a NIFTY debut and I’m glad Malaika agrees. Well-executed theme and great long Downs that pair nicely side by side: INHIBITIVE and TEETOTALER in the west and ADOLESCENT and LOST CAUSES in the east.
I agree that the lack of a THE in BENDS (OVER) BACKWARDS is inelegant themewise, but it must have been a bear to construct this grid with such little dreck. Not an EEL or OREO in sight. Especially liked the clue for MINIBAR and the crossing of UBOAT and UBERED.
If “on end,” means not stopping for an extended period of time, how eternal must ON EON be?
I’m repairing a loose sole on one my HIGH TOPs. Have to run now and get the GLU ON.
What is an Aubrey Plaza?
ReplyDeleteGlad Aubrey was clued as a person whose name was in my memory somewhere.
Fun puzzle. Easier than I expect Wed to be, but that's Okay and it did have fun all the way through with clues like "peak singing condition" as well as the themers.
@okanaganer:
ReplyDeleteSILO: it's neat how a word that's been around for ages suddenly gets a new meaning. 60 years ago it was missile silos, now this.
and, if you live in sh!thole country, it's had its old meaning for some hundreds of years. gotta feed those pigs in winter.
@10:05
That's why so many are eager to play for "a bunch of racists".
so, they have a choice? did slaves have a choice? there's good reason why black athletes refer to 'teams' as plantations. you get the analogy. and, BTW, until Curt Flood won his case, baseball players were as close to slaves as it's possible to get. read up Flood. today, all players in all pro sports have greater freedom than before Flood. and, BTW again, have you noticed what the unpaid minor league, aka College Scholar Athletes, have been doing with the Transfer Portal? exercising some freedom.
what have you got against those who've been without freedom for decades, if not centuries, finally getting some?
the last coach who was head and shoulders above all others who'd been players is Auerbach. but, BTW, his players were without freedom of movement, too. if he couldn't hold on to Russell, the Jones boys, Cousy, Havlicek, Cowens, and so on he'd likely have been just another white boy.
The owners are protected by exemptions to antitrust laws. They collude with impunity.
DeleteIt takes 26 of 32 of the current owners to approve new ones.
There won't be changes until these things change. It is going to be interesting when Flores gets into discovery...
Quite the NIFTY puzzle.
ReplyDeleteStuff that caught my eye:
-- The lovely long downs, obviously.
-- LONDRES clue could have been in French as well.
-- Clue for WERE is dopey; it needlessly makes the answer a partial.
-- HIGHTOP crossing TOPSY bugged me more than THE themers or HOTTEA and GOTHOT.
-- Wife was a BREECH; the forceps marks just above her tailbone attest to that FACT.
Great job blogging, Malaika.
I'm tempted to say that only a TEETOTALER would think the word is TEATOTALER. For us imbibers, we all know that it's not TEA that's being passed up. Passing up TEA? I would have no trouble with that at all. :)
ReplyDelete@Anony 10:39
ReplyDeleteMight it have been "El Mocho?" We went there several years back and I drooled all over my napkin.
My husband had the black beans, rice, croquetas de jamon and I ate the CUBANO sandwich.
I want to fly back and stuff my tummy full.
SharonAK
ReplyDeleteCheck out a movie called Safety Not Guaranteed. Pretty great.
Fun fact, Plaza is from Wilmington, Delaware which is right on the border of civilization. That is to say, half the joints in town and thereabouts call a hoagie a hoagie. Half, sadly, call them--shudders-- subs.
@whatsername:
ReplyDeletethat particular rodent has always been a serial liar, not to mention a flaming liberal
The Orange Sh!tgibbon (not my coinage, but I cleave) has been lying for the last 6 years (well, since birth), and doesn't claim to be Liberal. Lying is a Right Wingnut thing. Have you noticed how all those Right Wingnuts that voted against throwing Left Wing Money at their constituents are now, vewy, vewy loudly claiming credit for helping said constituents. Hypocrisy knows no depth.
This one was fun; even more so because I thought BENDS BACKWARDS was cheating without its over. Then I figured out A CUT above THE REST, and the eureka experience was all the better for my having been wrong at first.
ReplyDeleteAUBREY Beardsley was a gimme for me, and thank God for that, as it forced a writeover of mesON at 52A. (In my defense, I think GLUONs are a type of meson; to check, I read the whole Wikipedia article that Malaika cites. What a hoot! After going on in physics lingo for several paragraphs, it then prefaces the next point with "This may be difficult to understand intuitively.") BLEEDS was not at all obvious, and there are so many sneaker styles 43D could have been anything. So thank you, Aubrey!
I had another writeover with tikiBAR before MINI. Don't ask me why, I haven't been in a tiki bar since I was 22.
INHIBITIng before VE, which seems stilted, but yeah, the crosses, so OK.
A friend of mine has a substack where she posts songs that have a relationship to the day -- often because it's the singer's birthday. Yesterday this song featured a lot of that peak singing.
And it was nice to finish up with YEWS, which brought back fond memories of Painswick, a village at more or less the midpoint of the Cotswold Way, which I've walked more than once. Painswick features a churchyard with 99 YEWS, pruned into many different shapes (not animals or the like, just attractive shapes). They say there are always exactly 99 yews, because if they plan a new one, an older tree dies. I didn't count them myself.
First, the only "words of concession" anyone ever uses are I LOSt, not this present tense bs.
ReplyDeleteI was all prepared to rant about TEaTOTALER because I was unaware that it came from emphasizing the first letter of TOTAL as "T-Total"
I'm an alum of THE University of Texas, and one of our nicknames is Tea-Sips. UT was historically the school of the wealthier population, so they were regarded as elites who pretentiously sipped their tea each afternoon. Somehow I crossed that with the idea that TEETOTALER also referred to TEa.
Otherwise, the theme was enjoyable, although the THE inconsistency was unfortunate.
Liked the theme; got it at 18/20A. Not sure if anyone mentioned this but I was impressed that the prepositions didn’t repeat. No annoying PPP that couldn’t be gotten from crosses, which, IMHO, is what crosswords are all about.(well, that and fun clues like “peak singer”, “little drinks” “comes with breakfast in bed.”)
ReplyDeleteSuperb debut puz. thUmbsUp.
ReplyDelete(Actually, this puz kinda already had M&A at FLUB+AURA+TUSKS, in the NW corner pocket.)
fave fillins: FLUB. NIFTY. ADOLESCENT. GOTHOTTEA. TOPSY turvy. Non-TEETOTALER TITIAN under the MINIBAR.
staff weeject pick: OBO. [Or Best Offer] Probably the rarest of the crop, with this bein only its second appearance.
no-knows were nicely scattered, with limited nanosecond impacts: CUBANO. LONDRES. GLUON.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Hazy darlin. Great job. Come back, any old time.
Masked & Anonym007Us
p.s. And thanx to a fellow 7xword-er, blog-sub @Malaika darlin. See U next FirstWedPuz.
untested, trapped wild beast:
**gruntz**
Gill,
ReplyDeleteNope. But El Mocho is precisely my kind of joint. Just perfect. At the risk of revealing too much, I know Stock Island. In fact, I had my last supper as single man a couple of blocks awy Hogfish (Bar and Grill.)
My Cubano place was further up the Keys and more bodega/grocery than restaraunt. I'll ask the wife, but i'm guessing I'll come up empty.
Isn’t it teA-totaler? Someone who only drinks tea? Or have I misunderstood that expression my whole life?
ReplyDeleteGood fun finding the over-under-expressions. They are all solidly in the language.
ReplyDeleteThe cluing was smart and there was some sparkle.
@Z. Congratulations on your eagle. Hell of a first word. You say it has something to do with Rex?
ReplyDeleteSince it first sprang into linguistic life in England, teetotalers did tend to drink tea in lieu of tipples, but the word arose from a kind of emphatic stutter. In 1833, a certain Richard Turner of Preston, England, used the word to advocate for "Tee-Total" abstinence from all alcohol, not just abstinence from hard liquor. Preston was ground zero for England's temperance movement, and "Dicky Turner's word" quickly became famous on both sides of the Atlantic, to the point where Dicky had "Author of the Word TEETOTAL" carved on his gravestone.
Welcome back, Malaika! Wonderful writeup - looking forward to More Malaika MWednesdays!
ReplyDelete@Z 830am 🤣 Ew. Also, SLOP ITCH. Ew ew. Also get your Rex reference. Ew ew ew.
@Nancy 844am Yay! And thanks for the heads up.
@amyyanni 847am Right. While we're at it, let's ban sports, cars, music, food, drink, politics, movies, television, books, science, maths, current events, personal anecdotes, other crosswords, and everything else that isn't about the NYTXW. Oh, and Maus. 😉
@Roo 859am Thanks for the Punxsutawney Phil report - isn't it always 6 more weeks of winter?? Sure seems like it.
@Anonymous 1037am Looks like you (correctly) answered your own question. 😉
@Whatsername 1039am 🤣 Do tell, girl. Spill the TOTAL TEa on Phyllis v. Phil!
@Rob Welch 1223pm Those are good questions. Anyone?
Welcome back, Malaika, and I look forward to your regular presence. When you noted that you don’t like to nitpick on a puzzle you like, I’m sure most of us had an image of OFL. There is a LOT i like about Rex - mostly his very clever writing - but it does drive me crazy when he likes a puzzle but spends most of the writeup demolishing it.
ReplyDeleteAs for most, GLUON was unknown to me, but my naticky worry on the last square of the puzzle was the L. I got AUBREY but BLEEDS didn’t seem right for the blackmail clue so I ran the alphabet. BrEeds made even less sense, so I put in the L.
Loved the clues for YODELER and MINIBAR.
Re Wordle, I hate starting out with the same few words every day, so my new opening gambit is to start out with five-letter body parts. Heart, lungs, brain, thigh, ankle, and today, penis. (It’s just a word!) Tomorrow, maybe ovary for balance. I don’t want to completely handicap myself, so probably won’t use uvula. When I run out of body parts, I’ll move on to foods or animals.
TEETOTALER, and if you scroll down to “Did you know” they explain the history.
ReplyDelete@Frantic Sloth - Slop Itch and Acute Therest? Maybe that’s why they don’t share bathtubs.
@chance2travel - I know losing makes me tense both past and present.
@TJS - Are you asking me? Isn’t pointing out that the usage is 3 decades old enough?
**wordle alert**
@Wanderlust - I was doing Q words for a few days and that got me an eagle once. I think it was either quest or query that got me an eagle.
@mathgent - I can’t say more with spoiling the puzzle for others. After midnight I can share.
@The Cleaver (11:35) It was a joke. About a groundhog. Just thought I’d trigger a chuckle, not a political debate. 🙄
ReplyDeleteMy favorite comments this morning.
ReplyDeleteegsforbreakfast (1:26)
Gill I. (9:29)
Joseph Michael (11:04)
Cute puzzle and a well-done debut! I got the theme right away and, after the second one, wondered if we'd get any "under" themers so 36/41A did not deliver a hit below the belt.
ReplyDeleteI had 27D as INHIBITIng. With _gRE in place for 65A, I had to wonder what an ogRE-wolf was but the rest of the clues down there set me straight.
Nice job and congratulations, Meredith Colton Hazy!
@Whatsername:
ReplyDeleteI did chuckle. Actually, a knee-splapper.at The Orange Sh!tgibbon's (not my coinage, but I cleave) expense. He's now more out of control, and telling the truth about 1/6 and its run-up, that it's either laugh your bunns off, or contemplate The Trump Dynasty visited on your kids and grandkids.
Instead of Mwednesday, how about Malaika Miercoles?
ReplyDeleteFavorite of the month (so far).
ReplyDeleteJust a fun theme and fill with nice mix of clever, easy, and hard clues.
🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖
🤗
@Doug D 1:53. You could up that to Mad Malaika Miercoles, given her comment. “ Well, I'm back, baby! Ready to condescend, and so much more.”
ReplyDeleteLate to the party, but enjoyed the write up. I've always been a fan of this conceit. Another one
ReplyDeleteBRIDGE
TROUBLEDWATER
I was very happy to have Mr. Beardsley here as I was a big fan in high school and haven't heard of the other suggestions. I liked SILO, but agree bizspeak is a more exact clue for it.
p.p.s.s.
ReplyDeleteJust occurred to m&e … PuzEatinSpouse cooked up a big mess of yummy bacon, today for breakfast at our house.
Sooo …
Happy Ground Hog Day?
M&Also
Um, Uh, I doubt Malaika was really asking for suggestions.
ReplyDeleteActually, the CUBANO wasn't invented in Florida, it was only named the CUBANO in Florida. In Cuba we just called it "the sandwich".
ReplyDelete@M&A, turn up your speakers and see if you can hear this: GGGGRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNN!
ReplyDeleteOn a brighter note, looks like fodder for a groantz puzzle, if not for something more ambitious.
@Raul C...In Cuba my Dad always said "dame un sanweech. It would always have pork from heaven in it with the delicious grilled bread.
ReplyDelete@Anony 12:12....I hope your wife remembered the name of that restaurant in Key West? I'll go.
@Nancy. Can't wait until mañana .... Deliciousness to come, I'm sure.
Easy Wednesday - 9 seconds off my best.
ReplyDelete@Z - Scored my first eagle today as well, although from a different start
Wordle 228 2/6*
🟨🟩⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Yay to Malaika. A welcome breath of fresh air.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I disagree re Aubrey Plaza. I found her character in The Office to be annoying.
Although perhaps that was the point.
Loved the puzzle, and totally admired the execution.
And on other important news:
Wordle 228 4/6
🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Par for the day.
Oh yeah: over/under on the imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine? Two weeks. You heard it here first.
I thought this was a NIFTY FIND, tho way too easy for Wednesday (1.5 Malaikas, not sure what that would be in Rexes). Half my average time. Got the theme at BENDS over BACKWARDS although for a hot sec I had over in the S square until I saw STS and then it clicked.
ReplyDeleteHere it's late afternoon; we had an outstanding hike today. The weather is crazy wonderful, sunny with a cool breeze. Wow. Watching the afternoon dudes surfing as I write this.
Retirement is great.
i have to wonder about the wokeness of a puzzle editor who would claim a sandwich was invented by europeans in florida. a bit of editing may have come up with "named", though that would also give away something more than a wednesday deserves. omg the political tribulations of crossword puzzles.
ReplyDeletei have my doubts about 4 being par for wordle. par is not the average score of the average golfer. par is what an expert or master attains. my average is 3.50 and i am not a great word person.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRebii word answers w/o being a rebii crossword or such some. Jazzy theme. Snazzy fill. Splendide easyash Wednesday. A bit of slowdown in the SE and SW. I knew GLUON and AUBREY. Plaza or Graham would have slowed me down.
ReplyDeleteI tried YODELLED and TEETOTALLER but they wouldn't fit. Wrong day I guess. Hey to @LMS: How many times would we all have to use dem double ELLs before M-W accepted them as alt spellings?
ONEON is not ugly, only odd and alone. I think to GIT ONE ON is beneath a teetotaler despite the visual evidence here. Happy to see the UBOAT is over the BENDS. Can't do facist hitler or nazi but UBOAT is fine. What does that tell us? Nothing is my guess.
@Z
Yes. I clicked on NFL news and got all Brady announcing his retirement. Which was pretty much leaked already. Later I saw the lawsuit and did bother with a post. Person of color sues sports establishment for unfair treatment. Kinda does sound like old news. NL Cardinal fan. Yay Flood. No white player sued? But I never would have posted if I had found the lawsuit first.
Wordle alert
@Z
Did you get 2 eagle 2's in 2 or 3 days? ZOUNDS. I've been using a new first word. Three birdies in 4 days and the one par was a silly mistake. My second word was probably a rhyme of yours. I had where you might have seen a uboat. I think yours was maybe what you may have in the oven.
Cubano alert
One source claims cigar workers from Cuba brought or created the sandwich in Key West in the 1870s. Another claims there is "a" (not the) Cubano sandwich of similar types but longer all over Latin America. All this is web shit so corrections welcomed
With @Gill on the culinary aspects. Lard fronds bread etc.
Take away what a vegan won't eat and you got a pickle. Jack Nicholson walks into a restaurant and orders a pickle slice....
Waiting for the philly cubano hoagie.
I had my first successful SUBWAYDLE attempt today.
ReplyDeleteSubwaydle 4 6/6
🟨⬜⬜ A L J
⬜🟩⬜ 7 A G
⬜🟩⬜ R A S42*
🟩🟩⬜ 4 A B
🟩🟩⬜ 4 A F
🟩🟩🟩 4 A Q
subwaydle.com
*S42 is the Times Square-Grand Central Shuttle. After this guess I looked at the hint, since I had no idea where I was supposed to being going. The hint read:
Travel from Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall to Avenue J using 2 transfers.
Note: There may be multiple ways to make this journey, you have to guess a specific one. And this specific way may not be the most efficent (sic) or fastest route.
So I figured the first train had to be the 4 or 5, and I knew Avenue J is a Brooklyn stop, but couldn't remember on which line. Got the right one just under the wire, which gave me this message:
Yay! You completed today's trip!
Today's Journey:
4 from Brooklyn Bridge–City Hall to Fulton St
A from Fulton St to 42 St–Port Authority Bus Terminal
Q from Times Sq–42 St to Avenue J
(In reality to make this trip, you would take the 4 or 5 to Atlantic Ave/Barclays Center and switch to the Q there. The A-train segment is a totally unnecessary detour.)
@Joe 10:50
DeleteLoved reading this!
I know it's almost midnight in NYC now so you probably won't see this, but I lived on Fort Greene Place for 2 years (78-80) and Atlantic Ave was my main stop, with Pacific if coming on the old IRT. No Barclay's then, just meat packing and fires, omg. Once had a cop stop me at gunpoint as I was walking home around 3am (full disclosure, I was a non union projectionist at the 8th St Playhouse, read, a boatload of Rocky Horror at midnight) because I wore a pea coat and wool hat so my being a young woman would be less obvious, sigh. So the actual perpetrator was hiding in one of the down entrances and when I rounded the corner he did the two fingers to the eyes, me see you, and I nodded and went to my building. My parents were crazed about all this anyway and they didn't even know about this particular incident.
How I happened to be an employable non union projectionist and how I got that awesome job are stories for another day...
...where I was supposed to be going, that is.
DeleteYou could name your column “Malaika’s Wisdomday” as Woden, Odin, was the god of wisdom.
ReplyDeleteWell, I had trouble getting started and had nothing ip in the NW for way too long so I moved on. The middle section of the top really got me cooking and I dis not have to BEND (over) BACKWARDS to make things worm from then on.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the delightful puzzle, Meredith, and for the dun analysis, Malaika. An all around excellent Wednesday, at least in crossword land. Because the afternoon and early evening blizzard that hit here was no fun at all. I bad a 3 hour white knuckle tip from Tulsa to Norman late this afternoon . Each time I saw cars and trucks upside down in the ditch or flipped around facing the wrong way by the side of the road, I just prayed that i would not join the ranks of the stranded..
Getting home to feed my sweet cat and sit down in front of the fire with a scotch made my day. Took me a bit to finish the puzzle - my focus was a. It off. Actually, I am simply exhausted.
So that’s it for me. Very enjoyable puzzle and an equally enjoyable guest blog. I look forward to First Wednesdays!
I agree that the "TAZO to ZEROTH to HAYAO pipeline" was a blotch on anotherwise clever and temporarily confounding puzzle which paid off in a truly revealing moment when everything (for one moment in time) made sense.
ReplyDeleteHow do I enter the rebus answers on 70A (order of letter pairs, slashes?) so my solution is accepted as correct (on the website)? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteBravo to Meredith Colton Hazy on her debut NYT crossword.
ReplyDeleteThis one was:
ACUT
THEREST
There have been positional-phrase themes before; this one is as well-done as any. An extra spoonful of elegance: the top two are "over" and "above," while the bottom two are "below" and "under."
ReplyDeleteI agree it's not pleasant to nitpick such a nice puzzle, but for a while I was hung up with 26-down because I already had HOTTEA in at 25-down, and I thought, well it can't be GOTHOT because...but eventually it was.
Other minor hangups: naticked at CUBA_O/SA_ER. Safer, sager or saner all work for the across clue of "More reasonable," and 5-down could've been anything, I never heard of it. Also had LeaN before LOIN, and INHIBITIng not -IVE.
This puzzle has been brought to you by the letters B (9) and U (7). Those are the initials of Bloomsburg University, my alma mater. M&A approved.
RENEE is a great DOD, though perhaps our constructor as well as our lead blogger would earn honorable mention. Birdie.
One nit I have to pick is in the NE corner where CST crosses ADOS. CST is yet another time zone abbreviation which is bad enough but when it crosses with a pluralized ADO that is bad, bad… not good! Other than that, it was pretty solid and nicely symmetrical.
ReplyDeleteLOIN FACT
ReplyDeleteRENEE was unINHIBITIVE,
ACUT(ABOVE)THEREST, she GOT
ONEON with WAYNE,"OOH OHH, LET's live!"
(BELOW)THEBELT they both WERE HOT.
--- BETH LONDRES
Definitely a NIFTY theme neatly put together by a clever, no-nonsense constructor. Thanks MCH for the ride.
ReplyDeleteP.S. CUBANO and LONDRES needed some help on my part.
What with "one thing after another" (twoud be a good themer) I'm late today. Caught the theme quickly - love those Wednesdays.
ReplyDeleteJust got back from the aquarium - loved watching the smiling/dancing fish.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords