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Something picked up by a silent butler / SAT 3-12-22 / 1924 tale of derring-do / Last word of first sentence of Kafka's Metamorphosis / Nitwit to a Brit / Exponential function in physics / We jazz line in Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool"
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Constructor: Natan Last
Relative difficulty: Easy (except for that one word)
Word of the Day: PARI PASSU (7D: On equal footing, in Latin) —
Pari passu is a Latin phrase that literally means "with an equal step" or "on equal footing". It is sometimes translated as "ranking equally", "hand-in-hand", "with equal force", or "moving together", and by extension, "fairly", "without partiality". [...] This term is commonly used in law. Black's Law Dictionary (8th ed., 2004) defines pari passu as "proportionally; at an equal pace; without preference". [...] This term is also often used in the lending area and in bankruptcy proceedings, where creditors are said to be paid pari passu, or each creditor is paid pro rata in accordance with the amount of his claim. Here its meaning is "equally and without preference". (wikipedia)
• • •
The second blight, which is a lesser blight by far, is ASH (31A: Something picked up by a silent butler). I just don't get it. I don't know what a "silent butler" is or what it means to "pick" an ASH. Further, that "A" crosses A-LEVELS, which ... can't different letters go there. Aren't O-LEVELS a thing? I know little of British educational ... ways, but I know I had -SH / -LEVELS and only wrote "A" in there because ASH is a recognizable word (OSH being reserved for children's apparel name parts exclusively, I think) (side note: I've seen OSH and OSHKOSH but never B'GOSH, which ... isn't pretty, but it's prettier than PARI [breath] PASSU). Never like just guessing squares, even if the guess here was, in retrospect, the only viable one. Here the definition of "silent butler":
A silent butler, sometimes called an ash butler, is a small container, often of base metal, sometimes silver or silverplate, with a handle and hinged cover, used for collecting ashes or crumbs. They were more common prior to the modern period, and enjoyed some popularity being made as a home construction project in the US. They are now often considered collector's items, or are valued for their retro appeal. (wikipedia)If you google "silent butler" right now, you get this:
This tells you something of the term's obscurity—it's only being googled by people doing *this* specific crossword. Would not have gone with *that* clue, not with *that* (A-LEVELS) crossing. It leaves a solver (me) at the end wondering WTF? instead of thinking "what a delightful puzzle I just did."
Started out by writing in the incorrect ERECT at 4D: Put up (BUILT) but wrong ERECT was not entirely wrong—the "T" was correct, and off of that I guessed INSECT, and then YAW SAW CORNEA I was off to the races. Nice when wrong answers are fruitful instead of utterly destructive. The first moment of real joy came with NONDAIRY CREAMER. I don't put that stuff (or any stuff) in my coffee, but it's a snappy answer and I just love that feeling when a longer answer comes shooting out of a corner all the way to the other side of the grid. Feels like fireworks. I got a parallel thrill a little further down when I followed TIME LAG down to one of my favorite poets (no kidding, I pulled a (signed!) book of her poetry off the shelf just this week)—Gwendolyn Brooks! What a great clue for JUNE (22D: "We / Jazz ___" (line in Gwendolyn Brooks's "We Real Cool") (That line would also make a good clue for JAZZ, frankly.) And then to cross "We Real Cool" with the "THONG SONG"!?! Fantastic. Just so much great playful musical sass right there. Love it. Also love POUTINES (though if I ate them in the plural, I would be so sick so quick) and "BORN TO RUN" and HANK AARON and FLUNKIES (the word, not the actual people). JEEPERS CREEPERS, the long stuff in this grid was great.
- 3D: Musician who helped save Carnegie Hall from demolition (ISAAC STERN) —I get him confused with fellow violinist ITZHAK PERLMAN (whose first name I always confuse with that of former Israeli Prime Minister YIZHAK Rabin)
- 29A: 1924 tale of derring-do ("BEAU GESTE") — gonna have to make this Word of the Day at some point because it's an answer I "know" without knowing it at all. Crosswords tell me this is a proper clue for GESTE and I believe them, but only out of mindless obedience. I'm picturing a guy in a French Foreign Legion hat ... and now I know why?:
 |
| [Weird: Gary Cooper was also in the French Foreign Legion in "Morocco" (1930) opposite Marlene Dietrich] |
- 46A: It might work on a block (DRANO) — spent at least a few seconds wondering how the answer could be PIANO
- 11A: Pause in the middle of a line of poetry (CAESURA) — a common feature of Anglo-Saxon verse, nearly all of which is alliterative and nearly every line of which features a CAESURA. Every line is really two half-lines on either side of a CAESURA, which is typically indicated in printed versions of Anglo-Saxon poetry by a largish empty space (see layout here). This answer may have been easier for me than for most people because I teach this stuff. I have no idea how commonly known this term is.
See you tomorrow.
Oh wait, I almost forgot: CONGRATULATIONS TO PATTI VAROL, THE NEW EDITOR OF THE L.A. TIMES CROSSWORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We are pleased to announce @PattiVarol as editor of the Los Angeles Times Crosswordhttps://t.co/GJW0uaRHEr
— Tribune Content Agency (@TribuneAgency) March 11, 2022
A woman now edits a major daily for the first time in my solving life, as far as I know. And not just any woman, but one of the loveliest and smartest and *experienced* editors around. It's about damn time. I'm so thrilled.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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135 comments:
Generally ok with Latin Pharisees as it is now an excuse to spend time with a teenage son and help him through highs lol Latin. The puzzle felt more Wednesday than Saturday. And I really don’t ever need to see a reference to the Thong Song in print or on a play list or anywhere. I worked for a British Company for a long time and no one could ever commit to a meeting if it was “half-term” or if their kids were stressed because they were studying for A-Levels. Annoying. Would have been happy to lose that too.
Didn't like this as much as Rex, but it had good bite. Felt to me like more of a slog than a joy ride, but I'll take a good challenge any day.
🧠🧠🧠
🎉🎉.5
I had a reasonably good start but soon slowed. I enjoyed this challenging puzzle (1 hour) even as I was frustrated by the trivia and Latin. I worked out the corners and bit by bit got the center done. Didn't google but did some checking, without which I probably would not have completed the puzzle. FWH*
*Finished With Help
Long time first time.
Also had no idea what a silent butler was, but I reasoned through it "well, maybe rude rich people expect their butlers to silently clean up their cigarette ASH?"
I've never heard of BEAU GESTE or CAESURA and got myself lost by trying GREGOR instead of INSECT for a bit. But! Still managed to finish. This was tough but I really liked this puzzle.
A straightforward puzzle and thanks to Mr. Last. I'm a bit amused at Rex's note - however (not for the first time), and his complaint about Pari passu. It was a surprise "gimme" for me (full disclosure -I am NOT an attorney); but it's a term used in business routinely and in contract discussions all the time - it's a totally normal term. Even more amusing - Rex complains about this Latin term, - but then seems happy with another one -Caesura - and uses for his example (happily I knew this too; not from verse, but my friends and I use it to indicate we want to take a break between exercise sets. ) in his notes is a lengthy poem in - to me - incomprehensible - anglo-saxon. The Dream of the Rood? I guess I have to catch up on my very early Christian poetry. Oh, and why the complaint about the space between words? Or rather, why not complain similarly about Isaac Stern (another gimme) or Hank Aaron or basically any proper name. Enjoying Rex as always/
I don’t think many will be surprised if a consensus emerges that PARI PASSU is over-the-line obscure, even for a Saturday. I would also characterize CAESURA, POUTINES (as clued), ALEVELS and THONG SONG as being lesser offenses, but still upping the esoterica count. All probably within an acceptable tolerance level for a Saturday, I suppose.
This is a darn good follow-up to yesterday’s stellar gem from Ms. Weintraub - maybe Rex is on to something and WS should be “poaching“ from the New Yorker more frequently.
Some nice clues in the SW (MENU, DRANO) - I also think that it is really, really cool that instead of just making something up, the constructor actually clued and included AND as an answer in the puzzle. Imagine that, taking the time to come up with a REAL WORD and an APPROPRIATE CLUE for a Crossword Puzzle ! Omg, what a concept - it never really occurred to me before.
This was not easy for me. Even though there were only three answers I had never heard of (and they were all crossed fairly), there were quite a few answers that I couldn’t leap to from the clue, and that I had to build square by square (like ISAAC STERN, who I know of, but I didn’t know the Carnegie Hall factoid). There were other answers that were buried somewhere in the synapses, that I knew were there (like those A LEVELS), but I couldn’t retrieve them without some help from crosses.
This made for a gritty solve for me, fighting to put so many letters in. But man, something in me loves that hard work. Afterward I feel cleansed and vibrant, like after running a hard sprint.
I liked row 14 with its blockbuster clues, the inclusion of both APHID and INSECT, and the double-E fest (6). And I loved seeing the grid’s scrapbook mounting corners.
This was a quality puzzle, made by a pro, and, for me, filled with a certain sweet rub that is unique to Natan Last’s puzzles. I say that after having done a fair number of his grids, and I’ve grown to treasure doing them, to treasure my Last rite. Thank you, Natan!
LOL Rex all mad at Pari Passu coz he doesnt know it therefore claims no one can know it except lawyers or latinists. Have read it many times in novels and essays. May not show up much in comix tho.
O levels are from Harry Potter.
The grid looks like a 22 to me - elegant layout and wonderful fill. Recalled PASSU but blanked on PARI until the crosses helped. Seemed like a lot of trivia for a Saturday - but all fairly gettable.
OLLIE for the second time this week - and didn’t we just discuss PRAT? Learned CORNEA. Mr. Carson used a silent butler and I’ve seen them on the Roadshow - only options were ASH or crumb. Loved seeing the late, great HANK AARON.
Just to complete the connection between 30a and 41a
Highly enjoyable Saturday solve.
While we’re all worked up about spaces, “We Jazz June” is the next to last line, but it is split over two stanzas. Shouldn’t the clue have a [space] in it, pari passu?
I really enjoyed this puzzle until I came to a total Natick at the cross of PARIPASSU and THONGSONG. That S could have been anything.
Yo, Michael – I always read your write-up and learn a lot, but I tell ya man, when your writer juices are flowing, your craft is delightful. I went back and read your comment twice, making mental notes of all the stuff that I can possibly steal, tweak, and then shamelessly pass off as my own:
**the absolutely gigantic chunk of legal Latin that is floating in my puzzle soup
**PARI [breath] PASSU) That breath inserted there delighted me.
**…that feeling when a longer answer comes shooting out of a corner all the way to the other side of the grid. Feels like fireworks.
**so sick so quick – probably just me, but this phrase felt very “We Real Cool”-some
I’m so glad Rex didn’t know PARI PASSU because I get the rare validation that something I don’t know is indeed obscure and not just out of my stinky little wheelhouse.
Several erasures:
“Humming” for TIME LAG off that M
“Oath” for PACT
“Tends” for HEEDS
“Loupes” before SIZERS
“Vermin” – “beetle” – INSECT. Look. I read it in German and misremembered the last word as being UNGEZIEFER, which translates roughly to “vermin.” Of course the last word is the verb verwandelt, duh. German.
Oh, and a mystifying “cessure” before CAESURA. Hey. I was on the right track.
Sometimes I wish I were famous enough to have a cute little marriage of my first initial and part of my last name. J LAW, J Lo, A Rod. . . Think of the possibilities with other celebrities: SPort, THanks, THatch, CHest. Hah.
Congratulations, Patti! Woohoo!
@amyloowoo 7:24 - OWLS and NEWTS are from Harry Potter. A-levels and O-levels are from British education. The "O" is for ordinary; the "A" for advanced.
FWIW (probably not much), this practicing lawyer got PARI PASSU from the U alone. But I suppose for lay people it is an obscure term.
Sometimes the perceived difficulty of a puzzle can be very dependent on the order in which you see the clues.
I was really struggling with this one - in multiple areas - and thought I had by that time seen every clue. But somehow I had missed the clue for HANK AARON. Once I saw that, it opened everything up and I zoomed to the end.
It felt like an ORDEAL, but had I seen that clue earlier, maybe things would have been different.
No idea what a silent butler is. Having looked it up … I still don’t understand. It looks like something you would collect ash in, but not something that would pick up ash.
Bad case of terminal Morning Brain. Couldn't call up the Pynchon novel, guessed Dew off the D. The coffee additive corrected the w, but I didn't go back and revisit the e. If I had, CAESURA -- a total WOE but fairly crossed -- would've been a near-gimme. Instead, it was a d'oh!
I had RN at the end of the musician so I initially put in VANCLIBURN, which fit.
Did you know it instantly, or had you never heard of it? For me, the former applied to CAESURA and, mirabile dictu, ASH. (My parents, both smokers, actually had a fancy ashtray with a hinged lid that was always referred to as a SILENTBUTLER.) But PARIPASSU and THONGSONG? No idea. Actually had THONG_ONG and thought of some letters that made a pretty raunchy title, finally settled on the S, which turned out to be correct, but my piece of paper failed, as usual, to provide the happy music which I did my humming BORNTORUN.
OATH before PACT and in spite of our recent discussion, TWIT before PRAT. I still like TWIT better.
I'm familiar with Mr. Last's style, having done lots of his New Yorker puzzles, and he's always a fun challenge. Normally Love your stuff, NL. and this one is no exception, so thanks.
This constructor has had thirty five crosswords published in the Times since 2007. Granted, he is a regular New Yorker contributor as well but the New Yorker has been publishing puzzles for less than four years. The “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em “ comment is idiotic.
Does anybody know why Jeff Chen’s entry today has nothing to do with the puzzle? Typically he says something nice about every constructor, even Kameron. But today, it’s a non sequitor about rock climbing.
I guess your background matters. I wrote pari passu in quickly, though spelled wrong at first. I thought caesura was the hardest word in puzzle. I'm sure I've never heard of it. I also though the non diary clue was very hard. I was trying to figure out a substitution for coffee.
Agreed. Many comments here just assume that what you know everyone knows and what you don't know, nobody else knows..
For me, ISAACSTERN was a massive gimme, but JUNE/JLAW slowed me a bit. And HANK AARON is really Henry Aaron which causes problems too.
My surname is Butler, so I’m sure there are a lot of people in my life who wish I was a Silent Butler. Although I’d never heard of this contraption, I loved learning about it. I’ll never get why Rex (who is indeed a very witty writer) spends three-fourths of his writeups on the two things he hated about a puzzle he loved.
I got the double-As in the two long famous-people downs before I even saw their clues, and in both cases thought I must have one of the acrosses wrong. Relieved to see AARON and ISAAC appear.
POUTINE - have you heard that some Canadians want to change the name of this iconic dish because it sounds almost exactly like Putin? Reminds me of when people in the US renamed French fries as “freedom fries” because France didn’t support the US invasion of Iraq.
PARAGUAY and the Guarani language fascinate me because it is the only case in the world that I know of in which the colonizers universally learned the language of the people they conquered. To this day, nearly everyone in the country- even the most pure-blooded descendants of Spain - speaks Guarani. It’s as if we in the US all spoke Cherokee as well as English. I love that about Paraguay.
Seems odd that New Jersey would be proud of BORN TO RUN as a theme song for its youth since it’s about young people hitting the open road and presumably getting the hell out of New Jersey. Maybe the THONG SONG would be better?
Loved the clue for MENU and the “huh?” moment on getting PBJ. Well, yes I guess it IS vegan.
Too much trivia. Typical Natan puzzle.
Cannot believe no one has mentioned the totally wrong clue. A BUCKSAW will make short work of a tree. One could even use a BOWSAW. But a BANDSAW has no more to do with lumbering than a SEE SAW.
Personal natick at JUNE and JLAW, and I only solved it by guessing that JLAW was tabloid talk for Jude Law. Love it when wrong guesses pay off!
Easy (for a Saturday) here. First answer was SEAMS (Yay! Baseball!) and the NW fell from that toehold. The CREAMER half of NON DAIRY CREAMER wasn’t all that helpful initially (first thought on the “coffee substitute” clue was “nothing, brother”) but THONG SONG got me restarted. POUTINES also got a smile because just last Saturday we had “Vegan Lebanese POUTINE” at a local restaurant. It was tasty. It wasn’t POUTINE.
I’m with Rex on PARI PASSU. Familiar with the concept but if I have ever seen the term it didn’t stick. As a result, my last letter was the LoaKeaLoa of TAb/g/P, any of which could be used for “Pick,” but PAS looks a lot like a Latin root for foot, so I went with the correct P. Yay Me.
What really threw me on BEAU GESTE was the “1924” in the clue. I only know BEAU GESTE from xwords and I would have guessed 1884 rather than 1924 if you had asked. I now know that it is set in Pre-WWI, but only because I just looked it up.
For all the people having trouble think of a silent butler as a tiny covered ashtray. From another era when smoking indoors was common.
No way for me to call this easy. Worked through several Naticks. Then ultimately DNFed on TAb crossing PARI bASSU. Seems like tag, tab and tap can all mean "pick." Still loved it.
Thx Natan, for the vigorous workout; great Sat. puz! :)
Tough.
Rough going all the way. I was in a different universe for this one.
Made two correct guesses at JLAW / JUNE and on the 'S' in THONG SONG, but had TAb rather than TAP for the FLUNK.
I rue the fact that I didn't give more thot to TAb; had that slight twinge, and should have marked it for further review, esp given that I didn't know PARI PASSU at all.
Love a battle, so wasn't at all disappointed at my overall effort; just need to finish stronger. :)
@A (3:30 PM yd) 😊
___
yd pg: 13:06 / W: *4
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
OK, I'm dating myself here but silent butlers were very common in the early/mid 20th century. My Mom told me she received multiple silent butlers as wedding gifts in 1950!
A bandsaw is used in lumbermills, to saw logs into boards. So I think he's off the hook, with a pretty obscure misdirect.
I wracked my brain for anything that could take the place of coffee. I entertained myself imagining the answer "nothing."
I agree with the "easy" difficulty rating. It took me 30 minutes to solve, which is a fast Saturday for me. Saturdays usually take me at least an hour.
I'm neither a lawyer nor a Latin scholar, but PARI PASSU still came to me fairly easily once a few of the letters were filled in. I may have picked it up from reading analytic philosophy, which tends to use a variety of Latin terminology.
It took me a while to figure out the Kafka clue, partly because I had RAT OUT for Turn in (2D) instead of REDEEM. In the original German, the last word of the first sentence is verwandelt, the past participle of verwandeln, to transform or metamorphose (and the source of the title Die Verwandlung, which we translate into English as The Metamorphosis). The word that is translated as "insect" is "Ungeziefer," which means something more like vermin, and is the second-to-last word in Kafka's original German first sentence.
PS dropped out of law school in second semester, still saw nothing remotely like PARI PASSU. And worked in a very formal restaurant as a young person where we used what we called "crumbers" to scoop the tablecloth clean post-entree. But still had no clue about silent butler.
"On the night of 30 June, all the neuræsthenics of Europe, emerging from electric bathtubs out onto what ought to've been dark terraces and pavement, glowing all over with radioactive mud-bath slime, electrodes dangling off their heads, syringes forgetfully poised inches from veins, came out of their establishments to marvel at what was going on in the sky."
-- Thomas Pynchon, "Against the DAY" (2006), p.802
JEEPERS CREEPERS, he is a playful brain. "Against the DAY," is to my taste the second-best of Pynchon's novels (after "Mason & Dixon"). Set in the early 20th c., pulp story lines (viz. the "Chums of Chance," a group of boy adventurers who travel the world in a zeppelin; Pierpont Morgan-inspired Scarsdale Vibe, subverting Nicolas Tesla's plan for universal free energy derived from Earth's magnetic fields; out-West mining, desperadoes, union violence; hollow-Earth exploration, pre-WWI European intrigue, etc.) mix with your usual Pynchon sometimes-inspired-usually-fun wand'rings, doppelgängers, sentient ball lightning, light, brooding dreamscapes. I've read it a couple of times and will return again at some point.
PARIPA/PARAGUAY crossing somehow triggered the "Chia pet" jingle, still echoing as I write this.
I won’t call this beauty easy, but I luckily found this puzzle right in my wheelhouse and had the solve in nearly half my usual Saturday time. Of course I loved it! CAESURA, ISAAC, HANK, POUTINES, OLLIE, PARIPASSU, all conspired to put me on a jet plane through this. It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a fine dining experience, but I distinctly remember those little silver lidded utensils with a handled scraper that one’s waiter would use to gather ash and crumbs. They were ubiquitous in the NYC club and restaurant experience when I lived there. I don’t think I ever put a name to them because Mom didn’t have a butler and my last cigarette was in 1973, but that’s exactly what came to mind when I saw that clue. Thanks to Mr. Last. I enjoy his work in both publications.
Would a character such as Jeeves be Pari Passu with Passepartout?
@Megafrim 8:53, not until reading your comment did I realize that it was not referring to Jude Law. I reasoned that cross exactly as you did. I also though at the time "JLO makes sense as it changes five syllables to two, but why would you do that with Jude Law, which is already only two syllables?"
Then again, people do strange things. I've heard (three-syllable) Atlanta referred to as (four-syllable) "The A-T-L".
@jammon - Uh, I think you’re thinking of the kind of BAND SAW you might have in your workshop, but a lumber company might also have a BAND SAW that is very different from what you own.
@Wanderlust - I’ll never get why Rex spends three-fourths of his writeups on the two things he hated about a puzzle he loved. - You’re not alone, which is something I will never get. To me Rex writes about puzzles the same way many of my best profs would write about a paper. That is, the amount of red ink was in no way indicative of the grade, and the criticisms were more valuable than the praise. I’ve said many times that if a constructor wants praise they should skip Rex, but if they want to become better at making puzzles he is the Blog to read.
And then there’s also the very pragmatic fact that readers want to know stuff like “is PARI PASSU fair,” so the RexPlaints are often comforting to many.
@Rube - Yep, I hesitated because there wasn’t space for Henry AARON.
@Anon8:38 - Purely speculative, but maybe an extended metaphor for coming to appreciate Last’s puzzles?
@Anon8:32 - Point taken, but the back to back New Yorker constructors stood out to me, too.
You good for more chuckles per mile than anyone on here!
Pari passu was a gimme (and I’m not a lawyer) but caesura???? No thanks. Crossed fairly though. Fast Saturday solve.
@LMuse, you're famous enough for us!
Great puzzle, Natan, really enjoyed it. 18 minutes for this father/son solving team. Enjoyed the eclectic stuff--A-LEVELS, jazz JUNE, silent butlers. All terrific and eminently gettable even for amateur solvers like us.... THANKS!--Rick
Phone Commenters (@Rube and @Brian A in SLC today) - That reply function you’re using doesn’t appear in the web version, so your comments look random and we don’t know to whom you are referring. For example, I cannot tell who is being agreed with by @Rube 8:46 or who is giving @Brian A 9:31 chuckles. If you want to be understood use the @commenter convention even when using the reply function.
Well, ASH and ALEVELS were nearly-gimmes for me (I think silent butlers are cool), but a lot of Rex’s “easy” stuff was a total blank for me — Gwendolyn Brooks, Sisqo, etc…. Who?? I did know CAESURA, actually. So much of this was tough and unknown to me but somehow it came together and I really liked it.
Hey All !
Doesn't Natan usually also include his JASA class? Is that JASA even right? The ole brain...
Nice SatPuz that I only had to use Check Puzzle feature once. And one Goog for BEAU GESTE, as wanted GEnTE. Did end up a DNF, but that's fine by me. It is a SatPuz after all.
For the New Jersey youth song, was thinking Bon Jovi before Bruce Springsteen.
Had eLEVEnS FOR ALEVELS first. Har. eLEVEnS sounds like some sort of British exam. REtire-REDEEM. Got JEEPERSCREEPERS off just the JE, so that was my PuzHigh.
Thanks to @Gill, TANGOED was thought of right away!
JLAW is Jennifer Lawrence, I believe. My moniker could be DVa. Har.
yd -5, should'ves 3
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I’ll just pick myself up from this Saturday SmackDown and bow in humility to those of you who found it easy. A New Jersey rock theme for kids, a multilingual South American country, British exams, a Canadian dish, a Latin legal term, and memorization of a Kafka work? Way over my pay grade.
More in my intellectual wheelhouse is Loren Muse Smith’s avatar. If you missed it, go back and check it out. I don’t know how she comes up with these things but it’s sheer brilliance.
What @Z wrote: baseball is back! So happy.
And yes, @kitshef, here in the Championship Home of Hank Aaron, the city is playfully called The ATL sometimes. (And one of our NPR stations claims to "Amplify Atlanta.")
Challenging Saturday. Also cold, brrr,
Loved the challenge of this one with its really tough cluing, but I do have complaints in two areas:
1) Crossing the pop hit with the obscure Latin phrase. What was that damned letter? Was it THONG GONG? THONG BONG? THONG LONG? Having run the alphabet all the way to THONG SONG, I stopped at "S". PARIPASSU sort of looked OK too. I took two years of Latin in high school, btw, for all the good it's done me. Maybe that's because "Mrs. Cannon, Ducky" -- a Cockney Brit who taught the "Hic Haec Hoc" declension to the tune of "Three Blind Mice" which she insisted on warbling in her faux-opera voice each time she repeated it* -- was the absolutely worst teacher at Dalton during those years.
2) Was it "We/Jazz/TUNE" or "We/Jazz/JUNE"? Never cross a gibberish-y line from a pop song with a pop star's tabloid nickname. Now I had the ?LAW and I didn't like "TL". But I also didn't like "JL" -- except for JLO, of course. In the nick of time I remembered Jude LAW, figured he must be that tabloid star (what happens if JLO marries JLAW, btw?) and wrote in JUNE. Puzzle solved!
Other than those two areas, this was a pretty neat puzzle.
*The "Hic Haec Hoc" declension is the only thing I remember from my two years of high school Latin :)
Very tough for me. I wouldn't say I ever reached the absolute GOT NOWHERE POINT, but getting anywhere was a struggle. I was grateful for any and all ECOs, JLAWs, YAWs, PBJs, CPAs for giving me at least something to cling to. Along the way...
- Happy to know: CAESURA, ISAAC STERN.
- Happy to have at least heard of or seen: PARI PASSU, BEAU GESTE, BORN TO RUN
- Bad judgment call: "They'd never put POUTINE in the plural." I wrote in terrINES.
- No idea: THONG SONG.
- Smiles for: Getting JEEPERS CREEPERS from theJ; the grouping of FLUNKIES + PRAT AND BRAT; finishing.
@Hartley70 9:24 - I restored balance to the universe, with this puzzle taking me about twice my usual Saturday time.
I'm not embarrassed to say that this puzzle broke open with me at THONG SONG. That, and BORN TO RUN. From there, it fell in pretty well, except for the Natick I had crossing PARI PASSU with BEAUGESTE. Didn't know either of those, so I had an R there. Fun puzzle to do, though.
Had "Twinkies" for the Minions clue. The Minions are just dressed up Twinkies right?
"We jazz June" is NOT a "gibberishy line from a pop song." It's from a poem by the esteemed (1950 Pulitzer recipient) Gwendolyn Brooks -- a poem that's more sadly appropos now than ever:
THE POOL PLAYERS
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
@RUBE 8:46, was thinking of the same thing about Henry Aaron. He grudgingly accepted Hank but preferred his given name. He will always be the home run king instead of the former Giant.
I came close to a DNF today, both at 31A and at 22A/22D. I joined @Roo with eLEVEnS; having confirmed that PATROnS was a word, at 47A, I didn’t bother checking its clue. Only when trying to decipher what a silent butler does did I come to question eLEVEnS. My excuse is that I was thinking of the British “elevenses” tea break.
But J-LAW was an even closer call to a DNF. We/Jazz tUNE seemed more likely than JUNE. I was only saved by having seen the movie, “Don't Look Up” and of the Star-studded cast, only Jennifer Lawrence fit in at 22A, though I would never refer to her as J-LAW, ugh.
I found this puzzle to be typically Saturday tough, but also smooth. And getting JEEPERS CREEPERS from the PBJ guess was a highlight. Thanks, Nathan Last!
Congrats to the LA Times!!!
Only 80 years behind The New York Times who named a female editor for its crossword puzzle on 1942.
For those interested in WTF Jeff Chen is doing in his comments on this puzzle, I took it to be a PARIPASSU comparison of his take on Robyn Weintraub and Nathan Last. He finds RW easier and more naturally delightful, but has come to appreciate that NL, while more difficult for Jeff personally, is equally good and, for him, more satisfying. OTOH, Jeff may have just pasted the wrong piece of his writing into the column when he hit “publish”.
How out-of-touch am I? After filling in 22A I thought, “Huh, I don’t remember Jude Law being in Don’t Look Up.”
Great puzzle. Thanks, Nathan Last.
@Loren: LSmith just doesn’t resonate, but how about LoMuse?
Henry Aaron is criminally underrated. Sounds like hyperbole until you take a few minutes to digest his achievements.
There’s a wonderful resource called baseball reference.com. You’ll see how many records he holds or once held.
And if you really love The Hammer, there’s a incredible picture of a very young Henry Aaron—- maybe18– at the train station waiting to head to his first pro team (Indianapolis?) . The pic is incredible. I won’t ruin it with words. But I assure you it’s quite something. (Has been posted on a site called lot time baseball photosphere, but that’s getting to be a few years ago. I’m guessing a google search will yield success)
*Gratuitous pontificating:
Baseball is not back, The DH has killed the Senior Circuit (AL is the Junior Circuit). RIP National League. 1876-2021
For the record the New York Times had a females editor of their crossword 80 years ago.
Fun. Just barely doable for me, which is what one would want. Except for JLAW/JUNE which required my guessing the J, just like several others here who similarly report having be Naticked by that. It sort of spoils a lot of effort when your last square leaves you feeling unsure you've got it instead of brilliant. Editors, please take note :).
Pari Passu was all Greek to me (GET IT?!?). Also, couldn’t get the dead center: Born to Run (should have figured that out) and “Beaugeste” - no idea on that. Otherwise a fun puzzle.
Um, guys, JLAW is Jennifer Lawrence. Not Jude Law.
Fail at Latin as TAG also worked as cross. Plus. There is NO substitute for coffee!
@Jazzmanchgo -- What a wonderfully terse, fraught, and ironic poem. I wasn't familiar with it. It's one of the best links I've ever been offered on this blog and it makes me want to go read some of the other poems of Gwendolyn Brooks. Thank you.
When I'm looking for a restaurant on my special Saturday, I want to go to a brasserie emblazoned with a sign that says "Natan Last." I know I'm in for delicious, foreign, tasty food.
The waiter brings me a MENU and on it he points out the "Specials".....They include foreign dishes I've never tried in the wild. He tells me that today it's PARIPASSU, CAESURA and a side of THONG SONG. I tell him that I've heard of these dishes but I don't understand why they are being served. He assures me that once I can smell the ingredients, I will enjoy. It took me a long time to pick my way through all the different aromas, but the side dishes helped me get past my fears of the unknown.
My first entree, was trying to figure out where to start. I needed something to pique the taste buds. I got it with NON DAIRY CREAMER. I did specify a French cafe au lait but this was all they had. I eyed ISAAC STERN in his iconic BLAZER eating some INSECT and I suppose I shouted JEEPERS CREEPERS. Then I spotted HANK AARON eating some POUTINE. MAE and OLLIE got up and TANGOED to some Carlos Acuna. I, was TAP dancing with BEAUGESTE. The place was NOISY; nobody seemed to care.
The food was delicious. I tried something new and now I want to go back to PARAGUAY and also revisit my wonderful memories of dancing in ATHENS.
Buen provecho.....
I wonder why Natan Last published here rather than in The New Yorker. The money's less, I think. And sometimes Shortz sits on a puzzle for a long time with no payment. Did the magazine reject this one?
I like JLAW, but she hasn't made a movie that I enjoyed for some time. Don't Look Up bored me. I get that it's a satire but one completely without wit. Poor Meryl Streep. She's not being offered quality roles any more.
Nancy: terra, terrae, terrae, terram, terra; terrae, terrarum, terris, terras, terris.
It checked all the boxes for me. Crunchy, sparkly, low on threes, high on longs, learned a thing or two. Bravo!
...And thanks to those who told me that JLAW is Jennifer Lawrence and not Jude Law. Since I haven't seen "Don't Look Up", I wouldn't have known that. Interesting, because the puzzle doesn't know and doesn't care that I based my correct answer on the wrong assumption. I'll try to remember Jenny's tabloid nickname for the next time it appears in a clue...but being me, I almost certainly won't.
Do THONG and SONG really RHYME???. . . BONG! WRONG!!
As anonymous posted, what on earth does Jeff Chen’s Bizarro write-up have to do with this crossword?
At least his Thong Song* pic made sense.
* who’s ever heard of Thong Song?
Does it REALLY make a difference that a female was hired to construct puzzles? Shouldn't the ONLY qualification be HIRING the BEST available PERSON?? That's as crazy as, say, appointing someone to the Supreme Court because she is a black female.
Easy-medium. CAESURA I knew PARIPASSU I did not, so that part of the puzzle was tough and last to fall. The fact that it crossed THONG SONG (a WOE) didn’t help. Plus the clue for 22d was no help in getting the N in SONG. NW and SE, however, on the easy side. Excellent Saturday, liked it a bunch!
Was mentally set up to find this puzzle very difficult by the early Pynchon clue. 😱 (And Kafka clue didn’t help.🪳)
Totally psyched out — 🧠 either FRIED or froze 🥶 at 😂 the thought of Pynchon. 😂
So I liked 🧩a lot AND found it challenging, even fun.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
@Hartley70 et al: Although it's been 10-15 years since I've seen one, I've seen a waiter use what I'd call a mini carpet sweeper to remove crumbs from a white tablecloth in between courses.....a silent butler of sorts, to be sure.
@mathgent 11:01 -- Imagine this being sung to "Three Blind Mice" in a trilling and rather hideous coloratura voice by a Latin teacher who fancies herself a Met opera star, but isn't. Then you'll know how I remember this -- even if I don't remember anything else about Latin.
(Obviously your Latin education was far superior to mine -- but then that's a very low bar.)
Hic, haec, hoc
Huius, huius, huius
Huic, huic, huic,
Hunc, hanc, hoc,
Hoc, hac, hoc.
Re: Silent Butler -- My parents were both heavy smokers, so were their friends, and everyone had a silent butler in their homes back then. It's not an ashtray and it's not left out in the living room. The hostess will periodically bring it into the LR and empty ashtrays into it (it opens and closes with a squeeze of the hand), then bringing it back into the kitchen or wherever it resides. They tended to be on the large side and quite handsome: the one in our house looked to be silver, even though it probably was nothing of the sort. When people stopped smoking in other people's apartments, the silent butler disappeared.
@Z I hear you, but a professor is marking up that paper for the student only. Rex is writing for an audience of thousands, only a small number of whom are constructors. Again, I love Rex’s writing, and I certainly don’t expect him to pull his punches. Just saying that by focusing on what he dislikes about puzzles he really likes (as he did yesterday and today), he comes across as overwhelmingly negative. But as I often say, it’s his blog and we can leave if we don’t like it.
As one who enjoys The New Yorker for its literary merit and misses Playboy for its fictional excellence, I have to say “Thanks Nathan.” Nah, it has always been the cartoons & photography respectively, but since the grids appear, I do try to fill them. Band saws are indeed a “lumbering” tool that ranged in size from home shop to industrial grade 20 foot monsters that scared the bejesus out of me as a teen working at Roseburg Lumber. With the extinction of old growth forests those massive head-rig saws have become as rare as silent butlers no longer needed since smokers have become social pariahs. Even CAESURA brought a pleasant moment to reflect on those long ago days of attempting to share the joys of the best words in the best order with my reluctant learners—often the first of their kin to grace a college experience.
Oh , AND the puzzle? Kafka, Springsteen & Brooks—now that’s a trifecta to bet on. AAdd in a duet like AARON & ISAAC as @Lewis notes and you have a grid with Laasting aappeal.
I did my usual wandering around the Saturday grid wondering whether this was THE day dementia had set into my brain, then eventually deciding it had not as many small toe holds resulted in a finish!
My first thought for coffee substitute was CHICORY [something] and was delighted to finally figure out NONDAIRYCREAMER.
My first entry for vegan sandwich was TLT…Tofu, lettuce, and tomato. I STILL think THAT should be “a thing.”
@Nancy, I cannot believe how similar your Latin class experience was to mine! I think my Latin teacher MIGHT have been good at one point in her life but seems she probably had developed some memory problems from age by the time I had her. Suffice it say that my Latin knowledge besides legal terms extends to “elephantus non capit murem”, “vestis virum reddit”, and “manus manum lavat.” I bet there are folks here that can figure out these very useful sentences! At any rate…I did NOT know PARIPASSU.
My mother received a silent butler as a wedding present in the 40s, a little silver brush and dustpan for sweeping up crumbs. My sister still uses it.
Don’t have a problem with Latin phrases, certainly not on a Saturday. This one wasn’t on my normal radar, but if it had something like SUMMA CUM LAUDE, it would have felt far too easy for the weekend. (And that has not just one, but *two* spaces, Rex — Rex, Rex, what’s your sudden problem with spaces???). In a pinch, that’s why I have a collection of Latin phrases sitting on my book shelf.
Yes, O-Levels are also a thing in English schools, but they’re sat by 16-year-olds; the A (as in ‘advanced’ as opposed to ‘ordinary’) Levels are the last big exams taken in preparation for entering university. There was a time when Americans might be excused for not knowing the difference, but since the extensive parody of the English school exam system portrayed in the Harry Potter books (where do you think the OWLS and NEWTS came from?), no problems with this on a Saturday. If anything, the clue (“British 18-year-olds”) is, if anything, a tad over specific for the end of the week.
No, my biggest stumbling blocks were BORN TO RUN and THONG SONG. I basically stopped listening to popular musics in the late 1970s, and aside from references in the NYTXW I have no real regrets. -)
I’m with @BrianA in SLC and @Bocamp having gone with TAb instead of TAP. @Abalani500 A gimme on PARIPASSU? Really? The comments would indicate you’re a minority of one.
I started with beANO pre DRANO, which rather cracked me up. And, at first, it was a coin flip on TANGOED mAmbOED. Such are the moments that make Saturday puzzles a hoot.
PS: Silent butler is an entry in Merriam-Webster. I generally feel that anything with a dictionary listing is fair game. Any day of the week, let alone a Sat.
Am I the only one disappointed to encounter two breezy solves on a successive Friday and Saturday. I look forward to the end of the week for a challenge that twists my brain more than a little. Instead, NYT delivered up back-to-back near record solving times for the respective days
Mind you, Thursday took up the slack a bit. I had to return to the puzzle twice to allow my perspective to shift sufficiently each time and crack a new portion of the grid. For me, one of the toughest Thursday's in several months.
re PARI PASSU: Obscure, but no more so than many geographical references. And the context suggested the intro to the answer. So, all in all. Reasonable crosses as well, so only a moderate snag in the overall solve. I took it in stride; not averse to learning a bit of legal jargon.
"Jazz JUNE" as a verb phrase? What does that mean?
Another fun puzzle. I didn’t know THONGSONG but thought it was a play off Swan Song and got a chuckle when I guessed it. And thought I didn't know 22D but when I heard “We Jazz June” in my head it was so perfect I knew it was familiar and right.
@Jazzmanchgo Thanks for posting it.
Only a couple of letters were necessary to see BEAUGESTE but the Latin phrase was a foreign language. ; D My husband tells me Gary Cooper's Beau Geste was the only movie his father wanted to watch over and over, and the first one he saw that was a story told in a flashback. Needless to say after 40+ years of marriage I've seen it a few times. (And he reminds me it’s his turn to pick tonight’s entertainment…)
,
MFCTM.
Unknown (7:24)
TKL (9:15)
Birchbark (9:23)
jazzmanchgo (10:12)
Nancy (11:35)
@Nancy: A now-retired Latin teacher, I too, made up songs to help my students memorize paradigms. (IS, EA, ID goes to the tune of Mexican Hat Dance https://www.showme.com/sh?h=liUiM76). I had at least a dozen of ‘em. Future tense was Do ReMi, ‘cause you could repeat it ad infinitum
Makes me wonder how your HIC, HAEC, HOC continues with the tune of “they all ran after the farmer’s wife...”??
As for the puzzle at large: 12 answers requiring a [space] and Rex moans 4 times about only one of them??.Since when is a [space] something to complain about? And I bet most crossworders got the first 3 letters PAR-, no problem. So “quitcher bitchin”, Rex.
Like another commentator, I’m appalled that Rex explains “CAESURA” via Anglo-Saxon poetry...perfect opportunity to remind us of the etymology of “C-section.” CAESURae are very common in both Greek & Latin poetry!
@BarbieBarbie - You're close, but drop the M in Muse. Sage and I always just called her LOUSE (pronounced in her presence as low use, out of earshot 'the louse'. But with love in our hearts, of course).
@Wanderlust - Fair. But Rex is no worse than the pans in the NYT’s Arts section. In fact, I think Rex does much better at keeping the writing about the puzzle and not the person than many, maybe even most, critics of other entertainments. That doesn’t mean I would advise a new constructor to immediately pick up Rex, “I never read the critics” is a legitimate artistic position. But focusing on the weaknesses even of something you like is not as unusual as the comments here so often suggest.
@Way more people than I would have guessed - How did you miss this? It felt like it was Every. Where. in 2000. The opening is hilarious. Also, while this is a debut for THONG SONG as an answer, it has clued Sisqo five times including last in 2021.
@mathgent - I do not know the pay arrangements, but the New Yorker has a fairly regular rotation of some of the top constructors around. It works out to a puzzle every two weeks or so per constructor and so a challenging puzzle slot once every six weeks or so. My guess is that all of them have surplus Saturday level puzzles. And many feel like the Monday challenging puzzles are more Friday than Saturday.
I feel like it has been a decade since JLAW has been called JLAW. But I don’t keep up on celebrity gossip so I might be wrong.
@Anon10:33 - Agree 1,000,000% - Everyone should bat. I’m also firmly opposed to this 12 team playoff. I’d be perfectly happy with four 8 team leagues and only the league winners being in the playoffs. 40% of the teams making the playoffs seems ridiculous to me, especially after a 162 game season. Expand by two teams, make it four leagues, and dump this ginned up playoff excitement.
I really enjoyed this Saturday offering - tough, but I never felt stuck. Lots of fun clues, varied topics, breezy phrases.
re PARI PASSU: I didn't know this term, but this was inferrable (if not every letter). Rex uses parallel in his writeup "para" referring to equal and PASSU based on pas=steps, as in pas de deux.
CAESURA is also a musical term for a break in the music, commonly referred to as railroad tracks. Frequently they appear as a series of dramatic pauses at the end of the piece - I love to refer to such passages as "Caesurian sections".
From the double standard department: If "ogle" or "leer" appear, it ruin's Rex's day and leads to a huge male gaze rant. Somehow Thong Song, which is all about watching women shake their arses wearing only thongs gets a pass as "great playful musical sass".
I have read that Quebecois food vendors are changing the name of POUTINES because of the confusion with the Russian autocrat currently invading another sovereign nation. Vaguely reminiscent of the Freedom Fries era.
re: “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em “ - The New Yorker constructors were all-star regulars at the NYT. I'm sure there is backstory there - probably better pay and regular publishing, though I remember Liz Gorski's letter that Rex shared, that could suggest additional motives for others?
@Georgia - I was trying to fit "THEREISNOSUBSTITUTEFORCOFFEE"
JLAW is one of the top 5 most recognizable actresses at present. Remember her tripping up the steps and face-planting at the Oscars a few years ago? Definitely Saturday material.
@megafrim 9.24: I think Jeeves would be superior to Passepartout. And he would definitely know how to use a silent butler!
Anyone fold of PBS series such as Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs (as I am) remembers countless formal dinners after which the women went to the parlor, sitting room or somewhere to have coffee while the menfolk enjoyed their port and cigars. ADH on the tablecloth, despite ashtrays, was, I am certain a regular sight. Enter the Silent Butler, good for both ASH and crumbs from the many courses consumed throughout the evening. It’s a very legit answer. Nit sure why it got @Rex’s knickers in a twist.
This puzzle felt incredibly difficult. The time seemed to stand still while I figured out answers. Never heard of either Sisqó or the THONG SONG, and from the title, I am not likely to explore.
As usual, I approached the grid with trepidation just from the shape. The possibility of not being able to solve the NW or SE corners loomed large. Such a paucity of real estate connecting the areas always gives me instant agita. But as I put the NONDAIRY CREAMER into the mix, I found I had just what I needed to move diagonally from NE to SW. this is a work of art. Current, yet playful, spanning history, culture, sports, colloquialisms, topped with the whipped cream of delightful word play.
Other than PARI PASSU, THONG SONG and BORN TO RUN were the only places where I struggled through thankful for the crosses. What a delightful Saturday from a New Yorker constructor I enjoy enormously.
Thanks for that, @jazzmanchgo. Gwendolyn Brooks has long been one of my favorite poets. She deserves her honors as Poet Laureate, first of Illinois (1968?) and of the US, 1985. You beat me to the punch on including the poem. We
Z,
Surprised but very pleased you agree on the DH. ( unless it’s Poe time)
How do you stand the DH as a Tigers fan?
The Detroit Tigers?!!! That means Cobb, Heilmann, Manush, Gehringer, Kell, Kaline, Kuenn, Cash, Ordonez, Miggy. And those are just the guys with batting titles, Doesn’t include their most important hitter: Hank Greenberg. A clubhouse lawyer**could make the case they’re the greatest hitting franchise of all time.
And of course expanding the playoffs is morally bankrupt for exactly the reason you note.
** I would eviscerate such a lawyer, but it would be great fun to bat the subject around.
So my first entry was oAth, which seemed so right -- when I got a few other rosses for 7D, I decided APHID must be wrong and it must be omnI PAres. When i finally remembered POUTINES (not helped by the POC, it's like saying 'french frieses'), and therefore the verb in the rhyming title, I could see that THONG rONG was no good and finally dug PARI PASSU out of my memory. The rest of the puzzle wasn't too hard, but still a struggle -- I loved the clue for TWEEZE.
@wanderlust, @Z, my theory is that Rex is striving to be witty, and it's a lot easier to be witty in a negative way.
As for BAND SAW, I guess it's a fair misdirect, but I've never heard anyone use "lumbering" to mean turning logs into lumber, so I read it as another way of saying "logging," i.e. felling trees, which you couldn't do with a band saw of any size. My first choice was hAND axe, then hAND SAW.
People used to talk about "O and A levels," but not you only hear about A LEVELS, so I think the former have been phased out. @Roo, the elevenses were an earlier exam, taken at age 11, to determine whether one would go to an academic school or a move vacational one.
Yay, Patti Varol. Congratz. Edit up a storm, darlin.
This SatPuz had lotsa cool stuff. The Jaws of Themelessness. Photo album corners. PA RIP-ASS U. Only 64 words. 63, not countin PA RIP-ASS U. PA RIP-ASS U … is that a slang term for Penn State University, used in campus bars, or somesuch, maybe?
staff weeject pick. Most of these here weejects were pretty day-um respectable. Didn't know MAE, but astronomically proud to make her acquaintance. Gotta go with AND, with its clue of mystery. AND = {"What do you want me to do about it?"} is quite a stretch, for that modest lil conjunction critter.
Speakin of the clues, there were only two ?-marker clues, but many more that tried to be as vague as possible. Clues for JUNE, AND, and FRIED come to mind, right off the bat.
Solvequest at our house went pretty smooth, sans PA RIP-ASS U, until we hit that doggone SE corner, which tweezed our ashes off. ALEVELS? SIZERS? OLLIE? TENDS ahead of HEEDS. … AND … TWEEZE with a ?-marker clue. Silent butler? har … sounds like a fart vacuum cleaner [silent but leery]. All in all, an exponential DECAY of precious nanoseconds, down there. Eloquent intro placement of GOTNOWHERE, ergo.
Thanx for the challenge, Mr. NLast dude. And, go Penn St.!
Masked & Anonymo6Us
**gruntz**
I found this to be challenging and had to fill it in from the bottom up. The north initially froze me out for a couple of reasons. Not only were CAESURA and PARIPASSU off the radar but I also failed to recognize HID off of the D and BUILT off of the B. NOISY was even worse. With _ _ISY in place I still needed the N to recognize it.
For a long time I misread the 14A clue as meaning a substitute for coffee itself. In the Civil War soldiers used chicory or something equally desperate.
I got a clean grid in less time than Thursday's ORDEAL but not by much. The J of JLAW was my last letter and pretty obvious but Jazz/JUNE looks like jejune and why would anyone want to identify with that? TLAW was out of the question but I still felt a little iffy on that J.
What member of an MLB team is not a baseball player?*
*Trick question. there are 2. Pitchers and Designated Hitters.
Baseball players hit, field, run, and throw. Pitchers don't bat or run. DH's don't field or throw.
@Loren love your list of celeb nicknames: "SPort, THanks, THatch, CHest". My latest niece is T. Ennis, which is way too obvious.
Yes SILENT BUTLER is a new one on me. I really wanted TWEEZERS for the jewelry store tools; it's actually right there if you start at 39 across and turn right at the Z.
[Spelling Bee: yd -1 again; missed this, arrgh. td 8:20 to pg.]
I knew what a silent butler was, and actually saw them used on occasion when I was young. Never heard of the Thong Song, but figured it out from the clue and the crosses, and I certainly don't want to hear it.
Gimmes, given my age and my interests: Mightas well start with Rex's bane, 31A, Ash (Oh, that Silent Butleer clue!), 29A, Beau Geste; 20A, Insect; 11A, Caesura; 19A, Eco; 12A, Aphid; 24D, Poutines; 31D, ALevels; 3D, Isaac Stern, 28D, Hank Aaron.
Crosswordese oldies gimmes: 35A, Ollies; 37D, PBJ; 41D, Menu.
Shoulda known, finally recognized: 30A, Born to Run, a Boss clue!
Cool answer: 7D, Pari Passu. A new Latin phrase for me, and one that I will remember, in order to put myself on a more equal footing with crossword solvers who know Latin.
Cute answer: 43A Jeepers Creepers (where'd you get those peepers?), which I got very quickly, almost a gimme, once I got a few crosses.
Lumbering tool/BANDSAW.
I'll allow it.
Happy to get it though with an asterisk (*) as my wife reminded me of all the classic movies of the butlers flipping the lid on pan gliding around the hotel lobbies or gentleman clubs collecting from the ash trays.
Lot to overcome
Minds: TENDS
Pinky swear e.g : OATH
Place to pick sides: DELI
Rap stuff: THONG SONG is gettable. We/jazz JUNE makes no sense to me.
Also, I made a guess o ELEVENS as some Brit School milestone.
Also I have to take some credit on the Silent Buttler clue with ORT though it didn’t help crosses.
Ouch! Another slap at NJ! Uncalled for, Wanderlust (8:48), tho I enjoyed your post. I prefer to think of Born to Run as a paean to some sort of spiritual escape, as opposed to simply a geographical one.
Here's a nice line from it:
Wendy, let me in, I want to be your friend,
I want to guard your dreams and visions.
@okanager 1:15 - I was going to just let it go after Loren's post, but since you brought it up again who on earth is SPort? I got the others (CHest took a while), but that one is baffling.
I'm not a lawyer and I don't know Latin, but I've heard of pari passu, so I think it's a legit answer. Enjoyed this puzzle.
I am from La Belle Province and poutine is never referred to in the plural, unlike French fries.
Major error.
Non-dairy creamer isn't a 'substitute for coffee' it's a substitute for milk or half and half. Mutter, mutter.
@Hobbyist. Anything can be pluralized in an NYT puzz. Also feel free to invent abbreviations.
Are those European mens small bathing suits call THONG DONGS?
RooMonster Doing My Best JOHN X Imitation Guy
@JSleight: non-dairy creamer is a substitute for milk FOR COFFEE.
Eddie And The Cruisers
the first time we meet wordman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUO_E7noTTg
start at about 2:13
"I think he's right. I think it needs a caesura."
_____________
and my mom smoked and had a silent butler
i got 'ash' with nothing else hehe
@Anon1:19 - Nope, not Poe time. I get all the arguments for the DH, but baseball is a better game when pitchers have to hit. The DH is a career extender for lots of hitters, including Miggy, but pitchers should bat. I’m not surprised the DH is universal, but I don’t like it.
As for “greatest hitting franchise,” Wowser. It might be fun to take each team and do a match play sort of thing. I think if we limited it to top 5 all-time hitters on each club lots of clubs would be in the running and could at least make a case. If you took each team’s top 10 hitters I’m guessing the teams with believable claims would be reduced to less than half the clubs. And if you went to each team’s top 25 of all-time I assume the Damn Yankees would be walk away winners. Hence “the damn Yankees.” In other words, I’m pretty sure the 25th best Yankee hitter of all time would be top ten on most teams, but even the Mariners can scrape together an Ichiro and Martinez and get a pretty good top five. And I don’t know what to do about the Marlins because their best hitters play the majority of their careers someplace else.
@RooMonster - DONG THONGS, I believe.
Something tells me that the Venn diagram of people who know what a silent butler is and those who know THONG SONG doesn't have much overlap.
I can't believe that both Rex and Amy Reynaldo called this puzzle easy. I enjoyed it, even though I had to look up PARI PASSU to complete it. I didn't recognize and couldn't parse it missing the P from TAP (I couldn't decide between that and TAg there) and the S from THONG SONG. I would never characterize this one as Easy. I was pretty happy that I managed to post a Medium-Challenging solve time on a Natan Last puzzle.
Ok, so I had DAY, and I plunked in chickorY for the coffee substitute feeling super clever to know something from that time period before I was born but too recent to be current events (in this case WWII), even though I didn't know what the rest of it was called (chickory hot drink?).
And then GOT NOWHERE for a very long time, although weirdly the app says I solved this in just over 16 minutes. Uh, no. I stopped at some point and when I came back most of what I had sussed out and entered in the SE was gone, so it was easy to fill that all right back in, so looks like that's what the timer counted...?
Anyway, last letter in was a guess, the J of JUNE and JLAW, only because J sounded like it would go with Jazz in the clue.
We did see Don't Look Up but I only found out who JLAW was from your comments, thx.
Good puzzle for a snowy Saturday!
@Birchbark
So glad to see another Mason & Dixon fan.
Wondern’ not blue (12:16) raised the question that sent me down this afternoon rabbit hole by asking about the < origins of JAZZ > . Like so much of what I “know” — I was mistaken!
I might be dating myself, but I knew immediately what a SILENT BUTLER was, and have seen them in use (at formal restaurants, back in the day).
For someone who holds himself out as an uber-feminist, rex really doesn't know the lyrics to THONGSONG. Eith that or he's just a hypocrit.
Finally, to Z's suggestion that new constructors look to rex's blog to get better at the craft . . . why? Nothing could suck the joy out of crossword construction faster than rex's negativity. Better to seek out the constructors directly (e.g., via Twitter, etc.) In my experience, they have been amazingly supportive, helpful, and encouraging.
My understanding is that on Saturday, anything goes. Remember NDJAMENA? In comparison, PARIPASSU is chicken feed.
Also, isn't TIMELAG the cause of a bad audio connection and not the result of it?
Finally, am I the only one who doesn't rhyme THONG and SONG?
Villager
Z,
All reasonable suppositions. Not sure they bear out. But the good news, I’m intuiting ,is that the Damn Yankees are not the best hitting franchise. A queer and unexpected outcome, I’ll grant.
And I’ll make this my last post on the subject ( unless someone unadvisedly asks ME a direct question) .
The Yanks first batting champion? Ruth!!! Yeah, The Babe in 1924. Your Bengals
As I’m sure you know, any reasonable reckoning of the best hitting club would require gobs more fat than just the team’s top ten hitters.
But even if we use that and only that criterion as the entree. do you really want to leave Hank Greenberg off the Tigers list for, say, Norm Cash?
I understand you didn’t say that. May not even believe that. But top 10 is too fuzzy for baseball.( One of its many charms)
But to your Bengals’ claim: Cobb with ( I’m pretty sure ) 11 titles between 1908 and 1919? gives The Tigers King of the hill status. And Ruth’s win in 24 followed Heillmann the year before and Heilmann the year after. Oh, and just to show everybody who could rake, Heilmann’s teammate Heineken Manush won the title the next year. All of which is a long way of saying the Tigers had 14 batting titles in the American League’s first quarter century of existence.
@kitschef, y'know I dunno who SPort stands for.. I thought I did, but not now. Loren, help???
Don't get whats up with Rex and his space obssession. Made no sense today or with were and we're the other day. If anyone has a clue, fill us in.
I looked up that Latin phrase after I had every cross in it filled in with some possibility and wow! Only one letter wrong.
Loked up JUNE also.
Started in the NE corner with oath hissing then humming but what about APHID? Slow-paced start.
Got NONDAIRYCEREMER with maybe 5 crosses and the top third mostly worked in.
THONGSONG I got with the rhyme part of the clue making it easy (after a couple crosses in both halves) and the fact it's been in the NYTCW before. Watching the video helps as a memory aid.
BEAU GESTE I know from the multiple screenings on WOR's Million Dollar Movie. Splendid gesture. How British. Sacrificing your life to save the family honor. And not letting anyone know. Incuding the one's whose honor your saving. Kind of like Jesus dying on the cross without telling us why. I forget. Some financial failure in the family that needed covering up?. Any way I guess it was also a remake of a 1926 film. There is also a Feldman-Brooks "The Last Remake of Beau Geste" that I have not seem that is not as well know as Blazing Saddles Young Franakenstein or even High Anxiety and perhaps not as good. Anyone seen it?
The 1939 movie gets mostly panned in the NYT. They did not like Cooper's Texas accent and that every French Foreign Legion film since 1926 has been a remake of Beau Geste. That might still be true today and is a Rex worthy snark.
HANKAARON (Henry) and BORNTORUN were easy. And I was keeping my eye out for JEEPERS CREEPERS (a Jesus Christ oath substitute) after Jimminny Cricket (another JC oath substitute) didn't fit without the extra letters. I just waited for 3 crosses.
After that it wa still often a square by square fight than a word by word fight except in the SW.
I think we need a new rule on clues. I think NONDAIRYCREMER had a great clue. It's a substitute for cream designed for use in coffee. But some clues complained about recenty as inaccurate were of the type that were slightly off in meaning but as soon as you see the twist - bingo. They are difficult until you get a cross. Some seem like PPP trivia but are sensible teaching clues when you get some crosses. CORNEA today. These also rate as good clues and good answers.
Also there was one Saturday puzzle that Rex loved that was filled with stuff more obscure than that the latin phrase today. ??? Consistency they say.
Yes the DH disturbed the Imagined Zen Perfection of Baseball. It also made it a better game to watch. Pitchers hitting just wasn't fun except when it was comical or when a pitcher wins the game with their bat which was uncommon. Would pitchers just not hitting be better or worse? That is no DH.
Kind like Jesus dying on The Cross and not letting anyone know why. 🙄
Um, Reread the Gospels.Jesus is very clear on his mission.
Don't miss tomorrow's Sunday puzzle. I did it a day ahead, couldn't stop working on it, and now I have nothing to look forward to tomorrow. But I had a blast today.
@Nancy - Rex tweeted that it’s a good puzzle. About to start it myself.
@Anon- @kitshef emailed some info based on offensive WAR. No big surprise that the Damn Yankees come out on top. I’ll let him share more since he did the hard work.
Didn't mean that whoever wrote the in the biblical story did not have Jesus give a reason. Just the opposite. I Beau Geste a reason was not given in contrast to the Bible. I guess maybe a dropped an if in an edit. Kind of like if...
Now if Jesus had not given Pontius Pilate double talk he might have gotten off. Had he wanted to.
Curious if Jesus was making predictions or giving orders:
One of you will betray me to Judas.
You will deny me 3 times to Peter.
O (Ordinary) Levels in the UK stopped in 1988, for those who think they are still around. British students now do GCSEs at age 16.
A Levels are done at 18.
Based on Offensive WAR, and based on only time with the team, the teams with the most production from their top 5 players:
Yankees 537
Giants 466
Tigers 448
Braves 402
Cardinals 390
Last place is the Diamondbacks, which surprised me (I would have guessed Marlins).
Based on top 10 players:
Yankees 811
Tigers 736
Giants 685
Red Sox 603
Cardinals 602
Diamondbacks again in last.
The Tigers are the only team that catches up to the Yankees when adding in positions 6-10.
Did not go 25 deep for all teams, but did look at NYY and DET and NYY really start to pull away starting around #14, where top Yankees are still in the 40 range but the Tigers are in the 20s.
Too late for anyone to see this, but RE: "We jazz June" -- It's always risky to interpret a poem literally, but I've always read this as using the word "jazz" in its earlier sense, as a verb roughly equivalent to the "F-word." (Some believe that this is acatually how the music came to be called "jazz," since it was stereotyped -- unfairly -- as "whorehouse music" during its early days.)
If this is so, Brooks' young lost souls are bragging about their sexual prowess with the same vapid lack of true understanding with which they boast of their conempt for formal education ("We real cool / We left school"), their idealization of violence as legitimizing their "outlaw" personae ("We lurk late / We strike straight"), their embrace of an alcohol-fueled indolent lifestyle ("We thin gin"), etc. In other words, the facets of their self-created personae as anti-social rebels which they hold most dear are the very things that will seal their doom.
GOT PACT
JLAW is well-BEHAVED it SEAMS,
JEEPERSCREEPERS BUILT so strong,
AND MENU NOWHERE she REDEEMs:
JLAW was BORNTO wear a THONG.
--- JUNE MAE DAY
@Off the grid: I hear ya. I was always an AL hater because they weren't playing "baseball." What kid, even if he pitched, didn't want his turn at bat? Now the disease has spread to the NL and I'm pissed.
Another one-square DNF today: #22. The one across meant nothing to me; with _LAW I knew it was going to be an initial, like AROD or JLO, but which one? The only thing that made any sense at all on the down was tUNE, so I just hoped there was somebody named TLAW. In fact, I didn't even understand the down clue at all.
I wish we could put a ban on all these letter add-ons--including ALEVELS. I had _LEVE_S and so naturally wrote in eLEVEnS, which made PATROnS across! However, that left eSH, which had to be wrong. That one I was able to fix.
Nothing easy at all about this.
Top half fun and workable, bottom not so much. Do I wish I had heard of the answers I missed? Not one bit.
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